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

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

[muggs]

Check this out.http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/812206/posts

[RnMomof7]

I did the kleenex thing myself..LOL

[MilspecRob]

I’ve loved sharing the TV, “fast food” Playing guns, and Snow Fort wars times of my youth. Any body else remember “White and Colored” water fountains. I do, the sign over “white” was the cooler fountain, the smaller bowl to the side with the spigot was the “colored” one?

[cannonball]

Looks like that classmate of mine is also a freeper.

[Conservababe]

If you missed it, there is an earlier post here that talks of his family buying a tv before any actual programs were on...so the neighbors came over just to watch the signal logo. I laughed so hard.

[tubebender]

I would like to have been there. I came of age at the end of the muscle car apex and my folks relegated me to an old MGA that I paid for.....no MOPAR 440s or SS 396 for me....sigh.

Eat your heart out...I was able to buy the first used 55 chevie that came on the lot at the Chevie dealer I worked at in 55. It was a 2 door Bel Aire post with a overdrive stick. I raced the northern third of the state until I got married Feb 1st ,57 then it was a 40 ford that I put a v/8 in and my wife started having babies so byby 40. Started a business in 61 and the next thing I knew my BIL couldn't make the payments on his new 65 GTO tripower,HeHeHe. Traded that for new 68 Chevie stepside . In 1970 my friend bought a SS 454 and I was back drag racing. His wife threatened both of us with bodily harm so I got the engine and hthe SS got a 396 and he sold it. In 95 we bought a Riviera with the Super Charged 3.8 which my wife uses to get groceries. (same wife) For nostalgia I may buy the new GTO that was just released.

[upcountry miss]

I probably shouldn't even be posting here. You are all too young for me. Married 55 years!! Remember my grandfather being hired by the town to break out the roads after a snowstorm. He would hook up his team to a giant roller and go up and down the road packing down the snow so a car could travel over it and then earn money hauling them out when they got stuck.

Milk came from grampas, unpastuerized, in a tin can.

Went to school in a one-room school. School started promptly at 8 A.M. and got out when the teacher got through with the lessons. Thank goodness there was no electricity or we would probably have been there half the night. Heat was furnished with a wood stove. The teacher would keep a tub of water on the stove and we could bring jars of home-made soup and heat it in the pan. (canned soup was just for the rich)

Grampa cut his own ice from the river in hugh chunks and packed it in sawdust. It lasted the whole summer in his ice-house. How us kids loved to sneak a chunk out of the ice-house on a hot summer day.

I still don't lock doors. Don't have any keys if I wanted to lock up. Hubby says if someone wants to get in they will, and do a lot more damage if the doors are locked.

No, I don't want to go back. Just bought a new computer and paid what would have been a years salary for it back then.

[Willie Green]

I would have killed myself on one of those mangles. Did you ever wonder why they called them mangles in the first place.

I hate to mention it, but that contraption looks like it escaped from a gynecologist's office.

[Mo1]

Remember grandma plucking a chicken??
OMG......flashback! We *never* gave her any problems after we saw her wring a chicken's neck!

LOL .. I'm sure

[Conservababe]

And besides all the service at the gas stations, we also got green stamps or dishes.

[WVNan]

I sure miss those smells...

Isn't that the strangest thing? We never forget those smells of the South. It's the thing I miss the most. Honeysuckle doesn't smell like that anywhere else.

[muggs]

Could be.

[WVNan]

Finally, someone my age! I was almost the oldest person reading this thread.

[Howlin]

I remember when ours was delivered -- just as my parents were leaving for the beach. My mother acted like we were going to "use up" all the color by the time they got back!

[Howlin]

No, you are not! After a certain age, it just doesn't matter!

[Walkin Man]

A few fond memories of growing up in the 60's and 70's in rural Michigan:

I remember the party line phone we had with a rotary dial and the eavesdropping gossipy neighbor as well! We had a 19 in B&W TV that could pick up three stations on a clear day with aluminum foil on the rabbit ears.

My parents were divorced and we were dirt poor but we didn't realize it really. I had a great childhood, used to walk a mile to my neighbor’s house or about three to the nearest town/crossroads with a store. We had favorite swimming holes where we and all our friends would go all summer long, didn't cost a dime.

After we learned to ride a bicycle, we rode all over the county and to our cousin’s house on Sand Lake. When I got older, I hitchhiked constantly with not even a thought that a stranger would harm me. I feel so sorry for the present generation of kids that can't go outside and play or be out of their parents sight for even a minute nowadays because of all the perverts out there.

My brother and me were comic book readers and for a dollar, you could buy almost ten of them, if I remember correctly.

Our clothes washer was round and had an open top, after you washed the clothes you ran them through the ringers that were attached to the machine. Then you took the clothes out to the solar clothes dryer AKA the clothesline lol! Clothes smell so good after you take them off the line!

We also had a garden and grew onions, cucumbers, radishes, peas, beans, pumpkins, squash, carrots, etc. There is nothing like going out to the garden, picking a bunch of veggies and cooking them up, talk about fresh! No frankenfoods back then. Ah, I miss many things from those days, don't get me started, lol!

[Alouette]

Remember "Lunch with Soupy Sales"? White Fang, Black Tooth and shaving-cream pies? Even though I watched Soupy every day, I missed that show where he told all the "birdbaths" to send him all the "folded green paper with pictures with pictures of long-haired old men" that they could find in Daddy's pockets or Mommy's handbag.

[mountaineer]

that contraption looks like it escaped from a gynecologist's office.

That's why we kept it all closed up with the lid down whenever it wasn't in use - didn't want to shock anyone who might wander into the laundry room.

[tubebender]

Lord love a duck, I would have killed myself on one of those mangles. Did you ever wonder why they called them mangles in the first place. My grandmother's wringer washer was lethal enough. LOL

My wife has ciculation problems today in her right arm from running it through the wringer.

[Howlin]

ROFLMAO.........oh, you've given me SUCH a laugh. The things we did to our HAIR........we actually MIXED UP "chemicals" to "frost" ours and used bathing caps with holes punched in them with crochet hooks!.....it's a wonder we're not all bald!