MY 75TH BIRTHDAY THE YEAR 1935 MCMXXXV

As I was writing my 2010 Christmas note, It occurred to me that I hadnt written anything in the blog about my birthday.  It is one of those years that we all mark as one of the milestones.  My day was in several parts.  Thanks to my daughter, I believe it was the best in my life.  She arranged a little party on board the  Goodtimes sailing around the Cleveland shoreline.  A beautiful day.  She invited my son-in-law's parents, some of her friends.  A terrfic evening. 

The highlight, however, was a quiet day on the shore of Lake Erie.  She brought lunch, delicious, and we painted for six hours.  Having that much time with your daughter has to be the best gift of all.

Looking back to the year I was born.  The world was so different that it is too much to really talk abou except in little pieces..  The day to day, pretty much didnt change until the sixties.  Yes, new things were invented, cooking was a little easier, but the values and activities stayed pretty much the same. 

Car borrowed from Benjamins to ride to Wentworth

Elvis household stuff...mine too.

Houses were always too cold or too hot,   When I was little and visiting my great grandmother, we would heat up irons in the fireplace, put them in the feather bed, and run quickly to get into bed.  the indoor toilet had not been put into the house and it was either the slop jar or a trip to the outhouse.  we walked everywhere and included wearing holes in your leather soles of your shoes, food was either fresh or home canned, home dried, and everyone had a garden. which grew enough to feed everyone in the family.  You went to bed early and got up early.  People still didnt have much electricity..maybe a light hanging from the center of the room, and lamps were scarce unless they were kerosene.  Loved the beautiful glow of the lamp when it was turned down low.  Everyone lived in just a few miles of family memebers.  Except for us.  We lived about thrity miles away, and it seemed like another country. Cars were available and cost around a six hundred dollars, tho many were cheaper. Gas was ten cents a gallon, but milage was very very low, you were never sure you would make it, and it was a dirty hot endeavor.  We would take a lunch when driving from Greensboro to Wentworth, and even stop for a picnic. 

 Penicillin was not available and things like measles and whooping cough cause us to be quarenteened in our own homes with no one entering or leaving.  Most everything respiratory, could be treated by Vicks  Vapor Rub, invented in 1890, It was inavented in Greensbor by Dr. Vick.  A real big thing for our town. More seriously was TB and both my Uncle VT and Aunt Helen were treated at the Sanatorium.  That is where they met.  They stayed there for about two years, then when they came home, the doctor would come to the house, Aunt Helen would get on the dining room table, and he would colapse her lung.  As a child, I was very scared and curious.

 Everyone, that we knew, went to church on sunday and wednesday, and did "good work" as many other days as one could.  We went to the First Baptist Church in downtown Greensboro.  Dr. J. Clyde Turner was our pastor and looked exactly like I thought God must look.  Beautiful white hair.  He baptised me when I was twelve.  The church moved to another location when I was in High School and he left.  Seemed that it had a profound effect on my life.  I went to college in the fifty three and started going to the Chapel.  The music was beautiful, but so different.  The sermons were global instead of local.

 Social Security and Monopoly both were invented/started in 1935.  Growing up ,playing games was the Sunday afternoon activity with my Grandmother, Ollie.  In 1935, Dick Tracy came on the radio, and Babe Ruth played his last game wearing the uniform of the Boston Braves. 

My Grandfather, Rip, died a few years before I was born.  I was born in their home, but a couple of years later, my Grandmother, MeMe had a  new house built for my her by her brother, it cost eight hundred dollars.  It was four rooms and was on the land where the chicken house had been. I was not there much, but when I did visit it was wonderful  Usually, my sister, that I did not see often was there and that made it so wonderful. 

If you went to the butcher, you could get hamburger for ten cents a pound.  Most people didn't eat it, until hamburgers came into popularity.   Babies were breast fed, wore cloth diapers and sucked on "sugar tits" to calm their fussy times.   Sandwiches were in...bread was eight cents a loaf.  However, mostly bread was made in the form of biscuits and corn bread .    AA was born in new york, and beer was first canned in 1935. Krueger Cream Ale  The people who are my age... ELVIS PRESLEY... MY HERO, Julie Andrews, Jerry Lee Lewis, Luciano Pavarotti, Woody Allen, Sonny Bono, and the Dalai Lama...lol a funny group, wouldnt you say?

Women ... well they stayed home, unless you were my mother.  So my grandmother got the duty of raising me.  Amelia Earnheardt flew across the pacific solo.  The depression was still keeping millions on the dole.  the WPA was initiated by FDR, the president, and many wonderful things we enjoy today were built. The Blue Ridge Parkway was one.    Cleveland Clinic did the first surgery to relieve angina.... hard to believe.  Higt Parade previews....Unemployment was twenty point nine percent....Abortion was legalized in Iceland  Most popular girls’ names:


Mary, Betty, Dorothy, Helen, Barbara were the popular names for girls. Why oh why Russelline.  I can recall my first day at school and the utter humilitation when I had to say I was... Russelline Boone Craddock.  Strangly enough every name I have ever had has had a double letter.  Russelline Boone Craddock Moore Greenlaw.

In 1935,Frank Lloyd Wright built Falling Water. First sugar bowl and the first orange bowl were played.  Would you ever believe that in 75 years that a group of folks would sit in front of a tv, and watch all of them at once, have a line that marked the ten yards to a first down, give us instant replays, and let us see each players eyeballs.

First class stamps were 2 cents and post cards were a penny. Mail came to a mail box about a mile away.  We would walk to the box.  [note:  I was looking for a picture of a 2c stamp and ran across the story you see in picture form here...go to http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2010/03/lostcard.html  to read the entire story.  We had finally got a telephone, but we were one of six people on the party line.  Can you imagine being civil enough not to kill each other.  Of course, if you were careful, you could lift up the receiver and listen to the other people talk.

Music was mostly in church.  But the radio played the Hit Parade that was started in 1935.  The top ten songs were:1. CHEEK TO CHEEK Fred Astaire,2. ISLE OF CAPRI Ray Noble,3. WHEN I GROW TOO OLD TO DREAM Glen Gray ,4. RED SAILS IN THE SUNSET Guy Lombardo ,5. LOVELY TO LOOK AT Eddy Duchin .6. SHE'S A LATIN FROM MANHATTAN Victor Young 7. I'M IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE Little Jack Little .8. I WON'T DANCE Eddy Duchin ,9. TRUCKIN' Fats Waller,10. IN A LITTLE GYPSY TEA ROOM Bob Crosby.