Month: May 2021

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Remembrances of the Late 50’s, Early 60’s (Part 4/5)

Television

In the movie Home Alone 2, there is a line in the film spoken by Kevin after Cedric the bellboy at the hotel asks Kevin if he knows how the tv works — Kevin responds, “I’m ten years old, tv is my life.” Well, I would not go that far with regard to my tv watching, but, I did watch an awful lot of tv as a kid. In the fifties, tv supplanted the family radio as the primary entertainment “appliance”. Likewise, tv started its ascendancy over “the movies” as the primary visual mass medium. I, along with millions of other kids, surfed that tv wave.

The Television Set Itself. The tv cabinet of those days was a far cry from today’s flat screen tv’s. It was a major piece of the living room furniture. The first set I remember was a rectangular dark brown wooden cabinet about the size of a washing machine. The picture tube (about a fifteen incher) was on top and speaker on the bottom. On the side of the tv were the controls. There was the on/off knob, the knob controlling the vertical (screen flip), the knob controlling the horizontal static and a big rotary dial with channels 2 through 13. We got 3 (NBC), 6 (ABC) and 10 (CBS). It was strictly a “black-and-white” set only, no color tv. On top of the tv was the “rabbit ears” antenna. When reception on a station started getting bad, you would have to move the rabbit ears around any which way you could that improved the reception. The older the tv got, the longer you had to wait for it to “warm up” before a picture would appear. When the tv was on, from the back you could see through the vent holes, different tv tubes lighted up. No remote controls back then, at least we didn’t have any. If you wanted to change the channel, you had to get up and walk to the tv. If you wanted to adjust the volume, you had to get up. If you needed to work the vertical knob, you had to get up. Many times in those days, tv shows that followed top rated shows got a lot of viewers because people just didn’t feel like getting up to change the channel.

In the early 60’s, our tv set finally gave out and couldn’t be repaired without a new picture tube (very expensive). We got a new tv and what a beauty it was. It was a “three-in-one” console model about six feet long. It took up one full wall in the living room. On the left side was the 19 inch television (color tv!). In the middle was an am/fm stereo radio. On the right hand side was a drawer that pulled out to reveal a record player. There was even a small area between the record player and radio where you could store record albums. It was a modern marvel! When it was delivered I was wondering whether the delivery guys had the right address. The wooden console shell was light brown sturdy cherry wood and was the most prominent article of furniture in the living room.

The TV Shows. I will break the different shows I watched into three different categories: (1) Afterschool and the Evening News, (2) Stories (non-comedies) and (3) Comedies.

Afterschool. In my area, the undisputed “leader of the pack” for afterschool shows was the Sally Starr Show. Sally was a local celebrity with a “cowgirl personna” and showed cartoons (Popeye plus others) and Three Stooges shorts. There were other features but the cartoons and the Three Stooges stand out in my mind the most. Sally had a very engaging personality and her show lasted for many years. After Sally Starr came the evening news which was one of the two primary ways we got the news (newspapers being the other). We watched the legendary John Facenda on channel 10 (what a voice that guy had!).

Stories. With regard to non-comedy shows, the number one in my mind was Twilight Zone with Rod Serling. It came on Friday nights after 77 Sunset Strip and we could stay up late to watch it because tomorrow was not a school day. From the unique opening music and intro visuals, to Rod Serling’s masterful introductions, to the various stories, many times with famous actors or actors before they became famous, it was always enjoyable tv viewing. I was only five or six when the first show aired and I remember getting chills down my spine when that opening intro music and visuals came on. Plus, long after the show was over, you would find yourself thinking about the story. Other non-comedies that I enjoyed were: The Outer Limits (“There Is Nothing Wrong With Your TV Set”), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (“Good Evening”), Bonanza (Ben and the boys at the Pondeosa), The Rifleman with Chuck Conners (loved that rifle), Bat Masterson (with Gene Barry, he was always hitting people with his cane) and the aforementioned 77 Sunset Strip (with Roger Smith, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and Ed “Kookie” Burns).

Comedies. As to the various situation comedies, there were many favorites, all a half-hour in length. I pretty much watched mostly all of the sitcoms on tv (at least once) at one time or another but my top twelve were as follows: The Andy Griffith Show, The Munsters, McHales Navy, Make Room For Daddy, I Love Lucy, The Real McCoys, My Three Sons, Dobie Gillis, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mister Ed, Bachelor Father and Hazel. All can still be seen today in reruns.

Twilight

Twilight, that special time of day, neither day nor night, was a time distinct from both the afternoon and the evening. Dinner was over, the dishes washed and put away, prime time tv didn’t start until 8:00.

Except when it was too cold or raining, we might sit out on the front step or back step (or by them with lawn chairs). The house was still hot from the day (no air conditioners) and outside was more comfortable (at least until the mosquitoes got to be too much). Sometimes we had “punks” which we would light up and let burn to keep the mosquitoes at bay. People would walk by on the sidewalk and sometimes would engage us in conversation. “Did you hear Mrs. Such-and-Such is in the hospital”. One neighbor in particular walked by absolutely every day of the year like clockwork on her way to the mailbox down the corner. Mom would say “The way she’s always at that mailbox, she should get a job with the post office”. This particular woman loved to talk and talk loudly. She would think nothing of talking to Mom for a half hour or so on her way to or from the mailbox. Man, that woman could talk.

Twilight was a great time for games of “hide-and-seek” as it was more difficult to see kids in the hiding places. Sooner or later the Mr. Softee truck would ride by the house playing its never-ending jingle. Mr. Softee drivers have to be hearing that song in their dreams. Sometimes we would be involved in a baseball game (“we gotta finish up after this inning, it’s gettin’ to hard to see the ball”). If my brother and I heard that “fire siren” whistle from my father we knew it was time to get home or else we got “the belt”. Once and a while I would get a jar with a screw top lid, punch some holes in the lid, and try to catch “lightning bugs” flying around in the yard.

There was a truck that our town sent out that was a DDT fogger to control the mosquitoes. The truck would drive very slowly down the street sending forth a giant thick cloud of DDT from behind. Afterwards we kids would run into the street and make believe we were “up in the clouds”. This was when the government was saying DDT was “as safe as apple pie”.

School

I must confess that I considered it generally a waste of time until I got to college. I never cared too much for school first grade through high school. Kindergarten was kind of fun. I am thankful however that through school I learned to read, write, add, subtract, multiply and divide. Highlights of my schooling from age five through twelve are as follows.

Morning Break. The morning break (in the lower grades) for milk and pretzels. You brought milk money to the teacher each week and this got you one of those square eight ounce size cartons of milk. You also had the option during break time to purchase pretzel rods (a penny a piece), potato chips or cheese curls. They cut out the cheese curls when kids got that orange stuff all over. This snack break always nicely broke up the morning.

Recess. This was about a half hour or so where we would go out into the school yard and play some sort of game. In the lower grades, it would be kickball or dodgeball (“Remember children, no throwing at the head”). Sometimes we would run races. When it rained we went to the gym and did some lame activity such as “Skip To My Lou” or “Pickin’ Up Paw Paws”.

The Schoolyard, Before The Bell Would Ring. If you got to the schoolyard before the bell rung (to line up to enter the school) you could get into a game of “Steps”. This was a game where almost everyone that wanted to play could do so. One kid was designated “Kid in Charge” (I will call him KIC). The KIC was always an older kid. The KIC stood at one end of the schoolyard. The others woud line up, side by side, at the other end of the yard. The KIC would then turn his back to the kids and start loudly counting from one to ten. The kids who were lined up would take large steps in the direction of the KIC. The idea was to be the first to reach the parallel line with the KIC, which was the “finish line”. No running was allowed. The KIC could quickly turn around at any time during his counting. It could be between one and two. It could be between nine and ten. If the KIC turned around and saw you moving, you were “out” and had to leave the game. If you started running, you were “out”. This would be enforced by the other kids and especially kids who were “out” and were still watching the game and took glee in other kids joining them as one of the “outs”. The KIC could do as many “turnarounds” as he wanted between one and ten. If he reached the count of ten and did not catch anybody, everyone would get one free step and the KIC would start another count. If the KIC said you were “out”, you were “out”. No arguing. The first one to reach a line parallel to the KIC was the winner. If two or more made it at the same time, they were co-winners. If you were a winner, you had bragging rights on that day. When the bell rung to line up, everyone would run to be first in line, the boys at the boys entrance on one side of the school, the girls at the girls entrance on the other side of the school.

The Annual School Trip. This was an annual school field trip via the school bus. No school work that day. Arrive at your classroom, teacher would take attendance, then everyone would head for the bus. Trips ranged from the Philadelphia Zoo to the USS Olympia (a docked naval ship from the Spanish-American War) to a local dairy farm (Millside Farms) to Washington Crossing State Park on the banks of the Delaware River and the State Capitol Building in Trenton. While I usually walked home for lunch, on these days Mom would pack me a lunch. An added treat at the dairy farm that I remember was that we would get free ice cream.

June 15. This was always the very best day of the school year. This was that wonderful day that we received our final report card (I usually did pretty good) and we were now free for the next ten weeks until the day after Labor Day. No daily regimentation. No asking permission to pee. No getting up early to make sure and report on time to your overseers. For ten beautiful weeks…despite chores around the house that had to be done, we were basically free to pursue whatever activity we desired during the summer.

Saturday And Sunday Mornings

Saturday Morning. It did not matter whether it was sunny or raining or snowing — Saturday morning was always that glorious three or four hours where all that you had to do was … absolutely nothing. No school. Sleep late. No chores around the house until the afternoon. Get up whenever I wanted to. Heaven. When you turned on the tv, there were cartoons of every kind. Bugs Bunny. Daffy Duck. Porky Pig. Tweetie Pie and Sylvester. Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn. Then there were the Hanna Barbera toons – Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw and Yogi the Bear and his pal Boo Boo. Can’t forget Woody the Woodpecker and Chilly Willy. Then there were also the non-cartoon shows geared to kids. Examples of non-cartoon shows were Soupy Sales, Sky King, The Lone Ranger, Adventures of Zorro and Chief Halftown.

No cartoon or any other Saturday morning tv watching would be complete without the trusty bowl or bowls of cereal. That’s right, it was Saturday so you could leisurely even have that second bowl of cereal. My favorites were Sugar Frosted Flakes, Sugar Pops and Fruit Loops. If the cereal did not have the word “sugar” in it (Cheerios, Wheaties, Corn Chex, etc) then you made sure to spoon on the sugar in generous amounts. After the cereal was eaten, you then would take the bowl with two hands and drink the sweetened milk. And whenever we had bananas in the house, sliced bananas on top would be the cherry on top of the sundae so to speak.

Sunday morning. Sundays mornings meant attending “Sunday School” at our local church. It started at ten o’clock and ran for about forty-five minutes. The ten o’clock start time meant that we could still sleep a little later than during the week and still have some tv watching time before getting dressed for Sunday school. On television, Sunday mornings before Sunday school meant the “Bertie the Bunyip” show. In this show, master puppeteer Lee Dexter would showcase Bertie the Bunyip who had the ears of a kangaroo, the nose of a koala and the bill of a platypus (Lee Dexter was originally from Australia). He had two cohorts named Fussie and Gussie. Bertie’s nemesis was always a mischievous fox named Sir Guy de Guy. This show also had some great (old school) cartoons from the thirties that you didn’t see anywhere else. After Sunday school was over, you were home around 11, 11:15 and you still had a full afternoon and evening of freedom before that Monday morning wake-up for another week of school.

To Be Continued Next Week With Part Five

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Remembrances of the Late 50’s, Early 60’s (Part 3/5)

Our Dog Named Whitey

Left on our front doorstep in a blanket lined box as a puppy, he quickly became a bonafide member of the family. He was part Shelty Collie, part Beagle. He was a sort of smaller version of a collie, all white long hair with the greatest personality in the world. He was easily trained as a pup and never had any accidents in the house. We had a fenced back yard for him so he would always do his business in one section of the yard. Many days I had “shovel and bag” duty to keep the yard clean. Nowadays I see dog owners walking their dogs and picking up their dog’s droppings with a plastic bag. Never had to do that with Whitey. In fact, we used to take him for walks around the block without a leash and never once had an issue. He loved to be petted. He loved playing tug-of-war. He loved to be around us and we loved being around him.

One time on Fourth of July, he was in the back yard and everyone was out. We found out that some jerks threw some firecrackers in the yard and Whitey jumped the fence somehow. He eventually made his way back home but he was limping. Apparently somehow he had fractured that leg. The vet put a cast on him and he was as good as new in 4 to 6 weeks. He loved going for walks as well as rides in the car, especially when the ride ended up at a field for him to run around in. I never had a dog after Whitey because I didn’t feel any other dog could ever measure up to him. Eventually old age caught up with him and he just keeled over one day and died. We buried him by the apple tree in the back yard.

Little League

The Little League field was across the pike from our house, about 3 blocks away. They had five different baseball fields, one field for each age group — 8 year olds, 9 year olds, 10 to 12 years old and 13 to 15 years old. For the boys from 10 to 12 years old, there were two fields, the majors and the minors. The minors were for boys who just were not skilled enough to play in the major group. This way they still had a place to participate. Each successive year they could always try out again for the majors. I played in the 8 year old group, the 9 year old group and the 10 to 12 year old group (majors). I played second base and also pitched some. When I was 12, I was the home run leader and made the all-star team.

The nightly ball games were well attended. They had a cop on the pike to stop traffic so people walking to the Little League could cross safely. The games started promptly at 6:15 with the playing of the national anthem on the PA system. The fields were all contiguous to each other. The major league field was well kept and had a fence all around it. There was a clubhouse and on the second floor was the broadcasting booth. The PA announcer would announce each player as he came up to bat. He would also keep track of the balls and strikes and outs electronically on the outfield scoreboard. The runs for each team for each inning were manually placed on the scoreboard by volunteers, There was a box there with all different numbers that you could place on the scoreboard. One time when I was keeping score, at the end of the inning I put the wrong number up and the PA announcer caught it and announced over the loudspeaker “Scorekeeper, that last inning they scored six runs, not four. Please pay attention to the game”. I felt like every single person at the Little League was staring at me. Very embarrassing.

Each team had a dugout with a roof and steps up to the field and a door on the other end of the dugout that led to the clubhouse. On each side of the field were bleachers having about five or six rows of seats. On the other side of the clubhouse were the concession stands. One window exclusively sold snow cones while the other window sold hot dogs, sodas, chips and candy. I used to hunt for empty soda bottles thrown on the ground so I could get the two cents deposit. Three bottles were tough to find (most did not throw their bottle away) but when I did, I had myself a snow cone and a penny to spare. If I only found one or two bottles, the fallback was pretzel rods covered in mustard ( a penny a piece).

Kids used to chase the foul balls that were hit out of play and bring them back to the field. We would give them to the umpire or one of the managers. Certain umpires and managers, if you brought back enough foul balls and they remembered your face, would give you a nickel at the end of the game. One time one of the managers inspected a baseball and saw that one of the seams was ripped. He threw it right to me. I was seated in the bleachers. What a thrill to receive a free regulation baseball. Those babies were expensive.

As we were only three blocks away, we could always hear the national anthem being played every night (weekday nights) at 6:15. There was always a stream of kids walking over to the field past our house. The nightly game was a place to go and hang out. I knew all the stars from all the major league teams. There was a bulletin board on the clubhouse wall where they published league standings as well as the players with the highest batting averages and pitchers with the best win-loss percentage. Once in a while someone in the stands would be hit with a foul ball but I don’t recall any serious injuries. The fence was lined with advertising signs of various sponsors. If you hit a home run over the J & J Deli sign, you got a ticket for a free hoagie. If you hit one over the sign for Kelly’s Bakery, you got a free cake. The judge who gauged whether you hit the ball over those signs was the PA announcer who was the one to issue the ticket after the game was over (“Will the player who hit the home run over the J & J sign come up to the broadcasting booth to get your free hoagie ticket’) . And he would check the scorecard book to make sure that you were that player.

Four Seasonal Holidays

Of course, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day (beginning of summer) and Labor Day (last day of freedom before school started up again) were always holidays to remember. There were four other holidays that I remember as well that always had some weight to them, one each for each of the seasons.

Valentines Day. When I was in kindergarden, first and second grades, it was a big deal to give and get those postcard type little valentine cards from all your schoolmates. All the boys gave them out to all the girls (“Mom, do I have to give one to her?”…the answer was always yes) and vice versa. This pretty much petered out by the third grade. I think some kids came home crying because they didn’t get any so they stopped the practice. And of course, always an extra nice valentine for the teacher. I always gave Mom a heart of some type that we would make in school during arts and crafts time. When I got older, I switched over to store bought cards and as finances allowed, some type of box of candy that was shaped in the form of a heart. The more money I had available, the larger the box of candy.

April Fools Day. April 1 was always the day to try and play some type of joke on someone in school. It was still back in the day when the girls all wore dresses or skirts to school so us boys favorite joke was either “Your slip is showing” or “you have a rip in your dress”. Then when they would look you would shout “April Fool”. For the boys it was something like “Your shoe is untied” or “How did you get that stain on your shirt?” No matter what it was, everybody had to come up with something during the course of the day. Sometimes, I would save mine untill the end of the day after everyone had already did their April fool joke so that I could catch them off guard. Even the teacher would get into the act. She might say something like, “Today we are going to have recess out in the playground for an extra hour this morning.” Then she would say “April Fool” and the whole class would groan in disappointment. One Valentine Day, a kid who had a hall pass to go to the bathroom, when he came back, he told the teacher that the principal told him to tell the teacher that she was wanted in the principal’s office. (No intercoms or cell phones back then). He sold it so well that she actually believed him and went down there. When she got back, she was not a happy camper. I think the kid had to stay after school that day and write something on the blackboard several times. I always tried to pull a joke on Mom on April Fool’s Day. “Hey Mom, there’s a zebra in the front yard!” or the old standby “Hey Mom someone’s on the phone for you”. She always knew what day it was however and would always be on to me.

Fourth of July. This was always a big day in town. Three different main events. The first, in the morning was the two hour long parade thru the heart of town down the Black Horse Pike. Police cars would always detour the traffic around the parade route. Residents would walk to the Pike with their lawn chairs to watch the parade. There were marching bands, drum and bugle corps, floats, members of the VFW, American Legion, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts. There were contingents from the Lions, the Rotary and the Knights of Columbus and about three or four other groups. Politicians smiling and waving and riding in the back of convertibles. Miss Camden County (or some other local beauty contest of some sort), the baby carriage brigade,. Someone would always be dressed in an Uncle Sam costume. And of course, fire engines with lights and sirens blaring. After the parade, in the afternoon there would be the featured baseball game over at the Little League field. Then, at night, over at the ball field, would be the fireworks display, always ending with everyone’s favorite, “the grand finale”.

Halloween. This was a biggie. I would start preparing for it at the beginning of October. We would plan strategy with other kids (“Where you gonna go?”) as well as receiving intelligence on who gave out “the good stuff” (candy apples, caramel apples, full size candy bars, etc.) and who to skip (‘they only gave out stinky pencils last year”). As soon as I got home from school (if it fell on a weekday) I would get my costume on and hit the streets. I never went with a group. I always went alone. Mom was always busy on Halloween because she gave out candied apples on a stick, the type with the crunchy red candy coating. I loved them and always got an extra one. There was kind of an unwritten rule that if you were wearing a mask you kept it on the entire time. There was always one joker who when you said “Trick or Treat”, he would say, “OK let me see you do a trick.” I would basically just ignore the comment and continue to hold my bag out. I heard that one of the big kids said to him, “What am I, a dog or something? I’m just here for the candy, Pops.” When I got home, I would dump all the candy out on top of my bed and just look at that big pile of candy like it was gold and jewels from a treasure chest. And then, the eating would begin.

Goin’ Swimmin’

As mentioned in last week’s post, the absolute best swimming place was the lake at my grandparents’ house. We did have some other places to swim though. The next favorite was a lake off the beaten path about five miles away from our house. Mom used to call it “our little hideaway”. It was nothing fancy. There was a guy in a booth who collected the fee to swim in the lake (can’t remember what they charged but it was very inexpensive and he charged by the car not by the person). There was a nice beach and it was never crowded at all so it was very peaceful. They had a small building (like a shed) where you could get snow cones (the same guy who collected your fee when you arrived there sold the snow cones). They had no restrictions against picnicing and Mom always brought a picnic basket. I think the lifeguard was the same guy who collected the entrance fee and sold the snow cones. Up until about 1960 or so, the county ran a pool in a town about three miles away (Audubon) and I used to take the bus or my bike up there with my brother. They had lockers and showers. They shut it down however when the insurance premiums got too expensive. For two or three years, we had a modest above ground pool in the back yard (about four feet high and about ten feet across) that my father purchased at Kiddie City. More than a few “GDSOB’s” were heard that day he struggled to put it together. For as long as the pool lasted I did enjoy it. Finally, there was an annual journey to the Jersey seashore to experience the waves of the ocean.

To Be Continued Next Week With Part Four.

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Remembrances of the Late 50’s, Early 60’s (Part 2/5)

Continuing on with my pre-adolescent childhood remembrances from the late 50’s, early 60’s, I will continue this series of posts with three more pleasurable memories from that time period.

1953 – 1965 Childhood Remembrances

The Woods

  • The Creek — Many times I would enter the woods via the back yard of the Fox family, regularly playing with two of their sons, Niles and Earl. There was a steep decline which leveled out at a small creek. Once you jumped over the creek, you had entered “The Woods”. There were different trails leading to different areas of the woods. One area lead to a swampy area. Another lead to a large hill called “Suicide Hill”. Another led to some back yards while yet another led to an area we called “The Indian Ruins”. Sometimes you would catch frogs and salamanders from the creek and then let them go again. Occasionally there was a turtle or two.
  • Suicide Hill — At the far edge of the woods, next to the City Dump and the Jersey Turnpike was a very steep hill called “Suicide Hill”. There were two stories of how it got that name. The first was that at one time there was a part of the hill that was more like a cliff and someone jumped to their death off the cliff. The second story was that the hill was so steep and rutted that if you tried sledding down it, it was tantamount to committing suicide. In any case, it was one steep hill and I never did try sledding down it. From the top of the hill, you had an unparalleled panoramic view of the entire surrounding towns including the skyline of Philadeplhia.
  • City Dump — Just what it sounds like. It was a great big pile of trash where the city trash collectors dumped their loads. No garbage though. That was picked up on a separate collection where the garbage collector sold it to local pig farms for feed. Sometimes I would nose around the dump and see if I could find any “neat stuff”. I brought home a broken lamp one time. When I told Mom where it came from, she threw it away and told me not to go back there anymore because a rat might bite me. That was enough for me to hear. I stayed away from the dump after that.
  • Toy Gun Wars — We had some great “wars” with toy guns back in the woods. Two or three to a side and once you were “killed” you had to join the other army. No projectiles of any sort, just make shooting sounds with your mouth. There was the inevitable “I got you” and the just as inevitable, “No, you didn’t, you missed”. So the only way you could ever claim that you killed an opposing army soldier was if you snuck up on him and were so close when you “shot your weapon” that he couldn’t possibly deny it. Sometimes guys would lie under a pile of leaves for almost an hour before they would jump out at you as you walked by. It could shock the shit out of you. Sometimes guys carried the metal tops of trash cans which they would claim were bullet proof vests so you had to get them from behind. Once the war started, you couldn’t leave the woods for any reason unless you “surrendered” first.
  • Swamp Area and Reeds — There was an area of the woods down by the turnpike that was lowlands and very “marshy”. Some cattails grew there and we used to cut them and dry them out and use them as “punks” to keep the mosquitoes away at twilight time in our back yard. Came home with some cattails one time with my shoes totally caked in mucky mud. “Hey Mom, look what I got” as I stepped into the kitchen. She took one look at my shoes and said, “I don’t care what you have. Go right back outside and get those shoes off”. Kids don’t have much sense sometimes.
  • Arrowheads — There was one area that we called the “Indian Ruins”. It had a couple of posts that nobody ever figured out what they were doing there but the reason we called it the “Indian Ruins” was sometimes we were able to find authentic Lenni Lenape arrowheads in the area.

One Time Events

  • Chief Halftown — We were at a company picnic at Riverside Park (an amusement park) and appearing there was a local television celebrity named Chief Halftown. Chief Halftown was a Native American who had a longrunning childrens show on tv and was well known to all kids. He was giving out a limited number of colorful beaded necklaces that day and I was lucky enough to get one. I immediately put it around my neck and wore it proudly for the rest of the day. I was going to wear it to bed but Mom said I might choke on it. Yeah kids don’t have much sense sometimes. I wore that beaded necklace off and on for weeks until the string broke and it could not be repaired.
  • Connie Mack Stadium — I was to Connie Mack Stadium (aka Shibe Park) once to see the Phillies play the Milwaukee Braves. My brother had won some tickets in a Philadelphia Bulletin newsboy promotion. This was still in the days of black-and-white television. I had never seen an actual Major League Baseball field in person. When we walked down the corridor to get to our seats, for the first time I saw that magical field of emerald green grass, with the brown infield, bright white foul lines, colors of the Phillies and Braves uniforms, and (to me at least) giant scoreboard. It was almost like entering another world.
  • NY Worlds Fair — In 1964, Mom took me, my brother and a neighborhood friend on a bus trip up to Queens, New York City to spend a day at the New York Worlds Fair. At the main entrance to the fair was the Unisphere, a huge 12-story globe structure, made of stainless steel. There were pavillions from different corporations as well as different states. I definitely remember the New York State Pavillion because of its observation tower. Other pavillions we visited was the one from Disney with the mechanical animated characters singing the song “It’s a Small World After All”, the General Electric “Future-ama” where you would sit in moving chairs and pass by scenes of “what the future would be like” (all with General Electric appliances) and the Ford Motor Compnany pavillion where you sat in actual cars (I think Mustangs) and rode past scenes with dinosaurs and cavemen. I think my favorite was the 7-UP pavillion that had different sandwiches from around the world and a soda fountain where you could drink as much 7-Up as you wanted. Of course, this was well before the ubiquitous soda fountains of today where endless refills are always available.
  • Frontier Village — This was a short-lived park about 10 miles from our house that was surrounded by a wooden palisade fence resembling an army fort from the old west. Inside the fence was a western street resembling the typical western street you would see in a western movie or tv show. Some of the buildings were just facade but some of them were real (the sheriffs office and jail, the saloon, the general store, the stable, the one room schoolhouse). They had guys walking around in cowboy getups, horsemanship and “quick-draw” demonstrations, a stage coach and of course a shoot-out between the bank robbers and the sheriff and the sheriff taking one of the captured bank robbers to the jail (Your’re goin’ to the lockup, you varmint”) to the delight of us kids in the crowd..
  • Kool Aid Show — This was a big show that was put on in the back yard of a neighbor. There were at least 15 or 20 kids there. It was supposed to be a show where everyone did some type of act while the kids not performing manned their wagons or tv trays or whatever they had to hawk Kool Aid or Lemonade or cookies and make some money. One kid was trying to sell pre-made peanut butter sandwiches (made special by having the crunchy type peanut butter instead of the creamy style). My brother had a real money-maker, he was selling root beer Kool Aid. Another kid put so much sugar in his fruit punch that kids were spitting it out and he had to run home and make another batch. It devolved into just a big food court type of thing until the father of the kids whose yard we were using came out eating a plum and said to the kids, “OK enough with this other bullshit, let’s get this show started”. They had the outer wooden shell of an old style console tv that you could get inside to do your act. Or you could stand on top of the console (it was really sturdy wood). Or you could just stand in front of the tv. A few kids did some type of puppet thing. Some told jokes. Some sang some type of song (“John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt”) As I remember, most of the “acts” were pretty bad and some were booed off the “stage”. My brother sold out of his “root beer” that day and made a nice profit on the deal. He sang some type of Cub Scout song. I didn’t have to do anything because I wasn’t selling anything plus I was too young.
  • JFK — On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. It was a kind of farewell to the innocence of the era, The funeral was being broadcast on television, and I remember my Mom crying as she was watching it. I hated seeing my Mom cry. I scraped up five pennies from my junk drawer in my bureau and went down the street and bought Mom five cents worth of her favorite candy, orange turkish paste. I gave her the candy to try and make her feel better. She gave me a big hug and a kiss. I will always remember that day.

Recurring Treats

  • The Merry Go Round Truck — There was a man who would come by about once a month in the summertime who drove a truck that had a small merry-go-round installed on the back of the truck. He would come by and park on my block and play music over a loudspeaker so as to announce his arrival in the neighborhood. I think it accomodated about six kids. When he got a bunch of kids on board, he would start it up and we would ride the merry go round. He gave each kid a taffy as the carousel went around. I think it cost a dime to ride. Then after the ride and we got off, and he would then move on to another neighborhood that had small kids.
  • Cowtail Bar — Maybe two or three times a year we would get to go to Cowtail Dairy Bar on the premises of Holly Ravine Farm. A Real Treat! It was a sit-down place where you could get all manner of ice cream treats…dishes of ice cream, sundaes, banana splits, milk shakes, etc. As it was a dairy farm, the ice cream product was always fresh. You got a free complimentary small basket of pretzel sticks at your table. It was a cheerful place and you were always happy being there. I always ate my ice cream real slow so we could stay there as long as possible. You could go out to a barn and actually visit with the cows. Later in the mid sixties, they added a small petting zoo with sheep and horses along with the cows.
  • The Jersey Seashore — Once a year we would go to the Jersey Seashore, usually Atlantic City because it was the closest. This was before all the casinos came in during the 70’s. I remember the smell of the salt water as we got close. We wore our bathing suits under our clothes so when we found a spot to park, we would just take our clothes off and wrap them inside a towel that we brought to the beach. A blanket was spread out when we found a spot. Mom put suntan lotion on us so we wouldn’t get burned. We had fun with the waves. .After about three or four hours, we would pack everything up and head back to the parked car. Before leaving the beach, they had an outside shower where you could get a lot of the sand off of you. Back at the car we put our clothes on over our bathing suit and walked the boardwalk for three or four hours, usually getting some salt water taffy and/or fudge then getting something to eat at one of the many places on the boardwalk until nightime when we would head home.
  • Lunch with Mom and My Brother — Once every couple months Mom would pick us up at school and treat us at lunchtime to lunch at either a local luncheonette or when they came into the area, at a McDonalds. If we were a little late getting back to school by 1:00, Mom would give us a note so we would not be marked “tardy”.
  • Clementon Lake Park — This was an old fashioned amusement park about 7 or 8 miles away from our house. It was built in 1907 and featured “The Jack Rabbit” wooden roller coaster, as well as a bunch of other rides including “The Whip”, “The Salt and Pepper Shaker”, and “Collision Alley” (bumper cars), a fun house, an arcade, a dance hall where events were held, a picnic area, a shooting gallery and some other games, food concession stands , and a small train that traversed the perimeter of the park. It was similiar to Knobels Grove in that parking was free and there was no admission fee to get into the park. For any rides, you bought tickets that were available at a booth in the park. Every two or three years, we would visit the park. When we were older, my brother and I would ride there on our bikes.
  • Mister Softee — Not too often, but occasionally was able to have some spare change to get a custard from the Mister Softee truck with its continuous Mister Softee jingle playing as it rode down the street. A few kids would congregate on the side of the road and the truck would pull up and dispense its treats. Before Mister Softee made its rounds, there was also a white “Good Humor” truck that would sell ice cream novelties, announcing its presence in the area by ringing a bell. No more Good Humor truck but even today the Mister Softee truck still makes its rounds.
  • To Be Continued Next Week With Part Three
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Remembrances Of The Late 50’s, Early 60’s (Part 1/5)

American Folklore

I was born in 1953, the year Dwight Eisenhower was elected president with the slogan “I Like Ike”. My pre-adolescent life stretched into the presidency of John F. Kennedy, (“Leadership For the 60’s”} and the beginning of Lyndon B. Johnson’s tenure (“All the Way with LBJ”). I recently was following some of my own advice (see blog post of 1/7/21, Unclutter Your Life)) and throwing out the contents of stored away boxes of papers and other sundry unneeded items. As I was looking through the items as I tossed them in the trash barrel, I came across an old college report that I had written. It was an assignment in a college elective course named “American Folklore”. The idea behind the assignment was to assemble a collection of something that was representative of “Americana”. After assembling the collection, the assignment was to bring the collection into class and give an accompanying report about said collection and how it related to the folklore of America. There were no restrictions. The professor told us to use our imaginations.

The Memory Collection

I decided to collect pleasurable memories of pre-adolescent childhood from various people that I knew, both young and old. I handed them out a sheet describing the assignment and asked them to write down as many pleasurable remembrances of things that they did growing up between the ages of 5 and 12. It could be anything at all — watching cartoons on tv, going on family outings, fishing or swimming, playing in the backyard or park, etc. While waiting for the sheets to come back to me, I wrote up my own sheet as well, covering the period of time from 1953 through 1965. Most certainly, it was a very different era in America than the one we currently live in. Very different. As I reviewed my sheet, fond remembrances started cascading through the layers of my mind. Experiences, people, places, events became alive again. We did not have much money but my childhood was in fact, rich with experiences. In this blog post, and subsequent blog posts, I will relate some of them to you. Perhaps you experienced some of the same things that I did.

Flipswitch Kindling

How do pleasurable pre-adolescent remembrances relate to manifesting your reality? Well, the answer to that is by way of the manifesting technique called flipswitching. I will speak further of this technique in future blog posts, as well as in the book I am currently in the process of writing. The basic gist of flipswitching is to bring forth something in your mind, a thought form that you are able to sustain for at least a half minute or so, that does no harm to anyone and brings you a good feeling inside. Something basically that puts you in a “feeling good” mode. There are many ways to do this. One of them is to pull out of your memory storage banks, fond memories of things of a positive nature that you enjoyed doing at a particular stage of your life. It is my intention to use the memories of my childhood that I will be describing as part of my “flipswitch arsenal” whenever I use this specific method to manifest something in my life.

Grandmom and Grandpop

Always, always a pleasurable experience. They had a neighborhood store in Philadelphia until the later 1950’s. At that time they moved to New Jersey to a lakeside house. It was a wonderful place to visit. My maternal grandparents always welcomed our visits. Of course my brother and I would go swimming in the cedar water lake. Grandpop even added to the sandy soil of that area to make a small sandy beach for us. There was a small pier to fish and dive off of (plenty of “cannonballs”). He also had a rowboat that allowed us to travel to different parts of the lake. We used to bring inflated inner tubes and float all around the lake. After we were done swimming, we would take a shower to get the cedar water off of us at an outside shower that my Grandpop had hooked up outside of the tool shed. Then we would go in the house and Grandmom would have food for us to eat as well as “soda water” (her term for soda). We would listen to stories from my Grandpop. We would play pinochle. We would listen to Grandmom and Grandpop speaking Polish and me wondering what the heck they were saying. We would feed the ducks and geese. I loved to go out to the front yard and sit on the cement bench and just sit and look at all the rose bushes and flowers that were out front. I would explore all the neat stuff in Grandpop’s tool shed. Sometimes I would take a walk with Grandmom to the local diner and she would buy me a basket of french fries. Whenever I went with my Grandpop to the farmers market, he would always buy me a few comic books from the guy who sold discounted books and magazines from a stall. What a wonderful time we always had at Grandpop and Grandmom’s house. Most of all, we felt loved.

My Brother

My brother was only three years older than me. We experienced a lot together as we were growing up. Many good times. When we were involved in neighborhood games of baseball, football and basketball, my brother always insisted that I be included even though I was always the youngest one there. Up until I was six or seven, we shared the same bedroom and the same bed (“move over, you’re on my side”) until we moved to makeshift bedrooms in the attic.

Many memories. Sharing experiences together at my grandparents’ house…when Mom took us to different parks or treated us to hamburgers and french fries…riding our bikes…joking around and craning our heads from the end of the bed to see the tv in the living room in bed at night…one time we started laughing at something on the tv until we heard from our father “you kids better go to sleep in there or I’m gonna have to come in there (which meant “the belt”) …him sneaking out of the bedroom late at night to raid the refrigerator for us (knowing we would get” the belt” if our father caught us)…going camping together at Hospitality Creek Campground,,,sleeping outside in the back yard overnight under our makeshift “tent” (an old blanket tied to the backyard fence) curbball…wallball…watching tv together, especially Twilight Zone on Friday nights…watching him pitch over at the Little League (one of the few left-handed pitchers) taking our bikes, or the bus, to go to the movies (the Harwan, Coronet, Crescent and Ritz)…going “into town” on the bus to Leary’s Book Store…doing the dishes together after dinner when Mom had a night shift job…just so many memories during that time period (late 50’s, early 60’s).

It was as if a giant had picked me up and just flung me full force against a cement wall when my brother died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of twenty-three. I will always have those good memories of us growing up though, for as long as I live, and I think I will still have them even when I go into “the great beyond”.

Ball Games

While there was organized baseball over at the Little League field, unorganized or sandlot ball was the order of the day growing up. We played choose-up-sides baseball at a vacant lot next to the VFW. Neighborhood men even constructed a makeshift backstop for us. You needed at least six kids for a game (two fielders and a pitcher) although at least eight was best. We would go knocking on doors if we didn’t have enough kids. Baseballs used until the cover came off and then taped up with masking tape. One lady whose house was across the street from the field we called “the witch”. If someone hit the baseball on her lawn, we would have to get it fast because she would come out of the house and confiscate the baseball. She said one time somebody had hit her house and broke a window.

Two hand touch football in the street (“car comin’) or on the VFW parking lot if there weren’t any cars parked there (three completions is a first down). Tackle football on grass yards. A football game that you could play with just three kids we called “Kill The Man With The Ball”. You can use your imagination to figure out the rules of that game. Whoever lasted the longest without getting tackled, was the winner. With just three kids you could also play the “base stealing game”. It was two bases about 60 feet or so apart. One kid at each base. They would throw the baseball to each other. One kid on a base. When kid A threw to kid B, the base stealer on base B would run to base A to try and ‘steal the base” before kid B could get the ball back to kid A. If he made it before kid B got the ball back to kid A, he stole the base. If not, he was “out” and one of the other two kids became the base stealer. The base stealer was allotted one out. You could also have “rundowns” where the base stealer stops between the two bases and either kid A or kid B would have to tag him out. One time I chased a kid halfway down the block on a rundown tag. The one with the most stolen bases won the game. We played basketball at a makeshift dirt court with the wooden backboard sturdily fastened to a large tree in a neighbor’s back yard (they let us use the “court” anytime we wanted).

No computers, cell phones or electronics back then. A lot of outdoors stuff. Wiffle ball, where you could easily throw “curveballs” and you didn’t need as large a playing field as you did for baseball. Two ball games where you could play either one-on-one or alone were curbball and wallball. Curbball was where you had a sponge rubber type ball (but not too spongey, it had to be on the hard side). One player would be the fielder and would stand on the other side of the street. The other player would hit the ball against the curb and try and get it past the fielder. Get it to different areas for a single, double, triple and home run. If you hit it to the fielder and he caught it, it was an out. If he dropped it it was an error and you were credited with a single. If you tried to hit the edge of the curb to make the ball go farther and missed the curb, it was an out. If the ball went outside the designated “foul lines”, it was an out. Three outs to an inning. Nine innings to a game. When I played curbball alone, I always broadcast the game pitch-by-pitch in my mind (“Bunning winds and pitches, pop-up to the first baseman”.) Wallball was very similar only instead of a curb, we used the wall of the nearby hosiery mill which was about 15, 20 feet high and the “playing field” where the fielder stood was larger than just the width of a street.

Penny Candy

Oh, what a nickel could buy back then. A pack of baseball cards (with the complementary slab of stale bubble gum). A full size candy bar. A bottle of soda made by a local soda company was only a nickel as long as you drank it at the store at the fountain stool (another two cents if you took it out of the store because of the deposit). That magical glass case of penny candy with three rows of different penny candies. Orange turkish paste, peppermint candy cigarettes, caramel cream bullseyes, chocalate malt balls, candy dot strips, tricolor coconut strips, little wax soda bottles with sweet syrup inside, mary janes, turkish taffy, green, red and black licorice sticks, shoestring licorice, pretzel rods, bazooka bubble gum, little b-bats banana or strawberry taffies, red hot dollars, and on and on, all put into a little brown or white paper bag. That last penny’s worth was always the hardest choice. My eyes would slowly go over all three rows of candy again. Then I would finally make a decision when the owner said “Come on, I don’t have all day”. The candy store owner always had a cigar in his mouth and was also the town judge. When I walked out of the store with a bag full of candy, it was a great feeling.

I will never forget the day that my brother came into possession of a dollar that he had earned doing errands for a neighbor (he was 8 or 9, I was 5 or 6) and he spent the entire dollar on an assortment of penny candy for Mom, me and him. We were so impressed that he would do that for us. The candy store also sold Breyers ice cream. The cones cost ten cents, two scoops into a cake cone. My favorite was vanilla with the little specks of ground vanilla mixed into the ice cream. On Friday nights Mom would give me thirty cents for three cones, for her, my brother and me. They put thin wax paper over the top of the cones and I would walk home with the three cones. The store was only a block away from us. Actually on the six block walk from my school to our house, there were no less than five candy and soda stores. One of them was called Joe’s Sweet Shop and had a huge offering of five cent candy bars. I think he had every one that was ever invented. There was also a five-and-dime in town and two fully stocked newsstands that also sold candy and soda. Our town was “Sugar City”.

To Be Continued. Part Two Next Week.