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!
Life in the Foothills 