Vintage articles and more in the Family & parenting category at Click Americana

The Sunshine Family Van with Piggyback Shack

The Sunshine Family dolls & vintage play sets (1974-1978)

Hot on the heels of the flower child era, back in 1974, Mattel introduced a set of dolls that were sort of the anti-Barbie: The Sunshine Family. Though the new family members (the parents, at least) were about the same size as Barbie and Ken dolls, fashion and luxury living was not their thing.

Wonder horse! Ride-on spring horse toys (1960s)

Get a Wonder Horse, and you've made your cowboy's happiest dreams come true... Wonder Horse makes the world’s most popular toy horses. All 17 models promise instant joy on Christmas morning -- and lasting year-round enjoyment!

How to stop your kids from becoming juvenile delinquents (1958)

When I was a kid, we had the same desire to loot and pillage and rape as these kids today, we were as savage as kids always are, but at the same time, we knew that our parents and all other grownups were unalterably opposed to it, and we didn't do it.

What Time Is It? A Puppet Storybook vintage book for preschoolers (1968)

Here is a look inside one of the books in this '60s series of vintage preschool favorites: Puppet Storybooks with 3D lenticular covers! This one had a simple concept: teaching kids the concept of time, and how to keep track of the hours of the day.

The perfect ’80s tween birthday: Slumber party!

To the average American girl, between the ages of, say, 10 and 17, slumber parties are as important as pizza, add-a-beads and Judy Blume.

Whitman’s Chocolates & the Mother’s Day guilt trips (1940s)

In the early 1940s, Whitman's Chocolates heavily promoted their product as the ideal Mother's Day gift -- and they laid the guilt on thick. "There is no hurt like forgetting."

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet: The quintessential ’50s family

Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, with their progeny David and Rick, are synonymous with the American family image both on and off television. The Nelson boys are perhaps the only people who have literally grown up before the eyes of millions of weekly viewers.

About Mother’s Day: How it began, and who started it all (1909)

Have you ever wondered about Mother's Day -- like how it got started? In the early years of the 20th century, Anna Jarvis started a movement that spread throughout the world: the custom of observing the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.

Vintage preschool favorites: Puppet Storybooks with 3D lenticular covers

These familiar rhymes and fairy tales have delighted generations of children. With their 3-D lenticular covers and full-color puppet-like illustrations, these vintage Puppet Storybooks are more irresistible than ever!

Follow-up: Titanic survivor Charlotte Collyer (1912)

Response from Charlotte Collyer, survivor of the Titanic Mrs Charlotte Collyer's article, "How I Was Saved from the Titanic," printed seven weeks ago... Click to read more...

Free To Be... You And Me from Marlo Thomas & Friends

Free to Be…You and Me: A one-of-a-kind, star-studded message to kids (1973)

The first 'children's liberation' album, 'Free To Be... You And Me' - featuring stars like Marlo Thomas, Mel Brooks, Harry Belafonte, Alan Alda, Diana Ross and Shirley Jones - was catchy, upbeat, and like nothing else, and by 1976, had sold half a million copies.

Build a dream-come-true play house in your backyard (1962)

Any little girl who gets this playhouse will see the magical land of make-believe come true right in her own backyard. It's a real house, with a Dutch front door and hearts and flowers dormers and a white picket fence.

Toys R Us catalog: ‘You’ll never outgrow us’ (1987)

What were the hottest toys in 1987? See them in this vintage Toys R Us toy & game catalog insert! The slogan that year: 'You'll never outgrow us.'

Barbie’s new family & friends: Tutti, Francie, Casey & Chris (1960s)

Barbie, Color Magic Barbie & Tutti If you’ve ever watched Barbie help a little girl grow up, you know why she’s our most famous doll. With Bar... Click to read more...

The old-fashioned grandmother has gone out of fashion (1900)

Fifty years ago, a woman practically retired from the pleasures and active interests of life at about her fortieth birthday, and began to get ready to die.

Let’s play house! Fisher-Price Kitchen Center (1994)

No other kitchen comes with as much fun stuff as the Fisher-Price All-In-One Kitchen Center!

How did people spend their free time back in the 1970s?

Can you guess what was the #1 evening pastime according to nearly half of the people interviewed in a 1974 Gallup survey?

McDonald’s Friendly Skies Meals on United Airlines (1991-1993)

Imagine, up above the clouds enjoying a cheeseburger from McDonald's for lunch or dinner. McDonaldland cookies for dessert. There's even a McDonald's sausage biscuit for breakfast.

Pregnant with a prince: Princess Diana’s maternity outfits (1982)

Princess Diana went along with the maternity fashions of the '80s that draped the body to camouflage the baby bump. And despite wearing a gown that would make the team of Project Runway weep, Di somehow looked kind of adorable.

Unidentified but not forgotten: Antique portraits from Cincinnati

Before the Civil War, a talented photographer named James Presley Ball, Sr. produced beautiful daguerreotype portraits for hundreds of people -- among... Click to read more...

Disneyland brochure for 1988: More than ever the happiest place

Bringing you the finest in family entertainment, Disneyland is reaching for the stars like never before!

8 high-style, low-budget gift wrap ideas (1976)

A pretty wrapping makes a gift special. But when you suddenly realize that some of your Christmas presents are costing almost as much to wrap as they did to buy, then it's high time for ingenuity and originality!

Stage a crafty Christmas claybake! (1964)

Christmas claybake In that magical and ever-quickening flurry of days and weeks before Christmas, when lists are drawn up, gifts cached away, parties... Click to read more...

Make a cookie house for Christmas (1967)

The cookie house can be your merriest holiday decoration ever. Start with a kit you order, then embellish with homemade or packaged cookies and yummy... Click to read more...

How to craft clever Christmas ornaments from paper (1960)

So pretty, such fun to do! One of the nicest Christmas customs we know is having both young and old make ornaments for the tree! These are paper ... Click to read more...

Dr Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)

When Dr Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! originally aired on December 18, 1966 no one expected the 26-minute cartoon to become a part of America... Click to read more...

L’eggs eggs in gold, silver, red, blue, green for Christmas (1973)

We're not having a white Christmas (We've decorated our white L'eggs eggs in gold, silver, red, blue, green, so you can give brighter Christmas prese... Click to read more...

Play time! Popular toys from 1948

Four pages of favorite toys for children This four-page photograph shows 126 Christmas toys, a good cross section of the $300 million worth which US ... Click to read more...

Make your own Christmas trimmings & decor! (1962)

Make your own gay trimmings, advises clever El Paso decorator by Bessie Simpson Remember the days when Christmas trimmings were not to be found ... Click to read more...

Heat Miser & Snow Miser: The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)

Let's hear a "Ho, ho, ho" for two of the most memorable characters from the stop-motion animated Christmas specials of the seventies: Heat Miser &... Click to read more...

Decorate the Christmas tree with salt dough ornaments (1975)

Remember when Christmas was homemade ornaments and handmade gifts? Maybe this is the year for Christmas past. All it takes is a batch of dough and ... Click to read more...

Kate Mulgrew of Star Trek: Voyager – Where no woman has gone before (1995)

Kate Mulgrew is going where no woman has gone before -- starring as Captain Kathryn Janeway, the first female captain of a Star Trek vessel on TV's Star Trek: Voyager.

Kiddie Koop: A baby crib that closes so mom can do chores (1950)

A bouncy new baby is wonderful fun - but quite a burden, too! This practical safety crib will make Baby even more fun, because Trimble's Kiddie-Koop makes baby care easier for you... safer for Baby

Toys R Us: Out of this world toy book (1986)

Take a look back at the latest and greatest toys from 1986!

While hardly a classic, ‘Willy Wonka’ will do (1971)

Alice had her Wonderland. Dorothy found her Oz. And Charlie -- in 1971 -- has his chocolate factory.

Love among the Reagans: Life with Ronald Reagan in 1942

With two lively females on his hands, Ronnie calls his home "The Ronald Reagan Home For Delinquent Girls" By Ida Zeitlin The Ronald Reagans were... Click to read more...

Family & parenting

Pin It on Pinterest