Remember when........

Nostalgia is one of my favorite pastimes this time of year, since going outside requires thirty minutes of applying ten layers of clothes and, just as you have the last layer on, you have to go to the bathroom which requires removing several layers, thus negating any time advantage and removing all desire to go outside. Therefore, I sit inside and think about the good ol’ days when I was young and enjoyed winter and all the fun it entailed, because we were all young and stupid and thought being cold beyond numb was fun. So, dear reader, I remember when.......

We wore mittens that were attached to each other insuring we lost both mittens instead of just one. When we would slide down the street near our house, on our American Racers or, you may know it as Flexible Flyer, the sled with two steel runners that would invariably run over your frozen fingers, never worrying about encountering an oncoming car because the traffic was nearly non existent. I remember building snowmen that lasted several months because the weather was so stinkin’ cold! I also remember coming in the house after having played outside, for what seemed like two weeks, and having my Mom put my hands under lukewarm water so that I could experience the pain associated with extreme child berth.

While inside, I would gather around the radio (I was an only and lonely child) and listen to many programs that required an imagination. The radio didn’t have fantastic graphics or surround sound. The special effects were dismal, to say the least. BUT, my brain had all those features and much more.

During the detective mysteries, I could feel the fog as it rolled into the city, shrouding everything in a cloud of mystery and intrigue. I could see the bad guy’s blonde girl friend as she walked into the room and sat across from the hero. I laughed so hard at the jokes of Charlie McCarthy and his stupid friends that my side would hurt for hours. Fiber Mcgee’s closet was as real to me as if it existed in my house, and every time he opened and the contents spilled out, I could see every piece scatter across the room. When Jack Benny wound his way down to his vault, I could see every lock on every door, and could feel the cool, stale air rush from his vault as he opened it.
I feel sorry for the kids today who have tv, XBox, Playstation, DVD’s etc. who don’t have the opportunity to develop their imaginations. But, we aren’t talking about now, we are remembering.

I remember when everyone could recognize every car on the road and could name them all. Chevy, Ford, and Chrysler each had one body style each year with just a few variations such as two doors versus four. Or, a hard top versus a convertible. I remember when high schoolers drove old cars that they fixed up with moon hubcaps and dice hanging from the mirror. Some of the older ones actually could afford a cheap paint job, or do it themselves, many with flames along the side of the hood. Some of the rebels would run wires to a spark plug attached to the tailpipe creating flames as they shot out of the school parking lot. All the cool boys wore their hair greased back in a DA (duck’s A ) held in place with Pomade or Butch Wax that left an interesting grease spot on the pillow case. The girls wore pony tails and skirts with Krenelin (sp) slips that held the skirts out. Until the girls were older, they wore bobby socks with saddle oxfords or low canvas tennis shoes. At an older age, they started wearing tight skirts with nylons and dressier shoes. The latter option was the boy's favorite.

I remember ‘Sock Hops’ after school and all the girls would dance with each other because most of the boys were too shy to get out on the dance floor and dance. That was, until the advent of the Slide and another similar dance that I don’t remember the name of, perhaps it was the ‘Shuffle’, where the boys lined up along side each other facing a similar line of girls and then the couple at the end would dance their way between the lines, down to the other end. This would repeat as long as the song lasted. I’m sure the girls invented this style of dancing so they could get the dough brain boys to interact with them. Little did they know that they were playing with fire and they were about to create some ugly monsters that would come back to bite them in later years,(not literally, of course......well, maybe sometimes.). First the women couldn’t get he guys to pay attention to them, then they couldn’t get them to leave them alone. You just can’t win with guys.

I remember a coach that had a paddle with holes in it and if you got out of line, you ended up on the wrong end of that paddle. And, I can speak from experience that the coach didn’t hold back because you were on the football team, in fact, I think he laid it on with more gusto. He hit me into next week. I was only taught that lesson once, being a fast learner, and also enjoying setting down at least once a week, I didn’t need another lesson. There was no talk of abuse or assault or anything like that, it was simply effective discipline that the kids didn’t mention to their parents for fear of a second application of the same curriculum at home. Consequently, we never had discipline problems at school, no one had ADHD or behavioral problems, we never heard swear words in the halls or on the school grounds, teachers weren’t afraid to discipline their students and students treated the teachers with respect. I also remember we had to perform in school or hazard repeating the same grade, which was a real possibility if you under performed. The teachers weren’t so concerned with our self esteem as they were in teaching us something. If we performed, our self esteem would take care of itself, if we didn’t, too bad. Life was simple then.

I remember movies that ran continually, not having a starting time. Everyone just went to the movies and if they wandered in at the middle of the movie, they just stayed until the part of the movie came back around where they came in, then they left. I remember Saturday matinees that had serials, fifteen minute shorts that continued every Saturday, with cliff hanger endings designed to bring you back the next week. We would always go as a large group of kids and stay all day, watching the serials, cartoons, newsreels and coming attractions at least twice each.. We would scream at the screen when the good guys were in peril, and cheer when the bad guys got their comeuppance. We thought nothing of yelling instructions at the characters when they were doing something we saw as stupid, always telling them who we thought were the bad guys.

Back then, we could afford to go to the movies several times a week, if we wanted to, because they were affordable, even with the low wages people were paid. We would fall in love with all the actresses, and identify with the heroes. We would leave the theater thinking we were Roy Rogers, or Gene Autry, John Wayne, or Jim Stewart, pretending to ride our horses, shooting at outlaws or Indians as we rode hard for home. We learned about life in the movies, about honor and honesty, how to be fair and the results of unfair practices. We learned how to treat women and to show respect to them. We learned how to fall in love, and the heart break that could accompany that emotion.

I remember when tv first started in Idaho Falls, starting at three in the afternoon and ending at midnight. Shows like Howdy Doody, Rin Tin Tin, Superman, Dragnet, Lassie....the list goes on. Jack Benny and Charlie McCarthey came to life and looked nothing like I had imagined. We had two stations and no remote - the kids were the remotes. "Change the channel." Why do I have to change it?" "Because you’re younger." was an exchange heard in every household in America, in a variety of languages. Obesity was kept in check just by that one phenomenon.

Even with tv, our lives were filled with time outdoors. In the summer, we would play all day outside. If we weren’t playing baseball in the parking lot of Highland Park where the Russets played, we were walking on our stilts, or riding bicycles, trying new and bolder stunts until someone crashed and went home crying. We played hide and seek at night, or a myriad of other games, staying out until ten or so, when someone’s mom or dad would yell for them to come home, then we’d all wander home, promising to meet the next day to continue. Some of us, the more evil bunch, would play Devil on the Doorstep periodically, with one quietly walking up to the door, ringing the door bell, then all or us running as fast as we could to keep from getting caught. I’m not sure why we thought that was so fun, but we did - at least until we got caught. Then it the fun ran out real fast.

Well, I’ve remembered enough for now, and this has become some what lengthy as it is. But, I remember when reading was one of those pastimes that we all had time to do. I rememeber.........