The Old Hat - My mother and I had
been at Grandmothers house for three days when I noticed the old wide
brimmed hat on the cloths rack. "Grandma can I try that hat on"
pointing at the hat. "Yes John, but don't take it outside." I thought
it was the neatest hat in the world. Every time I came in the house
from playing outside I would put the hat on. The hat was large for me
when I put it on it would drop over my ears and eyes, I would just
tilt it back. Deep down inside I hoped my Grandmother would give it to
me.
After fact - The following summer when my mother and I returned to
Grandmother house, the hat was gone. The hat was an U.S. Army campaign
hat, from the First World War that my Grandfather wore. My Grandmother
gave the hat, uniform and metals to a V.F.W. Post.
1947
The Grocery Haulers - All that Larry and I had to do was stand
next to our red wagons in front of the store and wait. When a lady
came out of the Safeway store with their arms full of grocery sacks,
one of us would offer to haul her groceries in our wagon for a dine.
On a good day Larry and I could make three trips. After we had made a
couple of trips, Larry and I would go into the drug store and sit down
on a stool at the fountain and order "Green river floats". We would
still have money left over after the floats to purchase penny candy.
1948
The Wave - Larry and I just got down off the "Monkey Bars" in
the play field and started walking home. The ground started to shake,
Larry and I stopped in our tracks. The ground started to roll towards
us, as if it was a wave, we started running. We could not stay on our
feet, we kept falling down. We had no idea what was happening, but we
started laughing. My oldest sister was working for an insurance
company in the tallest building in Seattle at the time, called the
"Smith Tower". The Seattle-times reported the next day, the Smith
tower swayed six feet during the earthquake.
1948
The Coin Collection - I wrote my brother a letter, asking him
if he could find and send me some Korean coins. My brother was with
the Marine Corps in the Korean War. About a month later I got a pound
of coins in the mail from my brother. There were all kinds of Chinese,
Japanese and Korean coins. I had the neatest coin collection in
school.
After fact - My brother read my letter to his troops, and everyone
threw in a few coins for Joe's kid brother.
1953
The Premier - Piles of military arms were displayed in the
lobby of the "Paramount Theater." There were mannequins in military
uniforms, sandbag bunker, and a machine gun. Out side on the street
was a large "Search light" on a trailer. The special event at the
Paramount Theater, was the premier showing of the movie "Battle Cry"
1955
There was one in every high school - His name was Berry, he was
seventeen years old and very hairy, he started shaving in the seventh
grade. Berry had a huge following, because he was able to purchase
beer. When we were pulled over by the police for drinking, one of two
things would happen. The police would take the beer from us then tell
us to go home, or we had to pop the caps off and pour the beer in the
street. No one ever got a ticket.
1957
Star Hubcaps - There was a short-lived fad amongst hot rodders
of installing small lights under your wheel well. The lights would
reflect off the spinning star of the 1956 olds hubcaps, it looked cool.
So many Olds hubcaps were stolen; the insurance companies were no
longer paying for replacement. The police started stopping hot rodders
with the olds spinners and asking for proof of purchase. If you had
the spinners on your car the last thing you wanted was to have the
police notice them.
Go
to Rewind the Fifties Home
