Dancing TV shows. Not competitions like Dancing With The Stars, but literally shows that were just 30-60 minutes of random people dancing to contemporary hits in a TV studio. Sometimes there was an actual band there, performing one of their hits (almost always lip-synced), but the majority of the show was comprised of just watching people dance. American Bandstand, Soul Train, Club MTV, The Grind, etc. Solid Gold had a slightly different format, as they used professional dancers performing choreographed routines, but it’s the same general kind of show. It’s really bizarre to think about it now.
At Sav-on, which is now CVS, it was also 5 cents a scoop.
Thrifty’s is where I think of the nickel a scoop ice-cream. They were bought out by Rite-Aid.
I remember seeing Diana Ross and the Supremes on American Bandstand. Three year old me was in love with Diana Ross, she was so beautiful and I wanted her to be my mommy.
It was explained to me in no uncertain terms that black people can’t be white people’s mommies.
For me, the great infatuation was with Annette Funicello on The Mickey Mouse Club. It was a dark day when I learned that she was married, and had children older than me.
Way back when I was a student at San Francisco City College, I had a '32 Cadillac Roadster with a ‘golf bag door’ and a ‘rumble seat’. The golf bag door was just that - a small door for sliding in your golf bag. The rumble seat was a bench style seat that replaced the trunk. The trunk lid was reversed to form a seat back.
Were those reruns? 'Cause I remember as a ten year old watching her… blossom and not really understand what was going on until a couple years later.
Yeah, the show had been in syndication for a couple of decades before I started watching it.
Wow, what a cool car.
Blotting paper still exists, but the real thing is hard to find. I write with fountain pens, for which blotting paper is very handy, and the only manufacturer I know of it J.Herbin in France.
I will contribute: home ec for girls and shop for boys. These were not electives.
And, very local this, going to San Francisco at Christmas to see the animated scenes in the store windows, and the City Of Paris department store Christmas tree, which filled the (four? five?) story rotunda in the center of the store. San Francisco was called The City, and one dressed in one’s best to go there.
Just the other day I learned that the British term, “Done and dusted,” was from quill pen days where powder was dropped on ink even slower to dry than a fountain pen’s to dry it, then blown or brushed off.
Cool – I’ve heard the phrase but didn’t make the association.
I’ve never been able to locate blotting paper. When I’ve done calligraphy, using a broad-edged nib, and a dip pen, and a pot of ink, I’ve just used paper towels folded over a couple of times. That works.
J.Herbin blotting paper is available from JetPens, Goulet, and other U.S. online stationers. It’s easy to find. It is primarily a fountain pen ink company. Very old concern, dating from 1700.
Line busy?
Sonic booms. Growing up in Southern California in the late fifties and early sixties, sonic booms from supersonic military jets were common. Edwards Air Force Base was the site for testing many cutting edge aircraft, and there were no restrictions on where they could fly. Several times a week you would hear a deafening boom, followed by the scream of a jet engine. In the following years, supersonic flight near populated areas was banned, and sonic booms became a thing of the past.
My mom used to shop at the City of Paris in the 1940s. She said some of her suits cost $60. In today’s dollars?
Dang. Over $1200.
Making pepper steak in our brand new Sharp carousel microwave.
Growing up in NE Wisconsin in the mid-'60s my family experienced sonic booms. The window in our front door shattered as the result of such an atmospheric pressure event. My brother swore he saw me slam the door, resulting in the broken glass so I got the blame. I had to use my lawn mowing money to replace the glass (and I learned how to reglaze in the process, thanks to the guy at the Gambles store).
After the repairs and several weeks later we had another sonic boom, this time my dad was sitting in the kitchen right next to the door when it boomed and the window shattered again. I said “I told you I didn’t do it.” Still had to sweep up the broken glass and repair the window since “I knew how to do it”. But my dad paid for the glass the second time.
I hate glazing but it’s a handy thing to know how to do if you have an older house. Thank you Gambles store guy 