By Jensens (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsBack in my early childhood, my mother ran a restaurant on the Main Street of a small town. We lived in an apartment on the other side of the wall behind the counter and adjacent to the kitchen. It was one of my favorite abodes. A blue linoleum of the ocean and ships (a nod to my brother the sailor?) sparkled up the floor, and a skylight allowed the stars to twinkle overhead. Before my sister got married, she had a bed alongside mine. My bed was loaded down with dolls and stuffed animals, including two stylish model dolls in glittering formals. One resembled Elizabeth Taylor and the other was blonde with a ruby red, white laced dress. A gray mama cat had a secret zip up stomach, and the pink lining inside hid three tiny kittens. Mama cat doubled as an overnight bag to carry pajamas for spending the night away from home. I recall getting the impression from Mama: “What have I done? Now I have to let her sleep over somewhere?” My favorite toy was a black and white spotted dog named Pluto. He was reminiscent of the black and white dog on my favorite television show, Topper, in which two ghosts were the main characters, although the Topper dog was huge. It’s funny how I ended up with dogs in real life that looked like Pluto, the most famous being our Zhivago, who nipped my future husband Ronnie’s leg when first meeting him and brought joy to our lives for many years.
The restaurant featured a colorful jukebox that stood up front near the big picture windows. A man used to come around, count change from the box, give my mother her percentage, and bring new records. The best day ever was when he put the following record on the jukebox:
I’d love to hear about your favorite toys. What records do you remember from when you were very young?
Cheers & Happy Reading!
Flossie Benton Rogers, Conjuring the Magic with Paranormal Fantasy Romance
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By Flossie Benton Rogers
Paranormal romance author who loves to shake the edges of reality.
Well, in 1958 I was a gymnasium pupil. As an only child I spent my playing time, mostly reading fairy tales. I had many books and a lot of toys( and neighbor kids envied me for this, not that I was aware of it at that time.) A girl told this to me years later. My grandfather was the Director of the Postal Direction in the town and my parents had a job too, my father an engineer and mother an accountant. So the family wasn’t rich but wasn’t poor either, thus they gifted me with toys and especially books. Toys were mostly made of wood and tin. And dolls were not like those girls have today. The head was something shiny, I think painted cardboard, and the body was stuffed with rags or hay. But I liked them. I had wood ducks and a wood tram or even a wood small airplane. I remember a funny vertical ladder that stood upright where a small sailor looking piece of wood was placed on top and it climbed down each step by rolling over. I also had games like “Don’t get angry, brother” – here’s a link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CY-aApQAnM
that I used to play with grandfather.
Music, I don’t know. We listened to the radio but it was mostly Romanian‚thematic songs about the new life and the diligent workers in factories and fields!!!
I remember how much I enjoyed going on holiday to Bucharest, to my aunt, my mother’s sister. She had a radio with a record player on top and she had records with Los Paraguayos( Pepita, Malaguenia, Besame Mucho) and other Mexican ballads. A rarity. And Italian canzonets. She used to take me to the Opera. She was the one to instill in me the love for beautiful music and theater and reading. She also had a bookshelf jammed with books. Well, I must stop. You had me started on the memory lane. Big sigh!
Carmen, that link reminds me of a game we had called “Sorry.” I haven’t played it in a long time, but the board loos really similar. I wonder if they were themed on the same thing.
I was the same way as you with fairy tales and books, Carmen, and couldn’t get enough. I always consider myself lucky that my grandmother started reading to me at the toddler age. Another thing we have in common is the post office connection– your grandfather, my great grandfather! Your toys sound delightful. It’s wonderful that your aunt took you to the opera. What beautiful memories we have and what fun to touch into them.
A new element we have in common: my grandmother, God rest her soul in His sunny gardens, was, like yours the one who read to me and taught me to read and write before school time. She, in fact, brought me up as my mother was busy with her work and had a feeble health.( She died young, unfortunately)
Aww, I’m glad we both had grandmothers to read to us, Carmen. My parents had bought me a set of books, and my favorite ones were the fairy tales and fables.
Mom was a big Elvis fan so most Elvis songs I loved Clearsnce Clearwater and mom told us Conway Twitty wrote Hey Hey Loretta for her lol great post I loved stuffed animals too
Gee, that was a fun video, Flossie. I didn’t realize how charming Bobby Darrin was, especially moving so smoothly on stage 🙂 Didn’t he also do “Mack the Knife?” It’s one of my favorite old songs.
I remember two toys from the time I was very young that I really loved. One was a stuffed red dog I called Pepper and the other was a game. I think it must have been themed around the TV show Dark Shadows. All I remember is that it had a casket with bones inside and you had to spin (or something) to draw a bone from the casket. You were supposed to complete a skeleton and the first one who did, won. I guess it sounds kind of gory for kids, but what I liked about it was that every glowed in the dark and we used to play it at night. That’s what made it fun.I also remember the game Mystery Date from when I was a little older.
I think the first song I ever fell in love with was “A Daisy a Day” by Jud Strunk. I still remember the name. I think the year might have been 1973. And my first major teeny bopper crush as a kid on a music idol was Donny Osmond. OMG! When I think back to all the albums I bought as a tween it makes me grin.
Your vintage posts always bring back such wonderful memories!
Mack the Knife is one of my all time favorites songs, Mae. Aw, you had a toy dog too. I found the game you described on a retro site: http://www.retrojunk.com/article/show/2232/monster-game-madness Scroll down to Barnabas Collins Dark Shadows and you’ll see it. It shows the skeleton too.
omg, Flossie that’s it. I had no idea what it was called, but I remember those scaffolds and that all the bones glowed in the dark, which made the whole thing really cool. Thanks for finding it for me. I feel like I just got a bit of my childhood back, LOL!
Flossie, my Aunt Loretta ran a drive-in place in Gilbert, West Virginia, when I was a little kid. When I would visit I would follow the car-hops out and try to remember the orders they took out so I could shout them out to the cook! It was a great time. And I remember how hard I cried the first time I heard Elvis sing Old Shep. Thanks for the stroll back in time!
I love Bobby Darin. I remember the radio was always on in my mom’s kitchen. I grew up listening to skiffle music which my parents liked and the earliest pop music. One of the games I recall playing a lot when I was small was the hand clapping game. That was always fun and hopscotch too. I used to be able to double jump at skipping I am certain I couldn’t do it now. Thanks so much for reminding me of those things with this lovely post, Flossie.
Oh,Daisy, hopscotch was also my favorite when I was playing outside. We had real competitions and looked for very thin and easy-sliding stones to move them with one leg. And hide-and-seek too.
Yes, we made, too, squares, or we draw them round and, to increase the difficulty, the player has to hop on one leg and then with that leg try and move to the next square or round the stone and make it go to the next one without landing on the line.Not easy, trust me. I haven’t seen it played in ages. Girls mostly played it. Boys used to fly kites that tangled in the electricity wires or move a circle ahead. Not anymore these too.
It’s sad that I never see anyone playing hopscotch or kite flying anymore.
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Daisy, that’s fascinating about the skiffle music. I wonder if spoon playing is considered skiffle? I knew a woman once who played the spoons very well. Yep, I remember the hand clapping game, and we loved hopscotch too. We used to draw in chalk on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.By skipping, do you mean what we call jump rope?
I have loved music all my life it would be to hard to pick one favorite. Some of my favorite artists though are: Glenn Cambell, Bobby Goldsboro, Mac Davis and Jim Croce!
Jane, isn’t Bobby Goldsboro the one who sang Honey? I used to love that song! I remember Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman and others. Croce– yes! Thanks for stopping by and commenting:)
Well, in 1958 I was a gymnasium pupil. As an only child I spent my playing time, mostly reading fairy tales. I had many books and a lot of toys( and neighbor kids envied me for this, not that I was aware of it at that time.) A girl told this to me years later. My grandfather was the Director of the Postal Direction in the town and my parents had a job too, my father an engineer and mother an accountant. So the family wasn’t rich but wasn’t poor either, thus they gifted me with toys and especially books. Toys were mostly made of wood and tin. And dolls were not like those girls have today. The head was something shiny, I think painted cardboard, and the body was stuffed with rags or hay. But I liked them. I had wood ducks and a wood tram or even a wood small airplane. I remember a funny vertical ladder that stood upright where a small sailor looking piece of wood was placed on top and it climbed down each step by rolling over. I also had games like “Don’t get angry, brother” – here’s a link –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CY-aApQAnM
that I used to play with grandfather.
Music, I don’t know. We listened to the radio but it was mostly Romanian‚thematic songs about the new life and the diligent workers in factories and fields!!!
I remember how much I enjoyed going on holiday to Bucharest, to my aunt, my mother’s sister. She had a radio with a record player on top and she had records with Los Paraguayos( Pepita, Malaguenia, Besame Mucho) and other Mexican ballads. A rarity. And Italian canzonets. She used to take me to the Opera. She was the one to instill in me the love for beautiful music and theater and reading. She also had a bookshelf jammed with books. Well, I must stop. You had me started on the memory lane. Big sigh!
Carmen, that link reminds me of a game we had called “Sorry.” I haven’t played it in a long time, but the board loos really similar. I wonder if they were themed on the same thing.
I was the same way as you with fairy tales and books, Carmen, and couldn’t get enough. I always consider myself lucky that my grandmother started reading to me at the toddler age. Another thing we have in common is the post office connection– your grandfather, my great grandfather! Your toys sound delightful. It’s wonderful that your aunt took you to the opera. What beautiful memories we have and what fun to touch into them.
A new element we have in common: my grandmother, God rest her soul in His sunny gardens, was, like yours the one who read to me and taught me to read and write before school time. She, in fact, brought me up as my mother was busy with her work and had a feeble health.( She died young, unfortunately)
Aww, I’m glad we both had grandmothers to read to us, Carmen. My parents had bought me a set of books, and my favorite ones were the fairy tales and fables.
Mom was a big Elvis fan so most Elvis songs I loved Clearsnce Clearwater and mom told us Conway Twitty wrote Hey Hey Loretta for her lol great post I loved stuffed animals too
I love Credence and John Fogerty too, Cathy.
Gee, that was a fun video, Flossie. I didn’t realize how charming Bobby Darrin was, especially moving so smoothly on stage 🙂 Didn’t he also do “Mack the Knife?” It’s one of my favorite old songs.
I remember two toys from the time I was very young that I really loved. One was a stuffed red dog I called Pepper and the other was a game. I think it must have been themed around the TV show Dark Shadows. All I remember is that it had a casket with bones inside and you had to spin (or something) to draw a bone from the casket. You were supposed to complete a skeleton and the first one who did, won. I guess it sounds kind of gory for kids, but what I liked about it was that every glowed in the dark and we used to play it at night. That’s what made it fun.I also remember the game Mystery Date from when I was a little older.
I think the first song I ever fell in love with was “A Daisy a Day” by Jud Strunk. I still remember the name. I think the year might have been 1973. And my first major teeny bopper crush as a kid on a music idol was Donny Osmond. OMG! When I think back to all the albums I bought as a tween it makes me grin.
Your vintage posts always bring back such wonderful memories!
Mack the Knife is one of my all time favorites songs, Mae. Aw, you had a toy dog too. I found the game you described on a retro site: http://www.retrojunk.com/article/show/2232/monster-game-madness Scroll down to Barnabas Collins Dark Shadows and you’ll see it. It shows the skeleton too.
omg, Flossie that’s it. I had no idea what it was called, but I remember those scaffolds and that all the bones glowed in the dark, which made the whole thing really cool. Thanks for finding it for me. I feel like I just got a bit of my childhood back, LOL!
Glad to bring it to the light of day, Mae:)
Flossie, my Aunt Loretta ran a drive-in place in Gilbert, West Virginia, when I was a little kid. When I would visit I would follow the car-hops out and try to remember the orders they took out so I could shout them out to the cook! It was a great time. And I remember how hard I cried the first time I heard Elvis sing Old Shep. Thanks for the stroll back in time!
That’s cool about following the car hops, Linda. Saved them some time! Oh yes, what a heartbreaking song– Old Shep. No voice is like his.
I love Bobby Darin. I remember the radio was always on in my mom’s kitchen. I grew up listening to skiffle music which my parents liked and the earliest pop music. One of the games I recall playing a lot when I was small was the hand clapping game. That was always fun and hopscotch too. I used to be able to double jump at skipping I am certain I couldn’t do it now. Thanks so much for reminding me of those things with this lovely post, Flossie.
Oh,Daisy, hopscotch was also my favorite when I was playing outside. We had real competitions and looked for very thin and easy-sliding stones to move them with one leg. And hide-and-seek too.
Carmen, I don’t remember using stones for hopscotch. Hmmm. We used to draw squares on the sidewalk with chalk and then hop.
Yes, we made, too, squares, or we draw them round and, to increase the difficulty, the player has to hop on one leg and then with that leg try and move to the next square or round the stone and make it go to the next one without landing on the line.Not easy, trust me. I haven’t seen it played in ages. Girls mostly played it. Boys used to fly kites that tangled in the electricity wires or move a circle ahead. Not anymore these too.
It’s sad that I never see anyone playing hopscotch or kite flying anymore.
Daisy, that’s fascinating about the skiffle music. I wonder if spoon playing is considered skiffle? I knew a woman once who played the spoons very well. Yep, I remember the hand clapping game, and we loved hopscotch too. We used to draw in chalk on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.By skipping, do you mean what we call jump rope?
I have loved music all my life it would be to hard to pick one favorite. Some of my favorite artists though are: Glenn Cambell, Bobby Goldsboro, Mac Davis and Jim Croce!
Jane, isn’t Bobby Goldsboro the one who sang Honey? I used to love that song! I remember Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman and others. Croce– yes! Thanks for stopping by and commenting:)