19 Things Every Baby Boomer Will Recognize

I had the original Barbie - 1959. My grandmother sewed the outfits for her, even a faux mink coat.

I remember all the rest as well, but didn't own all of them.

Just looked up the going rate for an original 1959 Barbie in mint condition - $27K!!
 

Ameriscot said:
I had the original Barbie - 1959. My grandmother sewed the outfits for her, even a faux mink coat.

I remember all the rest as well, but didn't own all of them.

Just looked up the going rate for an original 1959 Barbie in mint condition - $27K!!
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wow...did you keep the 1959 Barbie?
 
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This was my favorite Christmas gift and I kept it fifty year..from 1961. Only difference was I had a basket in front.
 

Karen, that is a fancy bike compared to mine. Mine had those big clunky balloon tires. Hard to maneuver in grass. No gears, no hand brakes.:p
 
I didn't have a proper bicycle until I was eleven. However, we had a small caterpillar tractor used on one of our fields, I was able to drive it from the age of five. It was deadly dangerous as the exhaust pipe ran along the side of the tractor and it was easy to burn oneself on it, no health and safety controls in those days!

I learned drive one of my father's cars when I was twelve, but of course couldn't go on the road until I passed my driving test at 17, the legal driving age.
 
NancyNGA said:
Karen, that is a fancy bike compared to mine. Mine had those big clunky balloon tires. Hard to maneuver in grass. No gears, no hand brakes.:p
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Nancy..I never dreamed I'd actually get that bike for Christmas. My old used bike (which I also loved) was stolen and I had to walk to school for a couple of months...and this was like being handed the keys to a new Cadillac. It went away to college with me and took me many , many miles over my life. It was just the most beautiful bike I ever saw..and still is :)
 
I loved my Barbie, Ragaddy Ann dolls just before aging out of the doll phase, I had a play group, we formed our little multi-culural group, on our own I don't think any of us saw it that way in our little Brooklyn neighborhood. I only see the uniqueness decades later. Anyway, we used to make clothing for our Barbie's we also used to ride our bikes up and down the sidewalk. It was avery fun time stone ave or gates street in Brooklyn NY. I can't remember which, but, ii remember those gals and my best friend in crime, Anna. Thanks for the memories
 
The Woolworth's lunch counter was my Holy Mecca of dining. I was NOT.ALLOWED.UNDER.ANY.CIRCUMSTANCES to eat there (my grandmother was convinced that eating at a dimestore lunch counter was a guaranteed bout of ptomaine poisoning as well as the first step on the slippery slope to "becoming common and/or vulgar" ).

Of course, as soon as I was old enough to go downtown on the occasional Saturday with my friends, it was off to the lunch counter. A BLT, fries and a Coke in a paper-cone/metal-holder contraption, served over the most delightful shaved ice, could be had for 50 cents or less. Round that out with a 40 cent movie (which was actually TWO movies, several cartoons and a newsreel), 25 cent bus fare and a 19 cent forbidden Tangee lipstick and a great time could be had for $1.50.
 
jujube said:
The Woolworth's lunch counter was my Holy Mecca of dining. I was NOT.ALLOWED.UNDER.ANY.CIRCUMSTANCES to eat there (my grandmother was convinced that eating at a dimestore lunch counter was a guaranteed bout of ptomaine poisoning as well as the first step on the slippery slope to "becoming common and/or vulgar" ).

Of course, as soon as I was old enough to go downtown on the occasional Saturday with my friends, it was off to the lunch counter. A BLT, fries and a Coke in a paper-cone/metal-holder contraption, served over the most delightful shaved ice, could be had for 50 cents or less. Round that out with a 40 cent movie (which was actually TWO movies, several cartoons and a newsreel), 25 cent bus fare and a 19 cent forbidden Tangee lipstick and a great time could be had for $1.50.
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That's so funny about your grandma :). My mom worked at Woolworth's lunch counter when she was 16 and that's where my dad met her. She got fired for cutting the cake too big..and that was a joke between them for the 50 years they were married before my dad passed.

i remember eating at Kress and Woolworth's lunch counters with girlfriends in jr high. We would buy cheap makeup and get our pictures taken in the photo booth...4 shots for a quarter...I guess that was my generation's "selfie". I remember we always did that at the county fair too.
 
Our dimestore was a spin-off of Kresge's, owned by a Neisner family, but everything in Ken's pic is exactly like it. I wonder if Woolworths and Kresges were linked. No "supermarkets" yet, my Mother, a non-driver, walked the three blocks to Cermak Road several times a week, buying the necessities like meat and milk. Neisner Dimestore was two blocks west of our street. We often ate lunch there, my favorite being open-face hot roast turkey sandwich with gravy, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce, 99 cents! After my nephew was born when I was 5, my sister, divorced going to work daily, he became the third party to our shopping trips; he remembers Neisners to this day, probably from about age 4, after which my sister remarried. imp
 
Early Dime Stores and Many Others (link)

A few memorable storefronts from Chicago-land area. Of the ones in the link, I recall about 90% of them. Note the vintage cars; 1950s and up. imp
http://www.craigslostchicago.com/lost-shopping.php

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Oh thank you so much!!! I still have a scar on my thumb from trying to open one of those frickin' Silly Putty eggs, but what fun. Copying cartoons from the newspaper. Can you imagine the new generation? But it doesn't DO anything. Chatty Cathy and Howdy Doody were before my time but hubby remembers Mr Potato Head when you had to have your own potato.
 
This is a linen postcard of the old Scotts store in my hometown in Ohio. I don't think it was a chain, but it was just like Woolworths, including a *huge* lunch counter running the length of the store. On the wall behind the counter was a jungle mural. As a kid that mural was what fascinated me. It is long gone.

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Nice postcard, Nancy :). I remember loving the five and dime stores...but what fun eating at the lunch counter.
 
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