Remember When ......

[Rich Riddle]

Let's date ourselves. Tell a few things you remember from the old days...

I remember:

1. When soft drinks came in glass 1 gallon and 1/2 gallon bottles you returned for refunds.
2. When the high-beam switch was on the floor left of the brake and clutch pedals.
3. The only people with tattoos were military, felons, and bikers.
4. When Ken Fitzgerald was young.....just kidding, after all I'm not THAT old.

What do you remember?

[Frederick Skelly]

I remember that my granddad had a car with these little side window vents. They didnt roll down like the big/main windows - they kind of rotated open. And that car had manual (roll down) windows.

[Rich Riddle]

I remember that my granddad had a car with these little side window vents. They didnt roll down like the big/main windows - they kind of rotated open. And that car had manual (roll down) windows.
Frederick, I think many of us called those wings if it looks like this:

306612

[Paul McGaha]

I remember:

1) Learning how to drive with my dad in a 67 Chevy El Camino (283 V-8 w 2 Speed Automatic Trans.).
2) Going to a little store and buying a coke, a snack and a pack of cigarettes with a $1 and getting some change back.
3) Gasoline costing about $.12 per gallon.
4) Walking by a hardware store near us that was full of Delta woodworking equipment (this was back in the 60's).
5) Vince Lombardi's Packer teams.

I could go on all day I guess.

PHM

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I remember when they delivered milk in glass bottles, and I remember when they stopped that, but we would go to the dairy for the milk, and watch them milk the cows.

I remember when we would ride in the back window... not seat,but the window... of my mom's 1972 Pontiac, which, by the way, had a big block V8.

...when they had road construction and they would put out these things called "smudge pots" that actually had a wick that burned to warn you of road work as opposed to flashing lights. I remember my dad hit one once!

... when we would walk up to the gate at the airport to see my dad off, and meet him at the gate when he landed.

... when my high school got these new things called personal computers made by this company called Apple. They had something like 64K of memory. K- not Mb! We learned to write a program in BASIC that you could put in your birth date and it would tell you your age. We mostly used them to play pong.

[Lee Schierer]

I remember:

When people actually talked to each other during meals at a restaurant.

When I could ride my bike to the gas station, fill a gallon can with gas for 20 cents and send the other five cents on bubble gum to chew while cutting grass on a Saturday to earn spending money.

When I could run four miles each morning in 28 minutes and still work a full 8 hour day.

When you could buy good plywood at almost any place that sold lumber.

Civil Defense drills in school where you had to crouch down under your desk until they said it was all clear and there were big boxes of emergency supplies under the stairwells of all public buildings.

[Jim Matthews]

3 on the tree

"Sure, you can pick through the pile."

"So, what do you want to do tonight?"

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Let's date ourselves. Tell a few things you remember from the old days...


4. When Ken Fitzgerald was young.....just kidding, after all I'm not THAT old.

What do you remember?

Huh! What did I do to deserve such treatment?:eek::D

1. I remember riding on the seat of a wooden horse drawn wagon which had "bank boards" on each side. With 2 uncles on one side and my maternal grandfather and another uncle on the other side, they each took two rows and shucked the corn and threw it into the wagon. It wasn't until a couple years ago I figured out the two horses named Dolly and Joe were obeying Grandpa's verbal commands and not my 5 year old hands on the reins.

2. I remember the same grandfather and an uncle trying to dig the basement for the aunt and uncle's new house using the same team of horses to pull a huge shovel. That Indiana limestone was so close to the surface that they gave up that idea and hired a guy who used dynamite and a backhoe.

3. I remember my first car was a 1949 Plymouth Coupe. It was sold after I was caught.....well I won't go there.....

4. I can remember I replaced that coupe with '56 Chevy 2 door sedan, 3 on the tree, with manual OD and a 265 CI engine for a few months. Driving too fast one night a wrist pin broke, the rod chewed up the cylinder, punched a hole through the cylinder wall. I was rushing home to meet a curfew deadline after a friend and I met some new girls in a nearby town. Oh well! One overhauled 283 CI engine later I had more horse power!

5. I remember trading the '56 Chevy for a '64 Chevy SS Impala convertible, lagoon aqua in color with white bucket seats and top, 300 HP, 327 CI engine and a 4-Speed manual transmission. I had moved to a new town with the '56 baby blue. Once I traded for the convertible getting a date became a whole lot easier!

6. I can remember getting a notice to report for a draft physical. At that time there was no draft lottery system and in Illinois if you passed the physical, weren't married with children, a school teacher or in college, the day you passed the physical you had 90 days of freedom left.


BTW....I will be old enough to draw my full SS benefits this year......I'm not that old.....

[Rich Riddle]

Ken,

I was teasing you, but wouldn't it be great for you to still own your first three cars today?

[Mike Lassiter]

I remember that my granddad had a car with these little side window vents. They didnt roll down like the big/main windows - they kind of rotated open. And that car had manual (roll down) windows.

And a AM radio only as an option

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Ken,

I was teasing you, but wouldn't it be great for you to still own your first three cars today?

Of course I realized you were teasing and yes, especially the '64 SS Impala convertible. I met my wife less than 2 weeks before I left for boot camp after enlisting in the US Navy. She only rode in it a few times. We both still would love to have it back!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

And a AM radio only as an option

Yes...but I installed a "spring-type" reverb unit in the trunk of the convertible. It sounded great until you hit a big bump or went across a railroad crossing too fast!

[Dave Zellers]

And a AM radio only as an option
You had a radio!?!?!?!

We had to beg my dad to buy a car with a radio. He didn't want to spend the 'extra'.

I remember when citrus fruit had seeds!

Re the price of gas: my friend had a Corvair. When the needle pointed to 'E' we would look under the seats, find a quarter and be good for the rest of the night.

[Dave Zellers]

Every family only had 1 car. If they had a car.

[Tom Stenzel]

I remember the days of cranks to raise and lower the windows... oh wait, that was earlier today in my Saturn! And no CD player, no cassette player, no 8 track player, no MP3 player... Hey, that's my Saturn!

My first car had a three on the tree, downshift when it rained to keep the wipers going. And open the vent windows turn them all the way around for some real ventilation!

-Tom

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Can you remember standing in the rain with the hood up trying to locate the vacuum leak that was keeping the wipers from working?

[Rich Riddle]

Can you remember standing in the rain with the hood up trying to locate the vacuum leak that was keeping the wipers from working?

Windshield wipers were vacuum controlled instead of electrical?

[Lee Reep]

I remember paying 37 cents for a McDonalds' meal -- 15 cents for a hamburger, 12 cents for fries, and 10 cents for a Coke (I don't think they had Sprite then, maybe root beer, and orange soda?). If you wanted ketchup, a "dunk cup" was 3 cents!

I remember learning about vacuum-powerd wipers while trying to pass a semi during a strong rainstorm. I had floored the gas on my '58 Pontiac, and the wipers froze "mid-wipe" on the windshield, only to continue wiping when I let up on the gas.

I remember nickel candy bars at the drugstore, a dime if you wanted the big one.

I remember the gas wars in the early 70s. My buddy and I were going on a road trip and filled up in the Denver area for 21.9 cents a gallon, and felt like we were getting robbed when we paid 39.9 in Chicago.

I remember the first time I saw the Who. My buddies and I paid $8 for tickets in the 12th row, center of the arena. I also remember my ears rang for about 2-3 days.

Wow, I am surprised I remember anything from that far back. :)

[Dave Anderson NH]

Going to the local gas station with a nickel for a 7oz coke in a glass bottle out of the red coke machine out front.

pushing down on the starter on the floor of the Dodge pickup to start it.

Using the lever on the column of my buddies 1929 model A 6 window to retard or advance the spark on the ignition.

Baleing hay at 11 years old for $.15 an hour across the road at Grover Gerlock's dairy farm and coming home all sweaty and itching everywhere.

Playing outside with friends without our parents worrying where we were as long as we were home in time for dinner.

Getting our first TV, a 21" DuMont black and white in 1955.

Dad buying a house in 1954 on the GI Bill and working off the $400 downpayment by doing weekend cleanup for a year for the contractor who built the development wiht only a handshake as the contract.

Going to first grade in a 4 room school house in a town which is now 30,000 people.

Getting into neighborhood fist fights and being friends again the next day.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Windshield wipers were vacuum controlled instead of electrical?

Yes...youngun' they were vacuum operated!

Here's an explanation.... http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5010098_vacuum-windshield-wipers-work.html

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Lee,

My Dad drove a '58 Pontiac Star Chief with a 370 CI IIRC. It was heavy and hole shots weren't that good but top end.....


At the age of 15 I began roughnecking nights on oil rigs for my driller Dad. One night the derrick hand rode his '47 Indian IIRC. When they decided to race, the Pontiac stayed with him for a while, then Buzz reached around for a little more throttle and left us. It was my first lesson in horsepower-to-weight ratio that night.

[Dave Zellers]

Playing outside with friends without our parents worrying where we were as long as we were home in time for dinner.
Oh man, that's a good one. The church chimes rang at 6. That was the signal that the ball game was over and everyone went home for dinner.

[James Baker SD]

along the lines of ducking under your desk, when my dad was stationed at a SAC base, I remember the B-52's taking off almost every day in drill just in case WWIII had started. They sure were noisy. On the other hand, the used tires made great toys on base school yard, probably would be considered too dangerous today.

[Rich Riddle]

How many of you remember when Alaska and Hawaii became states? It was before my time...by a few years.

[Ken Shea]

Frederick, I think many of us called those wings if it looks like this:

306612

Are you saying that there are actually vehicles with out these :D

I wasn't even a teenager but remember when my Dad had a Gulf station and we sold gas for 17.9 cents a gallon every day.

Any one remember Gulf Crest, now that was a HP fuel, it was Purple.

How about reel type hand push mowers.
We had a machine that sharpened them at the Gulf station, after sharpening hundreds of them you can be sure I got way tired of them coming in.

[Tom M King]

Slide rules being state of the art in Physics class. "calculators" then were called "adding machines" which were mechanical. High test gas at the pump was equal to racing fuel today. Muscle cars with 12:1 compression from the factory. Norton 750 was one bad ass bike. Honda four cylinder 750 with disk brakes was a major leap forward. Bought a new Kawasaki 500 three cylinder two stroke, which was the fastest stock bike ever, you just couldn't turn sharp on it or the crankcase would drag, for $995 brand new. Drivers license on 15th birthday, but only one cop in the county that we knew, so I drove the car to town to take the driving test. Learned to drive in a new '63 Chevy pickup with 3 on the column when I was 12. You had to focus, and set the exposure on a camera to take a picture. Built in light meter was major step forward, but you still had to set exposure.
Birth control in a pill..........

[Rich Riddle]

Are you saying that there are actually vehicles with out these :D

I wasn't even a teenager but remember when my Dad had a Gulf station and we sold gas for 17.9 cents a gallon every day.

Any one remember Gulf Crest, now that was a HP fuel, it was Purple.

How about reel type hand push mowers.
We had a machine that sharpened them at the Gulf station, after sharpening hundreds of them you can be sure I got way tired of them coming in.
I remember dad putting Ethyl in the car, and that wasn't a female.

[Ken Shea]

Ethyl, haha had forgotten all about Ethyl.

[Ken Shea]

Shotguns in our trunks in the school parking lot to go hunting after school, probably would not want to try that now.

[Fred Chan]

Had variable speed wipers on my 58 TBird. Intermittent or slow going up hill and fast going down hills. Seem to recall having to wait for the AM radio to warm up before the music would come on. It did have power windows and bucket seats.

[Ken Shea]

I had one of those 58 tbirds as well Fred, a Classic.
Vacuum windshield wipers, operated off a secondary vacuum pump attached to the Fuel pump.

How about 8 track tapes?

Somebody stop, my mind can't take all this rolladexing in reverse :D

[Ken Shea]

OK Beat this,
When I was growing up Doctors made house calls.
In my case it was Dr Moffett.

[Dave Zellers]

How many of you remember when Alaska and Hawaii became states? It was before my time...by a few years.
Totally. It was used as a huge civics lesson. I was 8.

[Dave Zellers]

How about reel type hand push mowers.
Oh yeah. Ours had a wooden stem and handle and cast iron wheels.

[Tom Stenzel]

Can you remember standing in the rain with the hood up trying to locate the vacuum leak that was keeping the wipers from working?

I can remember plenty of times standing in the rain with the hood up trying to find out why I had no vacuum.

Cause the engine wouldn't start. Sheeesh! And I paid a whole $100 for the car.

Why do we call them the good old days again?

-Tom

[Dave Zellers]

OK Beat this,
When I was growing up Doctors made house calls.
In my case it was Dr Moffett.
What are you talking about?

I get a house call from Dr. Bombay every evening...:cool:

[Dave Zellers]

Why do we call them the good old days again?

-Tom
It is truly amazing how reliable cars are today. Of course we pay a little more than $100 for them...

When was the last time you had a flat tire or even saw anyone else with one? I don't miss that!

[Mike Cozad]

The woods in a set of golf clubs were actually wood.
Spare tires were full sized.
Beer cans were tin coated steel.
Coors was not sold east of the Mississippi.
Getting out in the crappy weather to "lock in the hubs" before shifting into 4WD.
There weren't self serve gas stations in our town.
Service stations had an "on duty" mechanic and no kwiki-marts.
You popped the top of your 16oz soda bottle on the machine you just pulled it out of.
Playboy was on the magazine rack in the drugstore right next to Time....

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Shot guns at school..... The high school I attended was performing an operetta.....Annie Get Your Gun. I got the part as Buffalo Bill. They needed a gun and I had and still have a 12 gauge H&R Topper Model 45 full choke. In one scene, Annie needs to shoot and from above the stage 2 ducks are dropped. "No sweat says I!" So Annie practiced with my 12 gauge unloaded. The art class at this school painted the multiple backdrops. So opening night, I opened up a shell and removed the shot. I probably should have removed the wadding too! When Annie pulled the trigger, the wadding hit the current back drop knocking the paint off a 3' radius diameter area. It got a huge laugh from the audience at a time when a laugh wasn't expected! The next night I removed the shot, the wadding and the powder.

[Dave Zellers]

I'm starting to get a picture of you as quite the troublemaker.

Exactly the kind of guy that made life very interesting back in the day... :)

Former rabble rousers make the best moderators.

[Frank Drew]

1. When soft drinks came in glass 1 gallon and 1/2 gallon bottles you returned for refunds.


That I don't remember, and I'm 68; most of the Cokes consumed when I was a kid (and Coke was king) were the 6.5 oz bottles. I wonder if 1/2 and 1 gallon bottles were a regional thing?

I remember when America went to bed at night: By far most jobs were daytime... 9-5 or 8-4, whatever; very few shift jobs that went overnight. There were very, very few all-night stores and only a few all-night restaurants. 7-11 stores meant that they opened at 7am and closed at 11pm, period. Television, such as it was in the Fifties, shut down around 11pm, even in cities, and of course there was no internet. There just wasn't much do to at night to keep people up. Totally different nowadays.


Playing outside with friends without our parents worrying where we were as long as we were home in time for dinner.

Another huge change, the time before parents became paranoid about "stranger danger". Halloween -- the absolute best holiday from a kid's perspective -- meant being outside at night, after dark and usually a school night, with your friends and NO PARENTS!, collecting sackfuls of candy. It didn't get any better than that! The general, unafraid freedom that kids had in those days was wonderful and is, IMO, a great loss for kids today.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I'm starting to get a picture of you as quite the troublemaker.

Exactly the kind of guy that made life very interesting back in the day... :)

Former rabble rousers make the best moderators.

The southern Illinois high school shot gun incident was minor.

In 3rd grade in the mid '50's living in Kemmerer, WY 2 friends and I proved our mathematical skills. There were then and still were a couple years ago, some old coal mines that have been on fire since the1930's. In the '50s the old wooden support buildings and even wooden water towers were still in existence. One day "exploring" one of the coal mines, I crawled under one of the old buildings. I am glad I didn't meet a rattle snake in the process. I found an old wooden box. I drug it out. My friends and I showed our math prowess by dividing 21 by 3 and each of us brought home 7 sticks of dynamite.....which had sweated crystals on the outer paper covering...... The ones I brought home, my Dad took to the rig and when it came time to blast the casing, they used it. It was still good. I am the oldest of 6 kids.....all former oil field trash......proud of it.....and my Mom is still alive and has much of her senses. She's a strong woman!

[Rick Potter]

Rich,

I remember when you were in diapers. My oldest kid just got an AARP card.

[Lee Reep]

Lee,

My Dad drove a '58 Pontiac Star Chief with a 370 CI IIRC. It was heavy and hole shots weren't that good but top end.....


At the age of 15 I began roughnecking nights on oil rigs for my driller Dad. One night the derrick hand rode his '47 Indian IIRC. When they decided to race, the Pontiac stayed with him for a while, then Buzz reached around for a little more throttle and left us. It was my first lesson in horsepower-to-weight ratio that night.

Ken,

My Pontiac was a Chieftain. It was georgeous -- pale yellow, with white on the sides, like Chevys of the day. It had a green interior. Green fabric on seats, and all the metal inside was painted metallic green. It got 8 miles per gallon! That 370 was amazing, even with a 2-barrel carb. As I recall, 4 barrels and 3 dueces were options (that's a set of 3, 2-barrel carburetors for you "kids" ...) :) It had a 4-speed Hydramatic automatic transmission (pretty advanced for that era), and what looked like 1/4" plate steel under the transmission. It had no radio, so I went to a junk yard and bought the factory radio with all the curved chrome trim pieces, speaker, and antenna for $12. When I tried to drill thru the fender for the antenna, my drill bit began smoking. Granted, my tools were lousy, but that metal was thick. The partial hole looked like countersunk plate steel. Later on, during an attempt at repairs, my mallet bounced off the inside of the hood when I tried to pound out a small dent in the hood.

That thing was built like a tank. (No wonder mileage was so poor ...)

Gosh, it's great to reminisce about your first car ...

[Jerry Thompson]

I remember being with my dad the night he drove the new '47 Chevy 2 door home.

[Frederick Skelly]

Frederick, I think many of us called those wings if it looks like this:

Yup, thats what I remember!

[Frederick Skelly]

Any one remember Gulf Crest, now that was a HP fuel, it was purple.

Which was higher octane - the Gulf Crest or Sunoco 260? I vaguely remember Amoco sold something too?

[Brian W Smith]

Cool topic,I remember;

Growing up in the shop watching my dad taking these loooooong strokes with his #7.Holding it with such finesse,involving me to see how thin "we" could get an unbroken shaving.

I remember going over to my uncle's machine shop with dad and sitting on his workbench,for hours listening to them talkin shop.

When my children were runnin around in the yard naked,and wifey and I would just laugh when they'd stop playing and just take a leak wherever the mood struck them.

I remember building my house and praying,so hard,to have the strength(literally)to finish the job.....I was 28 with 3 children,and running a fulltime business(cabinet shop).

[Butch Spears]

Peanuts in a little round cardboard container, .05 cents, plus there could be a prize inside. .01 to .25

short cokes and tall cokes in glass.

RC colas and Neigh-Hi drinks

Drink coolers with colas sitting in water and ice, two lids on top of cooler

hoeing cotton in West Texas fields , 100 degree weather, rows looked a mile long, file in back pocket to keep hoe sharp and the water seemed to always be at the other end of the row.

picking that same cotton in the fall by hand, dragging a 10 ft cotton sack on your shoulder and the water can still at the other end of row.\

But would not take for the lessons learned.

[Erik Loza]

I remember (on numerous occasions and without a doubt, deservedly so...) my mom spanking either my brother or me in a public place, telling either one of us to go wait in the car until she was done shopping, or, "You want to walk home, Mister?", then making us walk home alone.

Erik Loza
Minimax

[Brian Tymchak]

Playing outside with friends without our parents worrying where we were as long as we were home in time for dinner.


Was thinking along the same lines - I remember riding my bike about 2 miles to school in the 4th grade. These days, my parents would have been arrested for child neglect...

[Bill Orbine]

I remember when.......

.....To start the car in the morning- Pull out the choke and pump the gas when turning the key.

....Electro-mechanical pinball coin-op machines.

....the Unisaw was brand new!

[Bill Huber]

Can you remember standing in the rain with the hood up trying to locate the vacuum leak that was keeping the wipers from working?

And every time you went up a hill the wipers stopped working..

[Bill Huber]

These are funny but in most cases true....

Scenario 1:
Jack goes duck hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck's gun rack.
1958 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2012 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario 2:
Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.
1958 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2012 - Police called and SWAT team arrives - they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario 3:
Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students.
1958 - Jeffrey sent to the Principal's office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2012 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADD. The family gets extra money (SSI) from the government because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario 4:
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1958 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman.
2012 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse, Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has an affair with the psychologist.

Scenario 5:
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1958 - Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock.
2012 - The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario 6:
Pedro fails high school English.
1958 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.
2012 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario 7:
Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed.
1958 - Ants die.
2012 - ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents - and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny's dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario 8:
Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1958 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2012 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

[Marty Gulseth]

I remember most all of the items cited above!

And - I remember:

1. Picking up the receiver on the phone, which had no dial, and waiting for the operator to come on and say "number please?" And, just occasionally, talking to my favorite aunt and uncle in Memphis (we lived in northern MS at the time) and them sounding like they were on another planet.

2 I remember, becoming a near-teenager, and being fascinated with cars (imagine!) lifting the hood of a friend's parents early 50's Pontiac and finding a "straight eight" engine.

About the slide rule - I blundered my way all the way through engineering school using one of those things. Kids have it so easy nowadays! And, I was in the first electronics class to be taught solid-state (TRANSISTORS) electronics, at least at my school. The class the semester before was taught vacuum tube electronics.

Regards,

Marty

[Tom Stenzel]

2 I remember, becoming a near-teenager, and being fascinated with cars (imagine!) lifting the hood of a friend's parents early 50's Pontiac and finding a "straight eight" engine.

About the slide rule - I blundered my way all the way through engineering school using one of those things. Kids have it so easy nowadays! And, I was in the first electronics class to be taught solid-state (TRANSISTORS) electronics, at least at my school. The class the semester before was taught vacuum tube electronics.

Regards,

Marty

I remember lifting the hood on a friend's '39 Chevy and finding a 327.

I remember lifting the hood on my Brother's friend AMC Gremlin and finding a Chevy 350:D.

The block cracked in Dad's 64 Chevy station wagon (inline 6, 3 on the tree). In a three day weekend we pulled a 283 and transmission from a donor car and installed it. Dad drove it to work on Tuesday. The factory rear end for the wagon six was 3.55 and for the V-8 wagon was 3.23(*) so the speedometer read high. But it accelerated really fast, my brother used it to humiliate a 302 Mustang in a race.

I always kept an Accumath slide rule in my desk at work. It was great for confounding the apprentices. My leather case Pickett was kept at home.

-Tom
* How do I remember such trivia all these years later when I can't find my car keys?

[Mike Lassiter]

4 digit phone numbers

[Rick Potter]

I remember a guy in high school telling us he liked his '48 Willys Jeepster, because the 4 cyl. motor was so gutless that he drove it flat out all the time, and the police never noticed.

I remember lifting the hood on my '48 Willys Jeepster and finding a Chevy 327. Yesterday.

[Jim Laumann]

Telephone party lines....

when you only wore your 'tennies' when you went to gym class or for sports

when your adult neighbor could give you a smack or two if the situation warranted such, and your folks would most likely argree and give you another smack or two

Mighty Mouse

Rin-tin-tin

Hop-along Casidy

Roy Rodgers

Sky King

Test patterns on the TV screen (assuming you had a TV)

Fall out shelter signs on buildings

[glenn bradley]

Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."

But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.

P.s. I'm right there with Jim Laumann but, don't forget the bakery truck and the ice cream man, good fireworks in the street in front of your house, going to the neighbors and if you friend wasn't there, you were invited in to watch TV till they got home so you could go out and play. Riding your bike downtown to go to the movies and just leaning your bike against the wall with all the others knowing with no thought as to it's being there when you came out.

[Gordon Eyre]

The ice man delivered ice blocks for our ice box (refrigerator). Coke was sold in 6oz hour glass bottles. Party lines had distinctive rings, ours was two longs and a short. I listened to the Green Hornet and The Shadow on the radio. My mom made my shirts out of printed flour sacks.

[Pat Barry]

The ice man delivered ice blocks for our ice box (refrigerator). Coke was sold in 6oz hour glass bottles. Party lines had distinctive rings, ours was two longs and a short. I listened to the Green Hornet and The Shadow on the radio. My mom made my shirts out of printed flour sacks.
On a hot summer day when this milk man / ice man delivered, we would ask him for a chunk of that ice and he would get out his pick and chop a piece off for each of us, Now that was a real treat for us back in the day!
Sundays we would have to put on our little suit jackets and ties for church.
Didn't it seem like there was a lot of room in the back seat of the old Chevy / Buick / Dodge? Not to mention the trunk could hold all your possessions including half the neighborhood kids sneaking in to the drive in movies.

[Rich Riddle]

The ice man delivered ice blocks for our ice box (refrigerator). Coke was sold in 6oz hour glass bottles. Party lines had distinctive rings, ours was two longs and a short. I listened to the Green Hornet and The Shadow on the radio. My mom made my shirts out of printed flour sacks.

You mean you really had to buy ice to put in your refrigerator? It didn't come with a compressor capable of freezing ice?

[Dave Zellers]

Notice 'refrigerator' is in parentheses- it was an ice box- no compressor at all. The ice was cut from the frozen lakes in winter and stored in ice houses for use in summer.

[Rich Riddle]

Dave,

This has turned into somewhat of a history lesson and interesting. Stories from Ken crossing the plains on a wagon with his family and using dynamite to clear cellars to folks with no way to keep a cool brew without ice. I find many of the car stories interesting. Some folks sound happy the statutes of limitations expired on some of those stories.

[Brett Luna]

I grew up in the South in the '60s and '70s.

I remember Mom giving my brother and I a summer buzz cut when we were very young and sending us out to play in the yard in our tightie-whities so she didn't have so much laundry to do. No one called child protective services on her. Ever. That was also back in the days of the "dirt necklace."

I remember when we kids knew all/most/many of the astronauts' names and wanted to be them when we grew up. Never occurred to us to be a gangster instead. Yeah, that was back when it was spelled with an "er."

I remember when you could often repair your own radio or television by checking one or more vacuum tubes on a tube tester at your local drug and/or grocery store.

I remember when >I< was the remote control for the television. I also remember rabbit ears, hoop, and bowtie antennas; horizontal and vertical hold; and the kerchunk-kerchunk-kerchunk sound of changing channels on the VHF dial. Oh...and "Don't touch that dial!"

I remember when television stations played the national anthem and displayed a test pattern at the end of the broadcast day. Stores closed on Sunday...at least until noon or 1 PM, if not all day.

I remember going shoe-less pretty much all summer with my friends and racing like mad across blazing hot asphalt parking lots because we were too cool to go around them. That high level of coolness didn't stop us from dancing along recently painted parking lines because they were just a tad cooler.

We carried pocket knives and maybe a wrist rocket slingshot or an air rifle. I had a hatchet and a machete. We disappeared into the woods for hours on end, built forts, made bamboo spears, or went fishing and hunting.

Dirt clod wars.

As a boy, I remember my grandmother making me go outside to cut a switch when I misbehaved. My dad favored the belt. "Time out" was for when you got dirt in your eye during one of the great wars. Teachers got in on the action, too. My high school (yeah, high school) shop teacher was a paddle connoisseur. He amassed quite a collection that varied in width, thickness, and drilled hole patterns during his ongoing search for the perfect sting.

I remember buying .22 and shotgun ammo at 14. I bought my own H&R Topper Jr. single shot 20-gauge that year, too. I kept it in my closet and never pointed it at another human being. Bobwhites, doves, and squirrels weren't so lucky. Well, most of them were quite safe but not all of them.

[Myk Rian]

Coal truck backing up to the chute.
Milk chute actually being used for milk.
Advertizing paper plates being dropped from airplanes.
C-119 Flying boxcars flying overhead.
ACME store.
Smudge pots at road construction jobs.
Sputnik and Echo satellites.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Coal truck backing up to the chute.
Milk chute actually being used for milk.
Advertizing paper plates being dropped from airplanes.
C-119 Flying boxcars flying overhead.
ACME store.
Smudge pots at road construction jobs.
Sputnik and Echo satellites.

Good list, Myk - 4 of those are mine as well.

I also remember vacations on the Grandparents' Kansas farms. The cream separator; Grandad srelighting the fires in the wood-burning stoves each cold morning; outdoor plumbing. When the distant tiny municipalities finally got water to them, the Grandmothers were in awe. City water. No live-or-die on the cistern, and on trucked-in water during dry spells"; Line 7, 2 long & 1 short for a phone # - except you just called the exchange in that tiny town and asked for them by name.

[Moses Yoder]

I remember my dad setting up the table saw in our kitchen to work on projects. I have one of those projects now, the tool box I helped build for him to use for his carpenter work.

[Andrew Joiner]

Bumpers were chromed steel and drivers would bump other cars with them parallel parking.

All my relatives had outhouses and used a sauna to bathe.

At 5 years old I beat a partridge to death with my toy gun. We had it for dinner. My family was so proud they called the newspaper. They ran the story and a photo of me in my coonskin cap like I was a little celebrity. Today I'd be in trouble for animal abuse!

[Ken Shea]

"At 5 years old I beat a partridge to death with my toy gun"

Andrew,
Do you happen to be any relation to a Gertrude Bradley, she was my Grandmother?
The reason I ask is because you both seem to have a lot in common, she chased a baby pig to death in the summer heat when she was about the same age :D

[Rick Potter]

Actually, they did use dynamite to plant power poles that went to our desert (5000' elevation) cabin, in the late 60's. It is in the big rock country, and they had to put the poles in with a helicopter.

I was the designated driver, before it was cool. I drove a trunkload of guys into the drive in, then took them home because I didn't drink. That stopped as soon as I found a girl who would go with me.

We also had a party line at our first house (1964), which cost $13,500. $300 down and $87 a month PITI. I was making $440 a month as a Fireman. I could also afford my first new car a few months later.....'65 GTO..$3330 OTD.

[Tom Stenzel]

I remember a guy in high school telling us he liked his '48 Willys Jeepster, because the 4 cyl. motor was so gutless that he drove it flat out all the time, and the police never noticed.

I remember lifting the hood on my '48 Willys Jeepster and finding a Chevy 327. Yesterday.

You have a Jeepster with a 327? Sorry Rick but your village idiot status is hereby revoked!

Tom

[Tom Leftley]

I remember before I started school, riding with my grandparents in an old Pontiac coupe delivering rural mail.
This would have been 1944/45. I don't know what year the car was, but it had wooden spoked wheels.
In the fall, my grandparents would sell quart baskets of apples and pears along their route.

In the summer, guys in the village who had shotguns would meet every evening after supper and clear starlings out the trees in one block.
The next night, they would repeat this and clean out another block.

I remember the first fire truck in our village. It was a 1949 Ford.
The fire chief was a farmer who lived across the road from us.

I remember also when my grandfather said it was time to buy a new lawn mower.
Man was I disappointed when they delivered it. It was a push mower with steel wheels.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

My grandfather owned an ice plant in Mississippi. He went to Eupora wanting to build a power plant and they said they really needed an ice plant. He said, "I could build that!," and he did. This was long before my time.

I remember my neighbors got this new "remote control" TV. You could change the channel from your seat. The funny thing is, the first remote control TV's still had dials, and when you pressed a button on the remote the dial on the TV would turn. "Clunk! Clunk! Clunk!" Note: Our town was a bit behind the times. This was the 70's. I think remotes were out for a while already.

I don't think anyone has mentioned 8 Track tapes. Remember when you changed tracks they went "kachunk!"?

Remember the first cell phones? The "bag phone." It was huge. It had a corded handset and a base that was in a leather bag.

Drive-in movies.

Vane-style TV antennas that went on the roof. You aimed it at the tower


When cartoons were actually hand drawn, and they had music scores composed to go with them.

Winding the alarm clock. ... Or how about the "digital" clock with the numbers on little cards that flipped each minute.

Digital watches with red numbers. You had to push a button and they lit up.

The Radio Shack TRS-80 and the Commodore 64.

Remember when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and then it got really, really cold? That next million years were rough.

[Kent A Bathurst]

You have a Jeepster with a 327? Sorry Rick but your village idiot status is hereby revoked!

Tom
No foolin - forget the HP upgrade - he has a 48 Jeepster ?? !! Rick - we gotta start calling you Sir. Photos? Anything else in the stables?

T Rex & Marc Bolan - "...you're so sweet, your're so fine.....you're my love....I'm just a Jeepster......."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcalYx51nwo

Get out yer polyester bellbottoms................

[Rick Potter]

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Well, there are a few more around.

My wife has a '22 Model T 3 door Touring car. It is a survivor hot rod from the early '50's, with a Ford V860 motor. Then there is my '56 Ford Victoria, a frame off resto way back in '91, with an EFI 302 and AOD. Then there is my '03 Mustang GT convertible that has 30K on it, my '06 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, my 10 year old F250, her 11 year old Toyota minivan, and our '13 plug in hybrid Ford CMax.

Then there is the daughters Sonata hybrid, and her daughters civic.

These are the only shots I could find. Better take a few more pics. Here, the 56 is 'on the hook' headed out to get a shifter cable replaced (custom made).

[Rich Riddle]

Rick,

Remember when we could sleep late at night? Or when we weren't sleeping late at night we engaged in other late-night activities instead of writing on the Creek?

[Malcolm Schweizer]

306735Rick, that's awesome we can be friends. When I was a teen I hung out with the old school hot rodders from the 50's and they taught me everything they knew. (This was the 1980's at the time). When I turned 16 I bought a 1950 Plymouth and fixed it up, and at 19 I bought a 57 Chevy. I have had countless Jeeps, mostly Willys and CJ5's, and countless bugs and Ghias. I could build a VW engine with my eyes closed and one hand behind my back.
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Here's one- I remember when you could fix your car without an electrical engineering degree.

[Rich Riddle]

Malcolm,

I own a 1967 Karmann Ghia but a different color than in your photo. The wife owns a 1965 Ford Mustang that infringes on shop space. My brother owned a 1957 Chevy but not nearly as nice as the one in the photo.

[Myk Rian]

Shot guns at school..... The high school I attended was performing an operetta.....Annie Get Your Gun. I got the part as Buffalo Bill. They needed a gun and I had and still have a 12 gauge H&R Topper Model 45 full choke. In one scene, Annie needs to shoot and from above the stage 2 ducks are dropped. "No sweat says I!" So Annie practiced with my 12 gauge unloaded. The art class at this school painted the multiple backdrops. So opening night, I opened up a shell and removed the shot. I probably should have removed the wadding too! When Annie pulled the trigger, the wadding hit the current back drop knocking the paint off a 3' radius diameter area. It got a huge laugh from the audience at a time when a laugh wasn't expected! The next night I removed the shot, the wadding and the powder.


Good story, Ken. LOL

[george wilson]

My first car was a 1950 Chevy,with a long crack in the block. I don't know WHY my Engine Man Chief step father advised me to buy it. Eventually,the crack spread so much I had to change the engine!

The absence of vent windows is to be lamented. All gone for the sake of STYLE! When I smoked,many years ago,I could keep the vent window open,stay close to it,and not bother my wife.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Okay Rich Riddle.....as you have so stongly hinted.....


Here's a photo of my family and I taken a few years ago when we traveled west.....

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Anybody care to guess where this photo was taken?

[Rick Potter]

Tombstone AZ?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Rick.....no....farther north.....think about a stolen Burma shave advertising idea.....by the way...the Burma Shave advertising idea started in 1925 I just found out...

[Myk Rian]

Another one I remember.
Walking downtown Detroit without a care in the world.

[Rick Potter]

So right Rich,

I was up till 3:30 last nite, looking at pics of early T-Birds for sale. I sold my rat rod '55 a couple years ago, and already miss it.

[Jim Laumann]

Snippage....

Teachers got in on the action, too. My high school (yeah, high school) shop teacher was a paddle connoisseur. He amassed quite a collection that varied in width, thickness, and drilled hole patterns during his ongoing search for the perfect sting.



Sounds just about like the Phys. Ed. teacher I had as a freshman in High School....forgot my gym clothes one day, couldn't 'suit' up for class. I got invited in to the coach's office, and was told to 'pick my poisin'. The coach had 5-6 paddles of various sizes, woods, hole patterns, etc. He told me one will hurt less....

Needless to say, I didn't choose the correct one....

That was the first and only time I forgot those gym clothes.


--------

Other things we don't see any more.....

Tarzan and Jane movies
(Both Johnnie Weissmuller and the others who played the character....)

Ramma of the Jungle movies

Mini loaves of Wonder Bread (free samples) which came in the mail

When adults were addressed as Mr., Mrs., Miss or other title, unless you were told other wise....

[Mel Fulks]

Ken, can't get your photo to work.

[Bonnie Campbell]

Rick.....no....farther north.....think about a stolen Burma shave advertising idea.....by the way...the Burma Shave advertising idea started in 1925 I just found out...

Wall Drug in South Dakota? lol

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Wall Drug in South Dakota? lol BINGO!

Wall, South Dakota Bonnie....not actually in the drug store.....but I did go in there and as a US military veteran, I got my free cup of coffee. This was taken in the photography store on the street there across from Wall Drug.

[Brett Luna]

The Radio Shack TRS-80 and the Commodore 64.

I started with the predecessor of the C64, the VIC 20. It had a whopping 5KB of RAM. My current home-built PC has more than 3 million times that. I was an electronics hobbyist at the time (as well as a USAF avionics technician) and being short of disposable income, I scratch-built a memory expansion card for it that plugged into the game slot. My father-in-law at the time had a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A.

Speaking of USAF and remembering things that make one feel old...

After basic, I attended the Lowry Technical Training Center at Lowry AFB, CO. It's closed now.

My first permanent duty station after tech school was England AFB, LA. It's closed now.

The first aircraft I worked on at England AFB was the A-7D Corsair II...long since interred at the bone yard.

My next air frame was the F-4 Phantom: first, the F-4D at Kunsan AB, Republic of Korea then the F-4E at Osan AB and a couple of other stateside bases. As they were replaced (by the F-15E at my base) they were transferred to the Air National Guard, then to the bone yard...except for a few that were converted to drones, painted a humiliating shade of orange, and shot down for testing and/or training.

Tying back into computers, an infrared sensor system I maintained on the F-4E actually had a computer in it. I was a among the first in our field. Instead of chip RAM like we're all used to, this one had 32KB of magnetic core memory. Ancient stuff.

[Rich Riddle]

So right Rich,

I was up till 3:30 last nite, looking at pics of early T-Birds for sale. I sold my rat rod '55 a couple years ago, and already miss it.

My wife desperately wants a rat rod. She had a man wanting to trade her 1965 Mustang Coupe for a rat rod in Gatlinburg. Thought she might go for it, but calmer heads prevailed.

[Bob Burk]

A number of the ones Brett listed I remember as well.

I remember taking road trips with mom and dad and riding/sleeping in the rear window of the Pontiac.

Roll up car windows.

When you had a cassette player you were high tech.

TRS (Trash) 80 computers.

When Cokes were real cokes.

You could pop fire crackers within the city limits and not get in trouble.

I to remember being able to carry a pocket knife in elementary (6th grade) and through JR as well as High School without getting into trouble.

First roller skates I had were the one's you clamped to your shoes, those were around long before me I believe.

We made our own skate boards.

[Julie Moriarty]

The Polaroid camera. Take the picture, then remove it from the camera, use a sponge applicator to put this smelly stuff on the shiny part of the picture and watch the image appear! I can still smell whatever that stuff was.

The Hula hoop craze

My dad coming home with a TV that has a remote control. I found out later I could bang rings together to change the channel just like the remote.

Air raid drills where we either went under our desk or into the school building hallway, where we'd be safe if Russia dropped the A-bomb on us.

Polio vaccine - we lived in fear of polio until that came along.

Teachers doling out corporal punishment and kids fearful of telling their parents because they would get it worse from the parents.

A new doll called Barbie - I think girls were actually convinced we would look like that someday.

[John Sanford]

I remember when America went to bed at night: By far most jobs were daytime... 9-5 or 8-4, whatever; very few shift jobs that went overnight. There were very, very few all-night stores and only a few all-night restaurants. 7-11 stores meant that they opened at 7am and closed at 11pm, period.
Not in my hometown. Less than half the folks worked day jobs.

I remember when:

Slot machines had real reels.
Slot machines paid off in real coins, not stupid little tickets.
If you wanted to play poker or blackjack in a casino, you had to sit down at a table and play with cards, no idiotic video games.
The United States Army still used jeeps, and wore pickle suits.
There were series about World War Two on network TV. (12 O'Clock High, McHale's Navy, Hogan's Heroes, Combat, and more)
There were numerous Western series on network TV.
There was no cable TV.
You would hear sonic booms routinely.
At noon on Saturday, the air raid sirens would go off all over town. Just to make sure they worked and people knew what they sounded like. (Oh, and folks knew it was noon. On Saturday.)
Levi's were Made in America, and weren't fashion.
We drove our car onto the apron at an international airport to check on our planes, routinely.
Portable power tools had polished aluminum bodies, and came with steel carry boxes.
The house had one phone, and it was rotary dial.
Lawn darts were really big darts. With metal tips.

[Carl Carew]

OK I'll toss these out
Drinking soda at the fountain from paper cones in a metal holder
Flipping baseball cards
Watching Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle on the Yankees
Playing with mercury in school
Paddling down the Hackensack river in a "borrowed" construction site cement mixing tub
Buying a 5 year old 58 Chevy that wouldnt start for $100 and finding a 348 with 3 duces when I got the hood pried open and getting it running with just a new set of points
Having dam near the fastest car in town with that chevy
Feeling like I lived in the very best place in the world
Skimming over the top of the water in my 9 ft mini runabout with a 22 hp merc outboard
building a firebird 400 from a derelict
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