Ellen Simper Art: Good Ol' Days

A friend sent me one of the multitude of infamous Forwards everyone in our culture has become so fond of. Especially those which say "forward this to 11 of your closest friends within 11 minutes because on the 11th of the next month you will have 11 moments of

supreme joy and/or 11 instances of grand luck. If you don't forward this you will have 11 bad things happen to you." Oh the unbelievable ridiculousness! I am becoming more and more adamantly irritated by that level of intimidation.

However, there are some Forwards that are clever and interestin

g. This was one of them which included a list of a dozen old timey things. Drive-in movies have not altogether disappeared. The Burma Shave signs were a bit of travel entertainment, sort of like caveman type of DVD videos. I watched for Burma Shave signs along the road or my Dad would alert me, since they were so clever and entertaining. Okay, trust me.

Seeing a metal ice cube tray with the lever in the center for releasing the cubes makes me chuckle. Perhaps they were better than what we use now, well, those of us that still don't have a built-in ice maker.

We have come so far from some early technology especially in recording. Reel to reel was awkward, taking up excess space, broken tape, all sorts of mistakes, and more. I don't miss that as well as the mimeograph machine with the goofy purple lettering. Vinyl records came in the large 12" size, 33-1/3's with a small hole in the middle and the small 45's with a large hole in the center. The adapter to play the 45's on a regular record player was the silly yellow plastic piece, very inefficient and annoying.

Shopping incentives included this crazy system of collecting little green stamps at gas stations and grocery stores, saving them in booklets to redeem at a Green Stamps Redemption center for fabulous products! I got in big trouble when I was a teenager for giving away some of our hoarded full booklets to a spendthrift neighbor because she was desperate to acquire some item for her already nicely decorated home. My Dad was furious with me, maybe that the neighbor was irritating on more than one level.

When television first invaded our homes, it was on a 7", a 10" or a 12" screen which started each day with a test pattern, the purpose of which I never understood.

It was such a marvelous invention that even the test pattern was entertaining - the exciting beginning of TV day which closed with a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner and/or some soggy song or sentiment. Programming was in black and white and very limited in content. It was no surprise that I became an addict and had my favorites such as "Sky King" and "Hopalong Cassidy". Roy Rogers and Gene Autry rode into our homes and hearts along with Gary Moore's variety show. Fun times.

Speaking of fun times, the photo of the wringer washer brought back memories of when we had one of these marvels and 3 children in cloth diapers, yes diapers made of cloths, held on with safety pins and kept socially acceptable with plastic pants. The beast was effective gett

ing things clean but it was brutal on snaps and zippers. Yes, back in the olden days we had snaps and zippers.

There were laughable items in the Forward, with price comparisons that are unbelievable. Nickel postage stamps and nickel sodas reminding me that we could get a large scoop of ice cream on a cone for a nickel. As well as a vanilla ice cream on a stick and covered with chocolate called a "Nickel-Bar" - long gone.

When McDonald's first emerged, it was SUCH A TREAT! We watched as McDonald's bragged on their sign when they sold their first million. I believe their 15 cent hamburger used to taste a lot better than what they sell now. They used real meat mixed with the cardboard.

Last on a list of fond memories is when gasoline used to cost 25 cents a gallon. There were even gas wars that kept the cost low. I remember feeling the cost crunch and with only 2 dollars in my pocket, using one of them to put 4 gallons in the tank. Sometimes I spent a quarter or a whole fifty cents to get by for a while. Amazing!