Thursday, October 28, 2021

Nostalgic Moments

 Do you ever have those days that you just stop and think about years gone by?  The days of your youth?  When you hit milestones in life, I think it kind of sends the mind reeling!  LOL 
Yesterday I got to thinking - oh my - and then I saw a little video about the 70's and it truly is amazing what all we have seen and gone through.
As much as that is - I think about what my Momma saw in 90 years on this earth (born in 1911).  So many huge changes.

I started my first job in 1969 in the 9th grade.  I worked with my Mom & Dad at their garden shop
In the 70's:
I got my first car - a 1964 Ford Galaxy - robin egg blue!  What a tank, boy I was sure proud of that thing, as I had to pay for it myself!
I started dating 
I graduated, got married and moved to another state
Went to college and worked and kept a home 
Came back to IN and bought a first home - a ranch style home in a cute little neighborhood (3 bed, 1 bath) for $14,900.  I think the payments were about $100 a month!


I remember bell bottoms, going barefoot all the time (I still do), hip huggers, tube tops, midriff tops, mini skirts, midi & maxi skirts, clogs

We had film cameras.  The first Polaroid camera was magical - instant pictures!
VHS tapes and the video player.  My goodness they were huge and they were expensive when they first came out.
8 track tapes 
TV's were still consoles and large solitary units (like a piece of furniture)
Phones were on the desk or on the wall
No home computers
My first microwave was a ginormous things.  I got a discount at my job and it still cost close to $500
I remember harvest gold, bittersweet orange and drab green were the colors everyone had in their homes
I remember my first video game - I think it was Pong and played on the TV screen
First charge card - Sears

I remember loving to party!  Yes I did.  We did do that too much I do believe.  
The movie Jaws was super scary and made one afraid of the ocean!  LOL  Then there was the classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Billy Jack was another.  I remember these so well.
Saturday Night Live was hilarious and had the best cast ever back in the day
Jimmy Hoffa disappeared
The Edmund Fitzgerald sank - so horrible
George Carlin was the comedian of the era and was censored a LOT - now many of those things are every day language on TV (crazy).  As crude as he was - he made sense.
I saw the ocean for the first time and I was in awe of the enormity
My first concert was Three Dog Night
I got to see Elvis Presley in concert - that was a thrill

I do remember these things from childhood and many more

I sure have seen a lot in this life and yet nothing compared to many.  I have experienced a lot - yet nothing compared to many.

I could never have imagined being this age in 1970!  It never entered my mind.  We were all living such a fun and independent life.  The 60's and 70's were fun.  However, that being said, I think that the mentality of that time explains a lot of the disfunction of today!  I really do.  That is just my opinion and I don't expect everyone to agree.

I am glad I grew up when I did.  I have had a lot of life changing experiences over the years and all I can say is THANK GOD I survived and learned!
Just think - we grew up without the technology of today and survived!

I hope this makes some of you smile and remember back as well.
Those were the days!



31 comments:

  1. I love all your posts, but his one really rang true. We must be the same age. I saw Three Dog Night 3 times in concert and wore bell bottoms and went barefoot. As complicated as those times seemed back then, they seem simple and safe compared to today. I imagine many folks feel that way at this time of life.

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    1. They sure do seem simple compared to now.
      Just a stroll down memory lane. I just turned 67.
      I love thinking back to those times - a different way of life.

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    2. Happy Belated Birthday! My sister will be 67 in December, when I turn 60 just days after my hubby's retirement. --Elise

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  2. Yes, Cheryl, this post did make me smile. And I fully agree with you. There were other things going on in the 1960s and 70s that effected my life enormously. My older brother was a medic in Viet Nam. I'd help my mom in the kitchen as she baked batch after batch of cookies to ship out. We waited on tender hooks for calls and letters from him. The protests were disturbing. My sister was enamored with Women's Lib. Then, my parents divorced after 24 years. It was a good thing, but brought enormous changes as we moved (literally) to the opposite coast. I went to 4 different high schools in 2 states. Got my 1st job at 15 at an A & W restaurant. My mom remarried. For me, the better years came in the 1980s when I married my DH and we started our family. Like all young couples, we had our financial struggles, but we were-and are-so blessed! --Elise

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    1. I am fortunate that none of my family went to VN - that was such a scary time. I can't imagine.
      I remember the seeing the protests on TV - I don't remember any close by.
      WOW that was a big move and a lot of schools.
      Young love! How sweet. Struggles but blessed - says it all.

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    2. There were many protests and bra burnings at the university my sister went to. It was (of course) an issue for my parents. So, yes, lots of drama in those years, and YES, still grateful for my one and only love. :-) --Elise

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    3. I bet parents spent much of that time freaking out! LOL
      Flower power and free love - drugs - so much was going on back then

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  3. For me, the progression of decades is surgery focused. I entered the operating room at age 19 and retired at age 58. The changes I've seen in how we do things? Unimaginable!

    I had a knee replacement in July. 40 years ago I would have admitted to the hospital the night before and stayed for 2 weeks. I would not have been allowed to bend my leg for weeks, IV morphine for several days followed by weeks of opiod pills. Physical therapy would have been brutal when it began and gone on for 6 months.

    2021: I checked in at 0530. I had a nerve block in my thigh and a spinal (no sedation per my choice), was walking around the recovery room by 1100. My knee was flexing over 90 degrees by 1400 and I got dressed. My surgeon came by at 1430 and I stood up, grabbed my walker and went to him for a big hug. Home by 1515 with my amazing icing machine and never needed narcotic. Just a bit of tramadol for a week and ibuprofen and tylenol. 5 physical therapy appointments and I had full flexion of 135 degrees. It's just "tincture of time" to get my quad muscle back to 100%.

    VERY different experience. Heart surgery? Gallbladder removal? The changes through Science and Research are mindboggling even to me who has lived through all the iterations of surgical care. I am in awe.

    I kinda miss transistor radios and AM stations with DJs who announce song name and artist. Now it's talk radio, who knows who is singing or the song title. I'm lucky to hear 1 song in a 12 minute drive. WAH!

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    1. Yes, Elle, I was diagnosed with UC at 16, had both sons via c-section and then was diagnosed with breast cancer at 38. Had I been born even 50 years earlier, I might not be here today! --Elise

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    2. WOW you are so correct. Medicine has changed dramatically. Women stayed in the hospital after having a baby for 2 weeks and in bed! I had a friend that had knee surgery a couple years ago and was home within hours. Seems crazy.
      I had rheumatic fever as a young child and couldn't walk or get out of bed for almost a year. I had to learn to walk again before starting school.
      Medicine has seen tremendous strides. Thanks for that reminder.

      I loved transistors too. I am NOT a talk radio fan at all - I like music. I use the cable channels for that now and I do still have old cassettes and many CD's. I even have a cassette player. Yep - still old school!

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    3. Elise - by the grace of God. So glad you were born when you were. It is all part of the plan.
      You went through a lot. HUGS

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  4. I remember so many of these things also.The Vietnam war on the news every night, the day it ended. Good memories in many ways. Thanks for the recap.

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    1. So much history in our lives - we just need a reminder now and then.

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  5. I've been thinking back too but it is more about people and the influence on my life. I grew up 60 miles for Daytona Beach and at least one day a week after school a whole car load of friends would go over to the beach and be home in time for supper which was what Moms cared about back in those days. Us girls always had our bathing suit and towel and Hawaiian Tropic stashed on our cars and ready to go. I drove a land yacht, Ford LTD, so I could fit the most people. In the first year of our marriage my husband and a friend ended up in the middle of a demonstration at Florida State where the Shah of Iran was burned in effigy. Fortunately when the police arrived with tear gas they were able to get out of the crowd and clear out of there. Those were the days!

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    1. Oh wow how fun to have been able to go to the beach each week. Daytona was the first place I saw the ocean. My ex and I went there several times over the years - his Mom had moved to Florida.
      I am glad they got away before the tear gas came!!
      Yep, those were the days

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  6. Happy belated birthday!

    I'm just five years younger than you and even that amount of time leaves me with much different memories. Mind you, I grew up in Canada and on a farm.

    My first concert was April Wine (a Canadian rock band) in the next town over. My friend and I were 13 or 14, and her older brother, his girlfriend and an another couple took us with them. When we got to the venue we were told to beat it and come back to the car after the concert. I wonder what they were doing they didn't want us to see?
    Later, many Friday and Saturday nights were spent circling Main Street in our small town in a family vehicle or someone else's. Oh the miles we put!
    I bought my first car after I'd left home. Yours was a big clunker, I had an AMC Gremlin hatchback. A few years later I bought a GMC Silverado half ton truck and started moving around, a lot. When my daughter was born I returned to my home town for a few years before moving to the city I live in now.
    Looking back it was an interesting journey, one that it's share of ups and downs but I wouldn't change it for a thing.

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    1. Hmmm what could they have been up to????? LOL That is so funny.
      Yes, my car was a tank. I got rear ended once and I got a little dent in the trunk lid and the new car that hit me was totaled!!!
      ACK - I wanted a Gremlin back then so bad!!! I thought they were cute - go figure! I knew someone that had a purple one!

      Heck even here in the city we had the strip that we would cruise on Friday and Saturday nights. There were 3 restaurants - White Castle, Tee-Pee and Steak and Shake - we would drive up and down the road and round and round those businesses. Now and then stopping and getting a Coke and chatting or hooking up!
      Such fun and everyone did it.

      We made fun where we could. Good times.

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  7. This one rings so true! Three Dog Night, yes, Eagles with Poco as the warm up band, Chicago, Gary Wright (Dreamweaver), Peter Frampton, Lynard Skynard, and Yes, and a bunch of other good ones. HS boyfriend loved going to concerts at Notre Dame. Add platforms and potholder vests to the list of attire, and we're set. Good times back then, good memories. On dark days, they help get me through.

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    1. So many good bands back then. Oh those platform shoes!!!
      Yes there were good times - I think back on them often. It makes me smile.

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  8. I remember all those clothing choices and wearing my hair parted in the center and all one length no bangs what so ever.

    God bless.

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    1. YES! I had hair to my waste - split down the middle. I guess we were all a lot alike. Styles sure go around in cycles.
      Be blessed

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  9. What a great post! The movie jaws really hit home,as I lived on the beach and swam at night all the time! After I saw that movie,I never did it again.
    The year 1969 was was a juxtaposition if so many things. We landed on the moon,Charles manson's cult,summer of love,the warnot to mention Woodstock. I was to young to go. But
    I saw Eric Clapton three times!
    My brother coming home from Vietnam.
    Thanks for sharing your memories.

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    1. It sure was something back then. Now we watch documentaries on TV about those times we lived in. I actually had a girl I knew that went to Woodstock. We were in the 9th grade!!!! She was always the girl that looked like she lived 30 year prior in dress - then that. She went on to become quite the wild child! LOL
      Thanks for sharing - so much to remember.

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  10. Such great memories, I remember go-go boots. Everyone wanted or wore a pair. Nancy Sinatra and these boots are made for walking, lol

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    1. Yes go-go boots - now I was in about the sixth grade when those came out. I sure wanted some - but by folks wouldn't go for it.
      I love all the neat things everyone is mentioning and remembering!

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  11. I think about my grandparents and how they are no longer with us. It seems unreal, but I know that is just the progression of life. I remember so many of those things you mentioned, Cheryl. It's really hard to believe we are living in 2021. That is a lot of years gone by. :)

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    1. It does seem unreal. I miss my Mom and Dad so much. I miss everyone in the family - but they taught me so much.
      It is hard to believe how fast it all went by.
      I remember in grade being asked in math class to figure out how old I would be in 2000 - my answer was Dead!!!!! LOL
      Teach didn't think it was funny - but that is kind of how it seemed!

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  12. As you are a bit younger than I, your memories are slightly different. I do remember going with some kids to drive around the Pole, and around and around...ha! I remember the monstrous cabinets for television and stereo. Some were long enough to accommodate both. It seems time has passed like a whirlwind and here we are in 2021 with values and morals in tatters. I cling to my faith and to positive and upbeat folks like you!

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    1. Everything has changed and sure not for the good! You are absolutely correct - morals and values are in tatters. Anything goes.
      Faith and positivity is all we have at this point.

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  13. Love this! I remember so many of those things! Oh! and my first charge card was Sears too. The first thing I purchased was a Christmas nativity. I still put it up every year.

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    1. Love it. That is neat that you still have the nativity and use it - wise purchase!
      It is fun to look back.

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