Of Moon Boots And Bread Bags

[albeto.]

Driving my daughter around yesterday, we were on the subject of winter. It's been cold enough around here to freeze water. This doesn't happen often where I live, but I grew up outside of Chicago (Blizzard of '79 anyone?). I was telling her about breaking the ice on top of puddles, walking on crispy snow, having friends who could walk like Legolas when my foot would fall through, getting dressed to walk to school or go out to play: Put on two pair of socks, then get the bread bags from the bread bag drawer (which every mother had one), stick your feet in the bread bags, then put on your moon boots. We were laughing pretty hard at the idea of putting feet in bread bags. My friend's mother would wash hers out, but my mom just turned them inside out and shook out all the crumbs. Every mother had a bread bag drawer. When I was a new mother, I don't recall how many bread bags I stuck in a drawer ('cause that's what mothers "do" don'tchaknow), before I realized my kids have access to actual, water-proof snow boots. What a funny habit to have - it kicked in without even thinking about it. What makes me laugh is how it was like a Mother Instinct, like, I don't know, running your fingers through your little boy's hair when you want to smooch him but he's got far too many Important Things to tackle. It just came so naturally to save and store bread bags in a drawer.   :laugh:

 

So what funny habits did you realize you had carried on from your childhood that would be completely unnecessary as a parent?

 

^_^

[Belacqua]

As soon as I read your thread title, I knew exactly what you meant. I wore the bread bags all through elementary school.

 

Haven't found myself saving them, though. :)

[Catwoman]

I loved your bread bag story, albeto!

 

I didn't know anyone who did the bread bag thing, but I do remember that we were all always so bundled up to go out to play hockey that we didn't even feel it when we fell on the ice.

[Ottakee]

Yep, another bread bag wearer here. It was just standard issue for winter. We lived in West Michigan during the Blizzard of 77-78 and more. We had over 14 feet of snow in our front yard and had to be dug out days later by a front end loader. We were blessed to live on the corner in the country so the snow swirls and drifted around our house.

[Chris in VA]

But, but,,,,the bread bags weren't for keeping feet dry! They were so you could slide your foot into your "shoeboots" easier! lol

 

Mittens on a string, anyone? Now they have mitten clips.

 

 

[albeto.]

But, but,,,,the bread bags weren't for keeping feet dry! They were so you could slide your foot into your "shoeboots" easier! lol

 

Spoken by a girl who never raised a soaking wet, frozen foot out of a moon boot with mere plastic fragments of the Bread Bag That Had Been Used One Too Many Times.

 

:glare:

 

:laugh:

 

We used my dad's shoehorns to slip shoes on.

 

[Jean in Newcastle]

The big rectangular trays like they have in a cafeteria were what we used for a sled.  None of those fancy schmancy plastic sleds for us!  

[Guest]

Oh, thank you so much for bringing back such a charming memory! I had forgotten about bread bags, both the footie-version and the fact that it was commonplace to squirrel them.  :laugh:

 

I don't know so much about obsolete habits, but I have thought before that kids of the current generation will never understand what the phrase, "...like a broken record" relates to. They might think it has to do with The Guiness Book of World Records or something. They've never heard a record skip, never had to use just the right touch to get the needle to navigate the skip, wouldn't even think of a "record" if you said the word. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

Today in dd's forensic science she had to compare typewriter samples.  She asked why they would have her do that since no one (except for us. . .) even has typewriters any more and she presumed that any criminals would be more cutting edge.  

[albeto.]

Oh, thank you so much for bringing back such a charming memory! I had forgotten about bread bags, both the footie-version and the fact that it was commonplace to squirrel them.  :laugh:

 

I don't know so much about obsolete habits, but I have thought before that kids of the current generation will never understand what the phrase, "...like a broken record" relates to. They might think it has to do with The Guiness Book of World Records or something. They've never heard a record skip, never had to use just the right touch to get the needle to navigate the skip, wouldn't even think of a "record" if you said the word. 

 

My husband saved all his albums. My daughter listens to them now in her room.

 

Then again, my husband saved the VCR recordings of the New Years Eve Three Stooges Marathon taped off the tv. I am so not getting a VCR just so he can hear the "Bee-A-Bay, Bee-E-Bee " song done by random people from Boston in between commercials.

 

:glare:

[albeto.]

The big rectangular trays like they have in a cafeteria were what we used for a sled.  None of those fancy schmancy plastic sleds for us!  

 

We used our butts!

 

:laugh:

[Belacqua]

But, but,,,,the bread bags weren't for keeping feet dry! They were so you could slide your foot into your "shoeboots" easier! lol

 

Mittens on a string, anyone? Now they have mitten clips.

Shoeboots! And even with the plastic bag, half the time your shoe would get stuck in the boot so you'd have to hop around trying to pull it out, and you'd step into a puddle of melted snow...good times.

[Belacqua]

The big rectangular trays like they have in a cafeteria were what we used for a sled. None of those fancy schmancy plastic sleds for us!

So many students...er, borrowed...trays from our university's cafeteria to go sledding they held an Amnesty Day every spring. The goal when traying was to slide as far as possible without getting decapitated by the ledge on the fine arts building. Such scholars we were.

[Guest]

We used our butts!

 

:laugh:

Did you waxed-paper them so they would go super-fast?

 

I was so very lucky. My grandfather, who was like McGyver, built us a wooden tobaggan. We would shine that sucker up with waxed paper. Even on our mediocre, suburban hill, it was good.

 

I wonder where that went... :crying:

[Guest]

Shoeboots! And even with the plastic bag, half the time your shoe would get stuck in the boot so you'd have to hop around trying to pull it out, and you'd step into a puddle of melted snow...good times.

I do remember something like that with my Snoopy Galoshes. 

[shukriyya]

I don't remember using the bags for boots but I do remember having to save the bags. The writing would always come off at some point from having been re-used so many times. And yes, we had a plastic bag drawer, jammed full of way more bags than we could ever use.

 

I grew up wearing mukluks which looked something like this. The Uggs of their day, I suppose, though if you looked at your feet quickly enough you'd swear they were being swallowed up by a large, furry beast :lol:

[Mrs Mungo]

My grandma kept bread bags, but mainly for storing items. We never used them on feet that I remember, but we didn't get snow *that* often. 

 

My dad's parents/siblings (he is the oldest of several) had sleds sort of like this (but flimsier) that we used (editing out the giant photo and just putting in a link, lol):

http://www.northerntool.com/images/product/2000x2000/610/610104_2000x2000.jpg

[LostSurprise]

I had powder blue moonboots but I never had bread bags! Maybe my mom just didn't care? She was from Wisconsin. If you were rolling around in the snow it was your own fault, doncha know. 

[Meriwether]

Yep, another bread bag wearer here. It was just standard issue for winter. We lived in West Michigan during the Blizzard of 77-78 and more. We had over 14 feet of snow in our front yard and had to be dug out days later by a front end loader. We were blessed to live on the corner in the country so the snow swirls and drifted around our house.

We grew up wearing bread bags in West Michigan, too. That was Mom and Dad's second winter in Michigan. We have pictures of the snow drifts.

[Word Nerd]

My grandma crocheted rugs out of bread bags. They were round or oblong like this—and they lasted a long time:

 

 

[Cinder]

My grandma kept bread bags, but mainly for storing items. We never used them on feet that I remember, . . .

 

Same here--bread bags saved for storage. And twist ties, because there weren't zip bags yet and then when there were they were far more expensive than the non-zip bags. Even though storage bags came with their own set of twist ties you always needed extra for this and that. My dh was appalled when I threw out our large collection of twist ties years ago.

 

And we used to collect matches whenever we went near a restaurant so we wouldn't have to buy them to light the oven or hibachi. Remember when all restaurants had matchbooks?

[NorthwestMom]

Driving my daughter around yesterday, we were on the subject of winter. It's been cold enough around here to freeze water. This doesn't happen often where I live, but I grew up outside of Chicago (Blizzard of '79 anyone?)

^_^

 

Blizzard of 79!  We lived in Buffalo Grove. What an exciting winter to be a kid. The drifts were 8 or 9 feet high!

[Mrs Mungo]

Remember when all restaurants had matchbooks?

 

I was thinking about this the other day when my candle-lighter thing ran out of fuel. I had books of matches everywhere at some point. 

[kewb]

I remember the bread bags.  I had not thought about that in decades.

[trulycrabby]

I remember the blizzard of '79! We had over two feet of snow, thundersnow, and a drift that was as tall as our one story house! We went to school only about one week the month of December because there was so much snow, and this was in Indiana where they didn't close schools unless there was +5 inches overnight!

 

We didn't know about bread bags because we were transplants from Oklahoma; I'm not sure I even had a good pair of winter boots, but I was in high school and did amazingly impractical things like wear Candi's out to the bus stop in the snow. :o

[MFG]

I used cloth diapers when my kids were little. I kept bread bags in the diaper bag to bring wet diapers home.

[HRAAB]

When I was little I had rubber galoshes that went over my saddle shoes.  I vividly remember my freezing legs and toes (school uniform jumper).  If it got really cold I would wear pants to school but take them off as soon as I got inside.  Geez, my girls have it so much easier now.

 

I still own a pair of moon boots - had them on the other day when I went out to get wood.  My girls laugh at them.  I've never thrown them out rather like my 8 track tapes.

 

None of that answered the question, though.  Most of the things my mom did that drove me nuts (Ben Gay and a handkerchief around your neck for a sore throat) I refuse to impose on my girls.  I'm sure they will have a whole new list when they're mothers.

[Jean in Newcastle]

 

 

And we used to collect matches whenever we went near a restaurant so we wouldn't have to buy them to light the oven or hibachi. Remember when all restaurants had matchbooks?

I still do when I can. . . I have a tin of matchbooks and candles above my refrigerator that we use when the power goes out.  

[Onceuponatime]

I saved bread bags for years. Here it snows so seldom that my kids use their rain boots for snow boots, but snow can get down inside and get your feet wet. So they wear bread bags, or plastic grocery bags over their feet. I never knew other people did that. They also wear them over their mittens if they are not waterproof

 

My winter memory is my big fuzzy hat with fuzzy pom poms at the end of the ties. We lived in Maryland. When it snowed, I wore a dress with tights and maryjanes to school. Over that, I wore my snowpants, snow jacket, and boots. It was a real pain getting in and out of that stuff. When I think about it, it always reminds me of the story of Ramona the Pest and her special boots for school.

 

I can't think of any unnecessary habits that have carried over, but that doesn't mean there aren't any.

[Deb in NZ]

I remember the blizzard of '79.  I grew up in Vermont & we got so much snow that Dad had 5 of us kids up on the roof shoveling off the 4 feet of snow so that the roof didn't cave in!  The drifts were up to the level of our porch rail & that was on the second story.  We would slide right off the rail on our sleds.  We actually got a snow day that year.  As we were one of the two school districts in the whole state that didn't have school buses, snow days were very rare.  I remember only 2 snow days in all of my school years.  

 

My mother had us wear bread bags over our socks (in snow boots) or over our shoes (in rubber boots).  It was just what we did.  I don't save bread bags, but my dc have had no need for snowboots ever & they wear their gumboots over barefeet.  Until highschool most kids here go barefoot or wear sandals to school.  

 

Thanks for the memories  :laugh:

[happi duck]

...Chicago (Blizzard of '79 anyone?)...

 

^_^

 

"I survived the blizzard of '79" and had the t-shirt to prove it!

[LaxMom]

I remember the blizzard of '79. I grew up in Vermont & we got so much snow that Dad had 5 of us kids up on the roof shoveling off the 4 feet of snow so that the roof didn't cave in! The drifts were up to the level of our porch rail & that was on the second story. We would slide right off the rail on our sleds. We actually got a snow day that year. As we were one of the two school districts in the whole state that didn't have school buses, snow days were very rare. I remember only 2 snow days in all of my school years.

 

My mother had us wear bread bags over our socks (in snow boots) or over our shoes (in rubber boots). It was just what we did. I don't save bread bags, but my dc have had no need for snowboots ever & they wear their gumboots over barefeet. Until highschool most kids here go barefoot or wear sandals to school.

 

Thanks for the memories :laugh:

Same for us in Maine! I remember only being able to locate my dad shoveling the front walk by where the snow was coming up out of the path.

 

Albeto, I know there was something I discovered a few years ago that I'd continued from my childhood that totally did not apply anymore, but I can't think of it now. It gave me a chuckle, though... I wonder what it was.

[Sunshine72]

I also grew up outside(way) of Chicago. My mom put plastic bags on our feet before we went out to play. I remember getting stuck in the snow and having to wait for my mom to come rescue me. I wish we would get a good blizzard where I live now, I would love my son to see that much snow.

[Lady Florida.]

No bread bags because in the 1960's most bread still came wrapped in cellophane. We had rubber boots that went over our shoes. It was always easier to put them on than to get your shoes out of them when you took them off. 

 

I remember a big snowfall sometime in the mid-60's though I don't think it was a blizzard. We had a snow day, and my brother (5 years younger) and I went out to play. We had a blast making footprints in the deep snow, breaking that crust albeto mentioned. When it was time to go in I noticed my brother had only a sock on one of his feet. Apparently his foot came out of the whole setup of boot-over-shoe, but I had no idea how long he was walking around like that.. He seemed oblivious as young children often are. My mother sent me back out to find his shoe-boot because, "You're the oldest. You should know better and should have been watching him.". I looked in each of his footprints, or more accurately foot holes, (the snow was probably about 12-15 inches) until I found it.

 

The big rectangular trays like they have in a cafeteria were what we used for a sled.  None of those fancy schmancy plastic sleds for us!  

 

We used metal trash can lids. Yeah, we were city kids. :D We used those when we just wanted to slide down the hill by our apartment. When we specifically went sledding, as in packed up the car and went to the park with big hills, we did have Flexible Flyers. Like this one.

 

 

 (Ben Gay and a handkerchief around your neck for a sore throat) I refuse to impose on my girls.  I'm sure they will have a whole new list when they're mothers.

 

Mine rubbed Vicks Vap-o-Rub on our chests. Ugh!

 

One of the things my mom did that I didn't due to changes in safety, is put her hand out over the passenger seat when she stopped. Back then kids rode in the front seat (I call dibs on the front seat!). For years after we were grown, she would still do it. She even did it when no one was in the car because it had become such a habit. It's something I always thought I'd do as a mother. I'm not complaining as I know what we do know is much safer, but I still have fond memories of thinking I'd do that with my kids someday.

[FriedClams]

Bread bagged here!

 

And hand knit mittens, which I hated, and longed desperately for a waterproof pair of gloves. The snow would clump on the mittens and even after a few *hours* on the radiator they'd never be dry. Not to mention they were colder than ice when wet.

 

And snow up the sleeve toward the end I winter as your arms were too long for the coat but you just had to suck it up! LOL

[skimomma]

I grew up with bread bags in the boots too.  The funny thing is that it is actually the WORST thing you can do if you want to keep your feet warm!  It might prevent water from coming in, but it traps your foot sweat which then freezes.  It was not until college that I solved the mystery of the chronically-cold feet.  Don't do it to your kids!

[bethben]

Blizzard of 79! We lived in Buffalo Grove. What an exciting winter to be a kid. The drifts were 8 or 9 feet high!

I lived in Lincolnshire. Did you go to Stevenson in high school? I remember sliding down a hill in front of my neighbors front door to deliver valentines. That was also the year my dad kept screaming at us to stay off the roof.

 

Beth

[dirty ethel rackham]

Oh, I remember the blizzard of '79 and an even bigger one in 1967.  That one had snow drifts so high that they covered the houses in our neighborhood.  Just about everyone had storm doors on the front and back doors so most of our neighbors were trapped in their houses and only able to get out through upper story windows. Our house was one of the few in the neighborhood that had an attached garage, so we could get out.  I remember my dad and brothers shoveling paths to the neighbors' doors to help them get out.  We walked to the grocery store and took what little we could buy home on our sled.  My great grandpa (about 80 something) was visiting and he jumped off the roof with my brothers into the snow bank, breaking his leg.  My mom was so mad at my brothers (and at grandpa.)

 

And, yes, I do remember the bread bags.  I always hated when snow would come over the top of my boot and freeze my ankles.