If you’re a boomer kid, these familiar objects will trigger memories instantly, and you likely owned most of them yourself.
Banana bikes
Complete with the long banana seat and towering ape-hanger handlebars, your bike was your status symbol among the neighborhood kids.
Boomer children often clipped their favorite baseball cards to the spokes with clothespins, which created a loud motor-like clicking sound as they pedaled quickly down the block.
Toy guns
Cap guns and toy bow-and-arrow sets were common sights at school and in the neighborhood because playing cowboys and Indians was popular among boomer kids.
Back then, toy guns looked far more realistic than they do today.
TV knobs
If you wanted to change the channel, you had to actually get up off the couch. TVs commonly had two clicking knobs: one for the “channel selector” and one for “UHF.”
With no remote controls, many Boomers acted as human remotes for their parents. Either perched or kneeling next to the console set, you controlled the fuzzy picture.
Metal lunchboxes
Before Ziploc bags and insulated soft-sided lunchboxes, kids carried their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in heavy metal containers. Lunchboxes commonly sported colorful characters from Saturday morning cartoons or your favorite TV show.
Metal-only meant they could take quite a beating but were bound to have a few dents after being dropped on the playground or used as a battering ram while playing.
S&H stamps
When your parents went grocery shopping, they would earn you little green stamps at checkout. Boomer kids loved to lick those little stamps and stick them in books.
After you filled up a book, the whole family would take those books to the Redemption Center and trade them in for a toaster or new towels.
Record players
Kids didn’t have MP3 players or music on their phones. Music was something you played on your record player. Boomers had either a giant console-sized hi-fi stereo or the kid-size versions they called a “Close ‘N Play.”
Putting the record on the player was a special ceremony. You had to clean the record with a small brush and carefully lower the needle onto the grooves of the record
View-masters
This was the 3D experience of the era. You slid a white cardboard disk into the red viewer and clicked a lever to view animated movie scenes or famous vacation spots.
Every Boomer kid remembers hearing that magical clunk as the disk spun.
Slide projectors
Vacation photos weren’t posted on Facebook or Instagram. They were loaded into slide projectors and flashed on the big white screen in your living room while the TV was dark.
The projector would beep and get really hot while Dad slowly clicked through slides. Everyone had to silently sit and wait through the loud click-clack of the advancing pictures.
Transistor radios
This was Boomer’s first taste of portable music. These small, battery-operated radios could fit in a pocket and usually came with a single earbud that only went in one ear.
It was the only way to listen to the latest hits or a baseball game while you were out riding your bike or hiding under the covers at night.
Glass baby bottles
Back in the day, baby bottles were made out of heavy glass, not lightweight plastic like today. Not only were they heavy, but parents had to regularly boil them to ensure they were sanitary.
Chemistry sets
Mid-century chemistry sets were known to be way more explosive and deadly than their modern children’s science kit counterparts.
Many included real glass beakers and burners, along with powders and chemicals that actually let you conduct actual experiments.
Carbon paper
When making extra copies of an important document, there was no simple print twice operation. You laid a sheet of slick, blue-black carbon paper between two sheets of blank paper.
As you typed or wrote on the top paper, the pressure would leave a copy on the bottom sheet and stain your fingers blue.
Paper dolls
Before video games, TV, and even expensive toy options, paper dolls were a fun, inexpensive way for girls to play make-believe.
Each doll came with cardboard clothes you’d carefully cut out and use tiny paper tabs to attach the outfits.
Etch A Sketch
Every kid loved playing with the Etch A Sketch. Using only two white knobs, they could create masterpieces on its flat screen.
Kids had to be skilled at using horizontal and vertical lines, as they couldn’t draw a perfect curve. Once they made a mistake, the only way to erase it was to shake the device.
Catalogs
Before online shopping, the arrival of the “Sears Wish Book” or a clothing catalog was a major event. Kids would spend hours circling the toys they wanted for the holidays.
Once you lost interest in the latest catalogs, they became excellent booster seats for toddlers at dinner parties.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
