Long before the invention of Google and other forms of instant searches, looking up a phone number was a little trickier and took some more time – especially if you weren’t near a phonebook.
Most families and businesses kept one of the thick volumes of local numbers on hand for when they needed to call someone whose number they weren’t familiar with. If you had to find someone with a name like Bob Smith, it could take you all day to get through them all to find the right one!
Witnessing the Signing of the Civil Rights Act
Some boomers may have been too young to remember, but President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the act into effect in 1964, in a landmark move that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, national origin, or religion.
And, although they didn’t necessarily have anything to do with the signing or passage of the act itself, they were definitely feeling the effects of it in a rapidly changing world.
Jell-No
Although there are some things that shouldn’t ever be served in gelatin form, boomers were in the experimental phase of Jell-O.
If you find a cookbook from the ‘60s or ‘70s, you can bet it’s going to have some weird type of ham, vegetable, or fish gelatin mold in it! Thankfully, our palates have evolved, and there aren’t as many cookbooks in circulation that are promoting ham and gelatin crossovers!
I Love Lucy
The hit sitcom "I Love Lucy" aired throughout the majority of the 1950s and charmed everyone with the antics of a silly housewife and her comedic husband.
After it ended its regularly aired seasons, between ’51 and ’57, the legacy continued into 1960 in the form of 13 different one-hour specials, including "The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show." These days, the show can be streamed on a number of platforms, like Hulu. But when boomers were young, they eagerly awaited new episodes each week.
The Milkman
Today, many grocery stores offer their own milk delivery services (and a number of them are plant-based, like coconut, oat, soy, and almond). But when boomers were younger, they had to wait for their weekly delivery from the milkman, who’d come by and drop off their supply, and pick up any empty glass bottles his customers left out from previous trips.
In the 1960s, about 30% of milk was still being delivered. Now, in the age of online shopping and grocery delivery, that percentage has probably gone up again!