Category: Youth

Tammy Wynette Caught Rolling With Her Homies

1969 Mirage

With a West Texas State University sticker on the window, students Becky, Judy, and Nancy load up the convertible to enjoy the spring of ’69, cruising the beat sans seatbelts, keeping it under 20mph, for fear that the wind may untease their fancy coifs.

Texans Rejoice At 1/8 Inch Of Rain

Time Life: The Good Old Days

Nope, it’s not Texas, and it’s not rain, although we could use it.

I can’t tell you the last time I wore a smile so big as those baton twirlers, who seem tickled pink.

The contest took place in Soldier Field, Chicago in 1957.

I hope no noggins were injured from errant batons.

These days, I imagine they’d have to wear helmets and sign a non-litigation form.

Ah, freedom!

A Little Fancy Frosting Never Hurt A Cake

Seventeen magazine, April 1947

Wow, this ad campaign has got it all. The bandwagon technique; he’s running with the pack. He doesn’t care about personality; he only dates Eye Tonics. So if you’re the angel cake that’s trying to catch the eye of a dark hunk of muscle like Chuck, you better spread some fancy frosting all over you, ladies! It’s not optional; Chuck says it’s glamour homework. It’s your assignment! Remember, he’s for the filly with an even pace!

So what is this ad even selling, other than insecurity? This stylish lass, though trim and decked out in modern garb, seems to be apprehensive about her potential suitors. Probably because she has a secret. A secret that keeps her elbows close to her side, while the boys wave their arms about. She reeks.

But for a few coins, she can rate with fellows like Chuck. Thank you, ARRID!

Seems like an easy way to snag a date with boys who possess a molasses drawl. Just a swipe in your pits, and you’re done!

Muscle Shoals

Reminisce: photo by Ben Hoke

Actually, it’s neither Muscle Shoals nor Muscle Beach, but rather like Muscle Valley, as these tots flex their biceps in a ridge overlooking California’s Antelope Valley in 1962. With perseverance, they might have tanks like Popeye.

giphy.com

We Got Your Produce

Nat Geo Jul ’36

Italian teens peddle their wares for coins on the Boston streets near Quincy Market and Feneuil Hall, which opened in 1743. 1743? You Northeasterners will be much more familiar with structures that old, but for a Texan, 1743 meant my state was still Mexico. How interesting it would be to imagine your great-great-great grandparents walking the same Boston streets centuries before you, keeping the city fed during the Depression, and feeling pride in work.

Below, we see plump green cucumbers being sold by pushcart vendor Signor Passanisil, as the Customhouse Tower rises in the background.

by Luis Marden

Life Before Sonicare

Living Lens by Newhouse

Over 100 years ago, these Jewish children practiced oral hygiene with a standard “Toothbrush Drill,” popular at New York public schools. Pretty sure these kids didn’t have gingivitis.

Good oral hygiene was also important for these young women during singing class at Jewish People’s School in Otwock, Poland in the 1920s. Note that every single one wore her hair bobbed.

If those girls played their cards right, they might end up with nice Jewish boys, like the ones below at Yeshiva College in NYC, where students were able to “harmoniously combine the best of modern culture with the learning and the spirit of Torah.”

Today let’s pause and be grateful that we have the freedom to worship in our country without being persecuted.

giphy.com