Middle Aged Memories
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Anyone remember your mom cutting your hair with a bowl over your head so it would come out right? My mom did that every year until I was going into the 5th grade. She wanted to cut my hair because it was getting beyond the way she liked it and my stepdad told her I looked very pretty with it longer. Dad won that round!
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It's so funny when something pops into your head that you have not thought of in years and years, and your brain has that one second where it thinks, "Oh, yeah, THAT!"
Tonight, this is what popped into my mind, "sewing cards." Something for a young child to develop small motor skills, and I can't remember if I had a set or if it was something that was in my kindergarten classroom. A very old memory. The pic is blurry, but this one looked familiar. Can you tell they have holes poked thru' the pics so you can sew them with yarn laces?
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QUESTION: How do you know when your "middle-aged memories" have turned into "senior memories?"
ANSWER: If your memory has anything to do with YARN or PIPE CLEANERS, you just might be a senior.
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LOL! Good observation, Elimar! I do remember sewing cards, but I can't remember if I had them or someone else.
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I remember those sewing cards. My grandmother kept some on hand for us girls to keep us out of trouble.
I remember making beaded ornaments with my mom for Christmas bazaars and for my own tree out of pipe cleaners instead of the wire people use today.
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My last entry was so innocent...sewing cards and pipe cleaners.
Conversely, I also managed to have sampled that LEGENDARY treat from the Late-1960's...the Hippy Sippys candy. Colorful little balls packaged in what looked kind of like a syringe. All the better to get your sugar fix! Best of all, it came with a pinback badge, sporting a hippie phrase. I remember having that orange one (below.) One of the most controversial candies ever! If you blinked, you probably missed it, since the FDA yanked it very quickly. Ah, the nostalgia!
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I remember the mini “jungles” my mom and grandmothers had. Starting my own jungle bit by bit.
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Elimar--I missed the hippy sippy thing entirely!
Mommy--what kind of jungle did your Mom and grandmothers have?
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The haw flakes without carcinogens still taste the same to me.
Sometimes I worry we will lose things that can't be found or reproduced properly -- like the scent of a card catalogue in the library. I also have a typewriter my DH gave me for my birthday because I missed the susurrus of my grandmother's typing. (It sounds just as good now as then.)
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I still have my Smith Corona electric typewriter. Probably never use it again but somehow have not managed to part with it yet. Even with all the years using that and more recently a computer keyboard, I still cannot break my habit of really pounding the keys like how I learned on a manual typewriter.
Remember typing class in school? Remember when they would time you to figure out your wpm? That always made me anxious and all thumbs.
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Elimar - I finally got rid of my IBM selectric 10 or 12 years ago. I couldn't find anyone who still fixed typewriters & the bouncing ball had some problems.. Even after becoming relatively fluent in "computer" - I still miss the typewriter at times.
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I remember the time tests in high school typing class! I would get all fumble fingers, too. There are typing speed tests online now that I use every once in a while for fun and curiosity. Over the years I've developed a habit of correcting my typing mistakes as I go. Does anyone else feel it when a word is mistyped? It's kind of freaky when I'm looking at copy and typing it into a document and I feel a word being typed wrong!
I used an IBM Selctric when I was in college/nursing school! I remember that machine very, very fondly. I used to type other people's term papers for extra money, and got so I could even make that thing do physical equations and all sorts of crazy stuff.I still occasionally use some of the stuff I learned, like centering, although I much prefer word processing software for that sort of thing nowadays.
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I hated Typing class. The teacher was so mean to those of us who weren't her “pets". My mom was very sympathetic so she taught me to type at home. Mom's method of teaching me was to write out a paragraph and time me as I typed until she called time, she even let me look at the keys while I typed. I did way better and much faster at home. So after that from 8th grade to high school, I type my own reports unless they had to be handwritten.
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Interesting that while I can navigate "Word" to some degree - I am absolutely REALLY fluent in "Excel". I never learned Word Perfect & I never really got good at formatting MS Word.
NM - I corrected my mistakes as I was typing - and still do.
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I still sometimes look at the keys when I type. Usually that happens when I am typing something from my own mind and not copying somethings. More often I watch the typing as it comes up on the computer screen, which is why I correct mistakes as I go, because I see them. It's funny, it was only a few years ago that I found out what the little bumps on the "F" and "J" keys were for!
Minus--I get really aggravated every time Windows comes out with a new version, it seems they change the layout of Word and Excel and all the other MS Office programs at the same time. It takes me forever to find the features I want again and re-customize the tool bars. I guess I'm just a terrible creature of habit!
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I won an award for my typing speed and accuracy in high school. Used to make money during college typing up papers for other students on my Smith Corona electric typewriter. Still very speedy on the keyboard as I did a lot of written reports, procedures, manuals, etc. in my work life. Last thing I did before retiring was to revise all the written procedures, with screen excerpts, etc. for users of one of our computer systems. Was told I should go into technical writing as a sideline. However, once retirement arrived, have not had the desire to work and fortunately not the need, either.
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I did not do well in typing class in high school so before I went to look for my first job I attended a 'secretarial school' Grace Ball Secretarial School (that's what we called them in those days). Once I had a reason to learn it I did well and typing was part of my job/s for over 40 years. It wasn't just typing speed that was needed but you had to have an awareness of graphics. So after typing for years and sweating it out, I now don't care what my typing looks like or my punctuation or spelling. Too many years of having to type letter perfect (remember the IBM typewriter that preceded the correcting Selectric? I would have to go into the office on weekends to type my boss's wife's invoices which had to be Letter Perfect. No erasing!!!
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Oh yes Cowgirl. No correction tape & no white out AND 3-8 carbon copies. UGH!!! I recently found a package of carbon paper in the bottom of my supply cabinet. Wonder if anyone would even know what it is?? Might be fun for my 4 year old niece to use for drawing, but it make such a nasty mess.
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Carbon paper...wow!!!
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Here's mine: My sister and I are spending time together. She's 65 and I'm 63. She was stretching and was frustrated that she couldn't lift her foot up to her nose when she was sitting on the floor. "Who do you think you are?", I asked. "Gumby???" We started laughing. Who remembers Gumby? And Pokey? And the Gumby song?
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oH yea - Gumby & Pokey. Thanks for the memories.
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I remember carbon paper, Gumby & Pokey as well. Now who remembers mimeographing and using a form of calculator known as a comptometer?
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I remember school papers fresh off the mimeograph machine. All the guys in my classes tried to sniff them. I hated the smudges on my hands from the ink, especially if they hadn’t had time to dry.
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I remember typing on the mimeograph masters, putting them on the drum and turning the crank to produce those smelly things. The really weird part was the liquid correction "fluid" that you had to use to fill in mistakes on the original blue master - and then try to fit it back in exactly the same place on the typewriter to add the correct letter - oh my.
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I liked the smell of mimeo ink. Probably carcinogenic, right? I don't remember this too well, but my first computer experience was typing out some Punch Cards, remember those?
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On a different note, a friend just asked me if I remembered the first time I saw color tv? Nope. But I do remember when my neighbor told me how The Wizard of Oz movie changed from b&w to color and I had no idea about that since on my tv it was b&w only. Our first color tv was a Zenith. Here's another memory tho' for Motorola.
(Can you tell "Motorola" above is a link? It barely shows up, but click on it.)
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I remember when we got a color tv, i was in elementary school. It was quite the big deal to get a color tv!
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Mood rings and being able to ride your bike all over town and hang with friends without adult supervision
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Kids doing paper routes for extra money
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Gonetruckin - we had a candy store blocks from my home in NJ that we would walk to. I was under 10 years old and after getting our candy, we would go to the elementary school, hang out on the steps, and eat our candy. As long as I was home by dinner, my parents didn't worry.
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And playing cards clipped to the spokes of our bikes with clothes pins.
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