When we would make one of these trips to Southern Maryland, we would get all our fishing gear ready and loaded in the car the night before so we would be ready to go early in the morning. We would get up about 5 AM so that we would arrive at the river when the tide was right for fishing. My father had explained to me that the tide was right for fishing when it was changing, or has he referred to it "running".  He said the fish were in the feeding mode when the current was running. If it was high tide or low tide, we would wait for the water to start moving before we started fishing. My Dad used to say that was one of the little details "City Folk" didn't know about.

Another detail that visitors didn't know about was that it was easier to catch fish from a boat on the river if you placed the boat on the water above an "oyster bed". An oyster bed was an area where the watermen had seeded oysters. The fish liked to feed on the oyster beds, and my father knew where the oyster beds were. In the 1950's and 1960's fishing was good on the Patuxent River. We used hand lines with two hooks on each line.  Many times we caught two fish at one time.  The most common catch were white perch and hardheads or some people refer to them as "croakers". Both were delicious when pan fried.

We had a routine that we followed when going fishing, we would stop at "Wayson's Corner"  for breakfast.  Wayson's Corner was a restaurant and gas station half way between Baltimore and our destination on the Patuxent River. When leaving the restaurant, they had a scale sitting near the front door.  If you wanted to weigh yourself, you would step on the scale, deposit a nickel and your weight would appear in the little window on top of the scale. Also when you deposited your nickel a little white card would come out of a slot on the scale with a message for you, similar to what you might expect to find in a fortune cookie. My Dad would always stop to weigh himself.

On one occasion, the message he received was puzzling, it read " Watch Your Little White Lines " He handed it to me for me to look at it and we wondered what it was supposed to mean? We finally decided that it was an error and that it was meant to read " Watch Your Little White Lies " We got in our car and continued toward a hopefully successful day at the river. We had only traveled a few miles when we were pulled over by a Maryland State Trooper. When my father asked the officer why we were stopped he replied, " Sir, you just crossed over the double white lines when you passed that other vehicle. Unexplained things like that were always happening to my Dad. " Watch Your Little White Lines ".

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03/24/07 The Early Days! Gas Lights and so forth!
The first city in America to light its streets with gas lights was Baltimore, Maryland in the year 1816.  By the time I moved to Baltimore in 1939, gas lights were common place through out the city streets.  As a kid I remember seeing a man who worked for the gas company come around each evening carrying a step ladder that was about six feet long.  He would lean it up against each lamp post, climb up and light the gas lamp, and then climb down and go to the next lamp post.  In the morning someone would repeat that practice at each lamp post to turn off the gas. I don't remember what year they converted the street lamps to electricity, but I do remember that the gas lamps were still in operation in my neighborhood until around 1950. That means that just 57 years ago, the streets of Baltimore were still being illuminated by gas.

In the 1940's, most homes used coal to heat their homes. Living in a row house in Baltimore, our coal was delivered by a Mack, open cab, chain driven dump truck.( An Open Cab refers to the cab of the truck not having doors, in the cold months a canvas door was snapped into place.) The driver would back the truck up to the front of the house and place a chute from the truck through one of our basement windows.  The coal would slide down the chute into a "coal bin" in our basement. When we needed more heat in the house, we would have go to the basement and shovel more coal into the furnace. The delivery of coal was an exciting event for all the kids in the neighborhood as they would gather to watch the coal run down the chute which always made a lot of noise. Most of these homes were later converted to oil heat.

Right next to the furnace in the basement was the hot water heater. It was not automatic. It operated by gas and when you wanted hot water, you would have to light the hot water heater and wait for the water to get hot.  Since it was not automatic, you had to shut it off when you were through.  Since it cost money to heat the water, it was the custom for every member of the family to take a bath once a week, usually on Saturday night.  That's right, one bath a week was considered enough.

Another delivery to our house was made by the "Milkman" who usually came twice a week and would set the milk on the porch outside our front door. In those days homogenized milk had not been discovered so the cream was very visible in the bottle at the top. On extra cold days the cream would start to freeze and push its' way up forcing the cap from the bottle.  In 1951, I visited my older sister who had married and moved to Houston, Texas.  Her husband was working as a milkman at that time and I went with him on his deliveries.  You can imagine my surprise when I found out that in Houston, the milkman was expected to walk right into the homes and place the milk in the refrigerator in the kitchen.

Did I say refrigerator? In the 1940's we had an "ice box".  For you young people, an ice box looked like a refrigerator but on top where you find the freezer on many modern day refrigerators, there was the ice compartment.  The block of ice usually lasted a few days and then had to be replaced as it melted.  Enter the "ice man", he delivered ice to your home about twice a week, and he did carry it right into your kitchen and place it in the ice box. The ice box also required a drip pan underneath that collected the water from the melting ice. When I got old enough, emptying the drip pan became my duty.

Such was life in the 1940's in America.  We didn't consider it inconvenient or even a hardship because we didn't know any better. It was a much slower pace.  There was no TV or computers and a pop up toaster was considered a luxury. And families found time to talk to each other.

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03/21/07  My Dog Sandy, A Love Story!
When I was about two years old, some friends of my family gave us a puppy that we named Sandy.  Sandy was the name of a dog in a popular comic strip at that time called "Little Orphan Annie".  Our Sandy was a mixed breed but definitely had some hound dog in her.  At that time we lived in a home on a large lot in a rural community about 20 miles from Baltimore and there was plenty of ground around the house  for a dog to roam and explore. Sandy would follow me everywhere I went and we became good friends.

The next year, my father took a job in Baltimore and we moved to a home in the inner city.  In those days, they called our house a row house, meaning there would be about 15 or 20 houses built adjoining each other in a long row.  If you happened to live in one on the end of the row or in a corner house, you were considered lucky because you had windows on one side of the house.  But we moved into one in the middle of the block, so there were only windows on the front and back, no side windows. Today these homes are referred to as "Townhouses" a lofty name for what we knew as row houses.

Our row house had a front porch that you could sit out on in the summer time, but there was no front yard.  The steps of the front porch led right down to the sidewalk which ended where the street started so there was no grass in front of our house.  Our neighbors had a small backyard with a patch of grass, but a former owner of the house we moved into had cemented the entire backyard so our house had no grass at all.  So we moved from a house with grass on four sides to a home with no grass.  Not a welcome sight for a boy and his dog! Over the next twenty years we would move twice to houses with grass lawns.

So Sandy and I grew up literally on the streets of Baltimore.  As kids we played ball in the middle of the street, having to stop frequently to let cars pass by.  While I was playing ball with my friends Sandy would sit or lie on the sidewalk watching my every move.  In the 1940's, people didn't keep their dogs tied up and there was not a leash law.  At least if there was, we didn't know anything about it. Sandy just ran loose and was usually waiting on our front porch for me to come out of the door ready to go anywhere I wanted to go.

Today people spend a lot of money on their pets, taking them to the vet on a regular basis, having them well groomed and making sure they have the best pet food available.  My father was raised on a farm where they always had five or six dogs and several cats.  The dogs were not thought of as pets but were used for hunting.  They were never allowed in the house and were fed scraps from the dinner table. Sandy was allowed into the house only at night.  When my father was growing up in the early 1900's, farmers would never consider paying for food for a dog or cat.  And while they might call a vet for a sick horse or cow, it would never occur to them to take a sick cat or dog to a vet.

Sandy adapted well to city life.  She would go off by herself roaming the neighborhood,  learning how to wait until there were no cars coming before crossing the street. When I started going to elementary school, I attended Baltimore Public School #51 that was on East 35th Street across from Baltimore's Municipal Stadium which was later replaced by Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. When I was five years old, I walked the two blocks from my home to the school and Sandy would walk with me. When I went in the school building I would tell her to go home and she would.  On the way home, she had to cross Old York Rd by herself avoiding traffic, which she did many times.

On one occasion after I had entered the school and was sitting at my desk in the classroom, Sandy came into my classroom and found me at my desk and sat beside me on the floor.  It caused quite a disturbance with the children and of course the teacher asked me if it was my dog.  That was the last time Sandy was allowed to accompany me on my way to school. We have a picture taken by my sister of when I was about five years old.  I'm sitting on the curb outside a candy store in our neighborhood, barefoot with my arm around Sandy.  I had just finished sharing an ice cream cone with Sandy.  We loved each other.  Just a boy and his dog.

Once Sandy came home with a cut on her front left shoulder. It was about three inches long and the skin was laid back on both sides. You could see the membrane under the outer skin like you can when skinning a wild animal. I took Sandy to my father for him to look at it.  I asked him if he thought we should take her to a vet.  He said "Nah, she'll lick it and it will heal by itself."  I watched it closely everyday, but my Dad was right, she did lick it and it healed completely.

As I got older, I started attending a neighborhood playground that was operated by the city. There was a heavy set city employee that we called Miss. Peggy, who was in charge of the playground.  There were swings and seesaws and sliding boards, a wading pool for the young kids. There were picnic tables and Miss. Peggy had an office where you could check out board games.  And they had horseshoes and ping pong tables and in the back they had a basketball court. It was really nice and it was all free, provided by the city of Baltimore. I had to walk about three blocks from my house to get to it.  Naturally Sandy walked along with me.  I spent many an hour during summer vacation at that playground, mainly playing basketball and ping pong.  While I was playing basketball Sandy would  sit or lay over on the side away from the action, but always with a watchful eye on me.  Sandy was always content as long as she was with me.

When I was nineteen years old, I joined the Navy and was gone from home for most of the next four years.  One day when I was in some far away country, I received a letter from my father telling me that Sandy had taken ill and he had her put down.  Sandy was about nineteen years old. When I consider that she survived many years of growing up on the streets of Baltimore, crossing the street hundreds of times without getting hit by a car.  How we never took her to a vet.  How we hardly ever bought her "store bought" dog food.  We fed her scraps from our table.  I think about Sandy when I hear statements like "You should never feed your pet human food".  Good ole Sandy, she was my best friend for nineteen years.  We simply loved each other and enjoyed being together!

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03/17/07   My Three in One Diet Plan!
I like to say that I have been on every diet known to mankind and that "I never met a meal I didn't like", so I guess those two statements go together. I will say that I have lost weight on every diet I have tried. The most weight I have lost on a diet was 48 pounds on the "Atkins Diet". I stayed on it for about six months. My doctor wasn't too happy about it, but my numbers were good ( Blood Pressure, Cholesterol etc.) so he would just smile and say " I don't like it, but I can't argue with the results". But after awhile I really started missing the foods you can't eat if you are following Atkins. And that's the problem with most diets, people get bored with them after awhile.

It's my opinion that most diets are designed for the person who needs to lose 15 to 25 pounds. I once heard a motivational speaker say that " Some people can stick to a goal for three months, some can stick to it for six months, some can even stick to it for a year. But a Winner sticks to it for however long it takes." Therein lies the problem for people with a lot of weight to lose. Most people can lose 10 to 15 pounds in three months. It's been my experience that most people start to lose interest in a diet after three or four months. So if you have a lot of weight to lose, your diet will have to be enjoyable because it's obvious that overweight people enjoy eating.

One of the diets I have tried is Weight Watchers. The first time I joined WW I lost 37 pounds in three months. But then I had a kidney stone attack and the doctor placed me on a low purine diet including many things that didn't match up with the WW plan at that time. So I fell off of WW's and it took me two years to gain back the 37 pounds I had lost. Since then I have rejoined WW's several times but could never maintain the interest I had that first time.

So you can see that for most of my adult life I have fallen into that group that doctors refer to as the "YoYo Dieters". Up and down, gain, lose, gain, etc. And after each diet I gained back what I lost plus a few more pounds. So I decided to formulate my own diet, based on everything I have learned about dieting over my lifetime. You might ask why should I listen to a man who has failed so often at losing weight? Remember the actor, Mickey Rooney? He wrote a book on "Marriage", Andy had been married nine times at that time. A reporter asked,  "Andy, Why would anybody want to read a book on marriage written by you?" Andy's answer was "Who knows more about marriage then me?"

I started my new diet on October 19, 2006, and have lost 30 pounds so far. I am enjoying it and eating what I want. What I have done is combine the basics of three different diets into one plan. It may not be something you would be interested in, but it is working for me.

First of all I am using the Weight Watcher point system. I was familiar with their plan and using their point system I set a daily goal of 1700 calories. On the Dr. Atkins Diet, he has you counting carbohydrates and recommends no more then 60 a day. I think 60 is a little severe when you consider that one slice of whole wheat bread can be 20 or more Carbs.  Counting carbohydrates is important to anyone who is a diabetic or borderline diabetic. Carbohydrates increase your blood sugar so by controlling your carb intake you can control your blood sugar.  The Veteran Administration Clinic that I use recommends 135 carbohydrates a day for me, so that's what I am using. And finally I became interested in how much sodium I was consuming and discovered that most of us are eating far too much sodium. Excessive consumption of sodium causes fluid retention which can cause high blood pressure. The recommended amount of sodium for humans is 2400 mgs a day. According to a Mayo Clinic Report, men consume about 11,000 mgs of sodium a day in this country, while women consume about 9,000 mgs a day. If you already have heart trouble, controlling your sodium intake is vital to your health. Most excessive dosages of sodium are found in canned goods and processed foods. And Fast Food Menus are loaded with high sodium items. Example: One can of Chicken Noodle Soup can contain 2200 mgs of sodium. One drumstick dipped in batter and fried can contain 360 mgs of sodium. The same drumstick baked or roasted will contain about 60 mgs of sodium. If you are a heart patient, it is recommended that you restrict your sodium intake to 1500 to 2000 mgs a day.

Since I started restricting my sodium intake to 2000 mgs a day, the results have been remarkable. I am losing weight faster. The swelling in my ankles at the end of the day is greatly diminished. Last week I visited my VA doctor who has been treating me for the past three years. I said to him " Look at that ankle doctor, look at that ankle!" He said " You know what we call that?" I said "What?"  He said "Normal!"

So that's my self imposed new program, 1700 calories a day, 135 carbohydrates a day and 2000 mgs of sodium a day. It's working for me. I know a lot of people won't want to keep all those records. I like keeping the record of what I'm consuming. It helps a lot. I look at it like I'm playing in a football game. I liken the daily goals to the white lines on the field, if you want to win you have to stay within the white lines.

We have this preconceived notion that if you're on a diet you can't eat this or that. That's why diets fail. Humans like to eat and they are going to eat what they like. Oh sure, most of us can restrain ourselves for a few weeks or a month but sooner or later our will power is going to weaken. I eat anything I want.  I just stay within the white lines. I plan ahead.  If I'm going out to a restaurant, I decide ahead what I'm going to order. Many restaurants today have websites.  Many have their menu on the website and the nutrition values posted. Most all the Fast Food Restaurants do. If you have access to the internet, you can make your selection at home before you leave based on the nutritional values.

I realize that most of you will not want to do what I'm doing. Some of you will say "I haven't got the time to fool with all that record keeping." I understand. Just let me say this about that, "Your time is running out!" 

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03/12/07 -- Welcome to Poppa's Corner where we will talk about various subjects that we hope you will find interesting. My wife and I were born and raised in the Baltimore, Maryland area and currently live in Maryland in a small town 18 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. We will start with a subject that is of interest to a lot of people, Ebay. Contact Poppa papachat2@yahoo.com

Bad Day at Ebay!

Contact Poppa papachat2@yahoo.com