Digging deeply into the memories of childhood, this Boomer shudders at the thought of the early years of school, namely kindergarten and first grade. In the 1950’s, there was no pre-kindergarten, in fact, kindergarten was optional. I remember it as a waste of about 5 hours a day. The teacher read silly stories and we spent much of our waking hours (yes, there was nap time) cutting silhouettes … [Read more...]

It happened one summer that I staged a prize fight. It was my first and last attempt as a boxing promoter. I was ten at the time and my friend and constant companion, Freddie Arnold, and I were hanging out in my basement, doing nothing in particular, when one of my parents' friends asked if she could drop off her son for a bit. The boy’s name was Billy White. He was about 7. His father, Cotton … [Read more...]

A couple weeks ago, I filled four small rows in my garden with sweet peas left over from a bag of Wetzel seeds I had stored in the shed. They may have been two years old. I was foolish to have risked planting them, but I couldn’t just toss them out. A week passed by and no peas. A few days later I saw the most incredible sight – several little pea sprouts peeking through the soil. To me, this is … [Read more...]

  Music played an important part in the life of most every  Boomer, and 45 records made up the chapters of our lives. For my 10th birthday, I asked for and got a portable 45 record player. It was a Sylvania, as I recall, and my first record was Dean Martin’s “Memories are Made of This”. I suppose I played it a thousand times before I bought my second record, “Sixteen Tons” by Tennessee … [Read more...]

  It was in Berkley, at 2508 Commonwealth Drive. Nancy and I had a new baby girl, Angelin, and we wanted to move from our dark, basement apartment across town into a real home. Caleb Stowe, our Realtor, found us a house in a nice subdivision with an assumable mortgage that we could afford, and we bought it. That first house had three bedrooms, one bath, a combination living/dining area, … [Read more...]

  Children today don’t need a Guardian Angel. Who needs angels to watch over you when you have two over-protective parents that monitor each breath, public schools that inspect your lunch bags for trans-fats and a nanny-state government that requires seat belts and helmets when a youngster pulls up a chair to the kitchen table. But Boomers certainly needed Guardian Angels – a whole … [Read more...]

We had lots of snow days when I was a boy, but it was just that - snowy. They didn’t cancel school. Unless the boiler broke down at Lewisburg Junior high School, we went to school, trudged through the snow 5 miles going and 10 miles coming home. Math was different back then. When the back, one-lane roads had drifts so high the buses couldn’t run, the country kids stayed home and had to make up … [Read more...]

  I poured myself a bowl of cereal the other day and immediately turned the box around to read the back cover. Instead of a puzzle, a game or the adventures of some cartoon character, I read only about fiber, saturated fats, calories, various vitamins, niacins, calciums and sugar content. According to the backs of modern boxes, cereals today are heart-healthy, gluten free, whole grain, … [Read more...]

There are some voices that truly stand out in our past. Boomers look back and remember Edward R. Murrow, Arthur Godfrey, Jack Benny, Walter Cronkite, John Cameron Swayze, Orson Welles, Paul Harvey, Mae West and Groucho Marx as among those voices which needed no introduction. When they spoke, you knew who they were. And there is one more. Howard Cosell, the greatest sports commentator of all … [Read more...]