Troutbirder II

Troutbirder II
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Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Nostaliga


Those were the days my friends…..
When I was growing up in St. Paul in the 1950's: A little house with three bedrooms, one bathroom and one car on the street. A mower that you had to push to make the grass look neat.

In the kitchen we only had one phone, And no need for recording things, someone was always home.

We only had a living room where we would congregate, Unless it was at mealtime in the kitchen where we ate. We had no need for family rooms or extra rooms to dine, When meeting as a family those two rooms would work out fine.

We were the last kids in our neighborhood to have a TV. We only had one set, and channels maybe two or three, But always there was one of them with something worth the view. My dad thought he got a bargain from "Mad Man" Muntz you see. It was a giant 17 inches and black and white indeed.

For snacks we had potato chips that tasted like a chip, And if you wanted flavor there was Lipton's onion dip. Store-bought snacks were rare because my mother liked to cook, And nothing can compare to snacks in Betty Crocker's book.

Weekends were for family trips or staying home to play, We all did things together -- even go to church to pray. We all loved to go camping then, here my mom and I are packing the stuff and to this very day, Mrs. T and I like still like the woods as long as we can stay.

 Sometimes we would separate to do things on our own, But we knew where the others were without our own cell phone.

Then there were the movies with your favorite movie star, And nothing can compare to watching movies in your car.

Then there were the picnics at the peak of summer season, Pack a lunch and find some trees and never need a reason. Get a baseball game together with all the friends you know, Have real action playing ball -- and no game video. Now they speak of the Boyz In The Hood. Well, here we all were then. Boys and girls together playing Robin Hood. That's me, lower right hand corner, getting ready to shoot. The game never tired for us as it always was a hoot.

Remember going to the store and shopping casually, And when you went to pay for it you used your own money? Nothing that you had to swipe or punch in some amount, Remember when the cashier person had to really count? The milkman used to go from door to door, And it was just a few cents more than going to the store. There was a time when mailed letters came right to your door, Without a lot of junk mail ads sent out by every store. The mailman knew each house by name and knew where it was sent; There were not loads of mail addressed to "present occupant." There was a time when just one glance was all that it would take, And you would know the kind of car, the model and the make. One time the music that you played whenever you would jive, Was from a vinyl, big-holed record called a forty-five. The record player had a post to keep them all in line, And then the records would drop down and play one at a time.

Oh sure, we had our problems then, just like we do today, And always we were striving, trying for a better way. Oh, the simple life we lived still seems like so much fun, How can you explain a game, just kick the can and run?

This life seemed so much easier and slower in some ways, I love the new technology but I sure miss those days. So time moves on and so do we, and nothing stays the same, But I sure love to reminisce and walk down memory lane.Those indeed were the days my friends.Our parent liked a man named Ike and revered their hero  called FDR.  States then weren't red or blue but instead  red white and blue American They  shared common beliefs  like being good honest, truthful ,  and even occasionally compromising in politics for the greater good. Lets hope and vote some of that can return again.....:) 

40 comments:

  1. I'm walking right along with you down memory lane. We left the empy milk jars on the porch with the order and money tucked in one of them. I'm so sorry that my own children missed such a carefree childhood.

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  2. i am addicted to my laptop and internet access and have my cell with me to get emails. but i do miss the carefree days, too.

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  3. How much fun to get this glimpse into your past. I've been feeling nostalgic too. We still have a mechanical push mower from our Cambridge MA tiny lawn days. It needs sharpening so sits in the shed. I miss having more time to read offline but technology is good for connecting with people like you.

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  4. What a beautiful walk down memory lane! Yes, we were happy and satisfied with very little. Now, each person has a phone, a computer, a car, a bedroom and a bathroom. What we miss the most are the times we used to have together.

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  5. I drive past our tiny home and marvel we had 6 kids and 3 bedrooms. Outdoor play has been almost lost.

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  6. This is a beautifully written piece. Really top notch. But, you can't have been the last family with a tv because we were.

    It boggles the mind how much the newfangled extras cost: satellite tv, flat screen tvs, computers, high speed internet, cell phones, tablets etc. I remember basic cable plus phone costing us $14 combined in the early 70s.

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  7. This was an excellent post! I'm right there with you on the memories - Ah, may they stay with us forever! Really enjoyed this, TB!!

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  8. Thank you, thank you for the excellent trip down memory lane! There's an awful lot of things I miss about the simpler times...and my sister still has a push mower.

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  9. You wrote this? What fun and quite the trip down memory lane! I enjoyed it all. :-)

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  10. Love the nostalgia !
    Great post .
    P.S. No tree climbing was involved seeing the baby turkey vulture , the nest was in a rock crevice where we were hiking that year, probably a once in a lifetime find.

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  11. Thanks for your memories. Much of it is similar to what I experienced. Like you I still think of those times. Today kids are either micromanaged or abandoned.

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  12. We had an egg man, not a milk man. My mom stretched the milk with powdered milk. When did all the ridiculous amounts of flavor choices arrive? A chip and Lipton's for dip. Enjoyed your rhyming too!

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  13. Oh I love it! What a terrific post. Very good writing in taking me along on your memories. Wonderful!
    xo Catherine

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  14. My husband and I had one of the lawn mowers many years ago!

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  15. Life in these times is often "easier" in the sense of convenience at the push of a button (or touch of a screen.. they're even doing away with button's!) but so much less simple.
    I sure enjoyed this!

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  16. What a great look back. I miss the "old days" as well. Things sure seemed a lot simpler and more pleasant. Companies seemed to actually care about their customers. If only we could turn back time (but keep our internet and computers-LOL)

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  17. Oh, those were the days. I remember as a kid being out all day and late into the night playing with all the other kids. The imagination was unlimited. Something I just don't see anymore. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

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  18. There were real toys in Cracker Jacks boxes. I had heard of bullies but had never met one. The Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, and players stayed with one team for a long time. I walked to school with other kids who lived near me, and we played together after school. I especially regret that my grandkids don't have that, although I love the wonderful diversity among their classmates. I hope their children will live in more diverse neighborhoods and will have stronger neighborhood schools.

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  19. TB
    I wonder if it's just our generation that has nostalgia for our past? I'm thinking here of those who were kids in the 30's, during the depression. As adults their main concern seemed to be not replicating that and giving their kids a better life.

    Yeah, times were certainly simpler for most of us, maybe because we just didn't know what was happening in the rest of the world.

    Having said that, I certainly remember with fondness growing up in a small town in the 50's, sleeping in the back yard in the summers, wandering heedlessly around town on my bike, etc.

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  20. My parents had a 1952 Muntz, still working well into the 70s, as long as you didn't mind that it got darker and darker and darker, and the sound faded almost as badly. Still, over two decades, and still worked more or less.

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  21. Great post, TB! I only have one correction for you. When you played Hide and Seek, you didn't yell All-eee, All-eee, etc. You hollered " Ole Ole Olsen Free-O"
    It wouldn't work any other way, sheesh!

    Jo

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  22. Let me add one more wonderful thing, or two. Our town of maybe 5,000 had two movie theaters. One for the great movies and one for the not-so-great and we kids thought they were all the same! It cost 9 cents to get in and you could pay a nickel for a bag of popcorn. Or a dime box if you'd sold a few bottles to the store. Fun, it never ended! We were always busy. Our one TV station came on at 6 pm and you could look at the test pattern before that! ha!

    Jo

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  23. What fun to take that trip down memory lane with you. I remember my father's words about the "good ole days." I thought that he was silly to live in his memories. BUT, now that I am older I too love to reminisce about what was. BECAUSE, it truly was a good era. -- thanks for the memories -- barbara

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  24. Loved that. Of course this lifestyle was about as good as it got, especially for white children in the USA. I see many similarities between your fifties and mine, but we did not have the advantage of a free standing house and no chance to go camping every weekend. We also had no telephone, no car, and no T.V. My mother enjoyed cooking and was a brilliantly efficient housekeeper. However, she was an ambitious woman who had loved her work. In those days nurses were automatically fired when they married. The forced passivity of the fifties, combined with the lack of a garden drove her close to a mental breakdown. She was much happier in the sixties and later when the times caught up with her.

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  25. PS If I could use a push lawnmower on my hillocky tough lawn I would!

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  26. Thank you for a marvelous post about the good old days. You certainly brought back may happy memories.

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  27. I really enjoyed you journey here. I remember a lot of the same things. The jungle gym was so special until I became older and then I wondered what was so special about it. Being at the top was like being on top of the mountain.

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  28. Love your poetic look back at the good times. Yes, they were. I'm working on my old man to downsize. I'd love to get back to one bathroom to clean.

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  29. Wonderful post! Our first TV was a Muntz too. My dad went all the way to the Cities from Slayton to buy it in 1953. Ours had the knobs on the front. Remember the vertical and horizontal hold? He was working on a new church at the time and he would have all the guys on his crew come over on Friday nights to watch the Gillette Friday Night Fights in grainy black and white. Reception wasn't good from Sioux Falls and even worse from the Cities.

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  30. I was born in the 60s and remember so much of that. It was a big deal when "phone jacks" came out and we had more than just the kitchen phone!

    We still have a pushmower. It's not adequate for the farm, but I used it at our last house out in BC, where we had a much smaller lot!

    Loved the trip down memory lane.

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  31. Those days seemed so much simpler...great post I enjoyed it! :)

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  32. The times weren't simpler, we were.

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  33. I remember Muntz TV! Thanks for the reminders of old times.

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  34. I share a lot of these memories. One that stands out to me is leaving a dime in the mailbox and the mailman would put a stamp on your letter for you.

    We have continued a lot of these "old" ways--we have a small, 3 bedroom house with one bath and a one-car garage. We'd have the family gather for dinner each night when the kids were home and there was a "no friends over on Sunday" rule. It was reserved for family day. I think those core values keep us on track today.

    I have no hope for voting. I don't see ONE politician that is honest or good or wants what is good for the entire country. They are all about greed and power, which is disgusting. It is very discouraging.

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  35. We lived pretty much the same life and it was grand. Wouldn't change a minute of it.

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  36. That was a beautiful trip down Memory Lane! It was a much simpler time and I’m glad I got to live then, with many of the same memories as you. I love the photos of your Robin Hood gang and you and your mom getting ready to take a family camping trip.

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  37. :0 Nice bunch of memories. I hope you and Lily are doing okay:)

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  38. Great post! The rhymes add a lot of fun to the story.

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  39. The problem with just one TV was that kids had to watch what the parents wanted to watch, except when they weren't watching (usually Saturday morning). Another problem was in the car, when we were "forced" to listen to "their" music. Pure agony.

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  40. Dear blogger friend. I, too, remember those years. I think this viral scare is forcing us to look back fondly. Lets pray that we are cleansed soon and remember what we've been through. Sending a "no contact" hug.

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