[Tomorrow is my 62nd birthday, and I start collecting Social Security. Thank
you to all who are working hard to support me, since FDR and Congress lied
and never did put any of MY money into an “untouchable” fund so it would be
here at retirement with interest and no burden on society. Instead of
cussing out the good ol’ boys, read this and laugh a bit.]
‘Someone asked 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,’ I informed him. ‘All the
food was slow.’
‘C’mon, seriously. Where did you eat?’
‘It was a place called ‘at home,” I explained. ‘Mom cooked every day and
when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table,
and if I didn’t like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there
until I did like it.’
By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to
suffer serious internal damage, so I didn’t tell him the part about how I
had to have permission to leave the table.
But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I
figured his system could have handled it:
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, NEVER wore Levis, NEVER set foot
on a golf course, NEVER traveled out of the country and NEVER had a credit
card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge
card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears &
Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.
My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we
never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds,
and only had one speed, (slow). We didn’t have a television in our house
until I was 14. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off
the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God;
it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. And there was usually a locally
produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.
I was 16 before I tasted my first pizza; it was called ‘pizza pie’. When I
bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung
down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It’s still the
best pizza I ever had.
I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the
living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to
listen and make sure some people you didn’t know weren’t already using the
line. Our number in 1952 (had to memorize it for kindergarten) was Hi (for
highland) 2324
Pizzas were not delivered to our home but milk was. All newspapers were
delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers –my brother delivered a
newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep
2 cents. He had to get up at 6AM every morning. On Saturday, he had to
collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the
ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His least
favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection
day.
Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies.
There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for
everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything
offensive.
If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to
share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don’t
blame me if they bust a gut laughing.
Here are some memories of growing up in the post WWII Baby Boom. How many
of these bring back some good memories for you?
Royal Crown Cola bottle with a stopper with a bunch of holes in it
Head lights dimmer switches on the floor; ignition switches on the dashboard
Real ice boxes
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.
Blackjack chewing gum
Wax Coke-shaped tiny bottles with colored sugar water
Candy cigarettes
Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
Party lines on the telephone
Newsreels before the movie
P.F. Flyers
Butch wax
TV/Radio dial that actually was a dial
Rotary phones
Peashooters
Howdy Doody
45 RPM records
S& H Greenstamps
Hi-fi’s
Metal ice trays with lever
Mimeograph paper (I can still smell it . . . )
Blue flashbulb
Packard’s
Roller skate keys
Cork popguns
Drive-in movies
Wash tub wringers
I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of
my life.
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
[email protected] www.grif.net
“Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!”