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.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the tip. I made the meat but it's a little loose to pack, letting it sit in the fridge for a while.

[Humidston]

LOL - I was so skinny that those hose wrinkled at my ankles so I much preferred bobby socks and penny loafers.

I also remember "teas"... Those parties adults gave, honoring graduates of 9th grade - when we wore our very first heels and staggered our way through the parties. We also wore gloves and hats when we went to church (Episcopalian).

[Gorzaloon]

Drive-in movies? Remember the $2/carload with 3 really cheesy sci-fi flicks or the Elvis Presley night specials? :)

We had friends visiting from the UK, and took them out on a "Double Date"...to the only drive-in car-hop hamburger joint left, then to the only Drive-In Theatre left. That was 15 years ago, and both places are long gone. Born in '44, I was just the right age to really enjoy the '50's and '60's. (If you had a '46 Ford Business Coup, you could fit a LOT of people into the drive-in!)

Yes, we were politer and respected property..or else. I still recall looking over my shoulder to see a BIG wooden brush coming down..

We had a television when I was 11. The neighborhood was not rich, being filled with familes from Poland. We were the only non-Polish family, and when we moved in, English was not often spoken at our neighbor's homes by the older generation, though the children eventually brought it home from school. I look back on growing up immersed in an ethnicity that was not mine, and treasure it because I got the experience of another country without any of the troubles they fled.

And, Oh, the food. I know I shall never taste that rye bread again nor kielbasa made without nitrites, etc...

My father and some other neighbors of his generation had returned from WWII, and were respected and treated as heroes, not spat upon.

I would go back in an instant, because I miss my Studebaker, and my old neighbors who have died long ago. Sure, penicillin was a new "wonder drug", we were terrified of polio and the Russians, and by today's standards our technology was primitive, as primitive as the regenerative radio I build with a 6J5 triode..haha.

[tubebender]

When I got my 34 chevie in 1950 I would travel 30 miles to Fresno to "Drag" Fulton Street and hit Stans, Mars Halls and the Royal Driveins. Burger, fries and a Rootbeer in the car. I was Drag racing at Hammer Field, Lodi and Bakerfield in my 38 Chev in 52-53. My mother subscribed to HOT ROD for me in 48 and I still get it today. My collection includes all but a couple of original magazines

[usmom]

I was born in 1966, but I remember visiting my grandmother in southern Illinois in the early '70's and she still had an OUTHOUSE! I thought it was so cool- I would pretend I was a pioneer girl. Her kitchen was the size of my walk-in closet, yet she could whip up a homemade dinner for 20 like nothing. I remember her making me 'mush' for breakfast- I ate it with butter and jam. I loved visiting her. She would have a small gift wrapped in fabric or newspaper hidden in her pantry for every day I was there.

[szweig]

I was born in 1949. We lived catty-corner from a large Catholic church/school. We used to play on the playground gym at the church. The convent there would get groceries delivered from a local mom-n-pop by a guy named Henry who drove a 1955(?) Ford station wagon. (This was around 1957 or so). He used to take us around town with him on his delivery run...we would be sitting on the open tailgate of the station wagon, riding backwards, watching where we had been. I can't imagine the lawyers allowing this today. Boy, it was fun! SSZ

[Conservababe]

Ah yes, the formal affairs. And I had to wear those awful clip on ear bobs for jewelry. LOL

The teas were not much of a problem for me because in the deep south in those days, much ceremony was made of the coffee drinking anyway. A cup was never offered without a proper saucer and the cream pitcher and sugar bowl.

I even remember over night company got a soft knock on their door the next morning by a family member with the coffee on a tray. That way, they knew breakfast was almost ready and to get up and get dressed.

[FITZ]

I was born on June 5 1924 and grew up in the 1930's. We were almost like the "Okies" in the Grapes of Wrath. We ate lots of macroni and cheese, or Macroni and tomatoes.

It seems like a lot of people --most people who lived in the 30's saw a very different way of life because of the Great Depression. My parents talked of putting cardboard or newspapers in shoes that had holes on the bottoms because there weren't new shoes to buy. I know my grandfather got to see almost everything get invented ----I used to love to listen to his stories of those times. He never really got over the Depression when he was a young father with kids ---every thing went into the garage "just in case" because you might not need to wear scruffy shoes now but who knows when times get rough again you might appreciate having them.

[disclaimer]

Remember back when dentists used to do the primitive drill and fill, and people actually got cavities? Then cavities would form under the fillings and you'd have to get a root canal later? Oh wait, that all still happens today. Hey, that hasn't changed at all over the last 100 years or more!

[Humidston]

I forgot the clip-on's. Oh the pain! Made your ears hurt for hours after you took them off...

But we did have good manners, didn't we?

[reformedliberal]

"
How about all your books in your own desk at school, and if you were at someone elses desk, you wouldn't even think of
peeking in.

Jack Armstrong, Henry Aldrich (couldn't stand the wimp), The Shadow, The Green Hornet. Oh how our imagination was
allowed to flourish.

Paper dolls? Anyone remember them? Penny loafers? P-Jackets?"

---

'43 and I remember all of the above! Time moved slower back then.

I'd go back in a second if I could take all the modern tech along w/me and find that smartass kid I used to be and tell myself a thing or two!

[anton]

My dad's Buick did not have air conditioning (nor did any other car I rode in until I was 13), and, when stopped in the August sun, the sweat would roll down us and form a little pool to sit in. Even good cars, only a year or two old, would over heat if stuck in traffic, which, fortunately, did not happen so often as now.

[oyez]

terrified of polio

Panic stricken I'd say. TOday people will engage in behavior that invites HIV/AIDS.

[Caipirabob]

I was born in the late '70s and grew up in the 1980s. I remember the '80s as a simpler better time.

LOL! I went to college in the 80's. The 80's were a simpler time - most of what you could catch could be cured with Pennicilin. Nowadays you're goner.

I don't think I'm going to be able to keep a straight face the day I tell my children "When I went to school we listened to 'The Cure'" and they give me that "You're old and square" look...

[oyez]

But they have the neat vacuum gizzy and you don't have to spit/drool into the cuspidor.

[Conservababe]

I know my grandfather got to see almost everything get invented..

My great uncle, John Rust, invented and patented the cotton picker in the fifties.

[VMI70]

Another 1947 here--11/30--Born in Washington, DC, raised in Chevy Chase, MD.

The things I remember most were the stories my parents told about the Great Depression:

They were newlyweds living in a 3rd floor apartment in Washington Square in New York.
-My father was a Harvard Law ('32) graduate, and made $25.00 a week working in his uncle's law firm.
-He was a VMI graduate, so he was a 2nd Lieutenant in the reserves, which he thought would bring in some extra money. At the first weekend meeting, they were told to deploy at night to patrol the areas around the grocery stores. They were also told to shoot to kill anyone breaking in. He immediately resigned his commission because, as he said: "There were a lot of people who were (really) starving", and he just couldn't bring himself to shoot them.

-Mother said that a loaf of bread was a nickel,
-a quart of milk was 15 cents--a dime if you brought your own bottle,
-for $5.00 a week, they had a maid 6 1/2 days a week,
-one incident where the guilt stayed with mother all her life was when she interviewed a potential maid, who had come down on the bus from Harlem. When the interview was over, and she didn't get the job, she asked mother if she could have the 10 cents it cost her for the round trip bus fare. Mother refused to give her the dime and never got over it.

There were many more stories like that, but the most amazing thing was that mother said the depression was a cake walk compared to the upheavals of the 1960s and early '70s. That's saying something.

[VOYAGER]

That is just what Trent Lott was tryin to TELL y'all.

If Thurmond had won the 1948 election, none of this would ever have gone away, and none of this BS we live with now would ever have come upon us.

Sometimes telling the truth can be very costly, it takes guts to speak the truth when one end of you or the other is at stake.

Ask Trent Lott!!

[janetgreen]

Did anyone ever raid the neighbor's pomogranate tree?

We had a pomegranate tree. The neighborhood kids and my kids had pomegranate fights with them. They taste good, but require patience to eat.

[tubebender]

It seems like a lot of people --most people who lived in the 30's saw a very different way of life because of the Great Depression.

My parents owned a small farm near Fresno and my older brother told me dad delivered a trailer load of cotton to the gin in Nov 29 and the manager told him that cotton was worthless. Dad asked him what to do and he said to park the trailer next to the others. Brother said the trailers sat there for years. They lost the farm to the bank. I have the cancelled checks from the period as the balance dwindled to zero. The bank was Bank of Italy forerunner to Bank of America.