As a young child in the 50s I remember sitting at a pullout-top desk in our living room, writing my letter to Santa. If selected, it would be read at 4 p.m. on a local radio station. Santa would be sure to say that he had received all our letters even if he didn’t have…

As I look back at some of the foolish things my friends and I did in our youth, I can only say, “What was I thinking???” One of the pranks many of us pulled was calling people and asking, “Do you have Prince Albert in a can?” Without even giving them a chance to answer,…

I’ll bet just about everyone reading this column remembers bringing home papers from school that informed your parents about the opportunity to take lessons on a musical instrument. You could rent the instrument in the beginning and eventually buy it. For me this musical opportunity came around the sixth grade. The usual “hype” accompanied the…

Odds are that most of us had someone in our lives while growing up who influenced us. We probably didn’t truly appreciate this fact until we aged. I didn’t have to go far to find the first person who made me feel very special. It was our neighbor Trudy. The houses on our street are…

With Halloween right around the corner it’s fun to think about what that holiday was like back in the 50s and 60s–the time of my youth. "Back in the day” it was very unusual to see kids trick-or-treating any place but in their own neighborhood. It was a rare sight if a carload of kids…

By Laurie Morrissey We call them shooting stars, and they never fail to make us catch our breath in surprise and wonder. But they’re not stars at all. Those bright, brief streaks across the night sky are meteors. Clear skies permitting, the next few months bring three excellent chances to see batches of them. Meteors…

Back in the 1960s when I was old enough to get my license, the high school I attended (Mount St. Joseph Academy, or MSJ) did not have driver education. In my youth there didn’t seem to be the urgency that today’s teens have to get a license. Once you got your license most kids drove…

Recently a friend forwarded to me a Facebook picture of my friend Betty Clark and me in a huge pile of leaves. The picture had been taken in front of my house and it appeared in the Rutland Herald in 1956. Our arms are raised up in the air and our grins go from ear…

Every year at this time I have a twinge of envy for students who go back to school. Fortunately for my parents, I loved school from day one. In fact, I loved it so much that I would have been a “professional student” after college if I could have earned a paycheck for learning! My…

When I was a little girl back in the 1950s this was a very exciting time of year. It was fair time! The fairgrounds have been located at 175 South Main Street in Rutland since 1856. The Vermont State Fair acquired its name in 1972. But my guess is that most people have always referred…

When I read about the recent engagement of Polly Lynn and Jason Mikula, co-publishers of The Mountain Times, it brought back memories of my own connection between “true love” and fish! In case you missed the article, Polly and Jason got engaged on the banks of the Madison River in Cameron, Montana, while on a…

It’s not too often that an event I enjoyed as a child in the 50s can still be enjoyed today. But the Rutland City band concert in Main Street Park continues to delight those who attend. You will be pleasantly entertained on Sunday nights at 7 p.m. during 10 weeks of the summer. Growing up…

As I grow older I realize that things I thought were about as exciting as watching paint dry have now worked their way into my life. It’s gardening season and I seem to have inherited both my father’s love of a vegetable garden and my mother’s passion for flowers. Since the majority of houses on…

In the summer of the 1950s and 1960s all of my friends could be found at the city pool on North Main Street. It was located on the west side of the street not far from Seward’s Restaurant. North Main Street, a.k.a. Route 7 North, was a two lane road in those days.  We were…

When I was a kid in the 50s there was a phrase I often heard chanted at this time of year, “No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks!” I really liked school, so that chant didn’t come from my lips. However, like any kid I looked forward to a summer full…