{"id":53,"date":"2002-10-15T13:38:53","date_gmt":"2002-10-15T18:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.summerofjim.com\/?p=53"},"modified":"2005-12-07T18:12:54","modified_gmt":"2005-12-07T23:12:54","slug":"cotton-candy-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=53","title":{"rendered":"Cotton Candy Sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Another beautiful morning… with the early sun turning the underbellies of the clouds pink & the sky a pale blue\u2026 a cotton candy sky\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Our house on 25 Alston Ave in New Haven was five blocks from the Yale Bowl. Each fall Yale would play host to a half dozen football games. My first recollection of going to the games was in 1958 or ’59. I don’t think I really followed the games that closely then… I just went. It was an activity. <\/p>\n

In 1960 Yale went undefeated and untied. Mike Pyle captained the Team. His senior year he played offensive tackle (and back in those days I think he played “2 ways”\u2026. playing on defense as well as offense). He had gone to New Trier High School in Chicago which for many years was famous for sending 2 or 3 of its star players (and somewhat bright students) to Yale. After graduating, Pyle went on to play for the Chicago Bears (this was at a time when you could count the players in the NFL who came from the Ivies on your left hand and still have room to pick your nose and thumb a ride). He would become Captain of the Bears and a NFL All Star at Center. <\/p>\n

In a quirk of scheduling, Yale played 7 of its 8 games at home that year. I saw every game that Yale played that year. The only away game being Harvard (which my father took me to… we went up and back on the train, with a bunch of rowdy Eli faithful). <\/p>\n

I was 10, and that would be the year that I would become a huge Yale fan. <\/p>\n

The following year my parents let me go to games by myself. A ticket cost $2., a program $1., a hot dog $.50, a coke $.25, a bag of peanuts $.25, and cotton candy $.25. I would be staked to $5. and I would walk to the Bowl by myself. <\/p>\n

After buying a ticket and a program I would walk to Portal 26 and grab the aisle seat immediately to the left and 1 row down. I would be there an hour before game time and would have the chance to watch the teams warming-up on the field. I would scan the players and the stands with my binoculars. My dad had a great pair of binoculars… I could tell whether a guy handed the peanut vendor a $5 or a $1 from 100 yds away! <\/p>\n

Over the years I got acquainted with the “regulars” who would sit in the same area… and by the time I was at High School I would have the company of a couple of neighborhood kids, too. <\/p>\n

I would always have 2 hot dogs during the game and a coke (sometimes 2 cokes). Then I would treat myself to either peanuts (to take home for later)… or on occasion cotton candy. <\/p>\n

Cotton Candy back then was always pink. And while not a big fan (there were kids who seemed addicted), I did enjoy the airy and sticky sweetness. But it did create a sticky mess, both on my hands and mouth, that couldn’t really be remedied ’til after I got home… and secondly, it made me thirsty. <\/p>\n

But I did enjoy the sight of those “pink bouquets.” <\/p>\n

Somewhere along the path, cotton candy also became available in turquoise blue. I could never fully understand it. Maybe someone felt that little boys felt uncomfortable eating something in public that was pink? I thought it might taste different; but it didn’t. And worse… now instead of a little added pink to your complexion around the mouth, there was now this hideous blue\/green smudge. <\/p>\n

So maybe your first recollection of cotton candy is at a circus, or zoo… maybe a country fair; but mine was the stadium where Mike Pyle and Calvin Hill competed on autumn Saturdays… and having $5 in your pocket made you the richest guy on earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another beautiful morning… with the early sun turning the underbellies of the clouds pink & the sky a pale blue\u2026 a cotton candy sky\u2026 Our house on 25 Alston Ave in New Haven was five blocks from the Yale Bowl. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childhood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}