I remember when Macdonalds was advertising it had sold over 100,000 burgers (what's that figure today, in the billions? I don't know - don't patronize MacDonalds ever.

I remember living in the DC area in the late 1960s with no A/C and hanging out my window late on summer nights trying to catch a breath of air. And I remember the riots of 1968 when I went to downtown DC and helped black families whose homes had been burned and damaged inthe riots to find new housing or re-establish their homes. I was very much the activist then. And very much against the Vietnam War.

I remember a trip we took (my dad was a teacher and we spent all summer every summer traveling somewhere) where we took the boat across what is now crossed by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and there were separate places for "Colored People" and separate bathrooms and water fountains and I purposely used the "Coloreds" bathrooms and water fountains because I wanted to see what the äuthorities would do to me. I was in 8th grade, and they didn't even notice, but I wanted them to, and I wanted to defy them but I didn't get the chance.

I also remember Woodstock - a sea of mud and nakedness.Whether that's a worthy memory or not I don't know. It seemed so at the time, and my 17-year-old daughter is gaga at the fact that her mom was there. But hey, it was mostly mud and chaos.

St. Cirq, I must be older than you because I remember going to Kentucky and standing outside a courthouse on a town square (Georgetown?) playing with the drinking fountain that said "colored drinking water". I complained to my mom that it wasn't colored at all, just clear like regular water. I had no idea what they meant.

Grandmere, this summer while we were at Caracalla, they were setting up the stands for upcoming opera or concert performances, but I don't think it's anything as big scale as it used to be.

Patrick: I got my wanderlust from my dad, who was a teacher/headmaster and language teacher and we used to take these marathon vacations every summer all over the place. I remember distinctly sipping from a fountain in Savannah, GA, that was labeled "For colored only." It was probably about 1967 or so. I remember it clearly - the square with lovely plantings, the hot, humid weather, my sister standing placidly with my mother in the background,and I avidly drinking from the fountain because I KNEW it was not sanctioned and I was from the NORTH and WE knew better! I was probably 14.I was well on my way to being a contrarian even at that age.

It's funny how clearly I can picture that fountain. It's as if it were yesterday. I can't picture the million other fountains I've had a drink at anywhere nearly so well. That fountain must have made some substantive emotional impact on me. If I close my eyes I can literally see the bubbles coming out of the fountain - larger than usual,and the basin was a darker shade than normal.

For those of you that remember Hackensack, do you remember the public pool on Main Street next to Sears? I remember learning how to swim in that pool. It eventually became a parking lot. How about the Red Lion Inn - I remember when it burned down. Does anyone remember Packards with the hard wood floors? There used to be a German bakery right next door to Packards called Behringer & Wiemer that had the best crumb cakes and rum cakes (for all I know it may still be there). I remember going there on Sundays to buy a cake before my parents and my siblings and I would drive to the Bronx to visit my grandparents, and the sales clerk used to give my brother, sister and I a butter cookie with a candied cherry in the center.

But, my most vivid memory about living in Hackensack was being dismissed from school early the day that JFK was assassinated, and my Mother wasn't waiting for me in front of the school when we were dismissed. It was the first time that I ever had to walk home from school alone. I was in kindergarten and just 5 years old. I was wearing a gray cardigan sweater that my mother had knit, and it had buttons of JFK on it. My mother was a big JFK fan. My mother met me on the way home, pushing the carriage that my 2 month old sister was in and carrying my 3 year old brother.

We moved from Hackensack to Parsippany when I was 8, and Parsippany was just beginning to develop, but Route 80 was far from completed in 1966.

We also saw Aida in the Bathes of Caracella. It was spectacular. And the day before our 1964 flight to London, Pan Am called to make sure we were still going and to wish us a pleasant flight [in tourist class].

Okay, I think I can take the old-age prize with this:

I remember going with my mother to the grammar school building to get ration stamp books during WWII.

So many things were rationed, but the one I remember most is sugar. When a sugar stamp was usable (they were dated), my mother always made cookies or fudge.

Years later I worked for the local newspaper and interviewed the owner of the local bakery in honor of the bakery's 50th anniversary in our little town, and she told me that they always kept a bag of sugar in the attic, to be used only for baking children's birthday cakes.

Also remember that nobody in my age group had bicycles (or new ones, anyway) until the war was over. Of course I'll never forget the day my new bike arrived!

Byrd The Geezerene of Fodorville

Yes, green stamps and home milk delivery. I also remember when:

Children walked to and from school every day, even in the snow, because most families either had no car or had only one car, which Dad took to work;

You knew all of the names of the neighborhood children because you would hear their parents calling their names to come in for dinner, no cell phones and beepers to call these kids home;

We would go outside to play on a summer morning and not come back in until it was time to eat. There were no video games, computers and nothing exciting on television so playing outside was the thing to do;

When we would go for a drive in the car, all of the kids would be bouncing around in the back seat because there was no such thing as a car seat;

When we rode our bikes and skateboards we risked life and limb because there was no such thing as a helmet. If you fell and hit your head Mom would give you a kiss and a lollipop and send you on your way, no big deal;

I remember when I got an allowance of ten cents per week, which I had to actually work for, and I would buy an ice cream cone, a soda and still have two cents left over for penny candy.

When simply going to another state was a grand vacation. Nobody traveled to Europe unless they were off to fight a war or were very rich.

>I remember the bread man in Holland bicycling up to the house on a three wheeled cart, ...<

Oh yes! I remember when you could get real bread, rolls and European-style pastry baked fresh every morning, but that was when we were poor and could afford it.

>I remember the Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.<

I remember Elvis's first appearance.

I remember, "Point of Order".

>This elderly person still has a rotary phone.<

I remember when you picked up the phone and an operator asked, "Number, Please?".

>...my mom was just telling me stories of going to see the big bands in NYC...<

It was great when the band would stop for a few bars and the only sound was the tap-tap-tap of the women's high heels.

>Green stamps, yes! A drinking glass inside the box of detergent. .....<

Price wars at the gas stations. Gasoline for 12 cts/gal, taxes included.
(I looked up the CPI figures. 12 cts in 1950 is 96 cts today. Not such a great bargain.)

>I remember living in the DC area in the late 1960s ...<

Double dates at the Hot Shoppes Drive In.

(A friend of mine's grandfather was once approached by the guy down the block who owned a snack shop and asked for a $500 loan.
"Nope"
"How about being a silent partner?"
"I'm sorry, Mr Marriott, I don't think you have sufficient business sense".)

>... the drinking fountain that said "colored drinking water". I complained to my mom that it wasn't colored at all,...<

Terrific, Patrick.

>...being dismissed from school early the day that JFK was assassinated,...<

A very sad and shocking day.

All of these great memories.

No, I don't remember what I had for supper last night.

PalQ, I went to Europe to boarding school (and many trips back and forth in the 70's) on Icelandic Air. I think our school got "crew" discounts because they herded so many people over and back each year.

We left the port of Lisbon about 4 a.m. one morning in 1974, after our captain heard rumblings from the dockmaster. A few hours later the military coup overthrew the government, and all foreign ships were impounded. We also were sailing to Piraeus in Greece when that country experienced a similar overthrow. The 70's were turbulent times in Europe. And our yacht was so big and deep (18' draft) that there was only slip in Marbella big enough. Several times we were roused and told to leave because Generalissimo Franco was coming into Marbella and that was the only slip big enough for his boat, too.

This is overwhelming. I may wallow. Grandmere1, I think "Rome Adventure" is probably the reason I made my first trip to Europe. ($700 for 3 weeks, inclusive, eurrail pass in hand and not a single reservation.)

I'm so old I remember that as a child we never ever had a hotel or motel reservation anywhere on vacation. We went where we wanted to, stopped on the road when we wanted to and got a motel, and ended up at our destination and found what looked good. I don't think it ever occured to us, you could call ahead -- why would you have rented a place sight unseen?

Then I remember a chain of motels starting called Holiday Inn. It was so weird driving along and seeing the same motel in different locations. Until then, every motel I ever saw had its own name.

Patrick,

I traveled in France like that -- no reservations -- as late as 1989. It was easy and inexpensive, from Grenoble to Nimes to Toulouse and Bordeaux. Only in Paris were reservations necessary.

This may still be true today, except in high season.

PalQ, Fab thread

I am not going to say that I am so 'old', so I will say ...
My husband is so 'old' that he
remembers going to England, renting an apartment in Knightsbridge, buying an Austin Healey and driving to France where he stayed in Paris for a few months...all on $7,000.
He remembers flying to India ,staying for several months and on the way back home to NYC, just changing flights as he went, in order to stay longer in places that appealed to him.
No security and no advance reservations or fees!! Sigh, the "Good Old Days"

Golly, what a lot of memories these comments revive:
-About milk: We didn't get milk on our doorstep. I went down to the barn every morning and evening to squeeze it from the cows. That way, it never froze in cold weather either.
-About Germany: Hitler was making threats all over the place but hadn't invaded anybody. When you drove through Germany you would be stopped numerous times by brown-uniformed youth with their swastika bands.
-About rationing: At the time, we didn't have any. Later, when the war started and stuff was rationed, we were really glad we lived on a farm and had all the milk, butter, eggs, and meat we wanted---and were able to sell some to our neighbors (who, by the way, lived about half a mile away).
-About clothing: Cattle feed came in sacks of cloth with various prints. Mother used the cloth to make shirts and blouses for us, with a foot-treadle type Singer sewing machine.
-About bathrooms: Outdoor toilets were tough to take on cold days. And the old Sears catalogs sometimes felt more than a bit scratchy.
-About water: Wonderful, sweet, clean water that we would haul up from a well in the back yard.
-About cooking: Took a while for Mother to get the wood burning in the stove so she could cook breakfast at 5:00 am. Once the stove was good and hot, she could place the iron on it so that it would be ready for ironing clothes later in the day.

I fear my age is showing.

>I remember a chain of motels starting called Holiday Inn.<

Did you ever see a Howard Johnson's?

>Took a while for Mother to get the wood burning in the stove so she could cook breakfast at 5:00 am.<

My Grandmother (1885-1987) began life in Rumania with a wood-burning stove.

In Egypt, in 1903, she cooked with charcoal. This was better.

In 1905, a man from the Rockefeller people gave her a kerosene stove and a 1 gal can. This was even better.

In Providence, RI (1912) she had a gas range. Cooking with gas was the best.

I remember when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. I didn't know what it meant, but I knew it was a big deal. A week later, there was a huge, joyous parade.

I saw the Tucker automobile when it hit the dealerships.

I remember when our first TV was delivered - a 19&quot; DuMont console with a cabinet of solid mahogany that took two men and a boy to lift. The Sunday night show hosted by Ed Sullivan was called <i>Toast of the Town</i>. Johnny Carson's afternoon quiz show was <i>Do You Trust Your Wife?</i>

Not only did the milkman deliver, he came into the kitchen and put the milk in the refrigerator! The bread man put the fresh loaves in the bread box and the pastries in the cupboard.

My first flight to Europe was a PanAm jet from Idlewild to Orly. I returned home on Cunard's <i>RMS Sylvania</i>.

Ira, I don't think there were Howard Johnson's Motor Lodges on the way from Ohio to Florida. Those were more east coast places. We did have a Howard Johnson's restaurant in Dayton, though, I think. Wasn't that the place for the fried clams followed by ice cream?

Ira, I remember the Howard Johnson's very well, with their signature orange and aqua color theme! We stayed there sometimes on the way from Atlanta to Florida, and my all time favorite MAD Magazine satire was the one on &quot;Johnson Howard's&quot; motels---it was the best!

Question:

Was it the new Fodors color scheme that brought about this Howard Johnson nostalgia kick?