A Read Aloud Time Machine

by C.J. Heck

A Read Aloud Time Machine
by C.J. Heck

This morning, I read a post by Dave Williams, a good friend here on Substack. I can’t ever remember reading anything so much like a real live time machine, before. It was so good, I just had to read it to Robert, my partner of seventeen years. Robert grew up just two blocks from me in our small home town. I was sure he could also relate.

It wasn’t long before Robert’s head was also nodding in agreement. Dave’s words read aloud had started an avalanche of memories and a waterfall of feelings.

Afterwards, the memories continued with each of us sharing our own stories of the crazy things we did in those days that would be unheard of today. Chalk it up to safety issues. Truth is, they would be right. Anyway …

As a tomboy in the 50s and 60s, one of my fondest memories was saving my straws from soda fountain treats. In those days, the straws were much larger than the straws today —-probably smaller now for this reason: They were the perfect size for pea shooters for kids.

Back then, every mom had at least one bag of dried white pinto beans in the pantry. They were very small and the perfect size for ammunition! All we had to do was poke a tiny hole in the corner of the bag and pour in a cheek full and we were cocked, loaded and ready for battle!

I remember accidentally swallowing some in the process –it’s a wonder I don’t have bean stalks growing out my ears … and bean vines from my nether regions.

In the house, though, we had to use spitballs. We made those from torn pieces of paper and spit rolled into a ball. They were much safer, but after a tough battle, it always looked like we’d had a snowstorm.

If you are around our age, you probably also remember sling shots. Oh man, were those fun! They were so easy to make, too. You started with a tree branch the width of your thumb but longer with a vee growing at the top.

We pounded a large nail through the top of each side of the vee and then pulled the nail back out. This left a good-sized hole to push a rubber band through and knot on each side.

For the pad in the middle for the ammo (a stone), we often used a Bandaid. We folded each sticky side onto itself, poked a hole in each side, and tied the other ends of the rubber bands to the holes in the Bandaid. That was it and we were good to go.

Our targets were not other kids, only tin cans lined along the fence rail. But (and that’s a big but) we got pretty good with our sling shots. We could probably have given a robber a few hardy lumps if he tried to break in.

I should probably mention when we were hot and sweaty from making pea shooters, or our battles, our moms brought us refreshments: milk with either Ovaltine, or Bosco. Bosco was always the favorite. It was more chocolaty than Ovaltine.

Thanks again, Dave Williams. You started a firestorm of wonder here in our house this morning. As much fun as they were, we now wonder how we ever lived through some of those memories. I’ll leave you with one last thought …

“Hi-yo, Silver! Away!”