Take a walk down memory lane with us

Sure, I have time to do it. Remember, I just retired. Tell me when you get ready to end the thread. Do you think everyone would like a hard copy, or how does the address thingy work in DG? I am too new to know. Personally I would like to have a hands on booklet, what do you think?

I am anxious to see your Santa. I am sure he will be wonderful. Hadn't thought of using a gourd as a base and adding the soft sculpture head....but I can see how that would work.. That is what you are saying, isn't it? Can't wait to see.

1. The thread is finished whenever folks stop adding their memories. a booklet would be very nice, but depending on how many want one, the cost of publishing could mount up. I just did a cookbook with a friend of recipes provided by all the ladies in the group homes he owns. I could ask him what the publishing ran, I don't remember or care, it was his expense, I just took the dictation, compiled it and did the grunt work of typing it all. I'll get a copy one of these days.

2. Address forum is easy, click on extras at the top and look up the members who have listed themselves. Others would have to provide their own.

3.No this Santa is totally a gourd, face painted and then dressed. I'm adding short legs with boots to complete him.

I like using whatever is on hand, so his legs are empty toilet paper cardboards cut to length, the boot fronts are pieces of same. His clothes are from an old wine bottle bag someone gave me, taken apart and redone.

Jude

About 2 years ago an old friend and I compiled a yearbook for our first school, which had been demolished in the late 60's. My Mom was principal during the time I went there and she had kept tons of kids photos. Friend and I put it all together, made copies, and she has a kind of binder that holds it all together with a sort of plastic thingy...she has the binding machine, too. If I did this on the computer, since there are no photos involved, I might get her to bind it for us so there would be only postage to consider. Might be fun, and maybe the cost of printer ink and a ream of paper wouldn't be too bad. I will think about it, and we will see how many are interested.

Anxious to see your Santa gourd.

Count me in on that one. I can also help type. I just retired as a transcriptionist and still love to type. I guess you can tell by the length of my posts. : ^ }

I had paper dolls too. In shoeboxes like Sharran. Those, my farm set, my dolls, my roller skates and my bike. My brother had a train set with lots of track and we would set that up so that it ran through the kitchen, load up my farm animals and haul them all over. My mom was constantly having to jump over our stuff. We ran outside all the time, something modern kids just don't do much of if at all. That's what kids did in those days. No back talk or sassing was allowed. You just did what your parents said, especially your dad.

I've enjoyed all of this so much!! Anybody want to share their age? I'm 68 and have a ton of memories and memorabilia (sp??) that were handed down to me by my mother. I'm so glad she and my grandmother kept things the way they did. I have deeds to property my parents owned, as well as a glass that came from Ireland in the 1840s, as well as little deco items I had as a child, as well as two dolls--one made by my grandmother just before she died in 1945 and one that I had in the early 50s--still in their original dresses. If I'd known then what I know now I would have saved a lot more "stuff".
Diane

OK, just keep remembering and keep writing, and eventually Diane and I will get a booklet together, we promise.
sharon

Yes, ma'am, we will.

Just remembered another one.

In the basement of our old colonial there was of course the 'play roon' which ws paneled in , what else,knotty pine. That was where the ping pong, later pool table were. There was also an old victrola on which I listened to 98 recordings of my favorite, Peter and the Wolf! I have searched and searched for the old version of that and haven't located one. the new version stinks in my opinion. I want to get it for my granddaughter.

There were other rooms too, the laundry, of course, in which were the standard washer and dryer, but also a Mangle. On this contraption, the sheets were pressed after starching. There was a huge wicker basket on the floor, big enough for two or three kids to climb in and hide beneath the soiled laundry which fell into the basket from the laundry shoot.My younger brother always said he wanted to slide down that thing but the opening wasn't big enough.

Another foom down there was the train room. My dad had constructed a very large table and our neighbor who was an artist painted scenery on the walls. My brothers had a their Lionel trains set up there, they blew smoke, horns, picked up cattle off the rail yard thing etc. It was very elaborate.

The room beyond the train room was used like a pantry. Well, really more like a store really. shelves and shelves, cans and jars of food. The light could only be turned on in there by a pull cord and I remember being afraid to go alone after the sun went down.

Then off to the side was yet another two rooms. These belonged to my father. His workshop. He liked woodworking and had connections to get all the floor standing tools he wanted. Drill press, grinders, enormous sanders, a lathe and I dont remember what else. There were racks and racks of pegboard with hand tools and drawers beneath his workbench full of more.

The last 'room' was under the stairs and that was my special domain. I had an old steamer trunk under there with all my dress up clothes inside. My best friend Suzie and I spent hours and hours, days and days dressing up and pretending to be everything under the sun with the costumes we put together from that old trunk. I wish I had that trunk today but when the basement flooded, it was ruined and tossed out.

This booklet is beginning toresemble Gone with the Wind aready, lol

Jude

Thanks Sharran for telling me about this thread! I am going to be away for a month but I know I have a few thing to post about
Maria

One last thought, then I'm going back to bed. Darn this thread, I WAS asleep!

anyone remember the "come as you are" parties or was that just a rage in my small town?

we also had 'clash day' at our high school, and a backwards day as well.

These are such great memories, you guys!!

We had a Mangle too and my mom and I did the sheets, pillowcases, male underwear, some dresses (had to be tricky to get those done) and probably some other items. The machine lived in a closet off our kitchen and had to be pulled out into the kitchen to be used. I'd forgotten all about that big old thing.

Our laundry was done out in the garage in a machine that we had to fill with a hose from the "laundry sink". It had the ringer on top that you had to keep your fingers and other body parts out of. You didn't want to put pillowcases or other items with closed ends in there backwards unless you wanted a shower. Things were washed by color in order to keep the water clean as long as possible, and they were then rinsed by hand in the sink and hung carefully (and in an organized manner) on the clothesline. Your clothesline needed to be neat in case the neighbors happened to look!! I don't remember when my mom added the starch to the whole process.

We had a couple of "come as you are" parties when I was in Jr. High in the early 50s. That's when I got to go to my first party where there would be dancing with BOYS!! It had to be at a house where my parents knew the family. Boy things have changed, haven't they?

i grew up in brooklyn. lived in a 6 family building which my grandparents owned. lived in what we called railroad rooms meaning rooms were straight across first kitchen than "palour" (spelling) its now called a living room) and then two bedrooms. they were one after the other sraight across front to back.

remember watching rinky dink on t.v. remember my uncle had a 49 mercury. my moms first car was a 54 plymouth that was yellow and black. don't remembere the model but it had chrome "fins" on each rear fender with the little racing flags on them.

used to buy 10 lbs of potatoes for 25 cents and having coal delivered down the shoot from the coal truck into our basement and the guy with the little cart that used to come and sharpen the knives.

We had coal delivered down a shoot into a bin in the basement where the furnace was. My dad used to haul the ashes out in a bucket that was shaped funny--don't know what it was called. (I don't think Herbie and I are using the right word for shoot. Anybody know what the real word is? Maybe we are just spelling it wrong.)

Coal Chute.....glad to be of service here....LOL Jo

thanks for starting this thread. Before I got half way, I was remembering "Amos & Andy" on the radio. We watched Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show, but they wouldn't show him below the waist. I really liked Pat Boone wearing his white bucks. Lucy & Desi slept in twin beds and there weren't any PG or R rated movies. After going to the movie for a "quarter", we would stop at the drug store and get a cherry coke. My parents bought groceries on credit (name and amount was added to the page). Remember the x-ray when we bought shoes at Sears. Everything in our house came from Sears. When new furniture was paid off, we could buy something else on credit. When we lived in the country, we had an "out house" and running water only came to the back porch. Mom would heat a kettle of water on the stove and fill a wash tub and we would all take a bath using that same water.
When I turned 21, I bought my first car, a 63 Falcon. There is my age.
It would be great to have a book, our children could not imagine what life was like way back then.

Wow, petunia--You are up there in my age bracket. Welcome to the thread. I've thought that about our kids and grandkids. My son was born the year AFTER man walked on the moon. My oldest child was four when President Kennedy was killed and she barely remembers that day. Most young people nowdays were born after Vietnam. They missed so much history. No wonder some of them don't seem to appreciate much.

Who else remembers the cardboard 45rpm records that you cut out from the backs of cereal boxes? We had a dozen or more that we played to death - Buffalo Gals Won't You Come Out Tonight was a big favorite of mine. We had a 78rpm set of Winnie the Pooh. It had two stories and the jacket had the stories written out so you could read along with the characters - It was narrated by Jimmy Stewart! We had the Peter and the Wolf set, too, along with some Burl Ives with Lolipop Tree, Watch the Donut, Not the Hole and Froggy Went A Courtin'.

We rode 'stick' horses, as well as real horses, played baseball with walnuts for the ball and bricks for the bases - try sliding into homeplate without cracking your skull! We had a hopscotch board permanently drawn into my Grandparent's front yard along with holes for pitching washers, and stakes for pitching horseshoes. There was a big cable spool that we used as a dining table for eating lunch as well as for boardgames, Monopoly, Chinese checkers, Sorry, and any number of card games.

Life was so much simpler then!
ginni

Isn't this just the greatest thread? And we all have such similar memories. I had forgotten about the records on the back of cereal boxes, but did remember Jude's memories of the storybook records. And the funny shaped coal bucket, it had a pouring spout, but big. We carried coal in it but also emptied ashes from it.
We even had a coal room off to one side in the basement, it was dark and dreary and had an outside chute coming into it. Since coal storage was in the basement, we had our wringer/washer on the first floor in a sort of outside/connected to the covered back porch wash room. That vision requires some imagination, but needless to say, it worked. We had the flat ironer, which some of you have a different word for, but my brother sneaked a lizard through one time.....ooooeee the mess and the smell! It was in a pillow case, of course, but still....

Herbie, the knife sharpener man sure. He used to call out as he walked the street with his cart....my grandmother told me he was calling out rags for sale, anybody want some rags today. I always found that strange, why not call out that he would sharpen knives? I remember hearing the the bell on his cart coming a block away, run to the window on th second floor to watch him go past.

Treadle sewing machines. I inherited my paternal grandmother's, refinished it and it proudly sits in my house.

Dining rooms had breakfronts and sideboards and table that had leaves to seat 12 or more. All that's left of that same grandmother's set is the breakfront which use to this day. Both items have traveled the country with me on my many moves.

O ladies, what was your favorite lag to throw in hopscotch? I started out using a stone like I was taught, but my father taught me that an old fashioned keyring, the kind with the little balls connected was much more accurate and stayed exactly where it was tossed.

Sock hops in the gym at school. Dance lessons there too. We had to wear dress up clothes and short white gloves. The little boys were all in suits and ties.

Our milk was delivered along with eggs, cottage cheese, real butter, etc. One of the drivers was a really nice man who would drop us at school if the timing was right on cold days. He risked his job to do that for us.

Mothers stayed home to raise their kids, what a novel idea that was. Every woman wore a full slip beneath her clothes, the straps of undergarments did not show, and girdles contained hips. My grandmothers wore corsets with bones and laces and their bodies were hard when I hugged them. At home, women wore what was called a house dress, remember the ones that were oddly shaped with one side open to wrap around and tie? We always knew when mom or gram were leaving the house because they had on a real dress.

I remember thinking that my grandparents had grown up at a time when every body part was covered and somehow managed to accept the mini skirts of my generation. To me that was amazing. I wish I could find that same tolerance in my self today, but it's not there.

Ahhh...Paper Dolls, my passion when I was a child. Anybody remember Milk Chutes, that where eventually done away with when burglars discovered they were easy access to back door locks. I remember all the girls wearing blouses inspired by the Dr. Kildare and Dr. Ben Casey craze, with high collors and buttons, some with frills some without. Pom Poms, worn around your neck.


"Wake up little Susie, wake up, wake up little Susie, wake up
We both fell sound asleep, wake up little Susie and weep
The movie's over, it's four o'clock and we're in trouble deep

Chorus:
Wake up little Susie, wake up little Susie
Well, what're we gonna tell your mama, what're we gonna tell your pop
What're gonna tell our friends when they say 'ooh la la'
Wake up little Susie, wake up little Susie"

The song by the Everly Bros. that was mentioned earlier. Bobby Vee singing "Blue Velvet" Hayley Mills in Double Trouble. Loved her!

I remember Sock Hops, Air Guitar, Pajama Parties. Such great memories from my High School Days...so near and yet so far away now...

Don Ü

circle pins on our collars!

Small scarves worn around you neck...

with the knot to the side to be jaunty. ends flying freely.

I learned to sew on that treadle sewing maching, finally got the hang of it and quit going backward all the time. I, too, have my grandmother's. Also have my maternal grandmother's dining room suite, round table with 3 leaves, and in her china cabinet I have her cut glass crystal. Lovely stuff

Had a pony tail for years, wore it encircled with a strand of flowers, and on clash day at school, (no matter the season) those flowers had to clash, too. Had curly hair and it would get caught in the wire strand of flowers, must have pulled half of it out when those flowers got stuck in it. Wore white bucks in the 50's, also saddle shoes, then penny loafers and then Weejuns. Our theme song for my junior prom was "Unchained Melody", and the color theme was pink and black. For some reason my dress was sort of teal-ish, and I had to be home by 11. Long gloves, and big whoopdee flowers around that pony tail! With spit curls. For those of you who don't know about spit curls, they were little flat curls in front of each ear, and they had to lay flat.....which mine never did. Hence, the "spit"....not really spit, but usually with a glass of water close by one could gracefully touch the top of the water and then water down the unruly spit curl.
And everything in public HAD to be graceful and charming and without blemish. (I had some problems with that along with the hair ever staying in place.)
And so it goes...
Inner Sanctum (sp?) on the radio..scary
Stella Dallas
The Lone Ranger (I went through a cowgirl phase, but no guns!)

This is becoming addictive!

And poodle skirts.
mohair sweaters
crinolines

My maternal grandmother lived with us. When my brothers were able to obtain play guns of any description, they suddenly disappeared overnight. When she passed, these were all found tucked into her drawers hiding beneath her undergarments. She had a real thing about no guns, not even pretend.

hoops skirts too, remember learning how to sit down without the skirt flying up into your face and exposing everything beneath?

An impossible situation on a school bus, which I had to ride for a few years! Hoops were worse than crinolines.
I chaired the Fine Arts department at the school where I taught and last year for my final fling I directed a school/community production of Grease!
We did not have to buy or make any costumes.....the folks in the community had more poodle skirts and neck scarves and circle pins than we could use....but we had trouble with shoes, finally bought cheap white tennis shoes and painted the saddle on some of them. It was fun, and made a ton of money. The older members of the community loved it, and some senior citizens were bussed from nursing homes to see it. A great experience for them and for me.
Anyway.....that is a whole 'nother thread.

Scatter pins...?
Rhinestone jewelry
And when I played dress up I glued rose petals to my fingernails since I wasn't allowed to wear red nail polish at that young age. We are not talking Elmer's glue here, either. That stuff was a mess to get off your nails!

nice work on recreating Grease and lovely to have to invite the seniors.

Think I will do it again in 07 just as community theatre. You all are invited....
oops...that's y'all in KY.

just remembered learning to play castanets. yeah, i was a strange kid.

castanets didnt count in my musical training, that was hours at the piano, later the flute. my brother played violin and oboe and we had to put on concerts for dinner guests more often than I care to remember. my mother and grandmother would take a familiar melody and write new words to it. then the kids had to perform those too. later there would be sing a longs around the baby grand also with everyone joining in.

aw, Sharran, that invite take back was quick. and I was already planning a bus load of DGers criss-crossing the country to pick everyone up. We had all agreed to stay with you for a weekend, lol

NO!! It wasn't a take back, it was just a semantic correction. I can't be from KY and not say y'all, now can I?
Just bring along sleeping bags and your old shorty pj's, and we will fill up every corner. A slumber party!!

That would be a riot!

We did it then, we could do it now!

Hoop Skirts, crinolines...and oh yes, Pony tails. They are definitely on a comeback now. I wore one for years. And Mohair sweaters. Every girl had to have at least one. Remember the Skort? A skirt, short and pleated with attached panties. Pointy bras. That's all they had then.

Don Ü

As I said before I willl not have time to post much, very busy trying to pack deciding what I need and what I don't, am raking a rest right now thought I give you a lttle back ground of myself it was quite a bit differrent then your life here in the US as a teenager. I was born, brought up and educated in Vienna, Austria, mostly lived through civil wars and World War II. I hardly ever went to a movie but took advantage of this very cultural city that offered me an awful lot with classical music, Arts and Architecture
I married an American soldier when I was eighteen I think he was impressed I spoke fluent English LOL as I was with the abundent cars, food and material things people had. As far as young peopel my age were concerned I felt like a hundred years old, they had a lot of fun I never had, my fun was being a very serious student.
My favorite movie here was "Gone With the Wind". My mother had a copy of the book in the German language which I read and also later in English. Had to read many English/American books since I studied English as a scong language
As a young bride I listened to the radio all day long. I remember Arthur Godfrey, The Kraft Theater, The Shadow,
The Morman Tabernacle choir, also some soap operes, I have not watched I should say listened to any since. Oh yes, there was also Fred Waring! I still do not like popular music especially what they write today, this is just a lot of noise to me. I loved to go to New yoork ' Broadwayand see many shows through the years, I think I have seen most of them with the original cast. " Sound of Music was great with Mary Martin and Camelot with Robert Goulet and Richard Burton were just the tops.

Ok will be back another time, if you find any typo errors please excuse them I am not a typist.
Maria

Maria,
thanks for posting these interesting memories for us.
This is all about sharing whatever pops into our heads, posting and hoping that it triggers a thought or memory for others.

Maria, have a great trip, and thanks for sharing your memories. No matter who we are, where we are, or where we came from, we seem to be enjoying this memory sharing time together. With every giggle, Daisy, my cat, looks at me as if I have lost my mind. Yeah, I can still giggle.

Maria--Thank you for sharing a bit of your life and a lot of your memories. I had forgotten Arthur Godfrey. I love how each person comes up with something that the rest of us have not mentioned. This is the first thing I check when I sit at the computer--and I'm sitting at the computer more these days so that I can check this thread. Ya'll are great!!
Diane

Diane, you said it for me and I'll bet others too.