"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 than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.
[ July 15, 2004, 03:15 PM: Message edited by: Si Allen ]
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
WOW! I scored a 22....
I'm not over the hill yet, but the air's definitely getting thinner. Rapid
Posted by Kissymatina (Member # 2028) on :
If the good die young, Si has got to have one hell of a collection of great stories. Posted by Joe Endicott (Member # 628) on :
I'm only 31, and I remembered 13 of them....must have something to do with having family in rural Kentucky.....it takes them longer to catch up with them new-fangled gadgets.
Posted by jack wills (Member # 521) on :
You left about 12 more out. I went passed dirt to cosmic dust.
CrazyJack
Posted by Jillbeans (Member # 1912) on :
Glad you posted it Si. Catharine Kennedy sent it to me. I have my grandma's RC Cola bottle with the sprinkler in it on my kitchen windowsill. She used to wash clothes with a wringer machine and 2 rinse tubs, one of which was filled with bluing. Then she'd line-dry and dampen em with the RC Cola bottle. It has a 1936 copyright on it. I scored 14. Love...Jill
Posted by Jackie B (Member # 186) on :
Jeez - I still use blueing! Some habits just don't die. Bomba-Dear
Posted by FranCisco Vargas (Member # 145) on :
I'm trying to remember what Butch wax was, if it's a pomade then I'm an old bastard if we use that chart... Posted by jimmy chatham (Member # 525) on :
i scored 25 i was born before the dead sea got sick.
Posted by Rovelle W. Gratz (Member # 4404) on :
Older than Dirt!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
Scored a 15 I'm 43
Posted by Gail & Dave Beattie (Member # 572) on :
I remember my parents saying they got... 1/ an electric refrigerator 2/ an electric frypan 3/ a TV ( black n white of course) 4/ ME !!! all in the same week
Ozzie memories may be a little different to those posted, I only ever saw those individual juke boxes in the movies
but.... I remember when the only thing you could buy to eat (away from home) was a meat pie from the bakery. I remember the first fish & chip shop in town I remember going to the football on a sunday afternoon and getting a penny to spend at half time you could buy a whole yard of licorice strap for half that so I did real well I remember when we chased the chook around the yard for ever 'after dad had cut it's head off' so tht mum could cook it for lunch I remember taking glass jars to the bulk food shop to get them filled with vegimite, treacle, golden syrup and lots more I remember buying big bags of broken buscuits for tuppence and the man geting them out of the Arnotts metal tins with the colourfull parrot logo on the front... I always loved that logo! I remember the only time we were ever allowed to eat anything away fromt he table was at 6pm on a sunday night when we got tomato on toast and watched the wonderfull world of disney on the TV I remember mum ironing with a sprinkle bottle I remember glass coke bottles out of the drink machine and the bottle opener on the side if you wre lucky under the cork infill in the cap you could sometimes win things I remember collecting all the bottles I could find so that I could buy more licorice I remember dad and the next door neighbor sharing a big brown bottle of beer on the front veranda on a hot summers night
ahhh such sweet memories
cheers gail
Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
One more from an "older than dirt" participant:
The square sign you put in the window for the ice man. It had a 12,25, or 50 and a blank space. If you wanted 12 pounds of ice you placed the sign in the window with the 12 up, and so forth. The blank meant you didn't want any that day.
I know, because I was the guy that delivered the ice. Drove a Chevy pickup when I was 10 to make the deliveries. My older brother delivered the crushed ice to the restaurants before school and then made another run after school. Our dad ran the ice plant and we lived next door in a converted army barracks.
P.S. The ice plant had two large Coke boxes out front that were filled with drinks and ice. You lifted the lid and pulled out what you wanted. It was my job to keep the boxes filled with drinks and ice and to separate the empties (glass) into separate wooden boxes that held 24 bottles. There was always some fool that would drop a bottle and break it, which meant I had to remove everything, clean the box and restock it. The glass looked just like the ice.
That was my job beginning when I was five. I've had a full time job ever since.
[ July 15, 2004, 07:04 PM: Message edited by: Raymond Chapman ]
Posted by Robert Root (Member # 758) on :
22 might have been 25 if I lived in the same geographical area. So far over the hill I can see the other side.
Rob
Posted by Joey Madden (Member # 1192) on :
I remember an ol'guy with the horse drawn wagon who would ring a bell, stop in front of your home and wait for persons to bring him old newspapers. He would then weigh them on his scale and buy them from you, .50 cents bought alot of candy and a comic book or two. That was in Forest Hills, Queens NY
Unreal huh!!
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
OK! OK! So some of you semi Ol'farts remember some stuff... now, how about:
All the girls had ugly gym uniforms? It took five minutes for the TV warm up? Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school? Nobody owned a pure-bred dog? When a quarter was a decent allowance? You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny? Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces? All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels? You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time? And you didn't pay for air? And, you got trading stamps to boot? Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box? It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents? They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . ..and they did? When a 57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise, peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady? No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked? Lying on your back in the grass with your friends and saying things like, "That cloud looks like a…." Playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game? Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger? And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savour the slower pace, and share it with the children of today? When being sent to the principal's office was nothing, compared to the fate that awaited the student at home? Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Doody and the Peanut Gallery, the Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows, Nellie Bell, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk. The Fuller Brush Man Reel-To-Reel tape recorders Tinkertoys Erector Sets The Fort Apache Play Set Lincoln Logs 15 cent McDonald hamburgers 5 cent packs of baseball cards - with that awful pink slab of bubble gum Penny candy 35 cent a gallon gasoline Jiffy Pop popcorn Do you remember a time when... Going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe" made decisions? Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"? "Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest? Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening? It wasn't odd to have two or three "Best Friends"? The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties"? Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot? A foot of snow was a dream come true? Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures? "Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense? Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles? The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team? War was a card game? Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle? Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin? Water balloons were the ultimate weapons? Restrooms that were Men, Women, and Colored Restaurants, hotels, schools, and neighborhoods where you weren't allowed if you weren't white Atomic bomb drills in school where we huddled under our desks and covered our eyes to protect them from the flash Fallout shelters in the basements of public buildings Senate hearings to expose communists in all walks of life The House UnAmerican Activities Committee My mother getting her pay cut drastically when she remarried because she was no longer the "Head of the family" Victory Gardens in most everyones backyard. Scrap metal drives. Ration Stamps to by butter shoes and gasoline. We were allowed 3 gallons a week. Collecting milk weed pods for the war effort to make life jackets. Saving cooking grease and turn it in to the grocery store. To make explosives. Velvet Banners that hung in the front windows that let you know someone from that house was in the service. I think if it had gold star it meant that they had been killed. Mothers going to the Red Cross one night a week to fold bandages. Once a year in grammar school they would clean your teeth, I think they used sand from the beach and it would taste awful. Horses plowing the sidewalks and chain driven trucks that would stop at intersections and two men would throw salt with snow shovels. Blackout`s when the Siren would blow, air raid wardens would pound on your door if they saw any light coming from your house. Hello Mr And Mrs America and all ships at sea on the Zenith radio. Fiber Maggee and Molly. Amos and Andy "Holy Mackerel Andy."
Posted by Barry Jenicek (Member # 2281) on :
Do you remember taking a Flip (Baseball Card) and using one of your mom’s Clothes Line Pins (the ones with a spring in them) and attaching the flip to the frame of your bike in such a manner that the flip would be in the spokes? It made a really cool flapping noise…we also used balloons for an even louder sound but they did not last as long.
Do you remember the man with a pushcart walking up the alley with a bell calling out to sharpening knives?
Do you remember Ash Pits?? Great place to make a fort.
Do you remember going to the “show” (movie theater) on Saturday afternoons to see 8 Cartoons, a 3 Stooges short, and a full-length action movie…for 25 cents?
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
-being given 10 cents to spend at the toy store,and taking half an hour or more to work out which thing/s to buy -collecting all the glass soft drink bottles you could carry from the neighbourhood to get the refund on them -a two mile walk to the bus stop to go to school was neither considered dangerous nor irresponsible,and you just DID NOT miss the bus -as a ten year old, riding a bike a couple of miles to the store on a Sunday morning to buy a packet of cigarettes for your dad wasn't an offense (and no, you didn't dare try any!) -party lines and cardboard wired to the bike frame to make it a 'motorbike' were normal -freedom! -no swearing!
(good thread Si, to start the morning with a smile!)
Posted by Roy Frisby (Member # 736) on :
There's an old gal across the road that says on her wedding night she reached for the Vasoline and picked up the Butch Wax by mistake in the dark. "Must have been an interesting night!"
Posted by Dave Cox - That Sign Guy (Member # 3517) on :
wow! I only "remember" 2 from the list. I've heard of a few others from my Grandparents tho.
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
Same Satuday afternoon movies as Barry especially the "serial" usually the Lone Ranger and all for a shilling (10c) and change left over for an icecream at half time.
Allowance of 1/2 crown (25c) a week which you EARNED! Usually mowing the 1/4 acre with a push mower! And you spent your money on books and comics.
My own radio. A "crystal set" with the arial spread between the trees outside and headphones by my bed.
Tin toys or homemade wooden ones. Clockwork trains. Building one of those "new fangled" skateboards out of yer little brothers roller skates. Tricycle with no brakes on the same steep driveway
"Corporal Punishment" at school without litigation. The "Strap" a leather belt across the palm of your hand or the "Cane" a bamboo switch across yer buttocks. Plus more when you got home.
Cigarettes 25c a pack, a box of matches 1c and lung cancer was unknown. The silver paper outa the pack was good for shorting the fuse in the car if you couldn't find the keys.
Bars closing at 6pm and everybody walking back in thru the back door including the local cop who had changed out of his uniform. Beer was 1c an ounce.
Posted by Frank Magoo (Member # 3950) on :
25 and countn'...remember p-38's? skate keys? 19 cent gal.for gas leaded hi-octane? 5cent cokes? wooded clothes pins? tiddley winks? blue/grey Civil war hats? Davy crockett hats w/squirrel tails? Civil air patrol sky watch? the Shadow radio show? Cecil and beanie and the propeller hat? 5 for 1 cent candy? movie/milkshake for 12 cents? Weekly allowance for doing all windows, inside and out and mowing lawn w/hand mower and trimming said lawn by hand w/grass shears of 50 cents? Iceman in chaps, block of ice over shoulder coming up walkway to fill your "ice" box, according to how many numbers were in sign in window, from horse-drawn ice cart? 3whl.ice cream bike selling 50/50's and real ice cream sandwiches? Same type cart selling fresh veggies and fruit? Again, same type cart sharpening knifes? Leather belts for babbit bearings in motors of cars? Foot starters? Hill holder brakes? First locking gas caps? Hubcaps? Knee action shocks? Camels rolled up in t-shirt sleeves? Back of collars of jackets turned up? Terms like, cool cats and chicks? Heeby-jeebies? Dig? Gincy? Wayout there daddio?
this could go on all night, Saturday Evening Post and the waiting for it to see if you and your friends could re-inact it's cover? Rubber chits? Gas chits? Nylon drives? etc,etc,etc; see ya later alligator... Posted by Santo (Member # 411) on :
Scored 25 on Si's first test, I think I could do 15 - of 16 on Jack Willis's extra 16. The extended list, I remember all of that two. Hey Si, do you remember this line from Amos and Andy? And can you tell me who said it?
"Judge, not only do I deny the allegation, but I detest the alligator."
[ July 16, 2004, 09:25 AM: Message edited by: Santo ]
Posted by William Holohan (Member # 2514) on :
Terrific thread Si, I scored a 25 and then some. Sitting here with a lump in my throat and tears running down my cheeks from the avalanche of great memories that the thread started. Old friends, old teachers, charactors from the neighborhood, games played, trouble gottin into, spankings endured, lessons learned...
This great "kick in the memory" is truly appreciated by this old geezer. It brought up memories and emotions in me that truly surprised me.
Thanks for this great thread.
Posted by jack wills (Member # 521) on :
Santo,
That was "KINGFISH".
And by the way folks, if ya lived on a farm, most of your food was walkin' around cluckin'oikin' or makin' moo sounds. (Ever been to a hog killing?) and the corn you was shuckin' and how bout them cold night trips out to the privy in the winter.
CrazyJack
Posted by KARYN BUSH (Member # 1948) on :
ya mean i'm older than dirt at 40??? wow! Posted by Santo (Member # 411) on :
Negative on the Kingfish, Jack. Try again.
Kingfish might have said, while rubbing his chin with his thumb and forefingers, "Do the name Ruby Bigonia ring a bell?"
Posted by Murray MacDonald (Member # 3558) on :
Si, this is not fair! I could score 100 on this one without breakin' a sweat, and it is made more poignant with a birthday tomorrow. Damn, growin' old ain't what it used to be.
MUR
Posted by jack wills (Member # 521) on :
Santo,
I almost said "Sapphire" too!
Remember Mayor La Guardia, doing the funny papers on radio and the Captain Jinks Show, with that famous reptile star his name was------!
CrazyJack
Posted by Santo (Member # 411) on :
I definetely don't know that one Jack. The alligator line was uttered by the Laywer for the Mystic Knights of the Sea Lodge. His name is ???
Posted by jack wills (Member # 521) on :
I'm fading on that one Santo, and I meant to say "amphibion" as opposed to reptile. The character was "Froggy the Gremlin" "hi'ya kids hi'ya hi'ya" was the signature phrase.
P.S. I've run out O' gas on the Amos n' Andy lines. I must be gettin real olllllldddddd!
CrazyJack I'm still verticle!
Posted by jack wills (Member # 521) on :
You know those were some glorious days of Satire, no matter the subject or where it came from. It seemed that there was a looseness that is not here today and theatre of the mind was even better than the crap on TV today.
CrazyJack
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
Cool. My dad used to give my sister and $1 on Saturday morning to go to the matinee. We'd get in, buy a huge bag popcorn, and another of candy (enough to make you a little sick), see 2-3 Stooges films and 2 full length movies, in the BALCONY seats...and still have change from the dollar....for both of us!
Remember these?
Klackos. Wheel-O. Change back from you dollar at McDonald's. Big Wheels (great for doing spin outs.) Raleigh "Choppers"...bicycles with steering wheels instead of handle bars. The first kid in the neighborhood with a 10 speed. (He must be rich) "Astroboy". "IN COLOR" during the opening credits of "The FBI" on TV. Being you dad's original remote control..."Raymond, fix the TV." Antenna rotors. Doctor's who made house calls. Veteranarians who also made house calls. Checker cabs...with a back seat big enough to drive a motorcycle into.
The stuff we really miss....
Knowing all of your neighbors names. Leaving your keys in the ignition..and not worrying. Leaving the door to your house unlocked...and not worrying. Kids who'd walk an old lady across the street. Integrity in the press. Public servants who were just that...PUBLIC SERVANTS, not CAREER POLITICIANS!
I miss how people would stand up for what they believed in before the term "politically correct" came into use.
Rapid
Posted by Santo (Member # 411) on :
Jack the Lawyer's name was Algonquin J. Calhoun.
Posted by Kathy Joiner (Member # 1814) on :
Si, thank you soooo much for making me feel really old today
Seriously I scored 24 and loved the memories. I would give anything to have my grand-daughters experience just one day of my life as a teen in the early 60's. Life was pure and safe in small town America. They can't believe the freedom I had when I tell them of the things we did. Being allowed to roam all over town now is not something today's kids can enjoy.
They can't believe that there were no plastic jars and that when bread started coming in plastic bags we saved them! I showed them a 8-track tape and they were amazed when I opened the console stereo in my bedroom and revealed an 8-track player and turntable!
I'm very sentimemtal these days because I am planning my high school graduating class' 40th reunion. (O.K. do your math I'm 58!) At every meeting we take a trip down memory lane. We have come to realize that we are so blessed to have been young when we were, and that we still have a great love for one another!
Enough mush for today.
Posted by Rovelle W. Gratz (Member # 4404) on :
I feel really bad, Si....I remember all of them.
Posted by Steve Racz (Member # 4376) on :
Si,
Great post and great follow ups. I got all but the Blackjack chewing gum.
Kathy, We're planning our 40th reunion too! (I'll be 58 on 7/31 - holding in the 50's as long as i can)
Our first TV had a 7" screen but the cabinet was about a 25" cube.
Did anyone mention the translater code wheels (i can't remember what show) and the plastic thing you could put over your TV screen and write on (again, can't remember the show - we weren't allowed to touch the TV). Also remember how bad color TV was in the first years - everything was blurry or colors bleeded / shadowed.
Oh yeah - also, no remote controls for any device. Of course there were only 3 channels (in rural MD). How about TV test patterns when the network was off the air.
Thanks all, for the memories! Steve
Posted by Deb Fowler (Member # 1039) on :
Thanks, Katharine, Jill, and Si!
Now, I must be older than dirt, Si. I scored 100 plus. When I was three, my Dad had a 56 baby blue cadillac with a real phone in it! He was a traveling salesman, though. My Mom wore poodle skirts, and had saddle shoes! We had a barn in the back of our house because the home belonged to a veterinarian. The hitching post was out by the curb! Maybe we always lived in the past since my parents collected antiques too. My son did a report on his grandfather a couple years ago. The big news when my dad was 12 was prohibition and Al Capone. Now, that's just my dad! (one generation away from me!) also, when my dad was a kid, milk was a nickel when you went down the block and squeezed it yourself. Maybe if kids had to do that these days they wouldn't be so crazy about breasts! One year we had a woodie, and I thought they were uglier than sin! Milk bottles were delivered, and to this day I have it on my counter with pennies in it. We used to sprinkle clothes too and kept them in a plastic zippered bag. Nehi soda pop and Falstaff beer were the rage, and you certainly had stoppers on the pop, but more people needed them on the beer (lol).! Those were the lazy hazy crazy days! Life was slower and it was safe to sail your wooden toy boats down the gutter and drink tap water, and Ozzie and Harriet were household names, probably across the street from Beaver. Kids still wore hats like Junkhead, and Barbie was still hoping to get a party call from Ken!
[ July 18, 2004, 12:54 AM: Message edited by: Deb Fowler ]
Posted by William Holohan (Member # 2514) on :
Deb,
"One year we had a Woodie and I thought it was uglier than sin."
Please ...Please tell me you were talking about a vehicle...
Posted by Michael Latham (Member # 4477) on :
what a fantastic memory jog. I could only count 11 but I know alot got lost with time. More and more gets lost every day. What was I saying?
Posted by Bill Biggs (Member # 18) on :
Don't Think I ever heard of Blackjack Gum, the rest I knew. The first gum we ever had was roofing tar. We stole it from the lumber yard in Jonesboro Arkansas. Bill
Posted by Deb Fowler (Member # 1039) on :
-shoelaces to hold the skate keys around our necks - inflated plastic christmas ornaments - hand cut building blocks - lionel trains (my dad had the best collection) - wooden boats to sail down the gutters, no cars to worry about - the days of radio, they stood tall in the living room about the size of a juke box, as we didn't have a tv, just that and Golden Books - hoola hoops were invented, my dad brought home 10 different colors - Jughead hats were the rage (Archie and Jughead) -when public schools were as good as private schools -Eisenhower was still Pres and people actually had deepest respect for him and his policies -child safety seats hadn't been invented, nor seatbelts, for that matter -the Pledge of allegiance was always said before school - Santa used to sit up on the flagpole at the shopping center for a month, (and I always asked my Mom about how you could fit bathrooms up in that little space) -sitting behind John Glenn's nephew in choir practice imagining him with a space helmet on -meeting John Glenn at our school before the trip to the moon and then, finally watching it on tv on my sister's birthday
Posted by Peter Schuttinga (Member # 2821) on :
13, middle of the road kinda dirt.
I grew up in Holland, so my experiences were a little different, but I remember: Seeing my first YoYo demonstration, and they were all made from wood. TV in black and white, a 9" set was the norm. TV programs ran from 5 to 7 or 8 pm weekdays, and started 3 pm on the weekends. Commercials were only shown on the hour. That funky graphic they used for a test pattern for the TV. Saw my first 'mustang' bike when I was 10, and it was a three speed with pull brakes, neeto. We chalked a lot of hopskotch patterns on playgrounds and streets. All rollerskates were adjustable to fit what ever shoe you had. The big advent to rollerskates was the rubber wheels, as they cornered better and they were a lot less noisy than the steel wheels. Being driven around in the back of a pick-up truck with a dozen other kids. Bike Helmets? Elbow/knee pads? Ussually had an assortment of scabs on both knees and elbows, 'war wounds'. Sunday meant getting dressed up, yuck.
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see ya later alligator... ![[Mad]](mad.gif)