How about, "Go outside and play!" If you say that to a kid today, they stare at you with a blank look.

Go where? Do what?

"Outside" is that place between the house and the car.

I don't think you would see a screen door on madison avenue ...maybe in brooklyn ... ask peggy if she has one

Maybe Sally has a Ginnie Doll.

I remember those dolls! Pre-Barbie.

"Girls who misbehave get a reputation."
"What will people think?"
"You can't leave this table until you eat everything on your plate."

Ah, flowerpower, I remember the threat of a ruined reputation, it was right up there with a bad mark on the 'permanent record' at school. I remember a Mattel salesman talking about a new doll his company had coming out and wondering if it had any chance in the market. Her name was Barbie. My friends and I were thinking he was a dirty old man trying to talk to us. We didn't really think there would be a doll like he was describing.

Funny. My mother couldn't run out and buy Barbie fast enough. She thought it was a step up from typical baby dolls that reinforced the "little mother" stereotype. This was all long before "women's lib" and NOW. I guess even if Barbie was somewhat of a sex symbol ( pretty tame compared to the "Bratz" dolls of today ) at least she had various careers and was independant.

I was quite happy with my Chatty Cathy and Pebbles. Barbie didn't interest me, though I did like Skipper.

Some others-

"They are living in sin." (father)

"Tell the truth and shame the devil" (grandmother)

"I haven't seen Kathy. Do you think she is in trouble" (mother)

"Son, I know you smoke. Do it in front of me, not behind my back" (at age 16)

"Don't bite your nails. You'll get worms."

"Wait till your father gets home. You're going to get a shellacing."

These may pre-date the 60's:
"Stop that, you'll put somebody's eye out"!

"Wear your hat or you'll get PNEUMONIA"!

I had a teacher in grammer school (a Nun) who used to say "Use your head for something besides a hat rack" It was a strange saying, but, I rememeber it like it was yesterday (a sign of age!)

As Bill Cosby pointed out in one of his comedy routines, it used to be a punishment to tell a kid to "Go to your room". Today, if a kid is told to go to their room it's a fun thing. They have TVs, game systems, computers etc.

Thanks for the memories!

Everybody, love your memories! Mine are kind of hackneyed but still true:

"If (fill in the blank) jumped off a cliff, would you do it too???!!!"

"Eat all of that bacon, it will stick to your ribs"

"Men run around with girls like that but they don't marry them"

How about..."stop turning that dial on the TV". You had only three stations and no remote control. You would spin it around so fast, you heard a solid sound of ..click, click,click,click and your father could hear it out in the front yard with the lawn mower running. He would come barreling into the house and yell, "stop turning that dial so fast, you will break it!".

Yes, luvmadmen, and then to be told 'you make a better door than a window"...that can't be it, can it? It meant to get out of the way you were standing in front of the TV screen. I had a Sparky TV screen saver to draw on, but mostly we seemed to watch the test pattern or snow.

How about getting smacked with a wooden spoon? Anybody?

Yeah, we got the wooden spoon. It was the one that was dyed red from making Kool-Aide everyday.

"Finish your plate. Children are starving in China." (My mother)

And 60'sChild: My fourth grade teacher used to say "use your head for something besides a hat rack" too. Thanks for reminding me!

"Watch the crumbs. You'll get ants." (My mother)

Rember this one?..."don't eat that cookie dough raw, you'll get worms!"

Oh, one more..."I see London, I see France, I see (person's name)'s underpants"

"Good girls go to Heaven." Later in the 60's we amended it to,"But bad girls go everywhere."

A bit off topic, but does anybody remember the HUGE reaction to rising skirts? We wore them below our knees when we left the house, but rolled them up around the waist until they were above the knee after we got out of sight of our moms. In school, we had to kneel in front of the principal and he produced a ruler. If your skirt hem touched the ground in that position, you were ok, but if not, he made you pull your hem and walk around all day with your hem hanging down. And girls were never, even in winter, allowed to wear pants, culottes or jeans, cause that would have signaled the downfall of civilization.

I remember when going to your room was torture. No tv, phone, computer! Fighting Mom, can we go back outside now? Fat kids were rare. And no seatbelts in the car; remember when Betty hit the tree and frantically opened back door of car and Bobby and Sally were stuffed on the floor behind the front seat? I remember being spanked by my friend's Dad too, and never thought to tell Mom & Pop or else I would have gotten another! Friend's parents were always Mr. and Mrs...never first names. Stealing raw hamburger to eat while Mom was making the meatloaf---no salmonella or germs.

"Don't go outside in your bare feet, you'll get cramps" (Grandmother)
"We'll see." (Dad's response to anything you asked him to do that he really didn't want to do.)
"Why are all these lights on? Do you think I own the electric company?" (Dad again)
"I'm not made of money, you know." (Dad)

"Money doesn't grow on trees." (My mother)

Sassy: To this day, I call my best friends' parents "Mr." and "Mrs." To call them by their first names would be unthinkable!

And I remember one of our neighborhood fathers slapping another kid across the face for something. To my parents' credit, they didn't think that was too cool.

Remember when making a long-distance phone call was a big deal? That cost money!

My parents would only call the relatives on Sundays or after hours "when the rates go down."

Remember making "collect" calls?

And people made long distance calls by making up a code so they didn't have to pay. Tell the long distance operator (since there was no direct dial) you wanted to talk to Mr. Tim Buck Two. The caller told the operator he didn't know any one by that name and declined the call. But, all knew you had made it home safely and no charges were needed.

When driving, Mom's stuck their arms out at all stops to keep the front seat passenger from sliding onto the car floor.

Remember those huge arm rests that fit on telephones so a person could talk and have their hands free?

I also had an autograph book.

Only remember anytime I was in trouble with my mom, she would say:

"Well, YOUNG LADY, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Not alot, apparently, because I was usually trying to get away after that question.

Sizzie:

Yes, my parents used that technique when making long-distance calls. They called it "giving the signal."

We used to call collect and ask for ourselves. That was the cue that we got home okay.
How about the days before you could call 911 emergency? You used to call the operator for an ambulance. That was back when you could dial 0 and a real person was answer.

Oops, I mean a real person WOULD answer.

Two famous riffs from 60's TV commericals:

"Is it true blondes have more fun?"
Which company asked this question?

"Slicker under...Slicker over.....Slicker alone!"
What was "slicker" and who made it?

For all you Catholic girls, how about "chapel veils" and hats in church? I had one of those little round white ones, which doubled as a wedding veil for my Barbie. I still have it too -

My mother was the queen of one-liner's. A few I remember:

If we wanted her to buy something for us, she'd say, "With what? Blue Chip Stamps?"

If we cried, she'd say, "I'll give you something to cry about!"

Everything would give us Ptomaine Poisioning. In my life I've never heard of anyone getting Ptomaine poisioning.

A few commercial tag lines I remember:

"Wonder Bread builds strong Bodies 12 ways."
Like obesity, type II diabetes and colon cancer.

Hi capice! The Clairol Company did the blonde ads. I think slicker was a lip gloss, I don't know which company made it.

Re: 60'schild:

Yes, it was Lady Clairol that posed that question.
The late actress Inger Stevens did some Clairol commercials for her TV show "The Farmer's Daughter". Based on the movie, Inger's show debuted in 1963 and lasted until 1966 when Inger's character married her former boss, the senator (William Windom).
"Slicker" was a lip gloss. It was manufactured by the venerable English cosmetics company, Yardley.
For some bizarre reason, I still remember the Slicker veddy, veddy mod commercial which appeared during the "The Monkees" TV show.
Great product placement- didn't every teen watch
Davey, Peter, Mike and Mickey? (for 2 years!)