Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Remember these Old time remedies Part 1

I remember a time when I was very small and my grandmother had some god awful things she had to cure us. Cure us indeed! A lot of times I would try not to let her see I was sick because she always had some awful "stuff" to cure me with. Like swabbing our throats with kerosene for sore throat. I tried to not let on like my throat was sore, but some how she always knew and would bring out the kerosene.WHEEE! That stuff was AWFUL.
She used to put raw bacon on a boil and wrap it up. I once had a boil on my butt and she put 4 pieces of raw bacon on it and wrapped in and taped it and made me lay on my stomach for a week. This wasn't as bad as some of remedies tho.This one I could stand.
You didn't dare cough around grandma because if you did she had a remedy for that too. She would boil pine needles in water for about half an hour then pour off the liquid add some sugar and make us drink it. its a wonder we didn't die from all her old remedies.Of course for the common cold was always grandmas chicken soup, that's the good part but there is always a bad part. She would take the chicken fat from the chicken and rub it all over our chests and throats and wrap us in wool. God I hated that. Another one for colds was to boil onions and drain off the liquid and add just a pinch of sugar and make us drink it.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Hoola Hoops

Remember when--- Hoola Hoops were the in thing? For those of you who don't know what this is, it is a big round piece of plastic in a circle three times the size of a child's waist. They came in a variety of your favorite colors.

You would slip it over your head, give it a twirl and swing your hips around in a circle to keep it going round. I became pretty good at it once I got the hang of it. It wasn't easy tho when I first started learning. I didn't think I would ever learn to keep it up and going round.

I remember when it was fashionable to take yarn in your favorite color and weave in through your bobby socks. If you had a steady boyfriend you would in twine his favorite color and yours together through your socks. Only thing is when wash day was here you had to take it out and redo it every time. Didn't make mom too thrilled with me. Especially if I forgot to remove them before she washed.

Remember---Sock Hops at school? This was a very special thing. Almost as good as the Prom. The school ever so often would put on a sock hop after school and everyone would attend. It was a great way to socialize. It cost about 25 cents to attend. The school had chaperone's. There was also refreshments. You asked your special someone to the dance.

Of course you just had to have a special dress for the dance. Only thing was we couldn't afford a new dress for me, so I had to make do with what I had. But it wasn't that bad as long as I had that special someone by my side. He didn't care what I wore. He liked me for myself. This made me fell like a queen. Oh to be young again !!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Lazy Sunday afternoons

On Sundays in the "Good old Days"there was always moms fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn or green beans and some kind of dessert to look forward to on Sundays. After wards when our bellies were bursting with all that delicious food we would all file out into the car and go for a ride. We most always would stop at the airport on the way home and watch the planes take off and land. I always thought this was the coolest thing. After that to end the evening we stopped for ice creme. What a wonderful Sunday it was.

In 1963 I had one of the first Polaroid cameras made. Then a couple years later the black and white Swingers came out and I just had to have one of these also. I was snapping all sorts of pictures. I guess I probable made a pest of my self but I was really into this picture taking stuff. Only thing is I didn't like it in black and white. I wanted them in color.

When in 1972 the Polaroid came out in color and I got one I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I guess I made an even bigger pest of myself. Oh well those days are long gone and the Polaroid is soon to be a thing of the pass.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Unforgettable Fashions in --The Good old Days

I will never forget the shoes my mother made me wear when I was young. Oh how I hated them. I know a lot of kids wore them in those days but I hated them so bad. it was those white and black or brown saddle oxfords. I wanted a bright and shiny patent leather pair of dressy shoes so bad but we simply didn't have the money for them. They were very expensive so I wore the dreaded hated shoes.

Pedal pushers, saddle shoes, (which I hated),bobby socks and white button front shirts was the "IN" style thing to wear. Poodle skirts were also the "in" thing to be seen wearing. You were really "hip" if you had a poodle skirt. This was usual a pink skirt with a black poodle on it and under neath you wore this big "can-can." Which was layers and layers of netting piled on top of each to make your skirt stand way out away from you.


They had what was called a "choo-choo" purse that was poplar. I did manage to save my allowance and get one of these. All it was a purse that looked like the overnight bags look like today only on a smaller scale.

Games played and self entertainment In--The Good Old Days

Remember when we had to use our imagination to entertain our selves as there just wasn't any money to buy things with. We hadn't thought of things yet that required batteries or required a college education to put them together.

There was Hop Scotch, jump the rope, come on over red rover,hide and seek and the favorite of mine Annie over the kick can. Then of course we could always entertain our selves by catching lighting bugs in a jar. WE would take them inside at night and watch them light up in the jar as we went to sleep. We never tired of this.

There was a grocery store that had big wooden barrels that sold pickles in them and we would get a nice big pickle and suck on this for a while. Then we would reach into the cooler of frigid cold ice and water to get a soda.We did not have soda vending machine in those days.I would get a bag of peanuts and pour in my soda and watch it fizz.

I remember one of my favorite shows was Howdy Doody and Happy Trails with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Another favorite I like to watch was Little Rascals and the Mickey Mouse Club. We didn't own a TV in those days, but our kind land lady let me watch these shows each day after school.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Good Old Days

Good Old Days
Things that happened while growing up in the good old days.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1551903/good_old_days.html

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Me and Grandpa

My grandpa was the sweetest man. I remember I used to love to pretend I was a beautician. Grandpa would sit in a chair (and fall asleep) while I pretended to wash his hair and roll it in rollers. He actually let me do this. I have to laugh about it now because he only had a small patch of hair he combed over the top of his head. Otherwise he was completely bald.

My grandpa worked in a button factory and made buttons from mussel shells. They don't do this anymore. Every thing is done by machines now. But any way this was a very small factory of only 4 employees. I would go over there and watch as they loaded up the mussel shells on to the screens.

This is where they washed them and sorted them. The ones that they couldn't use I got to keep all I wanted of them. I would pretend there was pearls in them and I would go to town and buy things what ever I wanted. I would also use these for my dishes.

I remember making delicious pies in these from mud and some berries.Of course I only pretended to eat them.I made some really elegant dinners in my beautiful dishes. I sit a beautiful table too. Which consisted of cement blocks covered with a hanky for a table cloth. My oven to bake my pies in were also made of 2 bricks on top of each other.

During these hard times when money was low or non exist you had to use your imagination to make your play things. I didn't miss money then like I do now as I was quite happy with my "toys".

Today kids wouldn't dare play with these things. When I discuss making mud pies with mu grand children they look at me like I am crazy.

If kids today don't have there expensive electronic gadgets they think they are so "poor". If they only knew how we grew up.