Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend was always and still is a big week end for me. I liked to say it was because I am super patriotic, but the real reason is more personal. My birthday almost always falls on that weekend. Having your birthday on a holiday has its advantages and disadvantages. You are almost guaranteed not to have school that day. I have a personal belief that no one should go to school or work on their birthday. However you do miss out on having birthday cards from friends and birthday parties at school. People tend to forget that it’s your birthday because of the holiday.

In our family the rule was you could have only one birthday party where you could invite all your friends, I think I must have been 7 or 8 when I had mine. It was nothing fancy, we didn’t go to Chuck E. Cheese or anything like that. (of course Chuck E. Cheese didn’t exist at that time). The party was at home, we played pin the tail on the donkey, a game where you try to roll a peanut across the floor, egg on a spoon, and Huckle Buckle Bean Stalk, also known as find the thimble. The egg or potato on the spoon game is an outdoor game. The way I remember it you divide into two or more groups. Half of the group goes to one end of the yard and half to the other. Those groups are again divided into half, so you have at least two groups at each end. You start at one end of the yard with an egg on a tablespoon and at go, you race toward the other end without dropping the egg or potato. If you drop the item you have to go back and start again. Once you reached the other end successfully the next person in line at that end goes. The game continues until everyone is at the opposite end they started at.

One of my favorite indoor game was Huckle Buckle Bean stalk. Huckle Buckle Bean Stalk involves everyone but the hider leaving the room. The hider then hides a small object the size of a thimble somewhere in the room. The object must be visible and can’t be hidden in drawers or another object. Everyone else comes backs in and tries to find the object once the object is found the person yells Huckle Buckle Bean Stalk. The hider can help people by saying you are getting hotter or colder as they get closer or farther away from the object. The way would play it is you would yell huckle buckle bean stalk when you found the object but you wouldn’t touch it. The game would go on until everyone found the object. Those who had found the object could help or hinder those who haven’t. Because I don’t like white or yellow cake I am sure the birthday cake was a homemade chocolate with chocolate icing my mom would make the best chocolate cake ever.

After that when your birthday rolled around it was family only, although you did get to pick what you wanted for dinner, mine was always oven fried chicken, corn on the cob , tomatoes and a home made cherry or blackberry pie. You got to pick the dinner, but not always when it was going to happen. Often my birthday was moved to mid June. My brother was born in April and one year we were camping in Florida on his birthday, so for his birthday cake we had Hostess Cup Cakes with birthday candles. It is the one birthday of his that I remember.

It is funny, we spend a lot of money on presents and parties we give and the people who come to the parties don’t remember these things. What they remember is the great time they had and the people they got together with.

Radio Time

If you grew up in the 60’s or early 70’s you most likely had a transistor radio and if you are like me you probably listen to it late at night. Back then there were no portable cassette players. Although in high school I can remember having a cassette deck which was the size of a Kindle only 3 times as thick. On the front were the Play, Record, Stop Rewind and Fast Forward keys. You had to press the keys down to get anything to work. A microphone came with it you plugged into the side so you could use it to interview someone. It wasn’t until later they became worth listening to music on. There were also no cd playersand definitely no mp3 players. That left the transistor radio to listen to.

At night I would make my self a little tent under the cover and bring a small flash light and the transistor radio. I would move the dials on the side and the red line would move up and down the front of the radio until I got the station I wanted Sometimes I could barely hear it so than I would move the antenna from side to side and radio around until I found the sweet spot. The headphone that came with it had one end for your ear, everything was mono, so you never wore it. I had to keep the sound down low, so I would get caught. Unlike the daytime when AM radio ruled at night I would listen to FM radio. On a clear summer night I could hear stations from as far away as Boston or North Carolina. FM stations would play full albums from bands like Zeppelin, the Who or the Doors. They would have no problem playing songs that last any length of time. I can remember listening for songs that lasted 15 minutes. The DJ’s were great also there were characters like Wolfman Jack who had this great voice for late night radio. I don’t remember as many advertisements as there are now either. Although there were probably more than I remember. Do you remember listening to the radio late at night growing up, what was your favorite station and DJ.

Walking to the Bus Stop

This week in episode 10 I talk about walking to the school bus stop about a quarter of a mile. I would be wearing penny loafers, knee highs and a dress. In the winter the coat I was wearing would have been passed down from my older sisters. There was one blue coat with sheep wool lining that all of us wore, even my younger brother. I would have mittens pinned to the coat because I would be constantly loosing them. In my lunch box would be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a [Yodel] and a dime for a carton of milk.
About 15 kids would be standing at the bus stop. The winter time the wind would blow around the corner and it would get really cold. There would be the occasional horse play but nothing ever got out of hand. The school bus for the youngest kids grades first through 3rd and then the bus for the 4th and 5th graders would come and so on. There was only one bus stop for our street, so you always knew who was going to be late and who was sick. Did you ride a school bus to school and did you have to walk to the bus stop?