Remembering Things from Your American Childhood

We've spent more than a few evenings drunkenly trawling YouTube making each other watch crappy programming from our respective childhoods.

Now there's an idea!

Those monkey kids are creepy.  Tails even?!

Something I remember from my American childhood is playing "Kick the Can" with all the neighborhood kids in the middle of our road on summer evenings.  Also shooting baskets (horse) and playing four-square in the driveway.

I remember the Summer I discovered the recipe for peanut butter cookies for my EasyBake oven.  Peanut butter, sugar, and flour.  Who knew cookies taste so good cooked for 2 minutes under a light bulb?  OMG. I think I made 200 batches until my mother stopped buying peanut butter cause we were "just going through it too fast".. hahaa..

The things we did back then that you can't get away with now.. OMG.. Too many to list.

About 1974-- seats down in the back of parent's bright orange AMC Gremlin (complete with moonroof).. I'm 4 yrs old and little brother and I are lying in the back of the car while parents are running errands around town.  No seatbelts, let alone booster seats.  The bright orange shag carpet smelled slightly sour from a leak in the moonroof.  I loved watching the sky through the moonroof while my Dad was driving... enough to ignore the sour carpet smell. 

This is what the car looked like  http://www.productioncars.com/gallery.php?car=18349&make=AMC&model=Gremlin

I still really loathe that sour smell.  Get that a lot here in Scotland.  I can smell sour clothes from a good 10 feet away.

How did we survive without seat belts and kid seats? I remember crawling up into the shelf of the rear window of my dad's old 1940 Ford sedan -- I just fit perfectly! And you could also ride around in the middle of the front seat between your parents.
But then you also got all the smoke from their cigarettes in your face 

RIP Miracle Strip Amusement Park
Panama City Beach, Florida
1963 - 2004

How did we survive without seat belts and kid seats? I remember crawling up into the shelf of the rear window of my dad's old 1940 Ford sedan -- I just fit perfectly! And you could also ride around in the middle of the front seat between your parents.
But then you also got all the smoke from their cigarettes in your face 

OMG yes!  Long Sunday drives.. Dad smoking with one window just barely cracked. My head always hurt from the cigarette smoke so I would go to sleep to avoid the headaches and stench.  I honestly think that is what kept me from ever smoking though.  I hated the stench and being around smoke.  Still do!

RIP Miracle Strip Amusement Park
Panama City Beach, Florida
1963 - 2004

That amusement park looks like so much fun! Maybe that's why I love Blackpool? 

My head always hurt from the cigarette smoke so I would go to sleep to avoid the headaches and stench.  I honestly think that is what kept me from ever smoking though. 

Me too!

That amusement park looks like so much fun! Maybe that's why I love Blackpool? 

I have a secret desire to visit Blackpool. That and Coney Island. Just drawn to tacky I guess.

But you know, Eddie and Dave are back together so the 80's live on

They weren't part of my childhood 

Very early in our relationship, my husband sat me down in front of a VHS copy of Bill and Ben (he's probably sorry; now whenever he mentions the need to weed the garden, I let out an ear-splitting "weeeeeeed!").

We've spent more than a few evenings drunkenly trawling YouTube making each other watch crappy programming from our respective childhoods.

The BF and I have done that, using youtube to compare the different versions of Thomas the Tank Engine that we grew up with. And I had to explain to him about Shining Time Station, since that's the show that Thomas was in in my childhood. So weird that George Carlin was Mr. Conductor...

And those monkey children are weird and creepy and wrong. If I were out biking with a group of friends and multiple people were killed/seriously injured in various traffic mishaps, I would TOTALLY just keep on going, and ignore the whole thing. 

And those monkey children are weird and creepy and wrong. If I were out biking with a group of friends and multiple people were killed/seriously injured in various traffic mishaps, I would TOTALLY just keep on going, and ignore the whole thing. 

The best bit was cut off the end of that youtube video.  When the one surviving boy arrives at the park, he sits at a bench, takes off his monkey face mask, and eats his sack lunch.  LOL

The best bit was cut off the end of that youtube video.  When the one surviving boy arrives at the park, he sits at a bench, takes off his monkey face mask, and eats his sack lunch.  LOL

Haha, weeeird. Honestly, I only got about half way through the video. It was just too much.

I was born in the 1950s in the 'burbs of Chicago. My happiest, most vivid memories are from WGN television: Bozo the Clown; Garfield Goose; and especially 'Hardrock, Coca & Joe' and 'Suzie Snowflake' on WGN every Christmas.

Was lucky enough to find these black-and-white 'cartoons' on YouTube and I now watch them every single holiday season. Sure brings back warm fuzzies. :-)

I had a fantastic childhood growing up in the midwest, 35 miles west of Chicago - but in farmland (not farmland any more, though). Close enough to the City for the most fantastic field trips: the Art Institute; Museum of Science and Industry; etc. We lived in a middle-class neighborhood, everyone knew everyone else, the quintessential good ol' days.

Sigh.

I was born in the 1950s in the 'burbs of Chicago. My happiest, most vivid memories are from WGN television: Bozo the Clown; Garfield Goose; and especially 'Hardrock, Coca & Joe' and 'Suzie Snowflake' on WGN every Christmas.

Sigh.

I was born in the 70s.  But, I loved Bozo the Clown too.  They need another game show for kids. That was grand!