It was Nov. 11, 1956. I was 12 years old, soon to be 13, and it was the opening of hunting season in West Virginia. In 1956, there were more albino armadillos in West Virginia than deer, so hunting season to me meant quail and rabbits. I had my own shotgun, a single barrel .410 and I was going hunting. November 11, Veteran’s Day, meant that my Dad would take the day off. He and Melvin Crantz … [Read more...]

The year 1955 was not a good one to be a raccoon. In fact, if you were such a masked critter, chances were pretty good you’d lose your tail and skin to a fad called “Coonskin Caps.” In the mid-1950’s, Walt Disney was a dominant program on TV. Families gathered around their Zenith, Philco or RCA black and white sets on a Saturday night, set up the trays for TV Dinners and watched whatever Disney … [Read more...]

Recycling is very fashionable these days among the younger generation, which speaks reverently about reducing carbon footprints, promoting alternative energy sources and buying most any product with the prefix “green”. While today’s generation takes great pride in recycling an aluminum can or two. Boomers didn’t recycle cans, they physically returned milk bottles, soda bottles and even beer … [Read more...]

What time is it? I don’t know. I don’t have my phone with me. Phone? Where’s your watch? What’s a watch? Time was, everyone wore a watch. A right of passage for a young girl or boy was their first watch. It was a big deal. I think I was 7 when I got my first watch. It was an inexpensive stopwatch. I was constantly stopping and starting the watch, which also reset the time. So I never … [Read more...]

Boomers look back fondly on many events and milestones throughout their lives:  The days of hot cars, great music, graduations, weddings, birth announcements and lives full of excitement and memories. But like the 18 ½ minute gap in the presidential tapes of Richard Nixon, there was one segment from Boomer history that should be erased – the era of Leisure Suits. How did we let that happen? … [Read more...]

  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...]