Monthly Archives: October 2012

Frogs on Sidewalks

31 Wednesday Oct 2012

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We had just moved from the apartments on Riverside Drive to a new, two bedroom brick house on the east side of town. And the biggest news was that we now had sidewalks. Sidewalks were a luxury and made going out on Halloween  easier and safer. We lived on Congress Avenue and to this four-year old, the street seemed miles and miles long. When I went back to visit my parents as an adult, the street seemed smaller and much shorter, but that did not minimize the memory of my Halloween adventures on Congress Avenue.

There was only Sissy and me at that point-no baby brother or sister-and we did almost everything together. This included shopping for Halloween costumes and trick or treating.  I don’t remember where we found that year’s costumes, but my guess is we shopped at either the S.S. Kresge five and dime or the ubiquitous Sears and Roebuck department store to find the perfect costumes.

There was no fairy princess wand, witch’s black hat, or Dorothy’s ruby red slippers for the  Strange girls. In 1954 we decided to both dress as frogs. Definitely random. When was the last time you saw a frog costume? Remember, this was before the days of Kermit the Frog. Nevertheless the costumes left an indelible impression on me as here I am decades later recalling the details of that night in October.

The body of the costume was made of some type of green cloth. I don’t know that polyester had been invented as yet, but it was a one-piece deal that I  pulled on over my clothes like a jump suit, all the way to the neck. A black plastic tie held the two sides together as it encircled the neck of the costume.  It was too cold in Indiana on Halloween to go without clothes underneath, so a larger size was required to make up for the extra room needed for the bottom layer of clothing, which would keep us warm. Shoes next, and then we were off.

The mask was made of hard, thin plastic and was the best part of the costume. The frozen, painted face of a smiling, happy frog greeted everyone on the other side of my face. The mask was also the worst part of the costume. Underneath, it was hot, hot, hot and by the end of the evening, the experience, while entertaining and fun, was truly claustrophobic. But we didn’t dare remove our masks during our journey up and down the street, because the neighbors would then discover our identity-which would be an unforgivable consequence of not being able to bear the heat of the mask.

Of course, Daddy was standing not too far behind us on the walkways leading up to the houses as our protectorate in arms, so it was not as great a mystery as we liked to pretend.  Red, curly hair and straight brown hair sneaking out from under the elastic bands that held the masks to our small faces usually was enough of a clue to let the neighbors know that it was the Strange girls. It really didn’t matter whether we kept our masks on or not, but I was not going to be the first to fall victim to the temptation of unmasking and revealing my identity.

“Trick or treat” we shouted out in unison as each of our neighbors opened the door feigning great surprise. Our intent was always to secure a treat and never to trick-a thought that had never entered the minds of two frogs just looking for candy. “Thank you,” was our genuine response as the neighbors loaded Halloween treats into our personally designed, brown paper grocery bags, which we had laboriously decorated with our small hands and crayola eights. After trying to view the generosity of our neighbors in the dark as their hands reached into our bags, we squealed in delight running back to our father. We excitedly described the comments and surprise of Mrs. Smith or Mr. Jones-Yes, there really were neighbors on our street named Mrs. Smith and Mr. Jones-as we skipped happily to the next house.

Once the trek was completed up one side of the street, on the blessed sidewalks of course, and down the next side, we returned home to count our loot. Mother waited at home serving treats to all the other neighborhood kids and we ended our evening knocking on our very own door and collecting the very best treat of the evening from her. A hug and a kiss for these little frogs.

Once home, the masks came off as we poured the entire contents of the bag on the living room floor, exclaiming at some of the prizes we discovered in our bags. Full sized candy bars, home-made popcorn balls, candied covered apples in luscious caramel or a sweet, sticky cherry glaze, and occasionally a full pack of gum. We traded the candies we didn’t like with each other and put our favorite ones together in piles on the floor and surrendered some of the loot to our parents, who helped keep the sugar rush in check. We blew out the pumpkins, tucked our costumes away in a drawer for safe keeping and staggered off to bed-after of course brushing our teeth with Crest-satisfied with the evening and our innocent deception.

In the fifties, we didn’t worry about crazy people putting razor blades or poison in our candy. We knew everyone on our street and we were happy with what we received-small tokens of neighborly love.  Well, there might have been that one house towards the end of the street we avoided. Not very friendly folks lived there. But for the most part, we felt safe and secure.

We didn’t worry about tooth decay, stomach aches or the boogeyman. And we certainly weren’t worried about offending any particular religious group or being accused of worshipping Satan. We were just two little girls, dressed up as frogs, running through the neighborhood with our father collecting sweet treats from our neighbors and reveling in exclamations of “Who are these cute little frogs?” Halloween in the fifties? Safe and fun, which was its intent. Witches, ghosts and goblins, oh my! And frogs on sidewalks, too!

Don’t you wish you could be a frog-if only for a night? On the sidewalks of Indiana? Boo-ribbit!

Then There Were Four….

23 Tuesday Oct 2012

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October rolled around with the anticipation of another addition to the Strange family. The 1961 World Series ended with the New York Yankees winning in five games and Halloween was around the corner.

Earlier in the year-on Easter Sunday in fact-Mother and Daddy told us the news.  They were both thirty-seven years old and even though that is not considered “old” in today’s world for having a baby, thirty-seven was considered to be outside of the preferred age for  women to bear children back then. Besides, our family was already complete. We had two girls and one boy and another baby was not on the agenda.

Nevertheless, at eleven and twelve, Sissy and I were thrilled with the thought of another baby in our house-provided it was a girl. BQ was already four and the novelty of having a brother, in all of his mischief-was over.

In our new Easter garb-which I clearly remember as a beautiful yellow and white dress with embroidered yellow flowers on the white bodice-we walked up and down the street to our best friends’ houses to broadcast our news. Little did we know nor understand at the time, the fragility of life and our roles in caring the life that would be coming home in a few months.

This time, it was a girl as she finally arrived on October 23. I waited eagerly for her to come home from the hospital, being so excited about the chance to be finally be a big sister. The excitement didn’t last long as our parents told us  there was a problem. She apparently was born with a herniated “something or another” and she needed an operation. An operation on a baby! We had never heard of such a thing as that. We were now scared and confused as trepidation slowly made its way into our home.

For whatever reason, the operation could not take place for six weeks and during that period; we could not let our baby cry. If she cried too much, the herniated “something or another” could strangulate and she could die. With this additional information, we defined our responsibility quickly-our baby was not going to die. We would not let that happen.

For the next six weeks in the Strange household, we carefully, lovingly and with a significant grasp of the gravity of the situation, set about to care for our baby. We passed her back and forth between usanytime she whimpered or even began to cry. Mother to Daddy. Daddy to Sissy. Sissy to me. And back again to Mother. I am not sure what Mother did during the day when we were in school and Daddy was at work, but we managed to keep her quiet and satisfied for that very long six weeks in the autumn of sixty-one.

The day of surgery finally arrived in early December. We understood the seriousness of it all and only wished for our baby to come home safe and sound. The surgery was a success and when she arrived home a week later, the only indication that anything had ever been wrong with her was merely a three-inch incision on her lower abdomen. We saw the stitches tightly sewn, holding the two sides of the surgeon’s precision cut together. Three inches, while not much bigger than a pill bottle, appeared enormous on her small body, while the overwhelming weight of fear disappeared from from our small shoulders.

The incision healed and we now heard the healthy cries of our new baby throughout our home.

Years later, we teased Mother and Daddy about spoiling her so badly. She would get away with things that the three of us would never have gotten away with, and in spite of their protestations to those facts, we knew that she truly was the baby of the family and the spoiling began the first day she came home from the hospital.

Today, technology and medical advances have improved the potential outcomes for many new babies who must undergo surgery for a variety of reasons-a liver transplant, a cardiac defect or a herniated “something or another”. This is now and that was then. Then, when there were now four.

Happy Birthday Yordy! No crying allowed-even if it is your fifty-first birthday. I love you!

.

Petticoats Lost

14 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by in The Fabulous Fifties

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Little girls still wore petticoats in the fifties and finding that very special one for my new church or school dress was a special treat. Mother, Sissy and I usually shopped at the S.S. Kresge store in the Lawndale Shopping Center because it was close by and the merchandise was not expensive. The SS. Kresge store along with Woolworth was the quintessential five and dime store of the day. The stores housed everything from clothing to hardware and we could find the perfect petticoat or mixing bowls or nails, or anything r else we might need in one location. As we entered the store, we saw the clothing racks in the distance filled with the lacy, full or half-slips sticking out from the racks. Ruffles, lace, nylon, tulle-they greeted us with style. Silk petticoats were not hanging on the racks at S. S. Kresge and even if they had been, they were too expensive for our budget. The petticoats were usually white, but also pink, pale blue or lavender and even yellow. The flashier petticoats were of course red or black, but I don’t remember having a petticoat in either of those colors. A bit scandalous for elementary school I imagine.

The full-length version always had a small pink flower with green stem appliqué attached to the center of the top half where it would lie flat on the breastbone of its small inhabitant. The half-slip would also sport the appliqué positioned at the waistline or along one of the layers of ruffles.

At the beginning of school each year, we went shopping for new shoes and dresses and of course a petticoat to go with the new dresses. One year, the newest petticoats of the season had jingle bells. Yes, jingle bells. I’m sure my teacher didn’t appreciate the noise because as I walked or ran I could hear not only the swashing of the nylon and tulle against my dress, I heard the ever so slight sound of bells jingling. melodiously. As I walked by my classmates, one of them always inquired, “Where are those bells coming from?”  I stopped, moved my body side to side and proudly declared, “That’s my petticoat!”  The jingling soon became passé, some of the bells fell off and I was eventually left with a plain old, quiet petticoat.

However, fashion never rests and not to be outdone by the musical petticoats, the petticoat designer of the day added yet another feature to the fifties’ crinoline. What was the purpose of a petticoat? Well, to emphasize the fullness of a skirt or dress. And, what better way to elevate the light, nearly weightless fabric of a petticoat than an inner tube.  Yes, I said inner tube. Along the inside of the petticoat, someone had designed a model that included one-inch plastic inner tubes lining the circumference of the slip.  Similar to the plastic inner tube used to keep bodies afloat in the pool; these petticoats had to be   blown up before wearing. In the morning when getting ready for church or school, I opened the plastic valve, filled my lungs and blew into the inner tubes. I never liked blowing up inner tubes at the pool, but these were small and didn’t require much air.

Having accomplished that task, I knew my dress would billow out from me beautifully. I could confidently wear my petticoat without the telltale sound of bells and without having to wear an extra petticoat for extra bounce and fullness. No one, not even my best friend, knew I was wearing inner tubes.

But just like those pool toys and floats, the air eventually leaked out and by the end of the day, the extra bounce in the petticoat had disappeared. My dress still flared a bit, by virtue of the layers of ruffles and tulle, but the regal appearance the inner tubes created was gone. Not to my surprise, inner tube petticoats only lasted one season and I haven’t seen one since. Perhaps the style will return and the technology will have improved-but I don’t think so. Besides petticoats were terribly itchy and hot and………

Deep Fried and Delicious-Corn Dogs and Donuts

09 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Gastronomical Delights

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Today’s push for healthy eating would be the total antithesis of fried foods in the 50’s.  We owned an old-fashioned deep fryer with a slightly twisted metal basket, which fit into the deep interior of the rectangular shaped device. It had a thick, striped cloth covering the electrical cord, which was slightly frayed, signifying the many years of its existence. This portable, electric device was the precursor to the Fry Daddy of the late 70s, but, oh-so much better. Mother had inherited this deep fryer from her mother. She stored it in a lower cabinet in the kitchen and it only came out of its hiding place for certain gastronomical delights-cinnamon sugar donuts, fried oysters, fried ochre and corn dogs. Fried chicken was cooked on the stove in a cast iron skillet, just in case you are wondering. I didn’t like fried oysters or ochre so I only paid attention when she made donuts or corn dogs.

Usually, we ate fried bologna sandwiches, PB & J or peanut butter and banana sandwiches for lunch,but as a special treat on a rainy day, Mother treated us to deep-fried corn dogs. When she announced the choice for the day’s lunch, we happily pulled out the deep fryer with the weathered wire basket and volunteered to help. Our mouths watered at the mere mention of crisp fried meat on a stick-our version of the all-American hot dog.

Mother fixed the batter with egg, milk and cornmeal, while Sissy and I dug deep into the kitchen drawers to find the used Popsicle sticks we needed to insert into the dogs. We speared the meat with the sticks and rolled the raw hot dogs in the batter until they were completely covered in thick meal. Carefully leaning over the fryer, Mother supervised our efforts warning us not to get too close to the popping, hot grease as we placed our uncooked dogs into the basket. We watched as Mother dipped the basket into the boiling oil.  As the wet batter mingled with the grease, loud popping noises filled the air as bubbling grease filled the space within the basket. After several minutes, the yellow corn meal turned brown. Mother carefully pulled the basket from the grease and allowed the excess grease to drip onto a plate set out specifically for that reason. After waiting for the corn dogs to cool, she collected them from the basket and served them on our plates. We waited patiently for the sticks to cool so we could pick up the corn dogs to first roll them in catsup or mustard, and then eat them. Satisfied and full after only one corn dog, we returned our unused Popsicle sticks to the drawer and returned the fryer to its rightful place.

Today, I don’t usually eat fried foods, except perhaps when I go to the ballpark and think about eating a corn dog. I walk around the large stadium scouring the selection of vendors and their respective menus until I find one that sells corn dogs. Regardless of the price or the length of the line, I stand there waiting to place my order. The corn dog of today looks no different from how it looked in the fifties-meat on a stick, covered in crispy, fried cornmeal. It comes served by itself in a paper container. As I make my way over to the condiment stand, my mouth begins to water. I cover one corner of the container in catsup and I return to my seat to enjoy my treat of deep-fried and delicious.

Since 1992, there has been a National Corn Dog Day.  It is celebrated on the first Saturday of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship, and along with corn dogs, Tater Tots and American beer are honored.  What more could a girl from Indiana want-basketball and corn dogs?  I wonder where the event is being held next year. Surely one more corn dog won’t clog my arteries.

 

Get Us to the Church on Time!

07 Sunday Oct 2012

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I am rarely late. Most people I know will attest to that. In fact, most of the time, I am early for whatever event, meeting, appointment or movie I plan to attend. For whatever inner drive causes me to be punctual, I like to think the habit is a by-product of my religious upbringing or my mother. She was late to everything.

We attended a small United Church of Christ on Green River Road in Evansville and most of the people who attended the church lived close by in the neighborhoods bordering the church. We lived miles away or so it seemed that far to me as a child. We went to Sunday school, Bible school, Wednesday night church potluck dinners and a variety of other church activities. Church was part of the social fabric of our lives and upbringing. And on Sunday morning, we were always late to church.

The challenge of getting four children ready and out the door for anything can’t be much different from today.”Where are my shoes?” Don’t forget your money!  Let’s go, let’s go, we’re going to be late,” were common themes in our house on those chaotic, rushed Sunday mornings. And no matter how hard Mother and Daddy tried, we always ceremoniously walked into church while the choir was singing the introductory hymn. My parents led the way, and the four of us trailed behind, with my sister and me hanging onto the smaller hands of the youngest two. We walked straight to the back of the church where seats were still available in the crying room, where young mothers with their babies and younger children watched the church proceedings through a large glass window separating them and the accompanying noise of unhappy babies and toddlers from the rest of the congregation.

In the crying room, there were no nicely polished wooden pews. We sat on folding metal chairs and listened to the scratchy voices of the minister, the choir and the deacons through a speaker positioned just above the glass window. The mix of ambient noise between the two spaces included the cries and whimpers of babies and children from inside the room, and the snoring old men out in the treasured sanctuary.

The crying room wasn’t much fun.  There were no pencils or cards for drawing, and there was no opportunity to slide along the slick pews or to lie down if enough room was available. Drawing, sliding and napping were favorite distractions during the hour-long monologue from the pulpit, for which we had little to no understanding. And the singing, in that small room with babies crying and mothers shushing-unbearable. Nevertheless, because we were always late, that’s where we spent many Sunday mornings.

Nevertheless, we still were to participate in the passing of the collection plate-the church certainly wasn’t going to ignore the potential contributions in that room-and communion. Sinners all of us I am certain!

Men in dark suits entered the room for just those two occasions. First they brought the velvet lined silver bowls to collect the money and envelopes, and next they arrived with the round wooden trays which had small openings to carry the small glass vials filled with unsweetened grape juice. Lastly, they brought another silver tray filled with the communion companion, the white wafer that was supposed to taste represent bread but instead tasted like paper.

As we marched into the back of the church on those Sunday mornings, I was always embarrassed by our tardiness. I sensed that the whole of the congregation stared at us and talked about how the Stranges were always late to church. Little did I know or understand at the time that more than likely, every family, young and old, looked at my parents and remarked on the fact that they faithfully and successfully managed to get four children to church, regardless of the time. The fact that my parents wanted us to learn the value of faith, kindness and generosity was less about where we sat, and more about what we learned when we were there. I guess that made up for our tardiness.

I don’t attend church on a regular basis but am moved on occasion, for one reason or another, to attend a service. It can be at a Methodist church or a Catholic church-I am not particular about the denomination. I am more interested in the experience and often merely looking for the solace and comfort that being in a church can bring. When I do go, I am always on time, but I head towards the back of the church to sit in one of the last rows.  I like it back there. It feels right to be there sitting quietly in a nicely polished wooden pew with a new mother and her sleeping baby.

My World Series Baby

03 Wednesday Oct 2012

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Surprise!  There was a new baby on the way. It was October, 1957 and the Yankees were playing in the World Series against the Milwaukee Braves. I was a Yankee fan-not necessarily because I knew much about baseball, but because Mother and Daddy loved the Yankees. Of course, who didn’t love the Yankees in the fifties? We listened to tales about the historic Casey Stengel and his band of boys including Mickey Mantle, Tony Kubek, Whitey Ford, and Yogi Berra. We watched the games on TV and we tracked their success throughout the summer. I remember spending Saturday or Sunday afternoons lying next to my father on the floor in the living room watching those famous boys. The crack of the bat against the ball, the cheer of the crowd and the seventh inning stretch was only part of the thrill of the game. Cuddling next to my father was the more important moment on those lazy afternoons. He would sometimes fall asleep on the floor with his hands laced together under his head as I cradled next to him in the crook of his arm, and even the excitement of a home run or a grand slam would not wake him.

Along with watching the Yankees in the summer of ‘57, we also watched Mother’s stomach grow bigger and rounder with the promise of a new addition to our family arriving in the fall. She had quit smoking months before so we knew it must be a very momentous occasion. For my part, I was looking forward to a baby sister; I would not even entertain the possibility of a baby brother.

As the World Series got underway, our excitement grew with the action on television and the impending arrival of the new baby. It was Thursday, October 3, 1957and it was the second game of the World Series. Mother had gone to the hospital early that morning and my sister and I went off to school. Our grandmother, Mamaw had already arrived from Kentucky to take care of us for the next two weeks. In the fifties, a woman stayed in the hospital for as long as a week after the birth of a baby and so Daddy needed his mother at home to take care of Sissy and me until Mother and the new baby came home and then she would take care of all of us, including Mother.

Mamaw would help with the baby, cook our meals, get us off to school, organize Mother’s kitchen cabinets and clean the house. Mamaw loved to organize Mother, which she admittedly needed, but I don’t think the overture went over too well in our house.  As a child, the dynamics of the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law relationship was totally above my level of comprehension, so I missed any tension that may have been present. I loved having my grandmother visit and relished every moment with her!

At school that day, I waited and waited for news of the baby.  The baseball game was underway and was playing on the radio during afternoon recess. The usual sounds of the baseball announcer and the “oohs” and “ahs” of the crowd traveled across the playground mixed in with the cacophony of children’s voices at play. Recess was usually only fifteen minutes so it wasn’t long before the bell rang for us to come inside. As I lined up to return to the classroom, I saw Daddy heading toward me across the playground.  He had already picked up Sissy from her class, and hand in hand they headed straight for me, smiling broadly.

We headed straight to our car where Mamaw waited. As I entered the car, she started talking excitedly about the new baby. It was a boy! They named him after my grandfather who had died not too long before then, and she was very happy with the news. Me, on the other hand, I was hopping mad. I wanted a baby sister. I didn’t want a baby brother. I clammed up and for the rest of the ride home I refused to speak to anyone, particularly my Mamaw. I am not quite sure why I was so angry about the outcome, but I knew that this result would affect me the rest of my life, and it has.

I have this wonderful younger brother.  I watched him through all kinds of boyish shenanigans as he grew up-cuts, bruises, stomach pumpings, fights and sticks and stones.  I watched him learned to walk and talk and to throw a baseball and football. I watched him stand up for his sisters when he needed to defend them. I watched him guide his own children in their lives. And I watched him lovingly and without hesitation care for Mother and Daddy when they were ill and unable to care for themselves. He reminds me of Daddy because I know how much he loves his family. It’s a Strange tradition and he has carried it on well.

He told me once that he decided a long time ago that he would always pick me to be in that foxhole with him. Apparently, I defended him once against a truck driver who accused him of throwing rocks or something at his truck. I don’t remember the exact incident he references, but I imagine that he was guilty and getting himself into trouble, as usual. But, I was babysitting and I wasn’t going to let anyone do anything to harm him. I did what I needed to do-protect my charge-my baby brother.

The Yankees lost Game 2 of the series that day 4-2 in front of 62, 202 fans. The Milwaukee Braves went on to win the Series-handing the immortal Yankees an excruciating defeat in the world of baseball. In looking at the stats today, the names of Eddie Matthews, Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn and Red Scheindhost top the field of those ’57 Milwaukee Braves, so I guess Casey and his crew had their work cut out for them from the very beginning. As for babies and baseball-I wanted a baby sister and I wanted the Yankees to win the ’57 World Series. But today, October 3, 2012, I am so glad that I didn’t get what I wanted.

Happy Birthday BQ!

 
My baby brother

 

 

Cinder In the Past

01 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by in Sporting Adventures

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Competition ran rampant in our household and winning was all important. We played board games, card games, participated in sports, battled to make the best grades and even invented some of our own war fare in the world of childhood recreation. We didn’t have a garage, nor a paved driveway, but a front and back yard and a black cinder driveway that began at the edge of the sidewalk and ended at the front door to the house. It was one of our playing fields.

I don’t know if cinder driveways even exist anymore or for what it is even used today, if at all. If you have never seen black cinder, it is actually volcanic stone composed of small to large stones of irregular, sharply pointed stones. And I do emphasize the words sharply and pointed. It was fairly light, porous and packed well, which I suppose was why it was good for driveways. Either that or it was less expensive than gravel or concrete.

During the hot long days of the Indiana summers we tried to occupy ourselves with a variety of activities to keep from getting bored. We played baseball or kickball in the back yard. We built tree forts and played hopscotch, tag, marbles and jacks. And as little girls we of course played dolls and house. These activities made up my sister’s and my recreational pastime, along with all the other boys and girls in the neighborhood. On certain days, when we were bored with our typical recreation we challenged each other to all kinds of crazy activities. Running across the street in front of cars, ringing neighbors’ door bells after dark and running away, taking a tomato out of someone else’s garden-okay so we weren’t totally innocent in our play and safety was not always a factor. But in the fifties, we didn’t think about safety the way we do today, so we plugged along with our games and activities just like children of previous generations.

“Can you run across the driveway faster than me?” was the usual start to the cinder challenge. It was the game of chicken on cinder. Once the challenge was accepted, the shoes and socks came off, one of the kids volunteered to be referee and the game began. The driveway was only wide enough to accommodate one car, so we didn’t have to run very far. But, running across cinder on bare feet hurt-there is no other way to describe it. The faster we ran, the less pain we felt. The competition was over quickly and when a winner was declared, we usually had multiple re-matches  until we tired of the sport, or our feet hurt too much to continue.

Of course, this was one of those activities we weren’t really supposed to do, so it had to be done quickly and surreptitiously without Mother discovering our game. Our feet were susceptible to small cuts from the cinder if we stepped on a particularly sharp stone at the wrong angle, so the game wasn’t without risk. We frequently heard the admonition, “Don’t do that again!” when we had to admit to our small transgression and seek a bit of first-aid or TLC.

Eventually the cinder was replaced by gravel and we either outgrew the painful races or substituted them for another sporting adventure. I don’t even remember who won all those races because there were so many and no one really kept count. For me the memory signifies a small piece of the competitive spirit that was instilled in me as a child by my parents, and for that I am grateful. Today, I doubt that cinder is even used for driveways, but I will have to research that possibility. And, while I am at it, I will take a look at Wikipedia and see exactly to what we exposed our small, bare feet. On your mark, get set, go!