Sunday dinner was over and Brad Stuart was outside. He had rounded up enough kids for a 5-on-a-side baseball game. But I couldn’t play. Yet. I had to do dishes. Mom had used every pot and pan in the kitchen to fry her chicken, bake her homemade yeast rolls, boil and mash potatoes, fix two bowls of vegetables and cook a chocolate cake. It was a great Sunday dinner (we called a fancy lunch … [Read more...]
How We Survived?
(This comes by way of the Internet, but how true!) How all the kids born from the 30’s through the 70 have managed to survive. First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. The took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn’t get tested for diabetes. Babies were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs … [Read more...]
Play Ball!
April meant one thing to a young Boomer male. Play ball! Baseball. America’s past time. We didn’t have video games to play. There were no malls in which to gather. We didn’t ride horses. We didn’t have swim meets. In the spring, we played baseball. We played catch before school. At recess, we hit pop flies. At lunch hour we’d get in a few innings of 9 on 9, and, of course, when we got out … [Read more...]
Boomer Pets
I suppose the lives of most Boomers can be measured with the pets we owned, and we had some doozies. As Easter approaches, I recall getting baby chickens and baby ducks – dyed in pastel colors – in our Easter baskets. It was a right of passage and there was no such thing as PETA in those days. We just had pet birds for a spell. With ducks, when they lost their dyed colors and the cute factor, … [Read more...]
Do Not Pass Go!
Breathes there a Boomer who doesn’t remember the terror of rounding Marvin Gardens and Pacific Avenue, only having to face two hotels on Boardwalk and Park Place. At $2,000 for rent, Boardwalk put many a young boomer in Chapter 11. After all, we played lots of board games in those days. Youngsters in the 50s and 60s didn’t have access to video games, and that was a good thing. We used our minds … [Read more...]
The First Car
The life of a Boomer can be measured in “firsts”. The first word as a baby, the first step as a toddler, the first grade, the first scout meeting, the first bike ride, the first Little League team, the first kiss, and most of all – the first car. By first car, I don’t mean the first one we drove, but the first one that was “ours.” Mine was a 1949 Pontiac two-door sedan. It was solid black, … [Read more...]
Remember Bazooka Joe?
Bubble gum was one of the basic food groups for young Boomers. We grew up with the sticky stuff. It was a go-to sweet treat and it was cheap, just a penny. The Mom & Pop stores always had a jar on the counter. Reach in, grab a piece, lay down a penny and start chewing. Boomers became adept at blowing bubbles. A girl from Fresno, California, by the way, holds the world’s record for a bubblegum … [Read more...]
Reach For The Sky
Since the introduction of moving pictures, and especially after television arrived, Americans have been fascinated with the Old West. For Boomers, western movies were a mainstay of entertainment. On the Big Screen, the “oater” films hit their stride in the 1950’s. The plot of almost every western was the same: The good guy in the white hat rides into town, shoots the bad guys and rides off into … [Read more...]
Homemade Ice Cream
A big event in the lives of many young Boomers was churning a batch of homemade ice cream. It’s difficult to conceive that kids today – with all their video games, cell phones, sophisticated electronics and countless school and after-school activities – could ever get excited about making homemade ice cream, but we did! And the memories of family gatherings and the rich, creamy taste of freshly … [Read more...]
Guardian Angels
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 flock of them. … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- …
- 43
- Next Page »