Middle Aged Memories
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MInusTwo, I loved the way the playing cards made that click, click, click sound on the spokes. Did you try the balloon version? More of a flub, flub, flub.
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No I never tried balloons. What a kick!!!
Just got my fall Vermont Country Store catalog. I had a wonderful time looking through all the old favorites. Did anyone else have a Lanz nightgown? I begged for some time in elementary school before I got one because they were expensive (in the day).
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I don't remember the Lanz nightgown but I do love looking through the Vermont Country Store catalog! Evening in Paris and Emeraude perfume, pine tar soap, bag balm!
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I love looking at my Vermont Country Store catalog too.
Mom makingus either a sweater or a new nightgown for Christmas.
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I turned down the page for Evening of Paris again this catalog - as I do every time. I rode my bike to Woolworths to get my first bottle after saving my allowance for months. I'd love to smell it again but I just can't justify $59 for an olfactory memory
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I’m a Wind Song and Chantilly gal. My paternal grandmother wore those and I have always loved the smell. I have both perfumes.
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My grandmother wore White Shoulders. My mother usually wore Blue Grass or Arpege.
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I had to look up what a Lanz was. I had never heard of it before.
But as far as old colognes go (which I know we posted about on this thread probably 50 pages ago,) it is a tricky proposition whether to buy one of those fragrances nowadays. I took a chance on Oh! de London about 10 years ago. That cologne was discontinued, but supposedly some company bought the proprietary formula from Yardley and was claiming it was the real deal. I bought a tiny 1/2 ounce bottle. Well...what a disappointment! It smelled nothing like it. Did my nose change for the worse? Maybe. Or, they just could not make it smell good like it used to back in its mod heyday. Scent memory is very primal. I think I would just weep if I ever smelled this authentic scent again because of the memories I have of it.
I smelled some Emeraude recently a few years ago and that smelled just as I had remembered. My aunt always gave me Chantilly at Xmas. Was not a fan, but now I am kind of nostalgic for it. My mom Wore White Shoulders and Chanel No. 9. A neighbor's dad gave me some Nina Ricci L'Air du Temps cologne that "fell off a truck." Some colognes I wore in my youth were Jungle Gardenia, Muguet de Bois, Coty's Sweet Earth scents, and those essential oils that you could buy at "head shops." Remember that Avon cologne, Hawaiian White Ginger? Not a big fan, but I must have felt sorry for those Avon pushers at least once because I did have a bottle of it. (Side note: Who didn't love those tiny Avon sample lipsticks as a kid?) Charlie cologne had that popular ad campaign, but p.u., my nose never cared for it at all. In the 80's, I was all about Obsession and Opium, and I can still detect someone wearing those scents a city block away.
Check out the ad below. Recognize Olivia Hussey? What young girl wouldn't want to wear the scent that the 60's "Juliet" was advertising? I wish you could read the fine print ad copy. Your young girl self would be totally sold on it!
I still have a very good nose. It's a blessing and a curse.
As a public service announcement , I have to write this to all you women of my age: A certain percentage of you have lost your sense of smell and have no idea how much scent your cologne is giving off, so go real easy on it. Thank you.
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Agree about the blessing & curse of a good nose. Mostly I'm glad that I can smell anything & everything.
Thanks for the L'Air du Temps reminder. I wore that most of my high school & young married years. In fact, except for an occasional foray into Channel # 5, the Nina Ricci is the only cologne I wore until I switched to Oscar de la Renta around age 45. But I do still have a very old bottle of a gardenia scent that I need to throw away. Sigh!!!
Good advice about the strength of the scent. I rarely wear anything anymore. And I use Cera Ve lotion and cream that has no scent.
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I loved Avon’s Hawaiian White Ginger. I have a small bottle of it when they brought it back in the late 90s or early 2000s. I use it sparingly. The one perfume I cannot stand and I have a bottle of it is Charlie. I love Jean Nate too. My paternal grandmother wore that, I have a bottle of the After Bath Mist.
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Remember when the musk scent was a thing? Jovan had popular ones for both women and men. Oh, and most of you probably remember a cologne called 4711...well, that is not only a middle-aged memory, but a Georgian/Victorian memory because that scent has been around for 200 years!!!
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Actually, what I popped back in for today was to share the memory of Trixie Belden, like Nancy Drew, but perkier! My mom bought me a few of the books, including this one with a weird cover. I don't remember the story tho'.
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Hi Eil - Great to see you. Hope you are doing OK.
I don't remember Trixie Belden, but wasn't there a nurse series like Nancy Drew?
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There was a nurse series of books-- Cherry Ames
I don't remember Trixie Belden. I do remember Nancy Drew and another mystery series, about 2 brothers, the name escapes me right now.
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Yup - Cherry Ames is the series my nurse BFF read as a kid. The boys series my brother read was The Hardy Boys, although we had some older books too since that series started in 1927.
I was surprised to note that Nancy Drew first appeared in 1930. I have 3 Nancy Drew books on my shelves from 1934 - 1949. One has an inscription to me for my birthday in 1954 so I can tell when I was reading them.
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minus, how cool to have an inscription in your book so that you can remember when your received it. I loved the Bobbsey Twins books. Oh, my! Those were great. Nan and Bert and Flossie and Freddie, right?
Carol
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Did anyone have the Boxcar Children? I read them as a child and was fascinated by the concept of orphaned children on their own. Add to that they lived in an abandoned box car and I was transported. They are aimed at children grades 2-6 so I'm looking forward to gifting them to my grandchildren.
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Young adult sleuthing books...I read a lot of HARRIET THE SPY and ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN too.
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Did you ever remember something from childhood and mention it to others only to be met with pitying stares that you just might be losing your mind? Every time I mentioned going "the show" (how we referred to movie theaters in the common neighborhood tongue) and seeing a horror movie that would flash red onto the screen right before something scary happened so that the audience could cover their eyes, people thought I made it up, dreamed it, or was having a strange psychosis.
Well, HA...a Halloween miracle has just occurred! I just saw it on television this morning. (Thank you TMC!) The movie was and still is...
Time has disproven that bold claim and the "fear flasher" never became a thing. Now as a kid, I probably closed my eyes, but today I kept them open. The funny thing was nothing horrible was actually shown on screen. It was implied (think the shower stabbing scene in PSYCHO) but no actual scar-for-life gore horror was even shown. My thought was, "Wow, how clever, if the whole audience closed their eyes, no one would know that they saved tons of money by having no actual horror effects."
CHAMBER OF HORRORS...so cheesy. Do I want that hour and a half of today back? Of course not, because proving that my brain is not going bad is always time well spent.
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I remember having those Lanz nightgowns. L'Air du Temps was my mother's favorite and I have her empty Lalique designed bottle with the Doves on the stopper. Good memories.
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I'm still thinking about going to the movies (and that includes sneaking into the drive-in, on foot.) I may have forgotten some of the films, but I will always remember the animated intermission...featuring the "jumping hot dog," and (spoiler alert) the big finish where he jumps into the bun.
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My parents would not let us go to the drive in. Not chaperoned enough. Finally when I was a senior in high school, they let me go on a double date with a guy they knew was just as friend so nothing "bad" could happen. We weren't allowed to go to a bowling alley either.
I've been having a wonderful evening playing 'name that tune' with my cousin in another state. One of us sends an email with one line of lyrics from a musical as a clue and the other has to guess the song & see if we can still remember all the words. Needless to say both of our Mothers sang all the time so we know lots of old, dated songs. (think Tea for Two from 1924)
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@MT, Isn't there still one or more threads on BCO having to do with songs/song lyrics/guess the song?
Today I thought of a movie I probably have not thought of in close to 50 years...THE THREE LIVES OF THOMASINA. It's Disney, before they got so heavily into princesses.
I was also thinking about another called BILLIE, where Patty Duke was a tomboy on a boys' track team. Back then, a film could be "woke" for maybe five minutes before slipping back into 60's stereotype slumber.
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Haha! I remember Thomasina!
Here's another one I read on another thread today: Kelly Girl. Were any of you ever a Kelly Girl? I wasn't but I had a roommate who was.
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Here's a nostalgic Christmas gift idea for your loved ones...
I found this because I first thought about another cigarette slogan: "LSMFT." Can you name the brand? No Google cheating!
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LSMFT, Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco
My parents smoked Kools (mother) and Chesterfield (father).
At nearly 81, I'm a bit past middle aged but couldn't resist responding!!!
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OK - Beaver beat me. But of course I remember LSMFT.
Smoked from age 20 to age 63. Started with Kents because that's what my boyfriend's father smoked. Smoked Virginia Slims for many years. (You've come a long way baby). Ended up with Benson & Hedges. Quit in 2007 but I still miss it. Not every day & not frantic, but at least once a week I remember how much I loved smoking.
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Oh, man, I wish I could remember! I do remember the ad - just not the product. How about, "I'd walk a mile for a ???" Was it Camel? Now I have all these jingles going through my head. Do you remember the jingle, "For a __________ it's a __________... and it goes on. The ending is something like "For a _______ it's the Parliament, for a smoker, it's a Kent." That's all I remember of that. Will probably have those stuck in my head all day now. LOL
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"I'd walk a mile for a mild, mild Camel." Sorry I don't know the 2nd one. But you're right about earworms that get stuck.
Since elimer never enforced a "strict" definition of middle age - thought I'd share these ages from the AARP bulletin: Snoop Dog is 50; Wynton Marsalis is 60; Meg Ryan is 60; John Mellencamp is 70; Paul Simon is 80; Chubby Checker is 80. I can't believe that one. Last year was the 60th anniversary of "The Twist".
Edited to add - I think this must be the Kent commercial you're talking about. Funny - I smoked Kent for a lot of years before Virginia Slims, but don't remember this ad.
https://sonichits.com/video/Kent_Cigarettes/Radio_...
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Paul Simon is 80! I can't believe it.
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Yeah Cowgirl - blew my mind too. Joan Baez is 80 also.
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