Continuing down memory lane...

Here are a few more vintage photos that should bring back some memories...

Remember these Sputnik-inspired vacuum cleaners? Our Mom had one in turquoise...

(*Blog Tip: double click on each ad to make it full size so you can read it; then hit "Back" to return to blog page again.)

Mom was a wonderful cook but we kids loved it when she and Daddy would share a rare evening out because we got to have TV dinners!

Remember Spam???

Maybe we Smith girls should have spent more time vacuuming with the Hoover and less time with the TV dinners...

I think Nancy wore a bathing suit like this at Wells Beach! The suits then were cotton and they would fill up with sea water when you swam, ballooning out in all the wrong places...a memorable look!

But then T@b came along and it was just what we needed to keep our "trim" shapes! (In fact, we still drink T@b today...the slimming effects are obvious!)

And what meal back then wasn't complete without a jello and cottage cheese salad???

Now that we were shapely teens, it was time for the Maidenform (that bra looks as if it could hurt someone!)

Who could forget all the ads for Prell shampoo?

After the Prell came the hellish night trying to sleep in those jumbo rollers. Nancy had long hair and used to use orange juice cans as rollers...anything for
beauty!

All of this was done, of course, in the hope that some boy would call us. And what girl didn't dream of receiving that long-awaited call on her very own Princess phone!

Mom and Dad had a 1959 Chevy Impala. Ours was a sporty blue convertible with white trim. When the "stunning Smith sisters" rode around Kennebunk Beach in the back, we KNEW we were HOT!

(As we got a little older, actually a lot older, we were finally allowed to ride with a BOY!)

And where would we go? To a party, of course. The parties I remember were much like this festive scene...held in a friend's pine-paneled "rec room" in the basement. The hors d'oeuvres always included Coke and potato chips and we would dance to 45's on a record player the size of the suitcase I took to Japan. The best part of any party, aside from actually being asked to dance, was the music. Everyone had "their" song and every song held a memory. In junior high, we played Frankie Avalon, Paul Anka and the Everley Brothers. The boys were still afraid to ask us to dance then so we would just sit across the room from one another eating potato chips and trying to look cool. In 1962, the Four Seasons came out with the song "Sherry" and that became "my song" . (They would sing, "Sherry, Sherry Baby, can you come out tonight?" and I would be thinking... "Yes, Yes, Yes"). My cousin, Sue Snelling, and I hung out together in the summer back then and "her song" was "Runaround Sue" by Dion (neither of us was allowed to run anywhere but it sounded good, right Sue?) By high school, it was the Stones, the Beach Boys, the Supremes, the Righteous Brothers, Bob Dylan and, of course, the BEATLES. Everyone had their "favorite Beatle" back then. Mine was Paul and Nancy's was...Ringo.

Hope you've gotten a few laughs from this second trip down Memory Lane...I'll look forward to reading your Comments; I hope you'll share some "vintage"memories of your own (that means you, Sue!). So much of this blog has been about the scary things in life...I thought it would be fun to remember some of the good times too! It really has been a "long and winding road"...

p.s. Who was YOUR favorite Beatle???