What do you miss?

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Hmmm, what do I miss?

I miss:

Children allowed to be children. Letting them go and roam and play.

Watching mom or my aunts getting "dressed" to out (down-town,the country club, dinner dances, etc).

Jello 1-2-3

Unsweetened Kool-Aid

Self Styling Adorn Hair Spray

Princess Trim Line Telephones

Dippity Do and Curlers all day Saturday so one looked good Saturday night for dates, and Sunday for church.

Hearing "can you zip me"?

Dunan Hines birthday cakes

School/class pictures

Summer nights playing "Red Light, Green Light, 1,2,3"

Summer nights playing "Ring-Go-Laerio"

Bewitched

That Girl

Flipper

Work places like "The Best of Everything". Came in on the tale end of it,but remember the time with the "girls" in the pool.

Switchboards

When nurses dressed like nurses

Catching "lightening bugs"

Archie Bunker

George Jefferson

Listening to Journey (I am forever yours.. faithfully)

The "80's"

When people you did not know addressed you by your last name.

When children knew their "mams and sirs"

When sorority sister was not equated with being a tart.

Housemothers that listened when a romance went wrong, and helped you get over that first hangover.

"The Graduate"

New York City during the 1980's, before it became one huge Disney World/wealthy surburb

Sitting alone in my room listening to the radio, singing along with "That is the way I always heard it should be" and wondering how my life would unfold.

Shopping for back to school clothes

The Monkees

The Bugaloos

Bugs Bunny after school and Saturday mornings on television

Reading the soceity pages and seeing all the beautiful brides in their gowns, and looking for girls we knew.

Summers at my grandmothers house with all my cousins

The Carol Burnett Show

Mary Tyler Moore Show

The Muppet Show

Snowstorms that closed school for days

My mis-spent youth (who was it that said youth was wasted on the young is SOOOO right).*LOL*

Europe during the 80's and 90's before the European Union

Paris when one could live there on $100 or so a week

So many more things I miss, but most of all all those friends and family that have gone home. Don't worry guys, I'm thinking of you and please keep a spot on the couch warm for me!

Launderess
 
Wow, Veg-you really know how to start a thread.

I miss telephones that were easy to use, didn't have a million buttons and the sound didn't break up.

I miss TV variety shows

I miss songs that have understandable lyrics

I miss all the old dime stores. Walmart aint got it!

Things I'm sick of-

Sex, sex sex on TV and in movies. I'm no prude, but its all so in your face. There is no mystery and it all becomes too common and well, unsexy

T-shirts and bumper stickers that have dirty words and nasty phrases on them. When did it become OK to say some of these things in public? References to sex acts or phrases that demean other people are sad. Way tired of "peeing Calvin" too.

Phone answering machines. Everyone hides behind these now.

Stores that do not put price tags on things. Was at Sears last week and wanted to know a price on some sheets. No price on the merchandise or the shelf. Went over to the silly "price scanner" and it didn't work. Left in frustration.

Everything out of Hollywood these days is a remake of something. Why did the "Bewitched" story need to be retold? Can't the big movie people come up with anything better than "The Dukes of Hazzard"?

Lastly, it is my Moms birthday today and I miss being able to talk to her like I could before several strokes turned her brain into swiss cheese. I really hate that.

David
 
I miss family get togethers.

I miss family members who have departed.

I miss ice cold coke in a glass bottle....(tasted sooo much better when i was a little nipper.)

I miss the carefree days of youth......when your biggest concern was what you were going to do on summer vacation.

I miss the 20lb capacity Norge washer that could wake the dead when it was running.

I miss old friends that i have lost touch with through the years...( sometimes it's better to let sleeping dogs lie....)

I miss side opening Kenmore washers already (he he)

I miss my Aunt's late 60's Jet-Action Frigidaire washer.

The little rascals

Tom& Jerry

B. Bunny

THere's many more things i can't stand though...but why be negative...just gotta roll with it i guess :-)

Pat
 
QUOTE: "Wow, Veg-you really know how to start a thread."

Well, like Freud, I do my best work in a state of moderate misery ;)

And it's about time we heard from you, buster!

veg
 
More things....

Driving on vacation in our Pontiac wagon with my dad whisting as we shot across the middle of the country

Stopping off at a Stuckeys off a long greenbelt and enjoying the day as we ate our peanut brittle

Going to the lumber yard with my dad

Collecting old wood from houses going up in the neighborhood and building 2 and 3 level forts

Going with my parents to pick out furniture and imagining all the room displays as part of our house

Going to look at model homes with NuTone intercoms, dual staircases and what the future was supposed to be

Getting my parents' first new Cadillac and riding home with that Cadillac smell

Flying down a long long hillside on a steerable sled

Swinging on a swingset so high you were afraid you might swing upside down and all the way around. The great feeling in your stomach when someone was pushing you really high.

My first go cart

Going to Elitch Gardens in Denver, and my parents buying the all day tickets, so all rides were unlimited. The feeling of excitement the Friday before you went knowing it was coming.

A real summer storm and the feel after it when the sun came out and it was warm but still had an edge of chill in the air, and you went running out into the wet grass and sunshine.
 
Great Thread

Let me see....I miss:

My mom saying "I'll have 5 dollars worth of Ethyl and a Gallon of milk" to the young guy in the mechanics uniform at the Jefferson Gas Station.

Records and Listening to them on my Grandmothers Zenith Console system.

My 80 some year old grandfather driving his big block Chevy like a madman and my grandmother yelling at him along the way.

Not thinking of where something simple was made before buying it since most things were made here.

Seeing the electric fan display at Sears every spring and all the other stuff at Sears.

Shopping with Mom and Grandma.

Metal Silver Faced Audio Equipment. Especially the Pioneer stuff from the late 70's.

Cooking with my grandmother using her 40" Hotpoint electric range with lighted pushbuttons. Supermatic burner that lowered to become a deep well with a special pot inserted into it and meat probe driven music box that played "tenderly"

My moms 1957 GE TOL Filterflo washer and 1956 GE Electric Dryer

Old Allied Radio Catalogs

Going to work with my dad who was an appliance repairman

The filter flo collection my brother and I would use as frisbees in the back yard. The copper colored aluminum ones did the best.

It has been great reading everyones thoughts. Thanks.
 
Reply to parunner58

Hey parunner, I'm from Bethlehem ! We're neighbors. Yes I remember Hess's Patio. What a place. I never left there without a doggy bag. God bless Max Hess. The Allentown fair used to be great and I loved going to the freak sideshow when they had it. One thing I do enjoy about the Fair is Farm-O-Rama (boy am I corny). It's one of the last vestiges of the original fair. As far as missing things I forgot to put down ovens with real buttons and knobs, and Halloween costumes made by Collegeville and Ben Cooper. The plastic type masks with the rubber band. I know there's more. Glad to have a neighbor in the club. Keep in touch.
 
Hey, I know what 45's are!! (And 33 1/2 LP's too...LOL)

Here's more...

R12 Freon in the AC that actually blew COLD, not luke-warm.

Dad's '83 Datsun 280ZX ("poor-man's Corvette") and '89 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham D'Elegance (talk about a boat...).

Watching the '86 Westinghouse wash, and trying to pry the lid open during spin.

Our old 80's house in Houston (most of our old neighborhood is torn down due to flooding).

The Whirlpool tub in the above house, and my large bedroom & bathroom.

A closet you could actually play in.

Movies that actually had a point (this one's recent).

Family members (and beloved animals) who have passed on.

Side-opening washer lids, and ones that laid flat.
 
Dayton's (our version of the premier local department store), when it was really Dayton's and you could buy everything there you'd ever need except some of the food you ate.

Apache Plaza (apacheplaza.com), a very cool mid-century mall that has gone to the great beyond, and the original incarnation of Southdale, the first enclosed shopping mall.

"Country Club", a now defunct local grocery chain whose weekly ads appeared in the newspaper on special green paper.

The dog on our street that used to chase every car that came and went.

When neighborhoods were full of people and life, instead of quiet and deserted like today.

Privately owned neighborhood grocery stores and other businesses.

When the weather people on TV drew their maps and diagrams by hand in magic marker.

Rotary dial telephones and TV tuners, and car radios with mechanical snapping pushbuttons.

Dashboard-mounted ignitions, bright light controls on the floor and those huge accelerator pedals that ran all the way to the floor in cars.

Actually enjoying and looking forward to watching television programs.

The concept of getting something new and the possibility that it might actually be better than what you had before, rather than hanging onto something for dear life knowing that you'll never find that quality again.

Elevator operators (bet this one will stump Austin and perhaps a few others!)

When people entertained regularly in their homes, and actually cooked and took pride in the appearance of their homes.

My grandma and great aunts, and a lot of other people.
 
Elevator operators Scott.. there's one left here in the city fully operational and manned. Yes there are weirdo's LOL who travel the world just to ride in them. I took my then 9 yr old niece downtown two years ago when she was here on vacation specifically so she could try it out. It's in a civic building so there was no calling 2nd Floor Ladies Lingerie, shoes, and scarves.
 
I said already NOLA

The whole city is totally dunked underwater.

That's what you get when you build a city BELOW sea level. Never made sense to me but that's where I grew up. I figured this would happen one day, and it did. Ok, yeah we have levees but with a 20+ feet tidal surge it's no use. AND the levees broke. One in Metairie and one close to Chalmette.

And it's useless to pump the water out cause it goes right back in. I think New Orleans is done with. It was a wonderful city but I think it's the new Atlantis

"When the levee breaks, I have no place to stay"
 
Oh heck Pete it's no weirder than some of the things some of us others do, LOL.

There are two buildings left in the twin cities area here that still have this type of system, and I've been known to go visit every now and so often.
 
elevator attendants

Pete, does the elevator lady sit on a little fold down seat? Does she have a thin stick that she holds across the door opening before she pulls the outer and inner doors shut? I love that big handle that powers the motor and the way it is used in jockeying the cab into position at each floor. The things that youngsters will never experience! I think that some museum should have one of these elevators on permanent exhibition so that people could have the experience at least once in their lives.
 
Tom..the elevator operator here is an older gentleman. At least when I've been their it always has been and he wears a doormans like uniform, no stick..and I believe there is a fold down seat as well. The other elevators I always liked were the older but automatic Otis that had that big brass "Autotronic" panel on the main floor showing what floor each car was was at, as well there was a dial in the panel with different positions like "heavy up" "heavy down", very tempting to play with.LOL
 
Hey, burpalator!

May I call you burp?

Yes, I visit that site and watch the video every now and then for auld lang syne. Wanna get frustrated? Try humming the music...

Anyone remember the announcer: "The FBI--in color!"

veg
 
I miss:

My grandma and the smell of a roast cooking in her kitchen on Sunday mornings.

Sears, and all the pushy sales people who wouldn't let a little boy just "play" with the vacuums.

Montgomery Wards: they always smelled like carmel corn, and of course the beach ball floating on the vacuum exhaust in their vacuum department.

The vacuum department at Wieboldts, a long defunct Chicago area department store. They sold EVERYTHING Hoover

My friend Jack Wissert, who fought cancer bravely for 5 years. I can still close my eyes and hear his laughter at some really raunchy jokes.

TV sets with dials

My 1976 Buick Electra 225 Limited. Best car I ever had!

Telephones with real bells in them

New Years eve at grandma's watching Guy Lombardo on TV. At midnight Grandma would open the back door and poke her head outside to hear all the party-ers outside on main street in her town, one block away.

Being able to go to Ohare Airport and parking so as to watch the planes take off and land. Today the place is sealed up like fort knox!
 
Wow Jeff, that's the car my dad had when I learned how to drive! Small wonder I couldn't parallel park til I was 35...LOL!

I'm really sorry about your friend. I used to enjoy spending New Years Eve with my grandma too; we'd always switch back and forth between Guy Lombardo and New Years Rockin Eve!

How long did Wieboldt's last? When I had friends in Chicago proper, we often drove by an abandoned one in the central city on I forget what street, and he told me they were nice stores. I was perusing a "dead mall" website and there was mention of one having been at this mall, I forget where. So between that and you remembering it, they must have lasted into the mall era.

Tom, I think I remember one place with those sticks indicating the doors were going to close, and some just used their arms. We had some with manually operated doors/gates, and some others that had electrically operated doors. These were more like the elevators we have today, except they still had operators. They must have been the next step after the manual doors and gates but before automatic.
 
Making "houses" out of refrigerator and washer and dryer boxes. In the winter I'd cut an opening and place it against the dryer vent on the patio -- voila! central heating! Sometimes also made tents/houses with old sheets and blankets and lawn chairs, the picnic table and benches and so forth.

Sitting on the big vinyl recliner in the family room of the house where I grew up, reading a book or magazine, with my feet up on the grille of the Thomas A. Edison window unit, getting a good chill.

Setting a stack of Christmas LPs on the Zenith clam-shell record player, in the middle of summer, so I could fall asleep listening to them, and Dad always fussed because he could hear it, even though I had the volume barely cracked open.

Having time to read a book.

Watching Star Trek for the first time (re-runs, didn't get into it until the mid-1970s), and Soap and Space 1999 when they were first aired.

Spending the night at granny's when I was just a youngster.

Going out-of-town to the aunts/uncles houses for various holidays. Except Christmas was always at Grandpa's house, and since the sisters and I were the grandkids in town, we always got to decorate the tree.

Insisting that Mom not wash clothes all week, so I could do a bunch of Bob Loads on Saturday.
 
Oh the memories...

Scott:
That 1976 Buick was the S**T as far as I was concerned. I bought it in 1983 with 40,000 miles, and sold it in 1988 with 125,000 on it. I loved that car more than any other one, and it set the standard for every car since then. I just can't drive a small car! I tried with the Ford Taurus, and back in January I traded the Taurus in for a beautiful 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis.

Wieboldts - They were around til maybe 1987 or so. I shopped at their Randhurst mall store mostly, the Hoovers were in the basement.

What I wouldn't give to be able to poke my head out the back door with Grandma on New Years eve again, or to just have a chance to tell Jack one more dirty, tasteless joke.
Time moves too fast..
 
1976 Buick Electra

Jeff,
Here is the 1976 Electra that lives in our garage and she is a fabulous auto. With gas prices going up, she may end up as either garage art or yard art. (I am in the south you know).

Charlie
 
Very nice Charlie! Maybe you can take it out to drive to the Piggly Wiggly once in a while! ;-)

Ours was a 4 door, a kind of cream color but definitely more "yellow" than yours, though it wasn't yellow either, if any of th at makes sense. I remember it had something called "speed alert", you could set it at a certain point in the speedometer and it would buzz to tell you you were getting over speed. LOL I don't remember a lot of the finer details anymore, but it was a wonderful car, and we'd had several Electras before it as well.
 
growing up...

my mom had a new Electra 225 every 4 years, and my dad had a string of different Buicks, Riveras, Wildcats, Lesabres, and Regals.
I learned how to drive on mom's 1978 Electra Limited.

My '76 was a 4 door, sky blue with a white vinyl top and the Buick Mags. It was the Park Avenue version, which 1976 was the 2nd year for...
Gotta find some pics of it to post!
 
Charlie,, that's my car.. altho mine was a 75 we bought it as a year end in early 76, dark cobalt blue with a white padded quarter top..almost the reverse of yours, white interior. I miss that car so much. I have to have a pic of it around here somewheres,, where is the question. I'm trying to remember what we paid for it back then but it was around $7000 Cdn. and I had to have it because it was an absolute knockout. I think it was even nicer than the similar C.d'Villes. and definitely better than the 98's
 
Some Things that I Miss......

-Gold Bond Stamps
-T.G.& Y.
-Gibson's Discount Center
-Furr's Cafeteria when it was still good
-Underwood's Barbecue Cafeteria
-Spending the night at cousin Gary Don's house
-My grandparents' cotton farm in West Texas
-Romper Room
-Elementary School
-Cartoons of the 1960's and before
-Bewitched
-Shopping downtown before the mall killed it
-Appliances of the 1970's and before
-Petticoat Junction
-When nobody wore seatbelts
-Burger Chef
-The Carol Burnett Show
-Shopping for school clothes and supplies
-Cars of the 1970's and before
-Being excited about the mailman coming
-Homemade ice-cream for birthdays
-Captain Kangaroo
-Riding my bike EVERYWHERE!
-When clothing and hair styles were neat and attractive
-Romper Room
-The Dick Van Dyke Show
-3:00pm snack time, following our naps
-Our 1959 white Frigidaire washing machine
-When people dressed up when going "to town," to the bank, to appear in a TV audience, etc.
-Admiral Foghorn (similar to Bozo, Howdy Doody, etc.)
-Sitcoms every night
-New TV shows in the fall/spring and reruns in the summer
-Summer vacation
-No reality TV
-Getting a trinket or small toy at the dentist or doctor
-Buying 45's at Gibson's
-Listening to the radio and calling in to make requests
-Transistor radios
-Console TVs that looked like furniture
-Getting new pajamas, house shoes and a house coat
-Snow days...no school
-Going out of town for the weekend to stay w/relatives
-My Smokey the Bear stuffed animal
-Potluck lunches at church
-Thinking that going to the park to play was a treat
-Texas
-Avon ladies
-Towels or dishes in laundry detergent boxes
-Full service filling stations where they filled the tank, checked under the hood, checked the fluids, cleaned the windshield, offered you a map for free and told you what dish was available this week
-Cigar boxes for your school supplies
-Finding the toy in the cereal box
-PopTarts
-Archie, Betty, Veronica, Reggie, Jughead, Hotdog, Miss Grundy and Mr. Weatherby
-PreBeatles rock and roll
-Tall Boy (burger joint)
-Variety shows....Red Skelton, Andy Williams, The Smothers Brothers, etc.
-Phyllis Diller
-Joan Rivers when she was just a commedienne
-Birthday cards with money inside
 

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