Memories In The Attic Of My Mind

A Nostalgic memory trip through the 1950's and 1960's

 

 

So many fond childhood and teenage memories play in the attic of my mind. In the 1950s we played outdoor games such as any type of game with a ball, jump rope, hide and seek and ringaleevio, hopscotch, bicycle riding, roller skating (steel wheels clamped to the shoes, hopefully someone had a key), tree climbing, some had swing sets or just tied ropes to trees to swing from.

 

When the opportunity was available we could go swimming down at Ross Park. In the winter we went sledding, tobogganing, ice skating or we built snowmen or snowforts, had snowball fights. In between these activities, we'd just hang out and chat, perhaps play stone school or twenty questions.

In the 1950s we spent most of our time out of doors, but when that wasn't possible, we played board games, card games, puzzles, and dominos. We also had toys of course, which type might depend on the age group. All the same kinds of toys kids today are familiar with like blocks, cars and trucks, stuffed animals, dolls. We also had misc. things like coloring books, jacks, clay, marbles (I loved my marble collection), Slinkys (the metal ones), gyroscopes, kaleidoscopes, View Masters, Lincoln Logs, and Erector Sets.

 

We clip playing cards with clothes pins on our bicycle rims just to hear that fun 'clacking sound'; we'd also smash empty Shasta cans on our feet and go walking around in them...just for the fun of it and it was fun! Ah yes, hopscotch; jack and ball; rollar skating; all the innocent things we did in the 1950's for fun!It may seem silly to kids of today era, but to us, it was sheer pleasure and fun!

 

 

We would play “Mother May I” on the front stoop of our porch at night, then go mischievously knocking on doors and run before we got caught.

 

 

“Ain’t Nothing But A Hounddog”, by Elvis Presley and Paul Anka’s, “And They Called It Puppy Love”, were popular tunes, 

 heard though the sounds of a portable radio, or your black and white television; while “Burma Shave commercials played casually over the air.

One of the billboards for Burma Shave read:

      “Shaving brushes you’ll See’ Em’ Soon, On a Shelf in Some Museum; Burma Shave”

 

Or the Pepsodent commercial with Bucky Beaver:

     “You’ll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent”

 

If you even had a television, one of the most popular shows was; Ed Sullivan’s ,“Toast of the Town”

Dick Clark’s AmericanBandstand

 “I Love Lucy”, with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz

 “The Honey Mooners”, with Jackie Gleason.

 

 

I gotta' tell ya', watching these shows on a new black and white TV set, were far more important than doing home work.

 

I remember when Elvis Presley first played on the Ed Sullivan show. Mr. Sullivan had booked Elvis for three shows, but his pelvic gyrations caused much discussion about the suitability. Mr. Sullivan said he wouldn’t want him back. But... but later Mr. Sullivan changed his mind when Steve Allen had Elvis as a guest, and had twice as many viewers as Sullivan.

Mr. Sullivan paid Elvis $50,000, for three shows in 1956.

 

 

Silly Putty; Hula Hoops; Etch a Sketch, were just a few of the new toy inventions.

 

 

On an early Sunday evening after watching “Amos and Andy “on our black and white TV, we’d gather all our comic books that we’d buy at the neighborhood candy store for ten cents apiece and go around our neighborhood and trade with the other kids.

Some of my favorites were:

 “Archie and Veronica”

 “The Lone Ranger”

 Walt Disney comics: Mickey Mouse; Popeye; Donald Duck,

just to mention a few.

 

 

Life  seemed so much more safe and easy in the fifties. Most of the shows on television were about cowboys.

 

The good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black hats and it was easy to tell them apart. The good guys never did bad things, and the bad guys never did good things. The television shows that were not about cowboys were about happy, loving families, such as Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet, or they were about superheroes, such as Superman, who was always on the side of right and his personal faults never tripped him up.

 

 

Yes, the 1950’s was a time of innocent joy and fun.

The magic of Fifties suburbia when socks were darned, baths shared and kids roamed wild. Only now...do I really appreciate what a glorious age it was to grow up in!

 

For all who were there with me...we had a very good time…didn’t we?

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Reviews

[cheesey]

Thanks for your kind words on my post on the other site. I read your piece here, and it stirred memories of my own childhood: playing Bonanza, Man From U.N.C.L.E., etc. Thanks for sharing, I look forward to sharing my work here, didn't even know this site was here. Thank you. Ken

[Zeek4]

Hey I remember all those things myself. I think maybe your mother told you about all that stuff, didn't she?

[Coyote Poetry]

I miss the days of innocence. I caught the backside of the fifties. I miss the family gathering. Just people and family to have long talks and enjoy the company of each other. Life have become a race to survive another day. We must stop and have long talks with family and help each other like the days of past. A excellent poem. We need more time to enjoy life. Like my Grandmother would say. "All work and no play. Will leave Johnnie lonely and bore."
Coyote