ofgit

I remember 'driving' my Dad's early '50s Chevy pickup while standing on the seat between his knees and having to go get a switch so my Grandmother could 'stripe' the back of my legs for misbehaving. Apparently they could both be arrested these days for that stuff.

AerobaticDreams

Telling I am old is a daily experience for me, I am 53 and the Wife is 30. As if it wasn't bad enough, when my father died we moved into his house and I began to clean it out for our stuff. There are countless things in the kitchen, bathroom and all over the place that completely dumbfound my Wife in trying to figure them out. At first she would get grumpy when I explained what they were and declare they were "dumb". The odder the things that popped up started to get, she began to get interested in them. Now it's more like "What the h*ll is this thing?" and she waits to hear the story of what it is and how it works. Finally had room to set up a decent turntable and begin to play the ~800 LP's I have again, and she walked in one day wondering why the music sounded so good...and why the CD was so short. Its funny to watch her around people her own age and she her knowing so much more of ancient history than they do. When those silly facebook posts with "Do you remember what this is?" come around, she is usually like...."We've got one of those.".

David Bierbaum

Every time I meet a grown up person with family and job, who wasn't born when some news item occurred that I still have filed in my brain as "recent events," I feel ambushed by my cumulative aggregation of moments in history, collected over my lifetime...

BlazingPedals

I'm not going to go through the entire thread, but did someone mention those red wax lips that you could chew like gum when you got tired of showing off your big smile to everyone?

Zinger

Biker395 

Non-seedless watermelon.

Paperboys on bicycles.

Matariki

I scored a perfect 25 on the test. That means that I am still young enough to remember stuff, and that's good, right?

Jim from Boston

All my answers are from memory, no googling.


Joan Rivers had a cute quip about dating as she got older. Men would approach her at a bar and ask. “Do I come here often?.”

Jim from Boston

Variation on a an old Irish Proverb: "I felt sorry for my self because I had no shoes, until I met a [strike]man who had no feet[/strike] Preppy who had no socks."

PS: I just noted this thread was started in 2006!

bicyclridr4life

My granny had indoor plumbing. There was a well pump handle in the kitchen, next to the sink. If I remember right, it took 5 to 10 pump strokes to get water.

Jinkster

"The Good":

1. Little Rascals, Laural & Hardy, The Three Stooges, Captain Kangaroo, Roy Rodgers, Daniel Boone, Davey Crocket, The Lone Ranger, Superman, Batman, Johny Quest, Speed Racer and Mutual Of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom".

2. We still said THE ENTIRE "Pledge Of Allegiance" in school and it was okay to pray at any time.

3. If we ate at Mcdonalds once a month?...that was a lot...outside of that it was home cooked meals and Mom never worked anything more than "Part-Time" and always seemed happy.

4. Watching TV didn't cost anything except the TV.

5. Kids still got their butts whooped for being bad and folks in general seemed much nicer which probably also included the fact that...

6. When somebody intentionally screwed you over?...you could beat heck out of them and when the cops got there?..."THEY" got arrested.

"The Bad":

1. At 10-12 years old I had a TV Guide Delivery Route to pedal....in North Jersey....February included...ever try pedaling a 20" Ross steel frame spider bike...banana seat....3' chrome sissy bar (ala easy-rider) and all uphill on ice covered rural roads?....and to think...my father used to brag that it must be an extremely well built bike because it was so heavy...and I believed him!

2. My 26" Columbia bike took (2) D-cell batteries in the faux fuel tank top bar for the built in headlamps....but had a magical way of always being dead when I needed them.

3. I used to clothespin baseball cards on my forks in such a way that they contacted my spokes so they'd make "an engine like noise" when I pedaled....and if I had those cards today?...I'd be a millionaire.

"The Ugly":

1. Our TV set was black and white only.

2. Our "Remote" was a pair of pliers and you needed to find them so you could get up and change the channel...to one of the other 2 stations.

3. 3 Months, 4 days, 22 hours and 7 minutes...(the amount of my lifetime I spent adjusting Rabbit Ear Antennas "for other people")

4. Burning my feet first thing in the morning on hot oil furnace floor grate I forgot was there....a cruel way to wake up but man was I awake!

5. Plaster Walls, Dirt basements and Outhouses.

6. Most cars DIDN'T come with A/C.

7. Lots of people owned big mean "outside" dogs...only the rich had fences....and there was no such thing as a "Leash Law"...as a child?...there's were days I felt like a rabbit in a lions den just walking through the neighborhood and many times I opted to take the long way home just to avoid "Mean Dog" areas...and by age 10 I had killed my first German Shepard by cracking him over the head with a huge rock and that was nothing but pure luck...here's the good part...the psychotic drunk of an owner had suck him on me and my dog just walking down the street...cause we made his other dogs start barking just walking past his house...word got around the neighborhood that he was going to try an sue my parents for the cost of his $1,500 trained attack dog...my father went down and had a chat with him and suddenly everything was okay.

ahhhh the good old days!

Thanks for this thread...it brought back many memories...that make me real happy that society has evolved...a little bit.

Katiesmalls

Did anyone mention getting a free toaster when you opened a bank account. Or those old bank passbooks the teller use to put under a blue light to check signature. How about those knock your teeth out Click Clack toys. Or wringer machines in the community washing machine room. Tyco or Afx race sets with the controller in the shape of a little steering wheel. Knish man carts in the city.skateboards with whale tails. The first silver digital watches. Buying matchbox cars in the little cardboard boxes from England.gum machines for 5 cents hanging in the subway platforms. Oh well, it's nap time.

Katiesmalls

Mexican jumping beans from South of the Border in the Carolina's. Mood rings. Big Apple rest in Upstate NY. Sizzler toy cars. Toys that came in Cereal boxes ( I always loved the toy boat that needed a balloon to propel it.

trackhub

Wow, a thread that will never die. Anyway, for interested persons, P.F. Flyers have been back for awhile. New Balance bought the name and all rights, and are
making new ones, almost just like the old ones. "Almost" because they're made in China, but what can you do? I bought a pair of all black ones. Love 'em, wear them
frequently.

So, if no one has mentioned these:

-Passbook bank accounts paying 5.5% annual interest. Seems like a fortune now, doesn't it?

-A "coke" or other soft drink was 10¢ at the local store. OR... 12¢ if you took it out of the store. Yes, we had such
a place. And... The fellow who owned and ran the store knew most of his customers by name.

-Sears was the most popular retailer in the country. Hard to believe now, isn't it?

-Home Economics. Shop. I've been told most school districts have done away with these. Guess
the thought police didn't like them.

osco53

When I went to Elementary school I had to walk, up hill, both ways,

When I went to High school I drove a pickem'up truck with a ***** rack in the back window,, with a ***** in the rack, for hunting.

When I got into fights, we used our fists, never would have considered a weapon, and we never hit a man after he went down.

We respected women and said Yes Sir to men.

But then we had parents, unlike today where many kids are lucky to have one, with a job, that's drug free....

Yep I am happy that I am getting old,, 55 and holding I am.

Life is good as It was back In the day I guess. I'm happy.

Ok I'm done.

Free speech is not allowed even in here I guess, the forum blanked the name of the rack in the trucks back window,
and what was In it. sad. Especially since this is America..

TGT1

The first page mentioned Packards.

My younger brother got a red Schwinn for Christmas. Purchased from the local Western Auto. (Remember them? you could buy anything there )

Later that day I took it out for a spin around the block. I was distracted by a helicopter flying over, the first one I'd ever seen, and crashed right into the back of the neighbors parked Packard.

It didn't even scratch the black paint but I bent the hell out of the fork on my brothers new bike.

The next door neighbor had an auto mechanics shop and the fork got straightened out with an acetylene torch and a vise. The paint never was the same.

I think my brother still holds a grudge about that one.

Jim from Boston

Are you referring to a "candy store"?

Leader of the Pack (Shangri-Las)

Mm--"Is she really going out with him?
"Well, there she is, Let's ask her"
"Betty, is that Jimmy's ring you're wearing?"
"Mm-hm"
"Gee, it must be great riding with him"
"Is he picking you up after school today?"
"Mm-mm"
"By the way, where did you meet him?"
"I met him at the candy store
"He turned around and smiled at me
"You get the picture
"Yes, we see"
"That's when I fell for the leader of the pack"

Biker395 

That's likely the auto-censor function. Some of them even star out words like assume and assuage.

5-10-15 cent drinks at Mickey Ds. Heck, I remember when the first Mickey Ds appeared. Like a Hollywood premier.

trackhub

No. The store was a small bakery/grocery store that sold lots of stuff. Said stuff included soft drinks, newspapers, magazines, grocery items, and...
rectangular shaped slices of pizza for 10¢. Yep, a ten cent slice of pizza on an afternoon. Oh yeah.. the owner also sold cigarettes, but only if you were over
21. If not, no sale, and no further discussion. The guy who owned and ran the place was named Johnny. We only knew that he had been a Marine in WWII.
if you were nice to Johnny, and we all were, he was nice to you. If not... Well, no one tested him, put it that way. He sold the store in the 70s and, I was told,
died in the 80s. But, I swear, if any of the little pukes I see hanging out around convenience stores today pulled any u-know-what with Johnny, he probably would
have kicked them right out into the street. Oh,, and he probably would have been thanked by parents, instead of sued.

And today.... best not to go there.

There is a place on washington street in Newtonville, MA, right near the telephone central office building. They proudly have a huge sign in the window, advertising,
their "famous One Dollar slices of Pizza!" I laugh every time I go by.

OldTryGuy

Not a true WAY BACK moment as with Mr. Peabody and Sherman, but does anyone remember https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZCnVbm0yXI, held in my current back yard, sort of speak.

h2oxtc

Wait! Are you telling me that there's such a thing as "seedless" watermelons? Where have I been?

garyus

I don't smoke, but (ha ha) cigarette machines with the " not for sale to minors" stickers on them. I asked my mom "how come MINERS couldn't buy cigarettes. She had to 'splain it to me. 50 cent bleacher seats at Tiger stadium. Seeing car haulers carry brand new (1969-70)Superbird's and Daytona's from the factory roll up Conners from Jefferson assembly. And prior to that (67) the National Guard roll thru during the riots.

David Bierbaum

Man, I just heard a story on NPR marking the end of Saturday Morning Cartoons. Another nail in the coffin of my youth...

cobolman

Last year I was dividing up some of my late mother's jewelry between my two daughters. One piece was a lady's wristwatch with the engraved date 12/25/1959. My father had given it to my mother for Christmas that year. I mentioned that it still worked and one of my daughters said "Did you get a new battery for it?"

Steve Sawyer

Late to this thread - I scored 25/25 on that quiz, so I ain't no youngster, but if they play that crap in the old folks home when I get there, I'll run away. Sadly the Classic Rock programming ruined my taste for a lot of the music of my youth. "Stairway to Heaven" came up on Pandora the other day and I damned near broke my finger hitting the skip "button".

I'll still listen to some music of that era. Jefferson Airplane's After Bathing at Baxter's, Cream's Disraeli Gears and Hendrix's Electric Ladyland are still some of the best albums ever recorded, but almost anyone putting together a play list of music from that period will only include "White Rabbit", "Purple Haze", and "Sunshine of Your Love" and I'll skip those almost as fast as Stairway to Heaven!