THE CHIT CHAT COLUMN
BY SUE (KOCHENSPERGER) GAY
Updated 10/24/2003
9:58 PM
Column #150 For Column #101
Thru ? Scroll down
Okay, quiz time, who starred in the
movie Pillow Talk? Or are you like me and have to sift through so much gray
matter, by the time you have sifted down, you forgot what you were looking for
(the information that is)?
This may be a gentle cycle, handle with care subject....oops that's the setting
on the washer or dryer isn't it?
Do you remember when we were filling our hope chests, and would sit and
embroider pillow cases and dream of that Prince Charming who would come along
someday? Occasionally I get the wild urge to be domestic and will go buy
something to embroider and it sits in the closet till the fabric falls apart.
Was your guy/gal born with a romantic streak and willing to engage in pillow
talk? I don't think I ever knew the meaning of the phrase, it was sue, wake up
you're snoring. I am not, I am not asleep yet. And then a few choice words you're
doing it again, quit snoring. I have a clear conscience and that's why I fall
asleep so fast.
Was he/she a pillow puncher? In the morning his/her pillow had been doubled
over, cranked around so it resembled those funny looking flat mountains/stones
in the landscape of
What about pillows in cottages, motel rooms, hotels
you have stayed in? Did the hotel buy them in a discount Sams
store or Higbee's bargain basement? Half an inch
thick and so flat and uncomfortable you experience vertigo when your head hits
them.
Do you prefer the Styrofoam that pop up or out every
time you move? What about feather pillows? They were comfortable (if you
weren't allergic to them) but if the seam came loose you were picking up
feathers for days.
Can you recall pillow fights either with siblings, or when your kids begged for
a slumber party and it got slightly ...well more than slightly out of hand.
Sandy had a love affair with a scanner, I think it was a Bearcat and it was
when you got these little thingamajigs in it, not like the kind you get now.
This pillow talk stands out: sue, sue, listen, the dogs are chasing a suspect
through a field in
Oh, in case you are still puzzling over the first sentence, it was Rock Hudson
and Doris Day. Good luck with the pillow talk, maybe he'll promise you another diamond.sue
Column #149
Friendship, friendship, it's the
perfect blendship, da da da something about forgot, ours
will still be hot. Was that an old commercial from the ancient days of radio or
a song we sang at the top of our lungs in junior high? Junior high, when nobody
we knew was ever going to die by car accident, by illness, on the battlefield,
and none of us ever, ever expected to grow old.
Many of you know that the Marion Star has a feature on Sundays called Senior
Class and Brenda Donegan beats the bushes to find
seniors to write about. Not long ago she wrote about seniors as a group who did
wheelchair shuffleboard at one of the nursing homes. Thankfully we aren't there
yet....or I guess none of us are ready for that.
This past Sunday she wrote about a group of women who have been meeting monthly
for 48 years and have been out of school 57 years. And a couple of them have
been friends since elementary school at George Washington. They have had
different careers such as a teacher, floral shop owner, bank teller, dental
hygienist, receptionist.
When they started to plan their 10th reunion a few of them decided to meet on a
regular basis. The neat thing is that not only have they met a lot and shared
their lives with each other, they have been all over like New York, Boston,
England, Scotland and Wales, Charleston, SC, Savannah, GA, Disney World, and Branson.
For those of you who may have older siblings that might remember some of these
"friendship" gals, they graduated in 1946 and included Pat Owens,
Dorothy (Sayre) Taylor, JoAnne (Marble) McDonald,
Phyllis (Nagley) Grimm, Evonda
(Lusk) Johnson and Jo (Moore) Titus. They sure look happy in the picture. And
they don't look 75 or almost 75. Or is that because we are 70 and appreciate
the more mature look?
Somewhere, someplace I knew Pat Owen but can't think how or when. Probably from a ton of years ago. this
forgetting stuff has got to stop, but how?
Anyway, think back, do you have friendships with a bunch of gals, or a bunch of
guys that goes back a long long way into grade school
or high school. Or with a neighbor kid a few years older? We used to have such
a sense of community and knew everyone on our own street and sometimes a block
over. Now we hurry through life and don't know our next door neighbor.
I wonder what happened to Sheila Sunday a little girl I went to Olney with. She
moved away from
Anybody remembers the rest of the ditty above let me know. And hey, the name of
the hat shop downtown, Marilyn came up with it, it was Mrs. Irey's
and called Irey's Hat shop. I'm glad someone can fill
in the blanks in my memory bank. sue
PS Although this one is primarily about girls and friendship you won't find a
word about sex toys or power tools in it. So there!
Column #148
For the girls only! and did it ever strike you that the second that appears, the
guys all go to see what I wrote?
This one should be entitled Why oh why oh who oh? Why
did I ever leave
Of course now I am going to snap the guys necks (change subjects in a hurry)
for this has nothing to do with Ohio and I could have been born in any state,
and still turned out stupid, huh, Bruce? I have a thing for
Mom used to send in for spoons in the 30s and lapel pins in the 40s from Ma
Perkins or Stella Dallas. I used to have a spoon with that big bridge in
By the way the soup at Hand that you drink in the car driving across the frozen
tundra is awful. It did not blow up my microwave because I carefully followed
directions, and I had a sip for breakfast. Now to pour it out in a bowl and put
it in the refer to turn green and then I can feel
justified in throwing it out next week when the fuzz appears. Maybe if one were
starving it would be delicious?
And the other thought I had....remember when we used to go to bridal showers
and kitchen showers and we would take cans with the labels removed so the newly
weds never knew what they were going to eat till the lid came off? Well, I look
on my shelves and here are all these tin cans that I have labeled with file
folder labels. Made me laugh when I saw them, for I thought of the showers. At
least mine are labeled.
so tell me guys, aren't you sorry you read this
one? I'm sorry I had to decide I really needed a
Column #147
According to Social Security records
last year the most popular names were Jacob and Emily (See ww.baby-names.com)
According to an article from the
Times change,and then they
swing back around and hit you in the back (thought I was going to say something
different didn't you? In our grandparents time Jacob
and Emily, Hannah and Zachariah were popular names.
Yesterday I was in Walmart and passed an end cap,
went back to look. Possibly it is not a new thing, but they had playhouses
featured on this end cap. Strawberry Shortcake, Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat, a Nascar one, several others, guess
they are plastic and you get metal poles to put the house up. Our children were
delighted when I threw an old bedspread or a sheet over a rickety card table
and they got inside to play their imaginary games. Didn't cost us $19.95
either, money we didn't have. Or whatever price these painted houses were.
Times do change, and for those of us who once saved, or made a scrap book, or
kept these in a box of memories, they are going out.....match books from an
elegant restaurant or some other place you visited on a vacation. Since no
smoking is allowed in restaurants and pubs, after the hotel, restaurants'
current supply of match books adverstising their
place of business runs out, they will not order
anymore. Also helping to bring about their demise was the disposable lighters
that came out in the 60s, or 70s or whenever.
Seldom do I get myself in the quagmire of discussing politics or religion...for
I am not too brilliant at either subject, and like football, if I keep
silent.....add on basketball, baseball and hockey too.....no one knows how
ignorant I am. And believe me keeping silent is not something I excel at
either. Get to the point, old lady: if you want to read a book that makes you
think, or like fantasy, or the title itself just
intrigues you or if you saw the author on the Today show last week, try this
one. the five people you meet in heaven
by Mitch Albom. About a day after I saw and heard him
on Today I was walking thru Meijer (this is a store
just in the Midwest, started by Fred Meijer maybe 40
years ago in Grand Rapids, Mich.) and you know everytime
I pass the book section, an invisible claw like hand reaches out and causes my
shopping cart to turn down that aisle. What a bargain, here sat that little
book, yelling silently to grab me, grab me. It won't take long to read, but it
is one of those books that will stay with you long after you have read it.
You may not agree with his description of heaven or the "adventures"
of this most ordinary guy who felt he had been a failure down on earth but you
just may take away a few things to think deeply about. I'm not pushing for more
sales for the author but if you like to read and if you keep an open mind, do
try it sometime.
About a year ago, I decided to keep a list of the books I read. I am not as
organized as Norma who keeps a book listing the authors and titles and takes it
with her whenever she goes to get books. I am very proud of myself,
in that year I have only purchased the same book a couple times. See, the mind
is going, and many times I don't remember what books I read last week, or the
titles of them.
Ohio State has a bye this Saturday, so that means our nervous stomachs can
settle down, and our fingernails grow. Fall is definitely here, the furnace is
on, the snowbirds are packing up. Doncha
just love fall, the seasons come, the seasons go. Soon the crickets in our
basement will shut up. They usually shut up or go to cricket heaven about
Yeah, yeah, I know I flew from subject to subject again. Bruce will make some
comment. You can bank on it. DA, can you get the web site now? sue
Column #146
Old Mr. Lemme
Think, he was a card in my old maid deck when I was a
kid. I find myself doing the Lemme Think routine
quite often these days. For instance, I was reading the obits in the newspaper
from
I still have not dredged up the name of the hat shop that used to stand on
A bunch of us Senior citizens were in
Change is everywhere I guess, and the longer we live the more we see that what
goes around comes around. I saw in the paper the 60s decor is coming back, the
color schemes for rooms, the bamboo. Just when we throw
away our olive appliances are they returning?
I find I wish I had saved my costume jewelry from the 40s and 50s for it has
swung around again. That is probably the only items that would fit from those
years. Maybe I could get one leg in a prom formal but I told mom to throw them
out long ago. Every once in a while she comes up with some item she says is
mine.
Yesterday she was telling me she has all her Quivers 1924 - 1927. I told her
hard telling how many of those have been sold in estate sales over the years.
We had two sets here, and I am slowly getting down to one set. Sandy doesn't
need his anymore and every once in a while I find someone who lost theirs in a
flooded basement, fire, or just plain lost it.
I am rambling and I know it, but if anyone remembers the name of the hat shop
let me know. Not that I need to know but I hate not remembering. But there are
days that my rememberer is broke, how 'bout you?
BGSU is in
Column #145
Last night I was foolin' around on the computer, and
to those of you who know, my computer room is not stinking so bad, so maybe the
rain is helping. To those of you who don't know, my style was cramped, it
smelled in here like they were laying a brand new asphalt road right through
the room and I could not stand to be on the computer longer than half hour or
so at a time. I had a new roof put on the house and possible the tar/glue whatever
they used topside was drifting in the house. Well, anyway I got off on a
tangent and didn't mean to.
But what I wanted to tell I guess is that I was on the "hometown"
paper, not the one here in Marion but the one in Southwestern Michigan where
our children went from kindergarten through high school and I was reading a
lead "love story" .......there was a picture of a man and a woman
circa our ages and I thought I know that guy. She had her head tipped forward
and I did not recognize her. So I clicked on the story and I did indeed know
him from our years in St. Joe. I'll briefly tell the story and use only first
names.
Frank, an Air Force vet of World War II from the UP (upper
peninsula) and Sally from
Sally was a special Ed teacher at Brown School, 53 years old, preparing to
retire, had 24 years in. One November morning in 1983 Frank let her out at
school, kissed her, asked her where she wanted to go
for lunch.
At
Frank cared for Sally 11 years at their home before he had to put her in a
nursing home. Since he was a football coach (54 to 68) and baseball (56 -68) he
helped with her therapy all those years while caring for her.
August 23, a Saturday, he walked into her room and said Hi, honey, how are you?
And she said OK...a few other questions, she answered, and he says you know
what anniversary we have coming up? And she says 53. Last Wed., Aug. 27 was
that anniversary. He said he feels he has been given a special gift to have her
speak again. What a story of love and devotion, and an affirmation of wedding
vows, in sickness and in health.....
Years ago, more years than I care to remember Frank had a small sports store on
some street....darn it...that I cannot recall its name, right off Niles Rd. in
St. Joe. I think he was still teaching but of course was no longer coaching,
and one day I was in there getting something for our son Tom or pricing it or
something, and two huge men came in who looked like thugs...about scared me silly and I was wondering if I should find a counter
to dive under, thought maybe they were about to rob the place. Anyway, Frank
muttered to me, it's okay, they're Ali's (Muhammad
Ali) bodyguards. Funny, the little bits of a lifetime you remember.
Anyway, I thought this was quite a wonderful story...and wanted to share. Not
the silly one about the bodyguards but the story of a love that endures. sue
Column #144
Since this is the day that the new
Here goes...where did Harding play football before the
stadium was built?
How many girls longed for organized sports in our day? And how many despised
gym class?
How many of you can name at least 15 classmates from grade school?
Which of us went to the most grade schools in
Did you go to a one room School?
Did you attend a county school?
Did you ride a bike to school? the city bus?
Take your lunch to Harding, or hike downtown to L & K or Isaly's for lunch?
Did you work in the corner grocery after school or on Saturdays? I recall Ed
Weary did.
Did you buy nickel tablets on the way to school in your neighborhood grocery?
How many high schools have existed in
How many childhood diseases did you have that aren't common today?
What was the longest distance you had to go to school?
Do you remember your first cigarette? Your first beer?
Your first kiss?
How many states have you lived in?
How many states have you traveled in?
Who has the most children? Grandchildren? Great grandchildren? See, we do all this now we won't have
to bother with it the next reunion, huh?
How have you matured in the last 50 some years?
Have you changed much?
Are some of these questions silly?
Phyllis Slob's sister, Donna Converse
When school convenes in 2004 - 2005 a lot of the schools here will be empty and
have a date with the wrecking ball and the senior generation will be struggling
with the names of the ones still here. It will also be a logistic nightmare to
place the children in the schools in town. I have no idea where the kids from
Olney,
Anyway, this might spark some conversations over the breakfast table or if you
snooze through breakfast, you can talk about it at lunch. But hurry, football Friday night and college football starts
soon and if he is a football fan he won't talk to you till January except to
call, bring me a beer! sue
Column #143
This is very painful for me to admit....and
you may never hear me say it again, but there are times when I have to admit
that males are the superior species! Why? They know how to do all the
mechanical, electronics, hammer, saw, type jobs that are beyond me.
As many of you know we lost power on Thursday during the big black out. Parts
of
We never know how much we appreciate water, or
electricity till we have to do without it. Our power was down about 5 hours.
What to have for dinner? Can't open the refer, open a
can? Ooops the can opener is electric. No TV. Maybe
I'll clean, oh, darn and double darn, I have to plug in the sweeper to vacuum.
I cried crocodile tears over not being able to clean. Can't
play on the computer. The house got stuffy without the air conditioning.
I ended up starting a small jig saw puzzle by Thomas Kinkade
at the table using the light of three candles.
In
I guess sump pumps, furnaces, all sorts of tools and doo
dads, even the setting of a mouse trap, will forever remain a mystery, and by
golly men are good for something! Did I really say that? Did I really say they
have superior intellect? Is the heat and humidity getting to me? sue
Column #142
Some weeks, days, or months ago I saw a tid bit
in the 50 year ago column that mentioned a carnival at Drake's lot. Do you
recall going to a circus or a carnival up there? One time some of us Junior or
Senior girls were at a carnival and it must have been at that location. But I
no longer remember which ones of us attended. Come to think of it there are
some holes of not remembering in a lot of my stories. Maybe
because there are some gray cobwebbery spots in the
brain cells?
And where was the fortune teller in
Or when it used to be in the newspaper, people would turn to their
"sign" to see what it said. I have a friend who is a Leo and so is
her husband and she is always telling me how Leo's act. So what are you, and do
you measure up to the attributes that are assigned to your sign.
How about this therapist in AZ who is reading toes? She has learned the craft
from Language of the Feet a book she obtained through Amazon.com, sold in the
So, hey, check out your spouse, girl or boy friend, aunt, cousin's toes. Number
one make sure they have clean toes. Does toe jam
affect the readings? don't know. Do moms and dads even
call the gunk between the toes toe-jam anymore?
Here's a quick course: Basic toe reading 101
Big toe: Destiny. Wrinkle indicate changes in
your life.
Second toe: communication toe. If it is longer than your big toe, it indicates
leadership potential.
Third Toe: Passion and anger. If it is squared off, you tend to take your anger
out on others.
Fourth toe: Relationships. A squared off toe says the person likes to play the
field, while wrinkles indicate a lack of commitment
Fifth toe: Security (financial, physical and emotional) If it is straight with
a rounded pad and thick trunk, you feel very good about the decisions you make.
She only reads the toes on the right foot, the toes on the left foot are the
spiritual toes.
Take a look at your toes. Can't you just see someone reading your sole/soul
thru the toes? Not sure what she does with corns. This gal estimates she has
read about 500 sets of toes over the years. Once she was in an airport staring
at a young woman's feet (reading her toes), told someone in line she read toes,
and the people around her shucked shoes so she could read their toes. Oh,
brother.
I don't know about you but if I ever run into this lady anywhere I am keeping
my shoes on. At this late date I don't think I want to know what sort of person
I am from my toes, how about you? sue
Column #141
The other day I was in our red station wagon driving east out of
Then this morning I ran into Walmart for bird seed
and in walked Sherry, so immediately I knew it was Wednesday. Wednesday is her
day for Walmart. It has been 8 years since I was a
greeter at Walmart but I remembered she always came
in on Wed. morning, never fail. Doesn't it rock you
how we can remember some things and not others? And sometimes I will be typing
away and can't remember how to spell a word I have known since grade school
days, and I will sit there and sound it out and the spelling still doesn't come
to me. Do you do this too?
I was reading one of the articles Hank sent the other day, he reads the Blade (
On impulse I ran into a fast food for after all, it is going to rain again.
They were advertising the new McGriddle. I hadn't
been in the local spot for several years, so I thought oh, what the heck? There
was some old guy (maybe 75 or 80) telling the cashier about being in a store
and about 4 of the people were pregnant and he said they better quit drinking
the water. Poor woman she could barely see the register, and I bet she hears
inane jokes daily and wasn't really too inclined to smile/and or laugh.
Anyway, I didn't like the McGriddle. Our local fast
foods have a following, the one on Rte 95 has some World War II guys who sit in
the same spot and replay the War and all Wars since and solve world problems. There
was a farmer type and his wife in the booth ahead of me and here came this old
gent who used to be 6'5" and now looked about 5'6" so bent, and he
sat down next to the farmer type in overhalls and
says do you still have the blue Chevie, so they
talked Chevies for a bit, then the formerly tall one
told about how he used to get bumble bees by the feet and pull the stinger out
and then carry the bee around in his hand when he was a kid.
Oh, and I had breakfast the other day with some old ladies...well, they were
older than me and we got to talking about Mr. Frew
and then about some of the teachers we had had. Then G. says to me you didn't
have Rae (McA) for gym, why not? What did you have
her for? and I said home room and she made a face.
Come to find out she had graduated 8 years before we did. And Rae retired from
teaching gym in the meantime. She taught my mom I think, for goodness sakes!The Mr. Frew stories all
were about Frew grabbing some boy and slamming him
against a locker or a wall, and we were saying he would never have got away
with that today.
I used to love to sit in a bus station or train station and listen to the
conversations swirling around. So the visit to McDonald's was not in vain for
another guy was talking about paint being $30 a gallon and he waited till it
got to $20 a gallon. His renter was painting a two story house for him. I used
to spend a few hours in
Jesse Jackson was in
Wouldn't you like to go back to a family reunion....nobody under 40 likes them,
and are bored stiff, but once we pass a certain age we begin to see again the
connection between generations and that we can actually learn from the older
relatives or exchange stories about mutual grandparents, their values, how hard
they had it to make a decent wage, buy a house, raise a family. You know I
really admire people like Corrine, Mary Jo, Anna, Julie who are researching
their family trees. So what if you run into some horse thieves, I imagine you always
dig up (no pun intended) some pretty interesting characters.
Well, I'm rambling. What else is new? But truthfully, does
75 really sound that old anymore? Other than forgetting a few minor things,
like your name, or some creaking knees, and a few pains elsewhere? aren't we just as good as we used to be? sue
Column #140
My daughter in law sent me an
article from an
So I got to thinking, in 1974 our daughter was a junior in high school, and our
son was 14 and we were no longer making trips to South Bend to shop. All of us
remember those years when our kids were too busy to be bothered with dull old
stuff like going shopping with mom. If you were the mom, and anything like me,
you lived in the car to chauffeur the kids to practice, to friends
houses, etc.
But back to Kresge's...many of the letters mention
the lunch counter and the best barbecue sandwich in town. They mentioned the
music department where the lady would play any song you requested. They
mentioned the itinerant gadget man who demonstrated a "new" fast way
to peel potatoes or slice cucumbers. They mentioned the mynah bird (not for
sale) who whistled and talked. I had forgot about this bird and her wolf whistle which lifted you
right out of your shoes if you had forgot she was there. One mentioned the
smell, a combo of nuts, candy and the lunch counter. She also mentioned the
little cone-shaped white paper cups that were put in a silver colored holder
that held your fountain drinks. Now in our jaded existence we would know they
didn't hold much for the price.
They mentioned the millinery department. Although it wasn't mentioned I also
thought of the shoe dept. But the shoe dept. I am
remembering was in a dime store in
But even though the above letters were from people who lived around South Bend,
IN we all knew Kresge stores that smelled of nuts,
candy, were stuffy near the back of the store in winter time, sold stuff that
actually cost a dime or a nickel, sold canaries, sold bird cages, sold bunnies
at Easter time. Can you recall the gal who stood behind the counter and wrote
the kids names on chocolate Easter crosses or on a big chocolate egg with her
frosting bag and tip.
I recall the paper dolls and coloring books and am sure the boys recall the cap
pistols and toy cars and airplanes to build in a package. Were they in see
through cellophane for when we were kids that was before everything was in
plastic?
How about the jewelry counter where you could buy a pin or earring for a
quarter or 50 cents? And the cosmetic counter where we bought that stinky cheap
perfume or the tangee? lipstick
that was a pale pink because our mothers wouldn't let us wear bright red...yet?
Yeah, I had memories of that big old Kresge in
So blend your memories of the Kresge stores of our
youth with mine. You may not recall a mynah bird in yours but I'm sure you'll
remember something sweet and wonderful. sue
Column #139
I was
zipping down 423 yesterday on the way to the vet's to pick up $45 worth of
pills for the dog, and passed the abandoned one room school house that always
brings up memories. When I was a kid I went everywhere in the brown bomber with
my mom and grandma and by the time we got to the old school house, I was well
into a story in my head. The story in my head was to counteract the dull,
boring conversations coming from the front seat. The brown bomber was a 1936
Buick in case you are wondering.
Of course we were whizzing down the road, then called Route 23 at approximately
25 to 30 mph for my grandma didn't like to go fast for she wanted to see the
land, the corn growing, etc.
So I always had plenty of time to glimpse the Burma Shave signs along the road
and the Mail Pouch tobacco signs painted on the barns. But of course since
those days ADVERTISING has evolved. Evolved into what, I have no idea. We used
to look at family type magazines like Good Housekeeping and see the Good
Housekeeping seal on goods and products. What happened to Old Dutch Cleanser,
is it still around? Or Bon Ami (with the little chick, not a svelte 2 legged
chick but the kind that is fowl and has fuzz) Or the
virile looking Marlboro man riding off into the sunset?
Did Edgar Bergen or Jack Benny do such a good job selling Jell-O to thousands
of Americans that my mother still thinks Jell-O is the ultimate in
desserts/salads? And the You've come a long way baby,
or was it we? and advertised Virginia Slims?
Then we came in from school freezing our tootsies off and mom put her finger to
her lip so she could hear the tail end of Stella Dallas or Ma Perkins who
advertised Oxydol or Dreft
or some such and for 2 thin dimes you sent in a box top and got a pin to wear
on you lapel and you were lucky if it did not turn your white blouse green the
first time you pinned it on? But for 2 thin dimes it was a wonderful bargain?
But times have changed, and our pcs give us all these
entertaining "want mes" that we call spam,
not the spam we eat of course, but some other spam. I am sure you get loads of
it too, and the other day I started jotting down some of them. Most wanted
cards, how many of the 52 guys do we still have to catch anyway? Group lotto...self explanatory? Stimulate love life? All
sorts of medications can be ordered on line, and viagra
is mentioned often. Help with mortgage? And this one almost made my fingers
itch to click it to see! Sizzling Russian women in Search of Western
Men.....doesn't that one really grab your funny bone? Weight
loss. Redeem money with voucher. Something about
septic tanks. And....shed while you sleep, shed what, pounds, hair,
muscle tone? Low fixed rate. And then this one ADV. ADULT ~young girls, guys
doing nasty forbidden t......(after the t....they ran
out of room) and then this orginial "gone
fishing cause I got the best life plan" ...insurance?
Not only are we bombarded on the computer by unwanted advertising or nuisance
email, at exactly the time you sit down to lunch or dinner, the phone rings and
a telemarketer invades your space. Most of us were taught good manners and we
hate to slam the phone in some poor dude's ear but we are getting better at it,
that is if we answer at all or let the answering machine pick up.
Perhaps I no longer want to go put putting down the road at 25 mph but I would
like to see the Burma Shave signs again, and rid my life of some of this other crapola. How 'bout you? sue
Column #138
Remember dogs? Plain ordinary mutts, Spots, or Rovers who were around to play with
kids and chase balls, butterflies, cats? Never got sick, got bathed with
the garden hose, lived in a dog house?
How did vets stay in business? Did they just deliver calves and colts? I can't
even recall hearing much about dogs getting rabies shots when I was a kid? Now
they get all kind of shots, and if you have to leave them in a doggie motel,
they have to have a kennel cough shot, or a kennel cough booster while they are
vacationing away from home.
I remember cocker spaniels, bull dogs, and a few other breeds.
Somewhere in the last 50 years or so we got fancy. You see Aghan
hounds being walked down
I have a Dalmatian.....once Sandy and I lost our collective minds and we had a
black Lab, and two Dalmatians at the same time. The
Lab died a few months after we got the second Dalmatian. Our son still lived in
Medication costs us an arm and a leg. When we were kids, how many dogs do you
know who were diabetic and needed a daily shot?
And now we have another wrinkle, or should I say woof? At Noah's Arf or Ana's
Column #137
Wasn't it just yesterday our thoughts were filled with what
we were going to wear to the prom, if we were going to have a date, if the
corsage was going to clash with our dress, if we were going to break up before
the prom but because we were both kind, we would suffer through the evening
with each other, because he had asked for a date and we had accepted? We had
really high classed worries. And the kids of today have more high classed
worries, about how they are going to pay to rent a tux, get a limo that several
couples can share the cost, go out to dinner.
One school in our area served dinner at the school, certainly not as grand as
going out to a costly restaurant but would really help out the purses and
billfold of overburdened parents or young kids with part time jobs struggling
to pay for the one big night.
We had the world before us, 50 some years ago, and were so confident. Now the
world is in a different position, or we are.
Do you recall being in the old Harding (the one that exists only in our
memories and is now replaced by a skate park) with the windows open and singing
the class song, Come rally once again......that Sharon Exley
wrote. A good thing we did not know then what awaited
us in the big world beyond our school windows and lawns.
Once the night of our graduation was over in the Coliseum we never gathered
again as a class. Some went in the service, some went to college, and most of
us at some time or another lived away from the old home town, and some never
came back except for reunions.
And how did we move so rapidly from the yesterday of planning for prom, Senior activities, and graduation to grandparents looking
forward to watching our grandchildren graduate from high school or college. The
years rolled by. From the time when we couldn't wait for our own to go from the
terrible twos into kindergarten at five (please God, get this kid in school
before I climb the walls) to soccer, cheer leaders camp, football or track, and
out into the world, and then we were grand parents. The face in the mirror is
no longer the 18 year old one that didn't need a shave every day, or was a
beautiful peachy complexion. Instead it gives us a moment of reality and we
turn away quickly and wonder who that old person is.
Somewhere in the last 50 years we have discovered we are not immortal, that
things do happen.....that we do lose loved ones and classmates...and that life
goes on. We are old enough now to look back and grin at how naive we were back
then, and wish all this years graduates, grand nephews and nieces,
grandchildren and great grandchildren joy and congratulations at the world they
are stepping out to meet. sue
Column #136
The other day I was explaining to
someone at church about getting an email from a girl named Bianchi (some of you
have heard this, so bear with me) and how she wanted to know if the Bianchi I
mentioned in my column was the one in Delaware. It was quite a story, turned
out the candy store in
And of course that got me to thinking of the downtown that was uptown to the
residents of that area many years ago when everyone walked to work or walked to
the stores. For many people on the west side of town
In my grandma's day she was sent somewhere on W. Center with a bucket to buy
beer, she couldn't have been very old for her dad died in 1902 when she was 12.
This must have been before the laws that you couldn't sell to minors.
But of course my memories and yours are not so far back as that. And now of
course I get to the trains, and the love afffair some of us had with trains, and still do. I grew up
listening to trains and at night when mom calls (and believe me she has called
every night for the last 25 years) I can hear the trains and their whistles
over the phone. Makes me yearn for the simple days of
childhood sometimes.
We had a neighbor who worked second trick at the Shovel but on his hours off he
took off for the depot to watch the trains come and go. I always heard that the
little old restaurant at the depot served excellent pie and that the food was
good. I wonder when it finally closed its doors.
We didn't take many train rides as kids, but maybe you remember some memorable
train rides. I recall the cobbled brick and the old freight wagons made of
wood, Clara Jane Fredericks dad worked the freight
office and in the spring time sometimes there were boxes of baby chicks sitting
on the freight wagon. Why in the name of heaven would I remember that? Isn't it
odd how we have so much stuff worming around in our brains and all of a sudden
a memory pops up?
Somebody came through on a whistle stop campaign while we were in school,
probably several somebodies over the years... I
imagine a presidential candidate?
During the war a lot of troop trains passed through Marion, and the young men
would have their arms out the window waving or accepting apples or other
goodies from the ladies who were there to pass goodies out to them as their
train briefly stopped at our depot. The depot has been refurbished, and they
have a chicken barbeque dinner once a year to raise funds for restoring
"railroad" stuff.
In the middle of the night (when all the ideas come, and leave me when I wake
up later) I think of
Can you recall the steam locomotives of long ago? They always scared me a bit
when they let off all the hissing steam. The diesels didn't have the charm of
the old steam engines. I guess I am older than dirt, huh, when some of this old
time stuff charms me? sue
Column #135
Make the world go away....and get it
off my shoulder.....say the things you used to say...and make the world go
away. Remember that golden oldie?
In the last week, maybe you were one of those who wanted the world to go away.
I think if I were a parent of a "kid" in the middle
east I would not want to watch TV war news 24-7. Maybe you feel
differently.
My maternal grandmother always showed amazement about the second
world war and she would say that World War I was supposed to be the war
to end all wars. Nor were the celebrations as grand in the streets of the town
as those she recalled from 1918. (when the second one
ended)
As kids, we went to the movies and suffered through the RKO news, the flashing
streaks from the radio tower that signaled we had to sit and watch news of the
war. And today, it is right in our living room, sun room, great room, den or
bedroom.
I might as well really crank it up, don't get me wrong, I support the troops, I
support getting rid of the madman in Iraq (if we can find him, and if some just
like him don't seep up through the woodwork or from behind a sand dune) but
what I can't stand are the journalists with their stupid questions. There are
certain common taters that I automatically mute the TV till they are done
talking.
I'm sure that you know someone who was deployed over there, or a lot of someones. A national guard
unit left from here, or more accurately from
My heart aches for those who have already laid down their lives and for their
families stateside, and I keep seeing in my mind the black girl's picture, the
one who is a POW and was over there as a cook. And the kid who was shot in the
hand, have men in the Armed Services always looked so young? I guess so.
Freedom comes at a price, and in between police actions, unpopular wars, short
wars, etc., we tend to forget it isn't all flag waving, but some very tough
fighting.
Make the world go away......and pray, pray, pray for those in harm's way. sue
Column #134
This one comes from one of you.
There are a few of you who send me ideas, or your idea
leads my mind down strange paths, or in this case, I got this one through the
The article is called a Century of Toys and suggests that if you've forgotten
what your favorite toy from childhood was then the Toy Industry Association's
Century of Toys list may just shake loose some memories. The comments about
some of them are all mine.
1900 Lionel Trains
1903 Crayola Crayons
1906 Model T Ford diecast car
1913 Erector Sets
1915 Raggedy Ann doll
1916 Lincoln logs (if you as a mother have not picked up erector pieces or
stepped on a Lincoln log in the dark, you haven't lived right)!
1917 Radio Flyer Wagon
1923 Madame Alexander collectible dolls (I don't think I ever owned one but I
sure did my share of looking in places like Lazarus or Marshall Fields,
Chicago)
1929 Yo-yo
1930 Mickey Mouse plush dolls
1934 Sorry Game
1935 Monopoly (is there a kid alive, or alive in our bodies who has not played
monopoly)
1937 Betsy Wetsy doll
1938 View-Master Viewer (did you have one, and did you buy one for your kids or
grandkids at some point)
1942 Nok-Hockey
1947 Tonka Trucks (my son's favorite toy at one time was a red Tonka truck)
1947 Magic 8 Ball
1948 Cootie
1948 Scrabble game
1948 Slinky
1949 Candy Land (as a mother and a grandmother I played this game so many times
and it sure seemed to make little kids happy)
1949 Clue
1950 Silly Putty (aaahh silly putty, I bet it even
made its way into East and West hall as we were growing to adulthood)
1952 Mr. Potato Head
1954 Matchbox cars
1955 Wooly Willy (now this one I don't remember, someone enlighten me)
1956 Play-doh (play-doh
stuck to the carpet, play-doh on the furniture, play-doh everywhere)
1956 Original Ant Farm
1956 Yahtzee game (isn't it funny, we think of some
of this stuff being around forever, and it really hasn't been)
1957 Corn Popper push toy (our toddler had one of these and if you think I have
goof balls for brains, this corn popper contributed to my lessening of brain
power)
1957 Frisbee
1958 Hula Hoop (how many of us yanked a hip out of place trying to learn to use
this toy)
1959 Barbie (think what one of these would be worth now, in original mint
condition in its own box.....our little girl's Barbie was played with hard)
1950 LEGO Building sets (ditto, step on some of those pieces in the
dark....ouch)
1960 Etch-A-Sketch (mom, it's my turn to play with it, make her give it
to me...good for many back seat fights in the car)
1960 Game of Life
1961 Slip N'Slide
1961 Troll dolls (we had boo koo oodles of these
little monsters)
1962 Chatter Telephone
1963 Easy Bake Oven
1964 G.I. Joe (our small son must have seen this one advertised on TV, and my
mom called all over Marion hunting one. We were down here must have been summer
and found one at Bargain Center or Bargain City up at the fork of 423 and Rt 4 at the old Crystal Lake location. He was ecstatic to
have a G.I. Joe, his dad was not so sure his son should be playing with a doll,
even though the doll was a boy doll and military)
1965 Creepy Crawlers
1965 Operation (was this a board game)
1965 See 'n'Say
1966 Twister (another game adults should not be required to play and throw out
his/her back, hip, etc. the kids loved it and kids still do)
1967 Battleship
1967 Big Wheel
1967 Ker Plunk
1967 Lite Brite
1968 Hot Wheels
1970 Nerf Balls
1971 Mastermind
1972 Uno card game
1973 Shrinky Dinks
1974 Dungeons & Dragons
1974 Playmobil people and Playsets
1975 Othello
1976 Magna Doodle
1977 Star Wars figures
1978 Hungry Hungry Hippos
1979 Cozy Coupe Ride-On
1979 Strawberry Shortcake
1980 Rubik's Cube (even adults loved this one)
1982 Stompers die-cast vehicles
1982 Trivial Pursuit (my very favorite game of all time)
1983 Cabbage Patch Kids
1983 Care Bears
1893 My Little Pony
1984 Transformers
1985 Scruples game
1985 Teddy Ruxpin
1986 Pound Puppies
1987 Koosh Ball
1987 Pictionary
1988 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
1989 Super Soaker
1992 Barney the Dinosaur
1992 K'NEX building sets
1993 Magic: the gathering Collectible card game
1993 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (these were really
big, had a grandson who loved the power rangers, Walmart
even had a guy come in dressed as a power ranger and the children could have a
picture taken with this power ranger)
1996 Beanie Babies (recall how many people collected these to make big money
off them someday...huh)
1996 tickle me Elmo
1997 Bass Fishin' Game
1997 Tamagotchi
1998 Furby (ugly little creature)
1998 Rescue Heroes
1999 Groovy Girls
1999 Leap Pad
2000 Razor Scooter
2001 Jumbo Music Block
Now, how many do you remember? How many have you stood in line to buy or fought
some other grandma across the counter to get the last one? Stepped on one in
the dark? Cursed the guy who invented all those darn pieces? Built your own
childhood fantasies while playing with this toy as a child? Hmmm?
sue
Column #133
I don't
know about you but I do a lot of reading: the newspaper, I hit the front page,
then the obits, and then all the odd ball stuff. I am
especially interested in the news of 25, 50, 75 years ago and occasionally of
100 years ago.
then I cut some of these small articles out, and
promptly lose them on the kitchen table, or the end table or by the computer.
One I found not long ago and misplaced, the headline
was Candidates blame spelling errors on being in a hurry.....and before you
blast me I will say I had some ancestors come from
the other day in the news of 50 years ago G & G
was going to put up 26 homes on
I email a relative of one of the classmates, and she asked if I remembered the Xray machine in Kline's in the shoe Dept. I had forgot it till she mentioned it. They also had one in a
store in
And before cell phones were even thought of, do you remember the call boxes on
phone poles where you could break a glass and turn in a fire alarm? That goes
back a long while too.
And every boy you knew could build a plane out of flimsy little wood pieces,
some glue and perseverance. Clinton, a boy in my neighborhood had those little
planes hanging on strings all over his bedroom and we had to walk thru his room
to get to his sister's room.
the other day I was reading something about 1926 and
one of the books of that year was Show Boat by Edna Ferber.
I haven't read that book in years, I loved it. Joyce and I used to go to the
old library on
I have cabin fever along with millions of others who live in the northland.
Today it has rained, so if the above is somewhat disjointed and stupid, I am
sure Bruce will say so. He tends to keep me on my toes (we'll just let him
think that way, OK)? sue
Column #132
The lady in the box. Remember her? The one I recall was at
I wonder if any of these mysterious ladies in a box are still out there,
perhaps looking through grimy glass, their turbans undone, their hands broken,
maybe sitting in the back of some dusty storehouse. The world has changed, and
no longer would children be fascinated and weave his/her own fantasies around a
lady in a box who spews out stupid fortune cards.
Russells Point is still there, but the amusement park
is long gone. It exists only in the dreams of those of us who went there on hot
summer nights and caught the magic of the night and were pulled in by the carny atmosphere, listened to the sweet music of World War
I I songs coming from the open air ballroom at the
back, and listened to the rattle and roar of the roller coaster above the park.
We grew up, we grew older, we saw other wars and police actions come and go,
and now we are on the brink of another war and maybe we wish we had a lady in a
box who would light up and out of the belly of the box would come a fortune
card that promises a bright future. But as we grow older, we also tremble and
fear for I imagine each of us knows some young man or woman who is either in
another part of the world or on his/her way there. What we need now is not a
lady in a box to tell us a rosy future, but the prayers of many lifted up to
God for all these units of servicemen and women put in harm's way. sue
Column #131
Tides ebb and flow, or a tsunami
sweeps in on a terrible storm. No, truthfully, I know nothing about tides, and
I was in my 40s when I first heard of a tsunami. I've just referring to a group
of "girls" at lunch. Isn't it phenomenal how 16 different conversations
can be zooming up and down and across the table and the girls involved will
keep track of almost all of them, "we" are truly amazing creatures.
Take for instance one day this week when a few of the 1951 teen agers gathered and talked over lunch. Up came the name of
Betty P. who used to work with young girls at church or somewhere, and someone
thought she died, no she hasn't died, she's my cousin said another.
Conversation swirled and ten minutes later someone said Pence, not Plantz and everyone understood even though we were deep in
20 other subjects. We haven't changed over the years,
no longer do we discuss the terrible twos unless it is happening to our
grandchildren's children, nor do we exchange recipes for a souffle
(who cooks very much)? These days the conversations are about medications,
hospital visits, who died/didn't die that we thought
did, frustrating times of retirement, Medicare, who is going where, who is in
I wonder how men can compete, especially when they must remember golf scores to
write down, bowling scores to figure, pool shots to study,
can they keep as many subjects straight as women can? Are they as intelligent
about so many things?
Hugs.....remember hugs this week. You know we are so busy, when did we get so
busy anyway? If you know an old person who tolerates a hug, or a touch on the
arm, don't hesitate to do so. We were in some nursing homes this week and as we
were about to leave this one room (where the poor old soul had no idea who we
were) she held out both arms for a hug. Then she didn't want to let go.
Americans aren't very good at hugs, unless we are hugging a spouse, a baby or a
small child. We forget how many lonely people there are in the world.
"Mary" had about six dolls spread out on her bed covered carefully by
an afghan and she was sitting in a chair watching over them, perhaps thinking
of her children of long ago. Maybe for the instant we each hugged her, she was
remembering someone in her family she really loved and has lost. I don't know.
But for that brief instant I think my friend and I gave her comfort.
Bruce will declare this is disjointed and it is, it is about friendships that
last longer than 50 years and love for our fellow man/woman that should last
forever. And about growing old because we can't help it, but the
alternative is worse. sue
Column #130
See, I told you: some of these I
have been thinking of since last summer, so here goes. Let's see who wins the
prize for most correct answers!
First the easy part.
1. Our junior senior prom was held at a. Country club,
b. Leader Street Union Hall c.
2. Which one was not a florist shop in the 1950 -1951 a. Musser's b. Blakes c.
Marion Flower Shop d.
3. Which store/stores/business was not on E. or W. Center in 1950 a.Uhlers b. Klines c. Sweet Shop
d. Anthony Laundry e. Markert & Lewis f. Loeb
Furniture d. Luke's Hardware e. Turner Hardware f. Ohio Theater
4. Business in
5. The coliseum had its first basketball game in a. 1950 b. 1947 c. 1952
Now we get tougher....for the ladies:
6. "joeFrogger" "snickerdoodle"
are all names for American: a. candy b. egg dishes c.cookies
7.What is a "hot brown?" a. a cookie covered in hot fudge sauce b. a
pie made with walnuts, chocolate chips and bourbon c.
a sandwich made with chicken, bacon or ham and smothered with cheese sauce.
8. The first American hamburger chain was: a. McDonald's b. White castle c. Big boy
9. food and cooking icon Julia Child was born where?
a.
10. Procter & Gamble began marketing Crisco in the
Now the guys might know more of these and we shouldn't
discount the gals who are a lot smarter than guys give us credit for:
11. An easy one. What year did
12. How many
13. How many died in office? a. 4 b. 8. c. none d. all of them
14. In a not to
b. 88 c. 89 d. enough, already
15. What was the first settlement in
16. What did Orville and Wilbur Wright do for a living? a. robbed banks b. ran a bicycle shop c. arranged
beach trips to
17. Orville and Wilbur may have know a thing or two about flying,but they never made it to outer space. How many
current and former astronauts can
18. In what year was
19. Even if you watch a lot of football you may not know everything about
true or false 20. a river in
Oh, shine guys, shine:
21.
22. Cincinnati, and the oldest major league baseball team, the Reds.
Which of the following members of the "Big Red Machine" has not been
elected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame? a.
Johnny Bench b. Joe Morgan c. Pete Rose d. Nikita Khrushchev
23. In 1936,
24. The "Golden Bear" Jack Nicklaus, is
widely regard as the greatest golfer of all time. How many majors has the
25. How many Heisman trophy winners have the Buckeyes
had and how many national championships have the Bucks won? a. 5 and 4 b.
2 and 8 c. 3 and 7 d. stay out of the campus
area, because they just won another one.
Who will be the winner. Not this old kid. The last
"contest" we had Julie won a turkey or am I wrong on that one too?
Too much sand in my brain and lead in my......
Have fun....it's January, what else is there to do? sue
Column #129
Yesterday I got an email from one of
you wanting to know a where, and a who....years ago
there was a bakery with wonderful smells, glass cases of yummy stuff. I told
her it was on the corner of
So next I got to thinking about the little grocery stores.....which we have
covered in this column before and I was trying to remember the name of the one
on
Then I was trying to remember Mary Rainier's sister's name. She ran a small
grocery on
Do any of you remember Roecker's bakery, they had two
locations, a shop on
Some of us were at the Palace Sunday and how little the lobby looks, still
beautiful of course as is the entire theater but I remember when it looked
huge. The refreshment stand with the corn popping and the candy bars in the
case yelling a silent "buy me" stood over against the balcony stairs
and the lobby was so big!! Now it is rather ordinary. The people I once knew
with ruddy cheeks, bobby socks and swinging skirts look as old as me....isn't
that funny strange? The people who worked so hard to restore and renew the Palace, and still work for it are really to be praised. So many of those beautiful old theaters went the way of the
wrecking ball.
And see, for love of the aroma that once enticed a young girl, here was the
idea for a column. I gotta remember to ask mom if
Tony Cutarelli ran that bakery and if she remembers a
Tarantelli family ......there is absolutely nothing
wrong with my mother's memory of three quarters of the town and its people and
its business locations of 50 to 75 years ago, that and the obit column are her
main topics of conversation night after night. Now if my mother in law was
still alive she could name all the older generations of the Nicolosi
family till you were dizzy with all the Sams and Tonys and to which parents they belonged.
The parade (
this column was going to be a quiz to see if you all
are as unlearned as me. Oh, well, maybe next time. sue
Column #128
It's been a while and before the powers that be want to chop
off my head, I better get to it.
Gee, 2003 is here already and New Year's Eve is just a sweet memory....or many New
Year's Eves of yesteryear are memory material. How many of us still go out and
paint the town red?
The other day I heard a discussion about 1938 and how that used to be such a
big deal for the mom of the house to get out her silver dancing shoes, and good
dress, he got out a good suit and they went out to dine and dance. The person
talking said we have now swung the opposite direction since many homes have two
parents working, eating out is no big deal, and so a home celebration is more
common.
The 50 year ago column in the Star mentioned at least 12 churches were having
Watch night services, and the movies did a big business and some had special
events that night, baby sitters made a bundle. How times change.
Tonight the Star report from 50 years ago said the steam locomotive roundhouses
that used to be a landmark were coming down, and the one in
I am easily amused.....remember that state up north? In a small AP article from
Hank sends articles from the Blade (
In case you are interested, the Ohio year-in-review story can be found on the
web here:
http://www.marionstar.com/news/stories/20021231/topstories/684107.html and
Marion's year-in-review story can be found at: http://www.marionstar.com/news/stories/20030101/topstories/687209.html
The big story here is gearing up for the Fiesta Bowl at the sports bars and
restaurants around the area and in Columbus. Kroger is gearing up for a lot of
snack sales, plus they have mugs, pennants, to get us in the mood. Not to be
forgotten, the police in
I hope all of you are settled in for January fun. Back here in
Get out the puzzles, (jigsaw) the crosswords, the books you wanted to read and
didn't have time for, throw another log on the fire, make sure the TV works for
Friday night, sit back and enjoy. sue
Column #127
What is
being 70 like? It is a pain in the old whazoo! Of
course, the pain in the whazoo goes along with the
pain in the knees, the wrinkles on one's face, the sagging you knows (females
only) and the admonishment from your doctor to stand a few seconds or more
before taking off walking. In other words no fast starts out of the starting
gate...or is that just for horses or "old nags."
Last night I had dinner with some ladies from the church, including of course
our pastor who had turned 46 the day before. When the server came I told her I
would be 70 tomorrow, ringy ding ding
and circled one finger in the air.( and before any of
u ask it was my forefinger) And we were drinking iced tea, cokes and water.
Nothing like an old woman entering her second childhood or did I ever leave the
first one?
I have found that the big seven "O" isn't so bad. At least I don't
feel any worse than I did yesterday. That in itself is a plus. I can relax now
for I see that Bruce did not do anything awful to me, at least not yet. He is
afraid of losing a steady supply of homemade cookies. Do you know he actually
had the effrontery to tell me the one kind were not as good as some of the
others? He's sorta lost it anyway,
he has cleaned up his shop so he can do some more projects. Actually he's
brilliant and has some very creative ideas.
Back to 70, I came home last night late (it must have been at least seven) and
went to change clothes and the dog was making such a racket I sprang to the
dining room to see what was the matter (this sounds vaguely familiar) and what
to my wondering eyes should appear but a fat large Dalmatian barking her head
off at an Applebee's balloon bobbing across the ceiling. (we
do excitement for small events in Claridon)
Then this morning I find out one of my friends from church had cards printed up
of a little old lady sitting at a computer and asked that the church members
have a card shower on me.....for some reason they think that hitting 70 is
bothering me. Yeah, it is, the Bible says we get 3 score and 10 and I guess
after that each day is an added blessing.
Each year it is tradition for my mother to make a pan of million dollar fudge
for my birthday. But this year it had an added twist, she has mice in her stove
where she keeps the pan she makes the fudge in, so I asked if the mouse was in
the pan, and she said no but he had been, and she washed it really good. I
sincerely hope so. Mom has macular degeneration now but she hasn't seen very well
in years, and she honestly tries to keep the cat hair out of the fudge. I don't
have it yet, so I am still standing.
Anyway when you all catch up to me, (in age) don't expect any miracle cures for
any of your ailments. Do not take yourself too seriously....maybe the greatest
gift we can give to ourselves is to be able to laugh at ourselves. I made up my
mind when Sandy died that nothing, nothing was ever going to bother me again, I
wasn't going to get peeved over petty things, I wasn't going to get mad, I was
always going to be sweet to people, let's see what else? Did I ever blow that
concept over the last four years?
I was always 10 months older than he was, and possibly
10 months more stupid, and he was gleeful that I was older. The two of us always
had to be 99% right all of the time but now I can see the engineer knew a few
things. Honestly, I haven't blown up the engine in the riding mower since he
left (it is no fun for there is no one here to yell)
nor have I run the mower into the house. None of these small mistakes were
anything to get upset over anyway, right, girls?
So, in conclusion, enter the number 70 with a song in your heart and a smile on
your face. It ain't so bad. Course it is still
morning of the first day of the rest of my life. sue
Column #126
Several months ago (August actually)
I received an email from a friend. And I share a portion of it with you, if he
minds, too late now.
My mouth water uncontrollably every time I think of a cold scrambled egg
sandwich with ketchup on white bread. When I went hunting
with my dad that's what he made for us to take along and I developed a real
craving fro them. After a morning walking in the fall woods with the
squirrels in the trees and the hounds baying at the scent of rabbits those sandwiches
were a gourmet cuisine.
And....further on. Real treats came from my grandmother, Grossmom
B. These came in the mail to
At this time of year you may not be thinking of scrambled egg sandwiches with
Heinz ketchup or checkerboard cakes but I am sure you can dredge up some
memories (you little boys) of tramping the woods with an uncle or dad, learning
the basics about shooting a gun and gun safety, the smell of the woods in Ohio,
the beautiful colors for squirrel season and the grayer, gloomier woods when
rabbit and deer are in season, the smell of woodsmoke.
And then of course the special memories of birthdays and
Christmas treats coming your way as a kid. This afternoon we are having
a party at our church for the ladies and a cookie exchange. So this week I got
in the baking mood. I made cappuccino cookies and snickerdoodles.
If you aren't familiar with snickerdoodles they are
rolled in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar and naturally are calorie-free.
Yesterday Bruce called and wanted me to come see his young friend's deer.
Entrance fee to Bruce's shop is a container of homemade cookies so I snitched
some from the ones I am taking to church to take down around the corner. The
deer was beautiful. I said Aaaaaah, and our young
friend said you sound just like my mom. Yeah, guys, I know there is a
population of 450,000 of them in
Too, the baking and all, brings back a lot of memories. My one brother in law
loved pecoons and he could eat them faster than I
could bake them. Ruth Geer, John's mom gave me the recipe. My brother in law,
So our noses too recall the scents of long ago.
The smell of pine, the smell of woods, the smell of cookies.
Aaaah and Christmas is coming. Take some moments to
rest and dream up some of these great "smells" from the past. sue
Column #125
West Center Street - 1950 is the
headline over a picture in the Marion Star. It is part of Carol and Gary
Robinson collection. They collect old pictures, scenes of Marion. Carol is a
retired teacher. She is also the daughter of a couple who were our best
friends. Both of her parents, a little older than Sandy and I were, are gone.
So I have known her since she was little. It is hard to think she has now
retired from teaching an elementary grade.
Back to the picture, It shows J. C. Penney Co. in the foreground and continues
west on the South side of the street. The building that was once J. C. Penney
now houses Charleston Place, a series of shops. Next to Penney's is an
Appliance store, you can't read the name from the angle of the picture but I
suppose it read Millard Hunt's. I think there is a picture in our 1951 Quiver
of some of our seniors buying records in that store. Next is Moskin's (remember Moskin's)? and
then there was a narrow building housing a hamburger shop and I can't recall
the name of it, then the Montgomery Ward building, and Western Union, that sign
you can read, not in the picture but next to Western Union was the State
Theatre and then Union Street. Spark any memories for you? I am sure all of us
at some time or other walked that block. You ever look at a picture and
visualize yourself inside the picture, or am I the only nutty one here?
Another article that appeared was about the Charity Ball. Held every December
since 1928, there was a picture of the dancers from the year 1938 in the Star.
1938, some of us were pretty young! I didn't recognize any of the faces in the
photo. Those were the years when the men wore tux and the ladies were in long
evening wear. That year the Ball was held at the Elks. When we were in high
school it was held at the Rollarena. And still later
at the Coliseum, a bit chilly in that barn of a place. This year it will be
held at the Carousel and for those of you who came to our 50th you have seen
the ball room out there with the Carousel in one corner. Skarlet
is serving a meal prior to the dance, and this year unlike other years people
are not allowed to bring any food in. In previous years they took hors oeuvres
and bottles in. And there will be valet parking this season. When we were teens
the Charity ball was held in the week between Christmas and New Year's and
there were college kids in attendance. Now it is held earlier in the month.
Any of you recall dancing under the revolving ball at the Rollarena
where spots of light would appear on the floor, or recall skating out there? No
on line skates for us in those days. You boarded the city bus and rode to the Rollarena to skate, bringing your shoe skates with you if
you were lucky enough to have your own. I wonder what I did with mine. Course
it stands to reason I could never fit in that size again, just as I could not
get a waist in one of those broomstick skirts, one thigh maybe?
It will soon be Christmas and wherever you are or wherever you shop you will
see decorations, and more decorations. Do you recall when we had one tree
decorated in our houses? Now many people have trees all over the house. Now to
me that would be a bit much work. The last few years we had a tree, it went
decorated and shrouded to the basement and back up again the next year already
ready, just had to fluff out some branches I had partially folded up. I don't
"do" a tree anymore. What about you? Are you into theme trees, or
lots of lights outside or multiple trees indoors?
Did you ever have a cat experience with a tree? Once I went to the high school
to pick up one of the kids, came home and the tree was stretched out across the
living room floor, ornaments rolling around that had come off the branches. I
guess that was when Blinky was the cat lady of the
house. I was not happy.
When we were children, and the ornaments came out of the attic or basement,
there were always a few favorites that seemed to contain some of the magic of
the season. I had some favorites that could have been German made glass
ornaments. And who among us has not saved a crudely made construction paper and
ribboned creation one of our children made for us? We
draw out the memories, either tangibly in our hands or gently in our minds and
look at them again. We laugh at the guy who had to check all the lights and
ended up with them all tangled, or laugh about the crooked tree that looked so
good in the lot.
Which reminds me, the Y men have a lot on the corner of Reed and E. Church
where an elementary school used to be? They opened up last Friday. Last week
there was a picture in the paper of Dick Fields dragging one of the trees as
they were setting up the lot. Dick Thatcher also puts in hours selling trees
for the YMen.
Anyway while you are busy with the holiday doings, reminisce a little. And look
at Christmas through the eyes of the grandchildren and see the magic we have
long forgot. sue
Column #124
This is the time of year when those
of us who are disorganized get more disorganized. For instance, I cut out stuff
in the Marion Star thinking I will build a column around some "50 years
ago" then can't recall where I put the small articles or (more likely)
forget I ever cut them out.
Some of you aren't able to access the home page, and so get on the various web
sites. I always hesitate to write anything you could have read in the Marion
Star on line but yesterday there was a big fire on the West side and a city
garage burned up. My friend who lives in a subdivision out that way said the
scanner went crazy. Another one of sue's boo boos, I
don't even know where I put Sandy's scanner. The codes were all changed and
since I don't have the brain of a dummy to know how to change them, the scanner
is someplace in the house. Anyway, to those of you who can't get on the class
home page the barn burned down. No one was hurt. Phyllis said the dispatchers
had to call ahead and have trains stopped for the hoses or something had to
block the tracks. The fire started from a leak from an acetylene torch and
gasoline got involved and poof, the roof fell in about 2:15 PM I think the
paper said.
What did I start out to say? Yeah yeah I know whip
lash!! I get accused of changing subjects so fast people get whip lash. So? 50
years ago the bus fare was raised to fifteen cents with students still riding
city busses for ten, and the kids could still get 3 coupons for 25 cents.
Santa Claus arrived 50 years ago Nov. 28. I'm trying to think here, a couple
weeks back (50 years ago) some guy fell asleep in the State theater and when he
woke up his watch and his billfold was gone. Do you recall that old theater on
the corner of Union St. and W. Center, it had a piece of old rug for a doorway
and the odor coming out of the theater as you walked by was a trifle different?
I was never in there but we used to hear that you could get a free shoe shine
from rats running across the floors. I suppose that was a rumor that got
going and multiplied.
Mom wanted to buy potato chips yesterday but she didn't know where to put them
when she got home. She has a mouse in her stove and she keeps stuff in the
storage area next to the oven. Her potato chips were going down and then she
discovered holes in the bag. She has three, yeah, three over fed cats. One of
them sits in front of the stove watching for the smarter than the average
bear/no mouse to appear.
Yesterday I had this delightful email from a friend who mentioned how we used
to go to gas stations and they gave away premiums with your purchase. Do you
still have any glasses, pans, or other gifts from a gas station? And can you
remember when there was an attendant who came out and filled the gas tank,
cleaned the wind shield, checked the oil and the tires? That must have been a
million years ago. And for years when we traded at Young's on E. Center St. at
Christmas time Bob and Paul handed out little boxes of assorted candy to their
customers. Bob's wife also made delicious peanut brittle which they had for
sale in the station. It was a Standard Oil station in later years, but in
earlier years two of the brothers had a Shell on N. Main St. and Bill had a
Shell station on the corner of Barnhart and E. Center. We traded with Bill too.
And everywhere we went, Henney & Cooper drug
store, your favorite gas station, etc., they handed you a calendar. Come to
think of it I got one from Huntsman's Auto Service the other day. Bill has a
place in the alley between E. church St. and E. Center St. I think he has been
there for years. Anyway, I don't see much of calendar give aways
anymore.
Reviving this year in Marion is a Christmas parade, I think it is to be
downtown on Dec. 7 but not sure.
Today Pleasant High School plays football in Canton for the state championship
in their class. I saw the caravan of cars heading east on 95 late yesterday
afternoon, or I assume that was what it was. At least I never saw a
funeral cortege going that fast and sporting red flags on the cars. The team
booked 25 rooms at a motel less than an hour from Canton and did not disclose
where so the players would not be distracted by family and friends who would be
staying overnight closer to Canton. They play today at 11 AM.
For starting out about 50 years ago, I sure did a few switcheroo's
along the way. Oh, well Christmas is coming and I am out of my mind more than
usual. sue
Column #123
I know some of you prefer stories
about olden days and the days of our youth in little old Marion. If any of you
noticed the space between columns going on line and.....either breathed a sigh
of relief, or wondered where I was......well, I was deep in thought. Now I am
off the hook. I had to speak yesterday at church, and agonized over what to say
for a good two weeks. Now I'm baaaacccck.
Aaaaah, youth. How many of you have boxes and boxes
of old pictures, thrown together haphazard? No one. Aaah,
shoot there must be a lot of engineers and highly organized people out there if
the answer is you have yours all chronologically arranged and in photo albums
or ready for albums or stored in your computer. I am the haphazard type. Why
aren't you surprised?
This morning I was hunting some pictures of the pastor who is leaving us, for
we want to make her an album. The ones I found made me sad. Interspersed with
pictures of my grandchildren pulling funny faces for the camera were pictures
in front of the old Central Jr. High school on West Center St. In one were the
smiling faces of Joyce Parr, Peggy McWilliams, Nancy Midlam,
Vivienne Disbennett....all of them caught in time, and
no longer on this earth.
And there was my 1957 chevie nearly buried in snow,
the famous blizzard after effects of the 1967 big snow. A mere 34 inches.
And I ran across a picture of one of the classmates walking across the grass in
front of a cottage at the lake, also in the picture was Dick Lewis' parents
Caddy.
And then this one taken by the Marion Theater, remember the Marion there on W.
Center next to Uhlers Dept store? Jane Leffler and I were standing on the sidewalk and you could
read part of the marquee, something about Durango kid and some valley and
also______ Valley. There were bike racks out front! Remember that, and in the
background one could see a car in the intersection of Prospect St. and Center.
How odd some of those cars look to us now. Jane and I had silly smiles on and
bandanas so it must have been chilly, and each of us were holding a balloon.
Yeah, we were in high school.
And also this morning before I really got my sea legs I was thinking how we all
walked all over town. Through Indian Mounds as a short cut, from Harding way
out east, or from Harding south to north. Remember how far Jack Daum used to have to go to get home. Some of us rode the
busses when the weather was bad, or maybe we just enjoyed harassing the poor
city bus drivers. The Sparks girls and Marilyn Sifritt
rode the Southwest loop and one of the bigger voices that carried well belonged
to D. Day. I wasn't the quietest child alive either.
The work seems to be done on McKinley Lake but there is very little water in
it. I wonder how that works, do they put water in or let storm water do the
trick. Carner Ave. and Windsor and Edgewood Dr. are
still closed to traffic, if any of you remember where those streets are.
Our popping in place to get warm after skating.....old Bert Myers drug store,
that whole building is empty that used to house a small grocery and Bert's
store. Only a room on the back that has a barber shop is still there. The
corner looks lonely.
I would love just one more time to step into Bianchi's candy store on the west
side, smell the candy, see Carmella behind the counter, gaze at the comic books
hanging with clips on wires across the store. But we can go back in memory,
can't we?
This week is going to be wild in Ohio. It's Michigan week and the tickets are
selling for big figures. Go Bucks. sue
Column #122
Over the river and through the woods, to
grandmother's house we go, .....can you recall singing this at the top of your lungs,
or your kids singing it at the top of their lungs while you long suffering
parents were just happy that for once the little ones weren't fighting in the
back seat. I guess there is something to be said about kids strapped into seat
belts after all, did that cut down on the he did this, and she did that in the
seat behind you? Can you remember turning around and giving a swat to the one
who was causing the commotion?
I don't know about you but we hated to be out on the roads at holiday time. We
made one trip to Ohio for Christmas and that was quite enough. You pack and
repack all the packages in the car, then pack enough equipment for a camp out,
drive hundreds of miles, spend a few days running from this relative's house to
the next relative's house, sleep in different beds, one kid gets sick, you pack
twice as much into the car as you did coming down, and wearily go back home.
Maybe you had better luck with holiday trips than we did. Somebody always got
their feelings hurt. I think they set stop watches, for we always heard about
it if we spent 10 minutes more at his sister's than we did at his brother's
house.
It was definitely more fun when they came to us. One Thanksgiving Day we had
twelve people overnight in a two bedroom duplex. That one went down in the
books as a very memorable experience. And it was shirt sleeve weather on
Thanksgiving Day, wonderful and sunny. Another time at Christmas, we sorta got snowed in, and my in-laws had to stay a couple
extra days. One year in early spring Ralph (Sandy's dad) had to argue that snow
could not possibly get that high, he thought we were kidding so we took him
inland to Dowagiac where the snow was still above the fence posts and you took
your life in your hands at a 4 way stop. Michigan was a fickle state. I am
always reminded of that at Halloween. We had rainy Halloweens and raw Michigan
winds on Nov. 1.
In November Lake Michigan got gray and choppy. It was my favorite month to go
park at the beach and enjoy the solitude and the changing character of the
lake.
Yesterday I was talking to Jim Condron's wife and she
said when they were in Newfoundland they made a garage out of snow for their
car. We were talking about the winter weather.
We tell our grandkids we walked 2 mile to school in hip deep snow. We of course
exaggerated I don't recall many snow days when we were in school, do you? In
fact, half the time I don't remember much. And it is getting worse. My mind
that is.
So, wherever you happen to be, enjoy Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Please don't wish a white Christmas on me. Nor sub zero temperatures. I no
longer ice skate on McKinley Lake, anyway it is still empty. The project at the
Lake is supposed to be finished soon and the lake refilled and the ducks can
come back. sue
Column #121
This is more than you ever wanted to
know about the Harding class of 1942 who held a 60 year reunion this past
September (23 on Fri. night, 35 on Sat. night and 14 guests on Fri. 27 guests Sat.
night) I promised a classmate next time I hit the library, would check Quiver
to see how large the class was. The picture count was 316, did not stop to read
how many withdrew before graduation.
First of course one has to laugh at the hair styles on the girls, much as our
descendants will giggle at our pictures in old yearbooks. Some of the girls
looked like they had rolled the top hair over juice cans and then stuck in a
bunch of bobby pins. These were the years of long hair, the glamour look of the
40s movie stars being copied.
The guys - it was the era of careful on the side parts, Bryl
creme and pompadours. The class officers for seniors
were all boys dressed in pullover varsity sweaters.
How many of these guys fought on battlefields and in the jungles of the South
Pacific and were left with life long memories of war? They'd be 78 or 79 now,
those who are still around.
It was shock city to me to go over the graduates. Here are some of the
surprises and I'm sure I may have missed your brother, sister, cousin, aunt,
etc.
Murray Carpenter - Sandy played church softball with him
Doris Heiser - Loren's older sister
Bill Hollaway - he worked at a hardware in Waldo and
was in barbershop singing groups
Bill Krohmer - lives near my church, has a used car
lot on N. Prospect St.
Martha Lee - Maggie (Margaret) and Margie Lee's older sister
Marion McDaniel - John's brother
Bob Pickerel - my next door neighbor in the 40s
Mary Evelyn Prior - a Blaine Ave. girl from down near Foster Lane
Donna Ruhl - relation to John?
Gene Shellhorn - had a music store in Marion or was
that another man by same last name.
James Wiseman - Joan's (Lawrence) big brother
Gene Yazel - my aunt's nephew, he was a Marion mayor
at one time
the underclassmen were listed by Roman numerals and ran down the page instead
of across.
Juniors that year were Bob Dorfe who later owned much
of Waldo (furniture store) Don Kay who coached many Pleasant winning football
teams, Bob Kepler who walked to Harding with my
uncle. I didn't recall his first name.....he was always "Kep."
P.S. the Ohio room at the library has changed since I was last there. The
Quivers are now in a locked cabinet with glass doors. But once you get a Quiver
out, the memories from those war years spill out. sue
Column #120
Tuesday, December
18............1956. At least the newspaper doesn't smell as bad as it did two
days ago. I found several papers in a trunk in the basement. Remember a Plakie Pounder? You would if you
saw the picture..it was one of those wooden toys that
had round pegs in it and a mallet to go with it so your toddler could pound
heck out of the pegs, turn the rectangular toy over and pound the colored pegs
the other way. It was also an excellent toy to step on in the middle of the
night. Ouch. That Christmas season, Baby Shoppe had them on sale for $1.98.
Sutton and Lightner was advertising little girl
clothing "for the Angel of your heart" Recall dressing our kids in
tiered petticoats?
Do you remember the Patio Drive-In on E. Center St.? People's store on W.
Center?
Hemmerly's (flower shop) was on Fairground St.
instead of its present location on E. Center. Helen Leffler
had moved from the balcony of Uhler's to Greenwood
St. Brownie Movie cameras were priced from 29.95 at the Photo Shop on N. State
St. Billfolds at Jump's on W. Center St. started at 3.50
An ad read Mister! Your Wife Wants a Lennon's Sewing Machine this Christmas The
portable was $59.95, $6 down. In your dreams, all I wanted that year was to get
the baby born. (she was, 3 days later)
Old Crow Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey was 4.06 4/5Qt.
Vice President Nixon was leaving for Vienna to view on the spot the plight of
Hungarian refugees fleeing from communism into Austria. 12 hour conference was
held at Gettysburg on world problems (Ike and Nehru) and they headed back to
the capitol.
They were talking about the sewers in Marion....I only have a partial
newspaper....but they are still talking about the sewers.
Lords Jewelers had a huge ad for Masonic rings (49.50) Ronson
lighters, Schick razors, watches,etc. and now the
owner of this store long gone from the scene is in a local nursing center
Alzheimer unit.
The Erie was advertising Holiday travel. Smart & Waddell and John Stoll
were selling shoes. Ritz Bar & Grill Wed. Special Lunch of roast young
turkey was $1.00. Bob Shroats at Key's Auto Sales had
a 1953 Olds for 1395.
Half gallon of milk sold for 37cents at Maniaci's
Royal Blue Super market 729 Silver St. at Cass Ave.
Faye Shop and Kline's were giving gift suggestions for Christmas.
And none of us were rolling in dough that Christmas. By then many of us were
scattered across the States, some of us married and had or would have young
children.
Now just let me go wash my hands after reading that old paper and reminding you
of times long past. sue
Column #119
Color....how does it affect you? Sky
blue of October, golden look of soybeans ready for harvest, deep chocolate
brown plowed earth in November after harvest is past, the green and yellow of
John Deere huge machinery going down the road, all these spell Ohio and
pleasurable feelings inside me.
Gray and slate blue? or a dull gray blue in ER in the middle of the night are not
soothing colors. I guess if I were a decorator for a hospital I wouldn't
make the rooms yellow. If one were dizzy or ready to toss one's cookies, yellow
would not be peaceful. But don't hospitals tend to dull colors?
Prisons would not take a decorator's prize either. I don't remember the color
scheme at MCI (Marion Correctional Institute) but it spelled monotony and
decay.
The former Center Hospital next to Smith Clinic used to have a room in step
down that made us laugh everytime my mother-in-law
was assigned to it. The room had a big picture of a dirty tennis shoe. We had
many quirky conversations about that shoe.
How many times did you move into an apartment or house and not like the color
scheme and immediately start bugging "honey do" that painting and
wall paper was at the top of the list.
Do you remember the days of avocado and copper color appliances?
Do you find yourself choosing bright bold shades of the hot colors, or muted
pastels and more quiet colors to wear? Do you prefer black or beige, aqua or
watermelon, cider or berry? Whatever happened to red, green, brown?
Or should we say like the poem by Jenny Joseph (which says in part)
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells (which reminds me that on
an end cap in our local Walmart there is a Bob the
Builder and when you press his button he talks and his jack hammer goes up and
down.....I pressed a whole bunch of Bobs the other day)
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit. (and on and on it goes)
and since I was such a quiet timid kid (yeah, right!) when you knew me, this
reversal sounds great. sue
Column #118
I am continually amused, puzzled or
annoyed by people. Do we pass on our unspoken intolerance to our children,
grandchildren by a look, a derogatory comment or perhaps even by silent
communication? Was it passed on to us? Prejudice dies hard.
May I explain? Some of our older relatives did not like the German people, the
Irish, the Polish, the Blacks (which they knew by other names) the Eye-talians, and it goes on and on. Weren't we all immigrants
in some far off generation.......unless we're Cherokee or Sioux?
I had a person in my background who swore up and down it was in the Bible that
blacks (Negroes to her generation) were supposed to be slaves. I could never
find it in my Bible.
Remember the Carl Sandburg poem we read in American Lit about Chicago being the
melting pot of many nationalities. I don't recall when that poem was written.
In the 50s Chicago still had its ethnic neighborhoods. My friends and
acquaintances had surnames like Amendola, Schneider,
Jaeger, Brushkiewicz, Shea,
Houlihan.
What about growing up on "Something Street" which was in the good
part of town and having the adults in our lives say oh, where does he live?
Hmmm. And immediately that grownup put the stamp of disapproval on your new
friend.....because of where he lived or what his dad did for a living.
Did we/do we use the same yardstick with clothes? In our day there were no
designer jeans but we had to have a certain kind of saddles (shoes) or we
weren't "with it." Did we miss out on some great friendships because
the other kid didn't have great clothes to wear?
Children are cruel to other kids. I wonder where they learn to be cruel?
I have had so many tell me, we weren't a part of the group, we moved here at
such and such a year (and weren't a part of the gang) or I didn't feel I
belonged because of...
Were we snot noses because he/she was a little chubby, wore thick glasses,
played a violin, was shy or reserved, was clumsy in gym, couldn't excel in
sports or on a dance floor, stumbled over an assignment in class and acted
dumb?
In our years on the planet earth, have we learned anything about the brevity of
life, hard knocks, grief, compassion for others? Do we zero in more on what's
inside? the person's integrity, his grit to endure, his/her heart and soul,
basic goodness? I hope seventy or almost seventy years has taught us something.
sue
Column #117
Over the years our memories suffer
from fragmentation. From high school we went to the service, jobs, college,
marriage, moving to other states or countries, and we learned from many people,
or discarded what we learned from some of them. One of you asked that I write
about teachers, and I have brain "fallout" but here goes.
Teachers are mortal. They were authority figures when we were young. Some could
silence you with a look (or a swat, now outlawed)
Did you have favorites? or did you dread encountering a teacher in the hall, or
study hall, or a classroom?
In ruminating about teachers I see I kick into the gray matter some names that
were my own children's teachers. Whoa, old mind.
We met Helen May at Interlochen (MI) one summer and
another vacation had a chance encounter with Mary Jo Stafford at the Arch in
St. Louis, Missouri. Mary Jo was a cream puff, mild mannered, very kind. I
never had her as a teacher, only as Quiver advisor.
Do you remember Tony Schiavo, distributive ed
teacher? I believe he and his wife and family moved to the state of New York.
He was good looking.
Did you have Dewey Bohyer, Pete Howison,
dark complexion Mr. Thomas (forgot his first name). Did he really eat peanuts
in class? Darl Gatchell, E.
Paul Hoffman (by the way E. Paul looked so different with hair in earlier
Quivers....1920s) E. Paul scared the liver out of me because I never knew
straight up in geometry class.
Who made an impression on you? Good or bad?
I recall the dumb things like Margaret Wolfley sorta spitting as she talked, Lucile Foreman's glass eye,
Pop Lantzer's chin wobbling, Rae McAfee standing at
the door of her room on second floor giving the girl friend/boy friend combos
walking by the evil eye. The "policeman" of second floor in her red
scarf and bright color clothing.
Rebecca Grove, Jane Duffy, the young teachers. Ruth Palmer, girls' gym
instructor? I Detested anything physical....was a klutz at volley ball,
softball. I was the fielder who ran half way down Orchard St. to retrieve a
rolling ball.
Science....Tom Bain, Ruth Turner, Mr. Smith? Did they make the subject matter
interesting?
Miss Pace in the office.....can't imagine dealing daily with hundreds of
students and still come up smiling.
And then there was nice Edith Brown (civics) and that guy in my civics class
who had politics at his dinner table and never cracked a book, aced every test.
None of the rest of us had a congressman in the family.
My personal unfavorite was Isabel Freer. Her sister
at Central taught Latin I and she was great. The Latin I I
Freer at Harding was not a candidate for teacher of the year (my opinion only)
Who can forget the principals from our youth, Frew, Orcutt, May, Scholl (a few names I recall)
And to those old Olney Ave. friends can your recall Miss Auman's
dress that was brown with big yellow bananas on it, or maybe flowers and she
only wore it for special occasions?
You must also remember a few teachers from your junior high. Mary Bohyer was librarian at Central, Dewey's wife. Our unforgettables over there were Effie Oliphant (algebra)
Zelma Howard (English) Bessie Snider (9th grade science) The three were
"fixtures" at Central.
Got any funny/strange recollections you want to share about our teacher (or
your interactions with the breed) of long ago? sue
Column #116
The old song goes "have you
ever been lonely, have you ever been blue?" In recent years psychologists
have discovered what some of us have known for years. Pets are good for people.
There's a trend now for dogs to be visitors or even residents at nursing homes
or assisted living facilities. Now I am not referring to my personal bodyguard
"spotted" tank size dog but to well mannered, well behaved animals.
Dogs talk and cats talk to us in a universal language. No, they don't talk in
French (poodle) or German (shepherd) or Swahili or good ole American slang
(Heinz 57 variety) but if you fancy dogs or cats you can tell when they are
"talking." Those big eyes speak volumes, a bark or a meow tells a
tale. Who can resist them? Sure, many can, my dad didn't care for dogs or cats.
I can see his aversion to cats. Once he was walking thru the kitchen in the
dark and a cat leaped from the top of the refrigerator to his shoulder and dug
in with its claws.
My neighbor loved her cat so much that when it died at age 17 she bought it a
casket and it lay in state next to the TV. Then she had it cremated and we
buried its urn.
Some people love to watch fish. My mother-in-law could sit and watch hers for
hours. Heaven knows she deserved to be able to sit and watch them dart around
the aquarium after raising six kids. I have about as much luck with fish as I
have with getting mums to come up year after year.
But what did surprise me (in the article I read).......and I don't know why it
should....was that being around a pet brings your blood pressure down.
Conversely petting one's dog or cat brings its blood pressure down. Amazing.
To those of us who love our pets we can understand why a pet in the home of an
aged person assuages his/her loneliness. There's mutual affection and loyalty
there. Somebody to care you're alive and more importantly perhaps, someone to
talk to. So what if the four legged friend can't talk back. Such a beautiful
thought....there were times when I preferred the dog to a sassy teen. He/she
(the pet) can tilt his/her head, perk up an ear, turn in circles, or wind
around and around your leg, wag a tail and let you know you are the most loved
and important two legged geek in his/her life.....especially if you keep his water
bucket filled, his food dish heaped and his goody shelf well supplied with a
variety of his favorite treats! Woof! sue
Column #115
A teacher who taught over 40 years in the Marion and Marion Co.
schools gave this Rules for Teachers to Hank Ackerman. I am sure you will find
them interesting!
1915 - Rules for teachers
1. You will not marry during the term of your contract.
2015 Do not apprise you students of your divorces, fast track
romances.
2. You are not to keep company with men.
2015 - You are not to keep company with hookers and sexual deviants.
3. You must be home between the
hours of 8 P.M. and 6 A.M. unless attending a school function.
2015 - You should leave the disco in time to catch an hour of shut eye and
show up in class with a quart of coffee.
4. You may not loiter downtown in
ice cream stores.
2015 - Do not pub hop after 4 A.M.
5. You may not travel beyond the
city limits unless you have the permission of the chairman of the board.
2015 - travel as far as you like just so you are in class each
morning
6. You may not ride in a carriage
or automobile with any man unless he is your father or brother.
2015 - Park your Honda/Harley or space ship correctly regardless of
male or female passengers.
7. You may not smoke cigarettes.
2015 - Don't smoke marijuana in the teachers' lounge, or use other
recreational drugs therein.
8. You may not dress in bright
colors.
2015 - Limit the size of the jewel in your navel; please refrain from
wearing see through halter tops.
9. You may under no circumstances
dye your hair.
2015 - do not change hair color more than once each grading period;
parents coming in for conference may not recognize you.
10. You must wear at least two
petticoats.
2015 - new teachers would be scrambling for a dictionary to see what
the archaic term "petticoat" means
11. Your dresses must not be any
shorter than two inches above the ankle.
2015 - Do not wear jeans, shorts, shirts two sizes too small.
12. To keep the school room neat
and clean you must: sweep the floor at least once daily, scrub the floor at
least once a week with hot, soapy water. Clean the blackboards at least once a
day and start the fire at 7 A.M. so the room will be warm by 8 A.M.
2015 - call maintenance personnel on the intercom.
We laugh at the "rules" from 1915. The italics are my spoof, and
will probably get me in deep water with you retired teachers out there and with
the NEA.
But truthfully, can you imagine the teachers of our day walking in the room
with a McDonald's coffee, a Wendy's coke, a bottle of water. And we had to wait
till recess to use the bathroom. Now there are constantly little gremlins in
the hall, swinging a hall pass on a string around their necks, dawdling at the
pint size drinking fountain, or going down the hall to the rest room. The
teachers have jeans days where they pay a buck so they can wear jeans to
school. Can you see a Miss Margaret Wolfley in jeans?
Last night I stopped for gas and a very polite, very dark young man let me
ahead of him in the line to pay. We got to talking and he is a coach for Edison
football, and he had the neatest red Honda cycle, so teachers still have
decorum despite their casual clothing and fancy transportation. God bless our
teachers. sue
Column #114
Oh, man! A revelation. Ever go to
get something out of a kitchen cupboard and realize it is now harder to reach
the second shelf when a decade ago (if you've been in your house that long) you
could reach the third shelf without getting a step stool. Someone lowered the
kitchen floor!
And .....downtown is now bigger than it used to be. Believe me, I know. For
years I wanted to go to the pop corn festival. Had not been there for perhaps
15 years and the streets are longer than they used to be. Only thing that kept
me going was pride; I didn't want to be in the police reports for lying in the
middle of W. Center St.
The old saying "only as old as you feel"......yeah, sure! I feel
great in my lounge chair. It's when I move I feel 610.
Can you remember painting your house standing on a tall ladder or walking
nimbly across the roof to check something out? What about raking leaves without
going puff, puff, puff? And I am not talking about puffing on a cigarette.
How about the thrill of riding roller coasters? Or tilt a whirls? Do you still
ride them? Or do you cover your eyes to avoid vertigo when the grand kids get
on some wild rides?
How about running? Can you still run? Or do you jog? More power to you if you
do/or can do.
Can you introduce a person you've known for years and not forget his/her name?
Do you draw a blank when you are talking and suddenly the thought has gone bye bye?
What is flirting....could we do it again if our lives depended on it? Can you
recall feeling invincible? We'd never grow old. Not us. Look at that 30 year
old "old guy." I recall our teen age son going to South Bend, IN on a
Sunday morning to play recreational hockey with the old men. We can take them
he said with the bravado only the young display. How old are they we asked?
Those old men were in their early 30s.
How about tearing down the road at 75 or 80 mph (on a straightaway of course)
when the speed limit was 70 mph. Us? We never did that, did we?
What else have we forgot over the years? But look at the bright side. Look at
the wisdom we've gathered over a lifetime.....would you trade it for being 18
again.....and stupid? sue
Column #113
Life is so precious and most of us want to live as long and
as well as we can. I remember when I first heard the story of Jim Eliot
and his friends. His wife Elizabeth (at least I think that was her name) wrote
about his life in her book Through Gates of Splendor. Eliot died trying
to take Christianity to the Inca tribe in Peru. He and his friends had landed
their plane on a riverbank or in a clearing in the jungle, built a hut of sorts
and waited for the Incas to come. They did, and massacred the men by running
them through with spears. Where's God, was this his plan?
The man who flew the plane in was a guy named Nate
Saint and I also had the book at one time telling his story. It went right over
my head for it had a lot of aerodynamic stuff in it that I did not understand.
Somehow Nate had figured out a way that he could fly
over Inca territory and they would twirl gifts down on a wire or something so
that they were giving things to these savage Incas and after they had
"made friends" was when they decided to go in and land and wait for
the Incas to come.
I was young, and like Elizabeth Eliot we had a small child, and I could not see
God in these horrible circumstances where young mothers were left with no
husbands, in a strange land, and with fatherless children? Where was God? But
the story did not end there, and I don't know if the woman who first told me
about Jim Eliot and Nate Saint was alive to hear
another chapter. Many years later, the Inca who led the charge to spear these
men and take their lives, became a Christian and was baptized by some of the
people who had stayed on after their husbands were killed.
Which is a long way around (the above story) to saying (and we all wondered and
still wonder) Where was God last Sept. 11? And how can we understand? It may
take years and we may never understand.
We are the generation old enough to have heard snatches of our parents talks
about the World War, and how there was fear on both coasts that subs might come
in near our land, and that awful things might happen. My Grandma recalled the
war where the slogan "Remember the Maine" was heard. But not since
the civil War has our country ever been really involved and war has actually
invaded our land. I don't pretend to know much about the Civil War but I know
some people who know a lot about it and have really studied about it.
Last week I read a book called Let's Roll, the story of Todd Beamer as
told by Lisa Beamer his widow. The other name on the book is Ted or Ken Abraham
so I would imagine he put down her thoughts in writing. Todd and Lisa Beamer, Nate Saint, Jim and Elizabeth Eliot, Billy Graham were all
students and graduated from Wheaton College, a Christian college near Chicago.
Todd Beamer was one of the people who was on the aircraft that went down in a
meadow in PA and did not reach its target. He left a wife, two small sons, and
a yet to be born daughter. He and others with him had a plan to foil the
terrorists so they would not fly the plane into some important place or
buildings. I don't cry in movies, I don't cry over books, I don't often cry at
a funeral but as I read certain portions of this book, the tears ran down my
face unchecked.
Does God have a plan? Of course he does. We don't see it because we don't see
the big picture of what is going to happen out in the future. Sometimes (all
the time) we have trouble seeing beyond the pain of the present circumstances.
Does God love you and me? Of course he does. Do we love him enough to trust him
in all circumstances? I hope we do, but I also know there are times our faith
is weak. Our country is in peril. Pray for our leaders, pray for all those who
are hurting and have lost so much as a result of Sept. 11, 2001. sue
Column #112
Apples to oranges? My grandparents
paid $40 a month to rent a house, and later bought it for $4000. And then the
depression came along, so for a while they just paid the owner interest until
jobs got more plentiful. My grandpa was self employed.
My mom said her dad bought a used 1936 Buick for $500. A doctor had owned it
and after his death it sat on blocks for two years. I know they had that car in
the early 40s and he rented a garage a block away in which to park it.
How much was your first house? Your first car? I think my dad's first car was
$600. Mom can't recall what the house on Olney Ave. cost but said the bank had
taken it back and it was depression years so dad got it cheap. So if he got it
for a few thousand it may be worth 70 or 80 now.
Our first house was under $12,000. Now a decent car costs more than our first
homes did.
The nickel candy bar at the Palace must have been ten inches long. Now how much
is a 4 inch candy bar in the movie theater.....$1.25 maybe? The last adult
movie I remember seeing was On Golden Pond but I have heard if you eat popcorn
and get a soft drink at the movie it costs you big time.
In our early years we used to buy a week of groceries for $15. Now that amount
won't fill half a plastic bag. I can remember my grandma saying, won't it be
awful if bread goes to $1.00? She would be horrified, wouldn't she?
My husband's dress shirts he wore to work (a very long time ago) were $5 or
$7.50. Little kids Keds were $5.00 or were they
$3.00?
Last year I was in Indiana at the start of school and had to take my grandson
to the Sports store to get football shoes. His folks had left me a signed blank
check. Good thing. $89 bucks and he only played one season.
Sweaters and letter jackets and skirts and jeans. What did they cost when we
were in school? Did we know we were poor, or middle class or what? I can
remember buying summer and spring dresses for $9.00 or $11.00.
When I was 17 or so and sent to Kroger over on S. Prospect St. diagonally from
the Lutheran Church, haddock or perch was 39 cents a pound and Kroger cookies
were 19 cents. Buying store cookies was a treat. This was before brownie mix,
cake mix, frosting in a can, frozen dinners. We made everything from scratch
and grandma taught me to make pie crust with lard.
Skyscraper cones at Isaly's were 10 or 15 cents.
We used to pool nickels, dimes, pennies with another couple to get enough for a
jug of beer the guys would go get at OK Cafe. Since I didn't drink beer and we
could barely scrape up the amount for a jug, I drank ice water.
How much is a ball park beer? Enough to feed two or four a full meal at
McDonald's and be stuffed?
1967 - really truly (from old check book register)
July - Indiana and Michigan Electric $7.08
Water Dept.
7.36
Michigan Bell Telephone
7.97
Michigan Gas Utilities
12.01
rent for a cottage at Bass Lake near Traverse City 50.00
August - bike for a child, birthday
41.59
car insurance
28.00
Dr. Davis
5.00
this was our vet in Benton Harbor. Now I walk in the door and an office call is
20 or 22
Sept. Heil Quaker (wall furnace, we were remodeling
our attic area)
$82.00
Standard Oil
5.25
(full tank of gas)?
shoes K-Mart
4.10
(gym shoes for the kid)
Readers Digest book
3.10
Chicken Nook (probably a take out meal for the family) 6.09
Dr. Feeley (kids' pediatrician)
8.00
J. C. Penney (curtains)
10.36
child's boots
5.03
Dunes Furniture (Feb. '68)
135.55
(dinette set)
Bring back some laughs, some memories of tougher times, some calculating, how
are we going to pay this or stretch this till payday type discussions? Remember
back then we didn't make as much money as we did in later years.
Anyway maybe it's all relative....I made eleven cents on the stock market last
month. Laugh with me.....please? and compare apples to oranges. sue
Column #111
Football Friday night, Football
Friday night! This is a chant that an Ohio TV station voices this time of year
using cheerleaders from a different local area school during the chant each
week. And yep, football begins tonight for high school even though some schools
are not in session till next week or later.
Ohio State's opener is tomorrow and the forecast was revised from maybe some
rain to rain should be over before game time.
This year the "banner" pilots are allowed back over the stadium so
they won't have to go bankrupt because a large portion of their business is/was
flying over the stadium during games trailing advertisements behind the small
planes.
Excited as we are about football (remember this is corn fields and football
frenzy country) where did summer go? Wasn't it just yesterday we were planning
Memorial Day get togethers? And now it's time for
tailgate parties (if you can find the right parking area and then get across
the river to the game in time to see it)! and Labor Day cookouts.
And time to put away the deck and porch furniture for another year, rake or
blow leaves, have the furnace checked for winter, winterize the windows, etc.,
etc.
But I get ahead of myself......start making that list of picnic type items for
the last blast of summer, the Labor Day cookout.
By the way how many hot dogs does the average American eat in a year? a. 35? b.
80? c. 210? sue
Column #110
This one is for grandmas only!
"Girls," we were born too soon.
We were born before Huggies Pull ups and disposable
diapers. Can't you smell that diaper pail yet? Eeeee
yuck.
When we had our first born some wise acre took my picture at 3AM washing out a
dirty diaper. Hey, Sue, look here! And my bleary eyed face was snapped for all
eternity!
You and I were also born before potty training became fun! FUN! You gotta be kidding me.
I know contemporaries who nearly lost their minds during the potty training
years. And you could always tell by the kid's walk if he'd dumped a wad in
there.
Vicki Esralew of near Chicago is now the president of
Vickilew Inc. and creates products that empower
children. Aren't they powerful enough with all that "No" stuff a
young child utters? Anyway, Vicki produces potty training songs in her CD. Now
kids can sing "I gotta Go!" and "Give
yourself a Cheer."
What happened to Do you gotta tinkle? and wee wee or poo poo
of our day?
Remember being young and poor and we only had X number of training panties so
as soon as you got a dry pair on the kid, it felt so good he/she wet them
again. And the washer ran all the time trying to keep a clean and dry supply.
How many hours did we spend sitting on the floor next to a potty chair and
explaining to this monster child that if he wanted to go to kindergarten he had
to learn to use the potty?
Another thing you and I missed out on....we/you/I worried he'd not be able to
tie his shoes by the first day of school and would be embarrassed. Now they
have Velcro, problem solved.
Like the old cigarette slogan used to say, "We've come a long way,
baby." But singing a ditty about going potty? sue
Column #109
Column #109 Who had the first garage/yard sale in America? What did she sell? her
trash, your treasure. Where? any street or road. When? on hot, muggy days How?
with good old American know how. Shouldn't she/he have a placard in some museum
somewhere (as an American icon, or superwoman).
Oh, the enthusiasm! Whether you like preparing for a yard sale, selling lots of
items, counting the cash when it's over, massaging your poor feet, or going
bargain hunting yourself and hitting every sale in town, it is an American phenomenon.
I was amused last month when one of us at lunch said she went to a yard sale on
Smeltzer Rd. and here it was at another classmate's
house, so M. says I had to buy something!
How about education? I got mine one day when we were having a garage sale. Next
to the driveway I had some old books....I might add, musty old books that had
been in a trunk in my uncle's attic for 50 years, and I had them laying on a
blanket. One woman, obviously a dealer, came up and bought all of them.
Garage sales should start before dawn and end about noon. Who has the stamina
to have one any longer? Actually when pebbles hit your window and you see all
these "early birds" waiting you assume they can't read English (in
the ads and on the nearest telephone pole)
Have you ever sold something you want back? Have you had some amusing
experiences? We used to have garage sales at Nat's garage because she lived on
the corner of a busy street that led to south St. Joe, or in the other
direction to downtown St. Joe. I was selling some dresses (yeah, it was a long
time ago) We salespersons had to bite our lips to hold back the giggles as a
large black woman was doing the twist trying to get my dark red paisley dress
down over her hips. At the time I wore about a 14 and she missed a size 24 by a
country mile.
If you watch Antiques Roadshow where they travel the
country and give people estimates of what their treasure/oddity/item that has
been in the family for generations is worth, sometimes the person has picked up
an item at a flea market or garage sale.
If you are a yard sale addict or hunting a new place to vacation consider
traveling U.S. 127 from Covington, KY to Gadsden, Alabama Aug. 2 - 10, 2003
.....world's longest yard sale, 450 miles of it and an estimated 2000 vendors.
Now that is enough to give me a headache. sue
Column #108
Someone asked me to write about the
band. What about the band? I said. Some of us who attended Central where the
Harding band practiced were invited to join the band in our freshman year. So
when I think of band, the time span is four years and lots of "kids"
pass through my brain cells. It's sorta like tuning
up time when Homer would sharply hit the stand with his baton to still the
racket. Can't you see it, hear it? Lots of noise, spit dripping out of the
instruments onto that crummy old oiled floor and plaster enough to kill us
loosening on the ceiling?
Somewhere in my house is a band picture taken at Harding Stadium with the
members forming an H H S. there's Kenny Wormell, Dick Bechtle, Patty Tonguette, Bonnie Harris, Helen Kenyon, Carl Porter and a
host of others I can't always name. The drum major that school year of 1947 -
1948 was Paul Arndt, maybe? Following Paul was Martha Douce,
and then our own Lowell.
That year we formed a heart on the field for the first Homecoming Queen from
Harding....Dorothy Clunk. This was an ongoing argument in the Gay house. Sandy
said the first one was Iris Eckels and I said
Dorothy. You know it is tough when each partner in a house is always 100% correct.
Both of us always thought we were right. Well, anyway Homer said we wanted it
to be nice since it was our very first Homecoming band performance. We played
Sweetheart of Sigma Chi. Now if I am wrong, somebody please tell me.
If you were in the band you recall Homer snapping his baton, his occasional
bursts of irritation and his assistant, a young George Lane. We gave George a
hard time.
One year during that four, we got new uniforms, had to go for measurements so
instead of having an ill fitting one that next year, your uniform actually was
"made" for you. Do you recall learning to tie a Windsor knot? Those
blasted white spats?
Friday afternoons we rushed home, changed clothes, grabbed half a sandwich, and
hurried back uptown to Central. The band congregated at Central in the big old
front hall, and then marched from W. Center St. to the stadium. Climbing the
hill over by the Towers was a little tough. Once one of the flag bearers had to
be away (either Mary H. or Sue S.) and Homer asked for a volunteer. I did it.
Almost got the flag caught in a tree branch climbing that hill. That was a
shock!
Oh, I just thought of the times we had to march to the Memorial and play dirges
when we laid a wreath at Harding's grave. I hated those dirges.
No tale is complete without telling you about some of those who sneaked up the
fire escape at Central after the football game, climbed in a window
conveniently left unlatched and stored some instruments under the stage rather
than cart them home or to Club Coed.
We went to two out of town games a season. On school busses. Deliver me. We'd
stop in some small burg on the way and run into a little hole in the wall
restaurant. Homer would give us 15 or 20 minutes before we had to be back on
the bus. Drove the poor counter person nuts. These were the days before
McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's and fast service. I recall marching onto the
field once at Tiffin Columbia but where else we went to out of town games I
don't know.
Concert band was tedious and long. I much preferred marching band. That's
because I was no musician.
So many young faces in red and black uniforms float through my mind and one
wonders where they are today? Trombones, Bob Drollinger,
Tom Ballinger, Dick Banning, Ted Donaugh, Fred Halt, Ed Matthews.
Leona Stineman, clarinet or oboe? Barb Lee clarinet.
Yes, she married PJ Menzer.
Norma D., clarinet or oboe? Who was the blonde who played flute? Lister, Joyce
maybe?
Marilyn Guy played that plinker metal thing like a
small piano with a wand with a ball on the end. I can see the smiling blonde
Mary yet.
Bob R. at the sax, Ginny, Nancy, Bob Evans French horns, Don Kelly, Bruce,
Buddy K., Fred Y., Ozzie Hill?, Fred E., Joycelyn G.
drums.
the trumpets I have trouble recalling I guess because in practice they sat back
of the clarinet section but there was Tom Tatham,
Ivan Jones, Ed Donaugh. Guy Stoner and Gene W. played the big horns, bass or
tuba.
Always a whale of a bunch of clarinets...some of them were Marilyn Patrick,
Corrine Levien, Gordon P., Doris Clapsaddle,
Ann McD., John McD., Bill Y.,Peggy McWilliams, Joyce Parr, Marilyn B., Patsy Toombs,
RP Vichas, Katy Myers. Did Jim Coss play a clarinet? Not sure anymore.
Once one of the above says we got kicked out of practice for giggling or
chattering till we could learn to settle down? who, me? Who, us? I'd forgot
Homer's punishment/banishment techniques.
The story is not complete without mentioning the field back of Central where we
marched and choked on the dust and competed with freight trains. We also had to
clatter down metal fire escape stairs to get to the back lot. What trials Homer
had!
Nor can I fail to mention Wednesday night practices to perfect our performance
when the mist wandered in from Indian Mounds, the cemetery listened and the sweet
and sour sounds rose from the football field.
Of the above Kenny Wormell, Carl Porter, Homer
Huffman, George Lane, Tom Ballinger, Dick Banning, Barb Lee, Mary Guy, Don
Kelly, Ed Donaugh, Guy Stoner, Marilyn Patrick, Doris Clapsaddle,
Peggy McWilliams, Joyce Parr, Katy Myers, Jim Coss
are in their final rest.
If I forgot anyone I should have remembered or marked someone deceased who
isn't, forgive this old brain. Please? sue
Column #107
Remember the drive in theaters of
yesteryear? Do you recall one, just one movie you saw at a drive in? That's if
you had a car, borrowed dad's, doubled with someone who had access to a car. No
air conditioned comfort. You drove in carefully close to a post with a speaker
which you hooked onto a partially rolled up window. Voila! You invited
mosquitoes, millers, cold or hot and humid air into the car. Then you watched
the movie? Or did you?
In the 50s there were more than 5000 theaters nationwide. Now there are about
432. 23 operate in Indiana.
I don't recall how much it cost to get in.....do you?
I do know there was one in southwestern Michigan near us. It had to be the
early 60s when we'd load the kids in the car and go to the drive in. We did not
park near the back, but close to the front so one of us could take the kids to
the swings and play equipment up under the huge screen. The movie didn't start
till dusk so the mosquitoes were the welcoming committee. Seems to me we got in
for $5.00 a car. Just when the movie got good a child began to whine to visit the
concession stand or the restroom, and of course while at the restroom the candy
bars or popcorn beckoned. Or it started to rain, the car had to be started so
the wipers could be used. When the movie ended everyone wanted to be the first
car out.
I draw a blank at going to drive ins much in high school. I know we had a South
and a North drive in. Both are gone, but the screen at the North Drive in stood
as a lonely sentinel for a long time.
The article I read recently said there are some new ones being built and some
old ones reopening. Reasons for the resurgence: nostalgia and price. And,
instead of a place for teens to go neck (what is the term for that in the 00s?)
it is more a family type outing.
I remember coming home late and carrying a sleeping toddler (dead weight,
remember?) to his baby bed. What bliss when the kids conked out partway through
the movie and only movie voices were heard in our 57 Chevie.
Maybe you all have more vivid memories of the drive ins from our high school
years. Go back and dream of a gentler time, steamed up windows and a whole
bright future out in front of you. sue
Column #106
Sleep, the death of each day's night, sore labor's bath, the
knits up the ragged sleeve of care......there did I slaughter Shakespeare or is
it even Shakespeare, and where from? I always liked these lines we had to
memorize even if I do have them all turned around. What about it you scholars
out there?
Anyway, sleep. At 10, unless it is Christmas tomorrow, or we are heading for
Cedar Point the next day, we slept like babes.
At 16, unless we'd had a big fight and broke up with him/her or had an exam to
worry over, we slept well.
At 22, sleep was so precious, especially if we had a colicky baby or one who
thought he needed to eat every 2 hours.
At 35, did sleep come easily? Can't remember, that is half a lifetime ago.
Well, almost, I am only fudging a little.
So how do you get to sleep? Do you take prozac, ambien, paxil, Xanax, lorezepam, a slug of
Jack Daniels, count sheep, count stock certificates floating away on the
breeze, think of only the good, only the true, only the beautiful?
Personally, I have no trouble getting to sleep. Deliver me from hard back
books. Yes, I love them as much as paperbacks but when they hit the floor they
sometimes wake me up. I have no problems with the heeby
jeebies, that is, the branch outside tapping on the
TV tower at the back of the house, the crickets in the basement (it is almost
time for those little Darth Vaders to come in)
traffic on the highway, the refrigerator singing its swan song. My problem is
waking up every hour or hour and a half, and the old bod
says is it time to get up yet, and the digital clock says No way.
Do you have a remedy for going to sleep and staying asleep?
Some of the experts say we require less sleep when we get older. How about
dreams, do we dream more or less? I rarely recall dreams but yesterday the bed
beckoned in the middle of the afternoon so off me and my friendly side kick
went. Thought you had me, didn't you? I refer to Princess the wonder dog. When
I woke up the dream lingered, I was showing somebody the roots of the tooth I
had had pulled and they were of wood, in a right angle with a screw in it to
hold it together and looked suspicously like a
redwood deck piece. So in the moments before wakefulness I must have had
traveling thru my brain cells, thoughts of the tooth that needs pulling (but
have to call the dentist and make an appointment first) and thoughts of the
deck Bruce and guys will be building. No wonder we can't sleep at times. I've
also read that our dreams in the unconscious state keep us sane in the
conscious state. Do you buy that one? Do I? Once a nut, always a nut. sue
Column #105
Certain
things stick in our heads, and resurface once in a while. Or maybe not once in
a while, but once in a great while. The other day I was reading a long feature
article in the Marion Star about Clear Lake Calif., and Clearlake, Calif.
Clearlake being the town and Clear Lake being the Lake, and about Lakeport
Calif. where the lake is clear, and the resort area or some of it is like what
we remember from olden days. Are we old enough to remember the olden days? Our
grandchildren certainly think so. I wonder what they call us? Don't go there,
sue.
Anyway in reading about Clear Lake, I got to thinking about Russell's Point
where we spent some vacations when I was a child. One cottage we stayed in was
called Wanna Cum Bak and
the cottages all had names. This had to be in the early 40s before my uncle
graduated from school. He and some teen age friends were staying in another
cottage several doors down. One night we came out of the cottage and we walked
to the amusement park from the cottage...remember walking? and my Grandma spied
her son, my uncle Bob standing in the front seat of the roller coaster. Steam
came off her as she marched over there to give him what for. She had red hair
or fading red hair at that time but there was nothing fading about her temper
when she got riled up.
Around Indian Lake were little settlements or cottages where you went for peace
and quiet. They were smart enough not to tell me we were going for I got too
excited and I guess they did not want me having an upset stomach in the car.
But on the morning we were to leave, my grandma packed the house, in went her
own quilts, her own pillows, her own stew pot and fry pan. Do you think
she was going to use the stuff in the cottage? I learned to ride a small two
wheeled bike on the dirt road outside the cottage in Avondale. That cottage had
two little built in benches on either side of the front door. I don't think I
was more than 6 when we went to that cottage.
I remember my dad driving us through Turkey Foot which in those days was like
being in the wild, sorta primitive. Now my friend
tells me there is a restaurant at Turkey Foot called the Tilton Hilton or maybe
it is Tilting Hilton and it actually tilts.
Another cottage area on Indian Lake was Orchard Island. Joyce Parr's cousin
Rita lived there so she knew all the local boys!! and she was a year or so
older than we were. There was also a little bar on Orchard Island and Joyce and
I would go over there and sit in a booth and have a coke and make goo goo eyes at the male
population....we were all of 14 that summer. We did this until the day that
Mrs. Parr marched in the bar, and hauled our little rear ends out of there and
gave Joyce Ann and Sue Ann a talking to that we did not belong there. Rita got
both of us a date and we went to the Point, can't remember what we did but the
guy I was with was a farmer boy with red hair. His name is lost in the sands of
time.
Russell's Point had a wonderful amusement park or it seemed wonderful to a
little girl. I ate my first French fries from a paper cup at the Point. Watched
older people dance at the open air place, and there was another dance place
across the old wood bridge on the other side, it was under roof, as were some
little greasy spoon eating places with screen on the window areas to keep out
the flies. The old wood bridge over the water scared the liver out of me, I was
always afraid someone would fall in. The floor of the bridge was covered in
what looked like roofing material. The penny arcade was a penny arcade. I used
to try to get something with one of those pinchers things that came down and
closed over a slippery piece of candy and then dropped it or the small trinket
before it got back over the chute to drop it so you had won something. And for
a few pennies or a nickel you could look in one of those viewers and see a fast
moving "movie." Over way too soon. I never got to ride the roller
coaster at Russell's Point, I was too small and mom wouldn't have let me
anyway.
Never hung upside down till I was at Geauga Lake one summer and rode in one of
those 2 seater torpedo looking things that swung you
up and hung you upside down. Now I wouldn't even raise my eyes to watch someone
going upside down. My sense of adventure done went.
And the midway smells, the same everywhere, meat and onions frying, elephant
ears, fudge, pop corn, caramel corn, the dumb spun candy that coats little kids
hands and mouth, cotton candy, couldn't think of the name, the dust, or the
smell of the lake, the greasy sweat smell on some of the carny
ride operators, the calls and jeers to get you to try their game or let them
guess your weight.
And of course the quiet times, when grandpa or uncle baited your hook and you
tried to sit still on the dock or in the boat to fish. I never made a good
fisherman in childhood or adulthood. But give me a book and a breeze and a
comfortable chair by the lake, and I'll follow you anywhere. sue
Column #104
One of my fans out there asked me to
write about Club Co-Ed. What about it? We were welcomed in after we completed
our freshman year at Edison, Vernon, Central. So I'm sure many of us went up
there that summer before school began in the fall of 1948. 1948? Seems like a
hundred years ago.
I do recall walking in the old "Y" (State St.) that was our hang out,
a large open space, then up a step or two toward the area where Co-Ed was. Did
we get our hand stamped? Did we pay to get in? Was it a quarter or do I
disremember about being stamped and/or pay to get in?
At the rear of the dance area we went down 2 or 3 steps to a refreshment area.
I think the soft drinks were in one of those square or rectangular tank like
affairs where you slid a metal door across, reached down in ice and icy cold
water and came up with a glass bottle of pop. Right? Wrong?
Friday nights were crowded, some of us rushed home, changed out of band
uniforms, hurried up to CoEd so not to miss who was
dancing with whom, who was flirting with whom, who was discovering whom, who
was fighting or breaking up with whom. All that "stuff" was so
important to us.
The band hats ruined our hair and every Friday night it seemed it rained. We
marched from Central to the stadium so if a girl's hair looked okay when she
left home, by the time she hit the stadium, she looked a wreck or thought she
did.
If hair spray existed then we didn't know it. We put our hair up nightly in pin
curls with bobby pins. Remember, girls?
What songs do I remember from CoEd days? Don't know
but I'll guess....Moon over Miami (Vaughn Monroe?)...Nature Boy? Tuxedo
Junction?....Baby face....Cruising down the River.....Some enchanted
evening.....Sinatra, Ink Spots, Four Freshmen. Beyond the Blue Horizon....Ghost
Riders in the Sky...Near You...What a Difference a Day Makes....I Heard That
Song Before...I'm Looking Over a four leafed clover that I overlooked
before...Pennsylvania 6-5000... Racing with the Moon. Am I mixing decades
and songs and groups up?
Club Co-Ed was a part of our youth...everyone chattering at once as we entered.
Was the chaperone lady Geneva something or other? Dancing cheek to cheek,
stepping on each others' feet, sweaty palms, kids striving for poise and
maturity. Tears sometimes, many smiles and jokes and hey how ya doin'? Like we hadn't seen our
friends for months instead of in school that afternoon or at the game that
night. And hey who was walking whom home? sue
Column #103
Arts and crafts....the last time I
did anything crafty my neighbor taught me how to crochet a border around a
pillow made from two wash cloths. That had to be in the 70s. Not that I don't
admire all you gals who do artsy craftsy things. I
do. In the 50s I decided to learn to knit. Bought an argyle sock kit. Thought
I'd knit on the commute to work. Sure. I barely learned to knit and pearl, or
is it spelled perl or purl? We all have different
talents, haven't found mine yet. Better hurry, my allotted time to improve is
about up.
On a recent Sunday night I was wishing with all my heart for my stupid old
clarinet which was only stupid because I was so terribly inept at playing it. I
actually wanted to be in the Marion Concert Band huffing and puffing away and
attempting to get some sweet (and sour) notes out of the clarinet.
For years I've wanted to go to a concert in the park. But it takes effort to
get in the car and drive in for a concert. This was my first one (to attend)
and it won't be the last. It's like old home week. People take their folding
chairs and hunt a spot to sit at McKinley Park (that's the one on the south
side of Marion in case you forgot)
I'm sure Bill Y. still plays a mean clarinet. He had first chair the year we
were seniors. The other night I thumped time with my foot or my hand and played
some of the clarinet parts with some strange noises emitting from my mouth.
Another couple were sitting at the same picnic table as I was and she and I
were singing the words of old songs together. We laughed and said that dated
us. The man who announced what the band would play mentioned something about
OSU and I heard her say Wolverine so I asked during a pause if she were a
Michigander, turned out her relatives live in Bad Axe in the thumb area. And
she and her husband drive down from Attica for the concerts! About fifty mile
and here I had trouble pushing Sue to drive 4 or 5 miles.
Next the Marionaires perform...barber shop quartet
stuff. So maybe I'll stir myself to go again.
I recall singing Daisy, Daisy and Buttons and Bows and heavens knows how many
more tunes of years ago.
Next time the concert band is there I think I'll go earlier and see how many
old faces I can fast reverse and recognize from a time when they were trim and
slim in red and black uniforms. sue
Column #102
Every time I see a snowball bush,
sorry I don't know the Latin proper name, but the bushes grow big, round, and
have clusters of white flowers that resemble a snowball....well, anyhow I think
of summer and shouting children. There was one such bush next to the front
steps of Pickerel's front porch. They had a swing hanging from chains on the
front porch where we kids occasionally "lit" to play "car."
It was a quiet game. Not many cars came down the street. We took turns, and
each car that went past belonged to June or Dale or me or whoever else happened
to be on the porch. Old clunkers drew laughs and pointed fingers and jeers at
the "child owner." If the "owner" got a beautiful newer car
when his/her turn came he/she was admired. A simpler life? Oh, yeah. We played
hide and seek every night at twilight as the snowball bush looked on.
Dale and June's mother died one quiet summer day, a short illness that took her
in two days, and childhood as we knew it went away. Suddenly four children were
without a parent who loved them. A relative came from Toledo and took them
there to live. The two older boys went in the service (World war II was on) I
don't ever recall seeing my playmates again. Years and years later someone who
knew me and June linked us via U.S. mail. She was married, had children, and
drove a school bus in Michigan somewhere east and north of where we then lived
in that state up north.
We remember our childhood with fondness. For some reason this summer whenever I
see a snowball bush I am reminded of those playmates. I was 10 or 11 perhaps
when they moved away and up till that point I thought I'd grow up and marry
Dale. He loved horses and could make a decent looking horse out of modeling
clay. So Dale, wherever you are, I hope you taught your grandchildren all about
the horses you so loved. sue
Column
#101
How many of you
remember when we used to ride the bus to school on a rainy day? Not a big
yellow school bus, and I'll be darned if I can remember the color of them, but
in my part of town we rode the Southwest loop. And how did they determine where
the stops were?
Sound familiar, or did I fool you? The above was the beginning of column one,
three? years ago.
Tom Bain, Dewey Bohyer, Edith Brown, Lucile Foreman,
Isabel Freer, John Gries, E. Paul Huffman, Albert
"Pop" Lantzer, Rachel McAfee, Pansy Rauhauser, LeRoy Rieker, James Smith, Margaret Wolfley,
Trolla Klopfenstein.
What do the preceding people have in common? They were teachers in 1949 when we
were sophomores and they were teaching some of our parents in 1927, 22
years earlier. I chose the 1949 Quiver because it was dedicated to Pop Lantzer, his last year of teaching. The real surprise in the
1927 Quiver was the thin face, full hair head shot of E. Paul Huffman. Had to
look twice to see it was the same guy who taught us plane geometry in the early
50s.
I kept running across Kinesian Club, Press Club, Glee
Club, Tironian Club, May festival, Roman Senate,
Inter Nos, National Honor Society; some were self
explanatory but what was the Kinesian club? A club of
senior girls taking gymnasium, faculty advisor Miss Rachel McAfee.
Inter Nos. The sophomore Inter Nos were the tenth
grade girls who received A or A plus in Caesar. Selma Schoen and Mary Jo
Stafford were members in '27.
Senior Inter Nos were an honorary society of girls
who had A or A plus in Vergil. By the time we came
along there were no honorary Latin clubs, and only two years of Latin offered.
Tironians aim was to create more interest in
shorthand.
Some advertisers in the 1927 Quiver were: Kleinmaier's
store for men and boys, Midway lunch, Interurban Shining Parlor "Shines
that Outshine" at 113 N. State St.
Also Marion Paint Co., Stump Pharmacy, Bartletts Drug
Store, Bowe Ice Cream Co., Oakland Drug Co., Baker's
Candy Store opposite the Marion Theater, Hane-Nash
Co. dealer in Nash and Marmon Motor cars and
Will-Sainte-Claire Motor Cars 245 N. Main.
Then there was an advertisement for Smart & Waddell 137 E. Center - 118 S.
Main (my mom bought some of my shoes there when I was a child and the stores
were still there when we were in our late teens) Bindley Grocery, Jim Dugan,
super value in suits and top coats $18.50 - $22.50
Chrysler Automobiles
Range in price from 50 model $750.00 to 890.00 -they also had prices listed for
60, 70, 80 models
Kennedy's Pharmacy advertisement for Prescription 108 read: it's different -
it's better - it's scientific! no one calls a doctor when once they have used
"108" Only 50 cents. Stops asthma, catarrh, hay fever and all
respiratory troubles. 122 W. Center, right up town (do you suppose Kennedy's
ancestors were snake oil salesmen? What a wonder medicine 108 must have been!!)
Also Henry Ackerman Piano Co., City Ice Delivery Co. was at 183 N. Oak, Parish
Dairy, Walk-over shoes sold at G. Rosenberg & Son, Anthony Laundry.
Bert Myers advertised soda candy cigarettes patent
medicines light lunch home of "Hawaiian Sunrise" ice
cream (no wonder he was so cranky an old man by the time we frequented his drug
store years later)
and another ad that piqued my curiosity, it said only "Compliments of F.
C. Gegenheimer (what was his business? Attorney,
banker? philanthropist?)
That's all for today folks! sue