Things growing up have fallen by the wayside

[Rocket Man]

I also listened to WLS in the 60’s on up to the early 70’s when we started listening to the FM stations. The earliest DJ I can remember was Art Roberts, with Lujack and Landecker coming later. Does anyone remember this ad played over and over… SUNDAYYY, SUNDAYY, SUNDAY at beautiful U.S. 30 Drag Strip! See Tom “The Mongoose” Mckuen, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and “Big Daddy” Don Garlits!

 

[omni550]

Does anyone remember this ad played over and over… SUNDAYYY, SUNDAYY, SUNDAY at beautiful U.S. 30 Drag Strip! See Tom “The Mongoose” Mckuen, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and “Big Daddy” Don Garlits!

In Cleveland, it was "SUNDAYYY, SUNDAYY, SUNDAY at beautiful Thompson Drag Raceway! See Tom “The Mongoose” Mckuen, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and “Big Daddy” Don Garlits!"

Fun times!

omni

 

[Koolau]

I also listened to WLS in the 60’s on up to the early 70’s when we started listening to the FM stations. The earliest DJ I can remember was Art Roberts, with Lujack and Landecker coming later. Does anyone remember this ad played over and over… SUNDAYYY, SUNDAYY, SUNDAY at beautiful U.S. 30 Drag Strip! See Tom “The Mongoose” Mckuen, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and “Big Daddy” Don Garlits!

Oh yes. In the summer, that commercial (or similar US 30 drag strip commercial) ran "constantly." Actually took GF (now DW) there one time. US 30 was kind of a let down but I had to do it once. I think it's still there?

By the way, if any WLS "fans" are interested, there is a lot of history available such as this:

The History of WLS Radio!

 

[travelover]

Did anyone else get Highlights magazine?

I always thought Goofus was cooler than Gallant.

 

[Ronstar]

I also listened to WLS in the 60’s on up to the early 70’s when we started listening to the FM stations. The earliest DJ I can remember was Art Roberts, with Lujack and Landecker coming later. Does anyone remember this ad played over and over… SUNDAYYY, SUNDAYY, SUNDAY at beautiful U.S. 30 Drag Strip! See Tom “The Mongoose” Mckuen, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and “Big Daddy” Don Garlits!

I remember the drag strip ads. I used to listen to WLS 89 and WCFL 1000 Chicago, pushing buttons to alternate between the 2 in my 67 impala. Until I got fm.

 

[Pellice]

Did anyone else get Highlights magazine?

I got Highlights! And I read it too! And other subscription series - there was one called the "Around the World Program" that sent a booklet every other month or so with stickers of famous places within each country. I just looked online and saw pictures of the old green and gold holders! I had almost all of them.
Speaking of reading, do you remember the summer "library truck" that would drive around to suburban neighborhoods, and kids could run up and into it and check out books to read. I did a lot of that. I remember the sound of the checkout machine!

 

[Rocket Man]

In Cleveland, it was "SUNDAYYY, SUNDAYY, SUNDAY at beautiful Thompson Drag Raceway! See Tom “The Mongoose” Mckuen, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and “Big Daddy” Don Garlits!"

Fun times!

omni

That’s hilarious! I guess I never thought as a young boy that they played the exact commercial in all the other cities. I never made it to the strip, but Don Garlits has a museum right off Interstate 75 in Wildwood, Florida. Hope to get there soon!

 

[braumeister]

"SUNDAYYY, SUNDAYY, SUNDAY at beautiful Thompson Drag Raceway! See Tom “The Mongoose” Mckuen, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and “Big Daddy” Don Garlits!"

In NYC we had the same commercial, for a drag strip in New Jersey. I think it was Raceway Park.

 

[Pellice]

Loved those 50,000 watt stations when driving across country. I grew up in a medium sized city, big enough to have all local radio, television, shopping, newspapers. You never had to leave for anything unless it was deliberately planned, like a school trip to Chicago. I was drawn to signs of life in the outside world!

I could get KMOX and became a lifelong Cardinals fan (even as a child, I knew the Cubs were the wrong path to walk ) There was a big Canadian station across from Detroit (Windsor?) that I listened to. The reach was amazing on clear nights.

Even later on, driving back to the Midwest, maybe 1995 (I think Bill Belichick's last season with the Browns?) I remember picking up maybe WKNR? Cleveland immediately in the 4th quarter of a disastrous Cleveland Browns game that knocked them out of playoff contention. I still remember a delightful couple of hours of postgame show that started out something like, "OK, Browns fans, line up your calls to talk about this disaster of a season" and featured one outraged, heartbroken, tearful Browns fan after another sputtering in their fury. Kept me entertained!

 

[GravitySucks]

Chatty Cathy. She speaks in one of those odd movie star of the 1950s accents:

DW loved her Chatty Cathy doll and spoke of it to our girls all the time. DD1 found one refreshed and refurbished online and we got it for her 50th birthday.

I still keep it in the family room with her photos.

 

[GenXguy]

Speaking of reading, do you remember the summer "library truck" that would drive around to suburban neighborhoods, and kids could run up and into it and check out books to read. I did a lot of that. I remember the sound of the checkout machine!

I went to an elementary school that didn't have a library, and a "bookmobile" frequently came to the school that we could check out books from.

 

[Badger]

Generations of children learned to read with Dick, Jane, Sally, Puff, and Spot. I remember them in school, and I learned how to read with those books.

I don't believe they are used anymore but I could be wrong. There are other characters with more current ideas of books for the young now.

You can still get new copies from Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and a few other places. You can find a few old copies from the 40's and 50's on eBay. I even saw one of the large copies the teacher would put on an easel so the students could follow with their own books.

Cheers!

 

[pacergal]

Anybody remember exercising to the "Chicken Fat" recording at school??
My older sister got one for free and brought it home, so we did the exercises there too.
"go, you chicken fat, go!"

 

[Pointby2]

My neighborhood group never had BB gun wars, although I did have a friend in high school that was blind in one eye from a BB gun war when he was in grade school. He could have been the inspiration for “A Christmas Story”.

Although we had one or two BB gun wars, we always wore eye protection. We acknowledged it was dangerous enough.

 

[ncbill]

Anybody remember exercising to the "Chicken Fat" recording at school??
My older sister got one for free and brought it home, so we did the exercises there too.
"go, you chicken fat, go!"

Robert Preston - Chicken Fat

 

[PatrickA5]

One thing I DON"T miss was getting swatted with a wet rolled up towel in the locker room after mandatory showers after gym class. Some of the older kids (9th graders) just loved to find some non-suspecting 7th grader bent over taking his jock strap off. That would leave a mark.

Although I loved just about everything about having to take Gym (PhysEd), I'm kind of glad those days are in the past for today's kids. The bullying was not only expected, it was tolerated by the teachers. I think they thought it was some "rite of passage".

 

[steelyman]

Sling is having a free weekend for AMC. I saw that and clicked over to Mad Men episodes. Tons of stuff that ring a bell!

 

[braumeister]

MOD NOTE:

This thread has brought up a lot of enjoyable nostalgia. But times were very different in the old days and society has moved on, generally in a good way.

Please continue to focus on the positive side and avoid bringing up things best forgotten.

 

[Dtail]

One thing I DON"T miss was getting swatted with a wet rolled up towel in the locker room after mandatory showers after gym class. Some of the older kids (9th graders) just loved to find some non-suspecting 7th grader bent over taking his jock strap off. That would leave a mark.

Although I loved just about everything about having to take Gym (PhysEd), I'm kind of glad those days are in the past for today's kids. The bullying was not only expected, it was tolerated by the teachers. I think they thought it was some "rite of passage".

If it was rolled up a certain way, it was called a rats tail and yup that could sting quite a lot.

 

[Koolau]

Fires in school: In grade school, we had 3 fires between K and 6th grades. IIRC 2 were due to an issue with our coal fired heating plant. Our frequent fire drills paid off and, in a very orderly fashion, we always marched out of the building. The coolest thing happened one time. There was a telephone company satellite building next door. I'm not sure if it was a switching station but it definitively was involved in line repair. It was so cold that the school got permission to let us kids hang out in the phone company building for an hour or so. What a treat.

By the time they tore the old school down (to make way for a new, modern one) I was an adult and got to go through the old building. It seems so much smaller than when I was knee-high. There was a storage room in the basement and those of us touring the building founds 10s of thousands of "school pictures" that kids had not purchased all those years. A few of the folks actually found THEIR pictures still in the original packages.

I found old attendance record books for several of my classes and was able to take those home. (I rarely missed school 'cause I loved it.) The memories flood back when I think of that old building (built in the middle 1800s.)

Amazingly enough, some of the tress that defined the limits of our playground (in the 50s) are still there. I'd better stop. Returning you now...

YMMV

 

[Boose]

Robert Preston - Chicken Fat

They were still using this at my elementary school in 1979! And square dancing as well. But we also had "New Games" (relic of the late '60s-early '70s, where nobody lost?)

 

[JoeWras]

Fires in schools in Chicago are good to be by the wayside. The 1958 fire at Our Lady of the Angels killed 92 children and 3 nuns. This left an impression for generations to come, including mine. Stories of horror circulated well into the 70s, especially at Catholic schools in the area.

So, it is 1976 and we have a "fire drill." Nope, it was a real alarm. We all filed out and watched the firetrucks come and firemen do their thing. Turns out one of my classmates was fooling around and accidentally pulled the alarm. Now, I know some of these hijinx are common today, but this was a grave sin -- literally -- at my school.

The boy's punishment (and probably penance) was memorable and effective. He wrote an essay about why this was wrong. The fire chief was then invited to give a talk at our school assembly. As part of this, the boy read his apology essay out loud to the fire chief in front of all of us. Memorable. I'm sure this kind of effective punishment has also gone by the wayside.

BTW, the fact that we did fire drill stuff without worry is a testament to how well they work. If there were a real fire, we'd just do our thing. Just like Koolau's experience.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

I read a lot as a kid and loved the sound that the checkout card made when the machine dated it. Recently my husband checked out an old book from the library and it still had the pocket and card in it. We showed it to our youngest. He had no idea what it was for. He looked a little wide-eyed when we explained the system the library used to use for checking out library books.

 

[JoeWras]

I read a lot as a kid and loved the sound that the checkout card made when the machine dated it. Recently my husband checked out an old book from the library and it still had the pocket and card in it. We showed it to our youngest. He had no idea what it was for. He looked a little wide-eyed when we explained the system the library used to use for checking out library books.

You just brought back that feeling of anxiety I had when I pulled the card out and realized it was late. Time to count my nickles and give them up for the fine.

 

[street]

I read a lot as a kid and loved the sound that the checkout card made when the machine dated it. Recently my husband checked out an old book from the library and it still had the pocket and card in it. We showed it to our youngest. He had no idea what it was for. He looked a little wide-eyed when we explained the system the library used to use for checking out library books.

Oh yes, I forgot about that tracing system for books. Lol All handwritten or stamped with initials in ink.