’80s Nostalgia

Hello everyone,

Our daughter-in-law still has some Bibi Blocksberg cassettes from her childhood and wanted to play them for her little son soon. So she asked us if we had a cassette player. Since my husband is a hobbyist when it comes to radios, he found one in his old stash in the basement.

Oh, I was so surprised—it’s my old cassette recorder, which I bought in 1980 with my first paycheck for just under 800 East German marks. Back then, it was great—you could record and play back (Western) music from the radio onto cassettes. And I still have the old cassettes from my youth, too.

My husband refurbished the recorder, and now I’m sitting in my room—while I work on the computer—listening to the old cassettes on the old recorder. The device’s mono sound and the old hits—it’s all so wonderfully nostalgic and is giving me a warm feeling in my stomach right now. It’s been 41 years…

My grandson won’t be getting this one, but he’ll get another one that’s more colorful and kid-friendly. I’m keeping mine for myself :-)

Oh, Ina, that brings back such fond memories. We used to record music all the time back then, and I still have those cassettes. You’ll laugh—we have a player like that in the bathroom, and I play through the old cassettes every morning. It really puts me in a good mood first thing in the morning.

My son’s father-in-law is also a bit of a tinkerer, and he’s now given Linja a cassette recorder, too. She listens to the “Benjamin Blümchen” cassettes from my daughter-in-law.

I think it’s wonderful when things like this are passed down to the grandkids. They enjoy them just as much as we did—still do. :-)

Have fun with it :-)

And how we complained back then when the song wasn’t finished recording yet and the radio host had already started talking again. 

Those were exciting times. So wonderful

Yeah, that’s right, Petra. That always annoyed me, too. It’s so nice to still have this collection of old hits on cassette.

Oh yes, the “Hitparade” was always on B.Rundfunk on Fridays—that was my recording time, first with a KT 100 and later, with the money from my youth initiation ceremony, with an Annett. I still have the cassettes, but no player anymore, so I’ve transferred many of the best songs to CD or a USB stick—but it’s just not the same as when you had to wind the tape back into the cassette with a pen; sometimes the tape got all tangled up, which wasn’t so great either, was it?

I used to listen to the Top 100 on AFN on Saturdays, with the top-ranked songs played in full.
The moderator would talk over the others.

The recorder and the cassettes have been gone for a long time now.

It’s so nice to dive into N(ost)algic times.

I just made myself a hot lemon drink because I’m freezing, and the ’90s show is still on the radio—that kind of fits, doesn’t it?

Ina, you can be proud to still own such a nostalgic device. We had a similar tape recorder (I can’t remember the name right now). I had cassettes for a long time too, but by now none of it exists anymore. A shame sometimes. Especially the hissing and crackling, just like with old record players—that really was something.

Tangled tape, cassettes and a pencil, pressing the record and play buttons at the same time—we could certainly “sing a song” about that. It was simply part of it. That was our youth.

There were 60- and 90-minute cassettes back then. Often the last song wouldn’t fit on the tape anymore, which was annoying. Exactly—when the radio presenter started talking right in the middle, you’d press “Stop” again, rewind a little...and on it went.

Oh, it really was a lovely time somehow. Today’s young people can’t really relate to that anymore.

Just like Chinese jump rope, building a tent out of wool blankets and a clothesline, the sandbox, the climbing mushroom, hide-and-seek, ringing doorbells...flying kites (made from packing paper with wallpaper strips, tail made from newspaper). Playing the triola...

Oh my, Ina, you’ve taken us on another trip back in time—but a lovely one.

Now have sweet dreams of the Sandman :-)

Ah, the 80s, my decade! 
Every Saturday morning I sat in front of the radio, fingers always ready to press the record button straight away (you had to press two buttons at the same time) and record music. And then, what felt like 100 times, trying to catch the ending before the presenter talked over the very last second... XD

Twenty years ago, I had a little relapse into my childhood. Back then I was working in a branch of the city library and checking cassettes to see if they played properly. And there were a few that I had already listened to as a child. 
Der liebe Herr Teufel, for example, by Christine Nöstlinger. 
Does anyone else remember that? There was always a rhyme that got so stuck in my head that I can still partly hear it today (in my mind, I mean ;-):
Quibus, quabus, the ducks go barefoot... 
Unfortunately, I don’t know how it continues.... 

Oh, my dears, this is so wonderful! I somehow see a bit of myself in each of you.

Rubber band jumping—I loved that so much as a kid, too! And there was also that string game you played with your hands, where the other person kept changing the pattern. I don’t know what it’s called, unfortunately, but some of you will probably know it too.

And let’s not forget the game with marbles. I still have some, and I’m going to show them to my granddaughters sometime. I’m sure they’ll have fun with them. 

Oh yeah, I still remember marbles, too. We called it “Dötzen.”
There were the simple clay marbles (I think they were made of some kind of plaster) and then the good ones, which were made of glass.
Does anyone else remember the game “Who’s Afraid of the Black Man”?
In the ’60s, the hula hoop came along. It was a huge hit with the girls. Plus, there was Chinese jump rope and skipping rope.
My goodness, we spent so much time outside. You were never alone—siblings or kids from the neighborhood were always there.
It was a great time. So different from today—it’s actually a shame.

And today, my granddaughter has a hula hoop again, too. But of course, it’s a modern one with flashing LEDs...

Ah, it’s so nice! Jumping rope, rubber band games, hula hoops, playing with string… The German charts from the ’80s kind of passed me by, since we were living in South America back then, so I listened to the local hits over and over and even recorded some of them on tape—of course, for my daughter, who was just the right age at the time and crazy about her teen heartthrob, Luis Miguel. A few days ago, I happened to stumble upon a record player again in the attic—but do any records still exist? 

That’s funny.
Look what I found a while back. It used to belong to my daughter, it’s from the ’80s, and it was lying in the attic.

Yes, I also like to look back on those times. We could always keep ourselves busy and didn’t need a cell phone for that. It was the same with my son in the ’70s.

I still remember the game with the “black man,” too. And some of you will also know the “Plumpsack,” which went around — a circle game. That was fun, too, and we still played it at my son’s children’s birthday party.

Hula hoops — I loved them too. A great toy. It really would be nice if our grandchildren could at least get to know some of these things. Jumping rope was such a nice game too. And as Ruth writes so beautifully, some of it really is coming back to our grandchildren too, even if it looks a bit more modern today.

We still have a record player too, and it still works great — just like the records we still have.

Now I’d like to show you something that you’re sure to recognize too. It’s a real “Rolli.” We got it as a wedding gift in 1992, and it still works great. Unfortunately, it broke once and was glued back together, but that doesn’t affect how well it works. By the way, the Rolli is a little crumb-sucker — here’s what it looks like:



We’ve bought a new one twice already. One of them even looks exactly the same. But none of them comes close to the performance of the first Rolli. It picks up every crumb. I’m sure you know it too — those old appliances are impossible to break. By the way, I still have my first Krups 3-Mix too. It just keeps running and running and running ... and it’s been doing that for about 40 years.

Marion, now you’ve got the perfect fitness machine, and it doesn’t even need electricity. No chance for love handles. I think I’ll get one of those for myself, too.

I can still remember those days.

I still have the “Sandmännchen” game at home—without the box.

LG

Hello at this late hour,

yes, the good old days, they were so nice, and as a child, playing outside was always an adventure. That's true, it was never boring.
We jumped rope too. Normal jump rope on our own. Then 2 people each held one end of the rope, and the 3rd person was in the middle, always jumping over the rope while it kept moving, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. I can't explain it very well now. Most of you probably know what I mean.
Does anyone still remember those spinning tops with a stick and string?

I still have a jump rope, but from today's time (it was a more modern sports set with 2 small dumbbells and an expander too). I use it now and then, a bit of exercise at home.

Back then in PE class we had those wooden hula hoops. But you can't find them anywhere anymore. I wanted to buy one, but there are only these plastic hoops that you click together into a ring, and I don't want that. The wooden ones were good.

I think last year I ordered the book "Our Childhood - Dolls, Puzzles, Gummitwist" from a....n, where you can "dive back into" your childhood again.
That immediately reminds me of that diver again. It had a hose attached with a mouthpiece. When you blew into it or drew in air, it would dive down in the water or come up. Do you still remember it?

Monika, I always played exactly this string game with my mom. I can still do some of it today. No idea what it was called. Maybe "cat's cradle".
I had this "sliding puzzle" for a long time too, all gone. Too bad. You had to sort/slide the numbers 1-15, I think. Then there were those black wooden dominoes or Mikado, peg solitaire. Riding a scooter or tricycle. Oh man, I could list sooooo much more.

I still played that Sandman game with my children.
My grandma had one of those little cup games. As a child I had this "Little Master Hammer". It was a kind of mat where you could hammer wooden pieces (circles, triangles, rectangles) onto it, really with little nails and a little wooden hammer. I loved doing that. Metal construction sets with real little screws.
Unthinkable today, because of small parts - choking hazard. The toys were somehow more authentic, made of metal, plastic, wood.

Then I had a little plastic board with raised lines on it, where you could press the plastic letters and numbers onto this track. The letters had a little notch on the back, and that's how we learned to read and write through play.
That plastic clock for learning to tell time, with those plastic gears on the back and colorful numbers on the front. My mom used it to practice telling time with me as homework.

Or a slate and chalk, I had that too. I played "school" with my brother with it.

So now I'll stop. The list is getting longer and longer.

sleep well, and nostalgic dreams

Oh, I was just really engrossed in your posts, and yes, all those childhood memories came right back. A lot of things that were familiar to me but tucked away in the back of my mind came back to the surface.
Andrea, I had that letter game too. My board was white with blue letters, and I played with it so much.
Or there was a game where you had to match terms using a pen, and the light would flash when it was correct. You had to put in a flat battery, and the contacts were made of something like aluminum foil on the pen and on the individual sheets. There were versions for traffic signs, animals, plants - maybe some of you remember that too.
Chinese jump rope, skipping rope - yes, sometimes there was a lot going on in our street. Do you still remember "Himmelhixe"? That's what we called it here. You drew numbered squares on the street with chalk and had to throw a stone into the right square, then hop through them afterward.
And the hula hoop - hmm, these newer ones aren't really my thing; the older ones are simply sturdier.
I still remember the Sandmann game. Unfortunately, mine no longer exists, but I still have a fishing game. You really needed patience for that.
Ah, everything just felt so carefree back then.

Well, I really could list so many more things.....

I wish you a lovely day

When I read your posts, I get more and more immersed, and so many memories come flooding back.

I also played that chalk game with the little boxes. Back then, our whole street was painted with it. There were hardly any cars driving by, compared to today.

Another thing I loved to play with was a kaleidoscope. Do you know what that is? It had colorful little stones inside, and they changed with every turn. I had a lot of patience for that.

Then I remember another toy, my Winki. It was an inflatable “doll,” very cute and usually black (mine was green), and I loved her because she was so soft. Back then, I already loved dressing and undressing dolls, and she was just perfect for that.

Ina, you’ve really started something here… it’s so nice to reminisce about these memories. It really feels good.

I like this thread :), I just had to stop by again. You don’t remember everything right away, but it’s so nice to reminisce....

I had a kaleidoscope too, and it made very beautiful patterns. My Triola is probably still in one of the boxes, so the time will come when I simply have to rummage around a bit. There was also this instrument—well, I can’t remember the name right now, but maybe someone knows what I mean. It had metal plates on two pieces of wood, arranged from wide to narrow, and you could make them ring with little wooden hammers.

Ah, childhood really was lovely....

Ines, I’m sure you mean a xylophone. Luckily, they still make those for kids today. I had one too, and I loved playing it.

Did you guys also have a cigar box with glossy pictures? Trading them was a very serious business. I think the ones with the glitter specks were the valuable ones, right?

Monika, that’s exactly it—I hadn’t thought of that :)

Petra, I had exactly those same glossy scraps too, with glitter, of course. And that brings me to my next memory. I had it in my hands again just recently: my friendship album.

When I open it now, I’m instantly back in first grade. All my classmates are in there, along with the teachers and even my parents. There are such lovely sayings inside. And all those colorful little glossy scraps. I still love this friendship album.

The most beautiful verse anyone wrote in it, I know by heart:

When in later years
my name is mentioned,
remember me and say:
I knew her too.
And when the time comes
that you quite forget me,
then you can read here
who wrote it.

That touches me all over again.... Beautiful, isn’t it?

Exactly, little by little it’s all coming back to me.

Those little boxes drawn with chalk and playing “stone throwing”—we loved playing that.
Those glossy pictures—we called them “family album pictures.” I still have some lying around somewhere; you used to be able to buy them. I loved the textured feel of those pictures, and if they had glitter on them, so much the better.
I had a xylophone, too. The letters A–E or something like that were engraved on it, and you could play “All My Little Ducks” and lots of other songs.

Monika , it’s nice to still have your autograph book. Unfortunately, mine somehow got lost during all the moves—very annoying. We loved that.
I had a kaleidoscope like that, too. It was so beautifully colorful, and all the patterns that appeared inside. Do they even make those anymore?

I can still remember some of the sayings from the poetry albums:

“Whoever writes in this little book,
I ask you to be careful.
And if you tear out a page,
our friendship is over,”

or:

“If you have a girlfriend,
you have to understand her,
and not always focus on her flaws here and there.
Be loving, and forgive—
you’re not flawless either.”

“If you rely heavily on someone in your life,
approach them with caution before you confide in them.
Look them often and firmly in the eye to see if their gaze is open too;
often a person’s words are deceitful, but their eyes are not.”

“Don’t judge a person
after half an hour;
there are churning waves on the surface,
but the pearl lies at the bottom.”

Sooooo beautiful, and somehow true.

Oh yes, the friendship book. Unfortunately, mine isn’t around anymore either.
I still remember it very clearly. When you received a friendship book from a friend or classmate, it was always so exciting. Who had already written something in it, and which sayings had already been immortalized there? 
I’d carefully draw lines with a pencil and ruler so my writing would be nice and straight on the paper. I’d erase them afterward.  Then I’d frame the saying with floral vines. 
Today, they send each other WhatsApp messages with emojis.

That reminds me—somewhere I have a little Japanese booklet on string games.
I bought it a few years ago at an antiquarian bookshop.

I still have my friendship album too; back then I thought the verse from my friend who is still my best friend today was soooo beautiful, and I’ve picked it up again many times. In 2018, at our 35th class reunion, some people had theirs with them, and so did I.

“When one day you sit as a grandma next to grandpa in your armchair
and think of the happiness of your youth,
then think of me too.”

That saying about cleanliness, etc. was right on the first page.

And I still remember this verse too; my teacher wrote it in:

“Ines, get to know people,
for they are changeable;
those who call themselves your friends today
will talk about you tomorrow.”

Ines, I have the saying at the very bottom in my poetry album too. And on the first page it's just like yours.
Now I've taken some photos. Ah, this is so lovely; it takes me right back to my school days, and I still know exactly what most of them look like.

Here are a few photos for you—if you click on them, they'll get bigger and you can read them too.:

You can read it by clicking on the image, right-clicking, and opening it in a new window or tab.

I still have my friendship book, too; it includes my siblings and my grandfather, along with my girlfriends from school. I had it in my hands again just the other day—some of the little sayings are remarkably naive and very much a product of their time.
This piece of wisdom was written in my book by my grandfather for my 11th birthday; I didn’t really understand it at first, but the older I got, the more it meant to me.

Yes, Inge, I have sayings like that in mine, too. My parents, all my teachers, uncles, aunts, the pastor, and even the school principal have left their mark in it. The sayings clearly show what that generation was like. And besides, my parents weren’t young when they had me. They were born in the early 1900s.

Oh, how wonderful to see your old treasures. You can count yourselves lucky. I knew one of those sayings too, from my mom’s autograph book.

That reminds me of another saying from my own album:

If life gives you a bump,
Don’t shed a tear.
Laugh your head off, sit on it,
and dangle your legs.

I thought it was so funny in that Berlin dialect.

My long-term memory still works.

Do you still remember Steckhalma and those bouncy balls?

Ah, it’s so nice to rummage through old memories. With every post I read, things of my own come back to me.

I read this thread last night and then couldn’t sleep, because my long-term memory had brought up all sorts of things from the past ... so I had to get a pen and write them down. They’re all terms that hardly anyone knows anymore today. So basically only for insiders now. Here are a few examples from my “long-term memory”:

• Schlagersüsstafel
• Kaufhalle (my husband still says that today)
  
• Ondulierstab (it always caused burn marks on your skin if you held the thing the wrong way)
• Frösi
• Altstoffsammlung (asking strangers at their doors, “Do you have any recyclable materials?”)
• Wall newspaper (a mandatory exercise on a specific topic)
  
• Dodgeball
• Mini bicycle
  
• Holiday activities
• Consumer co-op stamps
• School meals (I even still remember the name of the woman who served them)
  
• Brause (nobody says that anymore today)
• Jugendmode (an extra department in the store where there were things for young people)
• Ketwurst (= sausage with ketchup sauce, put into a roll that had first been skewered)
  

I still have a friendship album too. In mine, the corners were sometimes folded in and a little envelope was drawn on. When you opened it up, there was another saying inside (e.g. “in all four corners, love should be tucked away”). And there was a lot of drawing in it, mainly floral vines around the sayings. But I liked the glittery poetry pictures best.

The teachers always wrote clever sayings that had to do with their profession:
“Learning is like rowing against the current; as soon as you stop, you drift back.”

And there were also warnings against naivety: “Ina, learn to know people. For they are changeable. Those who call you friends today will talk about you tomorrow.”

There were funny ones too: “A tooth, a hollow one, sometimes wakes up even the laziest people.” No idea why that saying ended up in my friendship album.

My father is also immortalized in it with a saying from 1978. That’s a lovely memory, because he has been dead for a long time. Who still has documents today where people have written something by hand? Everything happens only on a phone or PC now, digitally at any rate. “Handwriting” is dying out.

Have a lovely afternoon!
Best wishes from Ina

Andrea, yeah, I still remember Halma and the bouncy balls, too. I think I might still have one lying around somewhere.

Ina, we still had recycling collection here until recently. We even had a scissors sharpener come to our house.
Is dodgeball actually a thing of the past now? That would be a shame. Oh yeah, and those Konsum stamps—I remember those, too. And fizzy sherbet powder! I loved it as a kid. I remember the Kaufhalle and the curling iron, too.

I’ve got that warning message in my scrapbook as well. Yeah, exactly—the handwritten notes are something really special. My parents left some very lovely messages in my album. And I cherish those very much.

Even though we’ve now gone back in time not just to the ’80s, but much earlier, it’s a joy to travel back to those days. That’s when we realize just how different things really were… and how some things have even carried on to this day.

Warm regards from Monika

Well Ina, looks like we were both writing at the same time. I was faster :-)

You said it. Exactly, so many terms come to mind.

"Frösi" was that magazine "be happy and sing" with Manne Murmelauge.
- We also collected recyclable materials (Do you have bottles and waste paper?)
- I still like eating Schlagersüßtafel today
- dodgeball (in PE class, I hated it), there was that medicine ball too, what was it called
- wall newspaper at school, everyone had a turn
- blackboard duty (1 boy and 1 girl each time - in alphabetical order in the class register, it was your turn to wipe the board, empty wastepaper baskets, )
- Pioneer afternoon (I didn’t like going, it was in free time after school)
- mini bike, or folding bike as it was called. Mine was blue, and I still had it for a long time until shortly before the fall of the Wall
- Fassbrause, that was delicious (raspberry and woodruff flavor)
- sherbet powder
- Mecki lollipop sticks in a paper bag
- cream wafers for 20 pfennigs at the bakery (two wafers, with white or pink cream in the middle)
- yes, Kaufhalle or Delikat shop
- those colorful suckers or lollipops, and those whistle lollipops with chocolate inside

oh man

There’s also a book on a....n about "forgotten things" or something like that, things that existed back then. A guest at the hotel had this book, quite interesting.

Well, I wish you all a lovely afternoon, keep reminiscing.
I’ll have to make dinner soon, we’re having pizza

see you then

 
  

That made me dig out my poetry album too! We put a lot of effort into writing and drawing—there weren’t any glossy scraps where we lived.

We still have a folding bike, and we still like riding it best. It’s especially great when we go on a motorhome trip. I think they still sell those cream wafers. I liked them too, but today they’d be far too sweet for me. But there were all kinds of candies, 1 pfennig each. You could have a mixed bag put together. The shopkeepers were always very patient when they had to take one or two candies out of each jar. Licorice wheels were delicious too. My goodness, I mustn’t even think about how much sugary stuff I ate as a child. No wonder my teeth suffered so badly from it.

Christina, I have such lovely drawings in my little book too, and I was always especially happy about them. But I still find the little pictures beautiful today. There must still be a collection somewhere, unless I gave it to a child at some point in the meantime.

I have something really nice here: my younger sister had only been in school for 7 weeks when she came over and wanted to write in my album, too. I let her—she tried really hard, but I still have to laugh at the poem. The brown streaks on the page are from a waxed bookmark that stained it so badly—I threw it away immediately when I saw what it was doing to my album.

Unfortunately, I can’t make out the message, Inge. Could you write it down for me?
In any case, your sister has decorated it so lovingly. These mementos take us right back to our childhood. It’s wonderful.

That’s a typical kids’ saying, Monika,

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, where has Hans gone,
oh, he’s sitting in the inkwell, good grief, what is that?

my dear sister wrote that in my album as a first-grade schoolgirl almost 60 years ago

Best, Inge

I also found something else from my school days.
My mom gave this to me back then. It’s made of metal. It has the multiplication tables on it. You can turn the middle part and read the result. It was very helpful for math problems.

You don’t see things like this anymore. I’m taking special care of it.

Inge, that’s funny—kids are just good at coming up with sayings like that—yesterday and today alike. And later, as adults, we can still laugh about it.

Andrea, wow, that’s really something special. I had no idea such a thing existed. Learned something new again.

Here are some glass marbles and 3 glow-in-the-dark
bouncy balls
What you can still find in some corners?

I had three kids—you won’t find anything like that at my place anymore. We used to call the glass marbles “Glaser” and the clay ones “Stennert”—if I remember correctly, that’s a Hessian expression, since I lived in the Westerwald until I was five—or “Klicker,” which is what they called the clay marbles in Franconia.

Best regards, Inge

I’m amazed, Andrea, at all the things you took with you when you moved to Norway. Those items must be very dear to your heart. It’s nice that you’re showing them to us.

Best regards, Ina

I grew up in Fulda, Hesse, and I can still remember “Klicker” from back then, too.

Oh yeah, I loved that kaleidoscope! And those sliding puzzles, too. They were always given out as gifts at the pharmacy.
And do you guys remember those little plastic TVs with slides inside?
And those two plastic marbles on a string that you’d clack together? They looked like cherries.

  I can’t hula-hoop anymore, even though I used to be really good at it.

By the way, my husband can still play that string game—and he’s better at it than I am.


  And it was awful when the cassette tapes would tear and you had to glue them back together with Uhu. That was so annoying, and it sounded awful when you played them back. And I was most proud when I got a dual-cassette recorder. With that, you could play back other people’s cassettes and record them for yourself.
I still say “playback cassettes” or “recording cassettes” to this day. 

Those sliding panels are still around—I’ve seen them at my granddaughters’ houses.
Oh, those little plastic TVs—they used to be so exciting with the slides. My son had one, too.
And those two plastic marbles—they were great, too.

Something else just came to mind. It was a cup with a string attached to a ball. You had to fling the ball into the cup. I used to love playing with that. I think that still exists somewhere.

Unfortunately, I can’t hula-hoop anymore either—I’d have to practice again.

The double cassette recorder still exists too, and I love it. It still gets played every now and then. We used to dub cassettes on it—it was great.

I still remember those sliding panels, too—I dug out my autograph book yesterday and found one with those flower pictures

We used to collect those like crazy, too.

Ines, when I look at the entry in your autograph book, I realize it’s similar to mine—and surely to others’ as well. The underlined lines (sometimes still visible) and the writing across the bottom margin. I’m glad I still have memories like these. Unfortunately, my second autograph book must have gotten lost during all those moves. It was the follow-up book I started after the move.

I always think it’s wonderful when you still have your autograph book.

Just like you, Marion, I had two. The first one (which was completely filled) got lost during one of our moves. It’s frustrating because it had the most beautiful pictures and sayings in it. I still haven’t found the other one. Unfortunately.

That makes me admire your old treasures all the more. Exactly—we used to collect and trade these pictures, especially if they had glitter on them.

Hello dear nostalgia fans,

I found a few more treasures that were in my cassette box.
Among them were badges for “good knowledge,” “Collective of Socialist Labor,” and even old GDR checks.
A birthday card to me from my grandma, who has since passed away,
my old insurance card, and my car registration card for a Lada 2107 back then. Oh man.
The little metallic notebook was a gift from my aunt once (sadly, she is no longer alive either).

Oh, Andrea, I think it’s so nice that you’re showing us your old treasures. Especially in the first picture, I recognize so much from back then: the bills, the checks, the insurance card—it’s all very familiar, since it was part of our everyday life for many decades. You could pay with a check; there weren’t any debit cards or ATMs back then. If you needed cash, you had to go to the savings bank, fill out a withdrawal slip, stand in line, and then they’d pay you out in cash. How different everything is today.

Your badges look very familiar, too. It’s great that you’ve kept them and can show them to us.

I’ll have to dig through my things to see what I still have. But there isn’t much left, because a few months ago my husband gave everything away to a friendly woman who runs a brick-and-mortar flea market. She’s a collector and even has a special GDR display case where she keeps these old treasures. She doesn’t sell them, but they attract customers, and everyone stops in front of them and feels transported back in time.

Warm regards to Norway—from Ina

Wow, Andrea, you have some rare treasures! I’m amazed!
I still have old DM coins, an insurance policy, and checks hidden away somewhere, too. And lots and lots of slides and photo albums.

One of my favorite childhood books still exists, too, but unfortunately it’s already falling apart. It’s the book "Tannenwald’s Nursery". 

I also remember "Rosen-Resli" and another favorite book, "Grischka and His Bear". As you can see, I’ve always loved bears. 

I stumbled upon this thread again and found even more nostalgic treasures.

I still have two of my children’s books in my collection that I treasure. My parents gave them to me back then.

And this one is from my mom—a bottle opener and corkscrew...

Thank you, dear Ina.

Yes, I thought of Monika too, with her comments, pictures of her crochet projects, and the dolls and teddy bears. She is still present, and not forgotten, and that is a good thing.

I also read through the whole thread again (I had bookmarked the page, after all). Those were good times. :-)

I actually know everything mentioned, but I never wanted or had a poetry album. What surprises me—didn't anyone have a "Magic Slate"? That flat plastic box with 2 rotary knobs along the bottom edge, which you turned over and had to shake so you could then draw with vertical and horizontal lines made by turning the knobs. One knob was for the horizontal lines and one knob for the vertical ones. Hand coordination was all you needed. 

Of course! And there were those little boards where you could draw with a stylus, and then wipe it away with a little slider. 

I still remember both of those boards! I can still recall the dials for the horizontal and vertical lines. I think I found that pretty tedious. I liked the other little magic board with the pen better, though. With that one, you could quickly draw something and wipe it right back off. The concept still exists today—only now everything’s made of plastic or is even called an LED board.

Since I love circles and patterns, I was later given a game called “Spirograph.” Inside a large turquoise cardboard box were lots of different gears with spirally arranged holes into which you could insert pens. The gears were then rolled along an inner gear pinned to a sheet of paper or along a frame. I loved drawing those colorful spiral patterns. 

It’s great that Spirographs are still around today. Maybe that would make a nice Christmas gift for my grandchildren. I’m sure they’ll let me try it out sometime, too :-)

Best regards, Ina

Awwwwww Spirograph! ♡♡♡♡ I loved that!!!