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

Fruit

Store Bought Fruit. Fruit was always one of the “special items” in the weekly supermarket shopping. The big three were: (1) oranges, (2) apples and (3) bananas. Both my brother and I loved fruit. Try as we might to make the fruit last until the next week’s grocery shopping, the supply always ran out before then. I loved those navel oranges with the thick skins. Sometimes I would even nibble on the outer skin after peeling the orange. Our favorite type of apple was the tangy and juicy Stamen winesap apples. In the autumn, we would usually get a basket of them from a nearby orchard. The bananas were rarely eaten alone. We always saved them for the morning bowl of cereal. Used to slice them longways down the middle, then slice each half into pieces. It made it seem like more. In season, sometimes we would get a watermelon which was a real treat.

Free Fruit. There was also “free” fruit to be had. Along the backyard far fence, away from the street, we had some grapevines bearing purple grapes. We also had two green apple trees in the back yard. The birds seemed especially attracted to them and would always be pecking at the apples on them. Down the street on a neighbor’s property was a large cherry tree (about 25, 30 feet tall) and a couple of pear trees (about 20, 22 feet tall). The neighbor did not mind us kids eating the fruit. Another neighbor had a big mulberry tree. The drooping branches formed a curtain around the tree. I liked to go “inside” the tree (behind the curtain). It was almost like a tent. When the mulberries were ripe, they were good eating but their juice stained my clothes (which Mom didn’t like). She said the stains were hard to get out. Also from the berries on the ground, I would get the berry juice on the soles of my shoes. I had to take off my shoes and wipe them down with a wet rag before I went into the house. Yet another neighbor had a section of their yard that they never used or even mowed. Nobody ever went back there. It was a little patch of land that nobody ever bothered with. One day while exploring that area I found a small patch of wild strawberries, a rare find. I brought those home in a paper bag for Mom because I knew she loved strawberries.

Play Wars

Besides the “play wars” that we had with toy guns back in “the woods” (see blog post of 5/13), there were two other types of wars that took place, one in the summer and one in the winter.

Pear Fights. There were two big old pear trees in the neighborhood that were on private property but were unattended. Bartlett pears. Good eating. We were permitted by the neighbor to eat the pears from the tree. You couldn’t get at the pears at the top of the tree because it was too high. There were not any branches close to the ground. As the pears ripened, they would drop to the ground. Or we would use a damaged pear to throw at a pear to knock it down and catch it before it hit the ground. We would pick up the pears and use them for “pear fights”. Either choose up sides or just an “every kid for themselves” free-for-all. The rules were (1) don’t ever aim at the head, (2) don’t hit any houses or cars, and (3) no throwing at anybody from close range. I don’t remember any injuries as a result of getting hit with a pear. A lot of times you saw them coming so if you were hit, it was just a glancing blow but sometimes they did really sting. You had to be careful around the pear tree or picking up a pear from the ground because those nasty yellow jackets also fed off the pears and you definitely didn’t want to tangle with them.

Snowball Fights. These were big. We had anywhere from two to five kids on a side. We would roll up giant balls of snow and create a wall (fort) and stockpile snowballs. Two cardinal rules were “no ice-balls” and no aiming at the head. The goal was to rush the other fort (on the other side of the yard) and overtake their fort. If you made a rush to the fort and got hit with a snowball, you were “out” (killed). If the other team rushed your fort and everybody on your team got hit, the game was over, as the other team won. If there was only one person left on each team and you hit each other at the same time, it was a draw. When one game was over, you started another one. In between games, you would go over strategy for the next game, strengthen your defenses, make more snowballs, etc. You could get covered with snow from head to foot by diving in the snow to avoid a snowball.

Cops and Robbers. A third game we played with opposing teams was on bikes called “Cops and Robbers”. A minimum of two kids to a team. One team was the cops and the other team was the robbers. Each kid was on a bike and the robbers got about a twenty second or so head start to “get away”. That twenty seconds would go by fast, so if you were a robber you had to get away from the starting point quickly. No real boundaries but we had to stay within a reasonable distance of the starting point, maybe five or six blocks. No hiding in garages or houses, you had to stay on the street. If you were actively being chased, you could cut through yards to get away. The cops had to overtake the robbers and force them to stop by cutting in front of them and forcing them to the curb. Most of the time when the cops were alongside the robbers, this would be enough for the robbers to slow down and surrender. Sometimes however, kids did take spills from their bike but I don’t remember any serious injuries. When a robber was apprehended, he had to become a cop and tell where the location of the other robber(s). When all the robbers were caught, the kids would switch roles and start a new game. One time a kid cut through a yard and knocked down an entire clothesline with clothes drying on it. Boy was that lady mad. I think she called the cops because we saw a cop car heading to her house but we didn’t stick around to see what happened next.

Toys And Such

Of this late 50’s, early 60’s era, from the age of five to twelve, here are some of the toys and different things that I played with or enjoyed using during that time, in no particular order.

Cap guns — These were metal toy guns (usually six-shooters) that you threaded with a roll of caps that made a loud sound when the gun hammer hit the little round percussion cap.

Pea Shooters — These were little more than large size heavy duty plastic straws that kind of acted like little blow guns. You put dried peas or something equivalent in one end then blew hard on that end. The pea would come flying out the other end.

Water Pistols — These plastic guns had a small resevoir to hold water. When you squeezed the trigger, water shot out. The really expensive ones could shoot a long distance. Many a water pistol was confiscated in school from kids by the teacher.

Marbles — Two types, the colored “cats-eye” type and the “clearies”. Used to play a game with marbles similiar to bocce.

Baseball Cards —- Not a toy but more of a collection type of thing. Trading was tough because nobody could bear to trade their best cards (think Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, etc.). We would play a game however called “topsies”. In this game you would stand a good distance from a wall. You would take a stack of your cards and shuffle them up. Then the other kid playing would grab a handful off the top of your stack. Then I would do the same from the other kid’s stack. Then he would hand me back the bunch from my stack and I would hand him the bunch I picked up from his deck. Then you would start flipping the cards, one at at time, as close to the wall that you could., first me, then the other kid, me, then the other kid, one at a time. The idea was to try and land your card on top of the other kid’s card. If you did, you were now the owner of that card. All cards remained “in the flipping field of play” until both decks were exhausted. If he topped one of your cards, you could still claim both cards by topping those two. Whatever card was the one on top at the end of the flipping session entitled the owner of that card to get all of the cards in that pile. If one of your valued cards come up to be flipped, you would flip it wildly so that it would be hard for the other kid to top it. If you saw that he flipped a valuable card, you might use the next ten cards to try and top that card. When your deck was all flipped, you collected all the cards that you “won”, said good-bye to all the cards you “lost” and picked up your untopped cards and put them back in your collection and the other kid did the same. Sometimes you won, sometimes you lost. You had to be careful who you were playing against. Some kids just had a knack for the game and could clean you out of your good cards.

Toy Guns — Had a number of toy guns. One of my two favorites was a rifle that you could cock before shooting and when you squeezed the trigger it made a shooting sound. The other favorite was a machine gun that you could pull back on a lever and when you squeezed the trigger, it made a machine-gun sound.

Hula Hoop — Yeah we had a hula hoop but I never was much good at it. I did like to throw it around the yard like a frisbee though.

Molded Plastic Playsets —- Had two different sets of those little plastic playsets that had the flat base so the figures could stand up….one set was soldiers (one side green, the other tan)…the other set was cowboys and Indians

Transistor Radio — Small radio about the size of a standard cell phone but thicker. One year for Christmas both me and my brother received one of these, his was black, mine was red. A prized possession. I used to listen to Phillies games with mine.

Bicycle — Another prized possession. Mine was made in Czechoslovakia and was dark red in color. Started with training wheels and it was a big day when they finally came off. First I stayed within the neighborhood but as I got older, I used that bike to ride to places miles away from the house. It was my “car” before I had a car. It was very simple to repair. There were no gear shifts and for the brakes you just push backward on the pedals. Whenever the tires needed air, I would just take it down to the nearby gas station and use their air hose.

View Master — These were sort of like stubby binoculars into which you would insert a small round disc about six inches or so in diameter. The disc had about a dozen color transparent photographs on it situated in a circle on the disc. It had a small lever on the side that you pressed down with your finger in order to advance to each successive photo. It was like having your own miniature slide projector. The photos could be of famous travel locations or Disney characters or famous fairy tales or whatever. I loved my View Master but the discs were kind of pricey so I never had a whole lot of them.

Sports Equipment — I had my own baseball glove and my brother and I shared a baseball bat, football and basketball. I remember that we had a small can of something called neatsfoot oil that I used to rub into my glove from time to time to keep it soft and supple.

Board Games — I remember a number of different board games that we played throughout the years. The various board games that we had included — Monopoly, Clue, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Sorry, Checkers, Chinese checkers, Chess, Concentration, Parcheesi, Risk, and Battle Cry Civil War

Playing Cards — Always had a deck of cards around the house. We would play two games mainly, war and go fish. At my grandparents’ house, I played pinochle with Grandmom and Grandpop.

Enclyclopedias — First set we got in the late fifties was a set of Golden Book encyclopedias geared for the younger ages. You got one book a week at the supermarket for forty-nine cents a book. That set got me hooked on reading encyclopedias. A few years later on we got a used set of World Book encyclopedias. I think they were published in 1958 and we got them about ’62 or ’63. I loved reading those encyclopedias. I would sit and read them like other people would read a novel. They also came in handy for school work (of course there wasn’t any such thing as the internet back then).

Odds And Ends

Here are some various random recollections that continue to stick in my memory banks from that late 50’s, early 60’s time frame, in no particular order.

W T Grant — this was a national chain small department store (think walmart but much smaller in size) everything for sale on one floor. They sold everything from pencils to household appliances. They even sold wall paintings there. One year i bought one of those framed paintings for Mom for Christmas (still have it to this day) and brought it home with me on the bus.

Robert Hall —Robert Hall was a chain clothing store where my brother and I used to get our Easter suits every year. Mom would always make sure when we were young that we had new suits for Easter. I remember one year I even had a matching fedora hat! (Holy 1950’s Batman!). Robert Hall also had this very catchy jingle on their radio and tv commercials (where the values go up, up, up and the prices go down, down, down, Robert Hall this season, will show you the reason, low overhead, low overhead).

E J Korvettes — a large department store that opened across the way from W T Grant in the summer of 1961. it was much larger than Grants and had three stories, an escalator and an elevator. It was right at the bus stop and was adjacent to a Woolworths, Thrift drug store and J C Penney store. I used to love to walk around the store and see all the stuff they had. This was my “go-to store” for all my family gifts (christmas, birthday, etc).

Bank Taffies — When my parents had any business to conduct at the bank I always wanted to come along when I was really young because when the teller would see me I would get one of those bank taffies that they gave out.

Aunt Marge — Not really an aunt but we called her that, she was a friend of the family. Once in a while, my Mom or my father would drive over to her house in Camden. She was always on the upbeat side. The big attraction here was a bowl of menthol infused hard candies that she kept in a bowl in her living room. She always allowed me to take some while I was there. Those things were ultra strong (peppermint flavor). They could clear out your sinuses.

Catsup Sandwiches — Occasionally on the days before grocery shopping day, we would essentially be out of food. One time my brother made himself a catsup sandwich. Just what it sounds like, two slices of white bread and some catsup. After he first made one, I tried it. If you were hungry, it wasn’t that bad. Afterwards, I used to make them also.

Drive In Theatres — Once in a while, we went to a local drive-in theatre. There were a whole bunch of them back then. Usually there was a double feature and in between the movies they would show those tantalizing commercials for the different foods available at the concession stand. I’d be in the back seat of the car practically drooling.

Adolphe’s — This was an independent drive in food stand called Adolphe’s that we went to every so often. They had the best hot dogs. We used to joke that the guy’s name was probably Adolf and he made sure to change the spelling of his name.

Webers & Stewarts — Oh those frosted heavy glass mugs of draft root beer. Absolutely delicious. Both Webers and Stewarts had that distinctive orange building. You would sit in your car and the waittress would bring you the mugs on a tray that was hung on the window (You would wind the window down about half way).

Water Fountains — Back then every public place (schools, government offices, large companies, parks, stadiums, etc.) had one or more public water fountains. When I was very young, I remember that there was a neighborhood girl that used to push her baby sister in a baby carriage on a daily walk. She passed by our house and Mom let me tag along for the walk. The highlight of the walk was when we stopped in the service area of a local Chevrolet dealer to get a drink of the ice cold water from their water fountain. There was a particular park that Mom took us to that had a playground where we always worked up a sweat and made sure to get a good long drink from the water fountain before we left. In the late 50’s, early 60’s, I don’t ever remember seeing any bottled water for sale anywhere (except those big jugs in office water coolers).

Sears Roebuck — Sometimes we went to the Sears Roebuck store on Admiral Wilson Blvd. in Camden. I remember they had this little food stand inside the store that had a gigantic root beer barrel that sold root beer and hot dogs. They had the hot dogs on one of those rolling hot dog cooker things and you could inhale that pleasant hot dog aroma from far away.

Johnstown, Pa — One time we drove out to Johnstown, Pa ( a long drive, about four hours or so) to visit with a woman and her family who lived in Johnstown, Pa. She was a woman that Mom had worked with at Bell Telephone before Mom got married. They had a large corn field. I remember eating several pieces of corn on the cob and as many hot dogs as I wanted and afterwards had a great time with their kids running through the corn stalks playing tag and hide and seek.

Haddon Heights Park — There was a county park in Haddon Heights that Mom took us to frequently. Plenty of shade trees, a playground, a ball field, walking trails, an amphitheatre, a pavillion for picnics and a water fountain. After playing in the playground and having a sandwich at the pavillion, my brother and I would walk over to the amphitheatre and take turns giving speeches.

Fort Mott — This was a decommissioned army fort that was built in the late 1800’s. It was later taken over by the state and turned into a state park. It was pretty far away from our house so we only went there once in a while. It was in Pennsville at the mouth of the Delaware River. The fort had battlements and a picnic pavillion. It was right on the water. When we were pretty young, Mom took us there and she packed bologna sandwiches for us. As we were walking along eating the sandwiches, all of a sudden big flies started going after our sandwiches. My brother said, “The flies are attacking our sandwiches. Let’s make a run for the car. We didn’t want to give up our sandwiches.

Fort Mercer — This was a revolutionary war fort about 8 miles or so from our house. It was cared for by the county. Mom took us here frequently. I loved going to Fort Mercer. It was right on the Delaware River. When we arrived at the fort, we drove to the parking area. There were cannons interspersed throughout the park. These were cannon salvaged from sunken British warships. There was a huge statue on a pedestal of General Hugh Mercer. There were different trails and a walkway bridge that we could walk under. There were the remains of battlement trenches. There was a colonial age house on the premises that served as a hospital during a battle at the fort when Hessians attacked the fort. The house still had a cannonball embedded in the exterior of the house. There was a picnic pavillion. They had those binocular things attached to a post where you could look down the river and at Philadeplphia. The fort was under a flight route for planes going to and coming from Philadelphia International Airport. Sometimes a hugh freighter would go by on the river. To get close to the river, you had to go down about a hundred steps or else walk to the other side of the park where it was leveled out. Fort Mercer was a free and fun place for me and my brother.

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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.