When my grandson Chris was in the 5th grade, the private school that he attended in California, had a wonderful tradition celebrating Grandparents Day....grandparents attended each of their grandchildren's different classes. In his history class, Chris' teacher asked us to share something that we experienced when we were their age. This started a wonderful and very comical series of discussions that I was able to share with 2 of my 3 beautiful grandchildren.
At the age of 10, I lived in Hawaii and it was a very historical time because around that time Hawaii went from being a territory of the United States to becoming the 50th state. I can still see the local newspaper headline reading STATEHOOD! That was in 1959. We also remembered having to hide under our desks during atomic bomb drills....now as I look back....I don't believe that would have saved us.
When Chris was in the 8th grade, the students asked the grandparents to share what school was like for kids at their age. Well we really had a lot of fun on this question and it was so interesting to realize that across the states there wasn't much difference with what was happening in Hawaii. Nationally, it was a time when President Kennedy started his fitness program in schools. Not being a very athletic person, it seemed like we were experiencing a scaled down version of the Olympic trials.
I shared that in our day, corporal punishment was allowed in schools. The vice-principal was usually the one to be feared because it was part of his job description to punish the really bad ones....usually with a paddle to the buttocks. YIKES! As a left handed person...I can remember teachers whacking my left hand with a ruler because that was the hand I used to write with in school. As a result, the only things I do left handed are eating and writing. The rest is done with my right hand, like crocheting and playing the ukelele (it's been years for those two tasks). I was one of the luckier ones....I have heard of some kids that were so totally confused as a result of the trauma of parents/teachers trying to switch them to being right handed.
A grandparent that was visiting from the Midwest shared how the girls had to wear dresses to school....pants were not appropriate or allowed for girls. That discussion led to the subject of crinolines. Those were scratchy under garments we had to wear to be in fashion with a flared skirt. I shared how the boys would wear mirrors on their shoes to take a peek at our underwear at my school in Hawaii and to my surprise, it was the same across the country...because we had grandparents that grew up on the east coast that experienced the same thing. Would you believe that after the discussion, one brave grandfather came up to me and shared that he was one of those guys that had mirrors on his shoes? Too funny!
Television...when we got that wonder....we had just 1 station....and it wasn't on all day. We used to sometimes stare at the screen and see the test pattern. The antenna was on the roof and we also had rabbit ear antennae on the set...sometimes covered with foil. When the picture was askew....some brave family member would be on the roof moving the antenna till the picture appeared. If we wanted colored TV we would put cellophane paper over the screen...because TV was strictly black and white back then.
Well, after the fun stories that we shared during Grandparents Day, every so often I would amaze my grandchildren with additional stories at home. In my life time thus far....I got to witness the following life changing inventions.....some of them are:
Pampers - disposable diapers...what a time saver....but bad for the environment
Baby formula from a bottle that we just snapped on the nipple and didn't have to sterilize
Electric typewriter...we had to use a lighter touch or we would end up typing the same letter several times
Copy machine....no more using carbon paper when typing letters for our boss....when NCR paper came along....it was the bomb!
Word processor made by Wang....wow we were really cooking along here
Computers....now these things were huge and usually took up a couple of rooms....and those rooms had to be really cold so the computer wouldn't go haywire...there was no way we could fathom having computers on a desk in our homes
Transistor radios....we could carry these without having to be near an electric outlet
The Internet....we used to have to go to the library to do research...unless our family could afford to have encyclopedia sets at home...which was always outdated
Push button phones....we had the dial up models
Roller skates....these metal things with metal wheels....we just attached them to our shoes and used a metal key to adjust the width by our toes....years later we found out that these caused damage to our ankles....gee the price we paid for fun!
Fast food restaurants....the first in Hawaii that I remember was called Scotty's....they served great hamburgers and french fries. McDonalds hadn't been invented yet.
Now not all inventions were great......
Full service gas stations turned into no-service gas stations....pump your own! UGH
Gas became a major consideration when buying a car....gone are those huge cars with fish tail rear lights and bench seats in front....now we have hybrids, electric and golf cart looking wonders
Juke boxes in restaurants went away...now it is considered to be a novelty
Rock and roll music.....my ears just can't handle heavy metal groups
Oh well.....we can still reminisce about the good ole days! Boy they were fun....weren't they?
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