2001-04-08 - 20:05 MDST

THE WONDERING JEW

Big Box Bonanza

I don't recall seeing kids in recent years who treasure big boxes. They were a wonderful prize when I was a kid. They could be houses or prison cells depending on how the windows were cut. turned over they were ships, fire trucks or forts like the Alamo. Their use was limited only to our imagination. Once when our bunch scored a group of big boxes we built a small town, later we cut a hole on each side of the boxes and wired them together to form a long tunnel. I don't think a one of us thought of doing anything like putting something in a big box except ourselves. We did put stuff in boxes, little ones, wooden, aromatic, cigar boxes held treasures to be stored in the bottom of a dresser drawer -- special stuff. I remember a few things in my beautifully made cigar box. One was the aluminum coin struck for the inauguration of the "City of Denver" (I think that was the name of it) the first high speed streamlined Union Pacific passenger train to come through our town. I think the California Zephyr was a bit later. My birthday jacknife, too neat, clean and snazzy to take out in he world and cut something like wood. (what a gourd head), a few Indian head pennies, buffalo nickles, some agate marbles in a sack and more stuff than can be listed -- it was a large box.

Our recreation used a predecessor to the Frisbee. Coffee cans had a strip of the can itself which was made weaker and was rolled up on a slotted key. The lid therefore had about 3/8 inch apron going vertically from the lid itself. We would have contests to see how far one of those lids could be sailed. It took some time before one could learn how to do it and toughen up their fingers. I remember once standing in the street and sailing a lid over a house and across the alley in back of it. We couldn't do like is done with modern Frisbee's. We threw the lids hard and too fast to make them sail. Aerodynamically with speed, they flew well.

When we could afford it we would buy Guillow's balsa gliders, which when the wings were properly adjusted would loop the loop. What dogfights we had with them.

When I was little the tramway car along south Broadway was drawn by a horse to the Cherrelyn development out south in Englewood, which was up hill. The horse would ride back down hill on the back of the car.

Criminy, women's hats. The diversity of them was amazing, they were made of straw, felt and whatever a millner could imagine to use to make a hat. Some were over ornate to fit my taste as a kid, but then, I didn't have to wear 'em, just be diplomatic talking about them.

Black or brown shoes were polished by Shinola, a liquid which was brushed on with a swab mounted on the bottle cap. It made black shoes black all right and anything else it touched before the polish dried. The darn summer whites also had the liquid stuff. I could never get out of the house without grazing something and having black marks on them. But that was okay, at least they matched the white shirts that suffered the same fate.

I never had to buy one of The "Little Blue Books," which sold for a dime. I started my collection by trading a top, some marbles and a trinket from a watch fob. Paper cover, small print but good reading. They fit a man's coat pocket pretty well. Most homes had some of those books which eventually were passed on to the young and thereby entered the Blue Book Market. I loved them, they were better than books from the library. Even without pictures. I could keep my Blue Books and never have to take them back to anywhere.

When I was in elementary school we took milk money to school every week. Once a day we would be given two graham crackers and a half pint of Meadow Gold Milk. The caps were made of very thin aluminum sheet and were formed around the glass bottle top. We boys gathered all we could from the girls. I don't think there ever was one of them thrown away, at least in our class. The caps were very carefully made perfectly flat, then on something soft like balsa wood or thick cotton cloth, with a nail head that had been rounded and used like a stylus we could emboss words and designs on them. Some of them were very artistic even for a kid.

The Cure For Earache, was one of the men of the family laying me across his lap with the acher up, and have smoke from his pipe, cigar or cigarette blown gently in my ear, repeatedly. I do not suppose there is a bit of scientific proof that it would cure an earache -- but I can say it seemed to work for me.

At my cousins there was a bay window in the front room. There was a window seat built there which had two hinged lids. There were kept toys, cards, puzzles and games. Polyanna and Pacheesi, Pick Up Sticks, wire puzzles (nail puzzles too) as well as beautifully made puzzles like the wooden ball one can see now and then. One of the games we played often was Tiddlywinks. We would spend hours trying to perfect our aim and proficiency with the shooter. Haven't seen a Tiddlywinks set in years.

One or two of my friends had player pianos at their house, we were allowed to use them, after being checked out by the general of the house. Oh, how I wanted to learn to play, dreaming as I pushed the pedals. I was out of it of course, because I had told Mom I didn't want to learn to play that sissy thing. Later a boy across the street rubbed my nose in it (unwittingly) by learning the accordion. He would practise on his front steps. Unsuccessfully my pleas for an accordion were on deaf ears. "You didn't want to learn that sissy piano that was offered to me," was the response I got.

I remember going into the dime stores, Woolworth's, Kress' and Neisner's and listening to new sheet music being played on the piano. Back then there were sure a lot of piano players as the sale of sheet music made a profit and paid the wages of the player.

But dear to my heart is the memories of finding a Big Box Bonanza . . . . .

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