Here’s one for the books! I think it was the summer of 1957/58 when word got around that there were two New York Yankees showing up at the restaurant around the block from my house, I don’t remember who spread the word but it was a suprise to say the least!

We didn’t know who it could be we heard it might be a pitcher or a hitter but it didn’t matter anyway, I mean where does a kid see Yankkee players other then TV or at the ball park? and In a store just a block from you home!

Most of us kids were yankee fans that I can remember but a few of us liked the Brooklyn Dodgers, and a great team they were! With Roy Campanella, Sandy Koufax, Pee Wee Reese, and other greats. It seemed like the Yanks and Dodgers were always in the world series in the 1950’s.

But back to my story I got together with a few of my friends and we hurried to the store and we were like, it can’t be true why would the Yankees come to a store right in our neighborhood what’s the odds?

So we crossed the steert and walked into the store and sure enough there they stood with a bunch of people and other kids who were waiting for an autograph! I did get one Yankeet to sign my ball but I lost it sometime later over the years. It was Bill “Moose” Skowron! who played first base at the time. And I can’t recall the other yankee, I think it was Gil Mcdougald But I’m really not sure but his name seemed to click in my head when thinking back but it was when I was 10 or 11 years old.

We found out later it was the store owner who knew one or the other of the players and that’s how it came to be that 2 yanks made a visit in a corner store on a summer’s day in the 1950s. Let’s Go Yankees!

This is a true story that’s bitter-sweet for me from the 1950’s through the 1960’s It’s about a childhood friend who passed away in 1966 in an auto accident, he was only 19 when it happened but my story starts from the 1950s, he lived a couple of houses from me and he would hang out with us and in the summer and we played a lot of baseball across the street at the monerstary grounds.

Kevin was his name and he had red hair and freakles and he was the one kid on the block who seemed to have all the bats, baseballs, beause most of us had only one bat between us and I didn’t have a glove that was left handed, so I always had to use one of their gloves I was the only left handed kid of the boys.

So we would choose up sides and play baseball but if Kevin didn’t like being wrong on anything and then he would take all the balls and bats, and storm off and go home and the game was over! This was normal for us “here he goes again”! Then we would find a way to play a new game. There was a couple of summers we would play our “world series” game and his Grandfather who lived with him would be the coach, it was played like a real game 9 innings and 3 outs, like real baseball but not a full lineup!

I don’t remember who won the games but it was fun to just play in it and Kevin brought all his equipment with him! And we were like hope he doesn’t get mad and leave! But he ever did most likey because his Grandfather was there. Over the years we moved on and I only saw him at the dances we played at as a band in the 60’s, he was in high school then and would come with a few other kids, and I think a girlfriend, we would say a quick hello untill the next time.

Kevin had this great car that he fixed up a real cool looking car and the last time I saw him I was walking down to the poolroom that me and my friends used to hang out in the 1960s and it’s weird, but as I was walking across the street I noticed him waiting for the light to change he was the first car, I was about to say hello but the light changed and he took off and I just went my way, and in the morning my father said to me “Your friend was killed last night in an accident” I read the headline I coulnd’t believe it!

Every once in awhile I think back and remember Kevin and think how sad because he was a bright kid and who knows what he could have been if he lived we’ll never know. I wanted to share this with you because Kevin never got the chance to look back, so whatever decade your favorite memories are from as a kid, cherish them all.

There was a time where a kid could travel around without a worry this short story reminds me of how I did that from time to from Mom Bruno who owned the candy store around the block from my house.

Every once in while when I went to Mom’s for something, she would yell Hey Bobby! to get my attention before I hurried out the store. I came back to the counter and she would say” Do me a favor I need you to go the the store a few blocks away and pick up a few things and bring it right back and I’ll give you .25 cents you and can pick out what ever you want.

Wow! ok Not quite like hitting the lottery but it was exciting to me so Mom gives me a note with her list of what she needs and I head out to the store I go into the store then hand over the note and money to the owner, who gos in the back and fills the order in about 15 minutes or so, and in a large box there are cartons of cigarettes, boxes of display candies, and othe items, he then ties it up with twine rope so i can carry it the few blocks to Mom’s.

So here I am 10 or 11 years old and walking back to Mom’s without a worry about anyone stopping me or trying to take anything from the box, the items were aways out in the open for all to see as the man never had the top of the box sealed.

But I never once had anyone question me about it so I went right back to the store and mom would say thanks and then she would say ” Pick out what you want Bobby” but like I said once before a kid could get a bit with candy, being 2 for a penny, soda, about 5 to 7 cents, ice cream, about the same I did that a number of times for mom Just wanted to share this!

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In the 1950s my friends and I would go down the to a family farm only about 4 blocks away it was a farm well-known back then and named The McGill’s family farm! I don’t know the whole history of it but it was a great place to go in those summers of the 1950s! You could find, apples, peaches, pears, raspberries, and those wonderful blueberries!

Sometimes we would bring a brown paper bag or carry what we could  but most of the time we ate the fruit before we made it home! We really weren’t allowed on the farm but it wasn’t a fenced in kind of farm and you could just walk right in but if the owner saw you he would chase you off.

Many times my sister and I would go down for fruit and other kids on the block that we knew, and my cousins who lived in the building next door from my famliy, and my Aunt would make applesauce from the apples and even the green ones! Yes there’s nothing like fresh fruit right from the farm!

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Beginning in 1959 my parents and my sisters, brother, and I went on our first family picnic to Interstate Park in New Jersey. It was followed by many more including my Grandmother, all my Aunts and my Uncles at the time, and two of my oldest sisters were married so with my brother-in-law it was a great big summer day filled with lots to do!

We would all gather and meet there early as possible, to get a good table close to the bathroom area! We set up the tables with goodies that were prepared on the day before someone would make the potato salad, another would make the corn on the cob and so on, there was a boat dock right there you could go fishing if you wanted, and there was a great trail to hike on that went on it seemed forever up the palisades!

Then we take turns playing football, or tossing a baseball, the kids would fill up their water pistols, including the grownup kids! We would also go there on the 4th of July in the 1960’s over the years, It made for some great memories.