MY FIRST ROCKET....WASN'T REALLY....A ROCKET

 

Go with me into the

  long ago dim pages

   of early U.S. times..

--------

WWII had just ended.

We grade school kids

had helped win it by

gathering scrap metal,

building P51 airplane 

models, and digging 

foxholes  on vacant

neighborhood lots.

We, at our house, every

morning while eating

our scrambled eggs...

or oatmeal and toast,

listened every 

morning  to KICA   before school.

 It was the time

of all the fighting in Europe

and the B-17 raids, like

the actor Jimmy Stewart

flew.

It was the time of great

songs-- "There'll be blue

birds over the White Cliffs

of Dover," and "We'll meet

again...don't know where,

don't know when...but I 

know we'll meet again 

some sunny day."

The old Poet can still 

sing 'em -all of 'em to

you...80 years later.

(So ...when did you 

"get a ROCKET?")

Interesting story--that.

Right  after the war  ended

and the boys were 

coming  home- I reckon

spring of '46' --we still

listened to KICA, every

morning.

The  station

had added a chit chat

program, with local news,

weather, and

right at the end of the

program  they had a 

daily JOKE-TELLING 

contest. You mailed your

favorite joke to KICA,

and if they read it-

you got an award! Kids

ate this up, big time.

I entered with  a

WWII joke about Adolf,

the Nazi guy,  my grand-

dad had told me...but I

didn't catch it    at all...

until he explained it. I

guess you could call it--

a sort of old-timey joke.

("Why didn't Hitler have

anything to carry his 

clothes in?" "Because 

he lost his grip in Russia.")

I never thought it was 

very funny but sent it

in anyway.. AND WON!

Got a letter saying "pick

up your award at 

Western Auto, near the

Hotel Clovis, on Main Street."

IT WAS A 

ROCKET.

Not the kind you're

thinking! That goes into

space! No sir:

    It was a "Reynold's

    Rocket," one of the

    new Ball Point Pens!

It was sky blue, maybe 

six inches long and with

a silver pocket clip...but

was really too long to 

carry in a shirt pocket.

It came in a round

plastic tube, with some

paper of 

instructions

the ink was blue

and balled up on the end

of the pen. 

I proudly showed the 

clerk my winning letter

and he nodded toward

a counter halfway back

in the store ...it had

those little glass dividers

and all kids of "notions."

That store is long-gone,

but I could take you right

to that counter today,

from memory, and pick

up a Reynold's even 

now...fork you see--

kids in those times didn't

have much stuff  or 

ever win anything.

A great thing had been

introduced to the world

with the ball point pen.

As time went along, the

points were improved

and the ink doesn’t  "ball up".

The CROSS Company,

one of the greats, has

provided the world with

the finest of pens.

Where my first ticket 

went ...who can tell...

wish I'd kept it.

------

MIL

16 FEBRUARY 2021