The "50's 60's"

New buses with "AIR CONDITIONED" emblazoned on their sides

Canister vacuum cleaners

Neighborhood appliance repair shops

United Cigar Stores (ALWAYS a huge selection, of comics, magazines, and candy!)

Electric trains set up around the Christmas tree

Bubble Lights

Twinkle lights

Church bells rung by yanking on ropes, not by flicking a switch!)

Smokey the Bear posters "Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires!")

 

"Saturday Night At The Movies" (NBC-4, Staturday nights, NY area)

78 RPM children's records

Record players that had the following speeds:

16

33

45

78

CONELRAD Civil Defense settings on radio dials

Actual DIALS on television sets!

The debut of the "Muscle Car" era

The introduction of the "Wide-Track Pontiac"

Having a clock radio on the top of your refrigerator

Commercials for the "Living Bra" and the "18-Hour Girdle, by Playtex" (we little kids would giggle and guffaw insanely when one of these commercials came on!)

Plastic colored streamers on air-conditioners that would blow in the cooling breeze, supposedly to make you feel even cooler!

 

Pneumatic message tubes in office buildings and department stores

Elevators with uniformed operators

Saturday afternoon kiddie matinees at your local theatre

"Dippety-Do" (women's hair-setting gel)

Jeep Wagoneers

Red-and-blue mail boxes.

AM and PM mail delivery

Fire trucks with open cabs

Buses with glass-top fare boxes that jingled as the coins passed through

Tokens for subways, buses, and trolleys

Checker cabs

"Bubble Up" soda

"Squirt" grapefruit soda

 

Metal rungs on utility poles, to provide access for linemen.

Bathtubs with claw feet

Toilets with pull chains

Dumbwaiters

Rubber mats that, when stepped upon, actuated a mechanism which automatically operated doors at supermarkets

METAL shopping carts

Slide projectors

"DICTABELT"/"Dictaphone" office dictating machines

Mimeograph machines (used to LOVE the smell of a FRESH mimeograph sheet in school!)

 

BAZOOKA bubble gum (1 cent!); recall the "Bazooka Joe" comics inside the wrapper?

HIRES' Root Beer Barrels (LOVED these!)

Fire alarm/police call boxes on almost every street corner

REAL bumpers on automobiles

Chrysler autos with push-button "TorqueFlite" auto transmission

Neighborhood bait-and-tackle shops

Streamlined luxury trains like the "SUPER CHIEF" and the "20th CENTURY LIMITED"

 

Car hops at White Castle (and other drive-ins)

Mom & Pop grocery stores

Older folks calling tow trucks "tow cars" (my dad always did!)

Jiggling hula girl figures on yor dashboard.

Foam dice handing from your rear view mirror

"Chili joints"(a bowl of meatless, not-too-spicy chili, with saltines, for under a buck!)

Going to any store and finding that the majority of products were made right here, in the good ol' US of A!

Delis with big containers of dill pickles, and taking them home in waxed paper bags......oh,yes!!!

Cherry cokes

Cars with chrome dashboards and push-button radios (with "CONELRAD" civil defense settings)

 

Circular florescent ceiling light fixtures (usually in kitchens and hallways)

Laying orange peels on top of a gas heater (or radiator) at holiday time, to make the house smell Christmassy

"Portable" televisions that weighed at least 25 pounds!

Doctors and TV repairmen making house calls.

Leaving a note for the milkman (milk in REAL glass bottles!)

 

How well I recall those "mini jukes" at each booth at a diner!

GREAT MUSIC, back in those days!

When I think of the old diners I grew up with, it seemed they always were filled with the delicious aromas of mashed potatoes, buttered toast, meat loaf, and chocolate malts!

Recall, also, the "mini boxes" of breakfast cereals, always displayed, behind the counter?

The photo of the old water pump recalls the one near to my aunt and uncle's old summer bungalow, when I was a kid.

Though everyone had running water, this pump (still in use) came in handy for a quick "wash up" before going back into the house; too, that water was ALWAYS good and COLD (and REFRESHING!) to drink!

Ahhh, the simple memories of a long-ago time!

 

Kids carrying tin and plastic lunch boxes to school, depicting then-popular TV shows,etc.

Paper grocery bags

SHELL "No Pest Strip" (modern "flypaper" for the 60's!)

Lava Lamps

Televisions with circular picture tubes

TVs and radios built by AMERICAN companies:

EMERSON

DUMONT

PHILCO

MOTOROLA (remember "Quasar"?)

WESTINGHOUSE

GE

NOMA Christmas lights

 

School buses built by GM and FORD, with WAYNE bodies

Firemen riding on the back of a truck holding onto subway-style straps

"PDQ" (flavored drink granules)

BOSCO

Coco-Marsh

Mothers and grandmothers wearing aprons

Remember when our Moms still sewed, and had well-stocked sewing boxes?

Remember your dad being able to do work on his car, work that did not require the knowledge of a NASA tech?

Vehicles with round headlights

Canvas sunroofs on VW "Beetles"

 

Oh boy! Looks like minutes of fun!

I love the line, "if an opponent lands on your space you get to smash their pineapple." I dunno, sounds violent and dangerous even though it says safety tested for 5 years old.

How'd you like a nice Hawaiian Punch, eh brah?

Sorry, I wouldn't mess with that (too messy)

I never had the game, but I drank a lot of the punch. Is it still around?

 

Oh, man, I had TOTALLY forgotten this game!

My cousins and I used to do nothing but LAUGH playing it!

I would imagine the drink is still around; I used to practically live on the stuff!

I can STILL remember Mom paying 27 cents for a HUGE can, back in the 60's!

There was also the "Tootsie Roll Game", back in the mid-60's, that we kids had a ball with; REAL Tootsie-Rolls (you had to replenish these, of course!) were the prize claimed by the winner! (the game came with a redeemable coupon for Tootsie Rolls at your neighborhood candy store!)

Where I grew up, the now-gone Tootsie-Roll factory was located just a few miles away (Hoboken, NJ)

Going by on the bus, the smell of all the ingredients being cooked would waft through the open windows, and drive ANY kid (regardless of age!) into a Tootsie-Roll frenzy!

Ahhhh, the memories!!!!!

 

I grew up in Córdoba, Argentina. Far away from most of you. However, many of the things listed here were familiar to me. Black/white TV, blockbuster shows like Ruta 66 and Lucy Ball, vinyl records, trams with wooden seats, us kids playing in the street without our parents worrying about us. And of course... as it could not be otherwise in Argentina, a lot of soccer fields on every piece of land without construction.

 

Mercury Comets (compacts with tailfins!)

Ford Falcons

De Soto Adventurers

Nash Metropolitans

Packard Clippers

REAL station wagons (with wood paneling, a la "Leave It To Beaver" and "The Brady Bunch"!)

Marlins (American Motors)

Plastic replica cars given away at auto dealership showrooms

"MATEY" Bubble Bath

AJAX liquid ("The White Tornado"!)

BUFFERIN

"SILENCE IS GOLDEN" cough syrup.

TV cartoons...........

Felix The Cat (ALWAYS a great fave!)

Spunky & Tadpole

Col. Bleep ( I LOVED this show!)

TONS of great stuff by Hanna-Barbera!

Popeye

Looney Tunes

Mixmasters

Toaster ovens

View-Masters

Fashion-color appliances

 

We had this model vacuum in the 1950s. I remember it like yesterday! Note the chrome rails instead of wheels!