Do you remember?

Parent Cafe
101

<p>Running through the mosquito fogger when it came down the street (was it DDT???). </p>

<p>My college dorm became one of two coed dorms by floor my sophomore year (fall 1972 at radical UW) so I couldn’t stay on the same floor (there was one single gender dorm until son was a freshman). Vietnam War protests pretty much ended by spring of freshman year- saw a cop in riot gear for an expected protest in front of Social Science, but nothing happened.</p>

<p>I took my mother’s ancient blow dryer to college- she had the one with a bonnet at home.</p>

<p>Black, rotary phone attached to the wall in the kitchen. Hated it when had to dial 9’s, 0’s or other high numbers. We never had an exctension phone, did have a party line for many years. Never had a “Princess” phone.</p>

<p>Around here a dead end street just ends while a cul de sac has a large circular turn around.</p>

<p>Another B&W Wizard of Oz watcher once a year.</p>

<p>Coffee klatches were where the stay at home moms got together each morning and didn’t gossip but did discuss the kids. It was no use saying “but so and so’s mom lets her…” because they would all discuss and say no. Those poor moms were stuck without cars and bored with childcare.</p>

<p>We finally got to wear pants my senior year in HS- progressive suburban area. miniskirts- measuring the distance above the knee- not fair to tall girls. The Twiggy era- felt fat whn I later discovered I was normal.</p>

<p>Watching The Beatles on Ed Sullivan Sunday evenings. The Red Skelton Show (his will specified no shows of his could be shown). It was the Johnny Carson Show although technically The Tonight Show. </p>

<p>Watching late night movies while babysitting for $.50 an hour- no matter how many kids. Girls couldn’t have paper routes until they were 16 while boys could at 12. No girls’ sports, in or out of school. Boys had little league baseball. Couldn’t go to the YMCA because we were Catholic and it wasn’t allowed by the Church.</p>

<p>Signing the card for every book you checked out - public or school library- and getting the slip inside the front cover stamped with the due date. Interesting to see who else had checked out the book.</p>

<p>McDonalds opened during my childhood- a car drive away. 15 cent burgers, fries, cokes. No specialty sandwiches at first- except milkshakes. The sign changes before the first billion sold.</p>

<p>Sponge rollers to curl your straight hair every night. The “pixie” hair cut. Older girls with teased hair- by HS my age had long hair- even guys.</p>

<p>Needing to wear a hat in church- they evolved to doily like pieces you pinned on. Had white gloves as a kid. Garter belts. Those monthly belts to hold pads. Mothers wore girdles when dressed up. </p>

<p>Dresses required for school- would put on pants as well for the walk to school in winter, at recess. One piece blue gym suits in HS and junior high (no middle schools). “Tennis” shoes worn only for gym class- other styles for the rest of the day. Boys had it so much easier. </p>

<p>“Thongs” meant only flipflops and were all the cheap generic kind, only worn to the beach, mainly by kids.</p>

<p>Lollipops brand underpants for girls. Breck shampoo. Everyone only owned one Barbie doll- the original with a ponytail or the bubble cut hair.</p>

102

<p>We had that blue one piece gym outfit that we were required to dress out in. I remember just putting it on over my other clothes on a cold day and basically daring the PE teacher to mark me off as not “dressed out”.</p>

103

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<p>I, too, spent hours doing this. My sister & I would have races around the block with them.</p>

<p>Don’t remember what is was called then, but its now called Skip-It. My D had one when she was younger. It even had some sort of counter to keep track of the number of “skips”</p>

104

<p>Re: Dark Shadows. It came on before I could get home from school. I recorded it by hooking an early audio cassette recorder with an external mike placed in front of the TV speaker, linked with two extension cords to the timer on the kitchen stove that would turn the oven on (and thus the outlet on the stove) at a set time. </p>

<p>Actually, I learned to type by typing the transcript of those recordings. I kept them for years. Was I a nerd or what?</p>

105

<p>That circle thing around the ankle - I think that might have been called “The Clacker?” I used to try to use mine while hula hooping.</p>

<p>I loved Dark Shadows but only got home from school in time to see the last 10 minutes, wish I’d thought of the tape machine. I was an excellent typist due to my parents’ business and the transcripts would have been fun.</p>

<p>I was poor and never had a genuine Barbie doll - I had her white trash cousin, Misty. Anyone remember Misty and Tammy?</p>

<p>My kids have no clue about this stuff. When my oldest was about 4, he asked me what my favorite videotape was as a kid (he’s 21 so at least he remembers videotapes!). I said I didn’t have one and before I could tell him that they hadn’t been invented yet, tears filled his big blue eyes and he said: “Oh, mommy, you must have been very poor!” It reminded me of when I asked my mom if she had had a pet dinosaur! I was about 3.</p>

106

<p>Another thread mentioned flannel sheets, causing me to think of flannel board stories. There were cut out figures with strips of sandpaper stuck on the back. A flannel covered board was propped up where everyone could see it and the figures were added and moved as the story was read or told. The sandpaper sort of made them stick. They fell down a lot and frequently a child or two were called upon to hold something.</p>

107

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<p>We wore those, too. Quite possible the least flattering garment ever made. A few years ago I tried to describe it to my kids and ended up pulling out my HS yearbooks.</p>

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<p>I do! I had a Misty doll and loved her. I had a Chatty Cathy when I was younger.</p>

108

<p>Oh that one piece gym suit - I had blocked that out. I looked like a skinny boy in that suit. There were a few girls in my class who looked good in that gym suit, but at the 20 year reunion, I realized they had peaked in high school and I felt much better.</p>

109

<p>Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon (before they got the Tonight Show gig) hosting an afternoon game show called (ungrammatically) “Who Do You Trust?”</p>

110

<p>Game shows…</p>

<p>Hollywood Squares with Paul Lynde.
Richard Dawson on Family Feud.
The Match Game
What’s My Line?
Password
To Tell The Truth</p>

<p>I also loved the Tonight Show especially if Burt Reynolds or Roger Miller was the guest.</p>

111

<p>I have a hair dryer with inflating bonnet, and creepy crawlers. </p>

<p>Did anyone say Wonderama, kookla Fran and olie, wink a dink ( and drawing on the tv, … that screen you could put on your tv to make it color…only you Jimmy rigged something else,</p>

<p>Mad Men (although I’ve never watched it) reminds me of before there were black people on TV. Except for Julia, and Peggy on Manix. And later Huggy Bear.</p>

112

<p>Oh, my mom worked. Did anybody else’s Mr. Softee sell pot?</p>

113

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Is the expression “dress out” even used any more? On the boys’ side, we had school issued shirts, shorts, socks, and athletic supporters–we’d have to wear the shirts and shorts a bunch of times before they were washed, but “socks and jocks” got turned in for a wash each time. Yech.</p>

114

<p>one piece red gym suit, white socks and keds, hair rolled on orange juice cans, bandanna tied around neck to hide evidence of last night’s date, practicing on one side of the football field at 8am on weekday mornings in late August while the football team practiced on the other side.</p>

<p>I don’t know who really sold the pot but the HS biology teacher checked our mushrooms for safety.</p>

115

<p>My friend and I bought “love beads” in a store rumored to be a “head shop”. Never wore them though.</p>

<p>We did our own hair, makeup and nails for Prom and Homecoming.</p>

116

<p>I had a Skip It too. Loved that.
And my Mood Ring.
I had a poster in my bedroom “War is not healthy to people and other living things”
Wonderama! Loved that show.
Banana Splits. (The show).
Wearing your skate key on a string around her neck.
Birthday parties IN YOUR HOUSE.
I collected Partridge Family Cards.
Flipping baseball cards.
I also wasn’t allowed to wear pants to school until about 2nd or 3rd grade. </p>

<p>Someone mentioned playing SPUD. I know I played it, but I can’t remember it. Can someone explain it?</p>

117

<p>I remember Wonderama. It was the first place I ever heard of bagels. What was the host’s name??? Don McAllister, or something? I always wished I could win the new bike in that game where kids unscrewed the tin cans. They either got a boquet of flowers or snakes popped out.</p>

118

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And a super-elaborate party was one that had good party favors, like rubber pirate daggers.</p>

119

<p>Queen for a Day! Remember that show? Grand prize was like a washer or something (to help with the housework!)</p>

120

<p>“Skip it” - was that the name of the toy I described with the ring you put your foot through with the ball on a string? It was such a simple thing, yet we loved them.</p>

<p>Dressing up big time to go to church. Dress, panty hose, hair all fixed up, special shoes.</p>

<p>Roger Staubach and Tom Landry on Sundays right after church…</p>

<p>Watching “Love, American Style” on the sly when my parents went out for their “date night.”</p>

<p>Hiding in the hall after bed time to catch “Laugh In.” My parents were so into the show they didn’t know I was lying in the shadows watching it with them.</p>