Sundays At Hillside

Who would have thought that a song on a mattress commercial could send me all the way back to my childhood, to a Sunday on Hillside Avenue.

Faithfully, every Sunday our family would head out the door at 8:55am to drive the two blocks and attend the 9:15 Mass.  Once we returned I have memories of how the day typically played out.

It might be the sound of  the CBS Morning News with Charles Kuralt on TV....I found a clip; see if you remember.

Or (and this is why the mattress commercial jogged my memory) Breakfast With The Beatles playing on the radio.  It was on every Sunday.  We had a stereo in our dining room that looked something like this.

While we all listened I would read the "Funnies", a.k.a. the comics.  Family Circus was my favorite, followed by Blondie.  Soon it would be lunchtime and my Mom would be in the kitchen making bacon for BLT sandwiches.  Every Sunday she did this.

Most Sundays my Uncle Bob and my Grandmother would come over after having gone to a later Mass and they would have lunch with us.  My Grandmother talked a lot.  At least I thought it was a lot.  I was only 13 when she died.  She had blue hair too. She was super sweet and loved chocolate popsicles, and  I really wish I was old enough to appreciate her before she died.

My Uncle Bob loved old movies and searched the TV guide (not the TV Guide magazine but the free guide that came with the newspaper) for old movies that would be on that afternoon.  He'd give us the review, say something funny, and be on his way.  Now when I see an old black and white movie on TV I stop to see what it is and if I can name the actors....something Uncle Bob was good at doing.

And if my brother Bob was playing that day, you might here the distinctive beat of the Beatles song Ticket To Ride when he played his drums upstairs.

Here at my house over the last two Sundays I made BLT's and homemade soup.  The BLT's were shortened to B's...apparently no one likes lettuce and tomatoes here.

If you're still here reading, thanks for walking down my memory lane with me.

Do you have a childhood memory anything like this one?

To hear the Beatles song In My Life, click here.