What do you miss?

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I miss:

The love, and dignity and richness of culture and history the grandparents (from the old country) imparted at every family holiday.

and with that they also brought:

The ethnic music.
The ethnic foods.
The cohesiveness before divorces and deaths.
The feeling of hope and upwards growth in the "old" US economy.
Their joy at being here, in the land of plenty, a war-free place (HA thank you 9/11 for killling that one).

and even in their poverty the grandparents lived well, enjoyed life, were neat clean and organized and never had a negative thought or were never defeated by events and hardships.

People, only love endures.. everything else is meaningless.

OK I have to go gettimg mushy and I can't see the screen right now...

rember that all of you have touched my life and I appreciate every interation and though all of you are kind eneough to share.

Blessings to all.
 
.and another thought.

I miss grandpa.
His last major hurrah was singing at my cousin's wedding (and rather well too) a very old ditty that reeked of tradition and his place of birth.

The belly-dancer [normal thing in my ethnic] came back out after her performance and engaged him in a "coutship" style dance and the two of them were magnificent!

Yes she was I Dream of Jeanie, personified and he put on of her discarded veils on his head like a fez or like a turban.

OMG, he had the time of his life, hearing his music and seeing his peeps.

My aunt, the grooms mother, was also a belly dancer and she joined in and we all started dancing again with him at the microphone. He was crying at the end of the intense "reconnection" to the family.

He was so at-peace with all he moved on to the next world three short weeks later.

Out with a bang. The only way to travel.
 
Customline, I loved to goto Hess's and eat lucnh in the Patio restaurant. It was a treat for us to go there.

Where in PA are you? I'm in Easton

I also loved the Allentown Fair when it was a real fair. Now is is more like a very tackey carnival

Toggle, yes I do remember the fond family gatherings too on my mom's side, Dad's family was so far away. We are German/Polish so tons of food and people, but alas things dwindled down due to the same circumstances Death and divorce. Today it is a chore to get anyone together, either ones to busy, one does not get along with this one. It is just sad.

I remember walking into the Public high school senior year after being in catholic school for the first 11 years and taking typing and the room was filled with brand new IBM selectrics. they were great although I got yelled at all the time for looking at the keys. I was learning typing and Keypunching at the same time and each machine you put your work on oposite side. SO me the easier thing was to lookin the middle. My typing teacher just graduated from college so it was her first year teaching. A funny thing is she stopped teaching and works at myu company and we laugh about her yelling at me for looking at the keys.
 
I miss dance music that had a beat AND a melody...

Staying out all night, dancing and laughing, until the sun comes up.

Not having any money, living frugally, and really valuing everything that I had.

Going to the festivals that the Catholic churches had to ride the carnival rides and eat "pizza fritte" -- fried pizza dough with sugar. Except for the Polish Catholic church, there you had kielbasa and did the polka in the street.

Family gatherings with all the relatives. Mountains of food. Grandma's Italian cooking.

My first car -- a silver, 2 door, hatch back, manual transmission 1986 Toyota Tercel.

High school dances (not the formal ones).

Going to visit my other grandmother in Brooklyn for 3 weeks in the summer. Taking the B train to the West 4th St station and spending all day walking around the Village. Brooklyn bagels.

I miss living in Memphis, TN, when my life was perfect in all aspects.

I miss the time when time moved much slower and there were endless tomorrows for more adventures...
 
For those of you who miss A&W---

Come ye to Kent, Ohio. We have an A&W still in business!

I miss easily repaired small appliances. I hate the idea of throwing things out.

I deeply miss reliable mail service. I never know from one day to another when my mail will be delivered. Sometimes it's here at 8:45 a.m., sometimes at 4:30 p.m. (Makes it hard to get to the bank if there's a check....)

I miss new console stereos, and easy-to-use tv sets. Modern stereos and tv's are too complex for my tastes.

Sometimes I miss my extended family. We used to be clustered here in NE Ohio, but now we're scattered across the USA..from Washington state to Florida. Sometimes I describe us with that sweetly old fashioned business line: "Branches in all principal cities."

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Guys you are all hitting it on the head, PERFECTLY.

Esp, IMHO, PeterH770.....

Remember when life was simple..... pre-mortgages, businesses, partners, collections, 9/11?

When groceries were not $20 average per bag? and when gasoline and heating fuels were affordable?

*SIGH*
 
Interesting Pontiac drift here

Great memories, we had a 67 Grand Prix, great car, fast and smooth, all 9 mpg HIGHWAY.. I can remember my mom burying the speedo driving cross country on highways with " reasonable and prudent" day time speed limits.

I will add to the list, block parties with the whole neighborhood having the street blocked and everyone sharing food and games. Cooking and learning farm life from both sets of grandparents, my matchbox collection that my brother crashed, burned, crushed in the vise, etc....

I can say I still have the first car I ever bought myself, a 1968 SS Impala Convertible, sitting in the garage awaiting a "makeover" I keep hoping the guys from Overhauling will show up and make it all better...

Scott
 
These are a few of my favourite things (that I miss)....

I miss:

Big old heavy cars with lots of chrome

The smell of sheets fresh off the clothesline

My mom's Sour Cream Torte

Cuban Food; especially pan Cubano y con cafe con leche

Frankie's pizza

Sunday beach outings, where we would stay (and roast) all day, followed by sunburns healed by blobs of refrigerated Noxzema cream.

Shopping downtown

Letting kids be kids

*Pigtails*

I could go on an on, but it would look like a Leon Uris novel....

Waxing nostalgic -

Venus :-)
 
Memory Lane

I miss a person answering a business telephone

I miss smelling the purple ditto fluid on school worksheets

Disco music (dance music to be PC) that has lyrics that are intelligible and rythmic

Customer Service at all of the venues mentioned in all of the previous posts.

Department stores that really had super service and nice curteous staffing.

Did I say, a human being on the switchboard...oh yes, guess that is the thing that I encounter daily that I really miss.
 
I miss the family members that have past. Me having lost my brother one year ago this month,...it still hurts to not have him around.

He was the first guy i told when i found this site. He was so cool with it because he also loved mechanical things. I mean he was a mechanic for most his life and washing machines he found as very interesting....probably where i picked it up from.

But not to get musshy,..it was all because of this site that the many who were hiding finally came out as we all know.

Thank you Robert and everyone who contributes to keep this forum going.

I don't add anything to this group,..i do one day hope to have a collection, time, money, living situations are not possible now. But there is always hope :)

Pat
 
Stuff and nonsense!

Everyone adds something to this group, even (dare I say?) Yours Truly.

veg, who doesn't own a single vintage washer. Or dryer. Or fridge...
 
Product testimonials delivered by disembodied floating heads.

body08.jpg


The Norelco Santa.

Airline flights with names like Pan Am "Clipper" and TWA "StarStream".

Downtown airline ticket offices miles away from the nearest airport.

Mechanical metal-leaf airline arrival and departure boards.

Metal-leaf digital clocks.

Nixie tube digit displays.

Heathkits.

Club Med Playa Blanca.

The General Electric Carousel of Progress at Disneyland and the miniature model of Progress City at the end of the show.

Pushbuttons that you really, really have to push.

Tenna-Rotors.
 
It's a little early...but here's what I miss...

Helping to make pancakes on Sunday morning, and the old GREAT TASTING Mrs. Butter Worths syrup.

Going with Dad to Builder's Square to buy materials for the day's "project".

Helping with the laundry and smelling that GREAT early-90's detergent...Fresh Start really brought that back at the Convention.

Going with Dad to his office.

When everyone lived in Houston close to each other and family get-togethers occurred VERY often...someone was at our house every day on the weekend and in the summer.

Spending the night at my grandmother's house.

Our huge family Christmas parties that were sometimes held at our house.

Going on those long Texas road trips and being small enough to sleep comfortably in the backseat.

Being the "shopping buddy" at the grocery store and picking out candy.

Going to Sears and trying out every single vacuum on display.

When putting $15 in the gas tank topped it off.

Our Technics turntable and playing Bruce Springsteen records on the 78 setting.

Our Sony console TV with the digital clock on the front that showed little age.

The vacuums we should have kept.

When getting your homework done was the only thing to worry about.
 
So many things -
- the excitement of shopping for new school supplies every year.
- Sunday dinner when we all lived in Brooklyn.
- the comfort of having my own little corner of the world within 3 blocks.
- going downtown to Fulton Street with my older cousins to check out the latest 45's and 33's at Korvettes then to Juniors for ice cream sodas.
- Abraham and Straus department store in all it's Art Deco glory - it was truly Brooklyn's own high end department store - for years it's tag line was "the store born and raised in Brooklyn..."
- going with those same cousins to the Brooklyn Paramount and Fox theatres to see all the early 60s's teen performers.
- My paternal grandfather "Pop" taking me to the diner for breakfast on Saturday mornings then shopping for a toy
- helping Aunt Jennie do laundry in her Norge Timeline and talking about everything in the world
- all day Saturday picnics with the entire family at Crestwood Lake in Allandale New Jersey from MAy to September
- the first time I saw the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
- the excitement of my first day in public high school after coming from a small Catholic school
- starting "holiday planning" with my mother in late October for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
- the thrill of getting out of school for Thanksgiving and Christmas and knowing that our house would be non stop activity for the whole season
- summer nights with parents, neighbors and friends playing cards and talking until late - impromptu cookouts and pot luck dinners
- realizing my best friend loved me as much as I loved him
- the feeling of a complete community and being completely cared for by and with those same people
- making sure I got up before dawn on weekends and sharing a quiet pot of coffee with my mother even as an adult. It was there we shared pieces of our individual lives and I learned that she had her own hopes, dreams and disappointments that had nothing at all to do with her role as wife and mother. It was also there that I realized that though she never had the benefit of education beyond the 9th grade, she was inherently an incredibly intelligent woman. That time with her is something that I will never get over.....
- the thrill of being in love for the first time
- being in my 20's, having a 32 inch waist and thick wavy hair and believing in the endless possibilities of the world
- when life actually had a pace and rhythm and didn't just mean as many work hours as could fit into a week
 

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