A Baby Boomer Childhood

I went to elementary school back in the days when we still had recess, a fifteen minute recess in the morning, one in the afternoon, and an hour after lunch. When the weather was good we always played at something active outside. We chanted jump rope rhymes and learned to do hot peppers. We brought our metal skates with skate keys that fit onto our shoes and we skated the sidewalk between the school and the gym. There was plenty of playground equipment such as swings, merry-go-round and teeter-totters, as well as three baseball diamonds. We would often have a game of workups continuing from day to day during the noon recess.

If the weather was bad we went to the gym and played full court dodge ball, which was enjoyed by everyone. I don't know of anyone who was scarred for life by this experience.

Many of my early memories center around our little country church. Did your church have a cradle roll? When a baby was born its name was added to the Cradle Roll. A cradle would be placed at the front of the church and some children were chosen to rock the cradle while the new baby was welcomed into the church. This may have been tied in with the baptism or christening. I really don't remember that part. I just remember being quite excited to be chosen as a cradle rocker for our friend's baby. Do churches still do this? I haven't been to any churches in recent years that do. It would be nice to bring back this lovely custom.

When I was growing up TV was a new thing. When we got our first TV we got three channels and two of them didn't come in very well. We had an antenna on a pole and you had to go outside and turn it to try to improve the reception. Here are some of the shows we used to watch:

Leave it to Beaver 1957
Captain Kangaroo 1955, with Mr. Greenjeans
Ding Dong School with Miss Frances 1952
My Friend Flicka 1956
Howdy Doody 1947
Lassie 1954
Micky Mouse Club 1955, Mousketeers started in 1957
Ozzie and Harriet 1952
The Dinah Shore Show 1951

When I was about 8 or 9 I was given my heart's desire, a new shiny blue bike. I decked it out with streamers on the hand grips, a basket, a horn and anything else I could afford. I rode that bike all over the countryside and as far as I know, no one was particularly worried about where I was. Times were different then.

Living in rural Iowa, I was fairly isolated during the summer until school started again in the fall. One of the highlights of summer was the bookmobile! Every couple of weeks the bookmobile would park in front of the church and we could go check out books. I loved to read and still do.

The Newbery Medal is awarded annually by the American Library Association for the most distinguished American children's book published the previous year.

1950 - The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
1951 - Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates
1952 - Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes
1953 - Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark
1954 - ...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold
1955 - The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong
1956 - Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
1957 - Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson
1958 - Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith
1959 - The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

From the time I entered kindergarten until the time I graduated from high school I was required to wear a skirt or a dress to school. Boys had to wear slacks and a nice shirt. No blue jeans or t-shirts for anyone. Popular magazines of the time were American Girl, Seventeen and Teen Magazine. Colleen Corby was a popular model then, and seen in a lot of the teen magazines. She was one of the first super models.

I had a penpal in Scotland and we used to exchange letters and magazines. I eventually lost track of her but I wonder now and then what happened to her. Margo? Are you out there?

Do you remember "tracking" in high school? Since I got good grades I was automatically placed on the college prep track. I don't remember anyone asking me about it. Remember research papers? Writing a 15 page research paper before word processing and the internet was a laborious experience indeed. Perhaps that is why they always seemed to be assigned during Christmas vacation. How fair was that to be assigned something that required you to spend an inordinate amount of time at the library when it was supposed to be your vacation? Do kids today even know about the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature? Do libraries still have it?

After all that research at the library, which you wrote down in long hand without plagiarizing, you had to come home, organize your information and type it out on an old fashioned typewriter, hoping that if you made any mistakes you found them and corrected them with White Out before you took the sheet of paper out of the machine. Printer? Huh?