I saw a commercial on TV last week where a person snapped his fingers together twice and their Smart Watch reacted with the kind of stuff that Smart Watches do. And it reminded me of Dick Tracy – the comic strip. In 1931, Chester Gould inked his first Dick Tracy comic panel in theDetroit Mirror, distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. Tracy was a plain-clothes cop, tough and … [Read more...]

(I got this in an Email and wanted to share)   “Heavens to Murgatroyd!” Does that bring back memories? People under 50 will think all this is jibberish, but Boomers won’t. For example, a not so elderly (65) lady said something to her son about driving a “jalopy” and he looked at her quizzically and said, “What the heck is a jalopy?” He had never heard of the word jalopy!! She … [Read more...]

And it was. When the Barnum and Bailey and Ringling Bros. circus came to town, it was the Greatest Show on Earth, and an event that every Boomer child looked forward to seeing. It all started when the Ringling brothers traveled to New England to see the established Barnum and Bailey Circus. The two circuses then agreed to divide the U.S. rather than compete head-to-head. The Ringling’s … [Read more...]

  On October 8, 1956, I was in 7th grade. At the 2 PM bell, they let students out of their classrooms and those who were interested assembled on chairs in the auditorium. A television set was on. The picture was a little fuzzy, but it was Game 5 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium.  The Dodgers and Yankees. Vin Scully and Mel Allen were the announcers. Babe Pinelli was the ump behind … [Read more...]

Each time I drive on Rio Road, I ride by Fashion Square Mall and see the empty building that was once Sears. How I miss that wonderful store, now bankrupt. Sears was America’s store. It’s where Boomers bought everything from sleeping bags to stereos to back-to-school clothes for their kids. And lives there a Boomer who can’t remember that special day when the Sears catalogue arrived in the … [Read more...]

I was watching a football game on TV recently when I realized that the picture was so vividly clear, I thought I could have been sitting in the stands. We have a nice TV, but nothing special, yet the picture is brilliant. Most al of them are today. What a change from our first TV! I remember the day that my brother Pat and I waited and watched for the Appliance Store’s truck to pull in the … [Read more...]

Popcorn popping was a regular treat for Boomer kids. With a new Zenith TV console in the living room, a typical weekday night featured watching westerns and popping corn, with a pitcher of Kool Aid as a chaser. The earliest popper I remember was just a pot with a lid. Mom would get the oil hot, add a half cup of corn and we hoped for the best – that most of the kernels popped and nothing … [Read more...]

Each generation has its own language and Boomer teens were no different. Highly influenced by fast cars and maintaining total cool at all times, young Boomers created a vocabulary all their own, and interestingly, many of the terms are still in use today. To be in “fat city”, for example, was to be in “great shape”. A “drag” was an extremely boring individual. The “fuzz” were policemen, and an … [Read more...]

Someone had rented the banquet hall above the pool room in downtown Lewisburg for a dance party on a Saturday night in September 1960. I was a pretty good dancer back then. My Aunt Jodi had taught me how to “Jitterbug”, but when I got upstairs, I didn’t recognize what they were doing. It was something called The Twist, and they played Chubby Checker’s mega hit over and over. The girls looked … [Read more...]

(A repeat, but worth it!)   Hey kids! What time is it? Breathes there a Boomer who doesn’t know the answer to that question? If it was Buffalo Bob Smith asking, and it was a weekday afternoon on NBC in the 1950’s, it was most definitely “Howdy Doody time.” Boomers remember the Howdy Doody Show as much for the quality of life during those years as for the quality of this popular … [Read more...]