Good times, just around the corner – Kalmenson & Kalmenson

“Old is when the liver spots show through your gloves.”

Phyllis Diller

Phyllis Diller began her career in 1937 as a standup comedian at age 17.

Note: da harv still doesn’t require gloves—unless

I happen to be pruning my Bougainvillea.

Phyllis had an enrapturing laugh. I was fortunate enough to have been able to hear it resound in person, although unfortunately, I can’t recall when it was.

…And then there was a young lady named Shirley Temple Black.

“When I was fourteen, I was the oldest I ever was….I’ve been getting younger ever since.”

Shirley Temple

Shirley began her career at age four, and she remains the biggest child star of all time. Little da harv was about ten years of age (that would be me) when his dad told him: he thought Shirley Temple did more than any politician ever to help our country come through the Great Depression. Da harv saw his first Shirley Temple movie at age six.

Little Colonel, 1935 – Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and Shirley Temple

And though Shirley Temple and Phyllis Diller appeared to have great differences in their talent to entertain, and the enormity of juxtaposition in their lifestyle and attitudes, they accomplished great similarity within their abilities to bring joy to people during some of our country’s most trying times. Both of these ladies were far more as references in aiding humanity than what the general population became aware of during their entertaining lifetime.

It appears to folks today that those days of the Great Depression were different than they are now, but…were they?

It was the Great Depression from August 1929 to March 1933, a duration of 43 months. The reported unemployment rate was in excess of 10%. The United States/Population in 1933 was 125.6 M (and if you’re interested, we have tripled our population size during the course of the last eighty-eight years). The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic disaster, everyone suffered by its toll.

Source: Wikipedia

One of the things my mother and father agreed about in our household: laughing and smiling were all the ingredients necessary for stimulating happiness and some very deep conversations. Both Phyllis Diller and Shirley Temple Black were two of the more vibrant entertainers supplying grit for salvation during the misery engulfing our entire country.

Like most kids existing in a happy household, none of us were aware of the trying times our parents were going through for so many years; forty-three months in our case. As a very little kid, I took great joy helping my dad shovel snow during the early evenings when he returned home from whatever job he was able to find. I was never told he was being paid to shovel that damn snow. I remember seeing my mom and older sister rubbing dad’s back. I was far too young to understand as a three-year-old—they told me they were playing a game.

And then one day, the shoveling of our neighbor’s snow came to an end. It was time for World War II to enter our lives; little da harv had matriculated to the seventh grade, junior high school. Little da harv was now a ripe thirteen-year-old.

1941: Good-bye Depression, Welcome World War II

The enormity of our American spirit proved unequaled in the history of the world; everyone suffered by its toll. Over sixty million people died in World War ll.

From then and up until now, historians all agree, without the United States of America, the world we know today would not exist.

In windows throughout our great land

Many mothers with stout hearts

Replaced blue flags with gold

Settings left beset

Lives to be lived

Choices to be made

Life’s unwanted vacancies

Somehow being dealt with

Sorrows remain

Sorrows abound

And those at home

Men, women, boys, girls

All together

Helped

Those returning

Though some remained seated

They all stood tall

They managed to overcome

Theirs was a different war than ours

Our people remain

Our people

Some seated, all standing tall

Many more hands today

Extending hands

As we did yesterday

No stirring waters

Will create a wave

With a height

Or strength

Beyond ours

-HK-

All Photo Sources: Google Images

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