Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2022 i Reminisce

The Kingsmen, whose “Louie Louie” is one of the most enduring rock anthems of all time, detested the hit single that made them famous. Rhythm-and-blues musician Richard Berry wrote the three-verse, calypso-style ditty about a lovelorn sailor’s lament to a bartender named Louie, scoring minor success with the 1957 single. In the coming years, “Louie Louie,” with lyrics the FBI later famously scrutinized, was covered by countless West Coast garage bands that found the tune catchy, danceable and—perhaps most importantly—easy to play. Portland, Oregon, club owner Ken Chase offered weekend work to the Kingsmen. He was struck one night by his customers’ indefatigable enthusiasm for a 90-minute marathon session during which the band played “Louie Louie” repeatedly. Sensing that Berry’s tune had hit potential as a live-sounding 45, Chase scheduled…

• NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, TX With her wedding ceremony only five hours away in 1959, my mother, Diane, thought Oscar, her intended (and my future dad), was playing one of his pranks. The nuptials would be allowed to go on under one condition: Oscar could attend the ceremony, but then he had to check himself into Harris Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. Diane had heard the rumor that Oscar’s cousins planned to somehow make her miss her honeymoon — revenge for the stunts Oscar had played on his relatives on their wedding nights. But this was no prank. Oscar had been diagnosed with double pneumonia. Diane paled; guests were coming and the church was ready. Oscar said, “We can still begin our future. It’ll be something we can tell our…

⋆ KANSAS CITY, MO As Christmas 1949 approached, I was recently married to my high school sweetheart, Chuck. We liked our jobs at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange in Minnesota, and we were happy. We bought our first Christmas tree—a small balsam fir for our tiny Murphy-bed apartment. One morning near the holiday, we caught the streetcar to the grain exchange, where several offices displayed decorated Christmas trees. We boarded a crowded elevator. Chuck got off at the fourth floor with a promise to meet me later at a local bar and eatery. I worked as a typist on the seventh floor. An important part of my job was to record the grain prices and type a report at the close of trading each day. This was the last trading day…

⋆ SPOONER, WI When the big box arrived that year, my brother Randy, my sister Linda and I were in school. Gary and Mark, still preschoolers, watched as Mom opened the parcel of fabric remnants from her old friend Mrs. Spritke, who worked at Rhea Manufacturing Co. garment factory in Milwaukee. Mom told the boys that the package was a secret. They were to tell no one about it. Nearly a year had passed since Dad’s bowling pin refinishing shop had burned down in early December 1954. His efforts to reestablish the business hadn’t worked out, so Christmas 1955 was going to be meager in the Anderson household. We’d moved from Milwaukee to rural Osseo, where Mom had roots, and were living in a rented farmhouse. That summer, Mom and…

Many people call it by its first line, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”—not surprising, considering its actual title, “The Christmas Song,” sounds oddly generic, as if the songwriters always meant to come up with something better. Yet this seasonal favorite, composed on a blistering hot July day by Mel Torme and Robert Wells and first recorded by Nat King Cole in 1946, may be the most finely crafted tune in the holiday canon. Torme’s haunting jazz ballad aligns perfectly with the lyrical storytelling, which is a tribute to all the special moments that “help to make the season bright”: Jack Frost nipping at your nose, Yuletide carols being sung by a choir, and a turkey and some mistletoe. The song’s most unique feature is its structure: It has no…

CAMP IT UP We are planning a tribute to Airstreams, those silver beauties of the campground—if you ever had one, we’d love to read about it. But we want to hear from all campers. What was the best camping trip you took? Label your submission “Camping.” DEPARTMENTS Submissions for our many standing departments are welcome. Below are a few favorites. Still can’t decide where your story belongs? Send it along and let us figure it out. » Growing Up: Joys of childhood and the teenage years. » Pictures from the Past: How we lived and looked back when. Is it a fantastic picture? Send it for consideration for our Back Cover. » Brush with Fame: The thrill of meeting someone famous. » At Work: Jobs that earned a place in…

• PHOENIX, AZ Our father, a self-taught tenor sax player who was a popular bandleader in the Big Band era before he shipped out to the Pacific theater in World War II, taught us girls to sing in harmony. I was the oldest, and using my babysitting money, I bought sheet music at Polsky’s department store in downtown Akron, Ohio. None of us could read music, but I figured out our harmonies on an old player piano. The Lennon Sisters on The Lawrence Welk Show— like us, four girls—were an influence. Wendy always sang the melody, I sang alto, Rita sang third-part harmony and our baby sister, Jean, called Goody, punctuated our songs with the ho-ho-hos or whatever we needed. When we were on our way to visit our relatives…

• KIEL, WI Germans immigrating to the deforested land along the North Fork of the Flambeau River in north-central Wisconsin called the area Eisenstein, after their homeland on the border of Bavaria and Bohemia in present-day Czech Republic. John Woodie was one of those settlers; his son Joseph married Mary Wallner, and their daughter Irene is my mother. In late November 1931, the low morning sun cast long shadows across a freezing landscape. Irene, 7, and her six siblings couldn’t wait for a big storm to blow down from Lake Superior and pile the snow in huge drifts. Irene’s brothers went ahead of her to school, and she was alone when she got to Murray Creek and stepped on the log to cross. When her foot slipped, she fell in,…

⋆ FULLERTON, CA My sister had a way with words—but not the ones I wanted to hear. “Listen, you brat, what makes you think you’re getting a bike for Christmas?” My yearning for a bicycle of my own had taken over my young life. It seemed that each birthday and Christmas, I was having a harder time hiding my disappointment. I didn’t want dolls, clothes or toys, only my two-wheeled dream. As my eighth birthday approached, my parents explained that because a bike wasn’t in their budget that year, they were giving me a day at The Pike amusement park in Long Beach—just Mom, Dad and me. I was one of six children, so this was indeed a treat for my memory bank. My parents sat through two movies of…

WAYNESVILLE, NC THE RADIO WASN’T ON MUCH IN THE house when I was a little guy—I was born in 1946—but one show I remember hearing was The Cinnamon Bear. In Chicago, the children’s adventure written by Glanville and Elizabeth Heisch aired on WGN in 15-minute episodes weekdays between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I loved listening to those episodes, which ended on a cliffhanger each night. The story begins with siblings Jimmy and Judy searching the attic for their family’s missing Christmas tree star. A toy bear comes to life to tell them the Crazy Quilt Dragon stole it. The bear transports the brother and sister to Maybeland to get back the star. In the 1970s, when our daughter was 5, I splurged on a set of cassettes of the series so…

Check under the hood of one of today’s vehicles and you’re likely to see a turbo-charged, direct-injected four or six-cylinder engine. But 90 years ago, America fell for a different engine, and the love affair lasted decades. In 1932, Henry Ford unveiled the first mass-market V-8, a motor previously available only in pricier cars. Ford’s simpler flathead design was cheaper to make. From 1932 to 1953 it built 25 million, ranking Ford’s V-8 among the 20th century’s most important automotive engines. The mass-market V-8 concept is credited as Henry Ford’s last engineering contribution to the company. In 1934, Henry Ford received a letter purportedly from bank robber Clyde Barrow of the infamous crime duo Bonnie and Clyde. The letter praises the flathead V-8 for its ability to outrun pursuers. “While…

ACROSS 1 Much-loved Chicago-based department store, 2 wds. 8 Tennis court divider 9 Roebuck’s partner 10 Under 11 Store with a starring role in Miracle on 34th Street, _____ Brothers 15 Traditional dog name 16 A while back 17 Lord’s Prayer starter 19 Department store with a Thanksgiving parade 20 Summer hat and a canal 21 Mr. Pacino 23 Crack a book 25 _____ carte, 2 wds. 26 Fashionable 27 Boss of the co. 28 Raison d’_____ 31 Its first store opened in Rogers, AR, in 1962 33 Most well-kept 34 Broadcast 35 Like a diamond or a heart 36 Welcome 38 Particular kind of product or merchandise 40 At some river mouths 41 Dress to the nines, 2 wds. DOWN 1 Mail-order pioneer, 2 wds. 2 Large rodent 3…

• SAN ANTONIO, TX Sarasota, Florida, was growing in the 1950s—the city added subdivisions, shopping centers and schools—but it still had a small-town feel. My family was well known in the community: Dad was active in the Episcopal Church, where he was an administrator for several programs, and we all worked at the family retail office supply business. Both of my parents’ families had moved to Sarasota in the 1920s. Mom and Dad met in high school, but in the early 1930s, they left to find work in New York. Dad worked for the government during the war, setting up training programs in defense plants, experience that allowed him to transfer to Florida in 1942. We moved to Sarasota in early 1943. By 1950 the city had an active art…

The federal penitentiary on The Rock, which started as Fort Alcatraz in 1850, officially closes. The last American-made Studebaker rolls off the line at the South Bend, Indiana, plant. Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova is the first woman to go into space. Petticoat Junction joins a field of sitcoms about small-town life. Ma Bell introduces touch-tone dialing via the push-button phone. Folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary perform at the March on Washington. Americans grieve President John F. Kennedy’s death. And Merriam-Webster gives these words entries. ANTILOCK: Carmakers test the anti-skid braking technology that is used in aircraft, but for now it costs too much in cars. BABY BOOMER: The Newport News, Virginia, Daily Press gives a heads-up that a tidal wave of kids—those born after the war—will soon head off…

Dad sometimes took us to a neighborhood tavern in La Crosse, Wisconsin, that had an old piano. My 6-year-old brother, Sam, loved standing at it, working out songs he knew. Our parents noticed his interest, and for Christmas in 1958, they bought a used upright for $150. I cut up boxes to disguise the piano’s shape, then Mom wrapped it in faux brick paper. Sam never suspected that the large object in our living room was anything but a new fireplace. On Christmas morning, Mom told us to take the structure apart. We got a picture of Sam’s look of amazement when he realized what the “fireplace” was. My parents were right: Sam was a lifelong musician, singing and playing piano professionally at clubs and for a cruise line. •…

• WOOSTER, OH During the latter part of the Korean War, I was an aircraft mechanic assigned to a flight line maintenance squadron at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas, Nevada. We maintained the F-86 Sabres used for training fighter pilots. We were low-ranking—and low-paid—servicemen. The joke was that a three-stripe airman first class got $117 per day—once a month. For a two-stripe airman second class, the rate was $101.40. Over the holidays, the flying schedule was reduced to allow as many of us as possible to get home. Part of the unit got leave for Christmas, the other part for New Year’s. For those guys who couldn’t get leave for Christmas 1956, there was no Bing Crosby and no snow—just homesickness and a lack of privacy in our…

⋆ NEW CARLISLE, OH CHRISTMAS 1965 WAS BITTERLY COLD IN SOUTHWEST OHIO. FOR SEVERAL DAYS PRIOR TO THE HOLIDAY, WINDS WERE HIGH, ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT, CREATING SNOW DRIFTS AND WREAKING HAVOC WITH EXTERIOR DECORATIONS. PLASTIC REINDEER AND NATIVITY wise men were strewn onto snowbanks, and strings of colored lights drooped from roof gutters. I rode to morning kindergarten in a warm station wagon with several other 5-year-olds, but my poor sister Mischelle and the other older kids had to trudge through the elements to school. But however rough the weather, it was still the Christmas season and an exciting time. My sister and I had already circled several items in the Sears wish book. With five years separating us, our choices seldom overlapped. But that year, we both asked for a…

⋆ WEATHERFORD, OK Christmas lights twinkled in the windows and reflected off the deep snow. NOW A WIDOWER, I AM BLESSED WITH MANY MEMORIES. BUT THE ONE THAT STANDS OUT THE MOST IN MY MIND IS OF CHRISTMAS EVE 1954. IT WAS ABOUT 8 P.M. AND A HEAVY SNOW WAS FALLING WHEN I FINALLY ARRIVED AT MY DESTINATION, A SMALL FARMHOUSE BY A creek near the town of McArthur in the hill country of southeastern Ohio. I had hitchhiked 525 miles to visit a very special girl by the name of Agnes “Aggie” Johnson. I’d left Norfolk, Virginia, the evening before to see her one last time before my ship, the USS Midway, left for duty in the South China Sea. I have a vivid memory of the sound of my…

• FRESNO, CA My favorite childhood toy is a 12-inch stuffed caricature-type doll of a soldier, with his right arm sewn in a permanent salute, looking spiffy in his Army uniform. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, I was 5 years old and living with my family in Honolulu, Hawaii, at Hickam Field, which was next to the Pearl Harbor U.S. Naval Base. After the attack, civilian military dependents were sent back to the mainland. My mother, my older brother and I boarded a ship for San Francisco. My father was a military doctor and commanding officer of the hospital at Hickam, so he had to stay behind. While we were at sea, my mother found two handsome military dolls at the gift shop on the…

COMING UP: Baby Cards Post your photos: REMINISCE.COM/SUBMIT-A-STORY OUTSIDE SAIGON, 1967 While serving with the 222nd Combat Aviation Battalion near the city of Vung Tau, Edwin Lloyd Jr. and his fellow servicemen threw a Christmas party for a local orphanage. For the children, it was their first time meeting Santa Claus, who arrived via chopper. For Edwin and his troop-elves, it remains a joyful memory from an otherwise tough time.…