"I attended Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Astoria, New York. I had won MVP for the school's baseball team. The prize for winning was getting to go to Yankee Stadium to see a game. I went to the game with the priest from my school. We had box seats. I got to see Mickey Mantle and Yogi Beara bat. I also got to go on the field after the game."
Mr. Hoyt, Mrs. Iverson's father

"My Gramma wrote to me about when her son Tony (my uncle) was 4 or 5, there was an old apple tree in their backyard. It had a tree seat on the lowest branch. His sister, my Aunt Shari, would hold the hula hoop and Tony would jump from the tree seat into the hula hoop. She also wrote about when her other son, my Uncle Dave, was about 5 there was a heavy snowfall of soft snow. The clumps from the higher roof fell on the lower one. My uncle was certain that Santa Claus had walked onto the roof! Nobody told him otherwise."
Miss Major

The fifties were a pretty good decade. Several memories stand out.

• During the winter of 1952, the Cleveland area was hit with a big snow storm. Nothing moved for several days. The Major’s were living in Berea, Ohio, at that time. I remember seeing military tanks from the local Army National Guard unit going through the neighborhood in order to create a path for automobiles.
• Saturday afternoons in were special because my dad, your grandfather Major, would listen to the Ohio State football games on a little radio out in the garage while I helped him with projects he would be working on in the yard. That was in the days of Howard “Hopalong” Cassidy, an outstanding running back for Ohio State.
• Holy Family School, Parma, Ohio, didn’t have a dress code during the mid-fifty’s. Students were allowed to wear jeans. Several students still worked on farms in the area.
• I developed my first real interest in cars in the mid-fifty’s. Every waking hour was spent breathing, talking and dreaming cars. The type did not matter. Indy Cars driven by A.J. Foyt, Roger Ward, and Tom Sneva. Drag racing enthusiasts followed drivers like “Big Daddy” Garlits and Connie Kalitta. There were front engine dragsters, gas powered “AA” altereds. My favorite altered was a 33’ Willys with a 471 blower sitting on the top of the engine.
• A former neighbor, Mr. Kellar, who had driven USAC midgets in the late 40”, introduced me to the world of midget auto racing. Mr. Kellar took me to Canfield Fairgrounds, in eastern Ohio, to see midgets race on the dirt track. The midgets were powered by a 4-cylinder Offenhauser engine. There were no electric fuel pumps in those days. The driver had to prime or pump pressure into the fuel tank on every turn. I still enjoy seeing the midget and sprints (winged and non-wing) today.
• My dad, your Grandfather Major, took me to my first baseball game in the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Cleveland Indians played the Detroit Tigers. It was a night game and we had box seats in the upper deck overlooking the first base line. Players included Rocky Colavito, Jim Hegan, Al Rosen for Cleveland and Al Kaline for Detroit. Loved that old stadium. It had history, class and atmosphere. Not to mention one of the largest seating capacity for its time.
• The number of Major’s minors increased during the fifty’s. Your Aunt Peg and Uncles Dave and Tony joined the clan. That made five, including your Aunt Shari who was born in 1948.
• From the spiritual side, I can still remember my First Communion and Confirmation in the original St. Mary’s Church in Berea. Also serving 6:00 AM mass during the summer.

Mr. Major, Miss Major's father