Oh change back is a pet peeve of mine...I hate it when they put the bills in your hand and the change on top which slides all over and gets dropped before I can get it in my change purse. I've since learned to hold my hand in such a way that I take the bills first and then the change goes in my palm...and in the old days, you always placed the bills from the customer on top of the register drawer, not in the slot, until they rec'd the change back...that way they couldn't argue that they handed you a $20 instead of a $10...

Yes going outside to play with whoever showed up in the neighborhood and no one knowing where we were...it was incredibly freeing and allowed for such creative play. The only rule we had was that we had to be within earshot of the bell mom would ring when it was time to come home....that or be in before sunset.

And then there's food. I remember when food had real flavor....the grape jelly was made with delicious concord grapes that had a super grape flavor...unlike today's purple gelatinous goop. Dad was an organic gardener and our vegetables were so fresh, and I still say he grew the best tasting tomatoes ever...I think it was all the horse manure he used as fertilizer. DH still lusts over Mrs. P's biscuits that were made with lard...she was the old lady who owned the dairy farm where he worked as a kid...farm fresh eggs, milk, cream, chicken, etc. Can't be beat. The bakery on the corner also made donuts using lard...one was more than enough! It really stuck with you!

I also remember the days of home-delivered milk, dry-cleaning, and the farmer who came to the house 2-3 times a week with his truck selling fresh vegetables. There was also a small grocer a few doors down from my Dad's store. He also delivered groceries around town. When I was old enough, Mother let me 'call-in' the order. I was so proud! It wasn't a huge order but he would deliver but a basket full, come in the back door and put it on the kitchen table...milk, bread, eggs, a pound or two of some meat for dinner, when she didn't have time to go to the store herself. Loved going in there because Mr. Rogers always had a piece of candy or something for us kids.

Oh my gosh Annie - you just made my mouth water. I'd forgotten about the awesome grape jelly. You're right - today's stuff is exactly "gelatinous purple goop."

This is a great thread.

This has been so fun! I don't remember many of what's been written (not old enough) and a lot has brought back memories that I'd forgotten about. DON'T STOP! :)

Rothschild's coats. DDs wore them to church and dress occasions. I loved velvet dresses when I was a child so made sure both of my daughters had their share as well.

KSWL. isn't that the most presumptuous attitude? I want to tell them I am Mrs. .... to you.

DLM, I still count out change to my customers and I keep the bill or bills that they give me out until we are squared away in case they get confused as to the denominations that they gave me. I still run my shop with the small extras that keep my customers coming back. They are also addressed as sir or ma'm unless they are considerably younger than I. I also remember to thank them for their patronage and how much I appreciate it.

Saddle shoes - I loved them.

Once in a while I run across a store clerk who counts back change, and I compliment them every time - especially is the person is under 50!

I remember going on car trips, and one of us kids would sleep on the back ledge.

When I was in elementary school, our softball league went to a Twins game every summer, an afternoon game. It was actually affordable! So there were busloads of little girls sitting in the left field bleachers, and every half inning, Tony Oliva trotted out to his position in left field. Busloads of little girls waved and shouted "Hi Tony!" Every half inning, that gracious man smiled and waved back (he's still my favorite player ever). Remember when professional athletes cared about their fans?

And how about sitting around with your family on Sunday afternoon, listening to a ball game on the radio? Televised games were rare.

I saw my first Twins game when I was 4 (it was 1965). When we stepped out to where we could see the field for the first time, I said "Oh look! It's even in color!" My grandparents had a color TV (the Pink Panther was really pink!), but we didn't get one until I was in junior high.

I had beautifully made, perfectly fitting clothes growing up... because my mom made them. She made everything from jackets and dresses to things for the home. (I grew up in a fairly affluent area but in a middle income family, so budget was king.)

I'd love to wear beautiful gloves like my mom did when I was little. I love this old picture of her with me and my big sis. Check out the gloves! She probably made all of our outfits, including my little coat.

Chicagoans, what a darling photo. I love the clothing. Dress gloves added so much elegance to an outfit.

The Limited has a darling cape and high gloves to go with it and I would love to buy it for my DD for her birthday.

Back in the days of Home Ec, which I think is sorely needed by almost everyone these days, we could all set in a sleeve, albeit badly, and sew on facings and collars. The talented ones, like Chicagoans's mother, could outfit an army.

Rubbers and zip up boots. Today, guys have to either trash their shoes every time it rains, or sit around looking like they're going hunting.

Men in hats. Blame that on JFK.

Women in tea length skirts.

Club sandwiches at Woolworths.

Parties where adults dressed up, even if they were parents, with the guys in coats and skinny ties. They looked very glamorous with their Tom Collins and martini glasses when we snuck in for a few minutes.

Big bench seats in cars, and no safety belts. So you could slide around like a hockey puck every time your father turned the corner. Or lie down in the backseat at night and watch the lights and trees go by overhead.

Huge convertibles. Beehives. And all the women wearing white gloves downtown, which was clean as a whistle.

I also liked saddle shoes.

I too, remember going out in the morning during the summer and not coming home until dinner. My mom didn't worry, she knew someone was feeding me lunch just as she would if extra kids were at our place.

My mom taught Home Ec and you can bet I know how to set a sleeve and sew darts in a dress. I am long-waisted and learned to adjust a dress pattern to compensate for that.

This is a fun walk down memory lane.

How many of us had the black patent leather mary-janes as seen in Chicagoans picture. I know I did.

The honour system of buying a newspaper. We didn't get the paper delivered on the weekends and from the age of 6 we would walk three blocks to the newspaper stand and put our dime into the little container and take the paper out of the open box - not enclosed like today.

For those who were following my lament about not finding 100% wool lined pants and suggested Talbots. I had success today. So thanks. Not black but a small houndstooth pattern. I had stopped shopping at Talbots for a couple of years as they had started to carry carp but apparently complaints and dropping sales have forced them to address that issue.

How about paper dolls with those little tabs that always ripped off and comic books like Little Lulu and Nancy and Sluggo. Pastel Esterbrook fountain pens with turquoise ink..so shocking. and let's not forget Kotex and Modess ads that led you to believe the curse came with a ball gown instead of the reality of cotton pony pads with safety pins and a belt.

Men wearing hats, yes! My father wore a fedora and a lovely grey overcoat. He wore a suit and tie to work each day. He was so dashing and handsome when he walked through the door in the evening. I remember one evening when he placed his hat on our server in the dining room where my DM had placed DB's hamster cage. It was a bit too close and the hamster made a snack of DF's hat that evening. What an uproar that caused, we all laughed ourselves silly.

Hat boxes were works of art and a lady looked so elegant carrying a lovely hat box out of a department store. I still have an old hatbox that I think was from Lord & Taylor.

Tea rooms were wonderful. I always looked so forward to a bite of soup and a sandwich when DM and I went shopping and the chocolate cokes were to die for.

Every department store had a fabulous Santa at Christmas time. They looked so wonderful with the white hair, red suit, and shiny black boots and I think many department stores looked far and wide to find a gentleman who was naturally bearded. After sitting on Santa's lap and giving our short list we were gifted with a tangerine and candy cane. The trip down the escalator was a thing of wonder looking at the beautiful Christmas decorations below. Every once in a while we were fortunate enough to have a light snow fall as we were making our way back to our car, serenaded by the Salvation Army bells.

kathie738p - I am going to be laughing for the rest of the night over the reminder about Kotex pads, safety pins and belts. And then do you remember the dilemma - do I or don't I change to tampons and all the controversy surrounding that.

Ok, some things I look back on fondly but that is not one of them.

Who remembers that white liquid shoe polish with the sponge tip that you had to use on the toes of your saddle shoes after you wore them to ride your bike and scuffed up the toes?

Reading Marcolo's comment about men with rubbers and shoes. Well, turning this thread back to furniture--I find that I seethe with resentment when people walk into a house with boots on--because in the old days, you had galoshes, or rubbers that went over your shoes. Your shoes were clean. Sneakers are impossible to dry because of all the little crevices in the soles and always leave footprints on your floors. Second, remember people putting doilies on the backs of chairs? They did that because of men's hair pomades, but it reminds me that today people will come into your house in tank tops and shorts, having been in some activity, sweating, and sit on your Clarence House sofa. I don't care if they run around nude--just don't sit on my upholstery unless you're dry!

My mother had some kind of clear plastic boot that folded over and buttoned with a piece of elastic. But I also remember women carrying zippered shoe bags, and they would change their outside boots into inside shoes (I grew up in a snowy area). My dad had rubbers that didn't have much "top" so he could kinda step into them.

Pal: If you grew up in the snow, as did I, you never wore your coat into a living area--always hung it up in the closet. Can you imagine sitting in someone's living room in your coat? Never happened.

I don't remember all of these, but it's so much fun to read them.

Lunch at Woolworth's - what a treat that was!

Huge cars - plenty of room and built like tanks.

Some of the furniture my parents bought when they married is still going strong: dressers, headboards, end tables, dining room furniture.
I mean, all the drawers still work!

Pal, I remember those clear plastic boots. I hadn't thought of those in years. The boys wore black rubber boots that had a series of buckles to fasten them. I remember being jealous that my brother had those neat boots and a cool yellow rain slicker.

The first book bag that I had was more like a briefcase with a shoulder strap and two buckles to close the fold over top. It was a red plaid and I thought I was the cat's meow when I carried it to school.

I also loved the old candies. Remember Bonomo Turkish Taffy? It came in vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, or banana. I loved juju beans and Mary Janes, Good and Plenty and Necco wafers. Candy bars were a nickel and bigger than the ones today that cost a dollar.

I loved the smell of fresh ground coffee in the grocery stores. A & P had Five O'clock coffee that you would grind right on the spot. Remember the Chock Full of nuts jingle "better coffee a millionaire's money can't buy"?

Most of the television shows were fit for the whole family to watch together. Remember the Dinah Shore Show? See the USA in a Chevrolet. The Red Skelton show and Carol Burnett would make you laugh until your sides hurt. I miss the commercials that didn't make you wonder what in the heck it was advertising. The Burma Shave jingles were awesome.

I remember when our town got our first McDonalds and Kmart. It was such a treat to get the cheese submarine sandwiches at Kmart and the French fries at McDonalds. Maybe twice a year.
I had white go-go boots.
I had a Schwinn Stingray bike. It was red with the banana seat and tassels. That was my 6th birthday.
My mom always had sin-sin in her purse in church and she gave me the little magnetic scotty dogs to play with. But only in church.
Remember the kaleidoscope legs on the Jackie Gleason Show?
Piano lessons with Mrs. Vostadd who smoked like a chimney in her 8 X 8 side porch piano room.
Going Caroling with my older sis and her friends around the neighborhood at Christmas. People would invite us in to sing for them. Even if we didn't know them.

Oh and I do wish I had kept more of the stuff my mom got with Green Stamps. I still have the white dishes with silver rims.
When we moved to town in 1960 my mom re did the furniture with her egg and laundry money. Everything Danish Modern
Living room and dining room. From pole lamps to china hutch to stereo with TV in the middle.

I remember how my brother and I always played outside after school, at Mom's insistence. We weren't even allowed to come in until dinner. We were only allowed to watch 1 hour of television a day.

So we'd play Lawn Darts or do some BB Gun practice in the woods when we were 7 & 8. How on earth could THAT be bad??? We were out in the fresh air after all! Oh, and getting Clackers for my birthday [because wildly banging heavy plastic balls together right in front of my face was great!]

But when the weather was bad we were allowed to stay inside. My brother would light his bunson burner and make some sulpheric concoction with his awesome chemistry set. I learned how to bake with my Easy Bake Oven, plugged in and heated with the light bulb! I still love to bake to this day and can remember how delicious that Easy Bake chocolate cake was.

This walk down memory lane makes me feel grateful to be alive!

Clackers!! I lived in CA during my 'Middle school years". One of the kids sold clackers to us, their mom made. The playground was full of them. Because it is Halloween I am remembering the MAD DASH w/o parents through neighborhoods. I walked EVERYWHERE. No way would my parents give me a ride. I walked to speech meets and RE--I wonder how far? I know none of it were 'in my neighborhood' Torrance is a big place. I am remembering YEARLY showings of Cinderella, Wizard of Oz and the Peanuts holiday shows. I mostly grew up on military bases--movies were a quarter and the only way to spend a Saturday afternoon!! That and a dime for the "all day" sucker and I was all set.

I love all these memories and the memories they trigger for me. In addition to the rubber boots and galoshes, the ladies always had this mini packed accordion pleated plastic rain hat, with or without a pattern on them...they only had their hair washed and set once a week with loads of spray and rain was death to the hairdo!

Chicagoans, your mom and mine must've been related. She made all our clothing too, and she even wore the same glasses!

And the ladies HAD to have their purse match their shoes and match their belt. MIL always had at least 2 pair of white gloves...one for wearing on the street which would get dirty, so a clean pair to change into once you arrived at your event.

I remember putting Charleston Chews in the freezer and then nearly breaking your teeth on them... right up there with those giant jaw breaker candies and the little red fireballs, and who could forget Bazooka Joe! (Of course I erred on the side of the Beatle cards instead.)

Fishnet stockings that really did nothing for your feet inside the shoes other than make crisscross patterns on your soles.

Ah yes, quality wool (though itchy) clothing, lined curtains, those rain bonnets, galoshes - I remember all of those. And TV for the family - I loved Carol Burnett (though I remember some of the sketches being a bit racy), radio for the family (though my dad only let us listen to country and again some of the songs were a bit much with cheatin' and drinkin' but better than today's country!). The Muppet Show was something we could all watch together, my kids love the DVDs.

It's hard to find clothes to fit DD (she's very petite but curvy, and not yet 11!), much less quality construction. Sneakers fall apart quickly but dress shoes are really hard to find, and quality boots even harder! My mom's family still calls my uncle by his childhood nickname (a corruption of Buster Brown) so just this week I told DD who Buster Brown was! And even DH is too young to know what a "shmoo" is, I had to explain it after calling a misshapen potato a "shmoo potato" as my grandfather did.

But I make my own grape jelly from wild grapes, count out change, then bills, for customers at market, we watch Jeopardy as a family and DD and I watch Once Upon a Time on Sunday nights (at first I thought the premise silly but it's just adult enough to keep me in the room, while mild enough to allow her to watch it). I do miss the Sunday roasts though my mother always overcooked them (practically steamed them, she still puts a roast on a rack with water in the pan) - roast beef is something we can only afford a few times a year, though I suppose if I stopped paying $4.50/lb for sliced turkey lunchmeat (not to mention real sliced cheese!) every week, we could afford the roasts and I could just send RB sandwiches with the guys. I don't miss the bologna sandwiches my mom sent in our lunches though.

This is so great! I remember the Clackers, saddle shoes, sponge rollers that I couldn't sleep well in and left little ridges all over my hair (which invariably straightened out within minutes anyway), Grandma's fold up rain bonnet and my great aunt's pin curls.

As for rubbers, my memory is from my 20s when a friend of mine couldn't get into a jazz club we were going to because he was wearing gym shoes. So he ran across the street to a drug store and bought some Totes to slip over his shoes. When we all left the club a few hours later it was raining, so he sold them to the bouncer who was happy to have them.

One thing that always brings me back is the smell of candles just after they've been blown out. When my parents had parties, after everyone went home they'd blow out all the candles. I could smell that upstairs in my room and it always made me feel cozy.

Another thing is the sound of someone shoveling - not blowing - snow. I remember early winter mornings waking up to the sound of my dad shoveling the walkway on the side of our house that my room was on. It's a sound that makes me feel taken care of and comfortable.

my mom had those boots with the buttons and elastic too!
and I kept some of her gloves... mostly black gloves-- the white that she still had were really starting to yellow.... my parents really took care of their things- it was amazing what they still had when we cleared out their house! my father traveled extensively for business and he still had many beautiful wool things that he got 'overseas'! i hated to get rid of some of it, but none of it would fit any of us or ours...
in addition to the milkman, the Charles chips man made regular can deliveries!

We had Charles Chips as a kid too. Today, it seems incredibly weird to have potato chips delivered to the house. I can understand the milk, coal, newspaper...but potato chips?!

They weren't my favorite but my mom loved them.

Anyone remember "When you can't shampoo, Mini poo!"! (eeew!) Holly Kay, I forgot about Bonomo turkish taffy! How about Triple Decker bars, the while, milk and dark layered chocolate bars were my favorite, and 10 cents. We use to peel the layers apart. Mayaswell, had a laugh about the bunson burner. My sister had a chemistry set in the basement where we played.(nothing wrong with fire in the basement and with no supervision) one time I leaned too close to the flame and burned off my bangs. Oh the smell! And Zarex - glass bottles of concentrated colored syrups to make beverages. Only can imagine what was in that! Before the Beatles cards were the elephant joke cards in packs of gum like playing cards. Wax teeth! Which some kids shared! And candy cigarettes, both the chocolate ones and white candy ones with the pink tips.

Peegee I had forgotten about candy cigarettes and the wax teeth. They made big wax lips too. Do any of you remember the little lanterns that were filled with tiny colored candy balls, and the wax soda bottles filled with syrup?

Chicagoans, I loved the smell of snuffed candles too. I can imagine you tucked safely in your bed knowing the party was over by the smell of candles. Yes to the wonderful sound of a snow shovel scraping the walk and drive.

Mayaswell, Not only do all the wonderful memories make me grateful to be alive but to have lived in such wonderful times.

Annie, I well remember how uncomfortable the fishnet stockings were. Why in the world did we torture ourselves? The only thing better than Charlestown Chews was frozen CCs.

Newspaper boys delivered the paper and were responsible to collect the price weekly. They actually delivered right to the door instead of throwing the papers on the drive.

"And LPs that skipped and got scratched and warped, and 45s that needed those crazy plastic inserts to play on a "record player". "

I still have those things! and some 78s. I have the 1st 45 I ever bought - Elvis!

I have my MILs old furniture. Really old - I think it was her mom's or her MILs. If she were alive today she'd be well over 100.

Most of this has memories for me... I remember going downtown on the bus at a very young age - like 9 or 10 alone. It was 10 cents. and I'd go around to shops by myself - mostly just looking cause I seldom had any money. Once my mom left me 3 or 4 $ to go downtown to get a new swim suit. I was maybe 11 by then. I went to a huge store like a Woolworth's. A neighbor had a pool and let me and a gf use it in the mornings before her teenage dd got up. And we wore swim caps back then! There were no adults - that seemed to be fine then. Just 2 11 yr old girls in a pool back by the alley and lots of trees between the house and the pool.

We also ran around a large area all day mostly on our own. I don't know if mom ever knew where we were (she was at work). I'd usually tell one of my sisters about where I'd be - or thought I'd be. Parents often just hollered out the door for a kid to come home. If you heard it and knew where the 'kid' was you'd holler for 'em also. Sooner or later they heard someone and headed home. We went a lot of strange places on our own - places I wouldn't even consider letting my kids go when they were growing up.

We never had a store bought costume for Halloween. The only ones around then were a cheap plastic that would mostly rip when you put it on. We got in a group with other neighbor kids and we'd go out for hours - and a good 10 blocks away. We also went out 2-3 nights in a row. Have no idea why people back then had candy nights ahead - or the night after. We didn't have a time limit to be out - or a rule about just going to houses with a porch light on or only going to a house once.

The neighborhood - parents didn't drive us around much, so friends were in the neighborhood or within biking or roller skating distance. Didn't our roller skates attach to the bottom of our shoes?
Bubbleheads Barbies & beautiful handmade Barbie clothes.
Lots of games outside at night with neighbor kids - Pink Ghost is the one I remember.
Going to the local OUTDOOR park district ice skating rink.

I'm dealing with the other side of old stuff these days.

- Windows with weights that can't be accessed without removing trim that's been painted ten times over and nailed on.
- Balloon framing
- Uninsulated walls
- Cast iron drains with poured lead joints at the end of their service life.
- Flaking lead paint
- Galvanized supply lines
- Adjusting breaker points every couple thousand miles to keep the truck running right

BTW hollow core doors did exist in the 1950s. I replaced ours with new solid core ones recently.

And on the other side...
- Cypress trim and doors that look great once all the layers of paint are removed.
- Cool vintage bathroom floor tile mosaics
- Hardwood flooring that is finished on site (no bevel!)

From a guy's perspective- We used to take our old Radio Flyer wagon and collect bottles from the neighbors. The grocery store paid for the deposit bottles, which we immediately spent on penny candy. As we got older, the windfall was spent on plastic car models, which were about $1. I noticed the other day that those same models are now $20!

I started buying power tools around 1970, and i always bought pro level tools like Milwaukee. I still have and use those tools today. Tools I've bought recently are all made in China, and i don't see them lasting 40+ years.

My late-model van has a separate ignition coil for each cylinder, which means there are 8 of them. They last about 125K miles, and Ford charges $300 to replace each one! That's $2400 worth of coils. My vintage truck has one- about $20- and you could change it at a red light.

My mom, and everyone else, hung their clothes on a line to dry. We still do once in a while- they smell so fresh! There was a lot less disparity in what people earned. In our neighborhood, there was a dentist, a lawyer, a school teacher, a mail man, and a school janitor. None of the moms worked. Can you imagine a doctor living next door to a janitor today?

We're kind of reverting back now (ignoring the current technology I'm using). We almost never eat out; only for special occasions. Everything is prepared fresh, with a minimum of prepared foods. We even make our own laundry soap- Did you know that the still make Fels Naptha? No cable TV, either. An antenna still works fine for us. Mostly antiques in the house as well.

I'm building our house with my own two hands, so I can afford to do the kind of details that would cost a fortune. I'll spend $1000 in materials to build completely custom cabinets for a good-sized kitchen. I can't imagine what that would cost to hire out!

OMG! The wax lips! The unidentifiable liquid in the wax bottles. And remember the candy necklaces ....the round candies strung on an elastic that you'd munch off. Pixie stix that were full of some kind of flavored powder. And how yucky both of those would get from sticking it in your mouth. Blecch! I used to mainline those orange elephant peanut-shaped candy things. Now the thought of them makes my teeth hurt. But somehow, when you're a kid, they taste just fine. And of course scooter pies!

We've been watching the old Perry Mason reruns and it reminded me of how long it took just to dial a number on a rotary phone.

I remember shopping was a big deal. After all, the stores were only open on Saturday, not Sunday...and the department stores were only open on Thursday nights. So you had limited shopping time...all outside, trying to find parking and walking the sidewalks to get from here to there....pre malls. Of course, you only had access to cash on Friday afternoon as they closed at 3pm other days. No ATMs. And credit cards were not ubiquitous as they are today...everything was check or cash, and no such thing as a debit card.

I really enjoyed this stroll down memory lane. I remember that our moms would wear house dresses at home to clean and cook in, but when they went out to go shopping, they were dressed, make up on etc.
I was born in 53. When I was about 8 my mom started working part time in a school(so the hours were always in agreement with the kids;)
I totally miss waiting for real letters in the mail, writing back , and waiting for a reply.
I also remember when the phonecall was long distance (even if it was NJ to NY) that you hurried up with it like it was going to break the bank.
And I do remember sen sen (not sin sin) but I don't think I liked it too much.Chicklets were what we had.

What about white buck shoes with the little bag of chalk that you patted on to keep them white. did anyone else have the X-ray machine at the local shoe store, where you stuck your feet in to see if the shoes fit. (How much X-ray we were exposed to, I shudder to think). Popcorn at the local Sears. Hot spanish peanuts too. The Helms truck with fantastic drawers that had sugar cookies or donuts for a nickel? (We didn't get that very often. apparently we were not as well off as other folks, but my sisters and I never knew that.) I remember when people started getting color tv's.

I still buy Sen Sen once in a while.

Anybody remember your telephone exchanges? My aunt's used to be Butler 8, so you dialed BU8 and then the rest of the number.

Besides the regular white candy cigarettes, they came out with some full of a fine sugary powder. You blew into the cigarette, and the powder came out looking like smoke.

Oh yes, I loved Pixie Sticks. I must be the only person that didn't like those orange circus peanuts. I believe they also had green peas made out of the same stuff. I loved the candy necklaces.

I know my parents never had credit cards. My first DH and I were married many years before we had our first credit card. We bought our children's clothing with cash or lay away. Christmases were all on lay away or Christmas Clubs. If we couldn't afford it we didn't buy it.

Our downtown stores were open until 9:00 on Wednesday nights and Friday nights and the next town over was open on Monday nights. There was a little log cabin that housed the Santa Claus in the next town over. It was so much fun scurrying in the cold to get to the warm, little cabin for your visit with Santa. Amazingly that log cabin is still put up at Christmas.

Green Stamps. I believe I don't think much of Stanley furniture to this day because you could get it with Green Stamps. Still have a card table and chairs that we got Green Stamps. Must be 60 years old by now and we still use it.

I have a few examples of things I could not afford today. My house is built with lathe and plaster. I love it for many reasons. Houses are now built with sheet rock. . Then there are my cabinets. They were built on the site I believe. My bathtub is cast iron and I love it. It does need replaced but I could only replace it with a low cost tub, so I keep my iron tub in spite of it's chips and stains. I almost forgot my wood floors. A carpenter who was here to give an estimate remarked how much he liked the wood floor. I had to be honest and say that I cannot see a difference from modern wood floors to older. He explained the difference and told me that along with the redwood siding all my wood is like having gold. At the time, none of it was considered extravagant. Today it is out of my league.

Do you remember candy that was sold in little metal dishes that came with a finger cutting little spoon to scoop it out with...where was consumer protection in those days!
Black crows and Neopolitan coconut slices and Joyva Halva which I swear was made of sawdust.
Funny, but I always felt this board was full of much younger people and I always laugh about MCM..you mean my wedding presents and newly married furniture...lol

great example emmarene!

So many memories stirred by this thread! The thing I think of the most which pertains to the original topic is well-made clothing, both store bought and made by my mom, who had a degree in home ec.

Did anyone have one of those yellow rain slickers with the really cool clasps? I used to love to wear mine and those boots that Pal mentioned over my shoes.

Remember some of these things, others may be a little ahead of me.

Spent most of our time outdoors playing with friends - playing house, Barbies, teacher and secretary. And yes, all the freedom was great - all I had to worry about was being home before dark.

We would ride our bike's to our local Stop n Go store for candy or icies. My favorite candies were 7 Up candy with the seven different flavors or the Rocky Road chocolate bar. We would also ride to various parks to play, most of the children's play area were styled after rockets or airplanes.

Although we lived in So Cal most of our friends did not have a pool, so we either swam at the local high school pool. Two sessions every weekday afternoon. Usually a big group of kid's we knew, always a good time. One in a while we would go to the "plunge" next city over and sometimes we would go to a local "swim club" where our cousins were members. Either way we were in the pool almost every day in the summer.

Loved going to the department store "tea rooms" for lunch or an occasional fashion show. Like others I have fabulous memories of visiting our department stores at Christmas time. It was always such a wonderland, loved shopping for my Christmas dress and patent shoes. My grandma usually bought me a new winter coat too.

Thank you all for reminding me of all the great times.

Hey romy, I just cleaned out a drawer the other day and found an old skate key. We wore them around our neck on a shoelace or piece of yarn so we'd have them if our skates popped off.

Well, I've got a brand new pair of roller skates
You've got a brand new key....

I remember Sat a.m. TV... My GF and I would get together in the a.m. for breakfast (Trix or Lucky Charms) and watch Fury. We were both horse happy. DB always wanted to watch Sky King. And before those shows were the Merrie Melodies...I think I still know a lot of the dialog by heart...
Duck Season!
No Rabbit Season!
Duck Season!
Rabbit Season!
Elmer Season!?!?!

and the Louisiana Back Bay Bayou Bunny Bordelaise!

I have a Bugs and Yosemite Sam cel hanging on my wall. I smile every time I see it!

Probably we should let this thread die a natural death--it is remarkable how so many people shared so many memories and I'm glad everyone had fun-- but a little incident just yesterday:
A young man (early 20's) who rakes my leaves asked to use the powder room. I noticed after he left, he had used one of the linen huck towels "for pretty" in the bathroom, although there were plenty of terry ones there. In the old days, we knew that the mistress of the house wasn't hand ironing towels for us....and if we couldn't find another towel, we'd just wipe our hands on our pants! :)