I Grew Up Back When - Post Your Memories...

I look back at most of these memories with warm fuzzy feelings but I often wonder what the younger ones will be writing about what they miss while growing up 50 years from now. Will they look back and reflect on missing actually driving a car ? Will they remember the times when they actually had to commute to work and enjoyed the social interaction with fellow workers ? And then I think about my parents and how they often reflected on their childhood and I think to myself how glad I did not grow up in their era.

I have come to the conclusion that the previous generation will always think the next generation grew up in "spoiled" times and the generation after that will think the previous generation grew up in "primitive" times.
 

Now that I'm on a roll..............girls weren't allowed in two of the three top NYC high schools. The third was equal genderized in 1949. This was under discussion at Mother's Day Brunch yesterday. Also, in the CUNY (City University of New York) system, to get in a boy needed an average of 88 and the girls, 93 because it was assumed the girl was only there for her MRS degree.
I've never heard about the 88/93 gap. If it existed while I attended city college in Calif, the boys didn't know. But we did fall victim to the propaganda that girls mainly went to college to find a husband or at least to lose their virginity to "good boys" aka "right side of the tracks" boys.

This was when the saying "it's hip to be square" was floating around, and college guys wore argyle sweater vests and repp ties or wide suspenders, flat-front khaki-colored chinos, short haircuts, and black-rimmed glasses to look educated, or like a bit of a dork but not a total dweeb.

In the late 60s I remember my cousin, Sarah, being totally pissed-off because she couldn't take Auto Shop in high school because she was a girl, so the school counselor signed her up for typing class instead. Just signed her up without even asking her. When she complained to the counselor, she was told there was zero possibility she'd ever be a mechanic, but every possibility she could get a clerical position just about anyplace. The sky was the limit in that field.

Sarah dropped typing class. She's enjoying a very successful career as a technical engineer in the field of robotics.
 
In the late 60s I remember my cousin, Sarah, being totally pissed-off because she couldn't take Auto Shop in high school because she was a girl, so the school counselor signed her up for typing class instead. Just signed her up without even asking her. When she complained to the counselor, she was told there was zero possibility she'd ever be a mechanic, but every possibility she could get a clerical position just about anyplace. The sky was the limit in that field.

Sarah dropped typing class. She's enjoying a very successful career as a technical engineer in the field of robotics.
I can relate to your cousin's experience although it was around a decade later- during my last years of high school girls were allowed to take wood shop and metal shop- power tools, and even some doodad called an oxyacetylene welder- but could not take auto shop.

It was flat-out stupid- because nearly everybody needs to know the basics of car repair, and not having even basic knowledge is the main reason I've never wanted to own a car. Figured a car could konk out, out in the middle of nowhere someplace, and I'd have no idea what was wrong with it.
 
”And I see this WE ARE A GENERATION THAT WILL NEVER COME BACK. A generation that went to school and walked back. A generation that did their homework alone to get out asap to play in the street. A generation that spent all their free time on the street. A generation that played hide and seek when dark. A generation that made mud cakes. A generation that collected sports cards. A generation that found, washed and sold empty coke bottles to the local grocery store for 5 cents each. A generation that made paper toys with their bare hands. A generation who bought vinyl albums to play on record players. A generation that collected photos and albums of clippings. A generation that played board games and cards on rainy days. A generation whose TV went off at midnight after playing the National Anthem. A generation that had parents who were there. A generation that laughed under the covers in bed so parents didn't know we were still awake. A generation that is passing and unfortunately will never return!!...”
How I miss those days.The only thing I don't miss was going to Catholic school and being taught by Nun's. You never knew when they were going to smack you with a ruler.
 
I've never heard about the 88/93 gap. If it existed while I attended city college in Calif, the boys didn't know. But we did fall victim to the propaganda that girls mainly went to college to find a husband or at least to lose their virginity to "good boys" aka "right side of the tracks" boys.

This was when the saying "it's hip to be square" was floating around, and college guys wore argyle sweater vests and repp ties or wide suspenders, flat-front khaki-colored chinos, short haircuts, and black-rimmed glasses to look educated, or like a bit of a dork but not a total dweeb.

In the late 60s I remember my cousin, Sarah, being totally pissed-off because she couldn't take Auto Shop in high school because she was a girl, so the school counselor signed her up for typing class instead. Just signed her up without even asking her. When she complained to the counselor, she was told there was zero possibility she'd ever be a mechanic, but every possibility she could get a clerical position just about anyplace. The sky was the limit in that field.

Sarah dropped typing class. She's enjoying a very successful career as a technical engineer in the field of robotics.
Ah I had a slightly different problem in jr high. Home Ec was required but I didn’t do so well in the sewing part. Which was kind of ironic, given that my mom sewed all my clothes and had already taught me how to sew. I guess the teacher expected me to ‘do it by the book’ and I was using all the short cuts my mom had taught me 😆
 
You didn't go to bed until the TV was "all the way off" - when that little white dot in the center of the screen finally disappeared. It was a long time coming, too; first the picture shrunk to a horizontal line, then the line sucked itself up into a small, bright dot, then the dot got smaller and then it finally disappeared.

Kinda like watching The Big Bang in reverse. 🥸
 
Too many posts to read, but I grew up when only b/w TV was available and we had an outside antenna, plus a remote control. I was the remote control, or at least, I was the channel and volume changer. I could buy a Coke and make a phone call for 5 cents. I went to see a movie for 50 cents and could buy a box of popcorn and a root beer for another 50 cents.
 
Too many posts to read, but I grew up when only b/w TV was available and we had an outside antenna, plus a remote control. I was the remote control, or at least, I was the channel and volume changer. I could buy a Coke and make a phone call for 5 cents. I went to see a movie for 50 cents and could buy a box of popcorn and a root beer for another 50 cents.
My parents would drop me and my 2 brothers at the cinema every Saturday. A child's ticket was 35-cents, and you bought them from a lady in a little booth outside the theater. My brother would always point to each of us and practically shout "He's 8, he's 9, and I'm 11," and then hand her the money. He was really 12, but kids 12 and over were 50-cents (lodges were .75 no matter what). The usher at the door always pretended he didn't know there were peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in our coat pockets. We'd buy one large drink to share.

Then, one sad Saturday, all kid's tickets went up to 50-cents, and it was our last trip to the cinema.
 
I remember if I was very good my grandmother and I would walk to the ice cream store. You could get one scoop for a nickel and two for a dime.
 
I really wish my grandkids had the days I did growing up. We walked to school, and in the summer got wet under the fire hydrant. Most Mom's didn't work outside of the house so there was always someone to watch you. We played outside until it was late because most moms were sitting outside too. When we were teenagers we hung out at the ice cream store and danced and listened to the music on the jukebox.
 
A little something I wrote about going to the movies in the 50s.

Well, we have taken back enough bottles to pay our way into Smalleys theater. It will cost us 14 cents for a great double feature. The main show is "Frontier Pony Express" starring Roy Rogers and the second show is an Abbott and Costello movie Called Africa Screams. If we wanted we could sit through a second showing, but the popcorn and candy was pretty well gone by then. I can remember coming out of the theater and being blinded by the sunlight. On the way home we would discuss what we had just seen and tried to imitate the actors. Ah yes, good times...simple times.....
 
Ah I had a slightly different problem in jr high. Home Ec was required but I didn’t do so well in the sewing part. Which was kind of ironic, given that my mom sewed all my clothes and had already taught me how to sew. I guess the teacher expected me to ‘do it by the book’ and I was using all the short cuts my mom had taught me 😆
My sister flunked home ec sewing class. Not because she was bad at it, but because she was too good. My mom taught her how to sew. My sister's project for the class was sewing a coat and it turned out so beautiful the teacher accused her of having someone else do the work and gave her an "F". I don't know if she used any short cuts, but I do remember her saying she got into an argument with the teacher one time about using a specific technique. Maybe the teacher was holding that against her?
 
I remember walking to grammar school (grades 1-6) with a friend, playing what I remember being called "sidewalk tag". You walked in the grass jumping over sidewalks, and when you came to a driveway you were allowed one foot on the ground before making it to the other side. If it was a double driveway, you were allowed to touch the ground 2 times before hitting the grass again. Talk about a workout on the way to school! One neighbor always yelled at us because he didn't like people walking on his grass!

I remember another game called 7-up. You threw a rubber ball about the size of a baseball against a wall and caught it. The second time you let it hit the ground then caught it. Third time you had to bounce it off the ground, hit the wall, then catch it. It got increasingly hard as you went on (7 moves in all) and if you missed you had to start all over again. It ended with having to do all these moves standing on your left foot only, then your right foot. My friend and I spent hours playing this game.
 
We got together and played football, both big kids and little kids together, sometimes there were too many or not enough to make a team, but everyone played. We walked a few miles to get to the river and swim. No life guards and it was before water quality and the environment were issues. I remember playing outside after dark and laying in the grass and looking up at the stars, and I swear there were more to see compared to now.
 

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