Remembering the early 60's as a child

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This thread is fun, but along with all the fond memories comes a bit of sad news. I just learned that the creator of such shows like Gilligan's Island and the Brady Bunch has just recently passed away. Here is a copy and past of the funeral announcement for Sherwood Schwartz:


Funeral services will be held at noon today for Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of the iconic television series "The Brady Bunch" and "Gilligan's Island." died today at age 94.
Schwartz, 94, died Tuesday of natural causes at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Funeral services will be held at noon at Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary, the final resting place of celebrities such as Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Cyd Charisse, Lorne Greene, Al Jolson, Moe Howard and Michael Landon.
Schwartz came to Southern California in 1938 to get a master's degree in biological sciences at USC and lived with his brother Al, a writer on Bob Hope's radio show. Schwartz eventually began penning jokes, and Hope liked them enough to hire him.
"I made a quick career change," Schwartz said in 2008 when he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
After four years with Hope, Schwartz worked for the Armed Forces Radio Service for four years, writing various Army shows such as "Command Performance" and "Mail Call," working with major stars.
Following the end of World War II, Schwartz returned to writing for radio on "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," as well as shows starring Danny Thomas and Alan Young.
Schwartz turned to television in the 1950s, writing for "I Married Joan" and "The Red Skelton Show," winning an Emmy for the latter in 1961. In 1963, Schwartz created "Gilligan's Island," a comedy based "on a very serious idea.

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This thread is fun, but along with all the fond memories comes a bit of sad news. I just learned that the creator of such shows like Gilligan's Island and the Brady Bunch has just recently passed away. Here is a copy and past of the funeral announcement for Sherwood Schwartz:


Funeral services will be held at noon today for Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of the iconic television series "The Brady Bunch" and "Gilligan's Island." died today at age 94.
Schwartz, 94, died Tuesday of natural causes at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Funeral services will be held at noon at Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary, the final resting place of celebrities such as Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Cyd Charisse, Lorne Greene, Al Jolson, Moe Howard and Michael Landon.
Schwartz came to Southern California in 1938 to get a master's degree in biological sciences at USC and lived with his brother Al, a writer on Bob Hope's radio show. Schwartz eventually began penning jokes, and Hope liked them enough to hire him.
"I made a quick career change," Schwartz said in 2008 when he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
After four years with Hope, Schwartz worked for the Armed Forces Radio Service for four years, writing various Army shows such as "Command Performance" and "Mail Call," working with major stars.
Following the end of World War II, Schwartz returned to writing for radio on "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," as well as shows starring Danny Thomas and Alan Young.
Schwartz turned to television in the 1950s, writing for "I Married Joan" and "The Red Skelton Show," winning an Emmy for the latter in 1961. In 1963, Schwartz created "Gilligan's Island," a comedy based "on a very serious idea.

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Ultimately, his greatest work has to be Gilligan's Island! That is just such a major classic!

Everyone knows all the characters and identifies with them, still today!

?Gilligan's Island Season 2 Intro (In the Style of Season 1)?‏ - YouTube

RADAR
 
Before I let this thread die- I had researched some of the toys we had in the early 60's that I remember playing with. Googeled some of the toy photos- thought I would share before I delete them from my pictures folder.

I remember the Blue and Gray Civil War set that had real cannons that shot colored plastic balls using a spring actuator, found the photo of this toy set. I also remember building bricks, not Legos- they were called American bricks back then and were produced and sold between 1962 and 1966. There was also the Erector sets sold, found a photo of the exact set I had. Then I recall a cool building set with plastic girders and panels produced by Kenner Toys. Who can forget the plastic toy soldiers, 50 to a bag and came with plastic tanks and jeeps. Don't forget Lincoln Logs, Tinker toys and other fun building sets.

Oh yes, then there was Super Balls, loved to throw them against the pavement to see how high they would bounce. There was also Silly putty, smelled really cool, but the only thing I ever found to do with it was to pull ink off the Sunday Comics and stretch the cartoons. I also found a photo of a toy road grader I played with when I was about 4 years of age along with a few other toys. I am attaching these photos, as many as allowed in a single post along with others I recall. But before that, here are a few other bits of interesting facts from the early 60's:

Just a few more things I remember from the good ole days:
Cigarette commercials on TV, the Chuck Wagon dog food commercial with the miniature chuck wagon and horses running through the house. WOW, now that was a weird commercial!


Building wooden push go carts using 2x4s, old lawn mower wheels, and roped steering. Was difficult to find someone to push you, everyone wanted to be the driver. No hills in our town to coast down, everything’s flat in the valley so a person was required to push the cart around. Reminds me of a Bill Cosby’s sketch “Baby Coach Wheels”.

Jumping frog races; we would catch frogs and the neighborhood kids would have contests to see who’s frog would cross the finish line first.


Another phrase most kids said but never realized its origin: Olly olly oxen free and variants: olly-olly-ee, ally ally in free is a catchphrase used in such children's games as hide and seek to indicate that players who are hiding can come out into the open without losing the game. It is thought to derive from the phrase "All ye, all ye 'outs' in free;" in other words: all who are "out" may come in without penalty. However, this may not be the etymology at all--"Olly olly oxen free" is suspiciously close to the German phrase "Alle, alle auch sind frei," meaning "everyone, everyone is also free. Various calls used for such purposes go by the collective name of "ollyoxalls" in some places.


The phrase can also be used to coordinate hidden players in the game kick the can, in which a group of people hide within a given radius and a "seeker" is left to guard a can filled with rocks. The seeker has to try to find the "hiders" without allowing them to sneak in and kick the can. In many areas the phrase used is "All-y all-y in come free" which is a way to tell the remainder of hidden players that it is time to regroup in order to restart the game. The phrase is announced by a hider who successfully sneaks in and kicks the can.


Transom windows which could be opened to provide cross-ventilation while maintaining security and privacy (due to their small size and height above floor level) were a common feature of office buildings and apartments before air conditioning became common.


Baseball cards for your bicycle spokes, to make that unique sound while pedaling fast.


Heres one I forgot about until just now---push button automatic cars.
1962 Nash Rambler had one.


S&H Green Stamps


Toys- Clackers, Yo-Yos, Slinkys, Lionel Trains, Erector Sets, Lincoln Logs, Building Bricks, Tinker Toys, View Master 3D viewers, Metal Roller Skates you strapped on your tennis shoes for street skating, Board games such as Life and Candy Land, Cootie game-build a bug by Hasbro, Etch a Sketch, vibrating football game where the players just go everywhere and much-much more.


Tractor tire races; Where you found a couple of truck or small tractor tires, stood them up on end, have one kid get inside and brace themselves while others rolled the tires down the street. You got a little dizzy but nothing like being on a merry go round for an hour. Ya- remember merry go rounds and trying to get other kids sick by getting it going faster and faster!
Attached are a few photos of toy products of the early 1960’s era:
7119848_1_l.jpg: etch_a_sketch.jpgchiefset1.jpgparajump1.jpgstructograder.jpgdeelie.jpg5206922697_eb3522f0af.jpgclacker.jpgset00510Pic02.jpg

kenner%20big.jpg16krev7.jpgsuperballs.jpg3_-_P-38_Airplanes-Small_Composite.jpghalsamdescription.jpgil_fullxfull_211364839.jpg4759_2.jpg5army003.jpgcw2_001.jpgBowling.jpglife.jpgchpoolt1.jpg2948352052_216a831d59.jpg

Hope for many you had as much fun reviewing this thread as I have contributing! God bless us all.
 
My Sister and I . Addicted to Television at an early age 1966.
 

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Wow- there Televisionarcives!. That old black and white set, can't beat them. Did you ever have to place a fan behind the set to keep the tubes cool when it got older? Seems like all I can remember is black and white TV for ages. Then Color TV was introduced, took several years before everyone bought the new set. Love the old antenna pics. I remember helping my dad hook up new 300 ohm twin lead and inserting it under the window to the TV room.

I don't recall Grants Department Stores, where are- or where were they based out of? Were they something like Gambles? We had a Gambles Warehouse in town, and a Gambles Store downtown. I think in the 60's Gambles was an all in one department store that sold just about everything.

By the way, who got to call what you watched on the set, you are your sister?
 
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Wow- there Televisionarcives!. That old black and white set, can't beat them. Did you ever have to place a fan behind the set to keep the tubes cool when it got older? Seems like all I can remember is black and white TV for ages. Then Color TV was introduced, took several years before everyone bought the new set. Love the old antenna pics. I remember helping my dad hook up new 300 ohm twin lead and inserting it under the window to the TV room.

I don't recall Grants Department Stores, where are- or where were they based out of? Were they something like Gambles? We had a Gambles Warehouse in town, and a Gambles Store downtown. I think in the 60's Gambles was an all in one department store that sold just about everything.

By the way, who got to call what you watched on the set, you are your sister?

WT Grants stores were in the New England Area. I don't know if they had stores in other parts of the country .

My Sister and I watched about the same thing on TV . I have tons of old home movies of us watching Television and playing in the snow. My dad put the movie camera in front of the TV one day and taped a whole day of shows from 1967. Sadly it has no sound. We also have home movies of inside the WT Grants Store . I haven't transferred them to DVD yet.

I don't remember if we had to put a fan near the TV to keep it cool. I still have that set today but it doesn't work . The weather was so cold in New England that I doubt we did.
 
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WT Grants stores were in the New England Area. I don't know if they had stores in other parts of the country .

My Sister and I watched about the same thing on TV . I have tons of old home movies of us watching Television and playing in the snow. My dad put the movie camera in front of the TV one day and taped a whole day of shows from 1967. Sadly it has no sound. We also have home movies of inside the WT Grants Store . I haven't transferred them to DVD yet.

I don't remember if we had to put a fan near the TV to keep it cool. I still have that set today but it doesn't work . The weather was so cold in New England that I doubt we did.

You have to transfer as much of the old home movies to DVD as you can. Old VHS is easy as you can play them and direct record to a DVD recorder. If they are on film then it's a bit more complicated unless you have the equipment to do the conversion and transfer.

At the very least you are lucky to have video recordings from your early childhood. All I have is the still photos, would have loved to remember my childhood from home movies, even if there was no sound. Oh-well that's what a photographic memory is for, right? I think I maybe unusual to remember things in such detail as a single afternoon at play with friends, all that was said, how it was said, what everyone was wearing, what we were playing, the emotions I felt and so on. It takes me a little while to dig up these past memories, like rewinding a 10, 000 hour long movie in my head untill I get to the right part. I don't think anyone reading this can fathom what I am saying, I might not recall yesterday, but I can discribe in detail the exact change that was given me on July 22nd 1962 when I purchased a pack of bubble gum at Mac's Grociery store. You might call me a little excientrict, or possibly now days they call it autistic, not alltogether outgoing and sociable but "Wow" do I have a memory for the past- Science and Math as well! That's where I excell, very logically based with a memory that puts an elephant to shame. What God takes away in one respect he makes up in a person in other ways. I quess that is why I love to reminise about the past, not only can I remember the early 60's with vivid detail, but it actually was a great time for me and our Country.

Little off base here, but what ever happened to taking care of family? In the early 60's I remember my dad traveling 100 miles just to visit his aunt to say hellow in person. I went with him on his days off to visit aunts and uncles and spent pleasant afternoons visiting. I recall watching the Wizard of Oz at my great Aunts' home in Soix City Iowa when I was almost 6, the flying monkeys damn near scared me to death! Anyway, my mother inlaw which is nearing 90 is having medical problems, she has in recent days been spending time at our house. I foresee in the near future she will have to live here with us, neither my wife or I will stand for her going to a nursing home. But my mother inlaw is very proud and independent, I know she hates the thought of inposing on us. The world now days is so much different from the 60's, but I'm not! That is what family is for, Mom and Dad took care of us when we were young, helped us through difficult times when we were in our teens and first married. Now it's our turn to return the help and kindness. But how do you explain that to your mother, or change her feelings about the situation?

All I can say is- there was a time back when that the whole world looked different, and it shaped the attitudes of a whole generation. A great attitude and respect that I fear maybe lost for many of the modern generatoion?
 
OK- a question for Televisonarchieves; In your post of the photo from 1966 of you and your sister watching TV. That has to put your birth year around 1960? That means we are just a few years age difference. A generation I have been told is every ten years? I do not consider myself a baby boomer, but close being born in 1957. So what is the generation called for those born between 1955 and 1965? I don't believe we fall into genx.

Love the snow pics, is that Minisota or Michigan? You must have done some ice fishing??
 
Hey televisionarchives, was that picture of Grants taken in Rockland, Maine? That building looks familiar, of course they all looked alike. Just wondering because your ice fishing background looks somewhat familiar as well.
 
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Snow pictures are Maine. Born in 1963. My first memory is when I was about 4 . Television of course is one of my earliest memories.
 
How about what California looked like during that time. Here are some photos I got from a huge box of slides at a estate sale. Pasadena California in the early 1960's I believe.img286.jpgimg020.jpg
 
OK- a question for Televisonarchieves; In your post of the photo from 1966 of you and your sister watching TV. That has to put your birth year around 1960? That means we are just a few years age difference. A generation I have been told is every ten years? I do not consider myself a baby boomer, but close being born in 1957. So what is the generation called for those born between 1955 and 1965? I don't believe we fall into genx.

Love the snow pics, is that Minisota or Michigan? You must have done some ice fishing??

Born between 1946 and 1964 (46 – 64 years of age) Baby Boomers are 80 million strong. The Boomer is the largest generation, with a population nearly doubles that of Gen X. Boomers are seated at the very top of the worlds largest, most powerful companies and as established career professionals, they have tremendous buying power. In fact, approximately 70 percent of law firm partners are Baby Boomers. They will cede their positions to to their Gen X children when Boomers retire.

Define Baby Boomers | Who are Baby Boomers | Baby Boomers demographics


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