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Any women here remember sitting for hours under those electric hair dryers with big plastic bubble caps over the rollers?
My parents were both smokers, but I never saw those standup ashtrays — instead we had ENORMOUS blown glass ashtrays around — they were the size of dinner plates or bigger.
Good grief….how many ashes and butts were they expecting to collect???
Remember Shirley Temple drinks for girls?
Do they still even sell marachino cherries anywhere?
Yes, I remember those electric dryers with the bubble caps and rollers. We had 3 girls with long hair in our family in addition to our mom and we gave that thing a real work out. Then blow dryers, round brushes and curling irons came out and we switched to those.
My parents didn't smoke but I remember those floor ashtrays being everywhere, from the break rooms at work to the mall, to friends' houses.
They still sell Shirley Temple drinks. And they still sell marachino cherries, we've got a jar of them in our refrigerator as a matter of fact.
i wore the wooden Dr. Scholl's sandals. and we had all those other items too except for the "remote" for the Zenith TV. It was a big deal when we got the TV because it was color tv for the first time. However no way was my dad going to get us a remote. he would sit on the couch and of course not get up and down, he had the kids me and my brother do all his channel changing: turn it on, turn it off, turn the sound up (my dad had bad hearing), turn the sound down (my mom hated loud things), change the channels (frequently as my dad habitually jumped back and forth between various channels to watch several games simultaneously and because he hated commercials. ) it's no wonder by the time i was about 13 with a will of my own i refused to be in the same room with my dad and the tv set, and after i moved out i refused to own a tv at all for over 30 years.
45 rmp records i don't remember seeing on cereal boxes, i had to save my money to buy those.
we did get up in the middle of the night to dig through the cereal boxes to get the toy inside, had to do it in secret because (a) we weren't supposed to, and (b) grab the toy before my brother got it. i usually got it first because he was too lazy to get up in the middle of the night he was always sleeping late
oh and i still wrap my sandwiches in wax paper. i love it.
i don't like plastic touching my food. and according to my mom when i was a kid growing up the plastic wrap was an extravagance and we couldn't afford either plastic baggies or saran wrap cling plastic. i don't touch the stuff. so wax paper it is. and today i can afford the other stuff but i don't like it and i don't use it. same for zip loc bags when they were invented later, i don't touch those either.
i am 64 years old, still working full time, and i still pack my lunch every day to go to work in glass dishes, and i carry a glass drinking glass with a lid for my ice tea every day at work.
i buy the wax paper about 10 rolls at a time because i keep worrying that it will disappear altogether from the store shelves.
i wore the wooden Dr. Scholl's sandals. and we had all those other items too except for the "remote" for the Zenith TV. It was a big deal when we got the TV because it was color tv for the first time. However no way was my dad going to get us a remote. he would sit on the couch and of course not get up and down, he had the kids me and my brother do all his channel changing: turn it on, turn it off, turn the sound up (my dad had bad hearing), turn the sound down (my mom hated loud things), change the channels (frequently as my dad habitually jumped back and forth between various channels to watch several games simultaneously and because he hated commercials. ) it's no wonder by the time i was about 13 with a will of my own i refused to be in the same room with my dad and the tv set, and after i moved out i refused to own a tv at all for over 30 years.
45 rmp records i don't remember seeing on cereal boxes, i had to save my money to buy those.
we did get up in the middle of the night to dig through the cereal boxes to get the toy inside, had to do it in secret because (a) we weren't supposed to, and (b) grab the toy before my brother got it. i usually got it first because he was too lazy to get up in the middle of the night he was always sleeping late
My younger sister and I served as the official channel changers in our house growing up. We would be upstairs in our bedrooms and our parents would yell for one of us to come downstairs to change the channel or turn the volume up or down. They would be sitting there in their easy chairs just feet away from the t.v. themselves but they totally expected us to come running to change the channel for them. And we did.
I think it's hilarious that this was such a universal experience for us back in the day.
The milkman! The house I lived in had a two-quart sized insulated box next to the door to put the delivery in.
And the (usually) young man, apprentice, who came out of the filling station when he heard the bell ring. You sat behind the wheel while he filled the gas, cleaned the front and back windows, checked the oil and the air in your tires.
My younger sister and I served as the official channel changers in our house growing up. We would be upstairs in our bedrooms and our parents would yell for one of us to come downstairs to change the channel or turn the volume up or down. They would be sitting there in their easy chairs just feet away from the t.v. themselves but they totally expected us to come running to change the channel for them. And we did.
I think it's hilarious that this was such a universal experience for us back in the day.
oh and the family drama around TV continued for decades even after i moved out and got married and had my own house. now i refused to own or buy a TV set but when i got married the husband (now ex-) brought a TV set into the marriage. Well, due to the considerable TV trauma growing up---every holiday meal in front of the TV set so my dad could watch sports, no talking rule, and lots of rage and yelling if the wrong team was losing---i decided even as a kid that there would be no meals in front of the TV for me. We would actually sit as a family and look at each other and (gasp) what a concept maybe talk to each other. hubby was fine with that. the visiting parents and inlaws were not.
well that didn't go over at all. first holiday they visited us newlyweds in our new home, of course they were glued to the TV set watching sports, i said dinner's ready and turned off the set. of course much yelling and screaming ensued from not only my dad but from the brother and mom as well "how dare you treat your father like that." I just sat down to eat my meal. i have never and will never date someone who watches sports on TV and that has kept my life much more peaceful than it was growing up.
i remember even as a kid before i moved out, implementing for myself my no meals in front of the TV. i must have been about 14 or so, when i realized i actually had choices and timidly began to exercise my own choices (i say timidly because the constant tone growing up for me was fear and hypervigilance and quivering under the ever-present hair-trigger explosive rage of my father.) anyway it was yet another holiday meal in front of the TV set, the dad of course in his easy chair throne and the minions us crowded sitting on the floor at a very low table that was excruciatingly uncomfortable to sit at, and of course the no talking rule for everyone, the big concession was if the right team was winning, that there could be conversation during the commercials only, but the talking could be ONLY about the game itself, the teams, the players, no other topics allowed.
anyway it occurred to me like a light bulb going off over my head in the cartoons, it occurred to me that i could go eat my meal somewhere else. I quietly stood up, quietly picked up my plate, and quietly walked into the next room which was the dining room and i sat down at yes the dining table (what a concept, eating at the dining table for a holiday meal, or any meal for that matter) to eat my holiday meal.
And all hell broke loose. my mother stomping in fiercely whispering through clenched jaws and gritted teeth, "how dare you leave the family dinner" "do you know how disrespectful you are being" "you can't do this, you come back to the table right now" "we are a family and we eat meals together you march yourself right back in and sit down with the rest of the family, missy" well i just kept sitting where i was calmly eating my meal and ignoring the pandemonium around me.
Last edited by Tzaphkiel; 09-24-2023 at 10:36 AM..
I'm old enough to remember all of them, but I can't say I do. Maybe not everything was available where we lived or I just never saw them?
I sure don't remember a Zenith "automatic" TV channel changer, but then in my family I and my siblings were the channel changers. Whatever our dad wanted to watch on TV, he'd order one of us kids to change the channel to that program. So he never had to get up from his armchair.
oh and the family drama around TV continued for decades even after i moved out and got married and had my own house. now i refused to own or buy a TV set but when i got married the husband (now ex-) brought a TV set into the marriage. Well, due to the considerable TV trauma growing up---every holiday meal in front of the TV set so my dad could watch sports, no talking rule, and lots of rage and yelling if the wrong team was losing---i decided even as a kid that there would be no meals in front of the TV for me. We would actually sit as a family and look at each other and (gasp) what a concept maybe talk to each other.
well that didn't go over at all. first holiday they visited us newlyweds in our new home, of course they were glued to the TV set watching sports, i said dinner's ready and turned off the set. of course much yelling and screaming ensued from not only my dad but from the brother and mom as well "how dare you treat your father like that." I just sat down to eat my meal. i have never and will never date someone who watches sports on TV and that has kept my life much more peaceful than it was growing up.
i remember even as a kid before i moved out, implementing for myself my no meals in front of the TV. i must have been about 14 or so, when i realized i actually had choices and timidly began to exercise my own choices (i say timidly because the constant tone growing up for me was fear and hypervigilance and quivering under the ever-present hair-trigger explosive rage of my father.) anyway it was yet another holiday meal in front of the TV set, the dad of course in his easy chair throne and the minions us crowded sitting on the floor at a very low table that was excruciatingly uncomfortable to sit at, and of course the no talking rule for everyone, the big concession was if the right team was winning, that there could be conversation during the commercials only, but the talking could be ONLY about the game itself, the teams, the players, no other topics allowed.
anyway it occurred to me like a light bulb going off over my head in the cartoons, it occurred to me that i could go eat my meal somewhere else. I quietly stood up, quietly picked up my plate, and quietly walked into the next room which was the dining room and i sat down at yes the dining table (what a concept, eating at the dining table for a holiday meal, or any meal for that matter) to eat my holiday meal.
And all hell broke loose. my mother stomping in fiercely whispering through clenched jaws and gritted teeth, "how dare you leave the family dinner" "do you know how disrespectful you are being" "you can't do this, you come back to the table right now" "we are a family and we eat meals together you march yourself right back in and sit down with the rest of the family, missy" well i just kept sitting where i was calmly eating my meal and ignoring the pandemonium around me.
OMG how ironic, your mother accusing you of being disrespectful to the family by sitting at the dining room table eating your dinner, as your family should have been if it really was meant to be a family occasion.
You know what's sad, though, IMO. Seems the sports-centered ( or otherwise) glued to the TV set in silence during an alleged family get together has been largely replaced by family sitting around a holiday table, each or most of them in silence, absorbed in their cell phones and seemingly unaware of the people around them.
OMG how ironic, your mother accusing you of being disrespectful to the family by sitting at the dining room table eating your dinner, as your family should have been if it really was meant to be a family occasion.
You know what's sad, though, IMO. Seems the sports-centered ( or otherwise) glued to the TV set in silence during an alleged family get together has been largely replaced by family sitting around a holiday table, each or most of them in silence, absorbed in their cell phones and seemingly unaware of the people around them.
yes, exactly. astute insight.
it is still an addiction. and it still damages and precludes having actual healthy personal relationships.
i couldn't agree with you more.
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