Readers Remember

It’s summer 1956 and I’m almost 6 years old. My family and I are visiting relatives in Kanab, Utah. My aunt had sent my dad and me to the drugstore to pick up a couple of items. I was wearing a Davy Crockett coonskin cap and my Lone Ranger cap pistols.

We entered the drugstore and there standing near the cashier--big as life--was Clayton Moore--the Lone Ranger! He was in town filming the first Lone Ranger movie.

He spent five minutes talking to me, and I came away with an autographed Lone Ranger comic book and a few lessons on the proper handling of a pistol.

Gee . . . I wonder what became of that comic book and the set of Lone Ranger cap pistols?

JIM LEWIS

Sylmar

*

My mother was standing with her back to us, doing dishes. She was wearing a flowered dress. It was a hot summer day, a Brooklyn kind of summer day. My father was sitting at the table talking to her, as he usually did when he had a day off from the shipyards. He was holding the newspaper spread open.

Dad said very quietly, “They dropped some kind of a big bomb on Japan.” My Mom said, “What kind of bomb?” He looked at me and said, “I don’t know, some kind of big bomb with something called atoms or something.” She went back to washing the dishes, and I went for a swim.

It sure was a nice day in Brooklyn on Aug. 6, 1945.

ROSALIE CONWAY

Newport Beach

In 200 words or less, send us your memories, comments or eyewitness accounts of the 20th century. Write to Century, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, or e-mail century@latimes.com.