Bringing back the age of innocence

For me the age of innocence was growing up in Port Monmouth New Jersey during the mid 60’s & 70’s. It was a time of innocence, wonder, joy, safety & security. It was a time when your mother would say “you kids go out & play” and such play did not require any props, the play relied on imagination & energy. We would play hide & seek, kick the can, freeze tag, climb trees, build forts & ride our banana seat bikes just to feel the breeze in our face. It was a time when soda came only in glass returnable bottles. So we would scour the streets, garbage cans & Waloo Park for bottles and redeem them at Quackies the neighborhood candy store for five cents, and buy penny candy that really cost a penny and chocolate Hershey bars for twelve cents. It was a time when we would go from house to house of every kid in the neighborhood with our Spalding Tom Seaver baseball gloves and our Adirondack Johnny Bench wooden bats to try to gather up enough kids to play sandlot baseball, down at Port Monmouth School. We would play for hours on end, changing the rules as we played, having do-over’s, having pitchers poison, having automatics and having invisible base runners. There was also a big oak tree in foul territory that the branches over hung into the playing field, and if the batted ball hit the branches you could catch it off the branches for a out, or if it dropped it was a ground rule double. We called the field Faye Stadium after Mrs Faye who lived right next to the field. It was a time when milk was delivered to your house in the wee hrs of the morning by the milk man in his Divco milk truck and put in the metal milk box by the backdoor. It was a time when no one kept track of us when we went out to play, and we never kept track of the time of day. We only kept track of having a good time, but as soon as those street lights came on, that is how we knew it was time to head home. But most of all it was a time when you would hear bells jingling throughout the neighborhood and every kid would be screaming with delight as we ran & rode our bikes towards that magical sound. That magical sound of bells ringing was the Good Humor man, he would be dressed in his ajax white uniform, as kids gathered around him like the Pied Piper, pointing to the picture of the ice cream on the truck that they wanted. When he would open the freezer doors & pull out the strawberry shortcake, chocolate éclair, coconut bars and many more, it would make our day, and make memories that would last our lifetime. This is what Hinlickity’s Ice cream wants to do for you, bring back those cherished childhood memories & create new ones for the youngsters.