Heres something different! See if it cracks any memories... During the 1940s, Dads worked. Moms stayed home to raise kids. At a given time, we owned just one toy. Most kids owned scooters but made em themselves. Street Skates were common (as were bikes) but the steel wheels gave us blisters. We never could find the damned skate key! We walked 6 blocks to school come rain or blizzard, then back home, then to school, then home... 24 blocks! Lunch was a liverwurst sandwich (cheap) on artificial Wonder Bread (did 12 things to bodies) dunked in Campbells Tomato Soup. (Easy...Ugh!) We ate it all even if rotten. We knew kids in China never got to eat food! For breakfast fun, we read the backs of Wheaties boxes. Renkens milk was left by the door. Wed grab a bottle to spoon cream off the top. Then later, Dugans brought cake or cookies. In snow we rode sleds down hills, made forts or igloos and hit friends with snowballs. Parents read newspapers daily & listened to radio. We read all the funny sheets on Sunday morning... even Dick Tracy. Our news show was Movietone. When TV came in, we enjoyed Westerns and Learned to Draw with Jon Gnagy. The good cowboys never got killed, or even violent. Theyd shoot away the bad guys gun and take him to the jail... never the morgue. Screens were a tiny gray patch. If theyd been big flats, we wouldnt have had the wall space. But one could put a thick glass magnifier in front and a tri-colored plastic screen, top third blue, red in the middle, green on bottom. It was ideal for red fire trucks racing over green summertime lawns on sunny blue-sky days. Indians were the right red color... since wed never even seen one. (See Tonto.) At the end, the blue messed up all the cowboy sunsets. It seemed as if they were riding off down into the netherworld as their horses slowly glowed to a fiery red. When the magnifier & plastic were used together, viewers went color blind. We had seven channels and loved every one. Now we have 500 in Hi-Def and cant find diddly-squat. We didnt have fast food except White Castles cardboard-thin burgers. It took 12 to make a meal costing $1.44. On Sundays, we ate fries at the Silver Spoon along with greasy Specials. One treat was chow mein in the upstairs ChinaTea Room. We had no shower but took a bath every Saturday night leaving a very dark black ring on the tub. Three boys shared one room, one closet, one mirror. Two bathrooms (or baths) were unheard of. Phones were not for chatting but for brief messages. We ate all meals in the kitchen. Microwave was a boiled potato with butter. Pasta was Spaghetti-Os. Tuesdays were burgers. Thursday, liver & bacon. Friday, fish. I hated Thursday & Friday! But loved Saturday as I flung my body out of bed shouting, Yes! There really is a God! (Who had to rest on Sunday after making Saturday!) After burgers, I lined up chairs so all our neighbors could get to watch Milton Berle. By age nine, we stayed out late, so we dropped water balloons from the roof onto the heads of stoop-dwellers. Theyd soon send up the hangman and wed have to scramble down the rear fire escapes. For Easter, we got a big chocolate egg with a viewing window in the end. We stuck pins in bells at Halloween, splattered eggs on windows and clomped kids on the head with socks full of flour. No one gave a Twerk about the Treat... it was all about the Trick! On Thanksgiving, wed put on stupid getups & beg in the courtyards. Paper-wrapped nickels & dimes hit us on the head, never quarters. At Christmas, wed look in all the closets to assure neat gifts. Then, wed act surprised. Clothes were NOT legal tender. Ties, undies & hankies got nuked! (How many hiding spots could a four-room apartment contain?) Parents never used credit... only Layaway. At times your gift would still be at the store... so you got an IOU! Charlie & I would go door-to-door selling Dads jewelry & stuff. We made lots of money! (One night I made $55 & Dad let us keep it!) We never felt deprived or spoke of the jobless. When sick, the doctor came right to your bed. Nobody talked in school or ever chewed gum. If you did, you got it at home... for the second time. If serious, Mom used a strap. If minor, soap. If monstrous, she used Dad! Once, she flung a bottle of Heinz at my head but missed and stained the ceiling. Thank God she was a lousy shot! The cap was still off. How would she explain that long bloody blotch? But nobody gave a damn... all discipline was preapproved! For years, when she got angry shed point at the bloody red stain. Wed all look up, every which way, and play dumb. Tom & I wore knickers with long stockings. But on Sundays wed don our goin-to-church suit to go listen to organ music. My new Buster Brown shoes always fit exact! We owned only one car. It boasted used tires. Long road-trips turned into truly historic expeditions! We balked at paying 22 cents for gas. First pizza at age twelve, 15 cents. My first movie cost seven cents; it featured Gooks. We barely got to see the double feature plus cartoon as the matron shone her light in our eyes & the kids screamed till our ears ached! We tracked its footprints in to see The Thing. The guy next to me flung his box of popcorn & soda up into the air. We all got coated in butter & coke but could not stop shaking with laughter! Matron got angry. Thought it was aimed at her. At the break kids went beserk climbing over each other, so they cut it short. Id never buy snacks at the counter. Id sneak in my ice cream & candy in a plain-brown wrapper. Cheap! Finally, I just had to add the 1900s B&W Pic. Sledding downhill is the big activity. All wear black knickers and long stockings, even in winter! Note the gas lamp and the car at right in need of shoveling out! This looks like Eldert St at Broadway facing Evergreen Ave. The plate number behind the strut is 311354. There are at least 27 persons enjoying the sparkly CLEAN snow. No horses! They could slip and break a leg. The stately, classic brownstones now sell for a stately amount!
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 22:31:18 +0000
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