Nostalgia..What do you remember

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I remember going to see Kennedy speak at a campaign rally, Bill Haley and the Comets provided entertainment until JFK arrived. The previous week, I stood on a street corner a block away from my house to see Nixon's motorcade pass by. He rode in an open convertible. Cool stuff for a 12 year old. Neither of these two historic men looked anything like their appearance on TV, when viewed in person.

Recall riding trains behind steam locomotives on the Reading and PRSL, as well as the electrified trains on the PRR, and Diesel powered trains on the B&O Royal Blue Line through town.

Listening to the Lone Ranger and Gunsmoke on radio when I had the Mumps, and wasn't allowed to watch TV.

Mattel 44 Revolvers, and snub nosed 38. Listening to adults complain when the price of a stamp went from 4¢ to 5¢. National chain drug stores were Ligget's (Rexall), Whelan's (Great Luncheonette). and Sun Ray downtown, plus local independents in almost every neighborhood. Four different 5¢ and 10¢ stores within the space of two city blocks. Fire Trucks with front mounted pumps ahead of the engine (Ahrens-Fox), Mandatory TV: Fights on Friday night; Jackie Gleason on Saturday night; Ed. Sullivan on Sunday Night; and Bishop Sheen and Voice of Firestone, on Monday Night; plus Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Hopalong Cassidy and the Cisco Kid.

Joe
 
I remember the Cloverland milk man, the Standard Coffee man. Anyone else have coffee man?

I also remember a door to door salesmen named "Goldie" selling all kinds of stuff.

I remember when schools were a safe place and I never remember seeing a policemen at school except when they came to show us their police dogs.

I remember people dressing nice for Baltimore Colts NFL games instead of dressing like foolish clowns to be on TV.

I remember listening to baseball games from all parts of the country at night because of the signals from Omnidirectional broadcast towers bouncing off the atmosphere (I guess that is why)before directional broadcast towers were mandatory.

Thinking of baseball I remember when day games were a regular occurrence and you could see a scheduled double header for the price of one game.

Things have changed a lot in my life time, I often wonder how much things will change in my grandsons life times
 
I failed to mention this is a great idea for a thread and I am enjoying reading everyone's memories, thank you.

I believe nostalgia is the driving force behind many model railroaders.
 


My memory is classified!

What I'm allowed to disclose though, I remember going from B/W to colour and two channel TV, dead cheap sweets, learning to ride the bike myself, straight from those wee three wheeler things to two wheels, never had stabilisers, remember my first day at school like if it was yesterday, remember first getting introduced to US railroads (D&H and N&W), that old Swedish State Railways brown...my first bike, which was blue...
 
I remember back in the 50's when I got my Lionel Train set for Christmas. My Dad was setting up a oval layout on the floor and was wearing a Timex watch with a metal and. He had the transformer turned to full throttle power when he crossed the tracks with the watch's metal band. Causing a short circuit, the watch band fused to the tracks and burned a watch band imprint into his wrist.

With some strong remarks he pulled the band off the tracks, ending train day.

And yes, the Timex watch "took a beating but kept on ticking."

Thanks.

Greg
 
Y3a mentioned sillputty and flubber. I think the only use for sillputty was to flatten it out on a picture in the newspaper and lift it off. You could then stretch it to distort the picture. I think flubber bounced, maybe the predecessor to the super ball, those hard black balls a shade smaller than a tennis ball. you could throw it at a wall and it would remove all pictures, vases and lamps in 1 throw. yOU HAD TOO DUCK!
 
There was a milkman, a butter and egg man, a bread man - actually multiple dairies and bakeries, (My grand parents actually used a different dairy from the one my mother used).
The Hucksters who sold fresh produce neighborhood to neighborhood, from their truck or (in Baltimore. their horse drawn wagon). There was a coffee man, (Cook Coffee), who came around quarterly, the Fuller Brush guy who came around every six months or so, and a tailor, who sold dry goods from his truck. There was even a kosher bakery guy who sold to the Jewish people in the neighborhood, and used to give us kids "bagels". The local butchers and grocers delivered phone in orders long before the "Peapod". You really could get away with never leaving the neighborhood.

We had a five digit phone number, and any call outside of our town had to go through an operator, My buddy's house had a wooden wall phone with brass bells on the top, and a retro fitted rotary dial and handset. Every other block had a red "Gamewell" fire alarm telegraph box on the corner. And the house I grew up in, built in 1915, still had gaslight fixtures (no longer working).

It is truely amazing how much the world has changed during our lifetimes.

Joe
 
I remember when Reese Cups went from a nickel to seven cents each, I swore I'd never buy another one. They cost too much...

Do they still make Mallo Cups?
 
bwells said:
How far back can you remember?
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1959 waiting on the curb for my sister to come back from this new flange thing called Kindergarten. I never went to kindergarten because we moved from the "big" city to a small town where they also had never heard of such a thing. But going forward from there.... I remember heavy weight equipment behind Santa Fe red war bonnets. I remember 16 passenger trains a day instead of 2. I remember when Lionel and American Flyer when cheapo. I remember fiber tie track and turnouts where one had to cut a notch under the track for the throw bar. All the turnouts had hot frogs back then so it was no mystery to anyone on how to wire them. I remember almost every garage sale had some sort of old train set. I remember discovering nickel silver rail in 1964 (2 decades before the masses who are now so anti-brass). I remember when N-scale was introduced. I remember when Atlas introduced the first production precision drive on an HO locomotive. I remember the first command control and sound (also 2 decades before the masses).
 
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Being close to 14 years old and living in HAMBURG, NY when the BLIZZARD of '77 hit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_of_1977, not to mention having first hand knowledge when Schools were going to be closed. Two seeing my mother under pressure .. there was the true Grace Under Fire ! Lol .


BCK RR
 
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What about the motorized Erector sets with a lot of tiny nuts and bolts? You drop one into the green shag carpet, it is gone until mom pulled out the Electrolux vacuum that had no wheels, just skids. That thing could suck the paint of an engine block. She would drag it around like a snow sled and when she found our missing nuts/bolts, you could hear it all over the house. Dad gave us a big magnet and told us to use it to find the stuff. I guess mom went to dad and complained. Busted!
 
I remember my silly putty falling of the dresser onto a throw rug..... YEP, sunk right in, never to be removed. The rug was thrown out, and I was forbidden to have any more silly putty. They discontinued Flubber as it was causing rashes.
I remember when I could buy a chemistry set out of the Sears catalog.
I remember Milk Boxes, Standard Coffee, who also delivered eggs to my Grandmother.
I remember my great Grandfather telling us stories of his granddad fighting in the civil war.
I remember when Safeway used to carry Ideal toys in big picture boxes so you could see into the box.
I remember that on sunday NOTHING WAS OPEN except the Hot Shoppes.
I remember Aurthur Godfrey, Tennessee Ernie Ford (Hello Pea Pickers!) and Topo Gigio, Mr. Wizard, Beany & Cecil, Wonderama with Sonny Fox and Romper Room.
I remember when those metallic Christmas trees with the 4 section color wheel lights were the rage.
I remember when the folks up the street got that first Color TV.
I remember Street cars in Alexandria, VA.
I remember when the Washington & Old Dominion crossed Interstate 95 in Shirlington, VA and went to Vienna VA to deliver Mail off a doodlebug.
I remember that 1st 7-11 in town.
I remember when you could get paper road maps at gas stations.
 
Y3a said:
I remember ...
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While you were remembering from NoVa, I was over in PG County remembering the Washington Senators at RFK Stadium and The Joy Boys (Willard & Scott ?) on the local radio. And the riots in DC when MLK was assassinated. And lots of the other ones that you already mentioned
 
I remember Harden & Weaver(WMAL-AM), Murphy in the Morning(WEEL-AM), and I actually KNOW Weasel, Bob here, Josh, and David from WHFS when they were in Bethesda at 102.3 FM.
 
I remember stepping on a bumblebee in my bare feet in 1954 when I was 3 years old. Pain can leave a powerful memory! More generally, I remember watching trains go by on the Wabash line near our house during the same era.

- Jeff
 
I remember growing up in a suburb of Detroit in the 1960's. Back then it was the 5th largest city in the U.S., and a prosperous industrial powerhouse. I could look out my bedroom window at night and see the brightly-lit skyline. Nobody could have ever convinced me back then that 35 years later, it was going to be a crumbling ghost town.:(
 


CSX_road_slug said:
I remember growing up in a suburb of Detroit in the 1960's. Back then it was the 5th largest city in the U.S., and a prosperous industrial powerhouse. I could look out my bedroom window at night and see the brightly-lit skyline. Nobody could have ever convinced me back then that 35 years later, it was going to be a crumbling ghost town.:(
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Which is a right
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shame, to say the least! Still remember hearing it on the radio here, during the nightshift, that Detroit had or was going to file for bankruptcy and I thought to myself....wtf!?
I remember those early Commodore games and whatever they were called....what it those that you downloaded the games from a tape and when one side was done, took it out flipped it and continued? Also remember, back in the early 80's, fill a tank and get change back on a 50 note!
 
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