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Remembering 'good ole days'
I will tell my grandson that we didn't have any of those electronic babysitters when I was growing up, but we never lacked for something to keep us entertained. In good weather we spent almost all of our time outside playing and providing our own entertainment. Most of our games were made up and improvised as we went along. We would leave home in the morning and return for dinner and then leave again and not return until supper. Many times after supper we would stay out until dark and then sit around and tell ghost stories. Most of the time our parents had no idea where we were all day, but they didn't worry too much because everyone felt safe. Sadly, that's not the case these days. On those days when I couldn't go outside due to bad weather or illness, my favorite pastime was reading or listening to my favorite radio programs. (I plan to write about some of those old radio programs at a later time.) Some of my favorite books that I still have are: Pinocchio, Mother West Wind Stories, Gulliver's Travels, Kidnapped, Robin Hood, Robinson Crusoe and several of the popular Hardy Boys Mysteries. Everyone had comic books and we continually traded with each other to cut down on the cost. After all, they cost 10 cents. When I wasn't playing with my friends, there were some places that I liked to visit in the little west Texas town where we lived at the time. Even my grandson might find some of them amusing if they still existed. The shop where the weekly newspaper was published always fascinated me. It was a one-man operation called the Gorman Progress. The man who ran it was the owner, publisher, reporter, typesetter, printer and distributor. I can still see him now sitting at the linotype machine, cigar in mouth, setting the type for the paper. It amazed me how he could type on that noisy old machine and it would spit out the type cast from molten lead. Another interesting place to pass some time was at the telegraph office in the train station. I had no idea what all of the clicking and clacking sounds coming from the telegraph meant, but from time to time the operator would pick up his pencil and take down a message. To the operator, the Morse code was just like listening to someone talking. He could tell when the message was for him. He was so good that he could be talking to someone and taking a message at the same time. Usually I would time my visit to the depot so as to be there when the afternoon train came through. It wasn't much of a train. Just a baggage car and a passenger car. We called it the "Doodlebug", and it passed through twice each day. If there were no passengers to load or unload, the train would just slow down so the conductor could throw the mail sack onto the platform. The outgoing mail sack was hung on a metal pole at the side of the platform and was caught by a hook on the side of the mail car as it passed by. An equally interesting place to pass some time was at the local telephone company watching the switchboard operator as she made connections. Since there were no dial phones it was necessary to go through an operator to complete a call. The system was primitive by today's standards, but it was effective, and also had a personal touch to it. To make a call you would go to the phone, which was in a wooden box mounted on the wall, lift the receiver and give the crank a couple of turns. The operator at the telephone company would answer, "Number please." You would then give her the number that you were calling and she would take the plug that was connected to your line and plug it into the socket that was connected to the number that you were calling and their phone would ring. In most cases you didn't even have to know the number because the operators usually knew everyone's name and number from memory. At our house we shared the phone with our landlord. It was a two-party line. We each had a different number, but incoming calls had a different ring. Our number was a long ring followed by two short rings whereas the other number was one long ring followed by one short ring. I still remember our phone number. It was 34-J. Making a long-distance call was complicated and expensive. You first had to call the local operator and give her the name, number and city of the person that you were calling. You would then hang up and wait while the operator tried to route the call through exchanges across the country. This could take from a few minutes to several hours if the circuits were busy. Once the connection was made, the operator would call you back and then allow you to talk for three minutes. Additional minutes were very expensive. In the summertime there were two other places that kids liked to visit. One was the ice house where you could go inside where it was cool and watch them make ice and there were always ice chips on the floor for a cool snack. The other place that was popular was the soda fountain at the drugstore. Nothing tastes quite as good as a fountain Coke unless it's a coke float. My favorite was a Coke float made with chocolate ice cream. The small size was called a "400" and the large size was an "800". Technology finally did catch up with us though. In 1953 my father brought home a television set. It was black and white and the antenna required a 40-foot tall tower. It only received one channel that came on at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and went off at midnight. When I tell my grandson about how we passed the time in the "good old days", he'll probably think I'm nuts, but I wouldn't take anything for the memories. A nice cold "400" would sure taste good right about now! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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