Good Old Days Magazine

Launched in 1964, Good Old Days is the original nostalgia magazine, featuring reader-provided stories and recollections from days gone by. Good Old Days is targeted to home and family interests, including crafts, nostalgia and home décor

Good Old Days Magazine2 min read
Looking Back
Dear Friends of the Good Old Days, In my 11½ years at the helm of Good Old Days and its former sister magazine, Looking Back, I have had the pleasure of hearing from and working with so many of you. Reading your stories, hearing about your daring exp
Good Old Days Magazine1 min read
Good Old Days
Editor Mary Beth Weisenburger Art Director Brad Snow Publishing Services Director Brenda Gallmeyer Editorial Assistant Melissa Moeller Senior Graphic Designer Nick Pierce Senior Copy Editor Kristan Seitz Copy Editors Mary O’Donnell, Läna Schurb Publi
Good Old Days Magazine2 min read
FROM the MAILBOX
The story “Job Well Done” (September/October 2021) brought tears to my eyes when the family had to say goodbye to the “ugly green” porch swing. In a way, I wish they could have taken the porch swing with them. I am sure, though, the swing will be par
Good Old Days Magazine4 min read
The Luckiest Fool
A June day, two young people in love, and a little country church surrounded by cornfields. With a setting like that, what could possibly ruin the wedding ceremony? The weather and a groom who had no idea what he was doing, to start. Anyone attending
Good Old Days Magazine3 min read
The Only Musician
My father and mother emigrated from Poland to the United States in the late 1890s. They both worked in factories, saved their paychecks religiously, and then bought a small farm near Suffield, Conn. That was where I started my musical education. Ever
Good Old Days Magazine3 min read
Miss Pearl’s Beauty Shop
Some of my fondest memories are of the hours spent in my mother’s beauty shop in Calhoun City, Miss., in the 1930s and 1940s. Before this, “Miss Pearl,” as Mother was known to everyone, had opened a beauty shop in Pittsboro, Miss., in 1946. That’s wh
Good Old Days Magazine5 min read
In Granny’s Care
The earliest thing that I can remember is being cared for by my great-grandmother Albina. I stayed with her every day while my mother worked. This went on in the 1960s from my birth to the time I began kindergarten in Waterbury, Conn. I had no toys a
Good Old Days Magazine2 min read
None the Wiser
In 1968, go-go boots, miniskirts, and the mod “Twiggy look” were in style. Like most teenage girls of that time, I wanted to be fashionable, but I knew Mother would never agree to my wearing flashy go-go boots or baring my knees in a miniskirt. My be
Good Old Days Magazine2 min read
Rewind
When did Bob Hope perform his first USO show for enlisted troops? ANSWER Hope and a host of other celebrities performed for airmen stationed at March Field in California on May 6, 1941. From that show, Hope proceeded to entertain troops at home and a
Good Old Days Magazine3 min read
Boogie-Woogie Style
It was April 12, 1945. My sisters and I came home from school that day to our little house in Corpus Christi, Texas. It was deathly quiet. We three looked at one another questioningly. Always, we would come home to find Mother ironing in the living r
Good Old Days Magazine4 min read
Mother M and Daddy James
Almost every spring break during the 1960s, my weary, overworked parents would ship me and my brothers to Spavinaw, Okla., to stay with my grandparents, known affectionately to us as Mother M and Daddy James. No, they weren’t a couple of hip-hop arti
Good Old Days Magazine1 min read
Share Your Stories and Photos With Good Old Days Readers!
Have you ever wondered who the writers and photographers in Good Old Days magazine are? They’re people just like you who enjoy reading and sharing sweet memories of the past. You can be part of this magazine too! Send us your heartfelt true stories a
Good Old Days Magazine1 min read
Contributor Guidelines
• All manuscripts should be typed with the author’s name, address, phone number, email address and word count of the submission in the upper corner. • Please enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) if you want your material acknowledged and/
Good Old Days Magazine2 min read
The Most Expensive Wedding
As the sixth of seven daughters, I was the first—and the only one—to walk down the aisle on my daddy’s arm. Dorothy and David had eloped. Betty and Jim had a very small ceremony. Georgie and Leon had gotten married down in Florida. Shirley and Doug t
Good Old Days Magazine2 min read
TV With Opa
A Wise comedian once asked, “Why do children and grandparents get so well?” He answered his own question: “Because they have a common enemy.” Nothing could be truer. One time my mother punished me for something I did. Whatever she said I did, I did.
Good Old Days Magazine4 min readRegional & Ethnic
Make-Ahead Meals
When a crib appeared in my bedroom, it signaled the end of my six-year reign as baby of the family. To help prepare me for the event, Mom did not hand me stories about storks or cabbage patches. Instead she shared her pamphlets from the doctor’s offi
Good Old Days Magazine3 min read
Thank You, Buddy Holly
It was September 1957 and I was a freshman at Sanford High School. At that time the students in Sanford, Maine, and in six of the surrounding towns all attended Sanford High School. There were about 400 students. It was a big change from my little on
Good Old Days Magazine1 min read
Meadow and Sea
I watch the children play beside the sea, Upon an upland meadow lifted high, The ocean large before them, wave and sky, A boundless panorama wild and free. The clouds in floating companies agree. White ships allure the fondly following eye, And all t
Good Old Days Magazine2 min read
Those Murray Bikes
I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, in the Italian neighborhood near Collinwood High School. It was a family-oriented neighborhood. Many days you could smell the tomato sauce cooking on someone’s stove. To this day my mind travels back to the old neighborh
Good Old Days Magazine2 min read
A Special Service Station
During the Depression in the early 1930s, my dad decided to operate a Sinclair service station in our small town of Bridgewater, Va. Before that he had worked at the Bridgewater Plow Shop, which made hand push plows. Wages were low everywhere, so he
Good Old Days Magazine4 min read
Flashbulbs Popping
In 1956, my best friend had decided to quit business school and get married. She called me at college where I was a sophomore to tell me the good news. It was September. The wedding would occur during Christmas break in our hometown of Mamaroneck, N.
Good Old Days Magazine4 min read
BITS & PIECES
In 1962 at Northwestern High School, the senior class put on the play Annie Get Your Gun. I dreaded the idea of being in a play; however, it was not my decision. Everyone in the class would have a part. When casting day came, I literally sank to the
Good Old Days Magazine4 min read
Don’t Lie, Frog Eye
In the summer of 1952, Mom visited her mother and father for a week. My younger brother, Buddy Earl, was 9, and I was 10. We were left in the care of our older sister Anna Ruth who was 17. Unfortunately for two rambunctious young boys, our sister cou
Good Old Days Magazine3 min read
Still Dancing
Mom loved music. While doing her household chores in our modest North Dallas, Texas, home, she was sure to have her beautiful, old-fashioned, upright walnut radio tuned to the popular music of the 1950s and ’60s. Those songs had a great impact on me
Good Old Days Magazine1 min read
Gunsmoke
Many Western radio shows aired during the Golden Age of radio, but most were aimed at a juvenile audience: The Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, The Roy Rogers Show, Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch and Wild Bill Hickock to name a few. It wasn’t until radio dr
Good Old Days Magazine4 min read
A Prom-Planning Pickle
It was May 1977 and the culmination of my senior year in high school. I was attending a small, rural school near Circleville, Ohio, and in June, my class would have a whopping 108 graduates. At the time, LaDonna—a junior—was my girlfriend. We had onl
Good Old Days Magazine1 min read
In This Issue
Words are forward and backward, horizontal, vertical and diagonal. bike bouquet bride cake dance eyeglasses farm gown grandma grandpa groom lie music picture present prom radio record shoes sing style television violin wedding Key for puzzle
Good Old Days Magazine2 min read
Picture THIS
Submitted by David Hodgson of Highlands Ranch, Colo. It wasn’t until the morning of his auntie’s wedding in 1962 that David was told his wedding party outfit would include a Scottish kilt, in honor of the Scottish groom. “I was shocked and felt ridic
Good Old Days Magazine3 min read
For Want Of A Wristwatch
I grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the late 1940s. Back then I never asked for toys or a new dress for my birthday. Instead, from the day I learned to read the clock in Miss Mullen’s first-grade classroom, I wanted just one thing. I wanted a wristwatch.
Good Old Days Magazine3 min read
Happy Routines
Roy James and Bessie Lee Jones Rose were my paternal grandparents. They lived in Northfork, W.Va., where they owned Rose Transfer and Produce, and they resided above the store until they decided to build a house. They moved into their new home in 194
Good Old Days Magazine4 min read
Teenage Trials and Tribulations
In 1959, writer Max Shulman appeared as a guest panelist on the TV game show What’s My Line. He was introduced by Arlene Francis as the author of the book that was the basis for the Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward movie Rally ’Round the Flag, Boys! (1958
Good Old Days Magazine3 min read
The Magical Merry-Go-Round
I grew up in the small community of Seymour, Tenn., about 10 miles southeast of Knoxville and 15 miles northwest of Pigeon Forge, nestled in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Life in Seymour was quiet, simple and pleasant. I had an enjoyabl
Good Old Days Magazine3 min read
Wooden Shoes
When I was younger, on a bookcase shelf in our front room sat a pair of wooden shoes that had been displayed there for as long as I could remember. I often took the shoes down and played with them. And my mother had fun with them too. To amuse me and
Good Old Days Magazine1 min read
Unforgetable TV Moms
Answers: 1-C; 2-G; 3-A; 4-E; 5-F; 6-B; 7-D ■
Good Old Days Magazine4 min read
The Merryland Ballroom
Modern weddings are draped in linen, with tables and chairs wrapped in big white bows under crystal chandeliers. Children are often not invited except for an occasional ring bearer or flower girl. But as a kid in the 1960s, I attended weddings where
Good Old Days Magazine3 min read
When I Got Rhythm
When Mom would tell my big sister Rita to play with me, I usually had two choices: play “school” or “circus acrobats.” Because she was seven years older than me, Rita had to be the teacher or the master acrobat. Either way, she was the boss. I could
Good Old Days Magazine2 min read
“Sure, No Problem”
When I was fresh out of high school, I started a job as a general laborer for a seed manufacturer in Cambridge in upstate New York on the New England border. I was stacking bags of seeds in a warehouse one day when Scotty Laverty, one of the company
Good Old Days Magazine3 min read
Ask T.F.
My daddy was a do-as-I-do kind of guy. In his book, participatory training was much preferred to mere verbal explanation. He was into demonstrating whenever and wherever possible. Take fishing, for instance. In the 1940s and ’50s, when I was growing
Good Old Days Magazine2 min read
Distinctive Caps
What child hasn’t been curious about parental treasures discovered in an attic or basement? I remember Mom climbing the wooden ladder to retrieve Easter baskets and bonnets from the ceiling attic opening in our house one year. From my view looking up
Good Old Days Magazine2 min read
King of Swing
Life was pretty good in the early 1950s. Generally, people lived the good life in this period of economic recovery following World War II. Family life accompanied the economic boom, trademarked by the marriage and baby boom. Couples worked date night
Good Old Days Magazine3 min read
Q&A: ON YOUR MIND
Each issue on this page, we will feature a question that will be sure to prompt a flood of heartwarming memories. Send your 100-words-or-less responses ASAP to Editor@GoodOldDaysMagazine.com or to Good Old Days Q&A, 306 East Parr Road, Berne, IN 4671

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