Random Memories or Polaroid memories as I call them, just me mumbling when a memory hits me.

My first attempt at a job was the usual thing we did to earn spending money, cut lawns, wash windows, cash in coke bottles etc. There was this time I used to assemble parts for my step father. Some kind of electrical part that was used in mobile homes. A multi-pronged thinghy that attached the wiring in a car to a travel trailer. He paid me 3 cents for each one I assembled and years later I found that he got paid 33 cents each.
I made it my goal to assemble 300 a day after school so that I would get a hefty paycheck every week. This went on for years all through junior high and even high school. My first assembly line training.

Like so many in high school I was given some kind of pep talk by the local auto motor works and got some part time experience working at Pontiac Motors. I did not like that atmosphere and decided early on that I would not go to work for one of the big auto plants after graduation.

After graduation I came to Florida for just 30 days and couldn't stand the heat and went back to Michigan. My first job was at the K-Mart in Pontiac in the toy department. I remember that job as if it was yesterday because of an announcement over the store PA that the president was assassinated.

That was the first and only job I was ever fired from and it was over my getting a hair cut. I asked for the time off to get my hair cut and when I came back I was fired. Obviously I didn't get along with the personnel manager.

From there I got a job at Waterford Drive-in. At first just waiting on all the movie goers, learning how to crank up the concession stand. Then being offered a job to manage the concession stand after the manager was discovered having an affair with one of the employee's. He was 34 and she was only 17.

I got a whopping big $2.00 an hour and all the hours I could handle. That’s when I discovered that elevating me to a 'Manager' was the cheap way out for The Redstone Group, the theater chain. From there I moved up the ladder to managing the concession stand over at the Pontiac Drive-in. I got a 10 cent an hour raise to take on that job.

I briefly sold Kirby vacuums between jobs and then got a job selling shoes in downtown Pontiac, Samuel’s or Sams, something like that. It was a nifty job since I also received a commission. I thought that was going to be my calling, selling! I liked the idea of getting a commission for trying harder.

Right next door was the Western Auto and they had a job opening for a salesman and I took it. Sold everything in the store to everyone that walked through the front door. My commissions went through the ceiling and I was asked to go on salary which of course I did not agree to and soon I was in a battle with the store manager, who did not like the fact that I made more then he did most weeks. He tried to find other things for me to do biting into my opportunity to make sales so I decided I would venture back to Florida.

Back in Florida for the second time. Got a job roofing and tiling just to make ends met, that didn’t last long. I still couldn't get used to the weather so back to Michigan I went. I was still pretty heart broken over my break up with Kay Jewell and struggled to get a relationship going with Norene Cummings. Couldn't find a job in Drayton or Pontiac but found a job in Grand Rapids as a Products Research Analyst which was nothing more then a job driving all over the state checking out the inventories of grocery stores.

I would drive back to Drayton Plains Friday night after work to visit Norene, sleeping in the car while visiting her or renting a room from her friend Eula Smith until late Sunday when I would drive back to Grand Rapids. I had my second heartbreak when her family packed up and left for California and off again I went to Florida.

In Florida I still couldn't get my thoughts together so started to go looking for Norene all the way out to California, after all we were still going steady and she had my graduation ring. I made a serious attempt to get out to her not knowing what I would do when I got there. Hitch hiked up to Michigan, out to Dallas, Texas, up to Enid, Oklahoma, then out to Long Beach, California where Norene was now living.

I called when I got there and talked briefly with her mother only to find Norene went back to Michigan. I was in shock and started to hitch hike back to Florida that very night. Ended up in Dallas again at the Wee Blue Inn motel. November of 1964, exactly one year after the assassination of President Kennedy. Norene managed to get my address at this dumpy little motel and sent me back my ring.

That all sounds like it happened in a 24 hour period but it was months and months of hitch hiking, finding a job here and there and moving on to the next city or state on my trek out to California. I still have loads and loads of memories of all those days hitch hiking around the country.

After graduating from high school in June of 1963 I pretty much got the wanderlust out of my system until I finally stopped the traveling back in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in late 1965 where I met my one and only true love Sandy. I had seen her in the neighborhood and would drive around her block several times just to get another look at her. I finally met her while she was standing in a crowd I inadvertently created after discovering a dead man in a house and calling the police. That was two weeks after that hurricane Cleo. We were married in July, 1966. I started out my working career in manufacturing fiberglass products, tanks, hoppers, anything our of Polyester Resin and Fiberglass mat. That was my calling, designing, plug making, and mold and product reproduction. Then along comes my first baby Michelle, my oldest daughter was born in June of 1968, in Dallas, Texas of all places. Early on I freelanced setting up fiberglass manufacturing companies in several states. Getting tired of that after a year we ended up back in Florida again where we are living happily ever after. I’m retired and Sandy is the http://www.upholsterylady.com
Polaroid Memories 6/28/2001

Twangy Gui-Tar! Boy! did I like those sounds coming from the twangy guitars of the 60's. Duane Eddy (Rebel Rouser), the Shadows (Apache) , The Ventures (Telstar), The String-A-Longs (Wheels)  all got me swaying to the music and feeling 'tough'. Cranked up the record player so loud you could hear it all over the island. Even my friends off the island, the Verhey's said they could hear it and they lived in the little bay on Lake Oakland. (3828 Island Park Drive, now how's that for a memory?)

Never had any complaints from the neighbors but boy am I embarrassed now to know they had to think I was crazy. Don't mess with a crazy person!

The Verhey's were a very religious family; Bob, Bill, Janice. I do thoroughly enjoy those memories. (Precious Memories by the Blackwood Brothers) The entire family could sing and play this instrument or that instrument. Bob was good on the guitar, his brother Bill played a steel guitar, the dad played the mandolin and they all sang those good ole' gospel tunes.

I met John Simon, who in time became my best friend. He was an exchange student from Indonesia and he was living with the Verhey's. You have to remember John; he was a very impressive young man and a real lady-killer. He had such a neat laugh when he would talk about the way the American girls were attracted to him. It was a new experience for him and he played it to the hilt.

He could play a mean guitar, and taught me how to play many of those good ole' rock and roll tunes. He was also an artist and painted "The Count" on my guitar case in white and red letters. He told me I was the "Count" because of the cane I used. There are several pictures on the web site with John holding my cane while I took a picture of him and a gal friend or two.

John could talk for hours on the phone to a girl he picked from his little black book. Each night he visited me at my house he would bring two RC Cola's, two pieces of pizza and he would pick out the lucky girl and give her a call. I don't remember him having one girlfriend in particular but who could blame him when he could have them all.

He used to drop a bag of peanuts in his RC Cola and think that tasted neat, as he would say. Never tried it so I don't know. I always had to wash out his bottle when I took them back for the deposit, got warned once or twice about that. "Clean them bottles out or we won't take them any more".

I liked to double date with John even then I thought it my duty to show him a good time while in was visiting the US of A. Once we went to the Shrine Circus and he was really impressed. He took Peggy Turner and I took my date Pam Frantz who I had known for years since we went to the same school for those of us that had some kind of handicap.

Handicap! That's what they used to call it, now they say physically challenged. Whose physically challenged I say? Never thought of it that way just had to find another way to do some things.

Anyway, John didn't have much spending money so I always treated and I know he really enjoyed all those outings and times we had together. For a long time after he graduated he would write me from Indonesia, telling me what a good time he had in the US. I felt I had done a good job showing him that we weren't such a bad bunch of people.

One day back in the late 60's I received a very nice letter from John written on a very smart blue stationary. He was happy and working and was looking forward to coming back to the United States. I too was looking forward to once again seeing him. In the letter was another letter from his mother telling me that John had passed away.

I can't help but think of John when I hear Rebel Rouser by Duane Eddy; John was a true rebel rouser. He will be missed.

Polaroid Memories 7/12/2001

OK, its time to crank up the music. I get tired of the TV often and switch over to the music box thingy. Who would have ever thought that I would be spending these last years sitting behind a computer 20 hours a day, forced into an early retirement.

Gotta get those oldies and goldies going so I can keep up the gray matter. As long as I can remember the details from those good ole daze I know its not time to go to the computer store in the sky.

Now lets see, I will focus my mind on the first time I met my girlfriend Kays dad. (Dedicated to the One I Love The Shirelles) Scary, that’s what it was scary. I met Kay at a sock hop and how I got to the stage of asking her if I could see her again, I'll never know. Anyway, the day after the sock hop, I walked to her house. She was alone and invited me in. Her dad worked at the post office and was on his way home. When he came through the door she introduced us and I put my hand out to shake his and he did not put his hand out to shake mine. What a scary moment. I just met my first very protective (step)father and he was not happy that I was there.

I don't think he ever really liked me but tolerated me as long as Kay and I were dating. Kay’s mother was the boss in her family and loads of fun and nonstop laughs. That’s back when it was fun to spend the day at a girls house with the parents. They seemed to care about their daughters safety and they did check us guys out, thoroughly.

Although Kay and I would spend hours watching TV in her basement, I can't remember what programs were on the air at that time. They were all black and white programs that I remember. Those would be the days I was invited over to dinner. A good ole' fashioned home cooked meal. Something that even around our house now is missed, everything now is microwave this and convection oven that. If it takes more then 15 minutes to cook, no one wants to prepare it.

Gone are the good ole days when even a McDonald was cooked on a grill. I do remember going to the McDonalds and long before they got so automated looking at 30-40 hamburgers all cooking at the same time and thinking they should find a way to do that faster. I remember looking up at the sign as we left the McDonald and they just started putting up that 'total hamburgers' cooked marquee. ONE MILLION seemed like all the hamburgers in the world, now they are into the billions and I don't see that marquee anymore.

Dairy Queen ice cream tasted like ice cream. A root beer float in that frosted mug was the best, especially with those little ice crystals that formed in the ice cream. A hot dog and a root beer float, now that was a date.

Time to ask the gal to go steady! That took a lot of planning, since you could get rejected. The gals were always smarter then us guys and wanted to date the field. When we wanted to go steady that meant only one partner a piece. Gals seemed to know they would have to try several different brands before they settled down to just one boy friend, so we could get turned down if things weren't planned out well.

One buck, that’s all those 'friendship' rings cost but it did take a little saving up the money to find one you thought she would like and she would not reject, that one cost $3.98. This was before you were a senior and they would except your graduation ring faster then a friendship ring. Only trouble was, that it needed miles of yarn or tape to make it fit their fingers. Or they would wear it around their neck. It also represented that this girl was taken, so back off.

That moment should be one I would remember but I don't. Fear of rejection probably blotted it out although the only two times I gave out my ring I wasn't rejected. I do remember the night Kay gave me back my ring and that memory has stuck to this day. Graduation night 1963. She was wearing a beautiful yellow dress and I was in a white tux. That night when I took her home it was over, I was devastated. I left for Florida the next morning.
Polaroid Memories 8/04/2001

When I start to think back to the good ole' daze and that is what it seems to be a flash, a daze in my memory but I can hover over the event just like it was yesterday. (Another Sleepless Night by Jimmy Clanton)

I must have enjoyed just about everything since so much of it is still very clear to me. There is a madness to my memories and it all revolves around girls. Most of the guys I have met from those mystical days tell me that they had cars on their minds, and that girls came after the cars, that’s how they got the girls in the first place. I wasn't so fortunate. Nor did I know there was that kind of bait out there.

As I remember it, we had a chance for a drivers license at about 16, and there were two types of tests. Passing one would allow you to drive during the day with a licensed individual. So, I must have passed the other one which ever that was since I remember always being able to take my parents car, even after dark.

Going back to my memories of Kay she was my first date with me being able to use the car. (Mr. Blue by the Fleetwoods) There was this parking spot we used to visit to look at the stars and listen to the radio. It was at the opposite end of Island Park Drive and we used to call it Mosquito Hill. Now this was no easy spot to get to since there was a very steep incline at the end of the road and you had to know just when to give the car more gas to get up the steep incline to the top of the hill. This was a tricky maneuver and I did get stuck at the bottom of the hill a few times, ruining the date.

It was particularly difficult in the winter time but a reward was always waiting at the top of the hill. That was back when we never thought of any consequences of leaving the motor running to keep the car warm. We always knew to bring a blanket and jump in the back seat for one of those intense necking sessions.

Now this is where it gets mushy. I can, to this day, remember the feel of her hair, the smell, the soft touch. The taste of the lipstick that soon was all over my face. The finger games we used to play when just holding hands. We used to double date with Ruthann Eakle and her boyfriend and I just can't remember his name at this moment, something like Terry I believe. Now don't get the idea that she is still in my memory as anything more then my first love. My wife Sandy means the world to me and those tender moments and memories are now all ours. We have our own special memories and after 37 years of marriage she is the one and only love for me.

I think we all needed that first love to learn from and I learned from those experiences. Those lessons taught me how to keep a relationship together which I have managed to do with the many ups and downs you can have in a 37 year marriage.

All through my life I have had little goals that I needed to accomplish to go on to the next task. Like collecting all those tunes I craved so much from the 50' and 60's. In time, I found them all and still find a tune or two that I can get on a CD. My one goal would be to find out if Kay has any good memories of those days. I know she is married, a couple of times, and I know where she lives but have never made any attempts to contact her, it wouldn't be right but I do hope that some day she bumps into me over the Internet and just says hello.

I know there have been a bunch of us old guys looking for their first or lost loves and brought those relationships around to find some kind of closure for a relationship that was not quite finished. I am not looking for that, I would just like to know if I managed to impact her life in some way. Or if nothing more, to let her know she impacted my life in a great way and she will always be that special memory.

Although I had many girl friends, Kay was the one and only “my first love”. I did go with Norene Cummings after our breakup but the intense feelings were still growing when she left for California. I was very sincere with my feelings towards Norene and I did chase her all the way out to California. It was taking a lot of time to get over Kay and Norene was definitely a girlfriend I found on the rebound. She did make me forget about my first ‘big’ heartbreak, but soon I had another heartbreak to deal with. She broke up with me during my hitchhiking venture across the country. Then I met Sandy, my one and only for the past 36-37 years. She also broke up with me but I fought hard to get her back and we were married in 1966.

Kay was the only one I dated in my parents car, a 1959 white Buick. My first car was a 1948 Chrysler which I pushed more then I drove. Since all the guys had hopped up cars first and foremost and then girl friends, I got the girlfriend then went looking for the car. My first real car was a 1956 Pontiac and that is another one of those goals. (Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis) I want one just like I had back then. Hard top, turquoise and white. I have come close a few times and I know one is just over the hill and I will find it. Then I think I can sit in that car and go right back in time to many more memories. It was a fast car and not because I got into the mechanics of it, just keep it running smooth and purring like a kitten. It had blue lights under the dashboard the wheel wells the trunk. Fur dashboard, and those stuffed dice hanging from the rearview mirror. For some reason I had plastic flowers in the back seat, maybe always for Norene. Since music was an important traveling companion I had speakers everywhere, hidden in the doors, the trunk, anyplace I could fit a speaker.

I bought that car just so I could visit and date Norene. When I came back to Michigan I was living in Walled Lake and hitch hiking back and forth to work at the K-Mart in Pontiac, then the Waterford Drive In, Pontiac Drive In, and eventually at the Western Auto in Pontiac. Jobs got scarce and I had to move to Grand Rapids to find a job and I would drive back and forth on weekends to see Norene. That came to an end when she moved to California with her family. Heart broken again, and after my 56 Pontiac was on its last legs, I sold it and hitch hiked back to Florida. From there I planned out my long hitch hiking venture out to California to find Norene who was now living in Long Beach. Another heartbreak was ahead for me....

Cars were nice but I liked girls better.

 Polaroid Memories 8/15/2001

Time zooms by. I always ask myself why didn't I take the time to smell the roses while growing up. I have so many fond memories of my life in Michigan. High school was the very best time for me. That’s when I started to take a serious interest in 'girls'. I can still remember the name of my first crush ever and that was a girl named Carol Biddle, (Tammi by Debbie Reynolds) she lived in Royal Oak and I was living in Black Stone Manor in Detroit on 8 mile. That was a long time before I went to high school though.

We left Detroit, moved to Highland Michigan, the Milford, Michigan area and then I met Ann and that’s all I can remember of her name. (Speitz ?) She was my first heart pounding experience but I was so shy all I could do was sit with her on the bus, dream about her all through the day and write a note to her, which I handed to her as I sat next to her. I can remember looking over at her hand and thinking I should be holding it but that would have been a major step for me. I remember the giggles when I would get on the bus and seek out the hopefully empty seat next to her. Those were the days...
Then I met Jean Smith (A White Sport and Pink Carnation Jimmy Bowen). I've mentioned this before but she is the one that baked me a cake on my birthday and that one kind gesture has stood out in all my memories. I found her on the Internet and we say hello now and again.

Then I had a crush on Barb Hall, she was going to Our Lady of the Lakes in Drayton and I lived in Highland. She of course did not have a crush on me. (Secretly by Jimmy Rogers) Another classmate of ours married her, Mike Peters. He has some great pictures of her on the site.

You can guess by now that I definitely was girl crazy. I can't imagine why all those heart stirring moments were, are so important to my memories.

We moved to Drayton and I went to J. D. Pierce, then on to WTHS where I collected loads and loads of photos that I have posted on the site. I was another one of those kids that was routed over to Kettering when it first opened and I can remember how sad we all were when we knew the next year we would spend at another school. There are so many classmates that I can remember from WTHS, Jack Hirneisen was another and I always admired his neat appearance and his cool hair cut. Nice looking guy I thought although he seemed like a shy quite guy. I found him years later, again through the Internet.

Sally Spence, Phyllis Peters, Peggy Turner, Kathie Freeman are more faces that pop up. I went over board on my first big romance, one that lasted almost all through highschool. Kay Jewell. I messed that one up big time by being too controlling so I definitely caused that romance to fail. Of course another lesson was learned and from there I learned to not be so possessive.

Remember when you could just sit across the table from your girl friend or boy friend and feel what the other was saying. Staring for hours, saying nothing but just looking deep into their eyes, and maybe stroking each others hand. Those were the pangs that got you in trouble. To this day I have never found out what the gal folks thought of those times. Do they have the same fond memories we gents had of them? My wife knows of the serious crush I had on Kay and Norene (at different times) but she never speaks of her early relationships, probably cause I couldn't handle it if I thought she even remembered their names.

An ant just crawled across my keyboard, now where did he come from?

I met Kay at a sock hop. Remember the good ole' sock hops? Even those nights went too fast. I was a wall flower and not a very good dancer, I held hands better then I danced. I used to supply many of the sock hops with the 45 RPM records since I kept my collection pretty up to date.
I always new I would find one or two missing from my collection. I began to dread them asking me to supply the music since my collection kept dwindling.

I know you have all heard this before if you have browsed through the site. But those memories are still very outstanding to me. Those days are gone and only the memories exist. I vividly remember even looking in the mirror one day and thinking to myself that my ears stick out too much. I can still see that Polaroid memory. Why remember that and not something a little more important?

I wonder why it went by so fast. Even the years since then have just whizzed by. What can we do to slow down the years and take in every minute of the day since we have now learned to sit back and smell the roses.

Polaroid Memories 9/01/2001

Snow! Hear about it all the time from you northern folks, especially in the winter time. I haven't seen any down here in a long time. And I don't want to. Well maybe it would be nice just one more time to feel the snow flakes falling through that opened window while sleeping. I often went to sleep in the coldest of nights with my bedroom window cracked just enough to keep my mother from yelling out "shut that window".

Boots! Down here that is what we call our cats. Back in school, always had to have those boots to trek to school. Those tinny little buckles always broke after about a week. Had to have boots to keep those shiny pointed toe shoes from getting dull.

My next door neighbor Ken Forbes and his brother were my inspiration to dress neatly. Wasn't one of those guys that looked good in blue jeans. So always wore those stove pipe black ivy league pants, pastel dress shirt and a sport coat. Had a good selection of sport coats since my brother always kept his closet full and went to work before I went to school.
And don't forget those skinny ties, bought just as many of them as I did 45 RPM records, and narrow belts.

I still remember going to a party that Linda Tarlton put on and bought a special shirt just for the occasions. A yellow shirt jack which was just another fad that came and went. As I entered the party she noticed the shirt and said, "Mike! your always coming up with the neatest new look". I'll always remember that since I would take that thought with me when I went shopping for clothes. Clothes were my first foot in the door with the gals. But back then we were more conscious of the way we look. We never looked like we slept in our clothes, and they always looked like they fit.

Cologne! Now that was something I had to always have on hand. Canoe, High Karate, Old Spice, can't even remember all the names of the colognes I used to keep on my dresser. Now that is what I expect on the holidays and I still douse myself with what ever. My grand daughter Taylor always says " Poppi you smell so good". "Your fat, but you smell good".

Yupper! Appearance was an important issue for me. It was difficult to keep up my wardrobe since I had to buy everything. My parents weren't to good in that area. I think the minute I got in 10th grade I was expected to buy my own clothes from that day forth. Once a month I would put about $100 of clothes on layaway at that men’s shop down in Drayton and work like the dickens to pay them off for the next month. That’s back when we got a nickel on bottle deposits. Each weekend, the guys would get together and we would go looking for bottles to cash in. There was always a neighbor that needed some windows or a car washed, the lawn cut.

The best part was going on a date. $1.00 for gas and $2.00 for food. Once you got in good with the girl friend she would take care of the gas or the food. Two burgers, two cokes, split a milkshake, and a bag of French fries. Driving through the local A&W showing off your car, and your girl friend of course.

That’s when you would crank up the rock and roll on the radio. Good Golly Miss Molly by Little Richard, High School Confidential by Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis always had a tune you could count on. Rave On by Buddy Holly, Donna by Ritche Vallens, and Chantilly Lace by the Big Bopper. I always liked his foot stomping tune on the flip side, White Lightning.

I have pretty much found all the music I used to listen to. Much more convenient to play the oldies on these CD players. Load up 400 CD's and sit back for a couple of weeks.

Polaroid Memories 09/28/2001

September 11th, is a day that made me appreciate just how much I enjoyed growing up in Michigan, in the US of A. I, like many am very frustrated on this day September 28th, that we have not jumped down their throats and leveled the mountains of Afghanistan. OK, so I don't know all the politics that are involved and all the decision making that goes into such a revengeful action. But revenge is what I want.

I can feel only a fraction of the pain of all the families that were affected by this attack on our life style, our country our beliefs. But I do feel more pain then I care to bare. I am one of those that has allowed myself to get even more depressed by watching the TV just waiting to hear that we have moved Afghanistan down to the next level. I have had to turn off the sound and leave the picture running just so I could see the ticker tape messages across the screen. To get back into a good frame of mine I have loaded the CD player with those oldies but goodies and that is taking me back to where I can remember being most content with the way I was growing up. I didn't know it then but I was one heck of a lucky guy.

I have often said that I live through the music of our day, the 50's and 60's. The doo wop sounds and songs. Those slow dancing tunes, the songs that each had a day in and day out message for each of us. How we used to be so content with just sitting head to head in the front seat of a car looking out over the lake at our favorite parking spot. Finding that particular radio station that played our favorites.

The Fleetwood’s, with Mr. Blue, Confidential, and so many of their other tunes always seemed to say what I couldn't say to my steady girlfriend at the time. Jimmy Clantons, Another Sleepless Night has always been in my memory as a very important song in my life. I searched for years trying to find an album by him, finally locating a CD that I play over and over, repeating that song for hours some times.

I remember one of my first of many crushes on the gals at WTHS and WKHS, Barb Smith. Too shy to speak to her I gave her a copy of Conway Twitty's first big hit, It's Only Make Believe. That was supposed to do the talking for me. Nothing came of that little crush other then I learned I would have to get over this 'shy' thing if I was going to have a gal friend.

I didn't have sports in my life, not the best student in the world, and I was more interested in chasing girls then even making good grades. Music and girls, girls and music kept me going. One of my good friends Ken Forbes and I collected all the hits at the time, played music so load you could hear it all across the lake.

Since I have come to find so many of my friends from those early years, John Forbes, his brother, Carole Bane, and so many others it has given me so much more to focus on and remember. John and I used to spend hours going over our strategies with our girl friends. His friendship probably influenced me the most when it came to learning how to treat the ladies like ladies. He was one of those cool kids, that always had a smile on his face and was fun to be with.

I think John got a little friskier with the girls long before I did because I remember always trying to talk him out of taking that next big step. I still pride myself in having that part of me under control. I am sure that my long standing marriage to my one and only wife Sandy is because I always looked first for a friend, then let nature take its course.

Teachers: Now those I don't remember so well. Ms. Pety comes to mind but many of the other names I can't remember. My brother was a born artist and I had a little of his talent buried inside me somewhere and Ms. Pety found it briefly but I couldn't stay focused on art. Actually I had no idea what I was doing in school and where I was going after school.

Like so many others, I almost got sucked into that General Motors thing, or was it Pontiac Motors? I was never good at doing the same thing day in and day out. I was much to aggressive to not be a threat in moving up the ladder and if I didn't get rewarded quick enough I moved on. I have come to admire those that put in their years at GM and Pontiac Motors and other long term careers. It took me awhile to get a career going but once I did I stuck it out for 25 plus years.

Everything brings me back to the music. There is not a single tune that I don't have a memory I can associate with it. The first time I heard Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lewis. I was walking between my house and the Forbes and it played on their radio which was playing very load as usual. I had to have that record before Ken got it, so went without lunch for the next couple of days saving my lunch money. 35 cents a day or $1.50 a week if you bought a lunch card. Only now do I remember how hard it was for my parents to even give me lunch money. Never had an allowance even when I thought I should have gotten one for cutting the grass, washing windows, making my bed, doing the dishes.
Boy was I spoiled. At least there was some kind of food on the table. My mother was great at making up fried bologna for dinner. Spaghetti made with ketchup, a ham spread with every little bit of ham that was left on the bone. Beans and ham. My early memories are of the meat loaf with the ketchup glaze.
Those were the daze!  
Polaroid Memories 01/01/2002
Just remembering...
Gilbert Chemistry Set, Careers, Monopoly, Yahtzee, Wood Burning Wonder Pen, Scrabble, Life and other ‘stuff’ we had as kids growing up. Growing crystals with my Gilbert Chemistry set was more hypnotizing then any ole’ TV program. Playing with the test tubes and watching this chemical and that chemical nearly explode or foam over the edge. Waiting for days on end to see the crystals grow only to quickly dissolve and disappear for what ever reason.
Burning your finger on that hot iron used for wood burning those patriotic images, cowboys and Indians. Loved that smell of burning wood as you created your original work of art that never looked as good as the image you were tracing.
Paint By Number! Did you ever finish any of those? That brown and white dog or that chapel in the woods? The flower arrangement! I could never wait for the paint to dry and always made a mess of them.
Games! I enjoyed them all with Monopoly being my all time favorite with Careers a close runner up. Learned chess early on with one of those plastic combo checkers and chess board games. Can just barely remember all the unique moves of those little plastic pieces. Checkers is now a challenge.
One very interesting game that I had and have never seen again is a baseball game that had little round cards you placed on a spinner with the names of the baseball players on a team and you would spin to find out where to place your plastic ball player on the board, or what kind of hit was thrown over the plate.

 
My neighbors and I, Robert and Dick Lodge went to great lengths to keep the batters stats on the cards and change the area that the spinner fell on to increase or decrease their chances of getting a hit. We collected baseball cards to keep up to date on the stats not knowing how potentially valuable those cards would be someday.
Monopoly was a great game for many of us that at one time or another were pinned up in a hospital. I was in and out of hospitals until I was seventeen and had my final back surgery. Monopoly helped pass the time. Careers was supposed to be a replacement for the world famous Monopoly and wasn’t really that bad of a game. My wife hates them both and the only game we ever played was Yahtzee. Par-Chee-Zee that was the other rainy day game. I like my spelling better!

I have gone nearly mad with this Ebay thing finding all these vintage games just so I can store them on the top shelf of my closet.
What other games can you remember? At nearly 60 I can’t imagine sitting down to a game of Monopoly but I will eventually, playing against the Bank! Just have to remember to be HONEST!
My grand kids don’t have the slightest idea what a board game is unless it has something to do with a computer. I started them all out on computers as early as five and can’t even begin to understand how they pick it up so easily.

At five, I was into my tricycle or sledding. Watching gramps repair the soles on his shoes, and grandma bake doughnuts and cookies. I think I got my first Daisy BB gun some time in there. I used to like to take my little green plastic soldiers, make sand forts and blow their heads off with the tiny copper cannon balls that came out of my Daisy Sharp Shooter. Later, searching through the sand or dirt to retrieve my bullets, since mom would not buy me more ammo.
Killed a Sparrow once that sickened me so bad I hid the gun and got under the sheets trying to find a way to realize what I had done and not be punished. Never got into hunting since that little birdie looked me in the eye and put a whammy on me.
The dumbest thing I ever did was to later in life, around the mid seventies was to buy a 32 and take it with me where ever I went, loaded.  Had three young daughters and one day was leaving the house with my wife to take them to the beach and as I was locking the front door the gun fell and it went off. No one was hurt, the noise was enough to shock me back to reality. Have never touched a gun again and would prefer to defend myself with a bat if it should ever come to that. or talk my way out of it, which I probably could do as you may have guessed.
Time for a pill and a nap!

Mike Dolliver Class of Waterford Kettering 1963
Classmate to WTHS 1961-1962