Monday, October 13, 2008

More Childhood Memories


This is a picture taken by either my daughter or son-in-law, I'm not sure which. I think it's beautiful. It is, of course, of my grandson, Isaac, and
their cat, Emily. Please note, the tat on his right arm. I don't know where the children today get these things. We used to find them in Cracker Jack boxes when I was a kid, or sometimes they came with bubble gum. I don't know what Isaac's is. I used to love the ones of butterflies or cartoon characters or flowers.


Cracker Jack was a real delight then. The prizes in the boxes we
re really fun too. These days, I occasionally buy a box. But the so-called prizes are only dumb little paper things - never any good toys. I remember once getting a whistle .


The prizes in cereal boxes aren't like they used to be either. Now when I was a girl....


And what ever happened to Dixie Cups? It's been years since Dixie Cups. I had a vast collection of Dixie Cup caps - the ones with the pictures of movie stars. I loved the cowboy stars - Tom Mix and Gene Autry. (Yes, I go that far back) I had lots of other stars too. Imagine what that collection would be worth today! No chance. My mother's favorite sport was throwing things away. She didn't believe in "clutter" of any kind. We used to joke that our rooms were always so neat because Mom never let a piece of clothing touch the floor before she would whisk it away to the laundry. The kitchen was always neat because we never got to completely clean our plates before she had them washed and dried and put away. That was why my sister and I always said we'd never be good housekeeper
s. We never learned how. Mom couldn't stand waiting while someone else did anything.


I guess we were very easily pleased when we were kids. I can remember playing for hours with clothespins, or with checkers
or old chessmen. I'd turn the footstool upside down. It had thick sides and big round feet, and upside down, it became a castle and the chessmen or whatever were the knights and the royal family.


But then, I don't remember our local firehouse having Open House for the kids in the neighborhood either. The community seems to do more today to entertain and instruct our children than was ever done when I was a girl.


We had some great field trips from school though. One of the very best was the day we went to the Philadelphia Zoo in Fairmount Park. I got to ride on Elizabeth, the elephant. A very bumpy ride, but so exciting! And I loved the trips to museums. They were all good, but my favorite was always the Philadelphia Art Museum - the one famous now for Rocky running up the steps. We didn't wait for school trips there; we often went on a Saturday. I ate many a box lunch, sitting on those Art Museum steps. So far, Isaac's field trips have been to the pumpkin farm or a nature preserve, with his pre-school class. But I predict many fabulous adventures for him, exploring the world around him.

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I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying the comments that everyone has made on my posts on my school days. Each one has a new little story of their own days when they were young. They are all delightful. Thank you so much!

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO OUR CANADIAN FRIENDS!

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Isaac's mom says, "the tattoo is of a dinosaur of course."

12 comments:

Judy said...

That child is beautiful. What a good looking boy! I love the picture with the fire hose. I bet he was having a ball. We used to call ourselves camping out and string blankets from tree to tree outside. We would head for the house when it got dark though! Love these posts.

Anonymous said...

You sure brought back a lot of memories with this post! I remember getting a whistle in Crack Jack, too. And weren't there rings sometimes? Class trips, too. I recall going with my Brownie troop to the Wonder Bread factory in downtown Detroit, to see how the bread was made, and at the end, all the kids got these tiny little loaves of bread about 4 inches long, all wrapped up just like the big ones. Everybody thought that was so cool, to have our own miniatures of the 'grown-up' kind.

kenju said...

You bring back memories for me, too, Bobbie. I loved Cracker Jacks as much for the prizes as for the snack. I loved getting rings, even when they were plastic. Our fire dept. did do demos for kids and I remember our scout troop going there. We had no museums in my town back then, sadly.

Most of my play was imaginative, with things like you describe = clothespins and other household stuff. I used leaves and flowers for tea parties (four-o-clock seeds were raisins on mud cookies) and fishing worms were spaghetti....LOL

Daryl said...

Sweet Isaac ...

Cracker Jack's ... I dont remember any really great toy prizes but I do remember how good the cracker jacks tasted.

My mother was a lot like your's, Bobbie, and so I am a terrible house keeper and a worse sewer ...

:-Daryl

Unknown said...

This is just beautiful. I so loved reading it and looking at the photos of Isaac. What a beautiful child.

When I was a little girl and still living in Portugal, there was a brand of laundry detergent that my mother bought that came with a plastic prize. I remember one day the prizes stopped and I was really disappointed

And Cracker Jacks? I remember Cracker Jacks having cool prizes. I don't know when they stopped but I used to love them in the late 60's and probably through the mid-70's. Still like Cracker Jacks.

Thanks again for a delightful post.

Webradio said...

Hello Bobbie !
Pretty child !

Your explain is very nice...

See You later.

Kitty said...

the tattoo is of a dinosaur...of course!

dianasfaria.com said...

I remember picking out cereal according to what toy was going to be inside!

Tootie said...

That has got to be the cutest little guy ever! I had to laugh at your story of your mother cleaning up so quickly. Sounds exactly like my mother was when I was a child. She also never kept anything. I can remember things that I would love to have back again too. Did you also hear, when you skinned your knee; that it was too far from your heart to kill you? :-))
As far as play went, I was an only child. I played ball by throwing it up on a metal garage roof and catching it when it came back down. I also put playing cards on my bicycle spokes with clothes pins to make it sound like it had a motor.

Tootie said...

Oh, I forgot to ask if you remember getting boxes of soap powder with drinking glasses in them or towels rolled up in a little box. You don't see those any more either, just smaller boxes now. :-)

Casdok said...

I would love to have a go with that hose!

Now when i was a girl....

Clara....in TN said...

Bobbie, do you remember the Spanish Peanuts in a little box? Each box had money in it...penny, nickel, dime or a quarter. Mostly they were pennies. I found one quarter and I thought I was rich. The money wasn't wrapped. Can you imagine that happening today?