Innholdsfortegnelse for June - July 2017 i Reminisce

Every now and then I grow nostalgic for that summer before seventh grade when my family drove up to Little Turtle Lake, Minnesota, in our blue and white Volkswagen Microbus. Big family, big vehicle. No hot rods for us; my parents were practical people. On the other hand, arguments about size, safety or gas prices never could have derailed the readers who, in this issue, share memories of cruising and showing off the pure power of their classic muscle cars. Read their stories in “Road Warriors,” starting on page 42. Years later, when I turned my sights to buying my own car, the thought of a muscle car was tempting but it would remain an unrealistic dream. My fiancé and I were saving money to get married. Ours was an…

The year 1949 was significant in the world of sports and in many ways ushered in a new era of organized sport as big-money entertainment. Both the NBA and the LPGA formed that year. And U.S. Open tennis champ Ricardo “Pancho” Gonzalez turned pro, earning $85,000 in his first six months on tour. Do you recall these other ’49 milestones? 1 This Yankees slugger signed the major league’s first $100,000 annual contract. 2 This Original Six NHL team won its third Stanley Cup in a row, a feat it would repeat in ’62, ’63 and ’64. (Hint: The team hasn’t won the Cup since 1967.) 3 This boxer retired after a 12-year reign as world heavyweight champ. 4 This team signed its first African-American players, outfielder Monte Irvin and pitcher…

One thing in life you have no say about is your name. Born during the Great Depression on April 14, 1932, I got my first name from my father. He named me after his childhood friend Bruce Dempsey, younger brother of the great heavyweight boxer Jack Dempsey. Jack got his start at Peter Jackson’s Saloon in Salt Lake City, Utah, which had a working gym. My father lived two blocks from the gym as a young boy. He and Bruce hung around the place and did small chores for tips. Dad later became a boxer, working in Jack’s stable, fighting in the oil and mining towns in Utah, Nevada, Wyoming and Colorado. After I was born, Jack knew my dad wanted to get back to his family in Salt Lake,…

Agatha Christie’s Crooked House is a stand-alone mystery published in 1949. In this novel, the Queen of Crime leaves out her best-known sleuths, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, to concentrate on a complex plot surrounding the murder of a wealthy man at a rambling estate, and a slew of suspects hiding all manner of secrets. The detecting is shared between a local copper, Chief Inspector Taverner, and a sympathetic outsider who hopes to marry the victim’s granddaughter. Christie herself ranked Crooked House among her favorites. A film of the story—the first, starring Gillian Anderson, Glenn Close and Christina Hendricks —is due out this year.…

During the spring of 1968, I was a senior in high school. A new era was dawning in our culture, and before I graduated in June, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy would both be gone. It was a dark time. One night my father, an austere man, called me into the family room. He was watching TV and seemed agitated. He said he was watching some zany television show that made no sense, called Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. He wanted me to watch it with him and explain what was happening. It was the first time he’d ever asked my opinion, and as a child of the ’60s, I knew exactly what was going on. So I sat and explained it to him. We laughed together over the…

MUSCLE CAR aficionados were thrilled to hear of the possible recovery of one of the ’68 Mustang GTs Steve McQueen drove in Bullitt. The movie had two identical GTs, a “hero” car for ordinary driving and a “jumper” for chase scenes. The hero car is somewhere in the Southeast, its secretive owner refusing to show it anywhere. But the jumper vanished shortly after filming ended, setting off a tantalizing mystery. In March, two California car restorers said they had found the jumper in Mexico, according to several reports. The country’s foremost Mustang expert, Kevin Marti, has declared the car the real deal. Even hard-core skeptics say the fastback, now being restored, sounds promising. One expert estimates it could fetch $1 million.…

My husband, Al, and I were married on Sept. 20, 1952, at 9 a.m. at St. Philip Church in East St. Louis, Illinois. In those days at our church, you had to be married before noon. After the ceremony we had breakfast at the Hitching Post in Belleville. My parents were divorced, so my mother paid for breakfast complete with a large layered wedding cake. The rest of the afternoon was spent visiting St. Mary’s Hospital, where our photographer’s wife was recovering from an accident both of them had been in. Then, along with our entire wedding party, we visited Al’s grandpa, who couldn’t attend the ceremony or the reception. He gave us a $100 bill—a lot of money in 1952. Our reception was at 7 that evening above Edgemont…

Large cakes were quite unusual when my parents, Theresa Pipia and Michael Cozza, got married in June 1939. But my grandmother Angelina Pipia had her mind set. After a private in-home consultation, she ordered my mother and father’s wedding cake from an Italian bakery in the Third Ward in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The baker made an amazing cake using decorative pillars as supports between layers of the towering confection. After the wedding, the baker came back to the house and asked for the pillars so he could use them again. My mother knew she’d never use them, so she gave them back. Wearing wedding and engagement rings on the left hand’s fourth finger is a custom stemming from the belief a vein runs from that finger to the heart, some sources…

OF ALL DAYS, Bernard and I were married on Oct. 31, 1948. Yes, it was Halloween. As it happened, that was the only Sunday in October available for the ceremony to be performed in our temple’s sanctuary. My mother and I shopped together for my dress at a formal-wear shop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While trying on dresses, I was so nervous I thought I’d be sick. The saleswoman told me to get out of the dress, and after that I calmed down. During the ceremony, it was customary for the bride to walk with both her parents; they would give me away together. The aisle was so narrow, however, that there wasn’t room for all three of us, plus the gown’s hoop skirt. So Mom and Dad walked slightly behind…

My favorite American Bandstand memory is from seventh grade. On that particular day in 1977, my brothers and I grudgingly got on the school bus to make up a snow day. Our Saturday would be ruined! It turned out that the teachers were just as unhappy to be there as we were. They allowed us to watch cartoons in the morning before letting us loose in the gym to play. But when it was time for math class, we were dreading having to do real work. Mr. Bradley was known as a serious taskmaster. We crowded his desk, begging him to let us watch TV. He just told us to take our seats. Then, to our complete surprise, he rolled the TV cart to the center of the room and…

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND SMILES For our first photo contest, we delighted in entries that captured more than single instants in time. The winning images show moments of joy, which can be found in any season, if you know where to look. JIM SANDERSON PORT HURON, MI WINTER My father, Sandy, kept this 1937 Dodge as a service vehicle at his gas station. In the winter, we drove it around the field playing this game. The object was to dump anyone riding. Dad provided all the ropes, chains and tires. This was taken in about 1958 in Goodells, Michigan. DARLENE VAN HEMELRYCK PAGE, ARIZONA SPRING My mother, Rosalie Thompson, and I have fun at a small lake in California in 1947. This image brings back memories of my…

MY LIFE AS an 11-year-old in Morganville, New York, in 1966 revolved around Dark Shadows, Snoopy and Linus, my homemade skateboard and, of course, The Monkees. I never missed an episode of that show. My best friend, Martha, liked Peter Tork, but for me, no one compared to Davy Jones. My mother always did our weekly grocery shopping on Friday nights. I had mostly given up going with her, but one Friday, with nothing else to do, I grudgingly agreed. I whined all the way there while she pretended not to hear me. At the store, I wandered off through the aisles, hoping to find a cereal with a cool toy or mail-in offer, when I noticed a stock boy shelving cans of peaches. He wore bell bottoms under his…

THEY BECAME FRIENDS WHEN MRS. MANCINI TOOK MY MOTHER UNDER HER WING. My mother, Ruby Chen, left Shanghai, China, in 1946 to be with her husband, Lionel Young, who was already in Detroit, Michigan. They first tried to buy a home in a certain neighborhood, but the residents promised to throw stones at them if they did. So they settled on a house in Hazel Park, a small city about 10 miles from Detroit. Hazel Park was diverse in the 1950s. Our neighbors were Greeks, Italians, Poles, and families from Kentucky and Tennessee, who had come north to work in the automotive factories. My best friend, Marie Sirhan, was Syrian. My sister, my two brothers and I were the only children of Asian descent at our school, but I don’t…

DISCO Sequins, mirrored balls, the Bee Gees and Donna Summer shined their light on the 1970s and early ’80s. “Disco Duck,” a parody, also hit the top of the charts. Where did you stand on the music that begged you to get down tonight? Label your story “Disco.” SNOWBIRDS Migrating with the seasons—south in winter, north in summer—creates two sets of neighbors. Are you among the lucky who skipped town during bad weather? Any snowbird tales of past trips? Label your story “Snowbirds.” HOLIDAY TRAVEL Over the river and through the woods: The song lyrics describe a time-honored tradition of celebrating the holidays with family no matter how far you roam. Share your story about where you went and whom you saw. Label your story “Holiday Travel.” SCRABBLE More than…

SONGS 1. “RIDERS IN THE SKY” Vaughn Monroe 2. “THAT LUCKY OLD SUN” Frankie Laine 3. “YOU’RE BREAKING MY HEART” Vic Damone 4. “SOME ENCHANTED EVENING” Perry Como 5. “SLIPPING AROUND” Jimmy Wakely and Margaret Whiting 6. “I CAN DREAM, CAN’T I” The Andrews Sisters and Gordon Jenkins 7. “CRUISING DOWN THE RIVER” Russ Morgan 8. “A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME” Evelyn Knight 9. “MULE TRAIN” Frankie Laine 10. “JEALOUS HEART” Al Morgan BOOKS (Top fiction sellers) 1. THE EGYPTIAN Mika Waltari 2. THE BIG FISHERMAN Lloyd C. Douglas 3. MARY Sholem Asch 4. A RAGE TO LIVE John O’Hara 5. POINT OF NO RETURN John P. Marquand 6. DINNER AT ANTOINE’S Frances Parkinson Keyes 7. HIGH TOWERS Thomas B. Costain 8. CUTLASS EMPIRE Van Wyck Mason 9. PRIDE’S CASTLE…

“THAT’S WHAT I WANT TO DO. I WANT TO BE LIKE THOSE GUYS.” —Billy Joel, from The Beatles Are Here The British Invasion hit me in a totally different way than it did everyone else. It was the early ’60s, I was 13 and I had found my very own English lad to fantasize about. I could listen to his accent all day long. I wasn’t allowed to date but I’d had the usual teenage crushes. Then Dave and John arrived on the scene and I experienced my first real crush. My brother, four years older than me, made friends with the family, who had just moved to the States from England. The Clares had two handsome sons and I developed a crush on the younger one, Dave. He was…

“IT WAS OFTEN SAID THAT MY FATHER COULD REPAIR ANYTHING FROM A BROKEN HEART TO THE CRACK OF DAWN. HERE, HE’S REPAIRING THE WHEEL BEARINGS ON OUR 1948 PONTIAC.” DOUGLAS SCOTT CLARK • STURGIS, MI Each day after my dad got off work, I would choreograph and perform shows for my parents, James and Frances Tucker. It was obvious to them that I wanted to dance, so they went looking for a teacher for me. That’s how my career as a working actor began in the ’60s, when I was only 3½. They found Joe Michaels, a widely known dancer, actor and choreographer with studios in New York and Miami. Joe was an original Marlboro Man, a persona created in the 1950s by Leo Burnett as part of a marketing campaign…

MY BEST FRIEND, DAVE, had just ordered a brand new ’67 SS 396 Chevelle from the local Chevrolet dealer. This was in the late winter of 1967, and I was a 15-year-old car nut. I think I was more excited about the car than he was and, I admit, more than a little green with envy. The day finally arrived in mid-March when he was blasting down the road in the marina blue hardtop, with its 350 hp, Muncie four-speed, black bucket-seat interior and 4.10 geared rear end. It was a piece of teenage heaven on four wheels. Even though I wasn’t allowed to drive it (not legally, anyway), I felt like the king of the mountain riding shotgun in that car. It was fast, loud and a natural chick…

BACK IN 1970, MY PARENTS helped me buy a green 1967 Camaro RS. I loved shifting gears and feeling the power of the 327 engine. It was a good thing I was working, as keeping my Camaro in gas was a challenge, with its four-barrel carburetor and the way I enjoyed speed. The fastest I ever went was 110 mph and although the car could go faster, I lacked the courage to push it. One Friday night I was “dragging the gut,” which was our term for driving up and down Main Street in Canon City, Colorado, when I stopped for a red light and looked over at the car beside me. It was a 1969 white Dodge Charger that was lookin’ real good, and with a very handsome pair…

BACK IN 1965, when my husband, Peter, and I were married, I never planned to keep the top fruitcake layer of my wedding cake for decades. I was more interested in assuring that the groom on top of the cake was dressed not in a tuxedo but in the dress whites of a Navy lieutenant. I was sure we would consume the cake on our first anniversary, but we were in Scotland for that initial year. When we returned home to the States, however, we immediately carved a big slice of that frozen cake and ate it. We poured brandy on the rest to preserve it and returned it to the freezer. For the next 49 years that cake took on a life of its own. Despite power blackouts, blizzards,…

AMERICAN BANDSTAND, based in Philadelphia, went national on Aug. 5, 1957. Jerry Lee Lewis played “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.” BILLBOARD MAGAZINE said the show succeeded as a “sociological study of teenager behavior” but failed as “entertainment.” B.B. KING was the only guest artist who did not lip synch his songs. FREDDIE “BOOM BOOM” CANNON appeared 110 times—more often than anyone else. PAUL ANKA made his national debut singing “Diana.” “The Twist,” performed by CHUBBY CHECKER, set off the show’s first dance craze. STEVIE WONDER made his debut in July 1963 at age 12. BUDDY HOLLY performed “It’s So Easy” and “Heartbeat” on Aug. 7, 1958, in what turned out to be his last-ever TV appearance. He died in a plane crash six months later. AftER 32 YEARS on the…

You could say Dick Clark was my first crush. I was only 6 years old in 1957, but my goal was to dance with Dick Clark on American Bandstand. Time and place meant nothing to a first-grader from New Hope, Pennsylvania—only an hour from Philadelphia, where the show was filmed. I figured I would be old enough in seven years to be a teenager in love. I started practicing the jitterbug every day after school. But since I was an only child, I needed a stand-in boyfriend. My parents’ bed included a bedpost with a carved pineapple on top, making it a suitable height for a dance partner. The bulky 40-pound portable TV would wobble on its metal stand as I jumped and swirled nearby. But my pineapple partner never…

From a flat plastic disc that democratized music distribution to a crazed Cleveland Indians fan, 1949 kept the country on its toes. Young men who had returned from the war were busy getting on with their lives, raising families, and watching a growing list of TV options that included sports, politics, variety shows and Westerns. On the international scene, the drama following Germany’s surrender turned to fear and mistrust. The Cold War, as it was dubbed, simmered between the United States and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies, for another 40-plus years. JAN. 10 RCA Victor introduces 45 rpm records in the U.S. JAN. 20 Harry S. Truman is the first president whose inaugural parade is televised. JAN. 31 The first daytime soap opera, These Are My Children,…

In the summer of 1949, Katharine Hepburn had just turned 42 and was wrapping up her third film with Spencer Tracy, Adam’s Rib. Meryl Streep was busy being born that June, several years from fulfilling her destiny as “the world’s greatest living actress.” It happened that Hepburn disliked Streep, yet the two stars have much in common. Both attended elite women’s colleges. Both had success on Broadway. And both defied the odds against women in Hollywood by enjoying long and storied film careers. KATHARINE HEPBURN VS MERYL STREEP Education Bryn Mawr Vassar, Yale School of Drama Age in First Film 25, A Bill of Divorcement 28, Julia Academy Award Nominations 12 (all for Best Actress) 20 (16 for Best Actress, four for Best Supporting) Academy Awards Four (for Best Actress)…

During the Depression, working was a way of life on our 10-acre farm in what was called the Harmony District in Clark County, Washington. My dad, Bill Stevens, worked at the paper mill for 37 cents an hour. My mom, Violet, kept the home fires burning. My siblings—Shirley, Velma, Ivena, Wilma and Roy—and I worked to pay for school clothes, books and anything else we needed. We went barefoot all summer to save our shoes for the next school term. Besides the regular farm chores of milking cows and stacking hay, we collected night crawlers in the summer. My dad sold them to fishermen. Sometimes Dad would take us to the woods to cut fir trees for winter fuel. There we were, my sister and I, ages 12 and 13,…

Evan Shepard, my father-in-law, spent three years in Panama, near the equator, while serving a tour of duty during World War II. After he returned home in 1946, things heated up for him and his longtime girlfriend, Bette Gauger, both from Glen Ellyn, Illinois. The two spent the weekend with some friends in the Wisconsin Dells where they conversed (right) about their upcoming wedding in October of that year. Bette arranged the date to coincide with the full moon, and to this day she loves full moons. The couple spent 40 years together until Evan passed away in 1986. In August, Bette celebrates her 90th birthday with family in Naperville, Illinois.…

As televisions evolved from tiny black-and-white screens in giant cabinets to high-definition flat screens mounted on the wall, so evolved the role of the TV dad. Ask about anyone’s favorite TV dad and you’re bound to get a variety of answers from a variety of eras. Here are some of our favorites: WISEST DAD Andy Griffith as Sheriff Andy Taylor The Andy Griffith Show MOST EASY-GOING DAD Tom Bosley as Howard Cunningham Happy Days DAD WITH THE BEST JOB Ray Romano as Ray Barone, sportswriter Everybody Loves Raymond DAD WITH THE JOB YOU NEVER WANTED Robert Young as Jim Anderson, salesman and manager, General Insurance Co. Father Knows Best MOST IMPETUOUS DAD Dan Castellaneta (voice) as Homer Simpson The Simpsons…

THE OLDEST PIECE OF CLOTHING in my closet is my wedding dress, along with my veil, from my wedding in April 1949. I still remember going shopping with my mother at the Golden Rule department store in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota. The dress cost $49; the veil was $12. They are both in good condition and I’m saving them for my granddaughter Joy to wear; she is the only one who will fit in the dress. Ralph and I were married at St. Matthew Church in St. Paul. He was almost late to the ceremony because his best man, his older brother, decided at the last minute to get his shoes shined. Meanwhile, I was having trouble keeping my veil on until our photographer adjusted it and put it on…

1 Red Velvet Intense red color; pairs well with cream cheese frosting; a nice balance of chocolate and vanilla flavors. 2 Chocolate Easily adaptable to specialty flavorings including mint, orange and strawberry. 3 Lemon Light and tangy; ideal any time of year; pairs well with whipped cream and strawberries. 4 Vanilla Perennial favorite; pair with vanilla frosting or get fancy with a filling or fruit flavoring. 5 Carrot Out-of-the-box choice for nonconformists; dense, soft and full of spice notes.…

According to marthastewartweddings.com, many wedding traditions are based on folklore and superstition. The time-honored tradition of a bride carrying old, new, borrowed and blue tokens down the aisle comes from an old English rhyme. Something old, [continuity] Something new, [optimism for the future] Something borrowed, [happiness] Something blue, [purity, love, fidelity] A silver sixpence in your shoe. [good fortune]…

As an eighth-grader in Chanute, Kansas, I watched American Bandstand on our fuzzy channels out of either Kansas City, Missouri, or Tulsa, Oklahoma—after adjusting and readjusting the TV antenna. I wanted to watch without snow on the screen, so I got the bright idea to ask KODE-TV in Joplin, Missouri, to carry the show. I gathered a surprising number of signatures to let KODE know I wasn’t the only one who wanted to see Dick Clark, hear the music, and watch the kids dance. It wasn’t long after I sent that letter—and the signatures—that KODE began broadcasting American Bandstand every afternoon. Was it my letter that did it? Who knows? I would like to believe that it was.…

Bandstand Diaries: The Philadelphia Years, 1956-1963 has interviews with more than 40 former American Bandstand Regulars—the dancers who calypsoed, twisted and shimmied in the studio as musical guests lip-synched their hits. “The Regulars were America’s first reality stars,” says Sharon Sultan Cutler, who wrote the book with Ray Smith and former Regular Arlene Sullivan. “They were adored by millions, featured in celebrity magazines alongside Hollywood stars, and mobbed wherever they went.” The book features an introduction by former teen idol Bobby Rydell. “My respect for The Regulars runs deep,” he writes. “They were just like me, Philly kids who just wanted to do what they loved.” More than 700 pictures, most of them from the private collections of fans, also appear in Bandstand Diaries.…

1 The maker was named for an Ottawa chief who led an alliance of tribes against the British in the 18th century. 2 The four-cylinder engine was dubbed the Iron Duke. 3 Developers considered the model name Pegasus, which survived in the car’s equine logo. 4 The car’s name is the Italian word for proud. 5 During this car’s model year, GM bought Electronic Data Systems, placing future presidential candidate H. Ross Perot on its board of directors. See page 88 for the name of the Baumans’ ride…

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