Retro Monday

Last February I blogged on "Memories" from the past. It was so fun I'm doing it again. Jimmy enjoyed walking down memory lane with me and added a few himself. So, hop on board and let's reminisce about things of the past.

I remember...

• Rotary dial phones. Loved the phone numbers that were full of 9's and 0's.
• Jaw breakers the size of baseballs. I'd take my oversized treat, place it in a kitchen towel, grab a hammer, and smash it into bite sized bits. I'd be gone by dusk.
• Lushy chocolate malts.
• Manual typewriters in high school and layers of carbon paper.
• Ditto machines that printed in lavender and had a weird indescribable smell when fresh off the roller.
• When children were the remote control.
• How movies like Frankenstein, Mummy, and Wolf man were extra spooking in black and white.
• Replacing T.V. tubes.
• Dialing "O" for the operator to make a long distance phone call.
• Cars without A/C, power steering, power windows, or power brakes. Driving to the store was a workout.
• Crawling in the engine compartment to work on a car. This is Jimmy's. I only crawled under cars to retrieve a ball or frisbee.
• AM radio only. You knew a storm was coming when it got all staticy.
• When gas was 29 cents/gallon.
• When filling station pump dials only went up to 99 cents. As gas prices exceeded 99 cents/gallon, the price had to be cut in half and when it was time to pay, the price was doubled. Now that was confusing.
• 8-track tapes. Never like them.
• 45 records and their colorful adaptors.

• Defrosting the ice box with pans of boiling water. Once defrosted we'd use every towel the kitchen had to offer soaking up the wet mess.
• Cold aluminum ice trays that stuck to your hand when you pulled the lever to release the ice.

• Full meals were served on airplanes.
• When there was no Tylenol, only Aspirin.
• The first home hair dryer that consisted of a plastic cap with a vacuum-type hose leading to the machine. There were also hard fold down dryers like in the beauty shops.

• When the first hand held hair dryer came out to replace the plastic cap. Mine was light blue, I got it for Christmas, and it was handier than a pocket on a shirt.
• When hot rollers replaced pink sponge rollers.

• Stamps were 5 cents.
• When cheese slices were peeled apart not individually wrapped.
• Wax lips.
• Penny candy.
• Sea monkeys.
• When JFK was shot. I was four years old and it seemed as if the world stood still.
• When Elvis Presley died. My family was on vacation on Padre Island. I was sitting on the hotel deck looking out at the ocean when my dad came out and told me the news.

What are some of your childhood memories? Where were you when you heard the news of JFK and Elvis? I'd love to hear what lies in the cobwebs of your mind.