After my post about my memories of Vince Lombardi (below) a dear friend Barbara Smyth wrote to share her childhood sports memories. She and George married after he finished Yale in 1952 and live today at Franke at Seaside in Mt. Pleasant, SC.
Memories are made of this
George and I were not football fans as we grew up, we were Brooklyn Dodgers fans through and through since we lived in Brooklyn and our families went to games throughout the season and I listened to games on the radio after school so I could tell my Dad what happened to OUR team when we had dinner that evening. When Mom, Dad and I went to Ebbets Field, we sat in the bleachers for 50 cents each and always a double header which gave us the most baseball for our money. We packed a picnic lunch in a tiny cardboard suitcase with a quart of lemonade for the 3 of us, and off we went.
George's family sat behind first base in the seats bought for Smyth-Donegon Plumbing Supply Co. customers whenever they were not used for business. After a number of years, they electrified Ebbets Field and there were 14 night games that first season. Sometimes, Poppa Smyth would give George and his sister tickets to take a friend, and when I was so lucky to be asked, I would be all dressed up like all the other ladies at the game with white gloves, stockings and heels, and a dress, and he would have on a suit and tie, and if his dad went, he would wear a fedora and a suit. Everyone dressed like that for a Dodger game in the 1940s! Far cry from today's styles!
We have wonderful memories of those times - I think we had more dates at Ebbets Field in those years than any other place, including a World Series game in 1952. So when the Dodger management got approval in 1957 to move the team to LA in we were heart broken. The team had united everyone in Brooklyn - how could they take that away from us? I could go to work in NYC in summer and as I hung on a subway strap, I could talk to the unknown guy next to me and ask about a certain catch by Dolph Camilli or fantastic catch by Pete Reiser out in center field - everyone listened to the games on the radio reported by Red Barber, live from the field or sent in by teletype and he would add enthusiasm just like he was watching it in person. You could talk to anyone in the grocery store or on the subway - it was OUR team!!! Now that property is a huge high rise apartment complex.
At least we have our memories! Our childhood was great!
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