We were children once, and young...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Inspired largely by the CBS Special Logo thread, and the ensuing nostalgia, I got to thinking about things that I remember fondly from my childhood. A lot of the things I came up with are TV oriented, but I didn’t stick this in Cafe Society because surely there are plenty of nostalgic memories beyond television.

But I’m going to start with television…

Anyone else remember the Public Service Announcement warning kids that pills aren’t candy? They featured little blue felt “pills” that sang a song (that I cannot remember, for the life of me). I remember them being really cute, but I don’t know that the PSA actually had any effect.

Then there was the “It’s 10:30, do you know where your kids are?” and “Have you hugged your child today?” PSAs to help parents remember that they were parents, apparently.

And the drug PSA, whose tagline was “You, OK? I learned it by watching you!” delivered by a boy explaining to his father where he’d learned to do drugs. I can still see, very vividly, the wooden box with various bits of marijuana paraphernalia (I think I misspelled that) in it, and the father’s seriously curly hair and overgrown mustache.

And the “Reading Is Fundamental” guy.

OK so I’m all misty-eyed over PSAs… But what do you look back on with sepia-toned nostalgia? I’m sure I’ll have more to add…

2

I remember those pills! Holy Cow, I haven’t thought about them in years. Here they are :slight_smile: We’re not Candy (There’s even a link to play the song)…

I used to like the stuff between the Saturday morning cartoons as much as the cartoons themselves. Schoolhouse Rock, of course. And those news updates - I think those were CBS.

3

I used to be fascinated by TV as a kid. I’d get up real early and watch the stations come on the air at 6 AM, with the Indian head test pattern, then the national anthem (featuring footage that was already 20 years old), and the station logo slide, under which the announcer said how tall the towers were, how many watts aural and visual and what frequencies they were on. Then, depending on the channel, you’d either see a farm program, or cartoons. The original Popeyes, and Harvey cartoons with Baby Huey; and David and Goliath; Casper the Friendly Ghost…

“The following program is brought to you in Living Color on NBC.”

I remember when the CBC logo was inside a black dot, over a map of Canada.

Canadian public television started out as, I think, ETA, and had an Aladdin-type lamp as its logo. It only came on after we were at school, and that was the only place we ever saw it. This was before Sesame Street, that was US public TV, and we didn’t get any of that. (People now find it weird that I have no memories of SS. We never heard of it until the mid-'70s.)

I can’t think of any PSAs for anything - maybe I’m from the era before anti-drug messages were necessary.

But I do definitely remember Tom Jolls (Commander Tom) intoning, right before the newscast, “It’s eleven o’clock. Do you know where your children are?” And then it would be Irv Weinstein, leading with footage of a fire on Buffalo’s west side.

4

I think it may have been on CBC or maybe another non-cable channel… but we had a couple of weird puppets kids singing about not putting stuff in your mouth. I still remember the song too…

Boy: Don’t you put it in your mouth
Girl: (Don’t you put it in your mouth)
Boy: Don’t stuff it in your face
Girl: (Don’t stuff it in your face)
Boy: Though it might look good to eat
Girl: (Though it might look good to eat)
Boy: Like a muffin or a beet
Beet: (Like a muffin or a beet)
Everyone: If you don’t know just what it is
Boy Spoken: Remember boys and girls
Everyone: Don’t put it in your mouth.

The others were a couple of kid rats who had found a rat trap and a nice bit of cheese, reminded to ask their parents if they could have it. The other was for drugs and I just remember a couple lines from the song but it went “Drugs, drugs, drugs. Which are good, which are bad? Drugs, drugs, drugs. Ask your Mom or ask your Dad.”

5

Very much along the We’re Not Candy lines, I give you one that still pops into my mind when I find myself snacking out of boredom:

When you’re feeling bored or blue,
watch out for the munchies!
We find ways of making you
munch when you’re not hungry.
Here, munch this!
Here, munch that!
Soon you’re not just bored, you’re fat!

I know there’s a bit more, but that’s all that stuck in my brain. But still, not bad for it being somewhere around 25 years ago. :slight_smile:

Hmmm…now that I preview this, I think a bit more is coming back to me. Was that the same PSA where they taught you how to make a “wagon wheel” out of crackers and cheese or something?

6

Hm, well I have quite vivid memories of Sesame Street in Canada in the late 60s and beginning of the 70s. I was very happy when I started kindergarten that I went in the afternoon, because that meant I still got to watch morning t.v. This included Sesame Street (I really liked Bert & Ernie - mostly Ernie).

My favourites though were The Friendly Giant (can still hear the theme song in my head and was quite creeped out when it showed up on Buffy the Vampire Slayer as the song that triggered Spike to turn bad) and Mr. Dressup (which was never the same once Casey and Finniganstopped being part of it).

7

I guess why I don’t remember it is because I would have been in grades 6 or 7 years ahead of the target audience for Sesame Street during those years. I remember when “Rubber Duckie” was a hit single, but none of us had ever seen the show.

8

“Duck and Cover” drills?

When dentists gave kids 99.99% sugar lollypops?

Walnettos? Still available, BTW. Sadly the Bonamo (sp) taffy is gone.

“Fluoridation is a Commie plot to ______________________ (nutcase theory here)”?

The first time the local hospital offered to X-ray Halloween treats? (loss of innocence, big time)

“Penny candy” cost a penny?

Pre-Microgroove records? (yes, kids, music used to be distribute on “records” Google it!).

10 year olds were allowed to be home without adult supervision? (where I live, parents now drop off and pick up the kids - and this is in a quiet residential district where the schools are never more than a few blocks away from home - sad.)

Movies had a cartoon and a newsreel? And no anti-piracy speeches?

and, to be controversial: do NOT highlight of you are offended by vulgar racial terms

“Nigger” babies/rich/lip/head/lover… the list is depressingly long, actually…
To cheat someone was to “Jew” or “Gyp” them
Why the black/“african-american” (sorry, I am not "european-american, I’m simply white) object to “Eeniey-Meanie” on the airplane?
so many more…

Actually, the N* word made it, briefly, into acceptable conversation:
Remember the song 3500 from Hair? “Prisoners in ____________town, it’s a dirty little war”
and Sly and the Family Stone (a then-rare integrated black/white group) did a number (I have it on video) entitled “Don’t Call Me N*, Whitey”. Remember when we had almost de-fanged the word?

Politics: When Republicans decried the national dept as the ruin of America? (Hi, dubya - nice record to set).

And, finally, how many ways do YOU to beat the draft (might want to dust off those particular memories - looks like a new generation might need to learn them…

Don’t thank me - really - I really love to rain on parades - no charge…

sigh…

“Songs to aging children come…” that was poignant then, now it’s downright depressing. Hey! as long as they keep cranking out the Prozac, Rogain, and Viagra, I’m good for another 50!

trying to remember how to tie a hangman’s noose…

9

Does anyone remember all those public service messages advising us kids not to pick up “blasting-caps”? 40 years later, and I still don’t know what a blasting-cap is, or where kids were finding them. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a single news story of a kid being hurt by one.

10

I’m from a bit later than y’all. I do remember the “You, alright?! I learned it by watching you!” PSA (which gets quoted in the WhyFamily a lot, especially when we’re trying to figure out who left one tablespoon of ice cream in the carton.) By the time I was really paying attention, the drug PSA’s were into the “This is your brain” (Egg) “This is your brain on drugs” (Egg cracked into hot frying pan. Sizzle, sizzle.) “Any questions?”

Um, yeah. WTF are you talking about?! :confused:

Later, they got even more ridiculous, with the frying pan being wielded about by some rock star? Maybe? Trashing a room? I ferget.

I get nostalgic for filmstrips. With the tape player and the beeping, and you had to advance it the filmstrip at each beep. And the pompous narrators - there was one for all the science filmstrips and a different guy for all the social studies filmstrips. French class had both a female and male narrator. I loved filmstrips. I was a big, big dork.

11

My family was the first on our street to have color tv and central AC! Quite the trend setters we were in those days!

Everybody walked to school cause it was close by.

Mothers would try their best to outdo each other with baked goodies for school parties. A cupcake sugar high for days afterwards. WOOHOO!

Milk at school was in those glass half pint bottles. (I am so freaking ooooold!)

Remember getting those Sabine (I think it was) polio vaccines in the little paper cup with a sugar cube in it? We went to the school on a Sunday afternoon to get em.

Snow days! Loved snow days in north GA. We’d make snow ice cream!

12

Sap and impurify all our bodily fluids?

13

Most of the time my family didn’t have a TV, but occasionally someone would give us an old one that we watched till it died.
Our favorite show was “My Three Sons” (the early version with Mike, Robbie, Chip and Bub). It was sponsored by Hunt’s ketchup; their commercials showed a tomato getting sucked into a bottle, which we thought was super cool. My brothers and I refused to use any ketchup except Hunt’s, which was a real pain for my parents on the rare occasions that we went out to eat. Hunt’s is still my preferred brand.

We also loved the Tonight Show with Steve Allen. I was very disappointed later in life to learn what a stick-in-the-mud old poop he is.

My father was a minister, and he and my mom, along with other area ministers, spent a lot of time in the summer building and sprucing up the church camp. My siblings and I and other PKs were pretty much allowed to run wild on the camp grounds, which had woods and a creek and a swimming hole (complete with snakes). It’s a miracle we survived, but it was great fun.

14

More tv related stuff:

The “In A Minute” newsflashes that came on during cartoons with snippets of kid-oriented newsbits.

There was another one, that I actually saw replayed on Nickelodeon’s TVLand - it showed a spinning globe followed by brief international news snippets. Can’t remember what those were called (Weekend Update keeps popping into my head, but it’s obviously not that.)

Non-TV:

I, too, miss filmstrips. We used to think it was such a treat to be the one who got to advance the reel.

Remember records that had books on them? “Turn the page when you hear the chime!” I had the coolest thing that my mom picked up at a tag sale - it looked like a little TV, came with a bunch of books with accompanying filmstrips and records. There was a record player on top, so you could read the book, listen along with the record AND see a little slideshow, all at the same time. I have no idea what the thing was called, and I only ever saw the one that I owned.

I also miss going to the roller skating rink, dreaming of the days that I’d be good enough to skate the Fast Skate. That day never did come.

15

PBS’s Electric Company?
With the Spiderman spots? :slight_smile:

16

The theme song popped into my head as soon as I saw the name, my dad used to play it on the recorder for us. Was it on Buffy? Which episode? I gotta see if I can find that just to see. And you’re right, Mr Dressup was never the same after Casey and Finnigan, I can remember being really young and sitting in a big darkened theatre getting to watch Mr Dressup, Casey and Finnigan on the stage. It’s a very vague memory but I remember being so excited… I wonder if you can buy some tapes of those old shows, they still show the new ones on CBC in the mornings sometime after Teletubbies.

Yep! I used to bike to the corner store all the time with my quarters (a block and a half away, definitely out of sight of the parental units at age 7) to get a bunch. I still love the little Swedish berries (and the candy fish you can buy now that are made of the same stuff).

Still have one somewhere, one of my favourites. I also had a few tape books.

Other sepia-toned memories:
Seeing Jacob Two Two and the Dinosaur at the local theatre and the smell of the ‘fog’ they used.

17

One just popped into my head; a book.

“There’s a Monster at the End of this Book!”

Man what I wouldn’t give to have that again.

18

I still have my copy. :smiley:

I seem to have a problem with throwing away childhood things. I have a ton of books, toys and such that I loved as a child.

19

Two books from childhood that I do not hear much of these days:

Uncle Wiggly
Mother West Wind’s Why Stories

20

Yes! That’s the one I was referring to! Someone needs to remember the name or I will go crazy - I’m pretty positive it was on CBS but I can’t find anything when I google for it.