Boomer kids divided everything into months. January was noted for New Year’s Day and celebrations before heading back to school. February was cold, which meant snow, which meant school closings, which meant tearing down hillsides in a genuine Flexible Flyer sled and hoping for the best. April had Easter egg hunts. May meant school picnics and Little League tryouts. June was vacation time, then the … [Read more...]

I heard recently that some of the schools were adding sensitivity training to mathematics. “Five plus five is usually ten. How do you feel about that?” When Boomers were in school, there was nothing sensitive about the three R’s - Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic. We also read lots of American history, and in our books, Americans were the good guys. Nathan Hale, Paul Revere, George … [Read more...]

It was our anniversary and we wanted to get away for a few days. We wanted someplace warm and inviting, maybe some place we had never been. How about Jamaica? Why not? We drove to Richmond on a Wednesday night as our flight to Miami left the next morning at 6-ish and we were supposed to be at the airport for international flights three hours early. We landed in Miami in less than three … [Read more...]

  George Washington was born on February 22, not the entire fourth week of February. His birthday was also not clustered among the birthdays of other presidents. His birthday was unique and once a special event. I moved to Charlottesville on Feb. 1, 1967. I had accepted a position as Men’s Buyer at Leggett Barracks Road. The new store was trying to get a foothold in selling better … [Read more...]

I like a 29-inch inseam on my trousers. I hate it when pants drag along the ground and become tattered, though that’s what most of the young men today seem to prefer – ragged pant bottoms. But it’s hard to find pants with 29-inch inseams, most are 30-inches or more, So, get them altered, right? Not if you want to pay a tailor almost as much for hemming as you did for the original price of the … [Read more...]

It was December 1972 and my close friend, Joe Davis, wanted me to join him as a referee for Little League basketball games. “We’ll call two games back-to-back, twice a week, and we can make $6 a game,” he offered, temptingly. While $24 a week wasn’t Warren Buffet money, it would be twenty-some bucks that I didn’t have before, and I could spend it any way I liked. Fishing equipment, golf … [Read more...]

  It is said that the Golden Age of Comic Books was from 1938 to 1956. As a child in the early 50s, I was an avid reader. As I recall, comic books sold for about 10 cents a copy, which was no small sum in those days. It was a week’s allowance for me, and I often blew the whole she-bang to read the adventures of Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, Captain America, the hero stories of World … [Read more...]

His name was Richard Wayne Penniman. We all knew him as Little Richard, one of the most dynamic entertainers of all time and an idol of Boomers everywhere. Richard Penniman was born in Macon, Ga, the third of twelve children of Leva and Charles Penniman, a church deacon and brick mason who sold a little moonshine on the side. The youngster was dubbed L’il Richard by his family because of his … [Read more...]