June 4, 2007

Penny Candy, Nickel Cigars, Dime Novels: I Remember That!

If you are my age, you probably remember lots of things that are no longer an important part of the American scene.

If you don’t believe me, just try to recall the last time you saw a TV set with “rabbit ears” on top, or watched kids play games like Pom-Pom Pullaway and Red Rover, Come Over.

I also remember . . .

• Automobiles with running boards.
• Popular radio programs including The Lone Ranger, Gangbusters and Inner Sanctum.
• Penny candy.
• Nickel cigars.
• Dime novels.
• Movie theaters with balconies that charged a quarter for Saturday morning matinees.
• Saddle shoes.
• Poodle skirts.
• Ducktail haircuts.
• Catchy phrases like “Twenty-three skidoo” and “Your father’s mustache.”
• DeSoto cars.
• Pieces of plastic with blue at the top, red in the middle and green at the bottom that you put over your TV screen so you could watch The Ed Sullivan Show and the Gillette Friday Night Fights in “color.”
• Ouiji boards.
• School desks with ink wells.
• Girls who wore their hair in pigtails.
• Outhouses.
• Fizzies.
• Push mowers.
• Aluminum Christmas trees with “color wheels.”
• Coonskin caps.
• John Wayne movies.
• Teachers who taught “arithmetic.”
• “Pet rocks.”
• Mud flaps.
• Canasta clubs.
• Teenagers who pushed ice cream carts with little bells attached through your neighborhood on summer afternoons.
• Plate lunches.
• 5-and-10-cent stores.
• Schools named for U.S. presidents.
• Secret code rings.
• Saturday night baths.

© 2007 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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