03/15/22 Grif.Net - Birthday Week, part 2
b...@grif.net
[On Monday, I celebrated my first birthday in retirement. Thank you to all who are working hard to support me, since FDR and Congress lied and never did put any of MY money into an "untouchable" fund so it would be here at retirement with interest, and I would be no burden on society. Instead of cussing out the good ol' boys, read this and laugh a bit as I tell you a little of my life story from 7+ decades ago.]
A grandson asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'
'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him. 'All the food was slow.'
'C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?'
'It was a place called 'at home’,' I explained. 'Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'
By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, NEVER wore Levis, NEVER set foot on a golf course, NEVER traveled out of the country, and NEVER had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.
My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had HEARD of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was 14. It was, of course, black-and-white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.
I was 16 before I tasted my first pizza; it was called 'pizza pie'. When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.
I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line. Our number in 1952 (had to memorize it for kindergarten) was Hi (for highland) 2324. Yes, I can’t remember what I had for breakfast today, but a number from 70 years ago pops right out.
Pizzas were not delivered to our home, but milk was (in bottles with paper stoppers). All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I got up at 4:45 every morning. Every other Saturday, I had to collect the 84 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me $1.00 and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.
Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing. Cowboys in white hats always won, shot the bad guy, kissed his horse, and rode off together into the sunset.
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
"Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!"