I am currently reading a book about the depression and in 1933, the price of a barrel of oil was $0.04.

Here are some prices starting in 1947

http://www.wtrg.com/oil_graphs/crudeoilprice4774we.gif

http://www.wtrg.com/oil_graphs/crudeoilprice7381.gif

Our 4 party line number was Franklin 75084. Hadn't thought of that it years.

I recall that there were two types of pushbutton adjusters.
The first (earlier) type has a small slotted set screw associated with each button sometimes under the button at an angle. You would tune manually, then push the button in and hold while adjusting the screw until you felt it touch a bar. You would then hit another button and then the one you just set to see if it tuned to your station just right - and if it didn't, you would fiddle with the adjuster screw just a bit until your station would tune correctly when you next pushed the button.
In the later type, you would tune to the station with the dial, and pull out on the button you wanted to set, and then you would hold the tuning dial while pushing the button in all the way.
At least that's how I remember it.

I never saw the first type, but the second I've known well! Was the first type more prevalent on European cars, I wonder?

It's kinda funny but I remember that all of us bought our own cars. We had part time jobs and we saved up to get our own rig. We treated them like gold no matter how old they were. If some one's car was broken down we were all over trying to figure out how to fix it.

Remember dragging Main street? :)

I remember riding my 20" bike in the summer up to one of the two corner stores (geez, remember them?), walking in, going over to a big chest immersion cooler and sticking my arm over the elbow into excruciatingly cold water, sometimes with big clear ice chunks in it, to fish out my preferred bottle of soda (usually birch beer). It would sometimes take a lot of fishing. Once landed, flipping the bottle cap on the opener, with the cap dropping into a small tin cap-catcher. Then, up to the register with a burning arm to pay my nickel. Aaahhhh! To be six and free!

I remember when the word "tooling" was commonly used as a verb. As in: "We went out tooling the drive-ins." We smoked "****" or "weeds", drank "3.2" beer and went looking for "broads (sorry ladies)" that would "put out". I grew up in the country but I wasn't a "rube", by any means.

I'm not aware of european car radios - I was American as Wonder bread. The first type was most common in desk radios, but also showed up in car radios. Remember, there were dozens of radio manufacturers.

Hey- remember when Wonder bread went from "building strong bodies six ways" on to "eight ways" and eventually to twelve ways?:rolleyes:

Wonder bread made great grilled cheese sandwiches!

I don't recall radios that used a screw to set the buttons. The first car my family owned that had a radio was a 1954 Ford, and its radio used the "pull, push" method.

The first telephone I remember had a 5-digit number, and was on a ten-party line. Amazingly, I still remember that number. I also still remember the 7-character number (2 letters, 5 numbers) that it was changed to.

Yep, I remember that too. My dad told me that if I wanted a car, I needed to buy it myself, so I saved all my cash from my first after-school job and paid $625.00 for a 7-year-old 1966 VW Beetle, one of the best cars I've ever owned. A few years ago I thanked him for insisting I buy my own car and he was pleased to hear that.

I remember.....
... counting out-of-state license plates while on our family vacations.
... the Helms bakery truck making the rounds through the neighborhood and selling fresh-baked goods lined up in wooden drawers at the back of the truck. I always got one of the long doughnuts with maple icing.
... playing "Mother May I?" and Hide-and-go-Seek with the other kids in the neighborhood.

I can remember when my Dad used to tell me about all his "I can remember when..." recollections of life before I was around.






He still does do that, of course, but nowadays I have to remind him that they happened when I was about 18 years old!

Fixed it for ya (although the grilled cheese were pretty good too).

How about this one? You'd go out to get the milk (in glass bottles then, and delivered by a milkman), and if it was really cold and you picked up the bottle by the neck, the bottle would crack around the base, you'd lift it up and be left with perfectly solid column of frozen milk.

I started working in a gas station in N. idaho in 64. Gas was $25.9 during the summer and 21.9 during the winter.
When we got our first TV, no arguing over what to watch, since we only had 1 channel.
My first car was a 46 Ford "fast back" for $40.
Never heard of McDonalds.
Had only been in one other state. Washington, since the border was about 15? miles away.
Most women didn't drive unless they had to. That was a "mans job".
Pack of cigs was $.25 in the machine. Cheaper in the store, but they wouldn't sell to 10 year olds. Just stole them out of my dad's carton before that, since I didn't have any money. Smoked the ones my older brother stole.... before that.
Uncle Frank coming to visit on Sunday afternoon with 3-4 qts. of beer, since Washington was "dry" on that day.
Hydroplane races on the lake. Miss Thriftway, Miss Bardahl, Slo Mo IV & V....and the evil Detroit boats.
Duck tail hair cuts.
Perry Como, Bishop Sheen, Liberace, Alfred Hitchcock, Toast of the Town....

Oh, I remember those duck tail haircuts. I loved them but having curly hair made for a strange looking duck tail:eek:

Did you watch the Liberace show? It was one of my favorites. I still enjoy listening to piano music of all types.

Radio! Inner Sanctum; John Steele, Adventurer; X Minus One! Later on, in the 1960s, Jean Shepard and Long John Nebel.

Paul

How about Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason and the June Taylor Dancers, Wild Kingdom, and Lassie?

My first bicycle, a hand me down, had solid tires. We used to smash rolls of caps with a baseball bat and play stoop ball.

I also didn't have 3 hours of homework in elementary school. We had recess every day and could buy peanut butter cookies and 2 cent milk. Lunch was 25 cents and the rest of the hour was spent playing. Music, art, and PE were a given. None of my friends went to day care and Shirley, my friend in the 3rd grade, was the only kid who had divorced parents. No one took Ritalin, but we could all sit in our seats and walk in line. It was great to be a kid.

Go Go boots!

Ghoulardi! Yes! The pizza-eating contest-winning dwarf. Mr. Jing-a-ling at Christmas. Dorothy Fuldheim on channel 5. The Browns were good and the Indians were terrible. Cedar Point during the summer.

Growing up near Cleveland - where all the cool people are from.

:lol:Ghoulardi - "turn blue" "stay sick":lol:

When did you move away?

Thanks for asking, ratfink.:D

After law school at OSU in 1982. My parents are still there (New London, a one stoplight town SW of Cleveland), and when I go to visit we always try to get in an Indians game (Jacobs Field is nothing like Cleveland Municipal - there was no experience like seeing a ball game attended by 6,000 people in an 80,000 seat stadium).

I remember when:

In the Summer of 1944 my Dad & his next oldest brother Ray were "away" in the Army. Mom, Sis & I lived with my Grandparents in Milford, Nebraska. Dad's youngest brother, Bob, came to say goodby. He was just 18 years old. His leave was up & he was returning to San Diego & his ship, a destroyer. I didn't understand the grownups tears then, but now I do. The men were all home safe for Christmas of 1945.

Bev, that's what Brylcreem was for :p

My parents house, built in '50 had a "milk chute", an amenity for sure!

Using, but never abusing, model airplane glue containing toluene.

Making a few bucks by mowing neighbors lawns with reel-bladed push mowers and later, powered-reel mowers. Thank goodness now for the "lawn services" equipped with their wonderfully ear-piercing wind machines.:mad:

btw, "hey you kids, get off my lawn!"

I used to ride out to New London. There was a restaurant there I liked, the owner was a real character, he would talk your leg off...seems like he was into theater or something. That was a century plus ride for me.

Yup, Cleveland Municipal Stadium was a nightmare, I've been there more than a few times. It's on the bottom of Lake Erie now.

We had one of those "milk boxes" that never seemed to be sufficiently insulated, especially against the cold. As to reel mowers- they were/are the best. A nice clean cut, no shredding (and thus no burning in the sun), and QUIET! If I had a lawn today, that's exactly what I'd use. Enough with the noise pollution- kill your leaf blowers and power mowers! :o

Yo Dorothy and blowin up model cars. Mr. Jingaling and Barnaby and Capn Penney and Miss Barbara. If you are scratching your head you never grew up in Northern Ohio in the mid to late 60's. Oh and Cedar point YESSSSSSSSS

I remember having to wait for any electronic thing to "warm up." Radios, record players, TVs... and even the car radio. I remember tube testers everywhere... corner drug store, local hardware store...

I used to fix neighbors radios by taking out all the tubes and cycling down to the hardware store and testing them... lead to a career in electronics... in the solid state age.

I remember Cleveland's tag line: Best Location in the Nation. I remember the Terminal Tower, which was past it's hayday even when I was a child, but it still was awe inspiring. As a student at CSU, we found a way one night into the subbasement of the Terminal Tower and explored the old tracks, even riding a handcar a few feet.

Then there was the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Public Square. And who can forget the smell of the roasting nuts from that shop on Euclid Avenue? Or visiting the giant Woolworths at 4th and Euclid and eating at that huge lunch counter? Or riding the Rapid Transit?