Say Geronimo

 

YMCA Camp, Davis, OK 1954
YMCA Camp, Davis, OK 1954

The pages of my many 1950s Life magazines are so brittle that they crumble into pieces as I gently turn them. In an effort to preserve their fun images for posterity, I offer you scenes from a mischievous boys’ camp from summer 1954.

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Those boys were scoundrels! What nowadays could be construed as grounds for a lawsuit was all in good fun. I’m sure glad I was never the victim of a watery dawn raid.

Aug30-54LifeSummerCampDavisOK

Because Everyone Uses Chopsticks In Bowling Alleys

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I can attest that local bowling alleys around these here parts offer greasy enchiladas for those patrons with rumbly tummies, but never Asian fare. Certainly not tea pots of hot jasmine tea and family pu pu platters. Evidently it was imperative that all males wear jackets and ties to the bowling alley. And then the jackets came off once they hit the floor.

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This family could not be having more fun. The helicopter lady in the background could repurpose her ensemble for Saturday’s tennis match as well.

July58BowlingFamily-006Bowling centers provide “attractive nurseries for toddlers”? Have you ever witnessed this to be so? They must have put the kibosh on this well before I was born. And hey, have you ever seen the inner workings of the “almost-human machines”? Pretty keen.

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So get out there and do some summer bowling before it’s too late!

July58Bowling-006

Homecoming Mum On Freckle-Faced Football Fan

Wearing mums to homecoming football games is huge tradition in Texas. Mums are expensive and heavy and attention-getting, and I recall hearing ones adorned with tiny metal footballs jangling on tassles as various nifty mum-recipients made their ways down the halls. Like these feathered-hair, Jean Nate-smelling girls in the mid 80s, brimming with prosperity and popularity.

howwegather.wordpress.com
howwegather.wordpress.com

And what if you didn’t have a mum to tote around from class to class ALL DAY LONG on that relentlessly endless Friday of the homecoming game? Well, look in the mirror. That absence of three feet of ribbon on your chest spells L-O-S-E-R. It’s how they separate the wheat from the chaff.

And don’t forget about the male accompaniment. This fellow is sporting the matching homecoming “garter,” just for boys. He’s pepper to her salt. Maybe that “M” is for mum?

http://joyoustomorrows.blogspot.com/2014/09/blue-raspberry-sunday-texas-homecoming.html
http://joyoustomorrows.blogspot.com/2014/09/blue-raspberry-sunday-texas-homecoming.html

And it’s still a big deal now, my friend, as you can see down below. What you CAN’T see is what they’re wearing underneath all that mumminess!

howwegather.wordpress.com
howwegather.wordpress.com

In the words of Men At Work, I’d have to say these silvery white mums are “overkill.” Ten dollars says they’ll have nacho cheese on them by the third quarter.