Memory Lane part 2

Transferred from the original; Take a walk down memory lane with us

by popular vote, here's the new thread

This message was edited Dec 9, 2006 11:04 AM

Thanks for the new thread, Nancy!!! It was getting a tad long, even with high speed internet!!
Jo, that's the monster machine that I got my first perm under, my DSM was determined to turn me into a replica of Shirley Temple...the dimples I had then are now called wrinkles. Born in 1935, my first memory of a radio show was "Stella Dallas" which my DSM listened to faithfully. And Orphan Annie, and a few other soaps that have receded too far back in my memory banks to retrieve. When my kids were little I used to make them watch Fury on tv because I had a big crush on James Arnasse's brother, Peter Graves, who played the dad.

I had a Shirley Temple drinking cup and a bowl with her picture on them. If we hadn't moved a brazzillion times I might still have them. I remember going to the store with little cardboard tokens, or a book of coupons for the scarce wartime items, butter, sugar, eggs or meat. When my uncle came home after the war he wondered why they rationed meat as the soldiers didn't get much, so where did it go?

I remember the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. We were outside playing, when the news was announced, and it seemed that every adult was outside shortly afterwards discussing what happened. My dad was at that time working at the Walter Butler Shipyards in Superior, Wisconsin. They were building battle ships before the war even started. This thread has brought back lots of memories. I'm 71 and I am in awe of how the world has changed since I was born.

In the sixties, we had a Rambler that had a push button transmission, one day my ex- was trying to rock it out of where he had gotten plowed in, and the buttons all fell off in his hand from him punching them so hard. We also had had a Studebaker, and a HenryJ in those early years.

I am going to follow this specific thread for the booklet that we agreed to compile way back early in Memory Lane. Otherwise, it might get so huge it would not be economical nor physically doable. OK with you??

And don't forget to add your birth year as you go along. We now have 13:
from the 40's we have 8
from the 30's we have 4
and from the 50's we have 1.

And I remember my mother getting a perm in a chair like that....seemed as if it took hours to detach her from those curlers.

go for it Sharran. Do you plan to do any editing? If not, I'm afraid it will look like Gone With the Wind very quickly.

I was re-reading the previous thread and I want to add my favorite Loretta Young Show. It was the one where her car was in an accident in a storm and she was trapped inside with a live electrical wire dangling on it. I remember what a terrifying scenario that was to me.

I used to LOVE Katy Keene! And all paper dolls. How simple life was. Now it's hard to imagine that we could have just folded flaps of paper over their shoulders to change their clothes...and been happy about it.

And I thought Archie would have been better off with Betty than with Veronica. Jughead always wore that 'hat'. How goofy was that!

I always had to be at the TV when it was time for Lassie, and I almost always cried during that show. I sent in a name when there was a "Name Lassie's Puppies" contest, believing I could actually win one of those pups. I didn't, but they did send me a postcard thanking me. Here's how it looks, with my name and address blocked out.

And for you Frankie Avalon fans, here's his autograph from when he "stared" locally. (I was 13...it should have said starred.) It's still in my 'scrap book'.

Jude, I think I will have to edit just a bit, but we have so many of the same memories that it should be fairly easy to do. I won't leave anyone out, but will try to not repeat.
Another thought.....let's talk about or first pets too. Remember yours?

Ed: oops....our first pets.
Am thinking faster than I am keying.

This message was edited Dec 9, 2006 9:23 AM

Good idea creating the new thread. The "walk" down memory lane was turning into a pilgimage !!!!!

I'm sorry, but that hair machine hanging from the ceiling is just WRONG !!!! LOL
It looks like some capital punishment device!!! Are you sure it was for hair, and not for shock treatments??? Anyone who willingly got hooked up to that thing SHOULD have been given shock treatments !!!

Jasper, I always thought those things were a prelude to the space movies..y'know, those thought transference things, who knows? Thank goodness I never had to sit under one of them, doubt if I could have done it.

when you are an ugly little girl w/straight, just grown out hair and your grandmother treats you to a perm you are thrilled to just sit there and take it. Of course later, I didn't know how to manage it - I was about 11 at the time - I looked as if I had been electrocuted. Funny thing, tho, even tho I had my hair cut many times the perm never seemed to grow out and my hair stayed curly but no so horribly so until I got an infection that straightened it out when I was about 19 and in the Miss America Contest. Don't get all excited. I was "Miss The Man's Shop" in a little town you will never hear of where they had a college. I think they were hard up for contestants - more sponsors than contestants - and NO, I didn't win. An underage local blonde won and I didn't even make it to the second round. thank goodness.

Ann

my first pet was a mutt named Frisky. great dog with long white hair and some beige splotches here and there. Her ears were soft as silk and her tail curved over her back, sort of chow like. I have a few pictures of my younger brother at about age 1-2, sitting on my lap with Frisky getting in there too.

Our next dog was named Tempo. He had belonged to the first violinist of the Chicago symphony who died suddenlt and the dog needed a home. I don't know how we ended up with him but he was the best trained dog I've ever known. Tempo would travel with his late owner to cities everywhere when the symphony was on the road. He stayed in hotel rooms alone, no crate or cage and waited patiently for him person to return. He was an Irish setter and just beautiful. Many contented hours were spent brushing his coat.

After Tempo there was a succession of dogs as my parents tried to figure out what breed they wanted. We had Weimaraner, a Carrie Blue Terrier who really had blue skin (robins egg blue), English setter, Boston Terriers, and the rest are pretty much a blur.

Next

1947 is the year I was born.

Katy Keene...oh I was such a fan too. Ü

The first pet I can remember was a Boston Terrier named Beans. Get it...Boston Beans...Beantown... :-%

Don

Thanks for the thread and to 1gardengram and JD for telling me about it! Lots of great memories. Despite the fact that JD believes I taught Thomas Jefferson how to garden I'm 65, born July of 1941.

Herbie - yes I do remember Bohack's and kept my last receipt from the store. Remember when they didn't use cash registers to tally the order but it was all written in pencil by the check out person - most often a man. I guess they were considered more trustworthy than women. Even cops were all men, no women.

I also remember "Earth Angel" and it was played in the school at dance time following Confraternity. If we danced too close (especially when that song played) Father Sullivan would come over and gently explain we had to leave room between our bodies for the Virgin Mary!

I'm a Purple People Eater buttons. Loved that an old very sweet aunt allowed me to pin it on her.

heyjude - I did the gas oven pause, too, and ended up with no eyebrows, no eyelashes and burnt fringe around my face.

How about the old soap operas: Guiding Light and Search for Tomorrow. I think the Edge of Night was later in the afternoon. Some were only 15 minute shows.

Silvercup was the sponsor for the Lone Ranger on radio.

PEPSODENT TOOTH POWDER! How I loved licking it off my palm.

Pinex cough syrup for colds. I'd sneak down to get more. Now I know it had an alcohol base - boy was it ever good!

Real home made waffles (from scratch) every Friday and I was allowed to bring home two of my school friends for lunch. Yes, I still do have the waffle iron.

When raglan sleeves were the big new thing in sweaters.

Loved Bill Haley and the Comets and "Rock Around the Clock" - that was the first song my DH and I danced to in the '80's.

The Jordanairres were Elvis's back up singers. Who noticed?

1950's day of the week underwear.
1950's training bras - pardon me but what were we supposed to train "them" to do - back flips?
1950's day of the week jobs: Monday washing, Tuesday ironing, etc.
Mine were crochet edged by my mom and I still have all the doilies and antimaccasars she made and I do starch them.
Same era: Magnifying screens for TV's to make the picture look like 20".
Initial TV watching: all they had was wrestling for a long time.

Living bras and living girdles. That girdle that was rubber with the air holes! I'd go into a laughing fit watching my sister put that sucker on every morning and dousing it with powder before she tried the daring feat!

Sunday mornings on TV they had Jon Nagy drawing with charcoal.

Tex Antoine on TV - a weatherman - he'd write the temperature and then draw a picture incorporating the temperature numbers. He got thrown off TV very unceremoniously.

So did Julius LaRosa. Never cared for him or the Maguire sisters who were first touted to be 16 or 17 and my mom kept saying they were older than that and she was right. All mothers were right, all of the time - NO exceptions.

Wasn't it Madge the Manicurist who soaked customers hands in Joy or some dishwashing liquid: "Relax, you're soaking in it".

Which twin has the Toni? Great ad campaign but girls (like me with fine hair) looked frightening with those impossibly tight curls and the lingering "scent" of that awful permanent glop.

"Are you in the know" ads for women's personal needs! That always cracked me up.

In the 30's individual cigarettes were sold as "loosies".

Nobody mentioned Bishop Fulton J. Sheen and his angel who cleaned his chalk board during commerical breaks. (It was a TV show)

My sister used to drag me to movies to buy dinnerware at special prices.

The TV's of the late 40's and into the 50's used to suffer from some problem and the pictures would "roll". My parents would call me down to fix it.

Skeleton keys for houses. Everybody on the block had a skeleton key but we were never robbed. I'd bet any thieves just used their own key to gain access.

I STILL HAVE THE RATION BOOK FROM WW II.

Yes, 1gardengram, I remember the white stuff in strong plastic with the red bubble that you had to burst and then knead the package and it was supposed to be like butter - WRONG!

What about curb feelers on cars?
Vent windows in cars?

Yes, we had a victory garden when I was a kid and the edging was one of my dad's old wooden ladders. I have a photo of me with a huge bouquet of flowers as a birthday gift from my mom, standing next to that garden.

That black gum was so "spicy" to me!

It's Howdy Doody time
it's Howdy Doody time
Bob Smith and Howdy, too,
Say Howdy Do to you.

Let's give a rousing cheer
'Cause Howdy Doody's here
It's time to start the show
So kids let's goooooooooooo.

Unmarried girls "got pregnant" and were looked down on but not the guys who got those girls pregnant!!!!

Married women were "going to have a baby". It was never a case of a man saying, "We're pregnant" - still sounds weird to hear guys say it.

Bridal shower gifts were tea towels, pot holders, any pot or pan was a lavish gift - no such thing as giving microwaves or Electrolux vacuums.

I was the first of anyone I knew to have my 1962 photo album in color.

Popcorn was made on the stove, not in the microwave!

CONFESSION: I still have and love to use my mother's Ironrite, a huge advancement over the Mangle.

Nice to have you with us, Pirl. Isn't this fun? Ironrite, that is what my mom had, it wasn't a Mangel. Couldn't remember till you mentioned it. And you also knew the rest of the Howdy Doody song.
The Guiding Light was a serial on radio, I think, because when I first saw it on TV, the characters did not fit my image of them.

The first pets I remember were Tuffy, my Dad's old collie, a beautiful dog, and we had two cats, Kitty Fluff and Jofa, (short for Josephine, which was not a word I could say at the time...so she became Jofa). Animals were only outside in my mother's world, so outside they stayed.
When I was about 4, and Tuffy, Kitty Fluff and Jofa had gone on to higher pastures, my parents gave me Pepper. She was a mut, but I didn't know that. She was MY dog. She was all white, a sort of creamy white, and why I named her Pepper I will never know. She was really an outside dog, but when she was tiny we brought her in at night. One evening just about this time of year we left her inside and went to visit my grandparents. Mom had decorated the table with little Christmas candles that were in the shapes of choir children, churches, Christmas trees, etc. When we got home, the entire candle village was gone. Mom thought someone had broken into the house.....no candles at all. AND, no Pepper. We finally found her under my bed.....so sick! She had eaten every candle, wicks and all.
Pepper survived for another 14 years until I went to college and then she too died.
I had another Pepper along the way, a black lhasa apso, but she was for my kids. And now I have Daisy, my little tuxedo cat.
Funny how other animals came and went, but I really only remember being attached to my white Pepper, and now to Daisy. Maybe it was an age thing, very young, and sorta old, and everything in between went by in a hurry.
now....back to you.

Piggy was my choice of names for the beautiful white angora cat I had at five years old. Then came Lucky, a mutt, but my mutt. I was about 10 when I saw her dancing with a boy dog. The result was four puppies (amazing I ever danced with boys!) and one of them named Sparkles Plenty, after the Dick Tracy character someone else has mentioned. Mac, the collie (like a Lassie) and Fred a bearded collie were later followed by Fannie and Ginnie, Suga (no "r") and Joseph Elvis, all gone now save our Harry.

My sister did have turtles and one cold night decided to keep them warm by leaving them, in their big bowl, on the radiator: we were greeted by fried turtles the next day.

TURTLES with flowers painted on their shells......I had forgotten them.
I mentioned Kewpie dolls earlier, anybody else have one. Kewpie and my Sparkles Plenty doll were my favorites. Still have Kewpie, but Sparkles melted in one of my attics many years ago.

,y sister had hamsters, one at a time. one got sick once, she melted ice cream, warmed the dryer for a minure, opened the door and put the hamster inside ontop of a towel. she left the door open and of course, the critter climbed out. we spent days searhing for it. my dad finally followed the smell coming from under the dryer and found it. she promptly got another one tho.

mice!

didn't have either doll, nor turtles. my dad brought me an baby alligator as a gift from a business trip to Florida. I kept it in an old wash tub on top of the ping pong table for a few months.. I had to feed it hamburger meat, then fish it out after it started to rot.

I did learn how to safely pick it up, turn him over and rub his tummy. supposedly he was hypnotized, but it wore off when I turned him back right side up and wagged my finger in front of his nose to test. he promptly bit me. and I bled like a stuck pig. Fortunately, laundry was being done in the next room and the laundress ran in to my screaming, grabbed me and stuck my hand in a big box of Tide. Wow that burned. He vanished from our lives after that episode, never to be seen again. To this day, I don't what my father did with it.

Never had an alligator, but did have goldfish. You could get them at the five and dime, maybe it was Ben Franklins. And I named them. My first one was Abraham, I was about 5 at the time. When Abraham died I tried putting tadpoles in the fishbowl, but they wouldn't stay tadpoles very long, so Mother got me another goldfish, named him Ezekiel.
Must have had a major Old Testament influence somewhere, but actually they were the longest words I knew and I just felt like saying them, I think.
When my son was very small, in the 80's, my husband took him fishing. He caught a tiny blue gill, and just had to bring it home for his empty fishtank. That silly fish lived till my son went to college, didn't grow very big, but as it grew older it became a navy blue color. My son fed it dry cat food. It was a really pretty fish, but early on, my son named it Ed, I kept wanting him to change the name, but Ed he was for all his long life.

i was also first on myh block to get his captain video secret ring. you could slide a piece of paper under the captain video insignia and when you pressed it you got the secret code.

I too had turtles as pets when I was a little girl. They grew quite big and we then put two of them in a wash tub with rocks for them to climb on. I remember putting the tub in the front steps of our home facing south and they would sit and stretch out their necks and bask in the sunshine. Used to feed them hamburger which they would take right from your fingers.

Also had a mirade of hamsters over a 5-6 six year period. That was when they really did look like little teddy bears. So cute and loved them all.

I had a Kewpie doll back then too. You'd win them at the local fairs.

I remember Bishop Sheen's telecasts. Great speaker. And Margarine with the red/orange bead that you'd knead until it resembled butter. Agree with pirl, when she said it didn't really taste like it though.

I remember candy cigarettes and those sugar coated strawberries that you could get for 2 for a penny.

Penny carnivals with my favourite, the Fish Pond. Hopscotch, skipping (double dutch was the challenge!) riding our bicyles for hours and hours, covering miles of the city and country. Never had any problems with perverts back then...that I ever knew anyway.

Bows worn attached to bobby pins in our hair. Walt Disney on Sunday Nights was very special and our family never missed it. The Ed Sullivan Show; the test pattern on the TV that appeared each morning until the first program got started. My brother and I spent a lot of hours just staring at it, waiting...

LOL...fun to remember this stuff.

Don Ü

Games? My neighbor Lynnie had a fence made from logs - can't think of what you call them - and we would sit on them and they magically turned into horses. That seemed to satisfy us, for some reason. We wore cowboy boots and hats and holsters and we were Annie Oakley and Dale Evans.

I had another neighbor, Gary, and we had a summer-long Monopoly game going in our den. Several times a week we'd sit for hours and buy and sell and connive. But there is a negative memory about that. Gary used to hoard one-hundred-dollar-bills. I learned about greed that summer.

I lived next-door to an elementary school and in the summer they had 'crafts'. We made things from boondoggle and finger-painted. And other times I took a tennis racket and tennis ball and played tennis with myself against the wall of the school that had no windows. And having a playground so close to home was neat too.

It was a short walk to Grants Dept Store (in those days it was perfectly okay for a young girl to walk about half a mile to the plaza by herself in my little hometown). I'd go hang out there sometimes because my aunt who lived with us was the manager of the toy department! Imagine the prestige! I could walk into Grants and go right into the back room of the toy department!

When I remember my own childhood and all the freedom I had to roam the neighborhoods and ride my bike and skate (with those skates that adjusted to your shoes, as was previously mentioned) and go to the drug store or plaza by myself, it really makes me sad to think that today's kids can't even walk alone to catch a school bus. The world isn't safe anymore.

sigh.

Mentioned candles earlier, then I thought about those wax Coke bottles that had colored syrup in them. I remember the syrup was flavored and you could chew the wax as well. What were those things.

Juke boxes......with the thing on each table that had a list of songs and for a quarter you could choose a couple right from your table...and nobody else would know who chose that song. I remember being madly in love with a guy named Danny. I would play "Danny Boy" over and over till I ran out of quarters evey time he was in the diner where that juke box was. Probably I was about 14 at the time. Can't remember his last name, so it really wasn't a very lengthy relationship!

Pirl, I was one of the "evil public school kids", but, of course, the church, very graciously let us join the CYC (Catholic Youth Council for those of you who did not grow up Catholic) when we were in 8th grade. They even had a dance to welcome us. Two of the public school kids were dancing close to one of those songs (like "Earth Angel") and one of the nuns came up and pushed them apart, and told the boy to "Leave enough room for the Holy Spirit". The boy looked at her and said, "Not after what he did to the Virgin Mary!". I don't know what happened next, because I got out of there, figuring that even if you're not involved, when it hits the fan blades, you're bound to get splattered.

Herbie, "In the Still of the Night" is one of my favorites, too, along with "Save the Last Dance for Me".

DonM47, we are the same age. I remember BIshop Sheen, too, and his "little angel" that magically erased the blackboard. I loved Katy Keene, too! Isn't this fun?

Bonnie

I remember those wax shaped bottles with the sugary contents and they also had wax lips like that!

My dad would give me a nickel to buy the NY Daily News and the Daily Mirror and I was allowed to spend the change (one penny) on the two for a penny candy - loved the malted milk balls!

Had a crush on a boy, Donny Thorne, at the local Sweet Shop and gave him a dime tip every time I ordered a 25 cent ice cream sundae. I was his favorite customer because of a whole dime.

We had a Grant's, too! We walked almost everywhere and never worried about perverts. Nap - what fun for you to walk right into Grant's and then into the back room of the toy department. Must have felt like your own private dream world.

Nanu - though I went to Catholic school (grammar and high) we girls would go to Confraternity because the boys from public school would go and that was our main interest.

Bishop Sheen had perfect timing and the crew never had to give him blinking lights or hand signals for a commercial cut. They said he was the nicest and easiest person they ever worked with for early television.

Soooo....

Has this now become the officialn new "Pet Forum"? Did we seguey from Memory Lane to talking about Pets? I know this was mentioned, but I did not catch the part that Part #2 was to be all about pets.

Don't mind me--I am "slow" on catching on to things.....But if it going to go that route, I won't be posting anything much....

Gita

Remember cinch belts?
And turning the collar up in the back and sides.
We were so cool!

Plants
Wisteria
johnny jump ups
wild azalea
mountain laurel
trillium
bee balm
mint
nasturishums (sp?)
spiderwort
pansies
impatiens
iris
daylilies
gladiolias
dahlias and roses, lots of roses....
I am sure there are more, but these were in the back yard in large sections. Also had black eyed susans. Mom also planted marigolds to keep the bugs away, as someone has already mentioned, but that was in the vegetable garden. Maybe this will bring other garden memories to you.

You should have kept reading. The pets part ended awhile ago. We're "remembering" again.

I used to order phosphates at the soda shop. Someone previously had mentioned , I think, chocolate/cherry with peanuts in it. I forgot that I wanted to ask.....why peanuts?

I can remember that I used to watch Queen For a Day with my grandfather, and he would be trying so hard not to cry.

Does anyone (maybe it was just California) remember Spade Cooley, a singing cowboy on early, early TV in the late 40s?

I remember Queen for a Day, don't remember liking or disliking it. We didn't get many clear channels then, so didn't have many choices.

The peanuts in the coke thing.....I don't know why, we just did it. Sounds pretty gross when I think of it now.

Remember Kate Smith. She sang something ..."When the Moon comes over the Mountain...."
And there was The Wayward Wind, Moon River, Wake up Little Susie....
Did I mention scatter pins earlier?

Learning to drive is another story. I was 12 when my dad turned me loose in a cleared field on my great grandparents farm in Bardstown,KY in his 54 Buick. That lesson ended when I got stuck in a rut and they had to bring the tractor and a chain and pull me out. Then he got a Scout International, and that is another embarrassing story which I will tell eventually. I have several of them.

Poinsettia plants leftover from Christmas that eventually grew to 15 ft tall....Easter Lily's that bloomed in JULY !!!! never at Easter...

Those little chicks that were dyed all sorts of colors at Easter...thank God they don't do that anymore.....

Dick and DeeDee....The Fleetwoods.....Brian Highland..".2 3 4 tell the people what she wore...." Freddy "Boom Boom " Canon .... Connie Francis.......Bobby Rydell.......Sandra Dee.......

Fish Sticks and Tuna Casserole on Fridays......

"Spoon Riders"...those little plastic people and animals that came in boxes of cereal that hooked on to your spoon......

PEECHEE folders !!!! Cartridge Pens !!!! FOLDER PAPER !!!!

GETTING HEAD LICE AT SUMMER CAMP !!!!!

Jasper, you just reminded me of the old fountain pen, the one where you had to pull down a tiny lever, (it squeezed the bulb inside the pen), insert the tip into the ink ('twas in an ink bottle, a short, squat thing) then let go of the lever so that the ink would be sucked up into the pen. And we had penmanship classes in my school, had a spot on the report card for a grade in it. If you wrote with the pen for long periods of time, you ended up with a big blue spot on the finger where you held it. They were a very important growing up gift, and I still have one that belonged to my grandmother.

And OH, those poor little pastel colored baby chicks. They were so ugly when their feathers started growning in, (if they even lived that long!)


This message was edited Dec 9, 2006 11:13 PM

Sharran...yes...filling up the pen with ink was often times disastrous to say the least...but, you could ALSO shoot ink at people by lifting up on the lever and pointing it at someone !!!

I'm glad they stopped selling those poor baby chicks...like you said, I too wonder how many lived...I remember people dying their white poodles those garish colors as well....

I learned to shave with those old razors that you actually put a blade in....my face was always a bloody mess.....there was that slit inside the medicine cabinet where you put the old blades when they were dull.....then, if you ever replaced the medicine cabinet, you'd pull the old one out of the wall and there were thousands of rusty razor blades inside the wall.

Just about everyone we knew had Early American Furniture.....and a station wagon.

There used to be a number you could dial on the phone that when you dialed it and hung up real fast, it would make your phone ring....we drove my mom crazy doing that !!!

Remember "Pole Lamps" ???

I do remember pole lamps, still have one!
Very old wood and metal school desks had an inkwell in them, where you placed your bottle of ink so it wouldn't slide off the slanted desk. If you had long hair, and a guy sat behind you, he would sneak strands of your hair into the inkwell. And I would go home with the bottom of my long braids or pony tail a very dark shade of blue. If hair was really long, you never knew he had done it, because you never felt the tug, especially if it was in a ponytail.
Boy do I ever remember those razors. I tried to sneak and shave my legs so Mom would not know, and would cut layers of skin off the bony front of my legs. Hard not to notice that, but I would destroy the evidence in that little slot where all dead razors went.

Ahhh! So sorry! My Computer had had an auto update and had not resrarted. When I opened up this Forum, (DG always sits in my bottom tool bar), there were all these posts about pets. So I wrote my above post. By the time I posted it, about 10 other posts came up. Glad we are all back to the "Memories" part!!!!

Yes, I also still have a pole lamp and it is right next to me as I type this. I also have 2 of those pole plant hanger things. You attach these weird, coiled wire things to the pole and if you got them right, they hold 3 hanging baskets of plants. I don't use then anymore, but they are under my bed.
Also have these little wire shelves you attach to the window frame. It has 3 little wire shelves. All my AV's sit on it.

When I first got married, my husband often asked that I make him tuna and potato chip casseroles....I think it had a can of cream of mushroom soup in it. I had never heard of it!

I remember the very first ball point pens. BOY! Were they messy and left ugly blobs of ink on the paper as you wrote. This was in the late 40's I think.

Washing my hair in the sink. Had no shower.....
Back in the old country, my grandmother had one of these irons that opened up and you put hot coals (or something) in it so you could iron.....

More later...gotta get ready for work. This is so great!!!

Gita

Oh those cinch belts! And some of the bodies they had to accommodate!
Yes, to scatter pins!

Vera Lynn - The White Cliffs of Dover, Yours, Au Wiedersehen.

Sh-boom, sh-boom!

The pens, as Sharran said, and either blue or black ink. Some were called "permanent".

My mom washing my hair and then having Chamomile tea poured over my hair and it had to stay there for five minutes to keep it blonde: it worked!!!

Decals!

Woke up this morning thinking about lunch pails (buckets). When I was very small, some of the boys brought their lunches to school in small metal buckets that had lids on them. (Lard buckets, handy little things) I always had to eat in the "lunch room", but I was fascinated by those buckets.

There was another type of lunch bucket then as well and it was a smaller version of the one that men often carried, with a curved sort of fold over top. This was way before the little square boxes with pictures on the cover.

We had "Box suppers" at school, it was a money raising thing where the girls would bring a box packed with a complete meal for 2. The guys were supposed to "buy" the box via auction, and then he and the girl would eat the dinnners together. All ages participated and with no costs, money was made. I dreaded those things because WHAT IF THE WRONG BOY BOUGHT MY SUPPER BOX!!!
Ahhhhhh..the horrors of being very young.