Tuesday, February 17, 2009

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?

15 comments:

  1. Ok I do rememeber...
    Penny candy-I still know a store that sells it.
    Give-aways-my Gramma and I got dishes from the movie theater.
    Home milk delivery-hubby and I just talked about this last night as I so miss this. We had a little cardboard thingy that you stuck in the bottle to tell what you wanted.
    I remember when TV went off at night instead of to endless infomercials.
    Smallpox given on my hip but is now down by my knee--too funny!
    I got hit in school too and I turned out just fine.
    And as a quiltmaker I use my quilts on my beds. I love cuddling under them.
    Great post!
    Tuesday Tidings from Roberta Anne

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  2. Yes, I remember several of these things. Hand towels and glasses in laundry detergent. Butter in cups that were reusable. I still have one that I use in my flour container.
    I know people who still put peanuts in the coke bottle.
    And I remember Mr. Cartoon. He has a fan club on Facebook.
    Thanks for the memories.

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  3. Let's see....I remember my smallpox shot, candy from the country store, and when the TV went off late at night. I didn't get the paddle at school, whew...only at home! In the late 1980's I lived in Alabama and a company there still delivered milk to your front porch, in glass bottles. Wish I could get that now.

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  4. I remember helping my Mom put S&H green stamps in books for things she wanted. I remember Beadenkopf's used to sell penny candy two pieces for a penny. I remember milk being delivered on our carport. The milk would pop the cardboard top in Winter and our Mom would crack it off with a knife. The milk would have slivers of ice in it and I still drink my milk with ice. I remember the ice man, the bread man, the egg man and when you purchased furniture on time the man would come to your door for the weekly payment. *Sigh* Those were the good days. xxoo

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  5. Wow, I remember all of that. We always called store bought white bread, light bread. I still call it light bread. I always wanted to stay up late and watch Chiller on TV, but could never get past about 10:00 before I fell asleep.
    It's fun to remember. Thanks Janet.

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  6. Yes, Jan, believe it or not....I remember all that...and more.

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  7. Yes, I do remember most all of this. Buying penny candy at our local candy shop . . . Going to the Drive-In Movies for 50 cents . . . a bag of buttered popcorn for 25 cents . . . delivering the morning paper at 3 a.m. and making only 5 cents per paper . . . going to the local soda fountain and getting a cherry coke for 10 cents . . . riding my bicycle everywhere . . . walking a mile to the school bus stop in all types of weather. . . Going to the gas station when gas was just 29 cents a gallon. Just to mention a few.

    You've brought back some memories for me. Those were the good ole' day's from long ago. We'll never see them again . . . "sigh" Good Post!

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  8. Oh yes i sure do!!! mom's everyday dishes were the wheat patterned ones and also had those awful tin colored drinking glasses..drinking coolaid from them was a bad experience as i remember.LOL. I loved the 5 and dime stores when some things actually sold for that. I still have the scar on my left arm from that small pox shot...and we slept on a real feather tick mattress with quilts to keep us nice and warm ( no heat in our bedroom otherwise, so these were a necessity..thanks for the memories of times past...they were good ones!

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  9. What a great post.
    Most of our glasses were jelly jar glasses or plastic ones out of detergent.
    We had a milk cow and after Mom pasturized the milk she put it in clean mayo jars. I was so surprised when I discovered you could buy it in a store. She also made our pancake syrup. And I remember wondering why you would buy it when you could make it.
    Remember Art Linkletter on the radio?
    Thanks for the memories.

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  10. I Remember....!

    PS..I still refer to Dr. Pepper as "10, 2 & 4". It drives Shirley crazy.

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  11. I remember far more than I want to say I do! We did have milk delivery, never missed Bonanza, have the same smallpox scar, did the bumps, still have some of Mother's tablecloths...but we're not old right?

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  12. Do you guys remember getting those sugar cubes for polio? I remember penny candy, paddles with holes in them, the towels Mom got from laundry detergent boxes Dolly Parton & others advertised on TV & more. I never put a peanut in Pepsi though since we couldn't afford Pepsi?

    Janet, I'm emailing you from the email address you put in your 'contact me' section.
    Deb :-)

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  13. Yes I remember all of that! I also remember going to my granny's and drawing water from the well an drinking it ice cold from the well bucket. I also remember staying all night with her and going to bed at dusk because we had no electricity only coal oil lamps. Enjoyed! thanks for helping to think about things that I had forgotten. god bless you. I was raised in Southeastern Ky Up a holler by the way.

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  14. I'm a newcomer to the blog site, so I'm late with this comment. I remember these things, especially pop paw and his store. Also having to wear skirts and dresses to school in the freezing winters. I remember the fruit and veg. Mkts on Patrick St. and especially the basement of Youngs Dept. Store. The toys, which we hardly ever got, and the candy bins upstairs. Yea, i think a lot of us could go on forever with the memories around our childhoods. That was a neat blog Janet.

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  15. Janet-I loved this post! I can't remember all the things you listed-but a few I can. I have my mother's dishes she saved from her grandfather's oatmeal boxes-they are one of my favorite treasures. The paddle thing-kids today need that more of that at school and at home!

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