REFLECTION

TMI AND TMTS (too much technical stuff). I can't help feeling sorry for anyone who did not grow up in the forties.
Saddle shoes and bobby-socks. Superman and movie matinees. Radio! Ah, radio:The Shadow, Inner Sanctum, Lux Presents Hollywood, and the yearly Christmas Carol starring Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge.
There was Pearlman's Deli on the corner, where you could buy fresh lox, the greatest Jewish pickles and the best bagles and bialies. And Mr. Pearlman, short, chubby gray haired man with a blissful nature and a way of making each and every one of his customers feel so very important.
On the other corner was Sweeney's Candy Store. Come on; what more does any kid need to complete his idea of the best home in the world? Sweeney was a tall, thin Irishman, with a dour nature. I don't think I ever saw him smile. It was like making a purchase from an automatron. But, Milky Way, Clark bar,and Baby Ruth, products of chocolate delight were there, You didn't need a Red Skelton to take your money and give you your moment of gustatory pleasure, it was all in the product. Plus you could purchase a chocolate covered banana there. I didn't know of any other place where you could get such a sweet nutritional treat.
The kids on the block were always out until sundown. We played Buck-Buck, Box-ball, and Russian, a ballgame that required a totally different movement for each toss of the ball. I think there were ten movements in all. For number seven,you had to bounce the ball and turn your leg around it before the bounce, while you spelled out R-U-S-S-I-A-N. How cool is that?
Every Saturday, the ritualistic gathering of the neighborhood kids took place outside the ticket-window of the local movie houses for the Saturday Matinee, which offered a double feature, a serial, the news, and a cartoon. This weekly social enterprise offered a beneficial respite for parents.
In elementary school, you made fun of all the teachers and dared them to try to teach you something useful or academic. We knew that the real world belonged to the kids.
Incredible though it may seem, major public transportation was necessary to get you to the few supermarkets in the city. Nobody had a car.
No one in our neighborhood was rich and no one was poor. We were served breakfast in the morning, took a brown bag for lunch, had milk and cookies waiting for us after school, and we all ate dinner at the table with our family. Our parents were hard working blue and white collar workers, most of whom took the bus or the trolley to work and allowed us to be "kids". We didn't have to excel at anything, we weren't involved in sports and karate and piano and dancing lessons. They didn't hover over us. They just expected us to respect our elders and behave civilly to everyone else in the neighborhood.
Thank God, I'm a product of the forties.