I REMEMBER

When I received this email from my sister-in-law (actually it was forwarded to her by her friend Nancy, see below), I really enjoyed reading it and got my mind to thinking of things I remembered that were different. My husband beat me to it and sent his memories back to everyone, then as I was doing my own and thinking of this page, my friend Marylee Eaton sent me hers.
 
So this is what has developed so far. Please send me your memories in any form, any length, (and if you want your email posted), maybe even an old picture or two, and I will add it to the list (I'll even add to it if you think of more).
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REMEMBER
 
If you are old enough...take a stroll with me...close your eyes...and go back...before the Internet...before semiautomatics and crack...before SEGA or Super Nintendo...way back... before the Nicodemon
 
I'm talkin' 'bout hide and go seek at dusk. Sittin' on the porch, Simon Says, Kick the Can, Red Light Green Light. Lunch boxes with a thermos. Chocolate milk, going home for lunch, penny candy from the store, hopscotch, butterscotch, skates with keys, Jacks, Mother-May-I?, Hula hoops and sunflower seeds, Whist and Old Maid and Crazy Eights, wax lips and mustaches, Mary Janes, saddle shoes and Coke bottles with the names of cities on the bottom, running through the sprinkler, circle pins, bobby pins, Mickey Mouse Club, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Fran & Ollie, Spin & Marty, all in black and white.
 
When around the corner seemed far away, and going downtown seemed like going somewhere. Bedtime, climbing trees, making forts...backyard shows, lemonade stands, cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, sittin' on the curb, staring at clouds, jumping down the steps, jumping on the bed, pillow fights, getting "company", ribbon candy, angel hair on the Christmas tree, Jackie Gleason, white gloves, walking to church, walking to the movie theater, being tickled to death, running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt, being tired from playin' .... remember that?
 
Not steppin' on a crack or you'll break your mother's back....paper chains at Christmas, silhouettes of Lincoln and Washington...the smell of paste in school and Evening in Paris.
 
What about the girl that had the big bubbly handwriting, who dotted her "i's" with hearts? The Stroll, popcorn balls & sock hops...
 
Remember when...there were two types of sneakers for girls and boys (Keds and PF Flyer) and the only time you wore them at school was for "gym". And the girls had those ugly uniforms.
 
When it took five minutes for the TV to warm up. When nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school. When nobody owned a purebred dog.
 
When a quarter was a decent allowance, and another quarter, a huge bonus. When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.
 
When girls neither dated nor kissed until late high school if then.
 
When your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces. When all of your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done, everyday, and wore high heels.
 
When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time. And you didn't pay for air. And you got trading stamps to boot!
 
When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box. When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry groceries, and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.
 
When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner with your parents.
 
When they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed...and did!
 
When the worst thing you could do at school was smoke in the bathrooms, flunk a test, or chew gum. And the prom was in the auditorium and we danced to an orchestra, and all the girls wore pastel gowns and the boys wore suits for the first time and we stayed out all night.
 
When a '57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise, peel out, lay rubber, or watch submarine races, and people went steady and girls wore a class ring with an inch of wrapped dental floss or yarn coated with pastelfrost nail polish so it would fit her finger.
 
And no one ever asked where the car keys were 'cause they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked. And you got in big trouble if you accidentally locked the doors at home since no one ever had a key.
 
Remember laying on your back on the grass with your friends and saying things like "That cloud looks like a ..."
 
And playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game. Back then, baseball was not a psychological group learning experience - - it was a game.
 
Remember when stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals 'cause no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger.
 
And...with all our progress...don't you just wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace....and share it with the children of today?
 
...So send this on to someone who can still remember Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Laurel & Hardy, Howdy Doody and the Peanut Gallery, the Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows, Nellie Belle, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk...as well as the sound of a reel mower on Saturday morning, and summers filled with bike rides, playing in cowboy land, baseball games, bowling and visits to the pool...and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar.
 
When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home. Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we all survived because their love was greater than the threat.
 
Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that!!!"
 

Unknown author


 
I remember before TV when listening to the radio was the highlight of the day - Big Jon & Sparkey, Fibber McGee, The Great Guildersleeve, Amos & Andy, The Lone Ranger, Don McNeil's Breakfast Club with Arthur Godfrey.
 
Also riding my bike to school, Scooters that didn't come apart and stab you in the neck, riding the City Bus to the movies at the age of six because the driver was my Grandfather, homemade ice cream, lawn chairs that would collapse and pinch your finger, my Aunt & Uncle going Honky-Tonkin every Saturday night and stopping at the grocery store to pick up some milk, bread and meat before showing up at a relative's house for the weekend.
 
I remember the horse-drawn ice wagon that delivered ice to our house for our icebox. I remember when they paved our street and when we would pick up the phone and wait for the operator to come on so we could say, "87 please." to see when Daddy was coming home from work. I also remember when we got the "dial phone" and we called the neighbor across the street and got someone in Chicago. The phone company never did explain that one in 1956. We only had to dial 4 digits then because area codes didn't exist and everyone had the same 523 prefix.
 
I remember when Elvis Presley, star of the Wagon Wheel in Odessa whom no one had ever heard of, played our school dance. I also remember when Roy Orbison whom no one had ever heard of either, used to come to Andrews to make practise recordings at the Andrews radio station. I met him again on a plane in the '80's and he actually remembered me.
 
I don't think the pace of our lives was any slower it was just that new information from everywhere didn't flood in on us 24 hours a day giving us the impression that, for the first time, things were happening all over the world. We just didn't know that then.

Lee Balkum 01-19-01


 
Yeah, I remember when we'd stick the piece of Saran Wrap-like plastic over the TV screen to have color (and that was on my neighbor's black and white because we did not yet own one), when we'd plug in the rotating plastic wheel so the colors would flash across the Christmas tree, when we had a party line telephone - my number was Republic or RE4-2336, when we never locked our house and the neighbors would just walk in the back door right into the "life" of our house - the kitchen, when we would lay down on the still very warm driveway at night and actually see stars in the sky, when the moms on my street were called "pressure cooker housewives," when school clothes had no designer labels, when we road the school bus and sang the Nestle Chocolate ad song, when we'd meet at the local hangouts - the ball field/bowling alley/soda fountain counter at the drug store for cherry coke, when we had to stand at the sink and wash and dry the dishes after dinner, when we'd take the bus downtown to the Majestic and Metropolitan theaters, when going out to dinner with our parents to the local cafeteria was a special treat and my dad wouldn't order a full dinner for himself because he knew he could save money by eating our leftovers, when ...
 
So many memories ...

Marylee Eaton 01-19-01


 
I remember also these things:
 
Spending the summer evenings outside in the backyard with all the neighbors sitting in the lawn chairs and we kids on the blankets....every night....no tv. I remember the weekends eating homemade ice cream or watermelon at the homes of aunts and uncles. But I also remember being the first on my block to have a tv...and all the neighbors crowded around to see the 9-in screen! (with a 30 foot antenna).
 
I remember playing for hours down in a creek only 3 blocks from a MAJOR state university, $.09 for admission to Saturday morning picture shows, the tall mercury vapor towers that bathed my hometown in moonlight. Going "window shopping" in the evenings when all stores were closed. Driving downtown on Saturday night to get the Sunday paper when it first hit the street. Cutting and pasting (no really, with scissors and glue) the Crime-Stoppers Notebook from the Dick Tracy comic strip.
 
I remember watching my grandmother lift the clothes from hot water with a stick and individually roll the items through the roller squeezing out as much water as possible. Then I would "snap" the wash cloths and rags to get the wrinkles out and place them across the tippy-tops of the grass blades to dry in the sun.
 
When you were sick, you didn't have to get dressed and go to the doctor's office, your doctor came to your house and he gave the shots.
 
I remember the silver icicles on the Christmas tree. If you wadded up a bunch of them, they formed a solid heavy silver ball. When aluminum Christmas trees came into vogue, my daddy made our first one including the rotating multi-colored spotlights. Next year he bought one. Were those the first artificial trees?
• PycoPay Tooth Powder,
• penicillin,
• Mrs. Wright's Blueing,
• keeping and using bacon drippings,
• polishing silverware,
• CocaCola was a treat,
• newspaper-lined garbage cans,
• spitoons,
• cap guns,
• shoe stores that x-rayed your feet,
• church without air conditioning (just little fans on a stick),
• schools without air conditioning but with windows,
• cars without air conditioning,
• screen porches with isenglass in the winter,
• water filled coffee cans on top of space heaters,
• and family reunions that everyone attended.

Carolyn Balkum 01-19-01


 
I have more to try to remember......like......................
 
on radio...Jack Armstrong, All American Boy......and the Green Hornet............and yes, the Shadow. In the saturday matinee.....Perils of Nyoka, Jungle Girl.............and Pete Smith Specials (comedy skits), and all the cowboy heroes....Roy and Gene, and Lash Larue, and Hoppy, and Johnny Weismueller as Tarzan (the first)....
 
We made our own skooters from old rollerskates and 2 by 4's. We built roads for our cars from wood stove ashes......anyone remember rubber guns, and "dub knockers"?
 
We read about Billie and Betty, the Bobsey Twins, .........................

Bill Harris 01-19-01


 
Some of my memories:
 
Catching "lightening bugs" at dusk and putting them in glass jars.
 
Church "pot-luck" dinners where all the women actually made food from scratch.
 
Elementary school in old army barracks with no air conditioning and radiators for heat.
 
Cold chocolate milk in the school lunchroom for 5 cents a carton. Vanilla and Cherry cokes at the drug store in those frosty "coke" glasses either 5 cents or 10 cents depending on the size of the glass.
 
Watching our friends' color tv for the first time. Having to go to bed right before Andy Griffith Show and the whistling theme song that came on right before it. Shows like Rin Tin Tin, Lone Ranger, Sky King, Mighty Mouse, Etc.
 
Sitting and studying under the hooded hair dryer for an hour twice a week while my hair full of big curlers dried.
 
Getting to wear pantsuits to school for the first time in high school and finally my senior year actually wearing jeans.
 
Trimming boys' hair at my house just enough so that they would not be in trouble at school the next day. Making sure your own skirt was just long enough to pass inspection by the principal.
 
Go Go Boots and fish net hose

Nancy Beazley 01-20-01


 
More for I remember
 
Gasoline 29.9 cents per gallon, and you got S&H green stamps as a bonus! Pixy Stix! Penny gum ball machines. Double-Bubble that didn't lose it's flavor after 5 minutes. metal ice trays. birthday cakes "made from scratch", not from a mix. Brownie cameras with the big bulb that blinded you for 5 minutes after it flashed! bouffant hair dos. skirts with petticoats that took up half the car seat. Saddle shoes and bobby sox. White "go go" boots. living in a small town where we only got country music on the radio and had to watch American Bandstand to hear rock 'N roll. transistor radios that could only pick up one station but all the static!

Jacquelyn Smith 01-20-01


 
Yvonne-5 yearsHere's my list of remembrances:
 
Playing with Betsy McCall paper dolls
Going to town on Saturday night - parents visited, kids played up and down the sidewalks
Playing "Rock School" on the church steps
Going to church on Sunday night, and afterwards being invited to someone's house for "coffee"
The family piling in the car and going to someone's house just to visit
Watching "I've Got a Secret" with Gary Moore
Watching "Hit Parade" on Saturday nights
Going to the Bookmobile
Feed sack dresses
Going to drive-in movies
Mustard plasters - home remedy for a chest cold - it actually helped
Sleeping with brush curlers in my hair all night - ouch!
Belonging to the Meat Club and having meat delivered to your house once a month

Yvonne Creppon 01-25-01


 
I remember
 
Light Crust Doughboys with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Making preserves,jellies and pickles, canning vegetable and meats. Riding the bus and the street car. Betty Boop and PopEye cartoons.

Helen Enders 01-20-01


 
Remember
 
I'll never forget the day my dad's cousin rolled down our long, gravel driveway in her brand new Edsel. Of course she wanted Dad to "take a drive" and being a curious little boy, I plopped down in the back seat, got on my knees and leaned over the front seat so I wouldn't miss anything. As we headed down the farm to market road, a chicken suddenly appeared ahead. I don't think Dad had even heard of "power" brakes, much less knew how tenderly they must be treated. The next thing I remembered, I was head first in the front floor board.
 
The small farming community where I spent my first seven years had a "drawing" every Saturday sponsored by the local merchants. Everyone in town did their weekly shopping on Saturdays. At 4pm, a cowbell being rung from the back of a parked pickup could be heard in every store along the very short, main street. As that very distinctive sound rang out, all shopping ceased. Carts, with purses, were abandoned, folks driving down the street at the time would stop, blocking the street, as everyone in town went outside to hear whose name would be drawn to win the $10, $15, or $20. When the name was announced, the winner would yell, "I'm here, I'm here". Everyone else would resume what they had been doing.
 
I liked to go into the local grocery store and buy, for a dime, bottled chocolate drink.

Cade Garrison 2-19-01


 
My remember when:
 
I remember eating mayo sandwiches and watching scarry movies on Friday night. Walking home from school was fun. Playing croquet or badminton in the backyard, with friends dropping by to join us. Watermelon and homemade ice cream was a special treat, and eating out even more special --- especially the A&W Root Beer stand with their frosted mugs. I remember Christmas caroling with my high school buddies and then having hot chocolate afterword. Enjoying hours of playing Monopoly or cards with 8 or more and laughing till your side hurt. I remember laying out in the backyard and seeing the stars go on forever. I remember that the most stress I felt involved in having or not having plans for the weekend.

Cathy Garrison

Now, a new list:
 
How many do you remember?
  1. Candy cigarettes
  2. Wax coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside.
  3. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles.
  4. Coffee shops with tableside juke boxes
  5. Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum
  6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles, with Cardboard stoppers.
  7. Party lines.
  8. Newsreels before the movie.
  9. P. F. Flyers
  10. Butch wax
  11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix ... (Drexel-5505)
  12. Peashooters.
  13. Howdy Doody
  14. 45 RPM Records
  15. Green Stamps
  16. Hi-fi's
  17. Metal ice cube trays, with levers
  18. Mimeograph paper
  19. Blue flash Bulbs
  20. Beanie and Cecil
  21. roller skate keys
  22. Cork pop guns
  23. Drive ins
  24. Studebakers
  25. Wash tub wringers
  26. The Fuller Brush man
  27. Reel-to-reel tape recorders
  28. Tinkertoys
  29. The Erector Set
  30. The Fort Apache Playset
  31. Lincoln Logs
  32. 15 cent McDonald hamburgers
  33. 5 cent packs of baseball cards...with that awful pink slab of bubblegum
  34. Penny candy
  35. 28 cent-a-gallon gasoline
  36. 25 cent pack cigarettes with a penny returned in the pack
  37. penny post cards
  38. 3 cent first class stamps
  39. 5 and 10 stores
  40. 6 - 12 Oz bottles of Pepsi for 25 cents and penny deposit on ( bottle and you got the penny back for the bottle.)
I WANT TO GO BACK TO THE TIME WHEN.....................
Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo."
Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!"
"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest.
Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly."
Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening.
It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.
Being old referred to anyone over 20.
The net on a tennis court was the perfect height to play volleyball and rules didn't matter.
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties".
It was magic when dad would "remove" his thumb.
It was unbelievable that dodgeball wasn't an Olympic event.
Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a slingshot.
Nobody was prettier than mom.
Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.
It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the "big people" rides at the amusement park.
A foot of snow was a dream come true.
Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare."
Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute ads for action figures.
No shopping trip was complete, unless a new toy was brought home.
"Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense.
Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.
The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.
War was a card game.
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.
Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.
Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin.
Ice cream was considered a basic food group.
Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors.
If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived!!!
Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their "grown up" life....
 
I double dog dare ya

Cathy Garrison 3-5-01


 
I remember
 
collecting pop bottles turning them in for deposit and buying my first beatle 45. I remember staying all night at grammas and playing DOUBLE SOLITARE and listening to the beatle song over and over again while she patiently smiled. I remember playing 500 rummy with my friends all summer while we baby-sat. I remember sleeping out in the backyard and telling scary stories. i remember piercing each others ears ironing our hair and seeing how long we could let our bangs grow. I remember when the first McDonnell's opened and they only employed guys and i remember riding around manners big boy and trying to scrape up enough money for a fry . I remember class rings and angora wrapped around it,mohair sweaters, and the draft. I remember singing the Old rugged cross at school and saying the pledge of allegiance and never ever talking back to an adult. I remember the smell of freshly baked bread at grammas kitchen along with peanut butter cookies
 
I remember playing Jacks betsy McCall dolls and my little brothers ugly Zak in the Sack doll. I remember walking every where and not being afraid of anything. I remember bomb drills at school (hiding under our desk) I remember only wearing dresses to school. I remember having a mom and dad and grandparents and aunts and uncles and picnics and family get togethers. And I remember thinking the worse thing a person could do was drink too much beer.I remember going to church every Sunday no excuses and Sunday dinners. I remember girl scout meetings camp outs badges and the day
 
I saw my bus driver cry because JFK had been shot. I remember sitting in front of the TV for 3 days while everyone cried. I remember my mom saying every one had gone crazy.
 
I remember when the first store stayed open on Sunday and the employees were arrested. I remember a safer less complicated time and not knowing how fortunate I was.

Peter & Janet Gillich 10-26-01


 
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