Memory Lane part 2

You're just kids. I was born in 1930...probably the oldest DG'er of all.

So Yuska, you were 13 when Bernie was born. Sixteen when I was born. Do you remember what you were doing then? What was life like?

nap thanks for the answer to my sen -sen question. I recall they were very strong in my mouth as a kid and had a strong flavor of spicy licorice or something really different.

Cuckoo

I just found this thread and was delighted with it! I was born in 1938 and remember almost everything I've read about on here so far. Have any of you ever made a memory book for your grandchildren? At times I would tell my grandchildren something from my childhood and they were very interested in the stories. My daughter said that I should write a book of my memories...yeh, right. But the more I thought about it, the more I decided it might be rather fun. I thought I'd have perhaps a half dozen stories and a couple of pictures of me as a child and that would be enough. To make a long story short, I ended up with 20+ stories and many, many old photos. Fortunately my daughter is quite adept with the computer so she scanned in the old pictures as I did the stories and then made enough copies so each of my children and grandchildren could have one. I gave them as gifts last Christmas and they were an immediate hit! The "book" I wrote was just from my birth until I graduated from high school so now they are asking for "Grandma Remembers Volume II." It will probably take me at least another two years to complete another one but it should be fun. It seems like with the presence of TV and computers, people just don't sit around and talk like they used to. Stories that have been passed down from generation to generation are being slowly lost and that's really a shame. Now that I have found this thread I will be reading it when I have time and perhaps I might be able to help someone out with their memories...like the sen sen my mom used to give us to keep us quiet in church. Thanks for a great thread.

I know what you mean. A friend of mine is doing his wife's genealogy and he found out she has roots to Emily Dickinson. I found it hard to believe that no one in her family knew that! How does information like that get lost? Things ought to be relayed from generation to generation, and the written word is probably the most reliable way.

I mentioned this to someone, somewhere. Hope it wasn't here because I dopn't want to repeat myself. About 15 years ago I became interested in genealogy and went around with my tape recorder trying to capture voices and memories of my aunts, uncles, etc. I found them to be shy, but willing to be interviewed on tape, and in no time they all became very talkative! I asked specific questions from a list I'd made. What games did they play, and with whom? Tell me what they remember about their homelife, their first job, first car, first boy/girlfriend, courting their spouses, first tv, The War, school years, etc.

I have about two dozen casette tapes full of memories and guess what...all but two of those people have passed out of this life. Am I ever glad I have them.

nap, I remember the early years very well. The privations of the Depression helped us endure the shortages of WWII. I have some of our ration books.

Everyone should be collecting their family histories. My brother and I have been digging old records for a number of years now, and have discovered such fascinating details. We were fortunate to have spent a lot of time around the families' elders, who related a great many events. Most of them kept newspaper clippings and other mementos and pictures, and we inherited family Bibles and documents from the early 1800's. We are working on heritage sites. Along with a batch of cousins we've been trying to clear away the brush and rubbish from gravesites in the old cemeteries that are no longer maintained. The more information we uncover just leads to more clues, and there are some frustrating dead ends. But we are preserving some of the history, at least, for those who follow us and we have supplied documented material to data bases such as Ancestry.com

Here's one of our heritage sites - still under construction

http://www.freewebs.com/caindyer3s2e/

Yuska
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Very nice layout and clear, well-preserved photos. It was nice to look at.

Hey, ya'll. Check out this website. It's a hoot!
www.oldfortyfives.com

Diane

I'm also a war-baby - 1943.

Remember sen sen and a tiny bottle of breath freshner called Tips. Thought the 2 together in combination were halucigenic (sp) when in jr hi.

Remember putting aspirins in Coke to make you high (we thought, LOL)?

I remember sen sen and the aspirin and coke, which I couldn't understand as it never did anything for me!!

Here is another website about the good old days. This is a film of Dean Martin and Foster Brooks (remember him, the constant drunk?). It brought back a lot of memories of laughter also, even though drinking to excess is not a funny thing and I don't mean to say that it is. Anyway....for what it's worth:
http://youtube.com/V/J3UDCoQnXjA

I am bumping this up to see if we are all through adding our fun memories. I have been very slow getting my pictures scanned, due to having severe back pain and another trip to the hospital, but things are looking up and I plan to get them scanned and on here within the next few days. Maybe that will inspire more people to put pictures up also. This has really been a lot of fun.
Diane

It has been fun, Diane. I was wondering just yesterday if it should be revived. Since as one of the senior seniors here,I have probably more of the oldest memories, I'll relate a couple of things I recall from long ago:

During WWII so many scarce supplies were rationed - meat and sugar being really hard to do without. One day Mother sent me to the corner mom-and-pop grocery store to return a box of raisins. When she had opened the box, it was full of wiggling white maggots. The store owner looked at the contents and said "Are you sure you want to return this? After all, it's free meat without ration stamps!"

One of my brothers joined the Army in the '50's and became a paratrooper. (The other brother was in the Signal Corps.) Once while home on leave he said to Mother: "Did you know a person has to be 13% crazy to jump out of an airplane?" Mother replied: "Only 13%? My, you're over-qualified, aren't you?"

Yuska

Great stories!!

Remember sometime in the late-70s when they had a 3D movie on TV? My parents, my sons (on the floor) and a friend all put on those silly glasses and watched it in our basement. I just had to immortalize the moment, and 30 years later I'm glad I did.

This message was edited Feb 3, 2007 5:56 PM

I'm glad you did, too.

LOL, I'd forgotten about the 3D glasses! I don't think I ever saw a 3D movie but I remember the paper glasses. Someone emailed a short movie clip of the Charleston. When Dave gets the programming changed to allow movie clips I'll try to remember to post it here.

I saw a couple of the 3D movies in the theater wearing the glasses. Very realistic. I remember one had a tiger that jumped toward you and everyone in the theater ducked!!

I do remember going to the theater to see the movies and I recall the screaming as things happened but haven't the slightest idea of the subject matter of the movie.

1gardengram I loved your "oldfortyfives" link. Oh my did that summarize those decades. I want my children to see it and I know they will love it. My how time changes things and todays technology sometimes seems like sci-fi at times. Things were simplier then and so much different today. Sure enjoy this thread.

Cuckoo

Nap....that photo is PRICELESS !!!! GOOD JOB !!!

Thank you. At the time, it was just funny. Now it's priceless. Strange.

OK, as promised long ago, here are pictures of the very young me.

First is my second birthday, April 1940. Behind me across the street was the police station and fire station. I absolutely hated the siren because I thought I could hear it calling my name. (I'm not that weird anymore though.) To the left out of the picture and in front of the police/fire offices was a bakery. As I got older my grandmother used to give me a nickel and send me to get fresh bread. I loved watching them slice it and wrap it. The loaves seemed huge!

This is me with my little brother in 1944, Grand Junction, Colorado. That house is still there.

Last one for tonight. This is my little brother and me in 1954 in San Bernardino, California. We grew a lot in ten years, didn't we?

What a cutie! All of the photos are lovely and I did get a kick out of the last photo, by the car. I remember how that was such a big thing. Anyone with a new car just had to have a picture taken including the car.

Very nice photos. A memory came back when I read that the nickel loaf of bread was so huge. My memory is of my parents bed. I remember it being like a sea around me, so big. Of course the truth is that they had a normal size bed, but I was very small on top of it.

pirl--I had not thought about that with the cars, but I remember that my father had a picture of every single car he ever owned or that I ever owned. Not just the cars, but with people like you said.

Diane, how about starting a new thread. This one takes too long to load.

I know Nancy and I have been worried about that. I don't know how to jump to a new thread. If you know how, would you please do that? Thanks.

Here it is. The new thread. Let's post some photos!

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/694588/