Category Archives: Nostalgia

50′s Nostalgia- Velveeta

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Grilled Cheese Sandwiches meant Velveeta

Growing up in the 50′s, Velveeta meant cheese. Grilled cheese sandwiches were a treat and my mother wouldn’t make grilled cheese sandwiches without Velveeta. It was also her cheese of choice for macaroni and cheese. I don’t think I ever considered that Velveeta wasn’t really cheese until I was out on my own at which time people started talking down Velveeta. I didn’t buy Velveeta for my family and we made our cheese dishes with REAL cheese. Continue reading →

60′s Nostalgia- Peter, Paul and Mary

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The 60′s were a life pivot for me.

I left my rural home for college in the big city in the fall of ’59 and left graduate school to start a career in California in February ’70. There was a lot of transition during that decade. There was a lot of music providing a background for life changing experiences and events but forget the Stones and the Beatles; turn down the Dead and Iron Butterfly; because the  musical group that held my hand and kept me going during that decade was Peter, Paul and Mary.

Yes- the pseudo folk group.

It is easy to trivialize the Peter, Paul and Mary. They dressed nice- of course all the groups dressed nice at the beginning of the 60′s. They were inspiring- in a not-so-threatening way. They were hummable. They were hard to resist.  I probably first heard them on WFMT- the great Chicago FM station. It was a Saturday tradition for my circle of nerds to take a break from study to listen to a folk music-comedy review called the Midnight Special. There I first heard Bob Newhart, Nichols and May, Pete Seeger and, of course, Peter, Paul and Mary. Continue reading →

50′s Nostalgia- New ways with soup

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The 50′s were about pushing the envelope.  We weren’t into old fashioned things.  Soups weren’t big pots of ingredients simmered for long hours on the back of the stove.  In the 50′s, soups came in little packages like  Lipton  Soup mixes or in cans like Campbell’s  Soup.  No muss, no fuss and we thought they tasted fine, probably because we never tasted real home made. Continue reading →

50′s Nostalgia – Mad Magazine

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Mad about Mad?

When I first got the idea about Mad Magazine, my immdieate association was the 60′s. The irreverance for all things establishment that is the hallmark of Mad just seems to shout 60′s. My faulty memory is to blame as well.   When I search my memory, my memories about Mad start in the 50′s.   I probably got my hands on a copy or two but it mostly went right over my head or scared me to death. I know that I never purchased an issue although looking back, I should have passed on Les Miserables and subscribed to Mad. It would have given me a much better perspective on life – and the world in general than the ‘color inside the lines’  philosophy I picked.

By the time I became aware of Mad, it had evoloved from the origianl comic book format to a real magazine and Alfred E. Newman was it’s personification. The contents were intoxicating and subversive. I knew that reading Mad was not good for me but I couldn’t not look. Continue reading →

50′s Nostalgia- Did TV and the TV Dinner destroy the American family?

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Tvdinner1 50s Nostalgia Did TV and the TV Dinner destroy the American family?

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Family Life in the 50‘s

The American lifestyle changed after World War II. My memories start in the late 40′s and the changes that made the 50′s so exuberant happened gradually. I took it all for granted without any of the difficulties of the depression that my parents knew. Still I knew that my growing up in the 50′s was completely different from the old days when my parents grew up. Where they grew up listening to the radio at night for entertainment, we had TV. And it made a big difference. Continue reading →