mermaidcamp

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Recipe for Nostalgia

August 29, 2013 — 8 Comments

Take one elementary school class, add 49 years. Shake; don’t stir. Meet in the building where you attended elementary school and Jr. high, and sip slowly.

I study history, but my own personal past has not been investigated. I only have so much time to find all the facts about my ancestors, so biographical content has never crossed my mind. This week I am digging into it. I am on a quest to remember/discover my childhood, which was pretty idyllic. I grew up walking a block and a half to my school, playing in giant gangs of kids in my neighborhood. We went to swimming pools at country clubs in the summer, but we had a neighborhood of full time sports (wiffle ball) , games, dramatic productions, and parties..not unlike Spanky and Our Gang, I looked at the hill in my old side yard where we went sledding. It is much smaller that I could have imagined.. the entire yard has shrunk. It doesn’t look like it would hold big games of red rover, but I know that it did. I also had an archery target and a basketball backboard in the back yard. The prop we used most often was the player piano.

Both my next door neighbors and our family had player pianos in the basement. Our basement playroom was huge with the piano and a big bar. My parents partied heavily down there. Most of the time it was used for my piano practice or my play room. My mom supplied a giant box of dress up clothing of all kinds behind the bar in the laundry room. The kids would put on shows for each other, and sometimes for the parents, by dressing in the costumes and singing. The parents sat down at a lower level in the yard, and we would enter from stage right, behind the house. We had sort of an Ed Sullivan variety approach, with someone announcing the acts. One of our favorites (and very popular with the adults) was “Heart of My Heart”. We had a pantomime that was very corny. We did it all the time, so I can still do it after more than 50 years. I called my childhood neighbor, Peggy Jo, and sang it to her on the phone. It made me cry because the song sums up the whole deal. “Friends were dearer then”

I Once Was Lost, But Now Am Found

February 28, 2013 — 1 Comment

Handicrafts Club

I have been found by a group of people I would never have guessed were looking for me. My classmates from elementary and junior high have tracked me down to invite me to the reunion of the graduation I would have had with them had I not moved. I am blown away in many ways. First, I always admire good detective work. Second, I am touched and pleased and thrilled to be remembered for so long. Third, in am in flashback mode, laughing hysterically. Stories and pictures have been produced that take me back to Oakmont, PA in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. These were very fun, if somewhat unfashionable, times. In the above picture I am in the front row with jazz hands crossed on lap at the left end. Nobody remembers what kind of handicrafts we made. Another sexist ploy like home ec, where I received the one and only D of my academic career for stabbing the seam ripper through the pocket of my apron sewing project. Mrs. Gallashun, you can shove your apron….because I still have it for some perverse reason.

Jr high cheerleaders

In the photo above I am seated in my Oaks sweater, which was green and white. I am third from the left, leaning conspicuously to the left in some body language clue about my feelings about my fellow cheerleaders. This one is very funny to me because it brings on total recall of the games and the cheers and getting my collar bone broken playing tackle football with the high school boys when my parents were out of town. In fact it brings back floods of nostalgia and appreciation for the really excellent place we had to live as kids. We had Roberto Clemente, and life was very easy.

These are the people with whom I built snow forts, went sledding, ice skated, sang, baton twirled, and played dodge ball. These are the people who taught me to speak with a very heavy accent I no longer have, but do enjoy hearing. I am into the Amish Mafia on TV because I like to hear them talk. I can’t believe they have changed so much, but still sound the same. The Oakmonters are having a party which includes a tour of the high school, which happens to be the same building where I went to elementary school, two blocks from my house. I think I have to go. I think the past is calling loudly, and I have to answer. It is just too funny.