Living In the Sixties

We did not travel in covered wagons, but we thought our parents did. My mother and father lived during the big depression. Hobos wandered around marking gates and houses with a fish. A sign that the occupants were charitable and might give a meal. My daddy loved Chevy’s. He ordered a 1962 Impala. We were told it had bucket seats. We thought it would be awful – buckets for seats! We lived at a time where we could walk home for school for lunch. All the mommies were home fixing Campbell’s tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. We had black and white scenes on our TV sets. No one had heard of “color” TV yet. Girls had to wear dresses to school no matter what. If it was sixty below zero, we could put slacks under our dresses But we had to immediately remove them when we got to school. Yes, there was a dunce hat and a stool. I had to sit on it once, wearing the hat. So, the other kids would know how bad it is to tell a teacher “no”. Sixth graders piled out making fun of me, wondering what I had done. I stuck my tongue out at them. I remember how much fun that was. When I was twelve I went back to school after lunch and a kid yelled “Hey! Guess What? Someone shot the president!” I yelled back, “The president of what?” Of course, this was the day President Kennedy was shot.