Dr. Forgot Remembers

Days of Wine and Roses

Or perhaps it was the days of runny noses. Today we have the Baby Boomer Memory Test. See how many of these items bring a picture to your mind: S&H Green Stamps were a type of currency offered by nearly every grocery store. Yellow 45 plastic inserts allowed you to play "singles" records on the spindle designed for 78s and 33s. Of course, you had to have a record player with all three speed settings.

Metal ice cube trays sometimes had handles attached that would allow for easy removal of the cubes. With a cork popgun you could shoot at your little brother but never lost the cork that was attached to your rifle with a string. Skate keys allowed for roller skates to attach to nearly any shoes. Of course we did not wear thongs for the feet or Birkenstocks so footwear was not an issue.

We did not have drive-by shootings but drive-ins could be either to get food from a gal (car hop) on roller skates or trying desperately to create your first child in the back seat of your Dad's Studebaker whole the movie was playing. The latter drive-in was also called a passion pit and the Studebaker might even have a necking knob attached to the steering wheel that allowed you to turn the wheel with one hand with the other hand around your best girl in the days before power steering.

Your mom might have been in the basement wringing her clothes through the wringer attached to the washtub and if the Fuller Brush man or Avon lady rang your doorbell and you'd have to get up from playing with your Erector Set or Lincoln Logs or tinker toys to answer the door. After he left you might hop on your Schwinn with the baseball card in the spokes and ride to the corner store to get some penny candy and a 5-cent coke in a paper cone at the fountain bar. Of course, if you ate too much candy it was Speedy Alka-Seltzer to the rescue.

Can't you just picture that scene? With your Brownie Hawkeye and flashbulbs of course. After you got home, if the test pattern was no longer on you might watch Lassie or Howdy Doody with Buffalo Bob, Clarabelle and the marionettes while you anxiously waited to see the Chef Boy-Ar-Dee commercial. As you got a little older and girls came into your life you were sure to use Brylcreem - a little dab'll do you. How about a little blogging music, maestro.... one of my favorites is the Platters, "Remember When."

Dr. Forgot