Bruyere and Kate, yes to all your's too. Cootie catchers really made me laugh along with the oh so cool go-go boots - had to have those to do the Pony properly! How about sitting on a curb with pea-shooters and popcorn kernels flying at car wheels and enemy kids from other neighborhoods while they were riding by on their bikes? I have so many things to teach my grandchildren! After all, my son's learned them from me and taught them to their friends, much to the dismay of more 'proper' parents at times.

don't do the pony now...you'll hurt yourself!
Or the jerk!

did you know that cooties have survived? The kids still do it.

I remember sitting there watching the makes of cars go by and writing it down! this may be why I can recognize cars even now.

Imagine kids sitting around looking at cars going by now. They'd seem weird.

When a simple pair of flip flops didn't cost $10

I remember when...

The average teenager had no idea how to acquire illegal drugs
Children respected adults including teachers and police
Free milk in school - here they still have it at the moment
Smoking was the norm, non-smokers were almost social outcasts

I also remember those mounds of petticoats my sister used to wear, with little black ballerina flats. I wanted to be just like her.
-High school letter jackets were real leather, and smelled so good when they were new.

I remember so many more things being 'real'. Diners and restaurants offered real cream and butter. We even had real butter at our elementary school, with fluffy yeast rolls made from scratch.
It amazes me that both my parents made it to their eighties eating real cream, butter and enjoying bacon whenever they wanted when they were young.

The smoking thing made me laugh. the other day I attended a party for a Northern Irish coworker and her relatives were there.
Her seventy five year old mother was smoking away and I actually joined the table with them upwind as they clearly felt a little out of place at a California party!
I remember when the English used to smoke on the bus, yuck!

I remember getting two pairs of shoes per year and I don't know what happened if we grew over that year. One was a suede shoe and the other were tennis shoes. No Imelda Marcos fantasy closets full of shoes! My daughter has a shoe thing and has always wanted more more more shoes. She'd faint if she only had five much less two.
I still only have about five now.

I remember when hamburgers were still an occasional thing. Eating out was rare for us. Going to a drive in was like a big thing.

I remember when buffets began being popular and my grandmother would take us and drill us first what to eat. We wanted jello not meat, but she made us eat a chicken leg first! My siblings and I still look at each other and say, 'eat some chicken first before the dessert, nana's watching us from heaven.'

I remember when as a child I could take two fresh eggs from our own hens to a nearby little country store and exchange them for a candy bar.

penny candy

No, a nickel candy bar.

and it was a nice size

We would call it super-sized now and it would cost over a dollar.

Being able to trick or treat for hours and not having to have your candy X-Rayed

I remember when...

I couldn't wait to see what prize was inside the loaf of Wonder Bread.

My mom told me we were going to see Superman (the original release) and I didn't even know what a cinema was.

Captain Christopher Pike, Raggedy Andy, the Lone Ranger and CHiPs were cool.

Going to our local A&W, as a rare treat, and on Tuesdays they had trampolines set up, woohoo!

mmmmm, A&W rootbeer floats.....

Going to the local drive-in theater to watch two movies while sitting on the hood of the car during the summer. Or bundled up wearing pajamas and wrapped in blankets during the winter. Before the movies started, all the kids would go to the playground that was located under the big screen. And during intermission, running to the concession stand to get popcorn, hotdogs, and coke (that didn't cost a month's worth of rent).

I consider myself fortunate. I grew up in a 5 bedroom home that my father built from the ground up - in a rural part of New Jersey. Directly across the street was a pond. In the summer we would fish and we were able to actually watch the big mouth bass bite the bread dough bait we used. In the winter, the pond would freeze and we would ice skate to our hearts content. The parents would build bonfires on the shore and we actually roasted marshmallows. Sadly, the pond has since been filled in and there is a housing development where we once fished and skated. To quote a song: "Those were the days my friend."

When you went to the movies there were 2 and a cartoon shown.

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When you went to the movies there were 2 and a cartoon shown.

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And a news reel, too!

... and at some point in the middle of one of the films, you realized "This is where I came in", and you got up and left, stepping on everyone's toes as you did so.

...but if you didn't want to leave the movie you could just stay and watch it all over again.

I remember when the milkman delivered right to your door.

I remember when HBO began.

I remember when MTV only played music videos.

I remember when summer seemed to last forever.

I remember riding streetcars before they became fast and smoothe.

I remember when Pennsylvania allowed bottle redemptions.

I remember when trick-or-treating at night was safe, and how getting popcorn balls and candy apples weren't considered dangerous.

I remember when Girl Scout cookies were larger and cheaper.

I remember playing Pong and Space Invaders when they were new.

I remember lawn darts, the deadly version.

I remember having art AND gym classes at school.

i remember when ....

as little girls, we wore hats and white gloves to church.

you could get an ice cream cone for 5 cents and the cone would be filled up with jelly beans.

a comic book was 10 cents.

you could play a song on the juke box for 10 cents as well.

we walked barefoot, canned our own food, talked to strangers, left our doors unlocked, had farm chores every day, bathed on friday nights (in shared bathwater) ....

and we lived through it.

company came on saturday nights to play cards and we kids would sit around and watch ... and afterwards there was coffee, ham sandwiches and homemade dill pickles.

i remember chamberpots, outhouses, irons heated on the coal stove ...

a visit from the fuller brush man or the Watkins man (his name was FRED Skeleton, honest) was a BIG DEAL !

and the pastor coming an EVEN BIGGER DEAL!

our teachers cared more about our learning instead of our self esteem

We recited the salute to the flag, prayed the Lords Prayer every morning before class ...

and i remember neighbours. neighbours that came end on end, when trouble came, crops failed, there was bad health or death in the family ... i remember the neighbours that came from miles around .... to be 'neighbours'.

ok ok .... goodnight "johnboy" lol

(and i'm not even old)

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I remember having art AND gym classes at school.

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Can you explain, Burggirl, do you mean schools don't have PE and Art lessons any mone?

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On the darker side of life {I don't know if this was just in the American South or everywhere} I remember segregated waiting rooms in hospitals, and clinics.

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You are so right- this does open up a another area of memory... believe it or not, there were separate water fountains, too. I remember being about four and having to have that explained to me. And it didn't compute. Did these folks have some scary fever or a bad cold? In my mind that was the only reason I could think of why people couldn't use the same drinking glasses and so forth. Were they all sick, then? Why weren't they home in bed?

When the truth was explained to me, my mother just didn't have an answer as to why it was that way.I heard people use the 'N' word, too and knew I would've been spanked for using it. And I don't think it would've occurred to me, anyway - the black people around us were just the people we knew. The whole way things were set up bewildered me at that age.

That is one of the few things about the old days that I still shudder about. Thank God many kids now don't even think about it -and maybe to them it seems things couldn't really have been that way, these many decades later -but they were and I am old enough to remember it. And still muse over the fact that it took another hundred years after the American civil war to see any real change in this society.

I guess this topic, along with a few other like antiquated medical practices, no air travel [ only rich people used to fly] no air conditioning remind us - the past hasn't been all moonlight and roses.
Maybe that would also be an idea for a chain, sometime - what we have now that didn't exist then.