SOMEWHERE IN TIME

VANILLA COKE AND GREEN RIVER

FOUNTAIN DRINKS WERE MY FAVORITES

Not long ago I wrote a post entitled "Where I'm From," which basically outlined where I came from, geographically and socio-economically.

This time, I thought I'd show "Where I'm From In Time," by listing items from my childhood in the 1950s and 1960s. Although old-fashioned soda fountains appear now and then, I doubt that many of these other products or customs are in use or found any longer, unless they're in a vintage shop.


35-cent movies, with 10-cent popcorn and 10-cent bottled pop.

Bags of white margarine with a color dot (you squeezed the bag until all the color was distributed).

Silver dollars in wide circulation (especially in Montana).

Black-and-white newsreels before movies.

“Two-Holers” (outdoor wooden toilets with two seats).

4-cent postage.

Rabbit ears on TV sets.

The Watkins Man – a door-to-door salesman of vanilla, nectar and other household products.

ORIGINAL BARBIE LOOKED ORIENTAL

(WHICH IS WHY I NEVER HAD ONE)

The Grit – a folksy tabloid newspaper delivered door-to-door every Saturday.

Station wagons instead of SUVs for large families.

Toni perms.

The candy: Black Jack gum, Pixy Stix, Dots, candy cigarettes, Chuckles, Necco wafers, Sugar Babies and Sugar Daddies, candy buttons on paper strips, wax bottles with colored sugar water.

Water pails with dippers (everyone dipped and drank from the pail).

Wooden screen doors.

Hank Williams on the radio.

Enamel coffee pots, cups and pans with the inevitable chips.

Scrapbooking meant pasting magazine clippings into scrapbooks made with coarse buff paper.

Cigarette and liquor ads in magazines.

EVERYONE GATHERED AROUND THE TV FOR BONANZA AT 9:00

SUNDAYS (THE KIDS GOT TO STAY UP AN HOUR LATE)

Stirrup pants, Capris and flip flops were in, and they were not retro wear.

Thongs were another name for flip flops, not underwear.

78-rpm records.

Granny panties for everyone.

Skippy Peanut Butter in fancy footed glasses.

Sugar-loaded cereals. (Sugar Pops, anyone?)

Scarves tied at the throat and the ends knotted at the back of the neck.

Wearing dresses to school and church.

Hair set in pin curls with bobby pins.

WOMEN AND GIRLS HAD TO WEAR SWIM

CAPS IN PUBLIC POOLS

Pop-It Beads.

Easy Bake Ovens (how I loved the flavor of the little cakes they made).

The phrase D.A. meant a duck-tail or duck-a-- haircut for teenage boys.

Spiral notebooks with brown covers.

Five and Dime stores.

Velvet hair bows a la Rose Marie on The Dick Van Dyke Show (I had them in all colors).

Spam (the meat) was not a joke but a regular on the dinner table.

One-speed bikes.

Flypaper strips.

Rope and board swings.

Ditto machines at school.

Running boards on cars.

TONI PERMS MADE MY HAIR OH-SO FRIZZY