Your memories!!

[bersaguy]

Here recently I began a record of my life to see how far back I could remember things in my life. Good bad and everything between. When I am just setting around kicking back I have began thinking about my life. Funny how CRS works. I realized that I can remember things all the way back to age 5 but can't remember a lot of what I did yesterday. I can remember getting my first polio shots and as small as I was back then it took 3 people to hold me down while the doctor stuck me in the arm. I was 5 and had to have them before I began school. I was 6 years old when I got to catch my first fish on an old cane pole the old man that lived next store to us had. He was 85 years old and lived in a 2 room cottage next to us. He owned about 5 acres next to us and had 3 big buildings full of stuff. I don't think he ever threw anything away. We had a couple Black dirt ponds about 5 or 6 acres in size about waist deep behind the house where we lived and they had Carp,  Bluegills, Bullheads and Grass Pickerel fish in them and once in a while the old man or I would catch a Bass. I can remember that old man like it was yesterday. We became good friends and my mother was cooking for 4 growing boys with me being the youngest plus my father when he was home. He was a truck driver and not home a lot.  Mother always cooked a little extra and every evening my mother would send him a plate of food for his supper. He had these beautful Flower gardens every year and people would drive out of Chicago to buy plants and flowers from him all summer on weekends. He also taught me how to catch snapping turtles from the dirt ponds with turtle lines. He built me a few cages to keep the big turtles in and people would come and buy them to eat and I could make extra money selling them. The bigger the turtle the more they paid and there was some I got 5 dollars for but they were almost as big as a number 8 washtub. Most of them I got 2-3 dollars for. He also showed me how to catch night crawler worms after each rain at night with a flashlight. He built me a worm bed of black dirt and screened bottom so we never had to dig worms when we went fishing. Just go get some out of the bed and go fishing. He also taught me how and when to catch the baby painted turtles which I was able to sell to pet stores in the area got 25 cents each.

He taught me several ways to make money back then. On weekends African Americans would come out of Chicago to fish in the Desplaines River that ran through my hometown and they would buy night crawlers in Chicago and paid a dollar for 10 crawlers. I went up there where they were fishing and began selling them  night crawlers 25 in a can for 50 cents. All the people on my road I lived on would save cans for me and soon the people would begin bring back their old cans and I would just swap cans with them for 50 cents.

Oh well I know ya'll are tired of reading about my life as a child. You might find it fun to just see how far back you can remember in your life when your sitting around just kicking back............JMHO

[xsubsailor]

 I actually have one memory of an event that took place while I was still in diapers. Plugged a key into a wall socket and it sent me sliding across the room on the hardwood floor. Sort of like a old fashioned slip an slide .

 You mentioning your polio shot brought back another. When I was 8 I had to go through the 15 shot series for rabies. They gave them in the stomach, each day for 15 days. First day, they caught me by surprise but each day after that took more and more staff members to hold me down. By day 15, I think I had a hand covering every square inch of my body 

[peejman]

I was about 5. It was summer. We had a full sized van, not the conversion type just with bench seats. Mom had been grocery shopping so the bags were in the back.  She had to hit the brakes for something and a 2 liter Coke rolled from the back all the way to the front. The cap smacked something hard... seat base or something... and cracked. The Coke started spewing sticky foam everywhere while it spun around the floor. Mom pulled over in into a YMCA and got me out of my seat with me and everything else covered in sticky goo.  I remember her trying not to cry while doing what she could to clean us up. I think Dad ended up removing most of the interior while  cleaning the van out. One good thing about vinyl seats.  Good times.

[Grunt67]

Think I'll pass, LOL

[bersaguy]

14 hours ago, xsubsailor said:

 I actually have one memory of an event that took place while I was still in diapers. Plugged a key into a wall socket and it sent me sliding across the room on the hardwood floor. Sort of like a old fashioned slip an slide .

 You mentioning your polio shot brought back another. When I was 8 I had to go through the 15 shot series for rabies. They gave them in the stomach, each day for 15 days. First day, they caught me by surprise but each day after that took more and more staff members to hold me down. By day 15, I think I had a hand covering every square inch of my body 

Next to oldest brother did something similar but he didn't slide across the floor cause it was carpet. He set the Curtains on fire when he did it. Needless to say it got crazy in a huurry but I don't remember any of it but just heard my mother mention it a couple times over the years. I'm not even sure I was born yet when he did that.

[bersaguy]

Picking up where kinda left off, by age 9 I was quite the business man with the help of Ollie (the old man) I was in the snapping turtle business, painted turtle business, Nightcrawler business and by then I was able to buy my first new rods and reels which we of course the Zebco 33 Classics. Next was teh Doe ball business. The old man showed me his formula for making Doe balls. 1 box of Wheaties, 3 eggs, water and vanilla extract all mixed together with fingers and rolled into doe balls the size of  lare sewing thimble of a little bigger and the secret ingredient was the peanut butter. I would make them up during the week and freeze them for the tri to the river which was about 3 miles from my house. I had a cart I pulled behind  my bike and I would get to the river about an hour early and use my Zebco's to cathc some of the bigger Carp that fed off shore. I was using Night crawlers on one pole and Doe balls on the other. I would normally have between 5 and 10 carp on a stringer and I had the Doe balls wrapped in wax paper and foil and when thhe men saw the big carp I had on my stringer they began buying Doe balls and night crawlers. After about 2 weeks I began selling the Carp and Bull heads I was catching also.  Business was flourishing and then it happened. A drought and no rain began cutting deep into my Night Crawler business and this tiime it was my dad that bailed me out. He knew the owner of the Glen Eagles Golf Course and they watered every day so the golf club lawns where loaded wih crawlers and my father spoke with the owner and he got me permission the gather crawlers on the fairways but I had strict orders to stay off the greens. It was easy to catch crawlers there and I would get a 5 gallon pail full in a couple hours. Back in business! I was making really good money for a 9 year old boy but it was also a lot of work. I had a savings acount at the bank in town and I made sure at least 80% of my earnings after buying supplies such as Wheaties eggs and other necessary stuff got bought. My 3 older brothers never did anythinng except cut grass and it didn't pay that well. When I was 12 my father got hurt and was out of work for almost a year and my Mother got a job waiting tables in town to try and help pay bills.

One night I over heard them talking and my father told my mother that if they didn't make a house payment soon they would foreclose on our home. Now you gotta remember we are talking the 1950's so a house note of $72.00 was a lot of money, especially feeding 4 growing boys and keeping them in clothes. There was a lot of passing down of clothes in our house to...lol.. My folks didn't know about my savings account but I had over $1,100.00 in it that I had saved up from age 8-12 by doing all the different jobs I had. I took my bank book to my parents and showed them what I had been able tosave up and  they would not take it. They said that was my money and things would get better soon. My next trip to town I went by the Lemont Savings and Loan where I had my money. I ask my banker if he could help me out and he said he could. I took out  $216.00 and he made three payments on the house. That caught it up to date. The following month I made that payment also. That Fall when school got ready to start I took out another $150.00 and gave it to my mother so she could buy us all new clothes for school which she did every year before school. In October of that year my father was able to return to work. My mother continued to work also part time to help get things caught back up.

Yep, I can remember all of the good times and the not so good times of my childhood and I am thankfull fo all the memories of back then. I had one best friend that lived on our road and he was the one I hunted with that i have mentioned in previous posts. We shot trap together also. That was another joint venture for making money.

There was a Supper Club which was a fancy night club type place that had a buffet on weekends. It was called Matts Inn and was always packed on weekends. About 3 times during the Winter months Matt would call one of us and place an order for 200 rabbits for us to get him. He paid $1.00 per rabbit. He could not charge for the buffet that night because he was serving wild game on it but he would have a cover charge to enter and the price of drinks went up and the food was free. Dave and I would get him 200 rabbits or very close to that many each time and take them to him all cleaned and dress and he would pay us accordingly to number of rabbits we produced.

Dave still lives up there and we still talk often and most times about the days of our childhood.............

[DWARREN123]

Not something that would happen today, more's the pity!

Seems the older folks learned and earned a lot growing up.

[bersaguy]

27 minutes ago, DWARREN123 said:

Not something that would happen today, more's the pity!

Seems the older folks learned and earned a lot growing up.

Well back when I was a boy I learned right quick if I was going to have anything except the neccessities in life it would be up to me to get it especially if you came from a large family with 3 dead beat older brothers. Cuttinng grass was the extent of their doing anything. I offered to let them in on my business but they were to good to go into the swamp behind the house to get turtles and set new lines.  If I saw a way to make money I did it. Once Ollie figured out I was not a deadbeat but a go getter he began showing me little things a kid could do to make a buck or two. I used his guidence and ran with it. Even after I went disabled after working 37 years I looked for ways to make money. That is where my bait making evolved to. Why did I sit and sort all this brass. Not to get rich but to make a few bucks.

You are right about it not happening these days. There is no way in hell I would live in my parents basement or house while being an adult. I could not wait to get out of their house when I turned 18. I'm going to get kicked out of here in a couple months and my daughter and SIL have told me they have plenty of room and I can move in with them and not have to pay for anything. I told them the closest I will come to living with them is the Father in Law cottage behind their house but I will live out of my Jeep before living in their house.

[No_0ne]

Well, I can remember, as a child, ......

 

 

What were we talking about again?

[Garufa]

Other than the distinct memory of Frankenstein coming up the basement steps, I recall very vaguely, watching man landing on the moon or at least one or more of the Apollo missions.  I would have been maybe two years old.  Space was big news back then.

Edited April 17, 2018 by Garufa

[bersaguy]

For the old folks like me who can remember what they were doing when JFK was shot. I was in 6th period study hall when they announced it over the PA system.

[Whisper]

We listened to the Mercury missions on the radio in my first grade class with Miss Brogden, who was keen on all things related to science.

I was living in west Texas when JFK was killed, so of course it was big news there (also Governor Connally being shot was significant).  But I was in the fourth grade then, meaning I'm a young guy, and not an ornery old geezer like bersaguy. 

Cheers,

Whisper

[xsubsailor]

13 hours ago, bersaguy said:

For the old folks like me who can remember what they were doing when JFK was shot. I was in 6th period study hall when they announced it over the PA system.

 I was standing topside watch on my first boat in Pearl Harbor so I wouldn't say it was a childhood memory 

[bersaguy]

Well, on to another short experience of my early chldhood. Skipping School for first time and I guess the only time. 4th grade , me and  3 of my budies got this plan to skip school and just do some fun things. Well we had a secret club house that he all hung out at. I finally figured out the rest of the guys chickend out by the time school had started cause I was there by myself. That was the longest 5 hours of my life!!! Nothing to do, no one to talk to and scared my parents would find out if the school was to call the house about my absence which they didn't but because poor planning was always a problem back then I had to rat on myself because I had to have a note from my parents as to why I was not in school the previous day. My father took it pretty well in stride cause he did it when he was a boy but things was different back then for him. He didn't need a note. My mother on the other hand, well lets just say she did not have any mercy what so ever. Grounded for 2 weeks but dad stuck up for me and said 1 week would do and she agreed but not willingly. No Television for a week and had to do all the choirs around the house including all of the older brothers choirs. My friends did come and help with choirs for not showing up but was gone before mother got home from work. Never shipped again till 3rd year high school and was driving by then so was not an issue

[Defender]

On 4/17/2018 at 7:30 PM, bersaguy said:

For the old folks like me who can remember what they were doing when JFK was shot. I was in 6th period study hall when they announced it over the PA system.

I was in Mrs Countryman's 3rd grade class when she came in and told us President Kennedy had been killed..

Edited April 27, 2018 by JAlexanderMSgt

[A.J. Holst]

My earliest memories include our first apartment, becoming aware I was in a crib and how to escape.

Those early cribs did not have complex gate locking mechanisms as the ones today.

1972 - 73 time frame, We lived in Philadelphia, Dad had just transitioned from 4 years Army to the DoD supporting the same project at Frankfort Arsenal.

It's strange what you remember.

Our apartment building was named the Mayfair House with a park across the street. There was a bar off the lobby as you would see in a hotel.

Apparently, NOT in a good section of modern day Philly.

Our family car was a VW Karmen Ghia until we moved to the 'burbs in '74 

[bersaguy]

3 hours ago, Gotthegoods said:

My earliest memories include our first apartment, becoming aware I was in a crib and how to escape.

Those early cribs did not have complex gate locking mechanisms as the ones today.

1972 - 73 time frame, We lived in Philadelphia, Dad had just transitioned from 4 years Army to the DoD supporting the same project at Frankfort Arsenal.

It's strange what you remember.

Our apartment building was named the Mayfair House with a park across the street. There was a bar off the lobby as you would see in a hotel.

Apparently, NOT in a good section of modern day Philly.

Our family car was a VW Karmen Ghia until we moved to the 'burbs in '74 

Yea I know what your saying when you say it is strange what yu remember and really without much effort I have probably remembered most of my first 50 years in the past couple months but still have trouble remembering what I did yesterday without really working at it and then sometimes don't remember things. There are several things I would love to forget but unfortunate those memories will reamin with me for ever and I think there is many of us that have those......

Edited April 28, 2018 by bersaguy