I received a pretty cool email the other day. The subject line was: Your childhood in an email.
In the email was about a dozen or so photographs with a caption under each.
If I could only figure out how to upload photos on this site, I’d show you each photo, but for now, look with me at some of the captions and see what memories come rushing back for you. Then, please, be willing to share one or two. Just follow my lead, okay?
45 rpm spindles
Do you remember the first 45 you purchased? I still have most of the 45s I purchased as a child. I have Nancy Sinatra and Lee Greenwood singing “Jackson”. I have the Herman’s Hermits singing “Leaning on a Lamp” and Bobby Darin singing “If I Were a Carpenter.” There are bunches more in my closet but that’s a few that easily come to mind.
Green Stamps
Can you remember something you bought with Green Stamps? I purchased a clock once. For some reason, that’s the one thing that comes to mind.
Metal ice cubes trays with levers
I hated those things. You’d practically rip your hand off just to get an ice cube. And the cold metal stuck to your hand.
Beanie and Cecil
Roller-skate keys
I love it! And I love the song by Melanie. “Oh, I’ve got a brand new pair of roller skates, you’ve got a brand new key…”
Cork pop guns
Perfect for a neighborhood game of Army with the neighborhood kids.
Marlin Perkins
What was Saturday night without searching beyond your own back yard with Mr. Perkins. I miss him! Can anyone remember the name of the company that sponsored his show?
Drive in Movies
I recall some wonderful films I saw there as a child and teen. The James Bond flicks. The Elvis films. All the Disney movies one could possibly stand. But maybe my most exciting memory is seeing Airport there on my FIRST official date.
Drive in restaurants and Car Hops
The drive-in restaurant in Sylvania, GA, where I grew up, was called The Shake ‘n Burger.
Studebakers
Topo Gigio
I mentioned Topo to some friends the other night and they looked at me as if I had three heads. WHO CAN FORGET TOPO????
Washtub wringers
Fortunately I have no personal memory of these.
The Fuller Brush Man
Sky King
Reel-To-Reel tape recorders
ah, the joys of Christmas past. When I was a little girl, I wanted Barbies. But as soon as I hit about 11, I wanted technology. This was among the first.
Tinkertoys
Loved them.
Erector Sets
Brother loved them.
Lincoln Logs
Brother and I loved them.
15 cent McDonald hamburgers
Still love them, in spite of the price hike.
5 cent packs of baseball cards
Penny candy
Okay. Now here’s where I could write a book. We had a store right across from the elementary school, owned by Mrs. Archibald. She hated kids, I think. I seriously think she did. Yet, every day she opened up the front of her house, made into a store, where dozens of kids would descend with pennies in hand and who would then leave with a small sack full of candy.
Sheer delight.
25 cent a gallon gasoline
Please. Don’t get me started. My boyfriend used to pick me up for a date, drive the a nearby service station (as they were called in those days), put 25 cents worth of gas in the car and we’d be set for the evening. We could go anywhere. Then again, we were on a motorcycle.
Jiffy Pop popcorn
5 cent stamps
You can still get these but they won’t actually mail anything.
Gum wrapper chains
A nice way to spend a boring Sunday afternoon.
Chatty Cathy dolls
My mother found mine recently. It’s in a box somewhere. Hair is matted. She has no words left to say. But WOW! Such memories of pulling that doll’s string!
5 cent Cokes
Speedy Alka-Seltzer
Burma Shave signs
Brownie camera
Mother still has hers.
Flash bulbs
Do you remember the kind that gave you four flashes to each bulb. It turned after you took a photo. After four photos, take it off and throw it away!
TV Test patterns
This is a test. This is only a test…
Old Yeller
Chef Boy-AR-dee
Did he die???
Fire escape tubes
Timmy and Lassie
“What’s wrong, girl? Where’s Timmy?”
Ding Dong Avon calling
My mother was the ding-dong lady at one point. When I was 16, I took over the business. It was fun! My favorite scent was Sweet Honesty for girls. I think they still have it.
Brylcreem
A little dab will do ya.
Aluminum Christmas Trees
Here’s the one that makes me cry. I had one. It was the tree from my childhood. When I’d been married about 10 years, I sold it in a yard sale for $5, not realizing what I had. These things are HUNDREDS of dollars now. HUNDREDS. I want mine back SO BAD!!!! My mother wants to kill me for selling it. It’s a real bone of contention at Christmas.
So, if anyone out there has one, wants to sell it, lemme know! 
16 Comments
I don’t remember TOPO and we had a top-loading washing machine, but everything else is dead-on. Lord, I’m getting old-er. : ) But thank God for that!
I think Marlin Perkins show (Wild Kingdom, right?) was sponsored by Mutual of Omaha. And I loved my Chatty Cathy doll!! And when we were first married, we used my husband’s family’s old aluminum tree, but it’s no longer around. I’m sure we probably sold it in a rummage sale. I had no idea they are worth so much money now. Good grief
Chatty Kathy!
What about David Cassidy?
Casper the Ghost?
As a little girl, I was certain I was going to grow up and move to Manchester, England to marry Davey Jones from the Monkees. The 45-rpm “Day Dream Believer” was my first record. My mom bought it for me. I cried. Suze, you poor thing! You don’t know TOPO Gigio? He was the side kick of Ed Sullivan. The cutest little mouse there ever was. The rest of your list was “spot on!” I’ll keep my eyes open for an aluminum tree. Does it need the rotating disco light?
For more information about Topo Gigio (Ed Sullivan Show, the adorable little mouse with the childlike attitude) go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topo_Gigio
I’ll bet you will remember then!
Allison, NO! I don’t need the rotating light. But I’d LOVE to have the tree again. Especially the one I gave away, practically. It had a large flowerlike tip on the end of each branch.
Okay, am I the only one who watched “Crusader Rabbit”?!?!?
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Eva! Great post!
Connie…apparently! I’ve never heard of it.
But I do remember Chicken Man!!!! (He’s everywhere, he’s everywhere!)
Remember Topo’s famous line?
“Eddieeeee!!! Keese me gooodnight!”
We were certainly easily entertained in those days, huh?
Oh, that it were still so, Jill!
Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom was on sunday nights in chicago. We’d watch that and the Wonderful World of Disney (which is still on network TV!)
I hit “post” too soon. the thing we cracked up about on Wild Kingdom was how Marlin would sit safely in the boat or the jeep and say, “Let’s watch as Jim wrestles this alligator” or “Notice how carefully Jim picks up this deadly python!” Poor Jim (who was younger and stronger than Marlin) had to do all the up close and personal interactions with the wildlife.
You are right, Kerri! It was Sunday night! Saturday night was Lawrence Welk and Hee Haw!
Jim Fowler, who grew up in Albany, GA where my husband and I met and lived for about 16 years before moving to FL. Jim has a refuge for wild animals there called CheeHaw Park that allows them to basically live within their habitat.
Well, I am certainly glad to hear that Jim (brave soul) survived all those years of wrangling snakes and alligators and is still helping wild animals! very cool.
I don’t know about Chef Boyardee, but the Pillsbury Doughboy died.
I loved my grandmother’s aluminum tree, with the red lights. While living near DC, there was a Christmas tree display at the Nat’l History museum and there was one there, complete with the spinning mechanism and lights!
Even though I’m SOOO much younger than you (yeah, right), I remember my grandmother and collecting the green stamps and putting them in books. She had more money than God, as my Jewish neighbor from the Bronx would say, but she loved buying things with her little green stamps.
Reel-to-reels! My dad would record eight hours of NPR programming on his. We listened to all kinds of things for hours on end, including entire books being read. And my favorite were my Dr. Demento reels which he’d set to record at midnight. Oh what fun!
Thanks for the walk down memory lane!
Sky King!!
I was beginning to believe it was a figment of my imagination. No one I’ve ever asked remember that show that I loved to watch on Saturday mornings.
Thanks for the memories.
A prisoner of hope,
Megan