Community Chat

[SaRina]

The OP mentioned defrosting the freezer....

Our "defrostion" was a major event and production -- newspaper was spread all over the floor around the refrigerator and pots of boiling water were then placed in the freezer. The steam rising up from the pots always fascinated me.

Of course, Defrost Day was specifically chosen when food in the freezer was as low as possible. Those few food items went into the kitchen sink, then several trays of ice cubes that had been made in preparation for Defrost Day were piled on top of the food to keep them frozen whilst defrosting was going on, which took a couple of hours.

If the defrost procedure was done just right.... a thick layer of ice on the roof of the freezer would come off in one solid sheet. I took great delight when this happened. It was like winning the lottery in my young mind.  :-)

[Lorelei1123]

Count me in as a mimeograph addict - LOL!!  

My late grandmother used to type and copy the church bulletins.  Every once in a while, I would go to the church with her to "help."  The whole process used to fascinate me.  

Also, I remember painting egg shells with my friends.  Now, this sounds weird to me. But we used to use a pin to poke small holes on each end of an egg, then blow into one end to push the yolk, etc. out of the other end (this is sounding stranger by the minute - ha!). Once the egg was emptied, we'd paid the shell.  

I did alot of arts & crafts as a kid, plus I loved sitting on the floor listening to "records."  I still adore vinyl albums.  

Obviously these were the days before technology.  

[TaylorBrown]

Growing up I lived in an apartment in D.C.  Out front there was a row of bushes that had honeysuckles.  In the summer my friends and I and other children from the building would pluck them out of the bush, pull the little bud and suck the juice.  It was fun just sitting on the front step and drinking honeysuckles.  Then we would catch lightning bugs.

[depglass]

We used to climb trees at my grandparents place in the woods.  We were only supposed to go as high as our head (I guess they figured a fall from that height wouldn't hurt us).  Of course no one saw us so we went as high as possible without bending the tree over.  Not one of the three of us ever got hurt. 

[lainey1]

Remember Mallowcups? You collected reward points from the cards inside and sent 500 points to the company and they'd send you 10 free packs of Mallowcups!

I remember I was over my friends house and she opened her bottom drawer and had thousands of points she was collecting in a big bag! lol She gave them to me and I got 100 free packs of Mallowcups sent to me. Of course I split them with my friend! It was so exciting receiving that big box of goodies from Boyer!!

I haven't had one in years and I'm sure they're not as good as before. Probably would taste deadly sweet to me now.

[beckyb1012]

Loved this scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, reminded me of all my own school test papers.  I wonder what our teachers thought of us?

[deepwaterdotter]

@lainey1  Mallowcups were my favorite candy too.  I would spend my weekly $1 allowance on 20 Mallowcups and eat 2-3 each day.  I had forgotten about saving the little squares.  

[CatsyCline]

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@beckyb1012 wrote:

Loved this scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, reminded me of all my own school test papers.  I wonder what our teachers thought of us?

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that is exactly what out class looked like sniffing the "ditto machine" copies!!

  only we tilted our heads back and draped  the paper right on our nose.

our teachers thought we were crazy!!

between that and rubber cement in art class - we lost a few brain cells

[Mersha]

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@gmkb wrote:

I grew up in Pittsburgh when the steel mills were all in business.  There was an odor from the mills that my father described as 'rotten eggs.'  As a child I loved that odor and would open the car window as we drove by.  My parents would just chuckle and shake their head.

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I grew up in Pittsburgh also and will never forget that awful steel mill smell as you came closer to the city.  It reminded of the smell of chemicals put on your hair for a home permanent. 

[LdyBugz]

@itiswhatitis  What a fun post!  Love all of the responses.  We also did the Elmer's glue thing on our hands.

Some of the responses took me down memory lane.  I wouldn't consider these weird, but they popped in my head:

• Clipping baseball cards to the wheel spokes on our bikes to make that flutter sound.
• Saving gum wrappers to make that zig-zaggy chain thing
• Making those folded paper fortune teller thingies
• Walking down to the corner store for candy and buying those little wax bottles with fruity liquid inside.  We would drink the liquid and then chew on the wax for hours.