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Standing On The Corner
by Donnie Harucki
It doesn’t seem that long ago when, in 1963, a group of
teenagers standing on the corner near an ice cream parlor or candy
store just hanging around doing nothing. At least it seemed as though
we did nothing. At the time of my youth, it seemed we did everything!
Standing on the corner, it never failed that at least one of
us had a transistor radio tuned to the popular local station. As time
seemed to stand still for us, and with the radio turned as loudly as
we could manage, we’d learn the lyrics to the latest songs and
practice our dance steps for the upcoming dance.
Many times, one of us would be planning a party and naturally,
everyone was invited. Conversation would soon become concentrated on
fashion, what to wear and how to fix our hair.
The boys, of course, didn’t care about listening to any of that
“girlie stuff” but they did like to grab a few of the boys with the
best voices and try their hands at harmonizing. Some of the guys in
our crowd were quite good, too.
I can still remember my very first radio. It was a six-transistor
Westinghouse, a cute little purple and gold radio only about 7 inches
long.
My grandmother saved her change and when she had enough, purchased
that radio for my 15th birthday. I can still remember how hard I cried
when my brother accidentally dropped it and it smashed into what
seemed like a million tiny pieces. Although I glued it back together,
it never worked again. Maybe some things are just not made to last.
What did last were the memories those nights on that corner made. I’ll
never forget the first time Joey kissed me. I had the biggest crush on
him. We dated for a while but eventually moved onto to other crushes.
After all these years, I wonder, now, whatever happened to him.
Yes, it’s been a long time since I stood on that or any corner. And
while I’ve grown older and things are definitely not the same, one
thing that will never change are my memories.
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