I was setting here thinking over this holiday week-end about some of the things I would like to have a taste of again. Like Birley Grape bottled drink, or Mission Orange bottled drink. My cousin Ed Smith worked at Mission Orange. It was Kitty-Corner from Owens-Illinois Glass where I worked. Talk about a great Orange drink. It was about the best. Then there was good old RC (Royal Crown Cola) that came in a bottle too. It was a pretty good runner up with Coke back in the "good old days". Of course if you watched "Mash", you remember Radar was always having a Nehi, which was another bottled drink. You may wonder about "bottle", but back then all soft drinks came in bottles, cans hadn't come into being. Everyone saved their bottles to take them back for the refund. All the bottles were then taken back to the Company where they were washed and sterilized to be refilled again.
I miss the Milkman who use to deliver Milk to our back door every morning. Milk came in bottles back then too. In fact then, it wasn't even homoginized. Oh, it was pasturized, but the cream would come to the top. If you wanted to have whipped cream for anything, you could pour the cream off if not, you just shook the bottle to have whole milk. Now you never see any
cream on milk. You can buy it in a seperate carton, and pay a lot more for it. Milk comes in two or three types. 2%, 1%, Vitamin D or Non Fat. We wouldn't have known how to order it back then. Some times when I go shopping, I don't know which kind I would like to buy. I should be drinking Non Fat I guess, but the 1% looks better.
I think I have mentioined the Helms Bakery Truck before, but they were a real treat. The kids use to run out and see what was on the Truck. Of course he always had Donuts, and that was a favorite for the kids. There were all kinds of bread, and cakes and pies plus a nice assortment of cookies. Everything was fresh. Those things are gone for good.
There use to be a corner store in every neighborhood. The prices were higher than at the big Super Market, but they were usually further away, and it took a weekly shopping trip to buy up the things needed. That was when meals were planned for a week. If we needed something else, we usually sent one of the kids down to get it. Now, there is a Market usually close enough that the small "Mom and Pop stores" are gone. Well you do see them in some areas, but not where we are living now. We had one in Taft, and I saw a few while I was in Salt Lake City, I
didn't shop at them however.
Gas Stations were independantly owned. Usually with just two pumps, and the owner or his helper would come out and pump the gas, check your oil, water and see there was proper air in the tires. Some of them had an area where they did work on cars, but not all. Back then Gas was about 15 cents a gallon. I think when Jay started to work, he worked in a Gas Station for awhile. That was when everyone doing that kind of work, wore a special uniform. There were no Oil Company Stations back in those days. Of course there weren't as many cars either. As you may remember, we didn't use our car much, people still walked most places.
When we went uptown shopping, there was always at least four or five shoe stores. They pretty well carried the same styles of shoe, but the prices were sometimes better than one of the other stores. That was what made shopping so much fun. The same for dresses. There were the more expensive clothing stores, Sears-Roebuck & Co , Montgomery Ward and good old Mode-O-Day dress shop. Man how I wish they were still around. You don't know what you missed by not having a Mode-O-Day shop in town.
Sears use to have a catalog that was the greatest item in every household. You could shop for almost anything, and it would be shipped to your home. Montgomery Ward also was a store with a catalog department. We always called it Monkey Wards, but don't ask me why, I just know that is what we called it. The first year Jay and I was married, he loved to shop at Monkey Wards. He bought our first radio from there for me for Chirstmas, and his table saw when we moved into our first home. That Radio was state of the art for the time. It had a record player that pulled down from the front. Man it was classey. We used to play that thing all the time. Beautiful piece of furniture for that time.
Those Catalogs were called "Wish Books" I suppose many hours were gleefully spent going page by page checking out everything that could possibly bring a desire of one sort or another to the forefront. In days where there was not Television or Radio, those Catalogs became a great way to pass the time.
Now Sears no longer has a Catalog Dept and Montgomery Ward is out of business. Or at least around California it is. We use to go to the Catalog Store at Olympic and Soto Streets in Los Angeles to look for bargains. We found a great many things discounted there over the years. Of course the same is true of May Company in Los Angeles. We use to go there to shop in their basement where they discounted items. A great place to find something, as Jay would say, that would save money on something you didn't need. Great to shop for Christmas things. We found a lot of great things for the family at Christmas at the May Company in Whittier. Well May Company is no longer. It merged with Broadway and I don't know what they are calling themselves these days. Not many of them around either.
As for Automobiles, well they have gone too. There was the Nash, the Hudson, the Studebaker, and for awhile the Kaiser. None of them are around today. Oh, and the American Motors. George Romney was the head of that company for awhile. They made a good car, but it is gone too.
One of the Movie Weekly Specials was "The Passing Parade" Little did I know then that I was
living in one. If I would have been more alert, I could have kept a good record of just what was in today and gone tomorrow.
None of this makes me feel old, it just makes me sad that so many good things that were wholesome and good, have left, while there are so many harmful and useless things around today. One of the signs of the times I guess. When I was younger, we had to worry about the cost of things. Today the things we thought were expensive or not needed, would be such a treat today. We drank Cool Aide back then, instead of bottled drinks. Today everyone drinks from a can, and rarely ever makes Cool Aide anymore. Amazing!
Maybe this is a challenge for you younger folks to take inventory of the things that surround you and then watch and see just what is still around 50 years from now. You may be surprised that so much of what you took for granted is no longer part of living anymore. Not that it will be such a disaster if it is gone, just proof that nothing lasts forever. Or nothing material that is. Things change and times change, but life is still evolving and change is the only thing that lasts. Some good, some bad, but change is what life seems to be made of.
I'm greatful for what I had, sad for what I lost, and hopeful for what lies ahead.
Written this 7th day of September
by: Eileen Rosenberg
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