# When I was a Boy..a Really Long Time Ago!



## Underock1 (Apr 13, 2015)

Its late. Just throwing out a few memories that are probably way too far back even for most of you.

The Bronx, NY. Had to walk eight blocks to school trying not to step in horse manure.

A treat was following the ice wagon, and grabbing slivers to suck on. The poor ice man had to walk up four flights with a huge block of ice slung over his shoulder. I still call refrigerators ice boxes once in a while.

A big amusement was watching the coal go down the chute from the truck into the basement of the apartment house. We used to throw things on the chute and watch them go. The milk man still came in a horse drawn wagon. So did the vegetable peddler, yelling "Fine potatoes". The scissor grinder came around on his truck.

There was also a Merry-Go-Round truck. I got sick on that one. We were still coming out of depression. Men used to sing in the court yard and we would throw wrapped coins down. It was common to have people knock on our door asking for food. Mom always had something for them. I actually knew the real Curious George. The organ grinder came around regularly with his monkey, who would take your money and tip his hat. I remember seeing Zeppelins. Possibly the Hindenberg. I could see the China Clipper as it rose in the distance after taking off from Laguardia. I remember Mayor Laguardia reading the Funnies over the radio. O.K. That's way more than I expected to write. Going to bed now.


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## hollydolly (Apr 13, 2015)

Awwww such wonderful historical memories that will soon be gone forever and only left in print with no-one left who witnessed them ...thank you for those Underock , I really enjoyed reading the  memories of your youth ...more please..


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## Ken N Tx (Apr 13, 2015)

Way before my time!!! Thanks for sharing..


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## Underock1 (Apr 13, 2015)

hollydolly said:


> Awwww such wonderful historical memories that will soon be gone forever and only left in print with no-one left who witnessed them ...thank you for those Underock , I really enjoyed reading the  memories of your youth ...more please..



Yes, Holly, after a while there is no point in saying "Remember when", because there is no one left who does. When someone dies, we comfort ourselves by saying they live on in our memory. When I go, I'm taking a lot of people's memories with me.
I'm not sure if you're poking fun at the old guy or not, but you look cute, so at 5AM, I will give you a good one. In my early grades at school, the boys wore long stockings with garter belts. Lol. We also wore corduroy knickers that whistled when we walked.


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## hollydolly (Apr 13, 2015)

Oh I'm definitely not poking fun Underock, I'm fascinated by stories of days long gone, days when I wasn't around ( I was born in the 50's)...and lost my mother when I was a teen,  and with grandparents who were kind to me  but remote about their past  I never got to hear stories of their youth and the old days , so  I lap  up stories like yours  like a rabid dog searching for water..

Only story I remember ( and I never got to see the photo) is when my mother told me she saw a photo of my father as a baby ( he was born in '26) and he was wearing a dress..apparently boy and girl babies were always dressed the same in those days.


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## Ralphy1 (Apr 13, 2015)

I remember that my first pants had buttons rather than zippers which caused for longer delays in the bathroom...nthego:


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## Underock1 (Apr 13, 2015)

Ralphy1 said:


> I remember that my first pants had buttons rather than zippers which caused for longer delays in the bathroom...nthego:



....but considerably less pain.


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## Underock1 (Apr 13, 2015)

hollydolly said:


> Oh I'm definitely not poking fun Underock, I'm fascinated by stories of days long gone, days when I wasn't around ( I was born in the 50's)...and lost my mother when I was a teen,  and with grandparents who were kind to me  but remote about their past  I never got to hear stories of their youth and the old days , so  I lap  up stories like yours  like a rabid dog searching for water..
> 
> Only story I remember ( and I never got to see the photo) is when my mother told me she saw a photo of my father as a baby ( he was born in '26) and he was wearing a dress..apparently boy and girl babies were always dressed the same in those days.



I'm guessing that might have been a baptism picture. My wife's family had, possibly still have, a baptism dress that has been used for both boys and girls in her family going way back. Tradition was very big back then. It can give you a sense of stability in an uncertain world. It can also become suffocating. I remember the Italian women in our neighborhood. If someone in the family died, they had to wear black for a period of time. Possibly a year? With large families, in a time where many children died from childhood diseases, they were almost never out of black.


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## hollydolly (Apr 13, 2015)

No it wasn't a Baptism picture ..apparently they dressed under 2's in dresses regardless of gender, at least in Scotland they did I can't speak for anywhere else.

In Scotland where I grew up  there's a huge Italian population, and I saw the black being worn by many people for a long time while in mourning including one of my teachers at school. 

In Spain where I have a second home the women do the same even to this day


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## Ameriscot (Apr 13, 2015)

I love stories from before I was born.  Even when I was a kid I preferred to listen to my granny and her sisters talk than go play with the other kids. So, more stories please, Underock! I was born in 1952.


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## Jackie22 (Apr 13, 2015)

Great memories, Underock1, my mother talks about when she was a child and the hard times they all had, how they dealt with it and how so many things have changed.......thanks for sharing.


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## Pappy (Apr 13, 2015)

Well, I hesitate to post this, but this gown, now 77 years old, was my christening gown. My Mom saved just about everything. I still have a lock of my hair she saved.


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## oldman (Apr 13, 2015)

Pappy..I don't want to come across as a smart-ass, but what do you think will happen to this gown after your death? The reason that I ask is because last March, 2014, my brother-in-law died from leukemia at 72 years old. His wife, my wife's sister, who is also 72, went into an assisted living facility in January of this year with severe dementia. Last month, her heirs, including my wife and one other sister had received power of attorney and were also named the executrix's of the estate. In February of this year, they decided to sell the house, cars, boat and all household and personal belongings. 

Instead of the girls hiring a company that cleans out estates, the girls asked my brother-in-law and me if we wanted a job doing this and we would be paid. My BIL and I talked about doing this and decided we would, but would not except any payment for doing the job. Well, as soon as my BIL's and SIL's kids and Grandkids (second marriage)  found out what we were doing, they all started showing up and asking for things. "Can I have this?" "Can I have that?" At first, it was just little things, but then it got to be much more. We finally had to tell everyone to stay away and that no one would be getting anything. It was all going to auction and the money would go to my SIL in the home to help pay for her additional expenses. After all, she is not dead and she still owns these things, so they are rightfully owned by her and any money they bring in also belongs to her. 

As we went through everything, I made the comment of all of the memories that we were destroying and that nobody will ever see these items again. We had the trash company bring in a large dumpster and we filled it twice. They lived in a five bedroom estate with five bathrooms and two offices. All together, the house was about 4600 square feet. It took us three weeks working every day, except one to get the job done. The strange thing was that as I was throwing stuff away and rooting through other stuff, I had to wonder if this is what it will be like when I am gone. It does make one think, right?


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## Underock1 (Apr 13, 2015)

hollydolly said:


> No it wasn't a Baptism picture ..apparently they dressed under 2's in dresses regardless of gender, at least in Scotland they did I can't speak for anywhere else.
> 
> In Scotland where I grew up  there's a huge Italian population, and I saw the black being worn by many people for a long time while in mourning including one of my teachers at school.
> 
> In Spain where I have a second home the women do the same even to this day



Yes. I'm a history buff, and I've seen pictures of older boys in the early 1900's wearing dresses and wide brimmed hats.
The black dress thing seems sad to me. Spending your life, continually being reminded of death. Let it go.


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## Josiah (Apr 13, 2015)

I too went to school in the Bronx and being your junior by only a couple of years one would think our experiences would be quite similar, but I have no recollection of horse drawn wagons. I think I was in a different area of the Bronx. I do remember seeing a Zeppelin once and I recall watching a PanAm clipper taking off, that was exciting. And I do remember giving coins to the organ grinder monkey. My favorite NYC experience as a very young child was watching all the trans Atlantic ocean liners tied up to their Hudson River wharves. Then there was Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds and or course the Bronx Zoo, Van Cortland Park, The elevated train from Kingsbridge into Manhattan, you could stand in the front car and lookout the front window and pretend you were driving the train. I did that a lot.


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## jujube (Apr 13, 2015)

hollydolly said:


> Only story I remember ( and I never got to see the photo) is when my mother told me she saw a photo of my father as a baby ( he was born in '26) and he was wearing a dress..apparently boy and girl babies were always dressed the same in those days.



All the baby pictures of my father and my mother's brothers show them in dresses and with long sausage curls.  It was pretty hard back then to tell the difference between baby girls and baby boys.


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## Pappy (Apr 13, 2015)

Hey oldman, understand where you are coming from. As far as the gown is concerned, my daughter will no doubt want it as my two boys are not  in to older things. The wife and I do not have a lot of stuff laying around and very few real valuables. A few antiques the kids might want but who knows.

A lot of places in our community go up for estate sales once the folks have passed. A lot of families are not interested in their parents things and just put everything up,for sale.


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## AZ Jim (Apr 13, 2015)

Underock, you have three+ years on me and I was born and raised on the west coast, Los Angeles but we too had a Ice Box and an Ice man.  You hung a little sign on the door so he knew how much ice to bring up.  No Coal in LA.  I also once in awhile say ice box instead of fridge.  I probably match other of your memories as well.  Fun remembering how it was back then in the "dirty 30's"....


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## hollydolly (Apr 13, 2015)

With respect to my elders... xxx How can you remember the 30's folks when you're only in your late 70's and early 80's..my mum was born in '34  she'd would be 81 now ..so she would have only been 5 when WW2 started,  I don't think she had any memories of the 1930's


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## Underock1 (Apr 13, 2015)

Josiah said:


> I too went to school in the Bronx and being your junior by only a couple of years one would think our experiences would be quite similar, but I have no recollection of horse drawn wagons. I think I was in a different area of the Bronx. I do remember seeing a Zeppelin once and I recall watching a PanAm clipper taking off, that was exciting. And I do remember giving coins to the organ grinder monkey. My favorite NYC experience as a very young child was watching all the trans Atlantic ocean liners tied up to their Hudson River wharves. Then there was Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds and or course the Bronx Zoo, Van Cortland Park, The elevated train from Kingsbridge into Manhattan, you could stand in the front car and lookout the front window and pretend you were driving the train. I did that a lot.



When I was born, we lived in the Botanical Square apartment houses adjacent to the Botanical Gardens station of the NY Central. One of my very earliest impressions is standing by the huge drive wheels of a locomotive at the station, with all of the white steam coming out. I practically lived in Bronx Park and the Zoo. I wanted to be a keeper at the reptile house when I grew up. 
Then we moved a few blocks away in different apartments along Decatur Ave, between 197th and 200th Street. That "El" ran right along Webster Ave. I took the trolley car ( the _what? ) _that ran underneath it to Evander Childs high school. Decatur Ave. was a smaller street, but heavily populated. Probably more amenable for peddlers stopping their horse drawn wagons to conduct business. I did the "driving the train" thing too. So good to talk to someone else from "da' Bronx". The only thing missing here is the accent. Lol.


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## AZ Jim (Apr 13, 2015)

hollydolly said:


> With respect to my elders... xxx How can you remember the 30's folks when you're only in your late 70's and early 80's..my mum was born in '34  she'd would be 81 now ..so she would have only been 5 when WW2 started,  I don't think she had any memories of the 1930's



Holly my earliest memories of probably '38 were when I was on the floor in our home playing with the colorful cigar boxes my Dad brought home for me and listening to Maurice Chevalier sin "Louise"....Your Mother can remember too, if sh wants to, I bet.


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## hollydolly (Apr 13, 2015)

AZ Jim said:


> Holly my earliest memories of probably '38 were when I was on the floor in our home playing with the colorful cigar boxes my Dad brought home for me and listening to Maurice Chevalier sin "Louise"....Your Mother can remember too, if sh wants to, I bet.



Sadly my mother died when she was 39 years old Jim, but the only memory she ever told me was of things that happened during the war..


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## Underock1 (Apr 13, 2015)

hollydolly said:


> With respect to my elders... xxx How can you remember the 30's folks when you're only in your late 70's and early 80's..my mum was born in '34  she'd would be 81 now ..so she would have only been 5 when WW2 started,  I don't think she had any memories of the 1930's



I was born in '32, so I was seven years old in '39. I am 82 now. Pearl Harbor was three days after my ninth birthday.
 I can't remember where I put my glasses now, but I remember everything that I posted very well. I spent WWII comfortably playing at war in the U.S. with my friends. Your Mum grew up under the Blitz. Maybe she just wanted to forget those days.


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## hollydolly (Apr 13, 2015)

Yes, possibly Underock..she was raised in Dundee by nuns who were violent witches God forgive them...but for a period she was evacuated out to a farm in the country.

My mum would have just turned 81 last week if she'd still been with us..


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## Glinda (Apr 13, 2015)

Underock1 said:


> A big amusement was watching the coal go down the chute from the truck into the basement of the apartment house.



I'm a child of the '50s, too, but I do remember that our next-door-neighbors still heated their house with coal and the little window in my second floor bedroom afforded me the perfect view to watch the coal slide down their chute when it would arrive.  Fascinating!


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## SeaBreeze (Apr 13, 2015)

Thanks for sharing those memories Underock, I enjoyed them very much.


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## Pappy (Apr 13, 2015)

I'm a 40's brat. We had a coal bin and the coal slide down the cellar shoot. It was the terrible price of $18.00 a ton delivered.


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## Underock1 (Apr 13, 2015)

SeaBreeze said:


> Thanks for sharing those memories Underock, I enjoyed them very much.



You're welcome SeaBreeze. I don't know what made me post them. The nights are awfully long with Eleanor gone. I was looking for something to do, and they just sort of poured out. Glad you enjoyed them.


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## Underock1 (Apr 13, 2015)

hollydolly said:


> Yes, possibly Underock..she was raised in Dundee by nuns who were violent witches God forgive them...but for a period she was evacuated out to a farm in the country.
> 
> My mum would have just turned 81 last week if she'd still been with us..



"...and Jimmy will sleep once more in his own little room again."  How awful for parents to have to send their children away.
I am so sorry that you lost your Mum at such a young age. I can see that you still feel that loss. Life can be cruel.


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## NancyNGA (Apr 13, 2015)

I remember a horse drawn wagon carrying fruit and vegetables past my grandmother's house 
as late as 1950 (it was the year before I started school).  But it was in a small town in appalachia (WV).


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## AZ Jim (Apr 13, 2015)

I am grateful for my memories of the late 30's, 40's, 50's and some of the 60's.  Those were my favorite years.


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## Ameriscot (Apr 13, 2015)

I'm glad I was born when I was.  I wouldn't have missed being a teen in the 60's for anything!


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## drifter (Apr 13, 2015)

I remember some of those times. Men standing in line for a bowl of watered down soup or a piece of fruit. I hung out sometime down on the banks of our river, coming upon a hobo camp down under the train bridge some good distance from our house. I spoke to them but they ignored me and soon all but one left, an old black man, his hair grey, his hands and face all wrinkled up.  He asked me what i was doing off down here by my self. You can get in a heap of trouble down here by yourself. I started to say I just live a few blocks on the other side of the park, but he cut me off. I know where you live, he said. You mama is a good woman, she feeds us when she can. We mark places where a man riding the rails can get a meal. My place ain't marked I told him. Yes, it is, he said. You just have to know where to look. He run me off, sent me back home, but he called me back, Are you old enough to carry a knife he asked me and gave me a pen knife. He said I found this the other day. I've got a good knife. And he added, now you get. He has been in my memory a long while.


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## hollydolly (Apr 13, 2015)

Wonderful story Drifter.  I'm loving reading everyone's stories on here, thank you for starting this thread Underock


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## Ameriscot (Apr 14, 2015)

Loved your story, Drifter.


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## maddyathome (Apr 14, 2015)

Underock1

I grew up in London in the fifties - my dad often used to refer to the fridge as the ice-box or the meat safe.


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## Ameriscot (Apr 14, 2015)

maddyathome said:


> Underock1
> 
> I grew up in London in the fifties - my dad often used to refer to the fridge as the ice-box or the meat safe.



Although we never had a icebox, we always called the fridge one in 50's.  

I hear lots of stories from my DH who grew up in the 50's in Glasgow.  Horse drawn carts bringing coal, etc.  And it was very easy for all the kids to play football (soccer) in the streets because nobody had a car.


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## Cookie (Apr 14, 2015)

I was a small child in rural Australia in the early 50s and we did have an ice box, not a fridge yet.  And yes, as kids will do, we would get very excited when the iceman come to bring the blocks of ice with his horse and wagon. The milkman would deliver our milk into a can my mom would set up hanging from a nail on the porch.  All very old fashioned until we came to Canada in the mid-50s and the first thing my dad did was buy a tv set.


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## Underock1 (Apr 14, 2015)

Ameriscot said:


> Although we never had a icebox, we always called the fridge one in 50's.
> 
> I hear lots of stories from my DH who grew up in the 50's in Glasgow.  Horse drawn carts bringing coal, etc.  And it was very easy for all the kids to play football (soccer) in the streets because nobody had a car.



Even after automobiles took over, in the Bronx, we played _everything _in the street! Stick Ball, curb ball, foot Ball, roller skating, home made scooters, bike riding, sleigh riding. Christmas tree bonfires! It was the cars that had to give way. We did lose a couple of kids, though.


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