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'.

[Allegra]

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

ROTFL! More like keep 'em away from Sis at the next family gathering!

[ivanhoe116]

Just remembered another one...balsa wood gliders. You popped out the parts and slid them together and flew all over the place. They had a small metal weight on the front. Other more 'expensive' models had plastic landing wheels on flimsy wire struts...with rubber-ban propellers.

[jonsie]

Taking the watermelon off my Uncle Leo's truck in Mississippi and hauling it to the creek to let it cool. After swimming with all the water snakes, busting open the watermelon was a great treat!

[Allegra]

You know...reading these, (I'm loving them all!) it's clear that we all played outside MUCH more than do kids today.

This could be the very simple answer to the "child obesity" problem the lib-media are always wringing their hands over.

[rockfish59]

Blue laws!

Sounds like we could use that now. Shut all the stores and 24 hour joints down at 6 PM!
Just think of the energy saved and probably a great reduction in crime!

[ishmac]

How about non-stop sports seasons?

Ha, I knew that routine well as a competitive swimmer. I remember getting up at 5:30 am to drive to morning workouts when I was 16. Swim from 6-7:30. Full slate of classes at school. Then 2 more hours in the pool, from 3:30-5:30. In the summers we'd have two-a-days M-F, then 3 hours on Sat. morning from 6am to 9am in an unheated pool. 10-15,000 yards per day. All this around having a summer job. Never made a dime out of it. Memory I'll never forget: making nationals in high school, and the Indiana high school championships.

[yankeedame]

Sitting on the curb on a warm summer afternoon with your friends and eating the cherry sno-cone you just bought from the "ice cream" man and his merry, little yellow truck with the little tingling bells on top.

[hardhead]

Being a model builder as a kid, I remember three brand names that had some fine kits: Strombecker's - solid hardwood model planes; Guillows and Comet. Remember the 10-cent Comet kits? My cousin and I thought we were equal to the best rocket scientists at the tgime and decided to build ourselves a three-stage rocket. We couldn't get ahold of any rocket fuel (smile) so filled the propulsion chambers with torn off match heads. It must have taken all the matches in our small town to make the rocket. We set it in a small pit near my cousin's home, attached a long fuse, lit it and ran like the dickens. It rose into the air about five feet then toppled over and caught the dry grass on fire. We were darned lucky my Uncle Leo didn't whip our butts with the branch of a near-by willow tree.

[rockfish59]

Playing outside!

It's true! I was rarely home and always hated when it got dark as we couldn't see the baseball.
The only real worry was running into the bully here and there.

Nowadays, I carry a .357 in my belt!

[cake_crumb]

Ah, speaking of Mom...decorating Christmas cookies with Mom and Grandma...and Mom's homemade bread. Licking the beaters. Making homemade Play Doh. Pillow fights. Popcorn made in a pot, with oil. One of us occasionally whipping the lid off in a fit of enthusiasm and havong pop corn fly all over the place. Mom waxing the floor and telling us we were all allowed to 'skate' around on it as much as we wanted in order to buff it (any other time we weren't allowed)

I carried the traditions forward and did all these things with my kids later.

[ErnBatavia]

Your sister, so far as I know, is the only FReeper who's made the sound of a bodily function her screen name...

[rockfish59]

I also remember my mother telling me that a new show was coming on:

THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUB!

[radiohead]

I got a jolt the other day when I asked my 26 year old son to shuck some ears of corn. He actually looked at me and asked how. This started me thinking of how different our childhoods had been.

I remember sitting on the front porch of a rowhouse in DC, shucking corn and stringing beans. I remember the rare tv dinner, which was a treat for us, and once a year pizza at the school fair.

We walked home from the local Catholic school and God help you if you misbehaved along the way. Someone was sure to call Sister and complain that Catholic school kids (recognizable by our uniforms) should behave better. And it wasn't unusual for a neighbor to call your parents about your behavior either.

Being city kids, we played kick ball in the alley, used the local cemetary for our greenspace, and stayed out until the street lights came on. When it got dark, you might be allowed to catch fireflies while the adults sat on the porch. Otherwise, you were in bed, on schedule.

On Sundays, I went to the Catholic church, but we lived with my Baptist grandmother. So after church, we put on our old dresses because she didn't allow pants on Sunday, played quietly because you shouldn't make unseemly noise on the Sabbath, and waited for the big, country style, Sunday dinner. There was no liquor or cursing in her house. Even after my mother remarried and we moved, I never heard a curse word until I went to college.

The big weekly thrill was getting hand packed ice cream from the drugstore on Sunday because nothing else was open. During Christmas season we'd go downtown and look at the mechanical displays in the store windows - people would be 5 & 6 deep in front of the windows.

In many ways, it was a different world - and I'm just talking about the late 50s and 60s. How different even that experience must have been from that of people who grew up in the 30s and 40s?

[gcruse]

My favorite soft drink was something called a Chocolate Soldier, which I could get at the Texaco station run by my father's friend.  The  grease pit for the station was a real hole dug into the ground.  You drove your car over it, then the guy would go down into the pit to drain the oil.

Saturday mornings were remembered the best.  That's when Space Patrol, Big John and Sparky, the Buster Brown Show, and one I can't remember, but its theme song was Teddy Bear's Picnic....maybe that was BJ&S.  Every boy's dream Xmas present was a Lionel electric train set.

Later, around the time of Queen Elizabeth's coronation and the sinking of the Andrea Doria, TV came to our town.  It had to compete with 9¢ Saturday movies (Flash Gordon serial included) in movie theaters with floors so sticky from spilled drinks it almost pulled your shoes off your feet.   Box kites, crystal radio sets, Inner Sanctum, Judy Canova, home permanent 'parties',  sleeping out on the front lawn under a canopy of so many stars it seems impossible today.

[hardhead]

'Plunk your magic twanger, froggie!'

[N8VTXNinWV]

fondest memories: camping, which consisted of our station wagon and a tarp as the tent... traveling from Arizona to Alabama to see the grandparents and cousins....my mom making each of us kids a little travel pack with paper dolls, a new coloring book and a new pack of 8 crayons (for my brother a new Hot Wheel car)...making homemade ice cream with the crank maker where each of us kids got to take a turn on the crank...going to the other grandparents cabin in the mountains of AZ with no TV or telephone...catching tadpoles and lightning bugs (where we pinched the tails off to make rings and things)....My daddy fixing us peanut butter on saltines and a small glass of coke, if we were ready early for Church...

[cake_crumb]

I forgot a lot too. I'm surprised at how much!

[Physicist]

Coming home from school, putting on my shooting jacket and cap, grabbing my shotgun, walking through the neighborhood in full kit--nobody even looking askance--to the fields three blocks away, and bagging half a dozen mourning doves by dinnertime.

[rockfish59]

Sgt. Rock comics!
'Famous Monsters Of Film Land' magazines!
50-50 bars!
First ride on a 10 speed!
Self taught to roller skate!
The 'free look' telescopes and huge binoculars at the old Sutro's and Cliff House!
Playland At The Beach in San Fran (just down the hill from Sutro's)!
Riding the old diesel busses for a nickle along the waterfront in San Fran!
Sunday horror movies & cartoons at the Harding Theater!
Watching Willie Mays at Candlestick!
The fried chicken, chicken & dumplings & ground beef/bean soup my Ma used to make!

I wonder what kids these days will be reminiscing about in 40 years?

[Nea Wood]

Christmas actually being called Christmas, not "winter holiday" or some such.

Trick-or-treating.

"Going out to play," in other words, your parents kicked you out of the house and you hung out with your friends, rode your bikes, went to the playground or the candy store, and just had fun. Only rule was, be home in time for dinner. Freedom!

Going "downtown," (which was a big deal and you actually dressed up for it!) You'd shop at the department stores, (where the clerks were actually friendly, courteous, and knowledgeable! Imagine that!) You'd have lunch at a cafeteria. It was an outing, a special event.

The "dime store," (Five and Dimes like Ben Franklin's, for instance.) These stores had lunch counters and pet sections where we kids would buy tiny little turtles for pets!