These are the top 10 things I remember from my youth in Derby, from the age of 5 through, let’s say, 15:
1) Riding my bicycle. I rode it everywhere. I could do that wheelie thing where I just rode on the back tire. I thought that was cool. It’s really the first "cool" thing I could do. It might be the only "cool" thing I’ve ever done. Chicks dug it.
2) Playing countless hours of basketball in my backyard. My dad put up a goal and we eventually created a smooth surface of hard dirt on which to play because me and my friends played so much. I got to be a pretty decent shooter because of all those hours spent playing. I never guarded anyone, though.
3) Spinning records. My parents spent a lot of time at the old Giant store on Oliver and they always let me pick out three or four 45-rpm records. I listened to music a lot, in the solitude of my room. I had a tiny record player which served my needs.
4) Watching TV. I was such a spoiled kid. My mother would make me breakfast in the morning and serve it to me on a tray while I watched The Lone Ranger. Then, when I got home from school, she had a snack ready for me while I watched Major Astro.
5) Play war. All kids played war in those days. We used two alleys on both sides of my street and it was quite exciting. I think I was a pretty good solider. Once, me and my friends dug foxholes in my back yard. I remember how that pleased my parents oh so much.
6) Attending Shocker football and basketball games. And NBC World Series games. And Victory League games. And Derby High games. My dad took me to all kinds of games, which is probably the reason I’m doing what I’m doing. I got hooked early on, especially to Wichita State basketball. What a time.
7) Baseball days. I got up very early in the mornings during the summer. So did a friend of mine who lived across the street. We started playing catch and warming up for the afternoon’s pick-up game at Pleasantview Elementary, which we played almost every day. Kids don’t do that now. Kids are missing out.
Going to school. Actually, I don’t have a lot of memories of being in a classroom and learning. But obviously I learned a great deal. I mean, look at me now.
9) Memories of my mother, one of the smartest people I have known. But she had only an eighth-grade education. She taught herself by reading almost constantly. She rarely left the house, though, except to go buy groceries or see friends in the neighborhood. So much of who I am _ good and bad _ is linked to my mother.
10) Tennis balls and a car windshield. I tossed the balls off the back window of my mother’s car and invented a baseball game while doing so. That took creativity.
3 Comments
If any of today kids read this blog.(which I am sorry to say, I doubt it. (not on “my space”) this all appears as “greek” to them. Sadly, a forty-five today is a weapon, and who wants to go outside to play? It’s hot. Oh for the good old days when life was simple. Remeber putting a playing card in your spokes with a close pin to make a cool sound? Major Astro had the “Whirlybirds” and “Thunderbirds” and all of the “clean” cartoons that you are lucky to find on TV anymore. During December you could watch “Santa’s Workshop. Life took some imagination and the TV which I also spent too much time in front of wasn’t hooked to a playstation. Our playground was a vacant lot in our neighborhood where third base was a telephone pole.(you didn’t slide into third)
We too played war in the alley with toy guns. Or we played army men in the sandpile.
We fought and re-fought WWII because the soldiers that you could by at the “Duckwalls” dime store at Twin Lakes were either Americans, Germans, or Japanese.
Or you could buy cowboys and indians. It was a big deal at school when you finished your work and the teacher would turn on the radio during the World Series, or someone brought a TV from home to watch the nasa astronauts launch. Well enough of that. Phone calls to make. Now where did I put my cell phone?
Ah yes those were the days in good ole Derby. I did many of the same things but on the south side of town. I love reading this stuff so keep it up Bob. It brings me closer to home.
Its been way too many years since I thought about Major Astro. I remember the Santa’s Workshop show too. Thanks for the memories Bob. Now where have I heard that before.