Days gone by.....

As I sat here watching my little grandbaby playing on the floor, I wondered what things  would she remember from her childhood?  Would she remember the color of the carpet in my livingroom?  Would she remember the fabric of her Mom and Dad's couch?  Would she remember the smell of the grapes being harvested? It started me thinking of things that I remember from my own childhood.  I think my earliest memory is just an image of gray and red speckled 'something'. My Mom tells me that was the linoleum on the floor of the apartment we lived in when I was learning to crawl. 

I also remember my Mom's old electrolux vacuum ckeaner.  It looked alot like this one:

 

 

It blew warm air out the end and I used to follow her around while she vacuumed letting the warm air blow on me. I think I fell asleep sometimes, it was so warm and relaxing. I still have a couple of the attachments to that old cleaner.

 

Another thing I remember is riding our bikes outside, no helmets, in the street. We'd ride for hours, just up and down the street, down the hill through the covered bridge and see how far we could make it back up the hill before we had to get off and walk. This was before the days of gears.  We used leg muscles instead!. I also remember making "motorcycle's" out of our bikes by clipping old playing cards to the frame so they hit against the spokes. We thought we were really cool!

 

I remember helping my Mom sprinkle the clothes in preperation to ironing.  We used one of these:

 

You sprinkled them just enough to dampen them, then rolled them up in a certain way and after a few minutes they were ready to get ironed.  I know what you're thinking, and no, she didn't have to heat the iron on a stove. I'm not THAT old. We did have electricity in the 50's!.

 

Halloween was always a fun, safe time 'back in the day'. We worked for days making our Halloween costumes.  Not many people bought costumes in those days. We painted, cut, glued, sewed, salvaged and scrounged for bits and pieces. In those days it was safe to go trick-or-treating without a grownup along. The worst things we had to look out for were highschoolers throwing eggs or a loose dog or two.  There was one lady on our street that always baked the best cookies and we looked forward to them every year, at least I did.

 

I remember bundling up so much in the winter that you could barely move!  That scene from that Christmas movie was exactly how it felt!  And it never failed that as soon as we got all bundled, buttoned and booted, we had to use the bathroom!

 

I remember going to the dump with my Dad and finding all sorts of treasures.  Yep, in those days there was an area set aside for people to take their garbage and they just 'dumped' it. 

It was stinky and dirty but so much fun! We didn't actually get into the stinky stuff, just the stuff at the fringe. That's where everyone left their bigger junk cause it was too heavy to throw over the edge.  I think my sister still has some of the old metal lawn chairs my Dad found and repainted.  Like these:

 

 

In the summer, during a warm rain, we'd stand under the eave spout and 'take a shower'.  I think we ended up a little dirtier than we started but it sure was fun.

 

This time of year always reminds me of Saturday afternoons spent raking and burning leaves.  Oh, the smell of  those leaves burning.  I miss it. Our job was to keep an eye out for runaway flames while my Dad walked up and down the driveway raking and keeping the leaves in a row.

 

 

Maybe my memories have helped remind you about yours. What things do you remember from your childhood? Leave me a comment with your memories and we'll reminisce together.

 

 

I remember when......

I know 56 isn't THAT old, even though my creaking joints sometime contradict that  thought.  I was reading an article on the internet recently that spoke of things our children or grandchildren will never know or see.  That got me thinking about all the changes I've encountered over these 56 years. See if these sound familiar to you or, if you're a youngster (say 30 or younger), ask your parents.

I remember:
- when you had to get up and walk to the TV and turn a knob to change the channel or volume

-when you couldn't walk all over talking on your phone because you were tethered to the phone by a spiraled stretchy cord

-standing under the eaves  during a summer rain, no clorinated water and we didn't die from it

-when you could trick-or-treat in a group of kids and walk all over town (with out parents)  with only the fear of a teenager jumping out from behind a bush and scaring you or getting egged

-the smell of burning leaves in the fall

-watching my mom paste her green stamps in her booklet so she could take it to the store and get free stuff

-when 55 mph was fast

-when Sunday was a day for church and family

-sitting next to a record player and listening to 45's

-having play clothes, school clothes and church clothes, and you only wore them for that purpose

-helping my mom wash the clothes in a wringer washer

-when 6 pm was dinner time, without fail, and everyone sat at the table unless you were sick

-when there were only 3 TV stations and sometimes they didn't come in very well so your Dad had to climb up on the roof and turn the antenae

-when TV's first were colorized and the old lady up the street couldn't get over how beautiful the colors on Bonanza looked

-one of the cars my parents owned that had a push button transmission. I think it might have been a Dash Rambler

-wearing 2 sweaters, 2 pair of socks and 2 pair of pants and tights, under a winter coat just to play in the snow.  It took longer to suit-up than to actually play, and heaven help you if you had to go the the bathroom!

-mopping a floor with a string mop and bucket of soapy water

-when lighting the Christmas tree was a big deal because you could only leave the lights on for a short while before they got too hot.

-when telephone numbers began with letters

- when milk came in glass bottles, or in a can from the farm

-when you had to peddle your sewing machine

- when , if your parents said 'no' they meant 'no', and you didn't argue

-Clark photo lab - where you sent your camera film to be developed

-buying candy and bubble gum for a penny

-when you washed cleaning rags to use again, and again, and again

-when women wore hats to church

-when saying "because I said so" wasn't a crime

-when bicycles didn't have gears

-when spanx was what you got when you disobeyed your parents

-when you could watch TV and not see people in their underwear or using fowl language

-when dishwashers were called 'Mom' (ok, that's one thing I don't miss at all!  I think I've mentioned in another post how much I LOVE my dishwasher)

Phew, my 56 year old brain is tired. Now it's your turn.  What do you remember that your children or grandchildren will never know? I'd love to hear !!