A walk down memory lane.....

major bean wrote: This is what I dreaded most.


http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad63/majorbean/827.jpg?t=1277693821

You shaved at that age?

My brother was suspended from Junior High for setting off cherry bombs in the boys bathroom. GLASS PACKS on cars to make them sound really rough. GREASERS and PREPPIES. We had the Strawberry Festival at our elementary school each year. My mom would supply the hot dog and hamburger buns since my family had bakeries.

I loved those fireflies & kept them in jars with holes poked in the top - I would NEVER even think of squooshing them in my hand!!!

We would set up bridge tables in the backyard & put large tableclothes over them and huddle under them when rain showers would come down. There was a hurricane in '53 or '56 which knocked down the apple tree.

I'd turn over the milkbox & play with the grubs & worms underneath.

Just thinking how much I love these memories. Maybe 285Bound could host a hop? It would be nice to meet some of you old fogies... :woo hoo:

major bean wrote: ...hung out the clothes on the clothes line. All shirts, pants, dresses, blouses had to be ironed.

You only wore a baseball cap while playing baseball. (And the bill was in the front.)

Sheets and pillow cases were ironed and starched. Clothes were hung on the line even in the winter...and they froze.

Pants were not dragging on the ground nor were the zippers half an inch long. The waistband of britches were right at the belly button for everyone, except maybe truck drivers and a few other guys. Well, women didn't wear pants. They wore girdles and panty hose weren't invented yet. Women wore stockings with a garter belt to hold them up. YUCK!!

I'm sure it was a "suburb" thing, but every house in the neighborhood had an incinerator out back
for burning any garbage that would burn. Everything else we'd haul to the "dump". In the winter,
we'd block off our street for sledding, since we had the best hill in the neighborhood. Always a bummer
when the sand truck would come through & spread gravel all over our fast track. I remember making
our own skateboards, using those nasty steel wheels from the clamp on skates. If only we'd known
about patents back then!

unlimited wrote: I'm sure it was a "suburb" thing, but every house in the neighborhood had an incinerator out back
for burning any garbage that would burn. Everything else we'd haul to the "dump". In the winter,
we'd block off our street for sledding, since we had the best hill in the neighborhood. Always a bummer
when the sand truck would come through & spread gravel all over our fast track. I remember making
our own skateboards, using those nasty steel wheels from the clamp on skates. If only we'd known
about patents back then!

I forgot about the 'burn barrell'. We had a 50 gallon barrell where we would take 'all' trash out to and burn it. Probably the same as your incinerator.

We still use a burn barrel when it isn't too dry. Sure cuts down on trash.

Beatnikis! Maynard G Krebs.

The girls wore "penny" loafers and the boys sometimes wore oxfords. And sex was not "free". And rubbers were not galoshes.

Every once in a while you would experience a sonic boom from the jets. That type of activity was unregulated in the fifties and it seems that the jet pilots got a kick out of shaking the leafs or something.

Food was wonderful. Anything fried to eat was fried in lard. Meat was good for you. Nothing was artificial. Sugar was sugar and sweet was sweet. "Wonder Bread. Helps to build strong bodies 12 different ways!" There was no such animal as a TV dinner.

California was not yet the Mecca of yearning for all of the youth. What we longed to see was only available by a driving vacation in the car. Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Carlsbad, Mount Rushmore, the Cliff Dwellings, Disneyland. People camped using tents or stayed in a Best Western.

The Lone Ranger. Red Rider lunch boxes. Gene Autry shirts.

Main Street in my home town was two blocks long. One block was respectable, the other was not. The "other" side had the pool hall and the liquor store and a couple of empty buildings. The respectable end had the bank, pharmacy, barber shop, dry goods, and such. Quite a difference a block makes.

And sometimes, men and women actually loved each other.

major, Swanson TV dinners were introduced in 1953 (but you had to be rich to eat such things, never saw one in my house.) Since I was born in Nov '56, I don't remember much of the 50's, but our small town in the 60's wasn't much different. Gangs of kids out playing until the street lights came on, or hanging out on someone's shady porch on hot days, playing Monopoly or just reading. Special nights when we got to stay out late playing kick the can or prisoner's base, sooo much more fun in the dark! Drive-in movies, with "Pizza, pizza, pizza!" and the Pic ads-"Don't believe it, it don't work!"
The roller skates that clamped onto your shoes without a skate key, all the better for skating at the corner church with the really smooth sidewalks! Apricot fights (those pits are hard! A good ripe one will hurt and leave a big mess on your opponent.) Sifting through the new gravel in the alley, looking for Indian beads.
The annual watching of Wizard of Oz, with popcorn in the big yellow Pyrex bowl, and Mom telling us when it changed into color, since we couldn't tell with our black & white TV. New Year's Eve open houses with more popcorn, 500-Rum & Scrabble marathons, and those tin noise-makers at midnight.

kentucky jan wrote: playing Monopoly or just reading. Special nights when we got to stay out late playing kick the can or prisoner's base, sooo much more fun in the dark! Drive-in movies, with "Pizza, pizza, pizza!" and the Pic ads-"Don't believe it, it don't work!"

The annual watching of Wizard of Oz, with popcorn in the big yellow Pyrex bowl.

Love these memories! Always looked forward to the annual Wizard of Oz.