OLDE ROSE TALKS ABOUT 'THE OLDEN DAYS'...

"WHAT WAS IT like in the olden days, Mama?... Your snows were HOW deep"?... Such questions about the 1940s, when I was a "little kid," were common in my house when my three boys were kids. More and more these days as a newspaper columnist, I hear such queries from my readers. And just as I did with my children, I'm more than ready to share with you some memories of "The Way Things Were." Especially on a day like today, August 6th, my birthday! So, ready or not, here goes!

WAR TIME... In our World War II night-time air-raid drills, homes were ordered totally darkened when local air-raid sirens sounded. During one drill, I peered out beyond the window shade at a brilliant moon. I was convinced the bombers could see me in that bright light, and I had just as much fear of the air-raid wardens who came to our darkened doors with flashlights and hard-hats ... Coffee, gasoline, flour, sugar, and other everyday items were subject to wartime shortages. Price-ceilings were established, and every American received books of ration stamps--(I still have a few). Without the stamps, rationed items couldn't be purchased. (The Rations Board also asked that we save our tin cans and waste fats for munitions manufacture)...

War games and toys became popular ... Many a backyard featured at least one foxhole dug by the family's children. (We had a lot of answering to do one day when Dad dropped into a foxhole we had camouflaged a little too well!) ... When armistice was signed, a newspaper boy rode through our neighborhood--an exuberant Paul Revere on a bike, shouting "Extra! Extra! War has ended!" With pots, pans, lids and other noise-makers, kids launched makeshift victory parades--motley groups of raggle-taggle "Our Gang" comedy kids! ...

AT PLAY...We had chores and homework, but our school-free summers were
longer than today, and so it seemed our childhood was extended. Our play
was largely unstructured, limited only by our imaginations. Owners of
vacant lots (and dirt piles) allowed us to play there--perhaps because
we weren't a "sue-happy" generation, and parents monitored their kids'
behavior. The lots provided areas for impromptu baseball games, which loved. (Though I was a poor player, my team-mates kindly kept me on, demoting me to "outfield-outfield", waaay out of their way!) ...

In those safer times, we had freedoms kids can't have today. We travelled in groups, looking out for each other. We checked out hobo jungles. (There was one near The Flats (which was also the city dump). We stopped at wooded spots near the B&O tracks to visit tramp camps. Many tramps were people who rode illegally in railroad boxcars as they travelled across the country for employment. Around their fires, we found them to be story-tellers and soup cooks who missed their families ...

We drew chalk hopscotch-squares on city sidewalks ... We hiked ... We climbed trees and built tree houses (no permit required, and our parents were the inspectors). If there was a sturdy vine, we swung through the branches like Johnny Weismuller in his Tarzan movies ... We careened through town on roller-skates and foot-powered scooters ...We accumulated scrapes and bruises as an accepted part of growing up .... We played jacks, mumbledy-peg and kick-the-can ... We loved marbles and pea shooters, self- produced magic shows, puppet shows and little plays...

Autumn bounty included the fallen fruit of our plentiful Buckeye trees, providing fodder for games and crafts--and ammo for our sling-shots! (It didn't seem that any of us were ever seriously hurt in our little Buckeye Wars ... We raked leaves, and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the burning piles. (The smell of burning leaves punctuated our childhood autumns) ... We entered yo-yo tourneys and sold lemonade ...

ENTERTAINMENT... We could go to movies for a dime or a nickel, depending on the theater ... Families gathered around and WATCHED the radio as if it were a human story-teller! After-school radio shows offered "premiums" we could buy with advertisers' boxtops. (I never did receive the Tom Mix Indian Boot Ring I ordered; I waited for years!) ...
When TVs came on the scene in the late 40's, there were one or two in the neighborhood at first. Those TV owners hosted socials in their living rooms, munching home-popped corn with their neighbors through Toast of the Town, Show of Shows, Hit Parade and Arthur Godfrey; until Saturday night's later-than-usual sign-off ...

The first TV screens were tiny; a magnifying square was a special option you could order. An option that didn't fare well on the market was an early attempt at "color TV"--a plastic transparent sheet to attach to the screen, half in green for grass, and half in blue for sky.
Programming began in late morning and ended early, always signing off with the Star Spangled Banner. The day began and ended with a test pattern, so you could fiddle with dials, knobs and "rabbit ears" to clear the picture (strictly Dad's job). I swear, some kids sat and watched the test pattern! ...

EVERYDAY LIFE... Downtown "foot-patrolmen" walked their beats at night,
checking doors and windows ... Those were also the days of milk men, grocery stock-and-delivery boys, bowling alley pin-boys (before auto-reset), steam locomotives, coal furnaces, clackity-clack manual typewriters ... There were no zip or area codes, no kindergartens ... Most families had one car, most moms didn't work outside the home; a great many wives didn't know how to drive ...

This was a time of summer polio epidemics. We returned to school each fall, wondering which of our classmates might have fallen to the crippling disease. We saved dimes for the March of Dimes polio research campaign ...

Painesville's downtown, with its vintage buildings and multi-generation family business owners, drew large Friday night crowds who came to shop and socialize and view the artful window decorations ... To encourage church attendance, Sunday Blue Laws dictated the businesses be closed on Sunday. Churches on Sundays were crowded with families ...

The Painesville hospital was one small building fronting on Liberty Street, with Health Dept. headquarters included there ... Around the corner on the Square, the Y was housed in an elegant Victorian building on South Park place .... Harvey High School served students of Painesville City and surrounding townships, and if you lived within city limits, you walked to school ...

Taxicabs were used extensively, and Painesville/Fairport and Ashtabula/Cleveland lakefront bus-lines flourished ... A commercial airplane trip was a luxurious and glamorous event, and passengers dressed to the nines ... There were no freeways, and Rte. 20 was our major cross-country highway, well known for its accident-prone Calamity Curve" east of Painesville ...

Elders and police officers were addressed with titles of respect. The term "cop" was insulting slang. Teachers and other elders were not addressed by their first names. Juvenile delinquents (now called youthful offenders") were subject to a "shame factor"; their names were published in the paper ...

Families were larger, and homes were smaller. Upstairs heating and a second bathroom were uncommon. Insulation was sparse. (We loved to scratch fingernail-drawings on the frosted windows on cold winter mornings) ... Kids got haircuts at home, and the clippers weren't electric ... Women's seasonal clothing rules dictated no sleeveless or pastel attire or white shoes before Decoration Day or after Labor Day .... Even in summer, ladies wore hats and dress-gloves to church and on dressy occasions ...

Farmers raised a big to-do when butter was replaced by oleomargarine, which came in plastic bags. You squeezed the bags to activate a pellet and mix the color that turned the spread to "butter" color ... Milk also required effort before serving. You shook the bottle to mix the separated milk and cream) ... Telephone operators were women trained to help in emergencies. There were party-lines and four-digit phone numbers. Phones came in one color and type--black with rotary dial ...

Kids were available for odd jobs in their neighborhood, without complications of social security ... Parents spanked their children, and the generation that resulted didn't seem as violent as future generations who were NOT spanked ... Canada Geese were nearly extinct here, and it was a thrill to see them ...

ENOUGH OF THE "old days" stories! (They're true, I swear!

Today, with its own problems and pleasures, will be "the good old days" for our younger generations. Wouldn't you love to be around to hear THEIR stories? ("Your summers were HOW hot?" )