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. :laf:
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.
:wink: :biggrin:
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
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
I can remember having to ask if I could be excused from the supper table. :eyebrownod:
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)
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
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.
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!
Dang..... you guys are OLD as dirt!! :alscalls:
I guess I shouldn't talk as I fondly recall much of what is on the list....
Yep, charter member of the older than dirt club. :wink:
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.
Wow, I think we might have to start issuing walkers and front row parking :laf:
I still think the dimmer switch on the floor was better wonder why they changed em :wo:
Quote from: nastygunz on February 04, 2011, 06:28:52 PM
I still think the dimmer switch on the floor was better wonder why they changed em :wo:
For the people who can't chew gum and walk :laf:.
Quote from: nastygunz on February 04, 2011, 06:28:52 PM
I still think the dimmer switch on the floor was better wonder why they changed em :wo:
Water, snow, slush, salt, mud, sand. It was a bad idea from the git go.
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. :laf:
I was still in the "Don't tell your age" category. ( BARELY ) :eyebrownod:
Quote from: FinsnFur on February 04, 2011, 07:48:32 PM
It was a bad idea from the git go.
Yeah :madd:. Removing them two little bolts as opposed to tearing the steering column apart always turned my crank :doh2:.
Quote from: pitw on February 04, 2011, 11:39:51 PM
Quote from: FinsnFur on February 04, 2011, 07:48:32 PM
It was a bad idea from the git go.
Yeah :madd:. Removing them two little bolts as opposed to tearing the steering column apart always turned my crank :doh2:.
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... :shrug:
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 :alscalls: :alscalls:
Quote from: FOsteology on February 04, 2011, 11:46:54 PM
Quote from: pitw on February 04, 2011, 11:39:51 PM
Quote from: FinsnFur on February 04, 2011, 07:48:32 PM
It was a bad idea from the git go.
Yeah :madd:. Removing them two little bolts as opposed to tearing the steering column apart always turned my crank :doh2:.
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... :shrug:
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. :eyebrow: 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. :eyebrow:
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
Those were originally Union 76 stations (Union Oil of SoCal).
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.
Yup, I fondly remember..... ice cold coke in a small glass bottle.
A wonderful trip down memory lane fella's....
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
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.
'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 ....
Hey, c'mon you guys, it can't be just me. You're making me feel as old as Cronk, LMAO!
Ice man, holy crap. I think we need to make a different list for you NASA. :eyebrownod:
John
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 :innocentwhistle:].
Remember some of the old TV shows? Hee Haw, American Bandstand, Benny Hill, 6 Million Dollar Man Hogans heros :alscalls:
How about the first TV video game by Activision, and it was freeking ping pong....blip blip blip blip
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!
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
Do you use it much? I'm surprised you still find it useful...or should I say fun.
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. :biggrin:
Now I wonder how long some of these shows would be on air today… if they could even made the season line up? :confused: :laf:
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.
Whats a TV :confused:
Yep remember 19 on that list
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
Oh, yeah coyotehunter_1,
I forgot Sea Hunt, that was my favorite TV show!!
Jim
Older than dirt for sure here. :eyebrownod: :eyebrownod:
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
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?
Ah He-- I can remember all of those and can add to the list for older things , I am and Old Old Fart. cc :laf:
You guys are OLD! I only got 20 :alscalls:
I remember going to the big city once a year for mom and grandma to cash in their S&H stamps. One year mom had enough to buy what she needed and get me a pair of those skates that took a key. I remember mom getting her hand, and the occasional tit caught in the ringer. I remember Jackie Gleason, Adam 12, and Have Gun Will Travel on one of the two channels that our old black and white picked up. I lamented when they shut down the drive in. I was thankful when they did away with the party lines. I hated Black Jack gum but chewed it because when you spit it looked like you were chewing tobacco, lol.
I just remembered another one.
How about those big old cable box A and B buttons we had to use for UHF cable TV. :iroll:
I remember most of those so I guess I am older than dirt. :laf:
I remember at age 8 or 9 riding my bicycle down the gravel road to the Red Horse Ranch gift shop out on the main highway (where they sold gen-u-wine KY crafts to tourists :alscalls: ) and buying M-80's and Cherry Bombs for 5 cents a piece. Me and my buddies blew up all kinds of stuff with those babies. :eyebrownod:
Someone just sent me this. It fits right in with this thread . . .
How Old Is grandpa?
Stay with this -- the answer is at the end. It will blow you away.
One evening a grandson was talking to his grandfather about current events.
The grandson asked his grandfather what he thought about the shootings at schools, the computer age, and just things in general..
The Grandfather replied, "Well, let me think a minute, I was born before:
 television
 penicillin
 polio shots
 frozen foods
 Xerox
 contact lenses
 Frisbees and
 the pill
There were no:
 credit cards
 laser beams or
 ball-point pens
Man had not invented:
 pantyhose
 air conditioners
 dishwashers
 clothes dryers
 and the clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air and
 man hadn't yet walked on the moon
Your Grandmother and I got married first, .. ... ... and then lived together..
Every family had a father and a mother.
Until I was 25, I called every man older than me, "Sir".
And after I turned 25, I still called policemen and every man with a title, "Sir."
We were before gay-rights, computer- dating, dual careers, daycare centers, and group therapy.
Our lives were governed by the Ten Commandments, good judgment, and common sense.
We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong and to stand up and take responsibility for our actions.
Serving your country was a privilege; living in this country was a bigger privilege..
We thought fast food was what people ate during Lent.
Having a meaningful relationship meant getting along with your cousins.
Draft dodgers were those who closed front doors as the evening breeze started.
Time-sharing meant time the family spent together in the evenings and weekends-not purchasing condominiums.
We never heard of FM radios, tape decks, CDs, electric typewriters, yogurt, or guys wearing earrings.
We listened to Big Bands, Jack Benny, and the President's speeches on our radios.
And I don't ever remember any kid blowing his brains out listening to Tommy Dorsey.
If you saw anything with 'Made in Japan ' on it, it was junk
The term 'making out' referred to how you did on your school exam...
Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and instant coffee were unheard of.
We had 5 &10-cent stores where you could actually buy things for 5 and 10 cents.
Ice-cream cones, phone calls, rides on a streetcar, and a Pepsi were all a nickel.
And if you didn't want to splurge, you could spend your nickel on enough stamps to mail 1 letter and 2 postcards.
You could buy a new Chevy Coupe for $600, . .. . but who could afford one?
Too bad, because gas was 11 cents a gallon.
In my day:
 "grass" was mowed,
 "coke" was a cold drink,
 "pot" was something your mother cooked in and
 "rock music" was your grandmother's lullaby.
 "Aids" were helpers in the Principal's office,
 " chip" meant a piece of wood,
 "hardware" was found in a hardware store and
 "software" wasn't even a word.
And we were the last generation to actually believe that a lady needed a husband to have a baby.
No wonder people call us "old and confused" and say there is a generation gap. and how old do you think I am?
I bet you have this old man in mind....you are in for a shock!
Read on to see -- pretty scary if you think about it and pretty sad at the same time.
Are you ready ?????
This man would be only 59 years old..
Jim