Remember When...

Remember when. . . . you bought penny candy from under the glass counter at the local store.

We had a little country store up our holler and I loved going down there. I'd point out which candies I wanted and Shorty put my treats in a small brown bag. I also remember Young's Dept. Store on the west side of Charleston, they had a candy counter, too.

Remember when . . . the gas station gave you gifts when you bought gas at their station!

Wouldn't that be nice, instead of them taking all your money to fill her up today.

These tall frosted West Virginia glasses were give aways at gas stations

Remember when . . . companies put items in their packaging, not the little toys that cereal companies put in their boxes today, but glasses, towels, dishes (some of which are worth a lot of money today) and such.

These wheat dishes were packed in Duz detergent.

Remember when . . . you didn't drink coffee from big mugs, but dainty cups and saucers.

They would pour the coffee into the saucer and sip. Mom used to fold light bread (another word for store bought sliced bread) and dunk it into her coffee and let me take a bite when I was little. It was delicious. We were told coffee would stunt your growth. I don't think they wanted us kids drinking their coffee.

Remember when . . . you not only had milk delivered to your door in glass bottles, but you also had Dr. Pepper in a glass bottle at 10..2.. and 4.

We lived in the country, so we never had milk delivery, lots of times we would buy milk and butter from my Aunt Gracie, who lived up the road from us. How many of you remember buying those little bags of salted peanuts and dropping them into your bottle of Pepsi. Now, that was good!

Remember when . . . you stayed up late to watch Chiller Theater. The station would play the Star Spangled Banner at the end of programming and display a test signal when TV went off the air for the night. And remember when they were experimenting with color TV and they would place this symbol on the screen for you to stare at to see if you could detect color.

No matter how late you stay up now, TV shows are always there. Funny, though, with all the channels we have to choose from and programming all through the night, seems like there's never anything good to watch. Not like the old days when the kids and adults loved Wonderful World of Disney and we came home from church on Sunday night to watch Bonanza. And how about the Mr. Cartoon Show which was on at 4 o'clock every day. My oldest son was actually in the audience when he was 5 years old. It was live and we recorded the show while we were there. My son Andrew is in the opening sequence when the camera spans across the group of children, but that's the last you see of him. He promptly ran off the stage to me and went to sleep on my lap during the rest of the show.

Remember when . . . schools sent truant officers out to check on students that didn't come to school.

Remember when . . . you suffered through the measles and mumps.

Kids don't know what they're missing today. I had mumps on both sides at the same time. Besides looking like a chipmunk with his jaws full of nuts, I was miserable. I remember sitting at the kitchen, with tears in my eyes, trying to eat. About the only thing that didn't hurt me when I ate it was mashed potatoes.

Remember when . . . you got the small pox vaccination?

I got mine before entering first grade. It developed into the ugliest scab and I remember being told not to touch it. Didn't they know that when you tell a child not to touch something, it makes them want to touch it even more. You can barely see my scar, but it's still there, along with the memories.

Remember when . . . schools believed in punishing kids for being mean.

I remember the paddles with the holes drilled in them. I think the holes were supposed to make it hurt more. I was only reprimanded once. It was in the 2nd grade when the teacher held my hand in hers and smacked it with a ruler. That stings! The teacher left the room at recess and told us not to get out of our seats. Well, I returned my carton of milk to the crate after drinking it, and someone told on me when she got back.

Remember when . . . we covered the food left after supper with a table cloth.

I suppose this was to keep the flies off. But the table sure looked pretty with the decorative cloth draped over it.

Remember when . . . quilts were made to keep warm with, not for decorative purposes.

My grandma and Aunt used to make quilts and sell them for $2 and $5 each. Wouldn't I love to have one of those. I remember the old quilting frame sitting in grandma's front room.

A few old quilts in my dad's old trunk.
I believe the one on the bottom and left were made by my grandma.

I could go on and on. And I think I will in another post on another day.

Do any of you . . . remember any of these?