I was 6 years old.
Mom would send me to the store 5 blocks away by myself to buy her a pack of cigs.
Those cigs were on a shelf in the aisle.
I bought her cigs and my candy cigs and headed home.
When I was in jr high school, you could buy cigs from a vending machine at gas stations.
You could smoke in hospitals (and anywhere else).
When I was growing up, nearly every man in town wore a hat.
Nearly every woman wore a dress.
Some women wore hats too.
Murphy's Five & Dime was the Walmart.
You could get an egg cream or a chocolate coke at Isaly's delicatessen.
I spent more time on my bicycle than I ever did on the couch.
I got whipped with a switch, a lot. I also knew which branches in the hedge stung less.
I used to hide mom's shoes when I knew I'd be in trouble.
I rode bikes, played ball and sled rode, in the street.
The only people that hung out on the street corners in town were the men that were too drunk to walk home. I don't remember ever seeing a woman that was too drunk for anything.
Us kids hung out - outa sight/outa mind.
I went to bed when the news came on, the news was always boring.
On a cold winter night, the snow has a gray/black tinge due to everyone heating their homes with coal.
The city had one of the first snow blowers and cleared all the sidewalks in town, I had to shovel the walkway tho.
I cut the grass with a push-powered lawn mower and trimmed using spring loaded shears.
On really hot days, the city would come by and open the hydrant for a few hours and all the kids on the block would go play in it.
At one time, I actually admired sport stars.
I called my friend's moms, "Mom" but always called their dad's "Mr".
Hanging out at the library was cool.
In the summer, we swam in rivers (had rope swings, jumped off bridges), lakes and ponds. Most of the time in the summer, our clothes were wet from doing so. (sometimes in the winter too, if the ice cracked).
We had neighborhood parties and pot luck picnics.
When someone new moved in, not only was there a thing called Welcome Wagon, everyone got together and welcomed the new neighbors.
Most storms killed the lights, everybody had candles in their homes.
Refrigerators had latches and you could die in them.
We looked after our lil brothers and sisters and other people's lil brothers and sisters. Being mean to a lil kid was not cool.
Pop and potato chips were for special occasions.
Candy was for special occasions.
If you bought a can of pop in a machine, you had to use the pop machine to open it (or you could throw it in the air till it started spurting and hurry up and put your mouth over it).
If you twisted a cap on a bottle not only were you really strong but you also didn't get the cap off. You had to pry it off.
Bananas were the most exotic fruit you could find in the grocery store fresh.
You could only get strawberries in the spring and apples in the fall.
You could still get
