By Staff
I remember when I was a kid, cork guns were a big item. One I had was a cork that was tied on a string and the string tied to the barrel of the pop-gun.
The other one, as I recall, shot at a target.
Do you know that people used to make cattail quilts out of dried cattails?
You fluffed them in an old wash tub to get the "down" to put in a quilt to keep nice and warm.
Something I just thought about were those little white candy cigarettes we used to get with our pennies.
They were red on the end to look like they were lighted.
How many recall when you used to go to the store and put six or 12 eggs in a paper sack from a bulk basket, instead of picking up a carton like we do now?
Also, cookies, sugar and even cottage cheese came in bulk. Cottage cheese was weighed out and packed for the customer.
You could get a pound or two of cheese cut off of a large round wheel, which was usually up on top of the meat counter.
How many old geezers like myself remember the wonder drug "castor oil?"
The story was you had to take something to clean you out or you would never get well and castor oil was it.
Lots of people who had a large front porch had a "glider" on it which had room for several people.
I see where recently some stores are now stopping what was once a real popular thing called the "layaway plan."
You made a down payment on an item and so much a week or a month until your final payment was made and then the item was yours.
Before we had roadside motels, there were what were called "auto courts."
There would be a little office building where you could rent a small cabin with a metal bed and a small kitchen with a four-burner hot plate.
Some even had a small bathroom, but most just had an old-fashioned "outhouse."
Once, when we had a school carnival in grade school, we had a fish tank.
A blanket was hung across a doorway. You were given a pole with string and a hook.
You fished over the top of the blanket and someone on the other side would put a prize on your hook.
Remember when in Dowagiac you could walk into the telephone office on Division Street and pay your telephone bill?
Also, Michigan Gas and Electric had an office on Front Street where you could do the same.
In the old days years ago, people used to park downtown on the main street on a Saturday night and just sit in their cars to "people watch."
When we kids used to get a rip in our 10-cent kites, we could patch it with a piece of newspaper from the old Dowagiac Daily and some glue.
Is there anyone around who can remember when there was no little prize in a box of Cracker Jack?
How many remember the old Fred Allen radio show and Sen. Claghorn?
And do kids still make May baskets like we used to do?