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.

[Ex-Wretch]

What are shoe-locs?

They were a boy's dress shoe that, instead of shoe strings to tie, had a spring-loaded piece of leather that you tightened/loosened your shoe by flipping up or pushing down. (Only us really cool kids had them, of course :)

Do you remember 'rock and roll pins?"

No. Guess I wasn't that cool :(

[hillyes]

b. '42 and raised and grew up in Clifton Forge,Va. Remember
pegged pants,ducktails. Yep,I was in church every Sunday.
No central air at CFHS. Only one school bus-for the ball
teams. Said mam and sir to EVERY ADULT!! and THANK YOU!!
Used to hitch hike almost every summer day to state park
about 6 miles away,nice lake there. Remember when "fag"
was a cigarette and "gay" meany happy? Being home on
time meant exactly that. Never had a shower at home until
one was installed while I was in the Navy. What a surprise
when I came home on leave. No AC,coal burning furnace.
Every Summer I would have to help unload a dump truck
full of coal for the coming winter. And the bondfire for
the Homecoming football game. MEMORIES

[freepersup]

I am a 1957 model.
-Burr haircuts, always- burr haircuts, up until 8th grade.
-Frocked Christmas trees were cool.
-So were the aluminun foil Christmas trees, with the rotating 4 colored lenses positioned on the floor, illuminated by a bright spotlight.
-Street lights with screw in light bulbs, just begging to be shot at with a BB gun, or hit with a rock.
-A risque movie (that comes to mind) was one where people ate this pink gelatin food and grew into giant people.
-The risque part was when a tight camera shot focused in on a woman's breast area expanding, (clothed in a fuzzy blue Angora sweater) and a couple of sweater buttons popped off- CUT... on to the next scene.
-What happened next was left to the imagination.
-Humina Humina Humina
-Not a peep at any skin, what so ever.
-Bikes, we rode our bikes everywhere, day and night.
-Really cool bike lights that would run off a small generator powered by a small wheel pressed against one of the bike wheels.
-The most coveted bike: a Schwinn Sting Ray with a banana seat, sissy bars, gooseneck, and high handle bars.
-Inflating balloons and tying them to the wheel spokes so that when you pedaled it made a very cool sound.
-Using playing cards for the same purpose.
-Attaching them to the wheel spokes with clothes pins.
-Carbide lanterns and carbide cannons.
-Building tree houses out of anything we could get our hands on.
-We once used the steel sides of a washing machine.
-Two broken arms from falling out of trees.
-Erector sets.
-Pump up water powered plastic rockets that would really climb skyward.
-Silly putty.
-Super balls.
-First TV of recollection... B & W with an oval screen.
-Memories of going to my uncle's house to watch Disney on a color TV.
-Taking the "milk train" at 4AM to St. Louis to watch a baseball game as a little leaguer.
-Baseball in the summer, every single day, all day, until the time came to go do our paper routes.
-Swimming in the creeks, until the community built a brand new public pool.
-Getting a swim pass for the whole summer.
-Listening to Inagodadavida by Iron Butterfly over the public address system (the long version- is there any other ?).
-Flying kites that were made with incredibly weak balsa wood that always broke.
-No exceptions.
-Tackle football or basketball in the winter, every single weekend day, all day, until the time came to go do our paper routes on Saturdays.
-Reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote; my first book of an adult nature containing gratuitous violence.
-Watching homecoming parades where the high school kids did the "snake dance".
-Seeing the biggest bonfire of my life at the high school on the football practice field.
-Discovering that the streets had been mysteriously white washed the night before the parade.
-Wondering what all of this meant.
-Ice cream men that pedaled bicycles with a freezer mounted on the front of the bike.
-Eating push ups- sherbet ice cream that would give you an excrutiating headache every single time you ate one, even though you knew that this was a likely side effect.
-Big crush on my 5th grade teacher.
-My first "young" teacher that was a fresh graduate from college.
-Spent my paper route money (to no avail) buying the teacher albums of her favorite musicians- Herb Albert & the Tijuana Brass, on A & M Records.
-Cutting through people's back yards for short cuts on the way home from school.
-Getting under our desks at school or going out in the hallways and kneeling down on our knees in order to practice civil defense procedures or tornado drills.
-Getting down on our knees with both of our hands placed over the back of our necks for protection.
-Playing kill the man with the ball at recess with reckless abandon.
-Playing king of the hill at recess with reckless abandon.
-Recalling school paddlings in 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th & 8th grades.
-Playing a game combining the rules of tag and kill the man with the ball in gym with those unique rubber balls.
-Everyone was a target.
-Selling greeting cards door to door, where one could then select cool prizes based on the amount of sales.
-On the way home from school, watching the police shoot pigeons with shotguns (in and around the downtown area) in an annual event to eradicate the nuisance birds from the taller buildings in town.
-Attempting to "hog" fish with our bare hands at our favorite fishing holes.
-Eating Mulligan stew at the local Moose club.
-Several wild game meats were part of the ingredients which made this stew one of the best I have ever tasted.
-Going to Bible school of my own free will because the girl that I had a crush on would be there.
-Buying the game Twister and wrapping that up as a present for the same girl's birthday.
-Getting no where with this girl, as she seeks favor with a male student in the next grade up.
-Popcorn in a disposable aluminum skillet.
-Turning in pop bottles for 2 cents a piece.
-Then 5 cents each.
-Finally, an astounding 10 cents each.
-Drinking pop out of a bottle.
-Aluminum cans as a novelty.
-Being at a friends house when his oldest brother returns home from Viet Nam.
-A five digit phone number.
-A big change, a seven digit phone number.
-First AM-FM clock radio combination.
-Oil for cars in glass bottles with metal neck spouts.
-Numerous train rides to Chicago with lots of passengers on board.
-Saturday morning cartoons or movies at the movie theater- cheap.
-Slot cars.
-Hobby shops with slot car tracks.
-Writing State's Attorney Jim Garrison of New Orleans investigating the Kennedy assasination for a school assignment and getting a reply.

[southland]

Yes I picked Cotton. You must have been from around Fayetteville, TN. I lived in Huntsville in 1966 to 1980 but aafter that went to Huntsville very frequently. I have a lot of relatives in around Winchester. My Grandfather came from Winchester to Hollywood Alabama in 1880's. My DAD was born in 1896. We have a picture of him with siblings when he was a very small infant. My Grand mother was a Morris and a lot of them are in North Madison County now. My Dad's mom's father, Bynum, did not go to Civil War but hid out on the mountain and in caves I am told. His brother was in 1st Alabama Union army and was captured in North Alabama then transfered to Virginia in Southern prison where he died in November 1863 with pneumonia. There was a lot of Union sentiment in this North Alabama area.
C D Cook
Scottsboro, Alabama

[wardaddy]

Repeat yourself all you like...you've earned it.

I have to ask...and I know you get it a lot here I would guess.

Mothman?.....true or urban legend?

Sorry.

[wardaddy]

Aquanet and Dippity-Do bump to all you gals!

[wardaddy]

Yep.

[dsutah]

One of my grandmas was an immigrant from the Basque Country(French side). And she was so grateful for being in this country. She learned English, and made sure the kids learned it.

One of them asked her once why she never taught them her old language, and she said no, this(America)was her country now, and she was proud of it, and would speak English. And they would speak it too!

Oh, when she got together with her sisters and brothers; they'd talk a bit in their old language, but mostly it was English around their kids, and others outside the family. Incidently, she was a Republican too!

[wardaddy]

Wow!...you got good genes.

[dsutah]

It was like that with a little A&W Root Beer drive-in restaurant that used to be in town. It had root beer in real glass mugs, and would bring it to your car!

[wimpycat]

Your upbringing sounds alot like my Mom's, except I don't think she had to wear flour sack clothes. They pumped water from a well in their yard and didn't have electricity until she went off to nursing school.

Tell me, did you have real toilet paper for the outhouse? My mom's family had real toilet paper; they saved the Sears Roebuck for her grandparents.

[Mr. Mojo]

This was because soccer back then was just for the girls.

Well, I guess some things never change.

[dsutah]

That reminds me of my kids when they would listen to 'heavy metal' music, and I would tell them about the music we listened to. They would laugh and call it 'Mom's old fogey music'. But believe me, both of them like most of that 'old-fogey music' now.

They like mostly old rock and roll from the mid to late 60's and through the early 70's. They like "The Doors", "The Beatles", "The Rolling Stones", "The Monkees", "Creedence Clearwater Revival", etc. I don't know if they would go back farther, but they like a lot of that.

[Brad’s Gramma]

I remember ironing clothes without a steam iron.

I DO!!!! Did you do the wash on Monday's? Ironing on Tuesday because the clothes HAD to stay in there overnight????

How about taking in the clothes from the clothesline after school, in the fall when it was cold, and the blue jeans were STIFF? Like they could walk away all by themselves? How about the wringer washer?

[Balata]

'i got shoes you got shoes everybody's gotta have shoes.. but there's only one kinda shoes for me GOOD OLE BUSTER BROWN SHOES'....plunk yer magic twanger froggie...

Do you or anyone else remember going to the shoe store and trying on a pair of new shoes. They would have you slip the shoes on then put your feet into this machine and you would look through the opening in the top to see if the shoes fit your feet? You could see the bones in your feet. I don't know how long the machines were on the market, but they were no more than cheap x-ray machines.

[Brad’s Gramma]

PAPER DOLLS!!!! How about being so poor that you felt RICH when you got to go through last years Wish Book and cut out your own????

Finding the poses of the clothing to go with the dolls was a real trick, right?

[Brad’s Gramma]

bttttttttttttt

[jennyp]

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.

This reminds me: Pizza was so much better when I was young! This would be the late '60s. We'd get a takeout pizza from the Red Devil (Detroit), or else some other non-chain pizza place. ("You've tried the rest, now try the best!")

What happened to pizza? I haven't had a pizza where the cheese actually pulls into a long string in years! There was a pizza place in W. Seattle that came close a few years ago, (darn, can't remember the name!) but they went downhill & now they're out of business.

Anyway, what is wrong with pizzas today? What is it they're missing?

[Balata]

It was at the dinner table and I was asked to say grace. I started out with, "In the name of the Father and of the Son:...and then to be a wise ass I added, "Peter got up and hit a home run."......BOOM! My father's backhand landed on the side of my head. My mother gathered me up from the floor and marched me into the bathroom and applied the Ivory to my ivories.

LOL! I had a similar experience with the same ending. I had gone to the drive-in a couple of days before and borrowed a line from the movie. "Good food, good meat, gettin late, lets eat." POW...those were the days.

[Mo1]

Dippity-Do bump to all you gals!

Oh I HATED that stuff .. my mother use to put my hair in french curls and since I was a bit of a tomboy she would put Dippity-Do in my hair to keep it in shape .. Oh and did that stuff stink