Do you remember?


CAN U REMEMBER????


 



 

 REMEMBER WHEN???

 



 

Get ready for some flashbacks...(the good kind!)...


 

(Stroll down Memory Lane...click on arrow to start, click again to stop...)



 



 



 

You know you are getting "old" when The Six Million Dollar Man is selling "bionic" hearing aids and every guys' favorite pin-up is no longer with us...



 

 

 

 



 



 

REMEMBER WHEN.......

...the prom was in the gymnasium and we danced to an orchestra, and all the girls wore pastel gowns and the boys wore suits for the first time and we stayed out all night.



 

When a 69' Camaro or a little red Vette was everyone's dream car...to cruise, peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady and girls wore a class ring with an inch of wrapped dental floss or yarn coated with pastel frost nail polish so it would fit her finger.

And no one ever asked where the car keys were 'cause they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked. And you got in big trouble if you accidentally locked the doors at home, since no one ever had a key.

Remember lying on your back on the grass with your friends and saying things like "That cloud looks like a... "

And playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game. Back then, baseball was not a psychological group learning experience - it was a game.



 

Remember when stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals 'cause no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger.

When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, for free, every time. And, you didn't pay for air. And, you got trading stamps to boot!

When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box.

When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry groceries, and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.

When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents.

When they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed and did!

And... with all our progress...don't you just wish.. just once... you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace..and share it with the children of the 80's and 90's ..



 

Be thankful for those who can still remember Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Laurel & Hardy, Howdy Doody and The Peanut Gallery, The Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows, Nellie Belle, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk...as well as the sound of a reel mower on Saturday morning, and summers filled with bike rides, playing in cowboy land, baseball games, bowling and visits to the pool...and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar.



 

When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home.

Basically, we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But, we all survived because their love was greater than the threat.



 

Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that! And was it really that long ago?

Count your life by smiles, not tears. Count your age by friends, not years.





 

 Do you remember?

 


 

 


 

 

The great drive-in culture of our era was a unique and fascinating experience, and a very special treat on a Saturday night. I remember my Mom making this huge paper bag full of popcorn to put on the backseat between my legs. I loved watching her salt it, and the grease stains from the butter along with the huge brown stains on the bottom of the sack. I always went in my pajamas. That was the best part of all. Then, when the sun sank down below the rim of the trees and the majestic rectangle of the movie screen, the action commenced.
 


 

There was also nothing like the snack bar. Between movies, the snack bar was Grand Central Station. And was it any wonder? They had all sorts of candy, popcorn, ice cream and soft drinks. If you needed it, they had it. If you wanted to check out the girls, go to the snack bar. If you just wanted to get away from your parents- well, snack bar city.
 

 

 
(betcha remember these, who could forget?...click arrow to start!)



 

 
 

 

                             
 

 

    
 

 

 
 

 

School Days

 (first wheels...)

 

 
 

 

Kindergarten 

(it's been said that everything you really needed to know was taught in kindergarten... )

            

 
All I Ever Really Needed To Know,


I Learned In Kindergarten 

Most of what I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain but there in the sandbox at nursery school. These are the things I learned. Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some. And draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world watch for traffic. Hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder.

Remember the little seed in the plastic cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why. But we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup they all die . And remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule. Love. Basic Sanitation. Ecology. Politics and Sane Living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes. And it is still true no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world it is best to hold hands and stick together. (Robert Fulghum)

First Grade
 

 (no worries, and a PBJ...!)
 

            
 

 

 Second Grade
 

 

 (could anything really compare to the sight and smell of a new box of crayons?)
  Don' forget to color OUTSIDE the lines!!!

3rd & 4th Grades
 

 

 (what more does one need? dodgeball and school lunches!!)
 

  
 
 

 

5th Grade
 
  (more first wheels...nothing like the wind in your hair!))

6th Grade
 

 

( the beginning of trying to figure it all out...)
 


  (well, almost always...)

It was a well known fact that girls were smarter than boys.  It didn't matter who she was; if she was female, she was smarter.
 

 

Girls were well-behaved and paid attention in class. They had good penmanship and raised their hands often. Is it any wonder why us guys would have nothing to do with them?

 


 DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN...?

All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?

It took five minutes for the TV warm up?




Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?



When a quarter was a decent allowance?

You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?

Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?

All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had
their hair done every day and wore high heels?



 

 

 How about the safe monkey bars at the playground?
(it's a wonder we made it through...)

 
 

 

                  
 

 

 
 

 

 What about those school holidays?
(life was full of tough decisions)


 

 

 

 

 Any of these look familar?

 

(and  remember summers spent trying to sell a cup for a nickel?)
 


 

 

 
 

 

  

 

Wasn't that the best ten cents you ever spent?

 

(made every girl and boy dream of becoming a pilot!)
 

How about those Root Beer floats?

 

(and dare  I say, Dine and Dash?!)

   
 
 

 

Then of course.........

 

(more of our formative years...)
 



 


 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

The Beatles very first appearance in the U.S. on The Ed Sullivan Show - 
 

 

February 9th, 1963 (click on the arrow to start...)
 

 

 

 

   
 

 

 
 

 

More wonderful memories -
 

 

 
 

 


 

 

 
 

 

 

  

 

 

 
 

 

( life's simple pleasures...)
 

                                                       
 

 

 
 

 


 

 

 
 

 


 

 

(precursor to MTV...Bo Diddley and Buddy Holly...click arrow to start)
 



 

(life seemed so simple...)
 


 

 

 
  
 

 

 

 
  Click on Willie Nelson for a flashback....

 

 

 

 
 

 

Click below to relive those 70's

 

(if you really want to!)


 



 

(in case you can't remember!)
click on the buttons to enjoy...

 


 

 

 

 

When Life was in Black & White.....and  almost everything seemed so simple then...
 

(Click on the banner below)
 

 


 

 

 

 

Aug. 15-18 1969 - 40 Years Ago......

 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 


 

 

 
 

 


 

 

 
  Check this out...it is very well done...

(if only Miss Yates History class taught me this much!)

 

Click below for a photo/music compiliation of the last 50 years -
 

 

(HINT: For Best Effect Click "Fullscreen" in the upper left)
 

 


 

Click on the Wolfman for a flashback Wolfman style...

(click play button, wait briefly..then minimize if you want to listen while multi-tasking...)

 





 

The Monkees...I'm a Believer (1966)

 



 




 



 


 

For all of those born between 1930 and 1979...

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.  They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored leadbase paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles,
locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our
bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads
.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires
and sometimes no brakes.
 
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends,
from one bottle and no one actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter, and bacon.  We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar.  And, we weren't overweight.  And WHY?
Because we were always outside playing...
that's why!
 
We would leave home in the morning and play all day,
as long as we were back wen the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day.
And, we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.  After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's and X-Boxes.
There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable,
no video movies, or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's,
no cell phones, no personal computers, no
Internet and no chat rooms.
WE HAD FRIENDS
and
WE WENT OUTSIDE AND FOUND
THEM!!
 

 
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth
and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
 
 We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
made up games with sticks and tennis balls and,
although we were told it would happen,
we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team.  Those who didn't had to learnto deal with disappointement. 
 IMAGINE THAT!! 
 The idea of a parent bailing us out of jail if we broke the law was unheard of!  They actually sided with the law!  
These generations have produced some of the
best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.
  
 The past 50 years have been an explosion
of innovation and new ideas.
 
 We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility,
and we learned how to deal with it all.
  
 If YOU are one of them?  
 CONGRATULATIONS!!  
 You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good!  
 While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were. 
The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:
'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control,
mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms
tearing up the country from one end to another,
and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks,
are we sure this is a good time to take God out
of the Pledge o
f Allegiance?'



 

Do you remember a time when...

Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"?
Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"?
"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest?
Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?


It wasn't odd to have two or three "Best Friends"?

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties"?
Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?
A foot of snow was a dream come true?


Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures?
"Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense?
Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?


The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?
War was a card game?
Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?
Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?


If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived!!!!!!!

xx



 

How Old Are You REALLY?????


(The answers are at the end, but don't cheat!!!!!!!!!!!)

 

 

1. Name the 4 Beatles. ____________, ____________, ___________, and ___________ .



 

2. Finish the line: "Lions and Tigers and Bears, ______ _____!"

3. "Hey kids, what time is it?" _____ ______ _____ _____.

4. What do M&M's do? ___ ___ ___ ___, ____ ____ ____ ____

5. What helps build strong bodies 12 ways?______ _______.

6. Long before he was Mohammed Ali, we knew him as _______ ______.

7. You'll wonder where the yellow went, ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____."

8. Post-baby boomers know Bob Denver as the Skipper's "little buddy." But we know that Bob Denver is actually Dobie's closest friend, _____ G. _____.

9. M-I-C, .... See ya' real soon, .... K-E-Y, _____ ____ _____ _____ _____!



 

10. "Brylcream: ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ _____."

11. Bob Dylan advised us never to trust anyone _____ _____.

12. From the early days of our music, real rock 'n roll, finish this line: "I wonder, wonder, wonder...wonder who ____ ______ _____ _____ _____ ____?"

13. And while we're remembering rock n' roll, try this one: "War...uh-huh, huh, ...yea; what is it good for? , ____ _____."

14. Meanwhile, back home in Metropolis, Superman fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and _____ ____ _____.

15. He came out of the University of Alabama, and became one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. He later went on to appear in a television commercial wearing women's stockings. He is Broadway _____ _______.

 



 

16. "I'm Popeye the sailor man; I'm Popeye the sailor man. I'm strong to the finish, ____ _____ ____ ___ ______, .... I'm Popeye the sailor man."

17. Your children probably recall that Peter Pan was recently played by Robin Williams, but we will always remember when Peter was played by ______ _______.

18. In a movie from the late sixties, Paul Newman played Luke, a ne'er do well who was sent to a prison camp for cutting off the heads of parking meters with a pipe cutter. When he was captured after an unsuccessful attempt to escape, the camp commander (played by Strother Martin) used this experience as a lesson for the other prisoners, and explained, "What we have here, ____ ____ ____ ____ ____."

19. In 1962, a dejected politician chastised the press after losing a race for governor while announcing his retirement from politics. "Just think, you won't have ____ ____ to kick around anymore."

20. "Every morning, at the mine, you could see him arrive; He stood six foot, six, weighed 245. Kinda' broad at the shoulder, and narrow at the hip, and everybody knew you didn't give no lip to _____ _____, _____ _____ _____."

21. "I found my thrill, _____ _____ _____."

22. ________ ________ said, "Good night, Mrs. Calabash, _____ _____ ____."

23. "Good night, David." "_____ ______,______."

24. "Liar, liar, ____ ____ _____."

25. "When it's least expected, you're elected. You're the star today. _______! _____ ______ ______ ______."

26. It was Pogo, the comic strip character, who said, "We have met the enemy, and ____ ___ ____."


"Answers"

1. John, Paul, George, Ringo
2. Oh, my!
3. It's Howdy Doody Time!
4. They melt in your mouth, not in your hand.
5. Wonder Bread
6. Cassius Clay
7. when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent
8. Maynard G. Krebbs
9. Why? Because we like you.
10. A little dab'll do ya.
11. over 30
12. who wrote the book of love
13. Absolutely nothin'
14. the American way
15. Joe Namath
16. "cause I eats me spinach"
17. Mary Martin
18. is a failure to communicate
19. Richard Nixon
20. Big John, Big Bad John
21. On Blueberry Hill
22. Wherever you are.
23. Good night, Chet.
24. pants on fire
25. you're on Candid Camera
26. he is us

 

"Scoring"

24-26 correct - 50+ years old
20-23 correct - 40's
15-19 correct - 30's
10-14 correct - 20's
0- 9 correct - You're, like, sorta a teenage dude

 

The Generation Gap

"Hey Dad," asked my son the other day, "what was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?"

"We didn't have fast food when I was growing up."

"C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?"

"We ate at home," I explained.

"My Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we all sat down together at the table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I had to sit there until I did like it."

By this time, my Son was laughing so hard I was afraid He was going to suffer some serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to get my Father's permission to leave the table.

There were other things I could have told him about my childhood if I had figured his system could handle it.

My parents never: wore Levi's, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country, flew in a plane or had a credit card.

In their later years they had something called a "revolving charge card" but they never actually used it. It was only good at Sears-Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears and Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was because soccer back then was just for the girls.

We actually did walk to school. By the time you were in the 6th grade it was not cool to ride the bus unless you lived more than 4 or 5 miles from the school, even when it was raining or there was ice or snow on the ground.

Outdoor sports consisted of stickball, snowball fights, building forts, making snowmen and sliding down hills on a piece of cardboard. No skate boards, roller blades or trail bikes.

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 12. It was, of course, black and white, but you could buy a piece of special colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third
was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day.

I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza. It was a Sam's Pizza at the East end of Fruit Street in Milford. My friend, Steve took me there to try what he called "pizza pie." When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down and plastered itself against my chin. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

Pizzas were not delivered to your house back then, but the milk was. I looked forward to winter because the cream in the milk was on top of the bottle and it would freeze and push the cap off. Of course, us kids would
get up first to get the milk and eat the frozen cream before our mother could catch us.

I never had a telephone in my room. Actually the only phone in the house was in the hallway and it was on a party line. Before you could make a call, you had to listen in to make sure someone else wasn't already using the line. If the line was not in use an Operator would come on and ask "number please" and you would give her the number you wanted to call.

There was no such thing as a computer or a hand held calculator. We were required to memorize the "times tables." Believe it or not, we were tested each week on our ability to perform mathematics with nothing but a pencil and paper. We took a spelling test every day. There was no such thing as a "social promotion." If you flunked a class, you repeated that grade the following year. Nobody was concerned about your "self esteem." We had to actually do something praiseworthy before we were praised. We learned that you had to earn respect.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and most all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered the "Milford Daily News" six days a week. It cost seven cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. On Saturday, I had to
collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut on screen. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they just didn't do that in the movies back then. I had no idea what they did in French movies. French movies were considered dirty and we weren't allowed to see them.

You never saw the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers or anyone else actually kill someone. The heroes back then would just shoot the gun out of the bad guy's hand. There was no blood and violence.

When you were sick, the Doctor actually came to your house. No, I am not making this up.

Drugs were something you purchased at a pharmacy in order to cure an illness.

If we dared to "sass" our parents, or any other grown-up, we immediately found out what soap tasted like. For more serious infractions, we learned about something called a "this hurts me more than it hurts you." I never did quite understand that one....

In those days, parents were expected to discipline their kids. There was no interference from the government. "Social Services" or "Family Services" had not been invented (the ninth and tenth amendments to the constitution were still observed in those days.)

I must be getting old because I find myself reflecting back more and more and thinking I liked it a lot better back then.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your kids or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they wet themselves laughing. Growing up today sure ain't what it used to be like in my day.