If it was fall, we played football. After school, we took an available-players inventory, gathered up any and all warm bodies, and headed for the vacant lot two doors from my house on Court Street, in Lewisburg, WV. Our neighbor, Paul Jones owned the lot and never had it developed. He delighted in seeing us enjoy it. I think every neighborhood should have at least one empty lot for … [Read more...]

Here it is, almost October, and every child in America knows what that means. Halloween! But not everyone looks forward to this All Hallow’s Evening, as it was once known. Modern parents cringe at the thought of Halloween, when someone might put razor blades in candy or when careless drivers speed down suburban byways, knocking over trick-or-treaters like bowling balls. Boomers recall a … [Read more...]

We have a single steak knife in our kitchen that moved with me to Charlottesville when I set up my apartment in 1967. My mom had given me some extra dishes, pots, pans and linens to get started. I originally had 4 steak knives but three have left the premises. Only one remains. Those original steak knives came from a gas station giveaway back in the 1950s. Fill up your tank and get a free steak … [Read more...]

Boomers own Beach Music. Those of us who lived in Virginia or the Carolinas, or those Boomers who may have vacationed in those spots in the late 50’s, the 60’s, and a little into the 70’s, remember Beach Music. We remember beach clubs and dance halls along the oceanfront at places like Cherry Grove, Ocean Drive, North Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach in SC, or in Atlantic Beach or Carolina Beach in … [Read more...]

England has had kings on the throne for millenniums. Boomers know that America once had a king, too. But just one. Elvis Aron Pressley - born in a modest two-room house in Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8, 1935 - was America’s king and his throne was any stage he occupied. Elvis Pressley was undeniably the most famous person of the Boomer generation. He was the King of Rock and Roll. As a boy, … [Read more...]

Anyone over the age of 50 knows first hand what a jukebox was. But ask a youngster today if he or she wants a nickel for the jukebox and you’ll get a blank stare. Boomers and jukeboxes grew up together and some of us are here because of jukeboxes, which brought our moms and dads together. In restaurants, at dance halls, at swimming pools, soda shops and fountains, there were jukeboxes. Some … [Read more...]

  Boomers grew up with a little fellow named Speedy Alka-Seltzer. He was one of us. Speedy was there when you ate too much, drank too, much, had indigestion, heartburn, stomach aches, acid reflux, aches and pains, bad colds and especially a hangover. He was our friend when we had too much of any good thing. Marketing - such as the promotion of Little Speedy - has played a big role in … [Read more...]

  If you live long enough, two things will happen. First, you’ll get arthritis as the old joints begin to wear out. It’s sorta like an automobile engine at 250,000 miles when it’s metal on metal, but in our case, it’s bone on bone. The second thing that will happen is that your hearing will also begin to diminish. Either that or it’s that other people all begin to mumble at exactly the … [Read more...]

  How do young people meet these days? Kids don’t have weekend dances. There are there no more drive-in movies and there are no drive-in restaurants to speak of. Boomers look back nostalgically at the days when a young lady called a carhop would take your order for a frosted mug of root beer and an order of fries. You’d give her two quarters and get change. Drive-in restaurants really … [Read more...]

  I saw a picture of a sandwich wrapped in waxed paper recently that took me back to the 1950’s and brown bag lunches. As an elementary student, sometimes I ate in the cafeteria, assuming someone had an available quarter, but usually Mom would pack my lunch – a cookie, an apple and a sandwich wrapped in waxed paper. I remember watching the early commercials of Reynolds’s Waxed Paper … [Read more...]