Remembering old stuff

[BarensMom]

Okay, I remember:

The old console B&W TV's with the wood cabinets and tubes, with the little dot.  Back then 26" was the largest size anyone could afford.  And we had rabbit ears that had to be adjusted for a decent picture.  This was back before cable took over the world.

We knew people who lived on a hill above a drive-in and had a speaker in their house.

The yearly Wizard of Oz showing, I think it was around Thanksgiving(?).  Every Easter, for some reason, ABC would show The Ten Commandments.

Rotary phones - when we had a power outage some years back, we went and got this old ratty phone Mom had in her garage.  We still have it, just in case the power goes out again.

I remember Walter Cronkite announcing the Kennedy assassination.  I remember my mother's face as it first showed irritation that her soaps were being interrupted, then horror as she heard what happened.

My parents and older sibs had a slew of 78 rpm records that were never played because the record player could only play 33's and 45's.  We didn't have a hi-fi until I received one as a graduation present in 1976.  It was a Sony and refused to die, thus starting a love affair with Sony products that endures to this day.

Edited to include:  We had an aluminum Xmas tree, with the 3-color rotating light.  My parents would then put light strings on it.  Talk about a fire hazard waiting to happen.  Also, did anyone else have "bubble lights?"

[Mikayla]

Old cars. i don't know squat about them, but I love love love cars from the 60's and 70's.  todays seem so molded and plastic like.

I love retro, so I think old kitchens with harvest gold or avocado appliances are the coolest things!

Up until about 5 years ago when they finally moved, my grandparents had the 50s/60's retro appliances in aqua!  I really wanted to claim these when they moved, because they were so unique.  My parents had the harvest gold, which I also kind of liked.  But that aqua was a popular 50's color, I think. 

I also recall when cable TV started and my parents telling me how unique it was, because the subscriber fees paid for the shows so there'd be no advertising.  Silly parents.  Nowadays, some cable shows have more commercials than the Super Bowl.  Ugh!

[siamesecat2965]

Old cars. i don't know squat about them, but I love love love cars from the 60's and 70's.  todays seem so molded and plastic like.

I love retro, so I think old kitchens with harvest gold or avocado appliances are the coolest things!

Up until about 5 years ago when they finally moved, my grandparents had the 50s/60's retro appliances in aqua!  I really wanted to claim these when they moved, because they were so unique.  My parents had the harvest gold, which I also kind of liked.  But that aqua was a popular 50's color, I think. 

I also recall when cable TV started and my parents telling me how unique it was, because the subscriber fees paid for the shows so there'd be no advertising.  Silly parents.  Nowadays, some cable shows have more commercials than the Super Bowl.  Ugh!

My grandmother, in her next to last apt, where she had lived for decades, had this awesome aqua fridge.  It was so retro and cool!  I wish I still had it, because in the early 90'swhen she moved out, it still worked just fine!

[SheltieMom]

I still have bubble lights for my Christmas tree! Hobby Lobby carries them, or you can order them from Miles Kimball:
http://www.mileskimball.com/MilesKimball/Shopping/ProductDetail.aspx?TID=_MilesKimball&CollectionID=CBBL&icmp=search

[Julian]

Do any Australians remember the old Holly's restaurants at the back of the Kmart?
I used to get the bus there with Nanny and Mum when I was a kid.  Good times.

Yes!  Shopping with a coffee and food.

And the rare treat of shopping at Myer and having lunch upstairs there.  Back when it was rather posh!

[BarensMom]

For those in the U.S.:  The Woolworth's luncheon counter.  I remember one at El Cerrito Plaza and it wasn't half bad when I was a kid.

If you drove I-80 between SF and Chicago, there was a chain of stores named Stuckey's.  They had some sort of candy roll that was to die for.

[dawnfire]

Do any Australians remember the old Holly's restaurants at the back of the Kmart?
I used to get the bus there with Nanny and Mum when I was a kid.  Good times.

I remember holly's. do people remember the Cole's cafeteria on bourke st. That was the treat when going to the city.

[Acadianna]

We had an aluminum Xmas tree, with the 3-color rotating light.  My parents would then put light strings on it.  Talk about a fire hazard waiting to happen.  Also, did anyone else have "bubble lights?"

We had one of those aluminum trees with the lights too!  And my grandmother had the bubble lights on her tree.

I don't have the string bubble lights, but I do have a single bubble light that plugs into a socket, kind of like a night light.

[Nikko-chan]

I remember.... walking to the KMart across the street from my apt. when I was a child. I always got a superman ice cream. Oh superman ice cream how I loved you so!

I also remember MTV back when they had music on, and maybe a FEW reality shows (The Real World and Road Rules).

I remember when you didn't have all these toys with the lights and the talknig and the noise. You went outside, grabbed some friends, and played games using whatever you had, and some imagination.

And one from SunshineSister's grandmother: Those really old curling irons that you would heat up. Then you would take a piece of news paper and place the curling iron on it. If it turned too brown the iron was too hot and you would have to try in a few minutes.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/101751529/3-vintage-old-time-curling-irons-1930s

[oz diva]

No but I was taken to George's for sandwiches as a special treat. We was posh.

The old George's in Collins Street? Well La De Da.
  

Yes, my mother would browse for dress patterns first and then we'd have sandwiches and tea. I always loved the entrance.

[JonGirl]

Do any Australians remember the old Holly's restaurants at the back of the Kmart?
I used to get the bus there with Nanny and Mum when I was a kid.  Good times.

I remember holly's. do people remember the Cole's cafeteria on bourke st. That was the treat when going to the city.

We never went to the one in Bourke St. We always did the one in Footscray.

[scotcat60]

For those in the U.S.:  The Woolworth's luncheon counter

There was a counter selling food and drink in the local Woolworth's when I was a child  in South East London, UK 50+ years ago. I remember having a hot chocolate there once when I was out shopping with my Mum. And now there aren't any more branches of Woolworth's......

[2littlemonkeys]

My parents had a stereo console too.  I loved taking their old records out and playing them.  Our TV was also furniture.  They didn't even get cable until I was in college (early 90s).  We had rotary phones for as long as they lived in that house.  They finally got a cordless when they moved in the late 90s.

We had avocado green appliances.  Paired with orange and yellow wallpaper. 

I had a Close 'N Play.  When I was a teenager, I got my first stereo but it was portable.  I could record off the radio, though.  When I got the dual cassette player, I thought I was in heaven, LOL.

We had cars as big as boats.  We had a dime store in town called McCormicks.  I loved that place, I can still remember the smell. 

I remember watching the footage from Viet Nam.  It had to have been toward the end, I was born in '72. 

My kids are familiar with video cassettes but they are so used to the DVR that the idea of having to set the VCR and record to a tape is completely foreign. 

[baglady]

A few years ago there was a show on MTV called "That '70s House." It was like "Big Brother" -- put a bunch of strangers together in a house and vote one out each week. But this house had the decor and technology of the 1970s, and all the "houseguests" were in their 20s, and they weren't allowed to have any modern stuff (e.g. cell phones and mp3 players).

There was a phone. I think it was actually Touch-Tone (as push-button phones were called then), not rotary, but the young 'uns still couldn't use it. Why? All their contact numbers were stored in their cell phones!

When I was 10 we moved into a house that had cable TV already hooked up, and it was fairly cheap, so we kept it. This was 1969, so there were no dedicated cable channels; cable was a way to get nice sharp reception without having to fuss with antennas, especially if you lived a distance from the station(s). I was thrilled because it also brought in UHF channels without the need for a UHF tuner. I was in heaven watching reruns of Kimba and Gilligan's Island and such on Channel 56.

I remember the lunch counters at Kresge's and Woolworth's (both of which my mom called "the 5 and 10"). Kresge's lives on as Kmart, Woolworth's spawned a mall version called Woolco, but I think that's long gone.

12-cent comic books! I had a huge collection, some with covers, some without. Periodically my folks would make me weed out the stock and sell off any I could bear to part with, as long as they had covers. I doubt they'd be worth much today -- I was into Richie Rich and Casper and such, and they just never took off as collectors' items the way the superhero comics did.

I remember when "long distance" calling was a big deal. Ditto "air mail." We had to use special ultra-light stationery for the latter -- did they think regular-weight paper would keep the plane from taking off? I think air mail stamps cost more, too.

[snowdragon]

Lunch counters at the 5&10.  For that matter, who else remembers stores call a "5&10"?  ("Five and dime" maybe?)

I remember having a Soda Counter at our town Pharmacy.

Anyone else remember  .25 ¢ movies.

Sewing on the old Singer treadle machine with my grandmother. Her teaching me to knit and crochet.

Still have and use mine


How about those silver aluminum christmas tree with the color wheel spotlights that "changed" the color of the tree?