Memory Lane part 2

The grocery stores back then were not "supermarkets"...they weren't nicely "decorated " inside like they are now...in fact, I remember them being sort of dirty and more like a warehouse....concrete floors, dim lights, and not at all "fancy" like the ones of the present.

There were no deli's in them, no bakeries and no pre-cooked food.

The cashiers had to punch the price of every item on those old registers.
There was a kiosk in the store that sold the "tubes" for radios and televisions. They never had the one we needed....

Remember when bedding plants came in wooden flats at the nursery and you bought them by the "dozen"...not in plastic 6 packs.?

We covered our school books with cut up brown grocery bags to protect them.

Every spring, the "Venetian Blinds" got a soaking in the bath tub....full of bleach.

I was one of those cashiers who had to punch in all those grocery numbers. Then you had to add up the numbers to figure out the tax. If you couldn't add- out you went!! And you had to count back the change correctly. No just dumping the money in the customer's hand.

Grocery stores were definitely like mom-and-pop operations, with wooden floors where I lived, dim lights, and hand-crank registers if they had one at all. You are right about counting the money back. My mom made sure I knew if I was getting the right change or not!! And the clerks helped the person shopping, like getting things down from shelves and all. All grocery bags were paper and sometimes they wrapped your purchase in brown paper and tied it with string.

We did our school books in brown paper also, but that wasn't until you were old enough to be allowed to take a book home. Another thing I had forgotten about. And then we drew pictures on them with crayons or colored pencils. No fancy marking pens back then.

I forgot about the radio tubes and later the TV tubes. I could not believe it when you couldn't buy tubes any more. There was a little place to plug in your tube to test it so that you were sure to get the right one.

You were allowed to be creative with your brown paper bag covered books by using crayons. We were allowed two lines for name and class and absolutely nothing else was allowed or we'd be punished.

For school punishments we had to stand in the corner if it was a mild break in rules. For those not paying attention it was the dreaded pointer! I'll never forget the third grade nun banging this girl's head on the door to try and get the message across that she HAD TO learn - not an option. In desperation, not getting any positive reaction, she slammed her head into the very thick old oak door and split it down the middle. It's one of those unforgettable moments.

OH my...pretty drastic, huh? I was taught by several nuns too, but never had that type of discipline. I do remember in typing class, if our fingernails were too long or ...dread... painted, we'd get a tap with the pointer on the fingers.

I do remember also the "STRAP ! Never got it myself, but had many friends that did. Yikes! I remember also, one teacher just pulling it out of her drawer and laying it on her desk as a deterent. Those days are gone. "Thank God!"

Don Ü

When I was five we lived on the second floor of an apartment building. The two pastimes I remember best at that age...1) watching a slinky walk down the stairs, over and over again, and 2) spending hours outside in the grass, searching for four-leaf-clovers. I think I was a very boring child. But I know I was a happy child. We were a large family, taking up both upstairs apartments. Mom, Dad, my big sister, me, my unmarried aunt and my grandparents. So I had family around me all the time. That was so great.

When my parents bought a house the following year, all seven of us moved into it. I was blessed.

But sadly, I didn't have my grandparents for long. They both died at age 74, which in those days was a lot older than it is now.

In defense of the nuns, they weren't ALL bad....just some of them.....it was always the girls who seemed to have a problem with them.....us guys knew how to charm them!!!

I think every household had a pair of the proverbial "GOOD SCISSORS"...they were not to be used for cutting paper, or hair, or the skin off of chicken !!!! If ours were missing, mom would tear the house apart at 3:00 a.m. looking for them.

i also had a browie camera.

anyone ever make a "scotter" out of an old orange crate. we would make handles on the tops with pieces of wood and then attach a longer piece at the bottom of the crate and we would put two skates, one on each end to make it go.

i remember voting for "miss reingold (the beer) from pictures that used to be on all the buses and trains in new york.

one of my favorite cowboys was lash larue. he was special cause he mostly used a whip to beat the bad guys.

Do you know I still have a pair of "good scissors"--and I don't even sew any more. Too funny. Some things we just never outgrow, I guess.

I remember teachers using rulers on outstretched hands, but not as drastic as described above. But those authority figures kept kids in line.

I saw orange crate scooters, but I don't remember if my brother had one or not. I know that eventually he had one of the original metal scooters and it was a big deal to get a turn to ride it.

More than 99% of the nuns were absolutely wonderful and even the remaining 1% were just driven nuts by students who were content with sitting in class but never attempting to learn. The nuns had more patience that can be believed. I was in a class of 56 and there were no teacher's aides, no additional help of any kind. Kids were actually "left back" a half grade at a time back then (the 40's and 50's) and some were left back several times. One person I know well graduated from grammar school four months before her 16th birthday!

Frank, I actually MET Lash Larue when I was about 8-10 years old. He was doing the state fair circuit.

I've heard of him but Hopalong Cassidy was my favorite "real" cowboy.

But then there was little Robert "Larry" Bernhardt who was the only boy invited to my birthday party when I was 8 years old and he arrived in his red cowboy suit and hat and sang "Red River Valley" to ME. I still have the gifts he gave me!

Yes, darius, the games were fun. Remember hopscotch? I sure wouldn't be able to maintain my balance well enough to do that today. And playing jacks took a lot of manual dexterity. Card games were "Old Maid" and "Go Fish." We also playeed an outdoor game called "Red Rover."

I arrived in July 1930. The black Monday of the previous October had triggered the Great Depression and life was really desperate for so many. My Dad was one of very few of the steadily employed, but money was tight for us too because my folks did their best to help the extended family. Dad's work kept him on the road during the week so Mother and I were alone and without a car. At least once a week an unemployed man would knock on the door offering to do some work for food. Mother would send him around to the back porch and prepare a little bit - usually a fried egg sandwich and a cup of coffee. Later on the sidewalk in front of the house there would be cryptic chalk marks - a message for other men who would come along. Sometimes if a man came along the same or next day, he would see the message and reluctantly move on.

There were many scarcities during WWII - sugar, meat, butter, cotton and auto tires. I still have some of our ration books. Doing without was not so tough as it might have been - we were already conditioned to it from the previous decade. Yuska

I still have ration books and the little red ration "coins". In addition to the above, I remember that nylon was rationed, so ladies stockings were in high demand. And metal was hard to get if you needed to do any repairs. My father was a volunteer fireman during WWII, so he had extra ration stamps for tires and gas.

We played hopscotch, Red Rover, dodge ball, jacks, Old Maid, Go Fish, checkers, hide-and-go-seek, our version of baseball using the poor struggling lemon tree for second base, some others I can't remember at the moment. I played with my dolls for hours and also my paper dolls. Even designed paper clothes for them, colored them with crayon, cut them out and hoped they fit. My mother was a good seamstress, so she made all my doll clothes and blankets.

My father was in a trade school during the 1938 year I was born and we lived in Chicago in a small apt. My mother told me that every day they would buy one can of vegetables or fruit for themselves to share and one bottle of milk for me. Don't know how long they had to do that, but the post-depression era went on for a long time.

Yes, nylon had not been available for very long but was needed for parachutes. Some women used a colored lotion that was supposed to look like stockiings, and then drew a line up the back with eyebrow pencil to imitate the seam. (Seamless stockings had not come along yet.) It was a messy job and hardly worth the effort. Soon most women went back to wearing ankle socks. To conserve gasoline, the speed limit was 35 mph. One day we were out somewhere when Dad was so frustrated with the slow speed he got the car up to 40. We kids were horrified.

At school we had scrap metal drives, with classes competing for the most collected. Nearly every one had a vegetable garden. Our next door neighbor sent his family to his parents' farm where they could at least be fed. He stayed behind to look for work; he lived on the vegetables in their garden and said okra gave him the most energy.

With sugar rationed, cake frostings were made with corn syrup. It was a little bland and sticky at first but by the second day it was gummy and not very appealing. We ate it anyway .

My parents carried on the post depression era for their entire lives it seems. They never threw food away....ever!!! Even after we'd all left the nest, we'd go to their house and they had all kinds of containers in the fridge with things in them, like 1/2 a cup of peas...a few slices of beef, orange segments, the remnants of a wedge of cheese, a cup of rice, etc...

I don't think the memory of that era ever left their minds...they also REFUSED to have a microwave oven.....they firmly believed it put radiation in the food.

Washing vegetable cans, cutting out both ends, put them in the middle and smashed the can for the war effort.

Remember cutting a potato in half (after the war shortages) and making a design, and then inking it to ude for stamping? Sometimes we bought white paper, stamped it all over and used it as wrapping paper. Making paper loops strung together for a Christmas tree garland. Stringing popcorn or cranberries for a garland?

Jasper, I refuse to use a microwave too... after some research on Google.

Oh no! Am I facing coffee that can't be reheated by nuking?

Read for yourself. Google it.

I don't have a microwave, either, probably because of the same research, Darius.

Wow, we played all those games, too plus a singing game called "Here Comes The King A'Riding". Also "Simon Says".

Some of the best meals that I remember were things that would be considered "making do", but my parents lived through the Depression, too. My mother's corn chowder was wonderful. We'd have corn on the cob in the summer, and she'd make corn chowder from the leftovers. My mother continued to cut the ends out of cans and flattened them - force of habit, I guess. It certainly took up a lot less space that way.

Okay, I have a question for all you Memory Lane participants. The link below is really a cute Christmas greeting, but I want to know what group is singing it! I remember the song, just can't retrieve the name of the group. Let me know if anyone figures it out, cuz' it's driving me crackers! Merry Christmas ya'll!

http://badaboo.free.fr/merryxmas.swf

Gee, you sure have me curious, but couldn't get into that link.

Don Ü

The singer reminds me of Bing Crosby, but I can't be sure.

Definitely not Bing Crosby but it could be a take off on the big groups of the 50's.

Whoo-hoo, found it! It's Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters, recorded in 1953! The animation gives it a new twist. I knew I had heard it before. It brought back all kinds of memories, including my father stigmatizing it as "heresy and sacrilege". I liked Bing Crosby's version better, but I liked this one, too. Dad was not amused. Another sound byte from Memory Lane!

Bonnie

That thing is really funny! Good job finding out who it was.

Well, I should have recognized them, because The Drifters did a lot of my favorite songs, including "Save the Last Dance for Me". Hmmmm. I had forgotten how many of my favorites they did. Loved their sound. RE: The animation - I love the "Doo-Wop Reindeer", especially the little soloist.

Going a little further back down memory lane, we're going to hear the Glenn Miller Orchestra on Saturday night for DH's birthday. Their sound also brings back lots of memories.

Hey, remember "Sputnik" Christmas ornaments (shiny plastic ball with spikes sticking out)? Dang, the Russians were ahead of us, but that did not stop us from profiting from their success. I think my brother still has one of those from my parents.

I still have the front page article from when Sputnik hit the skies.

I finally got that link to work, and realized I got it in an e-mail just this week. Too cute! Glad you found out who did the singing, NanuBunny. They did a great job of it.

Don Ü

I was born april 1950
I remember helping Dad get the fields ready to set tobacco. Getting to drive the tractor (Ford Fergeson). Then setting the tobacco with a hand setter.
Also helped Dad get winter wood in. We would take our horse to the woods and she would drag our logs back home to the barnlot. Dad would just slap her on the butt and tell her to go home and she would. She would be waiting for Dad to unhook her from the log when we got home.
I remember when adults ate first and kids ate later.
I went to a 3 room school house with coal stoves to keep us warm.
Our game was jump rope, hide and seek, and baseball.That was back when the teachers and the principle would get outside and play with you too. It had a outhouse, no indoor plumbing. My school bus was a van with 2 seats,the seats was up and down the sides of the bus, not like they are today.
I also had an outhouse at home and no indoor plumbing.
I remember Dad giving Mom 5 dollars for groceries and sometimes she could get groceries and a 6 pack of pop. Times sure have changed...

This thread is fascinating to me...to read about so many different "Takes" on the past from all over the country...and even outside of it. We all seem to be in agreement on almost everything when it comes to how kids and life in general are today...and what they missed out on ....

We ran ourselves silly outside. We jumped rope, played tag, rode our bikes, so on and on. Maybe we were too tired to get into trouble. : ^ } I never see kids play like that any more. Teachers were not afraid to hug kids if they needed it--now they get sued if they're not shot at.

We worked, then played.
Typical summer day. Bale hay or work in garden. Cultivate corn with tractor, (I started at about 9 years old.) chores.
We had milk cows & pigs.
Nobody mentioned no daylight saving time.
Anyhow we were done at 7:30 PM every night. We had a ball diamond & country store 1 mile from us. Plenty of kids around, so we meet at the ball field at 8 or so. Chose up sides, play ball for 1 or 2 hours. Lady at the store would turn on lights when dark. Go to store after game, bottle of pop, glass bottles for 5¢, pay for the lights. Couple cents per kid. Head down the hill to the river for a nice night time swim, boys, no girls. Swim suits not needed. But, one time the girls were there when we jumped in. They fled, we jumped out, everyone going for clothes! Like I said it was dark, but I bet funny for an onlooker. There was none. None of us ever had a formal swimming lesson, but could all swim like fish. When we were older a couple of my friends pulled a drowning woman out of the river. She was OK.
Trying to remember how many neighborhood kids there was. Must of been near 40, of course not all there all the time. Anyhow, none of them ever got in trouble with the law. Some of us even started using the farm trucks way before we were of age for drivers license. Drove all over the neighborhood. My brother got stopped once, was told he shouldn't have a car with no fenders on the highway. He was 14 at the time.
Not sure what happened to everybody. I moved to Twin Cities when I was 18 to work. Lost touch with most then.
Bernie

I always knew that country kids had a lot more fun that us town dwellers.

That was only tip of the iceberg!
As we got older, (15), there was Sunday afternoon baseball league, some refer to it as town ball. Each town or tavern had a team & played a regular schedule. Best teams went on to region, then state tournaments. The place that I played for was a Saturday night dance hall. Almost every Sat night was someones wedding dance. Everybody went, kids, babies, teenagers, parents, grandparents. Grand ole time. Owner would keep track of the older kids so none drank to much beer! About 12 was the accepted age. I bought beer there as early as 16. Band was always Polkas & Waltz music. Anyone remember the Butterfly or Shottish ? Later on they wouldn't let them do the Butterfly because the floor was getting bad & they didn't want it to fall in.
Many a boy or girl found their true love at the dances. So then we would need a dance for them.
The dance was free, but at the 11PM or so, band break, the best man & the other wedding party men would take the brides shoe, go around & take up collection to pay for the band. Most men would put in a dollar. Usually they would get enough to pay the band & have enough left over to go on a nice honeymoon. (Beat the heck out of the dollar dance they have now days!)
Very few people got stupid drunk at these dances. Really don't know why, except more discipline in those days.
Most teenagers came with their parents, too.
Another chapter later,
Bernie

Several people wrote in many postings ago about the baby chicks dyed different colors - well some of the ladies at the church I attended went so far as to have their hair bleached, then dyed the color of their Easter outfits. Pink, purple, blue, green, and other shades. Their dress, hat, purse and hair and makeup all matched.

I remember cups of ice cream with pictures of movie stars or cowboys on the lids. Remember a bunch of other things that people have previously posted. Seems like to me we are not getting machines that are smarter than we are and people are in such a hurry and have such a jam packed life, that ours was a happier time. At least it was to me. When we had a birthday party, kids dressed in their best, we played games and then had ice cream and cake. My cousin worked for Borden's Dairy in Jacksonville, FL. He would bring the ice cream by the house and it was usually packed with dry ice. If it had rained the day of the party, we would have a great time with that dry ice and puddles of water. No one was every stupid enough to get stuck to it. Seems like we also had better sense than people these days.

darius - i can't believe you actually met him. if i remember he was always dressed in black.
i do remember ice-creame cups with pictures on them but don't remember what they were.
speaking of neighbor kids. in brooklyn where i grew up the blocks were so long that each half blcok was like a seperate neighborhood. for instance, the boys and girls i grew up with lived within ten houses from each other. there were maybe 12 of us and we did everything together. played ball, went to the movies, and most of all we protected each other. each block had five sewer covers on them. each cover was one hundred and one foot apart which makes each block about 500 feet long. when we played ball and hit a long shot it was never measured in feet but by how many sewers it went.

we would play stickball games for money against kids on other blocks for just a dollar a person. if you we won we would split the money so we could take the girs to the movies or for ice cream. we were to young to drive. we usually walked but once in a while we would take the trolley, there was only one and it ran down wilson ave. i think it cost a nickel but most of us just "hitched" a ride on the back. LOL

we knew all the kids and their parents "down the block" but they played their own games for the most part. you could never do anytrhng wrong and hope to get away with it, especially in schoold because someone always knew who you were and who your parents were. word wold get back no matter what yo tried to do.

Creamsicles, Fudgesickles, popsicles and ice cream sundaes with sprinkles ("jimmies") on top for an extra penny or two.

Root beer floats, ballpark hotdogs. Getting professional baseball and football players' autographs without paying for them or going through their "agents". We just stood outside the ballpark or stadium, and waited for them to come out. Roberto Clemente was one of the most gracious players I ever saw, and he was about as close to a "superstar" as they had in those days. They didn't act like the world owed them something - they were, for the most part, not the least bit bothered by the gaggle of kids who stood out there waiting for them. Baseball and football were really games then, not big business. Seems like all the professional sports (including NASCAR now) are pricing themselves out of the reach of the people who made them what they are. No wonder minor league sports are growing in popularity.

Ahhh, those WERE the days!! We were lucky to have grown up when we did.


I remember the Butterfly or Shottish, Country Gardens. Great fun at country dances and weddings. Probably no one got "stupid drunk" was because they were burning off a lot of the alcohol when dancing up a storm!

Love these stories. Keep 'em comin'.

Don Ü