I don't think Green stamps were a thing in Canada, but I do remember some type of towels included in boxes of laundry detergent. Also the grocery store (Super Valu for us Canadians) had a thing where you could collect a set of dishes, based on your bill at checkout

We had navy blue cotton one-piece gymsuits that snapped up. They were dreadful!

At all girls’ summer camp in NC we had to dress for dinner in navy shorts and middy blouse (sailor collar) with our plaid clan tie. On Sunday we wore the same uniform in white all day long. And we ate fried chicken with a knife and fork 🙄 My daughter attended the camp in the late 1990s and wore essentially the same uniforms and still ate fried chicken with cutlery. She loved it but she didn‘t understand it— but then, neither did I in the 1960s!

@Kswl I know where you went to camp! I went to a different NC camp. We wore green and white and had fried chicken for Sunday dinner (lunch). It was the same when my mother attended.

This thread has been so much fun to read. So many memories!!

I never had to wear the gymsuits. We just wore shorts and t shirts with the school logo for PE. My grandmother collected Greenstamps. I thought it was fun to paste them into the books. I had that push button phone songbook. I remember getting our first push button phone! I’ve never seen a slide rule in real life.

I remember that pen! I had one. What a great memory.

Remember these?

These were a thing in shoe stores. Self service foot xray. No time limits, no age limits. Just fine to stand there trying to position your foot to change the bone positions for fun.

fluoroscope

@Kswl I went to camp in northern WI and we too had 'uniforms' so to speak. Weekdays were navy blue shorts (or pants - northern WI can be cold in summer!) and powder blue shirts, All cotton, buttoned shirt/blouses that required ironing by the laundry service. No t-shirts allowed. Dinner was a change to a white shirt and Sundays were all whites. We had daily cabin inspections, too and a specific fold for the blanket at the foot of each bunk that required 2 people to pull it off - getting that team work in there!

Our HS gym uniforms were beyond awful - add a skirt to the rompers above 😲

And while looking for that pic I ran across a news article and searched the crowd for my pic - I was there and remember that day well. One of many protests.

https://www.winnetkahistory.org/gazette/the-new-trier-protests-of-may-1970/

I was outside constantly playing: building forts, making mud pies for my bakery, which I stacked up neatly and beautifully, whittling sticks, riding my bicycle through the woods. Skipping stones, playing in streams, climbing trees. It was beautiful, creative, innocent and fun.

I cannot get the kids I do things with weekly to enjoy these things, too connected!

Pork and ham, did you go to

MW? I remember their green and white uniforms! Actually I think GS also wore the same colors. I love those NC mountains!

DLM, it was the same morning inspection at our camp too too— with a trip to the local ice cream parlor if you passed seven days in a row. Our laundry was a thing of beauty when we picked it up, clean clean, pressed to within an inch of its life and folded beautifully. I did not give much thought to the people who worked there, most certainly for very low wages, who made that life possible.

Kswl we obviously went to the same camp in different states and had the same under appreciated laundry service ;-) Our mini reward trips were by canoe to get a coke at a local bar and the big reward (perfect score) was to Bosacki's for homemade fudge or ice cream. An innocent time with huge impact.

Kswl - No, it wasnt either of those. Funny that I know them without names. Mine started with an S. It wasn’t a popular Atlanta camp. There were many years I was the only one which was fine with me! It was very popular with Florida and Texas girls. My mother was from Florida and attended in the 50s.

We had morning inspection and a trip for ice cream (Biltmore) if you passed 7 days in row. No specific folds though. Our laundry was returned in much the same fashion and wrapped in brown kraft paper.

We earned posture beads (green wooden beads strung on a shoelace and worn as a necklace) for good posture around camp and in the riding ring and for good table manners.

I loved camp!!!

Talking to the girls this morning--here's one. The belt for pads for "that time of the month".

Oh so many memories...

We have a collection of slide rules...DH saved them. He even had a round one he kept in his pocket which he used to estimate costs for jobs for customers. That was pre-calculator for sure. I learned how to use one in high school, but always screwed up the decimal places!

We had the ugly bloomers for gym uniforms at first and later on they updated them to a one-piece cotton knit with elastic waist that was actually very comfortable...the bottom half looked like navy shorts and the top half looked like a white and navy striped t-shirt tucked in. Much better.

Annie, that is exactly what ours looked like, except they were bright red (school colors). What I hated about them was as we grew and developed (often very quickly!) they became tight and revealing. And we usually shared the gym with the boys! Even worse was swim day where we wore mandated red speedo one piece bathing suits. And the poor guys had to wear red speedos as well!

Remember mimeograph machines? That purple ink would get on everything if it was fresh. And it would stink! I only recall our high school office having one the teachers used to copy class material. And our school newspaper and yearbook staff had access to it for a few things. Ugh!

Oh, Porkandham now I know—-SL, right? You had clans also! It’s funny how those memories come back in an instant with one whiff of rhododenron or boxwood, or a plaid tie, or a wooden screened door. I’ve always loved plaid and have no doubt GA is where that comes from.

During my time our camp was seemingly dominated by girls from Louisiana, especially New Orleans and Metarie. We had a Mardi Gras party every summer complete with King cake.

DLM, I have the feeling we would have all been best buds at camp 🙂

I did the transdermal treatment. It controlled the hyperthyroid issues but something I was not fully aware of at the time was any treatment that corrects the hyperthyroidism can greatly cause renal issues with in a few years. My cat passed at 10 from renal failure after a few years of hus treatment. For this reason I feel going the least invasive and expensive route is best.

Here's something young'uns wouldn't recognize...

@DLM2000-GW, I often drive through New Trier on my way to "The Cities" from my W. Wi home. My woman's college flew a small group of us to DC during those protests - to meet with various MN Reps and now I don't remember who we met with. I don't think we got a Senator. But I remember the dress I was wearing.

We had the navy and white knit one piece gymsuits. They weren't horrible. As for school issued bathing suits, they came in different colors based on the size. But everyone tried to fit into the pretty aqua one, no matter what!

Different colors based on the size? omg, how stigmatizing that must have been for some of the students. Of course gym class back in the day wasn't known for being sensitive. I remember weigh in day. One gym teacher would weigh and measure each girl then shout the results to the other teacher half way across them gym!

Arcy, ugh, the belt!

We never had a swimming pool in our high school...it still doesn't.

We didn't have a pool in our high school or on the grounds either, but there was a natatorium several blocks away that housed an indoor pool and our football field was there too. The field is used today, the Nat where we took swimming from grade school ages (were bussed there) through 10th grade is gone. Now the kids swim and take lessons at our new Y, its a lovely pool.

And from what I understand, not particularly well thought out by school staff at the beginning. A friend of ours went to the Y to watch his kindergarten age granddaughter's first swim lesson. The children were to use the dressing rooms, one for women, one for men. Those little boys were 5 years old and some needed help/supervision dressing. Adult men using the Y for other reasons were changing and showering in the dressing room. There was no one with the class but a young woman teacher and a female bus driver. Not one other parent or grandparent came, no teachers aid. Our friend volunteered, went into the mens dressing room with an armful of little boys, introduced himself and proceeded to button shirts, tie shoes, make sure everyone's hair was dry and they had all their belongings gathered up. Retired, he went to every kindergarten swim lesson for the 6 weeks they swam. Hopefully they had sign up sheets then to cover the other age groups. (our natatorium had had a staff of 4-5 people, both male and female who could cover any locker room needs ;))

Here's something else I used that kids wouldn't recognize today

I used these in high school...

The belt. It was a misery.

A nutcracker and nutpicks

Nutpicks have been repurposed in my house as cleaning tools! They are great for getting into crevices, and the dryer lint screen that is in FRONT of the one you remove for cleaning. Also crochet hooks are good for that, and for drains.

Ah, those punch cards! They came in boxes of 2,00, five of those boxes to a case. We had a bunch of boxes in the basement for years until we could get our son to carry them to the curb for recycling. He wanted to know what they were for, so we told him. He was working at the college computer lab, so he rescued a few cards to put in a picture frame, with the legend "in case of emergency, break glass"

leisure suits for men ... had a brown one and a limey green one

The 'bag' phone. Didn't exactly fit in your purse!

I had to plug mine into the cigarette lighter of my car.

It was only for EMERGENCIES!

Tonettes. My mother always despaired that my sister and I had straight hair, just like hers! We both got Tonette perms. Some of my school pictures look like I stuck my finger in an electric socket.

My brother had butch wax for his crew cut.

i remember all these things. My gym uniform had the skirt on it. It was maroon. We had inspection to be sure we had taken themhome and washed them.

My high school also had a smoking area!

1950's rotary dial wall phone. My mother had a strong preference for wall phones.

Nehi Grape Soda in a bottle with peanuts inside. A must snack watching little league games.

We had a wringer washer like this until 1963. It was horribly dated even then, but it was a huge step up for my mother. She used a scrub board and had to boil water when we lived in France. I accidentally ran my arm through the wringer once, but the release worked and prevented bruises and broken bones.

🤣@Allison0704

Remember the first VCR machines and programing them for a daily show like a soap? Each day of the week had a separate little place on the face of the machine and it took forever to program.

Today I gave DG the Jacks I bought for her. She'd never heard of them. :)

Not sure if this was covered, but I saw a video yesterday of some kids trying to use a rotary phone. They seemed completely baffled 😄

And what about answering machines that used cassette tapes?

My car has hand crank windows and so does my brother's pickup. They are still being made.

I used to have a rewinder for VHS tapes, and I don't know where it went.

As a child, I had a square loom that I used to make potholders from loops of different colors. You can still buy this, but it is not as common as it used to be.

Oh, Lars. I had the potholder kit too and made plenty of pot holders. I'm going to guess the cost was not $20 then. $20 would have been a somewhat expensive toy in our family.

Shall we talk vehicles? A choke...a throttle...a spark handle...a starter button...a knob you pulled to open the vents by your feet...a clutch...a vent window...

I'm tempted to buy another potholder loom. You can buy extra loops, but the potholders end up costing about $5.50 each (plus tax), which does seem expensive.

I drive a stick shift, and so I'm used to using a clutch, but there are valet services here that do not accept cars with manual transmissions. I like manual transmission because less can go wrong with it, and the car costs less.

A fountain fen. in second grade we learned and curse could not use a pencil. We had a well on our desk to hold the jar of ink.

I use a fountain pen every day and have several of them.

I don't remember using one in the second grade, but I definitely used them from the 5th grade through high school and university. The only time I use a ballpoint is when I write checks, so that I will get a duplicate copy.

I have two colors of ink - a purplish blue and a slightly greenish blue.

Children today still make potholders, fyi. DGS made one at Montessori school when he was 9 or 10yo.