Retro Christmases....Wishing for Simpler Times in North America this Christmas....

Merry Christmas and another year has almost passed and with most of us, we want it gone.  

Here we go again, no excuses, but its been ages since I've had a post here, spending too much time on my personal Facebook page...but that's ok.  

With Covid-19 upon us, it's difficult to get into the swing of anything, albeit old or new.  We have to get over the doldrums and carry on with our lives the best way we know how. 

 OK...Here we go.  This first photo is an annual thing for me for the last 11 years.  I take an old magazine cover and make some "Fake News" ....you know the words as you've heard them before.😂

I always look for a cover with Christmas, winter and old cars.  This was an old POST magazine cover from 1946.

 

Here in Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) we see these wintry days often....well, more often than we want to I think, but snow and Christmas always seem to go hand in hand up here north of Lake Superior.  In fact tonight and tomorrow we are in for a doozer of a storm which will leave us looking a lot worse than in this Christmas season photo which could have been taken from anywhere in the northern snow belt in Canada or the USA.

The next few photos were so typical at Christmas in the 1950's pretty much anywhere in Canada or the USA.  They are just a joy to view....even the two Summer looking Christmas photos from California and Nevada.

 

I love the type of art that you see in the next picture.  It is a very retro US Tire advertisement showing the Winter months and the need for good snow tires in our cold and slippery winters.

The happy mailman in this photo is just like the guys delivering for Amazon in today's world.

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stops these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds".   While the Post Office has no official motto, the popular belief that it does is a tribute to all postal workers.

Colourful advertising like this was seen in many magazines such as POST or LIFE.  People actually frame them mainly because of their artistic value.

Kids back in the middle of the 20th century always looked forward to Christmas catalogs this time of year such as Simpsons Sears or Eatons or Kresge's or Woolworths.  Here's a cover of one of Woolworth's 5 and dime store catalogs, with a teaser of what the old stores looked like inside.

Our five and dime Woolworth's

Happy Days, always a family favourite, of which I still watch re-runs still gives me joy to see and remember what family life was all about......loving, giving, and enjoying being together.  That's the toughest part this Christmas of Covid-19, as many families are trying to keep each other safe and well.  We are such social beings that we crave the company of our family members, friends and acquaintances.  Better days are coming back...just don't be too impatient.😌

This final picture I made up and edited for my personal Facebook page and wanted to end this post with it here.  

My family's wish to all of you firstly is to remember the reason for the Christmas Season.  Be kind and loving to each other.  Look after your wise elderly family members.  

Myself and my entire family wish a Very Merry Christmas 2020 to you and yours.  Stay safe and well.  Dave

 

A Christmas Card and Some Christmas Memories from the Fabulous '50's and "60's

A Very Merry Christmas to Everyone and of course I'm sorry for not being diligent with my posts.  No excuses...just promises to get to more.  This is just a little Christmas Memory post from younger years, with a Christmas card for all and a big hello and thank you to my Facebook friends as well.

 The next photo here is an annual thing I do and that is to create a tongue in cheek "Hot Rods and Jalopies" magazine cover.  I guess it's wishful thinking that I could publish a magazine, but at least I have covers.  I have done one every year for the past 10 years and they can be found around Christmastime posts.  The nice police officer was assisting the pretty young lady by adding a dime to the meter so she wouldn't get a ticket.  I would have done the same thing. 😄

Christmas is always a time for gift giving and this photo taken in the early 1960's of a random young man in a hobby shop reminded me of myself.  I rarely bought a Christmas gift for anyone I knew from a model hobby shop, but if I got any cash for Christmas in the 1950's, off I would head to Lil's Hobby Lobby to their original store on south Franklin St. here in Fort William, near our home, where a model car of some sort would be purchased, and in the day would be about .98 cents to $1.49.

I received this very toy below when I was about 12 years old and any kid would utter shouts of joy if he received one under his Christmas tree.

Another favourite that I received in those days was Tinkertoy.  That was the so called gaming device of the times.

A memory many of us may have isn't so much that of easy peel Mandarin oranges, but the fact that they came in wooden boxes and all the way from Japan.  There's an old saying that people that didn't have much would save the green wrapping paper to used for toilet paper.  To me it was all rumors. LOL

These two following advertisements came from a 1952 Christmas edition of Motors Magazine.  Click on them to enlarge.

 Here is the 1956 Christmas editition of Chilton's Motor Age magazine with great graphics, however Santa sure looked like an elf beside the mechanic.

Christmas can't go by without a 1940's shot of Laurel and Hardy after having a terrible day trying to sell Christmas trees....they are momentarily not speaking to each other..... another LOL.  These guys were the best.

 The final entry here is of an old book I found with my old magazines that was likely my own from 1952.  All that was left is the cover, but it was a Christmas shopping catalog that Woolworth's did put out for their customers.

Once More - A Very Merry Christmas to all our friends and followers....and one final word for the holiday season.....
DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE - and as they used to say, the life you save may be your very own.