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Although certainly not an Atkins topic, I thought it might be fun for this over 50 crowd to reminisce, a bit. One younger friend of mine would say we were "geezing!" Well, so be it. It's fun, whatever you call it.
I grew up in a small town in the south, but I suspect that many of you had a childhood similar to mine.
When I was a kid, I, and all of my friends, went EVERYWHERE on our bikes. They certainly didn't have anything useless on them, like a lock, but they did have the necessary stuff -- like playing cards attached with clothespins, so that they made a loud flapping noise when we rode.
Of course, one place we often went to on our bikes was the little convenience store (do NOT think 7-11 -- far from it!) a mile or two away. There we might buy a candy bar and a 10 cent comic book (Superman was my favorite. Heaven was buying Superman, Batman, and The Green Lantern all on the same day!) or some Lik'em aid (in a small Kool-aid type packet. You poured it into the palm of your hand and licked it). Perhaps we might have bought the little wax "bottles" that contained a VERY sweet beverage (and chewed the wax afterwards, of course) or maybe we got ice cream in a little Dixie cup, with the picture of a movie star on the inside of the lid.
Sometimes we'd go downtown with Mom, and we always wound up in the 5 & Dime. It had a hardwood floor, was not air conditioned, and the candy counter was always near the front of the store. To this day, I remember that unique smell, and it's just not one that's duplicated anywhere else. Sometimes they had lunch counters, and we'd have lunch there. The drugstores also had a lunch counter, and I remember if we were waiting for a prescription the pharmacist would give us a little coupon for a free Coke while we waited.
Afternoons, especially summer ones, were for playing outside with friends. We'd often play really dumb games like Red Rover, Simon Says, or Kick The Can. Sometimes we'd skate on the sidewalk, using skates that attached to our shoes, and were tightened with a "skate key." As it began to grow dark, we'd sometimes catch fireflies ("lightning bugs" we called them) and keep them in a jar with holes punched in the lid.
I get my gadget freakiness from my Mom, so I think we had our first TV by the time I was two years old, so I really don't remember radio dramas. But, I do remember sitting and watching the test pattern (the one with the Indian head) until the station signed back on at 5:00 pm, (there were no tv broadcasts during midday and early afternoon) and the first thing you heard was "Hey, kids, what time is it?" ("It's Howdy Doody time!") Then, a bit later on, Pinky Lee started coming on right before that.
After a while, "Howdy Doody" moved to Saturday morning, and was followed by "Sky King" and "My Friend Flicka." I think I was about 10 years old when "Howdy Doody" went off the air, but I cried, anyway, when Clarabell said his only spoken words, "So long, kids!"
The whole family planned Monday nights around "I Love Lucy." We had to be at home that night, and have the tv snacks ready and waiting. I vividly remember the neighbor from across the street visiting one afternoon and telling us that Lucy was in Italy and she was going to press grapes with her feet that night.
I vaguely remember the shows "My Little Margie," "I Married Joan," "Our Miss Brooks," and "December Bride." Harry Morgan played Pete on "December Bride" and used to crack everyone up talking about his wife Gladys -- whom you never saw. Eventually there was a spin-off called "Pete and Gladys," but Gladys, in person, just wasn't nearly so funny as the one Pete always described in the earlier show.
There was another kiddie show when I was quite small called "Winky Dink" It was a cartoon show -- the characters were little more than stick figures -- and you pressed a plastic sheet onto the screen so that you could draw on it with the supplied crayons. That way, you could draw a bridge, or a ladder, or whatever, to help Winky out of his predicaments. Mom decided that she'd better buy me the plastic sheet after she caught me trying to draw on the tv screen with a regular crayon.
We got our first color set in 1964, and we were the only people I knew that had one. In retrospect, I think I just about drove my Dad insane trying to talk him into buying it. I think he finally did it just to shut me up! There were almost no shows in color at that time, except "Bonanza," "Walt Disney" and "The Flintstones," so, the dealer that we bought it from brought it out on Sunday night and finished setting it up just in time for "Bonanza." There were quite a few commercials in color -- during the black and white shows -- but, because you had to adjust the color each time you changed the channel, the commercials were usually all purple or green. By the time you got over to the set to adjust it, they were over!
For a short period, I stayed with foster parents when I was quite young. They lived in a rural area, and had an old hand crank telephone on the wall. One day I moved a stool up to it and turned the crank; but, I turned it backwards and it came off in my hand! I was so scared because I thought that I was going to be really punished for that one. When I was about 7 or 8 I had cousins who lived up in the mountains of North Carolina, and their phones didn't have dials. When you picked it up, the operator asked what number you wanted. Sometimes the number was 47, or 83, or 112 -- there was no set number of digits! I don't think I saw a telephone that wasn't black until the mid-sixties, and, of course, it was probably after that before we had our first telephone that wasn't on a "party line."
Those were the days when doctors made housecalls, and milk, in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers, was delivered to your back door. It was the days of service, when you stopped at the gas station and the attendant filled your tank, washed your windshield, checked your oil, and gave you a free glass or dish, along with Green Stamps. And all that for 24.9 cents a gallon.
There are often times when I wonder how we ever made it without the Internet and cell phones. And there are times, like now, when I remember that we made it just fine, indeed.
I grew up in a small town in the south, but I suspect that many of you had a childhood similar to mine.
When I was a kid, I, and all of my friends, went EVERYWHERE on our bikes. They certainly didn't have anything useless on them, like a lock, but they did have the necessary stuff -- like playing cards attached with clothespins, so that they made a loud flapping noise when we rode.
Of course, one place we often went to on our bikes was the little convenience store (do NOT think 7-11 -- far from it!) a mile or two away. There we might buy a candy bar and a 10 cent comic book (Superman was my favorite. Heaven was buying Superman, Batman, and The Green Lantern all on the same day!) or some Lik'em aid (in a small Kool-aid type packet. You poured it into the palm of your hand and licked it). Perhaps we might have bought the little wax "bottles" that contained a VERY sweet beverage (and chewed the wax afterwards, of course) or maybe we got ice cream in a little Dixie cup, with the picture of a movie star on the inside of the lid.
Sometimes we'd go downtown with Mom, and we always wound up in the 5 & Dime. It had a hardwood floor, was not air conditioned, and the candy counter was always near the front of the store. To this day, I remember that unique smell, and it's just not one that's duplicated anywhere else. Sometimes they had lunch counters, and we'd have lunch there. The drugstores also had a lunch counter, and I remember if we were waiting for a prescription the pharmacist would give us a little coupon for a free Coke while we waited.
Afternoons, especially summer ones, were for playing outside with friends. We'd often play really dumb games like Red Rover, Simon Says, or Kick The Can. Sometimes we'd skate on the sidewalk, using skates that attached to our shoes, and were tightened with a "skate key." As it began to grow dark, we'd sometimes catch fireflies ("lightning bugs" we called them) and keep them in a jar with holes punched in the lid.
I get my gadget freakiness from my Mom, so I think we had our first TV by the time I was two years old, so I really don't remember radio dramas. But, I do remember sitting and watching the test pattern (the one with the Indian head) until the station signed back on at 5:00 pm, (there were no tv broadcasts during midday and early afternoon) and the first thing you heard was "Hey, kids, what time is it?" ("It's Howdy Doody time!") Then, a bit later on, Pinky Lee started coming on right before that.
After a while, "Howdy Doody" moved to Saturday morning, and was followed by "Sky King" and "My Friend Flicka." I think I was about 10 years old when "Howdy Doody" went off the air, but I cried, anyway, when Clarabell said his only spoken words, "So long, kids!"
The whole family planned Monday nights around "I Love Lucy." We had to be at home that night, and have the tv snacks ready and waiting. I vividly remember the neighbor from across the street visiting one afternoon and telling us that Lucy was in Italy and she was going to press grapes with her feet that night.
I vaguely remember the shows "My Little Margie," "I Married Joan," "Our Miss Brooks," and "December Bride." Harry Morgan played Pete on "December Bride" and used to crack everyone up talking about his wife Gladys -- whom you never saw. Eventually there was a spin-off called "Pete and Gladys," but Gladys, in person, just wasn't nearly so funny as the one Pete always described in the earlier show.
There was another kiddie show when I was quite small called "Winky Dink" It was a cartoon show -- the characters were little more than stick figures -- and you pressed a plastic sheet onto the screen so that you could draw on it with the supplied crayons. That way, you could draw a bridge, or a ladder, or whatever, to help Winky out of his predicaments. Mom decided that she'd better buy me the plastic sheet after she caught me trying to draw on the tv screen with a regular crayon.
We got our first color set in 1964, and we were the only people I knew that had one. In retrospect, I think I just about drove my Dad insane trying to talk him into buying it. I think he finally did it just to shut me up! There were almost no shows in color at that time, except "Bonanza," "Walt Disney" and "The Flintstones," so, the dealer that we bought it from brought it out on Sunday night and finished setting it up just in time for "Bonanza." There were quite a few commercials in color -- during the black and white shows -- but, because you had to adjust the color each time you changed the channel, the commercials were usually all purple or green. By the time you got over to the set to adjust it, they were over!
For a short period, I stayed with foster parents when I was quite young. They lived in a rural area, and had an old hand crank telephone on the wall. One day I moved a stool up to it and turned the crank; but, I turned it backwards and it came off in my hand! I was so scared because I thought that I was going to be really punished for that one. When I was about 7 or 8 I had cousins who lived up in the mountains of North Carolina, and their phones didn't have dials. When you picked it up, the operator asked what number you wanted. Sometimes the number was 47, or 83, or 112 -- there was no set number of digits! I don't think I saw a telephone that wasn't black until the mid-sixties, and, of course, it was probably after that before we had our first telephone that wasn't on a "party line."
Those were the days when doctors made housecalls, and milk, in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers, was delivered to your back door. It was the days of service, when you stopped at the gas station and the attendant filled your tank, washed your windshield, checked your oil, and gave you a free glass or dish, along with Green Stamps. And all that for 24.9 cents a gallon.
There are often times when I wonder how we ever made it without the Internet and cell phones. And there are times, like now, when I remember that we made it just fine, indeed.
But we did have a 5&10 on the corner with the wooden floors and a soda fountain/ lunch counter. Al, the man who worked the counter would always ask if we wanted chocolate covered ants on our ice cream cones. Of course! They were the best part. And the cones were always sugar cones. 
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