Who can literally remember their childhood post World War Two?

[senior citizen]

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[quirky3]

Great memories, Senior! Our largest grocery store was the A&P, but "John;s Store" was a few blocks away and that's where we got baseball cards (with bubblegum), necco wafers, candy cigarettes, etc. The local dairy was one block away - they had popsicles for 5 cents.

One of our neighbors always made caramel apples for Halloween. One year I made a "Little Bo Peep" costume and used my little red wagon dressed as the lamb, and my brother's hockey stick wrapped in crepe paper for a shepherd's crook.

[senior citizen]

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[OldManTime]

I remember it all

[quirky3]

Here is a web site that sells old-time candy. This link is to the page that sorts out the candy by decade. I bought a selection for a family reunion one time, and it was a big hit! It's fun to just browse and remember....
Candy you ate as a kid® by decade (http://www.oldtimecandy.com/decades.htm)

[buggyone]

Most folks have no trouble remembering their childhood in the 1940's and 1950's.

However, remembering what happened yesterday is the much larger problem for many.

No, this unfortunately is not supposed to be funny.

[dillywho]

We didn't have an A&P, but we had Piggly Wiggly and Furr's. There was a little store right around the corner on our block where we got items in between trips to the "big" stores. Such little stores were the forerunners of today's 7-11, etc.

Remember the peanuts in the little round boxes that would sometimes have anything from a nickel to a dollar inside? I remember my dad's Lucky Strike cigarettes with the green emblem instead of red. How about the newsreels and cartoons before the main feature and Saturday afternoon double features with a serial 'Superman', 'Batman', etc. before the movies?

Our "stocking stuffers" were fruits and candies, not expensive bracelets, electronics, & such. We got something from Santa and something from our parents, and new underwear....not tons and tons of toys and gadgets. We took care of what we got, too. How about going as a family to pick out the Christmas tree, dads putting two pieces of wood together to make a base for it, a white sheet for the "snow" underneath, and then dad untangling the lights and putting them on the tree? Mother and us kids then got to put on the ornaments and icicles. We always took it down New Year's Day while waiting for our traditional black-eyed peas to cook.

We, too, made our own Halloween costumes and got to go trick-or-treating alone without fear of something happening to us or getting something in our paper sacks or pillow cases (didn't have store-bought cute little containers) that would hurt us.

I could go on and on. I am so thankful to be able to remember so much.

[graciegirl]

Remember Woolworths and Kresge's dime stores AND their great lunch counters?.... and of course Santa lived for a couple three weeks on the top floor of your local Federated Department Store. Mine was Lazarus, yours might have been Macy's.

The local dime store is where I purchased my first tube of lipstick. Earrings back then were for sleazy girls.

[dillywho]

Most folks have no trouble remembering their childhood in the 1940's and 1950's.

However, remembering what happened yesterday is the much larger problem for many.

No, this unfortunately is not supposed to be funny.

Unfortunately, you are right and it is so sad for so many.

[salferg]

We didn't have tv, but gathered around a console radio to listen to Fibber McGee and Molly,
Lone Ranger and for news of the war. Fleers bubble gum was hard to get. Toilet paper, sugar, tires were rationed. We had food stamps that allowed each person to get rationed items. We lived close to an airbase and would go stand by the street and wave to truckloads of soldiers as their conveys passed thru town. There was a POW camp that housed German prisoners and we would go stand at the fences and watch them. Oh my! Once the memories start to unfold I could go on and on!

[dillywho]

Remember Woolworths and Kresge's dime stores AND their great lunch counters?.... and of course Santa lived for a couple three weeks on the top floor of your local Federated Department Store. Mine was Lazarus, yours might have been Macy's.

The local dime store is where I purchased my first tube of lipstick. Earrings back then were for sleazy girls.

Yes! To me, there is nothing that can compare with the hamburgers and fries, cokes and/or malts, at the corner drugstore, either. Mmmmm!!

[graciegirl]

We didn't have tv, but gathered around a console radio to listen to Fibber McGee and Molly,
Lone Ranger and for news of the war. Fleers bubble gum was hard to get. Toilet paper, sugar, tires were rationed. We had food stamps that allowed each person to get rationed items. We lived close to an airbase and would go stand by the street and wave to truckloads of soldiers as their conveys passed thru town. There was a POW camp that housed German prisoners and we would go stand at the fences and watch them. Oh my! Once the memories start to unfold I could go on and on!


Remember driving to the airport to watch the planes come in and out and maybe getting an ice cream on a summer night?

I had a WAC purse, just like the real girl soldiers.

We played with army jeeps in the sandbox, my boy cousin and I. There were stars on the windows of neighbors who had lost sons in the war.

Sugar was rationed. Vaccinations were HUGE on your arm and hurt for weeks.

[janmcn]

I remember when I turned five it was a very big deal to be able to buy a birthday cake to take to nursery school because sugar was rationed. Still have the photo of me and my cake.

[manaboutown]

I remember the Duncan "yoyo man" coming to a lot across from the store where they sold them. He would demonstrate his incredible two handed simultaneously yoyo skills, hold contests and pass out patches and even sweaters to the winners (sometimes yours truly). I remember buying penny candy, Cracker Jacks, riding a one speed bike with a coaster brake and balloon tires, playing marbles, flying kites we built ourselves as well as purchased, building flying model balsa and paper airplanes from kits, red and blue plastic mills, buying 10 and 25 cent savings stamps and sticking them in books for that purpose to accumulate enough to purchase savings bonds...

[senior citizen]

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[graciegirl]

I remember the Duncan "yoyo man" coming to a lot across from the store where they sold them. He would demonstrate his incredible yoyo skills, hold contests and pass out patches and even sweaters to the winners (sometimes yours truly). I remember buying penny candy, Cracker Jacks, riding a one speed bike with a coaster brake and balloon tires, playing marbles, flying kites we built ourselves as well as purchased, building flying model balsa and paper airplanes from kits, red and blue plastic mills (fractions of pennies, buying stamps and sticking them in books for that purpose to accumulate enough to purchase war bonds...

People would say when we were very little; "by by, buy bonds". And my Duncan yoyo was pink and had a jewel in it. Never could get the danged thing to "walk the dog".

Also Jacks? and marbles? I had a collection of beautiful marbles and trading cards.(playing cards with beautiful pictures on them saved for the pictures)

Later trading stamp books bought us some nice stuff for our honeymoon home.

[senior citizen]

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[graciegirl]

My husband had the same bikes........but he got his at the junk yard and rebuilt them. Sad.

My Uncle Mike gave me my first roller skates and we all enjoyed skating on the slate sidewalks all around the block. My parents were afraid to buy bikes for us as my older brother had an accident once, resulting in a concussion and hospital stay. So, that was the end of bikes for us.

But we jumped rope , played hopscotch......and made all kinds of crafts.

The gals out there will remember cutting out the outfits for the paper dolls which we'd all buy at the five and ten cent store on the avenue........
What can be bought today for five and ten cents??????????


Sure do. There were brides and babies and boy paper dolls too.

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/62/3e/c0/623ec046cde3f10188fa958328cc6432.jpg

[Boudicca]

You betchya we do. Our Christmas stocking, held an orange, some nuts in shell, a box of dates, and a tiny bag of gold foil covered chocolate coins - luxury!! My brother and I received one toy each from relatives. Our first bicycle was a "refurbished" two wheeler, skates were tied onto shoes, and had metal wheels. The Christmas tree (in our case, a branch, disguised as a tree) miraculously appeared decorated and all, on Christmas morning. (poor parents were up half the night decorating it.
All food still rationed until we were school age, we played all day, outside, safely. Had a Victory Garden, and my inventive grandfather raised Giant Flemming rabbits as the other meat :shocked: and also for barter. We played Cowboys and Indians (my brother got into big trouble when he scalped one of my doll babies which had a glued on wig) The extended family got together weekly for a shared meal, sing alongs (dad played the harmonica, aunt played an ancient upright piano). We listened to radio dramas, and "two way family favorites" a radio program where enlisted men sent requests to the station, with wishes to their family back home. While raised with no luxuries, I have good memories.

[Boudicca]

Gracie, oh, I LOVED those paper dolls and played with them until the little paper tabs fell off, despite mom's attempts to make repairs. Did you have those invisible ink painting books? Ours were a drawing imbended with paint cells. The action of the brush dipped in water, dissolved the paint and color "magically" appeared.

[jms33]

My grandmother gave me a note and money. I then walked to the German butcher shop, gave the note to the butcher, he filled my order and put the change in the bag with the items. I then walked home to my grandmother. I was 7!!! Can you imagine doing this today? I was allowed to keep a nickel for a candy bar.
Did this same routine with the druggist too. I was never afraid...
When I tell this story to my kids now (ages 40 and 36) they can't believe it.
Different times back then.

[NotGolfer]

Who can literally remember their childhood post World War Two???

The new "Sweetbay" thread jogged my memory of the old supermarket my mom went to, pulling home her shopping cart with bags of groceries.

Who remembers the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company......A&P ?

Who remembers the corner candy store with penny candy?

Who remembers this time of year with candy apples on a stick, roasted pumpkin seeds, Chinese apples, roasted chestnuts, etc. ???

Who remembers walking home from school and getting their Halloween costumes together......making them ourselves.....not store bought.....?

My memories are wonderful from that era! I remember my mom walking w/me so I'd know the way to and from school on my own---this was kindergarten. We lived in the country with my school in town. I think it was at least a couple of miles to walk. I remember my parents "letting" me ride my bike from the country to town to go to the library on a Saturday afternoon. Children played outside all day w/o supervision and worries of "something" happening to them. It seems that that era was so care-free! I also remember our country and the pride folks had in it! The songs in school (I went to public schools) were about patriotism and faith which I'm sure aren't done today.

[jblum315]

I remember my childhood during World War II. I was born a year before Pearl Harbor. I remember I had my own ration card. For a while I was afraid to play outdoors because I thought every plane flying over was a German bomber.

[murray607]

I remember my childhood during World War II. I was born a year before Pearl Harbor. I remember I had my own ration card. For a while I was afraid to play outdoors because I thought every plane flying over was a German bomber.

I still have my ration card from 1952, from the UK. Rationing finally ended in the UK in 1954 when sugar, sweets (candies) and meat were then freely available.

We also used to imagine planes flying over were German bombers, even though it was 10-15 years after the war had ended. Near our home was a large Roccoco style former residence of the Duke of Fife. It had been bombed during the war when a German plane had flown over and saw a large number of men standing around waving at the plane.

What they did not realize was that the people waving were German POW's and they bombed their own people.
When I got my first job, one of the people I worked with was a German gentleman who had been a POW in that building. He had lots of stories to tell about wartime and how he had been glad to be caught and sent to Scotland. He met a Scottish girl and married her and managed to save enough to buy a small farm. And of course, I learned German from him.

Ah memories!

[Villages PL]

Who can literally remember their childhood post World War Two???

The new "Sweetbay" thread jogged my memory of the old supermarket my mom went to, pulling home her shopping cart with bags of groceries.

Who remembers the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company......A&P ?

Who remembers the corner candy store with penny candy?

Who remembers this time of year with candy apples on a stick, roasted pumpkin seeds, Chinese apples, roasted chestnuts, etc. ???

Who remembers walking home from school and getting their Halloween costumes together......making them ourselves.....not store bought.....?

I remember everything except item 3 (candy apples etc.)

I remember Halloween. It was fun going door-to-door with neighborhood friends, but eating too much candy made me feel sick.

I remember when listening to the radio was a family event. My mother was in charge of it. She would tell us all to gather together in front of the radio at a certain time in the evening. Then we would listen to the Jack Benny show and others.

[graciegirl]

My memories are wonderful from that era! I remember my mom walking w/me so I'd know the way to and from school on my own---this was kindergarten. We lived in the country with my school in town. I think it was at least a couple of miles to walk. I remember my parents "letting" me ride my bike from the country to town to go to the library on a Saturday afternoon. Children played outside all day w/o supervision and worries of "something" happening to them. It seems that that era was so care-free! I also remember our country and the pride folks had in it! The songs in school (I went to public schools) were about patriotism and faith which I'm sure aren't done today.



That is how I remember it too.

And sometimes that same feeling of peace and safety and niceness steals over me here...In fact it frequently does.

[DougB]

My memories are wonderful from that era! I remember my mom walking w/me so I'd know the way to and from school on my own---this was kindergarten. We lived in the country with my school in town. I think it was at least a couple of miles to walk. I remember my parents "letting" me ride my bike from the country to town to go to the library on a Saturday afternoon. Children played outside all day w/o supervision and worries of "something" happening to them. It seems that that era was so care-free! I also remember our country and the pride folks had in it! The songs in school (I went to public schools) were about patriotism and faith which I'm sure aren't done today.

Why are you sure songs about patriotism are not sung in schools today?

[Buffalo Jim]

Anyone collect a few empty soda bottles and return them to the corner store so you could collect 3 cents per bottle and buy a handful of candy ?
Sometimes we would have enough empty bottles to be able to use the proceeds to purchase a 16 once bottle of Coke which we shared with our friends . Each kid would " wipe of the germs " with his unwashed palm before taking his " swig " !

[buggyone]

Anyone collect a few empty soda bottles and return them to the corner store so you could collect 3 cents per bottle and buy a handful of candy ?
Sometimes we would have enough empty bottles to be able to use the proceeds to purchase a 16 once bottle of Coke which we shared with our friends . Each kid would " wipe of the germs " with his unwashed palm before taking his " swig " !

Jim,
The 16 ounce bottle of Coke was introduced in 1962. I would venture to guess most of us were at least in high school in 1962 and would not be collecting soda bottles to buy a handful of candy or to share a bottle of soda.

http://www.colacorner.com/did-you-know.html

[jblum315]

My God, I was married in 1962!

[senior citizen]

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[senior citizen]

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[graciegirl]

Remember, I grew up in Central Ohio.

I was in my thirties before I met a person of Asian origin or an American Indian. It was in The Villages when I first had home cooked Italian food.

I was in my twenties when I had my first Bagel.

Pizza came to our town in the 1950's, when I was a teen.

I have never had anyone rob me or break into our home and neither has this happened to any of either of our large families.

The only time I was ever struck or hit is when I was spanked as a small child. The first time I saw anyone really beat up was the recent tape shown constantly on the news of teens beating the hell out of another student on a school bus.

I walked to school about ten blocks, different directions, all 12 years. Nothing bad ever happened to me or my friends or anyone I knew.

BUT the elementary principal liked to "hug" us. He later committed suicide after he impregnated a sixth grade girl.

[graciegirl]

Everything I wore, practically everything was ironed. It was the only homemaking job I grew up to HATE.

I would rather clean the toilets than iron.

A lot of my dresses and shorts and stuff were home sewn.

Our house was CLEAN and we were clean.... But.. no one showered, we all took baths.

There were five children in Sweetie's family, in a very nice home and in a lovely neighborhood, but they only had ONE bathroom.

[dillywho]

GREAT POST.

Ayup. (Vermontese for yes) Our parents didn't have to worry that some nut case would put a needle in our Halloween candy. We didn't have fancy trick or treat bags........just pillowcases. We'd come home and dump them on the living room floor......actually, my own children's generation was still safe as far as trick or treating in our town....and neighborhoods.

Remember the movies very well. How much did your admission cost???

Ours was twenty five cents. And they'd give us two cents for a cup for the free water. My parents never gave us money for candy. Sometimes we would have some money and buy some.

So, between the fifty cents for my little brother and I to get into the movies, they give us the extra four cents for the two cups for the free water.

The airconditioned theatre matinees were so nice during the hot summers.

Sometimes we went on a Saturday afternoon......and do remember the same as you do..........the newsreels, cartoons and double feature.

For a quarter. We also sometimes went on Sunday afternoon instead of a Saturday. This was in New Jersey. When I think back now, I wonder if my parents weren't using that as a "babysitter" so they could have a free afternoon? We had to walk down our street, then down a very long long avenue to the main street where the theatre was........then all the time inside............hours and hours...........then walk back home. I think they were trying to get rid of us.....for some peace and quiet.

And on the Sundays when we didn't go to the movies.....my little girlfriends and I would walk down to our corner and go into our church.

This was not the morning mass.............we'd just go in and light candles.
All the little girls did that. Just another cool place. That's when church doors were OPEN. I didn't go to Catholic school, but some of my friends did. During the morning mass we would all sit together and show each other what we had in our little purses.

So girly.

Speaking of the free water and the 2 cents for the Dixie cup....................

When we were kids we must have been dehydrated.

No one gave us water bottles to carry around with us.

We played out all day long from morning till bedtime in the summer months. Knew when to come home for lunch and for supper. Without a cell phone call.

But, I keep thinking..........we ran around and walked all over town without drinking water. The one place, besides the movie theatre, that did have an outdoor drinking fountain.........was the old A&P supermarket. So, we'd stop there if we were in that neighborhood.

We had the freedom from about 8 years old on.......to explore all over the city.........and never got abducted. Guess no one wanted us? Or, there were not so many nuts out prowling around as there are today. We lived in a city......not a rural area. Just food for thought.

Ours was 25 cents, as well. You could get popcorn, candy, and a coke for another 25 cents.

Remember all the Burma Shave signs along the "highways"? Each one had a portion of a rhyme on it and you had to wait until you got to the next sign for the next part (cars didn't go 80 mph then). There was no such thing as a Rest Area with restrooms, either......only the side of the road :smiley::eek:. (It was a lonnnng way between towns and gas stations.)

My grandmother would make me dresses from the flour and/or sugar sacks, so I always got a new dress when we went to Granny's.

[graciegirl]

Ours was 25 cents, as well. You could get popcorn, candy, and a coke for another 25 cents.

Remember all the Burma Shave signs along the "highways"? Each one had a portion of a rhyme on it and you had to wait until you got to the next sign for the next part (cars didn't go 80 mph then). There was no such thing as a Rest Area with restrooms, either......only the side of the road :smiley::eek:. (It was a lonnnng way between towns and gas stations.)

My grandmother would make me dresses from the flour and/or sugar sacks, so I always got a new dress when we went to Granny's.


Ah yes...The Burma Shave signs.

Here are some to look at.
burma shave signs - Bing Images (http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=burma+shave+signs&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=burma+shave+signs&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=#a)

[Buffalo Jim]

Jim,
The 16 ounce bottle of Coke was introduced in 1962. I would venture to guess most of us were at least in high school in 1962 and would not be collecting soda bottles to buy a handful of candy or to share a bottle of soda.

http://www.colacorner.com/did-you-know.html

I am a child of the 50`s . I will now take my leave of this Post . Thanks for correcting me . AMAZING ! JUST AMAZING !

[redwitch]

Funny, I read your posts and am so envious. My childhood was a mixed bag with all the traveling we did. The first time I heard of Halloween was when I was five or six in California -- it was practiced anywhere else in the world that I can remember back then. All the kids talked about their costumes and were all excited. I went home and asked my mom for a costume. She thought I was nuts. My father, fortunately, saved the day (he was American) and turned me into a little G.I. That first time trick or treating was actually frightening. Knocking on strangers' doors and asking for candy just didn't feel right to this little girl. However, after seeing my bag of goodies at the end of the evening, I was all for it and couldn't wait til next Halloween.

Most of my younger days were spent in post-WWII Germany where survival was the order of the day and treats were few and far between, excepting when my dad was around and brought us K-rations. Loved the jam and bubblegum and, of course, the Hershey bars!

I do remember things like collecting soda bottles to get the money. Also candy cigarettes (loved 'em) and marshmallow peanuts. Saturday matinees were one of the great things of being in the States or near a military base. Loved everything -- the newsreels, the cartoon, the main attraction (usually a western).

America was also where I saw my first television. I couldn't watch The Mickey Mouse Club (it was on opposite American Bandstand, which my brother watched) but loved The Howdy Doody Show. Ditto Sky King, Lassie and Fury. BTW -- According to my brother, The Mickey Mouse Club was a Communist plot to take over the minds of American children. Took me about six months to figure out that I could watch MMC since I wasn't American and he was now stuck taking turns watching it or Bandstand. Of course, we moved to Japan right after I figured that out.

And let's not forget the Red scare. Think it terrified all of us way too much.

[Halle]

Jim,
The 16 ounce bottle of Coke was introduced in 1962. I would venture to guess most of us were at least in high school in 1962 and would not be collecting soda bottles to buy a handful of candy or to share a bottle of soda.

http://www.colacorner.com/did-you-know.html

The first Baby Boomers would have been 16 in 1962, there are many of us living here. I was 7 in 1962 and remember collecting coke bottles.

The Times They Are A-Changin.

:pepper2::pepper2:

[Buffalo Jim]

The first Baby Boomers would have been 16 in 1962, there are many of us living here. I was 7 in 1962 and remember collecting coke bottles.

The Times They Are A-Changin.

:pepper2::pepper2:

Thanks for the " support ".

[senior citizen]

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[graciegirl]

Everybody back in the 1950's only had one bathroom...........unless they added one in the basement, which many did. That's how homes were built. Aren't we all so spoiled now with three bathrooms, etc.???????

We had two bathrooms because my folks converted a two family home into a one family....using the upstairs apartment for extra bedrooms, thus freeing up the first floor for other big rooms. One bathroom up and one bathroom down.

The front foyer had an open staircase to the upstairs bedrooms and that second bathroom.

Downstairs, off to the left were the living room, dining room, huge kitchen, two side rooms and the downstairs bathroom......plus a screened in back porch......one up and one down....(the two side rooms would normally have been the two bedrooms, had not my mom decided to evict the tenant and turn the upstairs into a one family home for us).

We did have two bathtubs and two showers (as my older brother was big into the 1950's craze of home improvements....getting magazines like Popular Mechanics and some others whose names escape me....but he and my dad would remodel the kitchen, the bathrooms, etc.....like a hobby.)

Back in the older days, most people only took one bath a week....on Saturday night. The working men would come home nightly and wash up in the kitchen sink with their shirt sleeves rolled up. That did it till the Saturday night bath.......(when we had foreign exchange students from Spain, none of them liked to take baths....this was in the 1980's......they just went into the bathrooms to smoke as it was not allowed in the houses and they knew it.....then they'd spray the room with perfume. They also thought Americans were crazy because all of us "read in the bathrooms" and had "magazines and books" in the bathrooms.) Off topic I know. But funny nonetheless when I think back. Those boys and gals are now lawyers in Spain with families of their own.

My husband's childhood home, bought after the great depression for$3,000 (my folks bought our two family for $8,000) had the one bathroom up.......but then his dad added one in the basement.........ditto for his grandfather at his house.......always had one in the basement.

My mom, on the other hand, recalls when she was a child....having an outhouse. Yikes. She had some stories.

Hard to believe there were no Italian families in Cincinnati.

I have a HUGE group of cousins, in my family tree, whose parents came from Laurenzana Basilicata Italy to Cleveland Ohio. These cousins are all deceased now. They settled all over Ohio.

I do remember all that ironing.......

My mom would iron all day long on her day off from work.
She would "sprinkle" the starched clothes.......then iron.
She even ironed SHEETS, PILLOW CASES and towels........

She would set up her ironing board in the living room and watch MILLION DOLLAR MOVIE......which had a lot of old movies as I recall......but it still was a lot of ironing.

She had lots of stories about ironing as well. When younger, she was at her mom's place and IRONING when the radio show now referred to as WAR OF THE WORLDS came on......and they actually lived near Ferry Street where these martians were supposed to be landing.........I could write a book.

She was also ironing when she heard that Pearl Harbor had been attacked.

In 1965 , newly wed, with a day job....on Saturdays I would iron an entire basket of my husband's white shirts. I ironed for a long long time, even after we had kids. NO MORE. Nothing needs ironing anymore, thankfully.

For the military guys and gals out there........this should be your chuckle for the day. Back in the '60s when my husband was still going to Fort Knox as a drill sergeant.......he got some promotion so I had to sew his new patch on his army uniform. I guess he figured I knew what to do.
He didn't advise or show me how it should be. I sewed it on upside down. Never asked me again. From then on, he began sewing his own patches and buttons on.....

There were Italian families in Columbus, But not as many as the predominantly German population. We didn't know any of them well enough to be invited for home cooked food and I knew some Italian girls from public school. In the generation prior to mine, I am told that people didn't intermarry. Meaning Italians and Germans, and Germans and Irish, but that wasn't so anymore when I was growing up. I don't remember any Irish parishes, but we had one Italian Parish in Columbus when I was a kid. No French speaking people at all that I can remember. You knew this because everyone always went around to the church festivals.

Cleveland had a lot of people from Southern Europe and Slovakia, Bulgaria and so on.. Just as Wisconsin and Minnesota had a lot of people from Northern Europe. There were a lot of German Lutheran churches in Columbus too. I was raised German Lutheran and became a Catholic as a young adult.

Our worlds were very different back then than from now. It is very interesting to live in The Villages where people really didn't have the same exact life experiences as children

[senior citizen]

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[senior citizen]

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[senior citizen]

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[senior citizen]

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[Yung Dum]

Great memories, Senior! Our largest grocery store was the A&P, but "John;s Store" was a few blocks away and that's where we got baseball cards (with bubblegum), necco wafers, candy cigarettes, etc. The local dairy was one block away - they had popsicles for 5 cents.

One of our neighbors always made caramel apples for Halloween. One year I made a "Little Bo Peep" costume and used my little red wagon dressed as the lamb, and my brother's hockey stick wrapped in crepe paper for a shepherd's crook.

Did anybody actually chew that gum that came with the baseball cards? If you dropped it on the sidewalk it would shatter like glass. If you did try to chew it, you were in danger of ripping up your mouth. The cards were great, though. However, by late summer, you opened a pack and went through them saying "Got him" "Got him" "Got him", and so on. In all my years of card buying (Topps cards only), I never got a Stan Musial.

[Patty55]

The first Baby Boomers would have been 16 in 1962, there are many of us living here. I was 7 in 1962 and remember collecting coke bottles.

The Times They Are A-Changin.

:pepper2::pepper2:

Me too, born in 1952, collected bottles.

My mother also got into the sewing thing, it wasn't good, she'd get out the Simplicity patterns and you'd know a cockeyed dress was coming.:loco:

Anyone else remember the duck and covers drills where you put your coat over you head, get under the desk (with your butt to the window)? Yep, that sure would have been effective.

[rubicon]

I recall much of what has been said up to now. I also was reared in an ethnic neighborhood and didn't realize until I was 12 that other nationalities existed beside Italians (that's a joke)

I remember that tires had tubes and tubes were valuable because my buddies and I would search for pieces of wood and cut the tubes to make gigantic rubber bands and fashion what would be rubber guns . We would then do battle and yes those large rubber bands hurt.

We had the best Italian flavored ice lemon, cantaloupe, etc We had a Woolworth's and Grant's .

We had record hops and competed to go on TV Dance Party broadcasted from that very large city called Syracuse (that's also a joke). My wife and I won a number of dance contests and we did get to go on TV's Dance party (want my autograph) (that's a joke too) I remember my Grandmother telling me to marry a nice Italian girl and my reply Ï don't know any nice Italian girls" Got a tongue lashing ( that was my first clue that I could not tell a joke)

Like probably all of you I believe that I grew up at the best of time and in the best place on earth. I loved our neighborhood ,my friends, my town. good people good citizens, loving caring and generous

[graciegirl]

I recall much of what has been said up to now. I also was reared in an ethnic neighborhood and didn't realize until I was 12 that other nationalities existed beside Italians (that's a joke)

I remember that tires had tubes and tubes were valuable because my buddies and I would search for pieces of wood and cut the tubes to make gigantic rubber bands and fashion what would be rubber guns . We would then do battle and yes those large rubber bands hurt.

We had the best Italian flavored ice lemon, cantaloupe, etc We had a Woolworth's and Grant's .

We had record hops and competed to go on TV Dance Party broadcasted from that very large city called Syracuse (that's also a joke). My wife and I won a number of dance contests and we did get to go on TV's Dance party (want my autograph) (that's a joke too) I remember my Grandmother telling me to marry a nice Italian girl and my reply Ï don't know any nice Italian girls" Got a tongue lashing ( that was my first clue that I could not tell a joke)

Like probably all of you I believe that I grew up at the best of time and in the best place on earth. I loved our neighborhood ,my friends, my town. good people good citizens, loving caring and generous

Rubicon!

You grew up in German Village, Columbus, Ohio too???? ;)

[senior citizen]

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