Middle Aged Memories
Comments
-
Native, did you run out of memories? When I was riding my bike today, I remembered when Capri pants used to be called pedal pushers (or are those technically two different items of apparel?) All I know is I was wearing something with a short cropped leg whilst I was pushing the pedals today.
0 -
Then, what the heck are clam diggers? (Maybe if only worn on a coastline?) I heard both those terms in the 60's, but mainly hear them called Capri pants now.
0 -
Growing up in Maine, "Clam diggers" weren't a kind of pant so much as the way pants got rolled up to go wading or, surprise, digging for clams. Later, Clam Diggers were just below the knee length pants with a cuff, either made that way or created by rolling up some of the leg..
0 -
Nowadays, we call these Clam Diggers:
notice the tie at the knee.
0 -
I knew you could clear all that up, NM! I think the diagram has the pedal pushers a little longer than as described. Turns up I WAS wearing pedal pushers (as per the written description. Mine ended just below the knee cap. Bonus about the Bermuda shorts, I was thinking about those recently too.
Now culottes...I think of those as a skirt divided into leg holes. When they came to fashion, the skirts were about the length shown in that diagram, so o.k.; but I think of culottes as being ANY length shorter than gaucho pants. In the 70's, I had some culottes that were short enough to get me sent home from school. That in itself was remarkable because hot pants were in style and girls regularly wore those (quite stylishly, I might add, with over the knee boots,) so I was not really dressing that scandalously.
0 -
I agree the diagram has the length of clam diggers too long, but fashion clam diggers and working clam diggers may be different things. I've always thought of culottes as various lengths, too, but don't go by me because I always thought Bermuda shorts where knee length or just below the knee length!
These are what I found searching short culottes, I remember them being called tap pants or skorts.
I mostly think of this when I think of culottes:
Culottes look like a skirt, and people don't notice they are actually pants until someone moves a certain way.
These are shown when I search culottes, but I would call them gauchos:
obviously pants, very loose but not pretending to be a skirt.
0 -
A skort. I have heard culottes go by that name also. Yes, they should have the appearance of a skirt. My objectionable culottes had pleats in front and looked like a short skirt, but no shorter than actual regular skirts that were being worn to school at the time, so who even knew there was a "no culottes" edict? Looked something like this (but mine was cuter):
I just had a repressed Humbert Humbert running my school. When he called my mom at work to tell her I was being sent home because of my choice of apparel, she basically told him not to call her work again unless it involved actual injury. (Seems my disdain for authority is an inherited trait. Ahahaha.)
0 -
That reminds me. At the same time as "my incident" there was another 70's fashion called a "Sizzler" (a dress so short, it came with matching panties that could flash into view with very little effort) and these could be worn without impunity at my school; and like the hot pants, they were way shorter than my culottes!
Looking back, I remember having a white floral Sizzler that I wore to a summer wedding and it looked totally appropriate for my age and good lookin' legs!
0 -
If you were a young girl in the 70's, you probably learned how to do macrame. I did. Made a few necklaces. I remember how elaborate they could get, but I never got past the basics.
0 -
That and puka shell necklaces
0 -
I never worked in the puka shell medium, but DO still have a plant hanger made out of those.
0 -
Today, the saying "limbo lower now!" came into my mind. Remember how popular doing the limbo was? There were popular songs about it, and a limbo pole set that you could buy, and people actually did it at parties. I know it was something we played in the neighborhood as kids, usually just with two kids holding a big stick, lower and lower.
Last time I saw people doing it IRL was about 20 years ago at my kids elementary school sock hop.
Most recently, I've seen it was about six mos. ago in a movie, when I watched Girl Happy (with some co-eds doing limbo on Spring break in FL, with Elvis and the band.) Now that movie really took me back. Who could forget the classic songs such as "Wolf Call" and "Do the Clam" and "Puppet on a String." O.K., I did have the album once upon a time.
0 -
Started by remembering skate keys (and I had mine long after the roller skates rusted away)...
...but then continued to think about Zoo Keys. Remember those? They were used for Talking Storybooks at the zoo so that kids could hear animal facts at some of the popular exhibits. I didn't have one, but had occasion to covet them when my class went on a zoo field trip.
0 -
I still have my skate key in the kitchen 'junk' drawer. But I never saw a zoo key. Cute.
0 -
Here's something I mentioned before but now have found a PICTURE. Kids on my block loved to make these because they flew quite far and then broke apart on impact. Rebuild, repeat. Keep in mind that mom was not buying me a popsicle every day of the week, so it actually took some time to get the five popsicle sticks. Maybe a neighbor would donate one to your cause now and then. Nobody, and I mean nobody, ever had 100 in a bag from a craft store, and I don't even know if they had those available back then. Maybe. But it seems like all my "craft items" came out of the trash.
Egg carton = cut in half, paint to look like caterpillar
Newspaper = roll up, cut, and make a tree out of it
Net bags that lemons and limes used to come in = scrunch it, put rubber band around middle, give mom a bath scrubber
Popsicle stick = flying toy (and if you have never made one...there's still time!)
0 -
How does the popsicle flying toy work? How do you make it fly?
0 -
I have the same question. I never made these either. Maybe like a frisbee?
0 -
It looks like when you pull the middle stick out, the top stick would go flying from the release of pressure? Looks kinda fun :-).
0 -
Ha, ha, ha! Nothing tricky...just grip it by a corner and fling it...like a frisbee. If you've got a god arm on ya', it can go surprisingly far for just a few wooden sticks wedged together but, more importantly, it satisfies that childish urge to see things bust apart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
0 -
OK, I found a video that shows how this works, and it is great fun!
0 -
Remember when dentists would actually give kids a piece of candy at the end of the office visit? That irony was lost on most patients/families at the time.0
-
My current dentist, up until about 2 years ago, had a basket of "freshly baked" Otis Spunkmeyer cookies to choose from as you exited. Now, it is a Keurig machine & "healthier" snack bars. However, I do remember those candy treats from childhood. Ironic, indeed.
0 -
And a lollipop from the pediatrician if we didn't cry for our routine shots.
0 -
Did anyone suspect I had a dental appt. today? Hahaha. Yes, I did. All they gave me was a whopping $$ bill.0
-
El, didn't you get a toothbrush along with the bill? Cheap Dentist!
0 -
I don't remember ever getting a toothbrush when I was a kid. Although I think my son did at a pediatric dentist when he was little. Of course we get toothbrushes now, but I'm not a fan of "ultra soft" brushes. I donate to the battered women's home or use to clean around the taps at the sink. Yes, of course I brush, but I use a Sonic Care. And I floss & use a water-pik. What ever happened to just eating an apple to clean your teeth?
0 -
Dr. Scholl's sandals were the THING in the 70's. I could not, for the life of me, get them to stay on my feet right.
0 -
Neither could I. I stuck with thongs (and not the underwear kind) or SAS.
0 -
I remember Dr Scholl's! I also remember them flying off people's feet all the time.
0 -
Also remember the Dr Scholl's and the pains in my arches when my feet would slip sideways! What god awful things they were!
0
Culottes look like a skirt, and people don't notice they are actually pants until someone moves a certain way. 
obviously pants, very loose but not pretending to be a skirt. 
