Reminisce...

[Dana Jean]

Wow. You and I would have been best buds, for sure. Loved Brownies and Girl Scouts. We must be around the same age (50). My mom actually sewed tiny little outfits for my Barbies because I was so into it. My favorite was Malibu Barbie because she had a tan, and I am very fair-skinned and wanted a tan so badly.

Plus I really liked Mod-Hair Ken where you could attach different types of beards and moustaches to his face. Check out that jacket.

I also had Growing-Up Skipper--when you turned her arm, she actually grew little boobs!

...and got taller.
And we all lived happily in Barbie's Townhouse.

Ken had facial hair!? Where the hell was I when he came out?! That would have been great, but I totally would have moved the beards to Barbie so she could go undercover like Nancy Drew.

 

[Spideyman]

Very first doll house

 

[Dana Jean]

Very first doll house

I think my sister had this!

 

[Out of Order]

We actually had to dial only 4 digits for a while when I was little...

danie's first phone...........

 

[Spideyman]

I think my sister had this!

It even had a front doorbell you could make ring.

 

[danie]

We actually had to dial only 4 digits for a while when I was little...as long as the first 3-number prefix was the same, the 4 digits worked. Boy, I was annoyed when I had to call a "442" number, because then I had to dial all 7 digits.
Plus, when the phone rang, somebody would call out, I'LL GET IT!!!!! And no caller ID to tell you who was on the other end. Sometimes, you'd get lucky, and the person answering the phone would say, "It's for you," and hand it over (being careful not to be entrapped by the curly cord). When I was about sixteen, I got "my own phone" in my bedroom. Baby blue with push-button technology!

Also, I remember trying to call someone and getting a busy signal. So you'd keep trying until someone finally answered, then you'd say, "Who have you been talking to for two hours????" And they'd tell you. Like it was your business.

 

[Dana Jean]

It even had a front doorbell you could make ring.

I don't remember the house, but some of those pieces inside the house look very familiar.

 

[arista]

I remember saving Green Stamps that one got at the grocery store to buy stuff. I would have to lick those stamps and put them in the Green stamp books. You sent the books off and I got my first metal doll house. It was awesome. Tide also had a promotion where they put a washcloth in the tide boxes.

 

[danie]

danie's first phone...........

OoO's first utensils:

 

[arista]

I remember the first little people doll house that I had gotten at Christmas. It was yellow and had door bell and little house for the doggie in back.

 

[Out of Order]

OoO's first utensil:

Which one? I see two......

 

[danie]

Which one? I see two......

I changed it to read "utensils..." I'm supposed to be teaching here...was in a hurry!

 

[Dana Jean]

I remember saving Green Stamps that one got at the grocery store to buy stuff. I would have to lick those stamps and put them in the Green stamp books. You sent the books off and I got my first metal doll house. It was awesome. Tide also had a promotion where they put a washcloth in the tide boxes.

I furnished my first home with green stamp items! I loved filling in the books and taking them to the local redemption store.

Of course, reminds me of Stephen's story about the Happy Face Stamps? Was that what they were called?

 

[DiO'Bolic]

We actually had to dial only 4 digits for a while when I was little...as long as the first 3-number prefix was the same, the 4 digits worked. Boy, I was annoyed when I had to call a "442" number, because then I had to dial all 7 digits.

You're right, I forgot about that. And then they changed the prefix for some of us in our area from 215 to 610, and we never knew which prefix we were dialing for some time to come.

We had a really chatty lady for a while on our party line. I can't remember how many times my mother had to ask her to get off the phone for a little while so we could make a call - after picking up the phone for about the tenth time and uttering some gaelic curse words. I think at some point my mother finally threatened my father with physical injury to pay the extra money for a private line, which was a real feat as he was the poster-boy of cheapskates.

 

[Spideyman]

I remember saving Green Stamps that one got at the grocery store to buy stuff. I would have to lick those stamps and put them in the Green stamp books. You sent the books off and I got my first metal doll house. It was awesome. Tide also had a promotion where they put a washcloth in the tide boxes.

And powdered laundry soap boxes that has drinking glasses in them.

and jelly containers that became drinking glasses

 

[DiO'Bolic]

I furnished my first home with green stamp items! I loved filling in the books and taking them to the local redemption store.

Of course, reminds me of Stephen's story about the Happy Face Stamps? Was that what they were called?

Ah yes... Green Stamps. Heaven's forbid my mother sent me to the grocery store for something and I failed to ask for the green stamps. With my father it was Phillies Cigar bands. I got my first real stereo at Christmas one year with those cigar bands... made by some Japanese electronic company nobody had ever heard of ---> Sony.

 

[Out of Order]

I changed it to read "utensils..." I'm supposed to be teaching here...was in a hurry!

Hopefully you're not teaching English......

 

[Dana Jean]

My parents are gone now, but this time of year is forever the time when I think about my dad the most. He loved Christmas. Loved it. He was the biggest kid of all of us. And because he grew up poor and was able to give more to his kids, he tried to! Mom would have to reel him in.

And he was the biggest snoop looking for presents, he got caught one year trying on a new coat he was getting!

Us kids would be randomly doing our thing and he would come in with a present for each of us that he got from under the tree and hand it to us and say, "go ahead, you can open it." Days and days before it was time! Of course, we would always look to mom, knowing we'd get in big trouble if we did. Mom didn't have 3 kids at Christmas, she had 4 and us kids knew it. We never trusted dad when he tried to get us to open a present! It would have ended up one big rat out with him saying, "well, they opened a present, I should get to open one too!"

Bing, Andy Williams, Deano, The Mills Brothers, Frank, Perry Como, all those guys singing Christmas songs -- just remind me so much of my dad.

Love you daddy.

 

[Dana Jean]

Ah yes... Green Stamps. Heaven's forbid my mother sent me to the grocery store for something and I failed to ask for the green stamps. With my father it was Phillies Cigar bands. I got my first real stereo at Christmas one year with those cigar bands... made by some Japanese electronic company nobody had ever heard of ---> Sony.

 

[arista]

I remember my mother filling up at the gas station. They actually pumped gas. She would get decorative fashion pins and plastic toy animals for the kiddies when she filled up. She also got a set of BC Comic drinking glasses.