1960s Musings

Nostalgia can be fun if it involves positive stuff. There were plenty of negative things for me growing up, but I chose to reflect on what I can look back at and smile. In no particular chronological order:

 

The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I’ve written about this before, where my grandma woke me up to come out in the living room to see the Beatles’ premier on TV. The world went crazy for those “mop tops” and it was the same at school. I was in 4^th grade. I don’t know who had the trading cards, but they were being “sold” on the playground for the clear peerie marbles. I think it was 1 to 1. There was one girl who had a lot of peeries and was “selling” them for 2 regular marbles for 1 peerie. At some point she got tired of it and when I approached her to exchange marbles, she said “No! You’re just going to get Beatles cards with them!” At the end of the day I had 2 of those precious cards. Had them for years. No idea what happened to them.

 

I don’t remember ever having Tang, even though that was the beverage of choice for the astronauts, but we did have Fizzies. What a miracle those things were. You could have ordinary water turn into something special! Sadly, they did NOT taste good when just chewing them…

 

Barbies!!! I NEVER felt inadequate about my body as far as comparing it to a Barbie. It was a doll, for heaven’s sake. I LOVED my Barbies, and my friend Shirley had a goodly number as well. We played with those dolls a lot. At some point I gathered up her and my Barbies and accessories and gave them to a friend’s little girl. When the time came, Sarah played with Barbies, as did Lia. Lia would use her dolls to re-enact Disney stories. When she did Pocahontas and had to use another Barbie to be John Smith, we got her a Ken.

 

Etch-a-sketch. My brother and I had one. Sarah and Paul had one. Lia had one.

 

Troll dolls. I LOVED them!!! I still have mine!! Sarah and Paul never cared for them. Lia didn’t like them at all. Thought they were creepy. When I was about 12 or 13 my dad was working in the Bay Area during the week and had an apartment. He’d come home on Friday night and leave early Sunday evening. One Friday, I’d had a terrible migraine all day. When my dad got home that night, he gave me a BIG troll doll, 5 inches tall. That was the greatest thing to have at that moment. I wasn’t really playing with them much anymore, but did like to set them up in little scenarios sometimes. The big one was a real treat to have.

 

Jello salads – a standard at every church pot luck. And we had it a lot at home too. Red Jello had either mini marshmallows or bananas. I much preferred the bananas. Orange Jello had shredded carrots. Green had either chopped celery or pears. When the kids were young I’d put canned fruit cocktail in different flavored Jello.

 

The moon landing. What an event. I had a sleepover with my friends Shirley and JoAnne that night. We sat on the floor in front of the TV in awe. Neil Armstrong was standing on the MOON!