Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - The "When I Was Young" Genea-Meme, Part 3

It's Saturday Night, time for more Genealogy Fun!! 

This Week's Mission for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver at Geneamusings.com is to complete the Genea-Meme  called "When I Was Young" .  It's been fun flashing back and reading others' memories. I'm going to complete the challenge now with questions,  16 to 25.

Q16.  What was entertainment when you were young?
I'm sure I've forgotten some of the "entertainment" but we didn't seem to get too bored.  There were games that continued from day to day in the summer, such as Canasta or Monopoly.  We'd leave the card table setup and come back.  We had a swimming pool that my dad built of cement block in our back yard.  So we helped him clean it each spring and he'd get the filter system up and running.  It was an exciting day when that hose went in and was turned on to get it filled up.  There were drive-in theaters where we spent some warm summer nights.
Some of the girl friends in the neighborhood would hang out and walk up  and down the street, just talking. Everyone would play hide and seek.  If the parents approved the girls might stay over at one another's house.  When a few of us stayed at one girlfriend's where they had a larger home with a basement, we might wait until the first girl fell asleep and then put her hand in ice water.  I don't think the result was ever what we thought it should be though.  You know what I mean.
As I grew up I remember playing spin the bottle at a friend's house that was a little older than me. I didn't really know much about what was going on.  That quickly stopped though when somehow my mother decided I shouldn't play there anymore. 
And then there were the hobbies that my older brother had that fascinated me.  I liked watching him fly his remote control model airplanes, play with his army men and run his toy train in the attic.  Sometimes I would go up there by myself and put one of the capsules into the engine that made smoke going around the track.   

Q17.  Do you remember what it was it like when your family got a new fangled invention? (ie. telephone, TV, VCR, microwave, computer?)
I don't necessarily remember those transitions from one to the other new invention.  The memories of the telephone party line are vivid though.  We had three rings for our extension, so if it rang with only two you knew that it was for the neighbors.  If you wanted to make a call you picked up the phone and listened to hear if anyone was already talking.  The time frame when I  would have been old enough to pay attention to using the phone and still on a party line was about 1959 - 1967.  Our number was ST6-3695.
I remember when there was a test pattern on the TV because the programming ended.  Can you imagine that?  A time when there wasn't anything on the TV???  I guess that was in the 1950s.

Q18.  Did your family have a TV? Was it b&w or colour? And how many channels did you get?
My sister tells me that we got a TV about 1950.  I was too young to remember not having one, but do remember black and white TV.  But I remember having four channels, one was a local station that didn't always come in that well but they had the favorite kids characters, such as Sammy Terry and Cowboy Bob - WTTV Channel 4, Bloomington, Indiana.  We also watched The Lone Ranger, Ed Sullivan, I Love Lucy, Leave It To Beaver and my dad's favorite, Lawrence Welk.  We watched the bouncing bubbles every Saturday.  I waited for the Lennon Sisters.  Janet was my favorite. 

Q19. Did your family move house when you were young? Do you remember it?
My dad built our home that I grew up in about the year I was born.  So my childhood was spent in that same home at 3314 South New Jersey St., south side Indianapolis.  That suburb was built basically in the boom after World War II.  When I graduated from high school he and my stepmother built a new home and moved to the other side of Indianapolis, closer to where they worked, Western Electric Co.  I remember being anxious about them possibly moving before I finished high school.  But I'm sure it would have been much less traumatic than I imagined.  Once I was driving and my world expanded a lot, I didn't give it another thought.  I've been moving ever since.

Q20.  Was your family involved in any natural disasters happening during your childhood (i.e. fire, flood, cyclone, earthquake, etc)
No, there were numerous tornado warnings as I grew up.  But luckily, none every struck near us.

Q21.  Is there any particular music that when you hear it, sparks a childhood memory?
Songs from the Catholic Church or favorites rock n roll songs from my teenage years have that familiar feeling for me.  I was smack dab in the middle of the Beatles era and I loved Paul McCartney.  I collected any news clipping or magazine photo I found in a scrapbook.  So, just about any Beatles song sparks memories. Ed Sullivan's Beatles shows are still vivid in my mind.  There are many other rock n roll songs as well that make me think back, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones, Elvis, Everly Brothers and on.  There was a popular station in Indianapolis, WIFE.  Lot of us listened to those DJ's.
Q22.  What is something that an older family member taught you to do?
My mother taught me to ride a two-wheel bike and I remember her giving me a bicycle lapel pin when I completed eight figure eights.  She was an avid bike rider in her younger years.

Q23.  What are brands that you remember from when you were a kid?
Nehi Orange, Coca Cola, those were special treats.  Only when we had some extra money to go to the local hardware store to get a six pack.  Dairy Queen Dilly Bars were another treat.  The Dairy Queen near our house was within walking distance and we were anxious for it to be spring when they reopened for the season.

Q24.  Did you used to collect anything? (ie. rocks, shells, stickers … etc.)
Don't remember collecting much, other than those Beatles memorabilia.  Oh yeah, Story Book Dolls that were Christmas presents and kept put away so that they were nicely preserved.

Q25.  Share your favourite childhood memory.
I can't really say I have a favorite childhood memory.  But a couple that I haven't mentioned yet are my Grandma Weber and Girl Scouts.  I remember fondly having Santa at my Grandma Weber's with my cousins and also the days I stayed with her when my mother worked at her job as a secretary.  We took naps together and watched Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Green Jeans.  And Girl Scouts is another good remembrance.  There were camps in the summer at McCormick's Creek State Park that will always be with me.

Thanks for going down memory lane with me!!  How about your memories? Share in the comment section below if you'd like.
And thanks again for visiting Indiana Ties!
Nancy