Modern Living: Part One

[washman]

You nailed it eddie

<blockquote>
We were content with so much less then, and it was a safer world for little kids

</blockquote>
 THose are the days I miss.  No email, no smart phone, you watched Rhoda or whatever when it was aired or in reruns.  Rainy days meant Life, monopoly, connect 4 battleships etc or a train set

 

I subscribed to Highlights for Children and was part of the Weekly Reader Book club.

 

Seems like a simpler time, perfect was it?  NO, but there seemed to be a lot more harmony in the world than what we have today.

 

[ea56]

OMG Ben

Highlights Magazine! My brother, sister and I always looked forward to the new issue every month! Remember Goofus and Gallant?

And we played Monopoly, Scrabble, Chinese Checkers, Checkers, Bingo and Go Fish endlessly. There were only three TV channels then and not much to watch many times. We learned to get along with one another. My parents always said, “If you can’t get along with your family, how the hell to you expect to get along with anyone else in your life”?

And if we ever had a question about anything, our parents told us to go look it up in the encyclopedia, we had the World Book 1959 edition, Brittanica Junior1956 edition and a Comptons 1940 edition. I loved the encyclopedia. We were expected to entertain ourselves and use our heads. And it fostered independence and inquisitive minds that all three of us have to this day. And I read a different book everyday. The school library was one of my favorite places.

So much better than being hunched over a lighted screen, beginning to develop a lifetime of neck problems.

Eddie[this post was last edited: 9/14/2018-16:05]

 

[washman]

oh yes!

and the Timbertoes!  I loved that magazine.

I think I might fly out to visit sometime!  I bet we could swap stories for days on end.

 

I had the World Book Encyclopedia or was it the New Book of Knowledge 1972 edition. I can't remember, but I know by the time I hit first grade, I read the entire volume. Along with every Hardy Boys, Happy Hollisters, and Nancy Drew book I could beg, borrow or .........well borrow!  Remember the Golden Guides?  At one point I had them all and I still have the weather one and the one about spiders too.

 

Sounds like your parents and mine were cut from the same cloth. 

 

Oh one more thing, our home in Mooresville had the screw in fuses and a whopping 60 amp service!  How we managed to run an electric water heater plus a Penneys AC unit I don't know but we did somehow!

 

[wayupnorth]

I loved going to the dentist and reading Highlights. Spent alot of time in the public library and read alot as a kid. Was always felt safe as a kid, hated Catholic grammar school. Read every Sears catalog cover to cover and grew up with an old octopus oil furnace and those stupid Buss fuses in a 60 amp. entrance too. Glad that chapter is done but the memories still bring me back to a much easier day.

 

[ea56]

Ben,

I’m not familar with the Timbertoes magazine or the Golden Guides, but you’re a good deal younger than I am, so maybe we didn’t have them during my youth. My favorite kids books were the biographies about famous people. I read them all. And yes, I agree, sounds like our parents were very similar. I’m very grateful to have been raised by them and during the time I was raised. It’s served me well throughout my life.

I remember those screw in fuses well. When I was first out on my own most of the rentals I lived in were old and they all had them. One place was a duplex that was probably built in about 1920. I had a Maytag A50 Twin Tub, and whenever I used the spin tub, if I had much else on, like a lot of lights it would blow a fuse. And the fuse box was outside, under the eaves with Ivy all around it and no lights. Once it blew at night, while it was raining. I had no ladder, and the only chairs I had were three leg Danish Modern, so I was outside, on that precarious chair, in the rain, flashlight in hand and the new fuse in my mouth, changing the fuse. After that I never did the laundry after dark again while I lived there.

The house we lived in just before my Dad died in 1962 had radiant heating in the slab floor. The house was built right after WWII and materials weren’t the best then due to shortages. Anyway the boiler would often overheat and start to clang. There was a pressure gauge, and since I was the oldest kid it was my job to turn off the boiler when it started to clang. My Dad told me to get out fast if the needle of the gauge was in the red zone. That used to scare me a little, but I did it anyway. I was only 11 years old, but I already knew what responsibility was. I also knew how to relight the water heater, and did so often.

Sorry to bore the “app cray” out of everyone, but I suspect that my early childhood experiences are similar to many other members of my generation.

Eddie

 

[ea56]

Timbertoes?

Wait a minute, weren’t the Timbertoes characters in Highlights magazine? I do vaugely recall that now. It’s been a long time since I last read Highlights, but I sure did enjoy that publication.

Eddie

 

[tolivac]

Yes,remember Costco stools--had one-always was in the kitchen.then Highlights and Weekly Reader.Sort of miss them as a grownup!yes Goofus&Gallant!!We see modern "adult" Goofus and Gallants today--Look around you!

 

[norgeway]

Just invent a time machine

And WATCH how fast I go back to the 50s!

 

[Ultramatic]

Corning Ware 1971

 

 

 

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Armstrong 1959

 

 

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Bell System 1965

 

 

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Kroehler 1961

 

 

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Nesco 1923

 

 

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West Bend 1948

 

 

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Kentile 1965

 

 

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Rollman 1907

 

 

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Kroehler 1951

 

 

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Armstrong 1939

 

 

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[ea56]

This is the Home My family Lived In

from the Fall of 1954 until we moved in Feb of 1958. It’s the Grey house with the Orange door, not the colors it was when we lived there. It was White and the door was varnished dark wood.

I believe that I can recall my Mom saying that they paid about $16,000 for it. It was built by a school teacher from Richmond HS and her husband in 1928, and I believe her name was Mrs. Perrill. Both of my parents had her as a teacher when they attended Richmond HS. I remember that she came by shortly after we moved in, I was only 3 years old, she kind of looked like Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

This was a lovely home to live in. It had an unfinished basement that my brother and I played in during the rainy days. And my Mom got her first automatic washer, a Bendix Economat when we moved there. My Dad strung clotheslines in the basement so Mom could hang the laundry there when it rained, we didn’t get a dryer until after my sister was born in August 1955. It was a Norge Timeline. It had a laundry shute, 3 beds 1 bath upstairs and 2 beds 1 bath down. Were never used the bedrooms downstairs, but my Grandparents lived there for about 2 months while they were waiting to move into another home.

And this is the home where I was bedridden for 6 months with Rheumatic Fever in 1957.

We were the second owners, and the current owners bought it in 1974 for $38,000 and its now valued at over $800,000. I don't’ know if they purchased from the buyers my parents sold to, but for a 90 year old home its not had very many owners.

I hated moving from there because my very first best friend lived three doors down and I really missed him.

The house to the left in the picture was owned by an older couple, the Robere’s and was painted two tone Blue to match their 1949 or 50’ Kaiser, Light Blue with Navy Blue trim. They later got 55’ Dodge 4 door and painted it to match the house!

I was so surprised that I could find this picture on line and I wanted to share it here since it kind of is relavant to the Mrs. Swenson You Tube that Launderess posted here a few days ago.

Eddie

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Richmond/445-Dimm-St-94805/home/1163464

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

I've always liked that style of house. Almost fairy tale like.