I look around me today and I am amazed at how much has changed over my life. So, I thought that I would share some remembrances with you. Maybe you remember these things too!
** Milk used to come in a glass quart bottle in a metal carrier and was delivered in the morning to your house. Our milk man was Bob.
** Telephones had rotary dials, and people referred to their phone number with a name for the prefix. Our phone number began with the name Oxford.
** When we went to the big city, we wore our finest clothes, wore gloves on our hands, and Mary Jane’s on our feet!
** Television was black and white and you had to get up to change the channel or to turn it on or off.
** As a kid we were always outside playing with whatever we could find around us. I remember building forts out of whatever we could find and having acorn fights.
** Movies in the theater where double features and cost 50 cents. They sold lipstick, hairspray and perfume in dispensers in the lavatory.
** First class stamps in the U.S. cost 4 cents.
** The cost of regular gas was 31 cents. And when you went to the gas station an attendant filled up your car for you, washed your windows and checked your oil.
** We used to collect blue chip stamps and the green S&H stamps, paste them into books and then trade the books of stamps in for merchandise.
** Adults were always addressed as Mr., Mrs. or Miss.
** We learned to tell time by drawing a circle with a lid of a cottage cheese container and drawing in the hands.
** Change was always counted back.
** We wrote letters to friends and family.
** Girls and women always wore dresses.
** Men always wore hats.
** Children under the age of 12 were not allowed to visit the sick in the hospital.
** Babies had to be no younger than six months old in order to fly on an airplane.
** Minimum wage was $1.25.
** We used to go to the butcher. His name was Fred. Fred always gave me a fresh slice of bologna.
** I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, My Three Sons, and Mr. Ed, and the Mickey Mouse Club were some of the shows that we watched. We also watched The King Family Show, The Ed Sullivan Show and Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins.
** The dance “The Twist” was the rage.
** Wayne Newton popularized the song “Danke Shoen.” He was 21.
** Franky Avalon and Annette Funicello were making their famous beach movies.
** Hairstyles? The Flip, and Beehives were popular, and AquaNet was used to keep your hair in place.
** Mom’s made sandwiches using mayonnaise that sat in a brown paper bag by your coat until lunch time.
** The San Francisco Giants biggies: Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, Matty Alou, Felipe Alou, Orlando Cepeda, Jim Davenport and Juan Marichal.
** We listened to records. The speeds: 33, 45 and 78.
These are some of the things that I remember from my younger days. It is amazing to see in my short time how far we have come from the way things were!

















I still watch I Love Lucy! My all-time favorite show!
And those were happier times, I think. No rush, no need for constant communication via cell phones, texting, and blue tooth devices. As a kid I could play outside all day, just had to make sure that I went home when the street lights came on. Television shows actually taught things to the audience, there were no Paris Hilton’s, Snookie’s, and the Jersey Shore was the beach. Handheld transistor radios were just coming out and weighed 8 pounds because of the batteries. For me gas was 19 cents a gallon. There were only 3 TV stations and they weren’t on 24 hours a day, they actually started at 6AM stopped by 10 PM maybe 11. Programs like the Tonight Show weren’t even thought of. Movie theater shows, Saturday double header was 25 cents. Now if I go to a movie and walk out without spending 25 dollars I’m amazed. I could fill a small paper bag with penny candies for 10 cents. You could bring bottles back to a grocery store to receive a refund. Recycling was not even thought of. Our house had a coal furnace, coal was $2.00 a ton.
Sorry some things are now gone forever, happy that some are as well.
Your comment reminds me of something I forgot to mention! We could go to the grocery store and ask them to put it on our account. Can you imagine Safeway doing that today? 🙂 Thanks for the comment PJ!