June 22, 2011

Who else had a ping pong ball gun?

{ED: Twist again like we did last summer....}

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Were they real and were they spectacular? Youth wanted to know!

Rodger @ the everCurmudgeonly & Skeptical posts "My Youth in one E-Mail."

Mine too. I once rode my bicycle five miles and back on the rumor Annette Funicello was staying at a house in a neighboring suburb. (My friends and I knew, just knew, to a certainty that Annette had [whisper]breasts[/whisper] that were being held down by skillfully deployed Ace athletic bandages. I was going to go for an off-camera sighting to confirm or deny once and for all. Alas, the house was curtained and nobody went in or came out for hours and I was under strict standing instructions: "Home before dark."

Even if this wasn't your youth how many of these 36 items and images do you recognize?




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Posted by Vanderleun at June 22, 2011 8:33 AM
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

I was born in 1964 -- about 20 years younger than people who'd have seen this stuff in the 1950s -- but I nevertheless recognize about half of these items, from when I was a small child in the late 1960s or very early 1970s. It's fascinating to me to realize that some of the stuff I was seeing at age 5-7 was, in effect, 1950s stuff that had lasted into the time of Apollo 11. Times change and generations change, but there's also a certain degree of persistence and lag.

It's also just plain amazing to look at things like the McDonald's sign (from back when the numbers of hamburgers were a defined quantity in the millions, not "many billions") and realize how long it's been since I saw them.

Thanks for posting this!

Posted by: Erich Schwarz at June 18, 2010 9:58 AM

Hula hoops have made a HUGE comeback with Burning Man attendees and other neo-hippie types in the SF Bay Area. Of course, now they're all dolled up with artsy accessories.

Posted by: Aquila at June 18, 2010 10:13 AM

I clearly remember people sitting for hours watching the test pattern on their new television set and swearing that it moved.

Posted by: Rob De Witt at June 18, 2010 11:05 AM

Erich, I was about to say the same thing. (Born in '67.) Odd how some '50's artifacts lasted well into the '70's. (Though you never see it in TV & movie recreations.)

Anyone up for HoJo's?

Posted by: LS at June 18, 2010 11:08 AM

My fondest memory (and maybe my only worthy memory) of the Micky Mouse Club was Annette Funicello twirling so her pleated skirt went up and revealed her panties.

Annette was an interesting phenomenon in the 50's, or, at least, appears to be so in retrospect when you look through the distorted lens of what we were supposedly like as Americans back then. She was an Italian brunette who was America's sweetheart at a time when a supposedly lily-white America was supposed to have preferred pale, blue-eyed blondes. An Arab-American named Danny Thomas had a hit TV comedy, and Nat King Cole was universally loved. Oh, and Eye-talians ruled the beach blanket movies that Jews produced.

We were a more complex and nuanced (and grown-up) people than we are portrayed as being in the current narrative.

Posted by: Don Rodrigo at June 18, 2010 11:37 AM

It took me a minute on the skate key.Cool stuff. Who could forget moms and their green stamp books.The first MacDonalds was the next town over(San Bernardino).

Posted by: ck at June 18, 2010 11:49 AM

Whose the leader of the club that's made for you and me? M.I.C.K.E.Y M.O.U.S.E

Posted by: ck at June 18, 2010 11:52 AM

What was the yellow thing top left? It looks really familiar.

Posted by: ck at June 18, 2010 11:56 AM

ck:

What was the yellow thing top left? It looks really familiar.

That's a 45 rmp adapter to play singles on a standard phonograph: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45_rpm_adapter

Posted by: bubba lite at June 18, 2010 12:34 PM

Of course, now they're all dolled up with artsy accessories. LIKE FIRE.

Posted by: WWWebb at June 18, 2010 1:50 PM

ck -- That looks like the ammunition for the plastic disc guns I used to ambush my friends with.

I was born in '67, and all I can say is there was never such a thing as having too many Lincoln Logs!

Posted by: Dar at June 18, 2010 1:55 PM

Sorry Dar. Sorry CK. The yellow plastic disc thingee snapped into 45 rpm records so they'd fit over a thin spindle on a 33 45 78 speed turntable.

Some had a cylindar that snapped over the tall spindle so you could stack em.

Posted by: vanderleun at June 18, 2010 1:58 PM

If I'm not mistaken, that yellow thing is the gizmo you stuck inside the hole on a 45 to make it fit on the spindle of a record player.

Posted by: azlibertarian at June 18, 2010 1:59 PM

Simultaneous commenting is always allowed.

Posted by: vanderleun at June 18, 2010 2:13 PM

The "yellow thing" ck is a spindle you inserted into 45s so you could play them on a regular record player.

I recognize everything, but where is Howdy?

I remember running into Frankie Avalon in a hotel lobby in my small home town. He was there with the group of Bandstand regulars for some group rock'n'roll show and I became so disillusioned when I realized that he was so short, he didn't even come up to my shoulder. I think I was about 13 or 14 at the time. Later when he hooked up with Annette for the Beach Blanket movies, I couldn't get into them knowing how really short he was.

My cousin and I each got a Toni doll for Christmas the year I was six. Hers was blond, mine brunette. I have a gazillion black and white photos of us playing with our Toni dolls because that same Christmas my Uncle gave me my first Brownie camera.

As to McDonalds, my h.s. boyfriend was the first employee hired at the first East Coast McDonalds and back then the sign read in the thousands not the millions.

Well now that I've made myself feel ancient ...

My Dad wouldn't spend a dime on new things as long as what we had would still do the trick. My Dad died the year I was 13 and the day after his funeral, my Mother had a brand new automatic washer and dryer delivered. No more wringer washer in the basement and dragging heavy baskets of wet laundry up the cellar stairs to hang it on lines out in the backyard.

Posted by: Sara (Pal2Pal) at June 18, 2010 2:13 PM

Replace that Ernie Banks baseball card with a Robin Roberts and you got a deal.

Another "blast from the past"-- the "I Like Ike" animated cartoon from the 1952 presidential campaign: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG4IX5jBc4Q&feature=related

Posted by: Connecticut Yankee at June 18, 2010 2:25 PM

Gerard, I knew it would hit me like a ton of bricks when I found out. I must be getting senile.

Posted by: ck at June 18, 2010 4:03 PM

I have several books of the s & H green stamps. Know where I can redeem them? :)

Posted by: Maeci at June 18, 2010 5:53 PM

What's the still just below the test pattern from?

Posted by: Ed at June 18, 2010 6:17 PM

Yikes, I remember everything up there. I got my first baseball mitt with S&H Green Stamps. We had that exact lever-action ice cube tray in our 1950s fridge. And my grandmother had one of those wringer washers. We had a more modern one, but no dryer. Some of my earliest memories are of my mother hanging out the laundry in the back yard. We also had a fancy stereo that allowed you to stack 45s on the spindle adapter, no yellow discs required. No McDonald's in Detroit back then. It was only Top Hat Hamburgers or White Castle. White Castles are still around (think Crystal's if you're from the South), but Top Hat has gone the way of the dodo bird.

Posted by: waltj at June 18, 2010 7:37 PM

I still have my skate key!

Posted by: M*A at June 18, 2010 7:43 PM

You could also add to the list: rotary dial phones and slide rules.
Just last week I ran into two younger colleagues at the university. One of them had never seen or heard of a kaleidoscope, the other did not know what the purpose of an abacus was.

Posted by: Grizzly at June 18, 2010 11:20 PM

I remember most of that stuff.

Some thoughts:

I still have my 1960 Ernie Banks baseball card.

I can remember having 15 penny candies and feeling rich.

The Mickey Mouse Club aired in reruns in the early 60s in St. Louis. My sister wanted to watch it but I wanted to watch reruns of Sea Hunt with Lloyd Bridges on another channel. We had one TV, a Hotpoint B&W which was broke more often than it worked. We would have knockdown drag-out fights over who would get to watch their preferred program. The fights could last until the programs were over.

The Falstaff can is from the mid-70s. It was the beer I drank in college. Omaha brewed Falstaff was the perfect beer.

A world gone away......

Posted by: feeblemind at June 19, 2010 9:34 AM

Being (barely) on the sunny side of 60, what can I ad to this but: BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!

I remember Captain Kangaroo when he was a Leiutenant... I remember Tarzan BEFORE he had Cheeta for comic relief, (he was doing "one-nighters" in South Jersey and working at a car wash between gigs)... I remember comic books when they were ALL black-and-white... I remember when Kodak was "paint-by-numbers"... I remember cars with "bumper bullets" and planes with propellers... I remember when Playboy was "scandelous..." I remember when Dick Nixon was honest and Ted Kennedy was respectable... 50 cent packs of cigarrettes (some are near or over $10 a pack;) I gave up the "Evil Weed" when the price went over 60 cents/pack. That's when I started drinking heavily.

I was happy with ICBM's that could hit anywhere on this-here planet in 17 minutes... heck, I could do a "terrible" amount of damage in 17 minutes back then. Me and God could settle-up when the smoke cleared.

Skate keys on a string were like a fungo bat; just something you could beat your brother with if you could get in close enough. Pre-teen boys (especially from large families,) were like the American answer to Ninja Warriors. We could kill without remorse and blame all the mayhem on a younger brother!

God blessed/cursed me in my later years by making me the father of only one daughter. I can not tell you how many nights I have spent sleepless, knowing that I would probably have to shotgun some young man for having attempted to take "liberties" with my Princess, even though she was more-than-capable of defending her own Honor (many years of NRA training.)

Yes, my friends, THOSE were the Golden Years... and they each SUCKED in their own way!

Da*n... I MISS them so!

Posted by: Mike (AZ) at June 19, 2010 1:41 PM

Being (barely) on the sunny side of 60, what can I ad to this but: BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!

I remember Captain Kangaroo when he was a Leiutenant... I remember Tarzan BEFORE he had Cheeta for comic relief, (he was doing "one-nighters" in South Jersey and working at a car wash between gigs)... I remember comic books when they were ALL black-and-white... I remember when Kodak was "paint-by-numbers"... I remember cars with "bumper bullets" and planes with propellers... I remember when Playboy was "scandelous..." I remember when Dick Nixon was honest and Ted Kennedy was respectable... 50 cent packs of cigarrettes (some are near or over $10 a pack;) I gave up the "Evil Weed" when the price went over 60 cents/pack. That's when I started drinking heavily.

I was happy with ICBM's that could hit anywhere on this-here planet in 17 minutes... heck, I could do a "terrible" amount of damage in 17 minutes back then. Me and God could settle-up when the smoke cleared.

Skate keys on a string were like a fungo bat; just something you could beat your brother with if you could get in close enough. Pre-teen boys (especially from large families,) were like the American answer to Ninja Warriors. We could kill without remorse and blame all the mayhem on a younger brother!

God blessed/cursed me in my later years by making me the father of only one daughter. I can not tell you how many nights I have spent sleepless, knowing that I would probably have to shotgun some young man for having attempted to take "liberties" with my Princess, even though she was more-than-capable of defending her own Honor (many years of NRA training.)

Yes, my friends, THOSE were the Golden Years... and they each SUCKED in their own way!

Da*n... I MISS them so!

Posted by: Mike (AZ) at June 19, 2010 1:49 PM

Okay, I get the whole neo-hippy/burning man hula-hoop thing, and I don't disagree.

On the other hand, watch this, and tell me you're not in love!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvEBKqUyUS8

Posted by: rg at June 19, 2010 2:35 PM

Every single last one of 'em! Just like yesterday....

Posted by: Dinah at June 19, 2010 7:45 PM

I recognize all of 'em except for the guys on the Navy TV-set, it's not McHale's Navy anyhow...but we were overseas and missed a lot. The green-stamps were crucial to our limited economy and purchasing power.

Posted by: DirtCrashr at June 20, 2010 11:52 AM

I think maybe the pic blow the test pattern is of a rocket ship--maybe Captain Video (which I've never seen).

So tell us, Gerard, what is it?

Posted by: Sam L. at June 20, 2010 10:17 PM

Another one born in the sixties surprised by how many items were present in my childhood. Our cameras were crappy 110, the washing machine was sleeker, and Davy Crockett was replaced with Daniel Boone. And while mousketeers and the fuller brush man were things spoken of, they went unseen.

Posted by: ThomasD at June 21, 2010 7:03 AM

Capain Video and His Video Rangers

Posted by: vanderleun at June 21, 2010 9:55 AM

What memories! As newlyweds, we were so proud of our Studebaker, that is until our family outgrew it. I've often longed for that car, even without air conditioning. Truly a classic.

Posted by: Lois J at June 21, 2010 12:45 PM

TV watching-time was limited by my Parents, but so were the number of available (B&W) channels!
We had a B&W well into the time others had color, my parents got color-TV only in the early 70's...

Posted by: DirtCrashr at June 21, 2010 1:11 PM

I remember all but one. Nice finding a Tom Corbett Space Cadet picture.

Posted by: bill keezer at June 21, 2010 9:30 PM

Oh, yeah, we owned a '53 Study convertible.

Posted by: bill keezer at June 21, 2010 9:31 PM

The image below the test pattern is from
"Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea"

tomw

Posted by: tomw at June 27, 2010 7:39 AM

A big THANK YOU from a senior citizen for bringing back into my mind oh so many FANTASTIC memories ! Those penny candies and metal roller skates. Hey, what about those wooden wheel roller skates that were used in gymnasiums that had wooden floors? Again, THANK YOU! (Where have the years flown off to?)

Posted by: Christina at August 2, 2010 8:59 AM

Received some awkward stares joging along South Road with 4 aluminum bats...

Posted by: Nilsa Bednarz at September 30, 2010 12:53 PM

The first mate was a roller skate girl at Bob's Big Boy. (before I met her)

Posted by: M. Simon at June 22, 2011 6:02 AM

Born 1961. We did S&H Greenstamps up until they were discontinued in the 90s. They had a Greenstamp store here in Lancaster PA. I bought a shortwave radio with my collection of Greenstamps. I remember most everything else on that list, too. We had them all. Some of the more fun toys we had were Rock 'em Sock 'em robots, and Smash up Derby. Hotwheels and Matchbox cars. I had exactly one Barbie doll in my youth. I hated it. I got mostly Tonkas and baseball stuff when I was a girl. Geez. I sometimes miss my boyhood.
I was the Annette Funicello on my block. I knew the virtues of ACE by 11. I punched a lot of boys' noses in my day.

Posted by: Jewel at June 22, 2011 6:47 AM

Born 1954, I remember all except the Rangers. Heck, I remember 3-cent postage stamps. In a small town lots of things shown didn't appear until a few years after the city folks saw them all. And people here tend to keep things forever, so we had lots of stuff from earlier eras as part of our everyday life in the sixties.

What was cool was talking to all the old folks then, some of them born during Reconstruction, all of them before 1900. They had the stories of life as it was, and lots of the artifacts to prove it. Kids these days don't care about the past, mostly.

Posted by: Dan D at June 22, 2011 7:34 AM

I was born in 1963, but I recognized pretty much all of these items. I especially liked the 45 rpm adapter for the old record players (not a turntable, a record player), where you could pile up 4-5 LPs and let them drop down when the previous vinyl record reached the end.

Posted by: physics geek at June 22, 2011 8:41 AM

I miss home-delivered milk, and Merrie Melodies. The television "cartoon" shows today are grotesque and horrifying.

Posted by: Deborah at June 22, 2011 10:24 AM

Born in '52, I remember all that stuff. And I did indeed have one of those ping pong ball guns. It broke the second or third day. :(

JWM

Posted by: jwm at June 22, 2011 1:12 PM

And who remembers while watching that test screen (for no apparent reason)the stern warning from that haunting voice " It's 1:00 AM, do you know where your children are?

Posted by: figlio at June 22, 2011 2:07 PM

Born in '53, here. Got 'em all except the Captain Video pic - I was going underwater as well. Where's Richard Basehart when you need him?

Deborah, my first job was as a retail milkman when I was a mere youngster. The old man was in the biz and put me in the truck as soon as I could get a chauffeur's license. I'm now a programmer, and I imagine that job will be as dated as the friendly milkman before anyone expects it to.

No Super Ball though, Gerard. There should be a Super Ball. That's where we differ, generationally. This is skewed about five to eight years earlier than that, IMHO.

I'm just a whippersnapper, that way.

Posted by: mezzrow at June 22, 2011 2:25 PM

Who would have believed that this stuff would be old. I saw it all in black-and-white.

Posted by: mushroom at June 22, 2011 6:57 PM

I must be old -- I remember essentially all that stuff (though the flashbulb close-up had me stumped for a while), and owned many of them. Spent a lot of time at drive-in movies. Helped Mom with the Green Stamps. And forget grandmother -- both my mother and my wife's had tub washing machines with wringers. (Also clotheslines. And my Mom had an ironing machine.) Yes, rotary phones, but do you remember party lines? How about Big Chief Tablets for school? And I still have several slide rules, including a couple of circular ones.

Good memories!

Posted by: GDCritter at June 22, 2011 9:57 PM

Is it still possible to get cap guns? I remember playing with a wide variety of cap guns throughout my childhood (late-1950s through 1960s). This was considered normal for boys during that period. None of my friends turned into a violent (or nonviolent, for that matter) criminal, despite childhoods filled with toy guns.

Posted by: waltj at June 23, 2011 9:31 AM

Born in 1944 before television. Got most everything. Recognized the pic as either Captain Video and His Video Rangers or Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Give one of those smart alecky computer wizzes a yo yo today and he can't handle it. Some don't even know what it is!!!

Posted by: Glenn Laney at June 23, 2011 9:47 PM

Recognize all of them, owned many of them, rode in the Studis too. What you get for being born in 1943. Test patterns were on more than TV shows. Remember having to adjust the horizontal flip and vertical hold? Oh yeah, and getting up on the roof to adjust the antenna to 'fine tune' the reception.

How about Mickey D's sign saying 15 million sold.

Posted by: Peccable at June 24, 2011 6:33 AM

I was born in 1941, and remember them all clearly. How can so many years have passed? It all seems like yesterday to me. And what good days they were, too.

Posted by: David at June 26, 2011 5:19 PM