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Although we didn't
realize it at the time, wasn't it a great place to be growing up, to be a
young teen. Those golden, warm summer days when we would gather at
Hollywood Park and play paddle tennis, box hockey, and left field ball. (
The latter because many times there were not enough players to have a
regular nine on nine softball game.) You could ride your bike or walk all
over the neighborhood, and there were plenty of vacant lots or fields to
play a pick-up game of football, or many variations of what we called
chase.
Adult softball was still pretty much a spectator sport, and Hollywood Park
was a popular diamond for the city's adult leagues. (Remember Buck Miller
?)
And weren't we naive and innocent about things!! The Hollywood girls
usually wore shirts, short, and sneakers. Those good lookin' legs kept our
male hormones working overtime. But we never would have engaged in the
kind of talk and behavior that seems common place now. Just the sight of a
little skin was something! I think about how we used to play "spin the
bottle" in someone's back yard and we thought we were being so exciting.
And, to us, we were! I think it was a better time to learn about sex and
love and lust, and especially respect.
There were many places to have an adventure; the Hollywood Dump, the Wolf
River, and hitchin' a ride to Raleigh,( which seemed a lo-o-ng way out )
so that we could swing from a tree and drop into the river. One of my
buddies swung out and, just as he let go he thought he saw a snake in the
water below. I never say anybody try to fly, or at least levitate, the way
he did before he hit the water.
There were the Saturday matinees at the Hollywood Theater, with Mr. West
patrolling the aisles to make sure that we behaved ourselves. He really
always fought a losing battle there. I remember leaving school at lunch to
eat at Well's Cafe, although we weren't supposed to. And later, when Ma
and Pa Sandlin bought the old Four Buddies Cafe we would eat lunch there
instead of at school. (Ma and Pa would let us guys run up a tab through
the week, just as long as we paid our bills on Saturday after we got paid
from places like Hogue and Knott ,Craddock's Drug Store or Russell's
Pharmacy. My favorite lunch was tamales, crackers, and a coke.) Of course
another reason why Sandlin's was so popular was that Joy Sandlin was
pretty cute and popular!! And I'll bet that, at times, the Craddock's
wished that we would congregate someplace else after school instead of the
corner in front of their store.
It was a place where we could play out until the street lights came on
with no thought of any harm coming to any of us. We went to church to
learn about God, we fumbled through learning about sex at the movie and in
the back of our parent's cars. Ms. Jaffee taught me enough English to get
me through high school and two years of college. She also taught a lot of
us to write a little and to appreciate reading.
Remember Mr. Bailey's bakery, where you could watch the do-nuts being
cooked right before your eyes? Because of his gruff nature we called him
Bulldog Bailey, but he was O.K. I felt bad when the H & M bakery came on
board and, eventually, forced Bailey to close his place. ( I didn't feel
so badly that it kept me from leaving school and eating lunch from the H &
M, however.)
We knew the names of the police officers who patrolled Hollywood and they
knew most of our names, and where we lived!!! A few times they would
cruise by the street corner that we were gathered on and suggest that we
go home. And we usually did.
Hollywood was more like a small town than a community within a city. And
the friends that we made then are still friends now. I still remember that
Buck Thomas' mother made cornbread that I liked better than cake. And Mrs.
Riddle who lived across the street from my family had a cow and churned
her own butter.
We learned to play sports without the benefit of some frustrated adult
trying to live out their fantasies all over again. We also learned that
losing wasn't the end of the world, just the end of the game. And we knew
there would always be another game.
Guys that I remember, Buck Thomas, Howard Henry, Bobby Whitaker, Red
Strickland, Hoot Johnson, Jimmy Baker, Thomas Graham, Marvin Sanders,
Frank Davenport, Bubba Phifer, Bill Greenslade, Tommy Lemmons, Bobby Koch,
Ralph Doyle, Bobby and Jimmy Moore, Richard Pilgrim, Richard Martin, Pat
and Gene Tartera, Ace Cannon, Martin Willis, Larry Cresswell and there are
many others.
And all the girls I've known, Dottie Taylor whom I have loved for over
fifty years, Claudia Riddle, Shirley and Rena Mason, Sue Hall, Virginia
Hatch, Elaine Brademeyer, Shirley Sullins, Irma Phifer, Pat Caudell, Doris
Brown, Betty Livingston (who used to play the organ so well ) Shelby
Coleman, Joy Carden, Delores Duckworth, Joyce Brandon, Patsy Shoemaker and
many others.
And whatever happened to Billy Gatlin, Robert Brown, or Rena Gallina? (
Robert Brown used to pop Rena's bra strap in Ms. Jaffee's English class
and never got caught!!)
But Hollywood was more than a place, it was an attitude, a time in history
that's long gone. Where you could hitch a ride to Dave Wells or National
Cemetery without worrying about getting shot or whatever. Where, on
Halloween, people would invite you in when you went trick or treating and
would give you caramel popcorn balls and hot chocolate. It was the
Hollywood Canteen where many of us painfully learned to dance.
A time before air conditioning closed all windows, and you could smell
what the neighbors were cooking and, sometimes, wished you were having
dinner with them. When us boys would begin to go barefoot as soon as
school was out and, by the end of summer, the bottoms of our feet were
probably as tough as shoe leather. And the music, ahh the music. No rap,
no vulgar lyrics, even Elvis was a few years away.
Whimsical songs like Johnny Ray's "Little White Cloud That Cried" and Nat
Cole singing about " Nature Boy". And, one of my favorites, Kitty Lester
singing "Love Letters Straight from The Heart." And there was Dewey
Phillips and his "Red Hot and Blue" program, remember? And what station
was "Sleepy Eyed John" on?
And is it just my bad
memory but weren't race relations better then than now? Do you suppose
it's because there were a lot more functional families, both white and
black? I do. And the black families had more to be angry about then,
everything was segregated!!
We were lean and active. No watching TV six or seven hours a day. And most
of the mischief we got into was mild, no guns or gangs.
It was before we started building backyard patios and fences; you could
walk down the sidewalk and people sitting on the front porch or steps
would speak, inquire how your parents were or why weren't you in church
last Sunday.
Wasn't it great when you could save up enough money to go to the
fairgrounds? The Pippin was always popular, but I also liked a ride called
"The Whip". And there was always the story about snakes being in the
water in the "Old Mill".
Black and white TV burst on the scene and only a few people I knew had
one. There was a guy, Earl Ramsey, his family had one. They lived on
Hubbard, I think. And they would invite me over to watch wrestling, (from
the downtown auditorium). The only problem was that it didn't come on
until 9 P.M. and I could hardly stay awake until then. Sometimes I would
fall asleep on the Ramsey's living room floor.
Yeah, we did a few not-so smart things, too. The railroad ran just across
the street and one lot from my front door. Several of us boys thought it
was really exciting to hitch a ride on one of the boxcar ladders and drop
off when the train slowed as it crossed Hollywood Street. The only problem
was that sometimes it didn't slow very much and there were some bunged up
knees and ankles. (Could have been worse.) Almost the same scenario- some
guys used to hop in the back of the seed trucks leaving Buckeye Cotton Oil
Company with the idea of getting off at the intersection of Hollywood and
Chelsea. But, again, sometimes the trucks didn't have to slow or stop and
every once in a while it was a long walk or a hitch-hike back to
Hollywood.
Just think how corny the kids of today, with their Ipods, video games, and
cable TV, would think of us. We played "mumbelty" peg with dull knives in
the park, we played kick the can in the middle of our neighborhood
streets, and girls and boys played hop-scotch drawn out on the sidewalks
with a big piece of chalk that was thrown to us from one of the passing
train engines.
No, we didn't realize it then, but it was a time of charm and grace and
innocence that is no longer with us. But I'm glad I was there and can
remember some of it, aren't you?
And I'll bet some of you remember a lot more that I have left out.
John
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