Hell....
some of you guys are older'n
dirt! But, here's some of what I remember....
The aluminum 'milk box' outside the kitchen door where the milkman would leave milk in glass bottles on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays....an extra 1/2 gallon on Fridays to go on my Sugar Pops, or Cap'n Crunch on Saturday and Sunday.
The wooden 'milk box' my father made when we moved and the new dairy didn't have milk boxes....
10 cent balsawood profile gliders from Vaca Valley Hobbies located right next to the Vaca Valley Theater in Vacaville, CA (Turk lives there now!). Used to go into the hobby shop when I got out of the Saturday matinee and take whatever change I had left over and buy a glider....Paul Guillows company made them. Sometimes I didn't have enough, but the owner would take whatever change I had and sell me the glider. What happened to people like that...?
"You just wait 'til your Father gets home!" (Need I say more?)
Christmas presents wrapped in VERY thin wrapping paper....the kind that would just disintegrate when you started to open it....and the thin yellowish brown looking Scotch tape that my parents wrapped them with. You could actually read through the paper if you tried hard enough...remember?
U-control flying model airplanes made by Cox with .049 engines in them. My first was a yellow Piper Cub...got it for Christmas. 'Flew' it around for days holding it at arms length and making engine noises with my mouth while walking around the house. 'Landing' on the coffee table in the living room.
Trying to thank my parents for Christmas gifts from 'Santa Claus' after I had been clued in....and trying to make sure my brother didn't catch on to the horrible truth that there WAS no Santa Claus.
Going with my father down to Kerr's Phillips 66 station to fill up the Oldsmobile Delta 98 station wagon every Saturday morning. Seeing the walls lined with Phillips 66 TropArtic motor
oil. Thousands of fan belts hanging up around the two service bays...and the long wooden pole with the hook on the end of it Mr. Kerr used to use to reach the belts.
The "Tom's" candy machine at Kerr's 66 station...red enamel with a real glass front. Pull knobs located across the front of the machine with the product in verticle racks above each pull knob. Put your dime in the slot, and then pull the knob bleow your selection. Damn machine NEVER jammed, NEVER failed to deliver your dream candy!
Tom's "Full Dinner" candy in the machine....peanut butter candy, light tan with dark brown stripes. Crunchy...full of peanut butter...and a vertible orgasm of the taste buds! Maybe this is the REAL reasion I used to like to go to Mr. Kerr's 66 station with my Dad each Saturday morning...
My Mom soothing my crushed feelings when I had gone to the Vaca Valley grocery to pick up a roasted chicken for dinner while my Father was on a trip....(Air Force). They used to have a chocolate cream pie that was OUTSTANDING. I used to clip the pie in its box to my Schwinn book carrier on the back fender, and put the bag with the chicken in it in the front basket. One evening, while getting off the bike on the driveway, I accidentally kicked the pie when throwing my leg over the seat to get off. The bike fell over with the pie still on it...! The box popped open and the pie oozed out .... I ran around the side of the house crying because I knew I was in deep kimchi....! "It was an accident", I cried! My Mom came around the front of the house and calmly picked up the pie as she was trying to soothe her crying child. She opened the box when we got inside, and taking a spoon, she stirred all the whipped cream, chocolate and pie crust together.... "See? We just made chocolate pudding out of it...it'll still taste the same!" she told me. Right then and there I knew she could make anything right....anything! I got a chance to share this recollection with about two hours before she passed away in July of 2001. Still brings tears to my eyes....
I remember on Christmas my Dad bought me almost 50 different plastic model airplane kits. This was right after I started buiding models and he wanted me to have something to do every weekend. It was incredible....I had airplane kits stacked up in my closet from Christmas afternoon untill I went back to school after Sumer vacation. I still have the desk I built those models on...in the attic, but still there, nonetheless.
I remember going down to the bakery and getting free doughnut holes...a whole sack full....FREE! if you waited until late in the afternoon just before they closed. But...you had to bring your own sack....
I know I'll think of more...
I'm going to Arlington National Cemetary this weekend to visit my Father and Mother's gravesite. I haven't been there since we burind them and the marker was erected. I know I'll remember more when I see them again....
Thanks, Cal.....for the chance to wake up some old brain cells. Gotta go dry my eyes now...can't let everyone at work see me sniffling...
Well....some of you guys are older than me....
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