APRIL • 2009 • NEWSLETTER

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Dear ##firstname[Friend]##,

I’m thrilled to let Reminisce Newsletter readers like you know about an opportunity to be included in a book we’re working on to celebrate the fabulous decade of the ’50s.

We’re filling the book with fads, fashions, entertainment, cars and colorful anecdotes from the decade, and we’re hoping you have a memory to share. Stories can be as short as a few sentences or paragraphs or as long as 1,000 words. Photos can include any from the 1950s or a current photo showing you holding a favorite item from the ’50s or visiting a ’50s-style theme party or event.

You can E-mail your favorite stories and digital photos (in “jpg” format) from your life in the ’50s to editors@reminisce.com, and please type “50s Book Submission” in the subject line. If you submit stories and photos by regular mail, please send it to “50s Book Submission,” Reminisce, 5400 S. 60th St., Greendale, WI 53129.

So dust off those hula hoops, get out those rock ‘n’ roll records, uncover those old photos and get to reminiscing! As always, feel free to forward our newsletter on to a friend or family member, and let them know we're hunting for 1950s memories. If this newsletter was forwarded to you and you’d like a monthly copy of your own, just use this link to sign up yourself.

—John Burlingham at Reminisce

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In this issue:

• A Series of Unfortunate Tour Events
• The Perils of Wig-Wearing
• Swinging for the Fences and a Dream
• Poem: Infinite Treasures
• Over the Back Fence
• Time Capsule Trivia
• A Thought to Remember

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A Series of Unfortunate Tour Events

Al Schuller is on the far right, next to his touring buddy, Guy Frank, in April 1962.

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By Al Schuller
Orangevale, California

An eventful Sunday in 1962 came after an Army buddy and I, stationed in Budingen, Germany, decided to take a Rhine River cruise.

We first walked to town and took a train to Frankfurt, where we boarded the boat and looked forward to beautiful scenery and magnificent hillside castles.

On one of our last stops along the way, we were to visit a hilltop statue called the Watch of the Rhine, being told to return by 5 p.m. for the 5:15 departure.

We rode a ski lift to the hilltop village of Rudeshime and entered a local “guest house” to have dinner. Unable to read the German words, we pointed to an item on the menu. The waiter gave us a strange look and walked away.

The waiter reappeared with the largest bottle of wine I had ever seen. Thinking the wine must be part of our meal, we poured a few glasses to enjoy. With still no food in sight, we gestured toward our mouth and stomach for food, and the waiter just gave us a puzzled look.

By now, we figured out that this huge bottle of wine was our food order. When the check came, we knew we were in trouble. We didn’t have enough money for the wine and travel expenses back to the base.

I suggested that my buddy head for the restroom near the entrance steps and then run up the stairs; I’d be close behind him. Soon we were running through the village with the waiter and the townspeople shouting in pursuit.

As two GIs in good physical condition, we soon outdistanced everyone and ran the long way down the mountain...just in time to see our boat leave the dock. We ran alongside the riverbank waving our arms and shouting, but the boat continued on.

We were desperate, as we were too far from base to walk or run back for the midnight check-in. Absent Without Leave (AWOL) status could result in extra duty, hard labor, a fine or demotion in rank.

We had no luck catching a bus, but just then a taxicab came by. We pointed to the boat far down the river and directed the driver to follow, hoping to reach the next village before the boat. We were just a few minutes late.

Knowing we couldn’t afford taxi service back to the base, we jumped out, paid the cabbie, ran to the train station and bought a ticket for Budingen. After boarding, we sat down, exhausted.

At 10 p.m., we awakened from our untimely snoozing and realized we had bypassed our destination. Although we didn’t have enough money for a return ticket, the kindly ticket agent let us board with what we had.

We arrived in Budingen at 11:45 p.m. but still had a couple of miles to cover. We ran all the way to the guard gate and, with our last bit of energy, ran to our barracks and jumped into bed with clothes and shoes on.

We settled in just seconds before the duty sergeant made his nightly bed check. So ended a rather exciting day as American tourists.

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The Perils of Wig-Wearing

Marilyn Erickson, capped by a wig, in 1976.

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By Marian Erickson
Spicer, Minnesota

Back in the 1970s, wigs were lifesavers for the working gal. As a busy classroom teacher, I appreciated their availability and convenience. However, a few incidents made me wonder if my choice to wear a wig was the right one or a risky one.

On one occasion, my husband and I were walking down the sidewalks of New London, Minnesota when a low-hanging evergreen tree branch hooked my wig. As I walked away, I left my wig dangling in the tree.

My husband hastily retrieved the wig, and we had a hearty laugh as he assisted me in relocating my “hair” to its rightful position. Fortunately no one saw the incident.

I was less fortunate on a later date, when I was walking back to school with my sixth-grade students after a little science trip to the nearby Crow River. Looking ahead, I noticed the after-school dismissal buses were already lined up to take students home.

Leading my pack of students, I turned toward them and announced that we’d have to run to avoid missing the bus departure. They followed me, full-speed ahead, when a strong gust of wind appeared from the northwest and lifted my wig right off my head.

Horrified, I watched the wig sail over the heads of my students and out of my reach, as if it were an out-of-control kite soaring free in the wind.

My students scattered to the left and right with gasps of horror and verbal expressions that tickled my funny bone and made me break into laughter. With the tension broken, we hastily ran back to recover my prized possession.

Since I had no mirror available at the time, I often wonder what I looked like on that fateful afternoon. That wig could have been upside down, sideways or backward, for all I know.

Come Monday morning, nary a word was spoken about the Friday afternoon incident. But I would have delighted to hear the conversations at dinner tables all over town that night.

Perhaps they went something like this: “You’ll never guess what happened to our teacher today. Her wig went sailing into the wild, blue yonder! And her hair underneath was all flat and matted. I’ll bet she was embarrassed!”

You bet I was, but it was quite a moment to remember.

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Swinging for the Fences and a Dream

By Benny Wasserman
La Palma, California

Not a day would go by, in the 1940s, without me staring out the window daydreaming about one day playing in the major leagues.

I could hear the voice of the great Harry Heilmann, sportscaster for the Detroit Tigers back then, announcing, “And now, at home plate, is the great Benny Wasserman, who led both the American and National Leagues last year with 100 home runs.” It wasn’t a surprise that I didn’t do well in school.

I didn’t play organized hardball in Detroit until my last year in high school, when my friend Herbert Kaufer convinced me to try out for the school team.

The coach, Mr. Lambert, said some nice things about my ball playing and hustle, but in the end, he didn’t accept me because I was already a senior. He did urge me to join an American Legion team, and a week later, I was the first-string shortstop. I went on to play with various city teams.

In 1953, at the age of 19, I read an advertisement in a sports magazine for a 30-day tryout camp sponsored by the Washington Senators professional team. On February 7, Senators owner Clark Griffith answered my letter, notifying me that they had room for a few more players.

As I read the letter, my heart sank. Where would I get the $200 required for the 30 days of room and board? Plus I’d have to pay for transportation to the camp, in Winter Garden, Florida. Most of my paper route money went to my father to help out with expenses.

The following day, I showed the letter to my father, who had always thought baseball was a silly game. Expecting him to laugh at me for contemplating such a foolish idea, I told my father that I’d raise the money one way or another. That’s when he said he’d loan me the $200.

There were 100 of us at the camp from all over the country, and we slept on army cots and ate our meals in the “mess hall.” I felt I played better than maybe 80 percent of the players there. But in the end, it wasn’t good enough.

As I approached the bus home, I saw coach George Myatt relaxing on a bench. I reluctantly walked over to him and asked, “What did you think of my ball playing?”

He looked up at me with a puzzled expression and asked, “Are you one of the guys down here trying out?” I thought, I’m out here for 30 days, and he doesn’t recognize me. I turned around and walked off with tears in my eyes, never answering his question.

The coach called out for me to come back, and he asked me for my number. I told him my number was 66. He took out his notebook and thumbed through the pages, saying, “There you are, number 66, Benny Wasserman.”

Coach Myatt motioned for me to sit down next to him. “It says here you’re a great fielder and a hustler,” he remarked, “but it also says, ‘poor hitter, poor runner and has a weak arm.’”

With a fatherly tone and an arm around my shoulders, he advised me to go back home and never think about making a living out of playing baseball. He said he knew how much I was hurting inside but felt an obligation to lay the facts on the line. He said I should use my ability to hustle and my love for the game in some other endeavor.

I got up, shook his hand and walked away. I got on the bus knowing that I had given it my best shot, and I never looked back with any regrets.

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Poem: Infinite Treasures

LaTrelle Simons Carroll, at age 7, age 17 and age 71 (in 2008), is on the right in the first picture and on the left in the next two photos with her twin sister, LaDelle.

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By LaTrelle Simons Carroll
Waco, Texas

These are the kinds of memories I shared with my twin sister, LaDelle, an Avon lady and a retired insurance agent outside of Waco.

Running barefoot in the spring,
Tender grass tickling my toes,
Drinking from a clear, fresh spring,
Water dripping from my nose.

Swinging from a grapevine
Across a shallow stream,
Lying beneath shade trees,
Head full of daydreams.

Chasing butterflies of yellow,
Listening to the birds sing
And the beetle in his hollow
As his chirp continually rings.

How could I have known back then,
These simple childhood pleasures
Would someday come to mind again
As rare and infinite treasures.

Over the Back Fence

Many years ago, when dentures were very rare, my grandmother was visiting my uncle, who had two little boys.

One day, as my grandma took her dentures out to wash them, the two boys were watching intently.

One boy turned to the other and said, “Don’t you wish you had teeth like Grandma’s so when they ached, you could just take them out and let them ache?”

—Levis Jarrard
Austin, Texas

Time Capsule Trivia

From the decades spanning the 1920s to the 1960s, try to guess what year these historic events took place. Click the link below for the answer, but no peeking!

1. Bell Labs begins licensing a new invention, the transistor, which replaces vacuum tubes in radios and other electronic devices, allowing for miniaturization of a wide range of products.

2. Eva “Evita” Peron, who rose from impoverished roots to become a successful entertainer and later the first lady of Argentina, dies of cancer at the age of 33.

3. Popular song hits include The Mills Brothers’ Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes and Glow Worm; Jo Stafford’s You Belong to Me; Rosemary Clooney’s Half As Much; and Vera Lynn’s Auf Wiedersehn, Sweetheart.

4. The popularity of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz soars on TV’s I Love Lucy with the airing of episodes about Little Ricky’s impending birth, written to accommodate Lucy’s real-life pregnancy.

5. In an all-New York World Series, the American League’s New York Yankees edge the National League’s Brooklyn Dodgers, 4 games to 3.

For the answer to Time Capsule Trivia, click here.

A Thought to Remember

The best kind of wrinkle indicates where smiles have been.

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