Kids (or parents) of the 70's/80's

[Pebbles]

Aw, I found the Pebbles Doll I had.

You better take good care of me!!!!!

*winks*

I have a cabbage patch story for you all. I spent 3 years in a children's home as a child. Every year right after Thanksgiving we would do a dinner show for some people at a hotel. We would sing songs and then go around with baskets where people would pick out a button with different names on it. On a table in another room were index cards with our names on it and toys or things we wished "Santa" would bring us. The people would take the name from the button and look through the index cards and pick which gift the wanted to give us.

At this point I knew who Santa really was but many of the other children were young enough to believe. They would ask us a few weeks before hand which toys we liked. Because I knew who Santa was they just asked me straight out if there was anything I would like. One year I immediately said I wanted twin cabbage patch dolls (I was 10)...this was when they were all the rage and hard to get. I was reminded gently that I probably would not get that gift as it was very expensive...but my heart was set on it.

Christmas eve rolled around and I opened one of a couple packages ...some wonderful soul out there bought them cabbage patch dolls for me! I cried over the cabbage patch dolls and named them after my brother and sister (boy and girl twin cabbage patch dolls) who I hadn't seen in a couple of years. Even though I had asked for it I still didn't expect to receive that gift. I still wish I could meet the person who got those dolls for me and let them know how much that gift meant. I think of him or her every time someone brings up cabbage patch dolls. It is one of my favorite Christmas memories and had to share.

Christine

[SouthernWx]

Here's one you'll never see them selling now... remember candy cigerettes?

I remember both candy cigarettes and bubble gum cigarettes....and loved the bubble gum variety

[SouthernWx]

duckie, you didn't know you were supposed to put them around your neck and eat the candies from there or am I missing something?

Btw, there's a candy store just outside of Beaumont in Port Neches full of nostalgia candy. They have tons of stuff that you won't find anywhere else, a lot of things that I never even heard of. I racked up on cinnamon toothpicks, those little wafers that come in a roll, chic-o-stix, and a bunch of other stuff. I felt like a little kid walking out with my brown paperbag full of candy! And yes, they still make candy cigarettes because they had them there.

I wish I could remember all of the stuff I saw...that store was a blast! I think it's time to go back.

There's still a small family owned store here in Douglasville that sells candy and bubblegum cigarettes. "Ralph's Easy Shop" (yep, that's really the name) also sells another of my childhood favorites: watermelon flavor "Now or Laters"

[SouthernWx]

I had a pet rock!

Little sis had a pet rock, and both of us sported "mood rings"

[streetsoldier]

Here's one you'll never see them selling now... remember candy cigerettes?

I remember both candy cigarettes and bubble gum cigarettes....and loved the bubble gum variety

Candy cigarettes are what introduced me to an appreciation of WINTERGREEN LOZENGES!

[sweetpea]

I had a pet rock!

Little sis had a pet rock, and both of us sported "mood rings"

My god, talk about taking someone back, I had a pet rock, Easy bake oven, loved the candy cigarettes thought they made me look so cool. I was born in the late 60's though. Does anyone remember olly, olly oxen free? Playing manhunt on hot summer nights. This post is definitely a nice trip down memory lane.

[Miss Mary]

I remember olly, olly oxen free!!

Hey, here's something that I remember that never happens today.....you never rang your friend's doorbell, you just stood out in the yard or close to the porch, shouting their name! Oh Johnny! Oh Suzie! It just never occurred to us to ring the bell....and sure enough, in a minute your friend appeared at the front door. Of course this was before every home on the block had A/C.....most in my neighborhood had open windows.

Mary

[azskyman]

Pez and their dispensers were fun! And the paper ribbons with rows of sugar dots!

Popsicles always came attached at the abdomen in pairs.

Blue moon ice cream was more common (some places still have it!)

As for toys, real erector sets with metal frames, nuts and bolts. Lincoln logs. And I had a Robbie the Robot...not wireless, but run by remote on a cord.

I collected Dinky Toys from the UK...and had Plasticville houses and people.

Charles Chips were delivered to our house.

And at the county fair, for $.25 cents you could go see Eeeka the Freaka...an Australian Aborigine who was covered in loin cloth, sitting in a bed of straw, and biting the heads off of live snakes. She would look at you and spit the head across the room.

And that was long before Guantanamo.

[Pebbles]

Another memory.... did anyone do bubble gum wrapper chains?

[Miss Mary]

Pebbles - yes!!!! We sure did. Reminds me of the note-version you did in HS too, when you'd write friends a note and stuff it in their locker.

Did anyone make necklaces out of clover? In my neighborhood we are one of 3 out of 27 that do not have their lawns chemically treated by lawn care companies. So we have toads hopping here and clover growing. Oh yeah, I'm so liked on this street....LOL (We do apply weed & feed once in the spring, so if I have dandelions, they total only a dozen and I spray them with roundup).

I remember sitting in friend's yards making these necklaces. And picking violets that grew in grass also, bringing them home to my mom. Who would put them in a jelly jar glass in the middle of the kitchen table.

Mary

[GalvestonDuck]

Charles Chips!! Never really been a fan of potato chips, but we got the pretzels sometimes. And we had a milkman too! I remember my mom leaving a list out in the box for how much milk she wanted, as well as other dairy stuff too.

That was back in the day when people didn't steal stuff off your porch or out of your garage and everyone left their doors unlocked and bikes out in the yard.

[Miss Mary]

More memories.... My friend Jane (age 49, married with 6 kids of her own now) remembers a produce truck that came around their neighborhood, selling seasonal produce. She was one of 8 kids, born within 9 years, 2 babies came in one calendar year......anyway she says her mom never had to leave home. They walked everywhere, milk was delivered and her mom stocked up on fresh produce from this traveling vendor. Every few weeks she went to a store for detergents and paper products. But mostly their family ate home cooked food and such. I don't remember a produce truck coming around in my suburb but anything's possible. We've both had the same discussion when we're weary of carting our kids around all day long, on various activities, etc. - our mothers didn't have to do all this! Kids played at home and in the neighborhood. Rarely signing up for clubs after school. And if they played sports, our school was within walking distance of our house. You just walked to practice and walked back home.

Wear and tear on cars back then had to have been minimal. And now we have high gas prices - something's not adding up!!! LOL

I remember the milk man Shawn and leaving bikes outside, never locking doors, and sleeping outside in the summer. We bounced around, home to home but never pitched a tent. Just put a sleeping bag on top of our parents chaise lounge chairs and we told scary stories, looked at the stars and when older, played spin the bottle. Yes these sleep-outs were coed. Did our parents flip out over that - not at all! That part's odd....but the rest was great. The only thing that happened that was shocking back then, wouldn't be now, is one friend swore she could take off her bra w/o taking off her shirt. All the boys were drooling at this point and sure enough, she demonstrated how she could do this. Flinging the bra in the grass. This was during a spin the bottle episode....he he.

Mary