Not So Long Ago

When I was growing up, life was very different.

The only way you had your own room was if you didn't have a same sex sibling. There were twin beds and bunk beds for kids. I never knew anyone who had a larger bed. Married couples had full or double beds. A California King would have been considered decadent.

Everybody in the family used one bathroom.

There was one bottle of shampoo in the bathroom, and no conditioner. We rinsed our hair with vinegar to make it shine, and dried it in front of the heater or out in the sun. If we wanted curls, we slept on curlers, because the only place there was a hair dryer was at the beauty salon.

There was one TV, and it was in the living room. Dad would have controlled the remote, except that there wasn't a remote.

The dishwasher in most families walked on two feet and complained about it a lot. There was no microwave. Kraft Dinner™ was the closest thing to an instant meal. Most kitchen cabinets contained a double boiler and a pressure cooker. The washing machine was rolled up to the kitchen sink and filled up with hot tap water, and there was a rack to hang things on when the weather was unsuitable for drying outdoors.

If you were very spoiled, you might have an extension phone in your bedroom. Please note that I said "extension phone." Not your own line.

Most families had one car, and Dad took it to work every day. If Dad, like Dagwood, carpooled, all the household errands devolved on Mom.

You might participate in one extra-curricular activity. Little league. Ballet. Piano lessons. There were no available classes in martial arts, gymnastics, acting or tennis. Unless, of course, you were of that privileged minority that were members of a country club.

Swimming lessons? Red Cross. In the ocean.

Driving lessons? Dad, if his heart was up to it.

Toys? OK, we had Barbie™. Twister™ was the latest craze. We read, played monaural records on a record player and lip-sync'd with a hairbrush (some things never change), played Monopoly and card games and went on hikes. Any recording being done was done on a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and the word "portable" was laughable by today's standards.

Dating was dating, not sex. A good night kiss was de rigeur, and a bit of "necking" was permitted, if you were "going steady." Wearing too much eye makeup was enough to label a girl as "fast." Most of us weren't allowed to date until we were sixteen, and then there was a midnight curfew on weekends. No dating during the week, period.

And, speaking of periods, Kotex™ was the product of choice. Tampons were for married women, or so I was told (in a hushed voice). A girl on her period did not swim, sat out PE classes, and skipped practice of whatever sport she might play.

Bras were cotton, with a bit of elastic in the back; none anywhere else. If we were allowed to wear nylons, they were held up with a garter belt. Pantyhose had not yet been invented. The stockings had no stretch, either, and were shaped to fit an "average" (read: not mine) leg. Most of us went around with little wrinkles around our knees.

There were no such things as athletic shoes. We had little flat "sneakers," the equivalent of Converse™ or Keds™.

There was a dress code in school. Boys always had their shirts tucked in, and, if their pants had belt loops, there had better be a belt in there. Girls wore skirts. Blue jeans were not allowed, for either gender. T-shirts were underwear. Speaking of underwear, it was always under the outer layer of clothing, and hidden completely. We pinned our bra and slip straps to our dresses so that they would not slip into view. We didn't even mention underwear. If a girl's slip was showing below her skirt, her friend would inform her that it was "snowing down south."

Very few of the fabrics we used for clothing had any stretch to them. "Ski pants" became fashionable when I was in high school, and they were the first things I wore, besides sweaters, that had any "give" to them at all.

Home Ec was a required course for girls (forbidden to boys), and the first thing we learned how to make was cream sauce, followed in quick succession by custard, mayonnaise, and preserved tomatoes.

There was very little plastic, and most things that come in plastic today, came in glass. Shampoo, milk, ketchup, sodas--all glass. There were no baggies--we wrapped our lunch sandwiches in wax paper or tin foil.

Oh...and cigarettes were 38¢ a pack, and Mom used to send me over to the corner store to buy hers. That is, when she got tired of rolling her own, a skill she taught me. Made me quite popular in college.

See how much life has changed in less than fifty years!