Back in the Day

1959 well I wasn't even born yet, just a twinkle in my Dad's eye as they say!  But my husband was 2 years already.  So it was interesting this weekend when we went to a display at a local Museum of daily items used from 1959 - 2009.  Who doesn't remember Mr. Potato Head?!  I had one of these and a slinky, that I think my sister and I fought over so instead of slinky it was just stretched wire spring, no slinking left in it.  Frizbees we still see them around and Paint by numbers, well I thought if I did it really, really well, no one would no it was a numbers painting, surely they would believe I was just born talented.  What memories this exhibit brought back.

When I met Adrian he was driving a banana yellow panel van, with black and white bamboo print curtains on the windows and a mattress in the back.  Yep my dad would have had a fit.  I was born in Brisbane, moved to the Gold Coast and then much later to Toowoomba, where I met Adrian.  In Toowoomba a lot of guys had panel vans, on the coast if you had a panel van you were a tourist or bogan.  Not very nice was it.  So when I met Adrian and later found out he had a van I was not a happy person.  Luckily he won me over with his charm, wit and style, not his car choice.  This little beauty was one of the first, panel vans made and no Adrian's didn't look like this thank heavens.

Can you believe it, this was a state of the art ultra modern record player at some time.  Now for those of you who don't even remember what records are, well seriously go google it, I have no time for you young whipper snippers.  Now we have MP3, Ipod, Iphone, CD, CD/DVD, bluetooth and probably some I don't even know about yet, to play music on.  And I am so glad about that, imagine carting one of these things around with head phones attached, really, what were we thinking!

Can you imagine the time it probably took to get your hair dry with this little baby.  She is cute though, I mean what a lovely pastel pink.

And if you had time left after all that hair drying, then you could always pack up the oh so glamorous and totally functional picnic set and load up the van, don't forget the frizbee now and head off for a day in the park somewhere.

That is of course if you weren't too busy whipping up a smart outfit on your sewing machine or cleaning your white shoes.  I find this such a stroll down memory lane, My mum had patterns like this, shoes too and later I will post the wigs etc, that were here to.

But I have to say this slate and slate pencil with cardborad port for school are the clinchers.  None of this My little princess, or Bratz, back packs, no lap tops or notebooks (computers) for us. We walked to school about 2 miles I think maybe a little more and we lugged these babies all the way.  We had a teacher who regularly cracked slates over the boys heads, and if the complained or cried to loud he would give them 10 slaps with the blackboard ruler on their bottoms.  Now days he'd end up in jail and probably he should have, but hey they bred us tougher back then.  I vividly recall a girl in my class, Terry Moore was her name only we called her licorice legs.  We called her that because she wore thick black woolen tights to school, winter, summer she didn't care.  See Terry was always getting into trouble and she was always getting the ruler across the back of the legs.  The teacher would make her stand on the chair, so we all could see I guess, and so it wouldn't hurt her back bending too I suppose and she would whack her with the ruler.  But Terry was no dummy she wore those tights and she didn't feel a thing, we all thought she was a bit of a hero.  Oh those were the days, really, somehow I don't think so.  But we did have a different childhood than our kids do today.  Some was good, really really good, catching turtles in the creek, listening to Kamahl on the stereo, watching the Brady Bunch on telly.  Some not so great, walking home from school in the rain, Mum obviously didn't think a little rain would kill us. Riding pushbikes everywhere, parents didn't drive us around then, talking to our friends no mobiles to message on then. Hey actually were there any bad times really, maybe not afterall.