For Fifties Folks
WELCOME 5Os FOLKS!
The 50s: A Pop Culture Tribute
Compliments of Glenn Peterson
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A Trip Down Memory Lane
Compliments of Rose Poledziewski Daley
I'm betting most of you, like Rose Poledziewski Daley, will remember all of these.
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Evevery Sunday night. |
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car headlight dimmer switch. |
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Dvive-in Theater speaker |
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BABY BOOMERS REMEMBER
THE FIFTIES
From Connie Agnos
From Judy Blodgett Licatta-Herman
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STATLER BROTHERS'
DO YOU REMEMBER THESE
From Conrad Agnos
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FIFTIES CAR LIGHTS
From Connie Agnos
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From Connie Agnos
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CHILDREN OF THE GREATEST GENERATION
From Jan Eng Golberg
(and their children - so they will understand) Born in the 1930s and early 40s, we exist as a very special age cohort. We are the Silent Generation. We are the smallest number of children born since the early 1900s. We are the "last ones."
We are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war which rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.
We are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas to sugar to shoes to stoves.
We saved tin foil and poured fat into tin cans.
We saw cars up on blocks because tires weren't available. We can remember milk being delivered to our house early in the morning and placed in the "milk box" on the porch.
We are the last to see the gold stars in the front windows of our grieving neighbors whose sons died in the War. We saw the 'boys' home from the war, build their little houses.
We are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead, we imagined what we heard on the radio. As we all like to brag, with no TV, we spent our childhood "playing outside".
We did play outside, and we did play on our own.
There was no little league. There was no city playground for kids.
The lack of television in our early years meant, for most of us, that we had little real under-standing of what the world was like.
On Saturday afternoons, the movies, gave us newsreels of the war sandwiched in between westerns and cartoons.
Telephones were one to a house, often shared (party Lines)and hung on the wall.
Computers were called calculators, they only added and were hand cranked; typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon.
The 'internet' and 'GOOGLE' were words that did not exist.
Newspapers and magazines were written for adults and the news was broadcast on our table radio in the evening by Gabriel Heatter.
We are the last group who had to find out for ourselves.
As we grew up, the country was exploding with growth.
The G.I. Bill gave returning veterans the means to get an education and spurred colleges to grow.
VA loans fanned a housing boom.
Pent up demand coupled with new installment payment plans put factories to work.
New highways would bring jobs and mobility.
The veterans joined civic clubs and became active in politics.
The radio network expanded from 3 stations to thousands of stations.
Our parents were suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war, and they threw themselves into exploring opportunities they had never imagined.
We weren't neglected, but we weren't today's all-consuming family focus.
They were glad we played by ourselves until the street lights came on.
They were busy discovering the post war world.
We entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where we were welcomed.
We enjoyed a luxury; we felt secure in our future.
Depression poverty was deep rooted. Polio was still a crippler.
The Korean War was a dark presage in the early 50s and by mid-decade school children were ducking under desks for Air-Raid training.
Russia built the "Iron Curtain" and China became Red China .
Eisenhower sent the first 'advisers' to Vietnam.
Castro set up camp in Cuba and Khrushchev came to power.
We are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no threats to our homeland.
We came of age in the 40s and 50s. The war was over and the cold war, terrorism, "global warming", and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life with unease.
Only our generation can remember both a time of great war, and a time when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty. We have lived through both.
We grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better. not worse.
We are the Silent Generation - "The Last Ones"
More than 99 % of us are either retired or deceased, and
We feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times"!
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PHOTOS ONLY BABY BOOMERS WILL UNDERSTAND
Submitted by George Carpenter
#1: Cars Were Colorful!
Most cars these days look fairly bland, but in the 50's, our cars were big, bright, and fun!
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#2. We Got Dressed Up for Birthday Parties.
And sometimes there was even a pony there!
#3: We Played in the Streets:
We didn't have to text our friends back in the day - we'd all just come outside and get to playing!
#4: Gas Was Very Cheap:
On some days, it was only $0.20 a gallon, and beyond that, the people at the station could also fix just about anything!
#5: Ben Franklin 5-10 Was Everything:
We loved going to these stores. They had just about anything and everything you could think of.
#6: If it Wasn't the Ben Franklin, it Was the A&P!
#7: Our Skates Got "Locked" with a Key.
They were also made almost entirely of metal and very hard to skate on!
#8: The Drive-In Was The Place to Be:
This 1950's photo from South Bend, Indiana shows how popular they were!
#9: Car Seats Were More Like Couches:
That’s right - they were big, long, and you could slide all the way across!
#10: The Freezer Actually Had to be DEFROSTED!:
That's right, every now and then you'd have to manually defrost the freezer - sometimes took all day with a lot of scraping!.
#11: Grandma Let Us Do Everything.
Well, maybe that hasn't changed so much, but we LOVED eating off the beaters!
#12: Sometimes Your Food Came On Roller Skates!
That's right - certain restaurants had "roller girls" who would zoom your food out to you!
#13: We got DOWN at the Sock Hop!
#14: Sunday Drives Were A Thing:
That's right - on Sunday, many of us would load up the family car and just go cruising over to the neighbors or just around town!
#15: There Was One TV.
And, surprise, we didn't argue all night about who should get to watch their favorite show. Most of the time, we all liked the same shows!
#16: The Playgrounds were VERY Different:
At recess, we'd swing from the monkey bars with wild abandon and often even stand on the swings and go as high as possible. And still, we survived!
#17: TV Had "Sign Off" Messages.
Remember these? TV would go off at midnight and sometimes even go as far as playing the National Anthem all night.
#18: Just One Hula Hoop Wasn't Enough:
Some of us could do multiple at a time!
#19: We didn't Text, But We Did Pass Notes!
And we were experts at not getting caught!
#20: We Had Xylophones That We Kept on a Pull String.
That's right - there was nothing like the Pull a Tune!
#21: We Got Bottled Cokes and Loved Them:
That’s right - no cans or plastic bottles back then. We were 100% excited when we'd find a cooler like this to get that ice cold bottle!
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LOST IN THE FIFTIES
Our thanks to Rod Johnson for sending this in.
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IMAGES FROM THE PAST
Our thanks to Pat Behrens Reid for these thought provoking pictures!
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Jack goes duck hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck's gun rack.
Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.
Jeffrey will not be still in class; he disrupts other students.
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car, and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
Pedro fails high school English.
common sense and decency!!!
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to make the grass look neat.
In the kitchen on the wall
we only had one phone,
And no need for recording things,
someone was always home.
We only had a living room
where we would congregate,
unless it was at mealtime
in the kitchen where we ate.
We had no need for family rooms
or extra rooms to dine.
When meeting as a family
those two rooms would work out fine.
We only had one TV set
and channels maybe two,
But always there was one of them
with something worth the view.
For snacks we had potato chips
that tasted like a chip.
And if you wanted flavor
there was Lipton's onion dip.
Store-bought snacks were rare because
my mother liked to cook
and nothing can compare to snacks
in Betty Crocker's book.
Weekends were for family trips
or staying home to play.
We all did things together
--even go to church to pray.
When we did our weekend trips
depending on the weather,
no one stayed at home because
we liked to be together.
Sometimes we would separate
to do things on our own,
but we knew where the others were
without our own cell phone.
Then there were the movies
with your favorite movie star,
and nothing can compare
to watching movies in your car.
Then there were the picnics
at the peak of summer season,
pack a lunch and find some trees
and never need a reason.
Get a baseball game together
with all the friends you know,
have real action playing ball
--and no game video.
Remember when the doctor
used to be the family friend,
and didn't need insurance
or a lawyer to defend?
The way that he took care of you
or what he had to do,
because he took an oath and strived
to do the best for you.
Remember going to the store
and shopping casually,
and when you went to pay for it
you used your own money?
Nothing that you had to swipe
or punch in some amount,
and remember when the cashier person
had to really count?
The milkman used to go
from door to door,
And it was just a few cents more
than going to the store.
There was a time when mailed letters
came right to your door,
without a lot of junk mail ads
sent out by every store.
The mailman knew each house by name
and knew where it was sent;
there were not loads of mail addressed to
"present occupant."
There was a time when just one glance
was all that it would take,
and you would know the kind of car,
the model and the make.
They didn't look like turtles
trying to squeeze out every mile;
they were streamlined, white walls, fins
and really had some style.
One time the music that you played
whenever you would jive,
was from a vinyl, big-holed record
called a forty-five.
The record player had a post
to keep them all in line
and then the records would drop down
and play one at a time.
Oh sure, we had our problems then,
just like we do today
and always we were striving,
trying for a better way.
Oh, the simple life we lived
still seems like so much fun,
how can you explain a game,
just kick the can and run?
And why would boys put baseball cards
between bicycle spokes
and for a nickel, red machines
had little bottled Cokes?
This life seemed so much easier
and slower in some ways.
I love the new technology
but I sure do miss those days.
So time moves on and so do we
and nothing stays the same,
but I sure love to reminisce
and walk down memory lane.
With all today's technology
we grant that it's a plus!
But it's fun to look way back and say,
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How Did We Survive?
Our thanks to Bob Banhidi and David Gross and a little help
from SILICONHELL.COM
First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't
get tested for diabetes.
Then we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints, which were promptly
chewed and licked.
We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites. When we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 49-cent bottle of mercurochrome - kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine - and then we got our butt spanked.
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Now, it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $109 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.
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Oh yeah., and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!
My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.
My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter and I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers,
but I can't remember getting e. Coli.
We shared one drink with friends - from one bottle or can -
and no one actually died from this.
We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand. No one would call
child services to report abuse.
We ate cupcakes, sandwiches dripping with mayo, white bread and butter, real bacon; and we drank fizzy pop and Koolaid with white sugar in it. Surprisingly, we weren't overweight.
Why? Because we were always outside playing. That's why!
We drank water straight from the hose instead of from plastic bottles. It tasted the same.
We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either; because if we did we got our butt spanked there and then we got our butt spanked again when we got home.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets; and, when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps, not helmets, on our heads.
We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then ride them at top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times,
we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back for dinner. No one was able to reach us all day. No one was worried. And, we were safe!
I just can't recall how bored we were without Playstations or X-Boxes - no video games at all - no 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies or DVDs, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, and no Internet chat rooms.
We had friends; we went outside and found them.
and then we suffered a lecture for being such a goofs.
It was a neighborhood run amuck.
We had fights, punched each other hard and got black and blue.
We learned to get over it.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, 22-ifles for our 12th, rode horses, made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and ate live stuff. Although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes nor did the live stuff live inside us forever.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the front passenger seat was a special treat.
We all took gym, not PE...and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Keds (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors.
I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now.
We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? They actually gave us asprin for our aches and pains rather than sending us home. Ours wore a hat and everything.
Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem; and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.
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The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.
Flunking gym was not an option. Even for stupid kids!
I guess PE must be much harder than gym.
Believe it or not,
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't, leaned to deal with disappointment.
I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself
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Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law. Imagine that!
To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that
they were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly
have known that? We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes.
We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac!
THIS GENERATION has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. And you're one of them. Congratulations!
But really. . . . . . how did we ever survive?
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ADVANTAGES TO GROWING OLD
Author Unknown
In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.
It becomes more and more difficult for sexual harassment
charges to stick.
No one expects you to run into a burning building.
People call at 9 PM and ask, "Did I wake you?"
Doctors no longer view you as a hypochondriac.
There is nothing left to learn the hard way.
Things you buy now won't wear out.
You can eat dinner at 4 PM.
You can live without sex but not without glasses.
You enjoy hearing about other people's operations.
You get into a heated argument about pension plans.
You have a party, and the neighbors don't even realize it.
You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.
You quit trying to hold your stomach in, no matter
who walks into the room.
You sing along with the elevator music.
Your eyes won't get much worse.
Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.
Your joints are more accurate than the National Weather Service.
Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them either.
Your supply of brain cells is finally down to a manageable size.
People send you this list.
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FROM THE LAND THAT MADE ME, ME
Our thanks to Caryle Trentacosti Rudolph
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REMEMBERING WOOLWORTH'S
Thanks to Judy Battenburg Overzet
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GROWING UP WITHOUT
A CELL PHONE
From a Younger Indiana Friend
WHEN I WAS A KID, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up. What with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning....Uphill... Barefoot...BOTH ways...yadda, yadda, yadda.
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
But now that I'm over the ripe old age of sixty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today and hear myself saying, "You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!
I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!
There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!
Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!
There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!
Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and 'eject' it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?
We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it.
There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.
And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen. Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!
You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get up and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!
There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little brats!
And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!
And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!
And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the 'safety arm' across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling 'shot gun' in the first place!
See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1950 or any time before!"
Regards,
The Over 60 Crowd
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PALOS TOBOGGANING ANYONE?
Great memories compliments of Bob Banhidi. Thanks, Bob!
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OVERHEARD IN 1955
Contributed by Sal Navarette.
"I’ll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are,
it’s going to be impossible to buy a week’s groceries for $10.00."
"Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won’t
be long before $1,000.00 will only buy a used one."
20 cents a pack is ridiculous. "
hire outside help at the store."
someday cost 25 cents a gallon. Guess we’d be better off leaving
the car in the garage."
$50,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn’t surprise me if someday they’ll be making more than the President."
be electric. They are even making electric typewriters now."
married women are having to work to make ends meet."
someone to watch their kids so they can both work."
whole lot of foreign business."
takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder if we are
electing the best people to government."
"The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather,
but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on."
the hospital, it’s too rich for my blood."
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GREAT OLD CARS
Our thanks to Judy Oleszczuk Sopron
1956 Ford Thunderbird
1959 Chevrolet Impala 2Dr Hardtop
1956 Ford Fairlane Victoria
1958 Cadillac Series 62 Sedan
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THINGS YOU DON'T HEAR ANYMORE
Thanks to Bob Banhidi for finding these old sayings.
Be sure to refill the ice trays, we're going to have company.
Watch for the postman, I want to get this letter to Willie
in the mail today.
Quit slamming the screen door when you go out!
Be sure and pull the windows down when you leave, it looks like a shower is coming up.
Don't forget to wind the clock before you go to bed.
Wash your feet before you go to bed, you've been playing outside all day barefooted.
Why can't you remember to roll up your britches legs? Getting them caught in the bicycle chain so many times is tearing them up.
You have torn the knees out of that pair of pants so many times there is nothing left to put a patch on.
Don't you go outside with your school clothes on!
Go comb your hair; it looks like the rats have nested in it all night.
Be sure and pour the cream off the top of the milk when you open the new bottle.
Take that empty bottle to the store with you so you won't have to pay a deposit on another one.
Put a dish towel over the cake so the flies won't get on it.
Quit jumping on the floor! I have a cake in the oven and you are going to make it fall if you don't quit!
Let me know when the Fuller Brush man comes by, I need to get a few things from him.
You boys stay close by, the car may not start and I will need you
to help push it off.
There's a dollar in my purse, get 5 gallons of gas when
you go to town.
Open the back door and see if we can get a breeze through here,
it is getting hot.
You can walk to the store; it won't hurt you to get some exercise.
Don't sit too close to the TV. It is hard on your eyes.
If you pull that stunt again, I am going to wear you out!
Don't lose that button; I'll sew it back on after awhile.
Wash under your neck before you come to the table, you have beads of dirt and sweat all under there.
Get out from under the sewing machine; pumping it
messes up the thread!
Be sure and fill the lamps this morning so we don't have to do that tonight in the dark.
Here, take this old magazine to the toilet with you when you go, we are almost out of paper out there.
Go out to the well and draw a bucket of water so
I can wash dishes.
Don't turn the radio on now, I want the battery to be up when the Grand Ole Opry comes on.
No! I don't have 10 cents for you to go to the show. Do you think money grows on trees?
Eat those peas, they'll make you big and strong like your daddy.
That dog is NOT coming in this house! I don't care how cold it is out there, dogs don't stay in the house.
Sit still! I'm trying to get your hair cut straight and you keep moving and it is all messed up.
Hush your mouth! I don't want to hear words like that! I'll wash your mouth out with soap!
It is time for your system to be cleaned out. I am going to give you a dose of castor oil tonight.
If you get a spanking in school and I find out about it, you'll get another one when you get home.
Quit crossing your eyes! They will get stuck that way.
Be sure to hang the sign for 50 pounds since today is ice man day.
Soak your foot in this pan of kerosene so that bad cut
won't get infected.
When you take your driving test, don't forget to signal each turn. Left arm straight out the window for a left turn; left arm bent up at the elbow for a right turn; and straight down to the side of the door when you are going to stop.
It's: 'Yes Ma'am!' and 'No Ma'am!' to me, young man,
and don't you forget it!
Bring back Memories?
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WHO REMEMBERS FENDER SKIRTS
& CURB FEELERS?
Our thanks to Bob Banhidi for these fun memories.
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Words like "curb feelers."
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And, "steering knobs." AKA: "suicide knob" and "Neckers Knobs." |
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Remember "Continental kits?" |
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When did we quit calling them "emergency brakes?" |
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I'm sad, too, that almost all the old folks are gone who would call the accelerator the "foot feed." |
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Didn't you ever wait at the street for your daddy to come home so you could ride the "running board" up to the house? |
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"Coast to coast" is a phrase that once held all sorts of excitement and now means almost nothing. We take the term "world wide" for granted. This floors me. |
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On a smaller scale, "wall-to-wall" was once a magical term in our homes. In the '50s, everyone covered his, or her, hardwood floors with--WOW--wall-to-wall carpeting! Today, everyone replaces their wall-to-wall carpeting with hardwood floors. |
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I always loved going to the "picture show," but I considered "movie" an affectation. |
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Most of these words go back to the '50s, but here's a pure '60s word I came across the other day: "rat fink." |
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I miss those made-up marketing words that were meant to sound so modern and now sound so retro. Words like "DynaFlow" and "Electrolux." Introducing the 1963 Admiral TV, now with "SpectraVision!" |
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Food for thought: Was there a telethon that wiped out lumbago? Nobody complains of that anymore. |
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Some words aren't gone, but are definitely on the endangered list. The one that grieves me most is "supper." Save a great word. Invite someone to supper. |
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OLDER THAN DIRT
Author Unknown
"Hey Dad," one of my kids 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," I informed him. "All the food was slow."
"C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?"
"It was a place called 'at home,' " I explained. "Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table; and if I didn't like what she put on my plate, I was allowed to sit there until I did like it."
By this time, the kid was laughing so hard, I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But, here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country, or had a credit card. In their later years, they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears AND Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.
My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds and only had one speed, slow.
We didn't have a television in our house until I was 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white; but they bought a piece of 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. Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.
I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza; it was called "pizza pie." When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth, and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin, and burned that too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.
We didn't have a car until I was 15. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a "machine."
I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room, and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.
Pizza were not delivered to our home. But, milk was.
All newspapers were delivered by boys, and all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered a newspaper 6 days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning. 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. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing, and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty, and we weren't allowed to see them.
If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.
Growning up isn't what it used to be; is it?
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A BLAST FROM THE PAST
One of my husband's classmates sent us this enjoyable peek
into our "early" years.
Remember when . . .
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. . . all the girls had ugly gym suits? |
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. . . nobody owned a purebred dog? |
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. . . when a quarter was a decent allowance? |
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. . . you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny? |
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. . . your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces? |
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. . . all your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels? |
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. . . laundry |
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. . . it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents? |
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. . . they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. And, they did? |
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. . . you'd lie on your back in the grass with your friends and say things like, "That cloud looks like a |
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. . . baseball was played with NO adults to help kids with the rules of the game? |
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. . . stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger? |
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. . . being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited you at home? |
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. . . both girls and boys sported a six-gun and holster? |
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. . . our heros were Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Laurel & Hardy, Howdy Dowdy & the Peanut Gallery, the Lone Ranger, The Shadow, and Roy, Dale, Trigger, and Buttermilk? |
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. . . summers were filled with bike rides, baseball games, Hula Hoops, bowling, visits to the pool, eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar? |
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. . . wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside were popular treats? |
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. . . soda pop machines dispensed glass bottles? |
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. . . coffee and soda shops had tableside jukeboxes? |
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. . . Blackjack, Clove, and Teaberry gum were our favorites--next to Double Bubble, of course? |
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. . . milk was delivered to everyone's home in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers? |
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. . . newsreels ran before the movie which allowed time to refill popcorn? |
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. . . no boy would be caught dead without his P F Flyers? |
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. . . telephone numbers began with a word prefix...(Waterfall 8-3323) and party lines had to be tolerated? |
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. . . pea-shooters were the weapon of choice for the grade school set? |
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. . . you ran home to watch Howdy Doody, Bob Smith, and the Peanut Gallery? |
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. . . you received your very own HiFi and began collecting 45 RPM records? |
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. . . sitting on your 78 RPM records made that unmistakable crunch and your heart sunk to the floor? |
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. . . book after book was filled with Green Stamps and redeemed for a special treasure? |
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. . . typing stencils and running copies on the mimeograph machine meant blue hands? |
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. . . covering the floor with The Fort Apache Play Set and its hundreds of pieces? |
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. . . decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny--miney-moe?" |
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. . . mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over?" |
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. . . the "race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest? |
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. . . catching lightning bugs could happily occupy an entire evening? |
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. . . it wasn't odd to have two or three 'Best Friends'? |
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. . . the worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties?" |
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. . . a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot? |
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. . . Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures? |
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. . . "Oly-oly-oxen-free' made perfect sense"? |
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. . . War was a card game. |
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. . . baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle? |
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. . . taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin? |
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. . . water balloons were the ultimate weapon? |
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If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived!
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EVIDENCE THAT YOU LIVE IN THE
21st CENTURY
Author Unknown
1. You just tried to enter your password on the microwave.
2. You have a list of fifteen phone numbers to reach your family of three.
3. You call your son's beeper to let him know it's time to eat. He emails you back from his bedroom, "What's for dinner?"
4. Your granddaughter sells Girl Scout cookies via her web site.
5. You chat several times a day with a stranger from South Africa, but you haven't spoken with your next door neighbor yet this year.
6. You check the ingredients on a can of chicken noodle soup to see if it contains Exhinacea.
7. Your mom asks you to send her a JPEG file of your latest grandchild so she can create a new screen saver.
8. Every commercial on television has a web site address at the bottom of the screen.
9. You pull in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.
10. You buy a computer and six months later it's out-of-date and now sells for half the price you paid.
11. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 50+ years of your life, is cause for panic and so you turn around to get it.
12. Using real money, instead of credit or debit, to make a purchase would be a hassle and take planning.
13. Cleaning up the dining room means getting the fast food bags out of the back seat of your car.
14. Your reason for not staying in touch with family is that they don't have email addresses.
15. You consider 2nd-day air delivery painfully slow.
16. Your dining room table is now your flat filing cabinet.
17. Your idea of being organized is multiple-colored Post-It notes.
18. You hear most of your jokes via email instead of in person.
19. You get an extra phone line so you can get phone calls.
20. You disconnect from the Internet and get this awful feeling as though you just pulled the plug on a loved one.
21. You get up in the morning and go online before getting your breakfast.
22. You wake up at 2 AM to go to the bathroom and check your emails on your way back to bed.
23. You start tilting your head sideways to smile.
24. You now think of three expressos as "getting wasted."
25. You haven't played solitaire with a deck of cards for years.
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50s LINKS
Note: Clicking on any of these will take you off our site,
but each is fun to experience.
To return, you pull up: FengerJune1958.com again and log on.
CRAIG'S LOST CHICAGO
A great site to remember all the places that once were a part of Chicago. http://www.craigslostchicago.com/
GREAT 50s VIDEO
http://oldfortyfives.com/TakeMeBackToTheFifties.html
GREAT 40s VIDEO
http://oldfortyfives.com/decadeofthe1940s.html
DIGITAL DREAM DOOR:
This is a site of numerous lists. The Administrators say they are compiled by knowledgeable experts, of movies, music, and performers; and subjects range from Movies to Inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Music lists, with sound, dominate the site and include the following from our teen era.
http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/movie-pages/movie_50s.html
BEST SITES TO PURCHASE OLD SHOWS:
Old movies and serials, http://www.oldies.com/
Old radio shows, http://otrcat.com/, http://www.radiospirits.com/
For " The Shadow" episodes
http://www.theradiolady.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc.
REWIND THE FIFTIES:
The most complete 50's site. You will find information and pictures of clothes, hair styles, food, costs, cars, teen life, and of course, TV, movies, music, and dance. You can even subscribe to their newsletter.
http://www.loti.com/
STATUE of LIBERTY and ELLIS ISLAND FOUNDATION:
A wonderful free site to find your immigrant relatives and perhaps see a photo of of the ship on which they made the journey to America. In some cases ships' registries are available.
http://www.ellisislandrecords.org/
ROUTE 66:
Travel along the famed highway from Chicago to the east coast. A wealth of pictures makes one feel you're really there.
http://www.kalemis.com/route66/IL/index.htm
GREAT PICTURES & TUNES:
The Cars We Drove In The 50s & 60s
STATLER BROTHERS, BURMA SHAVE, & OLD PHOTOS
http://oldfortyfives.com/DYRT.htm
ENJOY 50s ROCK'N'ROLL CLASSICS"
Original clips from may of our favorite stars can be enjoyed once more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzQ8GDBA8Is&list=PL84C9100FCEF9B6DA
Great radio station out of Memphis playing all the 50s hits.
https://sunny1210.com/index.php/music
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