Looking back on my younger days, I went through a period in life when I felt I needed more abuse, more heckling and questions about my ancestry. I became an umpire and got my share of deleted expletives – some deserved and some not. One of the deserved moments in my umpire career when my judgement was rightfully questioned came when I first called a fastpitch softball game from behind the plate … [Read more...]

We called them mitts, not gloves. But they were among our prized possessions - baseball gloves. I had a toy glove until I was 10. It was a cheap piece of synthetic with not enough padding to slow down a ping pong ball. When I tried out for Little League, and I needed a real glove. Daddy took me to a local hardware/sporting goods shop, and I found one that fit. It was signed by Chico Carresquel, … [Read more...]

Countin' flowers on the wall That don't bother me at all Playin' solitaire 'til dawn with a deck of 51 Smokin' cigarettes and watchin' Captain Kangaroo And so sang the Statler Brothers. Maybe, they didn’t watch Captain Kangaroo, but millions upon millions of kids did from 1955 though 1984 – 29 seasons and 6,090 episodes. For three decades, Captain Kangaroo was America’s babysitter. In the early … [Read more...]

My first memory of drinking beer was at Atlantic Beach in North Carolina. I was about 12 or 13 and Mom and Dad were having a beer and a sandwich out on the deck of a restaurant overlooking the ocean while I and my siblings were dodging the crashing waves. I came up to see them and watched Daddy drinking a Schlitz. I asked for a sip, he handed me the can. I grimaced as the ice-cold beverage slid … [Read more...]

It was a big day on campus. The new issue of Playboy Magazine was on the stands and the word spread fast. In a mad dash to Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, guys lined up to pick up the latest copy. In 1962, an issue of Playboy cost 60 cents, which doesn’t sound like much today, but it was triple the cost of a Life Magazine, the leading publication of that day. We eagerly shelled out our 60c … [Read more...]

Over the 4th of July weekend, and feeling ultra-patriotic, Nancy and I joined friends on a trip to Trump Winery for lunch and wine. If you’ve never been, the entranceway to the property is lined with literally a thousand American flags, so you can’t help but feel proud to be an American, and it’s like you expect Lee Greenwood to pop out and start singing “God Bless the USA.” We had just taken … [Read more...]

Today, you’ll see dozens of big carts in the aisles of most any grocery store as the store employees select products that the customers ordered on line. Sometimes, customers pick up their orders at the curb of the store and sometimes they are delivered. In the 1950’s, we picked up the orders and delivered. We ran the errands. Kids on our bikes. At least twice a week, Mom would hail me in … [Read more...]

I went to the store the other day. We needed milk, but they were out of the half-gallon size of 2% milk. So, I bought whole milk. What a difference. The rich taste of the whole milk whisked my memories back to the days when the milkman made deliveries. You could hear him coming a block away – the engine chugging on the old, white truck and hundreds of glass bottles clinking inside. He was … [Read more...]

For those in my generation, going to the movies was a regular, often weekly, activity. The entertainment at the local movie theater began with the previews of coming attractions, followed by a plea from the concession stand to buy some snacks and drinks, and then the cartoons. Sometimes the theater manager played two, but generally one cartoon. In retrospect, the cartoons were often more … [Read more...]

It’s funny how things or people from the past pop into your mind. Last week, an incident happened to me that triggered such a memory. I didn’t have a paring knife that would slice warm butter and I like to tinker around the kitchen. By gum, I thought, I am going to go buy myself a sharp knife. So, I went to Home Goods and tracked down the meanest, scariest looking knife on the rack. Jack the … [Read more...]