What was it like when you were growing up?
I get this question from my children. "Mum, what was it like when you were a kid?"
I grew up in Toronto in the 60s and 70s. TVs were black & white with rabbit ears (or, if you were lucky, a big antenna tower attached to the side of your house so you could get the Buffalo stations), telephones were firmly attached to a wall, had dials instead of keypads, and were so heavy that if you dropped the receiver on your foot you'd be seeing an orthopedic surgeon in short order. We had yet to hear of FM radio.
Our neighbourhood, by the standard of the day, was culturally and ethnically diverse. Our street boasted one Black family, refugees from Hungary, a couple of Italian immigrant families and a family, recently from Romania, whose youngest daughter was my friend. One day I was having lunch at their house, and had what I thought were roast beef sandwiches. It was horsemeat, I was casually informed. Oddly enough I wasn't grossed out, just kind of surprised and confused. Still, I think I preferred the goulash from the Hungarian refugee kitchen - no surprises there.
You'd hear a lot of different accents on our street. Our next door neighbours were from what was then referred to as British Guyana. They spoke in a way I imagined people from England did, but now that I think back on it, their accent had more of a Caribbean sound.
Almost every summer their aunts, uncles and cousins from Guyana would visit. There would be backyard parties filled with exotic food and musical laughter from people who descended from African slaves, British colonialists and indigenous people. They owned a sugar cane plantation, which I thought was the coolest thing ever. The cousins would organize backyard games like Capture the Flag and British Bulldog, and all of us neighbourhood kids would join them in games of hide-and-seek that spanned several backyards. It was heaven. It was also where I learned that not all families were normal on the outside and hideously dysfunctional on the inside.
There was some economic diversity as well. Being renters who drove an old beater, we were pretty much at the bottom of the scale, along with a handful of other families. At the other end, there was the family across the street who owned several properties and were landlords to many of our friends. The dad was a nice guy, friendly and chatty. The mother was an unapologetic snob, inordinately proud of their Scottish heritage.
That was the 60s and early 70s for me. Well, a lot of the good stuff at least. So. What was it like when you were growing up?
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I remember the Seven Dwarves, although I never ate there. I remember:
Hot wheels, Star Wars figurines, He-Man, Pacman, The Voyage of the Dawntreader, Michael Jackson and Raffi on my Fisher Price record player, Frank Vetere's, Wacky Wednesday, shag carpets, central vaccuum, fake wood panelling, K-cars, Dodge campervan with a raised roof, Western Fair
Nobody does He-Man like Robot Chicken.
My parents had a particularly hideous burnt orange striped couch in the 70s. Tommy Paine and I have something similar - a hand me down from his parents. It's so painfully ugly I keep it covered at all times with various and sundry throw blankets, but it's the most comfortable spot in our living room.
Childhood in Newfoundland, 60s and 70s as well, was mostly lived outdoors playing all sorts of games that now appear to be extinct as far as outdoor activities go. Two channels on black and white TV, one of them only watchable on good reception days. The small community was monochromatic and unilingual, with the exception of 'black' Protestants (some of whom spoke in different tongues on occasion) as they were often referred to. Mine was a mixed family (Mom and Dad) in that regard. No strangers to poverty were we, but life wasn't all that bad because many people were of similar circumstances, and we only really took notice of this fact when it was highlighted to us by positions of authority, such as at the Catholic school where the kids from better off families were treated differently than kids from lesser economic situations. We continue to be a close family, with a rare, widely in effect estrangement from a once close aunt, the result of her destructive alcoholism.
The 1950s were okay for me, although in the background was a family breakup. I think my parents tried to shield us kids from what was going on.
The 50s were my time of riding a bike for the first time and exploring the city, which I found just fantastic. The area of Ottawa where I grew up - the Glebe, and then Alta Vista - had so much to see. The National Capital Region - or whatever it was called back then - did just an absolutely super job of keeping the city clean and planted with flowers and trees everywhere. Riding my bike beside the Rdieau Canal and Dow's Lake and Carling Avenue up to the Experimental Farm were my favourite activities.
Then I met girls.
ETA: TV was black and white for me until the 1970s. Mostly truly awful stuff on the telly at the time - mostly from the US. I preferred the CBC French channel.
60s and 70s for me. Black and white TV until the 70s. Big tower attenna on the side of the house so we did get the Buffalo stations (and Commander Tom had my birthday displayed one year (at a fast clip with a thousand other kids). Street had portoguese and italian imigrants otherwise very whitebread WASP. Played hide and seek through the whole neighbourhood and did the usual 'play outside until the streetlights came on'
As well as severe winters every year with tons of snow and sledding.
I live not far from where I grew up (a kilometer perhaps) and many of my friends at the time still have their parents living there (italian, portoguese and WASP). Everyone was solid working class mostly(construction workers, plant workers) and one worked at Maple Leaf Gardens and was my babysitter so most of the NHL greats at the time helped babysit me (they all knew this family and loved them and hung out at their house)
i forget
maybe i lived on another planet than my kids did
might as well have
i opened the door, and walked up into the mountains. it was hot and dry most of the time.
see what i mean?
for some years now, i look around me, and wonder if that all really happened.
I grew up on the prairies and my childhood was, for the most part, spent outdoors.
I recall the pump in my grandmother's kitchen and the hollyhocks along the side of the house, later there was a patch of lilies of the valley to fold myself into and roses and lilacs and caragana, then a house on the outskirts of town and a swamp and a tree fort and endless miles of dirt roads to ride my bike along. Winter activities began around that time and I loved skating, often out on the ice when it was bitterly cold and I loved that too, the clarity of the night sky, the stars, the sound of the blades on the ice.
Television arrived when I was seven and there was only one channel so it was never a big part of childhood although I did like Bonanza and The Monkeys.
It wasn't until I was a teenager that I became aware that there was a "north end" to my community and that insults could be based on one's ethnicity, prior to that I had lived in a big white bubble. Perhaps that is why the first thing I did as an independent person was move myself as far away from that bubble as I could.
I had a huge crush on Davie Jones, until I found out that The Monkeys weren't a "real" band and they wouldn't be coming to my town.
I loved the monkeys. Didnt watch Bonanza much tho. Used to sneak downstairs to watch things like Combat (still an excellent program), Night Gallery and Doctor Who
ps: It's The Monkees.
Not that I ever cared.
Hey hey
I grew up in the 70s and 80s but in some ways it was more like the 1950s. Someone actually came to our house in the morning to deliver milk in glass bottles. Many of our neighbours had their telephone service in the form of a "party line." My father and I would often drive to A&W where a girl in bobby socks and rollerskates brought us french fries and cheesburgers. One year the house across the street was bought by a young married couple - both practicing psychiatrists. They were black. Almost immediately our next door neighbour drafted a petition and went around to every house but one to see if anything could be done.
Anyone remember Wimpy's? The Red Barn? Pre-McDonald's fast food.
P.S. Monkees Schmonkees.
lol Thanks for the correction.
I watched the first episode of Bonanza recently, it was about the battle between those who would used the land for farming and those who would use it for mining, no mention naturally of whose land had been divided up to create this argument.
I also remember the red, blue and yellow alerts, I remember being told that the last alert meant that we would have time to get home before what ever dreadful thing would happen was going to happen but mostly we would be under our desks for drills or off to the auditorium. It seems that each generation must be inculcated into fear.
The Seven Dwarfs.
Yeah, we had a Red Barn in Ottawa, also Royal Burger, A&W, and Dairy Queen, and a lot of Chinese food places, and Drive-In Movie places.
I'm glad I moved to the country because I would have become a diabetic if I stayed in the city.
Ahh yes Wimpys and Red barn
How about the Book barn?
And my next door neighbours had a party line until Bell got rid of them (the 90s I think)
And A&W the old version I do remember on York Mills rd
York Mills. Hoggs Hollow. What was the name of that bar/pub on Yonge St., right in Hogg's Hollow?
Just Googled it. The Jolly Miller.
Oh my I used to go there on a saturday with the guys to drink and for me to watch my friends flail about chasing girls
Including one that picked up a transsexual for his first sexual experience
What was The Seven Dwards? Like, a kids' theme restaurant?
What was The Seven Dwards? Like, a kids' theme restaurant?
It was a popular working class restaurant in south London, Ont.