Indholdsfortegnelse for August/September 2021 i Reminisce

Two 16-year-olds calling themselves Tom and Jerry recorded a single in 1957, “Hey, Schoolgirl,” an Everly Brothers-influenced ditty. The Queens, New York, buddies enjoyed transitory stardom from the minor hit, which made it to the middle of the Billboard charts. For the next several years, the musicians tried to duplicate that first effort, without success. Then in early 1964, the pair reappeared with a new sound and using their real names, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. As Columbia Records artists, Simon & Garfunkel recorded their debut album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., an acoustic work of Simon originals, folk songs and traditional tunes. Released that October, the LP sold a paltry 2,000 copies, a victim of that year’s Beatlemania. Simon and Garfunkel went their separate ways—for a while. “I rate it…

1933–2006 One of the most influential performers of the 20th century, the “hardest-working man in show business” was at the peak of his popularity in the 1960s. The chart-topping “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” released in ’65, even launched a new genre: funk. Known as the godfather of soul, Brown also influenced modern R&B and hip-hop, and his energetic shows and vocal pyrotechnics—he had an uncanny ability to scream on pitch—inspired Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Prince to find their own groove. He was born in a shack in the woods in South Carolina When his parents split up, he was sent, at age 4, to live with an aunt who ran a brothel in Georgia. His childhood was one of extreme poverty His school once sent…

Uncle Joe and Aunt Florence’s hay crop on their farm in Lamoille, Nevada, was ready to harvest in 1954. Stationed at McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, I took furlough to help. In late July, I was mowing hay when Florence’s sister—my aunt Ruby Catherine, called RC—and her husband, Jim, arrived from Mukilteo, Washington, for a visit. With them was a good-looking young woman I’d never met. They introduced me to Evelyn, their children’s babysitter. Evelyn had come with them because they didn’t want to lose her to another family. In hindsight, they should not have brought her along if they wanted to keep her. After dinner, my cousin Helen and I planned to go to a drive-in movie, and we invited Evelyn. Soon Evelyn and I were taking evening…

The Hungarian crisis that Karoline’s father witnessed led to the displacement of nearly 250,000 people who fled the country after thousands were killed. Sponsors or immigrant aid societies brought refugees such as Joseph and Laszlo out of peril to resettle in new countries. Hungary was not the only country to experience such atrocities. Our ancestors left their homelands for many reasons. In your research it is vital to look at the push and pull in your ancestors’ lives that would cause them to seek a brighter future. It takes immense courage to face the unknown. Learn about wars and conflicts, climate and weather disasters, and political issues through sites such as these: ■ britannica.com ■ en.wikipedia.org ■ familysearch.org PEGGY CLEMENS LAURITZEN, an accredited genealogist, writes and lectures about family history.…

FROM THE FIRST ENTRY, JAN. 1, 1966, I locked my diary every day, but my brother Mike knew I kept the key in my jewelry box. I didn’t catch on that he (and his friend) had been reading my diary until he mentioned my secret crush. I was so embarrassed! And the tears—oh, my. Reading them now, I’m not sure why I felt it was necessary to keep those thoughts locked up: “He was looking at me.” “I went to the local hangout and he was there.” “If only I could move my desk and sit beside him.”…

FOR MY EIGHTH BIRTHDAY, my parents gave me a five-year diary. Little did I know how much it would mean to me. My very first entry was short and simple: Feb. 25, 1969: “To Day is my Birthday. I got A five year diary + A pen + taperecorder. We had Cake + ice cream.” At the time, I wasn’t committed to writing every day, so it turned into a six-year diary. I treasure it, especially reading what I got for my next four birthdays and Christmases, including the BB gun Santa brought me in 1971. I was also obsessed with detailing what Mom fixed for dinner each night, such as green beans, ham and cornbread. As an intern at a local newspaper in my junior year of college, I…

Raskob and Smith’s well-publicized plan to build the tallest office tower in the world set off an epic struggle. Walter P. Chrysler’s building—which he once called his “monument to me” —was under construction, but he kept his plans for the intended height under wraps. Chrysler had a secret weapon, a 185-foot spire that was being assembled inside the fire shaft of the building. On Oct. 23, 1929, the day before the stock market crash, a needle pierced through the top of the Chrysler Building. It took only 90 minutes for workers to hoist the 27-ton spike to a pinnacle of 1,046 feet, or 77 stories. Raskob was dissatisfied to learn that, though taller, the Empire State Building would surpass its rival by only 4 feet. He proposed to put a…

OUT OF THE DESERT Spinello’s original game was set in Death Valley, and the object was to guide a character to water. Players moved an electric probe along a groove and into holes in a charged metal box. If the probed touched the sides of the groove or holes, it completed the circuit and a buzzer sounded. INTO THE HOSPITAL Marvin Glass sold the rights to the prototype to Milton Bradley, where a designer named Jim O’Connor suggested making the game board a surgery patient and the probe a pair of tweezers. NEW DIAGNOSIS After remaining virtually unchanged since its introduction, the game got an update in 2004 in the form of a new illness for Cavity Sam. Hasbro, which bought Milton Bradley in 1984, had fans choose the ailment—Brain…

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Would you believe this quiz is all about Get Smart? Grab a shoe phone and dial up what you know about 1965’s in-spy-ered sitcom. 1 This pair of comedy legends dreamed up the show. 2 According to its creators, Get Smart pays homage to these two Hollywood spies. 3 He stars as the bumbling Maxwell Smart—code name Agent 86—and she is the brainy, but unnamed, Agent 99. 4 The agents work for this counterespionage agency based in Washington, D.C. 5 This is the evil spy network trying to take over the world. 6 Dick Gautier plays this robot, who was best man at the wedding of Max and 99. 7 This contraption for sharing top-secret information rarely works, much to the chief’s frustration. What’s it called? 8 Agent 86 has…

PAGES from MY TEENAGE YEARS MOST KIDS START kindergarten at 5. However, I started at 4, thanks to Dr. Wolfe telling Mama, “Send her now, she’s tall.” As a lean-limbed 11-year-old in seventh grade, I had oodles of little girl words to spill into my dear diary that school year (1961-’62). Since my birthday was in December, a new diary for the coming year was the perfect present. I wanted it to have an air of sophistication, so I went for the soft vinyl cover in feminine colors. My favorite was aqua with a drawing of a teenage girl with a ponytail, talking on the phone. Puffy pink hearts floated above her, and I envisioned her having lots to write about. On the first page, I decorated my signature with…

WHEN I TURNED 11 IN 1982, I received a truly memorable gift—my first real diary, with a lock and key, “Diary” emblazoned in huge letters, and decorated with a Snoopy. It was a gift from my classmate Dan and his older sister Denise, who both loved the Peanuts gang. It was the kind of gift my parents would not buy for me. As the only child of frugal, first-generation immigrants, I was overprotected, but because this book came from friends, it was allowed. In fifth grade creative writing at Villa Victoria Academy, I often got so absorbed in my writing that I wouldn’t hear the bell. Yet as the proud owner of a real diary, I was so excited that I didn’t know what to write—my first bout of writer’s…

The landmark Empire State Building has appeared in more than 250 movies, cast as strong and silent in a range of genres. ROMANCE Love Affair (1939) An Affair to Remember (1957) Sleepless in Seattle (1993) All involve a rendezvous at the top. THRILLER King Kong (1933) A giant ape tries to escape his pursuers. Superman II (1980) The Man of Steel catches the falling tower. Independence Day (1996) Aliens treat it as the ideal parking spot. MUSICAL On the Town (1949) Three sailors take in the sights. COMEDY The Producers (1968) Hapless con men scheme on the observation deck. EXPERIMENTAL Empire (1964) Eight hours of slow-motion, black-and-white footage of the building.…

WE STARED AT our grainy black-and-white TV, watching a commercial for a new board game. Whenever the kids tried to remove bones from the patient’s body with a set of tweezers, a loud buzzer went off, and the chubby patient’s nose lit up. “I want that game!” my brother Jeff shouted. “But we’ll get electrocuted,” I wailed. “Not from a battery,” he said, with the wisdom of a first grader. Jeff got Operation for his birthday. We took turns trying to take out the bones one by one—Wish Bone, Broken Heart and Charlie Horse were easy; Funny Bone, Spare Ribs and Writer’s Cramp were tough. I tried to keep a steady hand, but kept getting zapped. Then Jeff grabbed the tweezers and managed to get everything except one: The Spare…

My father, Chester E. Page, did a lot of track and field in his teens and early 20s and won several trophies. He met and became friends with Jesse Owens. In the early 1930s, when I was a toddler, my father invited Owens to a sporting event in Salem, Oregon, where we were living. I treasure a picture taken around that time of Owens with my dad and mother, Evelyn. My father liked to show off his prowess by jumping over our car while it was parked at the beach. I inherited some of his track talent; I was a fast runner as a teenager. Uncle Raymond, Dad’s brother, decided that I should compete in the pre-Olympic trials, despite my being a smoker and having no training. Dad wanted nothing…

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We lived on the poor side of town in East Moline, Illinois. Dad was often out of work, but my mother did the best she could with the little money he earned. Eventually, Dad started his own trash-collecting business, which earned a decent income. At United Township High School, I took my first keypunch class, which I loved. After graduating, I took a six-week course and earned a key-punch certificate. Two large farm equipment companies were important employers in the area. I first applied at International Harvester Co., where the interviewer laughed and told me to come back when I had experience. I found out through the grapevine that John Deere needed a key-punch operator in the accounting department. I put on my best dress and went to meet with…

LOOKING BACK ON MY DIARIES FROM 1966-’70, I found myself yearning for those years with my family and friends. But the boys! Oh, my goodness. So many times, reading the pages, I wonder, What were you thinking?! In 1964, my 11-year-old self discovered the Beatles. Over the next eight years, I wrote about everything, personal and historical. I lived in the small town of Hohenwald, Tennessee, and loved family, school, books, movies, the Beach Boys and basketball. July 11, 1968: “Today was wonderful! I got my contact lenses and I am adjusting to them very nicely. They’re tinted blue. I’m learning real quick about how to put them in and take them out. You have to get the hang of it. Mother and I went to 100 Oaks Shopping Center…

WHEN I WAS 10, The Diary of Anne Frank had such a profound effect on me that I decided to keep a diary myself. My teen entries were filled with co-ed dances, secret crushes and wishing I was in the in-crowd. One entry from when I was 16 stands out: I was working part time at W.T. Grant’s department store during the Christmas holidays. A cute guy and two of his friends came in, and the cute one kept wandering back to where I was working to talk with me. Before he left, he asked for my phone number. After he was gone, I told my best friend, who also worked there, that I had just met the boy I was going to marry. Four years and one month later, Bob…

HOT PROPERTY Two factions of the Astor family owned neighboring mansions on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. In the 1890s, the two houses were pulled down, and hotels went up instead. Connected, they formed the Waldorf-Astoria, below, the social seat of the Gilded Age. As commerce increased in the area and tastes changed, the hotel fell out of fashion. The land was sold and the Waldorf-Astoria was demolished, its elegant fittings auctioned and scrapped. In its place, an investor group spearheaded by financier John J. Raskob made plans to erect a contestant in the city’s procession of skyscrapers. “LIKE LITTLE SPIDERS THEY TOILED, SIMPLE DESIGN SPINNING A FABRIC OF STEEL AGAINST THE SKY.”Literary Digest, May 1931 SIMPLE DESIGN Raskob’s investor group backed what was to be the world’s first 100-story-plus office…

FRENCH TWIST With the real drama of World War II having left France in shambles, the romantic entanglements of a 19th-century housewife seem oddly innocent. This was the second time Oklahoma-born Jennifer Jones played a French native, after her Oscar-winning turn as the child who saw holy visions at Lourdes in The Song of Bernadette (1943). CONQUERING TALKER This bit of gee-whiz—a morale booster for a country wearied by WWII—hit theaters just as the war was ending. Fred MacMurray is flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker, who entertains his fellow plane-crash survivors with tales of his amazing life. Inspirational? Yes. Tone-deaf? Also yes. Hey, Cap’n, we’re stranded on the ocean. Maybe grab an oar or something. WHEN BAD GIRLS HAPPEN TO GOOD GUYS Paulette Goddard stars as a woman set up by…

OUTDOOR DINING THE THOMPSONS of Waukesha, WI, were avid campers, even in cool weather. BRUCE took this picture of his wife, JOYCE, and their children bundled up for a meal in the fall of 1963. The family also appears on page 53 and the back cover. » MORE CAMPING PICTURES on page 52 “Every camping trip we looked for a photogenic tree for a kids’ picture. We found this one in 1964. Mark is at top, with Ann, Steve and little Robin below”. BRUCE THOMPSON • WAUKESHA, WI INSIDE More camping photos begin on page 51.…

FIND HATTIE’S HATPIN Hattie has lost a hatpin in this issue! If you find it, tell us at reminisce.com/hatpin. We’ll randomly select winners to receive a year’s subscription to Reminisce. In the June/July issue, we hid the hatpin on the Astrolift pole on page 47. There’s no purchase necessary to enter to win. Purchase will not improve your chances of winning. Sweepstakes is open to legal residents age 18 years or older of the U.S., its territories and possessions, or of Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec). Sweepstakes begins on 7/8/21 and ends on 9/20/21. Visit reminisce.com/hatties-hatpin-rules-rem for official rules. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Sweepstakes sponsored by RDA Enthusiast Brands, LLC.…