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'.

[cake_crumb]

When we moved out into the American Outback in the '70's, we couldn't pick up TV and therefore had none. Oh, we had a TV...Mom kept it in the livingroom for sentimental reasons. We just couldn't WATCH anything on it.

We had an old crystal radio with vacuum tubes we used to play with, and I had a portable AM/FM radio that I kept plugged in. It picked up stations from New York to North Carolina. I used to read, paint and listen to basketball, baseball and Mystery Theater when I couldn't be outside. You can't BUY a portable AM/FM like that one anymore.

Didn't miss TV at all, except at school when everyone was talking about the new shows.

[cake_crumb]

"I remember that and I remember we sang the Christian Christmas carols like "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "O Come All Ye Faithful," Silent Night," etc. in (GASP!) public schools at pageants before Christmas vacation!"

Yep. THOSE were the days.

[Squantos]

RC cola and a moon pie..........all for a dime........:o)

Stay Safe !

[cake_crumb]

Great excerpt. Fitting. I was a member of the FFA, and my project was my appaloosa, Strider (I was always a big Tolkein fan).

[Allegra]

Ahhh...Brindisi. We went there to catch a ferry to Greece on one of our summer vacations. It's nice to have Italy as a backdrop for memories of those particular years. I had my first crush on a boy there, got my first lipstick there and it was when I first swiped a mascara tube from my mother's purse to apply at school (because that was not allowed yet.) I always got caught because the mascara would be UNDER my eyes by the time I got home from school.

We had a Rec Field in Naples where all the American brats would go on weekends or summer days. There were barbeecue pits, baseball fields, a football field, campsites and it was circled by woods. It was inside the crater of an extinct volcano. The showed outdoor movies on summer nights and there were many nights when we'd gather with friends and family and have picnics and watch the movies sitting out in the dark.

[cake_crumb]

"Wow...I didn't know you could still get Jiffy Pop. I'll have to take someone tall with me to the grocery store and see if we can find it"

LOL...yeah, you need someone tall enough to see everything on the top shelf.

It IS better than microwave popcorn.

[meowmeow]

Wonderful QUIET Sunday afternoons because nothing was open so there wasn't any traffic after everyone came home from church and no one cut their grass on Sunday.

Cool summers wishing we could go in the pool but Global Cooling was going to kill us all :)

Summer times playing outside from morning until night with all the other kids in the neighborhood, whiffle ball games, hide and seek, long bike rides, tree houses.

[hardhead]

Carney Park, inside the old extinct volcano crater.

[Allegra]

Carney Park, inside the old extinct volcano crater.

You got it! I spent hours and hours there.

When it was hot, we converged on the Officers' Club pool on the AFSouth base or the Allied Beach that was to the south. Spent many, many hours there too.

[sushiman]

Ping for later ...

[BeerSwillr]

Laying on the grass in the back yard long after sunset and gazing at stars. Actually being able to see the Milky Way.

[Just another Joe]

I can remember living in the country, riding bikes everywhere we needed to go, playing hit and catch in the armory field, trying to catch crawdads in the stream, mud clod fights in the back field, eating green apples off the tree till your stomach hurt.

Trying to dig your own swimming pool with a shovel when you're 10 years old, model rockets with a grasshopper payload, firecrackers in fenceposts, learning that you need to be careful when peeing around an electric fence!

These memories, and memories like them, are what I would like to leave my children and grandchildren.

[freedumb2003]

I remember the rare tv dinner, which was a treat for us

Yes -- you even got to choose your own dinner. Chicken, meatloaf or that exotic-sounding european one -- Salisbury Steak!

Late 60's early 70s for me. The Brady kids and Arnold from Wonder Years are my contemporaries.

[ishmac]

One of the kids I teach Sunday school to displayed two rabbits at the fair this week. She named one Pippin and the other Meriadoc.

[usadave]

I remember going down with my friends to Rexall's Drugstore to buy packs of baseball cards for 5 cents each. It was fun and exciting to open up a pack of cards to find out which players you would find inside. Was this the pack that would have the coveted Mickey Mantle baseball card in it?! Each pack of baseball cards came with a hard stick of bubble gum that smelled so good, and the baseball cards would retain that bubble gum smell for several weeks after we took the cards out of the wrapper.

[Arpege92]

That's so wonderful! It always does a heart good to hear that marriages can last if you a person puts the effort in it. Compared to your parents and grandparents, I am an amateur....laughing together is a great way for me to know that although he is my hubby, he can be my friend too!

Now, if only I could get him to put the seat back down and encourage him to take "Beano" before supper, everything would be perfect! :-}

[Arpege92]

I can remember playing all day and once the street lights came on, it was time to go home. We'd get in and my mom would direct us to take baths and get our PJ's on.

[sushiman]

" remember going down with my friends to Rexall's Drugstore "

Born 6/52 ...Your mention of the drugstore reminded me of Hickey's Drugstore in Willimantic , CT , late 50's ...They had a wonderful little soda fountain in there , and mixed REAL coca cola in there from the syrupy coke base with seltzer water . Man was that good stuff ! And I'll never forget the aroma of that shop : a mixture of various perfumes , lotions , sweets , and God knows what else .

[ThreePuttinDude]

We use to get the fizzies and go to the beach, and
would bring some Alka Seltzer for the seagulls. We
called them "Bird Fizzies".....of coarse we would all
run for cover when the gulls would grab one in flight.

Those birds sure can unload in a hurry....8^)

[Spok]

Hide and go seek games that involved every kid on the block, and watching Bonanza when Chevrolet would introduce next years' models during the commercials.