Yeah my mom worked when I was young. Apparently didn’t need to but wanted to. She retired as a vice-president at an international bank. She dropped out of NYU to marry my dad during WWII. Her older and younger sisters went to college and earned Bachlors degrees back in the 1940,s.
When my mom worked downtown NYC and went to Wannamakers Dept store and applied for a credit card, they required that she provide her H’s info and that it be in his name… She fought it, and it was long and hard, but won. She got a credit card in her name based on her credentials. I am so proud of her.
Her mother, my grandmother, marched for the right for women to vote. I have a banner she waved marching down 5th Ave., so I am told, waving this banner. Whether the banner was waved down her own street or fifth Ave. it was a fight for the cause. I have this banner displayed. I want one beside it announcing a female president. Do not worry moderators, this was not an endorsement.
Perry Mason. I never watched it, but my grandmother did, and I would have trouble sleeping on Perry Mason nights because I would hear the theme music from the other room and it was so scary.
TV dinners that came in metal trays – some of which were actually pretty good. (I wish you could get the Chinese one and the German one now.)
They had paper underwear, too.
Remember when pieces of dinnerware came in some box of laundry soap? And when calculators were giant boxes that sat on a desk, could barely be moved and operated by a crank? (I’m not that old but my grandmother had one.)
Why did people give out Pixy Stix to trick-or-treaters? The paper sheaths broke and the flavored sugar spilled out in the treat sacks. Maybe that was the goal…
There are some companies that still offer vintage candies.
But if anyone knows about this one, let me know if it’s available. We called them Candy Babies, they were a flat pack of (sort of, but a little smaller) bullet shaped candies iced in white/blue or white/pink, I think with little dot faces.
AboutTheSame, I also remember when our dogs ran around the neighborhood and, at dinner time, you could call or whistle for them…and they’d trot home. The only dogs fenced in our neighborhood were two mean German Shepherds. (And oh, yeah, our parents would call or whistle for us, too.)
…when Pong first came out, and you could only play it in a few places? My friend and I used to go bowling on Sunday and we’d save our quarters and play a game or two of Pong after bowling, because the only place that had a machine was the bowling alley.
Pop Rocks! Saturday morning cartoons. Those hard balls that you knocked together, they eventually banned them because I think kids got hit in the head or something. Wally Wallwalker (sticky thing that you threw at the wall and it would walk down).
Speaking of radical moms, my mom created a scandal because when she finished junior college (like CC, I think, it was 2 years after HS), she insisted on moving out of my grandma’s place and getting her own apartment. Even though she wasn’t married. She was like “That Girl” of 1948, and my grandma was apalled; apparently “good girls” didn’t do that. (But my grandma was a bit of a rogue herself; after her husband died young, she started and ran her own business and even bought a building and became a landlord.)
I resent those Facebook posts that people put up about “Remember when we did dangerous things, and we turned out OK?” That’s because the ones who died because of whatever it was – riding a bike without a helmet, driving in a car without seatbelts, hitchhiking – aren’t around to say so. Only the survivors post these things.
Fifty years ago, a girl who grew up in my neighborhood disappeared while hitchhiking across country. In all that time, there has never been any sign of her. Her parents died heartbroken.
A friend and I hitchhiked to Cape Cod to party all weekend at his folks empty cottage. A state trooper pulled over and picked us up. Before dropping us off, he asked us what was in the heavy suitcase we had. My friend blurted out, “fishing tackle,” and naturally the trooper was a fisherman and wanted to see it.
All he would have seen was a case and a half of beer, and a change of clothes. We were under age. I think the trooper had a suspicion but maybe he chose not to ruin our weekend.
