Passtimes of My Youth..1948 to 1954

My mother took me to Dallas to the Starlight Operettas in the bandshell, an outdoor theater on the State Fair Grounds.  I saw so many old operettas;  The Student Prince, Naughty Marietta, Bittersweet, Brigadoon.  Ilona Massey choked when a bug flew in her mouth during Bittersweet.  Then later, the shows were moved indoors, and we continued to go, but it wasn't nearly as much fun.  Beyond that, in our small town, we walked uptown to movies.  We went to the pool or the lake to swim in the summers.  We spent long lazy days doing nothing...just chumbing around...talking on the phone....talking over the fence...talking with an ice cream cone in one hand...going to airport and looking at the planes.  Parking at the train tracks to watch the trains go by.    For lack of anything else to do we went crawdadding and/or fishing.  We had picnics in the park.  Rode our bicycles all over town.  Had slumber parties. Walked the railroad tracks.   Called grocery stores to ask if they had "Sir Walter Raleigh" in a can and when they said "yes" we said, "Well you better let him out before he suffocates!" There was a poor man in the phone book whose initials were B. O.   We called him incessantly to ask him if he used deodorant.

We played tennis (not well) at the college campus courts and roller skated on same when school wasn't in session.  Baseball and basketball were played on sandlots at the schools.   We had parties at the roller rink.  We went to church camp in the summer and short sheeted our friends.  We had hay rides and wiener roasts.  We had formal dances, tacky dances, and dances at the Huddle, which was the youth center.  I was a wallflower.  We had a minor league baseball team (what they called a farm team), and Monty Stratton, one legged baseball player, was on that team.  We used to turn out for all the baseball games when Monty was playing.

Radio was BIG.  Young Widow Brown, Jack Benny, The Shadow, Fibber McGee & Molly, The Inkspots......"I don't want to set the world on fire.....:-)  I just want to start....a flame in your heart."
Cream of Wheat is so good to eat...yes, we have it every day.......we sing this song as we go along...and it makes you shout hooray!  It's good for growing babies and grownups, too, to eat.  For all your family's breakfast you can't beat Cream of Wheat."