One of my very special places was a field of dreams I was 8 years old when my family moved across town in Beckley, WV. Daddy had bought a new house, a modest 2-bedroom, 1 bath Cape Cod with an attic and basement. I believe it cost $12,000. The house was fine, but I found myself in a new school system and living on a block entirely occupied by girls. I was devastated. Then, my life changed. … [Read more...]

  Special places. Special memories. For me, one such place was the West Virginia State Fair. My parents took me as a child. I later took my children and then my grandchildren. You never tire of a State Fair and West Virginia’s showcase in Fairleigh, WV was always special. In the summer of 1956, I was still getting used to small town life in Lewisburg, population 2,000, after moving … [Read more...]

One of those special places in my life is and has been the Greenbrier River. When we moved from Beckley to Lewisburg, WV, one of the first attractions to this young fisherman was this beautiful piece of water. Beckley had nothing like it. The Greenbrier was a gentle river - clear, cold and inviting. The Greenbrier is a major tributary of the New River. It begins in Pocahontas County with  the … [Read more...]

As Boomers look back on a life full of memories, certain places – special places – stick out. For me, one of those special places was the beach – Atlantic Beach, NC, not far from Camp Lejeune. My Aunt Anne and Uncle Sidney had a small cottage in Morehead City, just across Bogue Sound from Atlantic Beach. Every June, after school let out, we packed the family Pontiac sedan with suitcases and … [Read more...]

In December 1956, all of America was glued to a TV set. On Monday nights at 8 pm on NBC, the game show Twenty-One was on the air. It was the All-American boy, Charles Van Doren, in one isolation booth and Herb Stempel, a dorky genius in the other. Everyone in the country except Stempel’s mother was rooting for Van Doren, the Columbia University scholar, to win. And he did, with a little help from … [Read more...]

My first memory of drinking beer was at Atlantic Beach in North Carolina. I was about 12 or 13  and Mom and Dad were having a beer and a sandwich out on the deck of a restaurant overlooking the ocean while I and my siblings were dodging the crashing waves. I came up to see them and watched Daddy drinking a Schlitz. I asked for a sip, he handed me the can. I grimaced as the ice-cold beverage slid … [Read more...]

When I was a sophomore in high school, I enrolled as a day student at Greenbrier Military School in Lewisburg, WV, about a mile from our house. As a day student – a town boy I was called – I did not live at GMS and eat my meals there, but I did everything else – classes, drills, parades, etc. The corps of cadets assembled each morning at 7:30. It took me about ten minutes to walk to school – and I … [Read more...]

Mama Ida was a second mother to me. When my father was shot down and killed over Burma in WW II just a few days before I was born, my young mother went home from the hospital broken hearted and most distressed. Her mother, Mama Ida, pitched in and cared for me like her own son. In fact, she was the first I called “Mama”, but they quickly changed that to Mama Ida. My wonderful sweet grandmother and … [Read more...]

I had forgotten just how good a fresh acorn squash can taste. When we lived in West Virginia, Daddy always had a big garden. And I was chief weed puller for all his spreads. Just about the time a big whiffle ball game was set to start, I was summoned to the garden. The green beans or tomatoes needed picking, weeded or dusted. I swore back then I would never have a garden, but there was always … [Read more...]

(This is a repeat, but it’s timely and sure brings back good memories) It took about three weeks for the euphoria of getting out of school for the summer to fade away. By that time, Boomer kids had seen all they wanted of their friends, and had done about everything there was to do.  The youngsters had played enough Monopoly games to qualify as miniature real estate tycoons. The Hide and Seek … [Read more...]