Go way back with me today. Back in time, before the internet. Before drug abuse in our town. Sit back and take the stroll through time. To think about yesteryear is sometimes sad because we can never get that back, but those memories are locked up in a person's mind, not to be easily forgotten. Sure, something might have slipped your mind, but when someone talks about it, the memories flood back to you. Today I'm devoting the entire blog to memories of yesteryear. You probably will remember some if not all of the things I remember.
Laundry detergent had free things in the boxes.....towels, glasses, or dishes. And Dolly and Porter Wagner used to be on the Breeze commercials. Dishes, dolls and trucks at the grocery store for purchase.
Gas stations with full serve....your windshield was washed and your oil checked. Gas was $.25 per gallon. Manual lawnmowers. No air conditioners. No computer. Black and white television.
Hula hoops, pogo sticks, roller skates with a metal key, jacks on the sidewalk, hopscotch, the limbo, tag, tree houses, running through the sprinkler, shooting marbles, cops and robbers, having a backyard show, lying on your back and looking at clouds and seeing faces, baseball games at the old grade school, sliding down the spiral fire escape at the grade school (with wax paper), bike riding with friends...with no worries of getting molested or taken, long monopoly games, Old Maid, rummy, baby chicks at the fair as prizes, real turtles and frogs at the dimestore. Gerald McKee at the park, Gerald's dad's store with a partial dirt floor.
Bazooka bubble gum with comics, baseball cards with a slab of bubble gum, 5 cent comics, a hunk of bologna at West Foods, Necco candy, penny candy at Whit Stone's drug store, chocolate soldier drink at Johnson & Denton, ice cream cones at Emma's some with free cone papers in the bottom, chocolate milk at school, mayonnaise or ketchup sandwiches, butter and sugar sandwiches, borrowing (?) apples from people's yards to eat, wax lips, ribbon candy at Christmas, popcorn balls at halloween, everyone trying to guess who you were at halloween. Cotton candy at the fair. Double Ferris Wheel at the state fair. A & W Root Beer stands.
Slumber parties, after prom parties, staying out all night after the prom, pastel colored taffeta prom dresses, boys in tuxes, dance lessons at the grade school, sock hops, garter belts to hold seamed hose up, girdles, boys using Brylcream, no jeans at school, skirts that had to touch the gym floor while on your knees, rolling your skirt at the waist and pinning it. Sadie Hawkins day. Freshman initiation. Horrible scabs on polio vaccines. Copies from the mimeograph....which you couldn't read the tests sometimes. Manual typewriters and the little piece of correction paper.
Ovaltine, Tang, Tab, Val-o-Milk candy, milk
duds, turkish taffy, candy necklace, charleston chew, fizzies, lik-m-aid, wax bottles, chick-o-sticks, boston baked beans, chuckles, sugar daddy pops, slo pokes, teaberry gum, blackjack gum, root beer barrels, candy cigarettes.
Peanut butter sandwiches with the chili at the school cafeteria, fish on Friday's, saying the pledge of allegiance each morning at school, the open windows at the grade school, the tunnel to the gym at the grade school, Frankie and Paul the custodians, and at the high school Joe Waggoner, walking to school and church, white gloves at Easter, the Easter sunrise church service.
Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Books, Mickey Mouse Club, Captain Jinks, Bullwinkle, Sky King, My Friend Flicka, Little Rascals, Davy Crockett, Jackie Gleason, Ted Mack Amateur Hour, Ed Sullivan, Zorro, Spin & Marty, Pegwell Pete Show, Loretta Young Show, I Love Lucy, Lassie, Quickdraw McGraw, Captain Kangaroo...Mr Greenjeans....Grandfather Clock....Mr. Moose...Bunny Rabbit....Dancing Bear....Tom Terrific...Mighty Manford The Wonder Dog, Augie Dogie. Howdy Dowdy and Clarabelle. "Goodnight Gracie".
Noxzema for pimples, Clearasil, vitalis, Evening in Paris, dad's Old Spice, my dad in a cap and a giant hat when he went somewhere, giant rollers in the hair which stuck you when sleeping, sanitary belts for women, jock straps for the men, giving your class ring to a girl to go steady, fluffy angora around a class ring or paint it with finger nail polish, Buster Brown Shoes, Thom McCann, Woolworth's, Kresge's, Bressmer's, Myer's Bros, Barker's, Springfield Dry Goods, Westenberger's (the best place to buy angora), Camera Shop, Icy Root Beer, Tops Big Boy, Steak & Shake Uptown. Top Value and S&H Green stamps.
Greenview phone numbers began with Woodland....then the number. Telephone operators in the little white building across from the park. Party lines. Rabbit ears on the television or turning the antenna pole. Tubes in the television. Milk delivery, dry cleaning picked up, Watkins was home to home sales. Doctors made house calls. Doc Beard was the veterinarian. Blanch, Addie, and Louella were hair dressers. Bimmy ran the pool hall and Emma the cafe. Peasey and Marilyn ran the Village Inn. Smitty ran the tavern and Gene and Marie the lower tavern. The Linda Theater. Shows in the park on a screen after the theater closed. The skating rink. The store, skating rink and tavern burned. Rodemer's and Cynthia saying "it will wear like iron".
In high school, the kids got GTO's, or Chevy Super Sports. I walked most of the time unless I borrowed the huge Pontiac, or Oldsmobile or whatever dad had at the time...until graduation then a red 1960 chevy convertible. The light dimmer was on the floor. Some cars didn't need an ignition key. Cars were never locked and neither were the house doors. Friends came in to visit without knocking.
Believing in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny. The one thing I was always afraid of was...."step on a crack, you'll break your mother's back".....I believed this and never stepped on a crack....and I still avoid stepping on a crack.
Yesterdays are now today's memories. Living in a small town made us tough youngsters. Now we are tender old people.....living the dream of our past. There are many more memories in my past, and one of these days, I will once again share them with you. Until then, enjoy the priceless treasure we all have.....our memories.
Me and Santa....I still believe.
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