| The Home of Roger V. |
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I grew up in the south Seattle (Burien) area so this writing is a reflection of life in this area...folks from other areas of the country may have some different memories but the idea is much the same. Life fifty years ago was simpler, but, I don't think it was as good...just different.One nice thing about reminiscing about the past is that we remember the good and tend to minimize the bad. So, if you were there in 1952 enjoy the memories. If you weren't here yet...learn a little bit about what it was like. Things we didn't have in 1952: Color tv...multi channels. Wasn't there just KING (ch. 5) back then?...tv cable...computers... dvd...stereo...cell phones... vcr's...remotes for anything...cordless phones...Vern Fonk... foriegn car imports...major league football, baseball and basketball (sometimes) I think we still don't)...weed eaters...word processors and electric typewriters...tape recorders...super glue...2 liter pop bottles...anything digital...cd's and cd players...small battery operated radios...motion detectors other than wives...diet pop...automatic washers and dryers...microwave ovens...felt tip pens...tv games...butane barbacue stoves...polyester clothing... c. b. radios...scanners...hand held calculators...There are many other things, too, in our daily lives that we didn't have "back then". However, I made up this list from a quick look around our home and yard. Kids now days must think we lived in empty boxes! Now, here are some of the things we DID have back then but not now. Drive in theaters...drive in burger joints. Remember Triple X? Best root beer in the world! ... Sick's Seattle Stadium and the PCL Seattle Rainiers... telephone party lines...dogs ran loose...tube type radios...plenty of wooded areas kids ran loose in without worrying about some freak grabbing them... model A cars...fire station siren to summon the volunteer firemen...real sirens on police cars and fire engines...roads paved with fresh tar-soft in the summer so you could leave your footprints...attendants at gas stations would check oil and water without charge...free air, water and maps, too, at gas stations...paper routes were for kids...stewardess' ((stewerdi?) were pretty young woman...now they may be the man next door and are "cabin attendants".. one quart glass pop bottles.. Steel beer cans. Bending one was a real test of strength. 8/10 Bulky Bull Durham cigarette rollers... sacks of Bull Durham tobacco in the jock box...great for cleaning messy car windows in cruddy weather... home made root beer, almost as good as Triple X... straight pipes on cars (now illegal)...three large jelly rolls in a pack .25 cents...a lunchtime staple... kids "ran through" the sprinkler on hot days... power lines would "hum" on hot days...overloaded but we didn't know and played under them anyway... Des Moines Way paved with brick...slippery when wet...saddle shoes for girls... front doors would be left unlocked at night so ruffians could sneak in late at night...in 1942-1956 we never had a burglary in our neighborhood...now we average three per year..."Flying Ants would flock around telephone poles in warm weather...termites...they loved the untreated cedar...there was always one kid in the neighborhood who would eat them to get attention. Not me. 7/31/03 According to today's experts those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's or 60's shouldn't have survived. Our baby cribs were coated with a bright color lead base paint...we had no child proof lids on medicine bottles...when we rode our bicycles we had no helmets...we took risks hitchhiking...we ate cupcakes, bread and butter, drank soda pop with sugar in it and ate candy bars for lunch. I even remember when bacon and eggs were good for us! We shared one soft drink from one bottle and nobody got sick...we would leave home in the morning, play all day, and come home for dinner. Nobody called us on a cell phone to see where we were... We climbed trees and fell out of them. Got cuts, bruises and even broken bones. Nobody got sued... When a student got held back for failing a class tests weren't adjusted for some special reason. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. Parents didn't bail us out if we broke the law...they actually sided with the law! This generation has produced some of the best risk takers, problem solvers and inventors ever. The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility and we learned how to deal with it. And...you're one of them! Are you a Lemac? Chances are you at least understand the question if you're, say, sixty five or over. Under that age you'll have to have an elder explain it to you. Ask respectfully. I barely remember, but do, when "Lucky Green went to war". Do you? Green dye was used to color the paper packages on Lucky Strike cigarettes. Yep... the packages used to be green. When WW 2 started the military needed the green dye to help make camouflage and dye soldiers uniforms. Lucky Strike company gave up using the dye and used the slogan to make theirselves sound patriotic. Of course...no one mentioned... they had no choice. Fed law. Orbit gum was another piece of WW 2 history. Hitlers U-boats had the entire east coast shut down for shipping...the gum people couldn't get any chickle from South America. That's the stuff they make gum out of. So some enterprising person designed a synthetic gum base. Mixed it with whatever, put it in a yellow wrapper package and sold it as Orbit Gum. Like chewing perfumed newspaper. Fell apart with four or five chews. (P) 6/09/04 REMEMBER BURMA SHAVE? Trips by auto in the 1930's through 1950's were far different than today. There were no freeways ...on/off ramps or traffic congestion. There was an occasional 4 lane highway filled with small shopping areas (but no giant malls) and traffic lights. Get further out from the city and one of the motoring delights, on the small 2-lane "highways" started showing up. Signs representing a brushless shave cream called "Burma Shave" would appear. As you drove along quiet rural roads a small red sign would be seen. A few words on it...just part of a phrase. About one half block later would be another sign and another part of the phrase. In all there would be 4, 5 or 6 signs strung out. Here was one of the phrases that I remember. "His face turned to...a darker shade...when Jess forgot...his razor blade!" And, of course, the final sign would say "BURMA SHAVE". It was the highlight of many a long boring trip in rural areas for adults as well as kids. We all wanted to be the first one to spot the first red sign and point it out so all could enjoy it. Way back in 1925 Allan Odell sold this great sales idea to his rather reluctant father, Clinton Odell. He gave Allan $200 to give it a try. Soon Allan and his brother Leonard were putting up signs all over. At their height of popularity there were over 7,000 Burma Shave signs stretching across America. The signs cheered us up during the depression and World War 2... but in the late Fifties cars got faster...freeways came into being, and the little red signs were replaced, as an advertising means, by big ugly billboards.
1963 was the last year for new Burma Shave signs. One set of signs is
preserved in the Smithsonian Institute. Fittingly, it reads: BIG EARL #1 sends an E to remind me of Double Bubble. Forgot about that... bubble gum. didn't it have a small comic strip inside the wrapper? And, Earl reminds... .25 cent movies on Saturdays sometimes had drawings onstage during intermissions. Earl won a bicycle once...I never won anything. Don't forget the continuing chapter in black and white of some serial with a catastrophe at the end of each chapter which was changed at the begining of the new chapter to explain how the hero jumped out of harms way at the last second. A final rememberance...he remembers saving bacon grease and other fat to make soap. I escaped that one but do remember the jar of bacon fat stored on the top of the wood burning stove for cooking grease. Every night, too, it was my little job to chop up and store by the wood stove enough kindling for my dad to fire up the stove to cook his breakfast every early A. M. |