Those were the days...

[markTNhunter]

im not that old but i can remember the old gas station where i grew up was like that and there was always old timers hanging out there playing checkers and cards my PAPAW was usually one of them thats one of the few memories i have of him.they had an ole Coke machine you put .25 cent in it and opened a narrow glass door on the side and got glass bottle of coke out do any of you remember those?those were the days.

[FOsteology]

Yup, I fondly remember..... ice cold coke in a small glass bottle.

A wonderful trip down memory lane fella's....

[Tikaani]

Reading these replies,  it's funny what memories we remember most.  I remember like it was yesterday my mom collecting the S&H green stamps and ice trays with levers.

John

[NASA]

How about before coke "machines"?  Who remembers the big metal ice chest (on legs) at the gas stations?  It had 3-4 different kinds of soda, was filled with ice and water, had a big metal bottle opener on the front?  And you paid the man fifteen cents for your coke.

Ice trays with levers?  How about before electric fridges?  I clearly remember the ice man, with his ice tongs, with a 25 lb block of ice on a thick leather "serape" on his shoulder, bringing ice into the kitchen.  I also remember one of my earliest chores was to empty the drip pan under the ice box 3 times a day.  If it overflowed, I had to mop the whole kitchen floor, LOL.

[FOsteology]

'twas honestly before my time. However, I did encounter them on occasion when visiting kin folk in the deep south..... sparsely populated back woods areas where change comes about
s  l  o  w  l  y ....

[NASA]

Hey, c'mon you guys, it can't be just me.  You're making me feel as old as Cronk, LMAO!

[Tikaani]

Ice man, holy crap.  I think we need to make a different list for you NASA. 

John

[pitw]

  I remember how at the small service stations they filled the globe up to the level you were buying with the hand pump.  Our phone number was R103, R1 was for rural route 1, the 0 and three designated the rings, ours was three short ones.  I remember when the phone went dead that dad would just gather up some tools and head out to fix the line as that was the only way it would get done.  Even after we got rotary phones we still had smaller party lines, ours had four of us on it.  I remember  buying 22 shorts cause they were far cheaper and pretty much just as effective as a long rifle in the right hands[{L} I still got a couple guns that only take shorts ]. 

[FinsnFur]

Remember some of the old TV shows? Hee Haw, American Bandstand, Benny Hill, 6 Million Dollar Man Hogans heros

How about the first TV video game by Activision, and it was freeking ping pong....blip  blip blip blip

[FOsteology]

Yeah, the first home video game systems (Atari, et al) required a great deal of imagination. The graphics and realism of the games my two boys play leave me in awe and speechless!

[vayotehowler]

I still have my atari 2600 and some games to go with it . bought a jack that hooks to the todays tv and converts the signals

[FinsnFur]

Do you use it much? I'm surprised you still find it useful...or should I say fun.

[coyotehunter_1]

TV shows…. any of you young whipper snappers remember these?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Little Rascals
Howdy Doodie
The Mickey Mouse Club
Bonanza
The Virginian
Davey Crockett
Daniel Boone
Rin Tin Tin
Lassie
Sky King
Highway Patrol
Lone Ranger
Amos and Andy
Red Skelton
I love Lucy
Ozzie and Harriet
My Friend Flicka
Mr. Ed (the talking horse, of course)
Sea Hunt
Leave it to Beaver
The Jack Benny Show
Mayberry, RFD

and for PITW:  Sergeant Preston and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 

Now I wonder how long some of these shows would be on air today… if they could even made the season line up?

[Okanagan]

NASA, I'm apparently from your era.  Those old Coke chests with top lid and glass bottles in the icy water were wonderful.  We lived in a desert and the cold water on the outside was almost as good to feel as the Coke inside the glass bottle.  I remember every item on the original list posted here, and remember them well, including the taste of Blackjack gum vividly. I remember when Pepsi changed from their old style glass bottle to the new kind with a swirl in the glass.  The summer I got married I worked in a glass factory making swirl glass Pepsi bottles.

Beyond those, when I was a kid we had an ice box with ice blocks in it for the first couple of years on our small farm, until electricity came our way.   My folks bought a special electric oven in anticipation of getting electricity, and I'll never forget the bisquits Mom started baking the minute the PUD crew said the juice was on.  I remember the foreman laughing with my folks about the first electric cooking we would do at that place.  (We'd moved out there from town where we'd had electricity earlier, but an icebox and no electricity was not uncommon as folks spread out to break new land to farm.)

We had a De Laval hand crank cream separator, a big cross cut saw (wish I knew what had become of that), and I saved money ($10.00) to buy my first camera, a new model of Kodak Brownie with a built in flash that took flash bulbs.  A lot of the stuff was so normal that it is hard to notice it in memory, though most of it is long gone and would be an oddity today.  Mom washed with a wringer washing machine and kids helped.  We actually used a ribbed wash board before we got electricity.

We dried apricots on the roof and dried them hard so they would keep, wonderful taste, especially in fried pies.

[Bills Custom Calls]

Whats a TV 
Yep remember 19 on that list

[Frogman]

I remember most of those!  I also remember my first Red Ryder bb gun and my Davy Crockett coon skin hat and fringed shirt.  Radio Flyer red wagon, nickel candy bars and dime pop.  And a really fond memory - 29 cents per gallon gasoline??  Coming home from LBL I was shocked to find gas in KY for $3.15/gal.  Then I got home to Wv and it was $3.25/gal?? 

Oh those were the days!!

Jim 

[Frogman]

Oh, yeah coyotehunter_1,

I forgot Sea Hunt, that was my favorite TV show!!

Jim

[HaMeR]

Older than dirt for sure here. 

[coyote101]

Wagon Train, Roy Rogers, Rawhide, Fury, Art Linkletter, Walt Disney Presents and The Whirlybirds. Tonka trucks and baseball cards with that piece of flat gum in the package. I picked up a lot of bottles for the two cent deposit to buy baseball cards. I wish I still had those Stan Musial and Sandy Koufax cards.

Pat

[NASA]

Those were the days when self reliance was a way of life, and welfare "entitlement" was unheard of.  You either had a work ethic or you were a bum.  There was no middle ground.  Pregnancy out of wedlock was a disgrace.  And the child of an unwed mother was a bastard, not something to celebrate like they do today.  People went to Church, and were proud to say so.  People today are ashamed to admit they attend Church, and even more brag that they don't believe in God.  The world has changed, but not for the better.  Medical advances let us live longer today, but what kind of a life are we living?