Sunday, April 1, 2012
Memories
Being 74, I've got plenty of memories, some that have faded, some that will never fade. I remember building things with my friends in the neighborhood...building forts, tree houses, building trucks to carry things, building softball fields, just always building things and playing games such as cops and robbers or cowboys and indians.
I remember getting in trouble and suspended from school for a day because a friend and I were goofing off in the cafeteria, tossing milk bottles back and forth, when my friend dodged it and the bottle rolled right into the principals office. And another day, tossing pennies at the swimmers performing an aquatics show at school, getting caught and once again sent to the principal's office.
If you ask me where I was when Kennedy was assassinated, I can tell you that it was my birthday that day, and I was at work, getting ready to go out to dinner that evening. Everything closed up for the evening, the news of Kennedy's death was so shocking to every one. The assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Robert F Kennedy, the first time John Glenn went up in space...just so many amazing memories. But if I was asked what my favorite memory would be, I'd have to say the following event:
Work Work Work
I have worked almost as long as I can remember. My first job was collecting papers during the WWII. I would go around to my neighbors collecting papers and turn them in for about $10 every other week, which was good money back then! Later I started delivering papers and cutting grass. My paper route kept me busy 6 nights a week with about 100 customers. When I turned over my paper route, I went to work at a dry cleaners for 2 years with my best friend. We called the owner Uncle Normy because he always had some quick deals...quite the wheeler dealer. He had a monkey in his house that my friend and I had to regularly clean up after. He also owned several other shops and he would have us do the odd jobs and dirty work, getting them ready for opening day.
Our family had only one car growing up, and I had managed to save enough money to buy my very own car when I was a junior in high school. It was a 1948 Plymouth convertible, yellow with an ugly red top. It was one of the first cars that had been produced after the war, and my friends and I enjoyed driving it around. Because it had a choke and hand throttle, we were able to sit on the back of the seats and drive it with only our hands-no feet involved! Probably not very safe, but a lot more fun than sitting on the seats!
Working so hard, I was also able to pay my way through college. I attended the University of Buffalo and later Valparaiso University in Indiana, where I had other various jobs, the longest being at Tony's Pizza where I pretty much ran the show when the owner became ill. My friends graduated in June, but I had to finish up by going to school in the summer. When I was done, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but since my draft number seemed to be coming up soon, I joined the Marines. I talked to a recruiter who assured me that I could go to Officer Candidate School, which I was excited about. As it turned out, because I wore glasses...which I was wearing that same day he told me I could go to OCS...and flat feet, I was not allowed into the school. I trained in San Diego, was sent to Okinawa for a year, and then was assigned to Quantico, VA, where I stayed for my last 2 years. I thankfully never saw wartime, and was quite happy when my service in the military came to an end. It was at Quantico where I met my wife, Ann, and her two sons John and Ricky. I got a job with an insurance company, we moved, my daughter Beth was born, and we never left Virginia.
Our family had only one car growing up, and I had managed to save enough money to buy my very own car when I was a junior in high school. It was a 1948 Plymouth convertible, yellow with an ugly red top. It was one of the first cars that had been produced after the war, and my friends and I enjoyed driving it around. Because it had a choke and hand throttle, we were able to sit on the back of the seats and drive it with only our hands-no feet involved! Probably not very safe, but a lot more fun than sitting on the seats!
Working so hard, I was also able to pay my way through college. I attended the University of Buffalo and later Valparaiso University in Indiana, where I had other various jobs, the longest being at Tony's Pizza where I pretty much ran the show when the owner became ill. My friends graduated in June, but I had to finish up by going to school in the summer. When I was done, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but since my draft number seemed to be coming up soon, I joined the Marines. I talked to a recruiter who assured me that I could go to Officer Candidate School, which I was excited about. As it turned out, because I wore glasses...which I was wearing that same day he told me I could go to OCS...and flat feet, I was not allowed into the school. I trained in San Diego, was sent to Okinawa for a year, and then was assigned to Quantico, VA, where I stayed for my last 2 years. I thankfully never saw wartime, and was quite happy when my service in the military came to an end. It was at Quantico where I met my wife, Ann, and her two sons John and Ricky. I got a job with an insurance company, we moved, my daughter Beth was born, and we never left Virginia.
I...love technology....
If I had to pick one of the best things that has been developed over the years, I would choose the television set. To be able to see things up close and so fast....we would hear things on the radio, but it would typically be several days later, and now! You hear and see things instantaneously!
Growing up I listened to shows such as The Green Hornet and The Lone Ranger. I'd lie on the floor and listen, looking forward to these shows each week. When I was about 15 we got our first TV. We were one of the last families among my friends to get one. We only received a few stations, nothing like what we have today, but we thought it was pretty amazing. When the Korean War started, it was very different from WWII because we were seeing things unfold on the TV set.
While other technological evolutions were amazing, like the washing machine and cell phone, the change in furnaces was another advance that I distinctly remember. Previous to our modern furnace, the coal man would deliver the coal, emptying it down a chute into a coal bin in the basement. We couldn't let the fire in the furnace go out, so we always had to go down and check it. In the night, we would bank the coal, to keep it burning and warm, but not at a high degree, until morning, when we'd add more coal. We had to clean out the ashes and take them out on garbage day. It was a lot of work, and it wasn't until we moved to the house on Puritan Rd. that we finally had a furnace that didn't need to be continually checked.
Growing up I listened to shows such as The Green Hornet and The Lone Ranger. I'd lie on the floor and listen, looking forward to these shows each week. When I was about 15 we got our first TV. We were one of the last families among my friends to get one. We only received a few stations, nothing like what we have today, but we thought it was pretty amazing. When the Korean War started, it was very different from WWII because we were seeing things unfold on the TV set.
While other technological evolutions were amazing, like the washing machine and cell phone, the change in furnaces was another advance that I distinctly remember. Previous to our modern furnace, the coal man would deliver the coal, emptying it down a chute into a coal bin in the basement. We couldn't let the fire in the furnace go out, so we always had to go down and check it. In the night, we would bank the coal, to keep it burning and warm, but not at a high degree, until morning, when we'd add more coal. We had to clean out the ashes and take them out on garbage day. It was a lot of work, and it wasn't until we moved to the house on Puritan Rd. that we finally had a furnace that didn't need to be continually checked.
WWII
Because we already lived a fairly humble lifestyle, we weren't affected more than anyone else by the war. What I do remember were the blackouts and the rationing. During the blackouts, everyone had to turn off all their lights or draw black shades down. They did this so that if the German's were to fly over and drop bombs, no light would be showing to give them a target. People took it very seriously even though there were never planes sighted. The air wardens, including my father, would walk about the neighborhood, making sure that all the homes were in compliance.
The rationing of food was also noticed by all. There was no butter, and I remember my mother using a substitute called oleo when she baked. Meat was rationed to about 2 lbs per month.....this doesn't sound like a lot, but we were never starving, we just knew we had to cut back on what items were limited. I also remember that not only food was rationed, but other things such as ladies nylons, rubber for tires, and gasoline. Because my father had the job building homes for veterans, he actually had coupons so that he could get gas and travel back and forth to work.
I had relatives that served in the war, but none who ever fought or who were even hurt. I did have one cousin who fought, and sadly he ended up getting killed in an accident unrelated to the fighting!
Because my grandparents and other relatives who were German and who still lived there, we were of course concerned for them, and after the war my family sent care packages to them.
I remember the celebrations at the end of the war. Everyone was honking their horns, and when we went over to my cousin's house, people were yelling and screaming, horns and sirens were going off...we had found out on the radio that a treaty had been signed, and everyone was just in such a celebratory mood. But it wasn't too much longer that the Korean War started and so peacetime really didn't last too long.
The rationing of food was also noticed by all. There was no butter, and I remember my mother using a substitute called oleo when she baked. Meat was rationed to about 2 lbs per month.....this doesn't sound like a lot, but we were never starving, we just knew we had to cut back on what items were limited. I also remember that not only food was rationed, but other things such as ladies nylons, rubber for tires, and gasoline. Because my father had the job building homes for veterans, he actually had coupons so that he could get gas and travel back and forth to work.
I had relatives that served in the war, but none who ever fought or who were even hurt. I did have one cousin who fought, and sadly he ended up getting killed in an accident unrelated to the fighting!
Because my grandparents and other relatives who were German and who still lived there, we were of course concerned for them, and after the war my family sent care packages to them.
The House on Englewood
Telling my daughter about my life growing up, I think to myself that maybe I didn't have a very eventful story to tell. But looking at it through the eyes of someone else, namely Beth, I realize how different that youth of mine was compared to so many of today's youth. I grew up on Englewood Ave., in Kenmore, a suburb of Buffalo, New York. Both sets of my grandparents as well as my dad were immigrants from Germany, and my mother often spoke German and kept in touch with relatives in Germany, writing and speaking in German. I unfortunately did not grow up speaking it! My father was a bricklayer, but because he was older, he was one of the last on the draft list and ended up not being drafted into WWII. Being a bricklayer, he was basically out of work every winter, and with the war affecting everything from jobs to housing to cost of living, etc, my family rented that duplex until I was 17 before buying a house on Puritan Rd, which is the house my children remember visiting. My father got a job building tract homes for returning veterans, but never really made very much money, I think it was about $100 per week. My sister Lynette and I lived through the recession and WWII in this duplex.
One of my most vivid memories growing up in this duplex was paying the rent. My father and I would take the $35 rent each month over to the landlord's house. He would be sitting in his basement, smoking by the furnace, and would ask my dad to come in and have a drink with him. He liked my dad and me, and it was always something I looked forward to doing.
Another memory was during the war. One night my mother was out somewhere, my father was probably out doing his air raid warden duties, and my aunt Betty was there tending. We would often go sit on the front stoop and watch the wardens do their jobs, and that night she was carrying me down the stairs and tripped. We both went flying, she of course trying to protect me as we tumbled. Luckily neither one of us was hurt too bad.
Growing up, we considered ourselves city folk, even though we weren't really in the city. On Sundays we would visit my uncles who had moved back to the farm after returning from the war. The farm had no indoor plumbing or electricity. When we stayed indoors, we sat around with gas lamps, having to pump water when needed, and using the outhouse when necessary. It was much more fun to play outside or in the barn the whole time! They had horses and pigs, grew grapes and fruit trees. Many good memories of playing with my cousins. I actually remember one of our "games" being playing "church". My cousins Bob and Judy and I would pretend to be the preacher, pass the collection plate, and be the audience....amazing what 3 kids could come up with.
Another memory was during the war. One night my mother was out somewhere, my father was probably out doing his air raid warden duties, and my aunt Betty was there tending. We would often go sit on the front stoop and watch the wardens do their jobs, and that night she was carrying me down the stairs and tripped. We both went flying, she of course trying to protect me as we tumbled. Luckily neither one of us was hurt too bad.
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