This is a group where you can add at any time anything you remember from "back then" in our society that isn't the same now. It'll be fun to read how things have changed from a first hand experience of the posters here!
I'm old enough to remember my brother and I hiding within a wooden tressel bridge over the railroad tracks when a coal operated steam engine "Choo-choo!" to us, came under us covering us with soot. I thought mom was going to kill us but instead she laughed so hard she was crying.
"i'm old enough to remember when pasta was called spaghetti"
Are you talking about all pasta? I can't say I remember that. Spaghetti was spaghetti, macaroni was macaroni, rigatoni was rigatoni. Maybe that was just my family though.
what i mean, barry, was that i remember when the country called pasta spaghetti. my house called it pasta, because we had a big italian part of the family. so we knew the differences. but most americans did not. so that's what i'm remembering. ......robert, you didn't!!! GASP!!!!
i'm old enough to remember when as kids we used to just drop in on neighbors, say hi, have a cookie, maybe do a chore, and then move along. and the adults were always happy to see us!
I had a very atypical childhood, so I can only relate to the posts here in that "Yeah, I remember hearing about that" kind of way. I do remember only having 4 or 5 channels to watch on TV. I also remember Benny Hill being shown late at night on weekends, and sometimes there would be a topless lady on it! Scandalous!
Pollywogs. Lots and lots of pollywogs and gathering them up in a jar and watching them evolve. Everywhere I played in the spring and summer there were pollywogs. Little tadpoles in the horse troughs, in shallow pools of water, sometimes in the swimming pool, in ponds and lakes and water eddies of streams ... loved playing with pollywogs! and fireflies too :-) oh yes, and June Bugs ... playing with nature was a blast. It may not have been the best experience for the tadpoles and the bugs but it was fun!
i remember playing alot in nature too, maryanne. we were always outside exploring something, and my parents didn't know what was coming home with us until we got home when it got darker outside. here a bug, there a plant, there a tree to climb, there a creek to cross....constantly exploring. do kids still do that? and those fireflies! i loved them and still do! ...oh barry, i remember those few channels too. in a way it was good, because everyone talked about the same shows the next day
And I'm old enough to remember the Golden Arches coming to town and we could buy 10 hamburgers for a dollar. And I remember sitting in a restaurant and on the table top was a jukebox record selector. It was silver and you could spin the menu to find what songs you wanted to jukebox to play and of course I remember spending what seemed like forever standing in from of jukeboxes picking out the songs I wanted to listen to (I think it was 4 for a quarter) and one of my favorites was Angel on My Shoulder :-)
Oh that's nothing,, my greatgrandfather worked the R/R when he came here from Norway in the early 1900's. He stayed with us while gr-grandma was in the hospital and I was maybe a whole 6 years old when he turned to my brother and I and said,"let's go fishin'!" Well, My sisters were with mom down the block and dad at work so, us two young boys headed to the R/R tracks with our gr-grandpa, which by the way was right behind our house...We hopped a train and jumped off by a lake maybe 5 miles away. He had us go collect goldenrod plants to get some bait and then He proceeded to fish. After he caught his limit we jumped a train and headed back home so he could clean them for supper..both my brother and I almost killed ourselves when we jumped off the train but we lived... We had fresh fish that night and both mom and dad were afraid to ask how and where he got the fish....we, were sworn to silence so we didn't say a word... Yes, one of the joys of R/R tracks behind your house in the 50's...and a gr-grandpa who was alot of fun.
I remember the little black pellets that expanded like snakes when you lit them. Catching lighrening bugs and putting them in a jar with holes on top...as if we could hold on to the light!
Goodness Tom, I even remember the air raid drills.. How about standing in line for your polio shots and others? Ouch! I swear we got shots three times a year back then... and yes, we did dumb things like stick our tongue on a clothes pole a couple of times.. The neighbor lady saved my tongue twice and her daughters three times. LOL! And then measles, and chicken pox back to back with the four of us kids all being sick at the same time.. just to be followed by mumps,, all in a matter of a few months...Poor mom! They were fun days!!
I remember Junebugs tied to a length of string and buzzing in a circle above our heads. I also remember racing salamanders through the drainpipe at my Grandma's house. We used to put pennies and dimes on the railroad tracks so the train would flatten them. My uncle usd to tell us that we would cause the train to derail although it never did.
bob, that is soooo americana and beautiful! maggie, tell me more about what it was like to live through the cuban missile crises? how scared were you? how aware was everyone of how bad it could be? bob m, don't the kids still get the polio stuff? i remember some liquid being put on my tongue..i thought that was polio. no ??? sherry, publish it!
i grew up outside a big city. not far outside. only a few miles outside! but i am old enough to remember that we got dressed up to go downtown! nobody wore their regular everyday stuff to go into the city! ;-) this seems so funny to think about much less write
Lisa..speaking of going down town, I remember shopping in department stores with my mother, and she would go to the ladies' lounge to smoke cigarettes! We took a street car, which were prevalent in Pittsburgh, where I grew up
Ok, I've succeeded in confusing myself on this thread. Come to think of it, I succeeded in confusing myself by getting out of bed this morning. :) I can't seem to find some of the comments referred back to..... My apologies if I don't give proper credit to what some have said. Bob, the air raid drills were often welcomed because we were able to escape the 3 R's for awhile. The fallout shelters were always a mystery to me. I wanted to see what was in all those great barrels stacked to the ceilings in school basements and similar places. Wiffledust, before the oral dose was developed, we lined up for shots. Along with the polio vaccination shot was the smallpox vaccination that left a cool scar. As to the little wooden desks, most of us kids knew they were useless in case of attack but we were told to get under 'em. Oh, there's Maggie...... The Cuban Missle Crisis seemed to have bring the world to a stop, did it not? Better dead than red!
Maggie, I remember those poor little lizards. They were sold as chameleons but were actually geckos. Let's see, what else could we order from the back of the comic book? Sea monkeys were big disappointment, no prehensile tails and we couldn't even take them out to play with.
I just posted my song "Remember" on my page here at Wiffledust. A little fidelity lost in transition , but you will get the idea. I wrote it right after 911...as a response to 911.
It talks about a lot of the things we have been mentioning here. It is all about this thread, in fact.
I don't think you have to be a friend to listen....but if so, I can always use mmore friends!!
Lizards were fun. I would grab one or many just for their tails because they would always keep moving. I'd put them in my pocket and go in the house to show mom. That went over well.. And downtown was fun for us two littles boys and grandma first on a streetcar and later a bus,, I swear there were no mufflers back then.. LOL! We always had to pass a place downtown where all the local bums lived in front of the Coke plant and some of the things we saw were not pretty. I could swear that there were many many more homeless back then whether war vets form WWII or the Korean War. They were on every bench in every area and some hid under a main bridge. Grandma always would take us to a chow mein place which was exciting considering we never had this at home back then...Fun though....
Here's one I'll never ever forget.. Where were you when President Kennedy was killed? I was in Jr High Orchestra when the Principal announced it and that the buses are on there way to take us home. The director left the room to go into his office where the band director already was and the both wept while we put our instruments away and headed for our lockers to go home. The silence were terrible in all the hallways except for the sniffles you could hear as you went outside. No noise..Just quiet.. even on the bus..
To piggy back off of Robert's post... I was in the sixth grade on 9/11. I watched the second tower get hit and both towers fall live on the news with two fellow students, two teachers and the principal of my school. After that day, I remember hearing about a several second delay being instilled on all "live" television broadcasts in case of those situations... not sure if it ever came to fruition.
i don't remember the death of JFK, but i remember the "aftereffects"...meaning it was on everyone's mind for years after that. and then came bobby and MLK. so i remember driving through d.c. with my parents and asking my dad to duck. and he said why? and i was afraid someone would shoot him in the head.
Yeah, unfortunately I remember the John Birchers raising a ruckus about the local college teaching.....Communism in a Government class! The instructor was harassed and threatened on a regular basis. Not a good memory! The Cuban Missle crisis was a big scary mystery to most of us.
When JFK was killed I was at work..all the machines in the factory were banging away when our foreman came in and told us..total silence..they brought a radio in and we just stood around and listened and they sent us all home early...coming through downtown on the bus I bought a paper..everyone was just blank looking or teary....I still have the paper....
I'm not old enough to remember when JFK was killed, and I was older than 6th grade (holy crap) but I clearly remember 9/11. I had been up early and was watching a rerun of ER on cable. I'd fallen asleep and woke up to coverage of it. When I realized it wasn't ER, I thought they'd changed shows for some reason. Then I saw that every channel was showing coverage and figured out what it was. Not long after that the second tower was hit. It was one of those things you just never forget.
no you never forget...I had just put my flag out and brought my paper in when my son pulled up with my Grandson who was spending the day with me and says..Mom turn on the TV....a plane just hit the twin towers..then we saw the second plan had hit...I couldn't tear myself away....
Up here in the midwest we had Axel, Captain Kangaroo, Captain Ken, Romper Room, Clancy the Cop, and at noon, Casey Jones. The best part of our mornings before school was Axel showing "Our Gang", "Bowery Boys" and "Laurel and Hardy" proir to the bus coming to pick us up. "Three Stooges" once in awhile but rare. Fun times for us kids.. Wheaties, milk, sugar and TV.. don't get me wrong but there were cartoons also from "Rocky and Bullwinkle", "Dudley Doright", "Casper".. I'll bet you know even more them..I forgot! But then that was 50 years ago for me..
Rocky and Bullwinkle are the best EVER! " Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat! That trick never works! (Bullwinkle pulls out a random large irrate creature) No doubt about it, I got to get me another hat!"
I LOVE it, sherry!!!!! just took me longer than everyone else, cuz i'm in a heap of stuff that needs doin' all at the same time over here. need an assistant! no no...the best ever is batman and the flintstones!!!!
When I was a kid, my dad gave me the first Archie comic he ever had. It was about the gang learning how to use Amateur radios (a hobby of ours) and there were dinosaurs in it. I was hooked and started my own collection. My mom asked me today if she could get rid of my collection since I'm grown. Uhh, no. :P
Also, tonight is the premiere of the last Harry Potter movie. My childhood ends with this film. I remember the books coming out when I was in third grade. Been following the series since I was nine or ten, when my grandmother bought me the first three books for Christmas! It's a bittersweet day.
Loved the Archie comics...I just bought the Archie gets married book not to long ago.....
Steen if you do not want your childhood to end with the Harry Potter last movie release don't let it...I was afraid that the books and then the movies would take to long and I wouldn't live long enough to read and see them all.......it is sad though to see the movies ending..........
Baby Huey :-) Mad Magazine and Spy Vs Spy ~my favorite! and those magazines about "true crime"! I remember much if not all of what everyone has shared here! Hop Scotch using rocks and pieces of chain and jump rope and hula hoops and jacks and MARBLES!! hated to lose my steelies and big cat eyes!
How many folks remember Cheyenne, Matt Dillon, Sugarfoot, Maverick, Superman, Man from UNCLE, Hitchcock, Andy Williams, Laugh-in, Bandstand, Wolfman Jack, Ben Casey, Rifleman, etc. etc. I think I'm aging myself..and then the game shows... ??
I don't remember Ben Casey but in Cleveland we had a late night TV program of skits and B (at best) movies called Hoolihan and Big Chuck and they did a recurring sketch called "Ben Crazy". Was hiLARious!
How about Marcus Welby, My Three Sons, Father Knows Best, Lassie, and of course, Casper? My favorite... Grandma loved What's My Line, Match Game, Gary Moore, Andy Williams, Red Skeleton , and that fiddler/comedian guy whom I can't recall at this time. Lawrence Welk was our saturday supper treat. LOL! Does this jog any memories?
Robert Muscovitz
Jul 13, 2011
Barry Parsons
"i'm old enough to remember when pasta was called spaghetti"
Are you talking about all pasta? I can't say I remember that. Spaghetti was spaghetti, macaroni was macaroni, rigatoni was rigatoni. Maybe that was just my family though.
Jul 13, 2011
wiffledust
Jul 13, 2011
wiffledust
Jul 13, 2011
Barry Parsons
Jul 13, 2011
Maryanne Mesple
Jul 13, 2011
wiffledust
Jul 13, 2011
Maryanne Mesple
Jul 13, 2011
Robert Muscovitz
Jul 13, 2011
Tom McMurray
Jul 13, 2011
Tom McMurray
Jul 13, 2011
wiffledust
Jul 13, 2011
Sherry Somach
Jul 13, 2011
Sherry Somach
great stories here!
After 911 I wrote a song called Remember, that covers so much of what is being said here. Maybe I should post it on my music page!
Jul 13, 2011
Robert Muscovitz
Goodness Tom, I even remember the air raid drills.. How about standing in line for your polio shots and others? Ouch! I swear we got shots three times a year back then... and yes, we did dumb things like stick our tongue on a clothes pole a couple of times.. The neighbor lady saved my tongue twice and her daughters three times. LOL! And then measles, and chicken pox back to back with the four of us kids all being sick at the same time.. just to be followed by mumps,, all in a matter of a few months...Poor mom! They were fun days!!
Jul 13, 2011
Robert P. Meyer Jr.
I remember Junebugs tied to a length of string and buzzing in a circle above our heads. I also remember racing salamanders through the drainpipe at my Grandma's house. We used to put pennies and dimes on the railroad tracks so the train would flatten them. My uncle usd to tell us that we would cause the train to derail although it never did.
Jul 13, 2011
wiffledust
Jul 13, 2011
wiffledust
Jul 13, 2011
Sherry Somach
Jul 13, 2011
Tom McMurray
Ok, I've succeeded in confusing myself on this thread. Come to think of it, I succeeded in confusing myself by getting out of bed this morning. :) I can't seem to find some of the comments referred back to..... My apologies if I don't give proper credit to what some have said. Bob, the air raid drills were often welcomed because we were able to escape the 3 R's for awhile. The fallout shelters were always a mystery to me. I wanted to see what was in all those great barrels stacked to the ceilings in school basements and similar places. Wiffledust, before the oral dose was developed, we lined up for shots. Along with the polio vaccination shot was the smallpox vaccination that left a cool scar. As to the little wooden desks, most of us kids knew they were useless in case of attack but we were told to get under 'em. Oh, there's Maggie...... The Cuban Missle Crisis seemed to have bring the world to a stop, did it not? Better dead than red!
Jul 13, 2011
Tom McMurray
Jul 13, 2011
Sherry Somach
I just posted my song "Remember" on my page here at Wiffledust. A little fidelity lost in transition , but you will get the idea. I wrote it right after 911...as a response to 911.
It talks about a lot of the things we have been mentioning here. It is all about this thread, in fact.
I don't think you have to be a friend to listen....but if so, I can always use mmore friends!!
Jul 13, 2011
nancy Sanchez
oh the back of comic books were so cool...I keep thinking I still have my secret decoder ring somewhere...
the air raid things were scary...when the Korean war started I went outside and sat staring up at the sky for the bombers to come get us.......
Jul 13, 2011
Robert Muscovitz
Jul 13, 2011
Robert Muscovitz
Jul 13, 2011
Steen Krause
I remember Pluto being a planet.
To piggy back off of Robert's post... I was in the sixth grade on 9/11. I watched the second tower get hit and both towers fall live on the news with two fellow students, two teachers and the principal of my school. After that day, I remember hearing about a several second delay being instilled on all "live" television broadcasts in case of those situations... not sure if it ever came to fruition.
Jul 13, 2011
Maryrose Orlans
Jul 13, 2011
wiffledust
Jul 13, 2011
Robert P. Meyer Jr.
Yeah, unfortunately I remember the John Birchers raising a ruckus about the local college teaching.....Communism in a Government class! The instructor was harassed and threatened on a regular basis. Not a good memory! The Cuban Missle crisis was a big scary mystery to most of us.
Jul 13, 2011
nancy Sanchez
Jul 13, 2011
Barry Parsons
Jul 13, 2011
nancy Sanchez
no you never forget...I had just put my flag out and brought my paper in when my son pulled up with my Grandson who was spending the day with me and says..Mom turn on the TV....a plane just hit the twin towers..then we saw the second plan had hit...I couldn't tear myself away....
Jul 14, 2011
Sherry Somach
Jul 14, 2011
Maryanne Mesple
Jul 14, 2011
Sherry Somach
Jul 14, 2011
wiffledust
Jul 14, 2011
Robert Muscovitz
Jul 14, 2011
Sherry Somach
Lisa...did you check out" Remember", the song I just posted about this subject?
Jul 14, 2011
Robert P. Meyer Jr.
Jul 14, 2011
wiffledust
Jul 14, 2011
Steen Krause
Also, tonight is the premiere of the last Harry Potter movie. My childhood ends with this film. I remember the books coming out when I was in third grade. Been following the series since I was nine or ten, when my grandmother bought me the first three books for Christmas! It's a bittersweet day.
Jul 14, 2011
nancy Sanchez
Loved the Archie comics...I just bought the Archie gets married book not to long ago.....
Steen if you do not want your childhood to end with the Harry Potter last movie release don't let it...I was afraid that the books and then the movies would take to long and I wouldn't live long enough to read and see them all.......it is sad though to see the movies ending..........
Jul 14, 2011
Maryanne Mesple
Jul 14, 2011
Robert Muscovitz
Jul 14, 2011
nancy Sanchez
Jul 14, 2011
wiffledust
Jul 14, 2011
Bains
Jul 15, 2011
Robert Muscovitz
Jul 15, 2011
Bains
Jul 15, 2011
wiffledust
Jul 15, 2011