Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Tag: 1970s kidhood

  • Summer’s denouement

    A story of autumn’s coming, in 1970s Indiana.

  • Summer’s denouement

    Memoir of my 1970s kidhood, squeezing out the last drops of summer before school started.

  • Channel 16, Father Hesburgh, and the Prayer for Peace

    Seen for the first time in 30 years: the recording of Father Hesburgh of Notre Dame reading the Prayer for Peace of St. Francis at WNDU-TV’s sign-on/sign-off.

  • We can learn what love is even from the imperfect people in our lives

    Remembering my grandmother, and how her simple ways of creating family times set the standard for me and helped me feel deeply connected and secure.

  • Why I probably won’t watch your vlog or listen to your podcast – and why I probably won’t create my own

    Blogs be skimmed and scanned, and can be read anywhere. Podcasts and vlogs, not so much.

  • Summer’s denouement

    Down the Road is on hiatus, returning Monday, 26 September. I’m rerunning old posts in the meantime. I’ve run this one many times; it’s one of my favorites. During my 1970s kidhood when schools started after Labor Day as God intended, my mid-August birthday always meant summer was beginning to end. By then, the afternoon sun…

  • Old McDonald’s sign on the National Road in Richmond, Indiana

    My friend Dawn and I recently took our annual road trip. Our 2009 trip along the old National Road, aka US 40, from Ohio to Indianapolis several years ago, was cut short by a family emergency. So we tried again. And we both love the National Road, so it was no hardship to see some of the same…

  • Captured: 1973 Schwinn Collegiate

    During my 1970s kidhood, Schwinn was the ultimate bike. Especially the 20-inch Sting-Ray: banana seat, chopper-style handlebars, chrome fenders, bright colors. All the boys in my neighborhood wanted one, especially if it came with the 5-speed Stik-Shift on the crossbar or the “slik” treadless rear tire. My first bike was an old, battered 20-inch Schwinn with…

  • Sleepless among classic cars

    I dragged my butt to the Mecum Spring Classic muscle-car auction this year. I normally go excited and energized, but this year I’d had an unexpected, serious case of insomnia the night before. I got no sleep whatsoever before I had to get up and drive my kids across town so they could get to school on…

  • Cross at Corner Only

    Hand-painted street signs like this one were very common in South Bend during my 1970s kidhood there. I remember the school-zone signs in my neighborhood as being hand painted, for example. I took it for granted until I moved away and found that other cities didn’t do it that way. I’m sure that increasing standards…

  • Vintage TV: The Twilight Zone

    My kids don’t like The Twilight Zone. During my 1970s kidhood, this show was one of my favorite gems of syndicated television. I loved to come across it, especially late at night, and enjoy its tales of science fiction and fantasy, of warped human nature, and of dystopia. What I didn’t understand was that when the show originally…

  • Summer’s denouement

    This post on another blog I follow reminded me of this piece I wrote in 2008. The photos are from my first roll of film, shot in August of 1976, of the children I wrote about here. It seems appropriate to re-run this on Labor Day; you’ll see why as you read it. During my…

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