Ian Fleming began his James Bond book series in 1953 with the release of Casino Royale. The Englishman’s novels were instant successes, especially among college-aged men who pounced on each new edition as the paperback books flowed off the presses. Then, Playboy Magazine added fuel to the fire in the early 60s by promoting any and everything James Bond. When the first James Bond movie, Dr. No, … [Read more...]

Nancy and I watched Field of Dreams this week on TV. Featuring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, and Burt Lancaster, it was most entertaining. “Build it and he will come.” “Go the distance. “Ease his pain.” “Is this heaven? No, it’s Iowa.” I would rank Field of Dreams as certainly one of my all-time favorites, which got me to thinking. What would be my Top Ten Movies – those that … [Read more...]

I’m old enough to remember 3D comic books. I owned several and I sure wish I still had them. 3D comic books were a part of the Three Dimension Craze of the 1950s, spurred on by 3D movies. To see a 3D movie or read a 3D comic, you had to wear glasses with blue and red lenses which created an ocular illusion. It was a color manipulation that caused one eye to perceive one of the printed images … [Read more...]

A couple of weeks ago – just before the big ice storm – we dug out our portable propane stove and a box of Sterno cans just in case the power went out and we had to use those implements for cooking. Boy, those Sterno cans brought back lots of old memories – memories of a fondue pot on the dining room table and guests gathered around. Our first house, circa 1968, had all avocado appliances. … [Read more...]

(Modern Mom) Hi, Honey. What were you kids doing out in the yard? (Modern Kid) Oh, we were playing Mumblety Peg. (Modern Mom) That sounds like fun. How do you play it?(Modern Kid) You get a pocketknife and balance it on the tip on your finger, then let it flip down so in one turn it sticks in the ground next to the other kid’s foot. The closest wins. (Modern Mom) You are grounded until … [Read more...]

“Hey mom, what’s an arachnid?” “I’m busy icing this cake. Get an encyclopedia and look it up.” And we did. Boomers, that is. Those of us fortunate to have a set of encyclopedias in our homes looked it up. If not, we went to the school library the next day. Printed encyclopedias have largely gone the way of passenger pigeons. Old sets now languish on E-bay. Good Will stores refuse them. After … [Read more...]

After my father was declared Missing in Action during World War II, my mother brought her infant son home from the hospital to live with my grandmother, Mama Ida, her sister Pearl, my mom’s sister Jodi and Uncle Sidney, Mama Ida’s brother. I suppose we would have been considered poor, but everybody pitched in and somehow, we got by. Growing up, I remember that every dinner began with a slab of … [Read more...]

We had corned beef, cabbage and black-eyed peas for our New Year’s supper. If that doesn’t bring us luck, what will?  Eating black eyed peas on New Year’s Day is a long-established symbol for good luck, stemming back to West African culture where the natives believed that little legumes not only brought prosperity, but also warded off evil spirits - and I’m all for that.An interesting story … [Read more...]

I cannot imagine being without a pocket knife. I have had one in my front pocket since I was six. Back then, we didn’t think of pocket knives as weapons. We treasured them as friends, able to accomplish a multitude of tasks. Some of my early memories go back to those first knives. I remember sitting in Billy Richmond’s front yard under two towering oak trees that delivered acorns the size of … [Read more...]

They introduced them to us in 5th grade. They were fountain pens – with real ink, with pointed tips and some sort of lever that sucked the ink up into the pen. We were supposed to learn to write with them in long hand and not smear our scribbles all over the paper. They might as well have asked me to walk across the high wire at a Ringling & Brothers Circus. Every day, I came home with ink … [Read more...]