I bought something the other day at an estate sale and the memories of my growing up just exploded in my brain. Not the bad stuff, the good stuff. I got plenty of bad ones, maybe I'll share those on "Father's Day."
This whole post is about a certain summer, when I was about seven. Growing up in a family of twelve, there was one sound you heard but were helpless to respond to. It was a beautiful sound, it was like the Pied Piper of Hamlin. Children would run screaming through the streets just to be the first in line. Yes, the dreaded, Ice Cream truck! My mother had a remedy for that, the old frozen Kool Aid pops right out of the Quickube. Back in Boston we didn't get near Kool Aid, it was the heavenly nectar in the glass bottle, Za-Rex. I know the makers of the stuff originally named it Zarex. They figured we would murder the name with our accents, so Za-Rex it became.
I remember the M.D.C. swimming pool I used to go to every sunny day during the summer. On a hot day, the line to get in was so long, an official would come out and count the pool capacity and send the over flow back home. It cost a penny to get in, and do you know what a penny can do to soft brick on a building,while people get bored waiting in line?
I also remember if a Red Sox game was on the radio, you could hear it all through the neighborhood.Everybody just sitting in their homes,or on their porch, with a big old fan running, just trying to stay cool, and listen to the game.
Blueberry picking, when my mother would get in a pie baking mood, and I would get Poison Ivy. Picking flowering weeds for my mother, I thought were Violets, and just give them to her, even when I wasn't in trouble.
Sometimes, I would sit in the kitchen while she was cooking, (her spaghetti sauce smelled wonderful, it just didn't taste very good) and tell her "corny" jokes, even though she's in her 90's, she still remembers.
The Kids Day at Pomeworth Park. The City of Stoneham where I lived used to have a kids day, three legged races, watermelon, ice cream and fun games. My brother Joey and I hooked up for the wheelbarrow race, I was the wheelbarrow. We won it, I felt like a super hero! I think that's the last time I talked to Joey. Let's just say "Some people mature, some just get old"
I remember getting into a pretty serious fight with one of my brothers, and my mother lovingly yelling, "don't hit him in the face!" The time I was trusted to go buy the bread at Hanks Bakery and was told that I could buy some candy for doing this chore. The bread was 2 bucks, I spent all the change on candy, ouch! 3 bucks worth of candy back then? One night my brother Henry was locked out because he stayed out to late. He snuck in through a window and I heard him quietly sneak into his bed and breathe a sigh of relief. Next morning, at dawn, my mother came in and beat the hell out of him with a broom and yelled, "I know about the cigarettes, too!"
My most touching memory, when my mother would sit down at her old, half of the keys didn't work piano, and practice the hymn she was going to sing at Sunday mass.
I don't think I ever told her this, but that's where the love of music was given to me, from my mother. I still remember like it was yesterday. Don't forget, visit us on www.etsy.com Shop, its as good as it gets. Father's Day is on the way!
Happy Mother's Day!
All we did was hit each other in the face! I wouldn't bet on the brother with the pink gloves.
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| Quickube Ice Cube Tray |
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| Original Bottle |
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| M.D.C. building wall |
Blueberry picking, when my mother would get in a pie baking mood, and I would get Poison Ivy. Picking flowering weeds for my mother, I thought were Violets, and just give them to her, even when I wasn't in trouble.
Sometimes, I would sit in the kitchen while she was cooking, (her spaghetti sauce smelled wonderful, it just didn't taste very good) and tell her "corny" jokes, even though she's in her 90's, she still remembers.
The Kids Day at Pomeworth Park. The City of Stoneham where I lived used to have a kids day, three legged races, watermelon, ice cream and fun games. My brother Joey and I hooked up for the wheelbarrow race, I was the wheelbarrow. We won it, I felt like a super hero! I think that's the last time I talked to Joey. Let's just say "Some people mature, some just get old"
I remember getting into a pretty serious fight with one of my brothers, and my mother lovingly yelling, "don't hit him in the face!" The time I was trusted to go buy the bread at Hanks Bakery and was told that I could buy some candy for doing this chore. The bread was 2 bucks, I spent all the change on candy, ouch! 3 bucks worth of candy back then? One night my brother Henry was locked out because he stayed out to late. He snuck in through a window and I heard him quietly sneak into his bed and breathe a sigh of relief. Next morning, at dawn, my mother came in and beat the hell out of him with a broom and yelled, "I know about the cigarettes, too!"
My most touching memory, when my mother would sit down at her old, half of the keys didn't work piano, and practice the hymn she was going to sing at Sunday mass.
I don't think I ever told her this, but that's where the love of music was given to me, from my mother. I still remember like it was yesterday. Don't forget, visit us on www.etsy.com Shop, its as good as it gets. Father's Day is on the way!
Happy Mother's Day!
