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The way it was back then


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Subject: The way it was when I was a teen/I'm older than dirt LOL

 

 

 

 

'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 kitchen 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, never wore Levis , never set foot on a

golf course, never 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 13.

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. Andthere was usually a locally produced news and

farm show on, featuring local people.

 

I was 16 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 burst out 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 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 there

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 flashbulbs

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 parts of my

life!

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3. Candy cigarettes

4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles

5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes Ran across a newer one, a couple of weeks ago, between Whoomp's & Deluth (truck stop).

6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers

7. Party lines on the telephone Not for long

11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there

until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels[if you

were fortunate]) We had about 10 channels

14. 45 RPM records Still have a couple, produced by a radio station personality.

19. Blue flashbulbs Hand me down camera

23. Drive-ins Saturday swap & shops, before a mall was built there & saw an active one (playing a movie as I was riding by) during my travels in the last 2 years.

 

Stuff I remember, with no time frame.

Not all the older stuff is, down & out.

 

But I'm in for 9. :2cents:

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21 for me but there was at least 1 item there that was not in Canada... at least not that I've ever heard ... S&H Green Stamps.

 

And what the heck is P.F. Flyers ?

 

 

P.F. Flyers make you run faster & jump higher, when I got some my mom said I WAS running faster & jumping higher...

 

Thanks for the memories,

Melvin

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21 for me but there was at least 1 item there that was not in Canada... at least not that I've ever heard ... S&H Green Stamps.

 

Do you remember the stamps some grocery stores used to give out (think it was Dominion/A&P) that you would put in a booklet or on a card? Same sort of thing.

 

Ahhh..... memories. How about penny candy or 5 cent chocolate bars?

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Do you remember the stamps some grocery stores used to give out (think it was Dominion/A&P) that you would put in a booklet or on a card? Same sort of thing.

 

 

ahhh yes, I do recall those ... but I ruled that out coz I get "frazzled" when such things always seem to be specific to USA stuff (S&H Greenstamps) ... why didn't they just list it as "Food Stamps" ???

 

(rant over)

 

 

OK, so now I'm up to 23 ....

 

Roller skate keys and Butch wax I have no recollection of... BUT, a tube of Brylcream and a rat-tail comb was never far from my hands LOL

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Because food stamps are something entirely different. Food stamps are something that the government gives out to folks who are under the poverty level or something like that. S&H Greenstamps were give to you by merchants and when you got enough of them to fill the books, you traded them in for merchandise.

 

Another type were Gold Bond stamps. Pretty much the same as the Green Stamps. They were pretty popular where I was raised in Texas but I don't know if it was a nationwide thing or not.

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