Memory Lane...Part 3

Time to start over. We were just talking on the old thread about the 1940's love for cars, and how so many family photos had people standing in front of their beloved vehicle.

Here's the previous thread.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/676881/#top

This message was edited Feb 20, 2007 7:56 AM

I just can't resist posting this again. This is NOT the family vehicle, but my Dad was proud of it just the same!

Here's another thread with fun old photos.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/686902/
Bernie

Love the photos, Gram! Come to think of it, I have several of me taken with our cars as I was growing up.

One thing I have loved doing as gifts concerns old photos... as so many in the generations ahead of me in my families started to celebrate 50th wedding anniversaries, I'd find an old b&w photo of them, scan it in and clean it up. Add their names and the 2 dates to the photo in a nifty font and have a print shop blow it up to 24" x 36" poster size including a 3-5" margin all around it. Then have it dry-mounted, and at the celebration we'd ask everyone to sign a note in the margins before we'd have it framed.

My favorite was an aunt and uncle by their coupe with a rumble seat... her hair is up in a bandana and he's in a white skivvy shirt where they had been washing the car. Everyone loved it!

Hey Nap... LOL I have one kinda like that with my dad in an old Howard Johnson's small panel delivery truck!

I'm going to work now, but I hope you'll post that pic today.

nap--That picture of the Good Humor truck brings up old memories. Do you know what year that picture was taken?

darius--I loved your idea for using old pictures. Very creative and I'm sure they have been treasured by those who received them.

I'm glad this thread did not completely die. We were all just dormant!

Diane

Gram, I lived in San Bernardino for 16 years - moved away in 'late '95.

In January 1942 my family bought a '41 Pontiac sedan - the last car the dealer had - auto production had been shut down so that tank-building for the war could begin. Gas was rationed and tires were next to impossible to find. (Still made of natural rubber then, and too dangerous for shipping to bring in supplies from Malaysia.) Even with the restrictions it had over 250,000 miles on it when we finally got a new car several years after the war. (Auto production was slow and overwhelmed by demand.) I got my first driver's license in spring '47 and did a lot of the family's driving. Manual shift, no power steering or power brakes but I enjoyed my time behind the wheel.

I think I have a couple of pictures somewhere.........

Yuska

Yuska,
My father was a volunteer fireman in Grand Junction, so we had extra coupons for gas and tires. I still have some of those coupons and the little red ration "coins". I remember standing in line with my mother for sugar. And going to the train station to watch the trains full of soldiers going off to war. No one doubted our purpose back then and there was great support for the soldiers. It was just like you see in the movies, with the men hanging out the windows of the train and everyone waving hankies (yes, we all had hankies back then) and it was crowded and sad and exciting all at the same time. We moved from Grand Junction to San Bernardino right after the war ended in 1945.

I didn't get my driver's license until 1954 and that was surely exciting!!

Diane

my moms first and last car wa a 55 plymouth savoy 4 door sedan. it was black and yellow and i kept in so waxed that you could not sit on the fender cause you would slide off.

i will have to see if we hve any pictures of that car.

Sorry to take so long to answer, Diane. My Dad was a Good Humor man in California in the mid-to-late 1940s. I don't know exactly what year that picture was taken. Did you check out those hubcaps? (if that's what they are)

Good Humor is still around. Friends of mine have 2 units. They are a 3 wheeled bicycle with a freezer on the back. They go around their neighborhood in the evenings, do pretty good, too.

I had not noticed the hubcaps. Aren't they a hoot? They would be worth a fortune nowdays. The entire truck would be worth a fortune!!

And he had one of those little coin things around his waist.

Bus drivers had that neat machine to give change. I was always amazed at how they could work it and drive at the same time.

Yes, me too. The more we talk here, the more things I remember and pull out of my memory bank. The people who had those change things never even looked at them, they just knew which slot was which. That always amazed me.

I always wanted one of those change things as a 9 year old pedalling produce door to door in my neighborhood. I settled for a metal bandaid box, cutting slots for my belt and one in the top.

Pretty inventive, darius. I would have never thought of it, and probably would have cut my finger off had I tried.

My favorite metal Bandaid box story: my second daughter's absolutely favorite baby toy was a Bandaid box with a clothespin inside. It made the greatest noise and could be opened and dumped over and over again. Life just isn't the same without metal Bandaid boxes.

Wow. I too remember how simple life used to be. Like I think I said before, sitting on a fence and pretending it was a horse and I was a cowgirl. Paper dolls and the clothes with the fold-down tabs on the shoulders. Comic books. Monopoly. Tennis all by myself against the side of a building. Swinging at the playground. Boondoggle. Bubbles. Climbing trees. Crayola 64 colors and a coloring book. Paint by numbers. Skates. Walks to the pharmacy, six blocks away, no fear, to buy penny candy. Jacks. And putting miles on my bike, just riding on my own street, up and down, over and over, feeling free and being happy.

64 colors! My, you're so young! I remember the little boxes of either 8 or 16 colors. I remember those peaceful days, too, when getting a replacement key for your roller skates was more thrilling (and lasted longer) than some of today's video games for kids.

In November I turned 60, Pirl. My 72 year old friend says I'm not really a Senior yet. I said, what am I then? She said, you're a Junior Senior! I like that. I'm a Junior Senior!

You're sweet 15 times 4.

I was thinking the same thing about the 64 crayons. You must have lived in a big city!! ;^}

I rode a broom for a horse, rode my bike around forever with my dolls in the basket (see picture), skated all over the neighborhood with the skates that hooked on my shoes and the key around my neck on a string, played with those same paper dolls for hours on end. Played tag and hide-and-go-seek with the neighborhood kids after dinner. Nobody's kids were obese--we ran too much. I was clumsy as anything and always had scabs on my knees, elbows, hands and chin.

This is me at 6 mos. of age in Grand Junction, Colorado, 1938. I was born in my grandmother's boarding house and lived there until I was about two. These metal strollers had wooden handles that hooked on to the back when they were going to be pushed anywhere or they could be walkers the rest of the time.

This is my grandmother's boarding house on Colorado Avenue in Grand Junction. My brother and I were both born in the room behind the bay windows, which you can barely see the corner of to the left.

My dad always loved cars. This is him with a red Austin in the late 1920s or early 1930s. He was born in 1902, so he would have still been pretty young.

This is my dad with an unidentified car he owned, c. 1935.

Last picture for today.

This is my brother, my father and me in his dahlia garden in Grand Junction. No wonder I grew up loving them. Our fox terrier puppy used to dig them up and when she saw my dad coming she would push the dirt back into the hole with her nose. This must have been about 1942.

I had my tonsils out around this time--in the doctor's office using ether. Yuck!! I still have the little glass dog my dad brought me to get me to swallow. I finally agreed on ice cream!!

What ever happened to Hey_Jude who started Part 1 of this thread? Just wondering. Seemed so enthusiastic.

I've been thinking a lot about this thread and was planning to find out what happened to it. One of the other members and I were planning to type it up into booklets. I've been so busy with other things that I let the ball drop.

I think you have just picked up the ball, Diane....

Looks like........

I remembered!

"It's snowing down South" when your slip was showing! I don't think today's teenagers (and yes, I have a 15 year old granddaughter) know what slips are/were.

LOL, Pirl! You are right... who wears slips anymore but us oldies...

I kept mine! All colors, with lace at the "split". Lord, do I ever feel ancient now!

I always wore half-slips.

I have half slips, whole slips and two camisoles!

Me, too, pirl. Nowdays they were the camisoles on the OUTside. My poor grandmother would not have been able to catch her breath!!

Even my own mother's pink "bloomers" were longer than the skirts we see!

Garter belts. What a strange sensation to be walking along and feel one of the hooks come loose. Thank goodness for pantyhose!