Page Revised 15 September 2001***Return to Saratoga High Page

Remember ?
When we went to Fuscos, DeGregories and Scudderis on Friday nights? D'Andreas, The Grand Union Hotel and the long front porch
soda coolers with water in them, 2 cent deposits on glass soda bottles, collecting newspapers to take to Figlemans junk yard, .
The Hall of Springs, The Prom "Misty", Kellehers' pool party,
The Drink Hall (corner Congress and Broadway), Coesa, Hawthorne,and Geyser water for a nickle a bottle?
The Avenue of Pines, trolley tracks on Broadway, The A & W Root beer stand on South Broadway, Car Hops
and Skidmore Curves, The Congress with the loge (then the roller rink and a chinese restaurant ) and The Community Theatres,
newsreels before the movie, a string of 10 cent movie tickets for Saturday morning cartoons, The Serials (Batman, Superman,
Hopalong Cassidy ,Gene Autry and Champion, Roy Rogers and Trigger, The Cisco Kid and Pancho, Tarzan, Jungle Jim),
Starbucks, Woolworths and Landaus, Breslaws' furniture store, Saratoga Bowl, Biffers' grocery, WSPN 900 on the dial, WPTR
Peppers Turkey Farm, The Convention Hall, The Teen Center, The Strand, The Twist, The Jerk, The Jitterbug,
oh and of course the waltz (smile), Number 1,2,3, and 4 school, balsa wood model airplane kits, paper doll cutout books
going steady, American Bandstand, Kookie, Charle Brown, Wells Pharmacy and the soda fountain, cherry cokes,
East and West Side Day camps, Camp Saradac, Ryall's beach, Kayderossas Park, Brown's beach, sugar daddys and penny candy,
wax coke shaped bottles with colored sugar water, Black jack chewing gum , candy cigarettes, licorice sticks, Bazooka and Double bubble gum
Monopoly, Ice cube trays with levers, table side juke boxes, party lines, washing machines with wringers
butch wax, flattops, DA's, Page Boys, Beehives, Boufonts, telephone #'s like 966, 3502, pea shooters,
45 rpm records, The Bobsey Twins, Nancy Drew, 10 cent comic books, Howdy Doody, Buffalo Bob, Clarabell and Mr Bluster,
homeroom basketball, War was played with 2 teams in gym class with volleyballs, S and H Green stamps, The Central Market,
The A & P, Bokar coffee, TruAde, Pop Cola, The Globe Supply, blue flash bulbs, roller skate keys, white bucs, cordavans, wejuns,
Desert Boots, cigarettes rolled up in your t-shirt sleeve, bobby socks, Poodle skirts, chinos, orlon v-neck sweaters, baby blue wind breakers,
virgin pins, neighborhood grocery stores, 3 cent stamps, Keg parties at the Geysers,
Malta Drive In and the Church Street Drive In movies, Studebakers, 57 Chevys, Push Button Drives, 40 cent haircuts,,
pant stretchers, Pitneys' home milk delivery with glass bottles and cardboard stoppers and when the cream would freeze and pop out the top,
the ice man, the new cafeteria (wowww), Cottones Bakery, Pink framed eye glasses, Ma Richardsons' study halls, Daddy-O, Pep Rallies
when Physics teacher Stan Hicks ran off to Florida, The worse thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties,
PF Flyers with the rubber circles on the sides, Hi-Fi's, Mimeograph paper and how it smelled of ammonia,
running to the East Side rec for gym, the girls blue gym suits (grin), the dentist Dr Roohan (baddd name for a dentist eh ? hehe)
Why didn't I collect coins in 1955 ?
Memories from the Collective Unconscious and some maybe duplicates so remember them twice (grin).
Take a stroll and close your eyes and go back - before the Internet -
before semiautomatics and crack - before SEGA and Super Nintendo . . . way back!,
I'm talking about sitting on the curb, sitting on the stoop, about Hide-and-seek, Simon Says and Red-Light/Green-Light.
Lunch boxes with a thermos, chocolate milk, going home for lunch, penny candy from the store, hopscotch, butterscotch, skates with keys, jacks and
Cracker Jacks, hula hoops and sunflower seeds, wax lips and mustaches, Mary Janes and saddle shoes, and Coke bottles with the names of cities on the bottom.
Remember when it took five minutes for the TV to warm up. When nearly everyone's Mom was at home when kids got home from school
When nobody owned a purebred dog. When a quarter was a decent allowance. When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.
When your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces.
When all of your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done everyday and wore high heels.
Remember running through the sprinkler, circle pins, bobby pins, Mickey Mouse Club; Rocky and Bullwinkle;
Kookla, Fran and Ollie; Spin and Marty -.all in black and white.
When around the corner seemed far away and going downtown seemed like going somewhere. Climbing trees, making forts, backyard shows,
lemonade stands,cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, staring at clouds, jumping on the bed, pillow fights, ribbon candy,
angel hair on the Christmas tree, Jackie Gleason, white gloves, walking to the movie theater, running till we're out of breath,
laughing so hard that your stomach hurt . . . remember that? Not stepping on a crack or you'd break your mother's back,
paper-chains at Christmas, silhouettes of Lincoln and Washington, the smells of school, of paste and Evening in Paris.
What about the girl who dotted her "i's" with hearts? The Stroll, popcorn balls, and sock hops?
Remember when there were two types of sneakers for girls and boys, Keds and PF Flyers,
and the only time you wore them at school was for "gym." And the girls had those ugly gym uniforms.
When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped without asking - all for free -- every time!
And, you didn't pay for air either and, you got trading stamps to boot!
When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box.
When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents.
When the worst thing you could do at school was flunk a test or chew gum.
And the prom was in the auditorium and you danced to a real orchestra.
When they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed -- and did!
When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home.
Basically, we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc.,
our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we survived because their
love was so much greater than the threat.
Remember when a '57 Chevy was everyone's dream car -- used to cruise, peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races?
When people went "steady" and girls wore a guy's class ring with an inch of wrapped Band-Aids, dental floss or
yarn coated with pastel-frost nail polish so it would fit their finger.
When no one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition,
and the car and house doors were never locked!
Remember lying on your back on the grass with your friends and saying things like "That cloud looks like a . . .
And playing baseball with no adults needed to enforce the rules of the game.
Remember when stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals,
because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger.
With all our progress, don't you just wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace,
and share it with the children of today?
So send this on to someone who can still remember Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy,
Howdy Doody and The Peanut Gallery, The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, Nellie Belle,
Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk as well as the sound of a reel mower on Saturday morning and summers filled with bike
rides, baseball games, bowling, visits to the pool, and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar from the palm of your hand.
There, didn't that feel good? Just to lean back and say, "Yeah, I remember."
Want to add some more ? Contact me please . Dick ****Return to Saratoga High Page