Like Me

I don't know if I'd go so far as calling it the Good Old Days, I may be the only person who doesn't want to go back to high school days. Everyday notes were passed in the hallways... no one escaped the pen. The notes found their way into books, lockers or lunchboxes... and the words would make you walk on air or want to disappear from the face of the Earth.. at least from a 16 year old perspective!

 Poor girl is starting heartache early (after school program).

 "Copied me"... the ultimate compliment!

Those fragile years when a note could make my sunny day cloudy are gone. We still have the Like system around, but now it looks like this...

1970 prices

We are still riding in the Way Back Machine...it's 1970 and we're headed to Fayetteville, Arkansas where you could buy a nice little house for $23,000 or a brand new car for under $4,000. Gas was only 36 cents a gallon, eggs were a quarter a dozen and that 8 track stereo tape player we wanted so badly was $38.99! I can't imagine how we lived on our little paychecks, but somehow we did. We just lived a lot different than young couples do now. For one thing our rent was $75 a month, can you imagine what you'd get for that these days? The only pictures I have of that apartment is our first Christmas tree, no people, just the tree. We had one of those little Kodak Instamatic cameras, the one with the cube flash on top but picture taking was way down my list of importance at that stage of my life! The furniture in this retro pic has the horrible Danish Modern furniture that furnished our first place. Avocado green ruled the universe in 1970! A few years later when we bought a house, we added a fireplace just like this. When it was on, it got so hot it became a fire hazard after about 15 minutes. So, basically, we didn't use it... it just looked cool. Shag carpet, yeah baby, and we had a carpet rake... did you have one of those? We learned a lot of things that first year. Like don't blow your whole week's food budget on a "fun weekend"... and don't write weekend checks on a deposit made on Friday after hours. We learned to scrimp and save for the things we wanted, I think it made us appreciate the things we had even more. If I had asked my parents if things were ever rough for them, I'm pretty sure they would have recalled times when their month stretched longer than their paycheck. And I know for sure that my Grandparents struggled to hold onto their farm during the Great Depression.   Along the way they learned that happiness can't be bought. They worked hard and saved where they could until one day they had a little left over at the end of the month. Then they just kept going down that road, saving where they could. They grew gardens and ate meatless meals and were wise about the purchases they did make. It's more important now than ever to make each dollar count.  Grandpa used to say he "traded" at Pruitt's Grocery. He had the choice of two groceries at Lead Hill and he went to the one that greeted him by his name when he walked through the front door. That means a  lot even now.  Every generation we have the chance to teach our children the things that are really important. Just make sure going barefoot and picking beans are on that list!

In a Galaxy far, far away...

via

 Via the Wayback Machine (1970), can you guess what's in the above picture? Hint: You would have had to have a personal relationship with a bad car to know what it is, and we did! Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away... we started our journey down life's highway driving a Corvair. Ralph Nader said it was a death trap, I thought it was kind of cute and sporty! My husband didn't have any warm and fuzzy feelings about it though since every time he stopped for gas, he added a quart of oil. This metal spout is what you poked down into the can to dispense the oil! We actually owned two Corvairs ... 

I was telling our daughter about making dinner in a popcorn popper on a cross country trip. She was only 2, so she couldn't imagine how I could have possibly done that. "You mean one of those hot air poppers?" No, it was even older than that... you do what you have to do to survive. We ate a lot of Rice-a-Roni and Spaghetti, pot pies and Ramen. I'd stretch meat and milk to last the whole week, kind of magic trick now that I'm looking back on it! 

I remember buying a burnt orange fondue pot at Collier's Drug Store. It was close enough to our apartment that I could walk, since Jerry worked nights he would take the car. I always dreamed of having a fondue party with it someday but never did. I don't think I used it even once. I don't have a clue where that popcorn popper  or fondue pot went, but they are gone from my life. We moved on to bigger and better popcorn poppers and two years ago I bought a fondue pot and we had a little dessert party when the kids were here over Christmas. The GRANDS loved it, chocolate was involved! I did too, I played out that dream and it was delicious...