1975

If you were alive in this year, what do you remember about it?

It was the year I started kindergarten. We didn't go all day like today's kids, we went half a day. We didnt eat lunch there, we had snack, which for me consisted of these little round chocolate cookies with a face on them. I want to say it was a cat face. Im sure I had other snacks, but that just stands out in my mind. It came in a little black box. I also brought milk money, which was 6 cents. I however, didnt drink milk. I still dont. Not after I had seen where it came from when I was 3, and was totally disgusted. I looked up these 'cookies' that invade my memories, and I found a photo of it. Now I can see how in my 5 year old mind I thought it was a cat cookie. The chocolate chip ones had cat faces on the box, where as the chocolate ones that I loved, had a bear drawn on it. Thanks to the Internet, here is what I am talking about...do you remember these?



Kindergarten for kids at that time did not consist of what it does nowadays. It did not consist of reading, and constant writing in journals, and math facts like todays kindergartens. No, Kindergarten was a fun time, with 'centers'.
Do you guys remember centers? You know, kitchen centers, block center, reading and sewing centers. My kids went to kindergarten and I was shocked at the lack of 'centers'. My youngest child (hes 9) went to kindergarten and was 'writing' in a journal the second day of school. He didnt do this well because he had never been in school before then, but other kids were amazing at it..and their teacher pushed them like little robots.
I think kids miss out on coloring, centers, and all the fun times kindergarten used to be. Today's kids are pushed into learning too quick, hence being forced to grow up too quickly. I could go on and on about how I think this is leading to the child/young adult/teen crime problems we have today, but that would be a huge blog in itself.
Starting school meant one thing....layaway at Sears. Yes, Sears actually had a layaway, and I remember going there every summer, trying on clothes, putting them on layaway, and how it felt like Christmas the day I got them out.
Picking them up in layaway meant one thing...well, it meant 2 things.
The mechanical horse in the layaway department, and the penny gumball machine. I would go there, geared up with at least 10 pennies, and pants with a pocket.
This is what these looked like...




I loved riding that horse. I was a city kid, being raised pretty close to downtown Houston, so that mechanical horse was the closest thing to fulfilling my horse fantasy's. I would beg my dad for as many quarters as he had, and I would ride and ride, and close my eyes and have visions of Little House on the Prairie, or visions of National Velvet...and sigh. Good Times.
I always said, 'When I grow up Im having a lot of horses'. I still haven't bought one yet.

We did buy a puppy though! A pit pull pup. Shes 7 weeks old. Im not a dog person, but shes pretty cute.
This is Shelby.