Who can literally remember their childhood post World War Two?
 

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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.

Ditto for your memories
 

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I remember it all

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

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.

Memories
 

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.

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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...

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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.

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

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...8328cc6432.jpg

Post WWII in UK
 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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

My God, I was married in 1962!

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