No matter the season the girls always wore
dresses and the boys pants all the time.
Sneakers were for gym class only. I am
glad sneakers are every day apparel now.
Some kids went to one room schools.
I remember my first desk and ink wells,
black boards and chalk. Schools back then
didn't have air conditioners, the windows were opened.
No carpets on the floor. They also didn't have the
variety of sports that are offered to kids today.
We carried bagged lunches, or square lunch boxes,
or walked home to have lunch. Now kids
get hot meals in school. And they can bike to school,
or take buses, or someone drives them to
school, or drove their own cars.
Just don't miss the second bell.
There were cool games in those days.
Hopscotch, marbles, jacks, croquet, board games.

Hairstyles were always changing. The guys
did pompodors, crewcuts, flattop DA's,
Elvis style, long hair. Pageboys,
pony tails, beehives, curls,
or straight hair were only few of the styles girls/women wore.
Dress styles changed too. Jeans and T-Shirts,
poodle skirts, mini skirts,
leisure suits. And I loved wearing spike heels.

In 1941 when I was four years old, I was
sitting at a window with my kitten,
hearing the wail of air raid sirens, and
looking out into the still black
night, watching search lights
swooping across the sky, looking for enemy planes.
The whole town was pitched into darkness.
But because of our soldiers sacrificing
their lives in Germany, Normandy, and elsewhere,
our country was spared the devastation of war.

~~~~~~~

I remember when we moved to the country,
my dad hung a tire on a rope, tied
to an old oak tree, by a small stream,
and such joy it was swinging towards
the sky, or wading in the stream.
Do you remember laying on the grass,
watching the puffy white clouds drift by.
Or by night, count the thousands of brilliant stars.
Dreaming about what you wanted to be
when you grew up.

I remember as a youngster, our walks
to the little country church, or during the summer,
walking down the road to the dairy farm, and
we would get ice cream cones filled with
their own delicious homemade ice cream, and
carry a gallon of fresh milk home.
There was a time when milk was
delivered right to the door,
and in winter the milk/cream being frozen would pop the lid.

~~~~~~~~

Can you think back, when you helped
your parents dig garden by hand with
a garden shovel and hoe, then plant or drop
seed into the ditches, and weed by hand.
I can remember mowing the grass with a hand mower
and then rake it up. Now there are electric and gas
powered mulcher/mowers, even tractors with mower decks,
And the snow was shoveled by hand,
now there are snowplows or snowblowers.

When I was a kid, I went to friends of my parents farm,
and worked in the fields picking strawberries for which I
earned five cents a box. But after all the work was done,
their kids and me would have fun rolling down the hill in front of
their home. And our parents sat on the front porch chatting,
sipping ice tea or lemonade.
No television, or video games like today. Life was simple.

The treadle sewing machine in our home
was used to make dresses for me and my sister.
Our mother was so gifted as a seamstress.
Then along came electric and now computerized sewing machines.
Do you remember the smell of peaches, pears
or tomatoes being scalded to remove the skin
and put in Mason jars, and blanching vegetables, for canning
and put away for winter meals.
There were only a few home freezers till up to the 1950's.
Do you remember cucumbers put in a brine, turned in to delicious pickles.
Cabbage was shredded and put in crocks with salt and
left set for days till ready to be canned for sauerkraut.
Grape, strawberry, peach jellies cooked and put in jelly jars
and little cloth squares and pretty bows put on them and given as Christmas gifts.
Don't forget the homemade chow chow, mmmm mmmm so good.

One lady I knew cooked all her married life on
a wood/coal stove. The best Pennsylvania Dutch cooking,
you would ever want to eat.
She also dried her corn in a compartment on the side
of the wood stove, and stored it for making delicious
baked corn. Like the picture says, kids today
have no idea what that stove is or how it was used.

How the music world has changed - first we heard music on radios,
and old cabinet RCA victrola players
and the 78 and 45 records. Now we use tapes and discs in computers,
DVD players. Jukeboxes in restaurants and diners,
played such a big part in bringing music into our lives.
Then in the fifties television entered into our world and we could
watch the bands playing, see opera singers,
soap operas, quiz shows, and cartoons.
And my oh my, how dancing styles have changed
from generation to generation.
The list is way to long to even start one.

We had private telephone lines in the city where
we lived, but then we moved to a small town, and there
we used a totally different kind of phone.
It hung on the wall, with a ringer on the side,
and when we pick up the receiver we would hear unfamiliar voices.
This picture shows the kind we had.



It was a six party line, which was sort of annoying,
but when we got a clear line, we would dial the operator
and ask to be connected to so and so.

In 1954 when I was 16 years old,
my first car was a 1936 Ford. 4 Door.
Stick shift on the floor.
I failed my first drivers test cause this
ole' girl didn't like sitting
in the middle of a steep hill, and would
drift back a wee bit. OOpppsss!
I passed it the second time. :-}
At that time we had drivers education class,
and we drove the streets, up steep hills,
and parellel park in town.
This car was all my parents could afford, and that old girl
got me to school and work for two years.
We had newer gas stations then the one pictured above,
but there was always the personal service.
Gas station attendants who gassed up the car,
cleaned the windshield, checked the oil,
and air in the tires if needed was ""FREE"".
Now of course those gas stations and personal service
are few and very far between.
Now it is fill your own car
with gas and clean windows.

Along came drive-in movie theaters, great movies
and fun times hanging out with other kids.
The Nu-Way pictured is the one I went to,
in Hummels Wharf, Pa.
Road side restaurants where you drove in,
sat in your parked cars, and waitresses on roller skates came to your car,
or just walked to your car and took your orders,
and then would bring them to the car on a
tray that hooked to your car window/door.

Do you wonder what it will be like seventy years
from now for our great great grandchildren. I do.
It seems our lives were much simpler,
and we were in tune with nature, and families
were more in touch and united with each other.
We all worked and played, and struggled.
Each new season brought new challenges.
And each season of our own lives brings awareness
that life is short, so try to enjoy each new day,
in just the simple little things
that we feel, see, hear, smell or taste.

~~~~~~~

I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane
and brought pleasant memories. This is the
only life we have till God calls us home.
Take care of it. We can't change what we
did yesterday, but we can make things better today.

~~~~~

Click Here ~ The Fifties and Sixties

Click To Watch Video ~ The Fifties-"Another Time Another Place

*



*

Written by
©Barbara L Carter aka Bluejay12
October 2009
Copyrights 1972-2020
Page designed by
Bluejay12 & Diamondavid
This website is maintained by Diamondavid, and I want
to personally thank David for all the
hard work he has done and contributed to
each and every page over the years.
And we thank all who have helped me over the years,
with their thoughts, words, graphics, ideas, and comments in emails.

As of August 17th, 2019, I am 82 years "young".
Song Title: Memories

Click Icon ~ My Page Listings.