From the time we are kids, life seems to make us “wannabe” something that we will probably never be. We might “wannabe” the kid who gets picked first by his classmates to play on a team. Or we might “wannabe” popular, pretty, handsome or thin. But as we grow up we realize that wishing doesn’t…

The ads for “Back to School” items have been appearing in flyers for most of August. They bring back memories that are happy ones for me. Back in the 1950s every neighborhood in Rutland had a public school close by. I would have attended parochial school at Christ the King but they didn’t have a…

By Mary Ellen Shaw Many of us learned some type of hobby from our parents. Perhaps we didn’t appreciate what we were taught at the time. But with age comes wisdom! My mother loved to crochet and do embroidery, along with a little knitting. All of these hobbies take patience and practice. I never caught…

The world is very safety conscious these days and that is a good thing. When I look back into the 1950s, and before, I wonder why some of us are even here! Many of the houses on our street had “garages” in the cellar. Ours was one of them. We always had a full-size car…

For most of us no time passes faster than the summer months. Back when you were a student on school vacation it really zipped by. Summer vacation officially started when we left school, chanting, “No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks.” The “lazy, hazy days of summer” were about to begin…

  Recently I looked back way beyond the days of my own yesteryear. A coffee meeting with two cousins took me back to the late1800s. One cousin, Betty, lives in Rutland so I see her often. I barely remembered my other cousin, Kathie, as I had not seen her since I was about 10 years…

A group of friends met for breakfast the other day. One topic of conversation was children’s birthday parties in the 50s. A popular trend today is to celebrate at a rented venue. But we all remember our homes as “party headquarters” back in the day. A birthday party was announced with a handwritten invitation. It…

Did you ever look at an old picture of yourself and say, ”What was I thinking?” I have a feeling that females say that much more often than males. In fact, many males (my husband included) have worn their hair the same way throughout their lives. Perhaps that is why people they meet after long…

When May rolls around I am very anxious to spend time in my flower gardens and have fun playing in the dirt. As we mature, we acquire a sense of pride in our property. We want our yards to look nice. This involves more than just cutting the grass. An attractive landscape around our home…

Most likely we can all come up with expressions that are clearly associated with our parents. It’s also likely that these expressions will be heard by future generations. After all, “they”say that we turn into our parents at some point in time. When I was in elementary school I used to go to my Cousin…

Back in the 1950s when I was a child if you wanted an ice cream soda or a sundae, you could head to one of the downtown Rutland drug stores. They had lunch counters where you could get sandwiches and ice cream treats. These stores were not part of a chain and they didn’t offer…

When is the last time you received a letter in the mail? I bet it’s been awhile unless there is someone in your life who actually owns a box of stationery and enjoys taking “pen in hand.” Letter writing is slowly becoming a lost art. It also means a big piece of history will be…

Oh, how life has changed over the years! You don’t give it much thought until you stop and think about the “then and now.” As I sit at my computer I recall the days of my high school typing class. We rolled the paper into a manual typewriter and typed such phrases as, “The quick…

They say that everyone is Irish on St. Paddy’s Day! But I can truly claim that nationality. Two of my grandparents were born in Ireland. Online genealogies can provide us with the names of our ancestors but only our relatives can tell us stories about their lives. Like most young people I had no interest…

Friendship has phases that begin with our childhood friends and continue throughout our entire life. When we are old enough to go outside and play with the children in our neighborhood, we begin the process of choosing our friends. We sort out the traits and characteristics that meet our needs. Betty was the first neighborhood…