Tubular Fire Escape

I attended school in an old three story brick school house. On the side of the building there was a tubular fire escape connected to the third floor. The picture on the left is of the school I attended but the fire escape is not visable in this photo. The photo on the right is not the school I attended but it shows a fire escape that was similar.The one at my school was a little higher and steeper since it went to the third floor.

I really felt like this was my own personal slide. In the summer months it was one of my favorite places to play.  I would climb up the slide on the inside and then slide down it. I would do this over and over. For some reason, maybe because it was covered, this slide was very slick and you would come down at a fast and fun speed. It wasn’t always easy to climb to the top because of how slick it was. I would have to put one foot on the left interior wall and one foot on the right wall. I could not climb up with my feet at the bottom, as they would slide out from under me.

After I climbed to the very top, I would have a choice to make. Would I take the fun trip down or would I enter the door that was positioned there? This door was never locked and was an entrance to the third floor study hall. From the study hall I had access to the whole school.

Probably three or four times a summer I would enter the school this way. I would be very careful doing this by making sure that no one saw me enter the fire escape. I would operate as if I were getting ready to commit the crime of the century. I suppose I did this because I knew that I would be in trouble if I were ever caught. I never was caught, though. I got away with this many, many times over the years.

I would not do any sort of damage when I was in the school. I was even quite careful about putting things back exactly as I had found them if I picked anything up to examine it. I had a kind of satisfaction from getting away with this and from keeping my secret. As I recall, I never shared the information that I was doing this with anyone.

I would walk around from classroom to classroom and peer into the desk drawers. I wanted to know just what the teachers kept in those drawers. I don’t remember ever seeing anything very exciting. It was mostly pencils, erasers, and other small items that I found there. After about an hour, I would tire of this activity and head back to the study hall and the door to the slide. Down I would go and nobody was the wiser.

In my adult life, after discussing this with others, I found out that I was not the only one who was doing this. I guess it was a favorite pastime of a lot of the kids in the town. But just like me, they never shared their secret. I do remember that sometimes when I approached the fire escape that someone would already be playing there. I would hang around hoping they would leave but if they didn’t, I would go somewhere else to play. I guess they were just waiting for me to leave so they could do their own thing.

I don’t see these fire escapes on buildings anymore. If there are any, there are very few. I have fond memories of them and will never forget the fun I had on my own personal slide.  



Red Rover

Red Rover

“Red Rover, Red Rover, send Teresa right over”, the kids on the other side of the playground would shout. In my mind I was thinking how glad I was that they called my name. I knew that I could bust through their line. I was really good at this game.

You would never know it today, since I am one of the shortest women around, but I was one of the bigger and stronger kids when I was in grade school. I also was a bit of a tomboy, so this game was right up my alley.

This was a favorite game when I was in grade school. We would play it a lot during our recess. Here is how the game is played. There would be two captains who would start the game. They would take turns calling out the names of the players they wanted on their team. I was usually one of the first selected because I would give it all that I had. As I think about it, there were probably some hurt feelings at being the last to be selected, but I wasn’t aware of it because I didn’t think about others feelings at that time. After the team was chosen we would form a line and hold hands. Then we would yell Red Rover, Red Rover, send so and so over. The chosen one would run as fast as they could and try to break through the line. If they were successful in breaking the handhold they would choose one of the people whose hands they broke through and that person would join their team. If they didn’t manage to break through, they would become a member of the opposing team. This would continue until one of the teams got down to two players. If the person broke that handhold their team was declared the winner.

I don’t remember this happening but I imagine that sometimes a short kid would get clothes-lined at the throat. I wonder if they would allow kids to play this game today. Probably not, but then the kids might be bored with such a simple game anyway. That is too bad because I’m sure they would enjoy it.

Summer Movies

For several years during the 50’s, the small town where I grew up provided free movies on Saturday night during the summers. The town was so small (815 pop.) that there was no movie theater. I remember that population because there was a sign at the edge of town declaring it to be so. I often wondered why the sign didn’t change when I knew someone had died or a mother had had her baby. Ah..but I am straying here. Let’s get back to the movies.

Since there was no theater, the movies were shown in a vacant lot between two buildings. One of the buildings had a white wall which served as the movie screen. Along the edge of the other building they would sell popcorn, candy, and soft drinks.

Our family didn’t have a lot of money so we would always take our own popcorn. Popping the corn and filling a grocery sack with it was part of the ritual of movie night for us. My older brother and I would take the popcorn sack and a blanket to sit on and off we would go. Sometimes, a friend of his or a kid from the neighborhood would join us. The movie wouldn’t start until dark, so being out late by ourselves was also part of the grand adventure.

My favorite movies that were often shown were Francis the Talking Mule and Dagwood and Blondie. I liked both of these. It seemed Donald was always getting into some sort of trouble that Francis would have to rescue him from. For some reason I remember them being in the Army a lot. Blondie also seemed to get herself into lots of trouble which drove Dagwood crazy. She was just plan funny. Sometimes they would show something a little more serious and sometimes even scary, like a Lon Chaney movie or Frankenstein.

After the movie, my brother and I would walk home which was about five blocks away. He often ran away from me and went ahead until he was out of my sight. I would continue walking home on my own, but I knew I hadn’t seen the last of him. There was a garage near the edge of the road that we would have to walk by. As I would approach this garage my heart would start thumping. Wondering if he was behind it was the cause of my anxiety. I wouldn’t know for sure until I reached the edge of the building, then he would leap out from behind it with his arms stretched above his head and yelling, “ARRRRR” at the top of his lungs. I would let out a piecing scream. I just couldn’t help it even when I suspected he was going to do this.

I probably acted as if I was mad at him but I wasn’t really. Looking back I believe it was just the topper to a perfect summer night.  

Quicksilver

No, I’m not referring to the Lone Ranger’s horse. I’m referring to another name for Mercury which we used to coat dimes and quarters with.

When I was young I remember my brother showing me a quarter that had been coated in Mercury. It was so shiny that it absolutely gleamed in the sunshine. Then he handed it to me and it had the slickest feel to it. I was truly amazed. It seems we played with this for a long time, rubbing it between our fingers and showing it to anyone who was around to look at it.  Where did this magic coin come from?

I recently asked my brother about this and he told me the Mercury came from a thermometer. He would break the top off of the thermometer and then he was able to pour the Mercury onto the coin. This operation was all done on the back step to our house. He would rub it onto the coin and it would stick to it. And voila! The most beautiful coin you had ever seen.

I asked him if he was ever caught doing this and he said that our parents knew about it and had maybe even showed him how to do it. I don’t remember anything about this; I just remember the slick and shiny quarter.

I read in the paper a couple of years ago that a small amount of Mercury was spilled in a school lab. They evacuated the school and called in HAZMAT to take care of it. Were they over-reacting or are we lucky to be alive? What do you think?  

X-Raying my Feet

When I was growing up, I was in heaven when I got a new pair of shoes. I would love going to the shoe store whether it was my turn to get shoes or not. Just being there was so much fun. Why? It was the fun of X-Raying my feet. Yes, that is right, X-Raying my feet.

In the late fifties and early 60’s the shoe stores had X-Ray machines that were intended to help parents buy the perfect fitting shoes for their kids. Not all shoe stores had them but most of the better stores did.

The one I remember was at the C & H Shoe store in Marion, IN. It stood at the front of the store. I will describe it as best as my memory will allow. It was about 4 ½ feet tall and had two places that you could look into to see the feet. There was a viewer at the top for the parents to look into and one set lower that the child could peer into. I seem to remember this one being gold in color with ornate designs carved in the metal. There was a small step up and an area to put your feet into. When you would peer into the viewer you would be able to see the bones in your feet wiggling inside of your shoes. I found this photo as an example on the internet. It is not as I remember it looking but I am sure there were different models.

This was supposed to help the parents see exactly how much growing room was in the toe of the shoe. You could also see if it was wide enough and a good fit in other areas.

These machines were actual X-Ray machines. I do not recall having to wait until the salesman turned it on either, but there must have been an on/off switch. 

I think every kid who came into the store was fascinated with these machines. I know that I was. No matter who was getting shoes it was the first place I headed. I wanted to get up there and look at the bones in my feet. It was great fun to me.

Sometime in the sixties it was decided that maybe these machines were not such a good idea. That was because they started thinking about the amount of radiation they were exposing the kids to. The machines were removed from all of the shoe stores.

Of course the kids were not at all concerned about radiation. We were very sorry to see these machines go. Going to the shoe store has never been as much fun since then. I guess it is a miracle we didn’t get cancer in our toes, though.

Trains

I remember when there were no diesel trains. All of the trains were powered by coal-fired steam engines. The two types of trains each had a distinct sound. Growing up I was used to hearing the chug-a-chug and toot-toot of the steam engine. I remember when the first diesel train went through our little town.

The first thing that made us aware of its presence was the sound of its enormously loud horn. You could hear it all over the town. Most of the kids hopped on their bikes and headed to the tracks to have a look. I think even some of the adults came out to see what the loud whistle was about.

When we arrived at the tracks we got our first look at the diesel engine. It didn’t look like any train we had ever seen before. It also was extremely noisy. It made a terrible vibration as it set there idling.

These trains held our interest for several years. But as the years went by the steam engine was the one that became the rarity. A decade or so later we would go out to look as the last of the steam powered trains would go through town.

Television

I remember when we first got a television. We were not the first in the neighborhood to have one. A family down the street had one for nearly two years before we got ours. I can remember people going to their door and asking if they could come in and watch it with them. I think our family even did this a time or two.

Then the day came when my Dad brought ours home. It was what they called a “portable”. It actually was pretty large but it didn’t have legs. My Dad made a stand to put it on. The cabinet wasn’t small but the screen itself was only 21”. It was made by Hoffman and had a green tinted glass screen. This was supposed to be better on your eyes.

We only received two television stations at that time which were Channel 8, WISH from Indianapolis and Channel 6, WFBM from Indianapolis. Ch. 8 was a CBS station and Ch. 6 was an NBC station. About a year later Channel 13 came on the air. I do not remember their call letters but it wasn’t WTHR as it is today. It also was an ABC station at that time. In future years Ch. 6 and 13 traded their network affiliation. Channel 4 was added before long but it was a weak station and hard to get sometimes. As the years went by other stations were gradually added.

I can remember some of my favorite shows growing up. I remember watching Howdy Doody, Captain Kangaroo, and Mickey Mouse cartoons. Then a little later my favorites were Zorro, The Mickey Mouse Club, Sky King, Roy Rogers, Davy Crockett, and Superman. Then a little after that American Bandstand was a must. My all time favorite of these was Superman. I used to dream of flying like he did. I also jumped off a lot of high spots. Ha!

In my early teen years I loved to watch “Frances Farmer Presents”.  She hosted a local program where she would present different movies. She would offer insights about the stars in the movie during the commercials. You might recall Frances Farmer from the movie “Francis” starring Jessica Lange. If you ever watch that movie you will see that she had a very difficult life. But when she was hosting FF Presents, she was a beautiful woman. It was a favorite program of mine.

Another favorite was the Loretta Young Show. She would always twirl her dress when she entered the room.

There were many other favorites of that era. There were so many great personalities that added a lot to our lives. No wonder I was so impressed with this new television.

By the way, our TV was a lot like the photo of the Pacifica shown at the bottom left of this Hoffman brochure. The only difference being our stand was a square box that my Dad made for the television.