Stella Johnson
Active Member
Well, I do remember green stamps. I saved them when we went grocery shopping. :rofl: As for the rest, I felt old until I read all of your replies. I suddenly feel young. :smile: Just Kidding :blush:
steph
steph
Life's luxuries?
- Thread starter Abbey
- Start date
WhymeMom?
No real answers to life..
What a trip down memory lane...We had the party line, black, dial telephone. We unfortunately had a very talkative neighbor on our line and didn't always get a chance to use the phone. Our first tv, black and white, had a picture about 10 inches square in a huge box. We actually had to get up to change the channel(there were three choices, but only one came in good enough to understand what the show was).
I don't recall my parents going out to eat much. I do remember the "golden arches" of McDonalds--when they actually had the golden arches and french fries were 15 cents. We had to actually "wind" down the windows in the car and didn't have air conditioning until I was in college. I was the only one to go to college in my family--what a rebel.....
I also remember the wringer washer and hanging out the laundry to dry on an actual clothes line. How many of you made tents with blankets over the clothesline? What fun....
I don't recall my parents going out to eat much. I do remember the "golden arches" of McDonalds--when they actually had the golden arches and french fries were 15 cents. We had to actually "wind" down the windows in the car and didn't have air conditioning until I was in college. I was the only one to go to college in my family--what a rebel.....
I also remember the wringer washer and hanging out the laundry to dry on an actual clothes line. How many of you made tents with blankets over the clothesline? What fun....
rejectedmom
New Member
I went to the movies twice in my childhood. I wore a uniform for school had one dress for church and two sets of play clothes and two pair of pJs. I had an older sister so my clothes were hand me downs. We had an old 6 inch BW TV and when it broke we had none for 5 years. We never ate out, didn't have an allowance, Ate PJ sandwiches every day for lunch and hot dogs one a week. At christmas we go two gifts one was clothes one was a toy. And we were middle class! -RM
Marguerite
Active Member
Oh, what memories.
Some differences for us - we didn't get fast food franchises in Australia until the early Seventies. Except for KFC - "Kentucky Fried Chicken" back then. I think that came out in about 1966. Otherwise for a treat we would get hot chips (fries, only bigger and fatter) wrapped in newspaper, from the local fish 'n chip shop. There were other delicacies such as meat pie (individual-sized) with "dead 'orse" (Aussie rhyming slang for tomato sauce). Ice cream sodas were a very special treat. A burger was a rare treat for us - I was in my teens before I had one, I think. And Aussie burgers are very different - they're huge and loaded with salad and other stuff like cheddar cheese, grilled bacon and fried egg. Sometimes slices of pineapple too, as well as salad and the beef pattie, usually moulded on the spot from a handful of beef mince. You'd watch them cook it. People could buy potato crisps but we never did.
We grew most of what we ate. We weren't strictly living on a farm, we lived in the outer suburbs but my parents managed the land very efficiently. When I was found as a baby to be allergic to cows milk, my parents bought and bred goats on our small quarter acre. We kept hens, sheep, a few pigs from time to time, the goats and towards the end, we raised some poddy calves. This was on top of the fruit orchard and the vegetable beds. The whole family would pitch in to help harvest or till the beds. The manure went onto the garden beds.
We had dogs, always. One dog was a genius - the older twins would come home from school for lunch and when they went back would take the dog with him. he had a shopping bag with money and a list. The grocer would fill the shopping bag with the goods on the list, put any change in the bag, give it to the dog and send him home. My older brother would also use the dog to fetch in wood from the woodheap in wet weather. My mother would leave me with the dog, knowing I would be safe and no stranger could enter the yard. He was a wonderful dog - died of tick bite when I was 4.
Food - home cooked from cheap or home-grown ingredients. My mother would buy stewing steak and grill it. I was a determined vegetarian. o junk food, sometimes home-made biscuits but they were counted out. We did get lemonade sometimes as a treat, but mostly I drank milk or sometimes home-made cordial. We preserved the orchard produce in an old Vacola on the stove. I used to come home from school and wash a bucket of potatoes, then peel them and put them on to cook. Then the carrots. Then peas.
We actually had a dishwasher - pitiful by modern standards. With 8 kids I think my mum convinced my father to get one. We still had to hand wash-up every night, but it cut the load in half. The milking things were the worst to hand-wash. One bathroom but separate toilet. The laundry - we graduated from an old copper with a hand-cranked wringer, to an automatic washing machine. We never had a drier though.
School shoes - bought as needed, repaired at home for as long as possible. I remember buying new shoes and generally having to go up three sizes or more, because my feet had grown that much. My parents would hand down everything else, but never shoes. I had one pair of 'good' shoes for parties and Sundays. One pair of shoes for school. The rest of the time - bare feet, even in winter. And always, a pair of gumboots (wellingtons). We had a rack for all the gumboots in the family, they were kept in the toilet. We always had to check them for spiders (funnelwebs and redbacks) before putting them on.
Clothes - either home-made or hand-me-downs. However, I had a wealthy aunt who once brought some designer clothes back from Paris - three white broderie anglaise dresses. With six girls there was always a white dress for someone to wear. I worked my way through all three dresses and still have one in my wardrobe. It fits easy child 2/difficult child 2 perfectly but she refuses to wear it because it looks too "little girl" in style, with a full skirt and peter pan collar. However, you can see the quality of the workmanship in the fabric and manufacture. From what I can see, the fabric has been hand-stitched. I wore one of these dresses to a sister's wedding; to my school formal (several years running); to a number of other formal occasions. It definitely was NOT in fashion when I wore it to the school speech day!
For primary school I didn't wear a school uniform. Instead, my mother & I hand-made some dresses which were for school. I was supposed to change into play clothes when I got home from school. In summer that was usually necessary anyway, because the Sydney southerly buster (a summer storm, blowing up from the south) would arrive like clockwork after every hot day, dumping torrential rain in a thunder & lightning display at precisely 3.20 every afternoon; I would arrive home soaked to the skin. One feature of this drought - the southerly busters are simply not arriving. They have been rare for the past few years.
We had a TV, there were three TV networks to begin with in about 1956. A fourth network began in early 60s. We now have a number of community channels and another national one (multicultural) which began in about 1978.
No air conditioning in our home. Heating in winter was a wood fire at first, then later a coal fire. We occasionally were permitted to use an electric heater. A special treat in winter was being permitted to get dressed in front of the fire.
I walked to school - quarter of a mile - then later I had a two mile walk each way. At times (when I was 4, and later when I was 11) I travelled by bus and then train to go to school, over an hour's travel each way. I was not permitted to ride a bicycle - too much danger on the roads.
A neighbour owned a horse and sulky, I used to have to run out with a rock from the garden to prop behind the wheels when he wanted to stop to chat to my mother. The milk (when we got cows milk delivered) arrived on a horse & cart - a big white cart with steel-shod wheels that were bigger than I was. he gave free drinks to my sisters but I was not allowed to have any.
My mother made ice cream from goats milk (not recommended) and later on, we made butter from the cows milk after I outgrew my allergy and we had a beautiful Jersey house cow.
I remember studying for my final high school exams (we had moved to a five acre farm at that point) by first going out into the garden, picking a colander full of tomatoes and sitting at my desk reading my tests and eating tomatoes. At the farm, we lived four miles from the school and it took forty minutes for the bus to make each trip. husband lived closer to the town and would sometimes ride his bike to visit. We met (briefly) in my final year of school, he took me out a year later (as friends) and we didn't become an item for another 18 months. Then my parents sold the farm and moved 300 miles away. By that stage I was adapting to living alone in the city - very different. But when I went home to my parents, at lunchtime we would have salad sandwiches. I would be sent out to the garden to pick some tomatoes, a lettuce and pull up an onion. We would slice up some cheddar and open a tin of beetroot. They lived by a wonderful beach and I would swim every day, year round.
Maybe because there were so many of us, we had a more frugal lifestyle than other kids my age, but when I look back it was fairly healthy, apart from the bread and dripping (it was a treat, can you believe!) I can feel my arteries harden, just thinking about it. Every kitchen had a dripping tin. You can't buy them these days.
Leaving home to live alone in the city was a huge shock. But if I hadn't I would never have grown up. husband & I used to travel the trains on the way to uni. I came home for weekends so we saw each other on Friday afternoons and Monday mornings. It was the last days of the old country steam train, so it means a lot to us.
Ands orange juice? We had to hand-squeeze it ourselves. It was easier to eat the oranges instead.
That's life!
Marg
Some differences for us - we didn't get fast food franchises in Australia until the early Seventies. Except for KFC - "Kentucky Fried Chicken" back then. I think that came out in about 1966. Otherwise for a treat we would get hot chips (fries, only bigger and fatter) wrapped in newspaper, from the local fish 'n chip shop. There were other delicacies such as meat pie (individual-sized) with "dead 'orse" (Aussie rhyming slang for tomato sauce). Ice cream sodas were a very special treat. A burger was a rare treat for us - I was in my teens before I had one, I think. And Aussie burgers are very different - they're huge and loaded with salad and other stuff like cheddar cheese, grilled bacon and fried egg. Sometimes slices of pineapple too, as well as salad and the beef pattie, usually moulded on the spot from a handful of beef mince. You'd watch them cook it. People could buy potato crisps but we never did.
We grew most of what we ate. We weren't strictly living on a farm, we lived in the outer suburbs but my parents managed the land very efficiently. When I was found as a baby to be allergic to cows milk, my parents bought and bred goats on our small quarter acre. We kept hens, sheep, a few pigs from time to time, the goats and towards the end, we raised some poddy calves. This was on top of the fruit orchard and the vegetable beds. The whole family would pitch in to help harvest or till the beds. The manure went onto the garden beds.
We had dogs, always. One dog was a genius - the older twins would come home from school for lunch and when they went back would take the dog with him. he had a shopping bag with money and a list. The grocer would fill the shopping bag with the goods on the list, put any change in the bag, give it to the dog and send him home. My older brother would also use the dog to fetch in wood from the woodheap in wet weather. My mother would leave me with the dog, knowing I would be safe and no stranger could enter the yard. He was a wonderful dog - died of tick bite when I was 4.
Food - home cooked from cheap or home-grown ingredients. My mother would buy stewing steak and grill it. I was a determined vegetarian. o junk food, sometimes home-made biscuits but they were counted out. We did get lemonade sometimes as a treat, but mostly I drank milk or sometimes home-made cordial. We preserved the orchard produce in an old Vacola on the stove. I used to come home from school and wash a bucket of potatoes, then peel them and put them on to cook. Then the carrots. Then peas.
We actually had a dishwasher - pitiful by modern standards. With 8 kids I think my mum convinced my father to get one. We still had to hand wash-up every night, but it cut the load in half. The milking things were the worst to hand-wash. One bathroom but separate toilet. The laundry - we graduated from an old copper with a hand-cranked wringer, to an automatic washing machine. We never had a drier though.
School shoes - bought as needed, repaired at home for as long as possible. I remember buying new shoes and generally having to go up three sizes or more, because my feet had grown that much. My parents would hand down everything else, but never shoes. I had one pair of 'good' shoes for parties and Sundays. One pair of shoes for school. The rest of the time - bare feet, even in winter. And always, a pair of gumboots (wellingtons). We had a rack for all the gumboots in the family, they were kept in the toilet. We always had to check them for spiders (funnelwebs and redbacks) before putting them on.
Clothes - either home-made or hand-me-downs. However, I had a wealthy aunt who once brought some designer clothes back from Paris - three white broderie anglaise dresses. With six girls there was always a white dress for someone to wear. I worked my way through all three dresses and still have one in my wardrobe. It fits easy child 2/difficult child 2 perfectly but she refuses to wear it because it looks too "little girl" in style, with a full skirt and peter pan collar. However, you can see the quality of the workmanship in the fabric and manufacture. From what I can see, the fabric has been hand-stitched. I wore one of these dresses to a sister's wedding; to my school formal (several years running); to a number of other formal occasions. It definitely was NOT in fashion when I wore it to the school speech day!
For primary school I didn't wear a school uniform. Instead, my mother & I hand-made some dresses which were for school. I was supposed to change into play clothes when I got home from school. In summer that was usually necessary anyway, because the Sydney southerly buster (a summer storm, blowing up from the south) would arrive like clockwork after every hot day, dumping torrential rain in a thunder & lightning display at precisely 3.20 every afternoon; I would arrive home soaked to the skin. One feature of this drought - the southerly busters are simply not arriving. They have been rare for the past few years.
We had a TV, there were three TV networks to begin with in about 1956. A fourth network began in early 60s. We now have a number of community channels and another national one (multicultural) which began in about 1978.
No air conditioning in our home. Heating in winter was a wood fire at first, then later a coal fire. We occasionally were permitted to use an electric heater. A special treat in winter was being permitted to get dressed in front of the fire.
I walked to school - quarter of a mile - then later I had a two mile walk each way. At times (when I was 4, and later when I was 11) I travelled by bus and then train to go to school, over an hour's travel each way. I was not permitted to ride a bicycle - too much danger on the roads.
A neighbour owned a horse and sulky, I used to have to run out with a rock from the garden to prop behind the wheels when he wanted to stop to chat to my mother. The milk (when we got cows milk delivered) arrived on a horse & cart - a big white cart with steel-shod wheels that were bigger than I was. he gave free drinks to my sisters but I was not allowed to have any.
My mother made ice cream from goats milk (not recommended) and later on, we made butter from the cows milk after I outgrew my allergy and we had a beautiful Jersey house cow.
I remember studying for my final high school exams (we had moved to a five acre farm at that point) by first going out into the garden, picking a colander full of tomatoes and sitting at my desk reading my tests and eating tomatoes. At the farm, we lived four miles from the school and it took forty minutes for the bus to make each trip. husband lived closer to the town and would sometimes ride his bike to visit. We met (briefly) in my final year of school, he took me out a year later (as friends) and we didn't become an item for another 18 months. Then my parents sold the farm and moved 300 miles away. By that stage I was adapting to living alone in the city - very different. But when I went home to my parents, at lunchtime we would have salad sandwiches. I would be sent out to the garden to pick some tomatoes, a lettuce and pull up an onion. We would slice up some cheddar and open a tin of beetroot. They lived by a wonderful beach and I would swim every day, year round.
Maybe because there were so many of us, we had a more frugal lifestyle than other kids my age, but when I look back it was fairly healthy, apart from the bread and dripping (it was a treat, can you believe!) I can feel my arteries harden, just thinking about it. Every kitchen had a dripping tin. You can't buy them these days.
Leaving home to live alone in the city was a huge shock. But if I hadn't I would never have grown up. husband & I used to travel the trains on the way to uni. I came home for weekends so we saw each other on Friday afternoons and Monday mornings. It was the last days of the old country steam train, so it means a lot to us.
Ands orange juice? We had to hand-squeeze it ourselves. It was easier to eat the oranges instead.
That's life!
Marg
hearts and roses
Mind Reader
Oh my goodness, so many reminders! lol-
B/W tv only, 13" in the living room, no remotes, ever.
Parent's never went out alone together. Dad hated the movies, mom loved them so she always grabbed one of us kids to go with her. And we went a lot! She loved the theatre.
We always had animals - dogs, cats, rabbits, you name it. But we never had fish.
Mom would kick us out of the house on Early Sat morning and we weren't allowed back indoors till dinnertime.
We'd go sledding behind the house for hours, come home soaked through in our oversized hand me down snowpants with red faces and empty bellies. She'd make us Lipton chicken noddle soup and Nestle Quick hot cocoa. Yum.
Mom made almost all of our clothing, and since I was the youngest everything I owned had that comfy, lived in look. I remember she made my older sisters these fake wet look patent leather dress coats in bright red, very fashionable in the mid-late 60's. Then I got them long after the fad ended and was so embarrassed to wear them that I went without a winter coat one year~
We had one phone, in the kitchen, on a chord. MY sisters and I would stretch that chord as far as it would go before snapping (it was mechanically attached back then, no clips), pulling it down the back stairway for some privacy. There were 7 of us stuffed into a small 3 bedroom ranch. We had no privacy.
We also had septic/water problems. If a shower lasted more than 3 minutes we could expect dad to be standing outside the bathroom door banging on it to get us to turn off the water! When you came out, there would be he!! to pay! Our basement flooded regularly. Haha.
I had to walk to school in HS only - 5 miles each way. And we rode our bikes everywhere! We would ride our bikes to this beach, Sunken Meadow beach which was about 15 miles from our house without incident and without any concern on our parent's behalf. We slept out in our backyards, went swimming at night, pool hopped, etc. I remember when we were really little, Saturday was bath night and all the kids would be indoors getting their baths and after dinner, we'd all emerge in our jammies and play tag while the parents would chat and relax on the patios.
And I remember my mother's trips to the Green Stamps Store where she would cash in her booklets from some household gadget! One time she got an iron and an ironing board - you would have thought she just won the lottery she was happy with herself! Even my grandma who lived with us was thrilled over this! lol~
Oh, this has been such great reading.
B/W tv only, 13" in the living room, no remotes, ever.
Parent's never went out alone together. Dad hated the movies, mom loved them so she always grabbed one of us kids to go with her. And we went a lot! She loved the theatre.
We always had animals - dogs, cats, rabbits, you name it. But we never had fish.
Mom would kick us out of the house on Early Sat morning and we weren't allowed back indoors till dinnertime.
We'd go sledding behind the house for hours, come home soaked through in our oversized hand me down snowpants with red faces and empty bellies. She'd make us Lipton chicken noddle soup and Nestle Quick hot cocoa. Yum.
Mom made almost all of our clothing, and since I was the youngest everything I owned had that comfy, lived in look. I remember she made my older sisters these fake wet look patent leather dress coats in bright red, very fashionable in the mid-late 60's. Then I got them long after the fad ended and was so embarrassed to wear them that I went without a winter coat one year~
We had one phone, in the kitchen, on a chord. MY sisters and I would stretch that chord as far as it would go before snapping (it was mechanically attached back then, no clips), pulling it down the back stairway for some privacy. There were 7 of us stuffed into a small 3 bedroom ranch. We had no privacy.
We also had septic/water problems. If a shower lasted more than 3 minutes we could expect dad to be standing outside the bathroom door banging on it to get us to turn off the water! When you came out, there would be he!! to pay! Our basement flooded regularly. Haha.
I had to walk to school in HS only - 5 miles each way. And we rode our bikes everywhere! We would ride our bikes to this beach, Sunken Meadow beach which was about 15 miles from our house without incident and without any concern on our parent's behalf. We slept out in our backyards, went swimming at night, pool hopped, etc. I remember when we were really little, Saturday was bath night and all the kids would be indoors getting their baths and after dinner, we'd all emerge in our jammies and play tag while the parents would chat and relax on the patios.
And I remember my mother's trips to the Green Stamps Store where she would cash in her booklets from some household gadget! One time she got an iron and an ironing board - you would have thought she just won the lottery she was happy with herself! Even my grandma who lived with us was thrilled over this! lol~
Oh, this has been such great reading.
Abbey
Spork Queen
Mom would kick us out of the house on Early Sat morning and we weren't allowed back indoors till dinnertime.
Ha!! I thought I was the only one kicked out of the house. We rose at 6am to do chores on Saturday...then kicked out until dinner.
Didn't go to my first movie until I was a junior in high school. I've NEVER been to a movie with my parents.
We got a TV when I was in 9th grade...and it was DAD'S tv. We were not allowed to touch it.
Summers were big for fruit and vegetables. It's not like today where you can walk into a store and buy peaches in the middle of the winter. We had a house not far from our farm that was the place to get fresh fruit, etc. Then, you'd can as much as you could to last through the winter.
Abbey
Ha!! I thought I was the only one kicked out of the house. We rose at 6am to do chores on Saturday...then kicked out until dinner.
Didn't go to my first movie until I was a junior in high school. I've NEVER been to a movie with my parents.
We got a TV when I was in 9th grade...and it was DAD'S tv. We were not allowed to touch it.
Summers were big for fruit and vegetables. It's not like today where you can walk into a store and buy peaches in the middle of the winter. We had a house not far from our farm that was the place to get fresh fruit, etc. Then, you'd can as much as you could to last through the winter.
Abbey
donna723
Well-Known Member
OMG - How perfect is this! A friend at work (my age) just forwarded this to me! It says it all! Hope the link works!
https://web.archive.org/web/2009081...net/~jimdandy/specials/remember/remember.html
https://web.archive.org/web/2009081...net/~jimdandy/specials/remember/remember.html
Sue C
Active Member
I also grew up in a strict, frugal environment. There were 4 of us kids. Mom did not work. Dad usually worked 2 jobs to make ends meet.
Orange juice - rarely and it was a tiny glassful.
Animal Crackers once/week when mom went shopping.
Soda - Saturday nights only (bottled soda from a place we went to where you could pick out what flavors you wanted and fill a wooden crate).
Chips - Saturday nights only.
Homemade eggnog at least once/week (we all thought that was the greatest treat!).
One bathroom for 4 kids and mom and dad.
One TV.
25 cents weekly allowance.
Walked 3 miles one way to middle school even in 30 below zero windchill...wearing a mini skirt and boots. I kid you not! I sat in the nurse's office wrapped in blankets for probably an hour and my thumbs and thighs felt frostbit.
Never had my own car.
Never got a ride anywhere. Someone else had to pick me up or I had to walk or take bike.
Never ate at a restaurant 'til husband (then my boyfriend) took me out to dinner.
Never had take-out pizza. Never went to dinner with parents. Parents never went out.
Went to the drive-in theater with mom and sister once or twice. Never to movies with family.
Went to the movies with- friends once in awhile with my allowance and babysitting money.
McD's once in a very rare while and it was such a treat to us.
Never asked my parents for money.
Two pairs of shoes -- school/dress shoes and Keds for gym class. (no fancy dress up shoes)
Never went on vacation.
Had a 10-minute limit per day on the phone!!! (and we're just talking about a regular old phone in the kitchen--hanging on the wall with an attached cord and where everyone could listen to your conversation)
Friday nights were macaroni & cheese or grilled cheese & tomato soup or pancakes or eggs & noodles.
We had Saturday morning chores that had to be done first thing.
Saturday nights were bath night. (all the other days you just washed up)
Sundays were for visiting grandparents or close friends.
Here is one of my BEST memories AND THE SCARIEST....Our family of 6 rode in a VW bug. Mom held my baby sister on her lap (no seat belts on anyone). Big sister and brother in back seat. And I sat smooshed in that little back space behind the back seat. And I mean I was smooshed!! :smile:
Sue
Orange juice - rarely and it was a tiny glassful.
Animal Crackers once/week when mom went shopping.
Soda - Saturday nights only (bottled soda from a place we went to where you could pick out what flavors you wanted and fill a wooden crate).
Chips - Saturday nights only.
Homemade eggnog at least once/week (we all thought that was the greatest treat!).
One bathroom for 4 kids and mom and dad.
One TV.
25 cents weekly allowance.
Walked 3 miles one way to middle school even in 30 below zero windchill...wearing a mini skirt and boots. I kid you not! I sat in the nurse's office wrapped in blankets for probably an hour and my thumbs and thighs felt frostbit.
Never had my own car.
Never got a ride anywhere. Someone else had to pick me up or I had to walk or take bike.
Never ate at a restaurant 'til husband (then my boyfriend) took me out to dinner.
Never had take-out pizza. Never went to dinner with parents. Parents never went out.
Went to the drive-in theater with mom and sister once or twice. Never to movies with family.
Went to the movies with- friends once in awhile with my allowance and babysitting money.
McD's once in a very rare while and it was such a treat to us.
Never asked my parents for money.
Two pairs of shoes -- school/dress shoes and Keds for gym class. (no fancy dress up shoes)
Never went on vacation.
Had a 10-minute limit per day on the phone!!! (and we're just talking about a regular old phone in the kitchen--hanging on the wall with an attached cord and where everyone could listen to your conversation)
Friday nights were macaroni & cheese or grilled cheese & tomato soup or pancakes or eggs & noodles.
We had Saturday morning chores that had to be done first thing.
Saturday nights were bath night. (all the other days you just washed up)
Sundays were for visiting grandparents or close friends.
Here is one of my BEST memories AND THE SCARIEST....Our family of 6 rode in a VW bug. Mom held my baby sister on her lap (no seat belts on anyone). Big sister and brother in back seat. And I sat smooshed in that little back space behind the back seat. And I mean I was smooshed!! :smile:
Sue
Marguerite
Active Member
There are some great memories, but it's also important to remember - it wasn't necessarily the good old days. Kids did die from drinking bottles of cleaner, or someone's medicine. The death toll was higher pre-seat belt days (they're compulsory in Australia). We are the ones who survived - we all could remember at least one classmate who died, or lost a family member from something that just doesn't happen these days.
But wasn't it fun? Mostly. Away from school and away from other kids, yep.
We used to have "Saturday arvo flicks" up at the local cinema. ALL the kids would go. Grown-ups time was in the evening, we held court in the afternoons. The ushers were standing by with torches at the ready to throw out anyone behaving badly or necking in the back row. We'd get the weekly instalment of "Flash Gordon" or similar, before the main feature. There was also a newsreel, very corny, with fake British accent that was allegedly "educated Australian".
A special treat was going to the drive-in. They're all gone now. It was something I remember doing twice in my childhood, and a lot more times as a teenager, then even more times with husband. Then we had kids and drive-ins disappeared. easy child went to high school where a drive-in used to be. Sydney sprawled out, took over large areas of land for housing and facilities. Huge multi-theatre cinema complexes sprang up and then almost got wiped out by the DVD market.
I remember a coded telephone ring ("three rings") to let my parents I was waiting to be collected at the railway station after the last bus had gone.
The Oak dairy had the best milkshakes in the world. We can still buy Oak flavoured milk in the supermarket - it's still the best - but it's not the same, since the freeway bypassed the dairy. Although I'm told you can still get a fabulous milkshake at Hexham, north of Newcastle. I'm convinced their entire herd of cows must be Jerseys.
The best burgers are at Stanwell Park, south of Sydney (four hours' drive from Hexham) and at both places, it still tastes like the Fifties and Sixties.
What a world!
Marg
But wasn't it fun? Mostly. Away from school and away from other kids, yep.
We used to have "Saturday arvo flicks" up at the local cinema. ALL the kids would go. Grown-ups time was in the evening, we held court in the afternoons. The ushers were standing by with torches at the ready to throw out anyone behaving badly or necking in the back row. We'd get the weekly instalment of "Flash Gordon" or similar, before the main feature. There was also a newsreel, very corny, with fake British accent that was allegedly "educated Australian".
A special treat was going to the drive-in. They're all gone now. It was something I remember doing twice in my childhood, and a lot more times as a teenager, then even more times with husband. Then we had kids and drive-ins disappeared. easy child went to high school where a drive-in used to be. Sydney sprawled out, took over large areas of land for housing and facilities. Huge multi-theatre cinema complexes sprang up and then almost got wiped out by the DVD market.
I remember a coded telephone ring ("three rings") to let my parents I was waiting to be collected at the railway station after the last bus had gone.
The Oak dairy had the best milkshakes in the world. We can still buy Oak flavoured milk in the supermarket - it's still the best - but it's not the same, since the freeway bypassed the dairy. Although I'm told you can still get a fabulous milkshake at Hexham, north of Newcastle. I'm convinced their entire herd of cows must be Jerseys.
The best burgers are at Stanwell Park, south of Sydney (four hours' drive from Hexham) and at both places, it still tastes like the Fifties and Sixties.
What a world!
Marg
Stressed2theHilt
Member
I remember Winkies for orange soda and fries.
Tillies restaurant in McKeesport every Saturday night. My family was good friends with her son Angelo. Dinners were always delicious and free. When visiting the area I'd stop for lunch. Not the same as it once was.
I remember going to the Drive-in. Best movie seen there was "Orca" and "Tentacles". Can't beat the cartoons at the beginning and the intermission "visit the snack bar" show. The swing sets there were the best ever! I still take my kids to the drive-in. It is usually a social event with friends and family. We adults have a great time and the kids still enjoy it.
Swimming in the local creek. Yeah it smelled funny but we didn't care!
We had a color TV and "Hollywood Home Theatre" was the prelude to todays HBO.
Chiller Theatre with Bill Cardill on Saturday nights. I'd think he was so cool when he'd drink his "Blood" cocktail during the show. Shreik of the Yeti kept me awake for quite some time. I remember "Little Stevie" a midget that co'd the show. He now runs an Auto Part store in Baldwin. Funny to pop in and talk about "the good ole days" with him.
Simba the white lion cartoon on Sunday mornings.
Penny candy that really was a penny. Was a big treat when my Aunts would take me to pick a baggie of penny candy. Actually it was usually as a bribe to that I wouldn't tell anyone where the took me when they had babysitting duty.
We lived in a neighborhood that had a rat problem. I remember my step-dads friend bringing over a huge snake and letting him explore the holes that led under the back patio.
Walking to Kindergarden and elementary school. Quite a long distance and I'm sure it was uphill both ways and back then when it snowed, it was at least 5 feet at a time. Remember the glass thermos' that broke the first time you slipped and fell on the icy hills?
Swimming out at South Park was always fun. It meant a picnic afterwords and a trip to see all the horses at the stables. Now all they stable there is Pittsburgh City Police horses. The Animal Preserve where you could go to see a couple of Buffalo and feed the ducks and see a few other local birds and a few not so local.
I remember riding on my Grandfathers lap while driving thru the Liberty tunnels.
Shopping in the Strip District was an adventure. Why is it that all the Italians seem to know each other? Man I'd look forward to that at times because it meant that the kids got goodies to amuse them while the adults talked. Just last month I made a special trip to the Strip to shop. Just love going to Whooleys and Sunseri Brothers and the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company. Nobody remembers anybody anymore. I take that back. The local cat-on-a-stick street vendor remembers me! My boys got in a fight while waiting in line a couple of years ago. I guess it left an impression. hahaha
I remember fishing for trout while visting Sea World in Sandusky Ohio. Once I took my job here I was all excited that I'd be getting paid to visit Shamu. Then I learned that Sea World Sandusky no longer exists. Shucks now they are going to send me to Florida to inspect Shamu. :smile:
I remember when the Pittsburgh Zoo had every animal in concrete enclosures with iron bars. The zoo is beautiful now!
I didn't have it quite as tough as some but I'm not complaining one bit.
I remember getting paddled in school (not me) up thru Junior High. Yeah right, try that one now!
Biggest thing I remember is that it was safer back then. Well maybe it is because as a kid, you don't have a care in the world and hadn't learned to fear life yet.
hearts and roses
Mind Reader
[ QUOTE ]
Here is one of my BEST memories AND THE SCARIEST....Our family of 6 rode in a VW bug. Mom held my baby sister on her lap (no seat belts on anyone). Big sister and brother in back seat. And I sat smooshed in that little back space behind the back seat. And I mean I was smooshed!! :smile:
[/ QUOTE ]
Sue, I was always smooshed into the 'cubby hole' as it was called by us back then! And there were also 6 of us stuffed inside! How funnY
Here is one of my BEST memories AND THE SCARIEST....Our family of 6 rode in a VW bug. Mom held my baby sister on her lap (no seat belts on anyone). Big sister and brother in back seat. And I sat smooshed in that little back space behind the back seat. And I mean I was smooshed!! :smile:
[/ QUOTE ]
Sue, I was always smooshed into the 'cubby hole' as it was called by us back then! And there were also 6 of us stuffed inside! How funnY
tiredmommy
Well-Known Member
My parents had a VW van for awhile when I was a toddler. I rode lose in a playpen that wasn't secured.
How did I ever survive? :smile: :rofl: :smile:
How did I ever survive? :smile: :rofl: :smile:
donna723
Well-Known Member
It was a miracle that some of us survived at all! I remember staying at my grandparents' house in Louisville for a week or so at a time when I was really little. This was waaaay back before seat belts or car seats for kids were even thought of. They had an old Plymouth sedan and we'd go on long Sunday drives in the country after church, and I'd sit between them in the front seat. But I was too little to see out the window like that. So my grandfather, who was a carpenter, built me a little wooden bench with a padded seat so I could sit on it between them and see out the window! I loved it!
:smile::wildone: :smile::wildone: :smile::wildone: :smile:
You'd get arrested for doing that now! But my grandfather was the kindest, gentlist, most loving person on the face of the earth and would never knowingly have done anything to endanger one of his grandkids. People just didn't think about things like that back then - he did it to be nice. But the roads were different back then too - we weren't exactly flying down the Interstate at 80 mph. This was back-country rural roads and he probably never drove over 30 mph in his whole life. He would have, but my grandmother wouldn't let him! :mad:
:smile::wildone: :smile::wildone: :smile::wildone: :smile:
You'd get arrested for doing that now! But my grandfather was the kindest, gentlist, most loving person on the face of the earth and would never knowingly have done anything to endanger one of his grandkids. People just didn't think about things like that back then - he did it to be nice. But the roads were different back then too - we weren't exactly flying down the Interstate at 80 mph. This was back-country rural roads and he probably never drove over 30 mph in his whole life. He would have, but my grandmother wouldn't let him! :mad:
