Who Remembers?

noun: nostalgia; plural noun: nostalgias

1. a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.

I’ve blogged before about smells and how they can whisk me back to my childhood days. Pictures can do that too. A friend shared a string of retro pictures this week that were so fun I had to share some of them, as well as some of my own.

My sisters would apply this to a strand of their hair before rolling a brush curler into it. Also, they used old orange juice cans as rollers. I can’t quite catch that aroma, but I remember it being as intoxicating as Vick’s VapoRub. Do they still sell Dippity-do? I would love to have some just to smell. And maybe some Pond’s cold cream and Jergen’s lotion to make the experience complete.

I consider these fun puzzles the fore-runner of the Rubik’s Cube. (The RC was not as fun, just frustrating.) The sliders could get sticky or gummy adding some needless frustration to the endeavor. I must have had a ‘high quality’ brand. It was a picture of the Flintstones – I still have it and it’s still fun.

We had a painted milk can sitting in the corner of the kitchen. When we had company for dinner, it served as an extra seat at the table. As the youngest, I was the one that ended up with this extremely uncomfortable seat. Like the one pictured above, ours also had a bicentennial theme; an American Eagle. Which reminds me, we also had patriotic TV tray tables featuring the Liberty Bell.

My brother got a Spirograph for Christmas. By the time the newness had worn off and I was allowed to use it, I think most of the pins that held the circle frame in place were missing. The picture above embodies most of my Spirograph art. I probably shouldn’t blame my brother or the Spirograph. My string art was similarly flawed.

What a treat it was to have the teacher select me to go to the office to pick up the dittos made on the mimeograph machine. It was also a privilege to be selected to go to the library and pick up the slide projector or the movie projector. Multi-media at its finest.

Yes, I admit it. There are some prank calls in my checkered past. My favorite was when my friend, Ronnie and I called his grandma and told her that if she could sing the Campbell’s soup jingle that she would win a case of tomato soup. I can’t imagine she was fooled by our high-pitched seven year old voices, but she gamely sang, “Mmm, mmm good. Mmm, mmm good. That’s what Campbell’s soups are, mmm, mmm good.” We laughed delightedly into the phone and I imagine she didn’t hold her breath waiting for a case of soup to show up at her door.

• 

Anybody else recognize this advertisement? I soooo wanted some sea monkeys. Either that or the amazing rock crystals that grew, from tablets, inside of an aquarium. I can’t believe I couldn’t talk my mom into this. The ad clearly states that there would be a money back guarantee if we weren’t 100% satisfied. In retrospect, it seems to me the $1.00 (plus 30 cents shipping charges) should have been totally worth it to her just to shut me up.

One of these machines was stationed in the vestibule of D & D Lanes, the local bowling alley. As edgy teenagers with fresh new drivers’ licenses, my bestie and I would scrounge up 75 cents to buy a pack of Marlboro Light 100s and fill her car with smoke and the sounds of Pat Benatar while we cruised the streets of greater downtown Stockbridge, MI.

Before there was Bactine, there was mercurochrome. Yes, my mom smeared it on my scraped knee with that little glass applicator at the end of a rubber stopper. Yes, it had mercury in it. Yes, I’m here to tell the tale.

This could be a picture of my first cell phone. It was purchased at Radio Shack while I was pregnant with my son. It was a pain to lug around. It had an antenna that attached on the top of my car roof with a powerful magnet. A cord trailed down the side of my car and into the back door where it then attached to the bag phone. The reception was spotty, and even when it was plugged into my cigarette lighter, the battery didn’t last long. I thought it was fabulous. I was excited and felt like I had arrived!

• 

• 

The holidays are upon us. I saw these ‘Extra Fancy’ mixed nuts at Gordon’s the other day. I was surprised. I didn’t know they were still around. My mom served them on the coffee table in our livingroom in a bowl similar to that above. Those lethal picks were used to pry the meat out of the nut shells. It was a lot of work for a small reward. Thank goodness for Planters mixed nuts.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!