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3catwoman3

(28,017 posts)
37. I remember most of them. Born in 1951.
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 09:42 PM
Saturday

1. Shoe store X-ray - nope
2. Mimeograph smell - absolutely. I used to run the copies of football plays for the coach in high school. My husband called these things “dirty purples. Military term, maybe?
3. Bank pneumatic tubes - my current bank still has these. First hospital I worked in after nursing school sent things from the pharmacy this way.
4. View Master - Yup
5. Full service gas station. My dad always went to Texaco - “You can trust your car to the man who wears the star, the big bright Texaco star. 🎶. He would often ask for “a dollar’s worth.”
6. Green Stamps - my mother collected them loyally. She was raised during The Depression and anything that made it possible to spend less money was beloved by her.
7. Aluminum ice trays - h, yes. Noisy things.
8. TV sign-offs. I worked the 3-11 shift and would watch Johnny Carson and then Tom Snyder after work, and turn the lights out after the National Anthem.
9. First color TV - no specific recollection
10. Slide projectors and home movies - we did not have either one, but friends who worked for KODAK (grew up in Rochester NY) had both. My husband still has several trays of slides and his projector.
11. Plastic couch covers - a neighbor a couple doors away had these, and lamp shade covers. She did not have a velvet rope barricading the entry to her Irving room, but it felt as if she did. I don’t think anyone ever went in there.
12. Returnable soda bottles - I remember them, but we almost never bought soda, so nothing to turn in.
13. The Sears catalog - oh my, yes. My father worked for Allstate, which either owned or was owned by Sears, so we got. 10% discount for many, many years. While in high school, I got most of my school clothes from Sears. They were fashionable and well made in the 1960s. Not so much later on. I still remember some of my favorite skirt and sweater combinations. My brother and I would pore over the Christmas catalog for hours.
14. Clotheslines and wooden clothes pins - yes. My husband’s mother raised a family of 4 kids without ever having a dryer.
15. Metal lunchboxes - for sure. My mother was one of the few working-outside-the-home moms in the late 19502 and early 1960s, and in an effort for mornings not to be too busy, we would make a week’s worth of sandwiches every Sunday evening and freeze them. Mon-Fri morning - take one out of the freezer and pop it in your metal lunchboxes box and it would have thawed by lunchtime. Take it from me - egg salad on white bread does not freeze well and thaws into a disgusting, soggy mess. To this day, I cannot eat an egg salad sandwich - YUCK!
16. Dizzies - vaguely. Also straws that had a flavor chip in them that would flavor the milk as you sucked it up.
17. Chemistry sets - had one.
18. Rabbit ear and tinfoil - been there, done that.
19. Drive-ins - going to the snack bar was always the highlight
20. Milkman - when I was 5, we lived in a very old rental house that had a little metal lined box in the wall with 2 doors - one to the outside for the milkman to open and put the milk in the box, and one to the inside for us to open and bring the into the house. I thought it was way cool.
21. Gas station giveways -no specific recall
22. Free toasters - no specific memory
23. Car blanket - again, no particular recall, but I do remember my dad covering the car engine with a blanket under the car hood on really cold nights. Not sure if this was of any benefit, seeing as the engine would not have been generating any heat for the blanket to hold in. Occasionally, he’d forget to remove it.
24. Formica kitchen tables - of course
25. The Yellow Pages - “lets your fingers do the walking through the - Yellow Pa-ages!” 🎶

Recommendations

2 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

Every single one. LuckyCharms Saturday #1
Roger that!!! ultralite001 Saturday #2
LOL! I guess you didn't have a dog who lurked under the table, hoping for a handout. Ocelot II Saturday #3
The poor dog had to stay outside... ultralite001 Saturday #5
I hated mom's succotash vapor2 Saturday #29
I hated to eat when I was a little kid Bayard Saturday #49
The food I didn't like I stuck under the refrigerator womanofthehills Monday #67
Good stuff, but hip folk of all ages use clotheslines more these days than last couple of decades. Bernardo de La Paz Saturday #4
I loved my clothesline! I had one until I moved into this community..still have the wooden clothespins Deuxcents Saturday #9
For me, getting milk delivered was when someone else milked the cows..... lastlib Saturday #15
Didn't milk cows, but we had milk and other grocery items delivered. Habibi Saturday #35
Well, that was fun. Biophilic Saturday #6
One of the greatest advances in modern times markodochartaigh Saturday #7
Remember them all, but think a few were more 50s than 60s. sinkingfeeling Saturday #8
50's into the mid '60s, IIRC. Ocelot II Saturday #11
In some offices Diamond_Dog Saturday #30
Not where I come from genxlib Sunday #61
100% remember all, even though my memory is questionable nowadays. Silent Type Saturday #10
I remember every single one of those things. But instead of the nostalgia niyad Saturday #12
Those things, too. "Duck and cover," which even we kids knew meant, Ocelot II Saturday #14
'Duck and cover' wasn't meant to protect students Oeditpus Rex Saturday #33
"being told not to seem too smart at school because boys don't like smart girls" Diamond_Dog Saturday #34
In those days of girls having to wear dresses or skirts, we girls often worried more... 3catwoman3 Saturday #40
Um, #2 is bogus - A Mimeograph Smelled, like, well, ink. Brother Buzz Saturday #13
The x-ray machine is the only one I wasn't familiar with. johnp3907 Saturday #16
I typed this the same time you did. Irish_Dem Saturday #19
I don't remember the X-ray shoe fitting machines. Irish_Dem Saturday #17
They were in some shoe stores, also called shoe-fitting fluoroscopes. Ocelot II Saturday #21
Thanks, what an odd contraption. Irish_Dem Saturday #22
My mother was a nurse, so maybe she didn't approve of this thing. Irish_Dem Saturday #23
I remember every single one except the shoe store machine. Diamond_Dog Saturday #18
The ice trays were a bone of contention in my house Ocelot II Saturday #24
If you ran water over the ice trays first, Seinan Sensei Saturday #53
Yes, but it wasn't as much fun that way. Ocelot II Saturday #54
It's a wonder I don't have six toes on each foot. chowmama Saturday #20
Omg! 😄 Yikes! electric_blue68 Saturday #25
Ohioan here. I thought *everybody* had a blanket like that in their car trunk. Diamond_Dog Saturday #26
In Minnesota you not only had a blanket, you had (and still have) a winter kit Ocelot II Saturday #31
The traditional Christmas gift for my kids... ultralite001 Sunday #63
Not all of them. House of Roberts Saturday #27
thanks for the walk down memory lane vapor2 Saturday #28
No on the X-Ray foot shoe store box... electric_blue68 Saturday #32
There's a post office in the city near me Diamond_Dog Saturday #36
Woah! Yikes! electric_blue68 Saturday #44
I remember most of them. Born in 1951. 3catwoman3 Saturday #37
Flav-R Straws! I'd forgotten about those. They were terrible but we loved them. Ocelot II Sunday #62
And a baby's arm holding an apple! The Tubes BidenRocks Saturday #38
All but... 2naSalit Saturday #39
The only list I need to make me feel old Oeditpus Rex Saturday #41
The pneumatic mail tube system, to the umpteenth degree. . . DinahMoeHum Saturday #42
The pneumatic tubes also make an amusing appearance in the movie Paddington EverHopeful Sunday #59
Thank you Ocelot II , I remember every single one. debm55 Saturday #43
I used to feel old when I realized that my doctors were younger than me Wicked Blue Saturday #45
You bet! MuseRider Saturday #46
Is Item #11 Just in case JD came to visit? /nt aka-chmeee Saturday #47
My mother let me use her Green Stamps to get my first stereo dflprincess Saturday #48
We never had plastic covers either - Mom thought they were tacky - but we had neigbors who did. Ocelot II Saturday #50
There was a pretty famous rumor about S&H stamps in Saigon dsvajda Saturday #52
No thanx! Living it is making making me feel old enough already! marble falls Saturday #51
I still have books of green stamps & metal ice trays ,which I still use. Alwaysna Saturday #55
The Fuller Brush Man rickford66 Saturday #56
Funny Green Stamp story. boonecreek Sunday #57
I also remember each of the items in that article LetMyPeopleVote Sunday #58
Sending this post to my cousin EverHopeful Sunday #60
Yes, I remember all of them! Sogo Sunday #64
It's a very funny movie. I wish I could see it again but not on youtube. CTyankee Sunday #65
I remember all those items LogDog75 Monday #66
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