When I was a kid

[OK!]

When I was a kid:


You had to go to the library and/or use an Encyclopedia to research something for a paper. That was the Stone Age before the Internet!

Ooh, and even worse--you had to look through the card catalog to find books one you got to the library. All those little index cards, the Dewey Decimal system, etc. When I was a freshman in college (1991), one of the "easy" classes almost everybody took was Library Skills and they still used that system. Nothing was computerized. Nothing. Unfortunately, I soon found out that one had to actually GO to Library Skills instead of having snowball fights with one's boyfriend and his friends if one actually wanted to pass Library Skills. Sigh. Lesson learned.

 

[Carly_Roach]

Someone here mentioned going to Sears to get their ski suit and that brought back so many memories of how we got clothes for our elementary school days in the 70's.

In August, my mother would sit down with each of us with that great big, huge, thick, Sears catalog. (anyone remember those?) She had her budget for each kid and an idea of how many pieces of clothing (including socks and underwear) we'd need. We'd decide on this blouse or that pair of pants - all from the pictures in the catalog.

When the order came into Sears, we'd all pile in the car and drive to the city to pick it up. That's when we'd get our school shoes (one pair 'hard' shoes, one pair canvas sneakers). Mom's rule about tennis shoes was that if they couldn't be washed in the washer, we didn't get them. I SO wanted a pair of Addidas track shoes like my friends had in 1975, but I never got them. Not washable.

My brother would go find the pong display at Sears and we would play it for a little while until my Dad had paid for everything with his Sears charge. Then the big treat! McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken! We didn't have one in the village I grew up in, so that was a big deal to us.

We'd spend the next day trying on the new clothes, opening everything up and arranging it in our chest of drawers just so, and looking forward to school starting again even though after the first few weeks we'd already hate getting up and going there.

Thanks for so many memories here! I didn't realize how many people were in their 40's here!

 

[Kimmie5870]

Going to the drive-in wearing our pajamas then sleeping in the back car window on the way home.

A bottle of coke was .15

Grocery stores stocked fruit flavored 'rolling papers' at the registers
Neighborhood kids getting into fights (hitting) and the next day being best friends again...... It's amazing how kids react when adults stay out of it.

Going to the gas station and getting free gum

Shampoo that came with a small plastic toy inside, usually a plastic watch

Powder laundry soap that had either a wash rag or hand towel inside..... us kids used to make a bet on what was in each new box, then we would get all excited waiting until mom opened it to find out who won. Yep,Like there was a huge prize waiting inside that laundry soap box


Playing red rover and red light,green light out in the street at night.

 

[It's A Happy Day]

Someone mentioned penny candy before....

Squirrels, button candy, candy cigarettes, bulls eyes/cowtails, pixie sticks were the norm for candy WAY back then.

 

[goofygirl]

I also flew Eastern to WDW in 1985!

And of course, it was just Epcot (actually EPCOT Center!) and MK!

 

[Aidensmom]

We all had transister radios which only had the AM dial. We'd walk around carrying our transisters. Keener 13 was the popular rock and roll station in Detroit. Also, CKLW out of Windsor, Ontario.

That is was what station I listened to also!! Small world. (I grew up in Toledo, OH).

 

[OK!]

When we went to WDW, we either drove down in our big conversion van or, later, flew down on TWA. The last time we flew TWA was in November 2001, right during the changeover--it was TWA on the way down, and American Airlines on the way back. During that flight home, the flight attendants and pilot kept slipping and saying, "Thank you for flying TW--I mean, thank you for flying American Airlines."

 

[lyeag]

I REMEMBER it (I was 8 )...the *main* thing I remember about 1976 was our town went around and re-painted all the fire hydrants red/white & blue. Some with stars, some not. I know somewhere in that vicinity (either 1976 or 1979) was the "big snowstorm" year...I don't recall much of that other than my mom telling me they had to go mark where the mailboxes were & also fire hydrants (I do notice a lot of fire hydrants around here now have tall poles with little metal flags on them! My guess is so when they get buried in the snow they can be found!).

I don't know the year but I also remember playing Star Wars with my brother with our "sabers" which were flashlights attached to yellow plastic blow-up material. The winter reminded me of that because I remember we were on snow banks doing it.

It was 1979. I remember my dad going outside to measure it and take pictures. It happened over NYE.

 

[minnieandme]

All the parents knew who's kid belonged to whom and were allowed to discipline you if you cut up.

We were allowed to stay outside until the street lights came on.

On a hot summer day, the boys would get together to open the fire hydrant so we could play in the water.

We watched cartoons on Saturday mornings, then went outside to play.

Everybody had a floor model tv and when that went out, we would put a smaller b&w tv on top of it using a hanger for an antenna.

We had two sets of clothes and shoes, one for school and the other for play.

When you outgrew your pants, your mom would cut the legs off so you could wear them as shorts.

If you ever got a hole in the knees of your pants, your mom would just put a patch on it.

You either walked or rode your bicycle everywhere you went.

 

[OK!]

It was 1979. I remember my dad going outside to measure it and take pictures. It happened over NYE.

I wonder if that was the same snowstorm that hit us here in St. Louis...I have pics of my brother and I in our front yard; the snow was up to my waist. Man, that was fun.

 

[Todd&Copper]

Your shirt color HAD to match your sock color.

MTV played videos (OK, the same 100 or so, over and over again, but it was all videos all the time, except for the occasional interview of a musician by one of those original VJ's)

[My dad was big into appliances and electronics, so by 1978 or so we had a microwave and a VCR already, but I don't think they were too common across the board. Am I right?]

 

[JNorris]

Had an aluminum Christmas Tree with a color wheel.

Could ride all over my neighborhood on my bike and be gone until 8pm in the summer and no one was worried.

Could spend the night at a neighbor's house, get homesick in the middle of the night, and WALK HOME!

Never wore seat belts in the car, even when carpooling to school.

Watched "Star Trek" on TV every day when I got home from school.

Watched Saturday morning cartoons, then American Bandstand.

Had a console TV. When it stopped working, we bought a new TV, and never got rid of the old one.

Had an 8 track tape player in my first car, and the only 8 track tape I had was Pablo Cruise.

Could go on vacation with my friends for a whole week to the beach, and my parents never called to make sure I was OK.

 

[YetanotherMouseFan]

We watched Milky the Clown - (anybody from Detroit remember the jingle:
"You can have worry-free, home delivery. Call Twin Pines")
And "The Friendly Giant" on the Canadian station - loved that show.
My best friend and I argued whether David Cassidy or Bobby Sherman was cuter.
The biggest deal in town when I was small was dressing up to go downtown to Hudson's or out to Northland to see Santa at Santa's Workshop with the real reindeer and everything! Also went to Hudson's at Northland for haircuts in the cool kids' barbershop with the chairs made of carousel animals. I always wanted the tiger!
Going to Brownies after school in my full uniform and being proud of it.
Spending Saturday afternoon riding my bike to the Lincoln Library and coming back with as many books as I could carry in 1 arm and still manage the bike (only little kids and the pathetically uncool had baskets).
Walking about 7 or 8 blocks up to the shopping center on 8-Mile Road with my best friend, trying on clothes at Federal's, and going to Cunningham's for a Vernor's afterward.
We wore what our mothers bought us. End of discussion. Girls did not wear pants during school until Junior High. You could wear snow pants or ski pants to walk to school, but had to take them off when you got there.
My proudest possession was a pink record player I got when I was 11.
Borrowing my brother's transistor radio to listen to CKLW.
Everybody walked to school, and was expected to go home for lunch, except for those weird kids whose mom worked, like mine. Milk was .03 in the cafeteria, and was served in glass bottles with paper straw.

 

[mommiepoppins]

when my dh was a kid. He had the greese tape and listend to it on a boom box.
he wore sweat bands on his wrist and around his head.
he tried to breakdance on a cardboard box
here is one.. my dh had ADD and when he was a kid the school put him in the special olympics my how things have change

 

[mommiepoppins]

Your shirt color HAD to match your sock color.

MTV played videos (OK, the same 100 or so, over and over again, but it was all videos all the time, except for the occasional interview of a musician by one of those original VJ's)

[My dad was big into appliances and electronics, so by 1978 or so we had a microwave and a VCR already, but I don't think they were too common across the board. Am I right?]

my dh and I say that about MTV all the time to my 14 dd. ok do you recall Randy the hippy on MTV?

 

[minnieandme]

Channel 11 is still called WPIX (with the CW now added) and I remember when they used to have a game called PIX. A child was picked and called after they sent in their information on an index card. In order for the laser to shoot and hit the spacecraft thing, the child had to say PIX each time.

I remember this!!! I always wanted to play it but didn't know how I can get picked.

 

[My2Cinderellas]

Pop came in 16 oz glass bottles, and that was just way too much to drink at once, so we had these soda saver vacuum lids, so they would stay fizzy in the fridge.

air conditioning wasn't universal - the car didn't have it, and neither did our house. My brother's allergist told my parents that it would really help him to have an air conditioned house - too bad it didn't happen until after the summer that it hit 100+ every day for 3 weeks straight. At night, my parents would position 1 box fan to blow air into both mine and my brother's bedroom. yeah, like that worked. but heaven forbid we spring for a 2nd box fan... that would be wasteful.

double beds were the norm for parents, queens were an unheard of luxury and no one had a bedroom big enough for a king size. kid's beds were twins, I was lucky enough to have a double to myself, but that meant I got kicked to the couch everytime we had company stay over.

I used to get a dollar to go to the movies on Saturday. The local theater always showed a kids movie in the afternoon. Admission was $.25, so was popcorn. That left $.50 to get an ice cream cone at Baskin Robbins next door before riding our bikes home.

 

[ckay87]

When I was a kid, my dog lived outside. He never set foot in the house. He walked us to the bus stop, 1/2 mile away, every morning and was there every afternoon when we came home. We don't know what he did the rest of the day or where he went, but I'm sure it involved chasing cars. A lot. Over the years he got stuck in a hunter's trap (dragged it home), hit by my mom's car, and had his ear chewed off by another dog.

He lived to be 16 years old. Dam, he was a good dog


(I think probably nowdays, the SPCA would come and take him away from us. And probably inevitably put him to sleep because to be honest, he wasn't the prettiest, "adoptable" dog in the world! Just an old mutt with 1.5 ears.)

 

[Todd&Copper]

my dh and I say that about MTV all the time to my 14 dd. ok do you recall Randy the hippy on MTV?

Just say "whoa!" and vote for Randy!

Randy of the Redwoods. I seem to recall he wore a Dashiki (I am certain I spelled that wrong) like one my mom had. We teased her about that mercilessly.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

Not sure it's been mentioned, but remember the smell of mimeographed paper in school? And that fat blurry purple print.