(Tis a blog about the late 50's, early to mid 60's, life in Liberty, or wherever USA.. don't feel obligated.. follow SnagglePuss left if no interest, or, scroll thru Facebook and jump in some dandy Trump-Biden argument!)
Not too long after graduating from the Big Chief Tablet to lined notebook paper - the coming of age to take the training wheels off happened. How? When?
So, I Googled "At what age do kiddos normally take the training wheels off their bike?".. The top answer was age 5, but of course, some before that, some after that. Regardless, our brains weren't ripe so most of this blog would be nonsensical to a 5-7 year old snotnose.
Gosh do you remember though? An eerie feeling... I personally was not the Little Engine That Could (I think I can, I think I can)... I was seven colors of red scared. Matched my red bike and red hair. About all I could remember thinking about was the night my folks let me stay up late enough to watch Johnny Carson, and he had footage of those birds that took off, but had no idea how to land. That, was me. And, I think about anyone that first time. Taught muscles.. balance hiccupping from the right side to the left side.. a bit like a 707 that takes forever to get off the ground...
And, if memory serves - that's kinda what it felt like - flying. I remember being too scared to smile, very worried about eventually 'landing' on the sidewalk insteada the grass..
"That's one small pedal for (little) man, one giant roll for (little) mankind. Or girlkind." The freedom of being able to ultimately navigate a bike, ranks up there with crawling.. then walking.. then running.. then walking to school alone.. to.. "hand over the car keys, please".. to love and marriage and a baby carriage - and the cycle repeats.
At that age, I was pretty much a simpleton. No idea of the events occurring in our land in in our world (and atmosphere and beyond atmosphere)... Seems though - there was a lot going on...
Castro begins his long reign.. a 24 yr old Dalai Lama and tens of thousands of Tibetans fled no no Lhasa to the safe haven of India.
Danger danger warning warning Will Robinson (which, actualy hadn't happened yet.. that show premiered in 1965) - BUT.. THIS GOOFY BLOG AIN'T GONNA BE FUNNY - it's more about "back then." Ahm, Victor, whomever, or is it whoever, said your blogs were funny? Bite me Tom Terrific-breath.
Long about this era Khrushchev (Pat, I'd like to buy a vowel) replaced Stalin. Maybe a tad better, but then again we practiced hiding under our desks with our hands over our heads at least once a week. Kinda sorta, I guess like "you should no likey Excelsior Springs because of our annual football game to see who wins the Dueling Pistols".. it was ingrained to no likey the Ruskies. They'd do evil things like beat us to the punch on the first man to leave the earth's atmosphere - and athletics back then were serious battles between our two countries. In fact, I remember reading (much later, when I learned to read) once we beat Russia in some team event for the Gold in the Winter Olympics.. the Russian newspaper headline was "US finishes next to last, Russia Second Place!" Bad! Bad Boris and Natasha!
I remember HOW HUGE a thing Space was back then. We'd draw spacecrafts/capsules with US flags on our notebooks: Pioneer... Gemini.. Mercury.. shortly after Russia's space success. we launched the Pioneer 4 Spacecraft - and it's claim to fame was closer to the moon (37,000 miles away) that any craft had ever been. Here we are, 2020, that spacecraft is still in solar orbit!
We too put dudes on spacecrafts... our first astronauts, "The Mercury 7" included 3 Navy aviators, 3 from the Air Force and one from the Marines. Names like Alan Shephard (our first person in outer space) and John Glenn (the first to orbit the earth)...
This is boring, spiff it up some Victor. OK, since it's 2020, let's revisit a TV show from the day, The Twilight Zone.. Rod Serling led us on many a sci-fi, supernatural mystery, and how many fellow bike without training wheels friends remember any stars to come from this show? Well, howabout Ron Howard, Dennis Hopper, Robert Redford and William Shatner!
Twas hard, initially, to bike and sing.. but meanwhile, The Grammys happened for the first time.. Rodgers and Hammerstein's last musical, The Sound of Music opened on Broadway... Did you have wanna those huge stereo consoles in your house? The singer (he liked to think) in our household was dad.. many a night I remember him standing at the stove singing Mack the Knife.. Seems it was a happy era.. Kansas City (the song was huge) and who didn't like the beat of Ray's "What'd I Say?"
Whilst us boy youngsters toted Rin Tin Tin or Huckleberry Hound metal lunchboxes, girls Barbie or Candy Land boxes, and it was a thing for them (and women) to wear hats...
Our folks had been thru both the Depression and World War II.. I remember hearing "we were poor and didn't know it." Finally, economic times seemed very promising, hence adding to the happiness of the era.. Big ole companies like Western Electric, GE, RCA and Philco emerged.. 73% of us went to church..
Perhaps an omen to our one day hippy/rebellious attitudes, Art Linkletter' "Kids Say The Darndest Things" book was a biggie.. Coffee shop folk music was the scene.. Bob Dylan.. Joan Baez.. ..Peter, Paul and Mary. .The Kingston Trio... Witness more future 'rebellion'! Those of us that got around the dodge ball circle, danced and sang Chubby Checker's "The Twist"...I don't remember if we visited Mrs. Weakley (the principal) but I do remember us getting in trouble/shutdown the very first time it happened! Sadly, this era included "The day, the music died" in the plane crash in Iowa that took the lives of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper.
Since we couldn't do that (Do The Twist), some of us would go to the monkey bars, we'd climb a rope, hop on the merry-go-round, or.. chase girls.. we really didn't know why we chased girls, and we never knew what we'd do if we did catch ''em, but, twas a thing many a little boy did.
Once we got practiced (and maybe a tad bit older) mom would let us trek that bike across town (safely) and the folks didn't have to worry about us ending up on a milk carton. We could usually stay out until the street lights came on.. playing games like Hop Scotch, Hill Dill, Red Light Green Light, Kick the Can, Hide and Go seek.... We'd catch (or try to catch) crawdads.. Dad might take us to a pond to fish..The bottoms of our feet pretty much stayed filthy all day. We'd play fetch with our hounds.. back then, just like us once we got our training wheels off, dogs were free to go anywhere/everywhere. Occasionally that was a problem.. I valued my hiney, and I remember many times barely making it to our screened in porch before the meanest dog on the block took a chunk outtta my rear end.
Our games were simple, sometimes even homemade (two cans with a string, our 'walkie talkies'.. old roller skats screwed onto the bottom of a cutout piece of plywood, and off to skateboard we'd go).. Play Doh.. Silly Putty.. Slinky.. Pogo Sticks, Hula Hoops.. we liked the smell of those rolled caps we stuck in our cap guns.. the girls would buy and 'wear' those big ole wax candy red lip thingys.. Inside, we had Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, our 'tablet-iPhone of the day was the Etch-a-Scetch. The girls had paper dolls.. and on a lucky day, mom would make ice cream using the old crank thingy to do so.
Again, once riding a bike was cinchy, the girls would get streamers that would stick out of the end of the handlebars.. we boys would use a clothespin and a baseball card affixed to our bike so we'd make a motor noise.. and the rich kid on the block even had a bell on his bike.
We were too young to have jobs, so about the only way we could make money was to save up until we had 6 empty pop bottles, somehow strap 'em on the bike (Or put them in our wagon and walk), and off to Safeway we'd go for the 2 cents apiece we'd get for returning them. Come to think of it, our very next chapter might be "coming of age to gain parental confidence we wouldn't cut off our toes if we mowed the yard." 9-ish? 10-ish? The sad, but fun at that time, beginning to a lifetime of manual labor, be it at work, or, in working on our homes once we're old enough to have a home.
During the week, mom and dad usually picked the shows - but quite frankly, we enjoyed watching them with them and our sibs.. We actually mostly got along! Saturday mornings, however, WE KIDDOS controlled the TV's! Lassie, Dennis the Menace, The Mickey Mouse Club, Huckleberry Hound, Tom and Jerry.. Bugs Bunny.. and Heh-Heh-Heh-HEHHH-Heh, The Woody Woodpecker. My own personal fav was Captain Kangaroo.. who could forget Mr. Green Jeans, Mr. Bunny Rabbit, Mr. Moose and the Dancing Bear!
Treats were trips to grannies.. maybe even occasionally spending the night in a motel WITH a pool!..(Thanks to an Atlas the size of Rhode Island to help us find our way.).. Travel got easier in this era as the Interstate came to fore.. As the crow flies versus over the river and thru the woods, up the hills, round the curbs, passing 'when ya can', whenya find a passing lane... Drive Inn Movies were a treat.. .. Long about this era was the dawning of fake Christmas trees. Patooey. Thankfully, grandpa always drove to the country to pick out a fine, fine cedar tree. We'd adorn it with stringed popcorn, some electric lights, and we even had somea those bubble light filled with liquid that would glow. There was a spirit about town at Christmas. Our already in a good mood was even gooder. Folks decorated outside, families did, together. It was special to take a drive to the Big City to see the humongous Christmas decorations downtown..
Some homes could afford window unit AC's (AC for the entire house didn't happen until around 1970.. most of us had fans in the window.. we all had that one uncle that would stick his thumbnail on the metal fan to make a horrendous noise that caused rolled eyes by our mom and our aunts..
It was a wonderful age, era. Wide eyed, in total awe of life, our folks and new things in our lives. Good friends. Loving relatives. No hustle bustle, hurry up. We've been verbally communicating for a few years now. We are starting to reason. Simple, but wonderful.
Love, Victurd
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