Those Were the Days

It's Saturday; I got plenty of rest, and am feeling good.  Thanks all for your concern.  It's a good day today; the weather is cool and crisp, just like fall is supposed to be.  It's a great day to be alive.  And, I'm feeling so good, I thought I'd have a little fun today.  Hope you all enjoy reminiscing as much as I do.

It seems strange to think that when I was born in 1947 that  hardly anyone had a television set, let alone a car.  I guess I was one of the lucky ones for my family had both a car and an old black and white television set.   Popular television shows of the time were I Love Lucy, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver. and Father Knows Best along with such variety shows as Milton Berle, Ed Sullivan, Abbott and Costello.  Forget about American Idol.  We had Ted Mack's Amateur Hour. That was the golden age of television variety; it was magical. 

My sons have never played a record; as a matter of fact, I don't even think they know what a record or a record player is. Now they have all these new-fangled gadgets that hold hundreds of songs in something smaller than my compact.  Remember the old 45's?...and such harmless songs as "When the Red Red Robin goes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along" or "I found My Thrill on Blueberry Hill".  Wow, in my day the Thrill was quite a racy song. What a different era that was. American Bandstand  was created on the heels of the Rock and Roll  craze, and it also helped to thrust the music into a whole new direction.   The show had real couples on it, and oftentimes the show was like a high school drama of who’s dating who and who broke up. I knew all of them by heart--Kenny Rossi and Arlene Sullivan, Justine and Bob, Pat Molitieri to name a few. 

I grew up in the era of Sock hops, hula hoops, and cruising; slang words were squares, chicks, be bop, a blast, cooties. Weed was slang for a regular cigarette back in those days. And as kids, we all wanted a Chatty Cathy, Mr. Potato Head, View Master and Reels, Betsy Wetsy, the original Barbie and Ken.  

  

Anybody remember getting dish towels in boxes of laundry detergent during the 1950's and early 60's? I am not totally sure what brand of detergent, but I think it was Duz.  And what about S & H Green Stamps.  For you youngsters out there, they were a form of trading stamps popular until about the late 1960's.  You purchased your food at the supermarket and according to the amount spent, you were awarded with a number of stamps which you saved and mounted in your book and redeemed for prizes.  

When I was growing up, we had a milkman who delivered milk directly to our house. In the mornings, we'd find the milk in glass bottles on our front porch. We bought Sunbeam bread, and sometimes penny or nickel candy.  We drank water from the tap not a bottle and nobody knew about the dangers of lead poisoning so even cribs were painted with brightly colored lead based paint. medicine and bottles with tablets did not have child proof lids

Parents couldn't reach us--there was no such thing as cell phones-- and most of the day we would be out playing with our friends. Our  parents knew we would be safe because there were  hardly any weirdos wandering the streets. If we got caught doing stuff we shouldn't, the cops would take us home, and we may well have a got a whipping for breaking the law, but no one threatened to call children's services when we got smacked. I remember being told, "Go out and get a switch." and when I got back, I'd be told, "That's too small, go out and get a bigger one."  Little did they nor I know that the bigger ones actually hurt a lot less. And if we played up in school the same applied. While playing we got cuts and bruises and the occasional tear in jeans but it was just part of being a kid and no visit to the hospital

We had no fancy games but could play for hours making a Go cart or a new tree swing and for other games most times we would find a ball and whatever we could use as a bat. or in the summer all jump into the nearest place we could find and if the water wasn't that clean we just didn't swallow it. We rode our bikes with no helmets and doing whatever stunts we could; remember how much heavier and hard-wearing bikes were in those days. And if we didn't get in the team, we were not good enough and that was that. But most of all we were allowed to be kids  To dream, to invent and to play.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend filled with joy and play.