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

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

[Dog Gone]

My weekly "allowance" was 10 cents. That wasn't all bad, because that's exactly what a Three Musketeers candy bar cost.

[RnMomof7]

Hey I remember ration stamp and oleo you had to squezze in a bag to give it "color"...and skimming the cream off the milk

[hardhead]

Fast food in the 40s was margarine that was pre-mixed - you didn't have to sit there and stir the food coloring packet into the white margarine - but it cost more and who had any money? Buying meat at a butcher shop and not packaged in a lot of plastic at Walmart. I seem to remember my parents giving me a quarter once a month on a Saturday. The quarter would get me into a double feature, a cartoon, a short subject, a bag of popcorn and a nickle soda. We grew everything - everything - we used except flour, coffee and sugar. I caught fish, picked berries and sold them to housewives for pies, went crabbing (Eastern shore boy), dug sassafras, wild onions, lambs quarters, gatherned nuts, and all for free. We didn't have any money and didn't worry about it.

[luvtheconstitution]

Remember when Graham Crackers tasted really good? In the interest of health, they've removed the lard (and the taste).

[Redleg Duke]

Boy does that bring back memories! We got our first color TV on January 1st, 1962. One of those round screens. We turned it on to watch the Rose Parade, the football games, and were watching a movie when midnight hit. Spent the whole day glued to the tube. Went ice fishing the next day and really nailed the bluegills!

[wardaddy]

8 o'clock Sunday nights after Wild Kingdom and Disney.

Did Hoss EVER lose a fistcuff?

[Redleg Duke]

Just that last one with the "Big Guy". That was long after Bonanza went off the air!

[xJones]

Do you remember the Bonanza episodes of how Ben Cartwright's three wives died (separately, of course). :)

[eeriegeno]

The Great Society

This, IMHO was the turning point. Thanks to Lyndon......

[GrandMoM]

....is that why they taste so bad now?

....remember how great the buttered popcorn was in the movies?

....now they remove the fat from the butter.

[Ex-Wretch]

Born in '50. Ah yes, I remember ...

Going to Sunday mass ... and no stores were open that day. Also, no food for at least 12 hours or liquids for an hour before church (if you wanted to go to communion, of course)

Playing baseball in the middle of the street. Always lots of guys to play with (also having to go get the ball out of Mrs. Lewis' yard after banging her awnings - nasty chore)

Riding our bikes at night behind the mosquito abatement trucks that came down the street and getting lost in the fog (all the while breathing it in because it smelled good)

Being home sick and Dad bringing me home a 45rpm song I loved called "Black Slacks"

[dennisw]

bttttttttttttt

[Willie Green]

Who could afford to eat out?

Yinz never went to Eat 'N Park?

[wardaddy]

Oddly my wife and I were watching a special on Michael Landon's philanthropy the other night on one of those chick channels and I remembered how one of Ben's wives had been a New Orleans Beauty....I don't recall if it was Adam or Little Joe's mom.

[wardaddy]

Yep....his ticker in his 40s as I recall...ugh about my age now.

You had a color TV in '62?....man you were in high cotton early!

[blam]

"Living in Pittsburgh in the late 1960s, we had metal milk boxes outside our front door for deliveries from the dairy man. "

My dad was that milkman in Mobile, I helped him drive the truck when I was eleven in 1954. We lived in a big house on the dairy and grew all the food for the dairy cows.

[luvtheconstitution]

Yep, that's why. It used to be my favorite after-school snack. I didn't have any for years, until about 10 years ago. They were so awful I couldn't believe it, so I called Nabisco and that was their response.

[wardaddy]

Yes....arguably our largest social blunder to date.....after women's sufferage...lol

[xJones]

It was Little Joe's mother. She was a French beauty who fell off a horse and broke her neck when Little Joe was a baby. All Ben's wives died for different reasons shortly after child birth. Fortunately, he gave up marrying after wife #3 died. But then none of his sons ever married......

[snippy_about_it]

All these things ring true. What the heck happened? We left our doors unlocked, we were polite, kept our hands to ourselves, behaved or got whacked, no whining, no back talking.

We had a tv at times, when we did we could only watch an hour a week, I don't even remember what show we watched. We read and played outside, made our own games, it was great. One old car and ate at home. On special days, usually Dad would go out and buy glazed donuts.

I didn't have pizza until I was probably 16 and I'm only 48 now. How the years have changed.