UPBEAT TIMES • March 2014 • 5


Life & Experiences Just Chillin’


was gone. After school joys were skat- ing and play- ing daily with friends, then rushing home before sup- per to catch favorite radio shows: relish- ing The Lone Ranger, Little Orphan Annie and mysteries. Spring 1941 remains etched sharply


in


Santa Rosa, CA. ~ Brooklynites, when afflicted by spring fever


say: “Hey!


Dat’s absoid! We know the wing is on de boid!”…perhaps when discussing early sight- ings of chubby robins. Our neighbor’s wild plum trees are bursting with fragrant blooms. It’s enough to force a Grinch to finally grin again! Unfailingly, March brings back sharp memories of enjoy- ing roller skating in Central Park. Uncanny childhood recollections of 1941 return. (Only nine short, peaceful months before WWII). I recall clamping heavy, ball-bearing, adjustable steel skates on to my shoes with a precious skate key I wore daily on a string around my neck. My pals and I spilled into the play- grounds like speeding mani- acs. Young kids in Manhattan wearied of dark winter days and heavy snows that kept us cooped up at school and home too often. Imagine: no tv, no smart phones, no IPads. Tearing around the smooth- est walkways of that beautiful city park spelled freedom, fun, fresh air again. Winter gloom


my memory because I met Einstein on roller skates one March day. No, no, Einstein was


not on roller skates, I was. Having reached the block where we lived, I had skat-


Fun Facts & Trivia #1 By guest columnist Ellie Schmidt * eschmidtty@sbcglobal.net “Happy 135th, Albert and Friends!”


ed on ahead of my mother who stood still chatting with a friend. I hugged my ever- present, precious scrap book and skated forward in a frenzy to do what I was told repeat- edly never to do again: to skate right on to the glassy, marble floors of the lobby of that impressive Stanford White building, right up to the elevator doors. The sensation on the soles of your feet from roller skating on concrete sidewalks


is somewhat like


inviting your feet to enjoy a rolling stroll on cracked glass shards. The vibrations also send shock waves through you and soon you need to admit to the feeling of numb feet and legs. The incredible delight of gliding, with those same skates, on marble floors is tan- tamount to being transported to water skiing directly on icy, cool water with bare feet, like happy sailing, into the wind.


The funny old fellow with a great shock of white wav- ing hair stood waiting in front of the elevator door toward which I was hurling myself. He gave me a sweet, sheepish grin as he said with his heavy- accented, pleasant voice: “My, zat looks like great fun!” I liked his gurgly laugh while I embraced a nearby marble pillar and zipped around it to peek at him to see if he was angry at me yet. Surely, both the elevator and my moth- er were taking their time to arrive. I thought I had to at least behave a bit better and rode right next to the friend- ly old fellow. He held my scrapbook while I knocked off my skates and gathered them up. I was surprised when he said: “Vood you like me to sign your scrapbook?” But I said “No” and pulled back my scrapbook. Amused he said:


... continued on page 18


In the 1850s, when baseball was getting its start in America, most players wore straw hats. This all changed after the Civil War. In the late 1860s, players began wearing visor caps. The caps were imitations of those worn by Union and Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War.


Coffee drinkers the world over no longer had to chew their brew. Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, invents a coffee pot in 1806 with a metal sieve to strain away the grounds.


Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.


To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best. ~ William M. Thackeray


UPBEAT TIMES • March 2014 • 5


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