You Know You're 50 Something if You Remember..... #2

Site a little long new month new thread

In grade school you wore dresses because you had to, and the hems had to touch the floor when you were on your knees. In Jr. high you could wear pants but your dress hems had to be within an inch of touching the floor and so you got sent home for wearing an orange mini-skirt with yellow polka dots because it was 6 or 7inches above that.

My biology teacher in 11th grade made me rip out the hem of my dress when it failed the kneel test (by a mere fraction of an inch). I had to walk around all day with a ripped out hem, and still remember the mortification.

I attended a Catholic school up to 4th grade. I must have been in 2nd grade in St. Rose of Lima school where they had strict rules about not talking in the bathroom. Another girl noticed I had a button undone on the back of my dress and fixed it for me. Without thinking I said, "Thank you" and was reported by the monitor. I did the punishment without arguing at the time. You didn't want to risk *duh, duh, dum* THE RULER! After having to write 100 times, "I must not talk in the bathroom" the nun asked me what was so important that I had to talk. I remember everything else except her response. Odd.

#4 Amazing! When I was a kid, I used to get in trouble for NOT saying "thank you!"

I wonder why they were so strict about not talking in the bathroom???? In class, I can understand, but . . . ah, well. Maybe it's a nun thing?

#3 If a teacher had done that to MY hem, my mother would have come marching into school and made him/her sew it back up!!!! There's no excuse for that kind of vandalism.

..........if you remember the Originals to all the crappy remake/remade movies today...

...the dress code in Akron Ohio schools did not change until 1970..i graduated in 1969.....wore my "dresses" year round.....velvet/corduroy "jumpers" over leotard & tights..in Winter...Laura Ashley print..mid-calf dresses..in Spring.....after that i went to Antioch College...and lived in Jeans...and serious Lace Dresses year round

#6 jdthloue - The dress code was still dresses when I graduated in Los Angeles in 1971. We had two "pants days" a year when girls could wear pants. I seem to recall that the dresses couldn't be higher than 2 inches above your knees, but don't remember what the punishment was or how many people flouted the code.

#4 mamzel - I was mentioning on another thread that an old boyfriend of mine used to get his hand whacked with a ruler by the nuns all the time - with the metal side down so he'd get cut. He absolutely hated Catholic school.

I graduated in 1966. If our skirts looked too short we had to kneel on the floor and the skirt must touch the floor. No way were we ever allowed to wear pants. Jeans for girls were not even in style.

I graduated in '69 from a Chicago public school. If your skirt was more than one inch off the floor (when kneeling), they'd send you home.

Pants? No way, not even in the coldest weather. If it was 3 below, and you put pants under your skirt just for the walk to school, you'd better hope you got to the girl's lavatory to change out of them before any teachers caught you. Otherwise, you'd get suspended. We used to complain that the greaser girls could get away with it easier because their stretch pants looked more like tights.

Sunglasses, the same thing, if you were caught wearing them in the building, you got suspended. One buddy of mine forgot and put his on at his locker before he got to the outside door (less than 20 feet away.) Suspended for three days.

You couldn't wear all black, either. Never got a clear explanation why, just speculation that it meant you were an anarchist or something. You could get around it by wearing a different color scarf or belt. One guy escaped suspension by revealing his white socks :-)

The next year (1970), they threw out the dress code.

I can remember the short skirt rules too. Boys had to wear belts if the pants were designed for them. (And cutting off belt loops wouldn't save you.) No t-shirts as outer wear. Boys' hair could not touch the collar.

One boy had the back of his hair blocked instead of shaved - suspended. Next day he came back with his entire head shaved.

I worked at a middle school where the kids had a complicated dress code aimed at reducing the impact of gang colors. They could not wear anything except solid colors (no red or black) and no jeans. After I left, a girl was reported for having socks with Disney characters on it. Instead of changing her socks, she ended up being suspended and her mother sued the school with the help of the ACLU. Apparently, not being allowed to wear Winnie the Poof on one's feet is a violation of the 1st amendment.
Makes short skirts sound ... innocent? trivial?

I remember "No fishnet stockings" in the dress code. They were considered trashy.

I suppose one could be older than 50 and remember this, but much younger and you wouldn't have yet been in the workforce--I remember seeing my first Post-It note. I was so amazed at how it could stick anywhere over and over again. I also remember being amazed by the fax machine--how it could transmit handwriting through the air!

And that horrible curly slick fax paper? I can remember that we had to make a photocopy of every fax just to get it on decent paper!

My first "real" job after college was for a library network, doing interlibrary loan searches for member libraries. Daily requests from member libraries (about 20 small public libraries, 4 college libraries, and 1 prison library) were sent by fax...it used that slick fax paper...didn't it come on rolls? The fax machine had a telephone handset;it looked like an oversize telephone. I searched the university library to fill requests. Our last place to look for books was the State Library. I sent those requests on a teletype machine. This was in 1980-1981. I remember while researching I found a book about communication from around the 1930's...it had a teletype machine just like the one I was using.

We also had new-fangled Apple computers, but mostly we used the fax, teletype, and card catalogs to research and communicate. Honestly I can't remember what we used the Apples for.

My mother taught French and I helped her type out her tests on mimeograph forms. How many of you remember the smell of mimeographed paper? Was there any warning that inhaling the fumes could be carcinogenic?

Yes! And that was good part of the test. Get the paper and inhale deeply.

I never heard it was carcinogenic, but I always thought there was a good chance I could get high.

My mom was an elementary school teacher. I would run off mimeographs for her by the reamful in this small, interior room. High indeed! A related memory--remember typing on stencils for the school paper? What a pain if one made a mistake!

And carbon paper - what a pain!

remember 'culottes'? i got sent home from high school because my culottes were too short.

smelling the mimeographs was wonderful!

I loved fishnet stockings! dark ones made your legs look thinner.

#21 I loved my culottes and wore them with knee high laced up boots (and weren't they fun to do up in a hurry?) I even sewed myself a long cullotte dress, which was all the rage at the time,lol.

One of my New Year chores is cleaning my closet. I just found a pair of culottes and chucked them on the garbage pile. I won't even subject a charity with them.

We had to wear boaters and got teased by all the other school kids who didn't wear hats. You couldn't exactly hide them or squash them in your satchel so we were ripe for a good teasing on the bus.

If you remember when Gypsy Rose Lee had a morning talk show.

If you remember "Queen For a Day".

Was Gypsy Rose Lee's show nationally syndicated? I have absolutely no recollection of such a thing.

29 > From what the Web tells me, it was syndicated from San Francisco. I know it was on in Chicago; that's where I watched it.

I SO remember "Queen for a Day." My folks probably didn't let me watch Gypsy Rose Lee. I have no memory of her.

We didn't watch much TV before school, either. My mother often drove my father to the train and I suppose we were brought along.

Oh, I DEFINITELY remember Queen for a Day! :)

How about Hawaiian Eye? Does anybody remember that show? I don't know if it was in first run or reruns when I watched it in the early 60's, but I dimly recall having my first childhood crush on one of the actors in that show.

How about Edd Byrnes on 77 Sunset Strip (snap, snap!)

#34 Oh, I'd forgotten that show!

"....Hawaiian Eye . . . does anyone remember that show?" #33

I saw 2 or 3 episodes of "Hawaiian Eye" in bars. Never saw an episode at home. Those that I saw were in the 1950s, Iʻm sure.

When Hawaii Five -0 started, I had a vague idea that it was an improvement on "Hawaiian Eye", but not a great improvement. I didnʻt really see enough of "Hawaiian Eye" to evaluate it. I didnt think that the Tom Selleck Hawaiʻi-based show (I forge tthe name) was any better than Hawaiʻi Five-0, nor was Jake and the fat Man.

Roland, that Tom Selleck one would be Magnum-PI, I believe.

"would be Magnum PI"

Right, justjim; I saw several episodes of it, including the closing one, in which Magnum re-entered the Navy.

Just discovered this thread, and sorry to go back to the school dress code thing, but at my school (UK 1960s) tights were absolutely forbidden, so the naughty girls used to wear flesh-coloured tights and then long white socks over the top. Depended which teacher saw you as to whether you got away with it. And basic common practice was to step outside the school perimeter to go home and immediately roll your skirt over several times at the waist band in order to bring that old hem up to a decent (!) height. Some people rolled it up and down again between lessons, again depending on which teacher came next.

(And this was a single-sex girls' school.)

Oh, and you never used the handle on your brief case; you carried it in your arms in front of you. Why?...

36: rolandperkins

Hawaii five-o- gave us the perfect saying for this site ...."Book em Dan-O!"

>39 JoannaON: - To prevent one shoulder from getting lower than the other ruining your posture?

Random observations:

Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb!

Rolled my waistbands with the best of them. Did you ever use rubber bands to hold up worn out bobby socks? It's a wonder I didn't get gangrene.

Loved Hawaii Five-O. I was in Hawai'i once years ago, and asked a bus driver if the local people liked the show. He said they did. It was fun, and lots of times you got to see relatives as extras.

Tennis (pronounced tahn-isss) shoes and pink shoelaces
panama hat and
my oh my

He wore tennis shoes and pink shoelaces
.........(keep going with the verses if you'd like lol)

I think the next line was
"...And a large Panama Hat " ?

.."With a purple hatband."

From the lyric site:

He wears tan shoes with pink shoelaces
A polka-dot vest, and man, oh man!
He wears tan shoes with pink shoelaces,
And a big panama with a purple hat band!

One two three four
Tell the people what she wore

It was an
Itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini
That she wore for the first time today
An itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini
So in the locker she wanted to stay

I graduated in '71

grades 4-8 in Catholic school. They didn't need a reason to not allow you to do things... they had the nod of the pope..

my sister once slugged a nun for suggesting that my mom was a bad mother for allowing my sister to wear a too short dress ( with shorts under it ) to school on one of the rare no uniform days.

1969 a bunch of us (like most..) staged a walk out to protest girls not being allowed to wear pants to school. They decided to allow pants, no jeans. That is the year I wore all black to school....it was 1970 then. Most of my friends graduated in 69. I wore all black and carried around books about witchcraft. I also stopped going to gym, and when the gym teacher finally caught me.. I told her it was because I didn't like her.
She gave me an excuse and a c for the rest of the time I was in school. I took exra biology and english classes for no grade instead.

A year later they allowed jeans. Now they allow near nudity, from what I can see when I drive past the high school in summer.

I was a tad bit of a rebel at times.

When I decided to smoke cigaretts, I told my mom the day I brought a pack into the house.. and put them on the end table. When I decided to smoke pot.. I told her that too. LOL. I have never believed lying or sneaking to be useful. My mom and I never got along well... even when I was a very small child. I moved out while I was a senior in HS. Got a job and an apartment.

I had only three things in my apartment.. a rug, a mattress, and a book shelf. :P

I had only three things in my apartment.. a rug, a mattress, and a book shelf.

Ah, the necessities of life! I guess you eventually got some books to go on the shelf ;)

For what it's worth, I went to public school -- and pants weren't allowed until the 1969-70 school year there, too.

I got out of gym due to a bad back. (My current orthopedist says there's no reason my scoliosis should have kept me from full participation, but I was delighted to be out -- I hated gym and wasn't too fond of the gym teachers, either.) The school had me do work to help out in the guidance office during gym period. When the term came for health instead of gym, I reported to class -- and the guidance office lady sent for me all nasty and bent out of shape, like "where were you?" Hey, I wouldn't have minded it at all if my back had gotten me out of health class, too. But I never really wanted to smoke anything. My Mom and her sister both died of lung cancer.

Oh I meant furniture wise.. the shelves were full of course... lol
Even when I had no place to stay, I was lugging books around..

IT took me about a day to dicide that I didn't like smoking cigarettes. I kept it up for a month or so, just because.. lol.
Pot on the other hand, I am ever hopeful it will be de-criminalized. It is much better than wine, and it has been way way to long since .. well.. you know..
I am a big fan of herbs..

:)

I rather like wine, myself! ;)

gives me a headache.. lol
well, red wine does. I usually stick to Guinness or an ale of some sort.. I like gin, too..and Jamesons Irish Whiskey..

I rarely drink any of them though..

What was that old song?

"Bottle of wine
fruit of the vine
When you gonna
let me get sober
Leave him alone
let him go home
Let him go home
and start over"

50: mckait - I am also hoping for the decriminalization of pot. I can't imagine it wouldn't be better to smoke it than swallow the Percocet and Gabapentin I'm on for chronic pain. And although my doctor would give me a prescription for medical marijuana, the laws here are so stupid and convoluted there doesn't seem to be any way to do it.

49: tymfos - Scoliosis is one of the ailments that have seen radical treatment changes. My Mom, now 82, spent some years in a body cast as a child so her back would "grow straight"!

pete..... I hope it is decriminalized soon.. it is good for so many things... MS, migraine...nausea...more...

as for scoliosis ... we had a student in a brace around her entire torso...
as well as having rods in her back. She has to have them "grown" or replaced as she grows.. until she stops growing.. looks awful to endure...

pot is legal in Michigan by a doctor's prescription. I think there is still some questions about who should get it.

Ramblin' around this dirty old town,
Singin' for nickels and dimes.
Times gettin' rough, I ain't got enough
To buy me a bottle of wine.

(BOM-BOM-BOM)

Bottle of wine, fruit of the vine
When you gonna let me get sober?
Leave me alone, let me go home.
Let me go home and start over.

Maybe with a joint.

And a bottle of Boones Farm Apple wine and a large bag of chips (I didn't inhale!)

Yeah, I got a contact high from being in the room ;-)

I may be the only person on the planet to (sorta) believe Clinton, because *whispers* I didn't inhale either. Shhhh.

I wasn't trying to get buzzed, I was trying to be cool.

I tried to inhale and went into an embarrassing coughing fit.

Now the large bag of chips, I could inhale (and frequently do!).

Love the musical interludes!

lol terri....

tobacco hurts to inhale... the herb however, not so...

:P ( so I remember )

This thread seemed to be the place to put this…..

I was on the commuter light-rail this morning, and a young man (grad student?) sitting across from me said, ‘excuse me, ma’am – I don’t know how old you are, but do you remember the Great Depression?’

I’m afraid I just burst out laughing, and presently managed to say – ‘my parents grew up in the Depression – I grew up in the ‘50s!’ I wasn’t so much laughing at him in particular, but the question. Right, my hair is white, and at the time, stuffed into a hat, but I thought the rest was holding up reasonably well….

Well, give him credit, he persisted (though rather pink around the edges), asking if my parents had ever mentioned a particular type of tax, which I didn’t quite catch, due to train noises. At that point, we pulled into my station, and I excused myself, wishing him luck, but unfortunately still laughing.

I guess to a 20-something person, 57 and 80-something look much the same?

I don't know about you guys, but I remember when my parents were in their 50s and I swear, they didn't look any different to me then than they do now (at 75). And I certainly remember them looking older at 53 than I do. So maybe that's true. Plus I'm not so sure how bright some of these whippersnappers are. Maybe it didn't occur to him that you'd have to be in your 80's to remember it! (or maybe he's talking about the crash in 1987 and doesn't even realize there was one in 1929)

There. Feel better?

Hadn't thought of any more recent crashes. I just figured he a) hadn't done the math, and b) couldn't spot the approximate age very well. My sister suggested that I could have asked him how well he remembered Vietnam, as the age gap would have been about right.

Not terribly bothered (but thanks :-) and mostly still grinning.

I remember being really bad at age estimation when I was younger. How it manifested itself now is that I occasionally find myself surprised to find people still alive that I thought were really old 20 years ago. Then I realize they were probably only 60-65 then so they are just in their early to middle 80's now. Age is certainly relative, isn't it?!

Isn't it amazing--1960 was half a century ago!

Age is certainly relative, isn't it?!

It certainly is! ;)

My relatives are old - not me!

#68 LOL, Mary! :D

My Mom always told me two things that I didn't believe when I was young . . . but I do now:
1. Time goes so much faster as you get older.
2. When you're old, you feel the same inside as you always did; you don't feel old. . .

ETA to add: . . . except for the aching joints, etc.

don't wear shiny patent leather shoes with a dress...

#70 or if you do, wear clean knickers; or at least some knickers (that last might be 90s advice)!

I didn't have this one starred and have missed so much!

In high school we had 2 pants days a year for the girls, and they couldn't be jeans. (mckait - I graduated in '71 too, but from a public school in Southern California). Rolling up skirts after I left the house was the norm.

I had to type the mimeograph forms for professors at college (Pepperdine University, '75). When you made a mistake, you had to roll it down, scrape the imprint off the second copy, use liquid paper on the first page, roll it back into position, then re-type the correct letter. What a pain. The reward, of course, was smelling the run off sheets. They were damp and smelled wonderful. I don't remember thinking about getting high from the smell, but did inhale deeply.

I have never smoked a cigarette. Mom and Dad both smoked like chimneys and never rolled down the windows in the car, so I swore at the age of 6 to never smoke. We had huge, nasty ashtrays all over the house until my dad got a pre-cancerous lung condition when I was about 10 and they both quit. Mom stayed quit, Dad took up cigars, then went back to cigarettes until he had quintuple bypass surgery. He then quit permanently and passed away 6 years later. However, all the bronchitis I've had over the years is from the second hand smoke, I'm convinced.

In college we bought Boones Farm and Annie Green Springs wine for $1.25 a bottle. We weren't even 21 but that particular liquor store would pretty much sell to you if you could reach the counter.

Penny candy

"Buttons" (came on a narrow sheet of paper.....had to bite them off)
"Snaps"
"Charms" (much like Lifesavors but square)
"Pops" (little wax bottles with liquid sugar inside.....bit off the end swallowed the sugar then chewed on the wax for a while)
"Sloepokes"
"Licorice Whips"
"Clark Bars"

Oh and Devils Food Cake cookies. My Grandma always had them. Came in a yellow and red package.

All of the above, with the exception of the cookies, came from an old dusty store that sold everything from toilet paper, canned goods to gasoline for your car. The penny candy was in front in a big display case......the owners had to chase the cats off of the candy when we came in. My mom was convinced that we were going to die of some dreaded disease and forbid us from going their. Yeah ! Like that worked !

73> Oooh, yes, the penny candy! I loved the buttons, and the pops! Clark Bars, too!

My grandparents had a store a lot like the one you described, sans the cat. They sold gas, canned goods, TP, aspirin -- fishing gear too, and ammo for the hunting rifles -- did your store sell that? I worked there for a while when I first got out of high school. By then the candy was way past a penny -- but as a kid, oh yes, REAL penny candy.

I loved those buttons! Thinking back, we probably ate more paper than candy with them, but still. There was a small meat market a few doors down from my grandmother's house, where we went every Saturday morning (stopping first to get doughnuts, of course, and occasionally passing the corner where the Gus' Pretzel man was selling wonderful soft pretzel sticks for 25 cents a bag). When my father finished his work, we'd go to the meat market, where Tony would slice up our lunch meat for the week. Then we'd go to the front to pay, and if we had been good, we could pick out 50 cents worth of candy (50 cents worth for all six of us, not each!). That little brown bag was full.

#74 tymfos

No fishing gear or ammo. I grew up on the north edge of Milwaukee Wis. Not much fishing going on, nor hunting.
It was a dark, dusty little place. Judging from my mom's repeated instructions to NOT buy any thing in the store, I am thinking it was none too clean. Of course, we kids only had eyes for the candy.

The place was called "Lutz's" It was right on the main highway that led from the sticks right into the city. The store also had to be passed by most school kids, in the neighborhood, on their way to school. Since most kids had to walk.....it was a busy little place. Probably didn't need to sell much other than the candy !

another memory :>)

My pink and white "record player" About the size of laptop except it was square. Had a stack of 45s that was very impressive. Lots of Everly Brother's tunes in the stack. Annette Funachello singing "Pineapple Princess"

Wore the grooves out of most of those 45s.......my poor parents.

Anyone remember "party lines" ? (not the kind of lines one thinks of today when it comes to parties :>0)

I can remember picking up the phone and waiting for the operator to say, "Number, please". That was before the party line.

Yes-- in the 1940s. we gave the operator a Word, a 4-digit number and then a letter for the particular party. Our letter was M; I don't remember the other party's.

The words r eferred to in #80 were called "Exchanges" and were usually place names, but not in the larger places; Boston, for example had no exchange named "Boston". The exchanges for Cambridge were street names: Eliot, Kirkland, and Trowbridge.

As a kid I thought the funniest exc hange was what I heard as "Aspirin Wall" --and it almost was that: all one word, and without the -r- .

faceinbook,

What a small world. My Mother was from Milwaukee Wis.. Still have an Aunt and some cousins in Greenfield. My Great Grand parents had their farm in Greenfield also.

My grandparents lived in Bradshaw, Nebraska and didn't get 7 digit phone numbers until the 60s.

#81 Your story about the Aspinwall exchange, heard by your childhood ears as Aspirin Wall reminds me of my Mom: she admitted that, as a very young kid, she thought the Lord's Prayer said "hollered be thy name" instead of hallowed -- "Back then, those old Methodist preachers were always hollerin' God's name," she explained.)

ETA for typos

83>

When I lived in Granville, IL (population 1200 or so, on a Saturday when all the farmers were in town at the bank), they had just instituted 7 digit phone numbers the year before we moved in. Previously, if the number had the same area code and first three digits as yours, you'd just dial the last four numbers. The year? 1990!

>81 rolandperkins:, 84

"One nation, under God, in the window sill" ...

Remember when:
Payton Place was published ?
or
Valley of The Dolls ?

Both found a place between my mattress and the box spring. I was in big trouble when they were discovered.

Didn't have a television till I was 13.....reading was my past time. Still prefer books over the box.
Soon after we did get a television one of the biggest shows was
"Laugh In" ( crazy show but it launched a lot of stars :>) Some how laughter was cleaner.

#82 usmnn2
It IS a small world indeed. My aunt, uncle and six cousins lived in Greenfield. They all moved to California way back. My uncle worked for Nasau (spelling ?)

I believe we had a party line until we moved to town in 1975. Consequently, I still habitually listen for the dial tone before I dial.

Re: Charms--They have a special place in my memory as the only time I came close to stealing. I picked up a package and popped in a piece. When my mom saw what I had, after we were back in the car, she drove back to the store and made me go back to the cashier, confess, and offer the money to pay for the candy. The kind man let me keep them for free!

Speaking of grocery stores--anyone else remember getting your groceries in boxes with the top flaps tied in the up position with string? There was a checker who had a stub left arm. I remember being amazed at how he could whip the string around the box and tie it off, holding the knot tight with the stub.

When I was very young, I spent a lot of time at my grandparents. I was the oldest of four and my mom had us all about a year and a half apart. Spending time at Grandma and Grandpa's meant all kinds of attention.

My grandfather would slip a whole package of Charms under my pillow while I was sleeping. Always Charms. We didn't have candy all that often at home. Charms have a special place in my memory as well.

Our neighborhood grocery had wooden floors. We were able to wear roller skates once in there, before the owner told us not to do it again. He was still a nice man, Mr. Kelly.

I remember the original Barbie and the Christmas I found her under the tree!

I remember my first pair of "real skates" - metal, attached to your saddle shoes. You had a key to tighten them down properly.

I always had a hard time getting my skates tight enough. You definitely had to have the right shoes for those little metal things to grip into.

Why won't they put Hawaii Five-O on uk tv????

Why don't they put it on one of the cable channels on us tv???

94/95 "Read a book then, Danno!"

:-D

Okay, what about 'Alias Smith and Jones'? My guess is that you have to be not just over fifty but probably also UNDER sixty to have been properly under that particular spell. I'm sure it was aimed dead centre at girls between fourteen and seventeen. And they sure hit the bullseye.

I was older than the demographic, but I remember them with a smile.

My cousins were visiting from a far away country when I was about 8. We were watching Perry Mason in b&w and for some reason the shadows beneath his eyes became hysterically funny. D.A. Burger had the most 50ish hairdo ever (slick and wavy).

The only dispute was which one you fancied the most.

I know some folks - who'd be eligible for this group ;-) - who are *still* ASJ obsessed.

#100 I remember the actor who played the DA did an anti-smoking ad, possibly in the seventies. (Late sixties?) He was dying and looked it. Most effective.

Yul Brenner did one too. Sad, and brave to try to prevent someone else from going through their hell.

#104 and they couldn't show it in Australia! Equity complained about the lack of local content or some such waffle.

>98 JoannaON:, 101, 102

I loved that show ...

I also liked another one that sank without a trace after half a season, IIRC - The Young Rebels, set in the American Revolution.

One that sank wihtout a trace after having about 13 sweeks (or less?), ca. 1987:

It was titled "The Outlaws" (or something?): A group of Texans of the late 1890s were zoomed into the future by some kind of time warp -- into the Houston of 1987. They could drive modenr cars esaily enough, but preferred to ride horses if they could find them,.

Good series idea, but they couldn't seem to get any screenwriters who could do good episodes. Anyone know anything further about it?

Westerns are just so much nicer than "cop shows", which I suppose are the modern equivalent. Horses are so, so much easier on the eye than boring cars. And you get landscape.

No drugs either.

No drugs either.

'Ceptin' Whisky and Baccy!

(Not going to jump on the high horse though, because I use them both!)

A preachment dear friend on whisky and 'baccy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqk3osxS4wQ&feature=related

and for you western fans;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFSKhRpHxqA&feature=related

How kind! Of all the Serge Leone Western music this number is my top favourite. I love this moment in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly when Tuco is running frantically up and down the cemetery. Eli Wallach running around with his hands DOWN is just so deliciously funny.

Thankyou, usnmm2!

Oh, Marty, you've got me rolling on the floor! I am the world's biggest Muppet Show fan, and when I saw the Red Ingle video, I HAD to look for the Muppet Show version with Peter Sellers, which was always one of my favorite of their shows. I don't know which was funnier!

Terri

I almost put the Muppet one up. Glad you liked it anyway.

You know your 50'somthing if you watched this;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO4LxfobDlM&feature=related

Oh, Those were the days! Every day after school.

...and if you loved Bobby/Annette!

Maybe you don't quite have to be 50-something, but when was the last known argument over squeezing the toothpaste tube from the top or the bottom?

this morning.

I squeeze from the middle, but then after the lid goes back on, I squeeze it up from the bottom to set it right.

#118, with the 'new' plastic tubes* there is no need to argue. Just fix it as at #119.

*I'm hoping that nobody is still living in the dark ages of 'metal' toothpaste tubes?

My toothpaste comes in a bottle now. I stand it on end so the toothpaste is always near the cap. It has a flip top

I've got one of those little slidey things that you push up the tube as it empties, so it doesn't matter if you squeeze in the middle.

I've also got one of those little slidey things but it seems no one else knows how to use it! I also know I get excessively, and unreasonably, annoyed about this which is why I have my own toothpaste tube. Sometimes, however, when the 'community' tube is not immediately visible (like when the person who's looking for it has just dropped a towel on top of it), instead of moving the towel, it's easier to open the cupboard door, open my makeup bag, remove my toothpaste tube, then put it back in the bag, close the makeup bag and put it back in the cupboard. *grrrr*

Hilarious, Jenni! I can laugh, because even though my son knows better than to use my toothpaste, if he did, I'm afraid I'd hide it too!

There are three people in my house and three tubes of toothpaste. No stress.

I remember my dad using tooth powder - Colgate, I think - it came in a metal can with a small metal cap about 1/2" wide. He'd shake some into his palm and put his dampened toothbrush into it several times as he was brushing.

I remember - just - toothpowder in a round, shallow tin very like shoe polish comes in now. Pink, and called "Jack and Jill" or something. You scraped your toothbrush across the surface, although I was so young my parents did the scraping for me - quite possibly the brushing too.

Moving on from tooth brushing, does anyone agree that some films and old TV shows look wrong in colour? I saw them first in black and white on television and they just plain look wrong when seen now in colour. The original Star Trek is a good example. We had no idea they all wore different coloured shirts!

126>

Oh, I know! I am constantly surprised to find some movie or TV show was "really" in color. My memories are B&W. I was able, at least occasionally, to watch Star Trek or the Monkees at my friend's house. Their color TV had this strange green cast towards the top of the screen, even though when new TVs were delivered, a technician would come and fiddle with the color settings.

It's kinda like getting the CD version of a Beatles album with the British tracks. That's not the album I remember!

I'm laughing at a favorite memory. Lee and I bought our first color tv and couldn't wait for the guy to finish installing so we could watch. We lived in a very small town and could only get one station. The movie that night was in black and white, but we watched so we could see the commercials in color. We laughed hysterically all night about buying a tv so we could watch color ads.

I remember watching our first colour TV that first shocking week. All our familiar programmes in far-out colour! Even The News!!! Then the eighth day arrived and the first of those programmes showing for the second time, and we all thought, Uh-huh, that's that, then.

Our family didn't get a color TV until 1975 or 1976, after I went off to college. I didn't have a TV of my own until 1982 when I got married and it was also black and white. Consequently, pretty much the color in any rerun from the mid-80's back is a surprise to me.

Do you remember getting stereo? I remember our first stereo, in the mid-60's came with an LP that illustrated the sound separation between the speakers. I was fascinated!

We were in England when the moon landing occurred - my aunty rushed out to buy a colour TV so we could watch it in colour. I don't know what excited me and my cousins more - bragging about the colour TV access or playing 'walk on the moon' games for weeks after :)

Who remembers watching John Glenns first space trip? Yeah, thats me

I do, I do! Alan Shepherd too.

Back to the stereo - My family had a record player with two detachable speakers that could be moved away. I remember listening to "The Lemon Song" by Led Zepplin and marveling at the sound moving from one speaker to another.

I clearly remember our first stereo. I believe it was a Philco brand. We got it for Christmas when I was in the first or second grade. I remember Dad bringing it home on the pickup truck. He generally wasn't much for Christmas, but he did fine that year!

It was one of those console units -- nice, dark wood with gold mesh on the front of either speaker, with an area of wood in between the speakers with handles -- the fake door look. (It was probably the nicest looking piece of furniture we had at that time.) You'd lift the lid (hinged at the back), which covered the left 2/3 of the unit, and the record changer and tuner were down inside, and there was a place to the right of the radio tuner (under the part of the top to the right of the lid), that you could stow the instruction book or some records or whatever -- and set knick-knacks or pictures on top of that part.

I also remember that our copy of my favorite record album at the time -- Meet the Monkees -- was a mono recording, not stereo, so I was bummed out about that.

Our stereo with detachable speakers came later.

Oooo, I remember that kind of stereo.

I traditionally got record albums for Christmas, usually the most recent Beatles release. I begged and begged my folks to give me "Rubber Soul" earlier than Christmas Day. My dad finally caved, or so I thought. What he gave me on Christmas Eve was a fake album mocked up by the art director at his company. Inside was the sliced-off bottom of a tennis shoe. I was crushed and baffled.

The next morning, I found a portable stereo with detachable speakers under the tree, along with a copy of Rubber Soul in stereo. He didn't want to give me the stereo album ahead of time because it would spoil the record player surprise. My dad was a piece of work.

#137 Great story! I bet you really enjoyed listening to "Rubber Soul" in stereo!

We had one of those cabinet Stereos too, for years! I think I was about sixteen when I got a "portable" Stereo for Christmas. I don't remember the speakers detaching tho. My first record played on that stereo was "Jesus Christ, Superstar"

I remember my Dad having one of those "This is Stereo"-type LPs (LPs, my dears, not albums back then) including 'The A-Train' entering your room from the right and exiting left.

Later, I was given a portable record player when I left home for college which had two detachable speakers to be unpacked and packed away each time. Such a fiddly exercise, and you had to do it because the speakers formed the lid. My older sister had had a mono one which was just a box - lift the lid and stick the record on. I wished I'd had one like that instead.

The first record player in our house was one my Dad built from a kit, sawing a hole for it out of a piece of wood. The speakers was in a chipboard cabinet covered with wood-effect sticky-backed plastic. Before that we just had a reel-to-reel tape recorder.

140> LPs, my dears, not albums back then

Tish, tosh; we called them albums all the time. I see from your profile that I'm older than you, so perhaps it's not generational but a UK/USA thing.

It was hard to decide whether to buy a stereo or mono. We could get a mono album for $2.10, but the same record in stereo cost $3.10.

#133 - yep, I remember that as well. And Sputnik. And "Muttnik". I still have the little 3-D wooden puzzle that made up into a dog-oid with a little satellite around it.

PhaedraB, that's very interesting. I had no idea that was something that had come across from the States. Well well. Such an educational site, this one!

In honor of President's Day weekend, just past:

You know you're over 50 -- I mean over 70-- if you can remember the administrations of 13 presidents:

The ones I remember (I don't remember Hoover, though I was born when he was president) --putting whether I voted for them (Y) or against them (N) :

Roosevelt (na) --not 21

Truman (na) " "

Eisenhower N (2 x)

Kennedy Y

Johnson (na)*

Nixon N (3 x)--(or 5x, counting his v.p. candidacies)

Ford** N

Carter Y, N

Reagan N (2 x)

Bush I N (2 x)

Clinton Y (2 x)

Bush II N (2 x)

Obama Y

* not eligible to vote in
1964, due to no I D

**The only president who was never elected president or vice-president; but he did RUN for president once.

#140, 141 We called them albums in the 60's where I lived. I don't know if the terminology is generational, national, or regional.

I note great differences in language use in different regions of the US. Where I grew up in southern New Jersey (USA), a long sandwich was a sub (submarine); they were hoagies as close by as Philadelphia. In different places, I've drunk soda, soft drinks, and pop -- all different names for the same stuff, just within the limited confines of NJ and different regions of Pennsylvania.

I used to live in west Texas where all soft drinks are cokes!

"Y'all want a coke?"
"Yes please."
"Yup."
"What Y'all want?"
"Dr Pepper."
"Pepsi."

Took a bit of getting used to.

". . . all soft drinks are cokes!" (#146)

I remember a similar situation with beer in Greater Boston; where my brother-in-law (who was also a cousin) used to say things like "The Budweiser on the North Shore is usually Kruegers."

When I moved to Boston from Chicago in my youth, I couldn't get my head around "regular" coffee being cream and two sugars. In other parts of the country, you'll sometimes hear that called Boston coffee.

"soda, soft drinks, and pop -- all different names for the same stuff. . ." (145)

And I can add "TONIC" in Greater Boston when I lived there (before 1975). And it still is said, according to a friend in Greater Boston who started to lieve there coming from E. Ohio some decades ago; she told me about "tonic" 's survival when I translated "soda" into "tonic --if they still say that."

I've just remembered that in the Glasgow of my childhood, all fizzy soft drinks were 'ginger'. Presumably from ginger beer or ginger ale.

Another coke story. In MO, we say "soda." My brother & I were driving home from Alabama back in the mid-70s and we had stopped at an out-of-the-way diner for breakfast. As we left, I asked the cashier if I could have a soda to go. I had to repeat myself several times, then it dawned on her:
"Oh! Y'all mean a coke!"
"Yes! Yes! A coke, please!"
"We don't have coke. Is Pepsi okay?"

You Know You're 50 Something if You Remember

http://oldfortyfives.com/DYRT.htm

Cute!!

As a very old roller skater I just watched a very funny movie called "Whip It" based on the book Derby Girl by Shauna Cross. The Roller Game was very popular here in Oz at one stage. Does anyone remember Ralphie Valadarez? My grandmother adored him!

I'm 52. I just joined this group, and I'm already adoring it.

Remembering,

Only being able to wear dresses to school. I was so happy when girls could wear pants to school, because then I could play on the monkey bars.

The two main rules for playing outside were stay within earshot, and be back home before dark.

When television shows being broadcast in color were so few that they had a special notation in the TV Guide.

"in color . . . . . had a special notation in the TV Guide" (155)

Similar to that: I can remember when, in the Honolulu Advertiser Letters to the Editor had a special notation saying that this particular one had been sent on the Internet -- meaning it was exceptional.
I donʻt remember just how long ago that was, or when they stopped the notation. At my age it seems to have been one of those very recent eras.
I suppose now one NOT received on the Internet would be exceptional.

#156 - I vaguely remember when having a web site, or page, was a big deal, worthy of a special announcement.

#16 - "How many of you remember the smell of mimeographed paper?"

Oh, yes, mimeograph paper. I liked the smell, and the color. Carcinogenic? Makes me think about Mattel's Thingmaker. I had a Fun Flowers Thingmaker. Heating up questionable chemicals - fumes, burns from the metal molds. Looking back, sometimes I wonder how we survived some of our "toys".

I was 16 or 17 when my home got its first TV. When my youngest daughter left home I got rid of the TV and have not had one since (excluding one for videos and dvds). I'm sure there is a good quote about things going in circles. As a male youth the big thing was hair, not skirt length. it could not touch ears or collar

I actually introduced the post-it at a lab down south--they are very handy for asking questions on raw data that can't be marked up. 20 years later I returned to the same lab and someone said: "It's the yellow sticky lady!" Heh.

For any Scots :-

'Red Cola'
'Soor Plooms'
'Cod Liver Oil'
'Gutties' (Known as Sneakers in polite circles)

Sitting in the bath with your jeans on to shrink them to fit.

Taking it for granted that the Scottish football team would be in the world cup!

The 'Stones' or the Beatles was a rebellious youngsters descision to make.

Spending hours in record shops looking at the covers.

Going round to a complete strangers house to spend hours listening to some obscure album all night that the rest of you couldn't afford.

Getting the bus - everywhere.

The simple choice of Lager or Heavy when it came to beer (in a pub that probably had 'live' music).

Chips out of newspaper.

Your knowledge of clothes brands didn't stretch far past Levi's, Wranglers, Lees, Ben Sherman and Jaytex.

Ah - Life was simple.

160>

I'm from the USA, but you reminded me of:

"Sitting in the bath with your jeans on to shrink them to fit."

"Spending hours in record shops looking at the covers."

... and, being a mall crawler when the first mall opened in my city. A perfect place for teens who had more time than money. Free eats from the food shops giving out samples. That mall was a magnet for teens from all over the city. Shopping was a secondary reason for going to the mall. Seeing, and being seen by, other teens was the primary reason to go to the mall.

This is probably more "country" than the rest of your experiences (and in no particular order)...

Living in a town with a functioning blacksmith (not the artistic type either)
gathering pop bottles for the 2 cents return so you could buy candy or ice cream
going out Halloween night starting at 6 and getting home after 11.
I personally didn't come across a hamburger or french fries until grade 10.
having a general store with barrels of hardware like nails and a wooden floor that they had to keep oiled.
a hitching post outside for your horse.
We didn't have homeless people, but we did have a town drunk. Stewart Hamilton (Stewie), everybody new him, he was a nice guy.
town baseball games, your town against the next one.
Saturday morning cartoons, Fireball XL5, Supercar and Captain Scarlet.
The boys went in one entrance to the school and the girls went in the other. To go in the girls entrance would have been the social gaff of your life.
Going to town once a year to shop for new clothes for school.
The first day of school (public) you would get a list of things you would need for the year and then you would take off in the afternoon to get everything.
getting the strap. I got that in kindergarten and grade 1 and after that they never caught me. Who says corporal punishment serves no purpose.

From your list:

I remember town team baseball, Saturday morning cartoons, school shopping in August, and a general store where you could buy a nickel's worth of M&Ms and a nickels worth of peanuts and get them mixed together in a paper bag.

In the first school my husband taught at, there were two flights of stairs to the upper floor. One was for the boys and one for the girls - and never the twain should meet. And this was 1971! Nobody knew why exactly; they had just always done it that way.

That reminds me of my high school...a certain corridor was known as "Boy's Hall"; not because that's the one they used to get from class to class, but b/c that's where they lined up between classes to ogle the girls. And make comments that would probably get them sent to the office today for sexual harassment, lol.

When I was a kid one -- only one -- of the elementary schools in the town where I grew up had separate girls and boys entrances. It drove me crazy that the one for the girls was where you had to cross the entire playground to get to it -- farthest from the street. I was a small, timid child and some of the older boys would be running so fast on the playground that I always was terrified I'd get run over trying to cross the playground to get to the girls' entrance. (I did get run into / knocked down a few times on my way across, too.)

Hitching posts? Not necessarily a thing of the past. The area where I live has a large Amish population; the local banks and some local businesses & public buildings have designated places for Amish customers to "park" their horse-and-buggies.

"Common Sense" If you remember such a thing you are at least in your fifties. There are still a few lost souls out there with "Good Sense" but , common sense is a thing of the past !!!

Back in the late 60's, maybe early 70's, you could buy gum with cards - like baseball cards except they were these crazy mummies or monsters riding motorcycles and things. The cards might have been stickers too, I'm not sure. Does anyone remember those?

I remember having a huge collection of them but no one else seems to remember them. Wish I knew what happened to all of those cards.

I remember monster stickers with silly names. I think they came with gum.

Oh good - I'm not imagining them!

>160 celtic:: I personally didn't come across a hamburger or french fries until grade 10.

I am also from the country. I remember hamburger and fries from an early age because my father would ALWAYS order a "plain cheeseburger and a chocolate shake" when we ate on the road during vacations--which, by the way, were really just trips to stay with friends or relatives.

However, I distinctly remember my first pizza at age 5. My mom and I were staying in Bellingham while she was at summer school and my 16 year-old cousin brought home this mysterious food, the likes of which I had never seen before. Likewise, I also remember my oldest brother introducing the family to tacos when we came to visit his wife and him while he was in college when I was 11--also in Bellingham, coincidentally. I remember my sister-in-law having to give us all instructions on what to do to fill and hold the tortilla. My mom later made pizza at home, but I have no recollection of us ever eating tacos again with my dad--too weird and messy for him!

I remember when The Flintstones was network TV, i.e. once a week in the evenings... in fact I remember when we first PURCHASED a TV... we received one channel, poorly.

I barely remember JFK's assassination. My father cried.

I remember picking up soda bottles and selling them for 3 cents.

I remember watching Mickey Mantle hit a homerun in the old District of Columbia Stadium in Washington DC.

I remember Bill Mazeroski hitting the World Series home run. I can still see it disappearing over the wall, and feel my heart breaking.

I heard about the Mazeroski walk-off home run
during an afternoon at work; radio, not TV, (though it WAS televised) and live but really second hand -- hearing reports passed on by those that had a radio in their department.

Almost the same situation in 1956 about the Don Larsen perfect game in the World Series. But I was at a radio when the Dale Mitchell an old Cleveland Indian, but now of the Dodgers was gotten out.

In 1964, the Yankees were again upset -- this time by the Cardinals; but I donʻt remember any radio or TV indidents from that series. I wne to a bar after the game, and heard of a rumor that
the last relief pitcher the Yankees used was Nikita S. Khrushchev (He had been deposed by the Soviet government about the time of the World Series--
amazingly to us at the time, he was still living, even though deposed! He and John Kennedy had
reached a treaty about limiting nuclear testing and were out of a job within two years -- Khrushchev being eased out and Kennedyʻs tenure ending violently.)

mersenne6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ1r81dJ2bg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDRDl7w3nto&feature=related

>40 usnmm2:

The guy who played Danno, MacArthur, died last week; the obit is at nytimes.com.

Oh yeah, forgot.. (age related?)...in reading about drugstores. , remember the lunch counter, soda fountain and the malts?

On 177:

Yes, the last "drug store" that I remember that had a lunch counter and soda fountain was in Copley Square, Boston. I don't remember its name. I think it was still there the NEXt-to last time, (1990s) but gone the last time I visited Boston.

My first realization that most cities no longer had
"corner drug stores" (Boston still did have a few) was
while attending library School in Providence, RI in the 1960s. I had forgotten to bring a notebook to class, but --"heck --I'll just go to the nearest drug store and buy one."
How naive! I walked into class, still wondering where Providence was hiding its drug stores.

Our drug store with a lunch counter and soda fountain was called "The Pharmacy" It was the corner store of a plaza that looked out at the main road. We would alway walk by it but my parents never went inside. My babysitter treated me one day and I have never forgotten. That was in Ajax, Ontario and I am guessing 1968.

My earliest memories of TV were of JFK's assassination and the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. We bought our 1st color TV in '69, I think.
candy cigarettes (so 60s)
go go boots (like Nancy Sinatra) and being sent home to change them
wearing dresses to school until 5th grade (1970) and no tan colored tights because they looked too much like nylons
carton of milk at school was 3 cents and hot lunches were 25 cents
my favorite soda fountain was in Paulsen's Pharmacy in Portland, Oregon and they had the best black and white sundaes and flavored cokes

#180 We share lots of the same memories! I think our first TV was in 1969, too, in the fall (which was the year when we were --finally -- allowed to wear slacks to school). The first show I watched on it was "Dark Shadows " which came on just as I was getting home from school.

Where I grew up, we had a local pharmacy with a soda fountain, but even then it wasn't open very much -- mostly lunch time and Saturday afternoons sometimes after the matinee let out at the nearby movie theater. Movie theater has been closed for decades and the pharmacy sold out to Eckards, which relocated the business to a brand new box store near the hospital. Now the hospital is closed and the Eckards is already gone. Such is life in a small town.

LOL! Dark Shadows! I miss ol' Barnabus Collins... Yep, I got outta school at 3:15 and Dark Shadows came on at 4pm. Then came Gilligans Island and Batman. ^_^

heehee--believe it or not I've been watching Dark Shadows with Netflix. Not yet up to the point where Quentin makes his entrance..... but Angelique has turned Barnabas into a vampire

How fun is that! l never thought of looking in Netflix. *runs off to check out Netflix*

Where I live, Rocketship 7, was on when I got home from school. That show came from Buffalo New York. At 4pm we had the Brady Bunch. 4:30 Batman

When I was a kid in the late 40s-early 50s I listened to "Bobby Benson & the B Bar B Riders", & "Seargent Preston of the Yukon" on the radio. We got TV in 49 but there was only one station for a long time so not a lot to watch. This was in Seattle. Later there were local kid's shows such as "J P Patches" & "Stan Boreson's Kids Clubhouse" on in the after noon as well as more stations too! 8^)

"Sargent Preston..." , that brings back memories, along with
"Rin Tin Tin", "Circus Boy" and "Rama of the Jungle"

Circus boy! I had such a crush on Mickey Bradford (later known by his real name, Mickey Dolenz. Yep, that Mickey Dolenz.)

Saturday mornings I was glued to the TV watching all the Supermarionation stuff like Fireball XL-5, Supercar, Captain Scarlet and the Thunderbirds (and others) along with Bugs Bunny before the cartoons were all hacked up to the point that they make no sense anymore.

Fireball XL-5:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ifS2nP53Zs&feature=related

Captain Scarlet and the mysterons;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV8YbLvGrb0&feature=related

I was a soda jerk at a pharmacy fountain. It was particularly interesting the day the circus came to town.

a loooong time ago there was an old family run drugstore up the street that had a soda fountain when they were almost extinct. Sometimes I'd go there but the old man who ran it always looked so fierce, I was half scared!

You know you are old when you don't know any of the top 10 hits of the year.

On 103:

If 103 is true, then I was old at 25. I donʻt think I even knew the word "pop". My musical knowledge was limited to a fair amount of folk song, and a smattering of classical. My definition of "jazz" was: anything you can hear on a juke box.

I remember, in my 20s, asking a co-worker of about my own age if he knew the C & W song "The Battle of New Orleans". He said he knew OF it, but didnʻt "know" it. I expressed surprise that it wasnʻt his kind of song because, I said, "Itʻs ON the juke boxes!" (His focus, I realized later, was mainly on Broadway "Show" tunes.

My favorite Western in the 50s was a series called The Range Rider which starred Jock Mahoney who was Sally Fields father. He had been a stunt man before the series. His side kick was named Dick West. Does anyone else remember this one? 8^)

You know you're 50-something if you remember when your parents' friends were all called Mr or Mrs - and if they had first names, even your parents didn't know them.

You know you are old when you work with someone who is young ! They often have no clue what you are talking about !

>197 faceinbook:

Yeah... One of our buildings weekend doorman is a 32 y.o. geek techie (just got his A-1 certification also) and yet I had today to explain about shortwave radio, atmospheric propagation and interference,signal strength, etc.,etc.!

Oh.......usually my conversations are nothing as technical as that. Work in a used bookstore, someone donated a box of stuff. There were some CD's of The Carol Burnett Show in the box.
The girl I work with is 19 yrs old....guess you can take it from there ;>)
(this is one example I clearly remember.....but believe me it is one among many)

15 years ago I was working with mostly college-aged kids. The Muzak was playing selections from South Pacific. I told the kids I would give a quarter to anyone who could name the musical, and another quarter if they could name the singer (Mary Martin). Not only did I keep my quarters, when I told them it was from South Pacific, they'd never heard of it.

I don't know if you have to be 50-something, but I'm sure that not many of those less than that age would remember having to sometimes shake their acoustic coupler from side to side to rearrange the carbon granules so that they could then get online to the BBS of their choice.

>200 PhaedraB: Phaedra, even 15 years ago, would a quarter (or two) have been worth the neurons they would have had to have used? I was also going to say that if you mentioned that Mary Martin was JR Ewing's mother it might have helped. But how in the name of all the gods does it happen that Dallas started thirty-three years ago and finished twenty years ago? It is probable that "Who shot Mr Burns?" is more relevant than "Who shot JR?" And please don't tell me how old the Simpsons reference is.

I think I've just had a You kids, get off of my lawn! moment!

You know, I'll bet I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've watched the Simpsons. No particular reason not, either. Does that make me reeeaaallly old?

Message 202...I don't see anything interesting in the Simpsons either. I don't think you have to be old. It's just your taste.

> 199

Mine neither,usually, these though are more interesting

202>

As for the Simpsons--- part of one episode was enough, didn't much care for the comic strip in the paper either.

#203 is right, it is a matter of taste (though mine CAN'T be too good...I liked MARRIED, WITH CHILDERN - even then, the jokes get stale though).

>202 PhaedraB:

I wouldn't have recognized either the name of the play or the singer, but Mary Martin I would recognize as the original Mary Poppins (a play in Hartford, CT).

I didn't know Peter Pan played Mary Poppins. Learn something new everyday.

208>

...it must have been a love of wires... :-D

>199 faceinbook: Faceinbook - I have often found myself wanting to refer to one of her skits but my daughter doesn't have a clue! Describing the scene of Carol coming down the stairs with the curtain rod sticking out of her shoulders just doesn't compare to seeing it. Of all the stupid old shows they've brought back, why can't they bring this one back? *lament, lament*

My understanding is that Burnett won't allow the show to be aired...evidently she owns all the rights to it, and is selling them on cds. I often see the informercial for them at various times, usually late at night. Too bad, so many of us would love to see them again; I, for one, am not willing to spend that kind of money on them, though.

I did run across rerun of the Flip Wilson show, recently. No idea what channel it was though, and didn't have time to watch much of it to see if held up over time. A few years ago, Laugh In was being aired, and I thought it was just as funny as it was when it first aired.

Another fun show was "Laugh In" I was in my midteens when that show aired....We didn't have a television till I was 13 yrs old. Our house was filled with books and music (I count myself as being very fortunate for that) It wasn't long after we got a TV that the show started.
Was clean family fun ! Of course Sony and Cher were often on the show and my parents were convinced that the world was going to hell in a handbasket ;>)

All parents are always concerned that the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

I'm the parent of a 17-year old daughter and I'm concerned that the world is going to hell in a handbasket!

Does it count if I feel like hell and am a basket case?

Where am I going, and what am I doing in this basket?

Always wondered what in the heck one would use a handbasket in hell for. Asked that of MY parents once......the reaction was not good. Actually, at the time, I felt like I had gotten there much faster than the rest of the world had.

LOL! 8^)

This isn't an "if you remember," but an "if you don't know." Someone has been bringing People magazine into the office lately. Every issue, I find that I recognize the names of fewer and fewer of the people mentioned. Not only that, I don't recall having ever seen their faces. At 54 and with no kids or grandkids, I find I am really out of touch with popular culture. It actually came as a bit of a shock to me.

218 Me, too! I often find myself wondering, "who are these people, anyway, and why should I care what they're up to?"

Fame really is fleeting these days. I decided to let time winnow out some of them for me, and only learn the ones that I keep hearing about.

Too many cute quirky blondes. Too many smoldering pretty boys with light eyes. Can't keep them straight.

And most of them seem to admit to the most embarrassing things - the kinds of things people USED to try to keep secret.

218> don't feel bad, I'm temporally 60- but then I don't follow pop culture much. Our generation was pop culture once and in a few years this generation will be asking much the same questions and wondering much the same things as us and before...

"plus ca change, plus ca la meme choise" (French- The more things change, the more they stay the same)

You know you're 50-something if you can remember the nuns who taught your classes actually looking like nuns. You never saw their hair or their legs.

#223 - related - you know you're 50-something when you can remember the neighbor kids who went to Catholic school and had to use fountain pens and wear uniforms. You also know you're 50-something when you remember the story your boyfriend told you about the corporal punishment the nuns doled out to him in elementary school, including using the metal edge of the ruler to rap his knuckles.

#218...I know exactly what you mean. I someetimes think I am from another planet.

>218 lbradf:
I'm 54 have kids and I find I'm still out of touch. I'm pretty good up to 2005 but things start to get fuzzy after that.

Aw, Lynda, you made me laugh. I have a few "fuzzy" years along the way too.

sorry, double post.

I mostly have excellent memories of my school days, but I do remember being whacked in the back by a nun when I was in fourth grade because I didn't hold the door open for her. Nowadays a teacher would lose her job for that.

Ouch, that sounds like a bad memory.

How about having a nun put your head under a water fountain spout to flatten out the ratting in your hairstyle?

I went only to public schools but I remember having to walk on the brown tiles next to the wall, only white students could walk on the white tiles, even though at the time I was considered "White with Spanish Surname".

I remember the first black child to attend our all white school......some people made fun of her or were scared of her....how strange that seems now.

Ack, Lynda! I had no idea. How awful.

Something that has come up in Trvia Questions (True or false and others) is based on the fact that Ted Williamsperhaps the greatest LEFT-handed batter of all time was RIGHT-handed! He had taught himself
to bat left.
(In baseball handedness is based on the throwing hand. Some right handed pitchers have batted left, but there have been only two cases I remmber of a left-handed pitcher batting right. Tug mcGraw was one of those exceptions.)) The belief at the time was that left handed batters have a natural advantage over
right handed pitchers, and right handers are the majority of pitchers.
Ted certainly was accident-prone* --which I dontʻ think had anything to do with handedness, although you might say he proved that a righty can be just as accident prone as a left.
I think the competent statistician that you mention, mersenne6, was right, and not the insurance pundits.

*In 1954, for example he broke his elbow in the
All-Star Game, finished the game, but missed the second half of the regular season.
season

Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners taught himself to bat left-handed cause it puts him a couple of steps closer to first base. He has a lot of records for base hits etc. Plus he has won a Golden Glove Award for his fielding skills 10 years in a row. 8^)

I don't think left-handers are more accident-prone, clumsy, or clueless. I think the injury statistics stem from them trying to cope with a world built for right-handers.

My Ted Williams story;

The very first pro baseball game I ever went to was at Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox play. ( It was 1960 and I was in the 2nd Grade.) Anyway, Ted Williams comes to bat and the whole park stood up and started to cheer and yell. My father being the loudest of them all,
My Mother not being in a sports frame of mind ask my father "Whats going on, why is everyone yelling?". Dad answered it's "Ted Williams it's Ted Williams !!".
My Mother Asked Just as the park started to calm down, "Who the H**l is Ted williams ? " My Dads replay was quick and to the point .... "Quiet women you want to get us killed!"

MerryMary,
Being the father of two left-handed boys, I agree with you one hundred and ten percent.

" ʻWho the H**l is Ted Wlliams?ʻ -- ...you want to get us killed?ʻ " --hmm; hard to punctuate.

I first saw a ML game in 1942 at Fenway Park. Ted Williams was the Red Sox l.f. He was also during that year, taking courses at Bunker Hill Junior College, in preparation of his entering the Marine Corps (where he became a flight instructor; re-inducted in 1953, he was in combat) at the end of the season.
His temporary deferment during the first year of WW II caused some controversy, but he ended up having quite a military record (WW II and Korean War). Many Red Sox fans disliked him
--unrelated to the military connection --on the grounds that he didnʻt hit "in the clutch" that he supposedly had no concern with winning/losing, or with anything in baseball except his own batting average.
I, in turn disliked that kind of fan, because Williams was my favorite Red Socker. By late 1946 I was pretty much a Boston Braves fan,
but continued to be a Williams fan. I returned to the Red Sox when they became "the only game in town" with the Bravesʻ move to Milwaukee in 1953. ʻ53 was also the year of Tedʻs late season return from Korea.
A typical capsule report on the Soxʻ game, during the 50s, would be something like:
"Sox (won or lost). Ted did NOTHING!" --except for the many games where he DID do something. I wasnʻt seeing much baseball by the early 60s, so the fans may have mellowed
by that time. But, on reading your post (239), I had doubts that "Who...IS TW?" would get anyone killed. In the late 70s when I was visiting Boston
and saw the Sox play a Blue Jays team that was
narely Major League, I noticed from the talk of
fans sitting near me, that 8619505::Jim Rice --now a Hall of Famer, though hardly another Williams-- seemed to have inherited some of the old anti-Williams fans.
So maybe there is a love of mediocrity --as opposed to undeniable excellence-- among a faction of Boston fans. I remember the Boston Record American (now the 10477764::Herald of the 1950s
ran articles "proving" that a hit by infielder Billy Klaus (not a regular) was four times as valuable as a hit by Williams!-- by their own formula for the "value" of hits.
There is, b t w, a John Updike article about Williamsʻs last major league game that is something of a classic in sports writing.

I wanted a pack of flints for a Zippo at a drugstore and the clerk didn't even know what flints were!

Does anyone remember the first time the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show? My dad (who hated rock music) called me in from play and the whole family gathered around the TV to watch.

Good Gods, yes!

We were over an Jeannie's house, working on a 7th grade homework project down in the basement. Her mom called us upstairs to see them. By week 2, we were already in front of the TV. By week three, we were gonners ...

#242 lostinalibrary - my dad hated rock music too, and therefore we didn't get to watch The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Come to think of it, we didn't watch Ed Sullivan very often anyway, although I remember Topo Gigo and Senor Wences.

Anyway, Dad constantly complained about rock, but when I was 11 years old in 1964 the Beatles played at the Hollywood Bowl. I won a free ticket from KFWB "Channel 98" and even though Dad suggested that I sell the ticket, he let me go. All by myself, in LA, when you could (mostly) still be safe in LA.

I was in a Beatles Fan Club in 5th Grade.

Senor Wences creeped me out.

But I loved Topo Gigo.

Good night, Edd-ee.

I just looked at a Senor Wences on Ed Sullivan on youtube, and although I remember him fondly, he was a terrible ventriloquist! He was good at changing voices quickly though.

Edgar Bergan wasn't very good either. Maybe that's why he was on the radio.

His real strength was his sharp wit - especially as Charlie.

My brother had a Charlie Macarthy puppet...but he wasn't very good at it either.

I remember the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, oh that long hair! My father was so upset about it.

I remember the Beatles, but can't remember if I saw them on Ed Sullivan. Mostly I remember screaming, crying, hysterical girls. It was pretty cool.

246 Mary (and other Topo fans) . . . and my favorite bit:

Topo - Edd-ee?
Ed S - Yes, Topo?
Topo - Kees me goodni-ight?
Ed S - :stiffly waves Topo away in feigned anger/embarassment, yet sorta smiling as he stalks off; the audience loved this:

I remember being in bed (or hiding at the top of the stairs), but Mom would always call me back down for Topo or other puppets. My first memory of Kermit is a skit where he was playing the piano (not Rowlf!). As he played, the piano was replaced by bigger pianos until the last one showed up with monster teeth and ate Kermit. Now that seems scary, yet I thought it was hysterical.

You know you're English when you haven't a clue who all these people are (except for the Beatles, of course). :(

Ed Sullivan had been a society columnist in New York in the '30s and '40s (I think), and was one of the early variety show hosts on television. By the time some of us elderly (!) folks were teenagers, his show was THE showcase for new groups. Ed chose the acts and did the introductions. Personally, he was stiff and rigid - in opinion as well as in body - and he was easily and often impersonated.

My friends and I tuned in for the rock and roll groups and singers, but we also got to see snippets of Broadway plays, vaudeville comics, acrobats, and lots of other truly variety performances. One of these was a sweet Italian puppet mouse named Topo Gigo. Another, a ventriloquist named Senor Wences, used his hand with a painted-on face as a puppet. Also a face in a box.

As regards Ed's attitude toward rock and roll (one of gritted teeth tolerance), when Elvis Presley first appeared, Ed decreed that he only be shown from the waist up.

Actually, it's Topo Gigio; here's a clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=garNxavx8gY

I have to admit that, even at 60, I'm still a music geek. The other day, my son suggested I listen to a new band so I went on one of the sites where you can listen to snippets of songs for free. I couldn't remember the exact name of the band (the ol' memory just ain't what it used to be) but I thought I could search it out. Anyway, after navigating through endless genres of music eg. emo, punk, post-punk, garage, grunge, art, shoegaze(?), post-rock, on and on and on...I finally gave up. How I miss the days when it was all just rock'n'roll and we liked it.

>242 lostinalibrary: I didn't see the Ed Sullivan show with the Beatles, and when a friend (who *had* seen it) asked if I liked them, my response was, "bugs??"

I never did catch up with pop culture - always had my head in a book!

"...the Beatles.... 'bugs?' . . .I never did catch up with pop culture. . ." (256)

I was 34 years old when the Beatles first became well-known in the U.S. --Greater Boston,in my case.
I never became a fan. I did see Help! and Let it Be. I thought the former was over-rated.*
When in my 70s, though not a fan, I asked my sons, if they were at my funeral, to sing 5 songs, including 2 McCartney songs: Let it Be and the not-so-famous Mull of Kintyre. (My other selections were 2 Hawaiian songs -- both religious -- and one Irish song.)

*over-rated: in my vocabulary this is NOT a synonym for "useless, "Boring"
or "no-good". It means no less and no more than it says. I'm inclined to
think something has to be pretty good, in order to BE over-rated.

Wearing maroon double knit bellbottoms in elementary school.

Just a few years later, Huckapoo shirts with powder blue 3-piece suits.

Linda Rondstadt wearing an official Cub Scout uniform, in concert. Years before she had to shop at Lane Bryant in order to find something to wear during her Mexican ballad phase.

#258, I had a friend who claimed that Linda Rondstadt, while with the Stone Poneys, wore miniskirts commando style. He stood at the front of the stage during a concert. ;-)

Who didn't back then?

*hesitantly raises hand...*

thats okay Mary, I had to wait till I left the house to roll my skirt up at the waist, so the kids wouldn't make fun of me

I did that too, but it didn't work - my mother taught at my school. But NEVER commando.

#262 I used to roll up my skirts after I left the house, too. But that was to keep my mother from knowing.

I also had one dress I HATED to wear and when my mother would make me wear it I'd try to get it dirty on the way to school so I could come home and change to another dress. It worked a couple of times.....

My favorite outfit was a dark purple "Poor Boy" turtleneck and a dark purple/paisley corduroy hip-hugger skirt with a wide belt.

Love this 50 something group; but, sadly I'm now 60 something. I remember most of the above.
* Going to AA Moser's general store in Winston-Salem, NC with my dad to get groceries. That was when mom would send a grocery list to Mr Moser and he would get up your groceries. The store also, had a pot bellied wood stove that customers would sit around and chat during the winter.

Shopping downtown during the fall of the year, harvest time, we lived on a farm. Go once a year to get school clothes.

Having a black and white TV; favorite show was Roy Rogers & Dale Evans on Saturday mornings. I had a Dale Evans wrist watch... much prized possession.

Didn't wear pants to school until my sophmore year and then had to be dress pants with matching sweaters. NO Jeans, a no no for girls.

Dating was strictly supervised.. Mom had to be introduced to date and he had to pass inspection before dates. Wow, what a change from today.

Loved reading as a child, but, didn't own many books...too poor. All books were borrowed from school library. I do remeber the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series. I have collected a lot of the Nancy Drew books in my old age. They are still fun to read!

JaneAustenNut - your post reminded me that once a year my mother would take us to the Boston Store in (near?) Hawthorne California for us to get new school clothes. We also got new shoes once a year at Standard Shoes. I always wanted to get Buster Brown shoes because you always got some kind of trinket or giftie with them, but they were too expensive and we didn't ever get them. We'd each get one pair of dress ("school") shoes and one pair of tennis shoes. I don't remember how it worked if our foot grew too much during the year.....

One year Mrs. Kimberling from the Boston Store sent boxes of clothes to the house for us to try on - we kept what we wanted to purchase and had the rest sent back.

We NEVER got to wear pants to school except twice a year - pants days. Couldn't be jeans either.

I have SO enjoyed reading these posts! Ok...

Rat Finks

Hang 10 shirts, Poor Boy turtlenecks, jumpers, tights

Huge bells on the bellbottoms

Romeo and Juliet w/Olivia Hussey

Wearing a guy's I.D. bracelet to go steady

Gremlin cars

"Born to be Wild" playing on the speakers at the country club as you were jumping off the high dive

Coffee houses

Home Ec

Walking EVERYWHERE (and love it!)

Jack in the Box (TOY)

My mother's Lark record player and I loved the little "disc" you put on the middle prong if you wanted to play a 45 and you had to slide the little switch to either 33, 45 or 78

Pork chop sideburns

57 Chevys (all my bf's had 'em!)

Sky King, Lassie, Dr. Kildare, Father Knows Best, Ozzie and Harriet, Wild Kingdom, Dark Shadows, Superman, Sing Along with Mitch, American Bandstand, and so many more!

I remember lots of commercials; Lark, Camel, PalMal cigarettes. Breck shampoo, Gillette razors, CocaCola, etc.

The ice cream truck and the mosquito truck were always exciting in our neighborhood :)

Vaccum cleaner salesmen and Encyclopedia Britannica, World Book, salesmen.

Babysitting for .50 an hour; working at Dairy Queen for .75 an hour.

Central vaccum cleaner

Those fat yarn things to tie your hair up in pigtails or a ponytail.

Penny loafers and as mentioned, saddle shoes. Clogs, peace necklaces, maxi and mini skirts.

Female teachers wearing cat eye glasses and long skirts or dresses. And HOSE

Lordy, how could I forget mimeograph paper and the smell?? Good one!

Oh! Does anyone remember a radio show in the early 70s called "Bleaker Street"?

YES! I do remember Queen for a Day. I remember my mom sitting on the couch watching and I'd think to myself, "I'll be SHE would like to be the queen!"

I LOVED the Art Linkletter show when he did "Kids say the Darndest Things". I have the book he wrote with the same title.

I read every Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys they published. Ahhh, but do you gals remember the "Cherry Ames, Student Nurse" series??

Scooter skirts?

White lipstick

Blue eyeshadow

The "gypsy" or "peasant" look

Jersey knit fabric and corduroy

Bare midriffs

Chunky platform shoes/sandals

Mr. Rogers defending PBS to the U.S. Senate

AND check out this 1969 interview with Joan Crawford about fashion... LOL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fdmaQstmIE

LOVED 77 Sunset Strip!
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
COMBAT
The Rat Patrol
oh my....

I certainly DO remember the Beatles on Ed Sullivan! I was at my grandma's little house in Lawton, OK and she had a black & white tv. When the Beatles started playin, my Uncle Joe and I started dancing all over Grandma's living room linoleum. It was great & I don't remember anything negative. Oh, my Uncle Joe's girlfriend, Bunny, was over to watch it too and she drove a pink Mustang. I thought it was GORGEOUS! She even drove me to the A&W Drive In for a root beer.

#267 Feeling decidedly confused here as an English over 50. Please someone tell me what a mosquito truck was! Did you buy new mosquitoes or did he collect your old, unused ones?

I'm assuming you got a nice, refreshing shower of DDT.

Great thread, love the posts. Hope you all don't mind if I add my two-cents to the growing list.

Wearing pants with more colors than kaleidoscope

Playing in the creek, digging clay from the banks to make pottery for our moms

Reading every Nancy Drew mystery I could get my hands on

Watching Dark Shadows every afternoon

Riding my bike through the woods for hours without a care in the world. Mama turned us loose after lunch and didn't expect to see us again until supper-time (that's dinner to some of you :)) It was such a wonderful taste of freedom; a privilege that was lost to my daughter.

@Booksloth- a mosquito truck rode through the neighborhood, usually in the early evening, spraying foggy chemicals to help rid us of those pesky munchers.

#276/7 So Jim was right! Thank you.

47>
Thanks for the stanza. I remember when that song was popular but I never got the last line.

In the recently released film TREE OF LIFE, there's an amazing scene with the 'mosquito machine'... Yes, all those little boys running after a DDT sprayer truck...It's a wonder more men didn't become sterile.

Thank goodness, we had none of that in Central Pennsylvania, although DDT definitely was in use up until the 1950's.

Nancy Drew...ah, I'd literally bicycle to the nearest village, one mile away to borrow Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins and Cherry Ames books from an elderly couple who went to our church and encouraged my enthusiasm for reading. Really, our parents let us run all over the place until our menses were imminent. I was useful to the boys damming up the crick as long as I brought snacks, but one day I presumed on the group's supposedly open door policy and got a rock thrown in my eye. That was the day before I was to sing at the Children's Day service in a beautiful new frock. My shiner was the talk of the congregation.

White buck shoes, crinolines, transferable lace collars, circle pins, high school proms, college proms, dressing up for dates. BLUE JEANS strictly forbidden outside the garden!

No TV in our home until 1956. By then I was in an academic track at high school, involved in after school A Capella Choir, Band and Orchestra practice, among other things, and had absolutely no time for it at all. (Now my big weakness is Project Runway and Roseanne's Nuts, as well as Jonathan Ames and Curb Your Enthusiasm, among other stupid things. The Moroccan Expedition on ABC is pretty interesting too!)

No Mosquito Trucks in semi-arid Southern California, although we had the med-fly infestation in the .... late 70s? 80s? I didn't live in an area where they used helicopters to drop malathion, fortunately.

I remember seeing the Beatles when they were on the Ed Sullivan show for the first time. My parents let me stay up late to watch. When I was in elementary school, the most popular girls had a record of the Monkees, which they played every day at lunch (Hey hey hey, we're the Monkees and people say we monkey around, but we're too busy singing to put anybody down.) etc. etc. etc.

Today I saw a woman wearing jeans covered in calico patches and embroidery. Reminded what we wore in the early-mid 70s. Did anyone else have an embroidered oversized chambray shirt? I remember sewing one not only for me, but for my boyfriend too!

273>

Yes, those were good shows (I didn't care for 77 sunset) but you forgot 'The Untouchables' and 'The Jackie Gleason Show' .

77 Sunset Strip apparently (at least once) featured an actor named Louis d'Antin van Rooten. I wrote about him here: http://www.taintmagazine.com/index.php?work_id=247&page=1

I didn't see the Beatles the first time they were on Sullivan, but a neighbor's older sister did and he told me she went nuts. they were on again a few weeks later, so i watched then. i only vaguely remember.

I interviewed Rick Jason about his life and career for an article I wrote about a national group of Combat! fans who maintained their enthusiasm for the show through the late '90s with newsletters and annual meetings. Jason committed suicide the next year.

Here's something I distinctly remember about being a boy in the early 1960s: My mom and my friends' moms came to walk us home from elementary school, and when spring came they wore sleeveless blouses. On the way back, my mom asked me if I noticed that one of the other moms had numbers tattooed on her arm, and she explained to me how that happened.

Oh, Steve! Those are serious memories. The mother of one of my friends also had a number on her arm. She usually wore long sleeves, so it was a couple of years before I saw it.

285>

Didn't Rick Jason play the lieutenant? I haven't thought much about the show since the 60's, except when Vic Morrow was killed.

I don't remember anyone with numbers on their arms, but I clearly remember the sickening feeling I got when my grandmother told me all about lampshades.

krazy: yeah, it's something, huh? still gets to me.

chg1: some cable channel was doing heavy rotation reruns in the 90s and i watched them, and i have to tell you, they were great. mini-existential dramas as the team advanced across france after d-day (same historical framework AND dramatic structure as 'saving private ryan.') as i remember, the show was split between two leads, morrow and jason; i think jason's character led the 'away' missions.

Steve:

I was never a cable subscriber and rarely (actually, not on years) go to movies. I actually remember the original airings (The introcomplete with theme music, that's how much I, and a friend, were addicted to that show ! We even used to play Combat!)

Today our daughter came to church (Jim's last Sunday before we move), and several men got up to sing "Turn the Radio On". She said one of the more elderly of them looked like a cartoon character, and I said, "Yeah, he reminds me of Mr. Magoo". Her response: "Who?"

So after church, I googled Mr. Magoo and tried to explain it to her. But she agreed that Mr. Brown was a dead ringer for Mr. Magoo. (Mr. Brown, btw, is a lovely man, and is like Mr. Magoo only in looks!)

#283 theexiledlibrarian - Oh my goodness! I forgot all about my "work shirt" - long-sleeved light blue shirt from Sears. I learned several different embroidery stitches and put stuff all over it and had an iron-on American Flag on the back which my dad Did Not Like At All. I loved that shirt and wore it until it was in tatters.

and #290 - I'm 58 and have an 18 year old daughter (she just turns 18 today!) and I'm always referring to things she doesn't know or understand. I probably bore her to death explaining things, but she's definitely more well rounded than a lot of kids her age. I showed her Topo Gigio and Senor Wences recently and they had not aged well.....

Senor Wences always gave me the creeps. Same thing for the Banana Man on Captain Kangaroo. Creepy.

Another distinct memory of boyhood: Summer camp, 1968: At the end of the season, we asked our counselor what he was going to do when camp was over. He said: "Well, I'm not college material, so I'm not going to college, but I'm not Vietnam material, either, so I'm going to have to go to Canada." ... Walking to school on my last day of junior high, four years later, I remembered that and thought, "Uh oh, I thought the war would be over by now." Fortunately it ended the next year, before I would've had to register for the draft.

My husband missed Vietnam by about 5 months...he likely would have been drafted, but the war ended. He joined the Coast Guard instead. My dad was there, but fortunately he was career, and too old to be in combat. He was a supply sergeant in Camron Bay.

We graduated in 1968 and my husband missed Vietnam because we went to community college and then he joined the local police dept. So, he obtained an education deferment and a career deferment. I'm so glad he didin't have to go to Vietnam, his draft number was 96; yikes! Served 32 years with the local police dept before retirement.

I seem to recall one of my favourite tv shows was Cannonball. It was about these two truckers that have adventures up and down the 401 between detroit and toronto. It was supposed to be all over, but since I lived near there, I recognized a lot of the location shots.
Another one was Tugboat Annie. It was like The Beachcombers but filmed in the Toronto Harbour

theexiled/janeausten - we are all very fortunate. i was a travel writer about 10 years ago, and was on the philadelphia riverfront looking at boats. a guard from the mint nearby came up next to me and we struck up a conversation about a particularly nicely decorated one. i noticed he was wearing his vietnam vet hat. i said: thank you for your service. if that war had gone on for another few years, i probably would've had to go. i don't know if i would've survived. you're lucky, he said. war is stupid. i quoted him in the article i wrote (about his opinion of the eagles, not the war). we had a nice moment together.

Gord.Barker: I remember my grandfather reading the Saturday Evening Post's serialized Tugboat Annie stories each week to my grandmother as they rested on their bed in the afternoons. If I curled up in the chair next to the bed, I could listen to them too. Since I was only six or seven years old, I could understand the competitive action, even I couldn't read all the text at that point.

Reading aloud: My grandparents, born in the 1870's, had grown up reading aloud. They were charter members of the Dickens Club in our college town. The group gathered to read aloud from Dickens' books and discuss them. I haven't cataloged all the complete works in my personal library yet since the shelves are hard to reach. Must do it one of these times.

Can anyone think of an author a group would meet to discuss for decades? (Well, some folks like Ayn Rand. Let's not go THERE.)

Anybody remember "Spoolies"? My grandmother had some. They were little rubber hair rollers that you'd wrap your hair around pin curl style and snap the one end down to hold it in place. Hard to describe.

Dear heaven.....I just googled Spoolies and they still make them! Who knew?

Every Saturday night, our hair went into Spoolies so mom could curl, poof, and tease our little heads into bouffants on Sunday morning for church. Big hair on little girls. What was mom thinking????

I remember can-cans...petticoats with rows and rows of net ruffles to make your skirts stand 'way out. My momma thought I was too young for them. (I had maybe one row of ruffles.) But my "big girl" cousins had really neato can-cans. I remember one Sunday my uncle sat down between Nancy and Karen. When their big skirts whooshed up, Uncle Norval disappeared!

Today, poor old Uncle Norval would be seriously investigated!