Riding in the back seat of the car.... in a booster seat that looked like this:
This is what it looked like, only it was black with salmon pink patterns on it. Notice that there is no strap or belt, no cushioning.... I am pretty sure that there were no seatbelts in the back seat of the car,... so this was unsecured. The intention, I believe, was that I would be able to see out the car window if I was sitting on the booster seat.
If we went into town, where there were parking meters, there was a baby food jar full of pennies in the glovebox of the car. I was allowed to take the penny, and hold onto it, until we got out of the car and arrived at the parking meter..... I think my dad must have lifted me up, so that I could put the penny in the meter.
I remember going to the bank, because there was a special platform for little kids to stand on to see the teller.... it was a little, portable staircase with a wide platform at the top. And there was a security guard who had lollypops in his pocket. I almost always got a green lolly-pop.
I also remember going to the lawyer's office.... (red arrow indicates approximate entrance)
the inside of the lawyer's office was wood panelled with knotty wood, and he had a large marlon on the wall. Things a little kid remembers......
My Dad saying, "Let's go for a ride.",.... and his eyes, looking at me in the rear view mirror, "sing for me." And he would drive and I would sing... the abc's, and whatever other songs I could think of,... and if we went very far I would start over again with the abc's. When Dad said we were going for a ride he usually had a destination in mind,...some friend's or relative's house.... seems like wherever we went someone was home, and they were happy to have a visit.
I can remember riding home from Uncle Carl and Aunt Eleanor's house,... down their street I could see the second floors of the houses, from where I sat in the back seat of the car.... after we turned a couple of corners we could go faster, and then I would look up and see street lights -along Manheim Road, passing the entrance to O'Hare Airport. Or the long ride to our summer house on the Chain Of Lakes.... it took an hour to get there,...following one of 5 or 6 different routes... My dad liked to follow different routes, he had wanderlust that way....
Summer evenings going "for a ride" and seeing beautiful sunsets,... staying too late,..lightning bugs alight in the warm summer evenings as we would climb back into the car to head for home......hushed in the back seat of the car, listening to my parents talk about things they had discussed with whoever we had been visiting....
Quiet summer Sunday nights, eating ice cream and watching the Lawrence Welk Show....
Winter evenings at the greenhouse,..watching variety shows... having to go to bed at 8:30pm, and listening to the television from my room....across from the living room... the television droning me to sleep, as my Dad sat in the recliner and slowly fell asleep himself.... the National Anthem playing in the wee hours, just before the broadcast day ended...hmmmmmmmmmmmmm--the endless drone of the test pattern, and my mother's voice: "Jim,...Jim, wake up and come to bed..."
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