I got lost - 1957

We moved from the Bronx to College Point, Queens in August, 1957.  We lived on 124th street, the school me and my cousin Brian were going to start was on 124th street. To get to school it was a straight walk for about a half mile.  

I was starting first grade, Brian second grade. When school started we would get a ride by my father or uncle.  At some point, we were going to be on the school bus.  And that's were the problem started.

I was excited to start the bus because at the end of the day, the school kids got to leave class earlier. I guess I never liked school.  So, the nun announces 1st bus children can leave. I looked around, was I a first bus child?  I waited. A little later, 2nd bus children leave. hmmm, I guess it's not me.  Next...the bell rang for class to end. Oh no, I don't think that's right.  I went outside and there was Brian. At the bus stop, crying. 

We missed the bus. He could not get on the bus because his mother told him he was NOT to get on the bus without ME. I made us miss the bus. We stood there for awhile,  everyone left, it is just us, so we try to go home the way  our dads drove us to school.  If we only walked straight down the blocks...but we didn't know. 

We started walking...

Around the block from our house my aunt and my mother are waiting for us to get off the school bus. It comes. We don't get off. They  talk to the school bus driver. We are not on the bus.  It was only when I became a parent that I realized  what a terrible moment that was for both of them.  They came home and called the school,  and woke their husbands (they worked nights) and called the cops.  Their only consolation was we were together.

Brian and I walked, we tried to find anything familiar.  We saw a house we thought we knew. It was a brick house with a big garden on the side and an old lady working in the garden. We ran up to her and asked her if she knew us. She  said no. We left.    Now..why didn't she ask us questions and realizing we were lost, hold us there and call the cops. That bothered me...but I think she did not understand English that well, not understanding what we were saying. 

At one point I started crying and Brian telling me it's ok, we will get home. 

So we walked...

Back at home, the cops are looking and my uncle in his car and my father in his were all searching the town for us. This was the age before THE internet and cell phones, so they would all stop at the house to see if there were updates.

In our journey, Brian spots a boy in his class. He asks the kid if he can take us to the school. He said he has to ask his mother, so we go to his house.  His mother said he could take us.  We get to the school.  The school crossing guard is there, it seems they asked her to stay in case we came back. 

She saw us, are you the lost kids? We say yes and just then, I see my father passing by in his car across the street, he sees us.  I start to run to him but the crossing guard holds me by my collar. A good thing, because I probably would have been hit by a car.

Next thing I remember me and Brian are having soup in the kitchen with our mothers standing around us and a cop walking in, very glad to see us home.

Brian and I talked about this alot. 

Years later, I would have lost dreams. I would get lost and I was always afraid of getting lost. The funny thing is, I never really associated those dreams with this event. I don't know why. lol   Anyway I have not had those dreams in years.

Here we are about  25-30 years ago. 

What movie traumatized you as a child.

 This was one of those questions on Facebook.  My daughter wrote, Children shouldn't play with dead things. LOL   Great title for a movie. 

Anyway, I started thinking about what movie traumatized me as a kid. And I thought and I though. I am still thinking. 

Not to say that a movie did not scare me as a kid,  some did, but not one that traumatized me. My sister would not take a shower again after watching the movie Psycho.  To me, that is traumatized. Or not sleeping without a night light...or the closet door opened or a clown hiding under your bed.

I have always loved scary movies/books.  I like to be scared.  But it does not do anything else to me. At some point the "scary" movies turned bloody/gory. they don't scare me at all, they annoy me more than anything. There is one exception though.  

The SAW movies.   That is a good collection of scary movies that also happen to be bloody.  I guess I like it because there is a story line and it is well acted. It also preys on fears many people have, like having a sharp object stuck in your eyes if you don't do something.....

I can remember one thing that did traumatize me that I saw on TV when I was a kid.  My father watched war documentary/series. Having only one TV we kids had to watch grown up TV.

 One was called, a World at War.  And it showed how the German concentration camps were liberated by the British and American troops. 

I saw the survivors, they were walking skeletons in rags.  Half burnt bodies in crematoriums,  naked bodies in piles. Piles of clothes, shoes taken from them. How they dug out huge holes and bull dozed bodies into them.  They had families, a home, a life and they suffered and now they are being  thrown in a hole.  How could people do that to other people. 

Lets not forget the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagsaki.  What horrors the survivors endured. The dead leaving a mark. People and things became shadows on walls and steps and the ground.  Like this.

As scary as some movies are and some can give me a good scare! which I love...but it is all make believe.

A girl I went to elementary school also posted on Facebook. She put the movie, Them. LOL  It was a story about Giant Ants.  

I remember that movie and I guess Giant Ants can traumatize someone. I don't see  how but I guess they can. Just like the Crawling eye and the Crawling hand. The Thing and so many more.

It is real life, what people can do to people/countries/ animals, that are traumatizing....to me. 

I'm cold, cold COLD!

 People would say, do you like being cold or warm? My daughter would say cold because you can  always get warm. There was a time when getting warm would be a problem for me. I don't know when it started. As a kid, I was normal. I would get hot in the summer and suffer with it like everyone else.

When I got married, I suffered in the heat too, but I think things started to change after I had Agnes.  Agnes was only a few weeks old when we went to Billy's friends house over night, we went in their pool and I remember having a hard time getting warm afterward.

It was a few years later when I noticed it more and more. I was coming home from the store on a hot day and I thought there was a bug crawling on my face, so I slapped my face. There was no bug but I was sweating. I remember being shocked because I was warm but I didn't feel hot enough to have sweat rolling down from my temple. 

And that's how it went for years. Yes, I would get warm or hot in the summer like everyone else. but it would not take long for me to cool off.  I remember we would close off the living room, put the air conditioner on and bring in the mattresses to sleep in there. At some point during the night I would wake up FROZEN, grab my quilt and go into the hot bedroom and curl up on the box spring, trying to get warm. I would spend the rest of the night in that hot box and not get hot. 

I always felt like my bones were copper coils and once they got cold it took ages to get warm.  So yes, I could feel the  warm/hot on my skin but it would not warm up my body. It is hard to explain.

Of course Billy was the opposite.  He suffered in the summer with the heat and in the winter he rarely wore a coat, flannel shirt and quilted vest were usually good for him. He also liked to sleep with the window cracked open in the winter.  Many arguments over that. He used to call me (sometimes) when he was on his way home so I could put the air on so he does not come home to a hot house.

He would be furious, at times, that I was cold when he was sweating in the heat! He took that picture of me. It is August. I am wearing a flannel night gown, a top sheet, a dark crocheted blanket(peaking out of the bottom right part of the quilt) covered with a quilt. He took the picture and then woke me yelling, "how can you SLEEP bundled up in THIS HEAT, I am SWEATING!" 

So, yes I might go to bed warm, but I had a very small fan on my night table. I would have it on, but NOT blowing on me. That little bit of air circulation would cool me off, that's all I needed.

So that's how things were, but as I got older around the menopausal age, I did not suffer with the cold as much.  Once in awhile I still get cold to the bone. I went to a Met games on a dreary, drizzly, the first day of spring day and was cold for hours afterwards. 

I wrote this, because I had one of the days, today. I could not get warm. I had to go outside to get warm but I was still cold  when I came inside. So I took a nice HOT shower and I am finally warm. lol 

Since I have also suffered with hot flashes...I have to say, it is horrible to be HOT and not able to cool off.  So I try not to complain too much about the cold house..but sometimes..I have to. LOL

The Beatles Final part

 The Beatles keep turning out hit singles. Hit Albums and even movies. I must say, I was not a fan of their movies. I don't recall even going to one of them. 

I have always said, there has never been a band as popular as The Beatles.  Not only did we love their songs, so did our parents.  Many singers of the time, from my parents era, would sing Beatle songs.  Dean Martin, Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra sang their songs just to name a few.  

Here is a list of Beatle songs. Amazing. 

We followed the goings on of the Beatles in Magazines and TV.  We found out John was married and had a son! But soon the other Beatles married and divorced. John said they were more popular than Jesus and caused a whole big uproar.  I knew what he meant but apparently many did not and burned their records. 

Their music style grew and changed and became psychedelic. Their hair was long they all had beards and mustaches.

And then the arguments and threats. Finally it was the end. They were splitting up.

One of the last pictures of them as The Beatles.

The end of an Era.

They went on leading their own groups, their own lives. One of them might make a special appearance in another's group. 

On December 8th, 1980 my mother called. Are you watching the news? I said no. She said put the news on, she would not tell me why.  

John Lennon was murdered in front of the Dekota Apt. building where he lived. My mother knew I would be upset and couldn't tell me.  Very Sad.   Then George died of cancer.  I was going to marry George when I was a beatlemaniac. sigh

Paul just released a new album, frankly, I think he should retire now. His album sucked.  But that's just my opinion.  Ringo is in a band with his son, I believe. I never bought any of their records after the beatles. 

I will always be a

BEATLEMANIC

The Beatles, Part 1

 So, we were a nation mourning the loss of our President. Old Johnson was the President now, with Lady Bird and their 2 daughters. The Vietnam war (its not a war, it's a police action) is in the news more often and of course  we gotta watch those Russians! 

I have a British penpal, Cheryl. She was telling me about a group in England called, The Beatles, have I heard of them? No. She sends me some magazines about them. Boy, do I WISH I had those now!  I think they look weird. They have long hair.

To think we thought this was long hair. But the buzz cut was still popular from the '50s or the slick back Elvis hair was still popular too, so this was quite different from those.

In 1962 the Beatles are getting on the Charts in England and by 1963 they had hits on the British Record charts.  In the USA, the record, I want to hold your hand, became Number 1 in January, 1963.

I want to hold your hand

Yes, I bought it.  I loved it, the music was so different.  My dad wanted to hear what they sounded like. He was not impressed with the group. It is not one of my favorite Beatles songs either, but it was the first song by the Beatles that I  ever heard. 

This was the start of  Beatlemania. This is in England, but it was the same here. 

The Beatles came to America, arriving at LaGuardia  Airport, New York, on February 7th, 1964. My 13th birthday. Did I feel special. 

Many girls/kids were cutting school and going to the airport. I was in the 7th grade.  As much as I wanted to be there, I never even thought of cutting school. I had my transistor radio and ear plug, we only had one ear plug, not two plugs for the ears...for some reason.  So I listened when I could in class, of the happenings at the airport. 

(See those pocketbooks hanging over the sign? I had both of them.) 

I had tons of Beatle cards and magazines.  We were always at Woolworths buying records. 

The boys started getting Beatle haircuts and wearing boots with heels. 

There was even a hit song, called, We love you Beatles. Really dumb record and yes, I had it.

We love you, Beatles, oh yes we do

So, this was the start of Beatlemania and The British envasion.

Next part coming up

what a picture can do.

 I did this post last night and somehow, erased the whole thing. 😭 So here it is again. 

I have this picture tucked into the picture on my desk of my mother when she was 4/5 at Coney Island. 

It makes me smile every time I look at it.  My mother hated having her picture taken. It's Christmas day, 1962 is my guess. That's my oldest sister, Peggy, trying to remove mom's hands from her face. I love this picture because it is not posed. 

Mom has her usual attire, that she wore her whole life when she was inside or just hanging out front. A house dress. An apron and her slippers. I remember that housedress. It was off white and the design was brown. Peggy's pants were called ski pants and they were the style for a year or two. 

She was married, but only lived a few blocks away. This was before she moved to Upstate N.Y.

The white door with the glass door knob was Peggy and Barbara's room When Peggy married I moved in with Barbara. And when Barb married I was the first one to get her own room!   The white door has yellow curtains that Mary Crowley made for my mother. 

In the glass inclosed bookcase is the World One Encyclopedia. I LOVED it! I would take one out and read. As an adult, knowing what they cost, I am sure it warmed my dad's heart seeing it get so much use. He also bought the year book, every year,  to keep it up to date.  After the fire in 1976/7 he gave the set to the boy next door.   I can't tell what books are on the bottom shelf, but I will keep trying to figure that out. 

On top is where our black telephone was, it is behind Peggy and my mother. A little fish tank is there. My dad had numerous hobbies and fish were one of them. We all loved the fish and learned a great deal about them through him.

I can see toys under the tree that must be Tommy's, the youngest sibling.  Behind the rocking chair was the tree and I can just see the christmas cards hung along the arch.  That area was once the front porch, including the room with the white door. But it was enclosed at some point and the door and windows taken out to make that arch. Eventually all the houses on the block did the same thing.

I can see what looks like a bracelet on my mother's wrist. She must have just got it that day as a gift because my mother did not wear or like jewelry that much. 

So...this picture takes me back in time, when we were all young, together and alive. 

Where were you when John F. Kennedy got shot.

 I was 10 when JFK became our 35th President in 1961. He came after Eisenhower.  JFK was young and handsome with a beautiful wife and daughter.  Being 10, I wasn't much interested in the Government, but every morning while I got ready for school my dad would have the news on the TV. When you only have one TV in the house you watched what  the grown ups watched. 

It would show his news conferences. It was mostly fun. The reporters would laugh..he would laugh. I thought I might grow up and marry a President like him.  You notice my 10 year old brain could not even conceive that I could be President. 

I was 12 on Friday,  Nov. 22, 1963. I was in the 7th grade at St.Fidelis and I had Sr. Theresa. 

It was after lunch that an announcement came over the speaker from the Principle's office that the president was shot and needed our prayers. I remember watching Sr. Theresa's face and I could tell she was upset.  So, down we got on our knees and prayed the President would be ok. 

At some point Sr. Theresa left the room and came back looking upset. I can't remember now if there was another announcement to pray for him.  

School was over. I walked to Woolworths to see my sister who worked there.  She worked in the back in the office.  I asked her if  she heard anything about the President and she told me he died. 

I remember walking home on Main Street, looking at the faces of the people I passed and wondered why they were not crying.  Did they know? I felt like crying. 

Monday, Nov. 25th was his funeral. The nation was shut down, people had no work, stores (mostly) were closed. Everyone was watching the funeral at home.

Not long ago my Son in law said he was talking to someone and they said the whole nation mourned the President. I said yes. He said the WHOLE COUNTRY shut down. I said, YES, the whole country  watched the funeral in shock and sadness. 

Everyone who was old enough will tell you exactly where they were when Kennedy got shot. 

JFK announcement