Innehållsförteckning för June/July 2020 från Reminisce

Every month, submissions to our Growing Up department are by far the most numerous. These stories touch on all aspects of childhood and span most of the 20th century from the 1920s to the 1990s. We’ve long wished to gather the best of them to tell a larger story about growing up in midcentury America. At last, we’ve done just that in “When We Were Young” (page 26), a charming collection about the lives of children through decades of social, political and economic change. Especially touching are tales of finding joy in periods of hardship. Patricia Edwards running free with her siblings in Long Beach, California, during the Great Depression (page 30) and Royal Sutton and his brother Bob making their own fun during World War II (page 33) are…

MADE IN THE SHADE Sick of sunglasses that squeeze or slip off? Yunizon eyewear says it has designs “fit for every face.” Protect your eyes by blocking 100% of UVA and UVB rays the glam way. $159 and up, yunizoneyewear.com DOT TO DOT Putting on sunscreen: easy. Re-applying after activity: easy to forget. Enter Spot My UV, a sticker that turns purple when you’ve swum, sweated or sunned too long. One lasts through multiple sunscreen applications. $12/12-pack, spotmyuv.com COVER UP Cut down on sunscreen and save your skin with clothing infused with 50+ UPF coverage that blocks 98% of UVA and UVB rays. Coolibar’s LumaLeo tees keep you cool, too. $45 women’s/$49 men’s, coolibar.com TAKE THE HEAT Shiseido says its Ultimate Sun Protector SPF 50+ formula provides broad-spectrum, ocean-friendly protection…

Born Burton Leon Reynolds Jr., Feb. 11, 1936, in Lansing, MI. Died Sept. 6, 2018, in Jupiter, FL. Actor in scores of hit movies, he turned down big roles in Star Wars, Die Hard and Taxi Driver. He said no to James Bond, too, believing an American wasn’t right for the role. His extravagant lifestyle and high-profile breakups made as many headlines as his movie roles. “I always wanted to experience everything and go down swinging. … And there’s one thing they can never take away: Nobody had more fun than I did.”…

The Wilson family lived in Nebraska, but decided to move to where jobs were more plentiful. In 1942, my grandparents and their seven children, including my mother, Irene, headed out West to Oregon. For the trip, my grandpa bought a 1929 Model A pickup that he outfitted with a wooden canopy to cover the truck bed. The only problem was that my grandparents didn’t know how to drive! Irene, their oldest, had a boyfriend, Perle, who suggested that he could be the family’s driver on their seven-day journey. Perle had a plan to ask Irene to marry him when they arrived in Oregon. The family took him up on his offer, so off they went, with three passengers in the front seat and seven in the truck bed under the…

Anne’s newfound English cousin brought up a lot of mysteries, which shows two things: ▪ Our research is never quite complete.▪ We must be open to learning about what others discover for the family we think we know. Jack may have experienced “shell shock,” now known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Without social services to help deal with the stress and horror of war, it appears Jack did what many soldiers have done through military history: He didn’t go home. And he didn’t talk about it. He simply started over. Uncovering the reasons he chose to neglect his wife and the only child he would have, and leave them wondering in England, would be difficult. We do know Grandmother felt family appearance was important. Nature and nurture are certainly part…

RADIO, TV & MOVIES • The Lone Ranger• Captain Midnight• Howdy Doody (NBC)• Bambi (1942) STORYTIME STAPLES • Curious George (Margret and H.A. Rey)• Goodnight Moon (Margaret Wise Brown)• The Hundred Dresses (Eleanor Estes) FAVORITE TOYS & GAMES • Sidewalk games like four square and hopscotch• Slinky• Silly Putty• Army tanks, subs and planes FASHIONS & FADS • Girls: dresses—likely handmade—for school and church; pants at home• Boys: striped shirts with shorts or trousers and long socks…

PLAIN FAVORITE First served on hot dogs in 1904 at the St. Louis World’s Fair, French’s was a standby both at ballparks and on picnic tables. Recipes devised at the Rochester, NY, headquarters at 1 Mustard St. appeared on jar labels and in free leaflets, as this ad offers. CRAFTY TOMATOES The unusual salads here include Two-Way Tempter (far left) with jellied consomme and Miracle Whip, and Sea Isle (center) with shrimp and Kraft Sandwich Spread. French, Miracle French and Casino French dressings might best be called mild, medium and wild, depending on how much garlic you like. MEET YOUR TREAT Armour Treet was introduced in 1939, two years after Spam, but never was able to overtake its canned competitor. When compared to Spam, Treet is smoother, closer to Vienna…

TELL US HOW TO FIND YOU Whether you send your submission via mail or email or post it online, include your full name, daytime phone number, email address and mailing address. If you have a post office box, tell us your street address too. HELP US SORT THINGS OUT Include the name of the department your submission is for (Motoring Memories, Growing Up, etc.) on the first page of your submission or in the email subject line. For any photos you submit, please identify the people, city, state and year the photo was taken. We reserve the right to use submissions in any section of our magazine, or elsewhere. We do not return unsolicited materials. Send quality photo reprints or email high-resolution JPEG files (300 dpi at 8x10) so you…

Dark glasses, a low-key stage manner and wistful lyrics made Roy Orbison an enigma among showier peers. His well-crafted pop ballads and his soaring voice made him a unique, and key, influence on rock ’n’ roll. Orbison held his own against the British invasion, on the way to a stellar 1964. “Oh, Pretty Woman” was No. 1 in the U.S. and the U.K.; “It’s Over” was a Top 10 hit (No. 1 in the U.K.). Personal tragedies slowed his career, but the last years of his life were some of his most productive. A family pastime of music Roy Kelton Orbison, born in Vernon, Texas, grew up listening to a mix of styles, from country to zydeco. His parents moved around, at one point working at a defense plant in…

RADIO & MOVIES • Little Orphan Annie• Flash Gordon Duck Soup (1933)• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) STORYTIME STAPLES • The Story of Ferdinand (Munro Leaf)• Madeline (Ludwig Bemelmans) FAVORITE TOYS & GAMES • Flossie Flirt doll• Tricycles• Monopoly• Lionel train sets FASHIONS & FADS • Girls: bright print dresses with drop waists, Mary Jane shoes, overalls or pants for playtime• Boys: matching shirts and shorts, lace-up boots, pullovers, sailor suits…

Floyd Gardner • Altoona, IA THE AMERICAN DREAM embraces new housing on the outskirts of cities. Domestic life centers around children as the number of kids between the ages of 5 and 14 increases by more than 10 million by decade’s end. MY HOMETOWN OF OSSIAN THREW A BIG party in celebration of its centennial in 1950. There were carnival rides set up on Main Street and various games of skill. One involved tipping milk bottles for prizes. I won a small sack of rubber maggots at this game. They were so well made that when placed on a flat surface, they would wiggle vigorously from even the smallest movement nearby. I couldn’t think what to do with the ugly things, but they looked so real, there was no question…

TV & MOVIES • The Flintstones• The Brady Bunch• The Pink Panther (1963)• The Love Bug (1968) STORYTIME STAPLES • A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L’Engle)• The Cricket in Times Square (George Selden)• Gentle Ben (Walt Morey) FAVORITE TOYS • Barbie and G.I. Joe• Easy-Bake Oven• The Super Ball• Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots FASHIONS & FADS • Bell-bottoms• Smiley faces• Turtlenecks…

More than 2 billion cans of Play-Doh have sold since it first hit shelves at Woodward and Lothrop Department Store in Washington, D.C., in 1956. Toy company Hasbro estimates that if you were to put all that compound through a Fun Factory play set, you would extrude a snake that could wrap around the earth 300 times. The world’s most popular modeling clay has an unexpected history, beginning life as a cleaning compound for soot-stained walls. The company hit the skids, hard, at least twice—in the 1920s and again in the 1940s—until an imaginative nursery school teacher convinced the compound maker, her brother-in-law, to think of his product in a whole new way. And soon there was no stopping Play-Doh. Once it caught on in the late 1950s and early…

One perfect day in 1972 when I was 10, I was visiting my grandparents with a handful of relatives. We were strolling around the spacious front yard of their farm. I was very proud of my new high-fashion red jeans. These were not just regular bell-bottoms, which were all the rage at the time, but super bell-bottoms, what we dubbed “elephant pants.” The flare was about a foot wide—I had to put rubber bands around the ankles when I rode my bike to keep the jeans from getting stuck in the chain. As we continued our peaceful walk, I felt a strange sensation on one leg. With horror, I realized an insect was inside one leg of my flared pants, jumping around. “Help! Help!” I screamed. My dad, fearing I…

LETTERS HOME We’re interested in any correspondence between loved ones far away and those missing them at home—letters from military service members or college students, postcards from travelers, notes from people working abroad. Include copies of the letters and pictures of the writers, wherever possible. Label your story and photos “Letters.” HOLIDAY TRAVELS Tell us about that annual end-of-year trek to visit relatives or a snowbound cabin. Don’t spare the glorious and not-so-glorious details. Label your story and photos “Holiday Travel.” HEROIC PETS Growing up, did you have a Lassie, Pete the Pup or Morris the Cat who saved the day? Tell us about your four-legged hero. Label your story and photos “Pet Heroes.” KEEPSAKES Have you kept a sentimental object over the years? Tell us why you kept it…

Last names quickly were superfluous for John, Paul, George and Ringo, who had a blockbuster year in 1964. How many other Beatles’ fab firsts do you remember? 1 These two albums issued 10 days apart by different record companies are the first Beatles’ albums with a U.S. release. 2 This No. 1 hit is the band’s first in the U.S. 3 A jaw-dropping 73 million people first see them live on this TV show. 4The Fab Four play their first American concert here. 5 The Beatles were one of only a few groups to occupy multiple top spots on Billboard’s Top 100 simultaneously. How many songs were in the top five? 6 The Beatles’ first film premieres in London on July 6. Its name? 7 The Beatles meet this folk…

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, is a beautiful area and draws celebrities who want to live here. In 1995 I was working as a medical technologist for four doctors at Family Health Associates, where I ran the lab and X-ray departments. One of our patients was actress Patty Duke, who was working on a TV show called Amazing Grace, in which she played a pastor. The show was being shot on location in Coeur d’Alene, and Duke, who was also a co-producer, had Burt Reynolds as a guest actor for one of the episodes. For the show’s insurance purposes, Reynolds had to have an X-ray taken. He arrived at the clinic accompanied by two bodyguards. My department was near the front of the clinic—first door to the left—and the bodyguards waited there…

RADIO & MOVIES • Amos ’n’ Andy• The Goldbergs• The Thief of Bagdad (1924)• Steamboat Willie, featuring Mickey Mouse (1928) STORYTIME STAPLES • The Velveteen Rabbit (Margery Williams)• The Box-Car Children (Gertrude Chandler Warner)• Winnie-the-Pooh (A.A. Milne) FAVORITE TOYS & GAMES • Teddy bear• Raggedy Ann• Die-cast cars and train sets• Tinker Toys• Mini-golf (1926) FASHIONS & FADS • Girls: loose cotton dresses, canvas shoes, bob haircuts with bows or ribbons• Boys: knickers, pullovers, sailor suits for special occasions…

John Whalen • Walla Walla, WA AMERICANS MOSTLY STAY put until after WWII, when they begin moving toward cities, especially in the Northeast and Midwest. Birthrates shoot up as soldiers return home to a promise of affordable housing and good jobs. Prosperity puts new focus on family and building stable communities. FOUR HOUSES UP THE STREET was a yard with a tall wooden fence. I walked past it every day on my way to third grade. I could hear a dog barking on the other side, and one day, I looked between the slats. All I could see was teeth. I wanted the dog to like me, so I saved half of the sandwich from my lunches to throw over the fence. Then I started taking the sandwich apart to…

TV & MOVIES • The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin• Hopalong Cassidy• Lady and the Tramp (1955)• The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) STORYTIME STAPLES • Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)• The Borrowers (Mary Norton)• Harold and the Purple Crayon (Crockett Johnson) FAVORITE TOYS • Mr. Potato Head• Magic 8 Ball• Hula Hoop• Frisbee FASHIONS & FADS • Girls: plaid A-line skirts, rolled-up jeans, corduroy jumpers, chiffon neck scarves (teens)• Boys: flannel-lined denim, argyle cardigans, bow ties…

1912 Cleo McVicker founds Kutol Products Co. in Cincinnati, OH. In 1927, with his firm in trouble, Cleo hires his brother to help manage it. Noah McVicker has a knack for developing products. 1933 Cleo McVicker signs a deal with Kroger stores to make a wallpaper cleaner exclusive to the chain. Kutol has never made wallpaper cleaner before, but Noah comes up with a formula using flour, salt and water. The product is in high demand in U.S. houses, where coal furnaces leave a sooty residue on walls and ceilings. 1949 Demand for Kutol’s wallpaper compound plunges as new postwar homes feature cleaner-burning oil, gas or electric furnaces. Then, Cleo McVicker dies in a plane crash. His son Joseph steps in to manage the failing company. 1955 Joe McVicker’s sister-in-law…

Mamie Eisenhower was known as a savvy, well-put-together supporter of her husband. With her keen eye for style, she helped to make a shade of bright pink—called First Lady pink—popular with women across the country. The first lady believed that anyone who took the time to write to her deserved a response. She signed thousands of letters during her tenure in the White House, 1953-’61. The large number of letters on the market bearing her signature can affect their value. As with most correspondence that originates with famous people, the value also depends on a letter’s contents. An autographed envelope can fetch around $200; a personal note like Diane’s or a letter of condolence to a friend whose husband has just died can sell for more than $400.…

CUSTOMER CARE For subscriptions, renewals, gifts, payments, account information and inquiries: Email: customercare@reminisce.com Visit: reminisce.com/customercare Write: REMINISCE CUSTOMER CARE PO BOX 5294 HARLAN IA 51593-0794 To buy single issues: shoptasteofhome.com EDITORIAL OFFICES Email comments and suggestions: feedback@reminisce.com Write: REMINISCE 1610 N 2ND ST STE 102 MILWAUKEE WI 53212-3906 facebook.com/ReminisceMagazine REPRINT REQUESTS Email permissions@TrustedMediaBrands.com to request permission to reprint any material from Reminisce. For bulk article reprints and poster printing, contact Sheridan Content Solutions, scsreprints@sheridan.com.…