Memories

[nancyo]

Gosh I had it really easy - only 7 blocks walking to school, home for lunch, back afterwards and then 7 home. And some of the sidewalks were even shoveled! I get a real kick out of the kids today since I am now a lunch lady at my former grade school.  When I tell them about walking or that I graduated from 8th grade there (no 8 grades now) in 1956, their eyes just bug out.  Guess they don't think anyone should still be alive from that long ago

[Chazzy]

I didnt have to walk to school barefooted in the snow, i just tell my grankids that..but i hardly wore shoes when i was a kid...   they sent a big yeller bus for us ..didnt have to walk to school till i went to Douglas, and then southview, i think they had a bus for southview , but i just walked across the railroad bridge by Davies packing plant...i  had a fishin pole hid down by the river that the bridge crossed.....Yeah, sometimes we didnt make it to school...Went to southview the 1st. year it was open...

[Tuck]

We lived across the street from Franklin, but had to walk down to the corner to cross the street. They would not let us just cut across the street...however, we did have quite a ways to go to North Ridge, but then only about 4 or 5 blocks to DHS.

Will be back in the hood in 78 days!!

[Guardian Angel]

We lived about 2 blocks from Collett school.  Walked to school rain or shine, usually ran if it was raining.  In the winter you might say we waddled in leggings, boots, mufflers, gloves, etc.  All schools had cloak rooms instead of lockers and that's where students who were disruptive were sent.  It wasn't very effective because the cloak rooms didn't have doors so the disruptive students could continue their disruptiong from the open doorways and quite often did, which resulted in a trip to the principals office.

 I don't ever remember having homework in grade school.  We always got our work done in class and there was a lot of board work where the teacher would give you a problem and you had to work it on the board in front of the whole class.

The only time we didn't go home for lunch was if the PTA was having a fund raiser.  Those were usually Chili dinners.  I can remember the smell of chili wafting through the halls and increasing our anticipation for lunch break.

In the 50's the government had a program where all school children were given an apple every day.  Somewhere in there they also started a program where students were given a carton of milk too.

[Cap'n Preshoot]

I know some of you remember POP'S skating rink. The girl's skated,most of them and the guy,s watched and fantized. LOL Fun place to go. No trouble that I ever was aware of. My guy was a liitle older, he would come out just to make sure I was not being ogled. He he.  Of course he was not always there!!!

I remember Pops' skating rink well. I also remember learning to skate there mostly because of a girl I met out there.  Once I learned how I only then discovered if a guy could skate he could pretty much take his pick of the girls rather than be a wall flower. Ditto learning to dance, for the same reason, which I also did at Catherine Cromwell's School of Dance in my senior year. Yeah at the time it was kind of a dorky thing for a guy to do, but I never once regretted it 

[DejaVu]

I went to Pop's a few times...but I mostly went to the other skating rink.

Nostalgic look at a Roller Skating Rink.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2wYpxzuBHs&feature=related

[Guardian Angel]

I spent many a Friday and Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at the Illini Skating Rink.  I loved skating.  In fact the day after George and I got married we went skating.  It was a Sunday afternoon and I remember Pete Hetherington was there with his kids.  He knew we had just got married and wanted to know what the hell we were doing at a skating rink......................

Some of the names I remember from my era of skating were Freddy Morris and Sharon Wright.  There are more, I just can't recall them right now.....

[Chazzy]

I really liked  pops skating rink, i went to the other 1 , just a few times. seen the Kingamen out there when they had bands...pops was like riding a roller coaster, the floor was so wavy.....but a hole lota fun..igot to the point of being able to go around the rink on shates, but but when some of the real little kids came flying sround me on 1 lsg and backwards... well i felt pretty silly , cause i was down more than up..i always went for the bands..seen REO SPEEDWAGON, most every weekend, $1.00 cover , at the Res Lion Inn....Champaign..seen a lot of big bands get their start there...they had a 40 year reuion 2 or 3 years ago. they had a bunch of bands come back for it , i still got a flyer telling who all was gonna play...some real gooooood times there..

[Chazzy]

HEY,WASN’T THAT US? SURE WAS!!!

Had pictures with this , but cudnt post them ?   Help?   
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 A little house with three bedrooms, one bathroom and one car on the street.
 A mower that you had to push to make the grass look neat.
 
 
 In the kitchen on the wall we only had one phone,
 And no need for recording things, someone was always home.
 
 
 We only had a living room where we would congregate,
 Unless it was at mealtime in the kitchen where we ate.
 
 
 We had no need for family rooms or extra rooms to dine,
 When meeting as a family those two rooms would work out fine.
 
 
 We only had one TV set, and channels maybe two,
 But always there was one of them with something worth the view.
 
 For snacks we had potato chips that tasted like a chip,
 And if you wanted flavour there was Lipton's onion dip.
 
 
 Store-bought snacks were rare because my mother liked to cook,
 And nothing can compare to snacks in Betty Crocker's book.
 flavour
 
 Weekends were for family trips or staying home to play,
 We all did things together -- even go to church to pray.
 
 
 When we did our weekend trips depending on the weather,
 No one stayed at home because we liked to be together.
 
 
 Sometimes we would separate to do things on our own,
 But we knew where the others were without our own cell phone.
 
 Then there were the movies with your favourite movie star,
 And nothing can compare to watching movies in your car.
 
 
 Then there were the picnics at the peak of summer season,
 Pack a lunch and find some trees and never need a reason.
 
 
 Get a baseball game together with all the friends you know,
 Have real action playing ball -- and no game video.
 
 
 Remember when the doctor used to be the family friend,
 And didn't need insurance or a lawyer to defend?
 
 
 The way that he took care of you or what he had to do,
 Because he took an oath and strived to do the best for you.
 
 Remember going to the store and shopping casually,
 And  when you went to pay for it you used your own money?
 
 
 Nothing that you had to swipe or punch in some amount,
 Remember when the cashier person had to really count?
 
 
 The milkman used to go from door to door,
 And it was just a few cents more than going to the store.
 
 
 There was a time when mailed letters came right to your door,
 Without a lot of junk mail ads sent out by every store.
 
 The mailman knew each house by name and knew where it was sent;
 There were not loads of mail addressed to "present occupant."
 
 
 There was a time when just one glance was all that it would take,
 And you would know the kind of car, the model and the make.
 
 
 They didn't look like turtles trying to squeeze out every mile;
 They were streamlined, white walls, fins, and really had some  style.
   
 
 
 One time the music that you played whenever you would jive,
 Was from a vinyl, big-holed record called a forty-five.
 
 
 The record player had a post to keep them all in line,
 And then the records would drop down and play one at a time.
 
 
 Oh sure, we had our problems then, just like we do today,
 And always we were striving, trying for a better way.
 
 Oh, the simple life we lived still seems like so much fun,
 How can you explain a game, just kick the can and run? 
 
 
 And why would boys put baseball cards between bicycle spokes, 
 And for a nickel red machines had little bottled Cokes?
   
         
     
 
 This life seemed so much easier and slower in some ways,
 I love the new technology but I sure miss those days.
 
 So time moves on and so do we, and nothing stays the same,
 But I sure love to reminisce and walk down memory lane.

[Hhop]

Reading the school posts brought back memories. I attended a country school with first through third grade in one room and fourth through sixth in the other. There were anywhere from 2 to 8 in each class. When a class had their lesson, they would go to the back of the room to a table with the teacher and the other classes would be busy working on their assignments or practice work.

We did not have indoor bathrooms. The girls's outhouse was at one corner of the lot and the boy's at the other. We did though have a kitchen where our lunches were served.

We had a music teacher that would travel from town weekly. At recess we played outside. In the winter we played in the snow and had elaborate pathways made all around the lot, many intersecting, and had a game where one person chased others through the pathways trying to catch someone. In the spring there was a drainage ditch out back that had frogs and tadpoles and we sometimes caught those. In the fall, we would go out into the adjacent corn field, gather corn stalks and make "forts." A highlight of the year was when "Scotty" stopped by. He was a piano tuner and always brought along his bagpipes and played those for us before leaving. I cannot really recall him working on the piano, but remember several of his visits.

Unfortunately after my fouth grade year, they closed the school and bused us into a new school in town. I really missed the fun at that school and am really grateful I had that experience, because by the late 50s and early 60s, we were one of the last remaining country schools.