The Poolroom!

. 1960's, 1960's events, 60's, What's New
Photo by Tomaz Barcellos on Pexels.com

In 1964 to about 1968 I began hanging out with a few friends and we started going down to the poolroom about 12 blocks away and we got to meet and make friends there. The room we played in was upstairs and right next to it there was a bowling lanes separated by a wall and there were about maybe 12 tables to use and If I remember, they charged $1.00 an hour per game.

And downstairs there was a food counter where we would get a bite to eat maybe, some fries, soda, mostly and a Jukebox, I can still hear the four seasons on it singing “Lets Hang On! Then at times we would hang outsite just singing the songs of the times like, the Four Seasons, the Beatles, Motown hits like, “My Girl” and many others.

We would go down the poolroom almost every night to play a game or just to hang out other than have band practic at my friends home. Or we played at a dance or backyard party somewhere. It really seems like yestderday when it all happened, over the years we mostly went our own way but I did stay in touch with my friend who played lead guitar in the band we formed.

In 1965 I did save up $60.00 to buy a Pool table and had my brother In-law help me we had to tie it up on the roof of his car and it was bigger then I thought, I had it set up in my bedroom that I shared with my brother, and it took up most of the room Hah! But we didn’t mind because we had fun playing on that table till it wore out!!

Deviled Eggs!

. Easter, Holiday Recipes, New Recipes, Rockin Recipes, What's New
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

By : Elise Bauer Simply Recipes.com

Ingredients

  • 1 dozen eggs
  • 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
  • 1 Tbsp minced shallotor onion
  • 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
  • Salt and pepper
  • Parikka

Directions

1- Add 1 inch of water to a saucepan, add the water to insert into a steamer basket. When the water comes to a full boil then place the eggs in the steamer basket. [You can just add the eggs in 3/4 inch of water, lf you don’t have a steamer basket]

Next- After covering the pan letting the eggs steam in the boiling water for 17 minutes, [if you use regular size , or 15 minutes for 6 large]

If using the regular size eggs, reduce the heat by a couple a of minutes, Then shock them in cold water.

Now- After peeling the eggs, using a sharp knife, slice each egg in half lenghtwise. Remove the yolk halfs gently and place them in a small mixing bowl. The egg whites should be arranged on a serving platter.

Next– Using a fork, mash the yolks and add the mayonnaise, mustard, onion, tabasco sauce, adding just a spirnking of salt and pepper. To get a creamy consisiency you can add more mayonnaise.

Next– Spoon or pipe with a piping bag [star tip] or use a spoon to put the egg yolk into the white halfs, then last, add the mixure into egg white halfs, then last, sprinkle with paprika. Enjoy ! You can visit Simply Recipes below for more ways to prepare these great holiday eggs!

Classic Deviled Eggs

Cook Time: 30 minutes. Yield: Makes 2 dozen eggs.

Easter Memorys

. 1950's, 50's Events, Easter, Holiday Greetings, What's New . 4 Comments
Easter Bull Dog
Happy Easter!

With Easter almost here it brings back good memories of when my Grandparents would come for a visit on the saturday before and give each kid a box of those marshmellow eggs that come in one dozen cartons.

And on top of that we all got a dollar bill! Wow! it went far for a kid then so after a short stay they would go next door to my Aunt and Uncle “my Uncle was my Mother’s brother” and gave my six cousins the same as us.

And they also came on the Christmas holidays to give each kid a dollar bill. My Grandparents lived a few miles from us and we used to visit from time to time, my Grandfather would pick up My Mother and me and sometimes my sister would come with us also, and they lived right by the major river and I aways remember how it remided me of the house on the tv show “Lassie” with timmy and his folks on the farm.

It was a small house with the meadow grass growing high in the back and and it was like in nowhere land with a small traven across from the house, once my grandfather who called me “Skipper” wanted to take me out in his rowboat on the river but my Grandmother and Mother yelled at him “you can’t take Bobby out on the river” I don’t think we had life jackets at the time! i’m kind of glad we didn’t go out. So Easter always brings back those memories when my Grandparents would visit

Then at home we went about coloring eggs the night before and getting up in the morning to get at your basket with all the goodies in it with the chocolate rabbit, jelly beans, and those peeps, and the grass always seemed to linger for weeks after the baskets were put away! I’m sure you have your memories of Easter past and are just as special to you,

A very Happy Easter to all

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Backyard Music 65′

. 1960's, 1960's events, 60's, What's New . 2 Comments
1961 Gibson SG

Back in 1965 I walked around the block from my house to my friend’s home who was the lead guitar player of our band we started in 64′ and he was in the backyard with a guy I met who was in his brothers band at the time and he came from Texas and man could he play the guitar! he played what is known as “travis picking” he was fast and knew a lot of songs anyway, I brought my guitar along as me and my friend would always practice, so I’m sitting there as he’s picking tunes out on my friends guitar a 61′ Gibson SG Solid body a Beauty! Anyway as he’s playing I had my guitar on my lap and he says try playing along so I’m like are you kidding!

I knew a number of chords at the time so I played along as he called out the chords, about 4 or 5 and it was was fun and we had a great time, little did we know it then but over the next few years he joined a group called “Dr Hook” and played lead gutiar and they had a few songs on the charts one was ” Sylvia’s Mother” and one of the guys in the the group came from the city we lived in at the time.

So I can say I once played along with a guy who was on a record lable and had hits on the charts, they were together a number of years after then I guess they just went thei own way.. Yes I had a great time back then in the backyard playing along with a great guitar player from Texas!

The Fast Runner!

. 1950's, 50's Events, 50's Summer, What's New

In the mid-50’s we would go over to the Monastery across the street from our homes, where we played stick ball, baseball, and 2 hand touch football. When we weren’t doing any ball playing sometimes we would climb the fence which the Church had put up to keep people out of that area, at times we would just lay on the green grass and stare at the clouds talking about what we wanted to be when we grew up.

There was a cemetary where the Priests were laid to rest over the fence but we never went to view them, we never wanted to because you never did that, and sometimes we would over the fence to just walk around it was large area and the grounds were always taken care of by the maintaince men.

But we really wern’t allowed there at any time so we had to watch out for the “Fast Runner” he worked mostly in the kitchen area and had a good view of the grounds, so every time we went over there one of us had to be the lookout for him! Whenever he spotted us he would come out running!

He never caught any of us but we ran as fast as we could to jump over the fence I think he could have got one of us if he really wanted, but we weren’t taking any chances that’s for sure!

The Church is still there but empty and the land was up for sale, and it’s sad because it was the biggest Church in the county at the time which many people attended at the time, In the back area of the Church grounds they built condos a numer of years ago.

They did rebuild the grounds where we played ball, it’s for the high schools in the area today for sports and they did a great job with it, but it will always be that place where we would play and try to out run the “Fast Runner”

Batter Up!

. 1950's, 50's Events, 50's Summer, What's New . 2 Comments

Back in the mid-1950s the P.A.L. in my town would hold try outs for the little league teams and depending on your age, a kid could go to the stadium about 4 blocks away the same one we always went for the 4th of July events every year.

It’s funny now but when I think back of the names they used for the teams, like the “mosquitoes” the “bugs” and a few other names I don’t recall now any kid that got to try out lined up and had a turn at bat only, I remember getting real nervous as the line got shorter just like, waiting in line for your vaccination shots like I wrote about awhile ago

Anyway my turn came up and I got at the batters box, the kid on the mound wound up his pitch and down it few and a fast ball at that! I had just a second to decide to swing or not but I took my best shot and missed, so I said I’ll get the next one, and I missed that one also I’m like wow! I should have clipped that one at the most and the next swing was the same.

So I stuck out and that’s the only time you got on a team and if you didn’t get a hit at bat it was like, sorry kid maybe next time or next year. But it was fun to play at the try outs and in the stadium at that!

Try outs!

.

New Songs Added

. 1960's, 60's, Music, The Jukebox, What's New
Dancing to the hits

Hi, I added 5 new songs to the Jukbox today “Since I fell for you” by: Lenny Welch, “Up on the Roof” and “Save the last dance for me” by: The Drifters, “She’s a fool” by: Lesley Gore, and “To Sir with Love” by’: Lulu

Yanks around the Corner!

. 1950's, 50's Events, 50's Summer, What's New . 2 Comments

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!

Happy Birthday George Harrison

. 1960's, 1960's events, 60's, Beatles, Music, What's New
George Harrison

Today is George Harrison’s 76th Birthday! He was born in Wavetree, area of Liverpool in 1943 he grew up in pubic housing, and had 2 brothers and named, Harold and Peter and one sister named Louise.

George grew an interest in music at a very early age mostly by listening to his father’s record collection which included many American country music artists, he got his first guitar when his Mother brought him one at age 13. And after trying it out he couldn’t get a handle on chords and the threw it in the closet, and even tried to learn the trumpet, without any success.

One day his brother fixed his guitar and then he learned a number of chords nad listened to records and artists like, Chet Atkins, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, and Eddie Cochran. Later on he formed a band named, The Rebels and soon met Paul McCartney who attended the Liverpool Institute as George attened at the time,and McCartney asked Harrison to sit in with his band that the John Lennon formed called the Quarrymen.

But george was too young and John asked him to join when he was age 16 years old. In 1960 the Quarrymen band was changed to the Beatles. He was lead guitar in the group and man he could play his that Gretsch guitar like no one else a great guitarist!

He wrote some of the best music in the group such as: Something, Here comes the sun, Taxman and much more and he had a great career as a solo artist in the later years. His absence is still felt today. Happy Birthday George! Thanks for the Memories!

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