I don't remember the year, but I do remember my younger brother's posting on Facebook regarding his reflections of our childhood years. They tugged at my heartstrings. Larry wrote: "Tonight, my mind takes me back to the fifties and sixties on the south side of Odessa. A video is playing in my head. I miss my folks and my family, as well as good friends. It was a simple time. Right was right and wrong was wrong. We didn't have much, but we were so blessed with each other. If I could go back for just a week, I'd leave right now."
In reflecting on Larry's thoughts, I can hear the sound of Ronnie Millsap singing, "Lost in the Fifties Tonight." You may remember the lyrics and the tune: "Close your eyes, baby - Follow my heart - Call on the memories - Here in the dark - We'll let the magic - Take us away - Back to the feelings - We shared when they played - In the still of the night - Hold me, darlin', hold me tight, oh - So real, so right - I'm lost in the fifties tonight…"
As a side note, Millsap's album by the same title was released in 1986. Millsap was born in 1943. That makes him four years older than me. Millsap was born with a congenital disorder left him almost completely blind.
He was abandoned by his mother as an infant and raised by impoverished grandparents in the Smokey Mountains. At the age of five, he was sent to the North Carolina State School for the Blind and Deaf. He was subsequently totally blinded after being struck by a houseparent at the state school.
Millsap's memories of the fifties, no doubt differ dramatically from those I have of my childhood years. A state school environment in the fifties didn't include a familial environment. In addition, his special needs related to his loss of vision, had to complicate his life greatly.
Of course, my memories may be selective, but being lost in the fifties isn't necessarily a bad thing. Like my brother wrote: " It was a simple time. Right was right and wrong was wrong.
I specifically remember our wearing our railroad train pajamas, sitting on the sofa and watching cartoons on Saturday mornings. Of course, the television was a black and white picture. It was long before the days of colored television. The year was 1953. I was six years old. I remember it like it was yesterday. That was the year that KMID-TV brought television to the Permian Basin.
Not everyone in West Texas thought that was a good idea. There were churches that didn't see it as favorable. They thought we were inviting the devil into our homes. Fortunately, we didn't go to one of those churches.
Seriously, Gunsmoke was worth the watch! In fact, I have a friend that is almost my age, and he watches reruns of Gunsmoke on a daily basis. Perhaps he is still a child at heart. Life was simpler back then.
We lived on a street full of kids and someone was always at our house. We mostly played outside as kids. It was a good time to be alive. In the evening when weather permitted, folks set outside in lawn chairs. The lawn chairs were on the front porch or on the lawn. Neighbors would walk across the street or come next door to visit.
That's not to say that we were stress free. In elementary school we regularly had bomb shelter drills and were instructed to make our way into the interior hallways, sit in the floor and protectively put our heads beneath our knees.
Yet being lost in the fifties is a nice respite from things that vie for our attention on the 6:00 news.
All My Best!
Don
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