A post by Sharilyn in another thread jogged some memories and rather than hijack that thread..........
I remember growing up in the 40's and 50's when life seemed a lot more simple. Maybe it wasn't, but it seemed that way.
I grew up in one of those San Joaquin Valley farming towns similar to Modesto featured in American Grafitti. In fact, my youth was a composite of all the male characters in that movie. Perhaps it is my all time favorite movie because it is so biographical. And yes, I did marry the sweetheart character in that movie.
I DID grow up in a house with a white picket fence. My younger brother and I both rode our bicycles to school. There were very few cars on the road. Often as a 6 or 7 year old, I would walk around downtown and no one would bother me. The community was about 5 or 6 thousand hard working, church going inhabitants.
My parents did not have a lot of money. My mother was a stay at home mom and did the wash, did the ironing, did the cooking, and sewed our clothes. When the sons wore holes in the knees of their jeans, my mom would patch them up and we would wear them to school......just like all the other kids. Once a week it was beans and franks for supper, that would be Campbells Pork and Beans with weiners cut up in them. Since we were a Catholic family, Fridays were ALWAYS fish sticks or pancakes for supper. We were required to clean our plates (a bad habit that still sticks with me today) because of all the "starving chinamen." Afternoon snacks were often home made popsicles. Kool Aid was the drink of choice and Jello with canned fruit cocktail in it, a favorite dessert.
We didn't have a TV, couldn't afford one. But Saturday mornings, it was always Big John and Sparky on the radio. One night a week it was Fibber McGee and Molly or the chilling Whistler or Jack Benny on the radio. My hobbies were either digging "forts" in the soft soil of the agricultural fields or building plastic model airplanes. However, in the evening it was always 2 hours of school homework with my mother providing the guidance. School was 8:30 until 2:30 or 3:00 in the afternoon. Anything but a 100% effort at school was unacceptable.
And yes, when the future matapule misbehaved, severe corporal punishment was an accepted and expected form of discipline.
You can never go back to the way things were, nor would I necessarily want to, but I will always be grateful for the memories.
Anyhting you would like to share?
I remember growing up in the 40's and 50's when life seemed a lot more simple. Maybe it wasn't, but it seemed that way.
I grew up in one of those San Joaquin Valley farming towns similar to Modesto featured in American Grafitti. In fact, my youth was a composite of all the male characters in that movie. Perhaps it is my all time favorite movie because it is so biographical. And yes, I did marry the sweetheart character in that movie.
I DID grow up in a house with a white picket fence. My younger brother and I both rode our bicycles to school. There were very few cars on the road. Often as a 6 or 7 year old, I would walk around downtown and no one would bother me. The community was about 5 or 6 thousand hard working, church going inhabitants.
My parents did not have a lot of money. My mother was a stay at home mom and did the wash, did the ironing, did the cooking, and sewed our clothes. When the sons wore holes in the knees of their jeans, my mom would patch them up and we would wear them to school......just like all the other kids. Once a week it was beans and franks for supper, that would be Campbells Pork and Beans with weiners cut up in them. Since we were a Catholic family, Fridays were ALWAYS fish sticks or pancakes for supper. We were required to clean our plates (a bad habit that still sticks with me today) because of all the "starving chinamen." Afternoon snacks were often home made popsicles. Kool Aid was the drink of choice and Jello with canned fruit cocktail in it, a favorite dessert.
We didn't have a TV, couldn't afford one. But Saturday mornings, it was always Big John and Sparky on the radio. One night a week it was Fibber McGee and Molly or the chilling Whistler or Jack Benny on the radio. My hobbies were either digging "forts" in the soft soil of the agricultural fields or building plastic model airplanes. However, in the evening it was always 2 hours of school homework with my mother providing the guidance. School was 8:30 until 2:30 or 3:00 in the afternoon. Anything but a 100% effort at school was unacceptable.
And yes, when the future matapule misbehaved, severe corporal punishment was an accepted and expected form of discipline.
You can never go back to the way things were, nor would I necessarily want to, but I will always be grateful for the memories.
Anyhting you would like to share?
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