Other than the family on the other side of the road, the nearest possible playmates were about a half mile away. Jimmy Buchanan, John and Mack Sanders and Gail Griffith were playmates if I wanted to ride my bicycle (and if I could get permission) to one of their houses. They all had TV's, so lots of times I would meander their way in time to watch "Sky King" or "The Lone Ranger" or another of the serials that played in those days.
When I was seven, Gail's Mom took the two of us to Greenville to be on a TV show ourselves. We were in the gallery for a "Howdy Doody" show sponsored by some shoe company. I remember being questioned about my name and where my home was and I remember that during the mid show commercial, they piled about 200 pairs of shoes in the floor. There was one matching pair and the one that found those won some kind of prize. Thirty kids, 2 mintues, 400 shoes, 398 of which did not match - get the picture. I didn't fare well on that one.
I remember one cold rainy day, when I was 8 or 9, I heard on the radio that the "Russians" had launched an artificial moon called Sputnik. I had listened to the "beep...beep...beep" from it and wanted to know more. I rode my bike to Gail's to see if there was anything about it on TV. The world changed that day for all of us.
Jimmy, John, Mac and I would play "war" - with our BB guns, with cap pistols, with sticks and pinecones. War was a kids game then; spurred on by TV shows, movies and the tales told by our fathers and uncles about WWII. I was inspired to be a soldier in those younger years and was later given my chance. Playing "war" and actually doing it were quite different in some ways but much alike in others...
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