Nov 10th 2009 09:01 am When I was a boy…
This little series first appeared in newspapers ten years ago this week. It’s run here on the Web before, but I like it. Its blatant nostalgia is right up our alley. Don’t go to comics.com and peak ahead! I promise, I’ll be back tomorrow with another installment.
Speaking of comics.com, I have glad tidings. United Media is making drastic changes to the infrastructure of its highly popular but famously temperamental Web site. You should notice great improvements in the function of comics.com. Enjoy!
Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J
53 Responses to “When I was a boy…”
Symply Fargone on 10 Nov 2009 at 9:12 am #
Isn’t that what tennis rackets were originally designed for? For many years before high school and a varsity tennis letter, I would hit rocks in my back yard for a good time….until there was the nighbor’s windiow incident…funny how that happened with Pap’s golf clubs too a few years later…..a hole in one( awindow that was). Now I am Symply Fargone in nostalgia.
John in Podunk on 10 Nov 2009 at 9:39 am #
They were sneakers for us. Run faster, jump higher with PF Flyers. You can still buy them, you know. With the round sticker on your ankle bone. http://www.pfflyers.com/.
Sili on 10 Nov 2009 at 9:39 am #
I can live with the temperamentalness of comics.com when you’re making comics as great as you are at the moment. Really been bringing your A-game lately.
Rickmeister on 10 Nov 2009 at 9:45 am #
Back in my childhood (early ’60’s) my female cousin (just 3 houses down) had a couple tennis rackets, as well as all the latest 45’s from The Beatles…the only thing we played was ‘air guitar’!
K in ND on 10 Nov 2009 at 10:11 am #
A more efficient comics.com will certainly be nice. You can put up with a slow site, but one that won’t load at all half the time?? Balderdash!
K
Ruth on 10 Nov 2009 at 10:21 am #
We called them tennies or Keds usually but every so often a sneaker got thrown in for good measure. I think I was in middle school before I realized that tennies were short for tennis shoes. My mom did not allow me to where tennies to school except for gym class (they were required then). I had Buster Browns for everyday wear. Does anyone else remember Buster Brown?
My brother and I used tennis rackets for water balloon fights. It made it much more interesting when you had to hit the balloon without breaking it. If you succeeded great but if you didn’t you would have gotten wet anyway.
Rich on 10 Nov 2009 at 10:36 am #
I couldn’t believe my good luck yesterday when comics.com didn’t crash on me while I was catching up with the weekend comics. Maybe they’ve already made some improvements.
YooperBill on 10 Nov 2009 at 10:51 am #
Ruth;
Hi, I’m Buster Brown. I live in a shoe. That’s my dog Tige, he lives here too!
Remember the Xray machines in shoe stores? i used to love to play with them when my parents were shopping for shoes.
By the way Ruth, I hope you and Gene reconnect.
Bob, near Mark on 10 Nov 2009 at 10:52 am #
Ruth,
“Hi, I’m Buster Brown.
I live in a shoe.
Here’s my dog Tige.
He lives in here, too.”
Buster’s sister’s name was Mary Jane.
Bill in Paducah on 10 Nov 2009 at 10:54 am #
My kids re-discovered Chuck Taylor’s in the late ’80’s and ’90’s (I doubt they were the only ones), and I bought myself a pair. Hard to believe those were thought to be good footwear, but I liked ‘em anyway.
comics.com might have it right this time. My pages are loading quickly and smoothly!
Bob, near Mark on 10 Nov 2009 at 10:57 am #
YooperBill,
Looks like we posted simultaneously.
I remember the Buster Brown phrase from the Saturday morning TV show “Smilin’ Ed’s Gang,” hosted by Ed McConnell. When Ed McConnell died, the show was taken over by Andy Devine. “Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!”
I also used to play with the x-ray machines. I’ve often wondered if they ever did any permanent damage to anyone.
Bob, near Mark on 10 Nov 2009 at 10:58 am #
YooperBill,
Looks like we posted simultaneously.
I remember the Buster Brown phrase from the Saturday morning TV show “Smilin’ Ed’s Gang,” hosted by Ed McConnell. When Ed McConnell died, the show was taken over by Andy Devine.
I also used to play with the x-ray machines. I’ve often wondered if they ever did any permanent damage to anyone.
Bo in Mobile on 10 Nov 2009 at 10:59 am #
PF Flyers and Converse came in both hi top and low top. If you played Basketball you probably had “connies”. Only came in two colors–white(a little beige) or black. When the white got dirty you washed and used a little bleach and they came alittle more beige but clean. And usually retained the bleach smell for a whilte.
Keds, I think only came in low top but also came in colors..I had some light blue ones as well as white ones in HS. I think they came in girl sizes also.
We played baseball and basketball in them. They were the shoe of the day back then.
Buster Brown were my dress shoes during elementary school. I remember the “x-ray” machine used to see my foot for fitting.
Winter time we wore “engineer boots” when out in the woods.
In high school we also wore “desert boots” and the mid top leather shoes the Beatles and other rock groups wore.
Wow, what memories!!
Bo in Mobile on 10 Nov 2009 at 11:01 am #
I left off the part of playing basketball and baseball in the Converse or Flyers
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 10 Nov 2009 at 11:19 am #
We used to swat (not hard) the cats with the tennis raquets and told them if they did not behave, we would make tennis raquets with them.
Of course Catgut is not made from cats (more like a sheep, goat or hog) but we didn’t know that. It was a popular misconception.
Another misconception was that eating gelatin or dipping your fingernails in it will make your fingernails stronger. Fingernails are made of keratin, which is totally unrealated.
Now soaking them in dishwasher liquid might help! But I am dating myself.
K in ND on 10 Nov 2009 at 12:20 pm #
My, do I feel out of place. At least I’ve heard of the X-ray sizers…
I do seen Converses around every so often. I hate them. If you find one that’s size 12 or 13, they look like clown shoes.
The current trend isn’t too much different. Everyone seems to want to look and dress like a skateboarder, so they all wear Etnies. Perhaps they are good for skateboarding (flat-bottoms and all), but I laugh at people who walk around without tying their shoes up, just so they can fit in. Lord are they going to have ankle problems later!
On the other hand, maybe their ankles will turn out stronger than mine, which are used to having shoes to support them. I do get frustrated with my shoes that, after a while, start collapsing and I can no longer tighten them up all the way. People actually teased me in school about them. Once in a while.
K
Phil in Sugar Land, TX on 10 Nov 2009 at 12:31 pm #
I can remember wanting some PF Fliers so bad it hurt, because of the advertisements showing this kid leaping tall fences in a single-bound and outrunning speeding horses.
I finally got some, after an inappropriate of sniffling, and it RUINED my faith in advertising. I’ve been a cynic ever since
Rick (SE Al) on 10 Nov 2009 at 12:38 pm #
I hope you are correct regarding Comics.com. Catching up from the weekend is always a battle. I set it up to email my favorites. That was 2 weeks ago and I have received 1 email. Even set up a new user account and new email address. Same results. At this point anything would be an improvement.
Minnesota Don on 10 Nov 2009 at 1:00 pm #
To…John in Podunk…I think if you check, the round sticker on the ankle bone is “Converse” not PF Flyers.
Has anyone ever wondered why we are all the same age remembering the same things in this room? No one ever says “Huh?” like they don’t know what we are talking about!
Jimmy I am still waiting paitently for that coffee table book we all wrote the editor about!
Rich (NE IL) on 10 Nov 2009 at 1:17 pm #
I’ve tried to set up a user account on comics.com twice. Failed both times. I never got the email that was supposed to result.
Paul in WA on 10 Nov 2009 at 1:57 pm #
I’m a bit too young to remember the shoe store fluoroscope fitting machines — they were permanently banned the year after I was born. Bob near Mark asked, “I’ve often wondered if they ever did any permanent damage to anyone.” I do recall seeing a documentary a number of years ago talking about the shoe salesmen who died of cancer thought to be linked to long-term exposure to these machines. I also found this web site (and many others) discussing this issue:
http://nottotallyrad.blogspot.com/2008/02/using-x-rays-to-sell-shoes.html
Here’s a synopsis for those who don’t want to read the whole article:
“From what we know of radiation exposure in animal experiments and from studies of atom bomb survivors and nuclear industry workers, a number of other problems can be hypothesized: foot-bone deformities in child customers, and testicular tumors and leukemia in salespeople. Unfortunately, due to the undocumented dosage and time course of the exposure, and to the long lag period between radiation and some of its side effects (e.g. cancer), the long term health consequences of shoe store fluoroscopy will likely never be known.”
Bob, near Mark on 10 Nov 2009 at 2:09 pm #
Minnesota Don,
There are a couple of youngsters in the room.
Unfortunately, I’m not one of them.
John in LA late of PNS on 10 Nov 2009 at 2:20 pm #
Oh yeah I remember all the famous tennis shoes. But in B’ham (ain’t no HAM like B HAM) the biggie was being old enough for high tops. The low tops were made the same way of course but it was so wonderful when your parents finally got you the cherished HIGH TOPS.
Then later came the Weejuns and Saddle Shoes . . . and time marches on . . .
sideburns on 10 Nov 2009 at 2:31 pm #
Bob, I remember Andy Devine. (Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!) Not only that, I met him when I was a toddler. He lived a few blocks away, and just loved Halloween. Every year, he’d be home that night so that he could see the costumes and give the kiddies their candy.
curmudgeonly ex-professor on 10 Nov 2009 at 2:32 pm #
Back in New York City sixty-odd years ago, we all wore “sneakers” which came up around our ankles and sometimes (maybe all the time) had round rubber seals over the areas supposedly covering bony protuberances. Can’t say I recall any special efforts to keep the sneakers from getting dirty in color, and it was pointless to try to keep them clean inside, as well. My word, but they did get “ripe” after a while…!
I also enjoyed the old shoe-fitting fluoroscopes and their ghostly images and have not had anything medically adverse arise from that usage to my knowledge. True, I am an almost-30-year cancer survivor (thanks be to the Almighty!), but that singular occurrence was located several feet away from - one might say, “two legs away from” - those fluoroscoped feet.
Bill in Paducah: anything happen today re: the mystery from your friend?
sandcastler on 10 Nov 2009 at 2:46 pm #
Only thing I recall about tennies was every time I got a new pair I stepped in dog doo.
Bill in Paducah on 10 Nov 2009 at 3:59 pm #
c e-p > Posted this in yesterday’s thread, forgetting it won’t get much play since we have a new strip up.
“We’re friendly, but not that close, and she likes puzzles and word games. I don’t think it’s gender related, and it could be loosely related to me - we haven’t actually seen each other for awhile, but I did have a birthday recently, and I’m wondering if it’s related.
Latest clues are:
Box-challenged?
Glitz?
All that glimmers is NOT GOLD.
I might find out tomorrow when she takes me to a late birthday lunch…”
My last guess was my 60th birthday (which hasn’t happened yet, but hopefully will next year) - apparently that’s not correct.
Jim in SE Mississippi on 10 Nov 2009 at 4:37 pm #
JJ: I’m glad to see you running the “When I Was a Boy” series again. As I said in a recent post, I think it’s an example of some of your best work.
I also remember the x-ray (or more properly “fluoroscope”) machines in shoe stores. In fact, in recent years I’ve wondered why some legal firm has not tried to launch a class action suit, claiming them to be the cause of some rare and deadly form of foot disease. I decided that most of us old enough to have used them were probably already dead of other causes.
c ex-p: I think I get it. If so, congratulations, from another survivor.
Leary on 10 Nov 2009 at 5:03 pm #
c ex-p and Jim in SE MS
I just went to have mine poked today… So far no problem, but so many men in the 60 range seem to be getting the big C news today. Lots of new and promising treatments if you catch it early though.
As far as the low top and high top tennies… they wore out too quickly, but they were relatively cheep. Barefoot was better in the summer.
Bill in Paducah’s quandary reminds me of the question “What does a cow have four of that a woman only has two of?”
Mark in Boston on 10 Nov 2009 at 5:08 pm #
Leary: Um … legs?
And we all know what a man does standing up, a woman does sitting down, and a dog does on three legs.
Mary in Ohio on 10 Nov 2009 at 5:26 pm #
Mark - Oh shoot - I should know the answer from all my time in Junior High and it’s not the obvious, but I can’t remember it!
Yooper et al - I have long wondered why all of us of a certain age do not have terrible foot tumors. Do bunions count?
We often used tennis balls in our neighborhood “baseball” games, yet we lived on farms and no one I knew played tennis. Spent lots of time going through the weeds when we lost one, but another one was given to us sooner or later. (Baseballs or softballs were WAY too expensive.)
Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 10 Nov 2009 at 7:58 pm #
Maybe, if we all ask really nicely and beg like heck, United will finally post the correct Sunday strip for 11.01.09.
(By the way, today is 11.10.09. Am I the only one who enjoys typing that?)
James on 10 Nov 2009 at 8:41 pm #
I grew up in Nike’s backyard. We always had plenty of different styles to choose from in our neighborhood. Air Jordans hadn’t been invented yet, because nobody knew who Michael Jordan was yet, but there were plenty of different styles.
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 10 Nov 2009 at 9:08 pm #
We’re not all the same age. I grew up listening to WQXR, “The Radio Station of the New York Times”. Low key commercial, lots of classics, but few longer works. The good news is that the NYT recently wanted out, and WNYC bought WQXR, assuring that Gotham will have non-commercial classical music long term. We are transplants to MN [that’s where the biology prof job was], and have become fans of Minn. Public Radio, the best in the nation as far as we can tell. For the last few years, MPR has had a request program, “Friday Favorites”. You go online, type in your request, and they want a reason for it [though “I like it” is enough]. I went to Wikipedia’s entry on Camille Saint-Saens, thence to a list of his compositions by opus #, chose from among those he produced from 1916 on, sent the list in for the announcer to choose from, then added,
“Many members of the Stuyvesant High School class of ‘47 have turned 80 or will be turning 80 within the next several months. Camille Saint-Saens turned 80 in 1915, and composed all the selections listed after that. Please play one or two to help us remember that we can still accomplish things.” The program runs Fridays from 1-3 pm [and longer if necessary]. If you are outside of the MPR listening area, you can listen online–www.mpr.org, then click on Classical, and work it from there.
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 10 Nov 2009 at 9:13 pm #
I forgot: That’s 1-3 pm Central Standard Time.
Just Jay on 10 Nov 2009 at 9:17 pm #
Mark in Boston Shake?
Anonymous on 10 Nov 2009 at 9:43 pm #
Bob, near Mark
I remember Midnight the Cat playing the violin, and of course, Squeaky the Mouse. Lord I’m getting old!
curmudgeonly ex-professor on 11 Nov 2009 at 12:20 am #
eMb - I presume you were a Brooklynite, then. I was raised in Queens, but right near where the two meet near Ridgewood. You seem to have me by ten or eleven years….
I always thought MN would be a pleasant place in which to reside, but the chance never arose. My most enjoyable professorial posts were on the east coast of FL and in the Blue Ridge of VA.
As a HS kid, I would listen to classical stuff on WQXR, though I always did my homework to the more popular music on WMCA. That latter worked out well except for one combination: for whatever reason, I simply could not do my Latin translations while whistling “Skokiaan” as played by Ralph Marterie. Any other lesson with any other music was no problem, but not that combination.
curmudgeonly ex-professor on 11 Nov 2009 at 1:43 am #
eMb -
Recall how I wanted to read your work on Fibonacci numbers in nature a while back? There was the matter of how to make contact in a public blog so as to work this out. As it happens, I think I have stumbled upon your identity and am willing to give contact a try. Here is not the place to explain how this worked out, but I’ll be happy to tell you in a letter. Tell me, does your residence number end with the digits “403″? If you verify that, I’ll take the chance and drop you a line by snailmail. [If I am wrong, someone else will be very, very surprised!!]
Jean from Dahlonega GA aka Trapper Jean on 11 Nov 2009 at 7:01 am #
I had tennies for play as a child, but for school I had to wear heavier shoes with ankle supports as my ankles tended (and still do if I’m tired and don’t stand up straight) to turn in. They were the bane of my existence, especially in high school when the other girls wore the cute saddle shoes and of course the ones my mom bought were heavy and clunky. I remember Buster Brown from seeing the ads, but my shoes came from Thom McAnn. I’ve never cared for high top shoes, and I think that’s why.
Up until this week I have not had a problem with comics.com, but in the last few days when I first go to their page it’s fine, but when I click on “My Comics” it goes to an error, not found page. Just goes to prove that progress is not always a good thing.
John in Richmond Texas-Easy! “Baby Elephant Walk” is a Henry Mancini piece and “Alley Cat” was performed by Al Hirt.
Bonnie on 11 Nov 2009 at 7:18 am #
I had the same experience as Phil in Sugar Land! I wanted those PF Flyers SO badly and was bitterly disappointed that I couldn’t run faster or jump higher. I’ve been leery of advertising ever since.
I don’t remember the X-ray machines in shoe stores, although they were around when I was small. My mom didn’t like the idea and avoided the stores that had them. (Smart lady!)
Anonymous on 11 Nov 2009 at 7:39 am #
Jimmy, Thanks for todays strip.
debbie on 11 Nov 2009 at 8:05 am #
eMb and c-m-p: This is so intriguing….while I understand about the contact and the reasoning behind it, I hope you let us know whether y’all know one another. It’s a small world, after all.
I don’t remember any X-ray machines in shoe stores neither or the flyers, but I remember people discussing them on the blog yesterday (I think so anyway - WAIT! please don’t make me scroll up {joke.})
I cannot figure out Bill in Paducah/Clark in phonecloset/Jimmy in the hospital’s riddle, but while looking on the net, I found tons of riddles……..wasted quite a bit of time reading riddles….and this is what the internet has done for me….I decided last night, I will not surf the net anymore for anymore knit/crochet/sewing patterns! I wil NOT.
I always thought piggyback rides were fun.
check ya guys, later!
Minnesota Don on 11 Nov 2009 at 8:05 am #
I agree with Anonymous, the 11/11/09 strip is very good! It kind of keep me humble to remember.
Sili on 11 Nov 2009 at 8:10 am #
Yes, thank you.
Bob, near Mark on 11 Nov 2009 at 8:43 am #
Jean from Dahlonega GA aka Trapper Jean,
I always liked Al Hirt, and he did record “Alley Cat,” but he only covered it. The original version was by Bent Fabric and His Piano. Were his clothes always wrinkled? :>)
HC on 11 Nov 2009 at 8:48 am #
I was in boarding school close enough to NYC to listen to WQXR - saddle shoes were the uniform shoes, Weejun’s were cool and I still have all 10 toes (and one bunion) after sticking my feet in those “X-Ray” machines. I had the privilege to work (summers) in the ad agency that handled the Bass Shoe account - but we never got to keep the weejuns they sent to us for the ad picture shoots (a glasses frame company let us keep whatever they sent us). Sneakers were called plimsoles in England when I was in school there …. not sure why.
HC on 11 Nov 2009 at 8:49 am #
whoops - looks like HC got lost - hopefully it will come through now
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 11 Nov 2009 at 11:13 am #
c ex-p. We moved from that address 4 years ago. Same town; we’ve lived here since ‘58, where I had my only full-time teaching job. Why should you think I was a Brooklynite? Stuyvesant was then at 345 E. 15 St. in Manhattan, about 1.5 miles from my apt. in Greenwich Village [now the “West Village”], a healthy walk. The new Stuyvesant is at 345 Chambers St., about 2,000 ‘ from Ground Zero. It occupies the whole block at the w. end of Chambers, so of course they chose 345. Stuyvesant is science-oriented, and is what is now called a public “magnet” school. You have to take a Stuyvesant-generated exam to get in, and the competition is now fiercer than it was 60+ years ago. It attracts students from all five burroughs, sometimes an hour or more by subway and whatever. Its new location makes it a bit closer for Staten Islanders. It was all-boys when I attended. Some girl’s family challenged that in the ’70s I believe, and won. But they moved to Chicago and she never went there.
Debbie: I doubt c ex-p and I know one another but, as c ex-p once wrote, we’re probably less than 6 degrees of separation apart. We probably know a lot of things, places, vocabulary, and such in common. That flight of steps plus landing in front of a tenement are a stoop, not a porch. Houston St. is named after Sam Houston [I think], but it’s pronounced HOUSE-ton, not HEW-ston. The concert hall donated by Andrew Car-NAY-ghee is CAR-nuh-ghee Hall. It goes on.
Jean from Dahlonega GA aka Trapper Jean on 11 Nov 2009 at 1:20 pm #
Bob, near Mark-I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Bent Fabric & His Piano but guess what? The very first listing on a Google search is a YouTube clip of Alley Cat! Wrinkled? Maybe just creased at the folds. Neither do I remember “Smilin’ Ed’s Gang”. I do remember Andy Devine, but from other things. In the Atlanta area we watched Officer Don’s Popeye Club every afternoon.
debbie-I do understand about not looking up any more patterns. For me it’s counted cross stitch. I have patterns, kits, and leaflets enough to last the rest of my life and then some. Even now that I have plenty of time to work on it, the stack never seems to dwindle.
I remember hearing about the flouroscope machines in show stores, but never actually saw one. Maybe that’s to my benefit.
Steve from Royal Oak, MI-I have friends who took gelatin capsules for years in hopes of growing long nails. Gelatin caps can still be bought in stores, btw.
Bob, near Mark on 11 Nov 2009 at 3:37 pm #
Jean from Dahlonega GA aka Trapper Jean,
In the Boston area in the early ’50s, we watched Big Brother Bob Emery, from 12:15 to 12:30 on WBZ-TV.
anne on 13 Nov 2009 at 2:37 am #
I remember Buster Browns, they were the only foot wear my mother would allow except Stride Rite, this was the early 80’s later went on to work for stride rite, no xray machine there by then though!
Greg from Robertsdale on 15 Nov 2009 at 9:49 am #
Man, do I remember doing that!! I also remember how mad dad got when he had to restring his racket because a few of the rocks had sharper edges than we thought. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. :o)