Maybe it's the position of the planets, moon phase, or some other cosmic occurrence that is causing these random thoughts; two friends curiously report the same.
Please feel free to add comments with your own things you miss, too!
THINGS I MISS:
- Cashmere Bouquet and Dier Kiss talcum powders
- Baskin Robbins English Toffee ice cream (not an ice cream fan, but loved this one!)
- Prescriptives cosmetics 'Magic' line
- Reaching a real English speaking person on any phone service call
- Frito Lay 'Bistro Gourmet' Potato Chips (Best ever)
- Carnations that actually had that spicy carnation fragrance
- A long handwritten letter from a friend
- Woolworth (and other drugstores) Soda Fountains (always the best burgers & fries)
- The Door County (Wisconsin) of my youth, including: Peninsula State Park camping & Friday night bonfires with whole skinned pine trees in a 'teepee shape; Gill's Rock smoked whitefish; Bailey's drugstore & do-it-yourself sundaes; Cornell's Riding Stable, & 'Uncle Thad," who let us wash dishes for free horseback rides; "Pebble Beach," and skipping pebbles into the water; Hansen's shetland ponies and the Nickelodean collection in the barn; the village of Ephraim
- Elizabeth Arden's 'Cabriole' perfume, my favorite, ever.
- Square - and better yet- crinkle-cut french fries when ordering out.
- $9.95 Oil Change specials
- Neighborhoods with sidewalks, streetlights, and no fences between neighbors
- Block parties & potlucks
- Being in a movie, restaurant, rest room, fitting room, etc., withOUT cell phones ringing & having to endure loud conversations
- 4th of July firework extravaganzas at almost every park
- Drive In's: Movies AND restaurants
- Airline travel that was actually fun! (i.e., no security restrictions, up to 2 free bags (no weight limit) and (hard to believe!) free hot meals!
- Shiny chrome bumpers and grilles on cars
- My grandmother's fried chicken
- TV Series: Dirty Sexy Money; The Gilmore Girls; Once And Again; Reunion; Invasion; Providence
- Worrying that gas might someday reach (shudder) $2.00!
- Anticipating the photos you were waiting to be developed
- Record stores (and listening booths!) And records!
- Julia Child's live cooking shows
- The "brrrrrrrrrrring" sound of old phones
- White soda (a midwest thing)
- Four distinct seasons
- "hard roll," butter, and liver sausage sandwiches from my childhood
- Real butter on movie popcorn (though some small indie theatres still have it)
- Walking in the woods at Menomonee River Parkway and gathering abundant buttercups and violets to make necklaces and crowns (Where I lived & Parkway location)
- Actually finding 4-leafed clovers in my own yard
- The sound of my little girl (now grown) giggling uncontrollably when we had tickle contests
- Flying homemade kites with my Aunt Sylvia
- Station wagons with a back-facing third seat.
- Old friends I have lost track of, but still think of all the time.
- The Steak n' Shake drive-in (They took your order at your car, served you, & hung a tray on your door)
Wow, maybe it is the alignment of the planets or simply just another season here and gone, but the nostalgic atmosphere is certainly in the air. Just this week, I had two separate conversations discussing the “simpler times”. One of those conversations was just this morning with my dad, who is 79 years old. Of course, his times were simpler still, but really were good times. Just a few of the things I miss from days gone by:
ReplyDeleteA&W Root beer floats the real rootbeer, the taste will remain forever etched in my memory.
Never worrying about locking doors at home; the only ones who were going to come in were friends.
Leaving the car windows down when you parked it (anywhere) so it wouldn’t get so hot.
Seeing kids grow up “being kids” playing outside instead of in front a video game. When their parents wanted them to come home, they opened the door and yelled. The days before cell phones and IPODs. (Seldom did you see an obese youngster, everyone was thin, physically fit, and healthy).
Picking dandelions so my mom could make dandelion wine (I used to complain then, now to spend a day picking dandelions sounds so soothing and relaxing)
Picking a piece of fresh rhubarb from the yard next door anytime you wanted it (I tried buying it and it wasn’t quite the same)
Fresh half & half cookies from the main street bakery (there’s still one bakery left that still makes them)
The entire neighborhood being one big happy family; having cookouts and never worrying about anyone being sued because a window was broken by a baseball or kickball gone astray.
A hardroll and sausage sandwich from the local diner anytime 24/7.
A hot dog with steamed onions from Smitty's -- nothing has ever come close.
Very interesting. Things I miss...
ReplyDelete°Playing pingpong and cards in Scott's basement
°Fishing and waterskiing on his dad's boat
°Watching Johnny Carson
°21 cent gas
°Playing football, baseball and basketball
°Running around barefoot during the summer
°Three month summer vacations
°School lunches
°Climbing trees
Well, it looks like I mostly miss "activities" more than "things".
The way Glen Miller played
ReplyDeleteSongs that made the Hit Parade
Didn't need no welfare state. Everybody pulled his weight
our old LaSalle
we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again!
Those were the days!!!!
Tap dance lessons
ReplyDeleteGlorious movie musicals
Grandma's Irish scones
Christmas caroling
Streetcars
Movie Bank Nights
Red Skelton's Radio Show
Jack Benny's Radio Show
Band Concerts in Mineral Palace
How nice it is to even think about this subject. Here is my spontaneous list of things I miss.
ReplyDelete1.penny candy that actually only costs a penny.
2.Riding the bus as a kid for only 50 cents.
3.I miss the days when it was my mom's responsibility to do my hair.
4.The old days in my family when women still made biscuits from scratch.
5.Jelly cakes my aunt used to make,
6.Magazines that cost under $5
7.Huge soft pretzels that cost only 25cents from the man on the corner,they now cost 75 cents and their skimpy.
8. Going to Atco race track in Jersey as a kid with my mom and stepfather and getting that funny feeling in my stomach as the loud cars roared by...weee
There are so many things I miss but here is my short list:
ReplyDelete1.Going to a stationary store and picking out the perfect stationary for letter writing.
2.The joy of sitting on the front porch on a summer evening with my brother eating ice cream bars we had just bought from the ice cream truck.
3.Going to the lake with my friends. We would swim and lay out and talk about what our futures would be.
4.Going to the movies with my brother and only having to pay 75 cents to get in.
5.Playing Tarzan on the vines in the woods near my house with my brother and friends.
6. My mom's Italian Date Cookies she would only make at Christmas. I never got her recipe.
7.Getting a Valentine from a shy boy who thought I was cute.
8.Going to A&W and buying a gallon of real root beer.
You got me on Cashmere Bouquet! What a terrific idea...ahhh nostalgia!
ReplyDeleteVent windows on cars (both front and back), the Good Humor truck, 5¢ candy bars, white wall tires, toys made out of metal, rain gutters on cars so you had something to put your hand on, nickel cokes in 6oz bottles that lasted an incredibly ...long time and having the gas station guy run after you for the 2¢ deposit, phones with dials, cameras that took pictures, buses that didn't talk and where the driver gave you change, cast iron mail boxes that took letters only and were painted army green, hub caps, tires with inner tubes, 10¢ per hour parking meters, antique store check out girls who didn't ask 'where do you put the batteries?' when buying a vintage Big Ben alarm clock, people who didn't try to screw you just for the hell of it, politicians who were equally qualified and where we didn't have to pick the lesser of two evils, new model cars that came out after Labor Day, the milk man (and the milk box), half gallon ice cream before they took a pint away and called it the same thing (similar to a 'pound' of coffee), toilet paper in colors, things that weren't made with high fructose corn syrup, cork inside bottle caps, red and green traffic lights on the sidewalk before they were required to have the yellow in the middle and move out to the middle of the street, cobblestone curbs, narrow paper straws before the giant plastic ones were invented, mailmen with the leather shoulder bag before junk mail was invented, soda vending machines with paper cups, the counter at Woolworth's that always had the smell of grilled cheese and where you didn't have to explain what a black and white soda was, 6¢ cokes at the counter in the little glasses (5¢ + 1$ tax), hand dial tire inflation stands that rang when you got the pressure you wanted and didn't have to pay for it, a world without spray paint and magic markers, metal oscillating fans with wide spaced grills, skinny people, when getting 'take out' was a special event, when I thought 'Leave It to Beaver' was funny, burning leaves in the autumn before it was outlawed, when you could talk yourself out of a ticket, phone booths with doors and a ceiling fan, shoe shine booths with metal foot rests, 10¢ coffee with limitless refills, people without attitudes, $1.00 a day hotels in Paris (a shower was an extra 20¢) opposite Notre Dame, land in the south of France was $1.00 an acre (up from 20¢ an acre the year before), double sided wooden ice cream spoons, Dixie Cups, postage being 3¢ and a penny cheaper if the envelope wasn't sealed, and when women looked at me with passion as opposed to an apologetic smile they would give their crazy uncle . . . the list is endless. :))
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, you have brought up so many that I forgot about and others I thought of after the fact of doing the blog. Cork in bottle caps!! We had nickel cokes- no tax. and it was plenty at the end of the school day. That and a bag of caramel corn. "Skinny people?" Have to disagree on that one- young girls are being raised in a society that thinks skin hanging on bones is healthy and "pretty!" How about telephone numbers that were a name with 5 digits? (Mine was Glenview 3-4679!) Buying "a quarter's worth" of gas- and it was plenty.....you're right; it's endless. Thank you for these!
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