Innehållsförteckning för April/May 2021 från Reminisce

Poised and glamorous, Diahann Carroll was sometimes compared to Jackie Kennedy. Carroll made history in 1968 when she took the starring role on NBC’s Julia, portraying a nurse raising her son alone after her husband’s death in Vietnam. The three-season sitcom was the first to depict an African American woman in a nonservant role. After winning a Golden Globe, Carroll made history again in 1969 as the first African American nominated for an Emmy as lead actress in a comedy. She made her name as a singer. Born in the Bronx, NY, and raised in Harlem, Carroll attended New York High School of Music and Art on a scholarship from the Metropolitan Opera. She also won several talent competitions and had a regular singing gig at a New York club.…

Decoration Day, which falls at the end of May, was a revered social event of the Appalachian people, even more so than Christmas. Generations of relatives gathered in cemeteries to remember loved ones. I never knew Grandpa or Granny Guffey, Uncle Haywood or Uncle Charlie Lewis, but I learned about my ancestors as we converged on churchyards around Wayne County, Kentucky. I heard not only about the war heroes but also about the everyday people, and in many cases, I learned how they met untimely ends. I was to regard the deceased with veneration while I endeavored to add to our family legacy before I joined my ancestors in glory. My siblings and I crafted flowers from crepe paper and wire, and planted them on ancestors’ graves. We dressed in…

For 120 years, women in my family have worked full time outside the home while still doing the housekeeping and parenting that needed to be done inside the home. We did it all and loved it. Grandma Edith Boyd graduated from a New York state teachers training program in 1899. I still have her certificate. She taught third and fourth grades in various schools in the Catskills for 35 years. Edith was married to a veterinarian who owned a livery stable. She fed not only her family—she had three daughters—but also the dozen male employees of the livery business. She drove her own horse and buggy to the schoolhouse in Corbett, a few miles away, building a fire on the days it was needed. Grandma never missed a day of…

Our house in Niles, Ohio, was immaculate in the 1940s. Our mom, Mary, who was from Italy, was the embodiment of the stay-at-home wife and mother. She stretched every dollar by purchasing fabric and sewing our clothes, and buying eggs and poultry at bargain prices while still serving wonderful meals. Through her careful management, she and our dad, Carmen, who also was born in Italy, were able to meet required costs for our simple lifestyle. But in 1948 Dad was involved in a car accident. He was uninsured and was found liable for causing damage to three other cars. Soon, my parents had insurmountable expenses. I’d heard of people ending up in the poorhouse, and I thought our family was headed there. Packard Electric in Warren, Ohio, was a successful…

BETTER LIVING THROUGH RENOVATION Our companion publication Family Handyman turns 70 in 2021. We mark the occasion with a selection of covers and features from its first 40 years. Find more vintage content atfamilyhandyman.com. 1950s The first issue in winter 1951 (left bottom) features a classic project: fireplace overhaul. By mid-decade, projects cover typical ’50s leisure, including a clever folding bar (top left) and a simple mod bench (above) that still looks cool. A 1954 cover for a bathroom (top) echoes influential artist Piet Mondrian. 1960s The magazine lands squarely in the exuberant ’60s with a girl’s bedroom in pinks, patch carpet and groovy fabric-block curtains. Built-in desks and metal Bertoia-style chairs show the era’s preoccupation with efficiency and industrial applications. A 1963 cover project is for a contemporary shed. Sheds of…

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HOLIDAY TRADITIONS Tell us about the traditions you practice during winter holidays that have been passed down from previous generations. It could be a special dish or an event you attend every year. Maybe it’s an object, such as an ornament or centerpiece, that you inherited. Or perhaps you started your own tradition, now shared with children and grandchildren. Any kind of tradition—large, small or unique—is welcome. Label your story and pictures “Holiday Traditions.” UNICEF The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. Were you one of the millions of kids who collected pennies in bright orange UNICEF boxes at Halloween? What do you recall about this organization? Label your story and photos “UNICEF.” OPERATION GAME We’re saluting the board game for “wacky doctors.” Tell…

Test your knowledge of The Godfather, Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel about an Italian American crime family in postwar New York. The book will inspire one of the most acclaimed film franchises in history. Caution: Quiz contains spoilers! 1 The novel begins with this joyous event for the Sicilian Corleone family. 2 What are the names of Don Vito Corleone’s three sons? 3 This unofficially adopted son is an Irish-German lawyer who becomes consigliere to Don Vito. 4 To revive a fading career, Don Vito’s godson asks for help in securing a movie role. The godson’s name? 5 What is left in movie mogul Jack Woltz’s bed to show him the Corleones mean business? 6 What tragedy occurs while Michael hides out in Sicily? 7 Who is murdered at the tollbooth…

The minute my sisters and I got our allowances, we headed to the town bakery in Clear Lake, Iowa, for a cream puff. The right way to eat one was starting at the bottom, where a hint of the cream filling showed the best spot for the first bite. I ate mine in small nibbles until I got to the top. By then, the filling was nearly gone and I popped the last bit of flaky crust into my mouth. In 1959, I got my first summer job working in the bakery where those sweet delicacies were made. The huge room was hot, teeming with the hum of the ovens, the creak of conveyor belts and the rattle of heavy stainless steel carts as they were wheeled across the floor.…

Like Roger, my ancestors hail from Appalachia, and I recall crafting flowers from crepe and tissue paper to honor the dead on Decoration Day. A walk through a cemetery is a walk through the history of that area. My husband and I would reflect with our children as we looked at the names and dates on gravestones: ■ Could this man have died in the Civil War?■ Five members of this family died within days of each other. What may have happened?■ Two women are buried beside this man, and a baby is buried with one of the women. What could have caused this? Sites such as Find a Grave and BillionGraves make it easy to virtually visit ancestors’ graves. But nothing is better than standing where the family last…

OUR MOM, DEE DRUMM WILLIAMS, WAS never without a job—or two or three—in Norco, California, in the ’60s and ’70s. Raising four kids while caring for numerous pets was already a full-time job, but Mom liked the extra income as well as the social interaction. Our dad, Al, was away most of the time as a Trans World Airlines captain. First, Mom was an Avon lady, a job that had a side benefit for me. Penniless, I still wanted to give her a Mother’s Day gift. What mom wouldn’t want the sample bottles of Avon products I found in her closet? I boxed and wrapped them, and presented my thoughtful gift with a big smile. Mom also worked at Archway Cookies, where, as our cookie lady, she supplied us kids…

WHILE MY HUSBAND, DICK, WAS IN THE AIR FORCE during the Korean War, I found work as a repair and installation clerk at Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. in San Antonio, Texas, where he’d been sent for basic training. Dick and I were newly married, and he worked in the administration building, known as the Taj Mahal, at Randolph Field. From my observation, the main office where he worked was supposed to be staffed with tall, handsome men, and Dick fit the bill. We eventually returned home to Rockford, Illinois, where we had three daughters. We’ve been married for more than 70 years. Who could ask for more?…

While growing up in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the 1950s, I looked forward every week to watching The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. I was a big fan of the show’s star, Hugh O’Brian. More than a decade later, I got to work with him when I was a NASA public affairs contractor at the Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. O’Brian ran a youth leadership organization for students interested in community service and science. The foundation organized weeklong trips to Cape Canaveral so the students could meet astronauts, along with the ground personnel who helped them rocket into space. I coordinated some of the activities for the groups, including setting up photography sessions with O’Brian and the youthful participants for their hometown news releases. When O’Brian visited…

What a year! Humans walk on the moon, and half a million marchers in Washington, D.C., protest the Vietnam War. Rock and folk legends blow fans’ minds at a massive music festival near Woodstock, New York. Sesame Street teaches preschoolers the alphabet, while Hee Haw and Laugh-In entertain the grown-ups. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid rules the box office. Rod Laver goes on a tennis tear, sweeping all four Grand Slam events. Levi Strauss & Co. sells denim bell-bottoms. And these words are in common use, per Merriam-Webster. ATV: Honda debuts its three-wheel powerhouse made for tough terrain. A poor safety record will lead to a ban, and the safer four-wheeler, above, will take the lead. BUBBLEGUM: Teens groove to saccharine songs like “Sugar, Sugar” by cartoon band The…

Our St. Bernard, Yanto, was a clumsy puppy with big feet, but he grew quickly into an agile dog. My mother, Mary, a dog lover, had a special bond with him. When she gathered eggs, she closed the door of the coop so Yanto couldn’t enter, but one day he pushed inside, panicking the hens and knocking over the half-filled pail of eggs, breaking most of them. He loved to ride on the wagon behind the tractor. He put his front feet on the wagon and barked for someone to give his 180-pound behind a boost. He sat on the bales, climbing to the top as each layer was added. When the loaded wagon returned to the farmyard, Yanto sat high up in the sky. He was a wonderful, entertaining…

Getting a job outside the home gave women a chance to pitch in. Still in charge of households, their plates were full. Shirley, my mom, grew up in an agricultural area of Michigan. In the 1960s, our family was traveling to visit her parents when she pointed out the car window and said, “Look, kids! That’s where I used to strip!” For one brief moment, I thought our ordinary family might be much more interesting than my adolescent imagination had ever dreamed. There were no pirates or bigamists or bank robbers in my family tree—nothing beyond a way-back ancestor whose father may have been a fly-by-night traveling salesman. But a stripper? At last, this was gossip worthy of sharing with my friends! When almost all able-bodied young men were overseas…

THE ST. FRANCIS HOTEL ON POWELL Street in San Francisco, California, was very fancy. When my mom, MaryPat, worked there in the mid-1940s, it was customary to wash coins so they wouldn’t soil women’s gloves. My 20-year-old mom took the train from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to San Francisco, and found a job as the hotel elevator operator. She was soon promoted and became the captain in charge of all the bellboys at the hotel. The San Francisco Examiner even wrote an article about Mom’s promotion: “the green-eyed brunette couldn’t be pried away from her new job.” Mom encountered famous people such as Mickey Rooney and Robert Stack. She once saw a body being transported on a gurney up—not down—the elevator, and wondered whether it was FDR trying to avoid being…

AT 16, I KNEW THAT I WANTED TO JOIN the Peace Corps. In 1966, one week after receiving my Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from the University of Montana, I started training in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Peace Corps service in Chile. Of the 30 volunteers who began the program, 22 of us were selected to go to South America. We arrived in Chile that September as part of a group trained to work with savings and loan cooperatives. At the time, Chile was experiencing 30% inflation per year. Officials were trying to get citizens to save money to establish capital so the government wouldn’t have to borrow on the world markets. Reducing its international debt would help Chile fight its high domestic inflation. I spent 34 months in…

Rival introduced the Crock-Pot in 1971, and good timing was on its side: Within four years, the company made $93 million on sales of the device. The Crock-Pot was based on a 1950s appliance—Naxon’s Beanery—that primarily had one job: cooking legumes. Rival acquired the beanery’s patent in 1970 and updated the device with earth-inspired colors and a homey-sounding name. The Crock-Pot was sold with a book of recipes—for soup to cake—that indicated the gadget’s versatility. The Crock-Pot went on the market as large numbers of women were joining the workforce. Filling a pot with ingredients was relatively low effort, and having a piping hot meal to serve after being away from the kitchen all day gave ’70s women some level of work-life balance. At the same time, an ongoing energy…

When I was 17, Bill, a handsome Yale senior, asked me to go with him and another couple to see the circus in New York. I wanted to look chic, gorgeous and slim—and the fastest way to achieve this in the 1950s was with a girdle. When he picked me up, he smiled and said, “You look very pretty.” Hmm, I thought. Success. Even if the girdle does pinch a bit. During the long subway ride into Manhattan, I was feeling uncomfortable. By the time we got to Madison Square Garden, I fervently wished I hadn’t worn the thing. Metal stays cut into my sides, back and belly, causing constant pain, which I tried to ignore. We entered at the sideshow, where we talked to the fat lady, and watched…

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