Local things to do during family vacations were popular -- there was always the shore or some local lake or swimming hole to visit.

I don't recall many classmates that went on long jaunts with their parents when it was vacation time. And usually these vacation trips were taken when school was out; there was no such thing as parents who pulled their kids out of school so the family could take a vaction trip in February or October.

There was the World's Fair that was held in Queens back in the early Sixties -- one of the neighbor kids went with his parents. I remember he brought back some type of souvenier globe that had people that rotated when you wound it up or turned it on.

Our grammar school had a trip that you could take to a campground that was in the northern part of the state. It cost a whole $18 bucks to go and I think the trip was for a whole week, usually during spring vacation.

It was a select few that went; you had to be a member of the Science Club to go; usually science-type activities were part of the trip.

PS: there were a bunch of lakes in northern NJ to visit -- they are all pretty much long gone. Developers bought out the land -- probably gone by the late 80s.

I remember the lakes were man made. There was Suntan Lake up on Route 23 in Wayne and a few others -- and I remember this wicked cool lake that we visited when we were kids. For the life of me, I cannot remember where this lake was.

Mad Men Suze: Some lakes I used to go to in North Jersey were Lake Hopatcong, Greenwood Lake and Horshoe Lake.

I don't remember having malls in the early 1960s. Everyone went to city stores, especially on Thursday nights (big night!) and would dress "to the nines" - high heels, dresses, the whole works. It was a very social thing - you'd always run into people you knew on the avenue. Very different from today where nobody ever seems to dress up for ANYTHING.

And I remember this really cool municipal pool in JErsey City -- gone, also. I think some apartment house occupies that area now.

There had to be a million kids in there all having a good time. Man, those were the days.

Greenwood Lake and Lake Hopatcong are still there. That was too far from where we lived. Lakes in Wayne was as far as we got. hehe

We lived at the Jersey Shore so Asbury Park was THE place to shop and hang out all year long. After school (second and third grade in 1962/3 I took ice skating lessons at the Casino Rink built right over the Ocean (where Tony Soprano dreamed that Pussy was a talking fish!). If we begged my parents, they'd take us to Palisades Park in North Jersey. There was a great theme song which played all the time on the radio *WMCA - the Good Guys, in NY) and the popular song of the same title by Del Shannon. What great fun we had back then. There were huge salt water pools and TONS of rides.....the forerunners of the corporate theme parks yet to come which my kids LOVE but I detest........

I remember being on a elevator at a department store as the door opened onto the toy floor. It was the most amazing sight! I had never seen that much space taken up completely with toys.

My high school allowed dances, but not the newest dance...The Twist. It was considered much too vulgar. At one of the weekend dances, the Principal (a retired WWII officer) was guarding the record player. A friend and I talked to him, convinced him the dance was just a fun dance, showed him our copy of the new 45 and he let us put it on to play. I remember looking down as everyone cheered and began dancing. It was a great moment.

I also remember pretty much every area had a "Battle of the Bands" during the summer. Those days are gone, too.

Sizzie: Yeah, the toy departments in department stores! Those were the days!

Hyperboliz: I went to Palisades Amusement Park once -- and the Supremes were there that day, long before they hit the bigt time.

I also remember all those great radio stations the NYC area had: WMCA, WINS (Before it went all news), WABC, WWDJ (before it changed formats) and a slew of other Top 40 stations on FM.

And the jingles. It was a given that every station have a jingle and that they play the thing every hour or so. hehe

Hmmm...
Taking the city bus, or walking "uptown" to
Buy 45's with my allowance money, (50 cents a piece) at one of the 5&10's in the city, and having that wonderful, cheap lunch counter pizza and a Pepsi in a fountain drink cup (the ones with the silver cone shaped bottom and paper cup on top) at the 5&10.

My transistor radio with me everywhere, (now I guess they are called I Pods)!!

Watching those great TV shows and ads, in black and white (who can forget listening to the "Star Spangled Banner" at station sign off!) If we were lucky enough to be up that late!

Trips to the local grocery store to buy penny candy, and my mom's cigs. (with a note from her).

Elevators with gates, and a man who sat on a stool to run them.
Wooden elscalators in the big stores.

Eating all those sugary cereals (Capt'n Chrunch, Sugar Pops, Sugar Smacks etc.)

Playing with my Easy Bake Oven, Slinkies, the Viewmaster (esp. when the 3D slides came out),Tammy (rival to Barbie), my brother's GI Joe, the Jingle Jump, Silly Putty, Play Dough (esp. the Play Dough Fun Factory Machine), my Kissie doll,
reading Mad Magazine (without my parents knowing!), playing Mystery Date (and always getting "The Dud"), Monopoly, Twister, Life, and on and on...
I am one of those run on posters!! I'll stop now!

Do they still have block parties, pep rallies in town and hay rides?

I used to watch "The Million Dollar Movie" on TV that played the same movie over and over. I remember watching "Yankee Doodle Dandy" 4 times in a row.

Do kids still play Spin the Bottle and Post Office. We would have afternoon parties, dressing up in home-made gowns, and play those games. Kissing boys at such a young age!!!

I didn't live in a city. We could walk downtown after school and get a booth at the corner Rexall. We ordered gravy fries or fountain cokes..where they actually mixed the coke with seltzer. We then would go to the music store that sold pianos and other musical equipment, but also sold records. They had listening rooms, so we could try out the 45s before we bought. If we bought.

I had Silly Putty and loved to transfer the Sunday comics from one surface to another or stretch them out to enormous shapes.

We shot firecrackers off on the Fourth, quickly getting bored with the light and toss method, we put them in things (like bike handlebars) or under things (like tin cans).

In the summer, there would always be movie matinees, especially for kids. We collected soft drink bottle caps to use as the price of admission. The movie theater was an art noveau one with heavy velvet drapes and gold trim and a balcony.

There was some air conditioning, but not much. The movie had it, the schools didn't.

wasthere, you made me smile. I still say 'my mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you" Cagney's line in Yankee Doodle Dandy. I don't know why it stayed with me, but it did.

'60s kids played outside in the summer from morning until dinner time. Baseball, kickball, building forts with scrap wood, and the annual song and skit revue in someone's garage. (Admission was 3 cents). We played "wedding" and paraded down the street in our finery.

In Detroit, as the factories were belching out smoke 24/7 and Motown was kicking out a whole new sound, all was right with the world. Our family vacations consisted of Dad taking a week off work and taking us to the zoo, HenryFord Museum/Greenfield Village, mostly local things. We did go to the New York World Fair in 1965 - that was so cool. We usually went to Cedar Point too - the finest amusement park in the land :)

Laurie B, your reference to Cedar Point made me jump right into this thread! I live in Toledo, Ohio and Cedar Point was and still is a mandatory destination!! It is indeed the best amusement park EVER, and I started going there as a wee child, and of course took my own son there from the time he was about three years old. He is 18 now, and we still go together for Halloweekends. It's a place you never get tired of visiting, and when I walk down that midway, I feel like a kid again!

I actually head up to Motown about once or twice a month to Motor City Casino, and am very familiar with all the local things you mentioned.

My family would drive up to Canada in the summers, and find a campground with a lake (my dad is an avid fisherman). I'm an only child, but my parents would frequently let one of my cousins join us. We had a Prowler (big travel trailer) and would go all over Canada, or sometimes head south to Tennessee or Kentucky.

MadMenSuze, my parents actually did take me out of school for two weeks every winter, and we would drive to Florida. All my schoolmates were so jealous! As you said, that was almost unheard of, and I was the only kid I knew that got to do that - it was so cool! We visited every silly tourist attraction along the way, lots of great memories. We went to Orlando the year that Disney World opened (I think I was in fifth grade), and that was really something special!

Our elementary schools had one huge fundraiser event every year. Every one had to sell tickets..they were paper and came on huge rolls..and there were prizes for the class and the student who sold the most. Sometimes the meal was chili and other times a barbeque sandwich. The PTA moms took care of cooking and serving and setting up carnival booths..where we spent the tickets. Almost everyone I knew took piano lessons, but few of us were very good. Recitals could be painful. Our teacher insisted on learning scales and never allowed popular music to be played. I rode my bike by myself several miles to get to her house for a lesson. The bike ride was the best part, for me. Girls wore dresses or skirts to school, and walking to school in the cold could be pretty bad. We would stop, squat down, to cover our legs with our skirt fabric. We had woolen leggings that matched our coat for really cold days.

My town was really small, so not too much to do-in summer we all went to the municipal pool, which was, and still is, completely unheated, so the water would be about 60 degrees.The girls wore their hair rollers to the pool and most girls never got into the water.We would roast in the sun for hours and hours, slathering ourselves with baby oil mixed with a bit of mercurochrome.

One summer somebody brought a paperback copy of The Carpetbaggers and we passed it around furtively, with certain well-worn passages marked for reading and comment. We all agreed that it was "dirty" and "disgusting" and we all read it repeatedly. Finally somebody threw it into the pool and that was the end of our literary adventure.

In winter we had a skating rink and we all had our skating skirts, which could not be shorter than your fingertips when your arms were down at your sides. Every girl lived for the Ladie's Choice skate.

It was very cold in PA, but girls were not allowed to wear pants, ,jeans or culottes to high school because wearing those would make us act "unfeminine"! Most girls wore knee socks but a few actually got frostbite walking to school. Better frostbite than being unfeminine! In fact, better you should die than be unfeminine. We did have a few students who would today be recognized as gay, but we didn't know about such things then! A boy like that would just be called "creative" and a girl would be called "athletic", even if she never took part in any sports.

Getting back to cold legs - I was a majorette and we had no panty hose or tights, but instead put leg makeup all over our legs. It was a real mess and rubbed off on everything it touched, including our boyfriends' pants. I still can't hear certain football songs without feeing a sharp cold in both legs!

Laurie B: We played wedding too and used hedges to throw instead of rice. We also made up a game "Reform School" as one of our neighbors went there. Everyone wanted to be Rosie.

Dobiegirl: Could Cedar Point possibly outshine the wonderful Palisades Park (now defunct)? A song was even written about it.

I grew up in the midwest, so no Jersey Shore for this Maddict.

As I look back, the most remarkable difference to me is how much we all read in those days. Everyone read. We had 3 newspapers a day delivered to our house, 1 morning and 2 evening. We had a ton of magazines delivered every month, the Book of the Month Club, the Readers Digest Condensed books (which were a great time saver but always led me to want to read the original full length book), and we had library cards which we used every 2 weeks. Later in the 60s when I started working, the people I worked with at an insurance office would trade books. I could never read a book in one night because I pour over every word, and I was amazed at how many people could keep the book one night. I always took it for the weekend.

We also saw a lot of movies, which was the most popular form of social entertainment, not just for dating but for doing things with your friends. Dinner and a movie was a great way to get to know people. Music and dances were another popular item. For my generation, the first wave of the Baby Boomers, social protest songs were a big hit and it seemed like everyone had a guitar and we would always break out in Kumbyyah (I know that's not the spelling but I can't think of it right now), or Michael Row Your Boat Ashore when we got together. There were new songs everyday.

Oh, that's another thing - we had new songs from the music industry every week. The radio DJs would play them and you could call in and say you liked a record and they would play it again a little bit later. Now, the musicians let you know months ahead of time they are working "on a project" and the release of their album is akin to the second coming.

In 1962 I was still in school but I spent quite a bit of time outside on my bicycle, working in the yard on days off school, but back then we did our major activities like housework and other chores early in the day because we didn't have central AC, then the afternoon was spent reading, visiting or having visitors, maybe baking a cake or pie for dessert for dinner, practicing piano, occasionally a pick-up game of baseball or touch football.

OMG, I just rambled on - this board is addictive, like fine wine and food. I really have to go.

Later, Maddicts!

The radio stations were a big part of the early 60s. I don't know what the adults were listening to, but we kids were hearing new music, as chopin47 said. We had two Top 40 stations from a city nearby that competed for our attention and one, WLS Chicago, that came in at night. The city ones timeed our sunbathing at the pool, with a tone to tell us to turn over every 20 minutes or so. One gave a weather report saying it was a 'rubberband day', meaning it was windy and dresses would fly up is not held down. But, our small town local station refused to play rock and roll on Sunday. Hearing 'that kind of music' wasn't appropriate for The Lord's Day, they said.

Flowerpower, I remember the cluster of older teen girls sitting at the pool and reading and talking about boyfriends. I learned as much listening to them as I did when I sat under the kitchen table listening to grown ups talk. I was voyeristic even then! , which is one reason MM appeals to me. I can listen in on their lives.

chopin47 we made and wore yarn poms on our skates. I loved my skating skirt, my mother made it for me and I was amazed at how 'store bought' it looked. I hadn't given her credit for being that good at sewing.

We sang all the time, and it didn't seem nearly as silly as it might sound. We sang hit songs, but also camp songs, church songs, anything that struck our fancy. Singing and driving went together.

We used to make rubber band guns out of a few sticks, put cards on our spokes on our bikes, change our bike handlebars to high ones. We used to make scooters out of boards and nail our skates to the bottom. We used to always sing in the car, we would lay on our backs in the back seat and march on the car ceiling to the army march song our Dad taught us. Why our parents didn't go crazy I'll never know. Christmas was a few stuffed animals, stationary, underwear, yet we felt happy and lucky. The milk man came to the door, the Helms Bakery man drove down the street each morning and the ice cream man came by each afternoon. The whole neigborhood would play hit the bat, baseball on the corner or hide and seek at night. One family that had a pool would put a flag up and then the whole neighborhood could go swimming. On Sundays we would go to the park with chicken and baked beans and my parents would lay under a tree and we would swim and play.

Ah, you all conjure up so many memories!

chopin47, I agree with you about the reading. My mom would take me to the library all the time, I would get a huge stack of books and devour every one, about one a day. The library had a limit of 10 books, and I would load up to the limit every time.

I loved getting the Weekly Reader in school, Highlights magazine, and buying tons of books from the Arrow Book Club. I would read all my favorites over and over.

I can relate to other posters also regarding kids being expected to find their own fun. Adults were busy doing adult things, and all the kids in my neighborhood would be outside pretty much from morning until the street lights came on. We played tag, hide & seek, house, "school" (everyone wanted to be the teacher), board games, cards, we would pretend to be singers on the stage, put on gymnastic shows, roller skate, ride bikes, and go nuts when the ice cream truck came through the neighborhood. My mom would sometimes give me a dollar, and I would be able to buy a whole box of treats - push-ups, popsicles, fudge bars, bomb pops, and once in awhile a frozen malt. I only got that rarely, because the malt was the most expensive item on the truck - 50 cents!

My cousin & I went to summer camp together a couple of times, I still can sing most of the songs we learned. My dad & grandpa would take us kids fishing on my uncle's boat (Toledo is on Lake Erie) for perch and walleye. My dad would pay me a penny for each worm I could get from our yard after it rained. We would spend our summers swimming at my grandparents' built-in pool, they were one of the few people I knew that had one, so all the neighborhood kids would come swimming - great times!

60'sChild and Sizzie: I vividly remember the Top 40 radio stations being a huge part of life back then. I had a transistor radio - a purple one from Radio Shack. You were considered "high tech" if you had an ear jack.

Laurie B, I'm sure you remember CKLW (the Big 8), that was the "cool" station!

On our winter trips to Florida, we would have to suffer through whatever music my parents had on. When my dad got an 8-track recorder/player, he put all his music on those, and we had to listen to The Lettermen, Mills Brothers, Johnny Mathis, Dionne Warwick, Herb Alpert, and Boots Randolph all the way to Florida! My mom loved Tom Jones, so I knew all of his songs too (that old guy can still get it done!)

wasthere - regarding Cedar Point vs. PP, I can't say for sure, since I've never been to PP. But I can say with 99% certainty that if you grew up with CP, every other amusement park pales in comparison. I've been to many other parks over my lifetime, and nothing comes close. It is awesome, consistently rated by various "roller coaster enthusiast" clubs and the like as Best Amusement Park in the country - well deserved. One of the few perks of living in Northwestern Ohio, and there aren't many.

I love reading all these nostalgic posts. My husband is 14 years older than me, comes from a different generation, so there are many things he can't relate to from my growing up years. After all (as I like to remind him), when he started college, I was still in nursery school! :)

FlowerPower: Yes, I remember everyone putting baby oil and iodine on before they baked in the sun. I wasn't one of them because I'm so fair and would burn badly. Of course, I got teased for it. But I'm glad that today, at 72, my skin is still very good (no wrinkles from that bad sun!).

Oh yes, dobiegirl, the car radio tuned to the adult station. We would suffer through that when our moms drove us places. I have a very clear memory of one mother singing along to a Big Band song. I rolled my eyes and giggled along with the other kids, but I thought she was great, and as I say, I still have it as a great moment to remember.

I was enrolled in the Weekly Reader summer book club. I kept Danny Dunn and the Anti Gravity Machine for years, and it still might be somewhere in the garage.

I read slowly, too...to savor the words and phrases. People, then and now, will wonder why it takes me so long on a book. I was horrified when that Speed Reading method was all the rage. Although, I can see how it would help in college classes, when I was reading for fun I wanted to enjoy the journey and usually didn't want to get to the destination (which was the end of the book).

We used to lay out on the lawn and watch the clouds roll by. We would try to guess what each cloud looked like. We never imagined it would someday be used in psychotherapy in the form of ink blot - picture association! Cheers! ;o)

Drink&Smoke, we did, too. We also made chains of clover blossoms. We made complicated chains made from the paper gum was wrapped in. The wrapper had to be folded in a certain way and fitted into the next piece. Some people made very long chains. No reason, just for fun.

Drink and Smoke and Sizzie- yes, I forgot those things! Thanks.

One thing back then - your hands were never idle. We made the stupidest craft projects: coat hangers wrapped with yarn, two sticks placed at right angles with colored yarn (called the Eyes of God), those chewing gum paperchains, lots of things out of old popsicle sticks - and you had to really eat the popsicles first, not buy the sticks at the craft store. (WHAT craft store?) Oh, and paint-by-numbers was really big. Everybody did that.

We made "angels" out of old books and "beads" out of rolled up magazine bits. We made collages from magazine photos and crocheted potholders. Every department store had a cloth and sewing department, in addition to stores just for that purpose. Most girls learned how to sew, crochet or knit. If not, their moms or grandmas could do it for sure. (My 23 year old daughter today does not know how to fix a hem or sew on a button.)

Oh, the memories!!! It was a much simpler time.
As kids, we made our own fun - neighborhood kids would play from morning until dinner time and then back out until the street lights came on. We'd play kick the can or hide and seek. We played outside most of the time, weather permitting. My Dad took us to the local Dairy Queen for a treat if we came in on time.
Summers we went to the local pool every day and stopped at the library on the way home. I loved the smell of old books and wood in that library. In the summers, we'd go to drive-in theatres on the weekends some times, usually on Saturday nights after we had a bath. (We usually only had a bath once a week, generally on Saturday nights before church on Sunday. I can remember washing my feet on the edge of the tub other nights). My brother and I would get into our pj's and off we'd go. My Dad had a Corvair, so we'd drop down the back seat so we could sit up a little higher. I don't think I ever made it through a movie, but the anticipation was the best.
It was always fun to stop at the neighborhood stores for a "stick" of butter and cigs for the parents (with a note of course), and then have the left over change for penny candy. I'm sure i tried those storekeepers' patience many times because it was so hard to decide what to get. How sad that convenience stores have taken the place of local mom and pop neighborhood stores. I can remember my Mom telling me to put it on the "account". We went to a meat market and a bakery on a regular basis.
We generally shopped at downtown stores, JC Penney, Ben Franklin, Rexall Drug. I don't think I say my first mall until I was well into my teens. Shopping at major department stores in Minneapolis was a rare treat.
Eating out was another treat and almost unheard of, but we went to A and W on occasion, Friday nights usually and only in the summer as it was a seasonal restaurant. I remember going to a "supper club" once as a child. It was a big deal - I remember getting all dressed up and ti took forever to get there. I can't remember the occasion.
No big vacations. We'd take the train to Minneapolis to visit my grandparents. At the time, it was a big deal to go up to the top floor of the Foshay Tower downtown (still in existence, but now a hotel, and overshadowed by many taller buildings). It was the highest building in Minnesota at the time. Downtown Minneapolis seemed like a different planet to me. (We lived in a small town.) We took a few road trips up to Canada and out West to visit relatives. No amusement parks, but I remember going to the Como Zoo in St. Paul (still in existence, but without the huge tortoises we could ride on).
Toys were even simpler. We had Barbies, but none of the accessories they have today. I had a lot of homemade clothes for mine, and our "houses" were washcloths we took out of the linen closet for beds, sofas, etc. and any boxes we could find to resemble furniture. My brother's GI Joe served as all of our 'husbands" as none of my friends had a Ken yet. (Lucky GI Joe:) We went everywhere on our bikes. (No rides to friends' homes like today.)
Christmas was nothing like today - new pajamas, new underwear, new hat and mittens (hand knit of course). Some years, if things were good, we got a toy and were sure we died and went to heaven.
As kids we helped a lot at home with chores and babysit younger siblings. Every Saturday morning we cleaned the house and changed the sheets on the beds before we even talked about going outside or playing with friends. I remember helping my Aunt hang out clothes and work in the garden, and my Grandma when she canned pickles and other foods (oh the smell of vinegar and dill).
My parents social circle included our neighbors mostly and a few friends from their previous lives (high school, etc). Maybe a few work friends but never parents of friends of their kids like you see all of the time today. They would throw parties where everyone brought something (a "potluck"). There always managed to be a jello salad. All of us kids just hoped it wasn't the one with carrots or celery in it. (Yuck!) The kids would all hang out in the basement or the "rec room", all the kids, from toddlers to high school kids. But some how we all managed to have fun. The men would all hang out in the living room or on the patio if it was barbeque season, drinking Manhattans or Stingers (that was my Dad's favorite) and smoking cigarettes. The women (and babies that were too young to be "on their own") would hang out in the kitchen and talk about the latest Tupperware gadget or the racy lady in the PTO that year that wears tight sweaters. ("She's divorced, you know") Most of the women smoked and drank as well, even when pregnant. (They didn't know better yet.)
We called adults as Mr. and Mrs. and always respected older people. They just knew better, and so did we. Some times "because I said so" was the reason and we didn't argue back. I don't remember ever getting a spanking or being grounded, but I do remember my Mom saying "wait until your Dad gets home". That wasn't good.
It was a simpler time, not without it's problems, but looking back, it was pretty fantastic.

I remember that every Easter we would have to get an Easter outfit, EVERYTHING had to be new: spring coat, dress, shoes, hose, hat, gloves, jewelry - the whole 9 yards. Then we would go to the Easter Parade in NYC or Atlantic City.

I lived in Bartlesville, OK in the early 60s. I was 13-14. I remember roller skating along crooked sidewalks, riding my bike everywhere, playing baseball with neighborhood kids in the back yard, being afraid of the Communists, being aware of the differrent ways blacks were treated and wondering what sex was about and what should I do to be popular. I remember dressing up for church, wearing gloves and hats and begging my mother to let me wear hose and lipstick. I remember long summer vacations where the whole family drove from Oklahoma to Philadelphia where my mother was raised and visiting my grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins. I remember sharing ONE bathroom with the whole family! I remember eating dinner with the whole family every night and eating out was most unusual. I remember my mother making breakfast every morning and telling us to say our prayers at night. I remember getting 2 new dresses when school started and then a couple more at Christmas. I remember feeling loved and safe and happy. It was a very good time. I also remember the terrible shock when Marilyn Monroe died. For some reason, I was just stunned.

I lived in Bartlesville, OK in the early 60s. I was 13-14. I remember roller skating along crooked sidewalks, riding my bike everywhere, playing baseball with neighborhood kids in the back yard, being afraid of the Communists, being aware of the differrent ways blacks were treated and wondering what sex was about and what should I do to be popular. I remember dressing up for church, wearing gloves and hats and begging my mother to let me wear hose and lipstick. I remember long summer vacations where the whole family drove from Oklahoma to Philadelphia where my mother was raised and visiting my grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins. I remember sharing ONE bathroom with the whole family! I remember eating dinner with the whole family every night and eating out was most unusual. I remember my mother making breakfast every morning and telling us to say our prayers at night. I remember getting 2 new dresses when school started and then a couple more at Christmas. I remember feeling loved and safe and happy. It was a very good time. I also remember the terrible shock when Marilyn Monroe died. For some reason, I was just stunned.

This is like looking into a snowglobe, all rolled into one treat! I remember walking literally about 4 miles to school, no worries about kidnapping. Getting spanked by my friends Dad (yes, we both deserved it!). Racing out the door in the mornings to be outside, scarfing down PBJ sandwiches at lunch, reluctantly coming in for "supper" and begging Mom & Pop to let us stay outside just a bit longer! Punishment was being sent to your room, torture was hearing your friends still outside having fun. The absolute high of riding my bike for the first time without training wheels. (Helmet??? What helmet??)
My sister & I getting a "stereo" for Christmas; a glorified turntable with detachable speakers along with Donny Osmond's album and 2 45's by the Partridge Family (sorry, 70's there!)
Loitering around the kitchen table while Mom sat with the Avon lady and feeling so grown up when she gave me those little sample lipstick tubes.
Walking "uptown" to the Penny Candy and the sound of the well-worn wood floor creaking, and the divine smell of the cotton candy.
Getting into PJ's with my sis & brother & cousins and watching The Grinch at Christmas (1969?)
Fighting with bro & sis over who gets to ride in the front seat with Grammy in her (totally serious!) 1965 Mustang with 4 on-the-floor! (Talked to Grammy today as a matter of fact--she is 90 and sharp as a tack!!)
Blowing up Super Elastic Bubble Plastic bubbles.
Being devastated when Mom took away our Clackers toy because some girl's shattered and the glass went in her eye!
Snuggling with my Mrs. Beasley doll.
Always being tricked at the start of Bewitched that it was a cartoon then quickly realizing it wasn't!
Being disappointed every Christmas morning after realizing that the huge stocking was mostly stuffed with fruit!!
Calling all adults "Mr. or Mrs"
The feel of new shoes/sneakers the first day of school--never to be worn even 1 day before school started!
The rare treat of a "school-bought" lunch
Kickball at recess. "Ding-dong-ditchit" after dark with neighborhood kids. Flying downhill in the new snow on a Flying Saucer or toboggan.
Anyway, I digress......

DobieGirl: You also have a pretty cool zoo in Toledo. We'd go there as an alternative to our very cool Detroit Zoo. If you haven't check it out lately, please do so.

Dobie: I remember CKLW sure, but do you remember WKNR - Keener 13!! It was on the am dial, as they mostly were back then. The "cool" FM stations didn't come out until around 1966, right?

I remember running to Kresge's on Friday morning to pick up the newest Billboard chart. They were one-sheet, about 3 inches wide and 9 inches long and listed the Top 100 songs for that week. We couldn't wait to see which ones moved up and down the list week by week. They Billboard rep would deliver a stack of them and the kids could pick them up for free. Anybody remember those?

Dino63: Great commentary. I love how you came right out and admitted that you got a bath once a week! LOL - we did too. We had 5 kids and it was just such an ordeal that we just washed our hands, face and feet (over the tub as you said) in between. Our bath night was Friday. It was also Big Snack night. We weren't allowed to just graze on snacks whenever we wanted - we had to get permission and usually, after dinner, there was no further eating to be done. But on Fridays, the sheets were washed, the beds were crisp and clean, and so were we. Our hair got washed and put up in rollers too. So we got to watch something on TV and have a good snack, (ice cream, chips and pop, etc) after our bath.

I was at a drive through getting a morning iced tea just now. As I was putting my change back into my wallet, I saw that I was rearranging the bills to all face the 'right' way. I was smoothing them out, as the cashier had just shoved them into my hand. That made me remember that at my first job, I was taught how to handle money and it was mandatory to have the bills smooth, facing a certain way, and in denominations. I must have learned that well, as I am still doing it, even when I don't think about it.

I also remember learning about the new 'credit card' that would be coming out. It was at least mid 1960s, I think. We were instructed on how to use the machine that would imprint the card information and which copies of the multiple page receipt when to which draw...with one for the customer. We might have had two companies, but I do remember one was named MasterCharge. There was a big ad campaign for it. I wonder if SC will mention the credit industry.

I wrote:
"copies of the multiple page receipt when to which draw...with one for the customer"

I intended to write:

"copies of the multiple page receipt went to which drawer...and which one went to the customer.'

Did Motown music and cars mean as much to kids in other parts of the country as it did to us in Detroit?

The teenage boys who had cars were waxing up their Mustangs while listening to the Four Tops out of the car radio.

Hot cars and hot music - all compliments of Detroit. We thought we were the cat's pajamas back then. And we were!

What a fun thread! This is so why I enjoy the show. Not only getting involved in a great story, but reliving a little bit, too.

-I was a kid in White Plains, NY so going into the city was a big deal in the early sixties. I remembering being so jealous when my older siblings got to go and I was left behind.

-Playland - wow what fun times, and Jones Beach. Don't miss the crowded beach, tho!

- Got to the Worlds Fair a few times being close by. Do ya'll remember GE's Circlerama? I thought it was so cool!

- Much more family times, traveling in the car than today. Yes, singing in the car was a gas.

-And I haven't seen the Good Humor man mentioned. Yum!

The big treat that I remember was the Drive Inn Theater. You'd have to roll the window down, hook a speaker onto the window to get the audio.There were more than 2 of those in the city I grew up in.One charged $ 5.00 a carload. You'd cram as many kids as you could in that car.We'd bring all our own drinks,popcorn and treat ourselves to one of those ice cream bars,,,,,Nutty Buddy's.
Sadly,Drive-in's are almost extinct across the U.S.
I remember going to San Francisco one year.must of been 66 or 67.I was 6/7 but my parents stayed away from Haight Ashbury. Ocean Shores or Westport were the closest escapes from the Seattle/Tacoma area.

Yes Laurie B, I remember the radio top hits lists. A friend went to visit relatives in the Midwest and came back telling us about new releases that we had yet to hear on our stations. It was like listening to gossip about friends to hear about those new songs. We searched the list to see if it was mentioned. Remember those music magazines that had the lyrics printed in them. We spent an entire Sunday driving from store to store reading those magazines to find the actual lyrics to Louie Louie. We heard they were dirty, but couldn't understand anything. It was supposed to have that bad F word in them. We were horrified, but wanted to see for ourselves.

Sassy, I always had a small package of cheetos in my brown sack lunch at school.

We manicured our nails in frosted pastels.

By Laurie B. on October 2, 2008 12:33 PM
Did Motown music and cars mean as much to kids in other parts of the country as it did to us in Detroit?

YES! I grew up in a suburb of Trenton NJ and the Motown Sound was HUGH! And muscle cars too. The "popular" boys drove Camaros or Pontiac GTOs.
Hitchhiking with my best friend to dance at Wagner's in Philly to the Mototown Sound and be on the Jerry Blavit Show.

Summers at the Jersey Shore (Seaside), slathered with baby oil and iodine to get a deep dark tan. SPFs? UV rays?? The jingling tune of the ice cream truck that enticed us out every evening like a Pied Piper. And chasing the magical cloud from the mosquito truck that a gang of neighborhood kids including myself found irresitable. Going to the boardwalk at night to ride the Wild Mouse and the Himalaya: "You wanna go Fassssterrrrr?"
Playing Monopoly on a rainy day with the goal of owning a hotel on boardwalk.
Wearing a hat and gloves to church on Sunday.
Walking on "pseudo-stilts" made from string and Hawaiian Punch cans. Smoking cigarettes to look older.

Sizzle: I believe Diner's Card (either late '50s or early '60s) was the very first credit card, before Visa and Master Card. Can anyone confirm?

And the song for Mr Softee went "Mister Softee, get outta here yer ice cream tastes like diarrhea..." hehe

Nobody knew how dangerous that bug spray waas. Kids waited for the spray truck and then played in the mist.

I know there had been credit card before Master Charge came out...or whatever Visa was called back then? Was it always Visa? Master Charge changed to Master Card. I think the new ones targeted the average person, while Diner's and American Express seemed higher ended. Many places in our small town wouldn't accept AM Ex or Diners. I hadn't thought of that for a while, though and could be wrong on it.

Yes, how could I forget the bug spray truck? It still is a fragrance that reminds me of summer evenings. cough cough Sometime in the first half of the 1960s, we started wearing petti pants instead of slips. Not sure why. Our first heels were what they call kitten heels now, but I don't remember that term then.

We used to spend hours playing priest and nuns. I'm not kidding...every kid who grew up Catholic played like this. There was one particular black chiffon dress of my mother's that I used as my "habit"---and then put a towel pinned behind my nape as a wimple. We'd pinch pieces of white bread into little round hosts and the person playing the priest would give us communion. Our piano bench made a perfect communion rail.

R & B music was a huge part of my life then (and still is). I had my little transistor in bed with me at night and even in Podunk, West Virginia, you could still get Cousin Brucie from Boston, and WCFL from Chicago, and WOWO (Cincinnati?) and listen to hip music. I always wondered why the stations would come in at night and never any other time.

I also loved watching the Lloyd Thurston Show to see all the new dances.

Peg4Prez, you're so right about birthday parties. Just today I was thinking (not sure why this came up in my brain) about the games we used to play at parties and the songs that went with them. My kids are grown and I don't think they know any of these games, and so I was thinking that I'd write them down for my some-day grandchildren. Ones like The Farmer in the Dell; Little Sally Ann Sitting in the Sand; London Bridge; and Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.

The same with the jumping rope songs we used to sing and the hand-clapping games we played.

I walked to school every day, even elementary school.

I always took the route that included the Steisses' jungle gym and the Brown's trampoline, of course.

;O)

Kids don't walk ANYWHERE, nowadays. I know, I know, safety. I'm a teacher. What a shame though. Everything's so pre-fab and so contrived and artificial nowadays. Birthday parties used to be Pin the Tail on the Donkey, open presents, eat cake and go home. Now they're elaborate productions that could rival a Hollywood movie. Ridiculous! Bah!

Haha! Sizzie! Your piano lesson recollections strike a chord with me (ar-ar!) ;O)

I used to ride my green Schwinn to Grandma Schrader's, just up the street. I loved getting a sticker in my John Thompson's "Teaching Little Fingers to Play" book!

My favorite song was "Buzzzzzing, buzzzing, buzzzing, buzzzing bee....in the grass!..."

She also had good candy.

Too bad I didn't go regularly. I would skip sometimes and ride my bike to Quik Serv (NOT on the way to Grandma Schrader's) and buy candy instead. I had a rebellious streak early on.

Ahhh...the good ole daze!

Oh, how can I have forgotten to mention that I had a lava lamp. a buddha, beads hanging in my doorway, and a Chianti wine bottle with a candle in it before Rhoda did it. That was in my beatnik/hippy/flower power days.

I've been off this thread too long. FormerWGR'er is talking about "smoking cigarettes to look older". LOL. Was that candy cigarettes or real ones? What about sneaking a sip of your Dad's beer when he was busy talking at the neighborhood BBQ? You had to be careful, some of those cans were used for ashtrays. Taking a swig of ashes mixed with hot beer was enough to stop you from sneaking a sips for the day. Gag! ;o)

Let's see -- grew up in Rockford, IL in the 60's/70's. Lots of smoking and drinking with our parents, but not as much as on MM. Summers were spent outside all daylong until dark -- playing cards, playing jacks, playing ball, setting up forts, doing some kind of "soldier play" (yeah, even girls too). Most summer days we kids alone would walk to the swim club (about 4 blocks away), parents never took us. Also to the library and store alone. I remember rainy summer afternoons of watching my mother iron all afternoon, setting the ironing board up in front of the tv to watch the "stories". As the World Turns, Guiding Light, Secret Storm, Search for Tomorrow. Later, in high school when we girls made our own choices we went to All my Children. My bff's mom (more upscale than us) had a black cleaning lady very much like Carla, so that lady would be doing the ironing while we watched AMC over at her house.

Going to the drive-in movies was still a big treat. As a kid, fitting all the kids into the back of the station wagon in our pajamas. As teens, going with a boyfriend to make out at the movie.

So many things were different. We ate no where near as much fast food as people do today. We walked alot more. Had more chores around the house, for sure. And parents were *parents*, i.e. authority figures for kids, not "friends" to their kids.

We had lots of drive-in movies, so my mom would pop popcorn (on the stove!) and we'd put on our pj's. We saw every Disney movie, John Wayne, westerns, war movies...biblical (the Ten Commandments) and musicals at the drive-in with our parents.
We had lots of kids in our neighborhood, and like many others here, we stayed outside way after dark playing. The boys had "forts" and the girls had "clubs".
Once in awhile we'd go out to eat: A&W and a place called Johnnie's where there were car hops on roller skates. I live in the same town, and it's fun to tell my daughter about all the places I used to go. I have a really unique book of aerial photographs where a photographer took photos back in the 50's and 60's of certain intersections and neighborhoods in my city. On opposite pages there are photos by another guy of those same locales as they look today. Very interesting!

I loved the A&W Rootbeer stands, Jolie10!! I remember on Tuesday nights they would have "Coney Night". My parents would load us in the old stationwagon and off we would go. You could get footlong coney dogs for 10 cents. Baby Rootbeers were free to kids. Nothing better than an A&W rootbeer from a frosty mug. Cheers! ;o)

@jolie10. I was wondering when someone was going to mention Drive-In theaters. We'd bring our own popcorn too!
Jiffy-pop stove top kind.
We rarely went out to eat,if we did,it was a big occasion.
Going to the local drive in Frisco Freeze was a treat. i do remember McDonald's opening up and it looked so modern. i would beg my Mom to let us eat there. Hamburgers were 20 cents.
School clothes were saved until the first day of school. i was thrilled to be out of the catholic school uniform and being able to wear different clothes.My mom would put clothes on Lay Away and I remember walking downtown to pay by the week at Lerner's.We didn't get to wear pants to school until 1971/72!
I remember my knee socks that had to coordinate with the color of my shirt or sweater.
Even though we didn't have the vast selection of food choices that we have today,you didn't see the obesity like you do with kids now. I walked to school and it was at least a mile one way. I never remembered a conga line of mothers in minivans ready to drive child to play dates, soccer practice,etc.
The best was summertime,being outdoors and only coming inside for Kool Aid breaks and a sandwich and playing with all the neighborhood kids till dark.
Parents were the final authority and we were told to respect the elders or suffer the consequences.

Were the free tiny mugs of root beer at A & W called Baby D's, or was that at some other place. The car hop put a numbered card on the windshield to know which order we had and propped the tray on our car. My town had 5 elementary schools, we played each other in kickball. Maybe that was just the girls and the boys played flag football. I'm not sure. When the Ten Commandments opened at our downtown movie house, the school superintendent decided it was an important enough film, historically, to warrant all the students seeing it. All five schools walked to the movie house and we watched during a special day time showing. How odd that was, even then it seemed odd to me. Each school was several miles from downtown. We made very long lines, seperated by our classrooms with our teachers in charge of their class as we walked and later when we sat and watched the movie. We did the same thing for Ben Hur on another day.

Hey Sassy...you must be my age (almost 46 - yikes), as you made me smile remembering Clackers! Mine were orange, with gold glitter on top, so cool! Eventually we weren't allowed to take them to school, as kids kept smacking themselves in the face or fingers got pinched.

And Donny Osmond and the Partridge Family - I was totally in love with Donny, had posters in my room, and still have my original Osmond (and Donny's solo) albums. I'd still hit that today, he looks fantastic (he's a grandfather!!)

Laurie B., Toledo's zoo is in fact one of the best in the country. As a kid, I would go there and look forward to Wonder Valley, which was sort of a petting zoo area. You could wander among the ducklings, pet the goats, ride on the giant tortoise, and go on some actual rides. They had a train and a helicopter ride, a big deal for a kid. I still go to the zoo for occasional concerts, as they have a wonderful outdoor amphitheater - last concert I saw there was Sheryl Crow.

I too remember Jiffy Pop, and calling adults Mr. or Mrs. It was considered appropriate for adults to discipline children, even if they weren't theirs.

My mom would go to the "beauty shop" once a week, get her hair teased and sculptured with a hairpiece on top of that, and it would last all week. When I was in third grade, my mom bought me my own wig, it was a "Cissy Flip" - I wore it to school for pictures, and felt so grown up. Especially since I had a pixie cut, which I hated - people used to mistake me for a boy!

Speaking of hairstyles, anybody remember the plastic wigs that they used to sell to girls? hehe

Pants were not allowed in school until 1971.

And even then, it had to be a pantsuit or something that wasn't a jean or jean-like.

And later on in 1971 in high school, you could wear red jeans, green jeans, flowered jeans, striped jeans, courdoroy jeans, pink jeans or yellow jeans...but heaven forbid you wear....blue jeans. hehe

Block parties were great in my PA hometown. My "adult" town (a suburb of Chicago) still has them, complete with hayrides and visits from the newest fire truck so the kids can climb all over it.

Riding for miles on my forest-green Stingray.
Playing for hours in "Barbieville," the area in the paneled basement that my parents claimed deserved its own zip code because of the high doll population.
Playing Kick the Can until long after dark.
Going to an old amusement park and getting happily sick on rides like the Scrambler, Tilt-a-Whirl, Dodg-ems and playing Skee-Ball. Amazingly, the park still stands, complete with its antique rides. My little girl loves the place much more than the Six Flags of the world.
Going to Dairy Queen almost every night of the summer.
Ice-skating on the frozen waters of the bay, and seeing the hibernating fish just under the surface.
Trying to twitch my nose like Samantha
Pulling the string repeatedly on Chatty Cathy long after she went mute.
Going shopping "downtown" wearing a dress coat, hat and gloves with my similarly attired mother.