There weren’t many ways to earn money as a Boomer teenager. Allowances were meager, maybe 50c a week. This was before child labor laws, where kids were required to do things like mow the lawn, load dishwashers, tend to younger brothers and sisters and help weed the garden for a lousy 50 cents a week. Summer offered some respite with a few lawn-mowing gigs, but there was often intense competition … [Read more...]

Bonanza was in color, but most families didn’t have color sets when it first aired on September 12, 1959. We watched Ben Cartright and his sons Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe in black and white and could only imagine how they would look in red, white, purple, yellow and maybe a little blue. In the fall of 1960, the family of my friend, Dave Gladwell, bought a color console TV and Dave invited all his … [Read more...]

If it was Saturday morning and you were a kid in the 1950’s, there was only one place to be and one thing to do. Sprawl in the floor in front of a big, console TV and watch cartoons. And did we ever. Our first stop was the kitchen where we fetched a bowl and spoon, a box of cereal and a quart of milk and we were ready for action. The entertainment came in waves. Mighty Mouse, Tom and Jerry, … [Read more...]

I poured myself a bowl of cereal the other day and immediately turned the box around to read the back cover. Instead of a puzzle, a game, or the adventures of some cartoon character, I read only about fiber, saturated fats, calories, various vitamins, niacins, calciums and sugar content. According to the backs of modern boxes, cereals today are heart-healthy, gluten free, whole grain, nutrient … [Read more...]

Gas station food has come a long way. I remember on our travels to and from North Carolina when I was a kid, if you stopped at a Gulf Station to get gas (and hopefully a rest room break) if there was any food at all to be had, it was a pack of peanuts on the counter and a Coke from the machine. Slowly but surely gas stations recognized an unfilled market and began offering chips and nabs, maybe a … [Read more...]

This Boomer looks back on Christmases Past like Ebenezer Scrooge encountering one of his ghosts. Three words come to mind. Some Assembly Required. You see, I was a young parent in the early 1970s and had a daughter, Angelin, who asked Santa for a complete kitchen set. Stove, refrigerator, sink and cabinets. Santa didn’t have the good sense to tell her this was impossible since Santa’s sleigh … [Read more...]

Much of our cruising experience has been aboard Norwegian ships. On our past cruises, we have been joined by anywhere between 2,100 and 5,000 other guests. A river cruise on the Viking Mississippi has a maximum of 386 guests and that makes a huge difference. The 450-foot-long ship was built in America, flies the American flag, and includes only American crew members, all of whom speak fluent … [Read more...]

Today, we have Dollar General and Dollar Tree stores, and they are among the fastest growing of today’s retail establishments. Except, now they should be called “Dollar and Quarter Stores” after a fling with spiraling inflation.   I remember the dime stores or “Five and Dime’s” as we called them. Stores like Woolworth’s, Ben Franklin, W.T. Grant, McCrorys were once staples on every … [Read more...]

For the heck of it, we watched Frosty the Snow Man on TV one night this week. Jimmy Durante was the narrator, of course, and we sang along to the words of Frosty the Snow Man. “Thumpity, Thump, Thumpity, Thump, Look at Frosty Go.” One thing I dearly miss from our Boomer years is a December full of great Christmas specials on TV. This was entertainment at its finest – top stars, top acts, great … [Read more...]

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and for many of us Boomers, Thanksgiving meant more than just turkey and dressing. It meant Old Timey football games on television. Go way back with me, if you will, to the early days of the National Football League. Typically, my family made the long drive from Beckley, West Virginia to Raleigh, North Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with my grandmother, … [Read more...]