Remembering the Sixties
 



christmas
Remember how much snow we had in Memphis on Christmas Day in 1963?

Pictured from Left to Right: David, Mike, Ronnie and Teressa Webb in their
backyard at the corner of Patterson and Hendrix.

Click photo to enlarge.

  • Cigarette companies advertised on TV, and feminine hygiene companies didn't.
     

  • Doctors, lawyers, and hospitals didn't advertise anywhere.
     

  • Milk was delivered, but pizzas weren't.
     

  • The mailman sold stamps.
     

  • There was Mr. Cola, Double Cola and Peach Nehi. Cokes were a dime.
     

  • The tamale wagons (converted ice cream push carts that had LaRosa's tamales for five cents.
     

  • The zoo was free as were the concerts at the shell.
     

  • The TV schedule was a page in the newspaper that you had to fold down into a little booklet, then use a letter opener to separate the pages.
     

  • Whiteway Pharmacy (next to the Crosstown) and Purdy- Jester's drugstore (Cooper and Madison) had real soda fountains.
     

  • The Fairview drive in with it's polar bears out front lasted 'til after the 90's.
     

  • Memphis had a "Children's Ball" (Cotton Carnival) with Cole Stoltz's band playing, the Children's Ballet performing, and the Children's Theater performing.
     

  • The school kids got out of school the first day of the Fair (on a Friday).  There was a fabulous parade to kick off the opening of the Fair, and it featured the Booker T. Washington High School Band.

     

We went from Highlights. . .
. . .to black lights.

 

  • AutoZone was called Auto Shack.
     

  • I-240 ended at Summer Avenue.
     

  • People smoked indoors, in elevators, and even on airplanes. (what were we thinking?)
     

  • Your father's razor blades were thin, double-edged jobs that he disposed of through a slot in the back of the medicine cabinet.
     

  • Soft drink bottles couldn't be opened without a bottle opener, and the tabs from soft drink cans came off in your hand.
     

  • Winky Ryatt was a riot.  The Winky Ryatt comic strip was based on the real-life Alley family--- the Commercial Appeal cartoonist at the time.  His son, the real Winky, was all grown up and working at the CA as a cartoonist in the early 1980s.
    (click to enlarge)



Topo Gigio
from The Ed Sullivan Show
beatles
Click photo to enlarge
easy rider  

 

  • The Safety Patrol at school wore white plastic holster belts. You had to walk your bike the last block, or the Crossing Guard lady would get cross.
     

  • Telephones were rotary phones that stayed attached to the wall. Your phone number was on a little piece of paper in the middle of the dial.
     

  • You could get the time and temperature from Union Planters Bank by calling JAM-JAM-1.  Well, you still can!
     

  • We all thought videophones were right around the corner.  Now they're finally starting to arrive with the Internet.
     

  • Marathon Candy Bars had a measuring stick printed on the back of the package to prove it was a foot long.
     

  • Scream in the Dark haunted house was located in what used to be an old pizza place on Winchester (the western end) next to McDonald’s (the one that was all decorated with airplanes because of its proximity to the airport).
     

  • The POW FIVE game on channel 5 picked a person to call and that person played a spaceship video game over the phone.  The game would shoot everytime the player said “Pow”.
     

  • Quality Stamps were given at Big Star.  You stuck them in little stamp books and redeemed them for items at the Quality Stamp store.






1966 Brach's Ad
The exact same assortment is still for sale at your neighborhood Schnucks.

Back to 1960s Home Page
 


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Share Your Memories
 


Submitted by: Sara Williamson Garrett   :   29 Jan 2008, 08:08
I saw the Highlight's magazine and it reminded me of Weekly Reader. The elementary students in Memphis always read it on Fridays. It consisted of current events.. If my memory serves me correct, my parents had to send 50 cents to pay for Weekly Reader..

I can also remember my Dad leaving a quarter in the same location every day and that was for my lunch.
Submitted by: Doanne Stanford   :   30 Jan 2008, 12:46
When you mentioned Cokes being a dime, I remember the first coke I ever bought. It was from a machine at the Esso Station at the corner of Summer and Graham,two blocks from where we lived in the 60's. I had to use a nickel and two pennies to get the bottle Coke, but then I was given back the two pennies if I drank the Coke on the spot and redemmed the bottle. How funny, but such a good memory.
Submitted by: Nina J. Stone   :   25 Jul 2008, 00:56
I remember the first Coke I bought at school. It was a nickle, then later the price went up and you had to put a penny in too. We would have a contest to try and guess where the bottle came from. Because they had where the botteling co. was printed on the bottom of each bottle! At St. Anne the hot plate lunches were 25 cents, if you wanted seconds the main course was 5 cents. For dessert you could buy a 5 cent dixie cup or Fudgecicle or an ice cream sandwich. If you wanted candy there was the usual and what really sold was vanilla or chocolate Turkish Taffy. In cold weather you could slap it on the pavement and it would shatter in the wrapper!
Submitted by: Susan   :   17 Nov 2008, 01:21
I see you have pictures of S&H Green stamps! I collected S & H Green Stamps. Got my first two record players with them...got tired of the taste of glue, however, it was worth it!
My cousin had the cool dancing posters you have pictured here on her basement walls.
My favorite toy?
Fun Flowers and Creepy Crawlers you made with the goop and baked. You even could burn yourself on the baking unit!
Submitted by: Tim   :   17 Jan 2009, 07:54
Near my house on Broad Street was a fire station and a night spot called the Cotton Club and within walking distance was a store called Simpsons where we would walk to buy candy. Overton Park was one block away and Snowden School was where I attended. I use to ride the bus for a dime and walk past the zoo to my school. Ms. Horton was my first grade teacher, Ms. Miller was second grade, Mr. Hutcheson was the principle. I recall being at school on a rainey day when JFK was shot. The teachers were standing in the halls listening to transistor radios.
Submitted by: JAlyssa   :   15 May 2009, 08:22
Get your grind on. Dayum.
Submitted by: Greg Wright   :   25 Nov 2009, 18:16
I was on the Safety Patrol at Cherokee in the 5th and 6th grades (1962-64)and wore a white or yellow belt that went over your shoulder as well as your waist and had the big yellow raincoats and galoshes with the fold over clasps when it rained. We were posted at each intersection around the school and had a very regemented move with our flags into the street and back again to the corner. Of course we were always late arriving into class which we took great pride in particularly when it was cold and were served hot chocolate before we had to go to class. It was the practice to give yourself a hot chocolate milk moustache so as to foster even more envy when you arrived to class.
Submitted by: George Cundari   :   22 Mar 2010, 12:29
The candies shown in the picture are actually as they are now. In the '60s, most of them had different wrappers.
Submitted by: Jimmy Mac   :   11 May 2010, 13:37
You know SOMEBODY had to try it. So here I am - in Las Vegas,NV. and I called 901-JAM-JAM-1 and got the time and temperature. I read Nina's comments about St. Anne's School. I went to St. John's but as a freshman at Catholic High School, I had a garage band called "Just Us" and we played at St. Anne's. Now that I just retired my band from the Vegas Strip www.brazosriverband.com - I find all this too amusing! I dated a girl who went to Sacred Heart High School. Patricia Bratton was her name back then. What days those were.
Submitted by: alicia   :   22 Jul 2010, 15:25
does anyone remember the Tonga club for teens. It was on the corner of madison and cleveland. Oh what fun we had there.
Submitted by: john martin   :   23 Jul 2010, 18:21
some fond memories of simple times
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