The Home Archives
The 1960's Backyard Cookout At presstime, we're experiencing one of those sopping-wet March snow dumps we get in my area every couple of years. Two days ago, my wife and I were walking the dogs in 70 degree sunshine, today, I'm looking out at eight inches of white stuff. No matter. The previous warm...
Sad-Eyed Kid Paintings Today's I Remember JFK is the result of an anonymous idea from one of our readers. Please keep them coming! One of the familiar sights that we Boomer kids grew up was an image of a sad-eyed child. The child might be accompanied by an equally sad-eyed kitten or puppy....
Essential 60's Accessories: Ashtrays and Lighters Let's step back in time and step inside a typical home of the 1960's. We'll use my modest Miami, Oklahoma dwelling, of course. It was a 1950's era tract home sitting on a modestly traveled street. Very typical of what WWII veterans were raising families in. If you have time-traveled...
Fuzzy-Wuzzy Soap 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...
Making Ice in Metal Trays What would a hot summer day be without a tall glass of iced tea? Or what would a bourbon on the rocks be without the rocks? In the scheme of things that are essential to life, ice cubes probably rate quite a ways down the list. But as far as...
Moving Day I was a fortunate kid. I spent the first eight years of my life living in the same home. In kid years, that's about four entire lifetimes. But just before I turned nine, we packed everything up and moved seventy miles away. It might as well have been seven thousand....
Grandma's Wringer Washer Today's column will probably wake up a few long-dormant memory cells. In my case, it was my grandmother who had a wringer washer. But for many of you, it might have been dear old mom herself. Keeping one's clothes clean has been a challenge since clothing itself began being worn....
Burning the Leaves in the Fall "Leaf burning leads to air pollution and is a health and fire hazard. The smoke from burning leaves contains a number of toxic and/or irritating particles and gases. The tiny particles contained in smoke from burning leaves can accumulate in the lungs and stay there for years. These particles...
One Moves Out, One Moves Up Today's reminiscence is one that is shared by all generations, but I'm going to wax poetic on my own particular experience. Our little tract home in Miami, Oklahoma seems cramped by today's standards. It was three bedrooms and one bath. My eldest brother had his own room, while the middle...
When Macrame Was Everywhere Back in the 1200's, Arabian weavers began tying decorative knots into the threads of excess fringes on hand-loomed fabrics. 500 years later, about the same time that polyester, men's hair spray, and fondue pots were all the rage, it caught on big time. Macrame was one of the fads that...
Growing Up in a Little Tract Home When our fathers got back from WWII, they were in the mood to get out of living in barracks and tents. They wanted new homes! So many of them purchased brand new tract homes, which were being built by the hundreds of thousands all over the US. My father purchased...
Black Light Posters The perfect accompaniment to the Seven-Up flicker light circa 1972 was a room full of black light posters, along with WLS on the radio. Now, according to That 70's Show, marijuana smoke would also be a part of the ambiance. But I grew up in small-town America, and while pot...
Kit-Cat Clocks The Great Depression was a very difficult time for our parents and grandparents to go through. Times were bleak, and there just wasn't very much to laugh about. A designer at the California Clock Company thought that what the world needed was a clock that would bring a smile every...
Keeping the Grass Mowed One of the things I remember about Leave It to Beaver was the fact that Wally (and later, the Beav) had to push one of those rotary mowers like the one to the left. That was a relic that I don't remember, myself. My older brothers no doubt had to...
Formica Counter Tops The pattern to the right was a familiar one to you if you were a visitor of malt shops and hamburger joints in the 1960's. It's known as VirrVarr, if you were wondering (probably not). It was one of Formica's biggest sellers of the 50's and 60's, and was installed...
The Back Yard, Circa 1965 Kids spend a lot of time in their back yards. I sure spent lots of hours in my Oklahoma back yard in the 1960's. I became so familiar with its features that I can close my eyes and imagine it in its entirety. I will now recreate that wonderful place,...
Lights on a Pole Our living rooms in the 1960's were comfortable places, indeed. Ours had a homey ambiance that made for a wonderful place to spawn memories. I can clearly recall the paneled walls, the sunken floor furnace, the area rug with rectangular shapes with 1 1/2" wide borders that were PERFECT for...
Wood Paneling Along with shag carpets, many homes of the 60's and 70's featured 1/8" thick 4'x8' wide sheets of laminated wood nailed to the wall. This was the paneling that we grew up with. Paneling can be found today in forms like nice wainscoting, thick solid wood wall covering that can...
Shag Carpets Ah, the late 60's and 70's. A time of experimentation, whether with recreational drugs, or with extreme decorating ideas. Such a bold stab at style (its creators might have tried some of those drugs, too) was the shag carpet. Shag carpets came in a variety of colors, some of which...
You may use any images you find on my site on your own personal site. COPY the images to your own server, PLEASE. If you link directly, you will likely get a logo encouraging others to visit I Remember JFK instead of the graphic that you expected. In return, I request that you include a link back to I Remember JFK. Fair enough?
1974: The Year of the Streaker:
1974 dawned with no hint of its significance. In January, it was just another year. By December, people running around naked in public had become commonplace enough to become, well, boring. Streaking had been going on at college campuses before that. Princeton was streaked as early as 1970. Notre Dame...
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