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Monday, December 7, 2015

When I was a kid (more 60's nostalgia)

When I was a kid...I drank water out of the faucet or a hose. Drinking it from a plastic bottle was not only ridiculous, it was impossible. I don’t recall anything being in plastic bottles. And filtered? What was that? If water had to be ‘pure’ — as in good enough for baby formula — it was boiled first. If you wanted it cold, you took it from the pitcher in the fridge or added ice cubes that came from one of those knuckle-buster aluminum trays. And woe be to the person who didn’t refill it!

Beer and soda were available in glass bottles, but a ‘church key’ or a sharp corner had better be nearby; there were no twist caps. In Scottsdale, there was a two cent deposit on smaller bottles, five cents on quarts. My brother started his first 'business' haunting construction sites, talking the workers out of their empties so he'd have Popsicle money.
You could get beer in a can, but a bottle opener was needed; pull tabs weren’t around either. Oh, and a lady never drank alcohol from a bottle or can. If she, dear me, did drink spirits, it would be from a glass or frosted mug and after the kids went to bed.

We only got soda on rare occasions. Coca Cola in a six-ounce bottle was extra special. You’d think a bigger bottle would be better, but those cute little clear aqua/green curvy containers called to every one of us. The ‘soft drink’ we usually got was powdered and required one cup of sugar and two quarts of water be added. At one point, they even had root beer-flavor! I remember Kool Aid, Welch’s, and some other brand: Rite-Ade, maybe? If you know, please leave a comment below. The uncertainty is bugging me.

One thing we did have in the 60s that is still around now, at least in many places and in the summertime: ice cream trucks. Yup, back then they came at nap time, too. I can still hear my mother’s mild cuss words, ‘Gosh darn them’ or dag nab it’ when the worn out recording of ‘kiddie music’ disturbed the neighborhood. The dingy-white van with colorful decals came rolling up the road at about two miles per hour. Oh, and he (they were always older men) would get really mad if we stopped him before Mom let us have money. We didn’t always have coin or deserve a treat, but it was fun catching up to him and seeing if he still had bullets available.

Coca cola can adIf you weren’t alive back in the early 60’s when unbreakable soda containers became popular, here’s a bit of trivia. The ‘pull tabs’ were not attached. One of my early memories was of picnicking with my grandmother. She made a game of scouring the campground with a stick, picking up all the discarded pull tab rings with the angular aluminum seal still attached. She made it a game to see who could gather the most. Gross? Yes, picking up others' garbage was, but her early environmental responsibility stayed with me.


Are you setting a good example for others? Let’s hope we all are. Grandparents don’t stick around forever. That's why some of us are here: to replace them. So, live long, be healthy, and set a good example for others. You never know who’s watching you!

She awoke in a different time and without a memory.Already tired of the holiday shows on TV? Grab a long book and get lost in another time era and location. Here's one of my favorites: http://amzn.to/1j3QtxY and http://bit.ly/1KA7UV5 (Nook)


She awoke in a different time and without a memory. Was this mountain man really her husband?

4 comments:

  1. Man! I remember all of that, too. There was another mix. It was Tang - remember, the astronauts drank it!

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  2. drink- aid , and funny face, were some but tang and kool aid were what we got, up un the sticks in Washington.

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  3. What about the cold water off the cooler during the summer.

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    1. I forgot about that! I still love the smell of damp excelsior, the cooling medium of choice for swamp coolers back then.

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