Before smartphones, streaming, social media, and endless notifications, life operated a little differently.
From the Archives explores the television shows, music, technology, military memories, childhood experiences, and cultural moments that shaped earlier generations.
Pull up a chair. We’re taking a trip down memory lane.
They were silly, ridiculous, and sometimes downright annoyingābut America loved them. From Monster Mash and Disco Duck to Kung Fu Fighting and singing chipmunks, here are 10 joke songs that somehow became unforgettable hits.
In 1975, our Sheltie Shami developed a mysterious habit: her toy basket kept filling up even though my wife and I had stopped buying toys. Then I explored the woods behind our Ballwin home and discovered where our wonderfully obedient dog had been shopping.
At twelve, I decided delivering newspapers had to be easier than mowing lawns and shoveling snow. My brief career delivering the free Community News in Ferguson proved otherwiseāespecially after I discovered a storm sewer near the beginning of my route.
Cream of mushroom soup went into casseroles. Lipton onion soup became potato chip dip. Jell-O could contain almost anything, and astronauts still couldn’t convince us to like Tang. A personal look back at the casseroles, convenience foods, party snacks, and family recipes that filled American tables in the 1950s and ’60s.
There was a time when school lunch meant lunch ladies, compartment trays, tiny milk cartons, metal lunchboxes, and whatever happened to be on the menu that day. From my Roy Rogers lunchbox at Central School to spending part of Mom’s lunch money on warm French breadāand the rest on candyāthis is what lunchtime was really like growing up in Ferguson.
Before GPS, hotel apps, and fast-food signs at every exit, getting there was part of the adventure. From Route 66 with my dad to truck-stop diners, Stuckey’s, Interstate rest areas, and hitchhiking home as a young Marine, this is the roadside America I remember.
In the summer of 1963, I wanted to prove I belonged with a group of Tampa Bay boys. That meant climbing onto a tiny maintenance platform beneath the Howard Frankland Bridge and jumping into the dark water below. I did it once. Once was enough.
In August 1972, fresh out of the Marine Corps, I drove my Firebird across the country to New York City and saw John Lennon perform at Madison Square Garden. It should have been the perfect beginning to civilian life. Then my Firebird disappeared.
Looking back, it’s amazing any of us survived childhood. We built dangerous bicycle ramps, drank from garden hoses, rode in cars without seat belts, played with BB guns, lawn darts, chemistry sets, and somehow lived to tell the stories. Here’s a humorous look back at the adventuresāand misadventuresāthat helped shape an entire generation.
Before smartphones, video games, and organized schedules, America’s neighborhoods became giant playgrounds. From Kick the Can and Red Rover to Wiffle ball, bicycle races, and snowball fights, these weren’t just gamesāthey were the adventures that taught an entire generation how to compete, cooperate, solve problems, and create fun with nothing more than imagination.