|
The
Pictures
Where is Vaiden,
Mississippi?
Blast From The Past
A
Visit Back To Childhood. . .
.
. .and Various Places In Between
This Page is Dedicated to my Childhood
Friend, Jack Fullilove (12/27/1955 - 03/20/1996), with the assurance that, although there is
a void here on Earth, there is one more shining star in Heaven.
Jack Fullilove
(Click on the Photo Above)
[WEBMASTER’S NOTE:
Most of the photos of Jack, Sonny, Hazel, “Mr. Jimmy,” and Eleanor
Fullilove found on this page were provided Courtesy of Jack’s Aunt, Mrs.
Edith Kitchens of Crystal Springs, MS.
She, as with all of the Fullilove family are very dear to me, and I
offer my heartfelt thanks for all the help she and the family have given me.]
VARTA
(Vaiden Area Rapid Transportation Association)
To most of us kids that
grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, it was all about locomotion. Getting from point A to point B in the
least amount of time possible was a necessity. After all, the quicker we got there, the
more time we had to play. We learned
to eat quickly, so as not to waste any time getting back to what we did best
– having fun. Having a rapid means of
transportation was a must. This
involved a simple formula we figured out at an early age: EQ = RP -- Eat Quick, Resume Play. The quicker we got home to eat, and the
quicker we got back to play was was, besides a tad
of sleep, the ultimate goal of a 5000-calorie-burning-a-day kid with
wheels. After all, there were treehouses to build, forts to attack, tents to be erected,
swimming to be done, money to be made picking up and selling Coke bottles,
and visits to our local candy store.
Then, it was time for dinner.
Now, let me explain the
term DINNER to any visitors to this page that are not from the South. In Mississippi,
we didn’t have BRUNCH or LUNCH or SNACKS.
We had BREAKFAST, DINNER, SUPPER, and SOMN’DEAT (something to
eat). Breakfast was usually around
6:00 a.m. It could be as early as 5:00
a.m., or as late as 7:00 a.m., but we usually had it earlier rather than
later. Later meant
an hour wasted that we could be preparing for war, or plotting out the daily
entertainment. Regardless, we
didn’t skip it. DINNER was anywhere
between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., but was usually at 12:00 noon. SUPPER was at 6:00 p.m. Period. You miss it, and you eat leftovers. SOMN’DEAT was any time during the day that
the One-A-Day Vitamins wore off. The
typical schedule usually was, as follows:
Breakfast:
6:00 a.m. – 6:15 a.m.
Play:
6:15 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Somn’deat: 9:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.
Play:
9:15 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Dinner:
12:00 noon – 12:15 p.m.
Play:
12:15 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Somn’deat: 3:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Play:
3:15 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Supper:
6:00 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.
Play:
6:15 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Sleep:
10:00 p.m. – 6:00 a.m.
TOTALS AS FOLLOWS:
Time For Caloric
Intake: 1.5 hours / day
Time to dream up new crap to do tomorrow
(Sleep): 8.0 hours / day
Time for caloric output ( PLAY
! ! ! ): 14.5 hours / day (and more,
if we “accidentally” didn’t hear mom calling us)
I must remind you that
time to play had a few exceptions, such as Sunday School
and Church, and visiting relatives.
But, I digress. The purpose of
this scholarly thesis is to inform you of the various means of transportation
we used to commute to and from play.
Whether it was tricycles, bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, cars or on
foot, we always got to the fun on time.
You are listening to:
Little Honda
(Jan &
Dean version)
Click HERE for the lyrics to
Little Honda
More
Honda Cub 50 Photos (not mine) 1 2
Honda
70 Scrambler 1 2 3 4
Honda
CL-450 Scrambler 1 2
Easy Rider -- The Honda 450 Chopper (my CL-450 Scrambler conversion)
Kawasaki Triples (.pdf
format)
Honda Magnas
(V30, V45, V65) -- .pdf format
How
Low Can You Go? -- The Go-Cart (Ron (driving) & Cousin Bruce)
Road Rage -- The Go-Cart -- Part 2 (Bruce (driving) and Me)
Go-Kart Cameo: 1969
Vaiden Bulldogs Annual
Go-Kart
Engine (2 ˝
Horsepower) – Photo 1 Photo 2
Like an idiot, I traded
my go-kart to Bill Welch, for his mini-bike.
I took the mini-bike home, let it cool off, and gave it a good
cleaning. After checking the oil, I
hopped on it and rode it about 100 yards, and the engine blew up. I didn’t ask for my go-kart back (another
stupid mistake), because we shook hands when we made the trade. I never got it fixed, and later sold it for
$40.00 to a co-worker of my mom’s, when she was working at Big Star
Supermarket in Winona, MS.
The Skate Board
Keep in mind, in the
sixties, there was no Tony Hawk or Bob Burnquist to
learn skateboarding techniques from.
We had to ad-lib. There were no
such things as “Nose Grinds,” “Ollies,” “Manuals,”
“Kick Flips,” or
places with “Half Pipes,” etc., or at least that we’d heard of, and
especially in Vaiden, Mississippi. My skateboard was a Hang-Ten model, much
like you’ll see in the following photos.
It eventually broke, and Phillip Wade and I took the trucks off and
mounted them to a board about six feet long, and rode it sitting down.
Going Solo -- Slingerland Red
Stain Flame Pearl Drum Kit & Ron
My Old House by the Vaiden Cemetery (Photo 1 -- Photo
2), where I spent the first 6 years of my life.
Rocket-Powered Go Karts (Not Mine)
Aunt Louise (“Aunt E”) Caddess with her
Parakeets – 1959/1960
Mom and Me -- 1955
It Won’t Come Back – Me and My Wham-O
“Unbreakable” Boomerang
Christmas 1960 – Me and My Radio Flyer
Scooter
Excellent Band Rating on the CLARINET ? (I played the CORNET)
March 1960 – Age 5 – Me and my Jungle Gym Swing Set
(As of 06/14/2003 I still have this
swing set (except for the slide and one of the swings – see below))
Swing Set – June 14, 2003
– PHOTO 1 PHOTO 2
Ron’s
Portrait in Pencil – Circa 1960-1961
Ron’s Portrait in Watercolor – Circa 1960-1963
Ron and Chris Palmertree – Circa 1959-1960
KQR0575
CB Radio QSL Card
The Pogo Stick
When I visit Vaiden, I sometimes run
across someone that, during our conversation, mentions about their memories
of me and my pogo stick. I got my pogo
stick at Christmas of 1964 or 1965. It
sat around for over a year before I tried to ride it with earnest. I learned by standing on the front bumper
of our 1965 Ford LTD and jumping onto the pogo stick. After many unsuccessful tries, I became
obsessed with learning to ride it. I
figured that, if I could stay on it for a few seconds more on each attempt,
that I would soon master it. Ten
seconds soon turned into 20, 30, 60 and so on. Our house was approximately 150-175 yards
west of the Vaiden School. I was soon able to hop onto the pogo stick
on the top of our carport steps and hop around our driveway, onto and down
the sidewalk, across the front of the schoolyard, up the front steps of the
school and into the front door, without ever putting a foot down once. Soon, I was hopping up and down the
football bleachers, and once hopped onto the stick at 12:00 noon and bounced
continuously until 1:00 p.m., when the bell rang, and I had never touched the
ground once with my feet. My pogo
stick became very popular with my schoolmates, and they still talk about it
now. I got my boys one several years
back, and they are learning to ride it.
Before you ask, as of 2007, I can still ride a pogo stick. As an adult with more weight than a 5th
or 6th grader, it takes a lot of energy, and I can’t ride it as
long, but I can still jump in the air and climb steps with it. Call me crazy, but you won’t be telling me
something I don’t already know.
Following are three photos concerning
pogo sticks. In the first photo, my
cousin Bruce Collins is driving my go-kart, and I’m standing behind it. You can see the handles of my famous pogo
stick over my shoulder. To my
knowledge, this is the only photo that I have with my pogo stick in it. The second photo was found on the internet
and is a pogo stick exactly like the one I had. The third photo is a schematic of the pogo
stick.
PHOTO 1 PHOTO 2 PHOTO 3
The Motorcycles of Jack
Fullilove
NOTE:
Jack had motorcycles like the ones on the following photos. The ones in the photos, however, are not
his, but were gleaned from the internet.
Honda Sport 50 (1), (2)
Honda 125 Scrambler (1), (2)
Honda 350 Scrambler (1),
(2) Honda CB 450 (1)
Honda 750 Four (1)
Cyclone Racer Photo 1
-- Long Beach California – Summer 1964
The picture above was
taken from the Blackstone Hotel in Long
Beach (6th
floor, I believe), while I was in California
in 1964, the
summer after my Dad’s death. I was 9 at the time, and didn’t get to
ride it (not that I would have at
the age of 9). The Cyclone Racer was built by Harry Traver, and opened to the public on Memorial Day (May 30), 1930 at “The Pike” on the Long Beach coast. The Pike consisted of a theme park, and a
pier, as well as area attractions. It
took over 5 months
to build the Cyclone and over 1,000,000
board feet of lumber, over 1,000,000
bolts, and 50
kegs of nails, according to CoasterGlobe at the
following link: http://www.coasterglobe.com/features/lostlegends-cycloneracer/index.cfm.
The Cyclone was a
dual-track racer (hence the name), in which two cars would race side-by-side
throughout the course. Maximum speeds
were an unheard-of (in the 1930s)
50mph. The track was 3750
feet long, and the entire structure took $150,000
of 1930 dollars
to build. The highest point was 87
feet, and the ride took two minutes to complete. It could develop 3.64 maximum Gs. In the movie Strike Me Pink, Eddie Cantor was chased all over the pier and the
coaster, as well. In Abbot and Costello in Hollywood,
Costello was chased over the coaster, and in the movie The Dancing Masters, comedians Laurel and Hardy “rode” a
double-decker bus onto the coaster. In
1947, as the
lease was about to expire and demolition was soon to be scheduled, the lease
was extended another 20
years. The park and the pier didn’t
survive, though, and were demolished in early 1949…but the Cyclone Racer
remained. On May 1,
1968,
the lease on the Cyclone expired again, but a special permit allowed it to
remain in operation until Labor Day.
At 11:00 p.m. on September 15, 1968, the last of 25,000,000 riders
disembarked, never to see the Cyclone again.
Demolition of the Cyclone Racer began the next day.
I have “culled” more
pictures of the Cyclone Racer from the internet. Click on the links below to see them.
Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4
Photo 5 Photo 6 Photo 7
Photo 8 Photo 9 Photo 10
Photo 11 Photo 12 Photo 13
The Pike – Photo 1 Photo 2
Blackstone Hotel
The City of Long Beach Municipal Code 16.52.410, designated the Blackstone Hotel as an historical
landmark. Excerpts from the Code are
as follows:
Pursuant
to the provisions of Chapter 2.63
and with the following recommendations of the planning commission, the city
council designates the following building as an historical landmark in the
city: The Blackstone Hotel.
The
Blackstone Hotel, located at 330 West Ocean Boulevard,
Long Beach, California,
is a six-story hotel featuring a simple, Renaissance Revival influenced
design. It is constructed of
reinforced concrete, and features a U-shaped facade. Stringcourses set off the bottom and top
stories. Single and paired double-hung
sash windows with raised sills define the bays. A plain entablature culminating in an overhanging corn icecaps the building. Enhanced by landscaping, the Blackstone
appears largely unaltered and in good condition.
The
Blackstone is important in that it exemplifies the development of highrise residential structures on Ocean Boulevard in the ‘twenties,
defining the city’s first highrise skyline. A reminder of the economic boom of that
period, shaped by the city’s prominence as a beach resort and fueled by the
discovery of oil, the demand for new housing gave rise to residential highrise development downtown. Situated next to the Sovereign, it serves
as a strong visual connection to the past and reflects the city’s pattern of
development.
The Architect for the Blackstone Hotel
was Edward L. Mayberry. It was built
in 1923 by John
Wesley Graves (02/17/1874 – 07/27/1942), and is still in operation
in 2003,
reportedly as a highrise senior citizen’s home.
Photo 1 Photo 2
The
Car
My 1972 Plymouth ‘Cuda
Blaze
of Glory
The Deposit
The Title
The following
photos are of a 1972
Plymouth ‘Cuda that was NOT mine.
I can’t believe that I only took 2 or 3
pictures of my ‘Cuda while I had it from 06/27/1972 (bought at
Chamblee Motors in Greenwood, MS for $3734.80)
until 02/08/1976, when I traded it for, of all
things, a 1976 Pontiac Astre. When my ‘Cuda was stock, it was almost exactly like the one in the
following photos, except it didn’t have a vinyl roof, and my ‘Cuda’s seats were white.
Also, mine had a white stripe down the side, no air conditioner or
power steering or electric anything and didn’t come with a tachometer. I had ordered mine with the 150
m.p.h. speedometer and tachometer option and WITHOUT the
center console, but, when it arrived, it had the “regular” 120
m.p.h. speedometer, no tachometer, and the center console as
you see in the following pictures. It
also had the “pistol-grip” shift lever, which assured that your hand would
fly off the shifter and that you would miss a gear when trying to speed-shift
(I SOON changed this to a Hurst
shifter and T-Handle).
My
‘Cuda “evolved” quite a bit from the time I bought
it. I added an open air cleaner,
chrome valve covers, opened the air scoops, installed a set of Doug’s
headers, an Edelbrock Torker
manifold with a Holley double-pump, double-feed 850 c.f.m.
carburetor, a rev de-limiter module, Lakewood traction bars, Lakewood
driveshaft safety loop, low-restriction 3” intake and
outlet mufflers originally made for a turbocharged Corvair,
Kendall GT-1 40W
Racing Oil, Carter electric fuel pump and a Holley high-performance
mechanical fuel pump, Accel Super Coil, Accel plug wires, distributor cap and plugs, an Accel chrome hi-output alternator, a Hurst T-handle
shifter (short throw), Sun tachometer, oil pressure gauge, and a blaring
White’s 8-track
player and speakers. Cosmetically, I
added a chrome right-side mirror and the “340”
decals to the rear fenders. I also
increased the tires to Multi-Mile N50-14 on the rear (on 10”
wide rear rims (I don’t remember the rim manufacturer)), and G50-14 Multi-Miles on the front (mounted on
the same type rims, but 8
˝” wide). I also added driving lights
and other “amenities” during my ownership.
The Van
My 1976 Ford Econoline
Custom Van
Photo
1 Photo 2 Photo 3
The Many Faces of a
Vaiden Native
Photo 1 -- Photo 2 -- Photo 3 -- Photo 4
Photo
5 -- Photo 6 -- Photo 7 -- Photo 8
Photo
9 -- Photo 10 -- Photo 11 -- Photo
12
Photo
13 -- Photo 14 -- Photo 15 -- Photo
16
Photo 17 – Photo 18 – Photo 19 – Photo
20
Photo 21 Photo
22
Some
of the Many Chicks in My Life
At 4 Months
At 5 Months At
2 Years Old
Baby Collage Send
in the Clowns Elevated to a Lofty Position
They
Gave Me The CHAIR Right on the Borderline
Tootin’ My Own Horn
Elementary Diploma 1968 In the Mississippi Senate King of the…Yard ?
Phi Alpha Certificate at USM Dive Right In Slidin’ Away Chillin’
Patio
Benched Hair
4-H Trip to Sardis
Phi
Alpha Delta President (with Former Mississippi Governor William
Winter)
Family
Photo
MORE MADNESS
The following images were scanned from
old 35mm slides. Some appear fuzzy or
dark. All depict GRAPHIC IMAGES of
nothing but fun in Vaiden,
Mississippi. Hopefully I will be able to update these
with clearer images at a later date.
NOTE: The dates listed by the
images are the dates that the slides were developed, and may be slightly
different than the date the picture was taken.
Guarding
the Fort – circa 1961 Battlestations – circa 1961
Buck the Cow & Ron – 1961 First Grade Classmates
– 1961
First Grade Intellectual (Ron & Mrs.
Prewitt) – 1961 Making the Grade – circa 1960
Under the Apple Tree – 1961 Snow Monster –
1962
Ron
& Ricky Randle – 1961
Flea Bargain – 1961 Dog Tired –
1961/62
Dad (Alf Collins) leading Ron on Burro in Smoky
Mountains (Ghost Town in the Sky) – 1963
Injun
Ron Bagging the Game – 1962
Injun Ron on the Warpath – 1962
Peace Treaty – 1962
Vaiden Baptist Sunbeams – 1961/1962
Tom
Evans & Ron – Date: n/a
Grenada
Lake Monsters (L to R: Trent Evans, Craig Evans, Ron Collins, Tom
Evans) – 1966
The Mighty Treehouse – 1967 Fortress of Solitude
– 1967
Once Upon a Midnight Dreary – 1967
Ghosts of Halloween Past – 1966 (L to R): Terry Ennis, Billy
Ennis, Jack Fullilove, Chris Palmertree, Ron
Collins & Unknown
I
Want to Ride My Bicycle – 1966
I’m An American Band (Vaiden Band, Actually) – 1966
Last Gasp For the Sunday School Building –
circa 1966
Don’t Take It Away (Sunday School
Building) – circa 1966
The
Screamin’ Honda 50 – 1969
No Room at the. . . Manger ?
(a.k.a.
“The Eviction of Baby Jesus”)
Some things should neever
be told. Some things are just too
funny not to be told. My friends, Dennis,
Bill, and Richard Welch loved to camp out when we were kids. I did too.
Except this time I wasn’t invited.
This is once that I’m glad I wasn’t.
One year, shortly before Christmas, the
aforementioned perpetrators decided to camp out. The night was going to be cold. Their mother, Bud, didn’t want them to go,
but they persisted. She told them they
would freeze, but being certain that this wouldn’t happen, they went anyway. Apparently, they decided too late in the
evening to properly pack the things that we would normally take (such as a
tent and proper protection from the cold).
After searching for a spot to camp and not wanting to admit defeat,
and the mandatory “I told you so,” from Bud, they spotted the manger scene in
front of the Vaiden Presbyterian Church, which was less
than 100 yards from their house. It
was warm, due to the spotlights shining on the figures in the manger. The next morning, passersby noticed the
poor Baby Jesus sitting out in the grass, evicted from the manger,
accompanied by Mary, Joseph and various other “critters.” The manger appeared empty, until, upon
closer inspection, it was found that the three wise men were “asleep in the
hay.”
Jesus Wept. John 11:35
The Kick Scooter
I wonder how many of us had a kick
scooter like this one (see photos below) when we were younger? I rode my scooter quite a bit, until I
outgrew it, and might still have it somewhere amidst the ruins of my
storeroom. Photo 1 is of me and my
scooter on Christmas Morning in 1960.
Photos 2 and 3 were found on the internet during a search for a
similar scooter. I think the scooters
in Photo 3 and Photo 5 are more like the one I have / had. I don’t remember the name of the
manufacturer.
PHOTO 1 PHOTO 2 PHOTO 3 PHOTO 4 PHOTO 5
The War of the Mighty Treehouse
Childhood Memories 1
Childhood Memories 2
Back
Home Again . . .Page I
(Click on the Rat Fink to hear the Rat
Fink song by the Misfits)
Site Design and Compilation Copyright ©
by Ron Collins. 2007.
|
