This document is a nostalgic reflection on childhood memories from the 1950s-1970s. It lists over 50 pop culture references, toys, games, and everyday experiences that were common for children during that time period, but have since disappeared or changed greatly, such as TVs needing time to warm up, milk delivery, landline phones, and cars always having their keys in the ignition. The reflection frames this era as a simpler and less threatening time for children compared to modern concerns, but acknowledges children still faced fears from their parents and grandparents. It challenges the reader to remember their own childhood during this time and share the nostalgia with others.
1. DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN...?
It took five minutes for the
TV to warm up?
Nearly everyone's Mum was
at home when they got home
from school?
Nobody owned a purebred
dog?
When a shilling was a decent
allowance?
You had to be home when
the street lights came on?
2. Your Mum wore stockings that came in two pieces?
All your male teachers wore ties
Female teachers had their hair done every
day and wore high heels?
You got your windscreen cleaned, oil checked, and petrol
pumped, without asking, all for free, every time?
3. Cereals had free toys hidden inside the box?
It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to
dinner at a real restaurant with your parents?
Schools threatened to keep kids back a year if they
failed. . .and they did?
When a Ford Capri was everyone's dream car?
No one ever asked where the car keys were because they
were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors
were never locked?
4. Lying on your back in the grass with your friends and
saying things like, "That cloud looks like aโฆ โ
Playing footy and cricket with no adults to help kids with
the rules of the game?
Stuff from the shop came without safety caps and
hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a
perfect stranger?
When being sent to the headmaster's office was nothing
compared to the fate that awaited the student at home?
5. And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once,
you could slip back in time and savour the slower pace,
and share it with the children of today?
Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't
because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc.
Our parents and grandparents were a much
bigger threat!
But we survived because their love was greater than the
threat.
6. Send this on to someone who can still
remember Nancy Drew, Laurel and Hardy, The
Famous Five, Secret Seven, Biggles, the Lone
Ranger, Phantom, Roy and Dale and Trigger at
the flicks.
As well as summers filled with bike rides,
cricket games, Hula Hoops, monkey bars,
cobbers, visits to the beach and "conversationโ
lollies.
Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say,
"Yeah, I remember that"?
7. I am sharing this with you today because it ended with
a double dare to pass it on.
To remember what a double dare is, read on.
And remember that the perfect age is somewhere
between old enough to know better and too young to
care.
8. How many of these do you remember?
Lolly cigarettes,
pogo sticks,
marbles,
Home milk delivery in glass bottles with aluminium tops
Newsreels before the movie
Sandshoes/Desert wellies
Four digit Telephone numbers
45 RPM records
Hi-Fi s
Metal ice cubes trays with levers
9. Mimeograph paper
Spud guns
Ford Capris
Twin Tubs
Reel-To-Reel tape recorders
houses made of cards
Meccano Sets
Anglo/Bazooka Joe pink bubble gum
MoJos/black jacks/fruit salads
Two bob for a gallon of petrol
10. Do you remember a time when...
Decisions were made by "eeny-meeny-miney-mo"?
"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest?
It wasn't odd to have two or three "Best Friends"?
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex
was "boy or girl germs"?
Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a
catapult?
There were no Saturday morning cartoons with 30-minute
adverts for action figures?
Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was
cause for giggles?
11. The worst embarrassment was being caught playing
doctors and nurses by your parents
Playing cards in the spokes transformed
any bike into a motorcycle?
Taking drugs meant the Polio shots at school
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?
If you can remember most or all of these, then you have
lived!!!!!!!
Pass this on to anyone who may need a
break from their "grown-up" life ... I double-dare-ya!