Nostalgia is good. It works even through generations. When our kids were growing up, I used to tell them of a tale that occurred when I was around five or six. We lived in a town called Belevue which was not too far north of Pittsburgh.
I rode my 20-inch bike all over, including across Route 19. In those days, you could do that. Often once I got across 19, I would head for an ice cream store where I bought a two scoop cone for a nickel. Sometimes, the cone would have a little wrapper around it, and when you opened it and saw “free,” you could return and have the free cone.
Thus, you can imagine my consternation when I arrived one day, ordered the cone and only received one scoop. I complained bitterly to no avail, of course. As I rode my bike back home (after eating the one scoop cone), I vowed a mighty vow that I would never eat another cone until they were two scoops for a nickel again. The other day, my son told this story to his kids. He said that the granddaughter was very concerned that I hadn’t had any ice cream in a long, long time. I guess she figures that poor “Pop Pop” had a rough life.
Wait until he tells her how limited things were when I wanted a milkshake a few years after the “two scoop” incident. We lived in a small town called Sandy Lake which had a dairy called Vengold. You could get a milkshake filled with ice cream for a dime (which was the normal price for a shake back then). The problem was that they only had two flavors – vanilla or chocolate. The vanilla shake was made with regular milk (no flavoring) and the chocolate shake with chocolate milk. Essentially you were limited to a chocolate shake as the “vanilla” shake did not taste very good. Vanilla ice cream was used in both. They only had two flavors of ice cream too – vanilla and chocolate, but they did not use the chocolate ice cream in a shake. Life was rough back then!
Sandy Lake did have a movie theater, and on Monday nights they had a double feature. Why it was on Monday nights is beyond me, but we got to see a Western with Don Red Barry, Sunset Carson, Red Ryder, Johnny Mack Brown, or some other heroic cowboy. The other movie was usually a horror movie. They were scary, but not explicit like today’s movies. You had to use your imagination some – like when the black panther leaped at the screaming girl and the screen shifted elsewhere. There were also cartoons, shorts and news. All of this was a modest ten cents until the theater owner got greedy and raised the price to twelve cents.
Next to the theater was a two lane bowling alley. You could bowl ten pins for 15 cents or duck pins for a dime. In case you are unaware of duck pins they were smaller than the ten pins, and you used a smaller ball that you held in your hand and threw it down the lane. It was harder to score high with ducks than it was with tens, but it was cheaper. I even set pins a few times as they naturally did not have automatic pin setters in those days. It was hard work as the bowlers would get impatient while you set the pins, particularly the duck pins as it was more difficult to set them on the exact spot. Did make a little money though!
Now that I think about it, I may tell my granddaughter that life was not so rough back then!
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages each week for Villages-News.com
