The growing up years, were so awesome in the toy world. Schwinn Bikes, with butterfly handle bars, a banana seat and streamers from the handles. My brother got a five speed bike with a huge sissy bar, banana seat, big wheel in the back, smaller one in the front. It was totally the bomb!
What would we have done without Whamo as a kid? Silly Putty, Hula Hoops, Frisbees, Super Balls, the fun stuff! Sea Monkeys, and rocks that grew, and those toys that were sure to put an eye out besides the Red Rider BB Gun. Wacky Clackers, two balls of hard plastic on strings that connected to a ring. The idea was to hold the ring and get them to clack together until they clacked at the top and the bottom of the circle. Man I had bruises from those things. But seriously what fun!
Another fun thing was the whistles that were made from the tin laying along the railroad tracks. Someone would cut them, bend them in half. Then you popped it in your mouth and viola, you could whistle. I found after doing that long enough I could take the piece of tin out of my mouth and whistle better than anyone!
Cartoons were the most awesome, Mighty Mouse, Quick Draw McGraw and BabbaLouie, Snaggle Puss, Yogi Bear and Boo Boo. Josie and the Pussy Cats, the Archies, Augie Dog and Doggie Daddy. Flintstones, Jetsons to many of them to mention. However, Saturday morning in front of that TV in your jammies was the place to be!
We also had the dangerous food—Cinnamon toothpicks, those things were awesome, even if you got sores on the side of your mouth from the strong ones. Then we figured out that the pharmacy had real cinnamon oil, and you could make your own!
Then you think of the healthy new foods like Space Food Sticks, just like the astronauts were eating on the moon, and Tang, the drink of the Apollo Crew. What about Wonder Bread, did it really build strong bodies 12 ways? Fizzys, nifty tablets you dropped into a glass of water and it became a Kool-Aid-like drink. Totally fun.
There were some new groovy foods called TV Dinners. The first ones out were meant for kids and had cartoon characters on the front of them. They also had wonderful pot pies. My favorite was macaroni and cheese, which they don’t make anymore. That is a bummer, it was the best one.
When we landed on the moon, mom let us eat our mac ‘n’ cheese pot pie on newspapers on the dining room floor so we could watch the landing. Very few meals weren’t eaten at the kitchen table! By the time my teen years came around, another new great product: Taco Doritos! And not long after that, all kinds of flavors of them.
I must add if you weren’t a teen girl in the 70s you would have missed out on 16 Magazine, and Tiger Beat magazines. Fold out pictures of David Cassidy, Bobby Sherman, Michael Jackson, Donny Osmond and all the other young stars. I remember my best friend and I were cruising the Butte, and a really good looking fellow was ahead of us, and she yelled out the window “I will give up my Tiger beat for you.” Yes, the good old days were good.