Memories of Growing Up in the 40's and 50's (and since, even)

email | 1/4/01 (this time) | Unknown

[Dakotabound]

"Hey Dad," My Son asked the other day, "what was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?"

"We didn't have fast food when I was growing up."

"C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?"

"We ate at home," I explained. "Your Grandma cooked every day and when your Grandpa got home from work, we all sat down together at the table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I had to sit there until I did like it." By this time, my Son was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer some serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to get my Father's permission to leave the table.

Here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I had figured his system could handle it.

My parents never: wore Levi's, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country, flew in a plane or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a "revolving charge card" but they never actually used it. It was only good at Sears-Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears and Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was because soccer back then was just for the girls. We actually did walk to school. By the time you were in the 6th grade it was not cool to ride the bus unless you lived more than 4 or 5 miles from the school, even when it was raining or there was ice or snow on the ground.

Outdoor sports consisted of stickball, snowball fights, building forts, making snowmen and sliding down hills on a piece of cardboard. No skate boards, roller blades or trail bikes.

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 12. It was, of course, black and white, but you could buy a piece of special colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day.

I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza. It was a Sam's Pizza at the East end of Fruit Street in Milford. My friend, Steve took me there to try what he called "pizza pie." When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down and plastered itself against my chin. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

Pizzas were not delivered to your house back then, but the milk was. I looked forward to winter because the cream in the milk was on top of the bottle and it would freeze and push the cap off. Of course us kids would get up first to get the milk and eat the frozen cream before our mother could catch us.

I never had a telephone in my room. Actually the only phone in the house was in the hallway and it was on a party line. Before you could make a call, you had to listen in to make sure someone else wasn't already using the line. If the line was not in use an Operator would come on and ask "number please" and you would give her the number you wanted to call.

There was no such thing as a computer or a hand held calculator. We were required to memorize the "times tables." Believe it or not, we were tested each week on our ability to perform mathematics with nothing but a pencil and paper. We took a spelling test every day. There was no such thing as a "social promotion." If you flunked a class, you repeated that grade the following year. Nobody was concerned about your "self esteem." We had to actually do something praiseworthy before we were praised. We learned that you had to earn respect.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and most all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered the "Milford Daily News" six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut on screen. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they just didn't do that in the movies back then. I had no idea what they did in French movies. French movies were considered dirty and we weren't allowed to see them.

You never saw the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers or anyone else actual kill someone. The heroes back then would just shoot the gun out of the bad guys hand. There was no blood and violence.

When you were sick, the Doctor actually came to your house. No, I am not making this up. Drugs were something you purchased at a pharmacy in order to cure an illness.

If we dared to "sass" our parents, or any other grown-up, we immediately found out what soap tasted like. For more serious infractions, we learned about something called a "this hurts me more than it hurts you." I never did quite understand that one?

In those days, parents were expected to discipline their kids. There was no interference from the government. "Social Services" or "Family Services" had not been invented (The ninth and tenth amendments to the constitution were still observed in those days.)

I must be getting old because I find myself reflecting back more and more and thinking I liked it a lot better back then. If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your kids or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they wet themselves laughing. Growing up today sure ain't what it used to be.

[Licensed-To-Carry]

Born in '49, small town Texas. Only time we wore shoe's was to school and church. Same pair. Had a BB gun when I was six and a .22 when I was 10. Used to go right thru town with 'em and nobody thought anything about it. Got a burr haircut every Saturday for a buck then went to the cinema for .35 cents.

First TV show I remember was Howdy Doody. We got a TV in '57. Our telephone was black and you only had to dial 4 numbers to make a call.

Played in the creek all summer. Had a good dog that went every where we did. Told mom bye after breakfast then came home just in time for supper. Liked to play on the railroad tracks and let the train flatten out a penny. Picked up coke bottles on the side of the road and got .02 cents deposit for each one, just enough to by my BB's.

Pretty much just ran all over the whole town, had a favorite hiding place in the old cotton gin. Would go rat huntin in the corn sheller with my .22. Then we would go to the only grocery store in town, get some candy and a RC. Just said charge it and good ol mister Dooley would just smile and make a note. Dad would only get mad if the bill was over $2 a month.

Would mow my grandpa's yard in the summer for a dollar, but mowed my dad's yard because it was a chore. Used to catch lighten bugs and put em in a jar. Took em to bed with me at night for a night light.

At night after dinner got the clothes in from the line. Didn't have a dryer until late '60s. My grandpa loved to buy us firecrackers and cherry bombs. Those things were pretty powerful. We used to put the firecrakers in mud balls, light em and throw them at the other kids. Of course they were doing the same thing to us. Nobody ever got hurt but we sure got muddy.

Used to go fishin with grandma. She'd drive around town and pick all the grand kids and we'd all go fishin with cane poles and worms. Walked to school everyday until I got a bicycle in '57 and a car in '65.

Just about everything we did then is now illegal or unsafe or not PC but we had a blast and I miss those days a lot.

[GrandMoM]

Don't forget Garfield Goose and Bozo(or was that just a Chicago thing?)....no, I remember them now.

....and the moviestars Gregory Peck, Jeff Chandlier, and Clark Gable, oh God I was sooooooo in love with him

.......I hated Vincent Price, he scared the He!! out of me.

[wardaddy]

No, the best inventions are AC in the South, washing machines, and Pampers (Huggies actually)

[Humidston]

Petticoats... oh yeah! I was in Houston. I'll never ever forget sitting in class around June with sweat literally running down my thighs - under all those layers!

And no waist cincher? What about those thick elastic belts that clasped with metal clips? (The waist cincher made your waist TINY along with that belt, LOL!)

[GrandMoM]

....we never had enough money for me to have a poodle skirt.

....but my friend lent me hers to go to a sock hop.

[prov1813man]

Born in '48, a teenager in florida, graduated HS in '66. Our parents struggled to raise us in accordance with the dominant culture. Our attitudes and ethics were shaped by Family, Church, School, Peers and the Media, in that order of influence. Now, we struggle to raise our children in opposition to the dominant culture, the influence pyramid has been turned on it's head.

Traveling the world in the early seventies I experienced the reflected glory of American heroism as people worldwide remembered the sacrifice our soldiers made for them.

Now, I wouldn't go most places with a gun in my hand. Certainly I would not take my family.

We were raised and educated with a deep appreciation for "the great melting pot" of freedom. People from everywhere, seeking the fruit of our culture, came here and rooted themselves in it, learning the language, and chasing and realizing the dream which was the natural outflowering of our roots in religion, ethics and morality.

Now, so called "progressives" celebrate the "diversity" of the sorting bin in which each culture has equal value, regardless of it's ability to bear fruit for it's citizens. They shriek about not having access to the fruit while actively chopping at the roots, thereby killing off their own access to the dream.

All in all, "Roman Disease" seems to be rampant, 'twas better then.

[CharacterCounts]

Memories of fallout shelters and being taught to crawl under your school desk in the event of a nuclear attack were not the best.

Sputnik was also a downer. The rest of the space race throughout the 60's was exciting, however.

[Humidston]

Those were "garter belt" days, LOL!

[gorebegone]

I was born in the early fifties. Me and my friends used to roller skate all over the neighborhood. Even with the tightening keys, the skates would always fall off. One day our friend Hobie took one of his skates apart and nailed the two halves to a 2 x 4. And that's the way it was 14 August 1957.

[wardaddy]

Sharkey's ...or Shakeys?

We first got Shakeys around 65 or so....served black beer and you sat at long tables with checkered cloth and they did sing alongs with banjos.....seriously. Before that we only had a sitdown Greek/Italian joint for pie dough pizza.

Pasquales came along after Shakeys.

The first real chain down here was Shoneys ....or Kips or Big Boys as it was called elsewhere.....and I-Hop.....Krystal was the Southern White Castle....almost identical except the Krystal bun had a bit more mass to it.

I guess the ubiquitous Wlagreens soda fountains were chains too.....maybe the first.

[wardaddy]

I forgot about Chuckwagons(shaped like covered wagons) burger joints, Frost-Tops, Burger Queens(not Kings), Dog and Suds.....damn I'm remembering more than I thought i ever forgot.....and to think, no cannabis has been inhaled by these lungs for 20 years or more now....lol

I'm going home.

[Vinnie]

The first real chain down here was Shoneys ....or Kips or Big Boys as it was called elsewhere.....and I-Hop.....Krystal was the Southern White Castle....almost identical except the Krystal bun had a bit more mass to it.

S. Fla had Royal Castle. Three Burgers ( they were on dinner roll size buns) and a Birch Beer in a frosted mug for 50 cents.

[CDHart]

I was born in 1944 - to place myself on the time line.

Me, too. I didn't see TV until I was 12, because we were stationed in Germany from 1952 through 1955. I remember the bombed-out buildings in Stuttgart, and we weren't supposed to play in them, but we did. Once we found a live "bomb" -- at least we thought that's what it was -- and the Army sent someone to take care of it.

Carolyn

[GrandMoM]

Bob's Big Boy was a drive-inn in Michigan and where I got my first job, I was 16.

My dad use to think I was a just a waitress there, until he came early to pick me up one night, and caught me car-hopping. That was the end of that job!!!

....I made good money though!

[gitmo]

I remember talking to an old Coca-Cola driver in Augusta, Ga. He and I sat and ate a bologna sandwich under an oak tree. He was a black man. He said when he was a young man he got up at 5:00 delivering Cokes. He had the keys to every store in town. He would open the doors, deliver the Cokes, open the cash register and collect his money. He would hand-write a receipt and leave it in the register. He would then lock the door and go to the next store.

[oyez]

only foreigners played soccer.

Foreigners? We didn't have foreigners back then.

[StormEye]

I was born in 1955.

I remember street cars in Washington D.C.

A broken down Studebaker(sp?) my father kept in the yard. (Why? I don't know.)

I remember what I was doing when Kennedy was assassinated and the reactions of the teachers (I was in school when it happened.)

I remember having to get under the desk when the "air raid" siren went off.

I remember the Beatles. ( My father said they were demonic and my brothers and I
weren't allowed to listen to that type of music.)

I remember the blacks rioting in Washington D.C. We drove downtown after the riots
just to see the National Guard (carrying what looked like M-16s) on the street corners stopping supicious looking people.

I remember the moon landings and the first calculators.

[Conservababe]

Oh my word, those awful garter belts. When I first started wearing hose, they were seamed. Being slightly bowlegged, I was ever so thankful when seamless hose became the style. I mean, there is just no way for seams to be straight on a bowlegged girl. LOL

[lizma]

It's not exactly the same taste but close. It helps if you use OreIda frozen onions and the thinnest buns you can find.

White Castle's were the first fast food I ever ate and I still love them. I even have a special Slider suitcase to bring some home whenever I'm in the midwest. (Can't pack those smelly things with your clothes!)

[Conservababe]

And the first Dairy Queen in my town served ice cream dishes through the window in GLASS dishes. One just had to hand them back in after eating in the car.