Been there, done that, remember that, the problem I have is I don’t remember what I did yesterday.
LightningBugs / Older 'n Dirt!!
"Hey Dad," one of my kids 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. "Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa 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 AND 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 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day. Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.
I was 13 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.
We didn't have a car until I was 15. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a "machine."
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. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My 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. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in ! French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them.
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 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 8. Newsreels before the movie 9. P.F. Flyers 10. Butch wax 11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933) 12. Peashooters 13. Howdy Doody 14. 45 RPM records 15. S&H Green Stamps 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 tha! n dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.
Don't forget to pass this along!! Especially to all your really OLD friends.... ===== "Senility Prayer"...God grant me... The senility to forget the people I never liked The good fortune to run into the ones that I do And the eyesight to tell the difference."
Posted by Jerry Mathel (Member # 526) on :
At first, I was afraid this was about me....... And them when I read it, I realized it was.... Posted by Dan Sawatzky (Member # 88) on :
I remember most of this stuff... and I am WAY youger than Raymond. I just lived in a small town... way out in the booniees. Most of these things hadn't even been invented yet when Raymond was a young boy.
-grampa dan
Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
well we all know that Si Allen invented dirt. It's only a matter of time til he chimes in. Posted by Chuck Churchill (Member # 68) on :
Gees Mike...you have described my childhood in the 50's perfectly! Only two things that I remember differently. I never delivered newspapers, I mowed lawns and worked for farmers. Second one is my father was the local radio and TV repairman. We always had the best TV in town (that meant the biggest cabinet and the latest colour stain...like blonde). Also I went on repair calls with my father. Yep...the repairman went to the TV!
Posted by William Holohan (Member # 2514) on :
Mike, Thanks....Just thanks...:-) I scored 25...Si will probably score 57 when he finishes adding his memories...He of course remembers mixing his latharge and oil. Uses his old muller as a paperweight... Just wait till he gets in on this one...
Posted by Bob Stephens (Member # 858) on :
I met my first wife by clubbing her on the head and dragging her to my cave. Damn she looked fine in that saber tooth tiger fur bikini!
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
As Si's apprentice painting cave walls, I got to chew the end of willow sticks to make a new set of fitches each day.
He also taught me how to "airbrush" with a mouthful of water and ground ochre using your hand as a stencil.
Posted by Carl Wood (Member # 1223) on :
Remembered 17 here. . .ain't ashamed to admit I'm 'pushin 45. . . .
Posted by Frank Magoo (Member # 3950) on :
Not only remembered em all, I can add to list:
Desert bags that hung from front bumper...
A/C that hung in passengers window...
Kaiser...
Henry J...
Indoor plumbing was welcomed by all...
Sears and Roebuck catalogs were used as TP...
Smug pots to heat crankcase of car to start it...
Pickle barrels in grocery store...
Ice deliverymen...
Street ice cream peddlers on 3 whl. bike...
Gas street lites...
Revolving stop signs in middle of intersection...
Converse tennis shoes...
Cordaroy pants...(cords)
Heel taps...
White buck shoes...
Appleton spotlites...
Blue-dots...
and many, many more, making my feel gray listing these...
Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
Hey Frank,
I still see blue-dots around town on occassion, we have a lot of streetrods on the road. I thought the dots were outlawed, doesn't matter anyway, the fuzz here is pretty relaxed about custom rides. Half the time I forget to even put my magnetic taillights up (hide them down in the bed) before leaving home. Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
Yea Dan, I remember all those things and even the ones that Magoo added.
My Dad ran the Ice Plant in town and we delivered ice to houses, just like the milkman did the milk. The home owner would put a sign in the window to let us know what amount of ice to leave. You just walked in the door and put the ice in the "ice box" and left.
I started working at that ice plant when I was five years old. Had a regular routine that I went through every day. When I started to school, the jobs were done after school and on weekends. I was one of the few kids in school that had money in my pocket, and it wasn't from an "allowance". In fact, I never received an allowance - money was paid for work. No work, no money.
One of the great highlights of my life was when we finally got indoor plumbing - I was 10.
[ February 13, 2006, 01:12 PM: Message edited by: Raymond Chapman ]
Posted by Roy Frisby (Member # 736) on :
I remembered all I'm afraid, even the one's from Frank....Gosh, am I that old? Ray, I worked in an ice house when I was in college, man, talk about WORK. You haven't worked until you've hustled ice in the summertime. The difference with our milk was that the cow delivered it to the barn, we had to do the rest. Oh, but those were the good-ole-days....weren't they!?
Posted by Ed Gregorowicz (Member # 1842) on :
I remember reading somewhere that Raymond lettered the transom on Noah's Ark.
Signcraft maybe??????
Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
Carved. Really tough wood....and I kept forgetting what a cubit was.
[ February 13, 2006, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: Raymond Chapman ]
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
Hey, 2, 3, 5 & 23 are still around!
I vaguley recall the Howdy-Doody' show, but does anyone remember the 'Howdy-Doody' minute shops that were around about 25 years ago?? Had a big ol sign with Howdy's freckled face and that red neckercheif.
I'm not all that old like y'all ( ) I just recall most those things because of my parents and grandparents.
'Til the day he died, my dad called the refigerator, 'the icebox'.
Did'n you hate those metal ice-cube trays!! Remember tryin' to break the ice out and the whole frozen thing came out of the tray instead!!
While we're on memory lane, does anyone remember those sort'a cone-shaped bushel baskets?? And those big ol' white enamel pans?? -They have a 1/4" red or black edge around the rim.
My granny would have 3 or 4 of those bushel baskets (they seemed SO tall when I was a little kid) full of unshelled purple-hull peas.
Granny would set a basket on the porch and give me and a coupl'a my cousins each one of those big enamel pans full of unshelled peas and say: "Who can shell the most peas??"
Well, that was all she had to say! We would shell peas until our little fingers turned dark-purplish-black and ached!
We had no idea we were accomplishing the adults unwanted work!
I still recall the wonderful feeling of running my hands thru a full pan of cool freshly shelled peas . . .and I still have 2 of granny's red-rimmed enamle pans.
[ February 13, 2006, 02:35 PM: Message edited by: Sheila Ferrell ]
Posted by Ed Gregorowicz (Member # 1842) on :
quote:Originally posted by Raymond Chapman: Carved. Really tough wood....and I kept forgetting what a cubit was.
Yeah, I hate the metric system too...... Posted by Bill Preston (Member # 1314) on :
And how many of those freshly-shelled raw peas actually made it into the enamel pan without you kids eating them up?
Hmmmmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnnn?
bill preston
Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
Roy - I don't know if they were "good" or not, but it certainly was a simplier time - at least in the memory of a kid.
When I was 12 I bought a '31 Chevy five window coupe (with the spare tires in the front fenders)for $100 and drove it when the cops were not around. In those "good old days" I had to sell it to help put food on the table - my Dad had a heart attack and couldn't work at the ice plant anymore.
In the summer when I was 13 I bought a brand new Cushman Eagle and put every piece of chrome on it that I could buy. Even had a windshield. Now, those were the good old days.
And yes, I still call the fridge an "ice box".
MDO is calling....gotta go to work.
Posted by Ken Henry (Member # 598) on :
Does anyone recall canning preserves ? Not with cans, but those old Mason jars with the rubber rings and the zinc plated sealing lids. I used to help my grandma during the summer preserving lots of fruit which would be stored in the root cellar and eaten over the winter, when there was no fruit available. That fruit somehow seemed to taste better than what I buy these days. Maybe all those chemicals and preservatives with names that I can't pronounce, have something to do with that change in flavour.
There weren't any such things as "supermarkets". There was a general store, where they sold everything from hardware to rubber boots, to flour, sugar, spices, real milled oats, tonics, dry goods, and ammunition. Anything they didn't have could be ordered from a mail order catalogue, and you had to know your correct size.
That general store had a unique smell all it's own, and they'd never heard of such a thing as a credit card. Everyone paid cash when they bought there.
Posted by James Donahue (Member # 3624) on :
Steam locomotives. I'm only 45, but in 1967, my dad was assigned overseas in the USAF. They were still using steam locomotives there, we kids played a game where we pretended the thick black smoke was poisonous, and we had to lay out flat on the ground 'till it rolled past. I still like the smell of coal burning, it's a pleasant part of firing up my forge.
By the time I came around, can openers for soda cans were pretty much outdated, but there was always one around, in the kitchen drawer. By that time, soda cans had the removable pull tab.
A & W root beer tastes exactly the same.
Saturday night scary flicks on TV. Stayed up really late. The beginning of a habit that I still have.
Remember the first radial tires in the '70's? they had to be driven a few miles every morning before they would lose the bumpy flat spot. Didn't have them on my car, that was a little before my time. Dad had a VW bug.
Johnny carson looked young.
Joe Namath and the Green Bay Packers were a big deal.
Striped pants from the '70's. Old people with humongous hearing aids.President Nixon. There was this little utility box thing, probably contained devices for controling the signal lights at the nearby intersection. Somebody had painted "impeach Nixon" on it. The paint stayed there for years and years, and finally wore away, but the rest of the metal had oxodized some, so the writing could be seen for like 20 years or something.
Posted by James Donahue (Member # 3624) on :
Oh yeah, just remembered, we were all driving in our car, I was a kid, and we heard the news of an American ship being captured. We were big time model builders, and the first thing I worried about was what would happen the the ship???
My mother immediately scolded me about the fate of the men being what was important. It was of course, the Pueblo incident, and I still cringe when I think how insensitive I was.
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