“Daddy brings ORPHANS a Surprise!”

Oct 18th “Daddy brings ORPHANS a Surprise!”

The year could be 1947 or 1948 – and there was something “new on the market” – something that only those that were not in the “Orphan Home” would know about – like my DAD! Also, in those years after WWII – those that are working with all kinds of chemicals – trying to come up with something new and highly usable an “invention” and maybe for use by the government, first – the #1 buyer with the money to pay top dollar (collected from the good tax-payers) – and then – for the “KIDS” who had money to try something in the “experimental stage” – that has no real good use as yet – but could be discovered – sometime???

This could be early Fall Time – maybe in the month of November – not too cold for us KIDS to be playing outside on the playground – (that’s something that today’s kids don’t do). The main thing that I was doing in those first years in the Orphanage – was roller skating all over the playground and really got the best of exercise you could get – fresh air and no one to disturb me – as I was singing what ever songs were popular then – as we knew all of the “TOP TEN HITS” – and I did my fair share of singing in competition with my brothers before we ever came to this Orphanage! If I didn’t use my skates – someone else would want to use them and I had had a hard time talking my parents into buying for me – “my very own pair of skates” – very few of the KIDS had skates – much less their own pair that were – -worth skating on?

Well, here’s my Daddy coming in the side entrance and some of the girls and I skate to meet him as he was coming in – for an unexpected visit and also with something “new” that he just had to bring to us to see if we would liked it? Daddy had some “tubes” that almost looked like today’s’ glue that the boys would use to glue their airplanes together. Seems like the “tubes were of a soft flexible metal” that could be squeezed – to force some of this soft and gooey stuff out of the tube – a kind of plastic and or rubber dab – that with some care and patience you could blow into a “BUBBLE” and play with?

As you “squeezed this dab of stuff” – into a small – less than an inch size ball – you would insert this straw that came with the tube – so then and very carefully – you would blow air into this soft-ball – and as blowing you needed to be careful that any “little tears” were closed right away – by just giving a little pinching together the area around the tear – and using your free hand to try to control the developing size – till you had the size of ball you wanted? Then you would pinch off the small hole around the straw -having pulled out the straw – you now had a small or large size ball to play with. This ball was good to use with someone by pushing up and into the air as this was not the type of ball that could be bounced on the ground.

We had so much fun just watching each other trying to make a nice ball and all the little techniques each of us tried using to make a bigger and better ball – this was one heck of a good and never to be forgotten time with some of my “Orphan Home Friends” – the “FUN TIMES” we had back then – and I am always Grateful and Thankful – that the Almighty was directing my Dad to find something that was a real “SURPRISE” for us ORPHANS – at least someone was thinking about – sharing and having a “FUN” afternoon with us! “A Forever Memory!”