Those were the days...

[coyotehunter_1]

I thought some of the "old schoolers" (like me) might enjoy going down memory lane and maybe the "younger than dirt" folks will find it some what amusing.


BTW < I did not write this stuff but I did shamelessly steal it from another board. 

Chet
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



'Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'


'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him.


'All the food was slow.'
'C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?'


'It was a place called "at home", I explained. !

'Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it :

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis , set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card.

In their later years, they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck.
Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died..

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow).

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 10.
It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.

I was 9 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.'
When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too.. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

I never had a telephone in my room.
The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers --my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6AM every morning

On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend :

My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it... I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall..
Real ice boxes.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Older Than Dirt Quiz :

Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about.

Ratings at the bottom.

1. Blackjack chewing gum & Teaberry also (my favs)
2.Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines on the telephone
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were t here until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels [if you were fortunate])
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S& H greenstamps
16. Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19. Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25.. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best of my life.

Youth can look only forward, but age can also look back.

[vayotehowler]

ah good memory of the cork stopper sprinkler in the dr pepper bottle . my granmother used to use one of those, and the s&h green stamps. we used to turn in  16oz pepsi bottles for 10c  to buy worms to go fishin. dont know how many times i lugged 2 packs of bottles under ea arm

[Hawks Feather]

The person that wrote this is about 5 years older than I am.  That is based on the fact that we got our first TV when I was 5.  It was black and white, but I did see my first color TV when I was about 10.  I could not figure out why anyone would buy one - the picture was that bad.  I can remember my did using clear flashbulbs and you had to have a blue cover over them.  The clear bulbs were for black and white and the cover was a color converter AND when one of the bulbs would explode it kept glass from going all over the room.  My first camera was a Kodak Brownie and it used M2 blue bulbs.  They were smaller than the "real" flashbulbs.

Jerry

[FinsnFur]

I can remember having to ask if I could be excused from the supper table.
And headlight dimmer switches on the floor?....heck my 90 1/2 ton still has one.

The bottom quiz, I got 12...(Don't tell your age)

[Hawks Feather]

The telephones were actually pretty neat.  Since you were on a party line you would lift the handset up and if there was someone talking you either listened or hung up.  If they got really windy you would click the button a few times to let them know someone was waiting or simply start to place it back on the cradle while yelling ' yea, they are still talking.'  You listened to the rings - ours was one long and two short (don't know how I can remember that) and to call someone on the line you would turn the crank (say one long and one short) and then lift the handset and wait for them to answer.  If they didn't answer you would hang up and try again.  Also, there was no dial on the phone - you could call the others on your line and one long crank would get you the operator.  Operator - a REAL person and you didn't push one for English.  You also didn't need to know anyone's number, you just said, "Would you please call Latta's house" or if you were calling home from somewhere else, "Hi, this is Jerry Latta, would please call my home."  It was a simpler time.

Jerry

[bigben]

This post reminds me of a statler brothers song.  The only thing I can relate to is mom and dad used to make us eat whatever they made.  Didn't matter what we thought or wanted.  we ate what they put in front and we didn't get seconds unless dad and mom said we could.  the other stuff flew right over my head. 

[NASA]

I remember all of those.  I remember I hated Blackjack gum.  I also remember the fish truck every Friday.  I would hear his horn a block away and run in the house to tell my grandma he was coming.  Then we'd sit on the porch together and wait for him to come down our street.  I remember dirt streets, no sidewalks, and no curbs.  I remember creosote repelled termites and paint didn't, so every 3 years my grandfather "painted" our wooden house with creosote.  It reeked for 3 months, but we never had a bug problem, inside or out.  I remember bathing with homemade lye soap.  And shaving off slivers from the same bar to wash clothes in a copper, triple pumper, wringer washing machine.  I remember grandma boiling water on a wood fire in the back yard for the washer.  I remember getting my tiny fingers mashed in that damn wringer, too!

[FOsteology]

Dang..... you guys are OLD as dirt!! 

I guess I shouldn't talk as I fondly recall much of what is on the list....

[coyotehunter_1]

Yep, charter member of the older than dirt club.
I can remember, when I was a young rug rat, 50 cents would get you into a Saturday movie matinee (sometimes a double feature) and buy popcorn and a Coke (aka: Soda or Pop). Today, it takes a 10 spot just to get in the theater.

[FinsnFur]

Wow, I think we might have to start issuing walkers and front row parking

[nastygunz]

I still think the dimmer switch on the floor was better wonder why they changed em 

[pitw]

I still think the dimmer switch on the floor was better wonder why they changed em 

For the people who can't chew gum and walk  .

[FinsnFur]

I still think the dimmer switch on the floor was better wonder why they changed em 

Water, snow, slush, salt, mud, sand. It was a bad idea from the git go.

[iahntr]

I remember one time when I was younger we had to borrow or drive my
Grandmas "newer fancier car" home from somewhere, my mom was driving
and she kept getting "bright dimmed" from everybody because she couldn't
figure how to get em off bright, had to pull over to a gas station, or some
place, and get shown how. 

I was still in the "Don't tell your age" category. ( BARELY ) 

[pitw]

  It was a bad idea from the git go.

Yeah  .  Removing them two little bolts as opposed to tearing the steering column apart always turned my crank .

[FOsteology]

  It was a bad idea from the git go.

Yeah  .  Removing them two little bolts as opposed to tearing the steering column apart always turned my crank .

Unless you're steering with your feet,.... mud, dirt, snow, ice, etc. shouldn't be a problem getting into the new fangled components. No need then to tear things apart...

[THO Game Calls]

I remember the Civil Defense Drills in grade school.   The siren would go off and everyone would get under their desk and cover their heads with their hands.

Yeah - Like that was going to work   

[FinsnFur]

  It was a bad idea from the git go.

Yeah  .  Removing them two little bolts as opposed to tearing the steering column apart always turned my crank .

Unless you're steering with your feet,.... mud, dirt, snow, ice, etc. shouldn't be a problem getting into the new fangled components. No need then to tear things apart...

I'm guessing I've dealt with over a dozen of those things and I still say they were a bad idea. At least the ones I did, were.
I have never in my life unbolted one and just replaced it. It usually led to replacing green corroded wiring, connectors and pigtails. In fact I started unbolting them on my trucks and remounting them to the left side cowel which was metal back then too. Worked like a freekin charm.




Remember when the cars and trucks had real metal dashboards? My grandpa had an old car I forget the make, but it had a push button transmission controlled from the dashboard.

[FOsteology]

Remember full service gas stations??

Fella would pump your gas, check your tires, check your oil, wash your windows.....

Oh yeah, on gas..... you had a choice, leaded or unleaded.

We always went to the one with the BIG orange ball numbered 76 in the sky... Conoco Phillips 76

[NASA]

Those were originally Union 76 stations (Union Oil of SoCal).