Nostalgic Memories of America

August 17, 2003 | Myself

[hardhead]

This is a Sunday afternoon exercise in fun and memories of days-gone-by. We do a lot of fightin' and arguin' here in FR during the week, so on Our Lord's day of rest, how about relating your memories of things that have passed on into the dustbin of American history - things you yearn for or wish were still among us.

Have you caught yourself saying to your kids or your friends, 'well, when I was a little kid, we did it this way' or 'we didn't have any money but we were happy'.

[Comus]

Blue Laws. Remember when stores were not open (in the South anyway) on Sundays? In small towns, most everything closed on Wednesdays also.

[Allegra]

Riding bicycles all day without helmets or shinguards or any of that silliness. Skateboarding down the "suicidal" hill in front of our house...again with no protective gear.

Swimming pools with high and low diving boards and deep ends.

Having Mother home waiting when I came home from school...all the way through high school and smelling dinner cooking.

Catching fireflies in jars on summer nights.

Archie, Superman and Batman comics...for about 10 cents apiece.

I also like to horrify my friends' kids today by telling them we had to get up to switch channels on the TV...and we only had five channels.

[Maria S]

When I was a kid (in a very small Texas town):

1. No movies were shown on Sunday, and almost everyone went to church and Sunday School.

2. Saturday afternoon was always at the movies, which cost a dime. And another dime for a pop and a package of Charms. "War of the Worlds" was one of my favorites. There was always a cowboy serial along with the movie (a few minutes shown each week with a cliffhanger for next week) and there were ALWAYS cartoons. Drive-ins were in vogue a little later on; necking and making out were also in vogue a little later on.

3. We always had to bring our white gym suits home on Friday after school, get them washed and ironed, and have them for Monday morning.

4. Girls could NOT wear any type of pants, slacks, jeans, etc., to school. Shorts would have been unheard of!

5. Kids in the country had to get up earlier to catch a bus to town; the driver would have killed anyone who talked loud, cursed, been disrespectful in any way! And the parents would NOT have said a word.

6. We did not have pop machines, candy machines, or anything else like that in school. You either ate in the cafeteria or brought your lunch. We ALWAYS had only fish on Friday (catering to Catholics, I guess, even though most of us were Southern Baptist) No one complained.

7. We did not chew gum in school, there were no cell phones, and girls who smoked (in the bathrooms)were considered sluts. Guys who smoked were considered studs.

8. During the 'greaser' years, some guys wore their levis so low their butt cracks showed; their hair was longer, greasy, and in the ducktail style. Girls wore cardigan sweaters buttoned up in the back, "circle" skirts, and as many starched net petticoats as we could get on.

9. Elvis, Rick Nelson, Bobby Darren...enough already!

[Allegra]

Oh, and Fizzies...these flavored tablets you could drop into a glass of water to make a soft drink. We used to just eat the tablets, licking on them as we held them in their blisterpacks.

[hardhead]

I don't know if this is a dream or not, but I seem to remember from my kidhood, you could buy a package of straws that had chocolate on the inside. You stick them into a glass of milk and after a couple of slurps, voila' - chocolate milk.

[Paulus Invictus]

How about non-stop sports seasons? We went from one season to the next with nary a seam--baseball to football to basketball to hiking, to fishing and hunting and summer swimming. For us boys, it was heaven. Sadly, it came to an end with WW II and many of the boys gave their lives, were wounded or captured by Nazis or Japs.

During the pre War days people were happy, helpful, cheerful, and hard working, even in the depths of the Depression. No one went hungry in our town and we knew most everyone. There were no illegal drugs, no profanity or obscenity was heard in good company and selling porn was a Federal crime. School was tough, but we learned all we needed : English, math, science, music, art, foreign languages and a lot more sports. Everyone went to Church and practiced their religions as best they could. It was the best of times for many of us.

[ivanhoe116]

WOW! You really hit home JS!

I'd like to add after Sunday dinner and 'Gunsmoke', the family ping-pong tournament in the basement along with the unveiling of the latest model cars in September.

[hardhead]

Along on this subject, I sincerely believe people nowadays actually wish for a simpler life and time. To prove a point to our daughter, we bought a video tape of Howdy Doody and sent it to our grandson (2-1/2). Up to that time he was a fanatic for the blue dog, what the heck is his name. Now if you remember Howdy Doody, it was a gentle kids show featuring puppets. Well, from the minute Thomas (our grandson) wakes up, all he wants to do is watch the Howdy video. Nuff said.

[ErnBatavia]

oldtimecandy.com has a ton of this stuff...

[ivanhoe116]

I don't know if this is a dream or not, but I seem to remember from my kidhood, you could buy a package of straws that had chocolate on the inside. You stick them into a glass of milk and after a couple of slurps, voila' - chocolate milk.

No dream! I remember them!

[Allegra]

Hey, thanks! I might have to order some of those just for a trip down Memory Lane. I used to particularly like the root beer and grape flavored ones.

[Allegra]

could buy a package of straws that had chocolate on the inside.

They had strawberry flavoreed ones too, but the chocolate ones were far and away the best.

[mrtysmm]

I've read them all here so far. Please keep them coming. This is a wonderful nostalgic way to compare our past with others from other parts of the country. So many things I've forgotten have been listed...and I hope many more to come. I think I'll just keep coming back to this site for as long as it's here. Thank you all for your contributions. It's great to remember and share.

[cake_crumb]

"Blue Laws. Remember when stores were not open (in the South anyway) on Sundays? In small towns, most everything closed on Wednesdays also."

I remember that. In the rural area where I live, many businesses still close at noon on Wednesdays.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Lemonade stands. Kids out playing during summer vacation, instead of being locked in day care centers. Pick up baseball games in the evening, with all the kids in the neighborhood playing.

School lunches that consisted of real food. The smell of real gasoline and cigar smoke at the gas station, on a hot day. Dick Sinclair's Polka Parade tv show. My dad would pick me up and waltz me around the living room when I was a toddler. Food didn't have warning labels. 5 cents for an ice cream cone at Thrifty drug store, 29 cent nail polish at Woolworths. Fireworks from the Red Devil stand on the Fourth of July.

When kids were kids, instead of a social problem. Remember when democrats were still Americans? Remember when time moved a lot slower? When Christmas decorations in stores didn't appear the day after Halloween? When we used our imagination for Halloween costumes, instead of buying them?

[ErnBatavia]

Warning - they give you gas. Send some to sis for the next family gathering!

[RadioAstronomer]

S&H Green Stamps. :-)

Getting my first telescope was an endeavor in itself. I saw it in an S&H Green Stamp book. Oh it was glorious. It stood as high as I was with a wooden tripod base and a cadre’ of lenses. The tube was gray aluminum and the there was a side mounted guide scope. I no longer remember how many books of stamps that scope required but is was a huge number. So for an entire summer I stood outside of the local Safeway and helped people carry their groceries and asked if they would be willing to relinquish their S&H stamps. I patiently filled each book one after the other until I finally had enough to acquire the scope. It took all summer but it was worth it. I sent in the books of stamps and waited for the telescope to arrive. It seemed at the time like an entire lifetime went by before it did. Finally a huge package arrived and it was the scope. I set it up in the living room and carried it out to the back yard that night. Thru that scope on that very evening I saw for the very first time with my own eyes the rings of Saturn. To this day I remember that moment and I still have that very scope to today. It is no longer used as an instrument, however, it graces a corner of my living room and it is most precious to me.

[Allegra]

Oh..and building forts by meshing pine tree limbs together out in the woods and trying to keep it secret from the boys.

Finding the boys' forts and the pilfered "Playboy" magazines within.

[rockfish59]

The post ties in with my screen name.

When I was a kid in 1959 and we used to fish at the old ferry slips behind the Ferry Building in San Fran.
The rock cod we caught were huge, along with ling cod, perch, striped bass, flounders, cabezon, etc.
When I die and if there's a heaven, that would be the place for me!

On the dark side, whenever I hear the word 'Nostalgia' I am reminded of the crooks & thieves of 'Nostalgia-Cycle' in Huntington Beach, CA!

May they rot in hell forever!

[hardhead]

And don't forget, Christmas decorations at that time included scenes from Bethlehem - with no apology.