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| To Remember When... |
| Also Known As "The Good Old Days" |
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| In The "Good Old Days", The Front Porch At Grandma's House Was Where Everyone Congregated On Hot Summer Days. Meals Were Carried Out To The Front Porch On Big Trays. With No Air Conditioning Back Then, It Was The Only Cool Place To Be. When I Was Growing Up, We Lived At My Grandmother's House Because It Was So Large. My Cousins From New York And Family Always Came To Spend The Whole Summer With Us. We Played Games On The Front Porch And Created Endless Stacks Of Drawings, While Grandma, Or "Grammy", As We Called Her, Joined In To Help With Whatever We Were Doing. She Had A Wonderful Sense Of Humor That We Loved! She Always Brought Us Freshly Squeezed Lemonade Every Afternoon. These Were Chilled Just Right With Slivers Of Chipped Ice She Had Chopped Off With An Ice Pick From The Big Block Of Ice In The Old Wooden Ice Box. A Few Years Later, Grammy Got Her First REAL Refrigerator. It Was A Vision To Behold! Powered By Gas, It Had A Large, White Circular Cushion-Shaped "Thing" On Top That Somehow Made It Run. We Sure Missed The Ice Man, However, As He Always Let All The Kids Get Lots Of Loose Ice Chps To Suck On, Right From The Wooden Truck Bed Where He Had Tons Of Ice Blocks For His Customers. |
| My Hometown In Massachusetts |
| Life In The Early 30's To The 50's |
| Every Morning The Milkman Delivered Milk To All His Customers, His Wagon Was Pulled By One Of The Smartest Horses Around--He Knew The Entire Route And Stopped At Every House That Had Ordered Milk. The Milkman Had A Very Specific. "Click, Click" Noise He Made With His Tongue Which Signaled For The Horse To Move On To The Next House. All Of The Kids In The Neighborhood Tried Fruitlessly To Imitate The Exact Sound, But Always Failed. It Didn't Stop Us From Practicing, However. One Morning On My Way To School, I Tried The Old "Click, Click" Noise Again, And Was Scared Witless When The Horse Responded, Pulling The Milk Wagon On To The Next House, Which Unfortunately Was In The NEXT BLOCK!!! I Ran Faster Than Superman's "Speeding Bullet" All The Way To School And Worried The Rest Of The Day If I'd Get In Serious Trouble With The Milkman, My Parents Or The Police! But, As Luck Would Have It, No One Knew Who Caused The Advancing Horse, But The Milkman Had To Back Him Up, Wagon And All, To Retrieve The Milk Bottles For The Rest Of The Neighborhood. |
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| This Is Willett School Where I Went As A First Grader After Our Old Grade School Unexpectedly Burned Down. The Burning Of The First School Was Witnessed By The Whole Area One Night Around 10 P.M. They Called It A 3--Alarm Fire! The Glow Lit Up The Whole Sky! Just About Everyone Streamed From Their Homes In Pajamas, Slippers And Robes. All Of The Kids Were Quietly Snickering, Knowing That There'd Definitely Be No School For A While, The New School Hadn't Been Finished Yet, However, It Was Near Enough Done To Use, So We Only Had The Weekend Off! You Can Imagine How Disappointed We Were Back Then, But The New School Was The Best! |
| THE PORCH |
| THE IGLOOS |
| Nothing Was More Fun Than Building Igloos After A Deep Snow! The Whole "Gang" Of Us Who Played Together Through All The Seasons, Would Gather Instinctively To Build The Really Big Neighborhood Igloo. Everyone Brought a Show Shovel And The Work Began. Some Of Us Kept Piling The Snow On, While Others Smashed and Packed It Down With The Flat Of The Shovel. With Cold Wet Mittens, We Worked Until It Was Sufficiently Solid, Then Start Digging Out The Inside, Repacking The Removed Snow On Top Again. Once Hollowed Out, We Made Tiny Windows For Air And Light Before The Furnishing Began. We Scavenged Old Rugs From Our Porches And Basements For The Snowy Floor, Wooden Boxes To Sit On, Old Blankets And One Girl Always Brought A Vase Of Dried Flowers For Decoration! (Me!) Often We Even Had Curtains Made From Remnants, Folded Over A Branch And Inbedded Into The Snow Like A Curtain Rod! We Also Had Lanterns Which We Set On Snow Ledges For When It Started To Got Dark Outside Right Before Supper Time. Can You Believe We Even Ate Our Lunch In The Igloo On Occasion! |
| SLIDING |
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| The Railroad Tracks A Couple Blocks From Our Homes Was The Place We Always Went To Go "Sliding". Because The Tracks Were Set On A Knoll, It Was The Only "Hill" Around. We Placed Our Sleds On The Rails For The Push-off And Then It Was Downhill Into A Frozen Swamp! The Train Engineer Always Knew We Played There, So Before They Got To Our "Spot", They Always Tooted So We Had Plenty Of Time To Get Off The Tracks! Ironicly, Nobody At The Time Thought There Was Any Danger In This Situation. Looking Back, It Really Is A Wonder Somebody Wasn't Killed! |
| REMEMBER WHEN... |
| UNCLE HERBERT |
| Willett |
| School |
| Page Designed By BEACHSTONE |
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| Thank You For Visiting My Page |
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| *There Were No Electric Or Gas Clothes Dryers. Clothes Hung Outside To Dry In The Frigid Winter Weather Froze Into Carboard-like Consistancy And Then Brought Back In To Thaw On Radiators. *Bread Was 8 Cents A Loaf. *Milk Was 10 A Quart. *Penny Candy Really Cost Only A Penny. *Comic Books Were 10 Cents. *"Hoodsies" Ice Cream Cups With Either Chocolate Or Strawberry Topping Cost 10 Cents. *Candy Bars Were A Nickle And Bigger Than They Are Now. *Women Who Got All Dressed Up To Go Out Wore Gloves. *Holes In The Bottom Of Shoes Were Patched Inside With Cardboard. *People Only Took Baths Once Or Twice A Week. *After Washing One's Hair, It Had To Be Dried By Fluffing It Over The Open Door Of A Hot Over. There Were No Hair Dryers. *There Were No TV's. People Played Card Or Board Games At Night. *There Was No Such Thing As A Heater In A Car. People Had To Carry "Car Blankets" To Keep Warm. *During World War 2, Everyone Had To Save Cans For Defense. Butter, Sugar, Meat, Eggs, Gasoline, Tires And Many Other Items Were "Rationed" And Could Only Be Obtained With Rationing Stamps. When Meat Was Scarce, People Had To Resort To Eating Kidney Pie, Boiled Ox Tail Soup, Baked Beef Tongue And Other Yucky Tasting Food That Smelled Equally Awful While Cooking. |
| Well, What Can I Say About Uncle Herbert Except That He Always Kept Us Thoroughly Amused! He Could Do Card Tricks And Also Stick Large Hat Pins Through The Skin Of His Neck Just Above His Adam's Apple, Without Bleeding A Drop Of Blood! We Were Always Amazed! He'd Load Us All Up In The Car, Drive Out In The Country, Stop When He'd See Someone Along The Side Of The Road That He Didn't Know And Say, "Hello There? How The Hell Have You Been--Haven't Seen You In Ages!" He'd Engage Them In Conversation, Then Drive Off, Leaving The Person Scratching His Head Wondering Who The Hell HE Was! He Was A Constant Practical Joker. Other Times He'd Put On A Sea Captains Hat, Stand On A Pier Near Lots Of Fishing Boats And Yachts And Tell Passerbys About All His Adventures At Sea, From Raging Storms To Sinking Ships And Outragous Disasters--None Of Which Were True. He Just Enjoyed "Spoofing' People. He'd Take Off All His Clothes And Swim In The Nude Under A Low Bridge At The Beach. (A Very Risque Daring Back Then.) Then As Someone Approached, He'd Yell, "Hi', And Wave At Them Just To Get Their Reaction. HE Thought It Was Halarious! In Spite Of His "Bizarre" Behavior, He Was An Engineer And A Scientist. He Was Always Trying To Find The Secret To "Cold Light". He Worked On The Creation Of The First Atomic Bomb In Oak Ridge, Tennessee, And Was A Respected Employee Of A Major Coorporation. |
| Aunt Mil, (Herbert, The Swimmer's Wife) And My Twin Cousins Spent Every Summer With Us At The Beach And It Was Always The Most Fun Time Of My Life Back Then. Our House Was Right On The Ocean And We Spent About Six Hours A Day Swimming. The Rest Of The Time We Spent Getting Into Trouble Or Visiting With Neighbors. Aunt Mil Had A Friend Who Loved To Play Canasta, So In The Evenings We'd Go To Her House To Play. Although The Lady Was Very Wealthy, Her House Was Always a Mess. She Had Two Cats That She Claimed Did Lots Of Tricks, Though We Never Saw Any. They Also Shed On Everyting And Ate Off The Dining Room Table! We'd Always Say We Weren't Hungry When She Offered Us Food. The Canasta Cards Were Always Sticky And The Cats Were Always Jumping Up In Our Laps! Aunt Mil Was Always Full Of Fun, So We'd All Laugh It Off And Have Fun Anyway. Mil Was My Mother's Sister And A Very Dear Person. Her Sons And I Did Everything Together From Impersonating Royalty At Swanky Restaurants While Talking In A Made-up Foreign Language, To Going To Dances At What We Called "The Monkey Cage". The "Beach Ballroom" Had Iron Bars On The Windows To Keep The Riff Raff Either In Or Out! All Our Beach Friends Went There, But It Definitly Was Not A Dangerous Place, Although It Was Pretty Sleasy. |
| SUMMERS AT THE BEACH |
| THE MILKMAN |
| OTHER THINGS WE DID |
| * We Loved To Swim In The Rain. We'd Turn A Rowboat Upside Down, Get Under it In the "Air Space" and Listen To The Rain Beating On Top Of The Boat. *Go Roller Skating Around The Neighborhood With Our Metal Roller Skates That Clamped To Your Shoes. They Were Tightened Down With "Keys" And Ankle Straps, But Were Always Coming Undone And Falling Off. That Accounted For Lots Of Skinned Up Knees. *When Someone Was Sick, We'd Tell Them To Eat A Whole Raw Onion And They'd Get Better...They'd Fall For It And Actually Do It! *We'd Walk Barefoot Through Deep Mud Flats In Backwater Coves. With Every Step, We's Sink Up To Our Knees In Thick Black Mire Full Of Broken Quahog, Clam, Scallop and Mussel Shells, Ending Up Cut And Scratched And Covered With Stinky Black Mud...Just For "Fun". *When People Left Their Yachts, We'd Swim Out And Climb Onboard To See What The Inside Looked Like. |
| RUNAWAY SPOOFS |
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| Danced In The "Monkey Cage" And Imitated Royalty |
| SLIDING |
| OTHER MEMORIES |
| One Of My Cousins And I Were Constantly Planning To Run Away Whenever Our Parents Wouldn't Let Us Do Something We Thought Was A Wonderful, Marvelous Adventure. Adventure One We Found All The Loose Change In The House, Went To The Store And Bought A Loaf Of Bread, A Half Pound Of Bologna, Ketchup, Two Rolls Of "Necco" Waffers And Orange "Nehi" Soda. It Was Around 4 p.m. When We Started Our Journey Through The Scrub Pine Grove Between The Beach And Town. As We Walked Along The Well--Worn Path, We Met The Town Bully Who Was About 15 Years Old. He Asked What We Had In The Bag. We Told Him,, "Food", At Which Time He Pulled A Sharp Hunting Knife From His Pocket and Demanded We Give It To Him. After Reluctently Handing It Over, He Started To Chase Us. We Ran Home, But Instead Of Going Inside, We Crawled Under The Beach House Through A Hole In The Criss--Cross Lattice Work That Skirted The Bottom Of The House. We Were Out Of Breath! Overhead, We Could Hear Our Mothers Talking About Just Where We Could Have Gone. They Promptly Decided To Look For Us and Left. My Cousin And I Knew We Were In Trouble, But Didn't Know What To Do, So We Stayed Under The House, Being Very Quiet. When Our Mothers Came Back, They Were Quite Desperate. We Heard Them Talking About Calling The Police, and That Half Of The Beach Community Was Also Out Looking For Us, Too. We Knew If We Turned Up NOW, We'd Not Only Get Spanked, But We'd Get The Usual, Most Horrible Punishment Of All! NO SWIMMING FOR A WEEK! All Was Lost! We Had To Finally Appear And Save The Town From The Search. We Were Darn Hot For The Next Week And Weren't Allowed To Cool Off In The Ocean. Boy, Were We Mad! Adventure Two We Set Sail In Our Old Rowboat To Beyond The Sand Bar (About A Half Mile Away), Where There Was An Old Cabin In The Woods By The End Of The Bay, Where We Knew An Old Man Lived. We Yelled, "Is Anyone Home", But Received No Reply. With That, We Dragged The Boat Partly Onto The Beach, Then Sprawled Out On The Wet Sand As If We'd Been Adrift, Worn Out And In Need Of Being Rescued. After About Forty Minutes, We Heard The Old Man Returning In His Car, So We Closed Our Eyes And Waited. It Wasn't Too Lonng Before He Spotted Us And Immediately Came To Our "Rescue". We Pretended To Be In Comas (Or Whatever), Finally Pretending To Be Wakened. We Acted Groggy And Asked, "Where Are We?" The Man Told Us, So We Related Our Tale About How We Had Passed Out From Sun Stroke And Lack Of Food And Water. Quicky, He Took Us To His House While We Limped And Dragged Along. He Gave Us Crackers And Water. We Had Hoped For More, But Thanked Him For His Kindness And Rowed Back Home, Completely "Recovered"! There Are Lots More Runaway Treks, But They're Too Long To Relate Here. The Main Point Is, We Never Learned! Running Away Was Just Something We Did For "Fun", Although Looking Back, It Certainly Didn't Endear Us To Our Neighbors Or Parents! |
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| *I Remember All The Family Cook Outs And The Carnivals And Circuses We "Staged" In Grammy's Big Back Yard. *I Remember When During World War 2, My Mother Spent All That Was Left Of Our Weekly Allotted Ration Stamps On Two Pounds Of Hamburg. The Dog Grabbed It And Ate Every Bit Of It Before My Mother Could Chase Him Down! *I Remember The Day Uncle Herbert Threw My Cousins And Me Overboard To "Teach" Us How To Swim! Aunt Mil Was Furious! *One Day My Grandmother Went To Town For Groceries. On The Way Home She Met A Man She Knew. He Said, "Whatcha Got there, Ella?" She Said, "I've Got Chicken Breasts and Liver. Got Some Turkey Legs, Too." Looking Her Straight In The Eye He Said, "My, But You're In A Hell Of A Shape, Aren't You!" *I Remember My Grampy Pulling Me On A Sled That He Made For Me. *I Remember When I Was 10 Years Old, My Grammy Played The Violin In A Dance Band. She'd Always Take Me With Her, Then Ask For A "Time Out" Just For Her So She Could Dance Me Around The Floor To Make Sure I Had A Good Time, Too. *I Remember My Grandmother Giving Violin Lessons. Hours And Hours Of Listening To The Students' Bows Screeching Across The Wrong Strings Made My Hair Statnd On Ends! *I Remember The Big Goldfish Pond Surrounded By Lilies In My Grandparents' Back Yard. It Had A Bubbling Fountain In the Middle. On Hot Days, We Used To "Accidently" Fall In. * I Remember The Time I Was Stupidly Swinging A Clam Rake Around And Accidently Ran The Sharp Claws Of The Rake Through My Cousin's Ankle. It Took 20 Stitches To Fix. He Never Got Mad At Me, But To This Day, I Still Feel Bad About It. *I Remember Wondering Why Cousins Couldn't Marry. *I Remember My Grampy Making Me Just What I Wanted--A Sandbox! Then...He Went In The House To Lie Down. He Called For Me And Asked If I Liked It And If I'd Play In It Tomorrow. I Told Him "Yes!" And He Kissed Me On My Cheek. My Mother Took Me To The Living Room And Told Me To Wait There. In A Little While They Came For Me With Tears In Their Eyes. My Dear Grampy Had Passed Away From A Heart Attack. I Can Still Clearly Remember That Sad Day. THAT Day, And The Day My Grammy Passed Away Were The Saddest Days Of My Life. THIS WEB PAGE WAS MADE FOR FAMILY. IT IS JUST A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHAT LIFE WAS LIKE--BACK WHEN THINGS WERE MORE SIMPLE AND WE HAD TO MAKE OUR OWN FUN. |
| CAST OF CHARACTERS INCLUDES Ella Jane (Baker) Bennett Charles Pardon Bennett Mildred Jane (Bennett) Perry Herbert Lincoln Perry Robert Benton Perry Charles Bennett Perry Jane (Wagner) Sweeney And A Cast Of Hundreds Of "Extras", From The Kids On The Block Where We Lived In The Winter Time To The "Beach Gang" In Wareham, Mass. Thanks Also To Yahoo/Geocities Page Builder For The "Tools" Available For Creating Personal Web Pages.. |
| THE END! |
| OF INSTALLMENT ONE! |
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| HA HA |
| HA HA |
| IN MEMORY OF Ella J. Bennett Charles P. Bennett Charles B. Perry Mildred J. Perry Dorothy M. Wagner Leon W. Wagner |
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| More To Come On Family Heirs To This "Wunerful" Legacy! |
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