Category Archives: Special topics

Kool-Aid stands were big…

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Kool-Aid stands were big in my neighborhood (upstate New York in the 60’s). But one day my friend and I tried a new angle… We got a hold of a refrigerator box, which we placed upright and decorated (with crayons? markers?) as a “Kool-Aid Machine”, just like a Coke vending machine. We cut a hole for the customers to insert their coins, and an opening from which the Kool-Aid could be dispensed. Then we got inside the box and waited for our customers. When they inserted their coins, we would pour the Kool-Aid (from inside the box), and a little hand emerged from the opening with a glass of Kool-Aid. What a “blast” we had!

I was so dumb on one major…

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I was so dumb on one major snow storm that I didn’t listen to the radio and it was always better to be at school than to be home. I never didn’t go to school, maybe I didn’t go to my classes but school was where my friends were. So any way I was in eighth or ninth grade and it snowed a lot and I didn’t listen to the radio and my mom was asleep and her husband probably didn’t even notice if it was snowing raining or eighty degrees outside he was so involved in his paintings in those early morning quiet hours of the day that he may not have even noticed if I was in the house or out the door. So my school was a subway ride away and then a walk through a few blocks. Somehow that day I was wearing a long skirt and socks and sneakers and I was soaked and I got to the building only to realize that it was empty and I was the only one around.

We called it mother may…

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We called it mother may I? But to me this is real little kid stuff and the real hanging out came later on when you sat there or stood there thinking you looked oh so cool. Maybe some running around, like tag. Or maybe taking each other to the really dark parts of the block, and having someone already there to spook the person you brought there. Different kinds of dares to each other. I bet you won’t go down there and bring back whatever to prove that you actually did it. I never smoked, but that was part of what a lot of my friends did in those truely hanging – hanging out evenings. Oh you had your spot and you just knew if you passed by whatever spot after a certain time your buddies would be there.

How about going to bed at…

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How about going to bed at night when there were a few snow flurries coming down. The only time you ever really prayed hard was that in the morning the Radio would announce the following schools will be closed today.. What a Blast those days were. Only times kids listened to the NEWS.. We used to build igloos and lite candles inside, and maybe a cig that someone stole from there parents.. Hitching on the back of busses. Piling up snow in the middle of the street so no cars could get through.. Winter Had its great times also. Any other stories??

No neighborhood night game…

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No neighborhood night game was started until “The Light” went out. The streetlight on the corner was mounted on a wooden telephone pole. A well-place karate kick (or what passed for karate)would rattle the pole and put out the light. It lasted for 30-45 minutes and then everyone would fight for the honor of being the next lamp unlighter. Neighborhood parents would yell at us to leave the light alone, which would last for about 5 minutes. For many years, long after we stopped playing street games, veterans would drive up, hop out of their cars and kick out the light, for old time’s sake.

I still rue the day that…

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I still rue the day that Good Humor discontinued my favorite bar: It was called “Chocolate Cake” — it had chocolate ice cream inside, and the outside was…well, it was sort of like dark chocolate cake! This was also in the “old days”, before they had that “candy in the middle.” Good Humor also made a seasonal special: A red white & blue icecream bar for the 4th of July — it had raspberry, vanilla and blueberry, and it was good! I never heard of Mr. Frostee, but of course we had Mister Softee… and we STILL have Mister Softee: In my current neighborhood, Chelsea/Flatiron, they’re all over, as well as on every other corner in midtown. Hmm… think I’ll run downstairs and get a chocolate shake. Wasn’t there also an icecream truck called “Pied Piper”? This would have been in Long Island, circa 1957-1963. For WEBDIVA: You mentioned the selter bottles, in blue. They also came in green. There was a company a few years ago called “GIMME SELTZER,” and yes, as in days gone by, they delivered seltzer by the case, in those wonderful original blue or green syphon bottles. I just looked in the Manhattan phone book and there is NO listing… uh-oh, did they go out of business?? I will investigate further and see if I can find them.