Mama Ida was a second mother to me. When my father was shot down and killed over Burma in WW II just a few days before I was born, my young mother went home from the hospital broken hearted and most distressed. Her mother, Mama Ida, pitched in and cared for me like her own son. In fact, she was the first I called “Mama”, but they quickly changed that to Mama Ida. My wonderful, sweet … [Read more...]

    Know what’s worse than having to pay $5 or $6 for a gallon of gas? Not being able to buy gas at any price. There are many of us who remember when we couldn’t. It was called a Gasoline Shortage. Between about 1975 and 1980, gas was strictly rationed in this country. The shortage began in the Nixon years when OPEC decided to shut off the pipeline. When Americans sensed there … [Read more...]

  I once won a Blue Ribbon in a West Virginia Garden Club Flower Show. Therefore, despite what my golf buddies may say, I do have certain skills. This is how it all happened. My mother, Frances, was always involved with Garden Clubs and Flower Shows. She served as President in both the State and the National Garden Club. She judged shows across the country and was frequently called … [Read more...]

When I was a boy, we either played Army or cowboys. Both involved guns. In our imaginary Army battles, we found long sticks to serve as makeshift carbines. When we played cowboys, there was only one choice of firearms. A set of Roy Rogers six-shooters in a leather holster with holes for the bullets. And it was always Roy Rogers and never Gene Autry because, after all, Roy Rogers was King of the … [Read more...]

There was a time when America’s young people took advantage of a thing called Spring Break and headed, en masse, to Florida, namely Ft. Lauderdale. The movie and song, Where the Boys Are, captured that experience. As a sophomore at the University of North Carolina, I also headed to Florida on spring break, but not to Ft. Lauderdale. Rather, my roommate, Bob Payet, and I headed for Indian Lake … [Read more...]

  I recently read that with inflation rising like a hot air balloon, many young families are being squeezed tremendously in buying diapers. I did a little research, and a throw-away diaper today costs about 50 cents each – give or take. Babies go through lots of diapers, maybe 8 or 10 a day. That’s $5 a day or $150 a month. Twins would set you back $300 a month. Wow! Boomers, however, … [Read more...]

“Bark, bark, bark!” “What’s wrong girl? Is Gramps in trouble?” “Bark, bark, bark, bark!” “Show me where he is, girl, and hurry!” For non-Boomers, that was a typical Sunday night television conversation between a young man named Jeff and Lassie, a collie with the uncanny ability to communicate to human friends about any problems on the farm. Or the young man may have been Timmy, who assumed … [Read more...]

  It was the Dodgers vs the Yankees in Beckley, WV in the summer of 1954. Freddie Arnold was the 11-year-old manager, star pitcher and slugger for the Yankees, I was 10 and filled the same roles for my version of the Dodgers. A game was underway in the vacant lot beside Freddie’s house. He had Warren Furrow, a promising 9-year-old at short stop and Judy Meadows in rightfield, picking dandelion … [Read more...]

He was my close friend, but I never met him in person. He was Sherman Shifflett and he passed away unexpectedly this week. He had a had a run-in with prostate cancer, but nothing life threatening. He just went peacefully in the night. I first got to know Sherman soon after I started posting CvilleBuzz. He responded to one of my articles, we hit it off and I can’t tell you how many times we have … [Read more...]

  The lives of Boomers can be defined by chapters of music. In the first chapter, just after the war, America wasn’t sure in which direction music should proceed. There were crooners like Sinatra and Bennett as well the remnants of the Big Band Era. Country stars like Hank Williams, Patsy Cline and Teresa Brewer had frequent hit songs as chart toppers, so it was a mixed bag of musical … [Read more...]