If you were born in a certain time frame of the 1950s to the early 1960s, you are considered by some to be a “baby boomer.”
If you remember some of these things from our past, you are certainly a boomer. The generation is often defined as people born between 1946 and 1964, during the mid-20th-century baby boom that followed the end of World War II.
Rotary telephones and party lines. Kids today and even young adults probably would not know how to dial a phone number on the old rotary phones. Most all of them now have wireless cell phones with numbers programmed into them. Heck, they don’t even call; most of them just text back and forth.
What if they picked up the phone and someone was already on the line? It was likely a neighbor, where three or four homes were connected to the same line, known as a party line.
Black-and-white TVs with only three or four local channels. We did not get a color TV until many years after many others did. When the old black-and-white TV went out, you had to call a repairman who, hopefully, would have the right tube to replace the one that had blown or gone bad. If not, you likely would not be watching TV for a few days.
The old movie theaters that only had one big screen were special. For us locally, it was the Cinderella Theater in downtown Williamson. If you were lucky enough to go to a Saturday matinee at any of these old venues, you were happy and should have some good memories. Or, as you got older, going to a movie on a Friday night with friends.
We did our research using encyclopedias—reference books with entries listed alphabetically—not Google or the internet. How many reports for school did you write by getting your information and research from the encyclopedias? For me it was a lot. We were blessed enough to have a set at our home and I used to browse through them just for fun.
Early in our education, when we learned to read in the first and second grades, we used the “Dick and Jane” series of textbooks known for their simple narrative text and watercolor illustrations. For a generation that got a different type of early education, these were important and memorable.
Ice-cold milk delivered in glass bottles by a truck right to your door is a great memory. One of my earliest memories is the Valley Bell milk truck coming to our door delivering milk and then driving up the steep, narrow holler where we lived at Nolan. We were the first house, so I can recall the driver letting me ride on the truck in the summer months and then dropping me back off in front of our house. I could not have been more than 4 years old.
Here are a few more local things you might remember that will add you to this exclusive group.
How about watching “Mr. Cartoon” on the local TV station out of Huntington after getting home from school? We watched cartoons like Popeye the Sailor Man, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, Tweety Bird and others.
What about late night on Saturdays when we got to stay up and watch “Chiller Theater”? The show featured old horror movies like “Frankenstein,” “Dracula,” “Wolfman” and others. Those flicks would be considered lame by today’s standards.
Watching other popular shows like “Andy Griffith,” “I Love Lucy,” “Gilligan’s Island,” and “The Beverly Hillbillies.” “Bonanza” and many others still show in syndication all these years later.
Listening to music on an old transistor radio was cool. I used to have a radio that I could plug in sitting in the headboard shelf of my bed. In the summer months, I listened to late-night radio stations like WOWO or to the Cincinnati Reds broadcasts. I do not know how many times I fell asleep with the radio on and woke up the next morning to static.
How about selling returnable pop bottles for a few cents and buying candy or a cold soda pop with the change you received? That was always a big deal for many of us with limited means.
If you shopped at one of these local “mom and pop” grocery stores, you have fond memories. These general stores had everything from groceries and fresh lunch meat (like sliced baloney or spiced ham) just the way you wanted it, to hardware and even some shoes and clothing at some.
Eating the early type TV dinners or the chicken pot pies is something I recall. It seemed like they took forever to heat up in an old conventional oven. Now we pop meals in the microwave and they are ready in a few seconds.
If you played games with neighborhood kids, like hide-and-seek, tag, Mother May I and others, then you grew up in a great era.
If you drank water from a water hose or outdoor spigot and never thought twice about it, you are a boomer.
I am sure most of you who are at or around my age have many memories of the past. We are proud baby boomers who grew up in a simpler time. And there is nothing wrong with that.
Until next time.
(Kyle Lovern is a longtime journalist in the Tug Valley. He is now a retired freelance writer and columnist for the Mountain Citizen.)