Ads in the Ellicott City Times that week were full of summer items for sale including ice cream freezers, lawn mowers and screen windows and doors. For the latter the ad read: "Door and window screens - All sizes. ... Our 94C screen door is the same as usually sold for $1.25. See them and be convinced. Natural wood. Finished in Japan."

It's unknown how much of the screen was finished overseas. It doesn't seem cost-effective, but maybe they did ship items back and forth on a steamer to, even back then, take advantage of lower working wages abroad. Then again, perhaps the only part of the doors made in the U.S. was the plans and the rest, or the entire door, was "finished in Japan."

And of course, the ice cream freezers sold and pictured in the ad were the crank kind, a wooden tub with a deep cylinder at its core that with the help of some elbow grease would hold one of the raptures of summer; cold, creamy ice cream at a time when the only air conditioning came from a merciful breezes meandering through the oak leaves.

My mom had such a freezer, and for every family party even into the 1980s she'd get it out, mix up some luscious ice cream recipe, and then the kids would have to take a turn at the crank if they wanted the treat. I inherited the freezer and even though the electric kind is faster, we prefer the old tub, where the 21st century kids gather around and take turns manning the crank so they can receive their smooth, icy just desserts.

50 Years Ago -- Buddy doctor and Buddy Deane

There's an item in the Times about the Elkridge Rotary Club honoring Dr. Bruce Brumbaugh at a dinner. Though that was 50 years ago, the doctor is still lovingly remembered today. He was among seven doctors who made up the Howard County Medical Society. Dr. Timothy Herbert, a long-time Ellicott City family doctor, told me several years ago that he, Brumbaugh, and the other doctors met periodically in each other's homes back in the 1950s.

I took my own kids to Dr. Brumbaugh shortly before he stopped practicing medicine and he seemed worthy of his reputation as a kind and decent man. To put my daughter at ease, he first gently listened to her baby doll with his stethoscope and then went on to check on her cold. My sick kids were enthralled by him. His price for seeing them both, for this 1980s visit, was $6.

The doctor stopped delivering babies when he was about 80, but he delivered many of the people who made up the core of the community in post-World War I Elkridge. He died in 1985 at the age of 95. His office at the Elkridge Heritage Society is still kept just as it was for most of the 20th century.

Also in that issue in the upcoming events' listing is a notice about a Buddy Deane, Baltimore's rock and roll MC.

"June 21 -- Buddy Deane Record Hop -- Nat'l guard Armory Montgomery Road, Ellicott City 8 p.m. Tickets at door."

Any baby-boomer living in this area can recall rushing home from school to catch the Buddy Deane Show on television. Deane hosted a teen dance show that featured many of the hottest singers and groups in the nation. "Rock Around the Clock" was first performed on his show.

In Baltimore, "The Dick Clark Show" wasn't aired, so it was Buddy Deane's show kids tuned in to, not only for the music, but also to see other teens from the area who made up the group of regular dancers. If you've seen "Hairspray," then you know something about Deane's show. A teen soap opera with music and dancing!

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