Do You Remember......?
(July 2005)
This month’s topic idea came from our review of many old documents and artifacts, including the Centennial Program Book from 1955, as we prepared activities for the Lexington Sesquicentennial this year. No citizens are still around from the beginning of our town, but many of us still have memories---maybe not vivid---but pleasant, we hope, of the last time we celebrated our founding---
1955!
Long ago life seemed easier and slower in some ways,
We loved the new technology, but we sure miss those days.
So time moves on and so do we, and nothing stays the same,
But we sure love to reminisce and walk down memory lane...
REMEMBER WHEN
..........a 55 Chevy was everyone’s dream car...to cruise, peel out, lay rubber, or watch the submarine races at Lake Bloomington?
..........you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, gas pumped, without asking, every time, by the courteous guy at the station? Air was free, gas was only 35 cents, and you got trading stamps to boot?
..........no one ever asked where the car keys were because they were in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?
..........a quarter was a decent allowance?
..........your mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?
..........the fuller Brush Man, the Watkins Man, the "junkman", or Gypsies came door to door and hitchhikers were a common sight on the "hardroad"?
..........every load of laundry was put through the wringer by hand?
..........mother washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused it.....she was the original recycle queen before they had a name for it!
..........on dollar night you could get a whole carload into the drive-in, but on regular nights brother and his friend usually rode in the trunk!
..........newsreels and a cartoon were always shown before the feature movie?
..........all the neighbors shared the party line and you gave the telephone numbers directly to the operator, who usually called you by name.
..........hardly any business ads in the Centennial Program Book of 1955 had telephone numbers? Hank’s Garage was 66R2, Gleeson’s Mobil was 187, and Bill Addems could be reached for trucking at 108R4.
..........your favorites were Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Doody, Sheriff Sid (who appeared for two shows on Saturday at our Centennial celebration!), the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Sky King and "the SHADOW knows....."?
.........we filled metallic cube trays from the kitchen sink and dribbled all the way to the "ice box" to stack them in the only space clear of thick frost?
.........you could play mom’s 78’s or LP records with her supervision on the HiFi, but you had a cardboard case of 45’s that you carried with you to stacked on your own portable phonograph to play over and over.....?
.........blue printed school papers were slightly damp, smelled like mimeograph, and often rubbed off on your fingers or the front on your best white shirt?
.........chewing gum came in Blackjack, Clove, and Teaberrry flavors?
.........wax lips, wax "Coke" bottles full of colored sugar water, candy cigarettes, and penny candy were the treats we craved and could afford?
..........a hamburger at McDonalds was only 15 cents and a pack of baseball cards with a big slab of pink bubble gum went for only a nickel?
..........it was special to have one telephone, one TV with 3 channels (if your antenna could move), and one car for the entire family?
..........you laid in the grass on your back and said, "That cloud looks like a ......"?
..........you played baseball all day with no adults to help with the rules?
..........card in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?
..........spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?
.........."Oly-oly-ox-in-free", kick the can, and flashlight tag made perfect sense?
..........catching fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?
Didn’t that feel good, just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that!"? And with all our progress....don’t you wish, just once, you could skip back in time and savor the slower pace....and share it with the children of today?