It's time for some nostalgia. What do you remember fondly?

Duck Hunter

Pulling towards land when out to sea, smelling the air, seeing the foreign land, pulling the lines with increased vigor from the anticipation of exploring the new country, getting all showered and dressed to impress, and going out to see new things.

90’s Nickelodeon.

…oh wait, it’s back! :D

The days when little girls, like my sister and I, could wander all over town with no fear.

Michael Jackson singing Rock With Me in the early 80’s.
First 5 years of MTV
Rotary phone
Phone booths
Lady Diana interviews

Football on any old field, jumpers for goalposts…...whoo hoo!!

Stepping on the rubber mat to open the grocery store door. My mom still jumps on the mats when we go to older stores ;)

I remember when we still spelled Nostalgia as F u t u r e.

Jelly bracelets

When Snickers were called Marathons

When falling over and hurting yourself was fixed with a magic kiss and the ultimate…a wet paper towel and not a law suit!

When playing conkers was considered childhood fun and not a dangerous sport

New Kids on the Block

We drank water from the tap and my parents passed it off as Coperation Pop!

Channel 4 started on our screens and I wasn’t allowed to watch it because the programmes on it were not suitable for me as I was too young!

I didn’t have a mobile and probably did more because of it

You could loose at school sports day, because it was character building and competition was considered healthy for you!

Anti bacterial hand gel wasn’t invented and none of us (parents included) really bothered about germs and all that malarky!

Oh and being allowed to play outside until the street lights came on

90’s music.

$0.30/gal gas.

Oh, and the predecessor to Coke machines: big chests outside gas stations that were filled with ice and pop bottles. Drop a dime in the coin box and then fish out the bottle of your choice. Low-tech (and probably not too hygienic), but oddly gratifying.

This pretty much sums it up.

Sex before AIDS.

@Adirondackwannabe Wish I coulda been there lol.

Burma Shave ads on roadtrips.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard beat me too it. Granted, there are still some shows on there that I have foggy memory of, but I watched a lot of those cartoons as a kid. Other than that; old commercials. The commercials I remember were always cheesy and dimly lit.

Oh, and these guys.

Pharmacies that had soda counters.
Scales where you put in a nickel, got your weight and your fortune.
Snowcones…with shaved ice and gooey syrup.
Captain Kangaroo.
Farfel.
Topo Gigio on Ed Sullivan.
Drive-In movies and brown cows (root beer and ice cream.)
Having to kneel in school and make sure your skirt touched the floor (too short, you were sent home..oh, those nuns.)
Swooning at Sajid Khan on “Maya”.
Aluminum Christmas trees with a revolving light wheel.
Pulling “Fruit Loops” off the Oxford shirts boys wore…but only if you fancied them.
School dances on warm spring and summer nights…on someone’s patio.

(Great Question….Jake! Thanks for that!)

Thanks to the people above who gave me a “Great Answer”....because you just pushed me to 10K!!!! Big lurve to you two!!!

I remember the Stuckey’s of the 1960s roadsides. They had great candy and stopping there was de rigeur on road trips.

@marinelife,....Oh Stuckey’s! Pecan Rolls! :)

@DarlingRhadamanthus My mom’s favorites!

Refrigerated soda cabinets. You’d put your money in and then pull the neck of a glass bottle loose from the row.

Taco flavored Doritos.

Cars with big enough backseats that a small kid could lay down across the ledge under rear window and watch the sky go by.

Hoppity Hop.

@Neizvestnaya : Oh my, the grocery stores here have started selling taco flavored Doritos in bags that look like the ones from when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s! It’s the bomb!

@hawaii_jake: I’m going to google for them! My fiancee was also a “food restricted” kid and so by the time he was a teen/young adult, the product was discontinued. I’d love to share the joy of Taco Flavored Doritos dipped in sour creme with him!

Frozen winter nights, wooden sticks that served as swords, and the Temple of Tempo, which was actually a bridge pillar that someone spray painted a huge drawing of a Viking on.

The sound my grandmother’s rotary phone made when we dialed; ice cream for a nickel a scoop and candy bars two for 25 cents, standing in front of Sav-on with a box full of kittens and giving them all away by the end of the afternoon, full service gas stations with the sensor tube cars drove over to ring a bell making the attendant sprint out and start pumping my dad’s gas.

Walking over to my neighbor’s pool to go swimming.
TV Guide magazine when they had comprehensive program listings.
When Hondas were given high recommendations by Consumer Reports year after year.

I’m glad to still remember when air travel was a treat; complete with a movie and a meal. Ahhh! the good ol’ days.

Eating macaroni and cheese and Jello in cafeterias

Roller skating with those skates that had the pretty white lace up boots and metal wheels that got caught in the cracks of the sidewalk (ouch!)

Patent leather shoes

Really pointy Keds tennis shoes.

The Whinnie the Pooh clothes collection at Sears

The hot nuts display counters at the snack bar at Sears

Those funny metal foot measuring devices in shoe stores

The clerk at Der Weinershnitzel giving us a free plain weiner whenever we came through the drive through with our dog and getting a paper hat

Going to a real Halloween carnival at school (not a fall festival or some other euphemistic name) complete with a costume parade, a cake walk, a bake sale and games where you could win rubber monsters that stuck onto your forehead with a suction cup or went on your fingers (for boys) and translucent plastic bracelets (for girls).

Peeling the orange cellophane off the top of the glass milk bottle, then popping out the cardboard tab-style lid and pouring whole milk into a real glass (not a sippy cup) or an anodized aluminumm cup

Eating Malt-o Meal or Cream of Wheat for breakfast

Falling asleep in the back of the Corvair station wagon at the drive in movies after watching Darby O’Gill or The Jungle Book and eating Starbursts and Sugar Babies

Mom’s collapsible plastic cup that she kept in the glove compartment

Seeing red Betadyne stained knees on kids who had a cut

Riding our Schwinn bikes in the canyon without a helmet, no cell phones and staying down there until dusk and having no worries about child abductions, head injuries or unforseen emergencies

Going tent camping in the mountains and eating bacon, pancakes and hot chocolate for breakfast, then going swimming on a blowup raft in the lake whilst bobbing for crabapples that fell into the lake from the surrounding orchard

Going ice-skating on an outdoor rink, wearing real lace up boot style ice-skates, not these new ones that look like roller-blades and don’t make you look pretty

Talking for hours on your pink princess rotary dial phone

Going over to my best friend’s house and making pizza from a Appian Way boxed kit and busting out her Dad’s Playboy magazines while her parents were at work (she was one of the only latchkey kids that I knew) and then we would watch Popeye on TV

Having slumber parties with my friends and watching the trifecta of The Brady Bunch, The Nanny and the Professor and then The Partridge Family

When I was older, it was Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert and Saturday Night Live with Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner and Jane Curtain

Going to Shakey’s Pizza Parlor on my birthday and getting to put money in the player piano and listen to a guy play live Dixieland style banjo music. The doors on the restaurant had nifty bottle glass windows

@Kardamom, the hot nuts display counters at Sears & Robucks….what a great memory. Priceless.

@AmWiser I couldn’t find an actual picture of any vintage hot nuts counters, but the picture in my post is apparently from a Whole Foods Market, which makes me really excited to find out if the 2 near my house have one. It smelled so good and the nuts looked so enticing!

@Kardamom I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before, but you really need to come visit me during Halloween. Western Illinois sticks with tradition. We know how to celebrate a holiday. =)

Going on road trips with the family and bouncing around in the backseat without a seat belt.

@jonsblond Yes, I know. That’s why I mentioned it again, because I remembered that you said that you guys have real Halloween carnivals. Out here in California, you are not allowed to call any kind of celebration on October 31st involving costumes, candy or trick or treating Halloween. At least not any that are put on by public schools. It really bums me out, because IMO Halloween is not any kind of a religious holiday, it’s simply a holiday tradition that sprang up from the fall celebrations and superstitions that were common in England and the US during the early parts of our heritage. I don’t think that they are exclusive or that they promote any kind of magic or anti-Christian elements, it’s just pure fun and no normal person would ever believe that any of it is real.

God, I could really go for a piece of fudge right now!

The Noid.

@erichw1504 You’re evil. At least you didn’t mention the California Raisins. XD

Now that I’ve slept on it, I’ve thought of some more things:

Del Monte Pudding Cup in a Can

Borden Eggnog in a Can

TV Dinners in foil pans like Swanson and Banquet

This one is still made, but I haven’t seen it in my fridge in 40 years! Pimento Loaf

They still make these too, but I haven’t seen one in years. I always wanted a pink Japanese Carp Kite

And continuing with the fish theme, I always loved these Fish Design Mid Century Tumblers One of my relatives had some like these.

My grandma had 2 poodle dogs and a Poodle Toilet Paper Cozy

My other grandma had Asian Kissing Bobble Head Dolls and Ceramic Fairies

My mom had one of these super cute Elephant Cookie Jars

I always liked drinking milk with these red and white striped Paper Straws even though they would get soggy very quickly and didn’t have a bend in them.

And who didn’t know someone who had Lucite Sea Horses or Ceramic Mermaids and Fishes in their bathroom

Did anybody ever get to camp in one of these nifty Trailers

I actually have a small collection of vintage Christmas Tablecloths and Aprons and Cards and Ornaments

Does anyone remember eating Quisp cereal?

Are any of you fellows old enough to remember wearing Nehru Jackets?

Are any of you ladies old enough to remember wearing a Mondrian Shift Dress?

I’ve made many batches of cookies with Colored Pyrex Mixing Bowls and drank plenty of hot cocoa out of these Raffia Thermal Cups and hese Melamine Coffee Cups

Howzabout a nice cold or hot drink from one of these Thermoses?

Jello Cookbooks

Wooden Kitty/Bunny Salt Shakers

Kitchen Cannisters

And last, but not least, Plastic Cocktail Animals and Mermaids

The California Raisins.

You just had to, didn’t you.

Unfortunately.

You know they made a video game about those guys. Same for The Noid…

Here’s an interesting tidbid for @Symbeline . She won’t know about this probably, but the cocktail known as the Zombie was first created by this guy called Don The Beachcomber, who opened a restaurant called The Beachcomber

You can read more about Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt (aka Don the Beachcomber) here and also learn about “tiki culture” in the USA.

And here is a little bit more about the Zombie Drink and Don the Beachcomber. Note: the photo of the drink on this page shows it it in a hurricane style glass, the original Zombies were served in highball glasses.

Here another nifty Menu of Tropical Drinks from another famous Tiki Style Restaurant called Trader Vic’s that was popular during the same time.

I still have a Trader Vic’s ceramic coconut from a memorable event there sometime in the late 70s…

@Kardamom Yeah, I know about the drink, had it a few times in an Asian restaurant. They do indeed come in tall glasses.
But damn, leave it to you to know the whole history behind it. :) Thanks for the info, this is awesome.

Pogs.

@JilltheTooth I have one of those coconuts too! Aren’t they neat? I got mine at a thrift store. Didn’t have the pleasure of sipping a tropical drink out of it : (

K’nex.

@erichw1504 : Did you build that just to take a picture for this question?

@Hawaii_Jake Yes.

No…

Pogs rock! I liked those metal slammers that looked like buzz saws, they were called shredders.

But that’s precisely what they did to your pogs if you used it on them…

Glow Worm.

1960’s era gravel art

The wonderful illustrations on vintage dress patterns

Pineapple shaped Monkeywood serving bowls

Lite Brite Sets

Dried Apple People

God’s eye yarn art

Copper Fish Molds

Hamilton Beach Malt Mixers

Vintage Teardrop Trailers

Tile Mosaic Ashtrays

Does anyone remember going with you Dad to the drugstore to test your TV Tubes on one of these machines

Cigarette Vending Machines

Rain Oil Lamps

Mattel Ballet Box Carrying Cases

Incredible Edibles and Creepy Crawlers

Pinecone Elves

Christmas Tree Color Wheels

Blue Chip Stamps

Ashtrays and more Ashtrays and more Ashtrays and more Ashtrays

The pants.