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Well, that’s what we called refrigerators, facial tissue and copy machines back in those days, ‘less you want to throw in those messy mimeograph machines from the schoolhouse, and you could tell a teacher by the blue ink on his or her hands. 

Heard on the radio the other day they were gon do away with school blackboards.  ‘Course, most of ‘em are already green, and have less chalk dust flying around.  Moose, Gaines and I were always glad to get outer class to go dust the blackboard erasers.  Shucks, we were glad to get outer class with any excuse and go gallivanting in Gaine’s ol’ Ford pickup. 

When’s you last time you thought about the tardy bell, or lining up for typhoid shots?  How about reading the Bible right before the teacher had you recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and then offer up the Lord’s Prayer?

Remember the rainy-day schedules?  The school bus riding chullun got to leave early to beat the bad weather. 

Had a bunch of the family at the house Christmas, with several different tables.  Y”all recollect when you got to move from one of the little tables to the “big folks’ table?”  That was a rite of passage sorta like when the barber shaved your neck for the first time, whether you needed it or not.

What did you fellow soldiers like the best in those old C Rations we used to have in the field?  The pound cake and fruit cake were pretty dry, but I was among the few who really liked those canned apricots, and most fellows were glad to swap those to me.  I wuz partial to that cheese in the sardine looking can, that we’d put on the C ration crackers, and hope our teeth were strong enough to bite down on the crackers. 

Hey, I saw Claudia and Tommy Moseley the other night at a shindig, and Claudia asked me how come I hadn’t written about her football playing husband from Thomaston Tiger fame.  That same night Billy Flowers mentioned to me that Tommy Mosely was some kinda football player, so I got up, went over to the Mosely table, and announced to Claudia that Tommy had been properly nominated, and he would get some top billing to reckly.

Terry Barr, a famous Linden Red Devil himself, told me he figured Marvin Tucker might be the best all-around player to put on the red and white jersey of Linden.  Some other nominations from the older Devils would have to include the likes of Press Quinney, Bill Pope, Ralph Etheridge, and Roger Etheridge.  

I can think of so many head knockers from all over the county, but I’m running out of print space, so I’ll head to the end, reporting that Coach Chink Lott figured Eddie Willingham was about as tough a Demopolis Tiger as they came, but I remember getting hit in the nose harder than ever before on a football field when Jimmy Watson hauled off and polled me with that covering he had on his nub, which I never could prove had a horseshoe hidden in it.  Buddy McPherson was the other Tiger who was a pretty good nose knocker back before we had face masks. 

Well, we’ve pretty well managed to talk on several different subjects this week, whether they rhyme with each other or not.  Thanks for listening.