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Selah, I remember Klines! I grew up in Ann Arbor; I remember doing our back-to-school shopping there. I think that is where I got my Buster Browns...oh wait, I maybe that was at Deitzel's down the street.
I loved my red buckle Buster Browns with the little pin-dot pattern 'round the toes!
Speaking of Klines: How about:
E.J. Korvettes
Best and Company
Alexander's
Jamesway
Crazy Eddie's
And unfortunately, we will soon add Border's to the list :(
Carvel's is still around, but I still think about Tom Carvel's commercials with the ice cream mold that he used for every occasion!
Here in central NJ we had Klines and Korvettes too. Two Guys was like a Super Walmart in the 70s-they had everything! We had a mall that had Alexander's, and before that the building housed a Mongomery Ward.
I'm sad that Friendly's will be/is gone. Lots of memories of going there for ice cream after a movie with my friends.
Remember when movie theaters had only one big screen? No multi-plex cinemas back then. And no commercials or too many previews.
You guys are GREAT! This is my official happy thread!!!
I remember both Newberrys and Woolworths lunch counters. Also K-Marts use to have a big lucnh place with full meals (chicken fried steak kind of things) as did Broadway's, Montgomery Wards (Monkey Wards) and JC Pennys. I think that the food courts that most malls have replaced all those old lunch counters type places. .Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg44
Yes, sure do... They would switch to a new movie about once a week. I remember they cost $1 for adults/.50 for children. I think all the movies back then were pretty "G-rated" even though there were no rating systems then. The only rating system for my family was the Legion of Decency report that the Catholic Church published. I had to fight with my mother to get to see Beach Blanket Bingo because the Legion of Decency had given it a bad rating.Quote:
Originally Posted by pony mom
And there were not many previews, but they did have "shorts" before the "feature presentation." I still remember a bizarre one that played out to the words of the song "One Meatball." I have no idea why that still rolls around in my head from time to time.
Did anyone else have W.T. Grant's? That store had a lunch counter. One of my good memories of childhood was my mother taking my sister and me to have supper at Grant's counter and then going to see the ONE movie at the movie theatre. I don't recollect the movie but I do recall that this big treat was because we had earned it with our good behaviour.
I didn't know I was THIS old until I sat here and re-read this thread. My parents gave me a portable typewriter for high school graduation; I had a hard-topped helmet style hair dryer to replace the one with the plastic cap, and both of them were blown out of the water in about 1973 when the first blow dryer arrived at our house....a Maxx....orangey red, as I recall. I remember wearing a "panty girdle" at age 12 to hold up my stockings, which I had to wear because girls had to wear skirts or dresses to school. By the time I got to high school, though, Joe Namath had invented pantyhose and those Leggs eggs became ubiquitous. I wonder how many millions of them are in landfills all over North America? "Pantsuits" were the first foray into pants for women. My mother bought a velour pantsuit as a dressy outfit. We got to wear "slacks" to school when I was in grade 12. Before that..freezing in Maine in the winter. Jeans? No way.
I wrote my doctoral dissertation in the early 1990s on a Commodore 64 computer. Man, I was cutting edge! Bought it as Toys R Us. You had to insert the program disk (a 5 1/2 inch floppy) into the drive, load the word processing program, then take that disk out and insert your data disk where the document was stored. It took significant time to load. The monitor was a green screen, with odd little boxy letters. It was still a vast improvement over preparing the document on a typewriter with tons of white-out at hand.
This thread is fun. Oh, and I am old enough on these boards to know Iris Lily's last two personae (or at least her names on the boards). I have no idea why that information has stuck for me...there are many others who have changed names and I don't remember but for some reason I recall hers!
And when I got married, the men in the bridal party wore coloured tuxes and were we EVER cool.
Spartana. The old Woolworths Luncheon Counter, will go down in history (in my mind) as being the best luncheon counter in the whole wide world!
Pony mom and Catherine. You know what else I remember about the old movie theatres? The funky red and blue lights that adorned the countless slender and tall alcoves that ran the entire length of the theatre on each side (outer sides). Maybe the theatres you guys went to had different coloured lights...
Leslieann. What a great memory you have! I remember those hard-topped helmet styled hairdryers! And the balloon plastic-cap ones, too! Very funky! If my mind serves me well, I think I posted an old Leggs, video commercial, somewhere near the start of this thread! I still love the jingle to this day! Yes, and I remember velour, too! So 1970's!!! Funny you mention Iris Lily, because although I don't remember her first persona (in context), I do remember it in thought.
Couple of old 1960's pictures of shopping at Woolworths.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Ei2Ik5quiI...lyshopping.jpg
If anyone likes those pictures, come join me, I'm sitting at the luncheon counter nibbling on a plate of french fries and sipping a vanilla milkshake! I'm at the very end in the counter, so you can't see me in the picture.
http://www.opendurham.org/sites/defa...d_061063.5.jpg
The only thing I don't remember, is if the seats used to have backs on them or not??? I somehow seem to remember they were stools rather than seats... And, I seem to remember each seat being a different colour, or, an alternating (red/pale green) seat colour, or (red/pale blue). As in, one seat red, the next one pale green (or cream), the next one red, and so on. And how us kids used to stare with delight at the churning and spinning, chilled fountain drink tanks! See the funky/retro lights above the chalk-menu boards? My favourite is the white telephone looking thing (behind the 50¢ sign). That's the milkshake mixer!
I remember the seats didn't have backs. They were the swivel kind and always in dark green or red fake-leather (naugahide) with aluminum around the base. As a kid I remember swivelling around and around and around - drove my poor Mom crazy!
Yes, Bingo! You just made me remember, Spartana. Mom was forever telling us kids to stop spinning around!!! :) I think you're right, candy-apple red vinyl-padded seats straight across.
To wet the appetite a little more check out this site. Too bad for the banner in the way, but it sure is fun going through all the things. I know I'm old, because I remember just about every single thing!
Geeze, Mrs-M, I think I ate at the first diner picture you posted last summer! I must have just missed you ;). Here's a link to a photo -not mine, BTW- of our summer diner dining spot.
http://www.urbanspoon.com/u/photo_list/1342366
I remember just about everything mentioned so far, but of course we lived in the boonies and were very much behind the times, lol. When my friends had color TV, we were just getting a TV that generally worked. My friends had princess phones and private lines (for the whole family, not individually!!) and we had a black wall phone and a 10 party line. When we got a phone with a long, long cord, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Fun thread!
Thanks for the link Mrs-M! What a walk down memory lane.........
Mrs-M, that photo brings back memories! The signs on the wall are so familiar. I always had french fries, but when I was older I graduated to a corn muffin. I remember all the pie and cake slices in the glass display on the counter. Oh, and the dishes--I think they were off-white with a beige border. The seats in the booths were sort of a turquoise color, I think. It was such a big treat to eat there.
Oh, I always had a glass of milk, with a straw, that I would blow bubbles with.
Early Morning. So bummed I am over missing each other at the diner! :) The diner-car eatery is fantastic! Reminds me of the old commercial, "rice-a-roni, the San Francisco treat"! Re: telephones, in our old house we had a wall-mounted telephone, a cream-coloured one, and I used to stretch that poor old cord for all it's worth! :laff:
You are most welcome, Libby! :)
Pony Mom. Yes, I too, remember the glass-display cases with pies in them! And even now, after all these years, I still remember the familiar greasy, fast-food smell that emitted from the diner! Did your mom used to get cross with you too, when you'd blow bubbles in your milk? :laff:
You know, I was giving thought to what it was like to be a waitress behind the counter of a department store diner back then, and how you were on display for the entirety of your shift. Countless watchful eyes critiquing your every move, non-stop waves of people coming and going, and the steady dull noise of multiple conversations going on from one end of the diner counter to the other.
Great pics, Mrs-M!
Leslieann, I definitely remember W.T.Grant's!! I had forgotton all about it. But, yes, we had a Grants in the mall in my town where we always got french fries and coke. One time, my friend and I were with our mothers and our MOTHERS got into a fit of the giggles (my friend and I were 14 at the time), and the waiter threatened to get the manager. My friend and I were so embarrassed. But I have that image in my head of the two 60s moms, with their curled blonde hair and their eyeliner with the little cats eyes, just in one of those gut-busting fits of laughter.
I think women had better, closer friendships back then. I know I don't have time for that kind of friendship now--too busy with work. Sad. (As much as I love you guys, a lot of "ROFLMYOs" in place of the real thing just doesn't cut it)
They really do have such a way of taking one back don't they. :)
Thanks for the link to the photos, Mrs. M. I sent it off to my children, who will recognize some of the items, and to my step mom, who will recognize more of them!
You are very welcome, Leslieann. I loved the mood ring (remember those)?, and the plastic juice-jug/pitcher with the thumb-button on the lid! And many, many others...
Now here's a picture in keeping with the whole theme of this thread!
http://www.simplelivingforum.net/att...9&d=1327240695
Leftovers from the baby-days in our house! The Curity brand dates to 1992 (first born). I unearthed them from the bowels of the basement (pardon the pun) over this past Christmas holiday season. (Got to be one or two older SL moms here who remember them)...
I think Kathy in WI mentioned this in passing earlier in the tread but do you remember the candy/nut counter at stores like Sears? They roasted the nuts on-site and it always smelled so good. I can remember how the aroma hit you just as the escalator reached the second floor. They'd scoop out your selection with a metal scoop into a paper bag and then weigh it. My dad always liked to buy (gummy) orange slices.
Anyone here grow up in Pasadena and remember Gene Burtons?
Oh fun! I remember blowing bubbles in milk. The straws were made of paper and would collapse after a minute or so. Good times.
Speaking of straws, I hope no one else has mentioned this and I missed it, but do you remember straws that flavored the milk as you drank it? The ones I remember were either chocolate or strawberry, made of paper, and as you sipped milk through them you had either strawberry or chocolate flavored milk!Quote:
Originally Posted by thinkgreen
Mrs-M, loved the old photos of Woolsworth. I remember the lunch counter there too, and all the treasures that one store could hold for a child!
Wow, I have just learned something from these old photos and posts- it was NOT Woolsworth as I said, but Woolworths! I have called it incorrectly all my life I think!Quote:
Originally Posted by Shalom_Poet
Sunnyjoe. Our Sears outlet was really small, just the bare-bones basics, but gee-whiz anyway, I would have been into the nuts and candy every single time I stepped foot into the store! What a great bargaining tool when out shopping with the kids! :)
Thinkgreen. Oh, the paper straws are too much! LOL! I can't say I remember paper straws, but I do remember the ones that bent like an accordion.
Shalom. You guys are doing a great job stumping me today! :) I don't remember such straws. One thing I do see that's different (in the posted picture of the toy department) from the Woolworths store I remember when I was younger, is that the isles and displays are much lower than ours used to be. The shelving and isle displays in our old store would have easily been twice the height as the ones shown in the picture. I remember a man would bring a ladder out from the back and climb way up high to get things down for shoppers. I actually had the name, Woolworths, wrong too, no apostrophe.
My mom was a coffee addict, and whenever we went to the mall, the first thing she'd want to do would be to find a place where she could get a cup of coffee, which was usually Woolworths. I liked their hot dogs because they grilled the outside of the bun. One time we went to a Woolworths downtown, and I saw in the underwear aisle that besides white underwear, they had underwear that was dark green, dark blue, or burgundy. At the time it was unusual to see underwear that wasn't white. I asked my mom what's with the dark colored underwear, and she whispered to me that it was for black people, so it wouldn't show through their clothes so much.
does anyone remember seeing parakeets in an open box out in the middle of the floor at Woolworths? I could never understand why they did not fly away. We kids were always hanging around watching them.
Funny stuff, Kathy WI! :) Re: white undies, it's taken me the better part of my life to ease myself into buying coloured ones. Even then, I'm still partial to white.
Tenngal. What a mind-breaker your post is. :) I think I do, yet maybe the memories I have of parakeets stems from the pet departments I visited... However, the more I think about it, the more I can see parakeets out in the open. This one is definitely going to keep me thinking...
My Woolworth's had a pet department, but it contained dead/dying fish and sickly hamsters. And yes, I remember the fried food smells too. And the clanking of plates, so out of place in a store. I think my straws were plastic, not paper, so they lasted through my bubble-blowing.
Years ago it seems that stores like Woolworth's and S. Kline had fabric/sewing departments. Not many stores carry material anymore. Walmart is supposed to be phasing that out of their stores.
My mom and I used to shop at a McCrory's, which was similar to Woolworth's, without the cafe.
I got this little questionnaire sometime in 2000 ... just found it again, so I thought I'd pass it along:
How many of the following can you remember?
1) Blackjack chewing gum
2) Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside
3) Candy cigarettes
4) Soda machines that dispensed bottles, not cans
5) Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes
6) Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7) Party lines
8) Newsreels before the movie
9) P.F. Flyers
10) Butch wax
11) Telephone numbers with a word for the prefix (Olive-6933)
12) Peashooters
13) Howdy Doody
14) 45 rpm records
15) S&H green stamps
16) Hi-Fi's
17) Metal ice trays with levers
18) Mimeograph paper
19) Blue flashbulbs
20) Beanie and Cecil
21) Roller skate keys
22) Cork popguns
23) Drive-ins
24) Studebakers
25) Wash tub ringers
26) Kukla, Fran, and Ollie
If you remembered 0- 5 -- you're still young
If you remembered 6-10 -- You're getting older
If you remembered 11-15 -- Don't tell your age
If you remembered 16-26 -- You're older than you know.
For me: #6 - home delivery of milk in glass bottles. I know some people had that but I don't remember much about it because we didn't.
#10 - Butch wax. My brother was 10 years older than I was, and he married and left home when I was 8, so had no boys around. I assume it's a wax for butch haircuts, which I do remember!
#7 and #11 - our first phone number was 971-W, a party line. Don't remember much about it. Later on we moved to a very small down and our number was 325-R, also a party line. Then we got a private line, 2585. You had to get the operator and tell her the number and she'd connect the call. It was such a small town that the operators knew everyone and you could ask them lots of questions. I used to get babysitting jobs from the operator -- people would ask her for recommendations if they didn't know any sitters, and sometimes she'd recommend me if I lived close to where they lived. Oh the joy of small towns! Later on we got dial phones and our number was WElls 5-1246, which changed to 935-1246.
#18 - Mimeograph paper, which I do remember, but the paper that smelled good wasn't mimeograph paper, it was ditto papers. Ditto was the purple "ink" that adhered to the back of the paper you drew or typed on, then put on a drum that had "spirit" inside that which "printed" the letters or pictures. It did smell good! Hand crank machines, as I recall. Mimeograph was the green fibrous masters that you typed on (not using the ribbon) which spread the fibers apart, then that was put on the mimeograph machine drum that forced the ink thru those parts. The ink was black and didn't smell good, but I don't really remember what it smelled like. They were electric.
#23 - Drive-ins! What fun! But we won't talk about that! :-D
#24 - Studebakers -- yeah, we had one.
So I guess, in one way or another, I remember all of these. Have fun with it!
Funny thread. I"m coming in late
Like an earlier poster I"m so old I remember the 'old currency' of pounds shillings and pence in the United Kingdom
I'm so old I had a 78 rpm record of Elvis Presley's "Blue Suede Shoes" that I used to dance to with my Auntie
I'm so old I remember not seeing TV until I was 5 yrs old because we didn't get one til then. And we were one of the early ones in the English town we lived in
I'm so old I remember men going by in horses and carts yelling "rag and bone"
I'm so old I remember brush salesmen coming to the door!
There's more but I don't want to be a bore!
I had completely forgotten the smell of the roasting nuts in the department store....Grants, I think for us, not Sears. When Sears came it, it was a big deal. The nuts were so delicious to smell but we hardly ever bought any (too expensive) but I do recollect my mother buying Spanish peanuts mixed with "chocolate babies." Odd as it sounds, it made a great combination.
Yum.
Serendipity:
My score was 22.
I still have an ice tray with a lever.
We did have home delivery of milk when I was little and my kids were little
I loved hanging out with my friends who had party lines because it was fun to eavesdrop
I have so many happy memories of coming home from school, and hearing The Platters and Johnny Mathis playing on my mother's HiFi
I also have happy memories of helping Mom put her green stamps in the books.
My phone number when I was young: TRinity 4-5668
Fun!
My score was only 5 and I'm 45!! Maybe I lead a sheltered life!
I got 10 and am now 68. Another sheltered life?