Utica Ohio High School Class of 1971

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My Hideous Progeny Mary Shelley's Frankenstein -
Click Here for a Good One
Compliments of Tom Dehmann

Remember some of this stuff?

It took five minutes for the TV to warm up. We were the remote control when our parents wanted to change a channel...

Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school.

Nobody owned a purebred dog.

When a quarter was a decent allowance.

You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.

Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces. (and some had seams in them.)

All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore dresses. (except these guys look like they were from the 1930's - Is that Bonnie and Clyde in the middle?)

You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped without asking, all for free, every time. And you didn't pay for air, and, you got trading stamps or drinking glasses to boot! (Is this the Corvette Steve and Bruce borrowed one evening?)

Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box.

It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents. (Why were there no Diners in our area?) How about Frisch's and the A&W Root Beer Stand in Newark)

They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . . and they did it! Remember 7-3 and 8-3 etc.? Those were the classes I was in... How about when the 3rd and 4th grades were combined at Newton and Miss Howard was our Teacher?

When a 57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise, peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady. (How about it Doug?)

No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked.

Lying on your back in the grass with your friends
and saying things like, 'That cloud looks like a... '

Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger.

And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace, and share it with the children of today?

When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home. (Was there - Had that done to me...)
?
Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we survived because their love was greater than the threat.

....as well, summers were filled with bike rides, baseball games, Hula Hoops, wiffle ball, JAX, bowling and visits to the pool, and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar and penny candy. Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, 'Yeah, I remember that'?

Exclaiming a Dare and being challenged back with a Double Dog Dare...
And remember that the perfect age is somewhere between old enough to know better and too young to care.

Who still remembers Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Doody, The Peanut Gallery, the Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows, Nellie Bell , Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk. (We were way young on these but I remember some) How about Flippo the Clown, Janey Jingles, Jerry Razor's Pool Party and the Mickey Mouse Club.

How Many Of These Do You Remember?

Candy cigarettes.

Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside.

Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles. The best ones were the pop machines that looked like a freezer chest, opened from the top, and you could sneak up on it at night, pop off the cap and drink a pop with a straw when you were out of money. It was only good for about once a summer.

Table Side Jukeboxes.

Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum.

Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers. (Anyone look like this guy?)

Telephone numbers with a word prefix...(Riverside 5-5694). Party lines.

Peashooters.
Howdy Dowdy.

Hi-Fi's & 45 RPM records. We were known as "Teeny Boppers" and we used words like Groovy, Solid, Gear and Peace...Our Generation invented loud music and parents would yell to turn that #@*&^) thing down!

78 RPM records! (33 RPM Records - You could buy record albums in Mono or Stereo although the Stereo one's cost about $1.00 more. 45's were 59 cents and Albums were about $2.79.

Green Stamps. How about collecting Ohio State Sales Tax Stamps in grade school so the teacher could buy classroom supplies.

Mimeograph paper. And the smell of freshly printed tests the teacher passed out.

The Fort Apache Play Set, Lincoln Logs and Erector sets. Decisions were made by going 'eeny-meeny-miney-moe' or 'one potato, two potato.'

'Race issue' meant arguing about who ran the fastest (I think I vote for Rod 'Now Jim" Wigle)

Catching fireflies (or as we called them lightning bugs) could happily occupy an entire evening. And remember going "halloweening?" Soaping windows, throwing corn and other stuff not so innocent...

It wasn't odd to have two or three 'Best Friends'.

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was 'cooties'.

Having a Weapon in School meant being caught with a Slingshot

Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures. (Mighty Mouse, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and Top Cat were my favorites)

'Oly-oly-in-free' made perfect sense.

Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles.

The Worst Embarrassment was being picked last for a team.

War was a card game.

Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.

Taking drugs meant orange - flavored chewable aspirin. (Or Coke Syrup)

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon. But cap guns were better!

If you can remember most or all of these, Then You Have Lived!!!! And we have! Thanks for the memories, Tom

1. Two times a week we go to a nice restaurant, have a little beverage, good food and companionship - She goes on Tuesdays; I go on Fridays.

2. We also sleep in separate beds.Hers is in California, and mine is in Texas.

4. I asked my wife where she wanted to go for our anniversary. 'Somewhere I haven't been in a long time!' she said. So I suggested the kitchen.

6. She has an electric blender, electric toaster and electric bread maker. She said 'There are too many gadgets, and no place to sit down!' So I bought her an electric chair.

7. My wife told me the car wasn't running well because there was water in the carburetor. I asked where the car was. She told me, 'In the lake.'

8. She got a mud pack, and looked great for two days. Then the mud fell off.

9. She ran after the garbage truck, yelling, 'Am I too late for the garbage?' The driver said, 'No, jump in!'

12. I haven't spoken to my wife in 18 months. I don't like to interrupt her.

13. The last fight was my fault though. My wife asked, 'What's on the TV?' I said, 'Dust!'

I love it........these were the good old days when humor didn't have to start with a four letter word. It was just clean and simple fun. And he always ended his programs with the words, 'God Bless'

By the Way - does anyone remember the Fruit Rolls that we did for teachers at Newton School when you picked a fruit (apples, oranges, etc.) and wrapped it in aluminum foil and on a signal we rolled it to the front of the class to the teacher? Did other schools do this? Funny it just popped into my mind the other day.

Everyone over 40 should have a pretty easy time at this exam. If you are under 40 you can claim a handicap. This is a History Exam for those who don't mind seeing how much they really remember about what went on in their life.

Editor's Note: Just an observation - I am well over 40 but I did not live in the 1940's so I think the premise should have been anyone over 70. Or else the email I got was really, really old... Regardless it was fun!

*** Get paper & pencil & number from 1 to 20. *** Write the letter of each answer & score at the end.

2. The bottle top of a Royal Crown Cola bottle had holes in it. For what was it used ?

c. Milkmen left deliveries outside of front doors and milk would freeze, expanding and pushing up the cardboard bottle top.

5. What method did women use to look as if they were wearing stockings when none were available due to rationing during WWII ?

6. What postwar car turned automotive design on its ear when you couldn't tell whether it was coming or going ?

9. Before inline skates, how did you keep your roller skates attached to your shoes?

c. Hiding under your desk, and covering your head with your arms in an A-bomb drill.

16. What did all the really savvy students do when mimeographed tests were handed out in school?

a. To keep you out of mischief by licking the backs, which tasted like bubble gum.

19. What was the name of the singing group that made the song "Cabdriver" a hit?

1. (b) On the floor, to the left of the clutch. Hand controls, popular in Europe ,took till the late '60's to catch on.

3. (c) Cold weather caused the milk to freeze and expand, popping the bottle top.

5. (b) Special makeup was applied, followed by drawing a seam down the back of the leg with eye brow pencil.

9. (a) With clamps , tightened by a skate key, which you wore on a shoestring around your neck.

11. (c) Polio. In beginning of August, swimming pools were closed, movies and other public gathering places were closed to try to prevent spread of the disease.

14. (c) Hiding under your desk, and covering your head with your arms in an A-bomb drill.

17. (b) Put in a special stamp book, they could be traded for household items at the Green Stamp store.

17- 20 correct : You are older than dirt, and obviously gifted with mental abilities Now if you could only find your glasses. Definitely someone who should share your wisdom!