...There was no Tacoma Mall. We shopped downtown at Lerners, Peoples, Rhodes, Payless, Kress, Woolworths, Leeds.

...We went to the movies at the Blue Mouse, Community, Music Box, RealArt, Rex, Rialto, Roxy, or Temple Theatre. 

...We had Laurel & Hardy; Howdy Doody, Buffalo Bob ,Princess Summerfallwinterspring, the Peanut Gallery; the Lone Ranger; Roy & Dale, Trigger & Buttermilk, Nellie Bell; Nancy Drew; Hardy Boys; The Shadow. 

...Phone numbers were 2 letters and 4 numbers (BRoadway, GReenfield, HIllside, Hawthorne, MAin, Skyline) --and we actually had to dial to make a call. 

...Roller skates attached to your shoes with clamps, tightened by a skate key. 

...We played Kick the Can, Hide & Seek, Simon Says, baseball--often in the street with that road patch as home plate. 

...We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, video games, 99 channels on cable, video taped movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, internet chat rooms. We had friends. We went outside and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them. 

...We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms. Although we were told it would happen, we did not ut out very many eyes nor did the worms live inside us forever. 

...Girls had long hair, boys had short hair--and you could tell the difference (remember DAs, Princetons, or Butches on boys and Pageboys--rolled on spoolies--on girls?). 

...Car clubs were Demonos, Toppers, Kingsmen, Rickshaws...and Busch’s Drive-In was the place to be seen. 

...We ate at the lunch counter at Woolworths, Vern’s at 9th & Pacific, Smitty’s, Mt. Tahoma Diner, A&W, Art’s Griddle, Charcoal Grill, Steve’s Gay 90s--and on a big date at the Top of the Ocean. 

...Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?

...Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?

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

...War was a card game?

...The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?

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

..."Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense?

...Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures?

...A foot of snow was a dream come true?

...Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?

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

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

...Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?

..."Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest?

...Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"?

...Decisions were made by saying "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"?

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

...Baseball was played with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game?

...You would lie on your back in the grass with your friends and say things like "That cloud looks like a..."

...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?

...A '57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise, peel out, lay rubber, or watch submarine races, and people went steady?

...They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed...and they did?

...It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents?

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

...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 to boot?

...All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels?

...Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?

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

...A quarter was a decent allowance?Nobody owned a purebred dog?

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

...It took five minutes for the TV warm up?