Annpan, I have often wondered how those Ugg boots are kept clean and dry. They don't look very practical for city streets or country walks.

Vee, I think the modern Uggs are a different type from the original. The suede is coloured and perhaps waterproofed. They appear to be more of a fashion item.

Annpan - I'm a bit slow responding to your question about being a mink-clad kid. Actually, I was such an unpretentious tom-boy, I don't think it ever occurred to me to think of myself in the princess mode. Mink was not something particularly special to me. But looking back, I do suppose my grandmother probably thought of it that way when she had those items made for me.

As for pressing a thumb into the fur to tell if it was mink, well I never heard of that. I was just around mink a lot, in a very animal-familiar way, and we all seemed to know what was mink and what was not.

By the way, the mink ranchers I knew (several) were not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. Barely middle-class I would say. It was a very labor-intensive profession. I can't imagine why anyone wanted to do it. It was hard, hot, stinky work caring for and handling those vicious little animals. It was not like raising puppies.

An interesting thread. Mink is the best fur I think, it's very easy to spot a mink and a fox. For educational purpose, here are some photos of mink and fox. Can you point it out which ones are mink, which ones are fox? :-)

Pic 1:

Pic 2:

Pic 3:

Pic 4:

Pix 2 and 3 look like mink. I would like to try the thumb mark test to be absolutely certain! Pix 1 and 4 show a denser fur. How did I do?

Yep, Pic 2 & 3 are mink, Pic 1 is all fox, Pic 4 is fox and mink. Fox has longer hair. Good guess! :-)

Not a guess! The mink pix show the fine tips of the mink hair but the one in Pix 4 wasn't showing all the ends, just a flat shot, so that I couldn't spot the mink pelt there but it is definitely not the one on the left. That quiz was fun!

Very good! :-) The coat in Pic 4 is the same coat in Pic 3 ( 1 of the 3), I just included fox trim in the photo.

What kind of fox? I am not familiar with the ones pictured and guess it could be Arctic fox and not the red fox that gets into hen coops and used to wind up, mask included, worn over a smart coat years ago!

In Pic 1 there are blue, arctic and dyed fox, in Pic 4 it’s a dyed fox. I will upload a pic of a chicken eater red fox tonight.

Red Fox (belly fur):

Red Fox :

As a child I can remember all the women who'd wear one of those poor animals around their shoulders with the head and beady eyes chomping on it's tail.

I suppose they felt fancy and well-dressed.

I was horrified.

Thanks for the pix but I misread your post, worded as "chicken eating red fox" and expected a cartoon or pix of a hungry chicken!

Lol, that’s funny! :-)

Those marten wraps yoyo has mentioned are expense pelts. Heads are freaky. I have seen people remaking them into scarfs and selling for $298 each.

chicken-eating ?

I should say chicken eater red fox, or chicken hunter........ :-)

Anyone else remember this ditty that used to play before the movie started in your local theater ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40cT6I21JV4

Today if you go to the movies you are reminded to "turn off your cell phone" "Don't talk in a loud voice" " Clean up when you leave" No more cute ditty.

I don't remember that particular promo, but it's a fun one!

At our local Picture House . .. . yes that was the name over the doors ( a visit was know as 'going to the flicks) we were assaulted by the decibels of the advertising company 'Peal and Dean' with ads played at FULL VOLUME usually during the break between the news/cartoons/B&W B movies.

Of course these days we only get to see one film; long gone are those lesser offerings.

Pearl and Dean Adverts

I recall when one went to the "Picture Show" in Atlanta, often there would be an organ down front played before the curtain went up. (And yes, there was a maroon velvet curtain that lifted to reveal the movie screen). We were treated to a cartoon and a black and white news reel before the actual film.

Mary, that sounds just like the movie theater in my small town except there was no organ before the curtain went up.

Vee, is the National Anthem still played after the end of the main evening showing?

I remember there was a rush to the doors to avoid having to stand still for a couple of minutes, better spent getting in a last order at the pub or "chipper"!

A manager at the local cinema played a cartoon once to stop the unpatriotic rush as cinema goers paused to see what was happening. He explained to the lingering crowd that he was fed up with the thundering feet of departing patrons!

Annpan, I haven't been to a late show for years so don't know if the National Anthem is still played. It used to be accompanied by a flickering picture of a Union flag or HM Queen at the Trooping of the Colour. As you say if you were in a hurry or near the exit it was considered OK to beat a hasty retreat but otherwise, if still in or near your seat you would stand still.

It was always played by the orchestra at the theatre in S-on-Avon where we frequently went. I remember they introduced a 'modern' interpretation played in a strange minor key. On the same theme while visiting Dublin some years ago we visited the Abbey Theatre and were surprised when several people (Irish) stayed seated. Of course we stood out of respect plus we didn't want to lose our kneecaps.

*sigh*......and then there's the USA football fiasco where it is now the "in" method of protesting being an American by "taking the knee" during the National Anthem at the game opening. I am ashamed of them all.

I didn't have one but a good friend had an aluminum Chirstmas tree with a rotating color wheel light that would change the color of the tree. Lately I've seen some small aluminum trees at Pier One and I bought myself one from Goodwill . Guess retro is a little bit in style. I honestly think that for awhile mashed potatoes went out of style and then they came back. Maybe it was just me.

I liked those Alcoa aluminum trees too ! MIL had one with the rotating lights that got thrown out before I could lay claim to it. They were very mid-century chic.

Kids today will never know the joy of finding coins in the telephone coin return of a phonebooth !

Or.....know the misery of trying to raise or lower a car window with one of those cranks !

Or the delights of the Saturday picture shows (movies) for only 25 cents at the local neighborhood theatre.

Bon, my childhood home had jalousie windows with cranks. Those suckers could be a real pain to open and close! :)

Not to mention cleaning them ! We had a jalousie storm door on our front door and I had the "joy" of that chore when I was growing up.

My brother tells a story of a grandfather who took his little granddaughter for a ride in his old sedan. She got too hot and told him she couldn't find the button to put her window down. He told her to look at the little crank on her door, turn it, and see what happened. She did, looked at him in surprise, and said, "What will they think of next?"

That's funny, Carolyn. Another thing you don't see as much of these days: clocks you have to wind up. I'm nostalgic for my grandmother's old grandfather clock, but I didn't want to buy one because they're expensive and I was afraid my two male dogs would pee on it. They like things that are vertical. So I got a modern wall clock that looks like an old clock and has a pendulum and chime. It's kind of pretty but I suspected I'd be disappointed in it and I am somewhat. It just seems a little fakey. It doesn't tick, the pendulum serves no real purpose, the chime is a recording. It sounds pretty good but the whole thing is an imitation of an old clock. I chose it because my experience with old clocks is that they aren't accurate or break.

Another thing you don't see much anymore is those little car windows that slanted inward to give you a breeze.

I miss those little car windows. If you lower big windows while you are driving, the wind blows you away.

Erasmus, I find a ticking clock rather depressing! I have one clock which does that so I have put it in the kitchen where I rarely go, excepting to make tea! I've kept it as an alarm clock only, because it is loud, gradually sounding louder until it deafens me.

I try not to make early appointments. A benefit of being retired.

After my FIL's funeral my MIL took the family to a lovely, fine dining restaurant. As we sat around the table awaiting our entrees MIL , who couldn't carry a tune in a paper bag but who sang old songs at the slightest urging, began singing this ditty at the top of her voice....much to our collective horror :

My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

That last line was sung with great emphasis and con brio ( as they say ) Egads.

yoyo, I well remember my Grandfather singing it to me as a small child. I found it very sad. Having been born in 1879 he knew many old sentimental Victorian ballads.

And we still have the grandfather clock in our hall, although it is probably a Great grandfather being about 9 foot tall. It keeps excellent time but gets stuck at 2 mins past 3 so has to stay silent. And I now remember watching Gramp winding up the weights every Sunday morning. His only household chore.

My Grandfather's Clock

The irony was that my MIL didn't sing it as a sad ballad but in a very cheery, chirpy way!

I know that old song well (My Grandfather's Clock). When I was a child, each summer, my parents took us to an old fashioned resort in the NC mountains (High Hampton). It was very rustic, with no TV or other post modern amenities. Evenings, everyone would gather on the wide veranda and sing old songs from the turn of the century or earlier. I still recall the words to "Bicycle Built for Two" and "Irene, Good Night", and many more.

I remember the last two lines of that song, but I have no idea when or where I heard it sung. It was probably from my dad. He had a lot of old songs he sang with great gusto. One of them was Old Dan Tucker was a fine old man, washed his face with a frying pan, combed his hair with a wagon wheel, and died with a toothache in his heel. It had several other verses.

I have a battery operated pendulum wall clock in the den. I like to hear it tick tock. My mother had an ancient aunt and uncle who had a mantel clock that tick tocked. We used to visit them occasionally. They had no children and sat one on either side of a wood-burning stove below the mantel. They had no children, and I can remember wondering what in the world they talked about, just the two of them, after so many years of marriage.

Carolyn, my DH and I have been married nearly 37 years. We have no kids but still have plenty to talk about and things we do together. :)

My grandparents had a pendulum wall clock. Anytime I stayed over with them it would wake me up over and over bonging in the night.

Donna

In my defense, I was very young. My husband and I never ran out of things to talk about either!

Did anyone else have those roller skates that clamped on your shoes and were tightened with a skate key ? There was a leather strap that went around your ankle .

I loved skating on the sidewalks that were slate because they were so smooth.

I still have my rusty old skate key :0))

Yep, I had those clamp-on roller skates and I loved them. Wasn't there a song about having a brand-new pair of roller skates and someone else having the key?

" I've got a brand new pair of roller skates, you've got a brand new key".....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCTMTflcuug

I had similar skates, but I don't remember them clamping or having a key. I think they just had and adjustable strap across the toes and around the ankles.

When I was older (middle school/high school) I had a pair of "proper" roller skates and went to the local skating rink several times a week. I had a gazillion pompoms in all different colors on them. :)

Donna

I was born in the mid-60s and grew up in small town mid-America.

When I was little I shared a bedroom with my brother and sister. I only got my own room when everyone moved to college or moved out of my parents' house (I was the youngest). We didn't have air-conditioning. On hot summer nights, we slept with the windows open and a fan running. We didn't have cable tv. We had an antenna and could only tune in two stations (ABC and NBC) on a black & white Zenith. My parents didn't get a color tv until I was in college.

My parents had a party telephone line that we shared with a neighbor. We owned a rotary phone.

My mom sewed a lot of our clothes on a Pfaff sewing machine. I remember going to the fabric store to pick out patterns and materials.

I learned to type on an old Royal Typewriter that was probably made in the 40s. My mom had a Christmas list and typed her letters to go in each card. I collected the Christmas cards we received and kept them in a special purse, and played with them.

I also remember playing with vintage paper dolls and failing miserably to make new clothes for them.

We had one of those old refrigerators that was difficult to open (what do they call those latches that old refrigerators had?). My mom got milk and eggs fresh from the farm until I was 6 or 7 years old. We rode in the car without seatbelts, and rode our bikes without helmets. We spent a great deal of time playing outdoors and roaming the neighborhood with no supervision. Everyone knew everyone in our small little town. We didn't always lock our doors. It wasn't really necessary.

I remember listening to music on my brother's 8-track player. We had a car with an 8-track, too. Albums were around, of course, but then it was cassette tapes which were replaced by CDs. My husband and I still have many of our old cassettes.

In the summer we went to the drive-in movie theatre.

Before the digital age, I would buy maps whenever we went on a trip and kept them for future use or as keepsakes if it was a place we probably wouldn't visit again.

It's been a long time since I've posted here. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

georgia-peach.....thank you for the wonderful post. It is filled with great memories which I am sure most of us here can relate to !

Kids in our neighborhood spent a lot of time outside also. I remember the clamp- on skates. We had a hill on our street and it was fun to skate or bike down the hill. Getting up the hill was no problem. There was a canyon nearby which we'd hike through sometimes, carrying our lunch. We named the most interesting rocks after characters in Tom Sawyer. We'd eat lunch at a place walled with red rocks and we'd sing Red River Valley. There was a tall drainage pipe, maybe 7' tall, which we called Injun Joe's Cave. We'd trek through that, and it became pitch dark at one point and then angled steeply downhill. It was our big adventure to get to the other side. I don't see many kids playing outside these days though they do play organized sports.

In school we had a music book with many old songs in it such as the grandfather clock one and we'd all sing them out loud. I think I still have one book, called Music Near and Far. That is so funny about your MIL singing that song in the restaurant.

yoyo, your roller skates song has a certain similarity to the 1976 most unlikely HIT '"I've Got a Brand New Combine Harvester . . ."

Listen and be amazed

The Combine Harvester Song

They "borrowed" that tune ! I guess there were no copyrights.

Oh boy, here's a delightful trip down memory lane !

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/452963675006826897/