If you were a kid in the 1950s, you remember...

This sort of thing is what made watching Back to the Future with my dad so much fun.

Sky King! Be still my foolish heart. I wanted him for an uncle.

Brylcreem - A little dab'll do ya'!!

That's my life you've laid out in those pictures. My grandfather bought a new Studebaker every year or so. He never had a Golden Hawk though. I used to listen to Sky King and Sgt Preston of the Yukon on the radio until we got our first TV. We would watch the test pattern in the afternoon until Howdy Doody came on. Thanks Roger. A little nostalgia is good for the spirit.

I remember, Oh, too many of them. LOL

Time must have moved slower back then, or maybe my family was behind the times, because I remember almost all of those things despite being born in 1960. Speedy and Sky King were history to me, but pretty much everything else was current events.

I'm amazed that one can find a photo of Christmas tree with a rotating color wheel on the internet.

Oh my. I still love Topo Gigio. I was born in 1959 and recognize all of these except the building (a school?) under Chef Boyardee.

Thanks for the dose of nostalgia!

Ebert: it so much a school as a tube-style fire escape.

Oh, wow. My entire childhood just passed before my eyes! Wonderful!!

And if you weren't, you have no idea what most of these things even are...

I think it's a bit off.
I was born in 1965 in Boston and I've only missed a couple.
Thanks especially for Santa with the Camel!
All the best for the coming year.

We still have that Christmas tree.

Well, I was born in 1980 and was at least familiar with most of them. But then my dad and I are pretty close so I remember him sitting me down and showing me Sky King and Beany and Cecil. My little sister was given an old Brownie camera when she was young and took some pictures with it.

I was born in '73 so I have first-hand memories of some of these (Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, A&W Drive-In, bottle openers, drive-ins). We even had a Green Stamps store in my town until the late '80s. And I'm certainly familiar with everything else through movies & TV. But what is the coiled green and blue thing?

Ebert: This is Mr. Science here, Jeff.

That's known as a Finger Trap. Stick your fingers in, and the harder you pull, the more you can't get them out.

Ah.....hahahahahahaha!

That oh so merry
Chuckleberry
Huckleberry Hound

Some things you never forget. It's the EMINENTLY FORGETTABLE stuff you never forget that proves how absurd Life is.

I had a dream about getting a package of Chuckles with all licorice squares. I've been wanting one since I was 7. In my dream, I said, "finally!"

Hmmm, I *think* the coiled green and blue thing is actually a gum wrapper chain. (I made lots of those in the olden days.)

I sent the link to my mom (born 1950). She responds, "I remember about 90% of those things. I had completely forgotten that there used to be a Chef Boy Ar Dee. Good to see him again. Your
father's parents had that tree. I use to think it was so tacky. It's still tacky but it's a good memory"

Ebert: Back in the day, Chef Boy Ar Dee was the creme de la creme of cuisine Italiano.

Anyone remember the name of Sky Kings plane?

Songbird - there you go.

Well, that was great! But are you sure about the McDonald's picture being from the 50's? I remember paying 12 and 15 cents (at Sandy's and Griff's) in 1964 - one had 15 cent hamburgers and 12 cent fries, and the other reversed those prices. We'd visit both, then go to Allen's (the place to be seen) to eat (and be seen). It seems the Mickey's would have been less expensive that many years earlier.

I wasn't around in the 1950's but I remember some of those things. Is that Red Skelton below my grandmother's washing machine? The last movie I saw at a drive-in theater was either Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn or Purple Rain. My father used blue flash bulbs. And I believe my mother got the bread box from the Green Stamps Store.

I got a Chuckle out of the italicized Chuckles comment. Indeed, the Licorice Chuckle is the gold to the other flavors' base metal. That way with jelly beans and Neccos too (I did a tribute to Neccos a couple years back; if I can find it I'll URL it . . .)--I even had a thing for the Licorice flavor of Baskin-Robbins ice cream, though the ice cream was an unappealing gloss-gray. And Good & Plenty was my movie candy of choice: crunch away the candy-shell enamel and the fresh, miniature-ink-brayer licorice core was there in all its fresh-flexible glory.

And the best licorice of all was Lic-Ris-Ets. Nubs were OK, but Lic-Ris-Ets were the best flavor AND the best solid-yet-yielding consistency.

Ebert: Yes. Yes. And these will send you over the moon:

http://www.retrocandyonline.com/licadrcloldf.html

Looking at the pictures and reading the comments brought back memories of the mill coin or perhaps the 5 mill coin (1/10 or 1/2 of 1 cent) with the hole in it. They were only used for sales tax and parking meters as I recall. I was pretty young when the went away, so it's a vague memory.

A lot of great stuff here!

Before Beany & Cecil were animated on TV and appeared in comic books, they were live hand puppets M-F afternoons on Channel 5 in Los Angeles, with Stan Freberg and Daws Butler doing all the characters and Korla Pandit providing the Hammond accompaniment.

How to feel old: I was a fan of the Sky King radio show, and the boy who played Clipper (plus Jack Armstrong ["The All-American Boy]" and a bunch of other youth voices) later directed Camera Three and Soul Train -- he just retired from teaching at Cal State LA.

My mother bought my first tennis racket with S&H Green stamps. I got Lincoln Logs for xmas, too.

Yes, all of it.

Erector Sets should have come with a box of bandaids and some iodine. They cut fingers to shreds.

Hee! I was born in 1978, but I looooooooved my Tinker Toys :D

I also had Lincoln Logs (and Maccano!), watched Lassie after school, and wanted to play with Beanie and Cecil. These are all fabulous! :)

I was born in the mid-sixties and I remember several of these things. Roughly half, I suppose. Of course, the last time I saw a movie at a drive-in was in 2000. Now light pollution has gotten so bad that that screen will be going dark permanently before too long as well.

Love it!

And how many Chicagoans remember Clutch Cargo or BJ & Dirty Dragon?

I remember almost everything on the list. I actually had that Beany & Cecil comic. I had Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys. I not only watched the Red Skelton Show, I saw him in concert in the 80s. I remember watching Chatty Cathy ads on TV, and watching Sky King and Lassie. I remember Brylcreem "a little dab will do ya" ads. There is even a book of S&H Green Stamps behind me right now, with some stamps not stuck on yet. The flashbulbs are funny because a couple of days ago on the Bonnie Hunt Show, she showed an Instamatic flash cube to some twenty-somethings and they had no idea what it was.

Roger, you had me on the ropes but then . . . Ernie Banks! I had that card!

KO! Down and out.

Thank you.

Very cool! I was born in 1959, and had a "Cecil" Jack in the Box toy. And remember most of that stuff- I can still hear "I came back!" "I came back!" "I came back- to Brill Cream!". Which is gonna haunt me because now I'm profoundly deaf. I remember when McDonalds commercials boasted hamburgers being fifteen cents....this stuff is all very cool. Thanks for the memories!

I still have actual S&H Green Stamps and books, as well as some for the yellow Top Value stamps! If this recession gets much worse, might not be a bad idea to go back to buying stuff with something besides money!

I was a young housewife in the mid-50s and remember all of them. I have a picture of me coming out of one of those fire escape tubes at our elementary school. I'll have to look it up. You can still buy Jiffy Pops. My grandkids love watching that aluminum foil dome rise.

Cracker Barrel stores sell "nostalgic" candy in boxes marked The 50s, The 60s, The 70s. Fun!

I knew that I was getting old when I referred to Burma Shave signs in a discussion with a coworker about advertisng, and she had no idea what I was talking about.

Mmmmm ... chewing Lincoln Logs ... sorry, did I say that out loud?

Red Skelton as The Fuller Brush Man?

I remember sitting at the dining room table with my mom (the wet sponge in a bowl) Made the task of filling the green stamps books up much more pleasant. You had to be careful not to get them too wet and they fell apart..oy!

Thank you for the great memories. I miss those days. What will my kids have to remember?

Wellsir? By the time "Old Yeller" come out, my daddy had already shot so many dawgs which had displeased him, we wunnered what all the caterwaulin' in that movie was for.

Lit a match
Too near the tank
And now they call him
Skinless Frank
Burma Shave

These are great! I was born in 1946, so I remember most of them. The funny thing is, my son who was born in 1965, probably does, too. I kept my tinker toys, (and Lincoln Logs) so he played with them. We lived modestly in small-town Missouri, so we didn't throw much away. Things didn't change or go out of style as quickly as in some parts of the country. Plus, If I loved it, I wanted my kids to enjoy it, too. Did some dating at A&W, also. These pics bring back lovely memories. Thank you.

Hi Mom. Yes, I remember darn near all of these except for the fire escape slide.

To bridge the generations, I'll mention that Chef Boiardi was eulogized by Henry Rollins in the first issue of Spin magazine. Until then I had no idea he was a real person.

I was a kid in the 80s, and I remember some of these things. I had Tinkertoys (lots of fun), and Lincoln Logs, and if that's the Modesto A&W, it was open well into the 90s!

Takes me back, it does...

Great stuff, Roger. On Lassie, I was more a Jeff Rettig fan than a Jon Provost fan, but they were both good.

I thought you might be interested in this movie-based Rorschach test I devised. Old Yeller plays a role, at least for me: http://su.pr/3Khz5n

I loved Topo Gigio but where's Clutch Cargo and Paddlefoot?

I was born in 1968 and am at least familiar with most of them. I think the second is an ice cube tray - though you can still get plastic ones you twist.

But what is the fourth item? The metal thing...

I've seen these images before, received them in emails, but they are always fun to see again. Thank you for posting them, Roger. Glad to see you, too. All the best.

Was born in 60 and remember quite a few of these. The ice cube tray makes me laugh - my depression-era mother treated those trays like they were incredibly classy compared to the plastic ones. She still uses the same ones we had in the 60s and 70s.

That's not a bottle opener, it's a skate key

Ahh, the memories of growing up in the 50's and 60's. I still remember asking my mother why she didn't wear high-heels when she made breakfast like Donna Reed did on "The Donna Reed Show." Yes, I was a saucy lad.

From the above, I most remember S&H stamps (and Gold Bond stamps too) and watching the road while traveling in order to read those Burma-Shave signs.

I was born in 1951 and can recall all of the items pictured. I still, on occasion, buy a can of the Chef's ravioli.
Thank you Roger for bringing back memories of a great time in my life.

Loved those! The first one was best -- oh, those afternoons, dreaming over the Green Stamps catalogue with my sister --

Suggest adding Sing Along with Mitch on TV!

I did it again. More enthusiasm than sense, or at least, than accuracy. Sing Along With Mitch didn't start until 1961.

Sorry.

ok i wonder what you thought of andy devines raspy "wait for me wild bill and billy gilberts exasperation with froggy of the gremlin?seems wierd now but 50 years ago i loved all that stuff.

I am amazed that I was born in 1982 and remember a number of these, as well as being familiar with several more. Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs, the washing machine, the flash bulbs, the ice cube tray, the candy (and the candy store! We had a candy store--in the 80s! Makes me think of Sugardaddies and Bit O' Honeys.) I even recognized the fire escape straightaway, though I can't remember where I first saw one. Sometimes I wonder how much of my memories are my own, and how much I've osmosed from my older relatives. Was I really raised in a time warp? Sometimes I half think so. I recognize things many people my age don't, but am clueless on things I ought to know--pop music in the early nineties?--Haven't a clue.

for the chicago crowd.....

"Lunchtime Little Theater" at Lunchtime, and you could send in your name to be read aloud, by one of two uncles, my fave being Uncle Bucky.
Run home, eat a quick sandwich, and hear your name, and run back to school!

Bozo the circus clown!! A show with Miss Fran, and the goose. I can't remember the goose's name!!! He was a puppet.

Plus.."American Bandstand", the show out of Philadelphia, with Dick Clark asking the teenagers what they liked about that last song...they always said "the beat". Gosh, I loved watching that, I was too little to dance, but then came of age, and decided the "three stooges" were much funnier....

Movie Magazines, True Love Magazines, and the Best of all..."Mad Magazine"....

wow, this started so many memories, but I'll stop now, thanks for starting this, life was simple and very different than it is now. Yes, what will our kids and grandkids remember with this same fondness? I sure hope its something that gives them the same feeling we all have right now!
In fact, I think I am going to ask my adult kids...what do you remember with fondness, or is it too early for them to realize that their childhood things, are now extinct? ie..the skate key!!

See ya later alligators!

Chalk me up as another 60's child (the youngest--that probably explains it) who remembers most of these things.
Except I had no idea there were still Burma Shave signs in the 50s. I think of them as a 20s-30s thing.
And yes, the coiled blue and green thing is a gum-wrpper chain (they make beautiful necklaces and bracelets, if you're 10). Finger traps have a similar weave, but are tube-shaped.
Ahhh, the Green Stamps. And Plaid Stamps and some third purple-y kind I don't recall the name of. My main memory is the school collecting them. I have no idea what the nuns got with them--perhaps the silver Christmas tree they put up by the auditorium every year!

You forgot my FIZZIES!!

It all puts a big "smile" on my face!!! I remember Chatty Cathy under the Christmas tree and making the chewing gum wrapper chains. I'm looking for the plastic square hand puzzle with numbers (out of order) that had to be slide around till they were put in order. There was one space missing so they could be moved. Do you remember?

I believe the car is a Henry J?

Having gown up in New York City, the first time I saw a McDonald's was while visiting a college friend in Puerto Rico. I remarked that McDonald's would probably be a big hit in the continental USA and I could not figure out why no one had brought this Puerto Rican outfit to the mainland. New York city did not have McDonalds for a long time.

And it was not weird to consider that a Puerto Rican company would have a name like McDonald's. Seven or so of the "original Spanish families" had Irish names. The "new square" (1700s) in Mayaguez, the old capital, has shamrocks embedded in the marble sidewalks and the cathedral is St. Patrick's.

Ah, trading stamps! I remember:
MacDonald Plaid stamps - from the A&P
Triple SSS Blue stamps - from Grand Union

Great pictures.
Add Captain Kangaroo, Prell, and "You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent!" (my son cracks up when I sing this one to him)

That is, indeed, a gum wrapper braid. But we can't blame you, Roger Ebert, for not knowing that. Most toys and games were stringently divided by sex. An All-American boy would never have made a gum wrapper braid, but would have had at least one "Chinese finger trap."

This seems to be the place to put this ...

The Emmy Awards were last night.

At my age, the part of greatest interest to me is the In Memoriam segment (aka Dead Guys On Parade).

They only set aside three minutes or so, so naturally many deserving people fail to make the celestial cut; this year was no exception.

As I watched, I kept track of the included names; When the seg was over I had 33 names, and I was prepared to go back over my issues of Classic Images to tote up who was omitted.

Well, I did that eventually, but only after my immediate outrage when the segment was just finished:

WHERE THE HELL WAS MITCH MILLER?

I mean, he lived to 99.
His show entered the language.
They remembered Art Linkletter, but not Mitch Miller?
Come On.

In fairness, I did feel good that Maury Chaykin (Nero Wolfe Forever) was remembered.

(But not Dorothy Provine or Connie Hines? Jeez.)

not to mention the Fuller Brushes themselves that Red was selling

And people think that credit card points and airline miles are so modern! Green Stamps, baby. I can still taste them, because we kids were the ones who pasted them in the books!

I remember all of them. But where's Romper Room and Tom Terrific with Manfred the Mighty Wonder Dog :)

Here it is, a half century plus later, and I can only think about how we were so happy with the simple things. Playing outside all day all summer with things like roller skates that needed a key, bicycles with two speeds (stop and start), red wagons and, when none of those were available, played games like Hide 'n Seek, Red-Light Green-Light and Red Rover.

I wish things could be as simple and homely again.

I was born in '72, but have very clear memories of playing with my TinkerToys. They recently came up for sale at Costco - but I opened a can and they were not at all the same :( I also looked forward to the treat that my grandpa would make of my visit by taking me to the A&W drive-in. The Chatty Cathy doll was forever out of reach on my granmother's spare room closet shelf (that's ok, I preferred the TinkerToys anyway). I still buy Jiffy Pop for camping.
And sadly, or luckily, I was able to take my two girls to see Spiderman 2 at the last drive-in theatre in Alberta before it closed its gates forever. They lay on top of the car in their jammies under a blanket with a big ice cream bucket of homemade popcorn and watched in awe as the biggest screen they'd ever seen came to life.

I was a kid in the 70's and I remember Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys and Erector Sets. We still had Green Stamps back then as well. There are still a few A&W drive in's in Ohio. And I'm lucky enough to live in a small town that still has Drive In theater, with two screens.

Each of these images evokes a specific memory: getting my tongue stuck to the aluminum ice cube tray, lying in the back of the station wagon at the drive-in theater, getting a gallon of root beer in the glass jug at A&W. I remember when my sister accidentally sent her arm through the wringer on the washer, my granddad cooling his case of Falstaff (in bottles, not cans) on the attic steps, and burning my fingers on a hot flash bulb.

I wouldn't trade those memories for the world.

I was born in 1962, but I remember most of these. I suppose because people didn't throw things away as readily as they do now. S&H green stamps! I used to love daydreaming and flipping through the catalog of goodies to save up for. I don't think we ever actually got anything.

The old building - is that a fire escape slide? Is that what the kids are playing on in Where The Red Fern Grows? I'm not of that generation (born 1983), and I have tried to picture that scene with no luck since we read it in school in the 4th grade.

I'm sorry Mr Ebert but you got it wrong.....

the picture of the blue-green coiled thing is a gum wrapper chain.
http://ballpointbliss.blogspot.com/2010/02/gum-wrapper-chain.html

and Chinese Finger trap looks like this (with directions how to make one)
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Chinese-Finger-Trap

Just so you know.....hee, hee, hee

I recalled each one. I grew up in Kansas in the 1970's so it was still the '50's here.

--m.

Love the list, but you forgot Kukla, Fran & Ollie! http://kukla.tv/

I remember them all, and thank you for reviving those memories. I took over laundry duties when I was pretty young; I loved our wringer washing machine. It had a lever on the side to set the wash cycle - I would pretend that I was driving a stick shift with appropriate vroom-vroom noises. And putting the pillow cases through the wringer and watching them balloon up on end and deflate on the other? Never got old.

I remember that McDonald's had the slogan ". . . and change back from your dollar." I believe it was fifteen cents for a burger, 10 cents for fries and a quarter for a milkshake by the time it finally came to central Connecticut.

Skate keys! I'm sure I'm not the only who learned early on not to attach your skates to your sneakers. Do they even make sneakers anymore?

One last thing: Sky King's plane was the Song Bird. And the show was brought to you by Nabisco.

Did I miss the raccoon cap?
And neccos?
And that dalmatian with his ear cocked to a phonograph????

Go Roy and Dale!!!

Is that the WCIA test pattern? With Chief Illiwek?
My grade school also had a tube fire escape. We 3rd grade girls all wore dresses (remember?) and DID NOT want to go down it. Even with girls first.

Lassie and Timmy!!!

:D

Does your shoe have a boy inside? What a funny place for a boy to hide. Does your shoe have a dog there, too? A boy and a dog and a foot in a shoe. The boy is Buster Brown. The dog is Ty his friend. It's really only a picture, but it's fun to play present. So if boys and girls like you want some fun get the shoe with the picture of the boy and the dog inside and you can put your foot into: Buster Brown shoes, Arf Arf! (Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!)

My 50's #1. The TV Guide.

Not to quibble, but the Tinker Toys pictured are re-designed plastic ones that came out in the 90s. That's what my son played with. The brighter colors (including purple) and shape of the yellow disks gives it away. The Tinker Toys we played with in the 50s were wooden. On another note, oh, how we loved it when an AV kid would wheel the reel-to-reel projector into the classroom. That meant movie day! The bigger the reel, the longer the movie. The jackpot was the two-reeler, which meant either "Donald Duck in Mathemagic Land" or "Hemo, the Magnificent." These generally only came out when the teacher had a headache. :)

The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason's threat to Alice "...one of these days... Pow! Right in the kisser! One of these days Alice, straight to the Moon!" Such great family shows came out of that era. ;-)

Thanks for the skate key correction. I couldn't quite remember but of course I used to have one on a string around my neck. It was sort of a status symbol to have your very own skate key, at least while you were skating. I was born in 49 and remember waiting for TV to come on at 11am with "Love of Life". How about "The Life of Riley" or Phil Silvers or Jimmy Dean's variety show along with Diana Shore but every Sat. night was spent watching resling and the Gillette commercials and the cute Hams beer bears "In the land of sky blue wa-a-ters". How about Pinky Lee and the Little Rascals every Sat. morning, or "The Adventures of Superman" with George Reeves. And one of my favorites, "Father Knows Best" as well as the Loretta Young show. I think she was my Dad's favorite. As for the wringer washer. I still have scars from that one. At three I tried to help mom with the wash when she went to answer the phone. I caught my fingers in it and ran my entire arm into the wringer. I didn't try that one again. Thanks for the memories, really.

Thank you ... my Huckleberry friend.

Green Stamps! Beany and Cecil! Sky King! My grandmother's wash tub and Red Skelton! And what is that paper chain... we used to make them with gum wrappers! You're pushing my buttons, man. Oh, geez, and an aluminum Christmas tree.

Said Farmer Brown
Who's bald on top
Wish I could
Rotate the crop

I remember Grandma Van Dyke's silver Christmas Tree..
McDonald's was too expensive and too far for us in Chico, Ca... We ate at the Snow White Drive-In... on the Esplanade.

I forgot that Santa Claus had a smoking habit! Thank God he quit!

Come to Carlsbad, NM. There is a beautiful three screen drive in theater there (http://www.fiestadrivein.com). They broadcast the soundtracks over fm, so bring lawn chairs and a boombox. It's lovely to sit out on a summer evening in the desert and enjoy a movie. The snack bar even has reasonable prices.

I love drive ins. If we ever get to Carlsbad we'll include it on our tour. I wonder if there are any others out there. When I was a kid I even thought watching it from outside somewhere was entertaining -watching the big people on the big screen and guessing what was going on. ???

I have one of those metal ice cube makers that my mother gave me years ago. I didn't know they were from the Fifties. Used to sit at the kitchen table and spend hours sticking in Green Shield stamps under my mother's supervision. Needed a water soaked sponge as tongues became dry very quickly. It was torture. Jiffy pop was allowed as a treat when we had babysitters. I also remember going to drive in movies with my parents and then later with my friends in the Sixties and Seventies. I also wanted to point out how different rough collie dogs look now compared to the way Lassie was then. They were much more attractive then. Now their eyes are smaller and muzzles more pointy. Breeders?

Oh, to be back in Ding-Dong School with Miss Frances!! Thanks for the memories.