Studebakers and Canasta

Waiting for a turn signal this morning and noticed an old car coming toward me. Distinctive fins and overall a look so ugly but somehow nostalgic. A mid-1950s Studebaker.

As it passed I noticed the driver was a senior citizen of some vintage.

This mentally took me back to the mid-50s and a neighbor.

Two doors up from us lived the Milfords; CW and his wife (who's name I can't recall.) By the time I got to know them, they were retired and at least in their 60s if not older.

My parents played cards and dominoes with them almost weekly. Often they let me play Canasta (a really fun game played with so many decks of cards I couldn't handle them all), Cribbage (funny little game with pegs) and dominoes (84 being the name of the game.) No wonder I learned to count early and was always good at math until I hit calculus!

This couple was traditional, quiet and occasionally a little rough on kids. I don't recall ever hearing them talk of any of their own and never remember anyone coming by to visit.

Several memories: their house was my favorite on Halloween because she always made what she called carrot cookies. Can't really describe but sweet and fruit and cake-like all at once.

Bermuda grass is prolific in Texas - I guess the runner-type of grass does well in the high dry heat. But the Milford's yard was a thick dark green grass called St. Augustine. It was great for football because it was so soft, it didn't really hurt when you fell. You could also roll in it without getting itchy. Except this is where Mrs. Milford would get rough. Funny if I was over with my parents and went out to play, I could just about do what I wanted to but if I was with other neighborhood kids, she'd yell and shoo us away.

CW collected Avantis - those weird or really cool looking Studebaker sports cars. He drove regular Studebakers for his work car but always had an Avanti or two in some phase of restoration.

My last memory and one that really dates or ages me and looking back, seems rather silly perhaps but our peak time of friendship was the late 50s. Those around back then recall duck-and-cover drills, fall-out shelters etc. CW built what he said was a nuclear fall-out proof room inside his house. Today it might qualify as a safe-room or perhaps a tornado shelter. He build super thick, heavily insulated walls around a room in the middle of his house, stocked it with water and non-perishable foods like Y2K was coming and the doors would probably work in a bank vault. And of course when the Russians dropped the big one, we were invited to come and sit out the post-nuclear whatever.

One last little memory, CW always called his wife "lover". He'd say, "Lover, can I have another cup of coffee?" or something like that but he always prefaced with that pet name. Don't know that I've ever heard anyone else do that in my life.

They both passed away by the time I was in college and even though I only lived two houses away, I really had lost touch with them by then. Wish I had kept up contact. Also wish I could remember how to play Canasta!