West Saint Paul Antiques

Do you remember those lazy summer days of the 50's & 60's when all was right with the world...

Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us. ~Oscar Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest"

Pleasure is the flower that passes; remembrance, the lasting perfume. ~Jean de Boufflers

I have memories - but only a fool stores his past in the future. ~David Gerrold

It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life. ~P.D. James

A happy childhood can't be cured. Mine'll hang around my neck like a rainbow, that's all, instead of a noose. ~Hortense Calisher, Queenie, 1971

Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door. ~Saul Bellow

Memory itself is an internal rumour. ~George Santayana, The Life of Reason

A childhood is what anyone wants to remember of it. It leaves behind no fossils, except perhaps in fiction. ~Carol Shields

It is singular how soon we lose the impression of what ceases to be constantly before us. A year impairs, a luster obliterates. There is little distinct left without an effort of memory, then indeed the lights are rekindled for a moment - but who can be sure that the Imagination is not the torch-bearer? ~Lord Byron

The Mickey Mouse Club was a long-running American variety television series that began in 1955, produced by Walt Disney Productions and televised by the American Broadcasting Company, featuring a regular but ever-changing cast of teenage performers.

The Mickey Mouse Club was created by Walt Disney. The series has been revived, reformatted and reimagined several times since its initial 1955-1959 run on ABC. The original series has been repackaged and rerun several times over the decades.

Born in Utica, New York to an Italian-American family, she took dancing and music lessons as a child to try to overcome shyness. Her family had moved to southern California when she was four years old.

Hw was acutally Orvon Gene Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998) was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television.

He signed a recording deal with Columbia Records in 1931. He worked in Chicago, Illinois, on the WLS (AM) radio show National Barn Dance for four years with his own show where he met singer/songwriter Smiley Burnette. In his early recording career Autry covered various genres, including a labor song, "The Death of Mother Jones" in 1931. But his first hit was in 1932 with That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine, a duet with fellow railroad man, Jimmy Long. Autry also sang the classic Ray Whitley hit "Back in the Saddle Again". Autry also sang many Christmas songs including "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", his own composition "Here Comes Santa Claus", "Frosty the Snowman" and probably his biggest hit ever, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

Autry created the Cowboy Code or Cowboy Commandments in response to his young radio listeners aspiring to be just like Gene.

1. The Cowboy must never shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage.
2. He must never go back on his word, or a trust confided in him.
3. He must always tell the truth.
4. He must be gentle with children, the elderly, and animals.
5. He must not advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas.
6. He must help people in distress.
7. He must be a good worker.
8. He must keep himself clean in thought, speech, action, and personal habits.
9. He must respect women, parents, and his nation's laws.
10. The Cowboy is a patriot.

Superman is a fictional character and regarded as the most influential and popular superhero of DC Comics. Created by Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster and American writer Jerry Siegel in 1932 and sold to Detective Comics, Inc. in 1938, Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1 (June 1938) and subsequently appeared in various radio serials, television programs, films, newspaper strips, and video games.

With a premise that taps into adolescent fantasy, Superman is born Kal-El on the alien planet Krypton, before being rocketed to Earth as an infant by his scientist father moments before the planet's destruction. Adopted and raised by a Kansas farmer and his wife, the child is raised as Clark Kent, and imbued with a strong moral compass.

Upon reaching maturity the character develops superhuman abilities, resolving to use these for the benefit of humanity. With the success of his adventures, Superman helped to create the superhero genre and establish its primacy within the American comic book.

Black and White     (Under age 40? You won't understand)
You could hardly see for all the snow,
Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go.
Pull a chair up to the TV set,
"Good Night, David. Good Night, Chet."
Depending on the channel you tuned,
You got Rob and Laura or Ward and June.
It felt so good. It felt so right.
Life looked better in black and white.
I Love Lucy, The Real McCoy's,
Dennis the Menace, the Cleaver boys,
Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train,
Superman, Jimmy and Lois Lane.
Father Knows Best, Patty Duke,
Rin Tin Tin and Lassie too,
Donna Reed on Thursday night! --
Life looked better in black and white.
I wanna go back to black and white.
Everything always turned out right.
Simple people, simple lives...
Good guys always won the fights.
Now nothing is the way it seems,
In living color on the TV screen.
Too many murders, too many fights,
I wanna go back to black and white.
In God they trusted, alone in bed, they slept,
A promise made was a promise kept.
They never cussed or broke their vows.
They'd never make the network now.
But if I could, I'd rather be
In a TV town in '53.
It felt so good. It felt so right.
Life looked better in black and white.
I'd trade all the channels on the satellite,
If I could just turn back the clock tonight
To when everybody knew wrong from right.
Life was better in black and white!

Pass this to someone (over age 40, of course), and brighten their day by helping them to remember that life's most simple pleasures are very often the best!

The Top 50 Songs

I remember, I was about 7 years old at the time and just starting to get into music, and this new music genre did not sit well with my old man at the time. Songs, like "Lollipop" by the Chordettes, would bring my dad running across the house, or yard,  just to shut off the radio, or change the station to a Country & Western music station.

This era started in 1955, for me, when I first started paying attention to what was playing on AM radio at the time. It continued through the sixties, even though I was not into a lot of the anti-war protest music, and I was still trying to get used to the British sound - some of it I liked, some I didn't. I never could get into the music of the 70s, 80s and 90s. The best years of Rock'n Roll, in my opinion, were 1957 through 1965.

The era, 1955 through 1969, is presented by years below. Each page link lists the Top 100 songs of that year with some statistics for that year.