Saturday Night Fun When I Was Young

1)  Geneablogger Alona Tester has devised a new meme called the "When I Was Young" genea-meme on her blog, LoneTester HQ.

2)  Since the genea-meme is 25 questions, let's do the last 10 this time.  This week, answer questions 16 to 25.

3)  Share your answers on your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post, or in a Facebook post or a Google+ post.

Here's mine: 


Q16.  What was entertainment when you were young?

We had a big yard with a swing set and a teeter totter and most warm weekends we headed for the lake. Our next door neighbor was a coach for the kids bowling leagues at Diamond Bowl, so at about 8 or 9 I started league bowling every Saturday. That continued on till I got out of High School.

Q17.  Do you remember what it was it like when your family got a new fangled invention? (ie. telephone, TV, VCR, microwave, computer?)
 I remember when we got a TV, black & white, a console model about 20 inch one. We had two TV stations then and soon the third one came. I remember watching the test pattern in the mornings sometimes before the station came on. TV came in easily at our house, just rabbit ears on top of the TV. Our neighbors across the street needed an outside antenna to get all three channels.
 
Q18.  Did your family have a TV? Was it b&w or colour? And how many channels did you get?

We got a color TV a few years later and soon we also had a fourth channel PBS. At the lake we could only get one channel most of the time. They had their antenna on Mt. Spokane and we could see their antenna from our lake cabin.

Q19. Did your family move house when you were young? Do you remember it?
Yes, they bought the first house just before Pearl Harbor, and off pop went in the service. 39 months later he was home, and that is when my sister and I came, baby boomers. That house was in the middle of the block and when I was a year and a half old they bought the house on the end of the block, it had a big yard. I don't remember the move, but they say I helped, they would load my wagon and I pulled it to the new house. Still living in that house today.

Q20.  Was your family involved in any natural disasters happening during your childhood (i.e. fire, flood, cyclone, earthquake, etc)

Well I was not very young when Mt. St. Helens blew and dropped about a quarter of inch of ash on Spokane.

Q21.  Is there any particular music that when you hear it, sparks a childhood memory?

I was in the band in junior high and high school, but was not a real fan of any kind of music, but we had a radio on a lot so I did hear a lot of music.

Q22.  What is something that an older family member taught you to do?

My father tried to teach me mechanics, he had been an auto mechanic, but most of it just went over my head. He was a good gardener and had a vegetable garden a lot of the time. One of our dogs liked carrots and would dig them up and eat them. A later dog liked peas and would pick the pods off, shell the peas and eat the peas.

Q23.  What are brands that you remember from when you were a kid?

Pepsodent toothpaste, Brylcream, Wonder Bread (but we went to the local bakery for our bread), Double Bubble Bubble Gum, M & Ms 


Q24.  Did you used to collect anything? (ie. rocks, shells, stickers … etc.)
I collected coins, still have them here somewhere. Mom would collect rocks when we traveled, big rocks, and pop would get mad at how much they weighed.
 
Q25.  Share your favorite childhood memory.

I think the most fun we had was at the lake, swimming or fishing, and later water skiing, parents bought us a 10 foot boat and a 2 hp motor and we went all over the lake with that little boat.

Thank you, Alona, for the genea-meme - it was fun to recall 50-60 years ago!