Please note that this is not my spelling in the article below. This is the exact wording and spelling that was in the Perth Courier in 1868
Cure for a Cold—Putte your fette in hotte water as high as your thighs. Wrappe your head in a flannelle as low as your eyes. Take a quart of rummn’d gruelle when in bede as a dose with a #4 dippe; well tallow your nose.
Howard’s popular “Stop That Cough!” – was made at his Orien’s Manufacturing Co in Carleton Place. He had elixirs that cured everything from hair loss to cancer. Consider some of the names of once popular forms of medicine—sugartits (sugary medicine for babies), booty balls (silver mercury pills), cachets (crude precursors to capsules) and folded powders (easier to swallow than pills or tablets). And consider some of the medicines themselves:bat dung (guano), juniper tar, nux vomica, turpentine, hog lard, nutgall, pomegranate, stinging nettle and sarsaparilla..
Treating Frostbite
We are informed on good authority that nothing is better for withdrawing the frost without injury to the frozen ears, cheeks, fingers, than the immediate application of kerosene. Rub it in gently a few times. In one instant both cheeks were frozen and this remedy gave immediate relief without the usual inflammation. It is indispensable that the application be made before the thaw. This remedy is the more valuable because it is always at hand in every house.
With all the clothes we wore, scarves over our faces, long underwear, and long stockings we had frostbitten feet in the winter.
Some methods we used to alleviate the pain was to sponge our feet with kerosene and going barefoot in the snow. We just got cold feet from this.
In 1950’s, there were over 5,000 Drive-In movie theaters that dotted the American landscape– and in the province of Quebec there were none. The Catholic church labeled them pits of sin, so most of us that lived in the southern Eastern Townships crossed the border to go to the Richford Vermont Drive-In Theatre for our Friday night movies. All our neighbours and friends cars lined up while our parents hooked up the speakers on the half closed windows. The Drive- In Theatre was the first time I saw Bambi and cried all the way home while watching hundreds of car lights in front and back of us also containing crying children in the backseat.
There was nothing like being in love on a warm summer night, when the fireflies were blinking, and snuggling with someone special in your car, while enjoying a movie (if you were paying attention to the movie). It was Pepsi “for those who think young” and there was no candy hunger going on with the sweetness coming from some of those over-heated cars.
In the 60’s I lived with my grandparents on Mercer Island just across the Puget Sound from Seattle and every Friday night we went to the local Drive-In. It was the first place I had a Space Burger named after the Space Needle and then watching my first risque picture called Irma La Douce with Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon. My grandparents warned me not to tell my father that they had subjected me to lust and hookers.
Two movies I saw that did me in for life were: The Exorcist and Jaws. I remember going to see Jaws at the Britannia Drive- In and our 100 pound German Shepherd was in the back seat. The day before he had stolen the Easter ham off the counter at my fathers and was not feeling his best.
As the movie began I had my eyes covered and the dog began heaving in the back. At the sight of the “first kill” the dog threw up in the back seat and I almost passed out in fear. Needless to say I have never swam in lakes after that mind-numbing day.
I remember the Drive-In refreshment commercials like it was yesterday with the tap dancing hot dog and fries. It left such an impression on me that during intermission at a few of my Flash Cadilac fashion shows I used to perform on stage as the tap dancing hot dog and my friend was the pack of french fries. I do not remember one dance number ever being completed because we would end up on the floor laughing.
Fond memories, the movie social scene, and sneaking people into the the Drive-Ins brought hopes a few years ago when the Chinese bought AMC they might reconsider bringing them back, but they didn’t. Instead I have to replace my memories of summer nights at the Drive-In to playing Drive-In Bingo and writing about Diners, Drive-ins and Dives!
But Wait!
A summer night spent at the drive-in brings nostalgic feelings for millions of kids who grew up listening to the tinny sound coming from the speaker hooked to the car window at their local drive-in theater. On June 6, 1933, the world’s first drive-in theater opened in Camden, New Jersey. This revolutionary concept transformed automobiles into “private theatre boxes” allowing guests to “smoke, chat, or even partake of refreshments.”
Richard Hollingsworth, Jr., the inventor of the drive-in theater, developed the idea during the midst of the depression. He was out of work but figured there were two things people weren’t willing to give up – their cars and going to the movies. He tested his concept by setting up a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his family car and projecting pictures onto a screen nailed to a tree in his yard.
The Morning Call – Allentown, Pennsylvania 06.04.1933
The novelty of watching a movie from your own car was a draw for families who could put the children to sleep in the back seat and enjoy a movie. Viewing a movie from your car also didn’t require you to dress up, a common practice when attending the theater in that era. The problematic sound issue and a depressed economy kept the idea of drive-ins from spreading for the rest of the decade, but after WWII the era of the drive-in movie theater entered its golden age. More than 4,500 drive-in theaters opened between 1948-1955.
By the 1970s, the popularity of the drive-in waned. The 1980s brought an explosion of VHS tapes and movie rentals. The transition to digital projection also provided a challenge for theater owners because of the steep price tag at a time when attendance was down. As a result, many theaters began to shut down. Increased land values also pressured many owners to sell their property for development.
Wasn’t so much about what movie was playing but more about hanging with everyone! Better world then, or sure seemed so.
lindaseccaspina 