Remember the good ol' days?

My mother used this mascara. Let's just say this wasn't one

of Maybelline's better products.

Hanging out in what is, effectively, a museum gives me plenty of chances to think about the past. The shelves and walls at Green Cove Station are covered with merchandise from the general store which, along with the building, was donated to the U.S. Forest Service in 1977. I sometime hear visitors waxing nostalgic about how nice it would be if we could all return to the “good ol' days” of, say, the 1950's when times were better, simpler.



The elimination of malaria in North America,

once a major killer here, stands as is one

of public health's greatest accomplishments.

Except if you were Black and only permitted to ride at the back of the bus or a woman unable to escape the clutches of an abusive spouse because he controlled the family purse or a parent terrified his or her child would succumb in the latest round of polio, diphtheria, or some other (then) unpreventable malaise, things were surely better than today. Laissez bon temps rouler!



Prince Albert, still in the can. Won't

someone please let him out?

Every generation has its “good ol' days,” and, reality aside, I admit it's fun imagining life in a different era. During a recent lull in activity at Green Cove Station, I indulged myself in a trip down memory lane, as evidenced by the accompanying photos. Anyone else remember these?

A magazine for 15 cents.



Whether you were constipated or just itching to make gun powder, the general

store at Green Cove Station had a cure for whatever ailed you.

Injector blades ranks up there with Tang and Jiffy

Pop on the scale of important modern innovations.



Telephone pole insulators doubled as 

chair coasters and candle holders.

Check out the label on this elixir. If you still coughed,

it didn't matter because you slept through it!



Before “Grand Theft Auto” there were...paper kites!



Before they made cute galoshes, there were these gems.

Boxers? Briefs? Try men's onesies!