Tabla de contenidos para January/February 2025 en Good Old Days

Music has always had the magical ability to transport us to another time or place. Pop songs playing on a jukebox might bring you back to your teenage years. A sweet, slow melody may remind you of your wedding. A bouncy Christmas carol might call up memories of fun family holidays. In this issue we bring music to you in another way—through heartwarming stories about being in a band, whether it was a high school band or a family get-together on the porch. Did you find the hidden Santa hat on page 6 of the last issue? Find the hidden snowflake in this issue and, after you discover it, go to the Good Old Days Facebook page to let us know! Music also often conjures up stories of love and…

As Thanksgiving 1963 approached, I was standing in front of the festively adorned grandeur of the May Co. store, where I had been an employee for a year, having started as a stock boy and then moving up to sales. My mind slid back into the past as I remembered how the journey began. In the winter of 1962, I graduated from high school and decided to attend Brigham Young University in the fall. Unfortunately, that experience lasted only five days, since homesickness overshadowed my desire for a college education. Then, just before Thanksgiving kicked off the holiday season, I learned that the May Co. store near my home had openings for stock boys, so I decided to apply. Dressed in a suit, white shirt and tie, I drove to…

It was Saturday night and Valentine's Day as I entered the old town hall, scene of the annual Valentine's Day square dance. My heart was aflutter because I would spend the entire evening dancing with Bill, the man I'd been dating for the past few weeks. We had met while taking square dance lessons at a local singles square dance club, inexplicably drawn to each other and instantly hitting it off. I couldn't tell you for sure exactly what it was about him that captured my heart. Perhaps it was his sparkling blue eyes, his red hair and neatly groomed beard. Maybe it was his spirit of adventure, his high energy, and his soulfulness. Whatever the attraction was, I didn't question it. When we danced, the world around us disappeared.…

Brian Pitre shared that his parents would often have parties in the 1970s, and if it was late and his dad was tired, he would tell Brian's mother, “Well honey, we'd better go to bed, these people may want to go home!” Whenever their family was leaving after a visit with friends or family, Susan Ahlswede remembers her father would tell them just before he got in the car to leave, “We'll see you subsequently!” When Jan Stark's mother was tired and sat down, she would say, “I have dropsy and heart trouble. I've dropped down and don't have the heart to get up.” Thanks to Brian, Susan and Jan for sharing your parents' sayings with us! Readers: Send us a phrase that your parents used to say, a history…

On Saturday, Oct. 21, 1961, my family awoke to see that the light shining into our house seemed brighter than usual. Soon, the aroma of buckwheat pancakes wafting into the bedrooms told us our mom, Rachel, was busy making a special breakfast. My sister, Brenda, and I jumped from our beds and looked out the window. No wonder everything looked so bright! We had slept through an early winter storm. All the trees, buildings and power lines were covered in snow. Quickly we ran to the dining room to get warm close to the old coal-heated stove. There we found our father, Basil, and our uncle Philip, who had come from Chicago to our home in Weirwood, W.Va. Both were drinking coffee while waiting for Mom to finish making the…

SEND US YOUR PHOTOS! We invite you to share the pictures that reflect your happiest memories. Please include a brief but detailed description. Include an SASE if you would like your photo returned. Send to: Good Old Days, Picture This, 306 East Parr Road, Berne, IN 46711, or email Editor@GoodOldDaysMagazine.com.…

In the 1950s, the winters where we grew up, in Henry, Ill., provided us with snow cover. With snow off and on for about three and a half months of the year, we enjoyed the winter sport of sledding. But you had to have time to go sledding. Weekends were great; Dad was usually home and could help us get to the good sledding spots. Then there were weekdays. One could always hope for sufficient snow on a school holiday or for a snow day. But back then, in Illinois, overnight snow did not necessarily guarantee a “snow day” off from school the next day. I remember wading through 10 inches or so of fresh snow to get to school on more than one occasion. In our family, we were…

Each issue on this page, we will feature a question that will be sure to prompt a flood of heartwarming memories. Send your 100-words-or-less responses ASAP to Editor@GoodOldDaysMagazine.com or to Good Old Days Q&A, 306 East Parr Road, Berne, IN 46711, and your response could be featured in a future issue or on the Good Old Days magazine Facebook page! Photos to accompany your story are welcomed and encouraged! Please include an SASE if you want your photo returned. What did you want to be when you grew up? Did you end up in that career or did your life take a different path? Were you ever in a band or did you play an instrument when you were growing up? What was your favorite kind of music and who…

1. Louis Armstrong _______________________ 2. Benny Goodman _______________________ 3. Ray Charles____________________________ 4. Buddy Rich ____________________________ 5. Johnny Cash __________________________ 6. John Coltrane _________________________ 7. Glenn Miller ___________________________ A. guitar B. trombone C. trumpet D. clarinet E. saxophone F. piano G. drums Answers: 1-C; 2-D: 3-F; 4-G; 5-A; 6-E; 7-B…

Have you ever wondered who the writers and photographers in Good Old Days magazine are? They're people just like you who enjoy reading and sharing sweet memories of the past. You can be part of this magazine, too! Send us your heartfelt, true stories from yesteryear, and be sure to include a photo. Although we may not be able to include all the stories, we enjoy reading every one of them. For the best chance at publication, your story should be interesting and well-written, fit the seasonal or editorial themes noted (see page 4 for upcoming themes), and highlight a specific event or experience that will strike a chord with readers growing up between 1940 and 1975. Main stories should be 500–1,000 words in length; shorter Bits & Pieces stories…

I barely had time to dip the bell of my sousaphone and duck before the softball-size cantaloupe hit and exploded. No real damage was done other than splattering two trombone players in the line. I was just 15 and marching with the high school band in the largest, longest, hottest parade of my life. “Ohio's Railroad City,” Fostoria, Ohio, was celebrating the completion of an underpass/overpass project in 1955 that gave auto access to the city and avoided the many rail crossings. Sousaphones are designed for marching with the tubing of the bass horn wrapped around the musician and resting on his/her shoulder. The large bell opening sends the music forward in the direction of the march. Unfortunately, the bell also presents an inviting target for young parade watchers waiting…

It was 1941. I was 6 years old and in first grade. Valentine's Day was approaching and our art project at school was to handcraft valentines for friends and family. I set out to make a special valentine for Mama. First, I traced and cut a big heart out of red construction paper. Then, with crayon, I decorated it with squiggles around the edges, hoping to make it look lacy. I had just the perfect rhyme to use too. Taking great care to print the words in my very best script, I put this message on it: I love you little, I love you big, I love you like a little fat pig. Living and growing up on a farm as I did, I loved all the animals, especially huggable,…

In April 1946 I was stationed in the Philippines at Neilson Air Force Base just outside Manila. My duty was fire marshal NCO at the base motor pool. One day during the first week of May, the company clerk notified me that the first sergeant wanted me in his office as soon as possible. I hurried to his summons, and he told me the general wanted to see me at 0800 hours the next morning. When I asked why, he only replied, “I don't know, but you had better be there at 0800.” I knew there was a general who had command over both Neilson and Nichols Air Force bases, but why did he want to see me? What had I done? Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep…

The Music Man is one of the most loved musicals from the Good Old Days. Just the beginning notes of Seventy-Six Trombones are enough to make people smile. The story began as a Broadway musical in 1957. The stage production starred Robert Preston as Harold Hill, a traveling salesman/con man who finds his way to the fictional small town of River City, Iowa. There, Hill plans to sell musical instruments to the parents of the town, promising he will teach their children how to play the trumpets, trombones and tubas in order to form a marching band. The audience knows from the beginning that it's all a ruse since Hill has no ability to teach music or any intention to do so. He plans to take the money and run.…

Talk about two different worlds. Ronnie and I were the poster people for opposites. He came from the small town of Carbon, Texas, and he had 11 people in his high school graduation class. I came from a St. Louis suburb, and I had 600 in my class. But somehow the stars aligned just right, and we both ended up coaching in Longview, Texas, at the same time. We were miles and miles away from either set of parents. We met the end of April in 1972, and by the end of May, we had decided we were going to get married. Since neither of us had met the other's family, we figured that was the next step. We would have to squeeze in a visit once football was over.…

Valentine's Day evokes a lot of wonderful feelings of remembered loved ones and those who share our present lives. I am fortunate to have a great family and many friends, and we exchange warm greetings on this holiday. Valentine's Day will always excite warm thoughts in my heart and mind. There is one person especially who will always have a special place in my grateful thoughts. It was 1940, the war was raging in Europe, and it was inevitable that we would be drawn into the conflict. I joined an aircraft training program. I attended school in a barrackslike atmosphere, working on aircraft for two weeks a month and attending classes for two weeks. My school was in Harrisburg, Pa., about 100 miles from my home. Room and board were…

Now, before you ask, no, I did not fail all those years. Let me explain. I grew up in Fredericktown, Mo., a little town of 3,314 people in the 1940s. Fredericktown was my Mayberry RFD. It had four main streets with the county courthouse in the center. Along those streets across from the courthouse there were locally owned grocery stores, clothing stores, hardware stores, furniture stores and auto parts stores. All the shop owners knew your name, and the community was like one big family. There was one high school, and it had been a college building at one time. Most of the teachers had grown up in the town or nearby. And the high school had a band. Now, about those eight years. The lady that played the piano…

As a young boy growing up in the 1950s, like most, I was an Elvis fan. I would stand in front of a mirror and comb my hair and sing into a hairbrush as if it were a microphone. My older brother brought home an old Harmony guitar with a big arch top with two F-holes in the front. The strings were so far from the frets that it was hard for a 6-year-old to play. I just figured all guitars were like that. My mother knew three chords and how to tune the guitar, so I learned C, D and G chords. I would sit out in the swing every evening, working hard to push down those strings and make music. My fingers would bleed, but I was determined…

In 1962, my husband, Ben, started fifth grade at Holyoke Elementary School in northeastern Colorado. That was the first year he was eligible to sign up for band class. He loved music and was thrilled to become part of that class. On the first day, the band teacher asked each student what instrument he/she wanted to play. Ben was definitely interested in playing the drums, but as luck would have it, they had an overwhelming number of students who wanted to play them. Since he wasn't chosen to play the drums, he had to pick another instrument. He chose the trumpet because it only had three valves to push. He thought it would be an easy instrument to learn. After he got to playing it, he found out it wasn't…

1. Can't Help Falling in Love 2. When a Man Loves a Woman 3. I Love the Way You Love 4. Ain't No Mountain High Enough 5. I Only Have Eyes for You 6. Tonight My Love, Tonight 7. My Girl 8. I Got You Babe 9. The Way You Look Tonight (1961) A. Paul Anka B. Sonny & Cher C. The Flamingos D. Marv Johnson E. Percy Sledge F. The Lettermen G. The Temptations H. Elvis Presley I. Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell Answers: 1-H; 2-E; 3-D; 4-I; 5-C; 6-A; 7-G; 8-B; 9-F…

In the deep mountains of East Tennessee, it was a given that male members of a family were supposed to play a musical instrument. In our household, there were no drums, pianos or trumpets. There was a guitar that you learned to strum, a banjo for picking, and a fiddle that was played. In 1952, I was 10 years old. I couldn't carry a tune in a 5-gallon bucket and wasn't able to play any musical instruments. At school during the morning sing-along I was told I was tone-deaf. But as long as I could hear Mama say, “Supper's ready,” I wasn't worried. On the other side of the coin, my younger brother, Buddy Earl, was a dyed-in-the-wool guitar player. When Papaw Clark played Wildwood Flower, Buddy watched and then…

When I was in seventh grade, the band teacher let me know that he had a clarinet available because I had once mentioned I would be interested in playing one. That was the beginning of six years of playing the clarinet in the Monroe-Woodbury School band. I loved marching for the Memorial Day parades and for other holiday and spring concerts. At first we didn't have uniforms, so my mom made the required white skirt for me. In my junior year, band members dressed in jeans and T-shirts and put on a concert for the PTO (Parent-Teachers Organization) as part of a request for uniforms. They agreed to fund uniforms, and the hat and cape in the picture are what we had. I'm sure that the band now has much…

Looking back upon it today, I can only shake my head and laugh at the objects that my mother once helped me sew together. To start with, my mom was a master seamstress. Tucked away in the corner of the master bedroom, she had an old Singer sewing machine. To this day, I can still see her hunched over that thing, feeding material under a needle that was pumping up and down, up and down, up and down. In our utility room's cabinet above the washer and dryer, she kept the other tools of her trade. First, she had a sewing kit that was the size of a tackle box and contained pins, needles, scissors, patterns and so on. Next to that was an old round candy tin that must've…

I was born in 1942 and one thing I remember from the beginning of my life is that we always had music in our house. It drifted through the rented rooms from a Victrola record player, housed in a beautiful wooden cabinet that stood in our front room. The Victrola had a handle sticking out of the right side that we cranked tight to allow the turntable to spin and the music to play from 78-rpm records, which were originally made of shellac resin. They were brittle so they broke, cracked and chipped easily. Each 78-rpm record provided three minutes of music on each side, so they required constant turning. But that seemed natural to us, and we never complained about it. In fact, there were often cries of “I…

FRIENDS on Facebook If you could go back in time, what one piece of advice would you give your younger self? “Don't be so shy. I'm out-going now.” —Shirley S. “You honestly do regret what you haven't done. So, try and do as much as you possibly can!” —Vicki L. “Follow your gut at all costs.” —Marianne K. Did you go to the drive-in movie theater when you were a teenager? What did you see? “Yes. It was called Skyvue in the 1960s. It had a playground near the screen and a concession stand with delicious hot dogs, burgers, fries and boxes of candy. What fun memories!” —Diane M. “I saw the first Star Wars movie in 1977 at our local drive-in movie theater.” — Debra L. Before we had…