Middle Aged Memories
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I had Shrinky Dinks as a kid, loved all things crafty. The "plastic" would shrink in the oven, very cool. They still make them and if you go on Pintrest you can find directions on how to create your own from the plastic containers they use salad bars.
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BookLady - ha ha. But I didn't have Edibles so maybe I got cancer from not wearing a bike helmet? Or riding in the back of a pick up truck? It must be my own fault, right?? (not) Thanks for my laugh of the day.
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Elimar - Oh, man, is this the LittlestSnowman With the Red Candy Heart, and the fire, and Johnny? I have a Christmas album with Captain Kangeroo reading this, backed up by a choir - I'm crying just thinking of it! Linda
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NativeMaine and elimar you made my Christmas! The best surprise, ever! Thank you. I LOVED Caprain Kangeroo. And Mr. Moose. And Bunny Rabbit. ✌️❤️ Linda
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I was watching Portlandia last night and saw a GRAVEL ART picture that we had in the 70's...
As you know, Gravel Art, was from the epoch directly preceding Sand Art. My mom was not an artist but she did do a few paint-by-numbers in her time. By the 70's, she had moved on to the vanguard crafting-art of the time, exchanging her oils for gravel and glue. I think I was allowed to help (much like Michelangelo had his acolytes) but it was precision work that did not lend itself to my dumb and clumsy hands. What she finally turned out was a lovely gravel cornucopia with gravel fruits and vegetables backed with a fine woven burlap. Oh, how I remember the delicacy of those gravel watermelon seeds, precisely five grains of gravel for each one...
Anyway, Portlandia had the actual one that we had (where the grapes were not gravel, but half-ovals of shiny plastic,) but I couldn't find an internet pic of that one. Here's similar one (see below.) Ours hung in the dining room for a few years until the glue got brittle on those grapes and they started to fall like autumn leaves.
And who can forget these Mid-Century Modern Classics?
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Eli!! The bottom right picture......we had a similar picture hanging in the stairwell of our home when I was VERY young.
Thank you for that memory!!
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Wow - my sister and I shared a room ( didn't we all?) and had two gravel art masterpieces on our walls. - dancing Snoopy and the Pink Panther with a REAL cigarette hanging from his mouth. We were COOL.
Elimar, thanks for the art history lesson. I learn so much here! ✌️❤️ Linda
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You're welcome, BookLady. Yes, I have a real wealth of knowledge in the low-brow decorative arts category. It comes when you have the gene that makes you turn every sheet of tissue paper you encounter into a pom-pom like blooming flower.
I owned a pair of cheerleader pom-poms once. They were homemade too from two dowels, 200 sheets of tissue paper, and a quarter million staples holding them together. Loved those things. Yes, I was a cheerleader but, before you get a frilly mental image, I think I have mentioned before that MY cheer outfit consisted of a heavy wool sweater and extremely scratchy wool pants, and a matching ear-warmer headband. But those wonderful pom-poms made it all worth it!
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I love the picture in my head of you and your many-stapled homemade pompoms, Elimar! I pretended to be a cheerleader - okay, lied about it, sometimes. Also used to twirl batons in my front yard. Hit myself in face and head many times. Poor, poor, me.
Not really funny, but a memory all the same - was reminded on another thread of riding bikes behind the mosquito fogging trucks in base housing. Such fun! When did they figure that out, huh?
✌️❤️ Lind
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Aw, the memories have not been active for a while...
Holidays always make me remember stuff, and I remember getting some white patent leather mary jane shoes one Easter. Those on this thread can probably remember a time in their childhood where patent leather was the thing. My white ones soon got black scuff marks and I remember the preferred method to remove the scuffs was lighter fluid and, yes, at eight or nine years of age I was cleaning them off unsupervised.
There just was not the same degree of caution when I was growing up. I know I could have reached the shelf where my dad's loose razor blades were. None of our cabinets had latches and the Draino was right there under the sink. About all I ever got for safety was, "Don't touch that." I think they had come up with those "yucky face" stickers to put on household chemicals but no family I knew bothered with them. All of the homes were like minefields for kids when you think about it. Meanwhile, we all had to learn the "duck and cover" procedure at school to protect ourselves from air raid bombardment. Childhood is a golden time, but that does not mean it's not strange.
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personally I find the minefield method raises more capable people, for the most part.
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Elimar--homes may have been like mine fields for kids back in our day, but parents were allowed to discipline children back in that day, too. "Don't touch that, it's bad for you. Touch it again and I'll warm your behind for you." Consequences are a great teacher, but not much allowed anymore.
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I think a lot of the original crew that enjoyed this thread have gone elsewhere now, but I am surprised that not so many new ones have looked in to enjoy all these memories. Anyone who thinks they have have forgotten things from their childhood needs only to browse thru' a few pages for their memories to be restored. How 'bout this one:
(I saw some blue and red foil on the street the other day and my mind recalled the little packages of Sen-Sen.)
Who can ever forget the weird and slightly burn-y licorice flavor. Was it a candy? Was it medicinal? Was it an ancient Chinese secret? Whatever it was, this alleged breath freshener was enjoyed(?) for 200 years, but is no longer in production.
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Don't remember those but these were good...
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I can almost still taste that purple "wax bottle" sugar water. (Don't know why that one stands out it my memory.) Sure did hate the way the paper backing on those dot candies peeled off along with them. (Not to say I didn't keep buying them!!!) I think the pink dots used Red Dye #2, which had it's own nasty taste. To this day I still avoid red M&Ms because of the original Red Dye #2 flavor they used to have.
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Yep, smokin our Cigs and drinking wax pop...Yummy....Oh and I love m&m's, actually my favorite.
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Ah, the wax bottles with sugar water. Not sure what the attraction was, but it was there!
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Does anyone else remember pouring regular dry jello into your palm and licking on it? Sure made some interesting tongue colors.
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Yes, but that was only when the returnable bottle pickin's were to meager to get a few cents to buy a couple pixie stix or some Lik-m-aid.
Those packs remind me off various stickers I had as a kid that came with a stick of awful stale gum. One was Wacky Packages...
The other was Ugly Stickers. Kids put these on their closet doors. I put mine on the outside of my bedroom door. My hardwood maple bedroom door. The sticky residue would not come off and it was on there for YEARS but somehow my mom never really got onto me about that damage. Looking back, I was a real moron.
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Where there was gum, there were gum wrappers...and then gum wrapper chains. I made a pretty big one out of Doublemint, tho' I actually preferred Fruit Stripe gum or Teaberry, but my best friend contributed a lot of the green wrappers to my cause, and I got Juicy Fruit and Beemans wrappers from mom.
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What also came to mind just the other day was this gems of preadolescence...
16 Magazine (Love me some Monkees!)
And to a lesser extent, Tiger Beat.
Bobby (squeal!) Sherman and Leonard (the DiCaprio of the 60's) Whiting. This was my era... When the covers changed over to have that squeaky clean Donny Osmond, or that Shaun Cassidy (who even upped the unappealing wholesome ante over his older bro') it was time to grow up and go buy some Led Zepplin 45's, ya know?
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I do remember making gum wrapper jewelry...(beautiful!)
Oh and Hey Hey for the Monkees, and Bobby Sherman and David Cassidy too....
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I have made countless yards of gum wrapper chains. It was a sad day when I realized they no longer sell gum in wrappers.
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Oh my - Teaberry gum. Haven't thought of that in years.
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Cracker Barrel has all three of these.
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Thanks for the snaps. My Dad's favorite was Black Jack.
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My grandma always had a box filled with Beemans in her side table drawer. I always buy Beemans when I see it. It totally brings me back. Also, Davy Jones was so damn cute. Even Marsha, Marsha, Marsha got to do an episode with him.
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Oh, you can buy sticks of gum, but do they have inner double paper wrappers?
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MinusTwo--I never did the licking dry jello thing, sounds like fun, though!
Elimar--oh my goodness those Wacky Packages!I never saw those before!What a hoot!I do remember the gum wrapper chains, never did learn how to make them.
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The other day, I told my husband how we used to "call out" our friends by going to their doors (even in winter with the doors closed) and calling their names in a sing-songy way (i.e. Kaaa-ren, Daaa-vid, Re-naaay.) He said he never did that. He just tapped at his friends door or rang the doorbell. I was surprised because I thought all kids just did that back in the Sixties. Did anyone else remember calling out their friends as a kid?
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