I was watching a commercial about frozen fish and got to thinking about when I was a child, my dad would go fishing and if he kept them, would come home and clean them. What a mess. Scales all over the sink, a fishy smell and it seems there would always be a bone or two that were left in the cooked fish.

My mom killed and cleaned a chicken if they had one. Can you imagine most of the football watching, over zealous businessmen or men with working out on their mind, standing in the kitchen today cleaning fish? I know in places like Alaska and a few other places that they probably do that on a daily basis but not the majority. I was also thinking about how we did not have instant news, telling us what is going on all over the world. Sometimes it was days before word got around about happenings across the ocean. I feel like we are very spoiled but very, very lucky living in a world like we do. There are some bad things in todays world, like you can’t let your kids go trick or treating alone, there are kid snatchers who should be locked away forever, and on, and on. My granddaughters would just lay down and throw a fit if they had to walk to school and back home! I look at my laptop and wish I could live another 50 years so I could see and use all the great things that will be invented. It is definitely more interesting today as far as electronics go. Life is more hurried than the 40s that’s for sure but you know air conditioning sure is nice in the summer and I love colored TV.

When I was a kid and we got our first TV (black and white of course) we also got this piece of plastic that was tinted blue on the top, a yellowish in the middle and green at the bottom. You taped it over the standard size screen and it helped you imagine it was colored TV, at least until you were viewing an living room scene behind the green part…LOL what a hoot.

My grandkids asked what games we played in the 40s.  I had to take a minute and think about that one.  When you are making up your own games with your own rules and very little objects to play with, you have to think.  We sure had no computers, cell phones, or ipods.  Do you remember how we used to pick which game we were going to play?  Decisions were made by going ‘eeny-meeny-miney-moe’.

-There was the “Clothes Pins in the Bottle” game:

Place a milk bottle (or other jar with a small opening) on the ground or floor. Let each kid try dropping ten clothespins into the bottle. See who can make the best score. Note: Yes, you can still buy clothespins in the supply section of most grocery stores.  This was fun and played a lot at parties, along with spin the bottle when we were a little older.  If you don’t know what spin the bottle is, you don’t need to hear it from me.

-Hide and Seek  and when the game was to be over we yelled “ollie, ollie oxenfree”.  Remember that?

-Jacks played on someones cement front porch kept us occupied for hours.  My friend, who lived around the block had the best, smooth front porch.

-Hopscotch was great fun when we could find some chalk.

-My Dad had a huge collection of Lionel Trains with buildings and bridges, little trees, etc that was spread out on the upstairs floor.  My brother and I would run that train and had more fun pretending.  My dad had a car that dumped barrels off, one that had a door that opened and shut, and a bunch that did other things.  What fun!!

-Monopoly was a great board game when we got big enough to count money and read cards.  We also played Clue.  I loved that game because I loved murder mysteries.

-Of course all kids had a pair of Skates and usually a scraped knee or two if you were a beginner.

-Rode Bicycles  – Do you remember how playing cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?

-Sand Box – I loved my sand box.  Dad had put a roof on it so the sand stayed just right.

-Swing from a tree limb was a must.

-I have already mentioned listening to the radio in the evenings.  Daytime was outside time.  No one stayed in side unless you were sick or the weather was bad.

-card games

-tag

-Jump rope

-We went to the movies every Saturday morning

-And when we got old enough to get a library card, we went to the county library and read books or checked them out.

-We read comic books a lot and my favorite was Archie.

Boy do I wish I had saved a trunk load of those comics.  Have you seen what they go for these days?

This is a picture of my dad, me, my grandma Winnie and my grandpa Sam (Dad’s mom and dad). My grandparents lived on a farm but I was amazed at my grandmother. She put her hat on for a picture and this was probably her very best dress and look she even has her best shoes on. I always remember my grandpa buttoning his shirt at the top. Another thing you might notice is that back in the olden days people never really smiled in photos. Check out some of the photos of your grandparents and I bet you find similar looks on their faces.
One of my favorite times with him was when he would tell me about his visit with the Indian Chief Geronimo when Geronimo was in prison at Ft Sill. I don’t remember why or when but he was very serious. When he was younger, my grandpa, was a very wealthy man in West Texas. That is a story for another time, maybe. I do remember a time we were visiting them and I went out in the barn and played with their collie dog. On the way home my parents noticed I was scratching something awful and needless to say I had more than half of the dogs fleas on me. When we got home my folks put me in a bathtub of cold ice water and I guess the fleas all died or jumped out because that was the last I heard about it.

I’d like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I had a brother who was 7 years younger, who died way too young, just a few years ago. I have to chuckle when I remember growing up with a little brother who, in my young eyes, was always in the way, bothering me and my friends and getting into trouble. When I was growing up, men often used a shaving brush with which they put soap on their face before shaving.

When my brother was about 7 years old or so, he was playing with my Dad’s shaving brush and dropped it in the toilet. This scared him so bad he flushed it and the shaving brush was immediately gone for good. Since he could buy a new one, my mom asked my dad why he was so upset. He then told her “because it was guaranteed to last a life time”. I guess the manufacturer didn’t take into consideration small boys who get into things they shouldn’t. As we grew up and became adults I realized he was the funniest person I have known. He could have everyone laughing so hard tears would be running down our cheeks. He majored in Radio and Television in college and had a radio show during those years that I am sure made the Dean wonder why they let this guy even attend school there. He would have his listeners in stitches. My brother actually went and joined the circus one summer in order to have an adventurous job. He fed and cleaned up after the animals and probably wondered why he had done that, but his stories were classic when he came home. After college he was old enough for the draft during VietNam and I remember he said “with a draft number of 7, I decided I might as well go enlist”.

Storm Flight

He wanted to be a helicopter pilot but they sent him to pilot training to fly an OV10, a FAC, forward air control aircraft. During his time in Vietnam he met Colonel Mark Berent. After the war Col Berent wrote a book called “Storm Flight”. Richard is mentioned in the book by name in the first chapter. Although this is fiction, it is based on many facts during the war.

One of his special stories was of a sortie where he was spotting for jets and bombers, telling them the coordinates where to put their bombs. He had a small tape recorder which he kept in his plane and one of his better known recordings was taping his voice telling the fighters where to strike in Laos. It turned out that at the same time Nixon was speaking on the radio also in his plane. Ironically it was when the President was telling the Americans that we were not bombing in Laos and Cambodia. Ooooops…..Needless to say we are not sure where that tape wound up.

I have decided to change my blog style from just odds and ends to memories of a lifetime. From the 40s to today. Come along with me if you were born in the 40s and remember or if not come along for a ride to see what you missed.

Don’t you just love to see snow flakes filling the air in the winter? Watching the children running and playing in the snow and hearing the squeals of laughter as they fall into a snow angel. I was born and raised in the panhandle of Texas, where the wind could turn a winter snow into a snow drift as high as a telephone pole. I can remember my folks saying people had disappeared on a road during one of those storms and not found until the snow melted. That was in the 40s way before cell phones, where now someone might find you by your phone. This is a part of the US that was almost the center of the Dust Bowl.

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

Where the wind and dirt blew for hundreds of miles. People had to wear cloths over their nose and mouth to breath inside the house. Being a baby, I don’t remember and I am glad because I think that would be a terrible way to live. Now the snow is another form of mother nature that I do find beautiful even though it can be very dangerous at times. Even with the weather to live with, you will find some of the warmest people in the world. They are friendly, helpful and keep friendships for a lifetime. Small town America at its best.

Nice to Remember:
HEY,  WASN’T THAT US ?  
A  little house with three bedrooms and one car on  the street. 
A  mower that you had to push to make the grass look  neat. 
In  the kitchen on the wall we only had one  phone,
And no need  for recording things, someone was always  home. 
We only had a living  room where we would congregate, 
Unless it was at  mealtime in the kitchen where we  ate. 
We had no need for  family rooms or extra rooms to  dine, 
When meeting as a  family those two rooms would work out  fine. 
We only had one TV  set, and channels maybe two, 
But always there was one of  them with something worth the  view. 
For snacks we had  potato chips that tasted like a  chip, 
And if you wanted  flavor there was Lipton’s onion  dip. 
Store-bought snacks  were rare because my mother liked to cook, 
And nothing can  compare to snacks in Betty Crocker’s  book. 
Weekends were for  family trips or staying home to  play, 
We all did things  together — even go to church to  pray. 
When we did our  weekend trips depending on the  weather, 
No one stayed at  home because we liked to be  together. 
Sometimes we would  separate to do things on our own, 
But we knew where  the others were without our own cell  phone. 
Then there were the  movies with your favorite movie  star, 
And nothing can  compare to watching movies in your  car. 
Then there were the  picnics at the peak of summer  season, 
Pack a lunch and  find some trees and never need a  reason. 
Get a baseball game  together with all the friends you  know, 
Have real action  playing ball — and no game video. 
Remember when the  doctor used to be the family  friend, 
And didn’t need  insurance or a lawyer to defend? 
The way that he took  care of you or what he had to do, 
Because he took an  oath and strived to do the best  for you. 
Remember going to  the store and shopping casually, 
And  when you went to pay for  it you used your own money? 
Nothing that you had  to swipe or punch in some amount, 
Remember when the  cashier person had to really  count? 
The milkman used to  go from door to door, 
And  it was just a few cents more than  going to the store. 
There was a time  when mailed letters came right to  your door, 
Without a lot of  junk mail ads sent out by every store.. 
The mailman knew  each house by name and knew where  it was  sent; 
There were not loads  of mail addressed to ”present  occupant.” 
There was a time  when just one glance was all that  it would take, 
And  you would know the kind of car,  the model and the  make.
They didn’t look  like turtles trying to squeeze out  every mile; 
They were  streamlined, white walls, fins,  and really had some   style. 
One time the music  that you played whenever you would jive, 
Was  from a vinyl, big-holed record called a  forty-five. 
The record player  had a post to keep them all in line, 
And then the records would  drop down and play one at a time. 
Oh sure, we had our  problems then, just like we do  today, 
And always we were  striving, trying for a better way. 
Oh, the simple life  we lived still seems like so much  fun, 
How can you explain  a game, just kick the can and run?  
And why would boys  put baseball cards between bicycle spokes,  
And for a nickel red  machines had little bottled Cokes? 
This life seemed so  much easier and slower in some  ways, 
I love the new  technology but I sure miss those  days. 
So time moves on and  so do we, and nothing stays the  same, 
But I sure love to  reminisce and walk down memory  lane.
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