Growing Up In The 50s

St. James Place, Atlantic City, Late 1950s

April 25, 2012
St. James Place, Atlantic City, Late 1950s

Jim Comey has written the coming of age e-novel, Uncommon Glory  and a novella, Death Of The Poet King, Branden Press, Boston. (http://www.amazon.com/Uncommon-Glory-ebook/dp/B006MINMJA), For more on his fascinating career, you may CLICK HERE. If you’re interested in his e-novel, you should CLICK HERE. From my earliest memories to my mid twenties, I was granted entry to a fantastical world, a  place of unexpected smells and sounds and tastes. It was a city of majesty and poverty that never slept. People from all over the world, speaking dozens of tongues, flocked to...

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The Horse Who Rode A Horse – 1959

October 27, 2011
The Horse Who Rode A Horse – 1959

With many thanks to Jack Palmer of the Defiance, Ohio, Crescent-News.  © Boomersrememberwhen.com, Boomers Remember When, Inc. Watch video at end of this story. Like many people who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, I was a cartoon freak. My kids may have grown up with Homer and Bart Simpson, but their generation was not nearly as fortunate as mine. We were blessed with Popeye, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester and Tweety, Rocky and Bullwinkle — there were many, many more. Each had a unique personality, the collective genius of...

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Re-Fizz: New Jersey’s Brookdale Soda

October 7, 2011
Re-Fizz: New Jersey’s Brookdale Soda

From Anthony Buccino, Nutley, New Jersey. He has been called “New Jersey’s ‘Garrison Keillor.’ ” You can read more about his writing at his website http://www.anthonysworld.com/     We would like to thank http://www.baristanet.com/ where this reminiscence first appeared. Baristanet was born in May 2004 and soon after emerged as a leader in both hyperlocal blogging and the online citizen journalism movement. Every significant event in my life growing up in New Jersey was accentuated by Brookdale soda. Others relished the Thanksgiving turkey or the Easter ham, but as for me,...

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The Christmas Haircut – 1958

September 29, 2011
The Christmas Haircut – 1958

From Anonymous, New York City Christmas was enormously important in our family when I was growing up in the 1950s. And fraught with all kinds of anxieties, grasping, and conflicts. It was a strange mixture of Italian-American traditions, plus some sort of parody of a Victorian/Dickensian tableau, dosed with a gaudy display of all-American conspicuous consumption. Throw in a huge dollop of antique Roman Catholicism – pre-Vatican II Catholicism – replete with Latin (of which I memorized plenty), hymns from the 16th century, incense and bright red vestments, and...

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