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.