Innehållsförteckning för May 2017 från Reminisce Extra

« HOLLYWOOD GLAMOUR A number of stars exuded old-Hollywood glamour. During the movie industry’s heyday in the 1940s, actresses including Hedy Lamarr and Lauren Bacall fit the bill; in the ’50s, it was Audrey Hepburn. Who was your favorite star and why? Share with subject line “Hollywood Glamour.” « TUPPERWARE Who remembers the Tupperware lady? Was it you? Your mom? Someone in the neighborhood? Every party sizzled with talk about lids and burps, the current line and new colors. We want to hear your stories. Share with subject line “Tupperware.” PEN PALS Pen pals were a great way to experience life in a different state or country. Getting mail was a huge perk, especially for GIs. Did you have a pen pal? Where? Who was it? Share with subject line…

SONGS 1. “SING, SING, SING (WITH A SWING)” Benny Goodman 2. “ONE O’CLOCK JUMP” Count Basie 3. “SWEET LEILANI” Bing Crosby 4. “THEY CAN’T TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME” Fred Astaire 5. “CARAVAN” Duke Ellington 6. “MARIE” Tommy Dorsey 7. “GOODNIGHT, MY LOVE” Ella Fitzgerald 8. “THAT OLD FEELING” Shep Fields & His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra 9. “IT LOOKS LIKE RAIN IN CHERRY BLOSSOM LANE” Guy Lombardo 10. “SEPTEMBER IN THE RAIN” Guy Lombardo BOOKS/FICTION 1. GONE WITH THE WIND Margaret Mitchell 2. NORTHWEST PASSAGE Kenneth Roberts 3. THE CITADEL A.J. Cronin 4. AND SO—VICTORIA Vaughn Wilkins 5. DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK Walter D. Edmonds 6. THE YEARS Virginia Woolf 7. THEATRE W. Somerset Maugham 8. OF MICE AND MEN John Steinbeck 9. THE RAINS CAME Louis Bromfield 10. WE…

When radio journalist Herbert Morrison cried “Oh, the humanity!” as the Hindenburg burned on May 6, 1937, he set a tone for 20th-century broadcast reporting, one marked by drama and emotion. In a few short years, the immediacy of radio, led by giants like Edward R. Murrow, would give way to the dynamics of TV and a new breed of “anchors,” who kept their cool amid the chaos unfolding on our small screens. Here we look at two of the best television news anchormen, from then and now. WORTH ANOTHER LOOK Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) highlights a point in history when television news hit one for democracy. Set in early 1954, the movie goes behind the scenes of Edward R. Murrow’s fledgling analysis show,…

Buying candy at a Clark gas station in Hastings, Michigan, in January 1963, I met a guy named Gene. He told me he got off work at 9 that night and asked me to go out with him. We were both 19, so I said, “Sure, why not.” On our third date he asked me to marry him and about a week later, he lost his job. He had always wanted to be a state police officer but ended up at MP Training School in Fort Gordon, Georgia. He spent another eight weeks at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and when he came home, we were married on May 28, 1963. We were married for 45 years before cancer took him in 2008. “We paid for the party boat with the money…

The Bursey family is quite large. We can be found not only in Newfoundland, but also in England and the area around Boston. My great-grandparents Julia and John Bursey were very social people. I have albums full of their old family photos, many of which I share on my blog, burseyfamily.blogspot.ca. Although I love researching my family history, I have no children of my own, leaving me no one to whom I can bequeath all these family photos and the information that goes along with them. Even though I have yet to identify everyone in the photos, I have found some distant, unknown relatives because of my posts. My current search involves finding out more about my great-grandmother’s side. Her maiden name was Julia Poppea or Papea Strickland, and she…

People said we were too young, but my high school sweetheart, Alice, and I were married at the end of our senior year in May 1944. I had enlisted in the Marine Corps the month before and was called for active duty in August. I spent my time in basic training on Parris Island, South Carolina, before being sent to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. About a week after I arrived, Alice showed up and rented a cabin across from the base. The place was really just a shack with a coal oil heater and cracks in the roof so big you could see planes fly over. When it rained, we used buckets. Alice became friends with the woman next door who was married to a sergeant on base. One day…

So many Star Wars memories! I was 12 when I first saw Star Wars. I was hooked. I had all the original Kenner action figures. If I still had them, I’d have a gold mine, I’m sure. I still have some Star Wars toys, but the collection isn’t as big as it used to be. My first toy lightsaber had an inflatable blade. Years later I bought a $100 Force FX lightsaber, then made my own custom model from a vintage Graflex camera flash handle. Star Wars is the only movie series that I’d try to see at midnight showings. I’d dress in costume and have lightsaber battles with fellow fans. My best Star Wars memories came at my job, when I worked at the Museum of Science and Industry…

During the postwar era, most homeowners took their cue about updating rooms from advertisements found in favorite magazines and journals. I’ve lived through several kitchen remodeling projects of my own, but none was so colorful as those featured in “Cooking in Style” on page 30. You’ll be amazed when you see our readers’ colorful vintage appliances and they’re still in working condition. We showcase vintage ads from the era so you can see what fueled every cook’s desire for these once state-of-the-art innovations. Many of us are old enough to have watched as our families migrated from the hearth to recliners parked in front of the TV screen. We gathered to hear the latest news and updates from people we trusted, people like TV news anchor Walter Cronkite. Take a…

No one, including Walt Disney himself, expected Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to do well when the film premiered in late 1937. It was nicknamed Disney’s Folly and cost about $1.5 million—unheard of for the time. Of course, audiences loved it and still do. How much do you recall of this animated gem? 1 What are the names of the seven dwarfs? 2 Where are the dwarfs coming from when they sing, “Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s home from work we go”? 3 Who is the only dwarf who doesn’t speak? 4 True or False? Snow White was nominated for an Oscar for outstanding production (best picture). 5 True or False? Snow White was the first film to have a separately released movie soundtrack. 6…

On a family trip to Lake Tahoe in 1975, my dad tried to get tickets to see Sammy Davis Jr., but that event was sold out. He came back with tickets for the Debbie Reynolds dinner show instead. I wasn’t expecting much, to be honest. Debbie definitely did not have Sammy’s hip-cool factor. My dad, always outgoing and gregarious, was dressed in bright yellow slacks and jacket with white patent leather shoes. He was sporting his signature goatee, too. He tipped the maître d’ and we got a front row table. No sooner had the show started than Debbie sashayed off the stage, into the audience and straight up to my father, Wayne. She sat flirtatiously in his lap and talked to him while stroking his goatee. After learning my…

From 1965 to 1967, I was what we in the Michigan Department of Conservation wryly called a “forest stranger,” a fire lookout stationed on top of a fire tower. I was assigned to the Down River Tower east of Grayling, Michigan, in the midst of the Au Sable State Forest. What’s it like to climb a fire tower? It’s like walking off the edge of the world into empty air—nothing to hold on to but wooden steps and a handrail leading into the open, with great dark cloud shadows moving across the forest below. Some visitors couldn’t make it to the top. Half the way up they’d freeze, sit on the steps, and breathe in gasps, unable to move. I’d tell them to go back a few steps to calm…

 WITH THE WAR RAGING in Korea, I joined the Marine Corps in May 1951. Two months later I was called to active duty and sent to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) in San Diego, California. A tenuous truce was called later that month, and the peace talks at Panmunjom began. Few of us believed the truce would last. “Now is the hour that we must say goodbye. Soon we’ll be sailing, far across the sea. While I’m away, oh then remember me.” I was assigned to Platoon 209, billeted in quonset huts on the north side of the grounds. In the huts to our immediate west, another platoon was formed of members who were Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and Hawaiian, but no one of European descent. They were a good…

We bought our first home by flashlight, not knowing we had a green jewel in the kitchen. Our first question: How much for the house? Our second question: Do the appliances go with it? My pulse quickened when the Realtor said yes. “Didn’t they ever use it?” I asked about the stove. “Not really,” she said. Shaking my head, I muttered, “Well, it’s going to get used now!” Saying a prayer, I turned knobs and waited for all of 10 seconds before the element coils turned bright orange. There was still some life in the old Frigidaire. From then on, winter meant bread-baking for the green stove and me, followed by pie- and cookie-making. Each summer produced 100 to 125 canning jars steaming with hot fruit. Still, the old green…

1977’s Star Wars was rereleased in ’81, this time with a subtitle, Episode IV: A New Hope. By then, audiences knew they were in the middle of a continuing storyline. As new parts of the tale have trickled out over 40 years, it’s been tough keeping the stories straight. Here they are in order. “Remember, concentrate on the moment. Feel, don’t think. Trust your instincts.” —Qui-Gon Jinn 1999 EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE The series’ origin story and the first of three prequels. Series creator George Lucas’ first return to the director’s chair since 1977’s Star Wars. “One day, I will become the greatest Jedi ever. I will even learn how to stop people from dying.” —Anakin Skywalker 2002 EPISODE II:…

THE FIRST MOVIE I saw in a theater was The Empire Strikes Back in 1980, when I was 5. We saw it at the Starlite Drive-In indoor/outdoor theater in my hometown of Roseburg, Oregon. I was supposed to nap before we went, but I was too excited to sleep. There was a very long line to get into the theater. A guy dressed as Lando Calrissian (administrator of Cloud City in the story) was standing at the front, greeting everyone as they came in. At one point my mom took my 7-year-old sister, Mary, and me out to the lobby for popcorn—and Darth Vader came and ate it with us. My siblings and I grew up loving all the Star Wars movies and we still love the movies to this…

MY SON Russell Paul was just 5 when the first Star Wars movie came out in 1977. He had the T-shirts and toys, and he became a lifelong fan of the series. But not every kid who dreams of Star Wars can say his dream came true. Russell grew up to be a very talented artist with an expertise in computers. These skills led to him being invited to join the visual effects crew as a digital modeler at Lucasfilm’s special effects house, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). He started his work on Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. He also worked on Episodes 2 and 3, and recently he completed work on the series’ first standalone film, Rogue One. He’ll continue to work on future Star Wars movies. He is…

On graduation weekend with friends near Cedar Point on Ohio’s Lake Erie shore in June 1961, I was mesmerized by a red roadster traveling down the cottage road. About two years later, I became the owner of a car just like it. I drove it throughout my college days, and it began to play an important role in my life. First, it helped me attract the attention of the girl who would become my wife. Marie did not drive before we started dating, and I used the car to teach her, stick shift and all. (To this day, she prefers a manual transmission.) She took her driver’s license exam in that car; we took our honeymoon trip in that car; and our first-born son, Dan, nearly arrived in that car.…

TELL US HOW TO FIND YOU Whether you send your submission via mail or email or post it online, include your full name, daytime phone number, email address and mailing address. If you have a post office box, tell us your street address too. HELP US SORT THINGS OUT Include the name of the department your submission is for (Motoring Memories, Growing Up, etc.) on the first page of your submission or in the email subject line. For any photos you submit, please identify the people, city, state and year the photo was taken. We reserve the right to use submissions in any section of our magazine, or elsewhere. We do not return unsolicited materials. Send quality photo reprints or email high-resolution JPEG files (300 dpi at 8x10) so you…

RECENTLY, I got an email from June Rittenhouse, above, whose story we featured in the September 2016 issue of Reminisce Extra. She was a volunteer for the Gray Lady Service with the Red Cross in France in the 1950s. In her email, she recalled a poignant exchange that occurred years later on a flight from Fiji back to the States. She was reading Reminisce and the man sitting next to her, who was from Poland, asked what the title meant. She explained that it meant to look back on things in your past. He said he didn’t want to remember his youth at all because he had lost his entire family—grandparents, parents, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles—to the Nazi regime. He was the only one left. As the airplane reached…

At 17, Thomas A. Dorsey left his Georgia home in 1916 to play piano blues in sleazy Chicago clubs. Self-taught, Dorsey became a session musician, working with such groups as Ma Rainey and her Wild Cats Jazz Band. The son of an African-American preacher, Dorsey felt torn between church and secular music, developing a style that blended spirituals with blues, jazz and even some country. His new form of Christian praise became known as gospel music. His inspiration for “Peace in the Valley” came during an Indiana train ride while Hitler was moving forces into Western Europe. He saw horses, cows and sheep grazing together in the valley. “Everything seemed so peaceful,” he said. “It made me think, what’s the matter with mankind? Why can’t men live in peace?” What…

As a 20-year-old PFC in the Air Force, Oct. 27, 1949, was a day I’ll always remember. I was stationed at Chanute Field, Illinois, after finishing basic training at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. I was transferred to Chanute to attend aircraft engine and general aircraft training. While on barracks cleanup duty, I found a copy of the Vancouver Sun newspaper, from British Columbia. The front-page article was about the Pacific National Exhibition Beauty Contest, with a photo of the winner, Miss Vancouver. The article also listed the 11 other contestants and the cities they represented. Well, I got the bright idea of writing a letter to the winner, hoping to get some mail in return. Since I had been away from home for almost a year, the highlight…

The Au Sable State Forest is in the north-central part of Michigan’s lower peninsula. A major source of hardwood in the late 1800s, the land is now a recreational area. The endangered Kirtland’s warbler nests there. A 160-acre parcel of old-growth red pine within the forest was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1980. Not many of Michigan’s original fire towers remain, and the one where Richard worked was torn down in 1969. “ It’s like walking off the edge of the world into empty air.”…

WHEN MY BROTHERS, Joseph and Vincent, and I joined the war effort, my parents made us promise to write as often as possible. I was inducted into the Army on March 10, 1943, and for the first year and a half I wrote two or three times a week. In late December 1944, after being stationed on Oahu, Hawaii, for nine months, we were sent to the Aiea staging area to await our next orders. While there, we were allowed to write home, but we were instructed not to date our letters. During wartime, this helped keep our missions secure from the enemy. Our ship left Hawaii on Jan. 21, 1945, stopping on Eniwetok and Kwajalein atolls and Guam on the way to our final destination. All the while, I…

Our home was built in 1952. When we purchased it in 1976, the kitchen came with a white stove; white walls, flooring and cabinets; and pink and black tiles. Needless to say, I found the combination quite dated. After four years, we remodeled, adding harvest gold appliances—including a double-oven range from Montgomery Ward and a trash compactor. We replaced the original white sink with a harvest gold one. To match the gold, we chose a tan tile countertop, stained-wood cabinets, and a no-wax linoleum floor that looked like brown tile. I still remember how excited I was to get rid of all the white. Fast forward, and we have remodeled once again. This time, I was excited to get rid of all the harvest gold. We put a stainless steel…

“Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hm? Hm. And well you should not.” YODA During the summer of 1977, after my family saw Star Wars, we were all hooked on, if not slightly obsessed with, the movie. My dad, Richard, spent many evenings in the garage of our Riverside, Rhode Island, home that summer and fall making Star Wars Halloween costumes for us. My 9-year-old brother Matthew was C-3PO; I was 7 and dressed as R2-D2. I lobbied to wear roller skates so I could glide like R2-D2, but once I realized that one slip would put me on the ground with no way to get back up, I gave up on the idea. We won every costume contest in town and were…

CUMBERLAND, MARYLAND Debbie Clayton of Hughesville, MD, has always enjoyed gazing at this shot of her mother, Skip Mauzy, who was 8 at the time. “A man with his pony would walk around town asking kids if they wanted a ride,” Debbie writes. “He would put a bandanna, a hat and chaps on them and take their picture. You could buy the picture for a small price, but in those days, money was tight.” PAULINE VATER WHARTON of New Market, AL, rides a stuffed bucking bronco in Basin, WY, during a cross-country trip in 1946. Her sister Jacqueline waits on the fence for her turn. STORMY BY NATURE We called her Stormy because she was born on a bad night, though the name soon matched her disposition. But when I…

During junior high and high school, from 1961 to 1967, in Albert Lea, Minnesota, I was part of the gymnastics team. We shared our practice facility, a junior high gymnasium, with the pompom girls. Our coach, Vern Arndt, insisted that everyone on his team (known as “Arndt’s monkeys”) wear jockstraps. He also insisted that whatever your specialty, every team member had to practice on every piece of equipment. I was a tumbler and free-exercise man, but I tried my best to work with the other apparatus. One day, when I was about 15, as the pompom girls were practicing their routines on the other side of the gym, I jumped up and grabbed the high bar. I was using absolutely perfect form, straight body, feet pointing to the ground. Suddenly,…