Memories of Growing Up in the 40's and 50's (and since, even)

email | 1/4/01 (this time) | Unknown

[Vinnie]

BTW, there was a Mc Donalds in Glendale in the early 50s that served something they called a hamburger that they charged 13 cents for or $1/dozen and they wern't worth half of that!

Isn't that the truth. A friend and I drove across Greater Miami, about 30 miles, to the first McDonalds, circa 1958, to try this hamburger we had heard so much about. I got a burger and a shake. ARRGH

I've eaten many McDoalds burgers since then but never had another milkshake. We were spoiled on real soda fountain food and drinks.

My favorite was the chocolate coke, had to be fountain made though.

My first portable radio used a 'B' battery and was 110 volts. It would last about 6 hrs. if I was lucky, and the batteries were about $3 each. Big money back then.

[ErnBatavia]

[slimer]

Thanks for the memories.

I saw a theater play called "Boomers" in San Diego a few months back. It replayed the era from the fifties to the present through music and talk. It was wonderful and brought tears to my eyes.

God Bless.

[Ex-Wretch]

"....I don't remember the shoe-locs, but I do remember you cool guys with your cleats and your cigatettes rolled up in your sleeves."

heheh! I was a jock (and thought kids smoking was despicable)! Also, remember guys with ducktail haircuts? They were not allowed at my grammar school. Lots of crew-cuts and flat-tops though :)

[Fiddlstix]

Great Post

[Exit148]

OK -- enough of you 40's kiddies. '31 here.

How about all your books in your own desk at school, and if you were at someone elses desk, you wouldn't even think of peeking in.

Jack Armstrong, Henry Aldrich (couldn't stand the wimp), The Shadow, The Green Hornet. Oh how our imagination was allowed to flourish.

Paper dolls? Anyone remember them? Penny loafers? P-Jackets?

Of course Pearl Harbor meant the start of 'stars' in the windows, and every gold star meant that a serviceman from that family had died.

Howard Johnson was the standard and when MacDonalds came by years later, they were intruders. "Over 10,000 sold!!" So big deal what, I thought!

I have decided, that with all the wonders we have now, the remote, microwave oven, internet, ATMs ----whatever ----the best invention of all is ----Kleenex!! (I'm just getting over the cold of the century, so I am an expert on this!)

And when we left home for college or some sort of higher learning, the most complicated, sophisticated thing we brought with us was a portable radio!

Would I go back? In a second ------- but just to visit. LOL!

[Ex-Wretch]

Don't forget Garfield Goose and Bozo(or was that just a Chicago thing?)

[Ex-Wretch]

"Jim? I think he "outed" himself and moved to San Francisco..."

Is that a fact? I always thought ole Jim was kinda prissy!

[eeriegeno]

According to John McCain, Bozo is still on the air at the EIB network. heh heh.

[Conservababe]

Waist cinchers? No, I never wore them. The starched layers of net petticoats under the poodle skirt was torture enough for me.

[Vinnie]

The starched layers of net petticoats under the poodle skirt was torture enough for me.

ME too!! (G)

[Dr. Luv]

I have a great deal of cherised memories - mostly my mothers cooking and the smell of the south in the summer. I live in NYC now, and although I wouldn't trade this great place or time for anything, I sure miss those smells...

[GrandMoM]

....I grew up in Detriot, and black people were our friends and neighbors, but my parents wouldn't let us talk or be friends with Lutheren or Prespetarin (sp).

To this day I love Motown music.

I had a great childhood!

[tubebender]

Was born in 33 in western Fresno County and my first encounter with "Fast Food" was a little trailer on Main Street that sold burgers, hot dogs and the BEST DAMN TACOS" ever. This was in the late 40s in San Joaquin Ca. The town looks like a third world hell hole today. My first pizza was in Redding Ca in 1956 at a place called Sharkeys I believe.

[M. Peach]

What a fantastic read - it was very entertaining.

Did anyone ever raid the neighbor's pomogranate tree?

Huh, no one? ummmmm never mind - move along, nothing to see here...

[BooBoo1000]

Ahw you childdren do not remember the real cool times, I was born 1929, and we would fly home to listen to Buck Rogers, and Jack Armstrong the "All American Boy" You had to have a piece of paper and pencil ready as they sent you the secret message and you had to have a decoder ring to figure out the message. still have my decoder ring but have not received any messages lately.
Singing in the Bath Tub singing for Joy, living the life of Life Boy, can't help singing cus I know Life Boy really stops/ B..O.
Do you remember when it was illegal to sell colored Margarine, you had to buy this gray pasty mess, and they gave you a color bubble, and you had to mix the two together to get the margarine to look Yellow. Thanks to the American Dairy Association, who got that law passed.

First automated washing machine I saw had a gasoline engine running it.

[Ex-Wretch]

Well, I never wore em, but I remember when nylons had a dark line that ran down the back of women's legs. I guess that's pre-pantyhose.

[Conservababe]

I agree. When we have a really humid misty day here in Missouri, I call it a "south Louisiana day" because I can actually smell the dirt.

[wardaddy]

We were taught that only the white trash called a colored person that. We got it.

You and me both....the N word would get me a quick spanking. Of course by today's lofty (and ever decreasing threshold) standards....my dad and grandad...both who took a stand for civil rights(in Mississippi where it mattered as opposed to the NE were it didn't..much) would now be considered racist for things they barely ever imagined would "qualify" them as such. Times have changed for the better and worse.