Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2024 i Good Old Days

Grab your dancing shoes and come along as we celebrate those happy dance moves of the Good Old Days! Sept. 21 is National Dance Day in 2024, so it's the perfect time of year to remember some of your own experiences on the dance floor. In this issue, you'll enjoy the recollections of other readers as they share their memories of dance recitals, popular fads and school dances. School dances meant summer vacation was over once again. When I think back to those times, there was one thing I seldom admitted to anyone: By the time vacation was coming to an end, I was more than ready to head back to school. I missed my school friends, even the teachers. I looked forward to school shopping for supplies and getting…

I grew up in Delran, a small southern New Jersey town that needed the help of two other towns to fill a high school. But that wouldn't be my school until I fulfilled a junior high rite of passage that made everyone feel awkward—the etiquette and ballroom dance class! Back in 1962 and 1963, nobody asked us if we wanted to attend. Our parents banded together and made even the tough guys go. We were to learn proper manners and to gain enough confidence to feel at least somewhat comfortable when the number of our classmates increased greatly when we entered high school. At first, of course, we would only know the kids from our Delran Public School. Other students came from Riverside Public and the Catholic schools that encompassed…

It was 1968 and I was 8 years old, and a child of great wonder and imagination. I was living in a small town in Alabama where the choices of entertainment were few. These choices were limited to a drive-in theater, a bowling alley and a skating rink. I enjoyed all of these from time to time, but most of my memories are of times spent at home, imagining I was a famous dancer or singer. Dressing up in different outfits and dancing around in our living room with Daddy as my captive audience brought me much joy. In my mind, I could become a professional dancer, perhaps like Ginger Rogers. It was Saturday night, and Daddy and I had just finished our evening meal together. Saturday evening meals were…

Never Say Never In 1973, I had been divorced for a few years and was back into the dating scene. I met my current husband, Bob, and we hit it off immediately. He was also divorced, and we both said we would never get married again—famous last words! When Bob and I eventually decided to get married, we wanted to make it as simple as possible. We had both had weddings before and decided once was enough. We decided we would just go to Las Vegas, get married in one of the many chapels, and come back home. We called our respective parents and told them our plans. Unbeknownst to me, Bob's mother had lived in Las Vegas for a short time when she was a young girl, with the…

After I graduated from Ross High School in 1967, my mother got the notion I should go to a “finishing school.” At that time, I was working as my father's secretary. He had an office in our house in Fremont, Ohio, and another one in an office building in Toledo. We drove to the Toledo office Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. One Monday morning, as Daddy and I were leaving, Mama announced, “I'm going too!” Mama had read about a finishing school located a few blocks from our office. She had scheduled an appointment for her and me to find out more about it. Riding up, Mama talked nonstop about how at the school, “They teach all the things one must do to become a lady.” I was 17 and was…

As a chunky little 8-year-old whipper-snapper in 1965, living in Bowling Green, Mo., there was always one day in early fall that I dreaded. About two weeks before school started, Mom would give me the word: “We're going shopping for school jeans tomorrow.” Now, small rural towns of Missouri were never known as fashion centers, but we did have a TV. It was only black-and-white, with three channels (one out of Hannibal and two out of Quincy, Ill.), but it was TV, so we knew there were cool clothes out there in the real world. Our small town did have a nice little clothier on the west side of the square called P.N. Hirsch that stocked a limited offering of cool clothes for boys. But Mom insisted on those industrial-quality…

In August 1949, Mr. and Mrs. Crabb filed a building permit for their custom mid-century modern home in a tiny town in the Texas Panhandle. Exactly 52 years later, we became the second family to occupy “the Old Crabb House.” Though the Crabbs had long since moved from their two-bedroom home into the House of the Lord, it always felt like they were still around, ghost stories aside. The house, designed and built by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, is still filled with their essence. Giant pines they planted stand tall in the backyard. The 70-plus-year-old laminate wood floors survive in the closets. In some places, the original mint green paint peeks through the modern top layer. Metal St. Charles cabinets still take everyday wear in our kitchen, bathrooms…

Today is Halloween. Someone or something is pounding on our front door. I stand on my tiptoes to look through the peephole. I see a ghostly, silvery, shimmery shape. It is 1951. I am 9 years old and too realistic to believe in ghosts. Especially in ghosts who show themselves in broad daylight. I am also old enough to stay alone in our house while Mom and Aunt Sylvia shop at the grocery store. They like to go places together. They are sisters. More banging. Louder now. “Open up! It's me—Mikey!” Michael! My big cousin. Aunt Sylvia's boy. He lives down the street from me in Brooklyn, N.Y. “Hold your horses! I'm coming!” I shout. I unbolt the front door. Mike is half-hidden behind a full-length mirror. He staggers inside.…

Each issue on this page, we will feature a question that will be sure to prompt a flood of heartwarming memories. Send your 100-words-or-less responses ASAP to Editor@GoodOldDaysMagazine.com or to Good Old Days Q&A, 306 East Parr Road, Berne, IN 46711, and your response could be featured in a future issue or on the Good Old Days magazine Facebook page! Photos to accompany your story are welcomed and encouraged! Please include an SASE if you want your photo returned. Were you ever in a band or did you play an instrument when you were growing up? What was your favorite kind of music and who was your favorite performer? Do you have a memory of the fish that got away? What about the person who taught you to fish or…

The gentle nun who was our teacher answered a tap on the classroom door and we first- and second-graders heard her speaking softly with a man in the cloakroom. When she stepped back into our classroom, my tiny ego received a much-needed boost, and I still get a feeling of awe when I think of what happened that morning more than 65 years ago. Following our teacher back into the classroom was Dr. Wisecarver, our local dentist, along with a young couple and a girl about my age. Sister Angelina introduced the Rosmarin family and explained that they had come on a large ship from Austria, a country far away. She said they spoke a different language than we did, and we would help them learn ours. Then Dr. Wisecarver…

I entered the world of dance in 1944 when I was just 5 years old. My sister, three years older than me, had been taking dance lessons for several years, and I followed in her footsteps. Our lessons were held at Megert Dance Studio on Main Street in the heart of our hometown, Niles, Ohio. Every Saturday morning began with Mom trying to convince me to eat breakfast, a meal I would've rather bypassed. However, I never bypassed listening to my favorite Saturday morning kids' programs. While getting ready for dance class, I listened to episodes of the Buster Brown Gang that featured the antics of a frog puppet character named Froggy. Another program, Let's Pretend, followed. It featured great storytellers who vividly retold classic fairy tales. This early morning…

There were seven girls in our family, and Mama declared she had to push every one of us out the door to go anywhere with anyone. She had loved nothing more than going to a dance when she was young and couldn't understand why we didn't. But of course, the barn dances she went to when she was growing up were nothing quite like our high school proms. (Her dances were probably a lot more fun!) “I'd go to the dance with one boy and come home with another,” she told us. Out of five older sisters, Dorothy was my closest, in more ways than one. I thought the sun rose and set with her. Four years younger, I wanted so badly to be like her. All these years later,…

Did you know that radio series have persisted into the age of podcasts? By the early 1960s, most radio listeners had turned to watching television. But in the 1970s, a few radio dramas returned—Rod Serling's The Zero Hour and The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater. National Public Radio produced radio treatments of Star Wars and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. CBS Radio Mystery Theater originally aired from 1974 until 1982, and 1,399 episodes were produced. Hosted by E.G. Marshall and Tammy Grimes, it was created by the legendary radio producer Himan Brown. Each episode began with the ominous sound of a creaking door slowly opening, and the episode ended with the same creaking door slowly closing. Brown first used this sound effect on his earlier horror series Inner Sanctum…

In 1963, I was a sixth-grader at Padroni School in northeastern Colorado. It was a small country school. One day our music teacher ushered us to the gym and told us to take our seats on the bleachers. She then went on to say that she was going to teach us how to dance to the music on records. She instructed us to find a partner to dance with. As the boys each chose a girl to dance with, I was still sitting on the bleacher. At least I wasn't alone; my friend Gerald was sitting nearby. So while the couples out on the gym floor danced, we talked. He explained to me that he couldn't dance because he was a Baptist and wasn't supposed to dance because of his…

The French term film noir means “black (or dark) film” and has been applied mainly to American movies of the mid1940s into the 1950s that were filmed in black-and-white and featured gritty crime dramas. Novels by writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler were often sources for film noir movies. With film noir in mind, writer/filmmaker Blake Edwards created the TV series Peter Gunn (1958–1961) for adults. Edwards' protagonist is a suave private detective with principles, who usually consorts with shady characters in his pursuit of justice. His girlfriend, Edie Hart, is a jazz singer in a nightclub called Mother's. The owner of the club is a crusty older woman known to all as Mother, who gives you the feeling she was probably a bootlegger back in the day. Gunn…

Aunt Mickie was an artist. Her land-scapes won prizes. Her charcoals sold regularly, and her work appeared at art shows all over the area. This amazed us since no one else in the family had any artistic talent. My sisters and I, her nieces, couldn't draw or paint well. Our colorfully crayoned depictions of “our home in the country,” the ones with the crooked chimneys and the doorstep flowers that rose higher than the roof, were carefully saved in scrapbooks by our mother, as were the many “pretty ladies” we drew for her. Those precious childhood relics gave a clear prediction of our future lack of artistic talent. Our mother, Aunt Mickie's sister, didn't draw or paint either. She suffered all of her life from a slight tremor that made…

Oh, the memories we have! Here are the songs our Facebook friends listened to most on the jukebox when they were teenagers: “The most recent song from the Beatles” —Debra L. “Hotel California” —Theresa V. “Most anything by The Four Seasons or The Righteous Brothers” —Barbara L. “Dust in the Wind ” —Anne J. Did you have a favorite song? Did our Facebook friends mention it? We asked our Facebook friends: What chores were you responsible for when you were a kid? “Keeping my room clean and helping with dishes” —Becky S. “Mowing the yard with my older brother” —Ron T. “I sprinkled clean clothes with water and rolled them up so they were ready for ironing (this was before steam irons were popular). In the winter, I'd carry in buckets…

I turned 6 in 1949, which meant the school bus finally arrived for me. At last, I was one of the big kids, riding for 8 miles on steep mountain roads from our mining camp in Anvil Points, Colo., to the town of Rifle. I joined my friends in singing Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall without stopping once the whole way there. In those days, there were no kindergarten classes in Rifle. I went right into first grade at Fourth Street School. My teacher was Mrs. Brackett, and I thought she was beautiful, especially when she read Bobbsey Twins books to us. I learned to read quickly—happy stories about Dick, Jane and Sally, and their pets, Spot and Puff. I made a best friend, Loreen, as well as…

1. Mashed Potato Time __________________ 2. The Loco-Motion ____________________ 3. The Twist __________________________ 4. C'mon and Swim ____________________ 5. Do the Freddie ______________________ 6. Willie and the Hand Jive _______________ 7. The Monster Mash ___________________ 8. Twist and Shout _____________________ 9. The Jerk ___________________________ 10. The Bunny Hop ______________________ A. Chubby Checker B. Bobby “Boris” Pickett & the Crypt Kickers C. Bobby Freeman D. Little Eva E. The Isley Brothers F. The Larks G. Dee Dee Sharp H. Ray Anthony and His Orchestra I. Freddie & the Dreamers J. Johnny Otis Answers: 1-G; 2-D; 3-A; 4-C; 5-I; 6-J; 7-B; 8-E; 9-F; 10-H…

Mommy took me to my classroom on my first day of school. Back in 1951, our Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood was a safe place. Nevertheless, Mommy wanted to take me on my second day too. This time I said no. I let Mommy walk with me as far as the schoolyard. “I'll go the rest of the way by myself,” I said. “I would like to walk with you to your classroom. You can go in alone next week when you are more familiar with …” I looked past my mother. The door to the school stood open. I darted inside. I wasn't a kindergarten baby. I could find my way. I peeked into the kindergarten room. Last year I had sat at Table 5. This year I was in the…

Tuesday, May 14, 1996 If the second hand on the wall clock over the cash register hadn't been moving, Linda Turpin would have sworn the batteries had died. It was 2:37 in the morning. She indulged in a huge, gaping yawn that she didn't bother to cover. What was the point? The convenience store was empty except for her. “It's my own fault.” She spoke aloud, a habit she'd picked up whenever she worked the midnight shift. “I promised myself I wouldn't pull a double that involves an overnight, and now here I am.” Linda had almost refused the last-minute request to fill in tonight, but the extra money would come in handy. The payments for her new car were putting a bigger strain on her finances than she'd expected.…

SEND US YOUR PHOTOS! We invite you to share the pictures that reflect your happiest memories. Please include a brief but detailed description. Include an SASE if you would like your photo returned. Send to: Good Old Days, Picture This, 306 East Parr Road, Berne, IN 46711, or email Editor@GoodOldDaysMagazine.com.…

Have you ever wondered who the writers and photographers in Good Old Days magazine are? They're people just like you who enjoy reading and sharing sweet memories of the past. You can be part of this magazine too! Send us your heartfelt true stories along with photos that add colorful support to your tales from yesteryear. We enjoy reading all of them, even though we don't have space to use them all. Your story has the best chance of publication if it fits the seasonal and editorial themes we need, is interesting and well written, and highlights a specific experience that will strike a chord with readers who were growing up between 1935 and 1970. Stories 500–1,000 words in length are preferred. We accept shorter stories for our Bits &…

Were you a teenage girl about 1949? Then I am sure you remember Vaughn Monroe. His band was called Vaughn Monroe's Band and his theme song was Racing With the Moon. His girl singers were called The Moonmaids. He was a nice-looking man but not overly handsome, in my opinion. He had a beautiful baritone voice. I was not a big fan of Frank Sinatra at the time, but I was a big fan of Vaughn Monroe. For two weeks, all the talk at Wintersville High School was “Vaughn Monroe is coming to the Paramount Theater in Steubenville, Ohio.” Everyone wanted to go. Some students talked about how they planned to get there. I didn't tell anyone except my friend Donna that I also planned to go. Oh no! We…

Trying to entertain a very bored grandkid on a dreary, rainy autumn day when outdoor activities are simply off the table? This charming fire truck woodworking kit is the perfect opportunity to engage a child in a creative endeavor. Designed for a child age 8 years or older, this interesting kit allows them to create their very own wooden toy fire truck. Each kit comes with all the precut and predrilled wooden parts needed to turn simple pieces of wood into a pushable toy fire truck. It is designed to be easily hammered together (hammer not included). Building this fire truck is a breeze with the easy-to-follow, step-by-step color instructions included with the project. A fire truck wouldn't be complete without that signature fire-engine–red color. With the included paintbrush and…