I lived on a street like the Drapers and strangely enough my best friend from first grade was a girl named Sally. My elementary school was only a block away. My street had alot of kids on it and we played games outside all the time. We made up games all the time. Parents didn't worry about kids playing in the yard back then. There were also several old widows who lived on my street. My mom would make them homemade beef vegetable soup and I and my sister would deliver it to their houses. They were ladies I visited with, one taught me how to crochet and make crafts another one I played checkers with and we'd eat Oreos.
I remember her kitchen had that heavyly waxed vinyl tile like you see in schools or grocery stores and she had a chrome table with a formica top and the seats were red shiny vinyl.It reminded me of retro 50's resturants. I think my mom would tell me to go visit not just to keep me out of trouble, but also to keep them company. They never told me to go away so I must not have been to pesky.

Wow, great topic and neat childhood memories, holotta!

Guess we all lived on streets similar to the Drapers in the 1950's--1960's, truth be told. I sure did.

My memories are almost identical to yours, as far as playing outside all the time, esp. in summer...left out after breakfast and didn't come in until noon for lunch and then out again until we heard "the call" (usually waited til it included all three names before we'd heed it!) for supper, and then out again til dark. Fun times...loved growing up when I did. I have an article to share that came from AARP magazine a while ago...this kind of says it all....

"50 Reasons to Love Being 50+"

#46 Because You Grew Up In An Age Before Video Games

When we were kids, we played outside. Our bodies were hard-breathing little rainbows of energy and earth---red cheeks form running, brown hands from mud, green-grass streaks on our pants. We dreamed of grandiose forts that never got built, had sword fights with sticks while riding our bikes (okay, that was more of a boy thing).

But we lived, baby, We lived!! Unlike so many kids today, whose every micromanaged, remote-control moment is seemingly spent indoors. Oh, how the play times have changed:

Then: Eating wild berries
Now: Eating Lunchables on a play date

Then: Climbing trees
Now: Allergy tests

Then: Walking with pals along train tracks
Now: Walking with parents on a leash

Then: Stickball
Now: Xbox

Then: "Be home by dark"
Now" "Answer your cell phone when I call"

Then: Summer Camp
Now: Fat Camp

Then: Doing cannonballs off the high dive
Now: Wearing floaties in the shallow end

Then: Skinned knees
Now: Carpal tunnel

Then: Jumping on a trampoline
Now: What's a trampline?

I lived on Sherbourne Drive in Detroit. All brick bungalow houses, about 25 houses and a cul-de-sac at the end, but we didn't call it that. It was the circle, it was ghool, it was home base for kickball. Just a circle filled with grass which eventually became dirt from playing on it so much. We'd sometimes sit on the curb ofthe circle and talk about boys, where babies came from, and other deep topics.

90 kids total, Catholic school a couple blocks away that we all attended. We had lemonade sales, hot dog sales, summer plays in someone's garage and charged 2 cents to attend. We put on 'weddings" and pulled the happy couple children around the circle in a wagon and the moms took pictures. We spent entire summers building a fort that never quite got finished. One year a neighbor got an above-ground pool and then our summers were spent swimming and sunbathing. There were no community pools or country clubs.

We always had to run to the store for our mothers, with notes for cigarettes.

We played with Barbies, we set up classrooms in our basements to play school, and spent hours drawing models and fashion illustrations. My dad had our basement finished, and then we played "bar" with candy cigarettes and cokes.

It was the advent of the Motown sound, and between the great music and the hot cars coming out of Detroit, we felt we were the center of the universe. All the dads had station wagons, but the older kids would tear up the street in their GTOs or Mustangs blasting the latest Temptation song.

A group of older boys got a band together and we'd peek in the basement window and watch them practice, and would claim dibs on who we had crushes on.. And do you know, that same band is in their '60s now and plays weekends at local bars. An all-oldies band of course.

Ah, those were good, good times.

Where's Drink&Smoke?....and Laurie, do we dare get started again on the "grape kool-aid" he made so famous?

lol

I lived on a street in a little neighborhood outside the city limits. The houses were all small, two-bdrm, mostly. Definately blue-collar. There was a great pasture to play in just beyond the houses, and there were horses there! I remember whole summers of leaving after breakfast, and not coming home until dusk - playing all day in the pasture and woods without a care or fear in the world. My mom would even give me a sack lunch sometimes. During school time, I caught a big yellow school bus at the end of my street - we had to line up before getting on, then then weren't allowed to talk on the bus!

.....These are great. Like I said, for many years, Grape Kool-Aid was the only drink of choice.....and also…..

.....Jumping the fence, on the weekends, at the school two blocks outside the neighborhood.....oooo!..... It was a military coup!!

.....Playing outside until just after dark, which could be as late as 9:00 pm on the hot and balmy summer nights..... We were conducting a commando stealth operation!

.....Climbing up and down the backyard Mulberry tree with ease and speed, several times a day, and escaping without injury of any kind..... for years…..Sophisticated spy work! (Occasionally, we would “run into” the family cats, who looked at us as though we had three heads…..)

.....Still kidding yourself at almost aged 5 that those Mud Pies tasted like chocolate…..just plain crazy!

.....Tadpoles.....Brand-newborn kittens and puppies and hamsters and guinea pigs…..

…..That first trip to “snow country…..”

.....Sizzling and festive Fourth of July block parties.....complete with actual fireworks, back when they were legal, set off by the neighborhood boys. They were 13 and 14 and 15, and we literally worshipped their every word and gesture.....they loved to circulate stories of other boys who had their hands and heads blown off, handling such dangerous fireworks….. (they weren’t wrong, actually…..)

.....Unbelievable-tasting home-made ice cream, the actual flavor name not known…..pretty sure there was a bunch of malt powder…..Made by the hosts of the Fourth of July block party (they had the pool!).....

…..Building bush, tree and rock forts…..and completely and handsomely furnishing them…...

…..Finding that severed finger in the field, next to the church, that one time…..we were too young to know what became of that…..

…..That one time, that 14-year-old Greggy Frick, who we loved and adored…..crashed head-first into a creek on his bike and DIED. It was just horrible.

And that’s the end of that...at least for now!

~Dry

Did you call SCfan? ;o) Oh yes....Grape Kool-Aid, the elixir of Gods!! We can talk about Grape Kool-Aid, just can't get started on the Carol Burnett show again. A few bloggers actually burst into flames when we talked a little too long about that show. Just the downside of being nostaligic, I guess. Cheers! ;o)

Hidey, D&S!!

And don't forget jello!!!

God, I loved those homemade popsicles made from Grape Kool-Aid!

You'd get an empty ice tray (the aluminum kind with the pull-up handle) and fill it with Grape Kool-Aid and put popsicle sticks in each section (said sticks were saved from your Sidewalk Sundaes or Creamsicles or Fudgesicles) put it in freezer, and go back about an hour later and straighten the sticks in each "pop" and in about four hours you'd have some great frozen treats....cheap, too.

Hey Dry! Tadpoles!!!!!....(and horny-toads!) Cool!

I was the worst tomboy ever and I just loved all those critters! Except snakes....no snakes.

Yes, D&S, I loved our long-ago discussion of the CB show...none better...and those bloggers who flamed us were all wet...who couldn't love her?

"Missuss a-Whiggins, yew git in here jiffy-quick and take-a dis a-here letter!"
------------- Mr. Tudball (Tim Conway)

Was there ever a funnier character on any show than "Mrs. a-Whiggins"?

; - D

And dare we get going on Ed, Eunice, Mama!!!???

I grew up half a block up from an inner city lake in Seattle called Greenlake. The houses were a mixture of 50's, tudor bricks, small craftsmans, and Dutch colonial. It was a blue collar neighborhood of postal workers, plumbers, mechanics, shipyard, factory and office workers, etc. Mostly owned, but we were the renters on the street. We lived there for 7 years from 1962-1969 (2nd-9th grade for me), so the kids on the street were my childhood friends. We all still all know each other, but I only see 1-2 of them every couple of years. My brother married the girl across the street.

We used to play Simon Says, Mother-May-I, Hide 'n Seek, and War throughout the spring/summer, running through the neighbors' backyards, usually playing until 10 o'clock at night. We'd go down to the lake and swim at East Beach or Evans Pool all summer long or pedal over to O'Neill's grocery store for candy or the Penguin drive-in for 30 cent burgers. It was just a great neighborhood to grow up in because of the proximity of the lake (which in those days was deserted but now is packed with walkers, bicyclists, dogwalkers, joggers, skaters, sunbathers, etc). In the sixties Greenlake had hydro races on Memorial and Labor Day weekends, hosted the city's 4th of July fireworks, and put on swimming shows (Aqua Follies) and concerts at the Aqua Theater located on the shore of the lake. It was just a fantastic place to grow up.

On our street, we all came from the same economic background (our fathers were laborers, and I think only two mothers on the block worked - one being my mother). It was a fun place as a kid.

The story of the Siamese elephants joined at the trunk as told to Mama, Eunice and Ed by Tim Conway's character and watching them try to keep from laughing and failing miserably. Loved the Carol Burnett Show and Harvey Korman, bless his heart, especially.

You guys are hilarious as I lol at my computer.Somhow I'm getting you guys have already been down this street. Sorry for the re-hash but you remind me of so much I'd forgotten. I loved grape koolaid. Purple mustaches, red or purple tongues. There was also this little store we would walk to that had some kind of chocolate looking drink in a bottle. Penny candy and Ice cream trucks going down the street, we'd run like crazy to get out the door with money.
I remember a girl who lived down the street who cut my hair behind some bushes one day. It was the same day my mom scheduled family photos. She cut it so short my hair was in pin curls for the family shoot. OMG what an awful picture.
I had a dress up party for my bithday. Janie Bryant would have loved those. We actually wore our mothers or aunts high heels with socks, big purses and the hats were priceless. The ones with netting over the forehead we thought we were so glamourous. Lipstick and blush the whole nine yards. I remember my parents enjoyed watching us. I had a dress-up party for my daughter in the 90's and it was all Disney clothes, boring, they all wanted to be princesses. Still do. One can not have enough tiara's.
I loved the "Carol Burnett" show, exactly how does one burst into flames on a blog anyway??

It's called "flaming" when a blogger decides they don't like what the others are posting and trashes their posts. Tries to make them feel like their posts are stupid. But, we already know our posts are stupid------ and we don't care!....so there, flamers! LOL

It's happened to D&S and me and a lot of others along the way. (We've been on this forum for ages, the old-timers in more ways than one, believe me!--- ha)

oh, and holotta, loved reading your memories and everyone elses...great reading!

Wonderful thread!

Note to D&S, jamm, Dry, etc:

Remember "Peggy Sue"???

.....zerelda....You are so bad! Love the CB Show and miss them all a lot....

SCfan.....Too funny. PeggySue was five minutes before my time, but I've heard the stories..... for all we know he/she might be among us even now!

PeggySue was a pistol, I'll vouch for that. Too bad, too. Had interesting stories, very knowledgeable, but couldn't resist attacking everyone over their facts, memories, etc., as being incorrect according to his/her reservoir of knowledge about NYC, business/societal practices/mores of the forties to sixties, and just about everything in general.

Let's just say a career in diplomacy was not in the cards for PeggySue......

You're right, though, jamm---she knew her stuff...it was just the way she come off as so damn preachy about it. It's like she sat there just waiting for someone to disagree with her and then she'd pounce.

If she is still among us as someone else now, I say great...she finally wised up.

We do need to get her back on here though and set her up with Polar Bear! A match made in.....well not Heaven.

the way she "come" off?

meant "came" off...but you all know to just edit as you read along in my posts by now, right?

sheeeesh

My first "job" while I was in high school was in this era and I worked in a men's clothing store in Birmingham selling a lot of the stuff Janie has the guys wearing on the show. The family was definitely blue-collar steelworker types, so no dressing for dinner (we were fancy if mom didn't set the pots and skillets right off the stove onto the table as serving dishes), but if you went anywhere, it was coat and tie. I remember going to football games at Legion Field on Saturdays in September when it was still hotter than 40 hells sweating my brains out in my tweed sports coact and Smoothie button-down tie. If you had a date, she dressed up, too -- had to to show off that chrysanthemum corsage you bought her in the school colors.

Good post, DavidM. Dressing up was considered the norm, not the exception. I caught a great movie last summer on DVD. It was called "Catch Me If You Can". It was a movie set in the 60's with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. It was like watching Mad Men. It made me remember my parents getting all dressed to the nines when they took a flight anywhere. Between the pilots, flight attendents (back then were called Stewardess) and men and women catching a flight - it was a far cry from what we see in airports today. Cheers!

I LOVE this question; and most of you have already mentioned some of my memories. My "street" was a "bedroom community" in northern NJ where my Dad would hop on the train every morning for Manhattan.

One vivid memory is of the "mosquito" man that the town would send around -- spraying some kind of white smoke contaning who knows what -- that would, I guess, keep down the mosquito population.
It was GREAT sport to run behind the truck and inhale the smoke. Unbelivable! And we all turned out fine; except for the third eyes and the eleventh toes (ha ha ha)

Such long-ago times....

Hey DavidM, you didn't happen to go to Woodlawn, did you? I married a Woodlawn boy.
As far as childhood memories, once elementary school was out for the summer, we never wore shoes again until the fall, except for church. We went to the store and picked out our flip flops for the season, but mostly we went barefoot. At the beginning of the season your feet were tender, but by the end of summer, you could run flat out over a gravel driveway.
We, too, used to put on plays, build forts, climb trees, ride our bikes for hours, make deadly toys like bows and arrows from sticks and string, fly kites, roller skate (without helmets and pads!!!), spend whole days at the swimming pool (where we used to sink to the bottom of the deep end and pretend we were drowning, hoping to get the lifeguard's attention; it never worked), spin around until we were so dizzy we couldn't stand, play softball, kickball, badminton and croquet. We also used to lie in the grass and stare at the clouds and imagine what the shapes were. I wonder how many kids today have done that. Not many, it's probably sad to say.
A good book about growing up in the 50's and 60's is "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" by Bill Bryson. We read it for my book club, and not one of us would want to be a kid today. Everything is just so damn complicated and "important" now!

I just re-read my post, and I noticed how even though I'm female, all my summer activites sound like things boys did. Every house on the street had multiple children, and we just all, boys and girls, ran together all over the neighborhood.
The girls used to play Barbies and board games and read (A LOT!), but that was mostly in the winter when we couldn't go outside.
We also put on several "carnivals" to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy and "Jerry's Kids". Anybody else do that?
And every town had its own afternoon kids show with some man in a costume. Ours was a cowboy named Johnny Evans, in Birminham it was Cousin Cliff, a sailor. Hmm, predecessors of the Village People?

Neat memories, Mambo!

Our afternoon kids show guys were "3D Danny" (Dan D. Dynamo) about a space guy who would place his outstretched hand across the opposite shoulder and proclaim "I salute you!" from his "space ship" complete with his robot named "Bazark"---- who was nothing but big boxes stacked on each other and dryer vent hoses for arms! (but, we bought it!) His show at one time was ahead of the Mickey Mouse Club in ratings and was set to go national when he decided to go into radio instead...where he stayed right on through until recently, when he retired, still a local celebrity.

Also, "Foreman Scotty" a cowboy character who was on the Circle 4 Ranch (the TV station was Channel 4) and there was a wooden horse named "Woody" who the kid(s) who were having birthday(s) could sit on (if you were lucky enough to be on it "live") and a hopper with postcards in it from all the city kids & one got drawn every day--to win the "Golden Horseshoe" . He was always rubbing the boys' heads who had "burr" haircuts and saying "Here's another head-bone haircut!"

Our Brownie troop went once to be in the audience and I got to pick that horseshoe-winning card out, wearing that tacky Brownie uniform and with my gapped-up bangs on my straggly Buster Brown haircut!...I didn't care, I was floating around for a week. I wished I'd won one, too, however. ha

Old, fun memories.

That's hysterical, SCfan. We (my sister and I) also went once to the Johnny Evans Show with a group of girls to celebrate one of the girl's birthday. Her mother then took us all to dinner at Shoney's Big Boy (the South's version of Bob's Big Boy). It was a magical night.

Nope, Mambo. Hewitt-Trussville. But my best friend went to Woodlawn. And I sold a lot of Smoothie button-down ties to Woodlawn girls for their boyfriends.

In those days in the skies over B'ham we made shapes out of the red clouds coming out of the open hearth furnace at the TCI plant. I spent my early days in Ensley, six blocks down the street from the gate of the plant. You could pick up the black dust on your bed sheets with a magnet. We lived in a row house there (hey, not all southerners grew up in Forrst Gump's house) with a big vacant lot behind. In the middle was a giant pecan tree with an enormous canopy. When we played ball, it served as second base -- and covered outfield for both teams.

TCI plant and red clouds?

HAH -- our big thing in summer was The Mosquito Man! They used to spray three times a week to get rid of mosquitoes (it was probably DDT before it got banned) and kids thought nothing of running out, waiting for the truck to pass and then play in the cloud of pesticide.

Yuk.

to MadMenSuze

That is my experience, too. I can recall those big white billowing clouds of "smoke" -- and the smell!

to MadMenSuze

That is my experience, too. I can recall those big white billowing clouds of "smoke" -- and the smell!

Great thread. Until age 9 I lived in an apartment in an urban city- across the street from a large city park and a few blocks from maternal and paternal grand parents. School was a few blocks away and plenty of kids around. Lots of sports, manhunt war etc. I roamed as I pleased, but I now realise that there were many eyes watching to be sure I was safe. At age 9 we moved out to the 'burbs. 4br tract house in a subdivision with a lot of kids. More sports, this time in leagues, and lots of pick up games in the neighborhood. Community pool that everyone hung out at. For the most part, my summers consisted of nothing planned for the first few weeks of the summer- maybe a short family trip. The middle of the summer was taken up by Day Camp and from age 9-13, "sleep away camp". Before age 9, I spent every weekend at my grandparents beach house at the "shore". All day at the beach, playing in the waves and building sand castles. By the time I was a teenager, beach meant beach volleyball, attempts at surfing and bikini watching. The underlying premise is correct though- a childs life is much different now- more controled and sheltered.

Love love love reading everyone's memories. So sweet and sentimental! Keep 'em coming!

I dedicate this to my fellow Maddicts, who are all still very much "gold" to me, no matter how old you are:

"Stay Gold" by Stevie Wonder

(from the movie "The Outsiders")
-------------------------------------------------------------
(go watch/listen to it on YouTube if you want a nice sentimental and beautiful nostalgia trip---what a gorgeous voice!)
---------------------------------------------------------------

Seize upon that moment long ago
One breath away and there you will be
So young and carefree
Again you will see
That place in time....so gold

Steal away into that way back when
You thought that all would last forever
But like the weather
Nothing can ever.....and be in time
stay gold

But can it be
When we can see
So vividly
A memory
And yes you say
So must the day
too, fade away
And leave a ray of sun
so gold

Life is but a twinkling of an eye
Yet filled with sorrow and compassion
Though not imagined
All things that happen
Will age to old
Though gold

Love this thread!
Can you believe the freedom we used to have?

I lived in a town small enough that you walked to everything - swimming pool in the summer- through lots of woods and railroad tracks, skating rink in the winter, movie theater.

And money was just never an issue - you saved your 15 cents under your towel at the pool to buy a frozen Milky Way bar. Movies were a double feature plus cartoon for a quarter. I think the pool was 50 cents for all day, but I had a season pass.

.....SCfan.....I did a little research and 57 lives less than 100 miles from you, so if she's off line it's probably not because of the weather.....(sorry for the OT).....

When I was in elementary school every night my mom would prep sack lunches for all five of us, mom and dad included. She would put our names on the front in pencil. One day my mom opened up her lunch and realized she had my pb&j and in about half an hour I would be sitting down to her sardines and crackers. She quickly called the principles office and got the secretary and told her what happened. The next thing I knew I was sitting in class and someone came in and gave the teacher a note that said I had to report to the principle's office and to bring my lunch. All eyes in the room glared at me. Like what did she do, must be bad cause she has to bring her lunch. I walk to the office and the secretary handed me money to buy lunch and she said she'd take my brown bag and have it for lunch. My mom just wanted to keep me from getting teased about sardines in my lunch bag. You guys know how kids can be along with the fact I would have starved before I ate sardines. The look on everyone's face when I came back from the principle's office was a riot. They all dying to know what happened.

Funny story, holotta!

Makes me think of that line from a commercial ,
"Moms are like that....yeah, they are!"

What commercial was that from, anybody remember?

Dry, oh no!

that's just terrible (what I know you are thinking) If by less than 100 miles from Oklahoma City I take it you are talking about...so close and so far at the same time....I feel so helpless to know what to do!

How did you do the research? just wonderin'

I can't stand to think she's injured or worse!

Is there any way you could e-mail her? or phone her? how much info do you have?

I posted in that topic about the Oklahoma Maddicts from zerelda right after that tornado for Clayton or ? to try to e-mail her but don't know if he or whoever tried to. I know he or the other moderators have all our e-mails in case they need to use them to notify us on the prizes won, etc.

I wish there was something we could do to try to get in touch with her or her family to find out what has happened. I know it's hard not to think the worst...but, how can we know what's happened?

I keep hoping maybe she is just studying hard or has finals (a bit early for that, though)....

Like I said, how did you research us? Let me know and I'll see if I can research it in more detail since I'm closest. If that makes any sense.

Thanks....

SCfan...Clayton has our e-mails, but it isn't always him that does the prize notification. It's been a guy named John Frankfurt since mid-december.
Hope she's ok.

Thanks, holotta, I'll click his name (John F.) and e-mail him directly and see if he can possibly e-mail her for us. That listing on the right side of the pages has all their e-mail addresses I've noticed.

I've just checked every day to see if she's posted yet, and keep hoping she's just been busy and couldn't post.

There were very few deaths in that tornado and they were all down in Lone Grove and I seem to remember 57 posting once that she lived in Moore, OK (not close to there at all) so unless she was on the road or visiting someone around that area, she wouldnt' have been in that tornado's path.

I, like all of us, just don't know what to think is all.
I hope she's ok, too.

Leave it to me to be different, but I grew up in a poor rural town in the south. We lived in Mayberry, and the memories I had, are almost the whitewashed version seen on tv. More realistically, we had the klan, and real crime, and a lot of drinking and sex, but mostly, it was just like what was portrayed on tv.

There always seemed to be a family whose dog or cat just had a litter of young. Nobody hollared "GET THE ANIMAL FIXED" or blamed them for being backyard breeders. That's just the way it was back then.

And all of the amimals always seemed to find homes with no problems.:)

Everybody always had a turtle -- one of those little ones you'd get in a pet store; nobody ever got sick or contracted some horrible bugaboo from playing with the critter.:) Again, that's the way it was back then.

We had turtles and even a couple of ducks and chickens.

I remember the poor part, LiquorUp, and the klan, some crime, nd in an Irish steelworker family, the drinking, of course. I must have been out of town while that sex stuff was going on. : )

Remember before the EPA came along and ruined all our fun, we used to rake the leaves in the fall, combine all the neighbors' leaves, get a gigantic pile going, jump in it for awhile before somebody's dad would come along and torch it for a bonfire.

SCfan - it was for Bayer's Children's Aspirin ("does she hurt an' have a tempachure?" little boy asks anxiously before being reassured that mother has taken care of things.)

Boy, does this thread bring back memories. I grew up on a not very large street with about 40-50 kids; I'm oldest of 9 and there was another family of 9 across the street. Summer days started by 7, quick bowl of cereal and out the door: bikes, jump rope, roller skates, playing jacks or card games, Red Light/Green Light or Red Rover, then dash home for PBJ or tuna sandwiches for lunch (usually with milk but sometimes grape or orange Kool-aid) and out again. Dinner was early, around 5, then off we went again until we were called in - usually when the streetlights came on. Older kids got to stay out even later after dark and play flashlight tag. We played neighborhood kickball, baseball, dodgeball, basketball with netless hoops etc. We could walk or ride our bikes all over town. There were no cell phones but there were 10 cent payphones in booths all over the place - but nobody ever called home to check in. No need. Eyes were everywhere and if it wasn't a case of everybody knowing everybody else, it was close to it. Band concerts with singalongs (very like "Picnic" but without the float on the river, no crowned queen) were a popular staple, parades for Memorial Day and July 4th, firemans' field days, travelling circuses, the State Fair in late August....

We had fireworks for the community at the local stadium (later moved to the lake because of traffic issues) and parents provided sparklers - small handheld ones we waved in the dark and large ones planted into the yard that seemed to last forever, and "snakes" that burned on the sidewalk. For more dangerous fireworks we went to our grandfather's camp on the lake or an uncle's farm in the country where dad and the uncles and some older male cousins set off bottle rockets (woosh!), roman candles and screamers while the rest of us clapped our hands over our ears and went "oooh" and "aahhh". When it was clear, you could lie on your back and see thousands of stars in the night sky. During summer downpours we danced in our shorts and tshirts in the rain, running to be first to stand under the gutter as it spilled over.

In the fall we raked leaves to jump in, then raked them to the curb for pickup. Until it was made illegal (for safety reasons) it was not unusual to see/smell piles of burning leaves on the side of the road. Halloween was great - homemade costumes, homemade goodies (candied apples, popcorn balls, penny candy, full size candy bars) and we collected change for Unicef too.

In winter we built snow forts - usually on either side of a driveway so we could lob snowballs at each other; went sledding down local hills, unaccompanied; ice skated on neighborhood ponds (nothing like hot cocoa in the pavilion at Hoopes Park) and shovelled the snow over our heads after a blizzard. We cooked hotdogs in the fireplace when the power went down and did our homework by candlelight.

Sigh ... makes me long for rootbeer Fizzies.

God, Auburn Annie, the memories you have brought back. It breaks my heart to think children of today can't experience childhood the way we did.

Loved reading your memories, Auburn Annie---brought back sooooo many wonderful memories!

and I agree, z...we were all so lucky!

God...is there anything in this world more yummy than a homemade, Mom-made-with-love popcorn ball???

Sure, SCfan, the ones you could order from Sears catalog!!! If you can believe that! I worked for an phone answering service in downtown Seattle my senior year of high school, on Saturday nights from 5pm until midnight. We would be taking calls for Sears catalog. People would call in from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and northern California, and could order chickens, tractors, supplies, the works! It was bizarre.....and when the Sears Wish Book came out for Christmas, then it was a real nightmare!

What a job, jamm...very hectic, but interesting, I'm sure.

You, know, jamm...there was a time when people could order ANYTHING from Sears, just like you said.

It was unbelievable what they carried...hard to believe now, but I understand they were some folks' "out on the farm" (and otherwise) only source of merchandise--- and they made up their orders a few times a year--- and all the rest of their needs came from their own hard work.

That was when America was a mostly rural culture, I guess.

Plus, when the new Wish Books came out every year, the old one went into the outhouse...ick...the ultimate in recycling, I guess. I'm so glad I was born after indoor plumbing was invented!!!!

Sears must have been the original...but when did Montgomery Wards and the others (catalog co's.) come along, I wonder?

This was a great thread Hotalota. How did I miss it. My street was blue collar. Summers we played hide and seek or kick the can. Also had a Grandmother that had a farm with pigs and cows and corn, beans so we ate healthy.

Burning leaves yes Auburn Annie that brings back memories. I babysat for the next door neighbor's kids and I remember after getting the kids to bed on a Saturday I would watch the Carol Burnett show. :-0 to D&S.

Summers my Dad did lot of bar-b-quing. Funny DavidM where were you?

Actually, SC, Montgomery Ward predates Sears Roebuck as does Spiegel.

Mail order made its big push around the end of the Civil War. Remember the scene in Open Range when Kevin Costner was picking out a tea set for Annette Benning from a catalog in the general store? Tht was supposed to be in the 1870s ore thereabouts. Probably wasw the Ward catalog.

Actually, SC, Montgomery Ward predates Sears Roebuck as does Spiegel.

Mail order made its big push around the end of the Civil War. Remember the scene in Open Range when Kevin Costner was picking out a tea set for Annette Benning from a catalog in the general store? Tht was supposed to be in the 1870s or thereabouts. Probably wasw the Ward catalog.

Sorry about the duplicate post. I was trying to correct typos so Zerelda wouldn't get onto me and I double clutched it.

Thank ya, kindly, DavidM....appreciate the info.

And don't worry about double posts...and never fear our ms. z...she's a tolerant, loving soul...when folks are tolerant and loving toward her, that is. Aren't we all.

But, if I were you, I'd really take care not to get "off topic"...boy, that one will get you in front of the firing squad but fast.

z, I hope you know I meant that as a compliment...

Chelsea, I was probably waiting around for you to be born -- if you were watching Carol Burnett as a kid.

I was watching Red Skelton, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Jack Benny, Grouch Marx on You Bet Your Life and Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, a stalking horse for American Idol, I suppose, with less venom and more talent. The commercials were great, too. I remember the dancing cigarette packages (Old Gold or Chesterfields?) on live programs.

All this was on black and white TV, of course, and we only had two channels in B'ham in those days --ABC didn't get into the market until we got UHF reception with a little round wire antenna that fit behind the rabbit ears with the aluminum foil on the top like a wrinkled flag. My uncle spent $5 bucks, big money in those days, for a piece of irridescent plastic film that you put over your TV screen and from different parts of the room the images seemed to take on colors. But if you looked at Groucho from the left he was green and from the right more of a magenta/yellow mix.

I actually watched "You Bet Your LIfe" too. It was reruns of course on cable WGN. I also liked the Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason.

Remember the June Taylor Dancers?

How sweet it is!

Also, Ed Norton, playing golf & addressing the ball...."Hello ball!"

silly but funny

(sometimes silly is the best kind of funny, even.)

I loved Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, Lucy plus shows like The Real McCoys, Wagon Train, Have Gun Will Travel, Oh! Susanna, Beat the Clock, Queen for a Day, Combat, Gunsmoke, Wanted Dead or Alive, Disney, Our Miss Brooks, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Mr. Peepers, The Rifleman, Bonanza, Batman, The Fugitive, Hollywood Palace, Get Smart, 77 Sunset Strip, Peter Gunn, Burke's Law, Honey West, Hawaiian Eye, etc. Can you tell I was glued to the tv set? Big entertainment. Of course, there were only 3 channels and it was all over rather early. Though from the early sixties I was staying up to watch Jack Paar, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson and The Alfred Hitchcock Show.

"I kid you not!" or

"Pepino, Pepino!"

I also loved all those you mentioned, jamm...plus (Norman) Oklahoma plug..."Maverick" with James Garner. Also loved him in "The Rockford Files" (my dad adored that one) a lot later on. Not only is he talented, and handsome but he's a fine human being as well. In Norman, they have a statue of him dedicated last year, I believe, as Bret Maverick.

Wow..."Batman"...puts me to mind of some of the recent activity on this forum.....

"BOP!" "POW!" "BAM!"

"ZAP!"

I loved all those Warner Bros series on Sunday night - 77 Sunset Strip, Cheyenne, Sugarfoot, but I agree Maverick was the best and James Garner was an absolute hoot. They're on Encore's cable western channel now, but I don't catch them often.

Oh, jamm you sound like you watched everything I did. Do you remember "The Dobbie Gillis Show" ?
Once the phone rang while my parents were out. The only way they knew when the call came in was by asking me what was on TV when it rang. Otherwise they got nuttin.
After reading some of the other threads lately it's hard to believe I asked what "burst into flames" meant.
Once a lurker jumps in, every once in a while you feel like going back to just sticking your toe in.

Gilligan as Maynard G. Krebs before he was Gilligan.

I think Warren Beatty played some snob character on Dobie Gillis, didn't he? Dobie's rival for the heart of Thalia Meninnger?

Everybody's gotta start somewhere, I guess! ha

Jamm54 I remember Combat. My Dad always watched it. There was the guy who's name I forget but I thought even as a kid he was handsome. I think he was the head GI or something.

Yeah SC Norton was great.... hellloooo ball.....hee hee

Not to mention Norton doin' the "Hucklebuck" (dance) ! He was a riot.

Were you maybe thinking of Vic Morrow, Chelsea? (on Combat)

Wasn't Robert Conrad on a similar show or maybe it was Combat he was on...not sure at all...before he started "Wild Wild West"? That's one I never missed, either...although I liked his sidekick, Artemus Gordon better than James T. West! ha

Imagine what the women's groups today would think about that opening sequence where he socked that woman and knocked her flat??!! (even though it was a cartoon!) They'd be forced to remove that, no doubt.

Combat. Yes, Vic Morrow, who got killed during filming of Twilight Zone, the movie.

A few actors who are stiull around today were inand out of that show, too. Tom Skerritt and Robert Duval (in his very scary Boo Radley days).

I was watching Run Silent, Run Deep the opther night and it reminded me of another I never missed -- The Silent Service.

The Man and the Challenge and one short-lived on that I really loved, Slattery's People whth Richard Crenna, fresh off his turn as Luke McCoy on the Real McCoys, playing an idealistic California assemblyman.

Yes, Combat, Rat Patrol, 12 O'Clock High, McHale's Navy - we fought WWII for at least a decade on all 3 networks, at my Dad's insistence. I was even hooked on Sgt Rock comics because of my Dad viewing preferences. Oh brother, and westerns, of course. Of which I only recently found out that my brother hates them (probably because of our force-fed viewing of them), but I love them. Dad controlled the tv when he was around and it was all war and cowboys.

That's cute Jamm54.

Vic Morrow reminds me of the guy that played the guy on that Vietnam show that was on during the late or early 90's. It also had Dana Delaney and Marg Helgenberger in it. Ten points to who knows who that actor was/is and what has he been in lately......

Run Silent Run deep was excellent.

China Beach. Correct about the time -- started in the late '80s and ran two or three seasons. No clue on the actor you're referring to. I never watched that one -- just looked at the pictures in the magazines and wondered why I could never get my fatigues to fit as snuggly as Dana Delaney's and Marg's.

Jamm, all "war and cowboys" sounds like what my TV lineup of choice STILL is. I'd trade just about anything that's on these days (Mad Men exluded, of course) for Lonsome Dove and Band of Brothers reruns!

Is it Robert Picardo, Chelsea, who's now on that new "Castle" show?

If I'm correct, I can't accept that 10 points----since got it from ibdb!

imdb, that is

Lonesome Dove - the best western ever made - but that's just my opinion. Loved the book so much and was sure the mini-series would be a big disappointment. What a wonderful surprise when I watched it. Other favorite westerns: 3:10 to Yuma (Glen Ford), Hondo, The Unforgiven (Burt Lancaster), The Searchers, Ride the High Country, Cat Ballou (which I almost don't really consider a western, even though it took place in the old west - but I love it for Lee Marvin's wonderful performance as the two gunslingers). My husband likes Last Train From Gun Hill, but I have seen that movie so many times I can recite the dialogue right along with the actors, so it has lost its charm - plus, I have never been a fan of Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn - they were both overly testosteroniated in my book, so putting them together in a western was just overkill in my opinion. I do like Carolyn Jones, however, and she was very good in that movie.

One of my favorites, which I can never remember the name of, was James Garner and Jason Robards, Jr., playing Wyatt Earp and that good ol' Georgia boy Doc Holliday. Very dark characterizations. He played Wyatt later in a fun movie with Bruce Willis as Tom Mix. One of the bigs of the day, of course, was Gunfight at OK Coral with your favorites Kirk Douglas as Doc and Burt Lancaster as Wyatt. To tie back to Mad Men, if memory serves, one of the Earp brothers in that moview was played by the guy who became Samantha's first husband on Bewitched and HE was in advertising.

Last Train from Gun Hill. Great.

When the 3:10 to Yuma remake came out, I got a collection of Elmore Leonard's pulp cowboy magazine stories and they were really, really good. Some excellent writing.

You're the first woman I ever met who put Hondo on a favorites list. You are too young to remember that was first released in 3-D. The Searchers was great, too.

If you want an authority on every western ever made, it is Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner. He says its because that's mostly what he got to see in Kabul when he was growing up and that he was totally surprised to lern when he got to the U.S. that John Wayne did not speak Farsi.

John Wayne- I forgot Stagecoach and Tall in the Saddle. Hondo, yes, a favorite and why I don't really know, but I watch it whenever it comes on. Geraldine Page and the great Leo Gordon as her scoundrel husband, killed by John Wayne. The Apache chief played by some Italian actor - can't remember his name. Cowboys and Indians always made for a great movie. Of course, being all grown up and older and wiser, it is hard to watch some of the old oaters when you know the true story of the American Indian. But I still watch the really good ones - or at least the ones I think are good.

Lonesome Dove...classic of classics as far as westerns go. Love both the book and the movie, which hardly ever happens.

Didn't you just love ol' Gus and his piggies?

I always figured they'd end up in some barbeque or ? somewhere along the cattle drive....

Loved Robt. Duvall and Diane Lane's chemistry...always "cutting the cards for a poke"...ha!

And him cooling down in the river when some of the cowboys ride up, his line:

"You boys better calm down or you'll end up with the drizzles." ha!

Love Robert Duvall in anything, actually. I never miss LD when it's on.

And "Cat Ballou"...Lee Marvin is totally hilarious!

Also, "The Big Country" I love that sweeping music score when Gregory Peck is riding along over the landscape....beautiful.

Uh oh...I just keep thinking of things! I'm almost done (ha)

Ol' Mose in "The Searchers" always wanting Ethan (J. Wayne) to bring him a "rockin' chair" !!

They don't make 'em like all those anymore, do they?

China Beach yes that was the show. SCfan I will have to check out that site and see. I didn't see Castle. Did you like it? Yes Robert Duvall is a great actor. Did you see him in Tender Mercies? Great movie. I saw 3:10 to Yuma both the one with Glenn Ford and the new one with the Aussie. I kind of liked the black and white one better.

That weren't a cowboy who rode up on Gus in the river. That was Blue Duck himself -- the evilest, vilest villan ever (although he was much vilern in the book). So bad that a friend of mine in Texas refers to his ex-wife as Blue Duck for all the atrocities she allegedly heaped on him during and after the divorce.

So to at leasat circle back toward the Mad Men era, a movie made from Larry McMurtry's FIRST book would have come out about then -- won three Oscars and nominated for four more. The Novel was "Horseman, Pass By." And, the movie was...?

Although the screenplay was nominated, Larry McMurty did not write the screenplay. However, he would later win an Oscar for a screenplay that WAS NOT based on one of his novels. And that was...?

(no fair hitting IMDB!!!)

"Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!" Yeats. I think he, McMurtry, won his Oscar for "Brokeback Mountain" (Annie Proulx). The first movie, though, I am not sure about. I know he was nominated for his "The Last Picture Show", but that came out in the 70s, I think. A movie I liked at the time but I don't think I have seen it since then. Wonder if it would hold up for me now? Still drawing a blank on the other one, unless it was "Lonely are the Brave" with Kirk Douglas.

Yes, Chelsea, I love "Tender Mercies" RD soooo deserved his Oscar, I thought.

David...yes, Blue Duck came along AFTER the cowboys...as I recall....whatever....

I also liked when Tommy Lee Jones (Woodrow) rode back into town to claim Gus' body and was told there's a hanging coming of a real stinker (paraphrasing) to which he replied:

"Some politician?"

Where does "Terms of Endearment" fit in with the sequence of his novels? Was it one of his first, if not his first?

The movie was Hud. Patricia Neal and Melvyn Douglas won acting Oscars.

Right on Brokeback Mountain.

Terms of Endearment was about 10 years after Last Picture Show and about 10 years before Lonesome Dove.

There are three or four sequels to the Last Picture Show and they're kind of bland, and a sequel and two prequels to Lonesome Dove, which are all pretty good.

Technically McMurty won the Brokemback Mountain Oscar as a co-writer with his spouse. But it was based on the Annie Proulx short story in The New Yorker.

The movie was Hud. Patricia Neal and Melvyn Douglas won acting Oscars.

Right on Brokeback Mountain.

Terms of Endearment was about 10 years after Last Picture Show and about 10 years before Lonesome Dove.

There are three or four sequels to the Last Picture Show and they're kind of bland, and a sequel and two prequels to Lonesome Dove, which are all pretty good.

Technically McMurty won the Brokemback Mountain Oscar as a co-writer with his spouse. But it was based on the Annie Proulx short story in The New Yorker.

SCfan I don't think it was Robert Picardo because he is bald. This guy on China Beach had one of those flat top/crew cut hair cuts similar to Howy Long. Anyway not really important .... I'm just curious. I agree Z I was never that crazy about Kirk Douglas. I remember Frank Gorshem (sp) the guy who played the Riddler on Batman did a great impression of Kirk Douglas. Very funny.

David wasn't Fredric March in Hud - not Melvyn Douglas? I didn't peak. Maybe they both were in. I saw that movie about a year ago and it was good. Another one I like was the Misfits and they was right around the MAd Men era.

Arrghhhh! You made me look. It was Melvyn Douglas. But easy confusion. Douglas was essentially playing the same kind of character as Fredric March in East of Eden. March's good turn in a western WAS also with Paul Newman in Hombre, which I had forgotten about until you made me look, and Martin Ritt was director of both Hud and Hombre.

I do believe it was Raymond Massey (in EOE) not Fredric March...but, as you say, easily confused. I read that and thought...seems like I recall that part being played by Raymond Massey...looked it up (imdb, again!) and there he was. I cheated! No soup for me, right Chelsea? hee

Chelsea, now you've got me curious, too...wonder who the heck that guy was (who reminded you of Vic Morrow) on China Beach?...looked on imdb under China Beach's cast and didn't see anyone who looked much like VM to me...but, not all the "main" stars had pics either. Oh well...anybody have any idea?

Maybe Brian Wimmer?

Yep no soup for you SCFan. Whew that was confusing. So I have seen Hud buy not Hombre. No not Brian Wimmer. This is driving me crazy now I have to figure it out.

I wish they had pics of all the cast on the imdb page for China Beach...some are just blank.

SCfan, Z ...you mentioned RD in "Tender Mercies".
That movie holds a interesting memory for me.
At the time I was a manager for a resturant in downtown Dallas where business people would have lunch and cocktails after work. One of my cocktail waitresses asked me to take off for a few days, (she was also an actress) she told me she had an audition in Houston for a movie roll. Her name was Tess Harper and after she was cast in that movie with RD I never saw her again. She often plays rolls that are wives or mothers. I still do a double take when I see her name.

Wow, holotta, what a neat memory!

I love her work in Tender Mercies...so "real" and believable. I think she and RD had great chemistry, too. She sounds like she was very down to earth when you knew her, which comes across in her acting.

Here's a link to the Tender Mercies trailer, with Tess in in...she's so good, even in this little snippet.

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index/?cid=143552

I got to thinking about Tender Mercies and that beautiful touching song at the end ---

http://www.craigbickhardt.com/lyrics/lyric_you_are_what_love_means.html

Thanks SCfan for the link, Tess looks just as I remember her. She was a very nice and friendly person.
Even thought it's been years since I've lived in Texas I can still hear shades of a texas accent when she talks.
I've never heard that song, I love how the words often play off the movie. Same as MM does. I will make a point to listen to it next time the movie's on.

There is some stupid bracket thing (either on this AMC site of another one) that supposedly lets you pick the best cowboy ever, but it is so rigged that Robert Duvall gets beat out by somebody like Lee Marvin, who was in like ONE cowboy movie. OK, it was a good one, but still ....

And OK, Robert Duvall is from, like, San Diego or some other very uncowboy place, but still....

Don't nooooobody badmouth Boo Radley/Augustus McCrae/Mac Sledge, etc. while there's breath in my body! Best Cowboy (or any part) Portrayer ever ever ever.

But, Lee M. was totally hilarious in Cat Ballou (also wonderful acting in addition to the hilarity) I remember being happy when he got the Oscar.

Is it just me or does the pic of RD on imdb look like a mug shot?

Hmmmmmmm, If I were him I'd change that fast to a pic of "Gus McCrae" or ?