When I Was Young - Part 2

Here are my answers to Part 2 of Alona Tester's When I Was Young:

13. What childhood injuries do you remember?

Other than scrapes and bruises I was lucky to only have one sprain, but it was memorable to me.  I was about eight and we were waiting to see a show at the Vanderbilt Planetarium.  We were bored waiting on line and started playing tag in the lobby where I twisted my ankle trying to duck a tag.  I heard the ligament tear and it hurt so badly that I knew right away this was more than a simple twisted ankle.  I remember my father had to carry me into the ER that evening because I couldn't walk more than a few steps at a time and it was very swollen.  Even at that young age, I could tell you when it was about to rain for years after.

14. What was your first pet?
Oh, Benjamin, my sweet little shelter kitten.  Unfortunately, he lived only a few years. He was an outdoor cat, enough said.

15. Did your grandparents, or older relatives tell you stories of “when I was young ..?”

Not really. Thankfully my paternal grandfather wrote about his life before he died. This included a lot of information about his childhood. I have been sharing his story in my Amanuensis Monday posts. Also, my father was absolutely fascinated with my mother's father's war stories.  He taped hours of them and it is such a treasure to have now.

16. What was entertainment when you were young?

We didn't go out a whole lot when I was little, but we did see the occasional movie, a Broadway musical was a real treat, and we watched some TV(mostly PBS for me). We went to see Barnum & Bailey a few times at Madison Square Garden and the Nutcracker every Christmas as I have mentioned.  Also, vacationing on Prince Edward Island, we would see Anne of Green Gables - The Musical every year.

Once we had a cassette deck, my dad discovered old radio shows on tape and I was then raised on Mel Brooks (2000 year old Man) and Jack Benny, I loved them, still do.

17. Do you remember what it was it like when your family got a new fangled invention? (ie. telephone, TV, VCR, microwave, computer?) 
We got a VCR when my dad bought a recorder and taped everything in sight. 

Earlier than that, I remember when he bought a new car with a cassette deck and huge earphones that stretched to the back seat. This way I could be entertained on long car trips without annoying them when I wanted to listed to the same thing over and over.

18. Did your family have a TV? Was it b&w or colour? And how many channels did you get?
We had a color TV.  We probably got 6 channels? CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS (Thirteen), PIX and WOR.

19. Did your family move house when you were young? Do you remember it?

Yes, we moved a few blocks to a bigger house when I was about ten.  I couldn't wait.  I had a huge bedroom and the house was on a little river and right across the street from my elementary school

20. Was your family involved in any natural disasters happening during your childhood (ie.fire, flood, cyclone, earthquake etc)?
No, we were not, thankfully.  We're not prone to a lot of that on Long Island.  I do remember that one summer as we were on vacation on Prince Edward Island where the only phone was in the property manager's office, we somehow heard reports of a tornado touching down in the town next to ours here on Long Island.  My parents called the neighbors to check on the house, but everything was fine here.

21. Is there any particular music that when you hear it, sparks a childhood memory?

Vacationing on PEI, they had only one radio station, or one music station and it seems they must have had a very small budget because we heard the same songs over and over and over every summer.  There are a handful of songs like, "Devil Went Down to Georgia", "Hot Stuff", "My Sherona", "Call Me" and "Let 'Em In" that I hear to this day and immediately associate with PEI.