This thread has evoked so many sweet memories:

Hopscoth, double dutch, jumping rope, skinned knees and elbows, perfecting my cartwheels and hand stands on the grass. Teaberry, Beemans, and Black Jack gum, Chuckles candy, the penny candy store where my sister and I would drive the poor owner batty picking out our favorites: candy necklaces, dots (the candy on the long strip of paper) bullseyes (caramel and marshmallow center), candy cigarettes, and licorice whips.

Sunday drives with my Dad and Grandma, topped with a visit to Foster Freeze for a soft ice cream cone. Going to the forest preserve with my Dad in the fall to gather all the pretty leaves, and then spilling them on the living room rug to show my Mom each and every one :D

The excitement of picking out back to school supplies. Cherry Cokes at the soda fountain in Walgreens, Woolworths, or Kressge's.

Catching fire flies on those hot, humid evenings. Burning leaves (love that smell) with my Grandpa behind the garage. Pinching snapdragons to make them "bite". Making a doll bed or car from Quaker Oats containers. Burning my tongue on roasted marshmallows. Feeling perfectly safe riding my bike around town, or taking the bus across town when I was nine :!:

There are countless more but this is enough...good times :wink:

Thank You so much for this topic! I do remember all of these. And I also wish our kids & grands could go back in that time & spend a week. Talk about blowing their minds!

Janet I remember so well Teaberry, Beemans, and Black Jack gum. Hadn't thought of it in years until I read your post. Yummmm LOL

Back in the good old days. Even though I do like some of our modern advances & technology we have today, just the safety we knew, was worth so much! Only sad thing was that we didn't know it. It was just the way it was & now look at us today.

Mom mixing it up, dad making home made ice cream. We loved poking the ice down and adding rock salt. We made our own pizza,I didn't even know there were places that made it comercially until I moved out on my own.

Roller skating without a helmet, wrist protectors, knee pads and elbow pads. Wouldn't we have \looked funny back then...I don't know one single person that dfied of a head injury during that time. One thing that I do like now is that the little kids are in car seats. How many times did our son stand up in the front seat with one arm across dads shoulders and the other across mine. I use to draw my playhouse with a stick in the dirt. I feel sorry for the kids that are pushed so fast now days. We had time to imagine and dream and be with our friends and talk about nothing. I loved to play Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. I had a scooter that was fun to play on. I guess that is the secret word. We had time to play.

I remember one of the laundry soaps had kids books in them, and bugging Mom to buy that kind!

And the gas stations! We always got new sets of glasses and dishes from the Shell Station.

What a great thread! I remember my mom giving me a quarter and sending me to the corner store for a loaf of white bread. I remember gas being cheaper than the loaf of bread. No credit cards, cash only. Dick and Jane, black boards and cleaning erasers, Safety Patrol, Captain Kangaroo. Land as far as you could see now covered with houses. Going on Sunday drives and going to the A&W for root beer. When a single look on my dad's face could cause four kids to become totally well behaved in an instant. Crinolines (I saw one on a little girl's dress yesterday at Sears, I think they are coming back in style). The garden lady next door who had the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen. Ahh, I think these memories have lowered my blood pressure about 20%

Oh my stars I thought I was the only one who grew up ironing her father's boxer shorts,LOL!!! this is one of the best threads, so many memories come back, wish my kids and grand kids could have had a taste of the "good old days" when things were simpler.

Oh and I remember riding the bus downtown in Chicago every year just to walk around in the snow and cold to see all the beautfully decorate windows for Christmas. I remember Christmas lights with bubbles in them and lights in shapes of snowmen or santas. Loved watching my Mom cook and make biscuts from scratch, her pies were to die for! I know there must be so many other things I've forgotten, but miss the saftey of it all, being able to ride my bike or walk wherever I wanted and not worry about anything.

Thanks for the memories----I can remember when I was old enough and my mom had my great aunt come stay with us during the summer and she taught me how to iron using the coke bottle with the cork sprinkler head on it. I still love to iron. Unlike kids today, we played outside when it was not too hot and when it was, we layed under the trees and read books and dreamed and I sewed and cross stitched. We might not have had the luxuries we do today, but it sure was simpler times and we were much safer.