D for...

DRAWING PADS:

Before iPads, we had drawing pads, whether it was on paper or things like this:

I did a lot of drawing and had many paper pads. Also remember  dot-to-dot pictures and Fun Pads, with a mixture of coloring, dot-to-dot, word searches, crosswords and other activities.

DEPARTMENT STORES AND MALLS:

These were everywhere when I was growing up. We had a JC Penney store, which was two stories. I recall looking at the kids' clothes on the second floor, and seeing the circular clothing racks. My mom would often order from the catalog at the store. She herself worked for Ford's, a defunct California department store chain. 

And I went to the mall in another town many times. The one I frequently went to had a variety of stores, including book and record stores, as well as various clothing and shoe stores, and stores like Sears and JC Penney (bigger than the one in my town). I enjoyed just riding the escalator! This mall still exists, but I have not been there in years. 

An outlet mall in another nearby town has existed since the 1990s. I still go to this one, once recently to get new shoes and pants. When it opened, there were stores for cookware, dishware, specialty food, books, and toys, but today there are mostly clothing and shoe stores, but there is also a toy store. Since the Lane Bryant across town closed, I now have to go the one at the outlet in the same town. 

This was certainly different when I was a teen, as we did not have Amazon or other online shopping. As much as Amazon has seemed to taken over, I still like to go to stores in person. Especially when I need something right away. A lot of stores may be gone, but let's hope some remain. 

DICTIONARY:

Others may have though it was crazy to look in the dictionary when they didn't have to, but I was OK with it. It was something I'd do when bored. There was more to be found than just word definitions, such as a listing of colleges and universities, people's names and their meanings, and maps, to name a few. There were more than one in my house, including an unabridged dictionary of over 2000 pages. I even had a small one I could carry in my purse for school. And I also had dictionaries in French, Spanish and Italian for school.

I still like the feel of a dictionary, though the last one I had is a paperback that has since fallen apart, and I have not bothered replacing it. Every year new words get added to the dictionary, yet so few people seem to want to use one today.

DISNEY:

Before the Disney Channel and Disney+, there was the Disney anthology series that ran on all three networks, long before Disney owned ABC. ABC, oddly, was the first network to air the series, beginning in 1954. It went through a number of name changes (one of the more memorable titles was The Wonderful World of Disney) as it moved to NBC, and finally to CBS. After ending its original 29-year run in 1983, the series resurfaced on ABC in 1986 as The Disney Sunday Movie.  A few later incarnations aired on NBC and CBS, and once again on ABC as Disney acquired that network in the 1990s. It is now on Disney+, once again titled The Wonderful World of Disney.  

I mainly watched the show when it was on NBC until 1981, on Sunday nights. Here is the intro used in 1979-80, the era and theme song I remember the most from watching the show:

I did see many Disney movies in the theater, including Cinderella, one of my favorites. I also had the picture books of the Disney versions of Cinderella, Snow White, and Alice in Wonderland. 

Another Disney item I had was this movie viewer. It could be played backwards, which I found to be fun. I had the Lonesome Ghosts tape (seen in the photo) as well as one with Three Little Pigs.

And I have some recollection of the Disney books that came with records, but cannot recall if I ever had any of these. 

It seems that was a Disney thing. Don't know if anyone else used this gimmick.

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DONE for today. Come back to see what ELSE I have tomorrow.