I remember walking around neighborhoods hearing children at play. Now ours is so silent.

Lived in Florida without AC until I was 27.

In the Summer we got kicked out of the house and better not come back in unless we were crossing our legs. We drank out of the garden hose when we were thirsty. If we made the mistake of saying we were bored or didn't have anything to do (usually happened only once) we were introduced to the can of paste wax and the wooden floor, a huge basket of ironing, mostly sheets, and a crash course on what was a weed and what was a plant. And we had better not screw it up. The first week of Summer vacation was spent getting a bad sunburn, to the point of peeling skin, no-one knew about skin cancer. We played with stuff we found outside like frogs and tadpoles and minnows in the rain-filled ditches, and we splashed through the storm-water barefoot ON PURPOSE and no grown-up ever yelled at us not to. We made our own bows and arrows out of tree limbs from the wooded empty lots.

Nice parents of neighborhood kids with huge station wagons who loaded up as many kids, bottles of Coke and bags of home-popped corn as would fit and off to the drive-in theater. Some of the kids would wind up on the top of the car and sitting on the bumper because it was so hot inside the packed car. At least those kids didn't have to endure the benefit of those crazy spiral mosquito repellent things that didn't work but filled the car with a repulsive smell. And then if the stars were in the sky just right, they would actually buy one of those repulsive drive-in pizzas (only one to share with all) with the dried-out cardboard pepperoni. Most of us never had never had any other kind of pizza and we thought it was wonderful.

Kool-Aid, the kind that costs 5 cents a pack and you added tons of sugar to it and it was perfectly allowed.

Not only did most adults smoke, when you went to the doctor chances are he did, too. There was an ashtray at the end of each aisle of the grocery store.

Sometimes there were what were called gas wars, they all cut the price per gallon to get your business.

Swing sets that when more than one would swing really high the legs would lift up off the ground and almost tip over if the parent didn't take the time to sink the ends in cement. But no-one ever thought to call Child Protection Services about it.

When any of us kids had a stomach ache or a headache or whatever, as long as we weren't bleeding or passing out the usual treatment was Mom saying "well, go lay down and you'll feel better".

Sitting on the floor and dreamily flipping through the pages of the S&H Green Stamp catalog. I always thought some of that stuff was only for the rich people, like the "Silent Butler" - a silver-toned little metal dish with a hinged cover, fancy and classy-looking, with a matching little brush. It was used to sweep the crumbs off the table. Yeah, people who shopped at S&H stores would really need something like that! LOL!

TV lamps. They sat on top of those huge console TV's that looked like furniture. Very tiny night light in them, they were usually some kind of ceramic animal like a panther or rearing horse. I think the purpose was to keep you from going blind watching TV in the dark or something like that. Everyone had one. Then of course there were the kidney-shaped accent tables and coffee tables with the mandatory huge ashtray parked in the middle.

Fried Spam. Yeah! That was considered a modern treat other than the usual fried chicken or pork chops. And if there was a party you had Spam, Velveeta cheese and pineapple cubes with a toothpick stuck in it.

Jello. The one I hated was invariably he awful lime one that they served at school or that Grandma brought but she would doctor it up with a can of fruit cocktail.

Tang.

Those little turtles in the plastic containers with the palm tree. Then they had to be dispensed with when it was found that they carried Salmonella. They just suddenly disappeared with Mom just shrugging her shoulders when asked about it. How many times did I handle those things and then go eat a P&B sandwich??

I remember when AM radios in your car were an option, and if someone had a clock in their car, Wow! Though they seldom worked right.

I remember transistor radios on the beach and as you'd walk along the beach, all the teens had it tuned to Cousin Brucie.

I remember when everyone had to rush to the bank on Fridays to get money as it was the only day they were open late and they weren't open on weekends. ATMs? Hah!

I remember no one had a phone when they left the house and it didn't matter.

I remember full-sized spare tires in the trunk.

I remember the little luncheonettes in the 5 and dimes like Woolworths and WT Grants.

I remember when movie theaters had enormous curtains that would part before each show to reveal the screen, and the theater seats were made of a velveteen, and there was one huge screen...no sounds interfering from the action movie being shown next door.

I remember party lines and phone prefixes that were letters...BU was Butterfield...

I remember Keds...wore them all summer as did everyone and they were *cheap*, not like the big bucks today for 'athletic shoes'. And when we wanted them white, though they seldom were, we would use white shoe polish on them.

Yes yes yes what a delightful stroll down memory lane (born 1953).

I share so many of these memories. I think I'm about 5 - 10 years younger because I remember the anti-smoking push was well underway, despite the Marlboro Man commercials.

I remember the radios: tinny sounding hand-sized transistor radios, and full sounding zenith console models (with tubes that had to warm up when clicked on).

Penny candy! literally, picking 10 pieces of candy, giving the checkout clerk one dime, and she'd put your candies into a tiny little paper bag. You had to make it last until next Satuday's allowance. Mom let us kids walk to the TG&Y by ourselves. It was only a mile ... those were the days of freedom for kids.

THIS is something I do remember and hadn’t thought about maybe ever. Thanks!

”Remember the screen shrinking down to the little dot on the black-and-white TV, when you turned it off?”

Lunch boxes . Roller skates. Sleds in the winter, with no adults hovering to make sure we didn't bump into something. Clothes stored in mothballs. Huge catalogues. Saddle shoes.

And when visiting the grandparents, which we did all summer, catching frogs in an uncontaminated brook, helping Grandma with the clothes wringer, cooking on the kerosene stove on the porch, and for years an outhouse/chamber pot.

Here's another thing I just thought of about the TV - one day when I was a kid I noticed that no matter where I was in the room the person on the TV was looking at me, even when I moved around the room. I was really creeped out by that. And I do remember the TV signing out late at night (maybe at midnight?) but we not only had the national anthem we had the Lord's Prayer.

Then when we lived where there was a little store right around the corner some kid told me that you could swap a coke bottle for 2 pieces of bubblegum, worked great until Mom found out. She didn't care how much Kool-aid we drank but for some reason she hated for us to chew bubblegum. Our Grandmother would get really mad if we twirled around and around on those seats they had at the dime store counter, we got in trouble every time.

Every time I read the other posts it reminds me of something else, this could wind up being a long read in the end.

My sister was still in high school, 10 years older than myself, talking about how "dreamy" the beatles were. She wished she could have gone to Woodstock. Yep! My stuffed pink dog had an AM radio in it. I had a stuffed rabbit with a zippered bottom to hold my pajamas. My mom went to a toy store, the 1st of it's kind and purchased a "Leo The Lion" pull & talk toy. I had a green pedal car with a honking horn. I loved candy bead necklaces! I had a little red step stool that had written on it, "This Little Stool Is Mine. I use it all the time. To reach the things I shouldn't and lots of things I couldn't." We had a family of plastic ducks and a family of plastic skunks as yard decor.

Wax lips and those wax bottles full of what probably was a noxious liquid...

Chocolate cigarettes and jaw breakers.

The old B&W game shows like I've Got a Secret were often sponsored by cigarette companies like Winston and the host and the entire panel were smoking the entire time. Seems so unbelievable today.

I was born in 1935. I have memories of some of the things others have mentioned but I have other memories. Riding behind a tomato setter, planting fields of tomatoes, riding my pony anywhere by myself that I wanted, fishing and wading in the river. taking the fish I caught in a bucket and putting them in my family's gravel pit. riding with my uncle in the dump truck to deliver gravel, milking cows, picking strawberries, having company over on Saturday night to watch television. we did not have a telephone till I was 17 and never had a dial tone. There are many more memories :)

Sue

Nicole, I had a pajama-keeper, too, so cute. And the radio in a stuffed animal!

Records on a turntable. I remember my brothers ruining my Mary Poppins record by jumping up and down to make it skip, eventually it was unplayable. Brothers!

Oh, measles reminded me of . . . getting everything. If one kid got sick, it Cycled through the house and the classroom. Our poor mothers! How do you go grocery shopping when your child is so sick in bed? We did get to have the portable tv on a cart in our bedroom, piles of books, otherwise the room was darkish with measles; milkshakes, jello, and soup (great unless you have mumps). But your siblings brought your homework home from school for you. Measles, mumps (once on each side, except my poor little brother who had it on both sides at once), chickenpox, whooping cough, strep, flu, all kinds of fevers. Horrible. We missed so much school, I know mom was worn to a frazzle. The doctor did make house calls, but sometimes he couldn’t leave the office, but I do remember her calling The next door neighbor in an emergency to stay with us while she took another to the doctor. Then you’d go back to school but be weak and tired from a week in bed and have to miss recess for a couple of days. And there’d be empty desks around you because other kids were sick, and their siblings were stopping by to pick up their books. I think my own kids might have missed a day of school for pinkeye. Soooo much better.

Riding in the front seat, sitting on Dad’s lap, “driving”. Sleeping across the back seat on long trips (and envious of those with station wagons!) Books, games, singing, fighting over who gets to sit on the fold-down armrest so you can see out the window (winner: the shortest, which was always the little brother).

Walking into the house with bloody knees. Mom didn't bat an eye. She cleaned it up, applied iodine that stung like $!#&, and sent you back outside.

Sled riding until you were so cold it hurt.

Playing Cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers with a new roll of caps in the gun.

Adults let boys slug it out a bit before breaking up a fight. When it was over there was no hard feelings.

Dad was served first at meals. He was the bread winner.

Cars that actually fit 6 real adult bodies with room to spare. Kids riding in the back of the station wagon. No seat belts, no baby seats.

School was only cancelled when it was too cold to start the buses engines.

My first p/t job in high school was in a supermarket in 1965 when I was 16. When we had to charge sales tax on some items, we had to figure it out ourselves doing the math on a piece of paper. There was no key for that on the register. We rang it up under 'miscellaneous'. They weren't open on Sundays and when they finally did open on Sunday (maybe that was the next year, 1966) we got paid double time to come in on Sunday to work.

Janie, I was lucky. When I first started working, our sales tax rate was 5%, so it was very easy to figure in your head with no need for pencil and paper. I also learned how to make change on that first job. Years later, when I worked with a computerized register, I still counted the change back in the way I learned originally, ignoring the computer which would only tell you the amount of change to give back.

Family doctor came to your home to deliver babies. I was!

Dirt roads no street lights.

Dressing for Sunday church with hats and gloves.

Manual typewriters

Riding in the back of my dad's pickup truck

Gas was 25 cents a gallon

Walter Cronkrite

Lawrence Welk

Ed Sullivan

Sunday drives

Like many of you, running with a pack of kids and only going home when moms started calling us for dinner

Tin foil tv antennas

Standing next to the tv as a human antenna so my dad could watch the news

Wearing hair rollers to bed

Sitting under a hair dryer

Ice cream made in a hand crank iced cream maker. We'd all take a turn
and pass it on when our arms were too tired to turn the crank

Being thrilled to find an orange in our Christmas stockings.

Party Lines - my grandmother's neighbor used to listen in on calls. I remember my grandmother telling her to stop being so snoopy and to get off the line.

Bloody knees from roller skating on pebbled concrete sidewalks, Party lines, junk man with a horse, knife sharpener with horse, fruit man with horse; as a kid in NYC in the early 50s. Remembering b/w televisions...stations would sign off at night with test patterns, would sign on in the morning. Only one station went on really early, Sunrise Semester as I recall at 5:30 AM. Only a few stations. No UHF, no cable. Radio programs were popular yet in my house. Dr. paying house call with penicillin needle in hand. Mumps, measles (when I was sick, friends came over telling her their mothers sent them to get sick!), tonsillitis, polio scares. Finally had German measles and chicken pox as an adult.

As a teenager, using beer to set my hair with rollers we slept on overnight, only to do it all over again the next night.

No a/c in NYC apartments, no dishwashers, going down to dingy apartment house basements to use the washer and dryer.

7&th and 8th graders as school crossing guards. I remember them wearing sashes with their rank on them. My sister was a lieutenant. They had bright yellow rain slickers for rainy days.

I relate to so many already mentioned.

I remember I loved having lunch at Woolworth's. Also the Automat.

Ironing my hair straight with a clothes iron!!!!!!

I was in Junior High when NYC schools allowed girls to wear pants to school.

The ugly green gym romper.

The rubber strap to hold all my books together.

Going out for lunch in Junior High, the two options each costing $1.00. At the Chinese take-out we could get an egg roll, fried rice and a coke or at the diner, a hamburger, french fries and a coke.

A phone call at the public phone cost a dime.

Tokens to get on the subway.

What great memories. My kids are 32 and 30 and we do live in a neighbourhood where the kids wandered and whose ever house they were at during the lunch hour got fed at that home.

Library due cards in the book and stamped by the librarian

Alphabetized drawers of file cards for the library books

Carbon paper for typing multiple copies

Oh my,! Much written that describes my childhood. I was born in 1943.

We played outside almost every day, running through the neighborhood, taking the shortcut through the woods (not really the dense part of the woods, we had made a trail through some pines) to each other’s houses. If we got thirsty we just turned in a hose, let it run for a minute and drank from it. And we didn’t die.

Got stung many times on our feet from honeybees feeding on clover on the ground. Man did that itch for a couple of days. Of course we loved going barefoot in the grass.

Playing kickball or Red Rover if we had enough kids, in our backyard which was big, or one of the other neighbors. In summer, we could go to the big field by the school. Badminton if there were just a couple of us.

Picking blackberries, and then hoping we didn’t get chiggers. Mother made us take a bath or shower if she caught us quick enough after our blackberry picking. Which was really blackberry eating.

If it was really hot, my best friend and I would grab comic books and lie in bed and read them. Of course we had to do our summer reading, but we secretly liked our brothers comic books when we could pilfer them.

Going to the movie theater on Saturday. The movie was 15 cents. Popcorn or candy was 5 cents and a drink was 5 cents, so for a quarter you were good for the afternoon. A wonderful couple ran the theater and made sure kids could afford to come to the movies. They put on a special free Christmas show every year. Kids only. I have a photo somewhere of the packed house.

Cherry cokes at the Rexall drug store.

Our gym rompers were white but just as ugly. Felt like prison clothes.

A family doctor who made house calls.

Playing 45s and making up dances.

Nothing could beat that new pair of white Keds in the spring. Unless it was the new Buster Browns when school started. Remember the foot x-ray machines? I guess some of us were irradiated, but I’m still alive.

Watching tv together as a family. Looking forward to National Geographic specials, Jacques Cousteau. Watching Mercury lift-offs in the school gym.

The carbon paper for typing refreshed my memory - for a few years in the early 70's I worked as a secretary in a law firm of two brothers whose father had been a County Prosecutor in NJ back in the 30's. They had a great law library and many really old files still in storage - sometimes we had to go through really old files to find a will for probate.

More than once I found some very old typed legal documents that had "copy" stamped across them (typed on 'onionskin' paper). Back in the day if they needed an extra copy of some old document, there was no photocopy machine to make it - so a secretary had to re-type it and stamp it "copy".

I even found handwritten copies of long court documents also marked "copy". Imagine nowadays not having a copy machine!

Growing up with those terrible perms! Sometimes ended kinky head :o(

I was that guy at the filling station who filled your tank, checked the oil level, and washed the windows.

Living on a farm with no electricity and seeing it arrive in 1947.

Battery powered radios.

Radio powered by wet cells and a Zenith wind-charger.

Mimeograph

Manual typewritters

Hand cranked pencil sharpeners mounted on a wall.

Fountain pens.

Lunches for high school were brought from home in a paper bag and stored in your locker.

Paper lunch bags after use were neatly folded and stored in your back pocket to be used again the next day. Normal bag life was 3 days.

National Cash Registers operated by a handle after the sale amount had been set by key levers.

Gravity operated gasoline pump. [The user operated a hand pump to fill a 10 gal glass container on top of the pump. An extra amount of gasoline was in the container and a small valve was operated to drain the fluid level down until it matched the full mark. Next, gasoline was dispensed. Upon stopping, the amount dispensed was read by looking at the marks on the container. After the transaction was completed, the excess gasoline was drained back to the underground storage tank.]

Gasoline stations also sold kerosene.

A container of kerosene was a common item on the back porch of country homes. It had general purpose uses such as fire starter, lamps and lanterns, paint thinner, solvent cleaner, and served as a disinfectant when none was available. A few tractors and stationary engines ran on kerosene.

Naphtha fueled clothes iron (a dangerous item).

Blow torches.

Tang

Ration stamps

S&H Green stamps

The carry-out boy at larger grocery stores.

No central heating was common. Heat was by a stove in the room.

Some homes had a furnace in the basement with gravity heating ducts (no fans). The ducts were huge.

Steam radiators.

When high school girls wore pleated skirts.

White bobby socks

Tires had inner tubes.

Linoleum floors in kitchens.

Wall paper.

Saturday matinee at the movie house.

Greyhound buses.

Party line phones.

Phone operator and switchboard.

Carnation milk substitute.

Gum boots

Overalls.

Home made clothing.

Shoe last (when shoe soles were attached with shoe nails).

Shoe soles attached with shoe nails, usually the heel.

Horse drawn buggy

Whizzer motor bike.

Piper Cub airplane.

Single speed bicycle with coaster brake.

Inner tube patching kits.

One room country schools

Octagon shaped school clock.

Real slate black-boards in schools.

Coal bin in the basement with a coal chute to outside.

An 'Iron Fireman", a large device that automatically fed crushed coal to a furnace as needed.

Cistern.

Open dug well with a well bucket.

Saturday night bathing behind the cook stove.

Wash tubs.

Hand cranked clothes wringers.

Butter churns.

Fly paper.

DDT insect spray.

Born in 1985

I vaguely remember life before the internet.

It was awful.

;op

No, it wasn't awful. Of course there were downsides but I'm glad I got to live when;

We spent lots of time outside, hot or cold weather didn't matter

We played with our friends, unsupervised and unstructured

Food had more flavor

Days were less stressful

We treasured relationships over material items (and the wise still do)

Summers had were carefree, no list of things to accomplish

I was born in 1962, but wow, I remember a lot of these!

Transistor radios reminded me of recording songs off the radio. Listening to Kasey Kasem on New Years Eve, putting the cassette recorder next to the transistor radio, trying to pause it just before the commercial came on.

Deviled ham in little cans. I loved that stuff..

Raye, it was a joke. Yeesh.

Any parent was your parent when out and about. You listened.

Boy has that changed. Now it seems the "mama bear protecting her cubs" attitude has gotten out of control. Speaking to a misbehaving child, even one engaging in theft or vandalism, is "stepping over the line" and "public shaming" is an evil thing to do.

So many memories similar to what has been posted already! I lived in a semi rural area, and our "gang" would go exploring through adjacent farm fields, along the creeks, and once found an abandoned pioneer graveyard. We would swing on the "Tarzan vines" in the woods (large grapevines, tested every spring by one of the dads to be sure they would hold our weight).

Playing "war" or "cowboys" -- still under the influence of WWII and the many movies and TV shows about that and the old west. Pretending to be riding horses as we galloped through the yards or rode our bikes. Playing house under a very large bush, or in the fallen leaves of the big maple tree (raking the leaves up to outline "rooms"

Walking with my dad down to the "pony keg" and getting a pinwheel there as a treat.

I remember when the first convenience store opened - King Kwik in our area -- different because it opened as early as 7 am and stayed open so late -- 11pm! Before then, nothing was open after 5 or 6pm, not even grocery stores, except gas stations IIRC, but they closed in the early evening also. And never on Sunday.

Watching the locally produced TV shows -- Uncle Al & Captain WIndy, Ruth Lyon's 50/50 Club, and The Midwestern Hayride on Saturday evenings with my grandparents. Actually going to be part of the studio audience was a major thrill! Dresses, hats and gloves required!

Ruth Lyon's Holiday Hello shows were part of our day on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I always looked forward to the songs that were an integral and familiar part of the show. Likewise, part of every holiday was waiting for or making the long-distance phone call with out of town relatives.

Wow, thinking about Ruth Lyons got me thinking about brands of household products that I don't see around anymore (do some still exist?):

Fels Naptha, Boraxo, Ivory Snow

Bosco chocolate syrup and Chunky candy bars

WInk, Teem, and Squirt sodas -- and Canada Dry in a rainbow of flavors (BTW soda was a very rare treat in my home, usually gotten at the drugstore soda fountain).

White Cloud toilet tissue (the only brand my mother would buy)

More?

I was born in 1939, like Glenda, and I enjoyed reading about all this, and I remember it all.

Bon ami

Toni home permanents

Scooter pies

Breck shampoo...always remember the ads with the breck girl...

All of these posts are bringing back all my memories. I was born in 1951. A lot has changed since then.

No vaccinations for measles or mumps or chickenpox. You just came down with them if someone in your family or classroom got them. No one thought it was a big deal. Vaccinations for those illnesses came out mid 1960's. Though you did get a small pox and polio vaccination at school.

If you missed an episode of your favorite TV show you had to wait till summer reruns to catch it if you were lucky. We only got three networks. Later in the mid 1960's we got PBS. And only had one TV and parents decided what we all watched.

Saved up all my babysitting money to buy a small transistor radio not long after they came out. It had terrible tinny sound but I thought it was cool. Also saved up my money to buy my first camera, a Polaroid Swinger. I wish I still had them.

There was a Mom & Pop store that we use to stop at on the way home from school that had a big barrel filled with pickles. I think it was a nickle for a huge one. It was opened on the top and you just reached in and grabbed one. Not very hygienic.

We went to a shoe repair store to get new heels and/or soles put on your shoes to make them last another year. We weren't rich so only had one dress pair (black patent leather) and one everyday pair. Ran around barefoot most of the summer and had overshoe boots for winter.

We got small appliances, toasters, fans, TV, radios, fixed at the Fix it shop. Most people doesn't fix anything now. We just throw it away and buy something new.

Teachers handed out copies of work sheets or tests that were made by a mimeograph machine and the copies were called 'dittos'. They had a distinct smell, which I loved to smell, and blue purplish ink. No photo copy machines. How we take that for granted now. If you wanted a copy you had to type up another copy or use carbon paper.

I remember ushers in theaters that could throw you out if you were too loud or acted up. I wish they still had them. I hate going to theaters now, everyone is so loud and obnoxious.

We ate a lot of jello salads. Never really liked them. I could tolerate the one made with orange jello and fruit cocktail. I hated the one made with tuna fish in the fish mold for meatless Friday night. retro-gelatin-recipes

All us kids rode in the back of a pickup truck. No one had seat belts in the old used cars and later when they did, no one used them. We were taught the hand signals when making turns or stopping because no car we had had turn signals.

We use to ride behind the mosquito trucks when they were dispersing the mists at night during the summer. No adult told us not to do it. Wonder what we were exposed to?

I wore penny loafers but had dimes instead of pennies in case I had to make an emergency phone call.

All us kids walked everywhere even in winter. Walked about a mile to catch the school bus. Later rode our bikes until after 16 when I got my drivers license. We all, including my Mom, had to share one car so didn't get to use it much. No one bought us a car when we went to high school or as a graduation present. I bought my first one when I was 25 and finally could afford a used one. I rode public buses and the Chicago 'L' before that or walked to local businesses.

I started babysitting at 13, actually my first job was at 11.5 but only a couple of hours a day during summer and my Mom was across the street. I got paid 25 cents an hour and 50 cents past midnight,. I hated babysitting older kids because they never did what I told them to do. No respect. LOL

I loved getting milk and dairy products delivered early in the morning. I remember the sound of the empty bottles as he carried them back to his truck. I wish we still had a milkman.

I could go on and on so better stop.

Annie! I always loved the Breck girls :) I had lousy hair and at the age of 70 am finally at peace with it, but its still lousy hair. Anyway, I thought those Breck girls were all amazing.

I remember Breck, and I sure remember Prell shampoo. I am a blonde and I had a cut and perm. I used Prell to wash my hair a few days later and all the ends of my hair turned green. Today I would of fit in with green ends , but in the late 70s I could not show up for work with green hair. I had to go back to the beautician and have all the green cut off.

Going to drive-in movie! Mother wouldn't allow me to go on a date, but she didn't know :o) And going with girlfriends, sitting on trunk of the car, eating popcorn and drinking a coke from the refreshment stand.

A walk around the block in the evening with parents and the dog.

Sidewalk skating. And roller rink skating. I remember Santa brought me my first shoe skates with a skate outfit, with vest and short skirt. I felt like a queen.. It was safe for parents to even leave of on a Saturday night. Now days, I would not take a child.

Glenda, when I was a little bit older (but still under 21) my girlfriend and I would smuggle some sloe gin out of her house and we'd go to the drive in and mix it with some kind of soda that we'd buy, I forget - maybe 7UP.

I remember the last time there was a thread like this, there were many sad accounts from people whose parents or family situations and as a result, their childhood memories, were other than sweet. I suspect those folks are hanging back from contributing their painful experiences.

I had a pleasant and fortunate childhood but I don't long for those days at all. While many problems in our world remain unresolved, I think there have been enough advances in our society and in science and medicine that more people have the chance to have more fulfilling lives today than many did when we were growing up.

Glenda, don’t forget the key that hung around the neck on a cord for the old metal roller skates! You could adjust them to fit anyone or tighten them, and fly down the sidewalks without a helmet, knee pads, elbow pads and safety gloves. I don’t remember anyone getting seriously hurt. A scraped knee or elbow was just a battle scar. You got up and went right back at it.

Christmas candy in a tin pail with a lid. So many patterns and flowers. Ribbon candy and barley candy in every shape imaginable. I can still see my Grandfather putting his fingers to his lips and saying shhhhh as he snuck in the house with his loot. We knew to keep his secrets!

Great responses! This has been a fun thread and thanks to those of you that shared. Please continue to add! Enjoyable reading down memory lane.

This is what the KT is all about.

Elmer Fudd, you are correct. There were negative items that I did not mention because I thought that no one would be interested, and it did not seem to fit the theme of this thread. I do not wish to re-live my childhood, ever. There were many events that are behind me now and are going to stay there like childhood diseases. I had mumps, whooping cough, and measles at differing times. None were fun. The cough from whooping cough lasted through most of my summer. Another year, I cam down with measles that I caught the last week of school. That disease severely affected my eyes and I had to protect my eyes by wearing dark glasses when outside for most of the 3 summer months.

The other reason that visits to my childhood are nice, but I have no desire to re-live that period is that it has been a lifetime struggle for me to get where I am at today, so in my old age, I tend to look forward, not backward. I live in fear of having to return to that way of life and being a pauper, although I do have the knowledge of what it takes to survive under those conditions - I don't want to return!

During the late '40s, polio was feared and one summer we had several cases in our county. Parents were not sure how it was transmitted, but understood that it could be deadly or leave the patient with deformities. It caused financial burdens that wrecked several families. A boy in our community came down with polio and he and his family spent a miserable summer. He was house bound and not allowed contact with other outside his immediate family. The family quarantined themselves for fear of spreading the disease. Fortunately for him, his case was mild and he recovered with minimal effects.

I had a friend in high school who was not so lucky. His right arm was undersized and permanently locked, bent at the elbow. He had to shift his handwriting to his left hand.

Another schoolmate, a girl, had a face and arm that had been disfigured from a flash fire from a fuel spill from a gas(oline) iron. Another girl had been speared in the abdomen by a floor mounted gear shift lever during a car accident.

Cancer was a poorly understood aliment especially among the poorly educated. As I recall, cancer stuck more women than men, but its kill ratio was high. I recall groups of neighborhood women discussing someone's cancer case in whispered tones and treating the subject as though it was a venereal disease; Some may have suspected it was. Some supposed you came down with cancer because you had done something naughty. Social ignorance is a burden on society.

I did see one case of goiter. Adding foods containing iodine or using iodized table salt could eliminate goiter, but that was not widely known during my early childhood. The soils in my community was low to devoid of iodine, thus, farm folks who's food mainly came from their soil (gardens and orchards) were susceptible to goiter. When iodized salt was introduced, a notion spread through the superstitious ones that it should be avoided. It was a plot to adulterate the food supply.

So there you have it. I was a little boy growing up and observing adults around me with puzzlement. Some notions and behaviors made no sense to me. I was the little cartoon boy with question marks floating above my head.

I was born in 1948. I remember most all of these. I lived in a small town and had a ton of kids on our street. We always got along and had so much fun.. we had an outdoor theater around the corner from our house. A lot of us would take a pillow and blanket and lay on the first hump with the speaker on the ground. I saw someone mention a one room schoolhouse. We bought one in 1995 and the boys and girls cloak rooms are now the bathroom and my kitchen. We put in 2 bedrooms in the back. It still has the original hardwood floors. My husband refinished them and they are so beautiful. We’ve had people stop by that went to school there. Great getaway place.. kids now don’t know what they missed..

Susie, can you start a thread about share pictures?

Rae and Annie, I have Fels Naphtha, Bon Ami, Borax ”20 Mule Team”, Ivory Snow in my cupboard, you can still get them! I think I’ve seen Squirt at the store, too.

I tried Breck, and boy was I disappointed when my hair wasn‘t suddenly 6” longer, full, wavy, and “flippable”. Sigh. Still fine, straight, and dishwater-blond. Prell was our standard shampoo . . . in GLASS bottles! So glad when we got a tube!

Annie, my mother was an early sales rep for Lilt Home Permanents. In the late 40s or early 50s I think. Learned to drive, standard transmission, in the hills of upstate NY. Not easy for a midwestern plains girl!

When the mosquito spray truck came by summer evenings, we were the only kids who had to come indoors. Mom was right!

Products I miss-Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific,Body On Tap, Lemon Up, Earth Born Shampoos, Space Sticks, Danish Go Rounds, Sealtest and Light & Lively ice creams, Morton Frozen Donuts, Hi C in huge cans

There were memorable commercials too-Mr Whipple, the Tidy Bowl man, Mikey from Life cereal, Where’s The Beef? Morris the cat, Sorry Charlie

Who remembers selecting bananas at the store and finding the produce clerk to weigh them and write the price on one of them with a black marker?

The joy of finding a coin or two in the pay phone slot!

Pretending to smoke candy cigarettes and flicking the ashes

Women shopping in curlers

Missing the Charlie Brown Special and having to wait till next year to see it

metal ice cube trays

bubble umbrellas

using silly putty on the Sunday comics then stretching it ( someone told me it no longer works)

colored toilet paper and tissues

Bomb shelter signs

Smiley face pins and stickers

fuzzy feet stickers

Remember the wind up ticking time bomb ( like hot potato) I bought one at an estate sale a couple of years ago

Whatwere those things called that were on red strips of paper and you scratched them with a rock so they exploded? Our fingers turned black

lisa, are you thinking of caps? We used to load them in our cap guns and they made a very loud "bang" sound when the trigger was pulled. I remember burning the tips of my fingers when scratching them with my fingernail.