I believe that as we age, we become accustomed to smells and odors. Sure, many things still smell good – like flowers and colognes. Or they can smell bad, like a trashcan in August the day before pickup. But looking back – way back – this Boomer can recall the vivid scents of youth. It was as if I had discovered the sense of smell for the first time. Here are some of the fragrances I … [Read more...]

My daughter was telling me recently about the “Dos and Don’ts” of school lunches - especially lunches sent from home. Apparently, the modern Lunch Nazis now rifle through each Spiderman lunchbox or brown paper bag to approve or disapprove of what children can eat. Donuts are definite “no-no’s and so are Oreo cookies. When I was a kid, you only got an Oreo cookie if you’d behaved yourself the day … [Read more...]

I suppose I was about 10 years old when my dad decided I should mow the grass. We didn’t have very big yard on Jennings Street, in Beckley WV, but we also didn’t have a very good lawnmower. It was a push mower, a manual push mower, meaning you did all the pushing and if you went fast enough, the blades would rotate and maybe cut the grass. Or maybe not. It probably didn’t help that the blades on … [Read more...]

“Sweet, sweet, the memories you gave me.” Remember those lyrics from the Dean Martin hit, “Memories Are Made of This”? The line could also refer to Boomer candies, and boy did we ever have some sweet treats! Our passion for candy was so intense that dentists look back at the 1950’s and 60’s as “The Good Old Days.” It was during this period that Boomer kids ate candy like there would be no … [Read more...]

Boomers remember Easter Sunday as one of the special days of the year, ranking right up there with Christmas, Thanksgiving and your birthday. Today, not so much. On Easters past, nearly everyone went to church, dressed to the nines in their Sunday best. The girls wore new Easter dresses with crispy crinolines, the boys sported new suits and ties (clip-on, of course) and all the moms wore … [Read more...]

When I was boy, about 10 or so, my mom and dad were active in the local country club and went to lots of dances and events on Saturday nights. A lady friend of the family, Burtell Turner, often did the baby-sitting chores for me and my younger siblings. The young ones went to bed early, but I was allowed to stay up and watch TV with Burtell. There were two things she loved to watch – wrestling and … [Read more...]

"Hurry son! You’ll be late for school!” “I’m trying Mom. I can’t get my pants on. I think the pants legs shrunk!” Such might have been a morning conversation in any number of homes in the 1950’s. That’s because a certain fad called pegged pants swept all of Boomerhood, causing both young men and women to truly struggle in order to get their pants on. Pegged pants had their origins when … [Read more...]

I suppose if a child brought a squirt gun to school these days, he or she would be tased, wrestled to the ground, bound in chains and then really bad stuff would happen. For Boomers, squirt guns at school were a way of life. We considered them to be part of the Second Amendment – the right to keep and bear plastic weapons that would soak your fellow classmates. We did not need a concealed/carry … [Read more...]

“Hey mom, what’s an arachnid?” “I’m busy icing this cake. Get an encyclopedia and look it up.” And we did. Boomers, that is. Those of us fortunate to have a set of encyclopedias in our homes looked it up. If not, we went to the school library the next day. Printed encyclopedias have largely gone the way of passenger pigeons. Old sets now languish on E-bay. Good Will stores refuse … [Read more...]

I suppose it all started with saddle oxfords. In the early 1950’s, these black and white shoes took America by storm. Coinciding with dancing and the Jitterbug, saddle oxfords drew attention to fast moving feet. They were supremely popular with Boomers guys and gals. Then came suede shoes, immortalized by Elvis Presley’s version of Blue Suede Shoes released in 1956. With suede shoes in vogue, … [Read more...]