The Ice Cream Man -1950s

Like all kids, we looked forward to the ice cream man in the 1950s in the Bronx. If we were out playing when he came we would scream up at the window for ma to throw down money. That is, if we were allowed to have ice cream. 

Money would be thrown down in a hanky that was tied or pinned.  If she didn't hear us screaming we would have to run up the flights of stairs (8 in my case) burst in the door screaming the ice cream man is here!

This is how we got ice cream back in the stone age. 😄

Yes, a push cart. I remember we had a nice ice cream man on our block.  Sometimes he gave out little gifts to the kids.  One time he gave me a big chalkware piggy bank! I was So Happy!

My mother put it on top of her bureau. Soon I had a nickel to put in it! I am saving money!

Even sooner I wanted the nickel to buy candy.  I grabbed the pig...and dropped it. 😢

It cracked all over the floor, but I got my nickel while my mother swept up my piggy bank. I hounded the ice cream man for awhile but he never gave me another piggy bank. sigh

At times he would run out of ice cream.  Just on our long block, with apartment (tenement) buildings on both sides of the road,  would have hundreds of kids. 

After all, we were the baby boomers.

My First PC

The 1990s was an exciting time. People were buying PCs, Personal Computers. My sister, Barbara, had one. My daughter had an old one. 

I....did not have one! 

My sister would "see" my daughter on line and ask me if I wanted her to send Ag a message from me.  I had no idea what she was talking about. "You see her online? Do you see her face? How do you see her?!" 

I wanted to "see" her online! 

One of my bosses mentioned he was getting a new computer. I asked if he was getting rid of his old one, I would buy it. He said, let me talk to my wife.

Every time he came I would ask, he would forget to ask his wife.  I was almost begging for it!  He finally told me they were giving it to their niece. 

I went home. They were selling Gateway Computers on QVC.  I bought one. I will do what I never did before. Take money out of my CD to buy it. 

I called Ag and told her. After we hung up, I called QVC and bought her a computer. 

There was no way I would be able to enjoy my PC if Ag was still on her crappy old PC.  

I am not sure what they cost back then. I want to say $1200, but that could have been for both of them.

It looked like this.  I had a great/frustrating time learning this  new technology! 

I got  to see Ag and my sister online and learn about codes  and html. I said, I will not just do email on this expensive machine, I was going to learn how to do things! 

One of the first things I did was find, Ancient worlds and join that group which was my second home  for Leah Enkidu.  I learned codes and html, I could make webpages.  I got a second job online! Stories for another day. 

My first ring

On my 8th birthday in 1959, my sister Barbara gave me a cloth handkerchief  for my birthday. I looked at it and thanked her. 

But of course I was so disappointed!  I stared at it a bit and then turned to put it in my  dresser draw, when she yelled at me. LOOK IN the HANDKERCHIEF!  There was a ring! 

A few weeks ago she brought home a ring sizer and we all played with it to see what size fingers we had.  I had no idea it was to measure me for the ring. 

The ring was gold, with a small heart shaped amethyst stone. I just loved it.

This was not my ring, but you get an idea of what it looked like.  I wore it all the time. 

Then one day at school I looked down at my hand and....THE STONE WAS MISSING! 

I was heart sick, I search all around my desk and the class room. But, who knows when I lost it. 

I kept the ring and did not get rid of it until the 1970s (?) when gold prices went UP and people were selling their gold.