I was sitting in traffic this week and looked at the cars surrounding me. One word came to mind. Ugly. There were all sorts of hatchbacks ranging from tiny to huge and a few squatty sedans leftover from the rental car lots. There were lots of Mom cars - boxy vans that would hold a baseball team. There were trucks approaching the size of school busses, some so high off the ground you’d need a … [Read more...]

“They melt in your mouth, not in your hand.” M&M’s that is. I remember watching Saturday morning cartoons as a kid and a big-time sponsor of many of the shows were M&M candies. We would break out a bag and grab a handful and grasp them tightly, to see if it was true. Would they melt or not? They usually didn’t and when the commercial finally came on, we gulped then down. I always liked … [Read more...]

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...]

I know this is hard to believe, but once upon a time, doctors made house calls. Really! They would pick up their black leather bags, get in their cars and come see you if you were sick. Today, it’s hard to get an appointment at a doctor’s office, even months in a advance, but they used to come see us. Growing up, I was lucky. When I was about 5, Dr. Fred Richmond lived right across the … [Read more...]

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...]