I Remember JFK: A Baby Boomer's Pleasant Reminiscing Spot

You could always tell which homes on the street had at least three kids living there: look for a fake-wooden-sided station wagon parked out front.

It's hard to pinpoint when the station wagon got its start. The Ford Model T resembled a station wagon in its most basic form. However, the tiny vehicle could only hold four comfortably.

In 1923, Star (a division of Durant Motors) began marketing a larger factory-built station wagon. The wagon body was made from wood.

As the decades progressed, station wagons became a common sight on American highways. The Pontiac Woodie was one of the most famous, with wooden side frames melded into a steel body. Many a California surf bum drove a restored (or not) Woodie in the 60's.

But the wood was a pain to maintain. Screws needed tightening, varnish needed periodic stripping and recoating, and the expanding and contracting lumber caused all sorts of sealing headaches.

In the 1960's, America turned its eyes east for inspiration.

Specifically, we looked to England.

We were very impressed indeed with what the British had to offer. There was the British Invasion in music, there was the suave and immensely popular James Bond, and there was also the fashion world.

Carnaby Street was considered the hottest fashion center in the world circa 1965. When the trendy shoppes of the district would make fashion statements, the rest of the world, particularly the USA, would listen.

Mary Quant was a mover and shaker in the London fashion scene, and her Bazaar, opened in 1955, was a popular browsing spot for the trendiest of the trendy.

Ten years later, she released a shockingly short skirt to the masses, named after her favorite car. Thus was born the miniskirt.

Ahh, the simple days of old, long before computers, video games, and other modern-day diversions that capture the attention of the nation's youth.

In those simple days, a kid's interest could be piqued by things like soap that grew fur.

And the power of advertising would cause that kid's interest to bloom into full-blown obsession, causing relentless hounding of the parents into obtaining this truly strange example of Boomer nostalgia.

I mean, think about it. Soap that grows fur? Fur much like that which sprouted on that forgotten turkey left over from Thanksgiving which you discovered looking for something to munch on during the NFL playoffs two months later.

There weren't many things that a Boomer kid could spring for without bugging mom or dad for a nickel. Basically, such an item had to cost a penny. While nickels were hard for a kid to come by, pennies could be found in all sorts of places. You might spot one or two in the kitchen junk drawer. Digging in the dirt could possibly uncover one. It wasn't unusual to spot a cent lying on the sidewalk.

So what could a kid do with a single penny, besides springing for a miniature Tootsie Roll?

He could take advantage of a finely-tuned scientific instrument that could be found in many small-town locations, drug stores in particular. He could spring for getting weighed.

We Boomer kids look back in wonder at what the world was like when we were children and compare it to the technologies we commonly use today.

But think about what our parents went through! Typically born early in the 20th century, they grew up with horse-drawn wagons delivering ice to keep their food cold. They would pick up a phone and tell the operator who they wanted to talk to. And they would address a letter with a person's name and a town. That was all of the information that the postal service needed to see to it that it arrived.

This worked with small towns, but deliveries to bigger cities did require a bit more information, e.g. a street.

But by 1943, the situation had gotten complicated enough that the USPS instituted zone codes for larger cities.

Thus, sending a letter to a friend in, say, Los Angeles suddenly got more complicated for our parents. But they eventually learned to add the two-digit code to the address, being rewarded for doing so by speeding up the delivery by a day or two in many cases.

Twenty years later, mailing a letter got VERY much more complicated. That was the year that the now-familiar zip code was introduced. Imagine the pain our parents went through having to add a five-digit number to each letter!

There was no doubt about it. We Boomer kids had as much fun reading comic book ads as the tales themselves that were contained in the twelve-cent journals.

Besides giant submarines, Charles Atlas spiels, and monkeys in teacups, we also were intrigued by a little blurb hat we must have seen a million times that claimed to teach us how to throw our voices for a quarter.

The only thing that I ever actually sent off for from comic book ads was a training course for karate. I was twelve years old. It never came.

But I remember one day visiting a novelty shop somewhere and actually spotting the throw-your-voice kit!