My father-in-law, Glenn Richards, grew up in Stephentown, NY. Glenn is the type of guy that can talk to anybody about anything. Although when you ask him about his childhood, he seems to get particularly excited. Old cars are his passion. But he'll tell you all about movies, TV shows, music, fashion (he was a greaser), and even a few memories about comics. Apparently, as a kid he and his friends would go to John Whitman's store and sit on the floor next to the rack holding comics and magazines and read comics to there hearts content.
I have no direct emotional connection to this memory. Yet, it still evokes a strong response from me. I want to be there, feeling the floorboards underneath my feet and watching as a group of kids make themselves content with stolen treats and piles of comics. The idea plays around in my head. Even if John Whitman's store was still standing and we were visiting it for the day, we still could not recreate this experience. There are just too many differences in the decades. Like a different world.
John Whitman's store burned down a long time ago. I've been there and stood in an empty lot where we imagined the store to be. I stared across the street and tried to envision I was in the store looking out the window. AND YES.... I'm just the kind of idiot who would try something like that.
Although, thanks to the incredible tool you can access at the following link, you can see what the comic rack may have looked like: Mike's Amazing Time Machine.
It always interests me to talk to people about what they did for fun when they were a kid. I feel that I can connect with them this way, as more often than not I can find a shared interest. When you turn the conversation to this topic, most people seem to light up. They find it easy to talk about there childhood passions. My wife Lorie has plenty of memories of playing in the court with neighbor friends. Her uncle Homer delights in telling me all about a guy he knew as a kid who pulled around a little wagon filled with comics and sold them for a nickel. My co-worker, Ralph, seems to have plenty of memories always consisting of a group of kids and a ball. Didn't matter which kind, just so long as they could start the game. My mother has strong memories of the TV shows she would watch and newspaper comic strips she would read.
They're called our formative years for a reason. And our choices in entertainment played a huge part in this. Comics, TV, movies, music, books, they make up the foundation of who we are. Sometimes they'll be low key, dimly remembered moments of the past. Sometimes they'll inform you're life decisions. If you know me, then you know that Captain Kirk and Superman play big roles in my character to this day.
So yeah, if you ask someone about their childhood memories and they got nothing to say... Well, don't trust them.
Thanks,
DCD
Dee-Doo-doo-doo! Dee-daa-daa-daa! Doo-doo-doo a Barney Ooooooooold-FIELD! The Little Rascals were my touchstone to an earlier era. I would imagine hanging out with those scamps and getting into trouble. The show was about seeing the world through the eyes of children, and even though they lived under depression-era conditions they never thought about that stuff. They were too busy having fun. A testament to the purity of thought within a child's mind.
ReplyDeleteChuck,
ReplyDeleteYou brought a tear to my eye! A sign of a good writer. It took me back to my youth in Stepentown (only one on earth, check it out). One of the kids in front of John's general store could have been me or anyone of many town kids. We all made the same stop, picked out a bottle of cold soda from the box with ice cold water in it, grabbed a 10 cent pie from the shelf and sat down while we lost ourselfs in the latest adventure of Batman, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hop-a-long Cassidy, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Green Arrow and Speedy, Superman, G.I. Joe, Sgt. Rock, The Lone Ranger, Kid Colt, Outlaw Kid, Blackhawk, and Aquaman. We all have our own childhood memories, and visiting them grounds us and keeps us from getting old too fast. Excellent opening blog. I loved it! Thanks again Pilgrim!
Gramps - GOR
Anytime I was out with my parents in the evening and the topic of "getting an ice cream" came up, invariably I would answer, "can I get a comic instead?" Turns out it usually worked! I remember lots of ice cream, so at a whopping 35 cents for your typical comic, I'm guessing I had the equation down on how to get both! Anyway, as an adult I heard that "story" about myself from both my mother and father a zillion times. They're in no shape to be worth much, but I still have a decent portion of that stack of comics to show for it ;-) (although nothing like what I imagine a "Dill" stack of comics must look like)
ReplyDelete-Mike D.
Ah, yeah, I can look back fondly at my youth, probably due to some rose-tinting, but even still. Riding bikes through the orchards and eating apples off the trees, the Atari 2600, Saturday morning cartoons (we only had NBC, so it was a real pain when a girly/kiddie show came on and we had to find something else to do until the next cool show came on), going to the local "mall" to get pizza, comics, and play games at the arcade (it was basically a little strip mall that had been closed in at some point so there was about a 15' walking area in front of the 10 or so shops with an Ames on one end and a Martin's on the other).
ReplyDeleteThis post makes me feel lame for playing with Barbies so much.
ReplyDelete