Rikes, Tikes and train sets

Christmastime in the 50s and 60s in Dayton, Ohio meant a visit downtown to Rikes department store and the toy department called Tikes which was a favorite for kids young and old.


Growing up, I had easy access to the electric buses that ran all through the suburbs and eventually downtown  since the bus route literally stopped at my back yard on the Redwood route and the driver would rest or take a smoke break or get back on schedule  So it wasn't unusual that even as young as 6 or 7 my friends and I would take a trip downtown, naturally unbeknownst  to our parents.

One year at Christmas, two of my friends, Jerry Anthony, Gerry "The Jer" Wintersteen and I decided we wanted to get a first hand look at the latest toys on display,  so we paid our nickel, climbed on board and headed downtown to Rikes and Tikes.


Tikes was fantastic...It was Santa's workshop right there in downtown Dayton...we walked around for hours looking and touching as many toys as possible. The electric trains were a showpiece of Tikes and we struggled to get as close to the trains as possible and let our minds imagine having a setup like that in our own basements.

Our timing couldn't have been better because just as we were watching the Lionel engine making its circuitous route a staff photographer for the Dayton Daily News snapped our picture and jotted our names down.


Not thinking much more about the photo session, since we were dreaming of that train set, we ventured on home in time for dinner, with our moms never knowing the difference.


The next day at dinner, as I came into the house I was greeted with a "Young man, do you have anything to tell me"...those words in themselves could bring fear in anyone...I kinda looked around with my head down and spotted that dang picture right smack dab on the front page edition of the Dayton Daily News...I hesitated...and again I heard.."Well, do you...do you have anything to tell me?".....I thought and thought and miraculously the answer came to me.....I said  "I love you..is that it?".......Mom shook her head, put her arms around me and hugged me like only a Skeeter's mom could do and I could see a slight tear in her eye that quickly became a twinkle and she said..."Skeeter what in the world am I gonna do with you"....she never brought the incident up again ...nor did I.......Gosh I loved Christmas. I loved Rikes and Tikes and boy, I loved that electric train.

Harlan's Helpful Tips for Christmas

Mr. Tom has dunned ast me to kinda sit in for him cuz he's a gettin' behind in all of his work stuff. 

I told him I'd write sumthin down for him that he could put on this here  blogger thingy......So, Ma, Pa and my sister Harlanetta, pictured over here, and I sat down last night and we came up with 3 things you do and don't want to have a goin on during these special holiday times. So here goes.

1. Make sure ya git all your rooms cleaned out of stuff and dirty plates and any varmit droppings that ya might have. Often times relatives and people ya don't really know too good will drop in and say "Howdy" or "Merry Christmas" during the holidays and they git ta snoopin and lookin under your beds and take a peek in your undies drawer and whatnot. Also, be sure and throw away any of them toilet paper rolls you been a savin' since last Christmas and are a stackin up in the waste basket.

2. Don't give no pets out during Christmas specially doggies or kitty cats....cept  possums cuz they just lay there and don't do nuthin, , you can give those out...People get all too concerned about themselves and them little doggies git all lost in the confusion and sometimes git throwed out with the wrappings and bows and stuff....If ya wanna give a doggie pet for a gift....ya might wanna check with Pet Homeless Shelters.....them rescued dogs make fine companions and they shore will be indebted to you for sparing their lives...Momma always says you can judge a man by the way he treats animals....Momma is real bright like that....Matter of fact...Cooper was one of them dogie rescues.

3. And thirdly ...don' be a stickin your finger down in the light socket if fer some reason your whole string of lights have gone out. That can smart like the devil and you'll end up with a big ole blister on yer finger that will keep you from doin' any whittlin during the holidays.....Go and git you a neighbor kid and have him put his finger in there....better yet....have him put his tongue in there cuz it will give a better connection.

Thats's all I got fer now...but I'll be back.....this here's Harlan P. Wilcox sittin in for ole Tom.

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

Mark Twain uttered those words when news of his death was mistakenly reported in the New York Journal. And it's for his ability to share these kind of stories that he is so enamored  in the hearts of Americans. I don't purport to have that ability, but I think you'll find the following story, not only heart-warming, but entertaining as well.

Earlier this week I had been contacted by the spouse of a former high school classmate asking  if I had heard anything about the passing of a certain individual. That supposedly deceased person was from her husband's and my Class of 1966 of Fairview High School.  Her husband, Ed,  had mentioned that he had heard or read something about the passing and she mentioned  that person had previously lived across the street from them.. For some reason, I have gained the reputation of being able to seek out long lost friends and classmates, so I reluctantly accepted the task even though it saddened me to do so, suspecting the worse case scenario..

I initially inquired of some of my classmates that I am in contact with on a daily basis, one of which who had also lived across the street from Danny and his wife at one time. .She was deeply saddened hearing of the news, however, she had no idea where he lived. So, I started with the simplest source of searching, Google, and began to gain a little headway and in fact found out that Danny was living, or perhaps dead by now, in Pinehurst, N.C.  I didn't have an email address and although I looked in every newspaper of any size in North Carolina, I was unable to find an obituary. I did find, however, someone who I thought might be a daughter, who taught at the Univ. of N.C. at Chapel Hill.
As I get further into my 60's it is not uncommon to learn of the passing of classmates all too often and I began wishing I hadn't taken this quest. I sadly wrote her an email explaining my mission, offering condolences if in fact her father had passed away, and apologizing if in fact she was not related.
Danny was one of the nice guys in high school.. Quiet, friendly  always willing to help you. . And as I kept asking more and more classmates if they had any news, the  same platitudes kept pouring out. All stating what a nice guy he was and he would be missed.
It wasn't  10 minutes later that I had.heard from Danny Joslin and the  "The reports of his death being  greatly exaggerated". Danny's daughter had contacted him upon receiving the email  and he immediately replied. I had to ask him in 2 consecutive emails if he was really  alive. He convinced me he and his wife Susan  Behney Joslin, also a '66 classmate, were alive and living in North Carolina with their two daughters close by and five wonderful grandchildren.

We exchanged a few more emails with  me  giving he and his wife links to Fairview-related web sites and I immediately informed my classmates  of the news and the mistaken report.
Danny thanked me for my diligence and concern and I continually told him how happy I was hearing he was alive. I'm sure he just smiled.
I'm still smiling now as I retell this story and know that I will certainly have a Merry Christmas knowing that the saddest of news turned out to be the happiest of news.

Over the river and thru the woods to Grandma's Signal Saloon

Although the tradition is rarely seen in the more suburban communities any more, there was a period when our aging grandparents would move into our homes until such time that they just didn't wake up the next morning....it was simply the way it was.

I never knew my grandfathers...they both had passed before I was born, but Nana, on my Mom's side and Grandma Kender on my Dad's side, both left me with some good memories.

Interesting enough, I had always thought we lived in a big house in Dayton, Ohio, but now  looking back,  based on today's standards it was really quite small with two bedrooms downstairs and a converted attic upstairs and just one bathroom, yet Grandma Kender moved in with us and we did quite well.

There was an occasional period when my friend "The Jer" and I would playfully torment Grandma. realizing now that she was suffering from Dementia ... but how did we know.......we thought she just acted a little odd, and that was the norm around our house.

"The Jer" and I would like to sneak up on her and kind of yell and startle her and she would turn around and with no teeth in her mouth  yell  "blaah" and try and scare us away...which in fact she did.

Before she reached a point where she was unable to care for herself, Grandma Kender owned the greatest place in my small world. It was called "The Signal Saloon" down on Edison Street in what was then called "The West Side" around 3rd and Broadway and she lived up on the 2nd floor above the bar.

Dad would take me over there on Saturday mornings to pass along a handful of cash to Grandma and he would hike me up on a bar tool and I would be served my usual, "Roy Rogers", the male equivalent to the female Shirley Temple....a coke with a bunch of maraschino cherries...Dad would drink his usual "boilermaker" a shot of bourbon and a beer...and always with the words of caution, "Now don't tell your mother".

About all I could remember was the place reeked of what I later would learn in life to be stale beer and urine...lots and lots of urine...all splattered from a giant trough  in the men's room and tracked across the tiny white mosaic tile floors.

As you can see in the photo, the Signal Saloon was right next to the railroad tracks and was named for something to do with a nearby railroad signal.

Hanging out at Grandmas was also the first time I ever witnessed a train going so fast and so loud it was like a controlled giant windstorm tossing me backwards as it went by....I would stand only a few feet away and watch as my pennies would get smashed on the rails that I placed right before the train zoomed by.

Grandma also had some chickens in her backyard including the grown up little purple one that I had gotten for Easter, and later became unmanageable in our home on Sandhurst....so it was shipped off to Grandma's to live what I thought would be a long life...a long life for a chicken though...meant only until it was fat enough to be cooked.

On a recent trip to Dayton, I went by Grandma's Signal Saloon which has now become a church.....who would have figured....also, while driving in the neighborhood, I found that Paul Dunbar, a famous poet who grew up in Dayton, lived only a few blocks away...he died young after the turn of the century and probably didn't hang out at Grandma's.

Grandma died when I guess I was about 9 or 10...she moved around from family to family in her last months....the building with its new customers probably still shakes when the trains go by...nothing has really changed about that area....but I do hope the smell of stale beer and other scents has finally gone away.

A defining moment that changed my life

I'm sure some of you have looked back over your lives and thought of that defining moment that occurred... that was like a beacon in the night showing you the path to your destiny. It could have been a teacher who took the time to help you solve a problem, and then and there, you knew you would set your goal in helping youngsters learn. Or perhaps a doctor who helped cure your little brother or sister of a life threatening disease and you pledged that when you grew up you would serve mankind by curing cancer.

My defining moment was somewhat less than that...it occurred about 50 years ago.....but I can remember it as if it happened yesterday.I used to go to the Ames Theater in Dayton, Ohio every Saturday morning . Although I enjoyed the double features that would begin around noon and would have fun seeing my friends and we would all sit in the front row and stare up at the screen, but usually by the end of the first movie my attention would begin to wander. We would get into some kind of trouble at that time by getting paper towels and soaking them with water in the men's room and then throwing them to the ceiling causing them to stick till the end of time. Sometimes we would go into a stall and lock the door and then climb under the common wall to the next stall and lock that door until all of the stalls would be locked tight......and we would finish off the men's room with stuffing wads of paper towels into the urinals and keep flushing them until they would overflow.

Another adventure we would embark on would be starting in the first row of the theater and climb under every seat leading up to the final row....our clothes would be soaked with grape pop that people would pour on our heads, milk duds stuck to our shirts and buttered popcorn covering our faces.....and then...the defining moment.I can remember sitting in the first row just as the movie began...my neck bent awkward looking straight up....the cartoon had ended and I was already getting ready to make the low crawl on my belly...and then I heard this sound coming from the giant speakers overhead.

It was a whistling sound..something like a call from one person to another...and then it came once again..and the music rose...the whistling got faster and louder...the camera began to zoom into a neighborhood, that looked like you wouldn't want to be there after dark....and then the clicking noise....the snapping of fingers......I watched with my eyes glued to the screen and then one after another, young duck tailed teens started appearing in the scene..clicking...dancing and being so damn cool....I wanted to be one of them...dancing...and singing and ....making me want to be part of something I had never seen before....

Obviously I never went off to Hollywood or New York and became a dancer or a singer....but the defining moment for me on that day....was....I decided to no longer climb under the seats and stuff up the toilets....I had fallen in love with musicals...and it was cool.....My brother Rick must have enjoyed that movie because he bought the soundtrack album and I played it over and over until I could sing every song, even imitate some of the moves and just look damn cool......I was Tony...singing to Maria...and I loved it..."West Side Story" changed my life.

The recent passing of a dear friend and how she taught me about life

I lost a dear friend a few weeks ago. She lived to be 80 some years old.... all of those years were great until her slow demise in the last decade. She bore thousands of offspring, ...generation after generation after generation. She survived two World Wars, the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War, although many of her children weren't as fortunate.....she lost many of her family in those wars...I'm thankful she didn't have to give any more children up to the wars of today.

She was a beautiful woman. When the sun would shine down on a side of her face, she would glow magnificently and you could see many chapters of her life's story shine through her stained glass eyes. Even though I lived with her for four years, I didn't see that beauty until much later in life during a visit close to her death. 

She raised doctors, nurses, lawyers, famous sports figures, a Broadway producer and many other notables.  Yet, she treated all of her children the same whether black, white, Jewish, Catholic, orphaned, poor or rich...they were all her children. She taught her children to be proud. She taught her children compassion for their fellow man and woman. She expected you to be on time every day regardless of what your task was.  She expected you to complete your assignments when given them. When necessary, she would deal out corporal punishment if it was required.

She was the perfect host. Often having dances in her home, with her family decorating the giant ballroom with appropriate festive colors. She would invite the public to come and see plays and theatrical performances that her children loved to create to showcase their talents.

She would invite all of her children to return over the years to visit one last time and remember some of the moments that molded their lives. 

In the end, she stood proudly until her heart pounded its final beat.

She whispered to all who would allow themselves to listen, "Don't be sad, we've all prospered. Take what you've learned from me and try and make a better world"

As I mentioned, I saw her earlier this year, she was a mere skeleton of herself. But her "eyes" that let the sun shine in gave me warmth and told me, "I'll be fine".

I'll miss you great lady......I'll always remember you and our family. 

"We open when we get there, we close when we leave"

OK...I touched on this yesterday...but now I'm really pissed. WE DON'T NEED DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME!!....

I've been readin' story after story after story about how we are sleep deprived..some studies say  we need to get that hour back that we lost in the Spring...Hell, I didn't lose an hour...it's been there all of the time....my sleep deprivation is the result of changin' my patterns meaning my clock.

 

Everyone I have talked to in the last two days are tired, confused and upset over the gov't constantly stickin' their fat nose into our business and tryin' to tell us what to do...now to the point that they tell us when we are supposed to wake up and go to bed.

 

WE DON'T FARM ANYMORE!....well, except for those oddballs that have imaginary farms on Facebook,  and they are so sleep deprived that no system in the world will work for them. When are we gonna take responsibility for ourselves?.....If a sign says "Open at 9:00 AM"...well, then that means they open at 9:00 AM whether it's dark or light out..... If anyone has noticed, we have electric lights....someplaces you can't tell whether it's night or day anyway the way the place is lit up.

 

The only occurrence of anyone having a problem with it being dark was when an unnamed individual backed out of her driveway and ran over her trash can....trust me.....she was gonna hit it eventually whether it was dark or light....

 

So, now as I go back to bed once more and try and get a little sleep so I can get started on my day...I'll bid you..Good Night...er...I mean Good Morning..whatever

I just can't stay away !!!

Well, how lucky are you and how lucky am I...get this....I'm not only bringing you my written blogs again but now I'm here...live....kinda......each day bringing you the latest news, humor and my uncensored opinions...so hop on board and start your day off right....or at least come by for a free cup of coffee....and now... on with the show!

I write for me, ..of course if you're paying me......I write for you!

Gosh...it feels good to get back here...nothing like going home..and yes, you can go home again,  despite what my old buddy Tom Wolfe used to say... and that's how I feel now....I'm wanting to go home...go back to what brings me pleasure, brings comfort and lets me be me....living in my own little world..putting my thoughts down on paper, so to speak, ..so if anyone chooses to read the words..well, they're here.

I realize I've done this before..I realize..I've started and stopped and started and stopped.....but this is where I call home...this is where I hang my hat...this is where I belong...this is what I do. No one can tell me what is right or wrong but myself.....I do it the way I think feels best for me.....If I have to go back to the beginning to get started again...well hell, so what...I enjoy writing and the great thing is nowadays, hell, I can't remember what I wrote yesterday....so this is all fresh....and not only that ...it's better the second time around...So hold onto your hat, cuz the train is leaving and we don't have any brakes!!...See ya soon