Middle Aged Memories

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  • m0mmyof3
    m0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,758

    My mom giving me hair cuts with a bowl over my head so she could make it come out even. I finally put an end to it when I finished 4th grade.

    Remember the electronic game Simon? My sister went through 4 of them! And how impossible it was to solve the Rubik’s Cube? I used to take the stickers off my sister’s very carefully and put them in the right places. She used to get so mad about finding it after my “fixes”.


  • nativemainer
    nativemainer Member Posts: 7,923

    LOL!!!


  • m0mmyof3
    m0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,758

    I was totally evil as a kid!

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,357

    I know I'm older than most of you, but here are some memories.

    I was the only girl in my neighborhood full of little boys. Even though I was a bit older, they always made me be the Indian when we played cowboys. I finally convinced my Mother to buy me a cap pistol so I could be "equal".

    We're talking early 1950s here when we only had a radio - no TV. And we listened to The Lone Ranger, Sgt Preston of the Yukon, Fibber McGee & Molly, Burns & Allen, Roy Rogers.

    When I was sick & missed school, my Mother would make homemade clay with flour & salt & water - years before PlayDoh. I'd listen to Our Miss Brooks and My Little Margie and play with my paper dolls

    When my Grandparents came to visit, their favorite was the Guy Lombardo show. And of course after we finally got a TV - Lawrence Welk. Remember those little Lennon Sisters?

  • nativemainer
    nativemainer Member Posts: 7,923

    I remember theLawrence Welk show, it was a weekend staple in my house when I was growing up. The Lennon Sisters, Norma Zimmer, Cissy and Bobby. That show had an elegance that other variety/music shows didn't.

  • m0mmyof3
    m0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,758

    My step-grandma introducing me to Shakespeare. Se started me off with Romeo and Juliet. Ever since then, I love reading his works.

  • tectonicshift
    tectonicshift Member Posts: 102

    Who remembers SRA? You know, with the colors?



  • nativemainer
    nativemainer Member Posts: 7,923

    I do remember SRA! Never knew what the colors meant, though.

    And I love reading Shakespeare, and seeing the plays acted.


  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,357

    I was astounded at the creation date of some of our foods. My Mother always made the green beans with mushroom soup casserole for Thanksgiving, but I would never have guessed 1934,

    Campbell's Mushroom Soup - 1934; Tater Tots - 1953; Pop Tarts & Spaghettios - 1965; Cool Whip - 1966; the Crock-Pot - 1971; Famous Amos cookies - 1975; Lean Cuisine - 1981.

  • m0mmyof3
    m0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,758

    Every Thursday on my local morning news they show a commercial from the past that are suggested by viewers. Some remember and others are before my time.

  • nativemainer
    nativemainer Member Posts: 7,923

    Good heavens, some of those are older than I am!

  • cm2020
    cm2020 Member Posts: 530

    I haven't read through the entire thread so I am sorry if this has been mentioned, but I remember (70s) riding my bike with my friends while we all pretended to smoke our candy cigarettes.

    Also, at Christmas, my mother always had that super hard "ribbon candy".

  • SoulShine1969
    SoulShine1969 Member Posts: 2,843

    I remember candy cigarettes! There were the hard candy kind with the red “ember” tip, and the bubblegum kind in the paper. I liked the bubblegum kind because you could blow a puff of “smoke” from the powder between the gum and the paper.

    I also remember ribbon candy. My grandmother always had a ceramic Christmas candy dish filled with pretty ribbon candy. It was always stuck together and had to be chiseled apart with a tool. She could have just put the whole candy dish with the candy away at the end of the season and brought it back out every Christmas because it was nearly impossible to pry any off the dish.

  • m0mmyof3
    m0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,758

    I remember helping my mom bake and make candy for Christmas. My mother would make me prep the cookie sheets for her peanut brittle and gather the ingredients for her other recipes.

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,357

    My Dad loved that ribbon candy, and you're right SoulShine. It was impossible to separate.

    Yup NM, I've revealed myself as definitely "older". I wasn't here in 1936 but thought the Campbell's soup beginnings were too interesting to skip.

  • cm2020
    cm2020 Member Posts: 530

    SoulShine1969.......OMG! You are so right about the ribbon candy! When I was writing my post I thought about that but had no clue how to describe and also wondered if it was just ours. Good to know it wasn't. I laughed at your grandmother could just have brought out the same dish of it every year. I don't remember anyone ever actually eating it at my house either and now I wonder if my mom did that. You were cool with your "cigarettes"! I never thought of doing that to look like smoke.

    These are such great old memories. I need to go through and read the entire thread.

    Here's another one........sitting by the radio for hours and hours just hoping to hear your favorite song played. Then, grabbing the cassette recorder and recording it off the radio as it played. Of course, maybe that was just me!

  • cowgirl13
    cowgirl13 Member Posts: 782

    I remember going to the movies for 10 cents and popcorn was 5 cents!

  • m0mmyof3
    m0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,758

    CM, I did that too!

    Covering your school books in brown paper bags.

  • nativemainer
    nativemainer Member Posts: 7,923

    SoulShine--I remember recording songs off the radio onto a cassette recorder, and theme songs to favorite TV shows, too!

    Mommyof2--I remember covering school books, too. If your family was well off, the kids got "boughten" book covers. The rest of us used brown paper grocery bags.

    I still like Ribbon Candy, breaking it up is part of the fun! Hard to find now a days, though. My Mom used to put out a bowl of mixed nuts in the shell with a couple of nutcrackers at Christmas. One year she did put the bowl back up on the top shelf of the cupboard without emptying it first. When she pulled it down the next year there were more nuts from the acorn tree outside the house in the bowl along with other rodent "evidence". She was MORTIFIED!



  • m0mmyof3
    m0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,758

    Native, I had no choice. My mom was very frugal. Plus it was nice to customize it the way I liked to do it.

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,357

    Yup - I had brown grocery bag book covers.

    You can still buy old time candies like the ribbon at Vermont Country Store. Fun to look at all the old things. One is a Lanz nightgown. Oh how I wanted one of those, but too expensive.

  • m0mmyof3
    m0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,758

    I love Vermont Country Store. I get the Old Goat pain reliever for my arthritis.

  • micmel
    micmel Member Posts: 10,057

    Betty Crocker Baker Oven. Electronic Simon says....pop rocks ....the electric company show Saturday ....the game of life.....Sergio valente jeans...moccasins that lace up. Care Bears.....round metal disc sleds (dangerous) ..man hunt in the neighborhood.....Truth or dare.... Bugs bunny...fog horn leg horn.....too many to remember! Good times though.

  • m0mmyof3
    m0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,758

    I loved the last day in elementary school. It was always a half day!

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,357

    Mommy - I have looked at that "old goat" pain reliever several times but never ordered. Does it work?

  • WC3
    WC3 Member Posts: 658

    Speaking of Campbell's soup, just a little interesting tidbit I learned a while back:

    Apparently Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup was originally marketed as Campbell's Noodle Soup with Chicken, and didn't sell well until a radio broadcaster slipped up and called it Chicken Noodle soup and people began buying the soup in droves to find out just what a chicken noodle was. Or so goes the story.

    A lot of household name American food products have interesting histories. Corn Flakes began from a messed up batch of wheat biscuits during the sanitarium movement.

  • m0mmyof3
    m0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,758

    Minus, it works for me.

  • cm2020
    cm2020 Member Posts: 530

    WC3...What interesting stories! Did you stumble upon these are is there a cool website where you can read all about it?

    Add me to the list that loves The Vermont Country Store. I just got my daughter some Snoopy sheets from there. They are so well made and she loves them.

  • WC3
    WC3 Member Posts: 658

    cm2020:

    I don't recall the exact sources of those two but if you are a fan of interesting little facts like that then I highly recommend two books:

    Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things

    When Did Poodles Roam The Earth?


  • cm2020
    cm2020 Member Posts: 530

    WC3...thank you!