Long Distance Phone Calls

Way, way back - the 1950's, long distance phone calls were very rare. Calls were very expensive based on time and distance. Moreover, in Rockford, we had two phones, one in the kitchen and one upstairs on a small table at the head of the steps. Anyhow, a long distance call was a family event. It was planned in advance, timed for brevity, sequencing of who would talk when,coaching to keep it short and be sure to hang up the phone at the end of the call!!

Calls to California to the grandparents usually started out with an opening by dad, then a nice touch by mom. After they were through, each of us had to get out our current life story in 30 seconds or less. Dad would finalize and the hangup would complete that family call. Wow, technology is great!!!!! We talked all the way to California!!!!

DIY- Football Field- Rockford

As a youngster, you always tried to have the closest thing to the real thing. In Rockford, that meant having a football field in the backyard, with field lines!!! Well, you couldn't do that at the Circle since we didn't own it, but the backyard was an artist's clean canvas.

Football season always brought out the creativity: homemade additions to uniforms, hand painted helmets to reflect favored teams, etc.....

Well, to take this to the next level, you had to have line markers on a field. Thinking this through, as a seven year old, of course, you would first look at the field dimensions. Backyard- good enough, despite they trees. Sidelines, good enough, despite the garden, slope to Connies and the rock garden on the other side to Klingstedt's. OK, next, what do you line the field? Bear in mind, there are five eager player fully suited up and ready to play! A trip into the house.....white paint.. good, but wouldn't dry and not enough.... flour... right color, but again, not enough... VOILA!!!!! LAUNDRY DETERGENT! We took both of the boxes mom had and began marking the yard. It looked great! An our jerseys were never cleaner.

However, for a few weeks, remnants of the markings were still in as brown lines in a normally green lawn.. Sorry, Dad.............................

Relative's Names- Two By Two

As a youngster in the Jensen house, you learned all of your relatives names in "twos." Very sing-songish. This was the way you connected the dots of who belongs to whom and eliminates, no, reduced, but did not prevent the risk of calling people by the wrong names.

For example: Harold and Dottie, Derald and June, Bob Bob and Nana, Mom and Dad, Bonnie and Clyde, Harold and Maude- well, you get the idea. The zinger came about with Nellie, Mae and Bud. That one was hard to register on a number of different levels to a small kid. So, it became Nell and Mae..... and Uncle Bud.

The family lists on both sides were fairly lengthy, so on trips to visit, we were often coached en route as a refresher so we didn't look like the family that arrived off the boat searching for long lost relatives.

I am still trying to figure out who Fin and Hattie were.??....