Something special you looked forward to in your childhood years...

My sibs and I were always excited when the J.C.Penney Christmas catalog came in the mail.
Being on a small family farm my folks had neither the means nor the need to even have to worry about spoiling us with toys year-round.

It was amazing turning the pages of the toy section. The G.I.Joe pages were the ones I stared at the most. We would look at the toy pages so many times that the toy pages would fall out of the catalog by Thanksgiving!

We would only get a small fraction of what was on our Christmas lists, and the toys we did get eventually broke or wore out, but the memories of the excitement is what sticks with me even to today!

Grandma would get three Christmas catalogs at her house: Penney's, Sears, and Montgomery Wards. When those catalogs came she would not lay them out on the coffee table until she had removed all the bra, panty, and nightie sections.

Do you have anything that you fondly remember looking forward to when you were a kid?

RICHARD

 

Yeah, that one day I would eventually have sex.

 

LOL, LV_Bound!

For me that is more of my after marriage and three kids hope!

RICHARD

 

Golfing with my dad!

My dad was in the Navy for just short of 23 years. Although sea duty/shore duty was broken into 3 year stints at that time, it seemed that he was on sea duty a lot during my 4th-12th grade years, leaving me to be the man of the house. I didn't inherit his mechanical ability or have any interest in working on cars. I was far more bookish than he was. We both loved golf tho. We would go golfing on the base course a few times a summer if he was home. Always stopped after the round at the snack shop for greasy hot dog and a drink. This was about the only time we got to do something together, just the two of us.

 

Hey, Richard...same here. The Sears and Roebuck's (as the retailer was referred to on the ranch) as well as JC Penney catalogs. Those were huge days! And to be honest, when we lived in Charlotte - Christmas morning at the Robinson household would look like a toy store exploded. Seriously, it was wall to wall retail merchandise. 'course we were young enough to embrace the Jolly Ole Elf mythology at the time.

Once we moved to Monroe...and became farm labor...you know what I looked forward to? MONDAYS and going back to school! The social environment...friends...common shared interest...music and TV!. Not a whole lot of 'friends' to play with out on the rural route. It's one thing to play with toy trucks...quite another to lie on your back beneath the truck...freezing rain...sopping wet...helping dad swap out a transmission. Over time, I really looked forward to going to school as a respite from the farm.

 

Hang in there!

 

I looked forward to the new season of Saturday cartoons.

 

toys and soft porn all in one.

 

That's the softer side of Sears!

RICHARD

 

Seems like many of mine relate to Christmas....going on the hunt for the perfect tree, decorating the tree and the house, the Christmas Eve anticipation and Christmas Day fun with the cousins. Un-related to school, the anticipation of the final day of school with a whole summer ahead.

 

Stopping at the A&W and having a frosted mug of root beer after either my brother or my little league games.

Only thing better than a cold root beee in a frosted mug is a ice cold beer in a frosted mug.

 

On road trips, my Dad pointed out in later years that as a kid I always had to pee as we approached a Dairy Queen.

 

I couldn't wait for the huge JCPenneys catalog so I could circle everything I wanted and not get most of. Lol I also loved going to my great grandmothers house in Missouri. I'd walk through her gardens, carrying a salt shaker, and eat my fill of cherry and heirloom tomatoes. Right off the vine and not washed either. I'd help her weed the garden and wash the vegetables for dinner. My favorite dessert was always ready for me after we did the supper dishes too. A huge piece of honeycomb sticky with honey. Mmmmm I still love it. She had this old clock with a cowboy on it sitting on her mantle. It kept time by the turning of his lasso. I would sit and watch that clock fascinated for hours. I also loved to play with her cloth vegetable shaped pin cushions. I'd put the little colored ball top pins in patterns and don't know how much of my childhood was spent looking through her button collections. When she passed away the only thing I asked for was the buttons and that old cowboy clock. But someone else in the family had taken it before I got there. I still have the buttons. My kids spend hours now looking through them.

 

McDonald's had a Children's Day that was heavily promoted. The promotion was that any child would get a free cone or sundae. My best friend and I couldn't wait. We even made a new song out of the McDonald's jingle and everything. Getting that free ice cream was everything! You would think we never got ice cream even though we were within walking distance of Dairy Queen with better treats and got ice cream from somewhere at least once a week.

 

I couldn't wait to get home from school and see if Dick Van Dyke fell over the ottoman or not.

Sheesh... I led a pretty boring childhood, no?

 

Those Sunday family day trips to Seaside Heights, NJ. The day would start at 4 A.M. so we could get the max beach time. Italian Sausage on the boardwalk for lunch, jumping the waves and body surfing all day. Walked the boardwalk at night and played the wheels and games and rode the rides. I remember the huge slices of pizza that would make up dinner. No, Hoofy, we did not fold. The ride back to Philly on Rt. 70, where sometimes there was not another car in sight.

It all disappeared in Hurricane Sandy. A fairy tale land gone forever.

 

I haven't been there after Sandy...is it that bad even now?

 

Dad taking the whole family to the drive in movies.
1st one that I remember was a double feature of The Beatles Help and Jerry Lewis as The Nutty Professor.

 

Going to Maine to see my grandparents and fishing with my grandfather

 

I haven't, either, but photos I saw were devastating. I'm sure it's rebuilt, but it will never have that feel from the 50's to 90's again.