Born on the Cusp of the Pig
A Boomer Remembers
My name is Will, and I was
born at the end of the first half
of the final century of the
previous millennium.
I went to a Catholic grade
school where the teachers were
nuns who still wore wimples.
We students had uniforms.
The girls wore a red plaid
jumper, a white blouse, and a
a pink-and-white scarf.
Boys, a sky blue shirt
and a navy blue tie with long
pants cuffed and belted.
We heigh-ho'd off to
school like the seven dwarfs
marching to their mine.
Skipped back home like
a gaggle of prisoners who'd
served out their time.
There we tussled with our siblings,
played with our friends, did the chores,
maybe homework, and watched TV.
Wondering what we would
someday grow up to be.
📺
In those days small
towns like ours bustled.
Kids riding bikes tossed the latest
news onto the smiling porches of
their kindhearted neighbors.
Teens in T-shirts and jeans mowed lawns
or worked on jalopies, true believers in black
walked door-to-door trying to save souls,
and family doctors made house calls.
Honest tradesmen bore Grade A
milk, fresh eggs, and wholesome bread
right to your unlocked back door.
Laundry and dry cleaning were
delivered as well, reborn every week
spotless and perfectly pressed.
The Avon lady and the Fuller Brush
guy sold cosmetics and domestic supplies
to the busy stay-at-home housewives.
A roving knife sharpener trundled
a grindstone on its sturdy little cart,
singsonging his lilting street cry —
"Knives and scissors, scissors and knives,
any knives or scissors to grind today?"
🗡️
One warm summer evening a
white truck's jingling tune would
tell us it was suddenly June.
The Good Humor man had returned
with his yummy ice cream treats.
Year after year the same postman
brought us seed packets each spring,
a Christmas toy catalog in the fall.
Everyone on his route
knew his name.
✉️
My mother was a fine
seamstress. She was also a
frugal and savvy shopper.
Mom made her own wardrobe,
sewed clothes for the whole family
and some of her closest friends.
She discovered treasures in
thrift stores and ordered fungible
articles of apparel from Sears.
"I make us look spiffy on almost
nothing" was her frequent boast.
"Might wear that after I'm dead”
was my father's quick riposte.
When the old man died he did.
⚰️
There were so many kids then,
kids your own age, you didn't need
a playdate to set up a game.
Depending on the season
you'd grab bat, ball, and mitt,
the pigskin plus a rag for a flag,
or the puck and your stick.
Head to the usual ball field,
park, or frozen pond, choose up
sides, and it was game time.
No playdates or parents,
no coaches and no referees,
no batteries required!
We played basketball sometimes,
soccer never, and nobody had
even heard of frisbees.
⚾️
The good Lord blessed our
town with a modest downtown
where people strolled, and
shopped, and socialized.
Downtown was the post office,
six churches, and a synagogue.
Bookstore, bakery, savings & loan,
Kresge’s, a diner, and the Karmelkorn.
A grocery store, a drug store,
the repair shop/hardware store.
One gas station, only four pumps.
One movie theater, a single screen.
Our sole classy restaurant whose
white linen tablecloths and leatherette
menus made it the favorite spot to
celebrate any special occasion.
The community center had
a meeting space, a concert hall,
and a really cool game room.
Ping-pong tables, dominoes, darts.
Plenty of great board games — checkers
and chess, Risk, Scrabble, and Clue.
Though girls went there too
they mostly played with the other
girls and ignored us boys.
But next to the community
center was the public library,
an elegant, diminutive Carnegie.
“We'll be studying together
at the libe tonight” meant we'd
be flirting with the girls.
👧 🧒🏻
Grownups flirted
at the bowling alley.
They drank beer, smoked
cigarettes, and listened to the
jukebox's parade of hits.
A quarter bought three
songs or one pack of smokes.
I think beers cost more.
Gals wore a bit of makeup
and comfy casual outfits they
hoped they looked good in.
Guys recalled past games
and bragged about how many
pins they'd knocked down.
Both kept score as
they played around.
🎳
In the center of town stood
the train station. From there trains
took you to the city's downtown which
was humongous compared to ours.
It had museums, an aquarium, a
planetarium. An imposing library full
of old books and new vinyl records.
Hospitals and hotels, splendid
mansions, huge department stores,
oodles of soaring skyscrapers.
A racetrack for cars, another
for horses. Five pro sports teams
for men, not one for women.
Smaller children played in
playgrounds — merry-go-rounds,
slides, and teeter-totters.
The older ones romped around
an amusement park, all kinds of
fun rides, a few very scary.
Wild animals roamed a
Garden of Eden in which they did
not have to kill to survive.
The municipal zoo.
🦤
The city had an international
airport too. Flights winged away to
anywhere in the world you wanted to be.
Including those faraway places
with the strange-sounding names
calling us from over the sea.
Someday we'd visit them.
There was no reason to rush for
we were very young, we were very
loved, and we were very sure we
were all going to live forever.
Will de Kypia, 1947-____
~>
