Let's "geeze!"

[Betty]

OMG I remember Topper. How about December Bride and Our Miss Brooks?

When I went to the Sat. movies, we would usually have a cartoon, a serial, and the main feature.

This has just been so much fun.

[ScotsCats]

Lawrence Welk and Perry Mason on Saturday night at my grandparents house. Skating on ponds. Wild grapes, raspberries, and blueberries to be had for the taking growing all around where I lived. Nothing beats the taste of these "mother nature" grown treats. We got our first bike when I was 10. A red boys Schwinn that I had to share with brother and sister, second hand and, in my eyes, perfect. Back then sharing was what you did without question.

The first movie I went to without my parents was "Shane" starring Alan Ladd. Dad gave me and my two cousins $5 and we gave him change, even after having our soda, popcorn, jujubes, and milk duds. How about drive-in movies where the entire vehicle got in for $1. We used to take my uncle's panel truck, pile in three mothers and about 10 kids - brought our own drinks and snacks (grocery bags full of fresh popped corn). The mother's sat in the truck but the kids sat on the swings, on the ground, on top of the truck - we had a ball.

I guess we didn't have much money but I never noticed. Mom made all our clothes, including coats, we grew veggies that she put up and we stored in the root cellar (our house was about 200 years old at the time so had a root cellar that you crawled into). She made the best jams out of those wild fruits.

Thanks for this thread - lots of great memories and so many laughs.

Edit - how about wringer washing machines? Someone mentioned clothes hung outside - towels spread over bushes - the smell of freshly laundered sheets. Almost makes me want to get rid of my dryer - NOT! I do still hang sheets and towels outside on occasion. The lady next door lets me use her lines. She 82 years old and still hangs all her clothes out to dry.

[Granny53]

Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats the smell of line dried sheets and pillow cases! Do you remember how bright white they were? That was because of the blueing that Mom put in the rinse water! No such things as colored or designer sheets back then. Mom used a wash board until I was about 5-6, when she got a wringer washer that sat on the back porch. We kids were not allowed to go far on Monday's because the boys had to help carry buckets of water to fill the washer and the rinse tubs. I got to help carry the wicker basket and hand clothes to her as she was hanging them up. When the water got too dirty in the washer, or too soapy in the rinse tubs, you just let the hose down and let it drain out into the yard. When we got older, when I was about 10, we moved into a house that had a basement and that was when we put the washer down there because there was a hot & cold faucet and drain, in the floor. In the winter the clothes were hung on lines put in the rafters. Yippee! No more hauling water! Of course, we had to carry the basket up the basement stairs and around the house to the close lines! And, how did she keep from killing the zippers in our jeans? I had a wringer up until 1985 and I was always breaking off the little tab on the zipper or smashing and twisting my bra hooks and the plastic or metal bra strap slides.

Embroidered pillowcase! Used only for Mom & Dad's bed because they were gifts from family members.

That leads me to handmade Christmas gifts. I think these are the best gifts of all! I still try to make something extra special for at least one member of the family along with homemade pumpkin bread and cookies. I think the best Christmas, since growing up, was in 1979 when I made flannel shirts and blouses for every member of the family, even the 8-9 month baby. Sounds almost silly when more flannel shirts went to members who live in Florida and Texas. All my brothers wore those shirts until they shredded and fell apart, even the two that lived down south, and asked when I was going to make them more!

I remember one Christmas where we had to have been the best kids in the world! Sometime after Thanksgiving my oldest brother found "elf prints" in the snow outside the bedroom window! At least that's what Mom told us they were and we believed her. Kids today would have looked at her like she was crazy and told her they were made by birds!

Rhonda

[Desertthorn]

This is great. I just purchased both Topper movies from Amazon a couple months ago. Didn't have a drinking St Bernard, but I do remember that. Hum.

Ghost and Mrs Muir was a favorite movie. And I remember Shane well. Shane! Shane!

Granny, what about the blueing that Grandma put in her hair!

[Granny53]

Neither of my Granny's did that, but my kindergarten teacher had bleached platinum hair and it always was changing hues - pink, purple or blue! We never knew from one day to the next what color it would be. (Up until I started typing this, I remembered her name, but I lost it.) I remember she was about as big around as a tooth pick and always wore very tall high heals! Did they have stilettos back then? Funny how things like that sticks in your mind!

I just bought the Ghost and Mrs. Muir back in the winter, have watched it at least a dozen times. Toppers? Not sure about that one. Shane? Not a big western fan, unless it has John Wayne in it. Now that was a man!

Rhonda

[Chris]

I got the following in my email. It's amazing how many of these items we already touched on!
DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN...?

All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?

It took five minutes for the TV warm up?



Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?

Nobody owned a purebred dog?



When a quarter was a decent allowance?

You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?

Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?

All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had
their hair done every day and wore high heels?




You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped,
without asking, all for free, every time?
And you didn't pay for air? And, you got trading stamps to boot?

Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box?

It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner
at a real restaurant with your parents?

They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . .and they did?



When a 57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise,
peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady?




No one ever asked where the car keys were
because they were always in the car,
in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?


Lying on your back in the grass with your friends
and saying things like, "That cloud looks like a .."

and playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game?

Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals
because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?

And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once,
you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace,
and share it with the children of today?

When being sent to the principal's office was nothing
compared to the fate that awaited the student at home?
Basically we were in fear for our lives,
but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc.

Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat!
But we survived because their love was greater than the threat.

Send this on to someone who can still remember
Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy,
Howdy Dowdy and the Peanut Gallery,
the Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows,
Nellie Bell, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk.


As well as summers filled with bike rides, baseball games,
Hula Hoops, bowling and visits to the pool,
and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar.
Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that"?



I am sharing this with you today
because it ended with a double dog dare to pass it on.
To remember what a double dog dare is, read on.
And remember that the perfect age is somewhere between
old enough to know better and too young to care.

How many of these do you remember?

Candy cigarettes
Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside
Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes
Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum
Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
Newsreels before the movie
P.F. Fliers


Telephone numbers with a word prefix....(Raymond 4-601).
Party lines


Peashooters
Howdy Dowdy
45 RPM records
Green Stamps
Hi-Fi's

Metal ice cubes trays with levers
Mimeograph paper
Beanie and Cecil
Roller-skate keys
Cork pop guns
Drive ins
Studebakers


Washtub wringers
The Fuller Brush Man
Reel-To-Reel tape recorders
Tinkertoys
Erector Sets
The Fort Apache Play Set
Lincoln Logs
15 cent McDonald hamburgers


5 cent packs of baseball cards -
with that awful pink slab of bubble gum

Penny candy

35 cent a gallon gasoline
Jiffy Pop popcorn

Do you remember a time when...

Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"?
Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"?
"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest?
Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?
It wasn't odd to have two or three "Best Friends"?

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties"?
Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?
A foot of snow was a dream come true?

Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures?
"Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense?
Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?
War was a card game?
Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?
Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived!!!!!!!

Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from
their "grown-up" life .. .I double-dog-dare-ya!

[MotherNature]

Oh, my!!!

I remember all of those! Life was so simple and wonderful then. I wish my grandchildren could know a carefree way of life like we knew as children, but I'm afraid those days are gone forever. How sad!

Cathy

[ScotsCats]

I HAVE metal ice cube trays with levers. Got 'em at a yard sale a few years back for 25 cents each. Six singles and a double. Take my money but don't touch my ice cube trays. The grandkids think they're pretty strange since all they've ever seen are the plastic.

TV had 3 channels and was on for about 4 hours a day.

Did anyone play "statue?" One person picked a category (funny, serious, etc.), then took one of the other players by the arm, spun them around until they couldn't stand any more, then let them go. The released player had to strike a pose in the category the spinner chose and stay that way until the game was over. This continued thru all the other players. Then the spinner got to pick the pose they liked best and that person became the next spinner.

[MotherNature]

And hideandseek.....

where you had about a city block to hide in and one game took forever? And Red Rover, Red Rover, Let so-and-so come over.....and they had to break through the line of kids all holding hands? Kids would think you were crazy to suggest something like that now!

Cathy

[Coop2004]

Chris,
This thread is FANTASTIC. I can remember all of the following:

All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?
Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?
Candy cigarettes
Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside
Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum
P.F. Fliers
Telephone numbers with a word prefix....(Raymond 4-601).
45 RPM records
Green Stamps
Hi-Fi's
Metal ice cubes trays with levers
Mimeograph paper
Beanie and Cecil
Roller-skate keys
Drive ins
Tinkertoys
Erector Sets
Lincoln Logs
5 cent packs of baseball cards - with that awful pink slab of bubble gum
35 cent a gallon gasoline
Jiffy Pop popcorn

All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had
their hair done every day and wore high heels? And students weren't allowed to wear jeans and the girls had to wear dresses or skirts and blouses. I recall, when I was in the 9th grade, one fellow had on a sort of fish net shirt with a t-shirt underneath and was sent to the principal's office.

I also remember the strips of paper with little "dot" candies in yellow and green. And something similar to the Kool-Aid, it was in something that looked like a long straw (both ends closed, of course and it had a bitter sweet taste).

We got our first color TV around 1969-1970. I remember a girl friend of mine coming over to watch "The King and I" at 4:30 p.m. on the local CBS station (The Early Show).

Also, I remember the first time I saw "The Wizard of Oz" on a color TV - it was so magical!!

My great-grandmother had her hair dyed blue.

I remember my paternal grandmother, as well as two sisters of my maternal grandfather had long that was braided and plated (the braids were wrapped around their heads).

Every Sunday night, at 8:00 p.m. on CBS, it was the Ed Sullivan Show!!

Being that I was born in '54, I don't recall the Milton Berle show. But my parents, who were married in '49 and got a black and white TV for a wedding present, always had both sets of grandparents over on Tuesday nights (my mother's parents lived upstairs from us) to watch Uncle Miltie.

Most of the houses on my block were two family houses. I remember I felt that the elderly couple next door to us were like I third set of grandparents to me. They had a grapevine in their backyard.

In the summer, I remember the aroma of fried or roasted peppers throughout the block.

I, too, could go on and on!!!

Again, thanks, Chris!!

Linda (Coop)

[MotherOfGizmo]

O.K. I'm not a member of the 50+ group but I remember all of that list Chris except

Telephone #'s w/ a word prefix (except that I've heard it in old movies)
Beanie & Cecil (don't have a clue about who they were)
and 35 cent gasoline--it was like 60 cents when I remember...

I'm only 43! :sadblinky

[MotherNature]

MotherofGizmo.....

I am 59 (will be 60 on 9/2 and my telephone number started with the prefix LYric when I was growing up. My Dh (who was my boyfriend then) had a phone number that started with TUxedo. I don't think they changed them to all numbers until sometime in the late 60's. Beanie and Cecil was a puppet show on television. Beanie was a little boy who wore a beanie and Cecil was a big green sea serpent. When I was in high school in the early 60's, we all wore penny loafers with dimes stuck in them. On weekends we would cruise around until gas got low and then pool all our dimes to put a few more gallons in the tank. Gasoline was 30 cents per gallon. Ah, the good old days!

Cathy

[Katlam]

Wow, this has been a fun read! I'm 45 this birthday and I recall much of what has been posted.

Cathy--I loved Beanie and Cecil (the seasick seaserpent) and Dishonest John!!! Nya-uh-uh! There was one cartoon episode where Cecil even sang "Rag Mop"! LOL!!

Now, the question is, who can tell me what was the word Captain Kangaroo said before Mr Moose made the ping pong balls fall on his head???

Anyone watch The Prisoner? The Avengers? Time Tunnel? Land of the Giants? I watched Ed Sullivan, Rawhide, Gunsmoke. What cartoons did you all watch on saturday mornings?

Kathy

[Coop2004]

Speaking of the telephone numbers, where I grew up, it was CApital
i.e. CA2- and CA9- and they were the only exchanges, not only in my town, but in at least 3 other towns, as well. They of course were changed to 222 and 229. Now, as elsewhere, in my hometown, there are at least half a dozen exchanges, probably more, because of cell phones, faxes, etc.

And when I started to drive, gasoline was going for 40-45 cents a gallon!!

[ghostwoman11]

OMG reading these post brought back memories and I actually have tears in my eyes. I was the oldest of 5 but was actually an only child for the first 5 years and considered myself spoiled until the rest of the crew was born and the money got scarce. I remember the hula hoops and the can cans. The little waxed bottles of pop. I remember Howdy Doody, Sky King, Lassie, Mickey Mouse Club, Captain Kangaroo and oh so many more.

Oh and the outhouses for sure. Back then if you had indoor plumbing, well then you were considered RICH. At least in the small rural community I grew up in. And as for phones. I was 16 before we ever had one and 17 before we got the indoor plumbing.

Life has certainly changed. I cannot not say most of my childhood memories were pleasant (I grew up with an alcoholic and physically abusive father), but I can certainly say thes posts have helped me remember the GOOD in the Good Ole Days. :nod