I remember going to a large stadium there in about 1945-46. Flame throwers, tanks, all kinds of military action going on. I always wondered about it, was 7 or 8 yrs old at that time. My mother worked at King's X cafe, I remember it had the best hamburgers ever. Any of you guys remember or know of that stuff? Thanks. Ron.
Post WW2 show in Wichita, Ks?
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Yea, those were great! Guess I'm in a nostalgic mode, so I will try to describe some other memories from that era, like a flood in Wichita, stepped on a nail under a couple feet of water, had to get tetanus shot. Got measles. When flood waters went down, every puddle had bunches of tadpoles. Little local grocery store dumped trash behind, rats everywhere. Folks sent me to Lenora, Ks (North Central) to live with my gradparents because of polio going around. Grandpa carved us a bat so we could play baseball. Catching pidgeons in the barn for soup. Grandma cornholing a dog for killing chickens. Riding the wagon while shucking corn. So many pheasants! Hunting possum for supper. Riding grandpa's humongous work horses when he unhitched them and they headed for the water trough. Some time before this, a tornado blew down the barn, horses were tied to a stall, they were gone too. They found them, alive and still tied to part of the feed bunk. The good old days. Everyone was broke, but still found a way to get by, without all the govt handouts. Sorry for the off topic rambling. Just trying to get past my CRS moments. Ron.
"Grandma cornholing a dog for killing chickens." Could you expand on this statement a bit? LOL
I was born in 1961 so all that was before my time, but here in central La we still lived in the depression more or less until the 70's. I just wish I had paid more attention the the old folks' stories--I feel we'll need that info in the near future when we have to return to living in the middle ages.
I was born in 1961 so all that was before my time, but here in central La we still lived in the depression more or less until the 70's. I just wish I had paid more attention the the old folks' stories--I feel we'll need that info in the near future when we have to return to living in the middle ages.
lol, I guess corncobbing would have been a better description. Grandma didn't have a wire brush, but the corncob must of worked. The dog left howling and dragging its butt until it went outa sight behind the barn. Chickens did ok after that, too.
Yea, that was pretty cool. Grandma prob was 80# soaking wet, but hard as nails. Went from Ks to Co and back in a coveed wagon several times during the depression. Found a nice green patch of ground to farm and then drought turned it drier than a bone. Dad used to laugh at the pranks he and brother pulled. Best was when they painted the outhouse hole with fresh red, knowing their sister would soon be visiting it shortly. We need to bring back outhouses, maybe set up a few in the white house lol.
Yeah I could think of a lot things the WH could benefit from. When i was a kid in the 60's, my parent's new house was the first one in this community to have an indoor toilet. They didn't get electricity out here until the early 50's-unlike the Waltons apparently. And we're only 4 miles out of town.
Remember apprenticing to an old guy down the block in Elmhurst NY who caned chairs in the early 1950's. He was a WWI veteran with old German artifacts, including a spiked helmet. We would go into the Flushing Meadows next to the World's Fair Grounds to cut bull rushes. They would get dried out, then split into strips of cane, which would be soaked, threaded, and woven to make cane seats for wooden chairs. A dead art...
On hot Summer days, we little kids would fill up a huge (to us, anyway) washtub out in the back yard and take turns cooling off in the water. We'd ride our bikes to the World's Fair Grounds and come back with the newsboy bags on the handlebars completely full of apples we'd all pick from the trees there. The entire neighborhood would smell of apple pies baking for the next week or so.
Coaxing a 'pet' squirrel in through the kitchen window and feeding it peanuts.
We'd all congregate on someone's stoop in the Summer dusk and listen to Yankees, Giants, and Dodgers games on the radio. Then hide-n-seek until our Moms called us in for the night.
One day the entire school filed down to the school gym to get the first polio shots. I got a reaction and passed out cold while going back up the stairs to class.
Hanging around with my older Brothers building and flying 'gas' powered free fight models. Watching probably one of the last ever war game dogfights overhead with P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs chasing each other through the clear blue sky over Fort Totten.
Living on the top floor of an apartment house overlooking LaGuardia airport, turning out the lights and watching the planes take off and land at night, watching the runway extension project being built.
Moving to Astoria in the late 1950's, and riding the subway all alone for two entire stops to visit family in Elmhurst. Moving to Newark, NJ in the early 1960's and joining Boy Scouts with all my new pals. Dad went where the work was, and we all followed. He was a plate engraver and lithographer. During the War, Mom worked the night shift welding up engine mounts for J2F Ducks at Columbia Aircraft in Valley Steam, but that was before I was born.
Greg
On hot Summer days, we little kids would fill up a huge (to us, anyway) washtub out in the back yard and take turns cooling off in the water. We'd ride our bikes to the World's Fair Grounds and come back with the newsboy bags on the handlebars completely full of apples we'd all pick from the trees there. The entire neighborhood would smell of apple pies baking for the next week or so.
Coaxing a 'pet' squirrel in through the kitchen window and feeding it peanuts.
We'd all congregate on someone's stoop in the Summer dusk and listen to Yankees, Giants, and Dodgers games on the radio. Then hide-n-seek until our Moms called us in for the night.
One day the entire school filed down to the school gym to get the first polio shots. I got a reaction and passed out cold while going back up the stairs to class.
Hanging around with my older Brothers building and flying 'gas' powered free fight models. Watching probably one of the last ever war game dogfights overhead with P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs chasing each other through the clear blue sky over Fort Totten.
Living on the top floor of an apartment house overlooking LaGuardia airport, turning out the lights and watching the planes take off and land at night, watching the runway extension project being built.
Moving to Astoria in the late 1950's, and riding the subway all alone for two entire stops to visit family in Elmhurst. Moving to Newark, NJ in the early 1960's and joining Boy Scouts with all my new pals. Dad went where the work was, and we all followed. He was a plate engraver and lithographer. During the War, Mom worked the night shift welding up engine mounts for J2F Ducks at Columbia Aircraft in Valley Steam, but that was before I was born.
Greg
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My first summer job was with an old German carpenter that specialized in putting rec rooms in basements on Long Island. He had so many power tools running that you had trouble seeing across the room from the sawdust. Lasted one week, had severe asthma, running nose from the dust. Got a mechanics helper job at $1/hr at a Nash/Packard/Studebaker dealer. Talk about picking winners in the car business!! Saw the chief mechanics paycheck once, he was making $2.50/hr. Decided auto mechanics was not a good career choice.
WTF??? 49 posts since 2005? Wassup, dudes?
WTF??? 49 posts since 2005? Wassup, dudes?
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The King's X on Harry and George Washington is now Jimmie's Diner...I had breakfast there a few weeks ago. The guy I went there with was telling me about how it used to be a King's X.
War Games, guess that was what I remembered. Maybe some aerial dog fights in that one, but not sure. We used to have gas powered race cars, about 12" long. Attatched to a tether, man, them babies got up some speed! I guess King's x is no longer, huh?
Used to use a piece of pipe nailed to a wood base, put ball bearings in them with a chinese firecracker. Them things would go way out there, lol. Guess God figured it wasn't my time yet.
Used to use a piece of pipe nailed to a wood base, put ball bearings in them with a chinese firecracker. Them things would go way out there, lol. Guess God figured it wasn't my time yet.
