Lately, I have been reflecting upon the "progress" that has occurred so far in my 46 year life span.I have early memories of waiting daily with expectant anticipation to see if the milkman would deliver orange juice or maybe even chocolate milk in glass bottles to my milkbox that sat on my back stoop.
I remember when television was only broadcast certain hours of the day and thus the heart of after dinner entertainment seemed to converge around the front porch ( or stoop) with neighbors, chinese jumpropes and jacks.
I remember "readers" where Dick and Jane ran with Spot all over town. Every year the stories of the fun Dick and Jane were having were getting more interesting as the words grew longer and more complicated.
I have flooding memories of visiting my unlocked church in the middle of the day. In the heat of a summer afternoon I found it to be a cool and quiet place. It was a special sanctuary where I could go and talk with God undisturbed. Sometimes I would fall asleep on the pew talking with Him and no one ever thought I could be abducted or molested.
We had a dinner bell mounted outside the front door. We played in a "herd" of neighborhood kids and spent most of our days running from one yard to the next unsupervised. The older kids looked after the younger ones and when they rang the individual bells and called our names we scurried home to a dinner that had been prepared in an oven or on a stove and was eaten at a table.
It seems that telephones were mounted on a wall and did not lend themselves well to "multi-tasking." It seemed that in my home there was time set aside for the phone, but my mother's phone calls did not spill out into our days.
I had three sets of shoes...PF flyers, patten leather "Mary Janes" and lace up saddle shoes for school. I was allowed to wear them just like those descriptions...play....school and "Sunday."
I wore a school uniform and no one had an opinion about it. Not the kids, or the parents...it was simply the rule and we all followed it.
My grandparents had a big garden. Food processors were not yet invented but my grandmother had a potato masher and we spent lots of time smashing up fruits and vegetables in her kitchen together.
My grandmother packed my grandfather's lunch every day in a metal lunchbox with a thermos. It was the coolest thing I thought I had ever seen. I was too young to have one because the thermos had glass in it and it could easily be broken.
I never heard of a backpack...but I carried a leather schoolbag.
My grandmother knit my mittens, scarfs and hats every year. Every year I would lose them, and every summer she would cheerfully make new ones.
The most expensive Christmas present I probably ever received was a transistor radio.
Going to a restaurant was a rare occasion saved for something special...and when we did go, we dressed up. My mother wore heels and lipstick and my Dad would wear a tie with his hair all slicked back.
The closest thing to fast food was Woolworth's soda fountain. Vanilla coke was something they made with syrup and the question of the day always seemed to be what pie had come out of the oven fresh that morning.
Medicine was not complicated. They gave you penicillin for everything and if you had asthma like my baby brother..... when you had a "spell" you had to go to a hospital and be in an "oxygen tent." We went to "REXALL" for all of our drugstore needs....and when we were sick and my father had our only car at work...our doctor would swing by and see us on his way home. I never remember hearing the word "insurance."
I wore Easter Bonnets and carried straw purses and got to wear WHITE Mary Janes for summer. We always spent Easter in church and around church activities. The chocolate rabbit was an added bonus but it really didn't make or break the holiday.
Our lawn mower didn't have a motor. It took longer to mow the lawn, but it was more of a family chore...we all took turns until we tired out then we sat on the front stoop and my parents drank iced coffee.
Everyone I knew had a clothesline, and everyone hung their wash out to dry. It was a sign of respect and responsibility when you were considered to be old enough to hang out washing. I became old enough but sadly never became tall enough! LOL
The closest thing to a "gym" was the YMCA where men could go to lift weights. Women "kept their figure by exercising early in the morning with Jack LaLaine.
Coffee was something only adults could have and it came out of a pot that perked. I don't believe I ever saw anything that resembled a "travel mug," in fact I cannot remember ever eating or drinking in the car except for when we went to the drive-in.
Going to a drive-in was a family affair. They showed the kid's movie first and by the time that ended we were asleep when the adult feature came on.
When I was in the second grade "shoulder strap" purses and color TV entered my small town. It was a BIG year.
I was a "brownie" and we wore an entire uniform...including beanies, knee socks and brown shoes and gloves. We got to wear our uniform to school on the day of our afterschool meeting. It was a big deal.
I remember the time period fondly. We played with baby dolls and paper dolls. Hide and Seek and Capture The Flag were big neighborhood "after dinner...before bed" activities. If you had a beef with a kid on your block...you didn't stalk them, or shoot them or slip something in their drink...you just forced her to eat mudpies or maybe tripped them up during double dutch jump rope competition.
Nylons and lipstick was for "teenagers." and all I knew about them was that when they babysat they snuck phone calls with boys.
The basic simplicity of all of this is refreshing to remember, I wonder if it can be re-captured?
