Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2021 i Reminisce Extra

Producer-director George Stevens no doubt drove Paramount Pictures’ bean counters crazy as he displayed few qualms about busting a budget to achieve perfection. His Shane was no exception: For instance, Stevens did 119 takes of Alan Ladd demonstrating his shooting skills in front of a hero-worshipping youngster before he got the clip he wanted. After Stevens shot Shane in 1951 and ’52, he spent 16 months editing the estimated 1 million feet of film. Based on Jack Schaefer’s popular 1949 novel of the same name, Shane stars Alan Ladd as a drifter burdened with a violent past that he wants to forget. He settles in Wyoming for a while with the homesteading Starrett family that includes husband Joe (Van Heflin), wife Marian (Jean Arthur) and son Joey (Brandon deWilde). An…

Pietro Mazza, my grandfather, was born in Italy. He showed his love for his new country with a tattoo of the Statue of Liberty on his left forearm. In 1923, he moved his family to Vicksburg to be near the family of his wife, Marietta. There, Peter Matz, as he was now known, opened Matz’s Confectionery, a sandwich, ice cream and candy shop. Customers loved his tin roof sundaes and banana splits, but best of all were his homemade candies: caramels, brittles and taffy. He cooked his candies in a copper kettle, and then poured the hot mixture onto a marble surface to cool. Pete invented a machine that spread the hot candy to an even thickness: Unfortunately, he never patented it. Since childhood, Pete worked hard, first as a…

In the meantime, my sergeant apparently forgot about it. About a month later, I got an order to report to the company office, a place we never wanted to go. I announced my presence in the prescribed way, pounding sharply three times on the hatch, yelling my name and that I was reporting as ordered. Inside, I found company officers inspecting a shoebox covered with small holes. I heard scratching and noticed the package moved slightly. Candidate Super Surfer had arrived. I lamely reminded the officers that the animal had been ordered to join us, and then prepared to hit the deck for pushups. Instead, the sergeant assigned several duties regarding the new arrival. I was to ensure it had a comfortable rack for taps at night, to feed it…

AFTER HIGH SCHOOL IN Yeadon, Pennsylvania, I dreamed of becoming a horse farrier, but went with my second, more realistic, choice—the Air Force. I embraced basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and tried for perfection in learning the regulations and performing the many drills in boot camp. After finally earning our airman stripes, our squadron prepared for a special presentation in front of the base commander to showcase our achievement. Our training instructor, Tech. Sgt. Snapper, was pleased with the precision of our marching drill and gave us a rare afternoon off. The only catch was that one of us had to sew the new chevrons onto the squad’s uniform blouses. I drew the short stick. I could shoe a horse, sling bales of hay…

She was born Gretchen Micheala in Salt Lake City in 1913, one of four children—three girls and a boy—of Gladys and Earl Young. Her parents separated when she was 3; Gladys moved the kids to Hollywood, California, where she opened a boarding house. Young started in bit parts in films before she turned 5. Her big break came at age 14, when she landed a supporting role in Naughty But Nice (1927). Her delicate beauty and easygoing persona on screen belied Young’s toughness and ambition. Her first husband, Grant Withers, called her “a steel butterfly.” She balked at the control studios exerted on stars. She refused a contract for $2 million from studio executive Darryl Zanuck—which angered him so much that he had her blackballed for a time. After 20…

DAYS AT THE ARCADE Did you go to the arcade as a kid? We’re looking for reader memories about that bygone era when life was nothing but a fistful of quarters and the rhythmic dinging of a dozen Pong games. Label your story and photos “Arcade.” DEPARTMENTS Submissions for our many standing departments are welcome. Below are a few favorites. Still can’t decide where your story belongs? Send it along and let us figure it out. Growing Up: Joys of childhood and the teenage years. Pictures from the Past: How we lived and looked back when. Is it a fantastic picture? Send it for consideration for our Back Cover. Brush with Fame: The thrill of meeting someone famous. Keepsakes: Stories behind treasured items passed down or kept for years. Our…

ARTILLERY SCHOOL AT FORT SILL, Oklahoma, in 1975 was divided into training for towed and self-propelled howitzers. I was assigned to the self-propelled group, but during our tour, we were required to do a week of cross-training on the other artillery type. During the class on the towed artillery, the sergeant asked us questions out of the blue. He pointed at a hapless student: “Private! What is the main difference between the screw breech of this artillery piece and a standard screw breech?” If the student answered correctly that the breech was two-stage, rather than one, he was allowed to stay seated. If he couldn’t answer, the student assumed what was known as the “front leaning rest” position—a pushup—over a crack in the concrete. The crack was supposedly inhabited by…

Like chocolate chip cookies, potato chips and cornflakes, the story of the Popsicle starts with a happy accident. In 1905, 11-year-old Frank Epperson of San Francisco, California, caught a lucky break when overnight temperatures took a rare dip, freezing the syrupy drink he’d left outside and—most importantly—solidifying it around the stick he’d been using to mix it. Other ice pops were on the market, but nobody thought of patenting the process before Epperson finally did it himself. He kept experimenting with his concoction, adding new flavors and selling his treats at fairs and parks. In 1924, he received the patent for the process, and soon after sold his Popsicle rights entirely to the Joe Lowe Co. of New York. Joe Lowe launched Popsicle nationally, where it faced competition from other…

hen personal cameras were rare, photographers went from town to town with an adorable prop—goat carts. Sometimes sheep pulled the two- or four-wheelers, and it was smart business: As these pictures show, the resulting portraits were too cute for parents to pass up. GIDDYAP, BABY My mother, Elizabeth, kept all of the family photos from her parents, Herman and Flora Baxter. In this 1928 photo, their children, standing from left, are June, Elizabeth, Marjorie and Cleo. Herman Jr., got to sit in the cart. DAVID M. HABBEN BOISE, ID PLACE AND TIME This picture of my grandmother, Catherine Nichols, and her brother Raymond was taken in Louisville when she was 4. The wagon is painted with the city and the year—1924. KAREN HAMILTON COXS CREEK, KY TAKE THE REINS It…

D wight D. Eisenhower is the first Republican to sit in the Oval Office in 20 years. Queen Elizabeth II is crowned in Westminster Abbey. Dr. Jonas Salk announces successful initial tests for the polio vaccine. Ralph Ellison wins the National Book Award for Invisible Man. Marshmallow Peeps become an Easter must-have. Stuck with tons of leftover turkey, Swanson launches TV dinners. With the birth of Little Ricky, I Love Lucy wraps up a trailblazing storyline that incorporated its star’s actual pregnancy (right). And Merriam-Webster adds these words to the dictionary. BALLPOINT PEN : Marcel Bich acquires the patent for a pen that dispenses ink with a ball-socket mechanism instead of a leaky nib. The cheap BIC Cristal pen is a bestseller. DEMOLITION DERBY: These free-for-alls give cars the green…

This little home-built car was made from junkyard and airplane parts. Dad had an on-call business, and had to be within hearing distance of his phone when he wasn’t out on a job, so while he was at home, he built cars. This one had a gasoline engine, and ran at the breakneck speed of 1 mph, but it could hold a lot of kids. At one time or another, it carried most of the kids in our town of Yerington, Nevada. Dad made more cars for my sister and me, and they got faster and more powerful. He restored old cars, such as Ford Models A and T, as well as a 1928 Chevrolet, which became my high school date car. Dad’s mechanical skills and his love of kids…

Though the first drive-in movie theater opened in 1933 in Camden, New Jersey, the trend didn’t take off until the late 1940s, when both the Great Depression and World War II were safely in the rearview mirror. Drive-ins remained popular for decades, hitting their peak in the mid-’50s, when more than 4,000 were operating in the United States. In their heyday, drive-ins even added other services—such as oil and tire pressure checks, flat-tire repairs, car washes, grocery shopping and delivery (to your car) and baby-bottle warming—to lure more customers. When the gas crisis shrank the size of cars in the 1970s and then home video gave movie buffs a reason to stay put in the 1980s, drive-ins died out. Fewer than 300 are left today. Though almost every movie released…

The first time I saw one of these was in the early ’70s when I was in college in Hawaii. I don’t remember anything about the classmate who offered me a ride in the sleek little sports car, but I do remember how impressed I was—it was the coolest car I’d ever seen. I had to wait a while, but with encouragement from my “car guy” husband, Steve, I finally got my dream car early in 2020. The model is the last year of the first series and the car has been upgraded with 15-inch aluminum wheels, five-speed transmission, stainless header, aluminum radiator and triple Weber carburetors. It is so much fun to drive! I’ve always preferred a manual transmission (even my modern car was special ordered with stick shift),…