What do you remember from childhood? Read on for specifics:

[bertha katzenengel]

Do you remember anything from your childhood that was specific to your town or neighborhood? Maybe you had a parade to celebrate something particular to your area? Or some peculiar custom at your local mall during the holidays? Or . . .

So Cali DUers might remember the Helms Man (unless they were born after about 1968).



He'd come around in his truck, driving around the neighborhood slowly and ringing a bell, just like the ice cream man. He sold baked goods from the Helms Bakery. We could go into the truck and pull out these long, narrow wooden drawers that ran the width of the truck. Inside were donuts. Probably other things but I remember the donuts. This memory just charms me this morning.

I also remember the air raid siren. They were at the fire houses and on the last Friday of the month at noon, they'd go off all over town.

What do you remember?

[cleofus1]

1. yes of course

we used to go on field trips to the helms bakery every year in elementary school...they would give us a tiny loaf of bread and a cardbord miniature of a helms truck...

[bertha katzenengel]

2. how cool!

I never got to do that. But I'll always remember the Helms man and getting my own donut from the drawer.

[cleofus1]

3. yeah

we had bread delivered every morning from helms and then we had our milk delivered (in glass) by alta dena dairy...

[cleofus1]

4. ahhh the good old days

[no name no slogan]

17. We used to go on field trips to the Tonka Toys factory

Tonka Toys made those die-cast metal cars and trucks. The factory was in my town until they "outsourced" it back in the 80s. It was cool to watch them make the toys.

At the end of the tour, they'd give you a miniature Tonka Toy. :)

[trof]

5. The Vegetable Man

Circa 1949

He came through the neighborhood ringing a bell and shouting "VEGETABLE MAN!"

Had an old truck with open shelves on each side. They held bushel baskets full of fresh vegetables. You entered the truck by way of steps in the back, went down the little aisle, and selected your produce. Like a mini produce aisle on wheels.

[bertha katzenengel]

6. That is cool.

I hope folks come in w/ more memories like this, or of whatever. I wish I knew how to pull people in . . . ahh.

Meh.

But I like the Vegetable Man. :D

[RubyDuby in GA]

7. The Rich's Pink Pig in downtown Atlanta

The Pink Pig was introduced back in 1953, and originally was located inside the Rich's Department Store, giving children a bird's eye view of the toy department decked out for Christmas.

In the 1960's, the Pink Pig ride became so popular that a second pig was added, named Percival, who with the original Priscilla was moved to the rooftop of the Downtown Atlanta Rich's, where it rode around the Great Tree, another holiday tradition of Rich's. In the early 1990's, the Pink Pig was part of the Festival of Trees at the Georgia World Congress Center, before retiring in 1996, and taking up residence at the Atlanta History Center.

****

the Pink Pig named Priscilla, a carnival ride of sorts around the store's toy department. A second one, named Percival, was later added on the roof, around the base of the tree. Riders got a sticker that said "I rode the Pink Pig" when riding either one, inspiring the book I Rode the Pink Pig: Atlanta's Favorite Christmas Tradition. The ride moved to the Festival of Trees in the 1990s, and resided at the Atlanta History Center until it was brought back to the tree site in 2004.

After the Rich's chain was sold to Federated Department Stores, it abandoned the store in the 1990s and moved the tree to nearby Underground Atlanta. Since 2000, Underground has also been abandoned in favor of Lenox Square, which is not near downtown or midtown. The fate of the tree is unknown in the face of Rich's being eliminated by FDS in early 2005 in favor of the Macy's name.


Damn you to hell Federated Department Stores, Inc! You ruined Christmas! Sonsabitches!

On edit: Whoa. Sorry - got a little bitter there. I remember riding the pink pig as a little girl then going to tell Santa everything I wanted for Christmas, which was everything I just saw while riding around the toy department!

And after reading one of the above posts - we used to go on field trips to Fernbank Science Center that had a natural history museum. Well leave it up to Rubyduby to screw things up! I was one of the last kids going through the exhibits because I loved to linger and look at absolutely everything. The exhibit of the saber tooth tiger and the cavemen totally captivated me. I had to see it - up close. I ended up knocking the tiger over and one of its teeth fell out. My class wasn't asked back for some reason :shrug:

[cleofus1]

8. the old town library

the smell of old books is distinct and easily identifiable...i remember the books in the old library were copyrighted from the 1920's and the 1930's...
when they rebuilt the library all those books disappeared and most of the new volumes were from the 60's...

i miss the architecture and the atmosphere

[cleofus1]

9. here's the old reading room

from the el monte public library 1938

[Fox Mulder]

10. I remember going to the Rice Street Parade in St. Paul

as a kid...yet I do not know what they celebrated. All I remember is reaching for candy when it was thrown in my direction.

[trackfan]

11. Yep. Sure do remember the Helms man.

We even were taken on a filed trip to the main Helms Bakery, and given little loaves of bread....as I see has been noted above..

We had a local Helms a couple of blocks away, on the corner of La Loma and Figueroa, which building stood unoccupied until a couple of months ago when it was torn down.

The air raid siren is about a block from there, and still stands.

Years after Helms was gone, in the late '70s, a man named Hector Rangel still drove around our neighborhood in an old former Helms truck he had bought, and sold baked goods independently.

[CBHagman]

12. We had the 12 o'clock whistle in New Jersey.

That went off while we were saying our prayers before lunch (parochial school, DUers, not public school :-)).

I also remember the knife grinder truck coming around. I don't remember anyone going to get their knives sharpened, but I do recall the truck.

On Memorial Day, we had a parade through town (at that point, there were still WWI veterans actually marching in it), then a speech by the mayor, and then the volunteer fire department gave free fire engine rides to the kids. There were Dixie Cups for everybody, too, and probably Hi-C or soda.

It was good to be a kid.

[progmom]

13. black and white cookies at Callarco's on Fall Street

with a glass of milk...which i would drink with a straw. and when the glass was half empty, i would blow bubbles in the milk until my mom told me to stop. :)

[bertha katzenengel]

15. Do you let Progspawn blow bubbles in his milk?

IMWTK.

[progmom]

16. every once in awhile

since it is so much fun! ;)

[XemaSab]

14. The Rotary Natural Science Center

by Lake Merritt.

I remember the snakes and the stuffed birds and the giant tortoise shell, but most of all I remember the bees in the beehive. Every time I went I looked for the queen, but I never did see her. :(

[kwassa]

18. Hearing the lions from my back yard

The Detroit Zoo was close enough that if the wind was blowing the right direction we could hear lions roar. At least, that is my memory!

and the Twin Pines milkman.

The Good Humor man.

The day a small tornado hit the city, picking up the Fourth of July Fireworks and spreading them all over town.

The bike races. A friend's older brother worked at a bike shop, and brought home a large front wheel Victorian-style bike that we all took turns trying to ride.

[cleofus1]

19. going to the pike in long beach

sort of like coney island...but not as classy...in the funhouse i used to be scare out of my wits by this lifelike dummy....turned out is was an actual corpse...they didn't realize this for years...i thought it smelled "weird"

[cally]

20. Going to Fairytale Town, Oakland

My Grandmother would take all the grandkids there occassionally. I loved it. It's an amusement park which had slides and cutouts of fairytale figures. The only rides I remember were a small train so basically the kids just ran around and climbed on things while the adults tried to keep up. They have a petting zoo with the three billy goats gruff. You could buy a big plastic key and turn on a box with nursery rhymes throughout the park. I took my own kids when they were little. Here's a map:

[bertha katzenengel]

24. that's cool, Cally

:bounce:

I see a bunny, a turtle, a ducky, a castle, a ship, a pumpkin, and a big foot!

[rug]

21. The Third Avenue El, Manhattan

[skygazer]

22. Lou's Amoco, West Brattleboro Vermont

At school, on Halloween, we'd dress up in our costumes and parade up the sidewalk to Lou's (about 1/2 a mile or so) where the attendants and the owner would make a fuss over us and give us each an ice cream bar. :)

Also, we had fresh eggs delivered by Covey Farms, a local farm.

[driver8]

23. I lived in Panama as a kid and this truck used to drive around

the neighborhoods pulling this machine that sprayed some nasty bug killing smoke. I can still hear it and smell it.

There also was a guy who pushed a cart around that would sharpen your knives.

[RetroLounge]

25. The Knife Sharpener

We had a guy who came thru our nighborhood with a cart and sharpened knives and scissors, etc. he had a bell on his cart, and the moms would bring their knives/scissors to him and he would sharpen them out on the sidewalk. This was the mid to late 60's. This picture is obviously older...



RL

[hickman1937]

26. West Acres. Small community dropped in the middle of nowhere.

On a lake. We had our own library, volunteer firehouse, beach with lifeguards, and everyone knew everyone, out on RR2 in Orchard Lake Michigan. Most people didn't have much money, but knew how to make the best of what they had.