A tall floor standing ashtray is right next to me in one of my baby photos. My parents didn’t smoke but apparently had this in case smoking guests came by.
On the smoking theme - a photo of my grand-uncle holding 3 year old me in his arm while blowing a circle of smoke 
I remember, as an older kid, thinking it was so cool that he could blow those circles.
No one in my immediate family smoked, but having guests who smoked wasn’t uncommon.
1 Like
I’m surprised no one has mentioned…hair dos!
4 Likes
As I started reading your post about cigarettes and martinis, it immediately brought to mind a pic my husband’s family has of their mother and other mothers, all pregnant, with martinis and cigarettes. Yikes!
1 Like
The one photo that makes all the cousins swoon is a shot of grandparents and every single cousin (10 of us, over a 20 year sequence, including the youngest two who are missing in most shots). It also includes my dad and 3 sibling…. plus the 4 spouses including the two split off into divorce in the next few years.
I’m sure we all grumbled about gathering to make it happen, probably with a cousin’s GF taking the photo. But we are laughing and intermixed as families - tis a joy, so glad we made the effort! (It might be the same day my Dad went around with movie camera and made sure to get at least a glimpse of every one of us). I think my sister has the slide. I have a photocopy of a print on my fridge.
I also have a pic of my 16 yo mom with a cigarette and martini…with her prom date and friends!
Also nostalgic for the pics of my warm golden hair when I was in elementary/middle school. I turned dull mousy brown later.
We don’t have many photos of our German pop-up camping trailer that we used for our adventures when we were stationed in Europe. So many great memories, so little documentation, so the pop-up pics are a special treasure.
3 Likes
It’s not my older pictures but Ive seen old pictures of arcades in the 1980’s. It was great when you can spend several hours going to the mall and hanging out at the arcade and then going to see Fast Times at Ridgemont High or the Karate Kid.
2 Likes
Tinsel on Christmas trees
9 Likes
Yes! That brings out nostalgic feelings. 
Our Atari 2600 with the game Combat.
Our Christmas tree that looked huge and completely unmanicured. Definitely not in the typical triangle shape.
2 Likes
I subscribe to the Twitter feed from the presidential libraries. The difference between the Kennedy family tree and the current White House decor is most striking.
The adults looked much older then! I have seen photos of grandparents/great grandparent who looked old at very young ages (30’s and 40’s). The women dressed very matronly and the men in suits.
6 Likes
H and I have commented on that, too. He thinks it’s partly because the middle age women all had perms, some very tight, that made them look older. I notice the makeup, too. Since the natural look was typical when I was in my teens and early 20s, when I see girls and women who wore red lipstick, thin penciled eyebrows and heavy powder in the '50s and earlier they look much older than their age.
On the other hand, some photos of my dad and grandfathers show them looking younger to me. Maybe that’s because they seemed so relaxed in candid photos taken when they were playing golf, swimming or enjoying a picnic.
1 Like
My grandmother was 62 when she died and I think she always looked old, even in pictures when she was 55. She was a large woman so had sort of frumpy clothing, often an apron over a dress, her hair done once a week (and with a tint, like orange or blue). She had ‘old people’ glasses. She had lovely lovely peaches and cream skin (which sadly I didn’t inherit).
I’m now 64 and sitting her in a hoodie and jeans and I don’t think I look as old as she did. I’m sure my grandmother never owned jeans.
3 Likes
I was looking at some old Christmas photos and noticed plastic everywhere. My Mom covered all the furniture in her living room with plastic (it was fitted like upholstery). The stuff was horrible–hot and sticky in the summer and just uncomfortable. Also, we weren’t allowed to go in there, so I’m not sure why she covered the couches and chairs. She also had a plastic hallway runner with spikes.
3 Likes
We have a pic of me and my older sister at about 9 and 11 years old playing on our front porch with curlers in our hair. I’m not nostalgic about that one specifically as it was was embarrassing and uncomfortable to have to wear curlers all day (sometimes we’d go out in public wearing them), only for my hair to wilt in an hour or so.
I am nostalgic about the effort my young mother took to make herself and us look nice - we were very poor, but in 90% of my childhood photos, we’re well dressed, with hair neatly done.
The top photo is the falls into the 10% category. It was the day my preemie sister came home from the hospital after spending a month there and my sister and I weren’t the priority subjects in that photo! And what’s with that weird moulding on the wall?
14 Likes
I had a friend whose living room was like this. It was so 
to me! I believe her mom really coveted that furniture and also believed the living room was for adults and the FAMILY room was for family (kids!). We only had one living area in our house besides the basement so I was floored there was a room you couldn’t really use!!!
4 Likes
There’s a theory that people looked older in the 1950’s and '60’s because fewer people dyed their hair.
4 Likes
I was in the same boat, @LeastComplicated. We were poor, but my mother set my hair in Spoolies every night which hurt like heck to sleep on.
9 Likes
I was going through some old pictures a while ago and I came across one of me and my dad. The picture had a date printed when it was developed, Oct 61. I was 10 years old standing on the sidewalk in front of our house and my dad was sitting on the front stoop. I was wearing a suit and a kid sized fedora hat! I have no idea what the occasion was. Out of curiosity I looked up that old address on Google maps street view. All of the homes are still there, although with vinyl siding now. My dad is long gone, and I am now older than he was in the picture.
6 Likes