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Yes MsMasdge too!! Candy necklaces oh my!!! Yes I remember playing 7-upsuch innocent times thumbs up on rainy days. I loved the music period....the teacher played piano and we learned folk songs like the boll weevil in the cotton fields and seasonal songs, thanksgiving and Christmas. Such innocent times, playing hide n seek with the neighbor kids. At one time we had about 35 kids on our block which was amazing for a small rural town back then with a population of about 8,500. My bike was my transportation, it was also a horse when younger, lol!!!
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You,and I AND MsMadge woulda made the Best team!I remember the TV being brought in for the astronauts too and other big history making stuff it seems and staying in on rainy days at recess and playing 7-upThumbs Up and Board games too.Do you remember getting Weekly Readers and being able to order books at school?I Loved that but I sure didn't Love having to eat my lunch on the stage in Front of everyone because a group of us got in trouble for shooting peas at lunchtime.That was SO embarrassing!
Did you ever have a teacher read to you from a certain book?I Loved it when my 4th grade teacher read to us from "Little House On The Prairie" after lunch and we'd have to lay our heads on our desk....
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luckylu, thanks for bringing such good memories. Plain milk ws 3 cents and chocolate was 5 cents. Favorite sandwich was baloney and mayo on Wonderbread. Favorite lunch to buy was pizza made with English muffins, tomato sauce and a slice of American cheese. A quarter spent at the little family corner store near my grandparents got me a whole little bag of candies...Bit o Honey and Tootsie rolls, candy buttons on paper and candy necklaces.
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Lucky, we would have made a great pair on the blacktop with the tether balls, LOL!!
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Lu
I loved tether ball
I remember having a tv brought into the classroom to watch the astronauts launch into space
You clearly were deprived not allowed to walk or ride your bike to school - we got to go over a freeway overpass

I only got to buy lunch on special days like Salisbury steak day

On rainy days we sat inside and played thumbs up 7 up
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SharynMMarie....I would have loved playing with you as a child and I loved tetherball too and I always loved the cherry fruit pies from Hostess.And I also remember when it was an honor being milk monitor too.Do you remember when milk was 3 cents?
And GardenArtist...you really brought up more good memories.Oh,How I hated those awful gymsuits(1 piece) ours were navy on the bottom and striped blue on top,and I wouldn't change my clothes in front of the other girls and changed in the toilet and got marked off points because of it every year.And I remember that Sinclair gas station had dinasour soap and there was a toy in the middle of it and I remember getting Ethel in my '69 T Bird on the side of the gas station.Do you remember when we only had a choice to take Home ec. or Shop class?And driving simulators?So many memories of way back when...Thanks everyone.
Sorry MsMadge,You were the one who talked about it being an honor to be milk monitor.Do you (or anyone) remember hamburger gravy or dream cookies the cafeteria served at school?And my Mom wouldn't let me Bring lunch so I didn't have a lunchbox.I always had to "Buy".And even though we lived close to school,I was never allowed to walk or ride my bike to school.:( :)
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Haah!! I was a hall monitor in 5th grade for 1st and 2nd graders while they ate their lunch. I walked the hall checking on the kids of about 4 classrooms. Can you imagine that!!! Not in today's schools could a 5th grader monitor 4 classrooms for 30 minutes. Lol!! Great memories!!
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As I recall we left those metallic lunch boxes outside along the wall so we could grab them heading out to lunch !

I remember it being an honor to be the milk monitor in the 3rd grade

My favorite was the Helm's bakery man who drove a yellow delivery wagon around town and sold pastries - applesauce cake was great and on Fridays I was allowed a jelly donut around the same time as the air raid sirens would go off - remember those signs for fallout shelters ?
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I'm not missing the squeaky floors and stairs in my parent's old house, they made it very hard to sneak in at 4 or 5 in the morning ;)

I had an ugly plain blue plastic lunchbox with tape on the corner from the time I threw it at my brother, the kind with the thermos in the lid (nope, never got a replacement). And I never heard of anybody getting sick from their unrefrigerated school lunches either SharynMM.
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Squeaky wooden floors in Woolworth's and Kresge's, in my g'mother's house, and now in my daughter's home -- I love them.
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Yes good old Gregg Shorthand. I took 3 years of it in HS to get certified at 120wpm. Never used it on any office job I had, dicaphone was replacing it except for the legal field.
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GA, oh the metal lunch box featured popular cartoons or Tv shows!!! I often wondered as I git older about spoilage since our lunches were kept at room temperature. I would have a sandwich, tuna, bologna, ham,etc. All had Mayo involved, and soup in my thermos. Remember the fruit pies??? Where the made by hostess or some other company, I always had the chocolate cream or hostess ho-ho's, lol!!! I loved tether ball, 4-square, monkey bars!!
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BlackHole, I remember those old shorthand books - we used them to record court hearings. I remember also learning how to position my left hand so that I could flip them in a second or so w/o losing momentum as the hearing was taking place. Even a few seconds could put a court reporter behind, and it was often hard to catch up.

LuckyLu, we too used to read the comic pages together. I remember sitting next to Dad as we read them on Sunday morning. I had forgotten all about those times until reading your post. It really brought back memories.

Sharyn, I had also forgotten about cokes sitting in buckets of chilled water.

Anyone remember changing into those one piece gym suits we had to wear for gym activities? We barely had time to get out of them though and change back into school clothes.

When I was in grade school, either once a week or once a month (so long ago I don't remember) we had treats: ice cream in little cups, eaten with a small wooden spoon. It was accompanied by a hot dog and potato chips. Thinking back, it was certainly an unhealthy meal.

But it was a treat as we otherwise had to bring lunches from home every day. Which reminds me....what kind of lunch box did you carry? I remember holding my little lunch box as I walked to school. I wonder now how we managed to do w/o refrigeration - must have had sandwiches that didn't need to be refrigerated.

Remember the horses at Texaco (?) gas stations? There's one in a small community far west of me. It always reminds me of those old gas stations when "fill 'er up!" was the common request.

Susan and LuckyLu, I remember the old Woolworth and Kresge stores in the downtown area of one of the "big" cities back in the old days. I especially remember the card section, but primarily the Valentine assortment. For some reason the Valentine cards were very special.

I also remember the squeaky wooden floors.
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Blackhole...I remember being able to charge things at certain stores and then they'd send the bill in the mail and it was no big deal...atleast to me.Mom and Dad ended up paying my tabs......Ahhh,the good ole days.
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Had 2 of those old-fashioned stores in my hometown. They both had a bell that jingled when you opened the door.....and ancient wooden floors.

The smaller store was long and skinny. Had penny candy. Wax lips! Wax soda bottles filled with sugary liquid! Styrofoam-ish UFOs filled candy dots! And a pinball machine that was in constant use. Ping-ping-bling-bling.

The bigger store -- which was still small -- was an old-fashioned grocery. Literally a mom-and-pop operation. Some items were on high shelves behind the counter. "Pop" was up and down the sliding ladder all day. And you could run a tab!

Ahhhh. Ancient history. The skinny store closed in the 1970s. The little grocery limped into the early 1980s before it expired.
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Susan, your description brings back memories of my favorite store in my home town. When I was small our little town of about 400 souls supported two general stores (one which also sold fabric and some clothing items), a bakery, butcher shop, furniture store, barber shop (where the men also could play pool), and a shoe store. Oh, I forgot the store with the frozen food locker. All gone now.
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Luckylu - we still have one in our small town. It's called a "variety store" now, but it was always called the "five and dime" when I was little. We could go in there and get fresh, hot roasted peanuts, fresh popcorn, bulk Brach's candies from the glass-front bins at the counter and a rainbow of penny candy from the candy aisle. They're still open, and when you walk in, it's like stepping back in time, physically. The creaky old wooden floors are still there, and the smells of popcorn, chocolate, mixed with various cleaning supplies, stationary, yarn and fabric all mingle to take you back about 40 years. They still sell all the things I mentioned, plus things you can't find in any big box store these days - like nice ladies' handkerchiefs.

Sadly, the folks that own it want to retire next summer, and if they don't find someone to buy the store, it will close. :-(
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Remember Dime Stores?Like Ben Franklin's and WoolWorth's?And the smell of popcorn when you walked in the door and the cotton candy machine and the esculators and mechanical,moving Christmas decorations in the windows?
And how about when you could take clothes home on "approval",try em' on at home and if they didn't fit you could bring them back.
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Does Canada still have their recycling centers?
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This should probably be on the Caregivers behaving badly thread, but it pertains to the Coca-Cola deposits on glass bottles that they used to charge, back when we were kids. Well my husband tells of when he was a kid (about 7 or 8), he and his little friends would distract the corner store owner, while tge other ones used to load up a wagon of empty (already recycled) Coke bottles from behind the store, anf take them back into the store for the recycling credit! Little thieves! Lol! Boy's behaving Badly!
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Yes GA!!! remember the coca-cola refrigerated chest with water?? We reached in the cold water pulling out an ice cold coke??? What did they cost....25 cents with a .5 cent depoist when you returned the bottle back when we recycling was was in its its infancy. Great memories!!!
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Sharyn, I haven't even seen wax lips for decades! I remember the peanut shaped candy confections, and vaguely remember other wax treats. Your comments brought back some real memories as I envisioned where we used to live, the corner stores, and even recall when we walked over to the store to get bread or a wax treat from the smaller store across the street.

I also remember the gold wrapped chocolate coins; they were a real favorite at Christmas.

That seems like a century ago!
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lucky, your post brought back memories of the neighborhood mom and pop market. Every Saturday I would go with my .50 cent weekly allowance for chores (around age 6-8). I would buy my favorite milk chocolate Hershey eggs. Back then they were single and wrapped in a football designed foil for .1 cent each. Good ole penny candy. Wax lips, etc!!!
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When I was a kid,one of my favorite things was being with my Dad.One of the best things we did was on Friday nights when Dad would take me to Git n Go and he'd buy me comic books and an Icee and $1.oo in penny candy and back then,it was a hundred pieces.Then go home,read the funnies and eat candy.I still enjoy my comic books today....and candy!
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When I was a kid, I was fascinated with my mom's old Gregg shorthand books. Loved how they opened upwards. Loved all the squiggles and symbols. Tried to teach myself.....but not really....because I kept getting distracted by Shaun Cassidy, Charlie's Angels and such ;-)

Long into her life -- and long after shorthand had fallen out of favor -- mom would inject the occasional symbol into her to-do lists and such.

So pleased that this thread cracked open a long-dormant memory. Because I primarily rant and vent on this site, most folks probably think I had a lousy past with my mother. Not entirely true. As I was growing up, there were aspects of our family life that sucked sh*t. There were also good times. Including some preferences and traditions that I've carried into my adult life.

In fact, one day last year, I intended to start a thread titled "It Wasn't All Bad." And share some positive stories about my mom.....things I appreciate about her (that got lost in the fog of her decline and my stress). Came home from some errands that afternoon, and my landline had a string of missed calls/messages from the police, EMS and county coroner. You can guess the rest.
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Book, one of my credit card has points that I can use as payment on Amazon, too. Just noticed it today! Pretty nice side benefit!
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Hot chocolate and warm chocolate chip cookies.
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Favorite things: first freeze of the season. The yards are covered in Mother Nature's frosting, lending a lovely, soft touch and compliment to the leaves rapidly departing from their lofty perches and moving to their winter home on the ground, or eventually as mulch.

It's time to treat myself - spend the day relaxing, cuddling up in warm throws or quilts, drinking hot chocolate or hot cider, and of course thinking about which rib-sticker stew to make today. Homemade bread would be a perfect accompaniment if I can muster up the energy.
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MsMadge, I have to jump in here and talk about Gregg shorthand!

Early in my career when I became bored with secretarial work, I moved from law firms to the county and became a court reporter. At that time, ALL court reporters in that particular court used Gregg shorthand. After practicing and practicing, I qualified at 200 wpm, the requirement to be a court reporter.

Years later, my fingers still wiggle and move and take down conversations automatically. People might think I have a medical disorder, but the practice of recording became so ingrained that my right hand automatically starts "recording."

I probably couldn't tell you how to write specific characters - I'd have to watch to see what my fingers do as they have better patterning memory than my brain! It's a good thing I can hide my right hand sometimes so it doesn't begin jumping around recording social conversations.
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Amazon gift cards from my credit card points. I just discovered today that the credit card I use for paying my car gas has reward points that I can use on Amazon. I tested it today and used the reward points to buy a used book ($4.00). Another card for bills and house supplies - I've already exchanged points for 2 $100 gift cards for this year. I'm so enjoying ordering 'free' and/or inexpensive books/ebooks this past year using these points. =)
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