Heritage+stories-Russo,Dominic

== In 1943 my pap was **11** years old. He lived in Ford Cliff,PA. He remembers when the streets were not yet paved and made of packed down dirt and when this area was not populated like it is today. Back then the streets did not have curbs or any drain pipes along them like they do today so when it would rain my pap and his friends would go and race sticks along side of the road since no one had video games. Another way they entertained themselves was by building a dam at Tub Mill Run out of rocks and sand bags filled with dirt for a swimming hole. Every time it rained really hard their dam would wash away so the next day they would all go back and build the dam again. The population was very poor or scarce so that left many open fields around to play football and other sports such as baseball, kickball, and basketball. Very few kids back then had a bicycle and had to walk everywhere they went. My pap remembers his first bike. He was 14 when he got it, he was so happy. It was a used one for $10,but a disappointment came the next morning when he went outside to ride his new bike and the tire was flat. Back when my pap was my age (13) he said how he lived when there were no TVs, computers, cellphones, etc. In other words no one had electronics at all. He also said he earned a little extra money by taking some broken glass in a bundle to the white church up by the football field. He would get 15 cents for each bundle. He also played a good bit of high school football in his days but our football field now was not always the field. Our field now used to be just a swamp that you could catch tadpoles and frogs in. Their football field was in dog town which was also like a swamp but a little better. Anyway, back when they were kids there were no refrigerators so an ice man would deliver ice to the house to restock the ice box and while the driver was in the house they would climb into his truck and steal ice to cool down on hot summer days. To finish the kids days off they would all go home for dinner at 6 o'clock. After dinner most of their parents allowed them to go back out and play til sundown. By the time the sun went down if you were not home you would get grounded. My pap says that life was easier and more safe then than it is today. ==