Readers Remember

One night during the ‘50s, my Dad had come home from work and told my sister and me to come outside. We were preteens at the time. There, outside on the lawn, stood my Dad with this plastic tube around his middle.

“What is it?” my big sis and I exclaimed.

Then my Dad started gyrating and my Mom, sister and I were convulsed with laughter. We’d never seen such a sight. The idea evidently was to keep the object above your waist. My sister’s was blue, mine was yellow and yes, it was the invention of the Hula-Hoop.

NORA BARSUK

Glendale

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I remember the bitter cold winters when I lived in eastern Pennsylvania during the Depression years. My family lived in a row house. Under the front porch of each house there was an oblong-shaped opening with a hinged cover cut out of the wood lattice. It was just large enough to accept a coal funnel.

When coal was delivered the funnel was positioned through this opening and a second opening into the cellar.

The rattle of coal down the metal funnel was a familiar and prosperous sound, as it meant a neighbor had $14 to buy a ton of coal to heat the house against the onslaught of winter.

KENNETH D. KING

Rialto