A few days ago somebody sent me a great video about life in the fifties, when I was a kid. I really loved it, but a bunch of stuff was missing, so here is my version. If you want some music to play in the background, click on this video. If not, just read the text below it.
Close your eyes .… And go back…..
Way back….
Before the Internet or PCs or the MAC.
Before semi-automatics and crack.…
Before Playstation, SEGA, Super Nintendo, even before Atari.…
Before cell phones, CDs, DVDs, answering machines, voicemail and e-mail…
Go way back….way….way….way back…
I’m talking about playing hide and seek at dusk.
Red Light, Green Light
Red Rover….Red Rover.
Playing hide and seek or kickball until the first…no..second…no….third street light came on.
Ring around the Rosie.
London Bridge.
Hot Potato.
Hop Scotch.
Dodge Ball.
YOU’RE IT!!
Parents stood on the front porch and yelled (or whistled) for you to come home, and you did, immediately – no pagers or cell phones.
Take One Giant Step.
May I?
Looking for shapes in the clouds.
Endless summer days and hot summer nights (No Air Conditioning) with the windows open.
Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer On The Wall.
Berma Shave signs.
Ipana tooth past and Buckie Beaver.
Catching tadpoles.
The sound of crickets.
Running through the sprinkler.
Cereal boxes with that GREAT prize in the bottom.
Cracker Jacks with the same thing.
Ice Pops with 2 sticks that you could break and share with a friend, or not.
But wait……..there’s more.
Watching Saturday morning cartoons, Tom and Jerry, serial adventures, Captain Midnight, Flash Gordon, Space Patrol, The Cisco Kid, The Lone Ranger, Boston Blackie, Howdy Dooty.
Having the Sunday Comics read on the radio, while you followed along.
Black and White TVs, with little screens and rabbit ears on the top. If you could afford it, an antennae on the roof for better reception.
Catching lightning bugs in a jar.
Christmas morning.
Your first day of school.
Bedtime Prayers and Goodnight Kisses.
Climbing trees.
Swinging as high as you could in those long swings to try and reach the sky.
A million mosquito bites.
Sticky fingers.
Burning trash in the back yard incinerator.
Jumping down the steps.
Metal skates that you strapped to your shoes and adjusted with skate keys.
Jumping on the bed.
Pillow fights.
Running home from the western movie you just saw ‘til you were out of breath.
Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt.
Being tired from PLAYING.
WORK: meant taking out the garbage, cutting the grass, washing the car, or doing the dishes.
Your first crush. It hurt and felt good at the same time.
Your first kiss. (I mean the one that you kept your mouth CLOSED and your eyes OPEN.)
Rainy days at school and the smell of damp concrete and chalk erasers.
The wonderful smell of mimeograph papers.
But, I’m not finished yet.
Kool-Aid was the drink of the summer.
So was a swig from the hose. (Remember the taste?)
Giving your friends a ride on the handlebars of your bike.
Making tunnels in the tall grass or building a fort out of cardboard boxes.
If you were real lucky, you had a tree house, or your best friend did.
Attaching playing cards to your bike frame to rub against your spokes.
Wearing your new shoes on the first day of school.
Class Field Trips with soggy sandwiches.
When nearly everyone’s mom was at home when kids got home from school.
Cowboys and Indians.
Cops and Robbers.
When a quarter seemed like a fair allowance, and another quarter a MIRACLE.
When ANY parent could discipline ANY kid, or feed them or use them to carry groceries…… And nobody, not event the kid, thought a thing of it.
Teachers could spank you if you were bad in class. The could even use a paddle if you were really bad and your parents didn’t complain to the principal.
When your parents took you to the cafeteria and it was a real treat.
When being sent to the principal’s office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited you at home.
Basically, we were in fear of our lives, but it wasn’t because of drive by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. We simply did not want our parents to get mad at us when we screwed up.
Didn’t that feel good?
Just to go back and say, “Yeah, I remember that!”
Well, let’s keep going then!!
Let’s go back to the time when….
Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, “Do Over!”
“Race Issues” meant arguing about who ran the fastest.
Catching 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.
Nobody was prettier than Mom.
Scrapes and bruises were kissed by Mom and made better.
Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.
Abilities were discovered because of a “Double-Dog-Dare.”
Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.
The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.
Water balloons were the ultimate, ultimate weapons.
If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived during a more pleasant, simpler time! I wonder how many of you that read this remember all of these things.
Those of you who remember lived in an era that no one else will ever experience. The era has passed and slowly those of us who lived it are passing also.
If you don’t remember, then ask your parents, grand parents or great grand parents.
We went from AM radio to the stars. Your era is here, be part of it. Make it worthwhile for future generations to build on.
KEEP GOD IN YOUR LIVES.
That sure brought back memories!
That was LIVING, and enjoying life.
I really pity the youth of today, they`ve forgotten how to live!
This brought back so many memories, especially remembering the taste of water from the garden hose. It did have a very distinct taste! I hadn’t thought of that in years!
It is bittersweet because you are right, a generation now will never experience many of those things. It will be fun to tell stories of those events to our grandchildren and watch their eyes get big as they ask questions about what it was like to not have air conditioning and to turn your pillow over to the cool side! Thanks for the memories…..
It was wonderful being a kid then. And your parents didn’t have to worry about some weirdo kidnapping you. My father could whistle so loud I could hear him two blocks from home. When he did, I came running.
You forgot Wednesday afternoon movies during the summer. In my hometown every Wednesday afternoon during summer we went to the Fox Theater and for a quarter we saw two feature Tarzan or Gene Autry or Roy Rogers movies, a Three Stooges short and a bunch of cartoons. The afternoon began with a trip to the Ben Franklin Five & Dime where we loaded up a bag of candy for a dime. Dad picked us up afterward on the way home from work. He got off at the same time everyday and never missed dinner with the family at the same time each night. I was born in the ’50s but growing up in the ’60s was just about the same as you describe. The other thing I remember is everyone in my family sitting in the living room together and watching TV in the evening. Remember when we all watched the variety shows and family-friendly comedies together on one of the four TV stations available? I’m truly sorry my children missed so many of these experiences.
We didn’t have Wednesday afternoon movies, but I also remember the family watching evening TV programs. They were great, especially Ed Sullivan, who had Topo Gigio and lots of stars on the program.
Gary,
You have opened up so many memories. BTW I love the music, very appropriate.
I was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1940. Life was so simple. No TV, no telephone,& no central heating, No fast food restaurants.
Our mailman delivered mail 3 times a day on his bicycle, all year round! Our bread, milk & meat were delived by horse and cart, even when there was snow and ice on the roads.
We played outside winter and summer after our chores were done. We earned our pocket money, and saved most of it.
My dad owned a television store way back when. His shop got the first color tv in town and I remember so many of the townfolk coming to the shop that first night (us kids in our pj’s) and we watched a Shirley Temple movie and Howdy Doody IN COLOR! Well at least we watched it in red and green . . .
We especially loved spending the weekends with grandparents who took the time to take us place we might not have ordinarily have gotten to go. The huge screen in SF (Fox?) to see South Pacific, the Ice Capades in SF, the Opera House in SF. Of course, coming from a small town like Napa – all this was magic to us.
New school clothes and shoes were always a delight to get.
Barbie dolls were cool back then.
Falling in love in grade school meant getting a note and maybe a ring from that favorite guy – and never having to say another word to him. It was just understood we liked each other and were “going steady”, haaaaa!
Wax candy with juice on the inside!
The drive-in was popular even as little kids when mom and dad would put us in those pj’s and plop us in the back seat, soon to fall asleep. But then we turned into teenagers and that Drive-in changed COMPLETELY!!
Wrapping yarn around our boyfriends ring so that it would stay on our fingers.
Hula Hoops were all that and more! Slinkies, Yoyo’s,
But parcheesi, bingo, 20 questions, word games, bridge, jig saw puzzles, popcorn and fondue were all things we did in front of the fire with our parents.
Pegged jeans and your dad’s white shirts with velvet loafers made you pretty cool. The granny dresses were next, at least until the mini-skirt hit the fashion world with black net stockings and frosted lipstick with ratted hair.
The flip, the bubble and Cher hair were all popular through the years.
Yikes – I quit! I could go on forever it seems. Now I’ll be thinking about this stuff for days now.
Wow, some more good stuff from Iris and Ellen. One thing I didn’t put in was party lines. We didn’t have one because our phone was also my Dad’s business line. We always answered, Andresen’s. Anyway, my best friend down the street was on a party line with a very hot blond girl that lived next door. Her name was Marilyn. We would unscrew the mouthpiece on his parents phone and remove the part inside that you talk into, then listen to her conversations. She was a few years older than us, so when we were kids of twelve or thirteen, it was lots of fun. It was a good thing she never figured it out because she had to older brothers we would have had to deal with. Oh yes, memories of youth, when times were much simpler and definitely better than today’s crazy and politically correct world.
Gary,
Thanks so much for “Lost in the Fifties”. It brings back so many fond memories-growing up when things were so much simpler, and you enjoyed life. At that time you never realzize all the things that will take place in your life as you grow older and reach adulthood.
I have a wonderful life now with a great husband (of 42 years)family and friends, but when you hear music like that the nostalga returns to a very happy time growning up!!!
Gary,
Thank Georgia for sending your blog to us. It really did bring back some very good and innocent times. I wish our children and grandchildren could have been as lucky as we were then.
I,too, would spend all day outside, riding my stick horse and playing with my friends in the neighborhood. We lived in a desert town and would go riding through the oil fields with tumbleweeds all around. Summers were very hot, but, as kids, it was still great to play outside. We also had great matinees with serials every weekend without our parents worrying about our safety.
Those were the wonderfully innocent years!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the memories, Gary!!
Dee
How about the milk delivered to our doors? Tang orange drink? Colored pencils were a luxury to be craved. Attic fans. Candy cigarettes.