Page 4  Please send your memories! "To Pat..who commented on the bonomo taffy..NO!..you're not the only one who misses it! ..golly, and I thought I was the ONLY one! I remember working at a popular drive-in restaurant and we got to buy the records off the jukebox when newer songs came out, for 25 cents. The sock hops at the skating rink after the skating session. Do you remember the "jingle jump"? You wore this silly looking thing that fit over your shoe that had a thing that looked like a lemon on it, and twirled it around to the music much like a hoolah hoop!..lol. Hey, I won the first Beatles' album by doing that the longest! I remember going to the neighborhood grocery where my grandmother had a running tab and we could buy a penny bag of candy of our choice. Sure seemed like a lot of candy back then!..lol. Or how about going to the NEHI store and getting a free sample of soda pop?" Loretta T. Pede's comment: I can remember "shopping" the candy counter to be sure of getting the most candy for my penny. Sometimes we even managed to get 4 or 5 pieces for that penny! You can imagine how rich we felt when we had a whole nickel to spend!! "This is fantastic!!!!!!! I remember all these things and more. Makes my "heart sing". I remember the Brooklyn Dodgers and Ebbets Field....penny candy.....white buck's (shoes)......poodle skirts......10 cent movies (25 cartoons - 3 serials - 2 full length movies).....Ted Steels' Dance Hour....57 Chevy's Setting your hair with bobby pins and tying your kerchief around you head so you had a pony tail in the back Nickel cokes......."loosies" (cigarettes sold for 2 cents apiece)......nylons with seams.......necker-chiefs.......DA haircuts......Greasers Wearing dresses on Sunday (no pants allowed).......Poodle haircuts....beehives... crinolines (the more the better, especially with bells on them) The Ed Sullivan Show....Sunrise Drive-in........Brooklyn Paramount and Alan Fried --- Rock n' Roll....Trolley cars.......scooters made from milk boxes the iceman......the coal truck dumping coal in the cellar.....policemen walking the beat.......air raids.......wearing lipstick over your lipline.....pancake makeup......$1.25 pizza and 4 cokes....."The Good Old Days". I'll be back ---- this site is too good not to visit often. Thanks so much. Betty ( Brooklyn, New York) Note from Pede: I asked Betty about those air-raids, and this is her answer: "The air raids ----wow! Scared the heck out of me when I was a kid. When they went off during school hours, we all had to line up in the basement by class, and sing hymns & pray the rosary. At home, I remember putting all the lights out, pulling down the shades and staying away from the windows. Of course, I peeked out, and there was an Air Raid Warden standing in the middle of the street at the four corners, with a flashlight, and he would shine it up to the window if he spotted you. Haha - never got caught. The good old days were the best and the memories unforgettable. Loved growing up in the 50's - the age of Rock N Roll. "I remember riding in a 'rumble seat" in the car; listening to the radio (before TV) - The Shadow; The Green Hornet; Stella Dallas; Inner-Sanctum (with its' eerie sounds of a door creaking opening slowly>; Wwe made our play kitchen of jar lids, popsicle sticks, boxes, and anything else we could find; air raids; black-outs; war bonds; ration stamps; the seabees; ice-boxes; We had a 3-legged, cast-iron pot in the back yard, and built a fire under it and washed our clothes in it, and we took our baths in a No.10 washtub in the kitchen. I remember going to all-day gospel singings, and one thing which has lasted since the 30's and 40's and is still going strong today, Gospel-Quartets.... (Blackwood Brothers, The Cathedrals, etc.) Last year -1999 - I saw Terry Bradshaw sing a song with Jake Hess (Kingsmen Quartet).... somethings do last...Thank God. Fairfield High Class of '54 ~ Myra K. [email protected] "Anyone remember Sky King, his plane "Songbird", nephew Clipper and niece Penny? How about putting Planters Peanuts in your bottle of Coke. Remember going to the Saturday serial movies with a quarter that would get you in and have money over for popcorn, glass of coke and being entertained by the Duncan YoYo man? Then there was the horse drawn milk carrier, Colonial Bakery salesman, the ice man who sold ice for the ice boxes (we always thought it was a treat to steal a piece of the ice), the vegetable man. I could go on and on, but I'll leave room for someone else. kintoms "In ST. LOUIS MISSOURI: I remember when homes had gas lights, no electricity then, and a sock (as my dad called them) would burn out in a week or two--and had to be replaced with a new one on the gas fixture. I remember when the LAMP LIGHTER would go from one street to another, and light the gas lamps. (There was even a song about that..."The Old Lamp Lighter." Does anyone remember it?Pede) I remember when the fire wagons where pulled by horses--and what excitement it was for the neighborhood kids to see the horses racing through the streets. I remember when I knew everyone by their first name, within 3 or 4 blocks of my house. Those were the days ! Also how well I remember the SAD day of the attack on Pearl Harbor; I was sitting on my bunk at Jefferson Barracks! Augie "I use to borrow my sister's blue convertible, put the top down, and then a bunch of us would drive from one drive inn to the next to show off. If anyone asked, "yes," it was my car. Gas was cheap then and everyone chipped in. Kathy "OMIGosh ,, lol, what I don't remember..Oh, I remember the times we would go in my brother' s '57 Chevy, cruise to the Pig stand in San Antonio,Texas ,and the waitresses would roller skate out with our frosted root beer's ....ooooh, so good. And we would listen to Chuck Berry and the old singers, and just rock right along. Oh dear, that was such a long time ago..But a really good time....thanks for asking. Georgia "I remember when I was young, I thought we had a color television set because my mom had taped a screen on it that had different colors on it. Now that was COLOR. Anita Collins A new Burma Shave sign! Angels who guard you when you drive usually retire at sixty-five! Bud Alexis [email protected] says: I remember when Dad brought a console Zenith radio, and the whole family gathered around it to listen to radio programs. We could even get stations from foreign countries! "I remember when we paid 50 cents on Saturday nights to get in the Harmony Hangout for sock hopping, and we could dance until midnight. I remember dragging the main drag just so we could see all our friends and check out all the cool cars that paraded up and down the drag, everyone lowered their cars to 2" from the ground, and you had to park sideways in the driveinns so you wouldnt drag your car bottom off, and everyone wanted spinner hubcaps. I remember the guys always wore jeans with white t-shirts and Black Leather Jackets, the girls always wanted to wear thier jackets; it meant you were going steady. Penny loafers with dimes, starched can-can slips, wide belts cinched as tight as you could stand to make your waist look small, tight skirts and sweaters, pointed toe shoes for the guys, ID bracelets, pajama parties, slumber parties ,and spin the bottle. Those was the good old days of clean, good fun. KayDoodles "Thanks much for the enjoyment. I remember when we had a breadman, milkman, laundry man, and an oil man, all making deliveries to the house. A little truck pulling a cart of vegtables would pass once a week, and everyday the Ice Cream truck came by, ringing his bell. A man came by once every few weeks selling gevel water (now called Clorox Bleach.) There was a little dollar store on the corner called "Junkie John's". (Not drugs) I remember every house on the block had a family of different ethnic origin ,and everyone got along and had block parties together. And no one had to lock doors. Family lived on every corner and across the street. Our house was always filled with relatives, and the kitchen was always full of the smells of wonderful food cooking. Not like today when everyone lives in a different state ,and no one has time for each other. Growing up, everyone knew each other...especially if you were seen hanging out in the luncheonette with friends (wearing pegged pants and black leather jackets) and we thought we were just the "coolest". Don't tell my grandchildren. Jude from NY "I remember the advertisement "a little dab'll do ya...." (Brylcreme) and how about those "go-go" boots in the late 60's.....white and about 10" tall, and the mohair sweaters....girls would pull the mohair off the sweaters to wrap around their boyfriend's ring, to help make it fit their own finger. Also....dental floss wrapped around the boyfriend's ring to make it fit.....covered with sparkly glitter and fingernail polish.. Gloria in California "Cruising downtown Gay Street, Krystal, Blue Circle, and Cherry Park Inn after a football game on Friday nights. Park at a red light and everyone got out of the car, ran around it and got back in....but not always into the same car. CHS '57 "It was like yesterday ....the mid-fiftys, Jr. Hi....car coats, blue suede shoes with taps, black leather jackets with lots of dangling zippers, Levi's with the cuff turned in, and of course, lots of grease to hold hair (ducktail) in place. All the cars were big, roomy and had plenty of character. At that time serials were on television every day for 15 minutes..such as Flash Gordon, Don Winslow of the Navy (or Coast Guard) to mention a couple. Of course, I enjoyed Gunsmoke from it's birth and also enjoyed The Cisco Kid, Hop-A-Long Cassidy and The Lone Ranger. It seemed like every year during the fiftys was loaded with exciting new things. Our country seemed to emerge during that period. BOB. P. "Service stations used to have gas wars and give out glasses . . .and would clean windshields and vacuum the interior." [email protected] [email protected] remembers: "Graduate of 1958-- I remember using the twisters from the tops of coffee back then to roll your hair. Oh, that was a job. My sisters and I used toilet paper to try and keep the ends together when rolling, and most of the time when we took it down, our hair stuck out everywhere. HaHa." When I went to school, I was a majorette with what was called the Pep Squad then, and at football games ,with about 2 minutes left before the game ended, we could go down on the sidelines ,and when the game was over we could run out and walk our boyfriends off the field. That was loads of fun. "How about pegged pants so tight you really had to work to get your feet in them; Blue Suede Shoes, and dungaree Jackets. How can anybody forget Dick Clark's American Bandstand? Thanks for Memories! [email protected] "Here's a Burma Shave sign that was on U.S 23 in Michigan: His face was loved By just his mother, He Burma Shaved, and now... Oh, Brother! Really enjoyed your site....Sal "Saturday morning, going to downtown Los Angeles on the trolley car, all alone, for a dime...meeting my Granddad, then on to Clifton's Cafeteria, fifty cents for all you could eat. Eat for free if you were broke. Then to the Million Dollar theater, a news reel, cartoon, two features, then an hour of live vaudeville on stage. All for thirty five cents. Then a ride on Angels' flight, nickel up and a nickel back down. (What was that? Nice name, whatever it was! Pede) Catch the double-decker bus back to the trolley bldg., and then the trolley back home. The best thing though, I got to wear my long pants that day with a shirt and tie....Walk back into the house and fall exhausted onto the bed. Andy We have an explanation for "Angels" Flight": It was billed as the "The World's Shortest Railroad" in Los Angeles, which in spanish, means "City of Lost Angels." It's a short, 1/4-mile, vertical railroad, with trackas running at a 45-degree angle. The two cars are built like stairsteps, at opposite ends of a long cable, and share a common track, except for where they passed at the halfway point. The cars are bright yellow, and have been seen in over 100 movies. Originally it was meant to transpost the servants from lower city streets up to Nob Hill (better known then as "Snob Hill.") where there were many old mansions. Near the bottom of the railroad was Grand Central Market, where all the shopping was done. It remains there today, catering to all the immigrants. The railroad was dismantled in the late '60's, but was recently reinstalled at a different location. It has become a great tourist attractiom, even though it no longer costs a nickel to ride. It's an unusualy ride if you're ever in the area! (Thanks for the great explanation, Andy!...Pede) "How about those "pics" at the drive-in, spiral incense that you attached to the window to keep the mosquitoes away. How about "cruisin'" up and down the "main drag" with your radio blaring, just to be "cool". Can we leave out the infamous pajama parties?! (please.......) Janet Class of '56 "I bought my first pair of pedal pushers (pants) with a little bow on the outside of each leg, when they became the rave. They were supposed to hit your leg mid calf; mine hit the knee line since I was already tall for my age. Maybe I was the one to start the trend of long shorts, LOL. [email protected] "To those who remember....the Winkie Dink screen, where we would draw along with the host. But some of us who didn't have a the screen would draw on the TV, and parents would be so mad.... Submarine Race Watching, invented by Murray the K. Margie "Speaking of the public swimming pool, bathing caps! Those plain white ones that made all women's heads look like Q-tips. When it couldn't get worse, how about when the manufacturers added those rubber flowers to them. LOL! (Didn't you just hate to wear those awful things! Pede) [email protected] (B K) "Route 66, Chicago to L.A., 2000 miles all the way. A 1948 Buick Roadmaster convertible and an Army discharge in my pocket, with a bundle of mustering out pay....B. B. King on the radio. I was king of the world." Andy "Growing up in Brooklyn, where my uncle and aunt ran their luncheonette, and the older kids, in their T-shirts and leather jackets, would use those deep freezers to reach in for a Ne-Hi or Orange Crush, wearing their DA's with Brylcreem (the little dab will do you), having wondered where the yellow went, cause they brushed their teeth with Pepsodent, ....Camels in their shirt sleeves...as we were just a stone's throw from Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. A team that never seemed to win the Series from the Damn Yankees (who played in a stadium which had walls so low kids could watch a game from the top of the courthouse). Watching Sky King, Fury, Crusader Rabbit and Ragland T. Tiger, (whose middle name was Larry cause his father couldn't spell)... and moving out to the suburbs, where my folks bought their Levittown ranch in the town built for the GI's returning from the war, for only $8,000...watching my uncle make out in his Rambler, or his Mustang, as we were waiting for my dad to take us to a drive-in theater... or to the regular theater, where the Three Stooges and others made live appearances...playing in my Keds or PF flyers with my Spalding, Slinky, bottle caps (skellie if you came from Brooklyn)..and then ending the day with a chocolate egg cream (with the spoon always turned down to break the seltzer bubbles)----those were the Golden Days!" Jay "We did the red light thing in D. C., and it was so much fun...The Submarine Races were the next best thing....tho we did them in groups where we went to a nice secluded spot ,and each couple had a blanket to "sit on while they waited and watched"... Never did see any ...LOL - but did have lots of fun! (and there was safety in numbers) We also loved going and soaping fountains in and around D C -- it was fun to dump in bottles of children's soap or shampoo that we had hidden up our jacket sleeves, and then go back in about 10 minutes.....Good, clean fun....(especially with all that soap you used! Pede) Carole ......Bethesda Chevy Chase High...class of 59 "Do you remember when there were polio vaccine clinics. We would all stand in line to get a shot with the new type of vaccine (guns)? (When Polio first became such a scare, my mother wouldn't let us play outside when It got really hot, and we had to avoid crowded places. Pede) Does everyone remember having block parties? I came from Federal Hill back in the early 60's. They shut the hill down to all traffic, and everyone came out of their houses to listen and dance to the music. There really were street vendors selling their wares, and people went to the chicken store to pick one out for dinner. Every night we went to the bakery for fresh bread. Dennis "I remember mini-skirts were not allowed at my house --- sooooo.....as soon as I got around the corner, I'd roll the waist band up and ta-dah !! I had my mini-skirt. Now I wouldn't be caught dead in them - not with these middle-aged knees! [email protected] "I remember when we were only allowed to get one phone call a night from our boyfriend. And we could not talk any longer than 3 minutes. We NEVER called the boys. That wasn't COOL! [email protected] "Do you remember having to take swimming in school, and wearing those wool bathing suits? So when you went into the water, they stretched......... (What about those tacky, white rubber caps we had to wear over our hair! Ugh!) Fran "Enjoyed the site; the best part of all was remembering the submarine races. Perhaps that is why I ended up being USN RET. I also remember the high school football games where there was always an enthusiastic crowd to support and cheer a losing team. Now days, if you have a loser, you're lucky to even get the parents of the team to attend the games. John "I remember growing up knowing only the locomotives..until the night a Deisel came through our community...at the sound, my mom told my dad to get up and dress us kids, cause Gabriel was blowing his trumpet....and afterwards, we all stood outside waiting for the world to end....How innocent we were back then..and how uncomplicated life was.. Thanks for letting me share a memory from way back then. Eloise "I remember the real crunchy sugary Bazooka shaped into a log. Of course, we tried to get three or four at a time into our mouths to chew. Anne "I had a Model A when I was in high school, and could have a pretty hot date for $1.00 . Would go to a filling station and buy a dime's worth of gas, then to the movie ($.15 x 2), then to a popular drive in for a coke and pie. Usually had a nickel or dime left over. Hot Dawg! Those were the days. The local "Lover's Lane" was free.(grin) Mack (74 years young) (I knewyour memories would be something like that! Pede) "We had 2 movie theaters in town; one was 12 cents and one 18 cents. Popcorn was 10 cents. Ed ... MHS '56 From [email protected]: "Do you remember doing dishes every night, then getting to stand around a piano singing old songs? And then if you were really lucky, getting to stay up to 9 P.M. to listen to some of the radio shows? Going to square dances every Saturday night. Having a Sadie Hawkins dance every 4 years and hoping that boy you asked would go with you. When we became teenagers, going to Sunday School every Sunday ,and then getting to walk up town to the favorite teen hangout, instead of having to go to church. "Howdy Doody and The Mickey Mouse Club (I even had the mouseketeer ears/hat.) ....rolling my hair with torn strips of brown paper bags, going to the fair at the fairgrounds, Coca-cola for a nickel and ginger snaps 5 for a penny, pretzel sticks in a box for 5 cents!!! Bernice G. "Remember when we wore dog collars around our ankles on top of our trifold white socks? And, when wearing jeans to school was done only on Fridays, and then they had to be nice new ones? We thought we were doing something really bad when we'd steal apples from a neighbor's tree and run like crazy. [email protected] " Remember when the movies only cost 5 cents for kids? We would see 2 big movies and a newsreel and cartoons.......then they raised the prices and it went up to 11 cents....the scariest ones were with Frankenstein, and the theater was always crowded when Tarzan was on the screen..with Johnny Weis....something; can't remember his last name........ Popcorn was only 10 cents too, with butter on it..all candy bars were only 5 cents, and Hostess Cupcakes were 5 cents for 2 in the package...and Ice cream was 5 cents for a single dip, and 7 cents for a double dip..Sherbet was the cheapest....it was only 2 cents for a single dip, and 4 cents for a double dip.....My Mother used to buy ice cream by the "brick"...you could just slice it, and put it between 2 wafer cookies, and have an Ice Cream Sandwich.... and how about the Hot Dog Man on the corner? The best hot dogs, ever! He had hot tamales, too..they were only 10 cents. Our school lunches only cost us 6 cents, and that included our milk. If we wanted extra milk. it cost us 2 cents....we also had showers in our Elementary School, and a "Bath lady" to help us get the soap and towels... . We also had a shoemaker down in the basement of the school to fix soles and heels on our shoes if we had holes in them....we also had a dentist there too...I went to Chicago, Illinois schools......the doctors also came to the school, and that is where I got my vaccination shot.......My shot came from Longfellow School on 35th Street... the other school with the shoemaker was at Graham School on 45th and Union..the dentist was at Mc Clellan School at 35th and Wallace...( Mayor Daly's old neighborhood). Nobody ever heard about drugs in our schools back then..... We didn't go to a real doctor all the time, either....we went to the drug store to see Jerry. He was the pharmacist...he would take care of you...I cut my finger one night washing the dishes..and my Mother told me to go see Jerry. He put a bandage on it and sent me home....I still have the scar on my little finger [email protected] [email protected] sent these memories: "I remember knitting squares at PS 16 in the Bronx for the Red Cross. They were made into afgans for the soldiers in the hospitals. I also remember listening to Inner Santum on the radio then hiding under the covers. Remember "Raymond, Your Host" with the squeaky door" "You can roost, birds, But don't get funny These signs cost A lot of money Bob, in Detroit Gina B. says: "Remember the aluminum rollers, and the ones with wire bristles in them? Then came the pink sponge ones; it was so hard to sleep with them on at night. Always got up with a sore head; to have a good curl the next day, you had to suffer at night. "I'm just a little too young to remember the 50's but..... I remember my cousin walking around with"rollers" in her hair - CANS!!! I still can't figure that one out......How about those little figurines with the bobbing heads that everyone had in the back of their cars? I loved Topo Gigo on Ed Sullivan....remember watching "Flipper" or the Jackie Gleason show as my parents were getting ready to go out to dinner.....Dad always wore a sports jacket....I remember dressing up as a hippie for Halloween!!!! Why did I "dress up" the way people dressed normally??? What else? My friend taped Katie Douglas having her triplets on My Three Sons - taped it on a reel-to-reel tape recorder - we listened to it every week!!! And I DO remember roller skating on the sidewalk, then having those tingly feet - felt like I was walking on air.....hula hoops, pogo sticks, "Footsies", Duncan Imperial and Butterfly, flipping baseball cards (by color), smiley faces on EVERYTHING, Bazooka gum - 2 for a penny!!! Playing cards on the fork of my bike, held on by clothespins, to make an awesome sound as we rode! MAD magazine - 50 cents - CHEAP! I never realized how old I really am.......but the memories are great - they make me smile!!! Ellen "My grandparents lived next door to us on our farm, and when I got off the school bus I ran the lane so I wouldn't miss one minute of the Mickey Mouse Club. Dad wouldn't get a television until he was sure it wasn't just a fad....We got our first prortable black and white in 1962. My friends all had color by then ...and remember when cars where built like tanks (Hudsons) and are still running today? and the 'fins' on cars? Remember when you couldn't get away with anything, because everyone knew you and word would get home to mom before you did? Trish "How about penny loafers, and putting brand new penny in them...Putting sweaters on backwards, with buttons up the back and tying a scarf around your neck. "Oh, you wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent" "Bryl Cream, a little dab'll do ya," ended with "she would love to run her fingers thru your hair"....YUK, can you imagine that greasy stuff all over your fingers? Remember Dinah Shore singing, "See the U S A, in your Chevrolet" [email protected] To Page 5 Back to Pede's Porch "At The Hop" |
