I'm so old....

[Rick Potter]

The election got me thinking.

I'm so old that I remember when it was expected for candidates for office to cast a vote for their opponent.


This could be fun, here's another one...

I'm so old that I remember reading Burma Shave signs, and I was driving.

Rick Potter

[Brian Kent]

I saw a series of "Burma Shave" style signs last week for a candidate in San Diego.

I was asking a group of friends at a retirement home if they had any old-age bragging rights.

One lady said, "I helped convert AT&T to dial tone." Not touch tone, but dial tone! :eek: She won.

[Andrew Arndts]

I remember Stucky's restaurants before they became Adult Book stores and wine distribution locations. I do recall seeing Berma shave signs.
Besides as the man said, "it's not the age, it's the Mileage."

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I'm so old that I can remember when it took 3 days to drive from Wyoming to Indiana because there were no interstates.

I'm so old that I can remember the chewing tobacco signs painted on barn roofs.

I'm so old that we had a telephone that still used an operator, you couldn't direct dial and was a party line.

[Dan Hintz]

These will be more appropriately said to the incoming generation:

I'm so old I can remember when the internet didn't exist, not to mention FaceBook, MySpace, and Tweeter.

I'm so old, I can remember when spilling hot coffee in your lap did not give you a valid reason to win a multi-million $ lawsuit.

I'm so old, I can remember when hugs from a teacher and a butt-whipping from dad were not illegal.

I'm so old, I can remember when having your parents purchase you a new Mercedes as a high-school graduation gift was simply a fantasy, not a requirement.

I'm so old, I can remember when toilet papering a house made you a juvenile delinquent and satisfied your inner demon... and setting someone's car on fire at 2 in the morning would never cross your mind.




Man, I'm OLD!

[Norman Hitt]

I'm so old that I can remember when it took 3 days to drive from Wyoming to Indiana because there were not interstates.

I'm so old that I can remember the chewing tobacco signs painted on barn roofs.

I'm so old that we had a telephone that still used an operator, you couldn't direct dial and was a party line.

In my little town, The telephone office was on the second floor above the Bank, and the Family Lived in the apartment that housed the Telephone switchboard. The oldest boy of the family that ran the Telephone system
was in my class and when I would go to play with him after school, we usually had to do things in the apartment because he would have to run the switchboard so his Mom could go to the grocery, do the laundry and cook dinner. We were only in the First Grade when I started going there. He taught me to run the board too, which I thought was really neat at the time. His Dad kept the equipment repaired and worked at the grocery store across the street in the daytime unless the phone system acted up and he had to go fix it.

I grew up with the Burma Shave signs also, (they were everywhere), and didn't start disappearing until after I was Grown and Married.

My Uncle farmed 120 acres of land with a team of horses, (and plowed gardens and other fields on the side for cash or trade goods).

The Blacksmith shop was a neat place to hang around also, especially when he was rebuilding wheels for Wagons and the two Buggys that were still used by two old codgers there. It was also really neat watching him rebuild plow sweeps by welding new metal onto them with his hammer and forge.

Almost every town had its name painted on the Water Tower, and quite a few also had it painted on the top of the roof of a long building, to help flyers navigate.

[John Coloccia]

Once I was driving along and we saw a old sign. My friend asked, "Who's signs are those?" I looked at him and said, "Well, you haven't driven very far, have you?"

Anyhoo, I'm so old that I remember when people used to cut dovetails with routers instead of by hand.

[Charlie Reals]

I am old enough to remember when TV was not in every home and only black and white.. I predate pocket radios let alone ipads.
Phones were black only and had dials butt most of all I remember paying 37cents bf for Phillipine mahogany, 14cents bf for oak and maple.

[Matt Meiser]

These will be more appropriately said to the incoming generation....

Reading your list I figured we had to be close to the same age.

[Roger Newby]

I remember when the Dead Sea was just sick. :rolleyes:

[Gene Howe]

I remember cradle type washing machines. And, I remember her joy when dad bought mom a wringer washer powered by a Briggs and Stratton engine.
I remember hand cranking the milk separator and hand churning butter. I remember mom hanging curd on the clothes line in pillow cases to dry for cottage cheese. Speaking of clothes lines, remember those wire thingies that went into pant legs so they dried with a crease?

[Jim Finn]

I remember when the Dead Sea was just sick. :rolleyes:
I don't care who you are.... THAT is funny!

[Tom Winship]

I remember the grocery store in our little town had a gas pump with the clear tank on top. You hand pumped however much you wanted to buy into the tank and then drained it via the hose into your car.

"The sun has riz, the sun has set, and here you is, in Texas yet!
Burma Shave"

[David Weaver]

I'm so old, I can remember when hugs from a teacher and a butt-whipping from dad were not illegal.



I can remember when hugs and a butt-whipping could come from the same teacher, and that was only the 1980s. I don't know when they stopped spanking kids, but they were still doing it in my district in the mid 1980s. Don't know if they cleared it with the parents first, I was never the subject of a spanking, but I knew the principal had a paddle and some of the teachers did, too. The art teacher had one with holes in it, and she loved to point it out. The few kids who did get paddled got paddled often. Looking back, I wonder if they just got in trouble for attention, because you sure got a lot of attention when you got paddled - both from the teachers and administrators, and then you were the subject of discussion for the rest of the day.

[Matt Meiser]

I remember the grocery store in our little town had a gas pump with the clear tank on top. You hand pumped however much you wanted to buy into the tank and then drained it via the hose into your car.

I want one of those for outside my shop. Even LOML thinks they are cool (but not $$$$ cool.)

[Dan Hintz]

David,

I was at the receiving end of one of those "holey" paddles... from the middle school principle. I didn't deserve it (no kidding), but I believe permission was requested from my dad before the punishment commenced.

[Gene Howe]

David,

I was at the receiving end of one of those "holey" paddles... from the middle school principle. I didn't deserve it (no kidding), but I believe permission was requested from my dad before the punishment commenced.

I got paddled in the 5th grade. A ping pong paddle was used. I deserved it! IIRC, blanket permission was given at the start of each year.

[Charlie Reals]

David,

I was at the receiving end of one of those "holey" paddles... from the middle school principle. I didn't deserve it (no kidding), but I believe permission was requested from my dad before the punishment commenced.

I remember these plans, they are emblazoned in my head as I made the "boards of education" in shop.

1x4x18". form a 6" handle, drill 3 1" holes 1"apart starting 1"from paddle end and chamfer same.
sand smooth and lacquer. Made a lot of those and even got it use on me a time or two. If I got it at school I also got it at home for embarrassing my Dad by being less than respectful at school.
I can remember when he could point at the razor strop and not have to worry about getting the cops called on him.
Good days for sure

[David G Baker]

I am so old I remember corduroy roads and plank roads in the West.
I am so old I remember being whooped in the wood shed.

[Rich Stewart]

I got paddled in 4th grade. I would NEVER tell my parents. They would have paddled me again for doing something in school that got me paddled.

[Rod Sheridan]

I remember when the RCMP brought me home in the pickup truck at 8PM, with my bicycle in the back of the truck.

My bicycle license plate wasn't current, and my headlight wasn't working.

Forget about police brutality, my Dad was extremely dissapointed that I had done something bad enough to warrant having the police bring me home, something all the neighbours could see.

That's what I notice most now, my parents were concerned about their reputation, and the opinions and judgement of their neighbours. They lived as a part of a larger group, not as individuals with no regard for the society they lived in.

If I got told off by one of the neighbours, the worst thing that could have happened was to have them phone or visit my parents. There wasn't a "their side versus my side" discussion, their word was taken as fact and I was in deep trouble for having made my neighbours take steps to correct my behaviour.

Looking back on it my "crimes" were pretty insignificant, stealing a couple of apples from a tree etc. was about as bad as it got, however they weren't lightly regarded at home.

I guess this thread just confirms it, the grey hair in the sink while I'm shaving means I really am this age................Rod.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I'm so old that my Dad's lame cliche about 2 miles barefoot through 12" of snow uphill both ways to an unheated schoolhouse is starting to sound plausible.

[Ben Hatcher]

I'm so old I remember when video game controllers only had one button.

[Charlie Reals]

[QUOTE]I remember when the RCMP brought me home in the pickup truck at 8PM, with my bicycle in the back of the truck.
The first and only time the cops ever brought me home my old man told them to throw me in the drunk tank. They did. That was not the place for a sixteen year old smart aleck to spend the night. Butt I did:D:D When the old man brought me home the next morning Mom fed me breakfast and I went to cleaning chicken coops. Nothing was ever said about the night before.

[Jim Rimmer]

Speaking of clothes lines, remember those wire thingies that went into pant legs so they dried with a crease?
Pants stretchers! My Grandmother and Mother both used them.

I put in a clothes line in the late 70's early 80s but referred to it as a solar clothes dryer.

[Jim Rimmer]

I'm old enough to remember:

The doctor coming to my house to check me out when I was sick.

Getting ether when my tonsils were removed.

The grade school teachers made a home visit to every student every year.

My mother putting "bluing" in the washer for the white laundry.

A family across from us owned a half block in addition to their house site which they used for a garden. Every year an old black man with a pair of mules plowed it for them.

Playing with the kerosene flares the street department put out instead of plastic cones (they looked like the cartoon bombs). You could pass your hand through the flame (quickly) and not get burned. A good way to prove your manliness.

Commenting on it being hot enough to fry eggs on the pipe that was being installed by the city and actually sneaking an egg out of the kitchen to find out. It worked.

[jackie gates]

I"m so old that I can remember when I could put 200 gallons of gas in my truck for $30.00. :rolleyes::)

[greg lindsey]

Hell I'm so old that sometimes right in the middle of a conversation I forget what I was talking ....



Crud. what were we talking about again...:confused:


Oh yea now I remember.. hang on a minute , I gotta go P again...:(

[John Pratt]

I am old enough to remember:

Everyone knew everyone in the neighborhood by first name and everyone knew everyone in town by at least their last name.

Nobody gave a second glance to a full gun rack in the back of a high school kids truck in the school parking lot.

[Dan Hintz]

With all of the first-person shooter games making kids crack shots, I bet Columbine would have been a bit different if all of those students had guns...hmmm....

[David G Baker]

I am so old I remember the one room school where I attended the 6th, 7th and 8th grade with K-8th students. There were three students in my three classes and most of the students in the other grades were from large farm families.

[David Weaver]

David,

I was at the receiving end of one of those "holey" paddles... from the middle school principle. I didn't deserve it (no kidding), but I believe permission was requested from my dad before the punishment commenced.

The art teacher in our school was about 4'10". She told us she had the holes put in it so she could swing it faster. I guess she figured she wouldn't be big enough to intimidate us, so she came up with gimmicks. I never saw her paddle anyone.

The principals paddle got used often. Kids got cleared out of the room to stand in the hall and the offending spankee got spanked, we could all hear the process loud and clear :D

I got spanked with a butter churn rod at home. I had no interest in learning about what other items felt like.

Relatives of mine kept a paddle under the front seat in their car and they'd get it out and use it. Times have changed a lot in 25 years - I haven't seen anything like that in a long time.

The big difference I notice here, and maybe it's from moving "to the city", is that kids at restaurants run wild. They're everywhere, and their parents might be 50 feet away at their table, letting the kids run loose, taking things off of other peoples tables, etc. That still rubs me the wrong way. it's not the majority of kids, but there are a lot more now than there were when I was a kid. I don't remember any "good" kids behaving like that, only neglected kids.

[Dave Anderson NH]

I remember getting our first TV when I was in 2nd grade, B&W of course, a DuMont.

I remember no one in the neighborhood ever locked their doors unless they were going away on vacation.

I remember baling hay at Grover Gerlock's farm for $.15 an hour at age 12.

I remember going to 1st grade in a 4 room brick 2 story school house.

I too remember Burmas Shave signs and going to visit the grandparents in Mass before the Thruway or the Mass pike were built.

I remember Mrs. Gardiner my 3rd grade teacher sending me to stand in the coat closet until I felt I could come out and behave. I also remember her going to get her coat out of the closet after the school all went home and finding me still in the closet. She ended up driving me home.

I remember being about 13 and feeling my oats and saying something vile to my mother. I also remember lying on my back on the floor looking up at her 100 pound 5ft 1 inches and wondering how I got there. Nothing was ever said to Dad and I never ever spoke like that again.

I remember some of us friends riding our bicycles in to the city of Rochester 8 miles away for the day and our parents had no worries about us.

I remember my Dad buying our first house on the GI Bill and the contractor allowing him to clean up the houses and lots in the new development for a year instead of having to make a downpayment. It was all done on a handshake.

[ray hampton]

I remember making a paddle for the teacher with a pocket knife , the teacher give me an "A for making the paddle and a padding for talking back to her
YES WE TOOK KNIVES AND GUNS TO THE SCHOOL

[Art Mulder]

The big difference I notice here, and maybe it's from moving "to the city", is that kids at restaurants run wild. They're everywhere, and their parents might be 50 feet away at their table, letting the kids run loose, taking things off of other peoples tables, etc

:confused:

David, I have never, ever, seen kids taking things off of other tables at a restaurant. Nor have I ever seen young kids wandering 50ft away from their parents table. But your phrasing confuses me... do you mean you see that in a big city, or that you see it in a small town?

If anything, I think people are even more restrictive and protective of their kids then when I was growing up in the 70s. My 7yr old, for instance, would never be allowed to go off to the restroom by himself when in public. Either I go with him, or we send his older (11+13) brothers along.

[David Weaver]

Art, I see it more in the city, or maybe more accurately, the suburbs.

[Jim Rimmer]

I got one of those flyback toys - the wooden paddle with a rubber ball attached by an elastic string. When the string broke, my Mother kept the paddle and used it on me when I needed it.

[Dan Hintz]

The holes were for the whistling sound it gave the paddle as it whizzed through the air. I'm telling you, I think the principle wound up when he whacked me... I had a bruised rear for days. Bent over with elbows touching the table (no leaning away from these). Three whacks, with enough time between each to let the sting set in. After the first, you realized how much the next two were going to hurt. To this day, I swore if I ever ran into that principle, well...

[Michael Weber]

I remember when the Dead Sea was just sick. :rolleyes:


thanks for that laugh:D

[Charlie Reals]

The holes were for the whistling sound it gave the paddle as it whizzed through the air. I'm telling you, I think the principle wound up when he whacked me... I had a bruised rear for days. Bent over with elbows touching the table (no leaning away from these). Three whacks, with enough time between each to let the sting set in. After the first, you realized how much the next two were going to hurt. To this day, I swore if I ever ran into that principle, well...

Not totally correct, the holes were more to create a suction effect which caused considerably more discomfort. that is also what caused the bruises:D. believe me I was an expert on this subject. I am making the same paddles to send to my grandson in afghanistan I'm writing Tali whacker on them.
:D

[Rod Sheridan]

:confused:

David, I have never, ever, seen kids taking things off of other tables at a restaurant. Nor have I ever seen young kids wandering 50ft away from their parents table. But your phrasing confuses me... do you mean you see that in a big city, or that you see it in a small town?

If anything, I think people are even more restrictive and protective of their kids then when I was growing up in the 70s. My 7yr old, for instance, would never be allowed to go off to the restroom by himself when in public. Either I go with him, or we send his older (11+13) brothers along.


Art, unfortunately I've seen the sort of conduct David is talking about, not often, however enough to make an impression......Rod.

[Charlie Reals]

I'm so old I actually just got off the phone applying for medicare and social security. I can truly say at 21 I did not think I would live to see it.

[Rick Potter]

I just remembered a few more.

I'm so old I remember playing mumbly peg with my pocket knife...at school

....I remember a neighbor getting the first tv on the block, and watching it through the picture window, standing in the snow, with friends.

....I remember getting 'swats' from the gym teacher at high school.

....I remember, as a young married, getting our first color TV just in time to watch the Rose Parade of 1967. It was one of the few colorcasts at the time, but within a year lots of shows had it. Got the TV at a scratch and dent Sears Outlet.....21", steel cabinet with dent, $400. At the time I made $618 a month gross. Just saw a 32" flat screen at Costco for less than $300.

....I remember when the new Interstate 10 went up Kellog Hill, and we used to play a game of 'how far up can we go without shifting down?'. Sometimes twice. Now any car can go up in cruise control.

Rick Potter

[Ed Breen]

I guess I'm old. I remember when Railway Express trucks were chain driven, the milkman and the iceman had horses pull their trucks. The 5 & 10 was real and smelled WONDERFUL! My graduating class had 13 of us. All the rest we've said and each day I wonder how I got to live this long???:cool::cool::cool:

[Bill Cunningham]

The holes were for the whistling sound it gave the paddle as it whizzed through the air. I'm telling you, I think the principle wound up when he whacked me... I had a bruised rear for days. Bent over with elbows touching the table (no leaning away from these). Three whacks, with enough time between each to let the sting set in. After the first, you realized how much the next two were going to hurt. To this day, I swore if I ever ran into that principle, well...


All my principals are now dead!! Hmmm maybe that don't sound quite right..ha..

I can remember when milk and bread were being delivered by a man with a horse and wagon, in Downtown Toronto. There were also horse troughs at every major intersection, and street cars changed direction, by the operator going to the other end..

My father used to get beer home delivered by a guy named George, who also ended up enjoying a beer at almost every house on his route truck route.

I can remember the day I went out to tell the 'iceman' that we now had one of those new refrigerators and would no longer need ice.. His reply was "Every one seems to be getting one of those.. I'm going to be out of business soon"

When they Tarred our gravel road, we would pick up pieces of tar to chew on.. (Chewing asphalt would never catch on :D )

You never really realize just how old you are, until your browsing through antique stores, and saying "I had one of those" ;)

[Rick Gooden]

I'm so old I remember candy bars for a nickel, and 6 oz. glass coke bottles coming out of a crank handled machine for a nickel.

[Jim Creech]

I'm so old I can remember when candidates actually spent time discussing the issues instead of wasting their energies telling us all the allegedly bad things their opponent had done!

[Belinda Barfield]

I remember a lot of the same things as some of you, not because I'm old but because I grew up in a small south Georgia town. ;)

I remember going to tobacco sales with my grandfather and being allowed the run of the warehouse. My grandfather paid me 30 cents a day to take cured tobacco off the stick. At the end of the day my 30 cents would by a Dr. Pepper and a Moon Pie.

Our TV was black and white until after I graduated from high school. Reception of three stations, one of which was PBS.

I remember walking four miles to town (and 4 back) because I wanted to go to TG&Y and my parents didn't.

I remember when I only had to dial 4 numbers on the phone to reach anyone in town.

As for paddling . . . once in first grade for talking in the lunchroom (go figure), once in third grade for trying to trade my chocolate pudding for Tommy Davis' butterscotch pudding (lunchroom again), once in 7th grade for arm wrestling before roll call in home room.

That paddling in third grade was really embarassing because Mrs. Cook made me bend over and touch my toes for the paddling. . . and I was wearing a new dress because I had a wicked crush on the new boy in our class, Sean Thompson. I submit that this was most assuredly some form of physical, mental, and emotional abuse. :D

[Dan Hintz]

That last story has me biting my tongue sooooo much, Belinda :D



In 3rd grade I got into trouble in the lunchroom (a "time out", not a paddling) for spitballs. One of the guys who was already in a "time out" (they placed you on the steps leading to the stage, as this was a combination auditorium) gets whacked upside the head with a spitball. I had my straw stuck in my mouth (had a bad habit of chewing on it when I was done), so lunch lady immediately looks at me. Of course, there was a torn straw wrapper sitting next to me (who gets up to throw away their straw wrapper immediately after unwrapping it?), so it must have been me. Of course, the straw was so crunched down there's no way I could drool on myself with it, let alone shoot a spitball from it, but that kind of logic from an 8 year old doesn't really fly with a lunch lady. What does pass for logic is to seat me next to the offended party for the remaining "time out"... go figure :(

[Belinda Barfield]

That last story has me biting my tongue sooooo much, Belinda :D

Yeah, well, if there was anything worth biting your tongue over in that story Sean Thompson would have ended up with a wicked crush on me. Didn't happen. :(

[Dan Hintz]

Yeah, well, if there was anything worth biting your tongue over in that story Sean Thompson would have ended up with a wicked crush on me. Didn't happen. :(
Sorry, I was just translating the situation to 30 years later, give or take... I need to start attending your parties :)

[Matt Newton]

I remember being told go outside and play and not having to be home until it got dark. Didn't matter where we went as long as we weren't home.

I remember getting my mouth washed out with soap for saying bad words.

I remember cleaning out behind the seat of my dads pickup and making quite a haul returning all the empty beer cans.

I remember the new "portable" phone my dad got. It was far from portable.

[Graham Symns]

I remember when our local city council had carts with draught horses.

I remember when the above draught horses were set free in the paddock next to my classroom.

I should point out that this is in Christchurch New Zealand where we have had in excess of 2500 tremors following our Sept. 4th 7.1 earthquake.

Regards Graham

[Belinda Barfield]

Sorry, I was just translating the situation to 30 years later, give or take... I need to start attending your parties :)

I know . . . and yes, you do!

[Dennis Peacock]

I'm so old that my first gallon of gasoline that I bought was "regular" and not "Ethyl" and a gallon cost me $0.20

I'm so old that I could take a quarter to the general store and buy a glass bottled coke, a payday candy bar, and 10 pieces of Double-Bubble bubble gum.

[greg a bender]

I remember mail order. Took forever. Yes, US mail. Mail order. A month to receive what you had ordered. A month to return it and another month till you got the right item back. (no UPS or Priority)

I'm only 60, But wow. This thread has really made me look at things.

Thanks!

Greg

[Norberto Coutinho]

Like a dream...when with a few bucks I can put lots of gasoline in my old Dodge Charger.... yes, he drunks a lot :)

[Charlie Reals]

Like a dream...when with a few bucks I can put lots of gasoline in my old Dodge Charger.... yes, he drunks a lot :)

Oh my, don't tell me it's a 1969, I burned two sets of tires off the rear of a 69 in 3 months. Gas was abt. 30cents a gal.

[Gary Hodgin]

I so old that I remember when people bought grocery and gas on credit during the week and paid for them on Fridays, AND the grocery store and gas station were separate businesses.

[Gordon Eyre]

I remember when three longs and a short meant that we had a call. I listened to a crystal set at night before I went to sleep. I liked the Green Hornet and The Shadow. For family entertainment we gathered around the radio and listened to One Man's Family. I worked at a gas station when it was $0.25 cents a gallon and I was expected to wash their windows and check the oil. My sister bought a car that still had a hand crank that you stuck in the front and turned if the battery ran down.

[Mark Ross]

I'm so old that I remember going to school and having classes like woodshop, metal shop, electrical, electronics, graphic arts, drafting, auto shop and so on because the education system recognized (rightly so) that not everyone was college material and vocational training was an option.

Now all they do is graduate people with 4 year college degrees in fields we don't need people (we have too many lawyers already) and then these people who are saddled with 50-100k in debt don't understand why they can't get a job? Oh and they think that being something like a plumber is below them.

I also remember playing pong on a black and white TV and thinking "It can't get any better than this":)

[Dan Mooney]

I'm so old, when I was born, the Dead Sea was only sick!

[Marty Paulus]

Lets see. I do remember our first Microwave. I drove a used Pinto for my first car. I remember $0.50 a gallon gas and you had to pay attention that you didn't use Lead Free in the leaded gas car or leaded in a lead free car. I remember ice skating just after Thanksgiving where now it is after New Years before we get enough ice. The cord on the 'land line' was 30' long so you could talk in a different room. Then came the 'cordless' telephone. I remember having to get up off my butt to change the channel on the television and there were only 6 choices, inlcuding PBS. Sitting down on Sunday night to watch 'The Wonderful World of Disney' on ABC. Mutial of Omaha specials on Africa. Christmas decorations not showing up in the stores until the day after Thanksgiving.

Didn't believe I was getting old until recently and threads like this just confirm the knowledge...

[Rick Potter]

A post below reminded me of 1963, when I was taking Engineering courses at a local college (Cal Poly). Each student in certain classes was assigned a couple hours of time, total, per quarter, to familiarize themselves with a computer. This computer took up a whole room, and was the only one in the whole engineering department.

On a similar note, I have been told that your car has more computing power than any of the moon missions. Imagine what your smart phone compares to.

Rick Potter

PS: Still have my slide rule, even though I cannot remember how to use it.