”The world is big and I want to have good look at it before it gets dark.”
The morning is dark, breezy and chilly. Rain is predicted. The dogs aren’t anxious to be out in the yard. One is upstairs on the bed, and the other is asleep on the couch. The label of dumb animals doesn’t apply here.
When I was a kid, I thought my world was huge. I could wander all over, anywhere I wanted. I had favorite places in town. I used to stop at the horse barn behind the town hall. Around the corner was the ragman’s house. Its porch was tilting from the weight of all the papers stored on it. The tracks weren’t far from there. I always thought of them as a shortcut. When I walked the tracks, I’d sometimes walk on the rail. I’d use my arms to help my balance. They didn’t help much. Usually, I wandered alone. My neighborhood friends and I walked to school together, but they weren’t roamers. I wanted to see everything.
My mother was a master at ground beef. My favorite was always her meatloaf. I also liked her ground beef in gravy over mashed potatoes. We didn’t have it often, but I liked her Chinese dinner. It was Chinese because it had water chestnuts and bean sprouts with the ground beef. She’d make it in her electric frying pan on the counter. It was topped with chow mein noodles. All we needed were chop sticks.
On cold days, my mother sometimes gave us soup in our thermoses for lunch. Mostly it was chicken noodle, the universal soup for kids. She’d include Saltines, and she always remembered to add the spoon. The rest of lunch was a half sandwich and dessert. I remember there was a skill in pouring the soup into the thermos top, into the cup. A plop of the meat meant a splash landing on the desk or sometimes on my blouse.
Today I have a concert, the second one of the week. Right now I am watching Attack of the Crab Monsters from 1957. I love these old black and white science fiction movies. In this, the navy is checking to see if radioactive dust did anything to the plants and animals. They have a surprise coming.
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
September 26, 2024 at 4:46 pm
Hi Kat,
Sunny today with a comfortable high temperature of only 80°. This is the time of the year when I get home I love to read on my covered patio and look at my pool. After all, it cost me a couple of hundred dollars monthly to keep it clean and keep its chemistry correct. Having a backyard pool is similar to owing a boat. The two happiest days are when you buy and when you sell the house. 🙂
When I lived in Dallas in the 1950s, my bicycle was my magic carpet to explore. I stayed off the main streets of northwest Dallas and explored the side streets. In those days the main streets were all two lane country roads so I went the back way through the neighborhoods. Not too far away was one of the wealthiest areas. These homes were all behind high walls with iron gates separating them from the rest of us mortals. Some of these homes sat on several acres and were owned by the wealthiest families who were the founders of the oil and gas companies downtown.
One kid with whom played with when we were in the fourth grade was Word Hunt. His father was Lamar Hunt who founded the American Football League in 1960. His grandfather, H.L. Hunt was the guy who discovered the East Texas oil fields. In those days H.L. Hunt was the richest man in the world. The football team they owned was the Dallas Texans. The story goes that Lamar and the original owner of the Dallas Cowboys, Clint Murchison Jr., flipped a coin to see which team would move out of Dallas. Back then, Dallas was too small to support two professional football teams. Lamar lost and he moved the Texans to Kansas City where they became the Chiefs. The Hunt family still owns the team which I discovered when they won the Super Bowl.
Supposedly, Lamar Hunt coined the name Super Bowl. He was playing in his garage with his kids with a Super Ball. The idea came into his head to call the NFL/AFL Championship Game the Super Bowl. They named the next year’s championship game Super Bowl and the name stuck.
September 26, 2024 at 10:42 pm
Hi Bob,
I used to sit on my deck and just enjoy being outside and watching the birds. One warm mornings, I also read the paper and drink my coffee on the deck. The day was in the 60’s. Right now it is raining.
Many, many years ago, my town had a section of very large, lovely homes owned by the wealthy families. One of my classmates lived in one of those lovely homes. He was a good guy who never flaunted his family’s wealth. The houses are still there but some have become two family while others are now a business.
I rode everywhere too. I used to go to the next town over and sit at the train station to watch the trains. Another town had the lake and a third town had a pond where we’d fish. My bike was my magic carpet ride.
I never heard of the Texans so they moved before I followed football. Did your friend get you into any games? Hunt is an unusual first name.
That is a neat way to coin such an iconic title.
September 26, 2024 at 11:30 pm
His first name was Ward. My father bowled in a league at a bowling alley that had a Texan ticket office. If a player beat their average or some other reason, they were awarded free tickets. Both teams played in the Cotton Bowl which could seat 75,000 people. Neither team could draw more than about 35,000 fans per game. My father took me to a couple of Texan games.
This was 1960 and pro football was not that popular. The Cowboys were an expansion team and the Texans were in a new league. At the end of the season, the Texans won the AFL championship game.
September 27, 2024 at 12:24 am
I didn’t even think about a typo. I just figured he had an odd name.
My father was a Giants fan before there were Patriots. He used to watch the games and loudly groan or swear or yell for a TD. He became a Pats fan once the new league was formed. He was never one to go Tony sort of game.- He loved the Bruins but never saw a game in person. He would have loved the heyday of the Pats and the Sox.