Posted on 10/02/2001 10:38:59 AM PDT by WIMom
Last night, there was an anti baby boom thread that started with a rant, and before some disruptor trashed it, some of us who were born at the tail end of the baby boom - from 1956 to 1964 - were having some nice recollections. The things that we seem to have in common are the following:
1. We were too young to serve in Vietnam, but remember the news.
2. As far as we're concerned, the music, television and popular entertainment and heroes of the 60s were and still are a matter for personal taste, and don't represent the shining apex of all civilization, icons to be revered by generations to come - in short, the Beatles were just a band that some might not like, and old Trek was cheesy and not well written.
3. Old boomers came into adulthood at the ideal economic circumstance - we've had to work for ours.
4. Our clothes and music tended to be lighthearted, and we are more conservative/libertarian as a whole than the older boomers.
So post your memories of tunes, movies, shows, fashions, school stuff, etc.
And enjoy yourselves!
I vividly remember the Sunoco NFL sticker book from 1972 or '73 mentioned in the previous thread. I made my dad stop for gas at every single Sunoco station we could find driving down from Milwaukee to Orlando that winter. I eventually had the full set.
I remember when Punk & New Wave were in their infancy. I recall sitting in the backseat of Rick Geil's car on a warm summer morning in between Sunday School & Church the very first time I heard Gary Numan's "Cars" on the radio. Punk music scared me at first, but I was immediately intrigued by the unique synth sound of new wave.
And contrary to what was posted earlier, I looked back fondly on the music of the Beatles. I was blissfully ignorant of any of the social controversey surrounding them. To this day, my favorite music remains the Beatles and Beatlesque bands (Squeeze, Elvis Costello, Crowded House/Neil Finn, Jellyfish, Michael Penn, the Rembrandts, etc.).
Beyond music, I remember leaving school early to go to a dentist's appointment, getting in my mom's car and hearing the news that Ronald Reagan had been shot. It marked the only time I can ever remember listening to news radio rather than elevator music while sitting in a dentist's chair.
I posted some of this on the earlier thread, but was having so much fun, I reorganized it and added a bunch of stuff.
1 cent Bazooka Joe, 5 cent baseball cards,10 cent ice cream off the truck,12 cent Marvel Comics, 19 cent kites, 29 cent Little Golden Books, 49 cent vinyl singles, and Rawlings baseballs for a buck.
Being too young for the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, but old enough to watch the cartoon on Saturday Morning.
"PF Flyers... they make you run faster and jump higher."
Captain Satellite on channel 2, and Hocus Pocus on channel 11.
Walking to school unsupervised when you were 5.
Trick or Treating unsupervised when you were 6.
Having to freeze like a statue at Simonds Elementary when recess was over. Coudn't move untile the yard duty teacher blew her whistle. This was to prevent us from getting hurt "running back to class." Really.
6 1/2 oz. Cokes in glass bottles.
Space Ghost, back when he was King of the Universe... We used to make Space Ghost "power bands" out of punched out McDonald's cups. (Remember 18 cent French Fries?)
Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots, Creepy Crawlers, GI Joe, 007 Toy guns, Hot Wheels, Duncan Yo-Yos, and Nerf Balls.
Fleagle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snorky.
Ginger in her evening gown, Mary Ann in her short shorts, Jeannie in her bottle, Catwoman in her catsuit, and... Yvonne Craig as Batgirl!
Agent 99... LOVE Barbara Feldon's voice.
Love American Style.
Laugh-In.
Star Trek, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Time Tunnel, Wild Wild West, Man from U.N.C.L.E., GIRL from U.N.C.L.E.!
Dark Shadows... Oooooo.
Kick the Can, all summer long.
Smeer the Queer, all winter long.
Mad Magazine.
Wacky Packs.
Five birthdays a year at Farrell's. (Free ice cream!)
Double Session at Bret Harte Jr. High.
Skipping out of class and not freezing... The Day it Snowed.
A triple feature with "Tidal Wave" (Japanese disaster flick with Lorne Greene spliced in), "Bug (giant, fire starting, telepathic cockroaches from the center of the Earth), And "Devil's Rain" (Ernest Borginine, William Shatner, and Doug McClure in a molten Satanic thriller... with Anton LaVey as technical advisor). We could run in and out between flicks to the last standing Golden Arches in San Jose... And it's still there, at Curtner and Almaden.
Remember the McDonald's 20th Anniversary celebration in 1975, when hamburgers were 15 cents for the weekend? I must have eaten 20.
Jack in the Box, when they blew up the Clown.
Dine and Dash at the local Sambo's (and you thought the NAACP put them out of biz?)
Creature Feature, with Bob Wilkins.
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