OT: Once Upon A Time or Do You Remember When?

[RichZ]

In my neighborhood they cared greatly about echo. They sang in hallways, but also in subway tunnels to get that echo. They harmonized at night and huddled under the streetlights because at that time the lights shone straight down like a spotlight.

We did the streetlight thing, but more often sang as we walked, because standing on one corner, we'd often draw the ire of local residents. "Hey, keep it down, we're trying to watch Gunsmoke here!"

Plus, singing on the move, we encountered more girls.

 

[Bama fan]

My bedroom was in the attic. I took a huge spool of bell wire and ran it through the rafters all over the attic to pick up WJW (Cleveland - Alan Freed), WKBW (Buffalo - Tommy Shannon), and on nights that the atmospheric conditions were just right, a station out of the Carolinas that featured a grittier, more blues oriented playlist.

There were very few commercially available FM radios prior to the late fifties, and the ones that existed were prohibitively expensive, plus there were relatively few stations broadcasting in FM. When I built an FM tuner from a Knight kit in 1961, I could receive 3 stations. Two were classical music and one was modern jazz. FM exploded when the LP started to outpace the 45 in the record industry, after the British invasion.

It certainly was in my neighborhood.

It was Lanson. The show alienated its traditional audience when the regular cast of mediocre singers attempted to sing the increasingly popular covers of R&B (especially group harmony) songs. Neither the producers nor the stable of regular singers understood or appreciated the music they were trying to mimic. YHP's previously loyal old fogey audience migrated to Lawrence Welk, and the teens that the Hit Parade producers were comically trying to appeal to were more likely to watch Bandstand.

Her father was Chief Thunderthud. The same show also had a marionette character named Flub-a-dub that was loosely based on a platypus.

We couldn't have cared less about an echo. We were looking for groups of teenage girls to stop and listen to us. I probably met 75% of the girls I dated in high-school that way.

And now, those same "kids" answer most anyone with "What was that?", "Come Again?" or just "Huh?"

In my neighborhood, the parents' reaction depended on which neighbor was involved. Some of them were just 'busybodies' to be ignored.

Much worse if you attended a parochial school. The nuns truly believed they were the hand of God, striking down evil wherever it was found.

The best example in this case would be Arthur Lee Maye, who played in the majors for more than a decade, and in the off season, was the lead singer of Arthur Lee May & the Crowns.

Chief Thunderthud was the leader of the Ooragnak Tribe. Kangaroo spelled backwards. I think he said Cowabunga before the surfers or the Ninja turtles.

 

[RichZ]

TV's the size of your laptop.

The screen may have been that size, but the TV itself was closer to the size of an icebox.

46 Chevys where they were the first one off the production line since WWII.

But in 47 Studebaker beat all the other car companies with a completely new postwar body style. The first with a trunk lid as long as the hood, which led to the common criticism "Can't tell whether it's coming or going." But the other car companies adopted similar hood/greenhouse/trunk proportions when they finally got completely new body styles into production several years later.

movies at the local theater for 10 cents including cartoons, and two features.

But nickel candy bars were 6 cents at the movies, so we'd go out of our way on the way there to get candy at the local drugstore.

McDonalds burger, fries, and coke for 45 cents.

In Bridgeport, before our first McDonalds opened, we had "Uncle Milty's" where a burger was 24 cents - two for a quarter, and they called it "The home of the 1 cent hamburger."

I remember schools did not close because of snow

I was in 7th grade the year Bridgeport changed the official closing trigger from 8" on the ground at daylight to 5". By the time we were headed home, it could be a way over a foot. Didn't matter.

I remember Woolworth and Kresges ten cent stores, also called dime stores

My wife worked part time at Kresge's after school when we were first dating, then went to work there part time again after we were married, when we were saving up for a down payment on our first house. Which we still live in, 53 years later. Kresge's eventually became K-Mart.

I remember when Chock Full O' Nuts cafeterias sold special coffee.
Now they have to put "Contains no nuts" on their coffee cans because half the population seems to be allergic to nuts, and their name was scaring people away from buying it.

I remember Savin Rock amusement park and everything that went along with it.

To me, the best thing about Savin Rock was always Jimmie's Hot Dogs. That and the Wild Mouse.

5) I remember a new pair of Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars for $7.99

Many years, the week after school got out, we would drive up to the factory in Naugatuck and my brothers and I got new Keds for like 2 bucks a pair. And they'd better last us a year!

Examples - In the 7th grade a nun hit a kid in the seat behind me with her fist. She broke his nose. Nothing happened to her.
In the 8th grade a girl wore lipstick to class. A nun brutally scrubbed her face, called her a whore and then made her kneel in the front of the class for the whole day.

I am left handed. The nuns insisted it was a sign of the devil. In 3rd grade, a nun tied my left hand to the leg of the desk to force me to write with my right hand. I got a zero on every paper/test, whatever that day. My father, also a natural lefty who had been mistreated by nuns because of it, went to the convent that night and reamed her a new one. He was president of the Holy Name Society and the local K of C chapter and thus involved in a lot of the parishes' fund raisers. I never had a problem being left handed again.

As a kid you had to have a Spalding/also called a Pinkie a soft rubber ball for street games.

A Spalding High bounce (aka Pinkie, and in Brooklyn, a "Spaldeen") was 20 cents. One stamped "2nd" was 11 cents. I don't think anyone I knew from the neighborhood ever had a 20 cent Pinkie. We used seconds, and that's what we called them.

Or failing that you called the tv repair man and he would come to your house to fix it.

I went to the technical high school, and studied electronics. But at the time, it was called Radio & TV Repair. My first job out of high school was working for a Radio TV Repair shop. I also had a 3rd cousin (or was it a 2nd cousin once removed?) who ran a Radio TV Repair shop, and worked for him in the evenings when he was busy.

When I was 15 I worked a gentleman named "George"who owned one of the pool rooms in New Ken. (In Pa.) After school he would give me an empty cigar box and I would go up and down all the stores on 4th and 5th ave. Men and women would give me various amounts of money with a white sheet of paper with a number from one to one 999 written on it. I'd take it back to him and later that afternoon, after the stock market report came out (the final three numbers were the numbers for that day)

My first job was delivering the "Bridgeport Sporting News" -- a single, brightly colored news print page, filled, except for a one column inch block, with restaurant and theater ads. The one column inch block would hold the the results and payouts from three random (fictional, for all I know) horse races that day. Reading vertically down the dollar column gave you the number for the day. Delivered it to every bar, barber shop, candy store, diner, etc. in the East End of Bridgeport, 6 nights a week. Made 8 bucks, a week plus tips. Started when I was 12 and did it until I was 15. If a regular one of my stops hit a big payout, I'd usually get a tip that seemed a fortune to a 12 year old in 1958.
Rode my bike through some really seedy neighborhoods on my route, but never got hassled or robbed, even on collection night, when I might have a hundred bucks or more in my bag. Never occurred to me at the time that it was because of who I was working for.

I remember dishes inside of detergent boxes. I think it was at least Tide detergent.

We still have a full set of glasses and goblets from DUZ detergent the first few years we were married. My wife often runs across one or two at tag sales, thrift shops, good will, etc., and always buys them to replace breakage.

I wonder if some of you guys remember these automobiles: Nash, Hudson, Packard, Studebaker, and Wyllis. You remember "hydromatic drive", and "fluid drive".

My first daily driver was a Studebaker. Also had a Henry J. Hydramatic was Caddy and Olds, while Fluid Drive was Buick, if my memory still functions correctly. But I never owned an automatic until the early 90s, and that one was stolen from me. Never owned another automatic until last fall.

I remember rock'n'roll shows at the State Theater in Hartford.

First live concert I ever went to. I was barely 13. My next door neighbor talked his mother into taking us to Hartford, ostensibly to see Bobby Darin. But going in I was more interested in the Cadillacs who were also on the bill. Coming out, all either of us could think of was Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Absolutely brought the house down. If our parents knew what the show was like, we'd never have been able to go in a million years.

Where were you when JFK was assassinated?

I was working at the under construction EJ Korvette store in the brand new Trumbull Shopping Mall, wiring their extensive Audio and High Fi department, so that any combination of components could be hooked up for demo purposes. When the news came down, everything just stopped cold. The most common reaction was people just sitting down and staring into space. Many cried.

Our first home had a coal furnace, and naturally had a coal bin.

There was a coal bin in our cellar, but the house had been converted to oil heat long before my time. But our 2nd floor flat was heated by a rarely used kerosene space heater in the front hall, and a Gas and Oil stove in the kitchen. We had two 55 gallon oil drums in the cellar, and one of the kids had to go fill the tank 5 gallon tank and bring it upstairs every day. Of course being on the 2nd floor, we got a fair amount of heat from the 1st floor apt, too.
The house was one of four virtually identical houses in a row. The rest of our block was factories. Some time around 2000, the neighborhood was being torn down to make way for a fenced in, park like "buffer zone"adjacent to the parking area for a new factory. For some reason, MY childhood home (not the 3 identical ones) was declared a historically significant architecture example, and was moved three blocks (to the site where coincidentally an old girlfriend's house had been) and it still exists, although the "historically significant architecture" is long since gone, as it's been remodeled and modernized beyond being recognizable.

Carbon paper too. I learned to type on a manual typewriter good luck finding one of those today.

Or mimeograph machines.

 

[RichZ]

Chief Thunderthud was the leader of the Ooragnak Tribe. Kangaroo spelled backwards. I think he said Cowabunga before the surfers or the Ninja turtles.

And speaking of Kangaroo -- Bob Keeshan was the original Clarabell.

 

[Ex Nutmegger]

Does anyone else remember aerograms? I sent dozens of those in the 60's when I was in Sri Lanka and India.
They were blue and the envelope and stationary were one piece of paper. While I was in India I started a paper/newsletter for all volunteers in South India named "Bhoomi" which translates to land. One of the pieces I wrote was "Bullocks or aerograms: where do you live."

I remember listening to UConn men's games on the radio. They were sponsored by the Connecticut Milk Producers Association. I can't remember the announcers name. They were on WTIC 1080. Remember Bob Steele the longtime morning drive time host? Antenna check commercials and birthday announcements for those who reached a century.

I remember the Hartford Chiefs the Boston Braves farm team in Hartford. They played at Bulkley Stadium. The two names I remember were Tommy Holmes the player manager and Gene Conley who won championships with both the Milwaukee Braves and the Boston Celtics.

Zymurg, I also listened to UConn games on the radio in 1953 and 54. My prized possession was a very small battery operated radio made by the Westinghouse Company(bigger than GE in radios, small appliances, etc. at the time). The UConn play-by-play announcer was great( I can’t remember his name either). His descriptions made me feel as though I could see Art Quimby raking down rebound after rebound from Yankee Conference opponents.

As for Bob Steele, he definitely got us going in the morning. He had a rich sense of humor. Occasionally he would start off his sport section with “Last nights baseball scores were 5 to 3, 2 to 1, 7 to 4 and 6 to 5.“ No teams mentioned! In the winter my kid sister and I would listen with rapt attention while he gave the school snow closing announcements until our town, Andover came up. We would jump for joy and bundle up in our “Pillsbury Doughboy” snow outfits and go out and “re-tromp” the “Fox and Geese” circle/maze for our friends to come over and play.

Ah the Hartford Chiefs! My father took me to Buckley Stadium two times. We saw George Crowe play. This was special for me. At about the same time, my father and some other dads built a baseball field on a lot down by Route 6 with a really big backstop a good in-field and a so-so outfield. The towns in the area were so small we had our own informal inter-town “little league’ with my town, Andover as well as Columbia, Hebron and Bolton each having one team. Great friendly rivalries!

 

[donalddoowop]

Yes but they were not overhead electric powered.

It took me a while to figure out what this meant.

 

[uconnfan68]

The screen may have been that size, but the TV itself was closer to the size of an icebox.

But in 47 Studebaker beat all the other car companies with a completely new postwar body style. The first with a trunk lid as long as the hood, which led to the common criticism "Can't tell whether it's coming or going." But the other car companies adopted similar hood/greenhouse/trunk proportions when they finally got completely new body styles into production several years later.

But nickel candy bars were 6 cents at the movies, so we'd go out of our way on the way there to get candy at the local drugstore.

In Bridgeport, before our first McDonalds opened, we had "Uncle Milty's" where a burger was 24 cents - two for a quarter, and they called it "The home of the 1 cent hamburger."

I was in 7th grade the year Bridgeport changed the official closing trigger from 8" on the ground at daylight to 5". By the time we were headed home, it could be a way over a foot. Didn't matter.

My wife worked part time at Kresge's after school when we were first dating, then went to work there part time again after we were married, when we were saving up for a down payment on our first house. Which we still live in, 53 years later. Kresge's eventually became K-Mart.


To me, the best thing about Savin Rock was always Jimmie's Hot Dogs. That and the Wild Mouse.

Many years, the week after school got out, we would drive up to the factory in Naugatuck and my brothers and I got new Keds for like 2 bucks a pair. And they'd better last us a year!

I am left handed. The nuns insisted it was a sign of the devil. In 3rd grade, a nun tied my left hand to the leg of the desk to force me to write with my right hand. I got a zero on every paper/test, whatever that day. My father, also a natural lefty who had been mistreated by nuns because of it, went to the convent that night and reamed her a new one. He was president of the Holy Name Society and the local K of C chapter and thus involved in a lot of the parishes' fund raisers. I never had a problem being left handed again.

A Spalding High bounce (aka Pinkie, and in Brooklyn, a "Spaldeen") was 20 cents. One stamped "2nd" was 11 cents. I don't think anyone I knew from the neighborhood ever had a 20 cent Pinkie. We used seconds, and that's what we called them.

I went to the technical high school, and studied electronics. But at the time, it was called Radio & TV Repair. My first job out of high school was working for a Radio TV Repair shop. I also had a 3rd cousin (or was it a 2nd cousin once removed?) who ran a Radio TV Repair shop, and worked for him in the evenings when he was busy.

My first job was delivering the "Bridgeport Sporting News" -- a single, brightly colored news print page, filled, except for a one column inch block, with restaurant and theater ads. The one column inch block would hold the the results and payouts from three random (fictional, for all I know) horse races that day. Reading vertically down the dollar column gave you the number for the day. Delivered it to every bar, barber shop, candy store, diner, etc. in the East End of Bridgeport, 6 nights a week. Made 8 bucks, a week plus tips. Started when I was 12 and did it until I was 15. If a regular one of my stops hit a big payout, I'd usually get a tip that seemed a fortune to a 12 year old in 1958.
Rode my bike through some really seedy neighborhoods on my route, but never got hassled or robbed, even on collection night, when I might have a hundred bucks or more in my bag. Never occurred to me at the time that it was because of who I was working for.

We still have a full set of glasses and goblets from DUZ detergent the first few years we were married. My wife often runs across one or two at tag sales, thrift shops, good will, etc., and always buys them to replace breakage.

My first daily driver was a Studebaker. Also had a Henry J. Hydramatic was Caddy and Olds, while Fluid Drive was Buick, if my memory still functions correctly. But I never owned an automatic until the early 90s, and that one was stolen from me. Never owned another automatic until last fall.

First live concert I ever went to. I was barely 13. My next door neighbor talked his mother into taking us to Hartford, ostensibly to see Bobby Darin. But going in I was more interested in the Cadillacs who were also on the bill. Coming out, all either of us could think of was Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Absolutely brought the house down. If our parents knew what the show was like, we'd never have been able to go in a million years.

I was working at the under construction EJ Korvette store in the brand new Trumbull Shopping Mall, wiring their extensive Audio and High Fi department, so that any combination of components could be hooked up for demo purposes. When the news came down, everything just stopped cold. The most common reaction was people just sitting down and staring into space. Many cried.

There was a coal bin in our cellar, but the house had been converted to oil heat long before my time. But our 2nd floor flat was heated by a rarely used kerosene space heater in the front hall, and a Gas and Oil stove in the kitchen. We had two 55 gallon oil drums in the cellar, and one of the kids had to go fill the tank 5 gallon tank and bring it upstairs every day. Of course being on the 2nd floor, we got a fair amount of heat from the 1st floor apt, too.
The house was one of four virtually identical houses in a row. The rest of our block was factories. Some time around 2000, the neighborhood was being torn down to make way for a fenced in, park like "buffer zone"adjacent to the parking area for a new factory. For some reason, MY childhood home (not the 3 identical ones) was declared a historically significant architecture example, and was moved three blocks (to the site where coincidentally an old girlfriend's house had been) and it still exists, although the "historically significant architecture" is long since gone, as it's been remodeled and modernized beyond being recognizable.

Or mimeograph machines.

Loved the nun story.

 

[JRRRJ]

My first daily driver was a Studebaker. Also had a Henry J. Hydramatic was Caddy and Olds, while Fluid Drive was Buick, if my memory still functions correctly. But I never owned an automatic until the early 90s, and that one was stolen from me. Never owned another automatic until last fall.

Don't know about Buick, but my dad purchased a 1948 Chrysler Windsor DeLuxe sedan in the late 50's-early 60's (for $100) that had fluid drive. Column-mounted stick with 3 positions. Up toward you was first, and it would automatically shift to second at some speed if you let up on the gas. Down toward you (had to use the clutch to shift) was 3rd, with an automatic shift to 4th. Up away from you was reverse -- with an automatic shift to a higher reverse gear if you were crazy enough! Generally, you never left the 3rd gear position while driving, as the mammoth flathead six had enough torque to pull a house off it's foundations and 1st-2nd gears were really low.

Here's a link to a video demonstrating the fluid drive in a '53 model (with a shifter that mimics one for an automatic trannie).

The car weighed nearly 2 tons. One day, waiting at a light in Boston to cross the Charles River, the car swayed forward and back. We got out to find that a '58 Plymouth station wagon had run into us. The hood of the Plymouth was shortened by a foot. The heavily-accented driver gave my dad $200 to forget about it. Damage to the Chrysler? The trunk handle was broken off (remember trunk handles?). The bumpers on the Chrylser were quarter-inch steel, very thickly chromed and showed only scratches.

 

[Steelerone]

And speaking of Kangaroo -- Bob Keeshan was the original Clarabell.

Right, Rich. And by the way, Festus, played by Ken Curtis on Gunsmoke, was one of the Sons Of The Pioneers, one of the top group westerns singers in the forties and fifties.

 

[Steelerone]

The screen may have been that size, but the TV itself was closer to the size of an icebox.

But in 47 Studebaker beat all the other car companies with a completely new postwar body style. The first with a trunk lid as long as the hood, which led to the common criticism "Can't tell whether it's coming or going." But the other car companies adopted similar hood/greenhouse/trunk proportions when they finally got completely new body styles into production several years later.

But nickel candy bars were 6 cents at the movies, so we'd go out of our way on the way there to get candy at the local drugstore.

In Bridgeport, before our first McDonalds opened, we had "Uncle Milty's" where a burger was 24 cents - two for a quarter, and they called it "The home of the 1 cent hamburger."

I was in 7th grade the year Bridgeport changed the official closing trigger from 8" on the ground at daylight to 5". By the time we were headed home, it could be a way over a foot. Didn't matter.

My wife worked part time at Kresge's after school when we were first dating, then went to work there part time again after we were married, when we were saving up for a down payment on our first house. Which we still live in, 53 years later. Kresge's eventually became K-Mart.


To me, the best thing about Savin Rock was always Jimmie's Hot Dogs. That and the Wild Mouse.

Many years, the week after school got out, we would drive up to the factory in Naugatuck and my brothers and I got new Keds for like 2 bucks a pair. And they'd better last us a year!

I am left handed. The nuns insisted it was a sign of the devil. In 3rd grade, a nun tied my left hand to the leg of the desk to force me to write with my right hand. I got a zero on every paper/test, whatever that day. My father, also a natural lefty who had been mistreated by nuns because of it, went to the convent that night and reamed her a new one. He was president of the Holy Name Society and the local K of C chapter and thus involved in a lot of the parishes' fund raisers. I never had a problem being left handed again.

A Spalding High bounce (aka Pinkie, and in Brooklyn, a "Spaldeen") was 20 cents. One stamped "2nd" was 11 cents. I don't think anyone I knew from the neighborhood ever had a 20 cent Pinkie. We used seconds, and that's what we called them.

I went to the technical high school, and studied electronics. But at the time, it was called Radio & TV Repair. My first job out of high school was working for a Radio TV Repair shop. I also had a 3rd cousin (or was it a 2nd cousin once removed?) who ran a Radio TV Repair shop, and worked for him in the evenings when he was busy.

My first job was delivering the "Bridgeport Sporting News" -- a single, brightly colored news print page, filled, except for a one column inch block, with restaurant and theater ads. The one column inch block would hold the the results and payouts from three random (fictional, for all I know) horse races that day. Reading vertically down the dollar column gave you the number for the day. Delivered it to every bar, barber shop, candy store, diner, etc. in the East End of Bridgeport, 6 nights a week. Made 8 bucks, a week plus tips. Started when I was 12 and did it until I was 15. If a regular one of my stops hit a big payout, I'd usually get a tip that seemed a fortune to a 12 year old in 1958.
Rode my bike through some really seedy neighborhoods on my route, but never got hassled or robbed, even on collection night, when I might have a hundred bucks or more in my bag. Never occurred to me at the time that it was because of who I was working for.

We still have a full set of glasses and goblets from DUZ detergent the first few years we were married. My wife often runs across one or two at tag sales, thrift shops, good will, etc., and always buys them to replace breakage.

My first daily driver was a Studebaker. Also had a Henry J. Hydramatic was Caddy and Olds, while Fluid Drive was Buick, if my memory still functions correctly. But I never owned an automatic until the early 90s, and that one was stolen from me. Never owned another automatic until last fall.

First live concert I ever went to. I was barely 13. My next door neighbor talked his mother into taking us to Hartford, ostensibly to see Bobby Darin. But going in I was more interested in the Cadillacs who were also on the bill. Coming out, all either of us could think of was Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Absolutely brought the house down. If our parents knew what the show was like, we'd never have been able to go in a million years.

I was working at the under construction EJ Korvette store in the brand new Trumbull Shopping Mall, wiring their extensive Audio and High Fi department, so that any combination of components could be hooked up for demo purposes. When the news came down, everything just stopped cold. The most common reaction was people just sitting down and staring into space. Many cried.

There was a coal bin in our cellar, but the house had been converted to oil heat long before my time. But our 2nd floor flat was heated by a rarely used kerosene space heater in the front hall, and a Gas and Oil stove in the kitchen. We had two 55 gallon oil drums in the cellar, and one of the kids had to go fill the tank 5 gallon tank and bring it upstairs every day. Of course being on the 2nd floor, we got a fair amount of heat from the 1st floor apt, too.
The house was one of four virtually identical houses in a row. The rest of our block was factories. Some time around 2000, the neighborhood was being torn down to make way for a fenced in, park like "buffer zone"adjacent to the parking area for a new factory. For some reason, MY childhood home (not the 3 identical ones) was declared a historically significant architecture example, and was moved three blocks (to the site where coincidentally an old girlfriend's house had been) and it still exists, although the "historically significant architecture" is long since gone, as it's been remodeled and modernized beyond being recognizable.

Or mimeograph machines.

Omigosh, my room was right next to the coal cellar and I dreaded hearing the sound of the coal coming through the chute because I knew it meant even more coal dust. The coal stove was in the living room and the one thing I remember about coal was how fast it warmed the house. All these people who think that coal in the answer have never lived in an area where it was used. No one ever painted their house white.

 

[RichZ]

Don't know about Buick, but my dad purchased a 1948 Chrysler Windsor DeLuxe sedan in the late 50's-early 60's (for $100) that had fluid drive. Column-mounted stick with 3 positions. Up toward you was first, and it would automatically shift to second at some speed if you let up on the gas. Down toward you (had to use the clutch to shift) was 3rd, with an automatic shift to 4th. Up away from you was reverse -- with an automatic shift to a higher reverse gear if you were crazy enough! Generally, you never left the 3rd gear position while driving, as the mammoth flathead six had enough torque to pull a house off it's foundations and 1st-2nd gears were really low.

Here's a link to a video demonstrating the fluid drive in a '53 model (with a shifter that mimics one for an automatic trannie).

The car weighed nearly 2 tons. One day, waiting at a light in Boston to cross the Charles River, the car swayed forward and back. We got out to find that a '58 Plymouth station wagon had run into us. The hood of the Plymouth was shortened by a foot. The heavily-accented driver gave my dad $200 to forget about it. Damage to the Chrysler? The trunk handle was broken off (remember trunk handles?). The bumpers on the Chrylser were quarter-inch steel, very thickly chromed and showed only scratches.

My best friend's father had a 50 Chrysler with that transmission. Automatic with a clutch. It was a straight 8 flathead TANK

 

[Carnac]

Willie Stargell played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and he owned a fried chicken restaurant in an area of town called the Hill District. One close game Stargell came up to bat and the home radio announcer, a guy named Bob Prince, claimed that if Willie won the game there would be free chicken at the restaurant to all who were there. Stargell got the winning run, and he was later greatly surprised at the clamoring customers at his place. Bob Prince coined the phrase "Spread some chicken on the Hill, Will" and pulled it out often after that day. Not sure if Willie welcomed the shout out. Prince was an infamous character in Pittsburgh for many years. Much like Tim Finnegan of the wake fame, Bob had a sort of a tippliing way too.

I remember “Wilver” Stargell when he broke into the big league. Later became known as “Pops”. I’m sure he was an icon and very popular in Pittsburgh. He had a great run with the Bucs, that included a WS championship.

 

[Carnac]

My best friend's father had a 50 Chrysler with that transmission. Automatic with a clutch. It was a straight 8 flathead TANK

Those were real cars back then. Save a vicious head-on, you would walk away from most accidents in those cars. My brother had a 1950 Buick with “Dynaflow” that was heavy, and built like a tank. We both wish we could have that car back today.

 

[Carnac]

The screen may have been that size, but the TV itself was closer to the size of an icebox.

But in 47 Studebaker beat all the other car companies with a completely new postwar body style. The first with a trunk lid as long as the hood, which led to the common criticism "Can't tell whether it's coming or going." But the other car companies adopted similar hood/greenhouse/trunk proportions when they finally got completely new body styles into production several years later.

But nickel candy bars were 6 cents at the movies, so we'd go out of our way on the way there to get candy at the local drugstore.

In Bridgeport, before our first McDonalds opened, we had "Uncle Milty's" where a burger was 24 cents - two for a quarter, and they called it "The home of the 1 cent hamburger."

I was in 7th grade the year Bridgeport changed the official closing trigger from 8" on the ground at daylight to 5". By the time we were headed home, it could be a way over a foot. Didn't matter.

My wife worked part time at Kresge's after school when we were first dating, then went to work there part time again after we were married, when we were saving up for a down payment on our first house. Which we still live in, 53 years later. Kresge's eventually became K-Mart.


To me, the best thing about Savin Rock was always Jimmie's Hot Dogs. That and the Wild Mouse.

Many years, the week after school got out, we would drive up to the factory in Naugatuck and my brothers and I got new Keds for like 2 bucks a pair. And they'd better last us a year!

I am left handed. The nuns insisted it was a sign of the devil. In 3rd grade, a nun tied my left hand to the leg of the desk to force me to write with my right hand. I got a zero on every paper/test, whatever that day. My father, also a natural lefty who had been mistreated by nuns because of it, went to the convent that night and reamed her a new one. He was president of the Holy Name Society and the local K of C chapter and thus involved in a lot of the parishes' fund raisers. I never had a problem being left handed again.

A Spalding High bounce (aka Pinkie, and in Brooklyn, a "Spaldeen") was 20 cents. One stamped "2nd" was 11 cents. I don't think anyone I knew from the neighborhood ever had a 20 cent Pinkie. We used seconds, and that's what we called them.

I went to the technical high school, and studied electronics. But at the time, it was called Radio & TV Repair. My first job out of high school was working for a Radio TV Repair shop. I also had a 3rd cousin (or was it a 2nd cousin once removed?) who ran a Radio TV Repair shop, and worked for him in the evenings when he was busy.

My first job was delivering the "Bridgeport Sporting News" -- a single, brightly colored news print page, filled, except for a one column inch block, with restaurant and theater ads. The one column inch block would hold the the results and payouts from three random (fictional, for all I know) horse races that day. Reading vertically down the dollar column gave you the number for the day. Delivered it to every bar, barber shop, candy store, diner, etc. in the East End of Bridgeport, 6 nights a week. Made 8 bucks, a week plus tips. Started when I was 12 and did it until I was 15. If a regular one of my stops hit a big payout, I'd usually get a tip that seemed a fortune to a 12 year old in 1958.
Rode my bike through some really seedy neighborhoods on my route, but never got hassled or robbed, even on collection night, when I might have a hundred bucks or more in my bag. Never occurred to me at the time that it was because of who I was working for.

We still have a full set of glasses and goblets from DUZ detergent the first few years we were married. My wife often runs across one or two at tag sales, thrift shops, good will, etc., and always buys them to replace breakage.

My first daily driver was a Studebaker. Also had a Henry J. Hydramatic was Caddy and Olds, while Fluid Drive was Buick, if my memory still functions correctly. But I never owned an automatic until the early 90s, and that one was stolen from me. Never owned another automatic until last fall.

First live concert I ever went to. I was barely 13. My next door neighbor talked his mother into taking us to Hartford, ostensibly to see Bobby Darin. But going in I was more interested in the Cadillacs who were also on the bill. Coming out, all either of us could think of was Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Absolutely brought the house down. If our parents knew what the show was like, we'd never have been able to go in a million years.

I was working at the under construction EJ Korvette store in the brand new Trumbull Shopping Mall, wiring their extensive Audio and High Fi department, so that any combination of components could be hooked up for demo purposes. When the news came down, everything just stopped cold. The most common reaction was people just sitting down and staring into space. Many cried.

There was a coal bin in our cellar, but the house had been converted to oil heat long before my time. But our 2nd floor flat was heated by a rarely used kerosene space heater in the front hall, and a Gas and Oil stove in the kitchen. We had two 55 gallon oil drums in the cellar, and one of the kids had to go fill the tank 5 gallon tank and bring it upstairs every day. Of course being on the 2nd floor, we got a fair amount of heat from the 1st floor apt, too.
The house was one of four virtually identical houses in a row. The rest of our block was factories. Some time around 2000, the neighborhood was being torn down to make way for a fenced in, park like "buffer zone"adjacent to the parking area for a new factory. For some reason, MY childhood home (not the 3 identical ones) was declared a historically significant architecture example, and was moved three blocks (to the site where coincidentally an old girlfriend's house had been) and it still exists, although the "historically significant architecture" is long since gone, as it's been remodeled and modernized beyond being recognizable.

Or mimeograph machines.

I love these trips down memory lane!! Those were some very good times. Days that if you share them with your grandchildren, they look at you funny, and call them “the olden days". They can’t conceive of life without many of the 21st century inventions and luxuries they have now that we didn’t. Like cellphones and the World Wide Web.