Thursday, March 13, 2014

Funny Papers





When I was growing up I loved to roam through the neighborhood and visit the neighbors, especially the older folks. Walking by myself down an old road was safe back then. I never had any worries or fret about anything happening. It was a very different time, unlike today. Everybody walked everywhere they went. There wasn’t many vehicles on the roads and the few that we saw were people we’d known all of our life.

 There was this one older lady we called Miss Maude and I loved to visit her every chance I got. She lived by herself and loved to see me coming. She wore her hair up in a little bun in the back and always had on a little apron like both my grandma’s wore.
She always saved me the Funny Papers out of her Sunday newspapers. She subscribed to every newspaper there was and they only put the funny papers in the Sunday editions.
For the ones that don’t know what I’m talkin about, it’s the comic strips. We always called them funny papers.
She found out early on that I loved to read em cause when I’d visit her and we’d sit on her little porch I’d pick up her newspapers that she’d laid down and start reading them. I loved sittin in that little porch swing, swinging back and forth, listening to her talk while she rocked in her rocking chair.
She’d tell me about how it was when she grew up and I could see the sparkle in her eyes when she got in a big way of talkin. I kinda figured it out that she got lonesome and that’s one of the reasons I loved to visit . The other reason was to listen to her tell about her memories. That always intrigued me so much. I loved to listen to the older folks talk about the way it was for them in their childhood and the things that happened way back then. They lived in a very different time and saw so many things. Things that I could only see through their eyes and relive in their heart.

It’d be close to suppertime before I’d leave for home. She’d say, don’t forget your funny papers and I’ll have you some more in a few days if you’ll come on back and see me. I’d tell her that I’d try. I’d head towards home cause mama always told me not to stay so late and be back by suppertime. I’d wear those funny papers out reading them so much.
Then one day she told me to ask my mama if I could help her do some housecleaning chores. That tickled me to death and I asked mama if it’d be alright and she said as long as I wasn’t so late getting in. I never neglected my chores at home. We all knew what needed to be done and we did it without being told.
I’d help her put out her wash and hang them on the line. She’d wash one day out of the week and even then she only had an armful compared to what me and mama had.  I knew all about washing clothes in the wringer washing machine cause I’d helped mama enough. Sometimes I did her dishes, dusting, etc. she’d give me a quarter or fifty cents for helping her. That was big money to a kid back then. It burnt holes in my pockets till I could get to the store.
Then she told me to ask my mama and daddy if one of my brothers could come and mow her yard occasionally. Mama said it’d be alright but she’d only let my oldest brother. He was the only one she trusted to run that push mower of Miss Maude’s. It was the kind of mower that didn’t use gas and ya had to really push. Since her yard was small, flat and not big hills, it didn’t take him long to do it. I’d be doing somethin else in the house for Miss Maude while he was busy mowing. She’d give us a little money and we’d run to get home and show it to mama and daddy. It made us feel so big and proud that we’d earned it on our own. I’d put a little back and save it for Christmas, just waiting for the chance to go to the Dime Store in town.  I knew mama and grandma tried to go just before Christmas each year. I always had in mind to at least get mama and daddy a present since they hardly ever got anything. Of course, they always said if we had food on the table and a place to lay our head we had plenty.

 That would always be in the summer. When school started in the fall we’d try to go in the evenings as much as we could and we’d sit on that little porch and listen to the crickets and katydids and Miss Maude talk about her memories. It’d be dusky dark when we left for home.

I miss those days and all of the older generation that lived around us. I loved visiting with them and listening to what they had to say. It was a goldmine of wisdom and knowledge.

Today the little house is gone, along with so many more. They’ve all been replaced by new ones. But every time I pass by I can see Miss Maude sittin in that rocking chair and me in the porch swing, swinging back and forth. I can still hear her talkin and see her eyes light up when she tells how she walked to that one room school where they said a prayer each morning and the Pledge Of Allegiance and how they got by during the Depression. My daddy had told some of the same but it never got old. It always brought sunshine to my heart and food for my soul.
 Back when times were simple people enjoyed life more, and oh how I miss those funny papers.

© Susie Swanson, 2014

Hope all of you are feeling perky. Spring can't decide if it wants to hang around long here. Up one day, down the next.
I'm sorry I haven't been around lately to visit ya'll. Still fighting with this bug that I've had all winter. I've missed ya'll and will check in when I can. God Bless, Susie

27 comments:

  1. Hi There, We are home from George's fabulous birthday trip. I will blog about it tomorrow. It was truly a trip we will be talking about for a VERY long time!!!!

    I called them the 'funny papers' also when I was a child.... Hadn't thought about that term in a very long time. These days, we don't even get the Sunday paper... BUT--as a child, the entire family would sit around on a Sunday afternoon ---and we would read that newspsper from cover to cover.... Ah---what memories.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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    1. Welcome Home Betsy. I can hardly wait. Hugs back!!

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  2. Times have changed, no doubt about it. I called the comics the funnies. I haven't thought about that in a long time!

    There is something special about spending time with folks who've been around for a long time. My friend Bertie and her husband Ron live up the road, and I walk there to set a spell with them, Bertie mostly. She's a real hoot with lots of funny one liners...I've started writing them down.

    We did get some snow, about 1/2 inch, but I think I saved my daffodil bud by covering it up. I hope so anyway! Hugs to you

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    1. Thank you Lise. I figured ya'll got some since you're higher altitude than we are. I hope your Daffodils are safe now.hugs to you.

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  3. A wonderful post Susie! I too miss the 'good old days' where you could trust your neighbors. i remember cleaning a house for an older neighbor when i was about 10 years old. My younger sis helped me and she gave us a quarter to share.

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    1. Thank you Beth. That was alot of money back then.

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  4. What a nice remembrance, Susie. I used to sit on the porch with my grandma all the time. We'd wait for the mailman, watch the cars go by and sometimes we'd go out in the yard and look for four leaf clovers.

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    1. Awe, thank you Janet. I love your memories. They sound like mine.

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  5. I couldn't read the funny papers until my Dad had finished the first sheet.

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  6. LOL that's the way it was. Grownups first!! Thank you.

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  7. Susie, I just loved this! I guess I'm in the age bracket now to tell stories from the past. I remember funny papers and funny books.

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  8. Susie, I loved this story. It was a different time, and a better one in many ways. We were all more innocent then, I think.

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  9. What a delightful story. Sadly so many young people these days don't realize the treasure and wisdom that can be gained by sitting and talking to the elderly.

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  10. Praying you feel better soon.
    I remember waiting for those funny pages, that's what Grandma called them too. I remember the dime store.
    I used to visit an older lady where we lived, as well as another lady next door to where my Grandma lived in the city...Loved those visits!
    Thank you for your encouraging comments on my blog...I am feeling well.
    Blessings and love to you~Lisa

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  11. Susie, I love that story. I miss the older people too. My siblings and I are becoming the older generation now. There are not many of our parent's old friends left either. Plus the older citizens of our town. We called them the funny papers too. My brothers once in a while would get comic books and they would trade them with other boys in the neighborhood. Blessings to you and yours for a great weekend. xoxo,Susie

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    1. Thank you Susie. I love your memories and It's like that here as well. Hope you have a nice weekend too.

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  12. I really enjoyed this story, Susie. I can remember reading the funny papers every Sunday too. Hope you are feeling better and that spring gets here to stay soon.

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  13. Hi Susie,

    Thoroughly enjoyed reading this post and was great to check your previous posts as well :) Glad to have visited here, you have a nice blog :)

    Interesting to know things from the golden old days, your treasured precious memories. I never knew comic strips used to be called as funny papers :)

    Great to have walked down your memory lane with this post. Now that Spring has started, hope the sunshine makes you feel better! At your leisure, I invite you to have a look at my blog, beyond-barriers.blogspot.co.uk/ hope you'll find my pieces of writing nice :)

    Cheers,
    Charan :)

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  14. Hi Susie! I too enjoyed the funny papers so much when I was a kid. Especially Peanuts with Charlie Brown and Snoopy. I also really like Marmaduke. Once in awhile I would get a special treat and be allowed to buy a comic book, usually Nancy, or the Archies. I always sat at on a little stool in the kitchen and read them out loud to my Mom while she cooked dinner. I still smell the pork chops frying whenever anyone mentions comic books. :) Isn't it funny how one memory can trigger so many sensations? I also miss living among the older ones. But the more I look around I realize that most of the younger ones are now looking at me to fulfill that roll! Yikes! Why don't I feel as wise as Grandma did? Are the kids really listening to what I am saying? Will my stories be theirs someday? I just don't feel ready to fill their foot steps. How I would love some dear old woman about 85 to just pat my hand and say "It's alright honey!" You are doing it all right, and everything is going to be okay. All of my grandma's and two favorite aunties and my Mom were all gone by the time was 34,all within a couple of years of each other. I try real hard to be like them but I can't seem to move as fast the young ones and they don't see the need to slow down. I hope you had a good weekend my friend. Mine was not as quiet as I hoped but we got a lot accomplished. Tonight Tony and I listened to some old 1940's radio programs, while I knitted. We listened to Dragnet, Phillip Marlowe and the CBS Playhouse. It is so nice that you can find links for these old classics now on the internet. Sometimes it is so much more restful than watching TV and the stories are really interesting. It made for a cozy evening, it has been raining real hard since this afternoon. See you soon and have a nice evening! With Love, Delisa ;a)

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  15. Awe, thank you Delisa. I love your memories as well. You always make them come to life so clearly in my mind. Hope you have a nice evening as well.

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  16. This is such a touching post. It must have made you feel really special when some one kept a special regard for your interest in the comic strips.
    I still read the comic strip even after becoming a grandma. In the seventies, I had started saving Sunday comics to give my children until I realized that they will be coming in the Newspaper even in the eighties, so I stopped,
    Thanks again for such a wholesome post.

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