Do You Remember

As a child, I can remember the white, high topped, hard soled baby shoes that were supposed to be good for babies’ feet, giving support for them as they grew. Infants then didn’t go outside without socks and a bonnet, no matter if it was the middle of August in a prolonged heat wave. Babies wore cloth diapers secured by huge safety pins that had pastel plastic animal heads. Covering all were plastic panties to contain the leaks.

There were no car seats for the really young child. At toddler age, there was a metal and rubber over the car seat for the youngster to sit in. It might have a few bright colored beads skewered by a metal rod or a plastic steering wheel so they could mimic mom or dad as they drove. The steering wheel had a bright red squeaker horn button.

Televisions were black and white with a huge selection of three channels. Unless you were watching a movie, most broadcasts and commercials were live, leading to quite a few embarrassing moments which we now call “Bloopers.” To cash in on the families that claimed a spot to watch the televisions, food manufacturers began to produce T.V. dinners. In many homes, compartmentalized aluminum trays covered by foil replaced the roaster in families’ ovens. No microwaves to nuke the food.

If you lived close to a farm, your milk came in glass gallon jugs. The milk was raw and not pasteurized, often having different tastes due to the amount of cream and what the cows were eating. We ate what Mom cooked. If we turned up our noses, we went without. If we were given a cookie and the neighbor kids were out, we either ate the snack before we went outside to play or we took enough to share.

I remember learning to write on wide spaced blue lines on thick ivory hued paper with chunks of bark pressed in it. The dark blue pencils without erasers were so long that I could almost rest one end on my shoulder as I laboriously learned to print words. I learned to read Dick, Jane, Sally, Puff, and Spot not Green Eggs and Ham. Dodge ball and Red Rover filled the time at recess. Hand held games were made of plastic and had metal BB’s that rolled loose until they were juggled and settled into depressions of the cardboard backing.

Telephones were ugly black boxes attached to the wall and had a crank at the side. When they rang, you had to count the number of rings to see if someone was trying to reach you or your neighbor. Rousting the neighbor on your party line who forgot to hang up was always an adventure: whistling, shouting, or even banging pots to get them to hear and return the receiver to its cradle.