We never met; but his stories helped keep me awake many a night. Later, I enjoyed his cooking shows on the educational channels (and, I think, on The Food Network). Thanks to him, I don't even own a set of measuring spoons; and I'm a dam' good cook, "I garontee!". I also don't carry cigars in my breast pocket; and, when I go fishing, I carry a mirror in my boat.
I shall miss him...
Granddad
"A day which will live in infamy"
Franklin D. Roosevelt
His 'New Deal' (Social Security age of eligibility was set older than most people could expect to live)
My dad riding off to work on a horse
"Call for Philip Morris" (background music from 'The Grand Canyon Sweep')
Bathing in a #3 galvanized washtub
Rationing
An old church...
Located near Muenster, Texas
Eating horsemeat because it wasn't rationed
Eating squirrel and rabbit for the same reason
My dad's first car...a Model "A" Ford
Burma Shave ads
Elsie, the Borden cow
"Borden's, the milk from contented cows"
Milk delivered to the door in glass bottles with paper caps and 4 inches of cream
Margarine, also known as oleo, in plastic bags with a coloring capsule inside (You squeezed the capsule, then kneaded the bag until the margarine was
yellow.)
My uncle, the iceman
Harry Truman (Did you know he was a Conservative?)
Cisterns (for water storage)
Outdoor toilets
My aunt boiling the laundry water outside in a big black cauldron over a wood fire
P&G laundry soap (also was good catfish bait!)
Maytag gasoline-powered washing machines
Battery-lit houses with wind chargers
Windmills pumping wells for water
The little old Mexican guy who used to come through the neighborhood with a pushcart selling fruit and vegetables
When those fruits were fresh and RIPE
Radio batteries
Fishing with cane poles and red worms
Eating the fish without worrying about pollution
Oatmeal for breakfast
Boiled coffee
Skillet toast
Homemade cakes, cookies, pies and bread
ICEboxes instead of refrigerators
Slingshots made from strips of old inner tube rubber
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Getting stung by wasps because we shot their nests out of trees with slingshots
When it was normal (and legal) to carry a knife
When kids had their own hunting rifles and shotguns legally
Single-speed bikes with balloon tires
Church socials
Little red wagons
John F. Kennedy (He was also a Conservative)
Pickin' cotton alongside braceros
Eating beans and tortillas with them
Lyndon B. Johnson (I still think he had J.F.K. assassinated)
His 'Great Society' (America's death knell?)
Swimming in the canals
Not needing to lock the doors and put bars over the doors and windows
Richard M. Nixon (He made a couple of mistakes; but Watergate wasn't one of them.)
When the 3 R's in school were reading, writing, and arithmetic instead of
rip-off, rape and rioting
Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter (2 do-nothing Presidents)