🤔 1923-1973 Do You Remember...

[Anonymous]

👍Tell us about YOUR "good old days"......

BORN: Age 50 - 1973, Age 60 - 1963, Age 70 - 1953, Age 80 - 1943, Age 90 - 1933, Age 100 - 1923.

[papawofboo]

Growing up we had wood floors, the last thing that was done when decorating the tree was everyone would get hand fulls of tensel and throw it on the tree.

When I got married our house had carpet. We did the same thing with the tree. We had tensel all year long.

Carpet is the reason I quit with live trees and tinsel.

[SereneSeagull]

I’d always like to throw it, and let it cascade, but I know of some people liked to do it strand by strand!

[LisaS961881]

   We were always admonished to do it strand by strand, and yes, we too always found stray bits if tinsel, pine needles, and even an ornament hook or two clear into February! 🤭

[SereneSeagull]

The more tinsel the merrier!  Since having little pets in the house have skipped that now.   It was different back then too,  But this is how I remember our trees back then!

[LisaS961881]

    No tinsel anymore for me either because of a furry little one!

[ChasKy53]

Dave, I have a colander exactly like the one you posted. We have several others, but this one is the only one I use. Also, I love the Christmas from the '50s and '60s post. Main street and store fronts everywhere were decorated to the 9's. Christmas is online anymore. I miss the ma and pa shops.

[LisaS961881]

    I miss the Mom and Pop stores too!  When you walked in, they all greeted you by name! And I remember my Grandfather’s Barber Shop, where I was always given a lollipop! 

[DaveMcK]

[LisaS961881]

[LisaS961881]

    ….and small towns had decor that stretched across every intersection!

[MsStretch]

Before I quit working several years ago, I used to work every Christmas season for a company that did exterior decorating at town centers and squares and shopping centers in the northern VA, DC, MD area.  (It's where stagehands and riggers go to work for extra money in the winter. 😁) We did perimeter lighting on buildings and lit up trees, installed 20' - 30' Christmas trees, 3' - 6' wreaths and sprays on the side of buildings, wrapped columns in garland, installed banners, snowflakes, other assorted goodies on lamp poles, and a myriad of other decorating.  It was quite an operation and we had to work overnight when everything was closed because we had to work with 40' - 60' lifts.  We used to say we were like Santa's elves because people go to bed one night and the next day everything would be all twinkly and Christmas-y.  We usually started install in Oct., and everything came down the first week in January.  (I can tell you it came down a lot faster than it went up.)  But it could be bitterly cold 🥶 out there in the middle of the night.

There are still a few smaller towns in VA that I still see the decorations stretched across the street.

[LisaS961881]

     And you were Santa’s Elves!

      Kindergartener me was awed by those decorations magically appearing the day after Thanksgiving!  Along with the garlands, the banners and the lighted bells, we had an elf-sized “Express North Pole Post Office” materialize in front of the Woolworths. I couldn’t wait to mail my letter to Santa there. 

   And, about three weeks later, Santa would arrive at our house riding a fire truck.  Not only did he know my name, but he always knew about a good deed that I had done, and would gift me with a candy came and a clementine!  

    My small town still has vintage style Christmas decorations stretched across the street, but it is now only at a single intersection, not throughout Main Street.

     Thanks for the memories! 🎄

[SereneSeagull]

Very cool @MsStretch  I’ve always wanted to see people dress up the strip malls, but like you say, it was like magic appearing the next day!  

Then maybe you would remember decades ago the Hecht Company or Woodward and Lothrop (‘Woodies as everyone called it) in downtown DC, with the big plate windows on the buildings all dressed up with the holiday scenes inside of them.  Many with mechanical moving decorations.  

[papawofboo]

 My town looked like this from weekend after T/giving until a few days after New Years. 

The only changes that I liked was the parking. If I didn't get it right on the first try then I was in trouble.

[SereneSeagull]

Yes!  Mine does that!  Not as elaborate as this picture, though.  As well as strip-malls do it on the poles of the parking lots area.  Very festive.

[papawofboo]

Christmas wasn't put out until the day after T/giving. All the yard decorations were made of wood.

And best of all, everyone said "Merry Christmas."

[LisaS961881]

      My wood Santa is still standing after all these years, and just needed a bit of touch-up paint !

[SereneSeagull]

Wow!  Very tall too!

[SereneSeagull]

It’s now after Halloween it seems when things get put out in the stores for the holiday season.  I dont mind saying Happy Holidays as it reflects our wonderful melting pot of holidays around the time.

[DaveMcK]

[papawofboo]

I bought one after I go married. And yes,the grandkids loved to roll it up and down. Some things never change.

[SereneSeagull]

So true!

[Vexed]

 Loved those, but we never had one. Would play with them whenever we could go to a store. (Then get shushed away by an employee.)

[SereneSeagull]

Nice!  Fun part as a kid rolling those up and down 

[DaveMcK]

[SereneSeagull]

I have my mother’s old one still, and tend to prefer it over the newer ones I was given over the years.  That, and a potato masher that were hers are some of my most used items from her .  I decided not to take the old Pressure cooker that was her mother’s though!

Edit to add — As a kid we used to put this on our head and pretend we were space creatures!

[LeeS4949]

 Hard to have pasta without it.. Thanks Dave

[LisaS961881]

     Anyone else remember these?  Or the church choir?

[Vexed]

 Yep, I remember them. Also remember some melted unrecognizable globs in the Christmas box. 😊

[DaveMcK]