jjldee64

Recently I have had less on my mind to trouble me and have been able to reflect on life in the 50’s.  The world was so different then.  It was recovering from World War II and economy was picking up.  I was seven years old in 1950 (Nov).  I was innocent and trusting.  While in most cases I had no fear with the exception of Thunderstorms.  I was petrified of and even lost my ability to speak during them. 

I attended Warring Grade school and was a pretty fair student occasionally I got called to the principal’s office.  On those occasions I was afraid I had done something wrong but I was summonsed to stuff envelopes or some other kind of work to relieve the secretary.  I was enrolled in ballet and toe dancing classes and also piano lessons.  These were implemented by my paternal grandmother Edith.  I guess she wanted to insure my future to be one of a “lady”.  Brownies and Girl Scouts were next on her list for socialization.

I “endured” these for five or more years though I wanted to take tap lessons.  I would have been much more inclined to practice since I loved the music and glamour of the stage.  At ten I had become quite chubby and my father and uncle made fun of my dancing.  They pranced around like the hippos in tutus in the movie Fantasia.  During recitals I was nervous and my hands would shake and I would hit the wrong keys on the piano.  This of course brought laughter and snickers from the audience.  It was humiliating for a child of ten to be forced into lessons that someone else decided I needed.  During the summer before seventh grade I lost a lot of weight and started to blossom into a shapely young lady.  This brought much attention from my classmates especially the boys ages twelve and up.

Things I mostly love to think about are as follows:

• Boys
• Clothes
• The way we dressed for church especially on Christmas and especially Easter.  Then we had play clothes, work clothes and church clothes.  The Easter outfit consisted of hat, shoes, pocketbook, gloves, dress or suit, spring coat and corsage.
• Easter was special the flower shop was always busy for weeks prior and everyone worked long hours to prepare and work through this holiday.  We had a woman who was hired to fix meals and keep the younger children away from the shop.
• Christmas was and even more exciting time imagining what we would find under the tree that morning.  Santa Claus was truly a real person (I thought until I was ten).  The colored lights, brightly wrapped presents, smells and music of the season, and tastes of candies, cookies and more all made it the most pleasing memory of all.
• Summer vacation to Asbury New Jersey for ten days every year was another wonderful magical time.  The houses welcomed tourist trade; they were big old houses many Victorian, with awnings and rocking chairs on their porches.  The smells of salt water and sun tan lotion, the sounds of waves breaking the tastes of hot dogs at the beach, the feel of warm sand to lay on while you were between swimming and the feel of the wet sand disappearing beneath your feet as the waves rushed back into the ocean – all a wonderful memory.  Smells still conjure up this memory.  My grandfather smoked cigars and a pipe; we also had fresh fruit in our room which ripened and the smell of bananas especially evoke this wonderful period.

If they complete the time machine in my lifetime I will be in line with the first to volunteer to go back to this era it was so much happier even with the things and people I was not fond of then.

~ by judylove64 on June 27, 2013.

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