Movies--Now and Then

Tonight we finally watched a movie I had rented from Netflix over a week ago.  You know how it is--you're waiting for the perfect time to sit and enjoy a movie that you've seen advertised on TV--the trailer looked hilarious.  So of course I thought this would be good.  It had four hugely popular and successful actors in it, and it was supposed to have a lot to do with aging and feeling kind of out of the loop--something I can relate to.  I won't say the movie's name, but with the description you might guess it.

As the movie went on, my high hopes vanished.  I couldn't even finish the movie.  I kept thinking, "well, maybe they get smart somewhere down the line."  But it just got to the point that it wasn't worth wallowing through the muck to find out.  It had a lot of swearing and sexual content.  It was juvenile and obscene.  For my buck, it had no redeeming value at all.  It was rated PG-13, and I know that that is one step below an R, but in my mind, the content in that movie is definitely R material.  Am I a prude?  Probably.  But aren't you at all tired of Hollywood releasing movies that constantly degrade women?  Aren't you fed up with sex being the one joke throughout the whole movie?  I am.  I just am. 

I guess my problem is that when I was growing up, there was this thing called "shame".  Of course all of the same things went on.  As a child, I saw most of them up close and personal.  My dad swore so much that (as my parents always told me) my first words seriously took the name of the Lord in vain.  I was exposed to nudity, pornography, drinking to excess, smoking--all the things that were in this movie.  So I'm not all that sheltered.  However...while I was growing up, this was not thrown in our faces at every turn.  Movies with sexual content were pretty much relegated to certain movie houses that children didn't go to.  Dirty magazines were hidden away under a mattress or in a closet under clothes.  We still had, for the most part, civility and discretion.  Especially where children were concerned.

I guess my whole being is crying out for more movies where characters treat each other how they should be treated as human beings, that don't sink to the basest, lowest class mentality.  I have a desire to be inspired, not spat upon, by Hollywood.  The idea seems to be a thing of the past.

I grew up in a time when Disney movies were constantly being released.  As I've said before, we didn't have any way at home to watch new movies.  We went to the movie theater to see them.  My parents would drop us off at the one theater in town that always showed kids' movies.  They knew they didn't have to worry about us.  The theater was full of kids, very few adults, and everyone knew how to behave ourselves.  We bought our candy at the front counter and spent a couple of very content hours.  When the movie was over, we stood in front of the theater until we saw our parents or our car.  We'd come out just bubbling with comments and songs!

I can remember going to see "Bambi", "The Sound of Music", "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and other great classics.

The first drive-in movie I remember seeing was "Mary Poppins".  I suppose I will remember that for the rest of my life.  Our family was driving around one evening, and we pulled off the road with other cars.  I didn't know what we were doing until I saw the huge, brightly lit drive-in sign above us, saying that "Mary Poppins" was playing.  I can recall being so excited to be seeing it!  From then on I was a huge fan.

For children in the 1960's, drive-in movies were an enormous treat.  We'd put on our pajamas and hop in the station wagon and go to the local drive-in.  Our parents of course sat in the front seat, and we kids sat in the back or laid down back in the back of the station wagon.  We took our blankets and pillows in case we got bored and wanted to sleep.  Before the movie started, it was still quite light outside.  Near the giant screen, in front of it, there was a playground that had all the standard fixtures.  All the kids that were there for the movie would go to the playground, most of us in our p.j.'s, and play on the equipment.  What a funny thing to think of today!  It was so much good, clean, uninhibited fun!

Artist depiction of the anticipation of a drive-in movie

Now we have Netflix and can rent a movie at a whim.  But that doesn't mean that it's all good.  We sit in our homes in front of our big-screen TV's, isolated from everything that's going on "out there".  I am out and about enough to know that movies like the one I saw tonight are not necessarily real life, and that's a relief.  They can have the villains--I'll stick with princesses and heroes.

Soap Box--"Environmentalism" in the 60's Made More Sense

I have this funny thing about how things looked in the past.  When I see a photo that was taken before color photography was possible, I tend to think that everything in that era was actually in black and white, or sepia tones.  Clothing wasn't colorful, cars were bland, even parks had no green grass or trees.  Do you do this too? 

I sometimes wonder if the younger people today think the same thing about photos from the 50's and 60's.  All my family's old movies and photos were done in black and white.  The colored photos are all washed out, making everything look more "pastel" than it actually was.  I'm here to say--yes, there WAS color in the 1960's!

In fact, when I look at photos of the day, it was much brighter than it is today.  One of the huge differences I can easily see is the amount of trash.  Today, you can't drive anywhere without seeing trash on every stretch of roadway (if you live somewhere where that isn't true, count yourself very blessed!).  Parks are littered with garbage, with crows picking through fast food wrappers carelessly left behind.  Graffiti mars far too many signs and other surfaces.  Walking barefoot in a public place is far too risky because of used drug needles and broken glass on the ground. 

Florida in the 1960's--look how clean and bright it is!

1960's freeway--pristinely clean

In the 60's, here in Washington State, we had poster campaigns the whole time I was growing up.  In school we would work on posters with the theme "Keep Washington Green".  Our roads had that motto painted on them as well.  I can so well recall the pride we had in our surroundings back then.  Cities planted flowers around their "Welcome to..." signs, and kept the lawns neat and tidy. 

Washington State freeway in the 1960's--no trash beside the road

Most of all, everyone seemed to have the same attitude of picking up after themselves.  They walked the few feet to a garbage can and threw away their trash.  Kids were taught from the earliest age to leave the area as good or better than they found it.  It was for the good of all, and well worth the effort.

I don't have to go into the morbid details about the attitudes of today.  We all know, it's gone way downhill.  There are probably lots of reasons why that is true, and I know that I alone can't change attitudes.  All I can really do is model the behavior I want to see.  I try not to leave grocery store carts in the middle of the parking lot.  I often go so far as to take my cart to the grocery cart "barn" when I'm done with it.  I throw away my trash in garbage cans wherever I am, without even thinking otherwise.  And I have taught my own children to do the same.  It takes very little effort, and much less time than people might think.  We can do so many little things that make a big difference.

Far too common sights today

Is our society so busy complaining about air pollution, global warming, and ocean pollution that they can't see the mounds of filth we're living in, up close and personally, every day?  Is there a way to change hearts and minds in our country--to regain an attitude of caring about our surroundings?  This is the heart of winter right now, and where I live there are no leaves on the trees.  It is still drab and kind of dark when it rains all day long.  Having trash and ugliness everywhere I go doesn't help my spirits any
.   How about you?  Is this an issue that bothers you too?  Can you think of ways to turn things around?  I'd love to hear them!

Bernie's--A Country Store

One of my earliest memories is of a small, ramshackle store that sat at the intersection of the road we lived on and one of the main county roads.  I feel as if I can even remember the first time I laid eyes on it.  It was set back from the road just a bit, to allow cars to pull up in front.  I can't remember if it had gas pumps or not, strangely.  What I do remember vividly is a big shady tree that made the front of the store extremely inviting, and a wooden ramp that ran up to the front door, perpendicular to the building.  I recall my dad stopping by the store, talking to the proprietor for a long, long time.  My little sister and I went up and down the ramp, over and over, giggling the whole time.  Were we a nuisance to the childless couple who ran the store?  I'll never know. 

A little bit like Bernie's, minus the ramp and the shady tree.

The man who owned and operated the store was Bernie, and his wife was a rotund woman named Marie.  Bernie was sometimes in a good mood, and generous, allowing us kids an extra piece of candy now and then.  Marie was usually pretty grumpy, and we didn't see her as often at the counter.  Both of them were part of the neighborhood, and knew our family, as I'm sure they knew every family in the area.  We lived in a rather rural section of the county, and having a small store to depend on for necessities was a great thing for all of us. 

This was an old-fashioned, wonderful little gem of a country store.  Bernie and Marie lived in a long, narrow wing behind the store-part of the building.  As I recall, the only thing that separated their living quarters from the store was a piece of cloth in the doorway between the two.  The entire building was made of white-painted wood.  There were signs advertising all the normal grocery items of the period.  My favorite was the old 7-Up sign with bubbles on it. There was a big window to the left of the door, looking in, and right there inside the store, in front of the window, was a big Nehi pop bottle cooler.  It wasn't like the standing pop machines we have now, where you put your money in, press a button, and the can or bottle drops down to the dispenser below.  This was a big rectangular box that sat on the floor.  Water kept the bottles cool.  You could easily open the lid of the cooler to see if it contained anything you were interested in before you inserted your money.  The mechanics allowed your bottle to be released when you put your coin in the slot.  My favorite was Nehi grape soda.  On a hot, dry day, nothing was ever better!

We lived about a mile from the store, and my sister and I were allowed to walk to Bernie's just about every Saturday while we were growing up, either with neighbor friends or on our own.  Mom gave us each a quarter and we set off.  In the 1960's, candy bars were either five or ten cents.  Butterfingers and Baby Ruth's were only a nickel!  Sugar Daddies, Junior Mints, and Milk Duds were only a nickel!  I remember splurging on a Chunky bar once.  That cost ten whole cents, and my young taste buds didn't think it was worth it.  Every Saturday we would show up at the candy counter across the main aisle from the register, and make our decisions.  Did we want MORE candy, or fancier candy?  We had a whole quarter to spend, and we needed to make wise choices.  I'm sure we spent way too long considering there.  But Bernie knew us, and knew our parents, and he was patient most of the time. 

This was one of those places that gave store credit, up to a point anyway.  Every once in awhile our family needed it.  We always paid Bernie back as soon as we got paid the next time.  Can you imagine a convenience store doing that now?  I sure can't.

The walk to Bernie's was almost as fun as the store visit.  As we walked we often scoured the ground for discarded bottles and cans in the ditches so we could turn them in to Bernie and get a few cents cash back to add to our candy allowance.  Part of our walk was fairly forested.  We owned property that extended along one side of the road quite a ways, so we knew that those were "our" woods and felt very safe there.  After we passed our woods there was a one-story house that was occupied when I was very young, but later was abandoned.  It was very mysterious to all of us kids who lived along the road.  None of us knew the people who had lived there, and we said it was haunted and we would run as fast as we could while we were in front of that house. We were always so relieved when we had passed it without any ghosts coming to get us! The second half of the walk was through agricultural prairie land and a Christmas tree farm.  There were high-tension electric lines running along this area, and we were both scared and fascinated with the buzzing noise they made. 

Bernie and Marie passed away long ago. There is still a store where Bernie's used to sit.  But it's a different building--modern, well-lit, with gas pumps.  The parking lot is bigger.  The shady tree is gone, as well as the ramp.  The big house across the street has been torn down, the family of our old schoolmates who lived there is scattered.  The walk to Bernie's looks different now, with more buildings along the way.  When I drive along the road I used to live on, I am nostalgic for those simpler times, when two little girls could walk along a country road without fear, to a welcoming little country store.

Did you have a little store like that while you were growing up?  There used be many of them around. Each had its own personality, but all were a part of a slower-paced, gentler time.

School Valentine's Day Party--60's Style

My kids have always been homeschooled, so I'm not really up-to-speed about Valentine's Day parties at school these days.  I know that the cards are a bit more gimmicky since I was in school in the 1960's, and I have also heard that some schools have banned the treats we used to have for such special occasions.

If you were in elementary school in the 60's, you either dreaded or looked forward to Valentine's Day.  It was a great day to get out of normal bookwork at your desk, but some students probably would have rather done the work (gasp!).

A few days before Valentine's Day every child in our class would get to choose huge sheets of construction paper in various shades of red and pink.  We would fold those in half and draw as big a half a heart that we could possibly make, then cut our half a heart out with scissors, the folded edge being the edge we didn't cut at all.  When we unfolded our work--presto--it was a great big heart!  We did the same with both sheets of construction paper, and when it was all cut out we would staple, paste, or tape the sides and bottom together.  Then we would embellish our heart with smaller hearts, drawings in crayon, and most importantly, we would put our name on it in big letters somewhere.  Then we would tape our handiwork to the front of our desk on Valentine's Day.  When our morning schoolwork was done, we would move our desks into a gigantic circle, so our cardholder-hearts were in full view and easily accessible to everyone in the class.  Oh, the noise and chaos as we all got out the valentines we had brought to school for our classmates!  It was all laughter and giggling as we went in all directions to fill each other's hearts.  We would end up with a heart full of cheap little cards in very thin, cheap little envelopes with our names on them.


The cards were usually very corny, with puns being the main attraction.  Sometimes they had little games to play on them.  They didn't have candy or anything else attached to them back then.  They were very basic, most of the time.  If they were fancy, they had a bit of glitter on them, and that was all the fanciness.  The images on them were of clean-cut, rosy-cheeked kids, or baby animals, or cartoonish characters.  Hearts always figured in somehow.  Most of the time you said who the card was "to" and "from" on the back, which was just blank.

A few moms always made goodies for the whole class.  There were sweet, frosted cupcakes, cookies of all kinds,  and candy.  Sometimes the moms came and joined in the party, but other times they just sent the snacks with their student to school.  I always thought that Valentine's Day parties were a lot of fun.  It was a time to let up on studying and being serious, for just an hour or so.

It seemed that I usually had something of a crush on one little boy or another in my class.  Opening HIS card to me was always the highlight.  I was filled with anticipation--does he secretly like ME too?  Will his card say anything special?  But alas, most of the time it was a duplicate of other uninspired cards in the pile, with the all-caps, block printed signature of a boy who wasn't ready to think of romance, let alone act on it.  Ah well.  Maybe next year...

When you think of Valentine's Days past, do you remember them fondly, or was it a day of agony for you?  When we were young, none of us probably ever thought that there were many different kinds of love, and we may have felt shy or embarrassed.  We might have felt odd giving a card to a person in our class we didn't particularly like.  There are probably lots of emotions, even in today's kids, on Valentine's Day at school.  It is a nice celebration, but it seems to be celebrated less these days.  What do you think?  However you remember it, have a very happy Valentine's Day this year!  If you are here on this earth, you are important and loved.

From the Outside In--Window Shopping in the 60's

I just got done on the computer with helping my daughter choose an article of clothing she wants.  We researched it carefully and ordered it, all from the comfort of our own home.  Presto!  We paid with it with plastic, and it will arrive at our doorstep in a week or two.  We can't deny the convenience of online window shopping, but it sure takes away from the great fun of the real window shopping we enjoyed in earlier times.

We lived in a fairly large town in western Washington.  Christmas time was the best time to go window shopping, but we went whenever the mood struck us.  Downtown was a wonderful, magical place, full of stores with large windows with dazzling merchandise on display.  At Christmas, every surface of every street seemed to be decked out for Christmas--lights, candycanes, snowflakes, ornaments.  It was so exciting!  We'd go at night to get the full effect of the decorations.  We could go at night because there was no crime.  The worst thing we ever happened upon was a drunk on a street corner.  One.  My parents didn't have any second-thoughts about taking their two young daughters onto the downtown streets.  Not that they would have let us do it on our own, but as long as we were with them, we felt as secure as could be.

One of the special things I remember from the 60's was window shopping at Christmas in downtown Tacoma.  Tacoma was a larger city, and did have crime, especially at night.  But there was an escalator (known as The Escalade) that went from a higher area down to the lower area, where the great stores were located.  The escalator was inside buildings, and ran a couple of blocks or so.  It was such a novelty for us!  We never ran across any shady events, and only have great memories of the escalator.  It hasn't been in operation for years.  I heard it was shut down because of crime. 

When I think of window shopping in the 60's I think of the scene at the beginning of "A Christmas Story", with the train set in the window and the kids with their noses pressed up against the window.  What joy we got from seeing such things, and from dreaming about them!  That story took place in the 1940's, but it hadn't changed much twenty years later. 

What a shame we can't feel safe doing such things anymore.  A lot of people call it "progress", and think that society must go on.  But in my mind, we have taken a giant step backwards.  How do YOU feel about that?  Do you feel more safe now or less safe?  Do you still have great stores in your downtown area, with windows full of wonderful treats?  Or have they all closed up, only to be used as seedy "progressive" bars and nightclubs?  I'm glad I had those window shopping days, but I'm sad that my kids never really did.

Some day I may post about the fun department stores and five and dime stores that we loved to go to in the 60's, but not this time.  This one is looking from the outside in, rather than the inside out.

Barbie Dolls

There are few women who were girls in the 1960's who didn't own at least one Barbie.  Barbies were the hot toy item, and the accessories and clothing you could buy (or make) for her were endless. 

Early Barbie

Barbie first came on the market in 1959.  She was a stiff, unbendable doll.  I think maybe her arms at the shoulders could swing forward and back, and the same where her legs met her torso.  But that was all.  You could buy many clothing outfits for her, and since we had no other doll that was as portable, we got along fine using our imaginations to give her "life".  I remember that her clothes were pretty difficult to put on her because of her unbending posture.

In the mid-60's Mattel came up with a new version of Barbie.  This one had bendable arms and legs!  She was so much more life-like!  The ads on the Saturday morning cartoons were full of how great this new Barbie was.  My sister and I, like all normal girls, coveted the new and improved version.  In those days, at least in our house, we didn't just get something new because we were tired of the old one.  And Barbie dolls were one-per-person for us.  Multiples were something our family just didn't do.  So when we heard that our local mall toy store was having a deal, we jumped on it.  They offered new Barbies at a big discount if you turned in your old one at the store.  Now our Barbies could do so much more, with their bending elbows and knees.  Later. the model with the twisting waist came out, which was nice, but we didn't care to get one right away.  Eventually we got around to it.

Outside of my case was something like this.

When I was in elementary school I had a Barbie carrying case.  It wasn't fancy at all--just a black shiny case with Barbie on the outside of it.  Inside it was white and had a place for your doll to stand, a space for accessories, and a "closet" space that in my memory had a small rod across it where you could hang Barbie's wardrobe on teeny hangers.  The case had the most delicious vinyl smell, inside and out.  Most girls that I played with had Barbies and cases of one kind or another.  We brought them to school so we could play with them at recess.

Inside of my case was something like this.

My mom was a knitter, and she was constantly knitting clothes for our Barbies, as well as our cousins' Barbies.  She had tiny little snaps that she sewed into the tiny little dresses.  She inspired me to sew my own Barbie clothes with leftover fabric pieces and the same tiny snaps.  Boy, were our dolls stylin'! 

We all know now what became of the original Barbie dolls.  Yes, the ones we turned in so we could get the new and improved version.  They are now as rare as hens' teeth and some have sold for over $20,000.  Who knew?! 

Did you have a Barbie?  Even more than one at a time, as some of my friends did?  How about accessories?  Did you have a carrying case, or even a Barbie house, or a Barbie car?  Did you own an original Barbie, like we did, and turn it in for the newer model?  Hopefully you have some fond memories of playing Barbies with your friends when you were a girl, when entertainment and relationships with friends and siblings were not as complex as they are today!

Basement Rec Rooms

You're wearing your favorite frilly dress to your friend's birthday party.  You have your gift in hand, you ring the doorbell, and your friend's mom smilingly welcomes you into the house.  You know exactly where you're going.  You skip over to the stairs that lead down to the basement, from which you can hear loud, happy talking and giggling.  The party is about to begin!

It seemed like everyone either had one, or knew someone who did.  The basement rec room...often with a huge wood-burning fireplace and almost always wrapped in cheap paneling all the way around.  This is where families put their elderly couches and chairs, and allowed the kids full freedom to do what they may to the old furniture.  The basement usually smelled musty and had a low ceiling, but what did we care? 

I can remember built-in closets full of board games and books.  Windows that were so high and small you could hardly see outside.  Dark, shadowy corners full of mystery and dust. 

But in the thick of the action there were colorful rubber balloons, pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, birthday cake, and brightly wrapped presents just waiting to be opened.  It was an exciting time, when all the girls wore party dresses, with their skinned, dirty knees showing, and the boys had clean faces and combed hair.

In the 1960's, parents didn't hire high-priced entertainers for a birthday party.  They just provided a good space, food, and games, and let the kids do their own entertaining--with supervision, of course.  And we did it very well, without a need for something outside to make us happy.  A Saturday afternoon birthday party (they were ALWAYS on a Saturday afternoon!) was a special event that everyone looked forward to.

I remember the Halloween I was eight.  We were living in a small town, in a large house with a basement.  The basement was not anything like the rec rooms I had seen.  It was just a big room with some supporting poles and a bare cement floor.  But among our friends, we were the only ones who had a basement at all.  So we all decided we would have a Halloween party.  It certainly was spooky enough for one!  My sister wanted to be a witch.  The night of the party here she was, all of six-years-old, stirring her "witch's brew"--boiling hot water, in the biggest pot we owned.  We didn't know about dry ice, which would have been much more effective.  Looking back, the party was pretty lame.  But we had a blast, our friends had a blast, and our basement served as the best basement rec room I've ever had. 

No one we knew had any money in those days.  We all just took it for granted that if we were going to have fun, we had to create it from nothing.  And create we did, every day.  Did you have a basement rec room?  Can you remember creating fun, even though you didn't have much money?  I hope this helps you remember that creative spark and the great times you shared with your friends when you were young!