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Memories of Growing Up in the 40's and 50's (and since, even)
email | 1/4/01 (this time) | Unknown

Posted on 01/04/2003 12:12:42 PM PST by 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.


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To: cannonball
Check this out.http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/812206/posts
261 posted on 01/04/2003 5:21:53 PM PST by muggs
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To: FITZ
I did the kleenex thing myself..LOL
262 posted on 01/04/2003 5:24:43 PM PST by RnMomof7
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To: Dakotabound
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?
263 posted on 01/04/2003 5:25:49 PM PST by MilspecRob
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To: muggs
Looks like that classmate of mine is also a freeper.
264 posted on 01/04/2003 5:26:39 PM PST by cannonball
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To: Howlin
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.
265 posted on 01/04/2003 5:26:56 PM PST by Conservababe
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To: wardaddy
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.

266 posted on 01/04/2003 5:27:27 PM PST by tubebender
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To: wardaddy
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.
267 posted on 01/04/2003 5:27:58 PM PST by upcountry miss
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To: Conservababe; mountaineer
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.

268 posted on 01/04/2003 5:28:02 PM PST by Willie Green
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To: Howlin
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

269 posted on 01/04/2003 5:28:25 PM PST by Mo1
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To: FITZ
And besides all the service at the gas stations, we also got green stamps or dishes.
270 posted on 01/04/2003 5:28:49 PM PST by Conservababe
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To: Dr. Luv
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.

271 posted on 01/04/2003 5:29:01 PM PST by WVNan
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To: cannonball
Could be.
272 posted on 01/04/2003 5:29:53 PM PST by muggs
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To: tubebender
Finally, someone my age! I was almost the oldest person reading this thread.
273 posted on 01/04/2003 5:30:14 PM PST by WVNan
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To: Conservababe
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!
274 posted on 01/04/2003 5:30:24 PM PST by Howlin
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To: WVNan
No, you are not! After a certain age, it just doesn't matter!
275 posted on 01/04/2003 5:31:04 PM PST by Howlin
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To: Dakotabound
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!
276 posted on 01/04/2003 5:31:12 PM PST by Walkin Man
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To: Willie Green
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.
277 posted on 01/04/2003 5:32:03 PM PST by Alouette
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To: Willie Green
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.

278 posted on 01/04/2003 5:33:37 PM PST by mountaineer
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To: Conservababe
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.

279 posted on 01/04/2003 5:35:16 PM PST by tubebender
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To: Humidston
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!
280 posted on 01/04/2003 5:35:26 PM PST by Howlin
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