July 17 ....

Wednesday, July 17

Stirring Up Memories ...

I was working in my home office this morning and as always I had the TV on to keep me company. I had the TV Land channel on, love this channel since it plays very old programs such as, Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, Hazel ... she was the best! Hazel had a fix for everything, wish I had a Hazel today! Well this morning the original Mickey Mouse Club was on. Before long I had stopped what I was doing, sat down on the floor and sat watching my old friends. I say old friends because that's what they felt like. My eyes filled with tears as I watched a very young Annette Funichello. She looked so happy, free from the pain that her future would hold for her. 

 

Annette is right next to Lonnie

Growing up in So. California had a lot of perks. One of those was Disneyland and it was only a few miles away. Every summer my mom would pack me up in the old green Pontiac and we would spend the day with Walt and all his imiginary friends. Dad worked while we played, life was so easy, so simple, so good.

Opening day 1955

Summer always conjours up wonderful childhood memories. Long days running barefoot throughout the neighborhood. Making our own popsicles and sitting under the huge elm tree on the cool damp grass in our front yard to eat them. No one had a pool, but we all had sprinklers to run through. We would let the hose run all over the hot sidewalks and then lay on them ... they felt nice and warm, like a towel out of a hot dryer.

In the evenings our parents would sit outside on the front porch steps and visit. The houses in the 50's didn't have air conditioners and by evening the inside was warm and stuffy pushing all the residents out doors. We ran the streets playing "spot" a game of hide and seek with a flash light. We had sleep overs in each others back yards, told scary stories, ate pop corn and drank RC Colas.

Life was so easy, so innocent. We didn't no anything about child predators, harsh chemicals like aspartame in our food or autism. The only person that brought a gun into a theater was John Wayne and he was on the screen.

The 50's were great ....