Christmas Memories

Memories include putting up a real tree and it seems like it was always put up just before Christmas.  I can remember trees leaning up against the garage.  We had ornaments and also glass balls and other glass ornaments.  We would either hang tinsel or drape it out in a string.

We would open presents on Christmas Eve and very late.  My mother worked as a Christian Education Director and was working on Christmas Eve.  Our tradition was to eat oyster stew/soup (Campbell's).  I think I was the only one to chew the oysters.  We would have this around 11pm if I recall correctly.  And then we would open presents and go to bed only to wake up to Santa's presents Christmas morning already unwrapped.  One year we all got TVs...Patti a 17" (maybe 19") black and white.  Dean maybe a 12" and I got a 9" that I could put under the bed with me.

This was maybe the only night (or one of the few) that we would have a fire in the fireplace.  We would also listen to music out of the old radio.  Movies would include White Christmas, It's A Wonderful Life and Holiday Inn.  Who knew they were black and white...wasn't everything?

Stockings on the mantle of a working fireplace/chimney was pretty cool.  How else would Santa get in?

If you were raised on...

This is from a post on Facebook.  I've copied made some edits:

If you
were raised on bologna
drank Pepsi
played in the dirt
got your butt spanked
had 3 TV channels and had an outside antenna
school started with "The Pledge"
had a bedtime
recorded songs from the radio using cassette tapes
drank from a hose
played in the creek
said sir and ma'am
...and you still turned OK, then repost!!

Here are some things I would add:

Went on Sunday drives
Looked out the window when you rode in the car

Riding bikes

I got my first bike at age 10.  It was a Sears Spyder (Sting Ray knockoff).  Purple-themed including a sparkling purple seat.

I remember initially asking to ride it across the street.  The city had done the dirt work on the east side of 63rd St in an effort to widen the street (which took decades by the way) and that side was the only side with a sidewalk.  So I would ride back and forth and that seemed like a big deal.

Eventually I rode that bike on 64th and then all over Windsor Heights.  We laid skidmarks and rode wheelies.  We would have contests on riding the longest wheelie.  We rode down on some dirt trails made by motorcycles just off 69th St.

Dean had a more traditional bike and I took his regular seat and put it on my bike for more of a motorcycle look.

In 1974, I got a Schwinn Continental (which I still have).  I don't remember how long I kept my other bike.

This took me more places.  I would ride around Cummins Parkway and up into the Waterbury area.  I rode that bike all the way to Holiday Pool in West Des Moines.  I also rode wheelies on this bike and I remember using it in our contests.  They were built like a tank.

Watching TV

For most of my childhood, we had a black and white TV.  Then maybe when I was in junior high, the kids all chipped in to buy a used color TV.  I'd have to confirm that year.  Yes, a used TV.

We had three channels plus Channel 11 (educational channel). 

I'd have to check the year, but we all got portable black and white TVs for Christmas.  Patti had I believe a 17", Dean had a 12" and I know I had a 9".  I remember watching Dean's more because he put it on his dresser.  I remember carrying mine around to different parts of the house...even under his bed.

Boy Scouts (and Cub Scouts)

I started Cub Scouts at 8 or 9.  Don't recall.  I know I was part of the Webelos program at age 10.  I remember meeting at Chris Sutton's house.  His mom was our Den Mother.

I was in Boy Scouts from age 11 to age 17.  We met at Windsor Presbyterian Church.  Troop 38.

Scoutmasters I remember include:

Bill _______ (lived on 64th and I mowed his yard)
Bill Fechner
Ed Peterson (he was a teacher at East)

"I know...you had a sad life"

I was reminding my grandson that I grew up with black and white TV and he said "I know, you had a sad life".  He was joking but I replied "no...it was a great life".  Movies were just as scary...just as funny.

Not only black and white, but 4 channels counting Public Television.  And most channels went off the air at midnight...maybe 1am.

We had no VCRs let alone DVRs.  We didn't have movies to rent.  Movies for us were on Floppy or Saturday or Sunday nights and usually watched as a family.

Not my words but...

Anyone who was born in the 50s, 60s or 70s...we are the last generation who played in the street.  We are the first who played video games and the last to record songs off the radio on to a cassette tape.  We walked over a mile without worries on being taken.  Learned how to program a VCR before anyone else.  We are the generation of Tom and Jerry/ Looney Tunes and Captain Kangaroo.  We traveled in cars without seat belts or air bags and lived without cell phones.  We did not have flat screens, surround sounds, iPods, Facebook, Twitter, computer or the internet.  But nevertheless we had a GREAT time.

"Guys" vs Army men

Dean had Army men.  I had my own Army men.  I remember my Army men were new when we took our trip to South Dakota.  I have this image in my head of being in some Best Western motel and playing on the floor behind something with my Army men.

"Guys" could include Army personnel but were a collection of random figures.  My guys were made up of scuba toys, a mechanic from a Corgi semi, plastic cowboys, etc.  And they had names of course...still do.  I think I still have most of my guys...I do know "Gringo" is missing.  He was a green race car drive that had no lower body because he fit into a plastic race car.  But he was good at karate chops as I recall.

Some of my "guys"...(in no order of importance)

> Dennis McArthur (Dennis was a motorcycle rider from a Corgi motorcyle and was pretty cool)
> Arthur McArthur (Dennis' brother.  He didn't have a head and I think I got him from our neighbor Curtis Carr)
> Pete Sullivan (a 2-tone swiveling dime story cowboy that had a horse)
> Ken Cowboy (either a friend or related to Pete and he also had a horse)
> Chuck Woody (a gray scuba guy that had a raft and a personal underwater craft.  Had two at some point)
> Riggs (he was a mechanic that came with my Corgi semi)
> Nick Knifeman (great names...he was an orange premium from Fritos and had a hood and carried a knife)

I still have these guys in my possession.

The Yard and names we gave areas

I would have to ask Dean if this was tied into us playing "towns" as I call it, but there were sections of the yard that represented different things.  This probably was done even before I was old enough to know what was going on.

For example, the Little House was the newspaper office.  The wooden swing that was in front of the tree in front of the Little House was the gas station.  We have a photo of something written on the swing..."Fina". The SW corner of the yard where the Kleins dug out a fort was called Great Kings Hall.  Don't remember the story on that...

We used Iowa town names as well.  I remember Dean had Denison.  I had Jefferson.

Patti ran a cafe in the kitchen and wrote out orders.  Sunnyvale?

Newspaper collection

Back in the day, the newspaper carrier was also responsible for "collecting" for the paper.  We took both the Register and Tribune and I don't remember if it was the same person/kid doing.

What I do remember is we were allowed to go get money to pay the carrier.  They would stand at the front door while we went to my parent's bedroom to the desk.  Either the top or second drawer on the left had a money holder of sorts.  It was like a book but had pages with envelopes I believe.  Dad would take money from his paycheck and divvy up cash into different areas.  So we would go to the desk to the section for the newspaper and get cash to give to the carrier.  And they wore money changers on their belt to give you change as needed.  Pretty big stuff for a kid.

Allowance

I don't remember exactly what age my allowance started.  I believe it was weekly.  I do remember there were times that Dad would give it to me in silver dollars and once in awhile $2 bills just for fun.

Chores

I  remember having a list of chores.  At some point the list may have stopped but we still did things.  And my memory of receiving an allowance was tied to that....for a time.  Then it just became an allowance.

Chores included:

Washing dishes (which was time to fill up the sink and play with my "guys"

Emptying waste baskets

Picking up sticks is one I remember.  We would use the wheel barrow and push around the yard picking up sticks/branches.


Later we helped with mowing but the idea of chores started before I was old enough to mow.

I do remember trying to get out of as much work as I could.  My hope is that Dean would get sucked into and between Dad and him it was covered.

Mowing was something I enjoyed.  The yard seemed much bigger then than it does now although 2/3 of an acre is nothing to sneeze at.  There was the "back".  The "middle".  The "north side" and "south side" and then the "front".

Shenandoah memory ~ sleeping

I remember falling to sleep to the sound of trucks on Highway 2 out on the enclosed porch. 

Of course, that is the room where we could find the game Barrel Of Monkeys.

Getting arrested riding bikes after curfew

Playing outside

This was a time when you were either told to "go outside" or you simply said "I'm going outside".  And from there, that included leaving the yard.  If I said I would be down playing football at Nelson's Field (an open field on someone's private property that just happened to include grapevines), then Mom or Dad (likely Mom) would ring the bell on the back porch that it was time to come home.  But so often, I would just take off.  I might be riding my bike on 64th St or I could riding down around Windsor Park and the trails or I could be down to Harder Pharmacy.  It was a freedom that can't be imagined today.  One for having permission to be gone like that and two for not having a cell phone to either get a call or text or to make one.

Playing "town"

Details coming...

I believe the restaurant/diner that Patti operated was the Sunnyvale Cafe?

Dean was really into reading maps and knowing towns in Iowa.  He can tell this story better...I'm sure it was his idea.  But the yard was divided into different towns.  And for some reason, the towns included Mapleton (Dean's), Denison and Jefferson (mine).

Burn pile and incinerator

Growing up we didn't have a "burn ban".  Fall was certainly a time when smoke was in the air and it's a smell I remember fondly.  Think of a campfire smell.  But we didn't just burn leaves in the fall (how handy to rake into a pile and haul to the burn pile).  Not only did we burn leaves and limbs, but we separated our trash and burned what we thought would burn.

Behind our garage, we had two different locations where items were burned.  One was referred to as the "burn pile" and the other the "incinerator".  The burn pile was a mound of ash with stones around the edge to create a circle.  You could see shale and other rock exposed on the ground and I was told that was part of a turnaround or part of the original driveway.  The incinerator was a metal "cage" with a lid about the size of a garbage can.  This is where the trash was burned.

Imagine being a young boy and you were told (and entrusted) to light matches and set things on fire...and then watch!

We got some pretty good piles going on the burn pile with leaves but also any limbs or sticks we picked up (picking up sticks was an actual chore we had).  Keep in mind this was behind our garage and right next to some bushes so flame management was key.

As far as burning trash, it was fun to see things burn different colors (like waxy containers).  My parents didn't know this but there were many times I added an accelerant like bug spray to jump start things.  Typically, I would roll a paper towel and stick it in a hole in the caging and that would be my fuse.

A separate but related chore usually handled by my dad was burning off some tall grass behind the garage.  You see this with crops or tall grasses where farmers do controlled burns.  This was not a big patch but was right next to the garage.  I had this task one year and I don't remember if I wasn't watching or generally goofing around but the neighbors behind came up and let us know about a fire and honestly I don't remember how close I was to burning down the garage.  Kids!