ANY REALLY "YOUNG" FOLKS THAT REMEMBER THE SIXTIES AND FIFTIES?

[chickisoup]

Tinsel - our tree always had tinsel.  We had to put it on 1 strand at a time.  If you put it on in clumps, you got in trouble.  My evil sister would grab mine away and throw it on the tree.  Then she would call our mother and say, "He's just throwing it on the tree."    Real tinsel was very pretty - hated the plastic stuff.

I REALLY miss the real tinsel. When they took the real stuff away I switched to using Angel hair. If you did it right you could get a beautiful effect! Wrong and y tree looked like a giant cocoon! .

 

[sourland]

As a kid I was always collecting wild creatures. I would keep them for a while and then release them back into the wild. So one year I found a whole nest full of torpid deer mice, brought them home and placed them in an old copper 'canning' tub. All was fine for a while, and then they somehow escaped. When we put up the Christmas tree they all made it their home. I thought it was pretty neat seeing them scurrying around - my parents, not so much

Then there was the time that I put all the praying mantis egg cases behind the bathroom radiator --------------------------------------

 

[dawg53]

'Air raid drills' - scared the crap out of this little kid. I was preparing for the END.

I remember "duck and cover" in the 60's. Kids that sat in rows closest to the windows had to go out into the hallway, crouch down and cover their heads with their hands and arms. The rest of the kids in the class had to crouch down under their desktops. On the last Saturday of each month at 10am, for years, air raid sirens sounded...just as a test to ensure they worked properly. I think it was discontinued around 1970.
Does anyone remember the "bubblers" that were also used as lights on the Christmas tree? They were lights that had a colored glass tube with water in them (I think it was water.) Once they heated up, they would bubble. I thought they were the coolest lights ever!

 

[sourland]

Jim, I remember the bubblers. We never had any, but I too thought they were the very coolest lights ever.

 

[dawg53]

Just like old times George!

 

[chickisoup]

Actually still have some of the bubble lights. You could buy reproductions until LED lights came out.

Boy, do I remember those drills. They used to herd us all into the gym of my little brick elementary school. One spring we all got herded into the gym because of a tornado warning and we all sat down cross legged and "assumed the position". All of a sudden, CRASH!!! One of those huge old round gym ceiling lights came crashing down and nearly killed a kid! Fortunately he survived and they never put us in the gym again.

BTW- remember when all the gyms had a stage too?

 

[sourland]

Gym? Your school had a gym? We went outside, and yep we survived monkey bars and dodge ball and bigger kids picking on us. Okay, here comes real 'old guy' stuff. My first school was two rooms. Kindergarten through 4th in one room and 5th through 8th in the other. The doctor used to come to school and check us out - one kid would immediately start crying and then all of us would follow - well she must have known something bad was coming, right? We also had an outdoor toilet - anyone top that? After my third grade they shut that school down and we became part of a consolidated system. First day in the new school teacher left the room, and I was stuffed butt first in the garbage can by the 'residents'. Teacher came back just as I tipped the can over and gave me what for because of my 'behavior'. I didn't rat out the other kids and was immediately accepted.

 

[chickisoup]

As a kid I was always collecting wild creatures.  I would keep them for a while and then release them back into the wild.  So one year I found a whole nest full of torpid deer mice, brought them home and placed them in an old copper 'canning' tub.  All was fine for a while, and then they somehow escaped.  When we put up the Christmas tree they all made it their home.  I thought it was pretty neat seeing them scurrying around - my parents, not so much    Then there was the time that I put all the praying mantis egg cases behind the bathroom radiator --------------------------------------

My dad's place was on a small lake. The house itself was an old farmhouse that the town sort of grew up around it. When my dad bought it in the fifties he discovered passageways between the walls and found out it had been used as a speakeasy during prohibition. (Dad never told us about them but we found the one that went from the second floor bedrooms to the basement and out the garage and he never knew it ).
Anyway, when I was little I caught a huge gar pike off our dock. I was so proud of the thing I put some water in our old clawfoot bathtub and put it in there so I could show daddy when he got home. Well, daddy worked late, came in and headed straight up stairs. We were all busy watching tv and Everyone forgot all about the fish. Pop must have been so tired he didn't look when he put in the soap and ran the water. When he climbed in that tub they probably heard the scream on the other side of the lake!!!

 

[sourland]

Kind of like when I threw the rubber snake into bed with my 'semi sleeping' shift working father. What was I thinking?

 

[dawg53]

Gym? Your school had a gym? We went outside, and yep we survived monkey bars and dodge ball and bigger kids picking on us. Okay, here comes real 'old guy' stuff. My first school was two rooms. Kindergarten through 4th in one room and 5th through 8th in the other. The doctor used to come to school and check us out - one kid would immediately start crying and then all of us would follow - well she must have known something bad was coming, right? We also had an outdoor toilet - anyone top that? After my third grade they shut that school down and we became part of a consolidated system. First day in the new school teacher left the room, and I was stuffed butt first in the garbage can by the 'residents'. Teacher came back just as I tipped the can over and gave me what for because of my 'behavior'. I didn't rat out the other kids and was immediately accepted.

You didnt rat them out because you KNEW what would happen if you did LOL! Yeah, been there too.

LOLOL