Living Long

That's mom in the classy socks. Her dad probably took the photo.
The words and story here are mom's.

If you live a long life you pass through many historical changes. Politicians, wars, and how they are fought, hair styles, fashion fads, architectural changes, scientific breakthroughs, social and cultural changes, food  and the way it is grown, marketed and prepared, methods of killing as many people as possible, the stock market, and other methods of exchange, migration and immigration, weather patterns, communication, teaching methods,  language, personal hygiene or you name it. As the French say: The more things change the more things stay the same. Same tune, just different lyrics. One becomes resigned. It is what it is. You know if today is good, tomorrow will be bad, etc. So why worry? Just cope with it and keep going. Your other choice is to give up.

I was born in 1928, the year before the depression; of parents who lived through Prohibition, who saw the birth of the automobile and airplanes, Lindbergh and the beginning of airmail , short hair, the Charleston, short skirts and  moving pictures. Let us not get confused here. Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino and silent films were before my time.

My childhood influences were Shirley Temple, the depression, baseball and the neighborhood kids, the birth of my sister which I did not take to very well, my friend Nancy Swem and the Chinese import shop her father owned, swimming in any available pool, the scourge of freckles and constant sunburn, watching the miracle of a plane, a two seater, fly overhead, Compton’s Encyclopedia and the family sitting around the radio listening to Roosevelt’s Fireside chats.

I was born in the year of the Dragon, the luckiest sign in the Chinese zodiac, so during the depression I had food, shelter and raiment which were the basic needs of all men as my father always said. He was a department store manager so he was supplying the raiment. While I am on the subject I also knew no one who died during WWII nor had to fight in the Korean war. Except for some hiccups along the way I have been one lucky girl my whole life.  I was also born in the month of the astrological crab, a creature that takes its home everywhere so is at home anywhere, and likes to travel.

Even though my father had a job during the Depression I was still aware of it. We had Welsh Rabbit, [creamed cheese on crackers,] every day for lunch, I had holes in my shoes and even though Daddy sold shoes Mother put newspaper in them until I out grew them. Of course the rain came thru and I came home with wet socks. Mother sold her car and Daddy had to walk to work. Tramps came to the door asking for food which Mother always gave them. They were just good men who were starving, probably lived in box cars, never took advantage. Just ate and moved on.

Shirley Temple, Mickey Mouse and I were all born the same year. Mickey was okay but Shirley was my idol. I had naturally curly hair which Mother said she could brush around her finger making long ringlets., but I wanted short curls. My friend Nancy had straight hair and her Mother used a curling iron on her hair. I wanted that too but Mother said “Don’t be ridiculous.”

My parents seemed to understand my desire to swim and would even drive me to a nearby town to swim in the Twin Plunges. One hot pool and one cold pool. I was often the only one there. I also swam in the Natatorium, an indoor public pool, a very moist, echoing, chlorine smelling place with rings hanging across the ceiling which the big boys could swing on from one end to the other. When I got older I would walk 9 blocks to the public pool and be in the water from 10 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon then walk home. You would think I would become an ace swimmer but I never had any instruction and never really learned to breathe correctly.

We all loved baseball and played in any available vacant lot. The team was always made up of boys and girls. I was a very good infielder. By the time the ball got to me it wasn’t coming so fast I couldn’t see it and if it was a fly I had time to stop daydreaming and catch it. The outfield was too boring because nothing ever happened.

I could stand on my head longer than anyone because I clutched the grass for steadiness. I took ballet, acrobatics, tap and piano. Mastered none. No ear and no flexibility.

We always sat around the radio after dinner and doing the dishes, listening to Roosevelt talking about his week, the comedy shows, Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Gildersleeve, Fibber McGee and Molly and Amos and Andy, and silly crime stories where the villains were always idiots. No bad language, no bad behavior, just fun and funny. It was as easy to visualize the shows as if we were watching TV today. The sound effects said it all. Milk was not homogenized. It came with cream on the top and skim on the bottom. You could shake it up for whole milk or pour off the cream to make desserts. All foods were fresh and tasty. The ice man came every week because we did not have electric refrigerators then. He would carry a large block of ice into the kitchen and put it in the top of the fridge. We would all run out to the street to get a piece of ice from him where he would chip us of a chunk. Early on we did not have an electric washer and dryer. We scrubbed the clothes on a scrubbing board over a big tub. Clothes were dried on the line. People today have no idea how good sheets smell dried in the sun like that. I recommend putting up a clothes line and finding out. The washing machine came first and clothes were then put through a hand turned wringer. They still had to be hung on the line. It was expected to have ironed clothes and linens. Mother bought an mangle. Ever heard of it? Your loss. It was a large round ironing board that spun around by a foot pedal. I loved it. Ironing was my only favorite household chore. I sat in a chair and could iron all the sheets, pillow cases, table clothes, napkins and even learned the art of doing Daddy’s shirts. He had to have a fresh clean shirt every day so he owned ten. Later I made sure my husband also had ten crisp white shirts but sent them to the laundry.

Mother had the foresight to buy Compton’s encyclopedia which I soon adopted as my own private library. I read each volume over and over. I first read the story of Jean Val Jean and Les Miserable, and began to read about foreign cultures. My imagination soared, as they say.

I had a green Schwinn girl’s bike which I rode every day, or roller skated with the skates attached to the soles of my shoes with a skate key. I treasured that skate key. And that pretty much sums up my happy, very lucky childhood.

 

-Jean Clarice Walsh