Polka Dot Promises: Taking Back Time

By Laverty Sparks

This nostalgic short story and poem collection is dedicated to the baby boomer generation.

Come along for the iconic journey into those easy-to-remember, hard-to-forget times of the mid 20th century. The black and white bygone era can be relived again through these tales of yesteryear.

In this colorful and complex world, why not step back into the noir allure of the fifties? Where the good ole days live on!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laurel Sparks-Sellers
• Release date: Feb 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393025825

Laverty Sparks

Laverty Sparks is a former copywriter turned full-time novelist of female fiction, writing especially about women who have been there, done it, learned from it (including herself). She is child-free, petless, and a grateful wife to a patient, supportive husband. Aside from composing words, Laverty enjoys traveling, photography, decorating, and casino gambling.

Book preview

Dedication

This book is lovingly devoted to my parents

Russell and Myrtle Sparks

COMMITMENT TO MEMORY –

Rewinding The Good Ole Days

If I could turn back the clock

I would make every car on the road

a chrome classic with fins.

I would bring back neighborhood

mom and pop stores, cloth diapers,

45 rpm vinyl records,

people sitting on their porches.

If I could turn back the clock

I would make sure there were

candy counters, transistor radios,

telephone party lines, drive in theaters,

lunch boxes with thermoses again.

And sodas in glass bottles,

women in headscarves, hood ornaments,

the national anthem recited before class,

sock hops and The Mickey Mouse Show

after school.

What...you say I’m showing my age?

That’s correct!

I’d rather have grown up when I did

and remember the good times

than want to forget this period we live in

fifty, sixty years down the road.

AS IT SHOULD BE –

The Tale Of A Red Headed Girl

It is one of those days, one you didn’t want to end. The year is 1957, the month of May, the place...my grade school playground. I am a red headed freckle faced girl jumping rope with my girl classmates at recess. The boys huddle together and play marbles. Sometimes all of us partake in kickball in the open field or enjoy the cold-metal equipment on our sprawling schoolyard.

Us girls abandon the rope and decide to play ring around the rosy. My friend Cathy, who’s holding my left hand, lost her dad in a farm accident last year. I feel bad for her. She’s the only one in my third grade class who has one parent. As we skip around in a circle, I take care of the lilac colored dress my mom handmade. The other girls’ mothers sew their outfits also. My petticoat underneath is the same color as the pink fairy rose vine bush in our front yard at home.

As we fake all fall down, something reminds me Mother plans on hosting my brownie scout troop meeting tonight at our house. Was it because she ironed my uniform this morning? I believe she not only has one of her church group’s meetings next week, but she’s also den mother to my little brother’s scout troop as well. As busy as she is, Mom never neglects her family duties. I love her so much.

When class resumes, the teacher will embark on subjects I drink in as fast as the milk given to us in the lunch room. All of us students respect, and perhaps fear, Miss Ellis. Word had it that she never married, is up there in years, and devotes her time to her pupils. Miss Ellis likes me, I am known as a bookworm, and spelling bee champ. When she asks someone to read aloud from our basic readers, I’m usually the first she calls on. And I’m more than happy to oblige!

Yes, because of my looks, I get bullied, but the kids regard me for my intellect. Usually, I’m one of the last chosen for the Red Rover game. Still, I love books, studying and learning.

Aside from school, I care for nothing but riding my bike, tackling board games, putting together paper dolls, playing with my kids nurse kit, or reading my children’s books. Maybe Mom will even let me play dress up again with her hats and gloves. I just have to be careful and respectful of her things.

The school bell rings and recess is over. We file back into our classroom and it’s time for family health. As Miss Ellis scribbles some notes on the blackboard, I recall our family doctor came to the house yesterday, checking on my little brother’s upset stomach. He tried cheering him up with talk of the new space program and racing at the upcoming Indianapolis 500. I think the doctor said his favorite driver is Eddie Sachs. Blah...Fellow talk! My arm still stings from last week