I've seen a few different "applets," "applications," or whatever you want to call them recently through Facebook. Nothing really different than has been forwarded around amongst friends and family for years reminding us children of the 60s, 70s, and 80s what we grew up with and what the kids now have.
In my recent posts I've talked about some bad things from my childhood... things that I want to learn to file away, but things that still were the foundational building blocks to who I am now. We are a conglomeration of all the mismatched, perfectly rectangular or totally mis-shapen bricks stacked on top of each other.
I have memories of my brother, Joe, and me sitting in the livingroom floor playing matchbox cars, many hands of War, playing softball in the frontyard with the little trees, not much taller than we were, as our bases. We knew how to entertain ourselves back then - or we knew how to get out from under mama's feet one :)...
We didn't have video games until we were in our early teens, the Atari 2600 was our first "system." We had just a handful of games, and then a few years later I remember begging my mom for a computer for Christmas. I feel like a nut when I see the picture from Christmas morning, me toting the keyboard for my Commodore 64. Joe knew I was getting it, so he picked out a game for mom to buy also -- Seven Cities of Gold... I loved that stupid little game. I call it stupid now, because I can only picture the pixelly images. Mostly just little dots, nothing like the high-tech, 3-D, games kids have now. I remember being thrilled to get to go to summer camp - haha - it was a day camp, learning BASIC programming at the school. But it was a week and I learned how to write like:
10 do this
20 if this then do this
30 ...
hahaha MEMORIES! long since forgotten the details of BASIC.
We got to play Ms. Pacman when we went to Smitty's for a cheeseburger and fries. Haven't seen a full-size video game up close in way too long... and Smitty's is long-since closed too. It was a staple for so many years. Nothing fancy needed there - burgers, fries, hotdogs, and fried chicken (and green beans and mashed potatoes were the sides) not lots of choices, but oh it was good. Replaced by an ATM machine, so sad!!!
I remember 8-Tracks, mom had a stereo that would hold five or so and cycle through them. Glen Campbell's "Rhinestone Cowboy" was a favorite, I remember the cassette of trucker type songs (that's what I call them now) like Convoy by C.W. McCall (who would have known I would grow up to marry a trucker, LOL) and I remember getting a soft record when I was 6 or 7 of Elvis... It was floppy and I'm not sure what was on the other side, but I remember "In the Ghetto" playing over and over. I had no clue who Elvis was.
I remember mom hiding a cassette recorder under the couch to catch our ramblings when we awoke to our gifts on Christmas morning. My mind will never let me forget the year I spat out "TONKA!!!" this isn't mine. But it was mine, Joe and i both had Tonka trucks, I never was a Barbie-doll girl.
I know what a rotary phone is, still want one in bright orange just to have it (but they are still too expensive on Ebay, seems so many people are as nostalgic as I am). We always had one on the wall just inside mom's bedroom door. It was icky 70s green, LOL.
TV shows were monochrome. If we were really good and held our mouth just right we could turn the UHF knob half-way between two settings and pickup the public TV station. Otherwise it was pretty much 5, 7, and 11 were the channel choices. TVs weren't in the bedrooms, we all watched in the livingroom and we walked across the room to change the channel. If the wind blew too hard one of us had to run outside and turn the antenna while the other one stood at the door and yelled when the reception was clear again.
Oh the good old days!
I remember my mom never complaining to go to work to sew all day at Young Squire in Mt. Olive. And I remember her coming home and sewing or crafting at night to make things to sell to give us more. I still don't remember her trying things on me at night when I slept, LOL, but she says she did.
My granny used to let me sit behind her, my butt on the back of the couch, legs around her shoulders, brushing her hair just like I knew what I was doing. She was always so patient whether she had to watch Joe and me after school when we weren't always loving being in the same room together, or whether my cousin Donald, wanted to sit in the kitchen floor and use the pots and pans for musical instruments, or whatever I never remember her frazzled over it.
I have the shape of a fork on my right arm because my brother thought he wanted to see how hot a fork would get on a stove burner. I look at it and dream of where he would be today had things been different. I can just picture him in the world of computers, cell phones, reality TV - I don't know what show he would be good on - wouldn't be survivor, he was always a little on the scared of the dark side and would run a mile to get away from the health department to avoid a shot. I think he would still love heavy metal music, but I also can picture him working at the bank, all dressed in a suit and fish tie with one yellow and one turquoise blue high-top shoe. ;)
I want to know what you remember about your childhood - what memories has reading this made you think about?? SHARE!!
