Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2017 - January 2018 i Reminisce

“The Flintstones and The Jetsons. It was hilarious to imagine how families lived in prehistory and the 21st century.” NATALIA REYES “My favorite Looney Tune was “Rocket-bye Baby,” about an alien sent to Earth by mistake.” JULIE GRIFFIN “Warner Bros. ’toons are the best.” JACK TIGGLEMAN “Yabba-dabba-doo!” ROB SUITER Join the conversation: FACEBOOK.COM/  REMINISCEMAGAZINE…

MY PINK PLASTIC-COVERED diary came with a message inside: “Christmas 1957, with love, Mother.” I hadn’t thought about that book in decades until I found it buried in a dresser drawer. The worn cover showing a young ponytailed girl transported me back to the year I was 10. The diary still sported its lock but was missing the key that had kept my writings secret. My first entry was on New Year’s Day 1958. After that, I included stories about school days and my teacher Sister Maureen Ann. One entry tells how Sister Maureen Ann asked me to go outside and burn test papers in the burn barrel. She even gave me matches to start the fire. I wrote that I was scared because Mother didn’t let me use matches.…

Spending Christmas Eve with my family made for magical memories. When I was young, we had a tree sprayed white with twinkling white lights and stacks of presents piled halfway to the top. The anticipation was almost too much to bear. On Christmas Eve, my dad sat there on the edge of his seat, as excited as any of us kids. I was the youngest, so it was my job to give out the gifts—no mad free-for-all at our house. Dad insisted I give out each gift one at a time and announce who it was for and who it was from. I had to make sure everyone got a gift before I started the next round. Of course, I waited until everyone had a gift before I got one…

Holiday traditions are the stuff of pent-up excitement and unforgettable moments. When it comes to hanging lights, decorating the tree or baking cookies, I’m a traditionalist who strives to build family memories that’ll last. My sons will tell you how I have to listen to The Nutcracker on Christmas morning while opening gifts and “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” read by Dylan Thomas, as my husband and I make dinner. After taking our Christmas Quiz on page 47, I discovered some new-to-me ditties I’ll be adding to our holiday mix. I know you’ll find plenty more to digest in our seasonal package, “The Happiest of Holidays,” starting on page 32. In fact, our staff enjoyed your Christmas memories so much, we decided to turn that special section into an annual…

Season-ending cliff-hangers turned CBS-TV’s Dallas from a hit show to a national phenomenon. Then in March 1980, season three ended with J.R. Ewing shot twice in his office. The nation debated about the shooter for eight months. See what you remember about this popular prime-time soap. 1 What was the name of the Ewings’ ranch? 2 What was J.R.’s personalized license plate? 3 Who fathered Sue Ellen’s baby: J.R. or Cliff Barnes? 4 Las Vegas bookies gave 15:1 odds that this character shot J.R. Who was it? 5 After the long-awaited reveal, who actually shot J.R.? 6 Name the two actresses who played Miss Ellie, the Ewing family’s matriarch. 7 Name patriarch Jock Ewing’s illegitimate son. 8 Who was the only character to appear in all 357 episodes? 9 What…

In 1980, Aretha Franklin sang a rousing version of her ’68 hit “Think” in The Blues Brothers. That golden bit of screen time revived her pop status, though she never lost appeal as a gospel and R&B singer. Aretha retires from touring this year, leaving the stage to younger voices like Beyoncé, who, though she’s never named Aretha as an influence, owes the Motown monarch a bow of “R-E-S-P-E-C-T.”…

BY THIS TIME, IT WAS NOT ONLY THE WINE THAT HAD WARMED OUR HEARTS. When I joined an international pen pal club in November 1959, I had no idea how it would change my life. I was an RN at a large hospital in Bremen, in northern Germany. By December, the letters started pouring in. One letter from Sweden piqued my interest. It was from a Swedish horticulturist who lived and worked in Helsingborg. He wrote the letter in German, and soon many more of his letters crossed The Sound, or Oresund, and the Baltic Sea. Around Easter in 1960, Nils wanted to meet. He arrived on Good Friday. On Saturday, we took a 20 km hike in rainy April weather to Worpswede, a famous artist village in Lower Saxony,…

Christmas Eve 1957. I was 10 and trying to sit still on my grandmother’s green mohair couch. The back of my dress was scrunched up behind me and the rough upholstery scratched my bare legs. My sister, Jane, 12, and younger brother, John, needed no reminders to sit still and wait for dinner. I hated that couch (or divan, as my mother called it). My Aunt Betty and Uncle Bill, who lived next door, were there with their four children, Billy Jo, Timmy, Dick and little sister Terry. We lived just down the hill and we were very close to our cousins. Grandma Ennis was one of my favorites. At 5 feet 6 inches, with snow white hair, she was always easy to find. That night she wore a lovely…

Though St. Nick appeared in ads as early as 1840, it wasn’t until after 1863, when cartoonist Thomas Nast created the now-familiar figure in red suit and white beard, that Santa became the holiday season’s most popular pitchman. KRIS KRINGLE COLD CALLS 1) Country Life, 1920: Santa had been a Murad favorite from before WWI. 2) Better Homes & Gardens, 1972: Santa pitches the Sweet Story Book as a last-minute “life saver.” 3) Family Circle, 1962: Santa gives everyone’s favorite condiment—long before Del Monte conceded to calling it ketchup in the ’80s. 4) Family Circle, 1962: Colgate’s Soaky Santa bath suds was a popular stocking stuffer. 5) National Geographic, 1954: Coca-Cola Co.’s red-faced, jolly Santa was conceived by illustrator Haddon Sundblom. 6) Reader’s Digest, 1966: Santa gets glasses.…

During the busy Christmas season in 1972, I worked at J.C. Penney selling luggage and greeting cards. It was the custom that sales associates would fill in for clerks from different departments who were taking their breaks. When my turn came, I relieved the candy clerk. I hated working the candy counter because you had to weigh every ounce of candy manually to calculate the cost. Every day, the candy department featured two specials loaded in bins at each end of the counter. Malted milk balls were one of the specials that day. My first customer asked for a quarter-ounce of them. I opened the bin, but realized too late I’d used the wrong door. Malted milk balls spilled out faster than coins from a slot machine, bouncing loudly onto…

LAKE LIVING Have you ever spent an entire summer swimming, boating, waterskiing and fishing at the lake? Were you lucky enough to own your own cottage, cabin or camp on the water? Maybe you rented a place for the summer. Tell us about your summer getaway. Label your story “Lake Living.” BEST FRIENDS FOREVER Do you remember meeting your best friend? Was it your next-door neighbor? Someone at school? What did you talk about? Where are they now? Are you still in touch? Share the details with us. Label your story “Best Friends Forever.” EYEGLASS STYLES Calling all fashionistas. It’s your turn to show and tell. No matter the era, the style of glasses you wore mirrored the current fashions. We love eyewear trends, so share your style with us.…

Thirty miles west of Fort Worth, Texas, is a charming little place and my hometown, Weatherford. The town was also home to Broadway legend Mary Martin and her son, Larry Hagman. I went to high school with Larry, and in 1949 we worked together on the school newspaper, The Grass Burr. One day Larry walked into the typing room and handed me a piece of paper on which he had written something. He said, “Wanda, would you type this up for me?” I said sure, took the piece of paper, looked it over and thought, Oh my gosh! I can’t read a word he wrote down. Just then the bell rang. I handed the paper back and told him I had to get to my next class. Larry graduated at…

Sixty-seven years ago, my mother started a tradition by knitting Christmas stockings for each of my four children. The stockings were quite large and, much to the children’s delight, held oodles of goodies. On each was the child’s name and birth year. One year my youngest daughter sneaked into the living room, took everything out of her stocking, and then stuffed it all back before she woke us up. When my mother could no longer knit, I started making stockings for new family members. I’m 98 and still knit simple things, but now, as the family continues to grow, my oldest daughter has taken over the joyful tradition of making the Christmas stockings. The stockings have become so meaningful that we make sure we bring them when we spend Christmas…

Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies PREP: 15 MIN. + CHILLING • BAKE: 10 MIN. MAKES: ABOUT 2 DOZEN 1 cup butter, softened 1 cup packed brown sugar 2 large eggs 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 pkg. ( 31/2 oz. each) cook-and-serve butterscotch pudding mix 3 tsp. ground ginger 1 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs. Combine the flour, pudding mixes, ginger, baking powder and cinnamon; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle. 2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with lightly floured cookie cutters. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. 3.…

One of our favorites was “O Tannenbaum” sung by Nat King Cole. To this day, my family sings “O Tannenbaum” the way he did—in German. I don’t even know the song in English. We still listen to Nat at Christmastime.ALAN FULLING Palestine, IL It became a family tradition to sing along to Bing Crosby’s White Christmas album. The kids especially loved to sing “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” and the line “the big fat man with the long white beard—he’s coming to town!”LINDA MIXDORF Cedar Falls, IA Our family has always been crazy for Christmas. Back in the ’60s, when our children were small, we used to decorate three trees and every room in the house. We had music playing in the background all season long. We had LPs…

TELL US HOW TO FIND YOU Whether you send your submission via mail or email or post it online, include your full name, daytime phone number, email address and mailing address. If you have a post office box, tell us your street address too. HELP US SORT THINGS OUT Include the name of the department your submission is for (Motoring Memories, Growing Up, etc.) on the first page of your submission or in the email subject line. For any photos you submit, please identify the people, city, state and year the photo was taken. We reserve the right to use submissions 7 in any section of our magazine, or elsewhere. We do not return unsolicited materials. Send quality photo reprints or email high-resolution JPEG files (300 dpi at 8x10) so…