POST BOOMERS/PRE X - finally, a thread just for us - Thread 6

[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!

---

Thanks to one_particular_harbour for the fantastic idea!

[Sabertooth]

Hey, anyone remember 3-D baseball and football cards in specially marked packages Kellogs Corn Flakes?

How about those cool plastic Dinosaurs in Wheat Honeys and Rice Honeys?

I once sent away Cheerios box tops and 25 cents and got a Harlem Globetrotters Nerf Basketball!

I also sent away five wrappers from the Marvel Comics gag stickers (around 1967) and got an authentic shrunken head... Made of authentic plastic!

I was SO disappointed.

Remember when Hank passed Willie, on his way to passing the Babe, in the career home run chase?

[Think free or die]

Wasn't it grand? We took off for hours and came home when we were hungry. The dime store (remember those?) and ice cream parlor were favorite destinations when we felt flush. Otherwise it was vacant lots to play cops & robbers or cowboys & Indians. I found myself trying to explain cowboys & Indians to my sons recently; they were clueless.

[MasonGal]

YOu're going to love reading through these threads. I was getting ready to sign off for the night (I'm SLEEPY!) - but I can't seem to do it. I keep finding more interesting posts to read on here. LOL

[WIMom]

And a dime bought you a bag of penny candy (3 piecec for a penny).

[TexanMom]

I don't remember the name either. There were some REALLY gross foods aimed at kids. I remember my younger sister making "Knox Blox" and we would throw them up to see how long they would stick on the ceiling. Above the queen bed we shared in our room of our TEENY TINY 2 bedroom house.

The house could have been a 3 bedroom, but we had a dining room off the living room behind the folding doors...

[WIMom]

Oh, my allowance was 25 cents a week!

[Siouxz]

My mom & dad didn't have money for the real Barbies, so we got the "12-inch doll." The clothes we got were always marked "Fits Barbie, Skipper, and other 12-inch dolls." Never had that beautiful "Barbie" logo on it.

Spirograph used to p*ss me off, because you'd make this beautiful design, and right toward the end, the pen would slip and you'd have a straight line right in the middle of it.

I remember the year my mom tried to lose weight by getting "diet shots." I think it was around 1969. That Christmas was wild. All the gifts were decorated with these elaborate Christmas scenes--sleighs with reindeer, Santa faces out of copious amounts of yarn, bells made out of styrofoam, etc. Mom had LOTS of energy that year, I'll tell ya....

[edayna]

How about packing a lunch, hoping on your bike, leaving the house at 8 or so and not coming home til dark AND never telling you mom where you were? We did it all the time and it wasn't a big deal.

It was a big deal for me, but I did it anyway. And nothing ever happened! I'd have a heart attack if my kids disappeared for ten minutes. Granted they're pretty young, but I swear, till they're old enough to move out of the house I have to know where they are. It's not the same!

[DouglasKC]

Re:Bread bags under mittens and on feet...And all these years I was certain that my mother was the only mother who did this!! LOL!!!

I thought the same thing for the longest time until I started talking about it to other people. I think all moms in snow states picked up this little trick from something like Hints from Heloise....

[Sabertooth]

"How about packing a lunch, hoping on your bike, leaving the house at 8 or so and not coming home til dark AND never telling you mom where you were? We did it all the time and it wasn't a big deal."

You mean... WITHOUT a cel phone?

[boxlunch]

I can still taste the Bazooka bubble gum and see the Bazooka Joe cartoon on the little white piece of paper inside.

[flushed with pride]

If you read Marvel comics, were you a member of F.O.O.M.? If so what level of membership did you obtain?

[TexanMom]

I grew up in Chicago and we used to make such fun of the little blond girl who said "And AAAHHH helped" with that VERY southern accent.

Then I married a boy from North Carolina - I was watching home movies of my sister-in-law and would swear that she was the girl in the shake and bake commercial.. Southern drawl and all...

[Think free or die]

"weren't we immunized against smallpox?"

The word I've had is that without booster shots there's no telling how much the shots from childhood would help. I've heard one estimate of 10 years, which won't help any of us too much. We can only hope for milder cases, I guess. I find it amusing that my husband's scar is on the top of his arm and mine is on the underside. Apparently they didn't want a little girl to have a visible scar in those days.

[DouglasKC]

I remember the year my mom tried to lose weight by getting "diet shots." I think it was around 1969. That Christmas was wild. All the gifts were decorated with these elaborate Christmas scenes--sleighs with reindeer, Santa faces out of copious amounts of yarn, bells made out of styrofoam, etc. Mom had LOTS of energy that year, I'll tell ya....

Oh geesh, I about snorted out my tonsils on that one!

[Sabertooth]

"I found myself trying to explain cowboys & Indians to my sons recently; they were clueless. "

Cowboy boots with the little rainbow colored pull up straps just inside the brim. And cap guns... BANG!

And Putting playing cards in your bike spokes with clothes pins!

[edayna]

The word I've had is that without booster shots there's no telling how much the shots from childhood would help. I've heard one estimate of 10 years, which won't help any of us too much. We can only hope for milder cases, I guess. I find it amusing that my husband's scar is on the top of his arm and mine is on the underside. Apparently they didn't want a little girl to have a visible scar in those days.

Mine is on top of my arm and very visible - I had a photo taken recently in which it really stands out. From what I've read, it really matters where the vaccine is administered - and it has to be done in a certain way, it's not just like giving any shot. I'll have to look for the proper thread to address these concerns.

[boxlunch]

I grew up about 2 hours east of Chicago (outside of S. Bend) and also remember going around the house saying "and AHHH helped" for years. I didn't remember it was from that commercial. (come to think of it, I think we still say that sometimes at family reunions)

[DouglasKC]

If you read Marvel comics, were you a member of F.O.O.M.? If so what level of membership did you obtain?

Oh man...a whole nother area of nostalgia. I was never a F.O.O.M member, but I used to live for comic books. My favorite Marvel character was DareDevil. I would spent hours with a stick pretending it was my "cane" and practice tossing it off stuff. Spiderman of course was great and I also loved Iron Man.

I actually saved three big boxes of old comics from the 70's....two of them mildewed out in the basement of our first house, but I still have one box left. I'm going to save them until I'm 60 and hopefully cash out...