Information wars, getting messy
(media.greatawakening.win)
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Evening in Paris, I loved it. I even had some as a child. The small blue bottle with the au de cologne and the powder. Mine came in a perfume set. I was about 13 I think and it made me feel grown up as my 2 older sisters had things that I didn't. It was my first perfume.
And the Paper Dolls. I had those too. It was much easier changing their clothes than on a real doll. That is until you tore the tabs off and they couldn't hang on. Haha And one Christmas my Grandma, (I only had one since my Dad's mother died before he and my mother married) got me and my baby sister a Raggedy Ann (mine) and Andy (hers). I had mine for many years. I think I gave it to my baby sister with all my other dolls when I outgrew them. I wish I had my Raggedy Ann now. Sentimental value only.
I miss Woolworth's too and wish they would bring it back. Amazon has cost us a lot of the shopping stores that we've known through the years. I don't know if they cost us Woolworth's or not, but I wish we could get them all back. I do not shop on Amazon and I plan on never shopping there. If I can't see it with my own eyes and touch it, I'm not buying it. Going to town to shop was never an inconvenience to me, it was part of the excitement. Just like the movie A Christmas Story when the parents went shopping after the Parade. That movie reminds me of what Christmas was like when I was a kid.
Do you remember the paper dolls that had plastic clothes that would stick to the coated cardboard dolls? I can't remember what they were called. We had those too. I never had a Raggedy Ann but I had a Betsy Wetsy, remember those? She had "real" hair and came with a bottle and diaper because she would wet her diaper when you gave her water. I still have that little doll, bald because I wore all her hair off combing it.
I shop at Amazon all the time because I live 25 miles from the nearest town and about 9 times out of 10 when I drive 25-45 miles one way to get something I need, they don't have it. I drove 45 miles yesterday because Walmart website said something I had to have was in stock there, drove past two other Walmarts because it said it was only at this other store. Guess what wasn't in stock? Can't call ahead because they don't answer the phone any more. I've tried ordering for pickup but twice I got there and it was an opened box with a broken item that had been returned. So I had to wait in line to pick it up and then wait in another line to return it.
I think most people would rather shop in person and see what they're buying, but the stores make it hard to do that. I don't think Amazon destroyed them as much as they destroyed themselves.
Growing up in my then little home town we drove into the city to do things like Christmas and back to school. No McDonalds, we got a bag of little burgers from White Tower, what a treat! The city we went to is now a hellhole. What I miss is driving to DC and that other city to see the Christmas windows at the department stores. Seeing mechanical elves and sparkly angels was magical.
P.S. No I don't remember those dolls. I don't think I had any. My sister (2nd Oldest) had a Betsy Wetsy. I had a doll that just cried "mama" when you turned her over. I also had another doll that didn't do anything but had some lovely hair until I cut it. Then I cried for my Momma to put it back on, not realizing that once it's cut; it's cut. Haah
My younger sister had some dolls that I was too old for by the time they came out. Barbie, for example.
Me too. However I did get a Barbie later and played with it for a little while (maybe 2 or 3 times), then passed it down to her.
There was 8 of us kids. 4 boys and 4 girls. My daddy worked on the L&N railroad as did his brothers, father and grandfather did. So he made good money and could afford to raise that many "baby boom" kids.
We lived on the outskirts of town about 5 miles or less, so we could afford to go to what was once called Big K, Grants, JC Penney, Montgomery Ward, Woolworth and Kress. We got new school clothes, 3 outfits a pieces, underwear, socks, slips and shoes. The oldest sister and brother got 5 new outfits. All us younger ones got their hand me downs. Our elementary school only allowed the girls to wear dresses year round, but my brothers usually got a few new long sleeved shirts for winter. Coats were also passed down; except for the oldest.
Our table was black oak with 6 chairs, a china cabinet and a side table (bureau) or something like that. It was handed to my father when his mother died. I wish I had it because they don't make them like that anymore. My mother always had a new baby every couple years as I can remember; so there was usually 2 highchairs sitting round the table. I remember her getting up while it was still dark outside to cook our breakfast before we went to school. You could smell her coffee pot perking on the stove with the smell of bacon or sausage sizzling and wafting through the air. What a way to wake up.
We too didn't get McDonalds or Burger King or such. There were 3 little "Dairy Dips" between our home and my grandmothers. Once in a blue moon, my daddy would stop at one of them to get us an ice cream cone. Those were the days.
Only three of us and Daddy came back from WWII and worked with his father as a custom home builder. He later took over that company when Granddaddy retired. No babies - we were all within four years of each other. I was the oldest but the one who got hand me downs because my sister was bigger than me. We went to Penneys in the city for dresses - green or brown for me because I had red hair and blue or pink for my sister who had blonde hair. Same here, never allowed to wear anything but dresses or skirts all through school. I remember what a big deal it was for me to get a pants suit in 1969.
Daddy built our house and Mom had him take out the dining room and incorporate it into the kitchen in the early '60s. We had one of those big formica topped tables with a metal skirt around it. Later he replaced the back porch with a big family room and we had a round wooden table with ladderback chairs for people to sit around if they didn't want to sit in the upholstered chairs or sofa.
We lived in town next door to our paternal grandparents. Mom's family lived in another part of the state. We walked to school, downtown was about four blocks away and the shopping center built in the late '50s was a half block away. It had a Peeble's Dept. Store, Woolworths, a shoe store, and so on. That was the first chain stores in town other than Western Auto.
We lived around the corner from a big dairy farm which had a store and grill where all the teenagers hung out and played the jukebox. We went there to buy ice cream cones and Double Bubble bubblegum.
And we had a little restaurant that was about 10 houses down called "The Donut Shop." However they did NOT sell donuts. They had a delivery truck that supplied a few of the factories with burgers, fries, pop and milkshakes. We used to go on a daily basis for their ice cream cones and shakes if we had the money.
Also the Double Bubble bubblegum; do you remember Double Cola? We used to drink those too.
Gosh! It sounds like we could have been sisters. My father added a bedroom, a dining room and an enclosed back porch for my mother to do laundry (wringer washer/wash tub for rinsing) and a clothes line out back. My daddy bought her an automatic washer and dryer and she REFUSED to use it. So he took it back. I guess that's where I get my (stick with the old ways) attitude. If it works great; why change it.
My daddy bought a lot of things from Western Auto. He had a (charge account) no credit cards then; at Western Auto, Mongomery Wards, Firestone, a family owned Grocery Store GOFFS and a furniture store KEACHS here in town when we needed new mattresses, stove and such. This way if we needed something and he didn't have cash at hand, he would charge it. Most times he paid for our school clothes up front, but there were a few times he would charge our clothes at Montgomery Ward.
My father once worked in Louisville KY where he would leave out at about 4 AM on a Monday and would be gone until about 5 PM on Friday night. He would stay on the so-called (railroad camp cars) during the week. This is why he kept an account at the Grocery Store. All my mother had to do was call GOFF's up and they would deliver the groceries to our house. With a lot of kids/ she quit driving after me; we needed a lot of milk for the little ones, so my daddy knew when he was gone every week that she would have to be able to supply milk.
I remember on his paydays/ he got paid every 2 weeks, that he would sit at that black walnut (did I say Oak before? If I did, I meant walnut) table and figure out his bills. He tabulated everything by pencil and paper, unlike we do today. He would probably not have used a calculator if we had of had them then. He too was a simple man.