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Dennis Peacock
02-07-2008, 8:38 AM
I've seen many things posted on the Creek from various people's memory and experiences from days gone by. Thought I'd start a thread to all each of us to share things we remember as it relates to economy or life in general. So here goes:

1. My granddaddy worked as a professional pipe fitter for 25¢ per day and loved the money he was making.

2. I remember paying 19.9¢ per gallon for gasoline.

3. I remember gasoline being in 2 grades - Regular & Ethyl

4. I remember my dad complaing about the high interest rate for our new home - and I quote - "What is this world coming to?? 2-1/2% for a home mortgage. You'd think I was trying to borrow the entire bank or something"

5. I remember when our bathroom was a two-hole outhouse sitting about 100' away from the back of the house.

6. I remember when fried chicken from supper meant that we'd have one less chicken running around the yard.

7. I remember getting a windows air conditioner installed in our house and remembering that this put us in the upper class of people in the community.

8. I remember when the price of a brand new car was under $1,800...fully loaded.

9. I remember that family and friends would sit outside on the porch or under the "shade tree" and visit every week giving everyone a strong sense of community.

10. I remember when we never locked any door or window. Didn't have to because there was no crime and you trusted every neighbor.

11. I remember picking cotton by hand.

12. I remember when we got a tractor that didn't start by a hand-crank.

13. I remember when banks would not lend you money if they thought you didn't make enough money to pay it back.

14. I remember that if you didn't have the cash money to pay for something? You didn't buy it.

So...how's that for starters? :)

Jim Becker
02-07-2008, 9:01 AM
I remember...when I could remember...:eek:

Greg Heppeard
02-07-2008, 9:09 AM
I remember

1. Running downstairs in the morning to put my cold feet against the oil stove to warm them up before putting my socks and shoes on.

2. I rmemeber my four digit phone number.

3. I remember listening to Hank Sr. a lot.

4. I remember Grandpa listening to the ball game on the radio on Sunday afternoon.

5. I remember shoveling coal into our new central furnace.

6. I remember thinking "I'll never get a date driving this '57 Bel Aire" or the '66 Nova for that matter.

7. I remember taking my first driving lesson at age 8 on the farm.

8. I remember being happy to go to work for $1.00/hr (age 12)

9. I remember wearing my father's old bib overalls that he had worn as a kid...Grandma found them in the attic.

10. I remember waking up before dawn to get ready to milk...before breakfast.

11. I remember cranking the butter churn. And ice cream freezer

12. I remember how good the fruit tasted in mid-winter that we had canned in late summer.

13. I remember taking a bath in the kitchen in the square galvanized tub in the middle of the floor. (It was nice being first)

14. I remember walking the corn field to find all the corn that the one row picker didn't get.

15. I remember the lazy days of fishing with my Grandpa and Dad.


NEXT..................

Art Mulder
02-07-2008, 9:21 AM
I remember when

... there was a rack beside the pop machine for you to return your glass pop bottles

... going out to dinner was rare and special

... watching olga korbett (??) in the '72 olympics (TV was new for us)

... our whole family agreed to skip Christmas, so that my folks could afford to buy a brand new colour TV



Or if you want to be a bit more current to this generation...
I remember when Star Wars came out. :D

Andy Hoyt
02-07-2008, 9:33 AM
Addresses that ended with something like: NY 12 NY

Just because the phone rang, it didn't mean the call was for us. We were: one long - one short

Fallout Shelters and nuclear attack drills at school.

Leaving the house after breakfast in the summer and all mom would say is: "Have fun - be home for supper".

When the NFL was just the NFL.

Mr. Green Jeans was my hero.

Greg Cole
02-07-2008, 9:44 AM
I remember when gas hit $1 a gallon....
I'd chime in more, but I think you guys already made yourselves feel old enough....:D

Greg

Mitchell Andrus
02-07-2008, 9:49 AM
I remember the 14" B/W television sitting on top of the forever broken console color TV in the livingroom, the only room in the house with a set.

I remember 300 Meg hard drives. Yes - 300 MEGs. Huge at the time.

Glenn Clabo
02-07-2008, 10:04 AM
1. I remember when kids (like me) could get a job pumping gas...AND they would wash your windshield and check under the hood.

2. I remember when you had to listen when you picked up the phone to make sure one of the other four "party line" people weren't using it.

3. I remember when people would wave at every car passing by.

4. I remember filling the potholes holes in our dirt road every spring.

5. I remember when you respected people who were older than you...even when you were old yourself.

6. I remember when teachers were respected.

7. I remember when my memory was good enough to know why I was standing in front of the icebox with the door open.

Earl Reid
02-07-2008, 10:11 AM
I remember:

1 All of the above

2 Our first phone had 3 numbers

3 Dozens of WPA workers digging sewer lines

4 first steady job, paying $0.20 per hr and buying a war bond every month

5 Hitch hiking and ridding on the running board

6 Delivering and getting a penny per paper( it had to be on the porch or behind the screen door

7 Driving a modle A ford when in the 5th grade

8 Driving a modle T ford pickup , ( burned the trans bands the first 500 ft) also 5th grade

9 Buying my first car,1930 md A; cost $15.00, got stopped by OSP no drivers license and unsafe vehicle, $ 39.00 and cost:eek:
10 gas was 16 cents

Earl

Jim Becker
02-07-2008, 10:49 AM
Ok...I remember Huntly-Brinkley evening news...in black and white. And our first phone number...early 1960s. OR6-3538. But don't ask me what I forgot about yesterday, 'cause I can't remember that... :D

David G Baker
02-07-2008, 10:51 AM
1. I remember corduroy roads.
2. Thunder mugs.
3. Hand pump in well house.
4. Plank roads.
5. Pulling a trailer to the local granary to pick up a load of coal and shoveling the coal into the coal bin.
6. Wasps in the two hole out house.
7. My Mother brining pickles in a large crock.
8. Pulling an Alice Chalmers combine with our Oliver 55 that my Dad bought for me because he was afraid that I would hurt myself on the John Deere.
9. In the grain bin with bearded barley that was damp. Had to spend the whole night moving the grain so it wouldn't get hot and burn the barn down.
10. My arms looking like I had measles after a day of tossing bales of hay.
11. Lifting heavy bales of hay that were baled when it was humid out. Think they weighed 90 lbs.
12. Our first indoor water faucet.
13. Playing hide and seek with the dog while hiding behind sheets hanging from the clothesline.
14. My feet staying ice cold from the first heavy frost until Spring time.
15. The Daffodils poking through a snow bank as the first sign that Spring was on the way.
16. The long ride from Michigan to Arizona in 1946 and my Dad under the trailer with matches trying to find the propane leak.
This could go on for a long time.

Michael Gibbons
02-07-2008, 12:24 PM
1. Getting up off the couch to change the channel.

2. Cigarettes were .50 a pack and some gas stations had them hanging in a cabinet on a post between the pumps.( Clark)

3. Burger King actually tasted good.

4. There was no such thing as bullet proof glass in a party store.

5. Cartoons were only on tv on Saturday morning and you played outside the rest of the time till the street lights came on.

6. Grampa working as a journeyman grinder hand for 6.00 an hour and having a good life and only working 6 months a year due to no midyear changeovers. Gone fishing the other six.

7. When people actually liked when police roughhoused a criminal and there was no such thing as excessive force.

8. No computers. No Atari even!

Cliff Rohrabacher
02-07-2008, 1:35 PM
Gas at 12Cents.
Families that had one car one bath and took vacations together.
Military service was a thing of which to be proud.
People expected to pay their own bills.
Kids could play out doors all day & into the evening and no one worried.

David G Baker
02-07-2008, 1:48 PM
Grandparents weren't raising their grand children.
Marriages lasted more than a few years.
Tires had white walls
Packards were still being made.
Tractors were still made in America along with most auto parts.
My Dad bought a 80 acre farm with very large house and 5 out buildings for $10,000.
Politicians didn't get caught telling lies as much as they do now.
Most families went to church together on Sunday.
The strongest drugs that were available to teens were tobacco and alcohol.

Bob Rufener
02-07-2008, 2:56 PM
I remember our telephone number was 84R and you had to be careful when you picked up the phone that others weren't on it (party line)

My first job-I worked 40 hours a week during the summer and cleared $31.50.

Beer was $.10 a glass

Dad actually took a two day vacation so we could go on a big train trip to Niagara Falls. (It was the only vacation he ever took)

My first car was a Nash Rambler with lay down seats.

Our first TV was a 16" round screen model.

Bath day was Saturday whether you needed it or not.

Playing kick the can and moonlight starlight with all of the kids in the neighborhood.

Rows of seats bolted to the floor at school.

Life was good!!!

Bruce Page
02-07-2008, 3:01 PM
I remember watching the pilot episode of Bonanza.

Greg Heppeard
02-07-2008, 4:00 PM
I remember watching the pilot episode of Bonanza.

Speaking of old TV...I remember

1. Rushing in from school to watch Dark Shadows

2. Sugarfoot

3. The Honeymooners, before re-runs

4. The Rifleman then Branded

5. Cheyenne

6. Uncle Orie (Ohio thing) "Roger Ramjet and his eagles fighting for our freedom"

7. Amos & Andy

8. Maverick

9. McHale's Navy

Glenn Clabo
02-07-2008, 5:02 PM
9. McHale's Navy

Oh man...YES!

David G Baker
02-07-2008, 6:05 PM
I remember watching the following on radio
Straight Arrow
Bobby Benson of the B BAR B
The Shadow
Inspector Harstone(spelling??)of the Death Squad
Gun Smoke
Green Hornet
Suspense

At the theater
Lash Larue
Red Rider
Blondie and Dagwood
Gene Autry
Roy Roger

Nancy Laird
02-07-2008, 6:34 PM
Does anyone remember Crusader Rabbit? Or Tom Terrific from the Captain Kangaroo show?

Unfortunately, reading through this thread, I remember almost all of these things!:eek::(

Glenn Clabo
02-07-2008, 6:37 PM
Does anyone remember Crusader Rabbit? Or Tom Terrific from the Captain Kangaroo show?


Proudly...YES!

James Jaragosky
02-07-2008, 7:09 PM
I remember when…
Beer was a $1.32 a 6 pack and you needed a church key to open one
Milk came in glass containers delivered to your home, and in the winter the cream would freeze pushing up the paper cap, and you would get a creamcycle
Venders would push carts up and down the streets of Chicago selling their wears or shaping knifes
The alleys were covered in cinders tossed out from the coal heaters
Phone #,s were only 5 digits long and you shared a party line.
Getting up in the morning in the winter to get dressed in front of heater in the kitchen, the only heater in house
Gas was 53 cents a gallon when I started driving
Drive-in theaters were the place to be on Saturday night
Shining shoes for 25 cents in the local taverns on Friday night to make some extra money to give to my mom
Play ground equipment that hurt when you fell off of it
When if you did something stupid you took responsibility, and didn’t try to sue someone else for you’re stupidly
When you use to go to the local bakery for your bread, and watch as they sliced it
When a kid wouldn’t dream of mouthing off to an adult for fear of what would happen when his dad found out
When everyone used please and thank you and yes sir and no sir and may I
When the most dangerous weapon a kid less than 13 carried was a 4’ whittling knife or homemade sling shot.
When it was ok to pray or not to pray in the class room
Hiding under my desk for the a-bomb drills at school
Hunting for RC cola caps looking for a winner
When most city people didn’t own a car
The busses were electric
You could get a jerk drink at Woolworths
The list goes on
I am just happy that I can still remember.

David G Baker
02-07-2008, 8:19 PM
Does anyone remember Crusader Rabbit? Or Tom Terrific from the Captain Kangaroo show?

Unfortunately, reading through this thread, I remember almost all of these things!:eek::(
Captain Kangaroo's Grandson was one of my bosses at a TV station in San Francisco.
Red Rider was the weatherman at a TV station I worked at in Sacramento.
Gypsy Rose Lee's son was a producer at the SF TV station.

Ken Fitzgerald
02-07-2008, 8:30 PM
Let's see:

The Rebel....

Have Gun Will Travel.....

Rawhide.......

Lash LaRue?

The Little Rascals...(not the rock group ....though I like their music)

The 3 Stooges.....

Wild Bill Hickock.....

Sky King....

Sea Hunt.....

Ken Fitzgerald
02-07-2008, 8:36 PM
Help me out here Clabo.....


What was the show that was themed around the US Navy or US Navy submarines...in the '50s.....You could join their club and get a little membership certificate?

Gary Keedwell
02-07-2008, 8:47 PM
Have Gun WiLL Travel...Maverick....Cheyenne...Davet Crocket...Perry Mason/....Surfside Six....The Fugitive....Wyatt Earp... 77 Sunset Strip...Ozzie and Harriet....Father Knows Best...Real Mc Coys

Jim Becker
02-07-2008, 9:03 PM
AH....my mother's favorite way back when....Gunsmoke.

Steve Leverich
02-07-2008, 9:10 PM
Used to LISTEN to Gunsmoke on the radio til I was about 11 - then we got our Crosley 14" B&W TV and watched it thru the "snow"... :confused: Steve

Randy Klein
02-07-2008, 9:17 PM
Although my memory does not go back as far as some of you others :D, my dad had compiled a long diatribe of memories when he turned 60. I had posted it here awhile back. Check it out. (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=60412)

Doug Shepard
02-07-2008, 9:25 PM
1) First memory of postage stamps when I was a kid they were $0.04

2) TV was black and white and the first remote we got would often trigger the new garage door opener to go up/down at the same time.

3) All the neighborhood kids would set up a KoolAid stand and use the profits to go buy candy

4) Half the lots in the subdivision were still vacant lot fields where we'd go collect huge spiders.

5) Winter snows were always deep enough that we'd get at least a couple snow forts out of it each year.

6) Long Distance phone calls were reserved for special occasions.

7) Everybody stopped what they were doing and watched NASA launches on TV

8) Mom balling her eyes out over the news of the Kennedy assasination while us kids tried to figure out who that was.

Paul Greathouse
02-07-2008, 9:47 PM
I remember my granny on my dads side (my dads, dad died when he was 12) and my grandmother and grandfather on my moms side. The three of them did so much for me when I was young and were such a big part of who I am now.

I only regret that I didn't spend near enough time with each of them before they passed away. Life was just too busy, or I always had something more important to do. It shouldn't have been that way. If you still have older relatives alive, spend as much time as possible with them. Don't do like I did and realize that you miss them after their already gone.

James Jaragosky
02-07-2008, 10:06 PM
Have Gun WiLL Travel...Maverick....Cheyenne...Davet Crocket...Perry Mason/....Surfside Six....The Fugitive....Wyatt Earp... 77 Sunset Strip...Ozzie and Harriet....Father Knows Best...Real Mc Coys
dont forget combat
and John Wayne on the 10 o-clock movie

Dennis Peacock
02-07-2008, 11:36 PM
The Three Stooges
Buddy Abbott and Lou Costello

25¢ would buy me a 12 oz. coke, a payday candy bar, 10 pixie sticks, and 10 pieces of bubblegum.

All softdrinks were in glass bottles.

All the "old timers" would sit in the country store, not too far from the old pot belly stove, and play checkers with bottle tops, all the while talking about farm life and spitting tobacco juice in the ash bucket next to the stove.

A haircut used to cost me 50¢

A plug of "Days Work" or "Bloodhound" chewing tobacco was 20¢.

I remember my grandmother and greatgrandmother dipping "Red Top Snuff".

Going out to eat was a 1 hour drive and only a special treat that was no more than about 3 times a year.

No Central heat or Air conditioning.

Party Line telephones.

My school was all wood, including the floors.

School lunches were actually healthy for you and the lunch with a 1/2 pint of milk was 25¢.

I remember a fellow classmate of mine didn't like school so much so that he burned the school to the ground. We still had school....just in portable trailers.

I remember sitting in front of our black and white TV watching every single NASA rocket launch that came on...including the Saturn V.

Black and White 8MM home movies.

Life sure passes ya by in a hurry doesn't it?!!!

David G Baker
02-07-2008, 11:40 PM
Let's see:

The Rebel....

Have Gun Will Travel.....

Rawhide.......

Lash LaRue?

The Little Rascals...(not the rock group ....though I like their music)

The 3 Stooges.....

Wild Bill Hickock.....

Sky King....

Sea Hunt.....
Ken,
Lash Larue was a movie cowboy out of the early 50's. He caught bad guys with a bull whip.
Johny Mac Brown, a TV cowboy that came on when I got home from school.

Michael Gibbons
02-08-2008, 2:44 AM
Penny candy stores.

Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea.

H.R. Puffnstuf.

Fist fights were finished with fists.

When the adults in my family met at the bar, each one of them could get totally hammered on a $1.50 drinking ice cold Schlitz that was delivered in wooden barrels.

Detroit originals; Vernors, Red Pelican mustard, Sanders bakery and soda shops.

Going Christmas shopping at Hudsons in downtown Detroit.

Evel Kneivel ( RIP) jumping the Snake River canyon.

When pop was made with real sugar.

Doug Shepard
02-08-2008, 5:32 AM
The Three Stooges...
..


Moe:eek: - Larry:eek: - the Cheese:eek: - the Cheese.:eek:
NYUK NYUK NYUK:D

Glenn Clabo
02-08-2008, 5:44 AM
Don't remember that one.

Karl Laustrup
02-08-2008, 7:31 AM
I remember from Center Brunswick, NY......

Going with my dad to the local tavern. He'd have a beer while I sat next to him or played the game with the long hardwood table and metal pucks. Can't remember what that was called. Used sand to help the pucks slide.

Walking [about 1/2 mile] to the Sinclair station and buying a Pepsi for a nickle and a handful of peanuts for a penny. Peanuts in the Pepsi. Didn't taste the same if you used Coke.

My grandfathers Nash Metropolitan which he never drove over 40 MPH, except when I put my arm through a washing machine wringer. He drove over 60 MPH to get me to the hospital.

My first airplane ride in a 4 engine prop plane from Albany, NY to Philadelphia, PA. I got to go into the cockpit and talk to the pilots.

My grandfather getting paid in SILVER DOLLARS and me getting some each Christmas.

Milk was put in cans to be delivered to the processing plant, until Mr. Flatly bought a storage tank that cooled the milk also.

Drinking milk warm straight from the source or dipping out a cool ladle from the storage tank.

Going to the local dirt track and watch my dad and his friends race, pretty much what they drove to the track, each Saturday night in the summer.

Learning to drive an old International truck, that didn't have a seat, in a field behind one of our neighbors houses.

Driving the tractor spreading manure.

Rolling the tractor, while spreading manure on a sidehill.

More to come......

Karl

Ken Fitzgerald
02-08-2008, 10:07 AM
David...Yeah I knew Lash LaRue was at the movies....but I was surprised I still remembered his name.

Joe Pelonio
02-08-2008, 10:37 AM
I'm grateful for this post because I don't feel quite as old after reading some of the "remembering."

The lowest price I paid for gas was 25 cents.
My first car was a '58 Chrysler that got 10 mpg but I filled it for $6.00
My first brand new car was $2500, payments $74/month for 3 years
School lunches in elementary were 35 cents.
Schools still had ice cream sandwiches in a machine, for 10 cents.
Our phone number, when I was old enough to use it, was Ju31403.
Our neighbor had a remote control TV, and everyone had to go see it.
It had a wire running from the remote to the TV.
Bought an IBM PC Junior :eek:
Reel to reel tapes

Randal Stevenson
02-08-2008, 10:42 AM
The Little Rascals...(not the rock group ....though I like their music)



Now I remember watching them in reruns, but was it the little Rascals, or Our Gang?

Randy Denby
02-08-2008, 10:58 AM
My parents/grandparents owned a "Hot Link" cafe. It had a white dining area and seperate colored area. Around the corner at Bob's cafe...the colored people could only get their meals from the back door. This was in Greenville Texas where a sign above the main hwy into town said "Welcome to Greenville, the blackest land and the whitest people" .
I worked at the Hot Link "place" when just a kid. Making 75cents a day. My job was to serve the "pop". The cooler was a coke box filled with water so cold it made my arms ache. I hated when the bottles would fall over as I had to reach in to stand them back up ......man that water was cold. But worth it as I could take my wad of coins and for 45cents go to the saturday matinee and buy a coke and popcorn or malted milk balls. Coke was a dime...deposit 3 cents for the bottle. Show 25cents, candy/popcorn 10 cents.

Phyllis Meyer
02-08-2008, 11:17 AM
Sunday nights...Mutual of Omaha's...Wild Kingdom, The Wonderful World of Disney...:)

Mannix-Hawaii Five 0-Laugh In-Lucy-Brady Bunch-Partridge Family-Star Trek-Kojak-Streets of San Francisco-Mod Squad-American Bandstand-Underdog-Rocky and Bullwinkle...

Playing Hop Scotch, jump rope, red light/green light, having a lemonaide stand...

Great thread, fun to read everyone's memories, and to remember our own!

Phyllis:)

Ken Fitzgerald
02-08-2008, 11:20 AM
Now I remember watching them in reruns, but was it the little Rascals, or Our Gang?

Both...........................

David G Baker
02-08-2008, 11:37 AM
I remember eating watermelon that was cooled in the neighbor's milk house. It was so cold that it made my teeth hurt. We were not old enough to drink beer but would sneak one into the milk house water tank and hide in the barn and pass it around. It was like the watermelon, very cold.
I remember the first time I inhaled a cigarette, I was so light headed I had to lie down. Wish I had never taken that first drag. Most of the farm boys smoked and many chewed Beechnut or Red Man chewing tobacco, I had no idea that they were addictive. My Grandmother caught me with a cigarette, she informed me that If I was meant to smoke I would have been born with a chimney. She never told my parents.
I enjoyed riding my horse through the high rows of field corn as fast as the horse would run. I had shorts on and would have a bunch of small cuts on my legs from the blades on the corn plants.
I would ride on an old horse drawn two row corn planter that was modified to be pulled by a tractor. My job was to shut the corn and fertilizer hoppers off while my Dad turned around to start another row.
I loved jumping off of the barn beams into a large pile of straw, trying to copy someone landing from a parachute jump.
This thread is really bringing up old fond memories.

Greg Heppeard
02-08-2008, 12:05 PM
Let's see:

The Rebel....

Have Gun Will Travel.....

Rawhide.......

Lash LaRue?

The Little Rascals...(not the rock group ....though I like their music)

The 3 Stooges.....

Wild Bill Hickock.....

Sky King....

Sea Hunt.....


Ok...What was Sky King's daughter's name......I'll give you one if you can answer that one........:D(just kidding)

Randy Denby
02-08-2008, 12:26 PM
Let's see:

The Rebel....

Have Gun Will Travel.....

Rawhide.......

Lash LaRue?

The Little Rascals...(not the rock group ....though I like their music)

The 3 Stooges.....

Wild Bill Hickock.....

Sky King....

Sea Hunt.....

Remember "Wagon Train"...sponsored by Borax....seven mule team soap...or something like that. Camp cook was Mushy or something ....:confused: nevermind, I dont think I remember it either :)
Oh...And "The Real McCoys"....eh little Luke?

Ed Falis
02-08-2008, 12:38 PM
Ok...What was Sky King's daughter's name......I'll give you one if you can answer that one........:D(just kidding)

Peggy? Or at least I thought so.

Ken Fitzgerald
02-08-2008, 12:43 PM
Penny.....

But she wasn't his daughter.....a niece IIRC.

Richard M. Wolfe
02-08-2008, 1:04 PM
IIRC the program sponsored by Boraxo was Death Valley Days. Don't remember who sponsored Wagon Train.

Greg Heppeard
02-08-2008, 1:09 PM
Penny........The only reason I remember that one is that it was a trivia question on a local radio show a couple of years ago. You're right, his niece.

Randy Denby
02-08-2008, 1:11 PM
IIRC the program sponsored by Boraxo was Death Valley Days. Don't remember who sponsored Wagon Train.

Oh yea...It was Death Valley Days....and Boraxo. Been way too long. Thanks!

Nancy Laird
02-08-2008, 1:21 PM
Ok...What was Sky King's daughter's name......I'll give you one if you can answer that one........:D(just kidding)

It was PENNY!

This thread is conjiuring up memories that I thought were gone forever.

Ed Falis
02-08-2008, 1:22 PM
Oh yea...It was Death Valley Days....and Boraxo. Been way too long. Thanks!

OK, so was Death Valley Days the one where Ronald Reagan introduced the show (and pitched 40 Mule Train Borax)? Or has my memory turned to mush?

Nancy Laird
02-08-2008, 1:23 PM
OK, so was Death Valley Days the one where Ronald Reagan introduced the show (and pitched 40 Mule Train Borax)? Or has my memory turned to mush?

Yes, Ed--Reagan was on Death Valley Days - and it was "20 Mule Team Borax" -- that was before his days of GE Theater and pitching GE light bulbs.

mark page
02-08-2008, 3:10 PM
*Gas at 19.9 cents a gallon--although I wasn't driving yet, just the earliest I can remember during the "gas wars".
*Car 54
*The Munsters
*Leave it to Beaver
*Dragnet
*Ed Sullivan--was always a "Really big Shew"
*Lawrence Welk (for the parents)
*The Johnny Cash show
*hamhocks that actually had ham on them
*at great grannies house--one lunger outhouse (two lungers were for upscale folks), a hoe by the front door to kill the snakes in the yard, hand pump water in the kitchen, spinning wheel, loom for making rugs, foot pump organ, foot pump sewing machine.
*party line phone lines
*actually "sloppin the hogs & milkin' the cows"
*scalding chickens
*home butchered beef and pork
*canning fruit and veggies from the garden
*hand crank tractor engines--too much old arn operated to go into.
*The Bowry Boys, Alfalfa & Buckwheat--Little Rascals & Our Gang
*AstroMan, Johnny Sokko & his flying robot, Batman, The Green Hornet & Kato
*The Pink Panther, Tom & Jerry, Jinx the Cat, Felix the Cat, the "which way did he go George" dog, Foghorn Leghorn,
*Torey's Treehouse, Whizzo & Bozo the clowns (maybe KC local TV)
*the privilege to hear a real Edison phonograph with round tube records play and get shocked by a hand crank telephone (yes they will light you up good)
*staying up with Grandpa to watch Friday night wrestling on tv from St. Joe on channel 2 complete with the two Catholic Nuns that were always there watching and televised (Al Navas can probably relate to this one)
*and probably a hundred others that will come to mind after posting this:D

Dennis Farmer
02-08-2008, 3:30 PM
Sunday nights...Mutual of Omaha's...Wild Kingdom, The Wonderful World of Disney...:)

and the FBI

Big time Wrestling... Bo Bo Brazil

Saying the pledge of allegiance in school

Walking the roads with several friends, several miles, collecting pop bottles (glass)
and everyone got a bag of candy a pop and a ice cream

Gas wars 13 cents a gal.

Saturday morning cartoons were interrupted by JFKs funeral... and Mom was crying

Riding in the back window ledge of the car and having Mom hit the brakes... saying do it again

Go'n BB hunt'n

Building hay forts in the hayloft and playing war... always ended up throwing horse biscuits

Jeff Bower
02-08-2008, 3:51 PM
-Watching my grandma get the chicken ready to fry at their farm..(very messy) but great chicken!
-watching my grandpa fix everything, "Don't need to spend good money on that"
-watching reruns of most of the shows others mentioned when TBS first aired, wasn't it WTBS then?
-learning to drive in a 2 ton dump truck
-gas was 79 cents when I started driving
-playing kick the can with neighborhood kids, outside after breakfast and home when street lights came on.
-having bb gun fights with my brother while wearing welding helmets so we wouldn't "shoot our eyes out"....parents still don't know how the windows kept getting broken.
-playing tackle football during recess in grade school, the nuns were great referees;)
-seeing classmates get slapped by nuns, sometimes bloody noses, but never doing what they got in trouble for again, ever!
-getting spanked in public and seeing others spanked, again not doing what I got in trouble for again, well...almost never:p

Gary Keedwell
02-08-2008, 5:02 PM
Remember "Wagon Train"...sponsored by Borax....seven mule team soap...or something like that. Camp cook was Mushy or something ....:confused: nevermind, I dont think I remember it either :)
Oh...And "The Real McCoys"....eh little Luke?
Wagon Train...I forgot that one and it was one of my favorites. When Ward Bond died alot of people didn't like the new Wagonmaster. Flint Mc colluogh was the cool scout.

Rawhide....where Clint Westwood got his start.
Gary

Glenn Clabo
02-08-2008, 5:07 PM
http://www.skyking.com/

We would...like idiots...when we were riding along in a car open the door and say "Sky King!!!"

David G Baker
02-08-2008, 5:21 PM
I remember falling in love with Annette Funicello, one of the Mickey Mouse Club cast members, long before she matured.
Spin and Marty
Zorro
The Buster Brown Show
Sealtest Circus on Saturday mornings
The Kate Smith Show (I didn't like at all)
Omnibus (tried watching it as an adult and still found it very boring)
The taste of a root beer Popsicle (I don't know what they did to them but they do not taste nearly as good as they once did)
Snow along the side of the road piled at least 5 feet high.
Someone mentioned hand crank tractors. We had an Allis Chalmers B or C that had a magneto and required cranking by hand. My brother had to remove the grill and take all of the dents out of the top of it due to angry hits with the crank because it wouldn't start.

Dennis Peacock
02-08-2008, 9:09 PM
Excellent thread....learning a little about each person and the things they remember from their past. It's an excellent "get to know you more" kind of thing. :D

Colin Giersberg
02-08-2008, 9:38 PM
Going down to the creek and damming it up every weekend. We built a lot of dams, one of which you could drive a car across. It backed water up 1/4 mile (at least). Also, getting in the family car, and going for a long drive in the country. Boy, it sure is getting hard to do that now, and the creek we dammed up is just about dried up now, but that may be from the drought.

McHale's Navy, Gomer Pyle, Gilligan's Island, and a whole bunch of other shows (most, if not all have been named already), The Beverly Hillbilly's, too.

Anyway, regards, Colin

Joe Mioux
02-08-2008, 10:22 PM
I can't believe no one mentioned "the dick van dyke show", The Lucy Show or "the French Chef" shows.

remember Julia Childs in black and white.

For that matter anything on Public Television back in the 60s.

I also remember when boys got together and actually played baseball in the Summer. No league, just pick up games.

Or kids building tree houses. I suspect there are some OSHA law prohibiting this rite of passage now.


or how about remembering your mom wearing hats and looking in her closet and seeing all those hat boxes.

anyone have any old editions of the "HomeHandyman" magazine. My dad still has a couple copies lying around from the late 50's early 60's. Everything was so streamlined back then.

how about watching every single newscast about the Apollo missions? For a kid that was SOOOO cool. Actually anything related to NASA back in the 60's was cool.

How about being able to remember all the ball players on your favorite baseball team. I still remember a bunch of the cardinals from the 60's. some of which are still in baseball. Joe Torre comes to mind.

Dennis great thread!

Joe

scott kinninger
02-08-2008, 10:44 PM
I remember a short photography class we had in high school, myself and a few other kids brought their shotguns and ammo in to school to be photographed for our projects. I don't remember even having to get the ok to do it. And that wasnt that long ago, I'm only 35!

Dave Trask
02-09-2008, 12:02 AM
Steering wheel column gear shifts.
Way more flat tires than now a days.
Hood ornaments and Tail fins.
The day I had to walk back home to get a penny because gas went up to 26 cents! for my dads mower gallon gas can.
You needed a bottle opener and pointy can opener.
Returning glass bottles and getting enough money from them to go see a 50 cent matinee movie.
BIG snowstorms, snow by thanksgiving,.
Burning ring of fire on the am station every morning.
Rambling Rose .
No fm, no uhf, no cable, no satellites. Cell phone????
A nine transistor radio …WOW !
When you could fix your own t.v. or radio by buying a tube at the local hardware store.
It took a minute for the tv to warmup and the screen to come on.
That crazy little white dot in the middle of the tv screen when it was turned off.
Tv stations signing off at 11 or 12midnight " Do you know were your children are? " and then the National Anthem
and caming back on air at 6am with a prayer for the day and the local farm report.
Jack Parr. ...Live t.v. shows and Radio stories.
Cracker Jacks had real toys in the box.
Metal toy trucks and they weren’t Tonka’s
Single speed bikes with reverse petal brakes.
When a baseball card came with that cool flat gum.
The dumb stupid cards went on the bikes to make noise flapping against the tire spokes.
Now you can buy a whole box of the dumb cards and you don’t even get the gum, what a rip-off !
Walt Disney hosting The Wonderful World Of Disney.
Mighty Mouse, Popeye, And Bozo the Clown.
Mickey, Minnie And Pluto.
Chamber pots
Waking up with steam from you breath until you got up to re-fuel the stove.
Only the rich people had air conditioning.
Wondering why everyone looked so sad and then finding out JFK was shot.
Wondering why everyone looked so worried, and then finding out about the Cuban Missile crisis.
Watching the man's first step on the moon.


Last but not least, That funny noise your home made corduroy pants made when you walked.

.

Ken Fitzgerald
02-09-2008, 12:24 AM
Being the the h/s operetta...Annie Get Your Gun....I was Buffalo Bill. At one point Annie was supposed to shoot up in the air and a stage hand up above the lights was going to throw down two rubber ducks. Kind of a 2-for-1 sale. The music teacher wanted her to use a gun that looked realistic. "No problem" says I. I have this 12 gauge H&R shotgun and I'll remove the shot from a shell.

Now the art class at school had spent a lot of time and quite skillfully painted the canvas backdrops.

The first night of the operetta, Annie whips up my 12 gauge and pulls the trigger. When the 12 gauge went off there was a audible gasp from the audience........when the wadding hit the back drop and knocked the paint off a 2 1/2" diameter area.......Then the chuckles got really loud!


Every night after that the shells didn't have shot or wadding!:o:D

Lance Norris
02-09-2008, 12:53 AM
When elevators had drivers
The doctor wearing one of those big silver things to look through
My dads Vista Cruiser
The milkman
Christmas lights with cloth covered wires
Hawaii Five-O in color
My grandmas Belvedere
Traffic lights with no yellow light
Fiberglass school bus seats
The Fuller Brush Man
Cottage cheese in those little aluminum containers

Jon Lanier
02-09-2008, 2:47 AM
Some of you guys are OLD!

But I do remember Milkman delivering milk and cheese. And if we happen to be out in the yard playing on his way back home that day, he'd throw out bubble gum to us as he passed by and we'd race to the edge of the yard to get as many pieces as we could.

John Bailey
02-09-2008, 5:38 AM
Every night after that the shells didn't have shot or wadding!:o:D

I had a similar experience, only with my dad's guns. He kept them all in a closet behind his clothes. One day when he wasn't home I went to play with them. I was probably 8 or so at the time. I can't remember why the shells had no shot in them, but because my Grandpa and Dad did a lot of re-loading, there were a lot of empty shells around my dad's room. I loaded up an empty shell in my dad's shot gun, aimed it at his clothes and shot off a round. It was a whole lot louder than I expected, enough noise to get my mom in the room and . There was powder, with some burns, all over my dad's clothes. Guess who didn't sit down for a week. (after I cleaned myself up)

John

Karl Laustrup
02-09-2008, 6:43 AM
Anybody remember "Soupy Sales" or Kukla, Fran & Ollie?

Soupy had White Fang and Black Tooth and was always getting hit with a pie.

Karl

Glenn Clabo
02-09-2008, 7:12 AM
Oh ya...sure do...

Dennis Peacock
02-12-2008, 11:51 AM
Well, I do remember watching that show...not much, but I do remember it. :)

Christopher Pine
02-13-2008, 7:49 AM
AH....my mother's favorite way back when....Gunsmoke.

And the spin off from that show- Dirty Sally.

Bill Pealer
02-13-2008, 8:07 AM
I don't think I saw
Lassie

push button transmissions

240 A/C in cars

rabbit ears & the contortions that went with them

shopping downtown

Dan Bussiere
02-13-2008, 9:51 AM
I remember when we remembered that politicians didn't tell the truth.

And we didn't expect them to!

Chuck Saunders
02-13-2008, 9:59 AM
The best part about Tom Terrific was that when things got really bad and there seemed to be no other solution, Tom would resort to thinking.

Captain Kangaroo was how I started my day.

I remember 6 cent stamps and the mail being delivered twice a day.

My first carton of cigarettes was $3.18 which I bought at age 13. But I quit 9 years ago.

I remember gas at 30 cents and when it got to 50 cents we all swore we would do without if it ever got to a dollar.

My first job was $1.45 an hour.

TV shows in color were noted in the TV Guide and All of Julia Child's ingredients had tape over the labels because pubic tv was commercial free.

Picking up pop bottles was my only source of income.

Dennis Peacock
02-13-2008, 10:30 AM
I remember No Seat Belts in cars.

I remember sitting over the emergency break handle on a pillow in an Opel Cadet between my mom and dad...taking a trip from Alabama to Texas and back....in the summer....without any air conditioning.....and I got to help dad "change gears".

I remember pulling corn by hand and taking it to "the crusher" to get flour and cornmeal.

I remember my grandmother storing her flour in a large pullout drawer in her kitchen cabinets. It would hold 50 pounds of flour.

Ken Fitzgerald
02-13-2008, 10:33 AM
I vaguely remember when I could remember stuff.....:rolleyes:

Roy Hatch
02-13-2008, 12:13 PM
Can't remember what I did yesterday, but I can remember when:

I looked down at my feet and saw minnows swimming in our yard after a hurricane. We were a
mile from the Caloosahatchee River and it had overflowed

Dad paid .50 for my first 2 wheel bike (it was used)

People knocking on our back door begging for food in 1938

Dad worked for the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)

My mother listened to Just Plain Bill and Portia Faces Life while she did housework

The Japs (that's what they were called then) attacked Pearl Harbor

My allowance was .10 a week and my cousin got .50 for a muskrat pelt

My first job paid .50/hour and then I went big time with 1.25/hour with the B&O Railroad

In 1959 I bought a new Volvo PV544 for $2250.

I could go on, but I'll give you a break

Roy

Bob Moyer
02-13-2008, 1:24 PM
The starter on the floor of a car or truck.

Standing in the bed of a pickup truck as we went for ice cream.

Drive-In movies

S&H Green Stamps

Rod & Gun clubs in school and you could bring your gun to school.

Singing hymns in music class.

Charles Wiggins
02-13-2008, 9:15 PM
I'm apparently much younger that some of you, but anyway:

I remember when the TV and stereo were pieces of fine furniture.
I remember standing in the front seat of the car while my parents drove around town.
I remember walking to town as a teenager, and my parents didn't worry that they'd never see me again.
I remember when hearing someone curse on TV or radio was a big deal.
I remember when the only places open on Sundays were restaurants and a couple of gas stations that we'd never stop at because the price was too high.
I remember the days before Black Friday, when the day after Thanksgiving was another day to spend with family.
I remember when meeting a kid who's parents had divorced was startling.
I remember getting spanked by teachers and the school principal.
I remember when any shopping trip invariably included seeing some kid get a spanking from a parent, usually their mom.
I remember getting spanked by a neighbor, and I came home and told my Dad, and he said, without knowing what I had or had not done, and without diverting his gaze from what he was doing, "GOOD!"
I remember all of the kids in the neighborhood were always covered with bumps and bruises and no one called DSS or sued for negligence.
I remember paying $25 cash (no insurance) for the last COMPLETE physical that my pediatrician gave me before I started college.

Duff Bement
02-13-2008, 10:45 PM
Don Amichie traveling circus -

Our first remote control TV that would change station if you would jingle a set of keys in the room or Mom grabed a handfull of silverware.

Everybody swearing they would quit smoking if cigerettes if they hit 50 cents a pack.

Gas wars -

My Grandpa thinking it was snowing because the TV picture was fussy

Leading my Dads prize cow thru our town to the elevator to get him weighed

People helping people (even if they weren't someone you knew)

You respected the police

Jim Shaver, Oakville Ont
02-14-2008, 8:14 AM
I remember when the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup, ......the next day in our Laurentien Village elementry school we were so depressed:mad:....then the Habs won the next two in a row...:D ;)

Dexter Hahn
02-14-2008, 2:06 PM
My first real pocket knife, my dad bought it for me at a "trading post" somewhere in PA, when I was 12. I still have scars on my hands from cutting myself with it while whittling or whatnot, and I never had it taken away from me, just told to be more careful. Dad's gone and so is the trading post, but I still have the knife on my desk at home.

Sitting in the "way back" of the family Caprice station wagon, no seatbelt, back window wide open, sometimes dragging little toys behind on strings until they fell off. :D

50 cent packs of smokes (quit in November after many years, cold turkey! :eek:)

Just holding hands with a girl you liked was a big deal (still is to me, kind of).

Rollerskating parties in elementary school.

Watching Mr. Roger's Neighborhood on the b&w set on the rare occasions mom let us eat dinner in front of the tv.

Leaving my wet mittens on the big gas heater too long, they melted to it and left a mark that could be seen for two more decades until it was replaced.

Knocking the asbestos insulation off the pipes in my grandfather's (our Pop) basement with pieces of scrap wood, we had no idea what it was or that it could be bad for you... it was everywhere.

Listening to old fox trot music on the 1930's hi-fi set in Pop's attic.

Recording our voices on an old reel-to-reel home recorder with Pop, we found them years later after he had died and it was great to listen to how young we sounded, and especially to hear Pop's voice again.

Bringing a longsword to school for show and tell, and a single eyelash was never batted!

Belinda Barfield
02-14-2008, 2:42 PM
Great thread!

You guys have covered a lot of mine but here are a few to add . . .

Takin' off tobacco (before bulk barns) for 0.03 a stick and at the end of the day having enough money to go to Mr. Rooster's store and buy a Dr. Pepper and peanut butter crackers. I also remember the hissy fit my mother had every single day because Grandpa let us ruin our supper.

Goin' with grandpa and the tobacco to the warehouse for sale day.

Fishin' in the black water creek.

My first trip to the Okefenokee Swamp.

Wax Lips.

A HUGE crush on Bobby Sherman.

Wanting a Mrs. Beasley doll so bad I thought I'd die if I didn't get one. I'm still here so I guess I was wrong.

Bell bottom hip huggers.

Getting a paddling in third grade. I was wearing a dress and had to bend over and touch my toes. My biggest concern was that the new boy in school saw my underwear.

When boys had cooties!

Going to the drive in and firing up the mosquito coil.

Riding on the tailgate dragging my toes in the dirt.

When my granddaddy's dog Buster died. He bit me the day before, so I bit him back. Then he died and granddaddy told me it was because I bit him. Twenty years later I found out he died because he was bitten by a rattlesnake.

Turning 13 on the 13th, which was also Friday the 13th.

When summer days seemed to last much longer than they do now.

Water skiing late in the day when the lake was like glass.

Falling on the metal frame of a friend's trampoline and shattering my two front teeth on Christmas Eve, then finding out that Santa was a lot closer to me than I thought (I was eight).

Going shopping downtown with my grandmother and having to wear my hat and gloves.

Going to church with my great grandparents. They were Primitive Baptists and we went to church all day. There was no indoor toilet. There was a large water bucket with a metal dipper in front of the pulpit, and we all drank from the same dipper.

My first bike and how many miles I rode playing "One Adam 12".

Not an oldie, but a goodie, Magnum PI.

Really good cartoons.

Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Mo, and Double Dog Dares.

Ants In Your Pants and Barrel of Monkeys

Picking up roots to clear new ground.

The time a train derailed in my small hometown. My daddy helped with the clean up. One of the boxcars was full of boxes of laundry detergent and daddy got to bring home all of damaged boxes he could haul. We did buy detergent for a year AND we got lots of new glasses and dish towels!

When I actually got something, even just a card, for Valentine's Day. Honey is soon going to have fond memories of the nights before he was forced to sleep on the couch!:p

John Hixon
02-14-2008, 3:15 PM
Scrounging 6 RC bottle caps to get into the Saturday Matinee.

Filling the gas tank in the FIAT for $1.00 and driving all week.

Pigging out at the Krystal, 3 burgers, fries and coke for a quarter.

Not even having a lock on the door to the house.

Riding a bicycle, for transportation.

Bonanza was the only show in color, and going somewhere just to see it.

Driving between Florida and California... No interstates.

Sitting on a cake tin so I could see out the windshield.

No seatbelts.

Doing J turns and donuts on Daytona Beach in the middle of the night.

Air Conditioning was ONLY in the movie theater.

You had full size spare tires because you needed them often.

Mechanics weren't "Technicians" and could fix cars.

I wasn't "too tired" when I went to bed.

Tom Sherman
02-15-2008, 2:44 PM
What a cool thread Dennis, great idea. I have a couple to list that I don't think I saw:

Howdy Doody, and Cowboy Bob and Farfel
Sherri Lewis, and Lambchop
My Friend Flicka
Milton Berle
Elvis's first tv appearance and my mom's reaction to it
riding street cars the electric kind
going to the bank and everyone knew us
gas wars and gas .10 a gallon
mom sending me to the corner store for a loaf of bread and 1/2 gallon of milk with only a dollar and telling me to bring her the change
local fish frys
setting on the stoops with all the neighbors
catching fireflies at night
paper drives
first job at a grocery store as a stock boy made .50 an hour, and worked all day saturday.

Boy some of these things I haven't thought of in years.

Colin Giersberg
02-15-2008, 6:12 PM
Being able to see the stars at night. Still can in the right place, but dang it, there are just too many streetlights now.

Paying cash for everything.

Hide and go seek, Simon Says.

Changing the TV station without a remote control.

Nothing was cordless. Now, your lucky if you can remember what they are all for.

Walking to town because it was only a couple of blocks away.

When you bought furniture, and it was made with solid wood, not MDF, particle board or some unknown substance.

Cheap aluminum windows on the house with even cheaper plastic locks, that when they broke, the window bowed up in the middle enough to where you could slide a magazine through the gap, and the room that this happened in just happened to be your bedroom, and the only heat on in the house was the wall unit in the den, by the door to the carport. Brrrr, I get cold thinking of that.

Washing dishes by hand. Come to think of it, I still do it, even though we have a dishwasher.

No ceiling fans

Not needing glasses to see what you are reading, or looking at.

Phonographs, record players for us old geezers. I still have mine, and it still works. I still have around 70 albums, and several 45's.

Video disk players by RCA.

When McDonalds came to town. Boy that was great. Finally, we had another fast food restaurant to go to.

Floor dimmers on cars and trucks.

When pickup trucks were meant to be used for work, and were not that common to see.

Being polite

Minibikes, Banana seat bicycles, pogo sticks, horseshoes, throwing a frizbee, camping out in the back yard.

Regards, Colin

Joe Mioux
02-15-2008, 9:36 PM
How about exhaust fans for the house. this was before AC.

I still remember as a kid in the 1960's where mom and dad would relax and sit outside in the backyard. they had those lawn chair recliner things. Us kids, would play outside until 9 pm or until dark.

by then the house was cool enough. I still remember that big attic fan in the hallway and all the windows open.

Mom always had clean sheets on the bed, or atleast they were crisp and all cotton.

the night air blowing through the window, across me and out into the hallway was always refreshing.

Even when the Summer night temps were near 90, that combination of air and cotton sheets sure felt good.

joe

Dennis Peacock
02-15-2008, 11:03 PM
Mom always had clean sheets on the bed, or atleast they were crisp and all cotton.

the night air blowing through the window, across me and out into the hallway was always refreshing.

Even when the Summer night temps were near 90, that combination of air and cotton sheets sure felt good.

joe

Boy....does this ever bring back good memories!!! Thanks Joe!!!

Jim Becker
02-16-2008, 12:51 PM
Clean sheets with frequency? Geeze...that would mean actually remembering to wash them more often...:eek: :o

But yes, I do actually remember not having A/C. I actually got it before my parents did...and they only got it once they moved from PA to Florida.

Ed Breen
02-18-2008, 5:43 PM
I remember so many things already mentioned. I also remember the ice man and his horse and the blocks of ice carried into the house for the tin ice box. I also remember the tin ice box out the window in the winter. I remember the railway express trucksa wer chain driven. I can still remember hearing FDR being nominated on the crystal set. I guess I'm lucky I can still remembe!!!:rolleyes::rolleyes:

mike thomas01
02-19-2008, 10:20 PM
I remember and old wood fired cook stove that seemed to have a fire in it 24/7. It had 2 old coffee pots on it too. One was for coffee...go figure...and the other was for holding the drippings from bacon or sausage and for any lard (LARD!) that we used. Whatever didn't soak into the food was recycled into that old pot. No wonder my cholesterol is sky high, that stuff was terrible for you! But it made food taste like heaven.
I remember 9 kids sitting at the dinner table. There were 11 kids in my family but the most home at any one time was 9. I remember eating pinto beans seasoned with ham hocks (still a favorite of mine) fried potatoes, sliced tomatoes, and maybe a couple rabbits or squirrels that Dad had shot that morning.
I remember taking a salt shaker to the garden (a BIG garden!) early in the morning and eating fresh tomatoes. Ya had to wipe the dew off of them and maybe some dirt but they were wonderful.
I remember the first girl I ever kissed. Her name was Tracy and I was 11.
I remember the day my first son was born. He's 20 now and in the US Coast Guard. Got engaged about a month ago too. My youngest son just turned 17 and I remember the day he was born as well. Says he wants to join the Air Force...just like his old man... Where has all the time gone?
When did my memories turn into treasures.....I remember:o

Reed Wells
02-20-2008, 5:38 PM
Hula-Hoops, playing dodge ball at recess or shooting marbles for keeps. Listening to Dad explain to anyone who would listen why Ike will make a great president. Captain Video, Groucho, and Jack Benny. Listening to short wave on that floor model Philco radio. On the radio, Fibber Magee and Molly, the Shadow and Boston Blacky. Music- Patti Page, Patsy Cline,
Frank Sinatra and the comedy team of Martin and Lewis. This has been a great thread, thanks for the memories, (Bob Hope theme song for Texaco)

Dennis Peacock
03-11-2008, 9:13 AM
I remember
when it was $0.99 for a hamburger, frenchfries, and a coke
when we had a small store at school in which to buy pencils and paper
when kids had respect for parents and teachers
going out to eat was a treat and not something expected
when you could work on you own car and fix it with a part from the local NAPA Auto Parts Store
raising and storing food so that we'd have good food to eat in the winter months
when there was no such a thing as a computer, especially a home computer
when skateboards had all metal wheels

Rick Gifford
03-11-2008, 11:22 AM
I guess I am still young then... but I do remember:

Getting water from the hand pump outside.

When that hand pump moved inside and that was fancy for us.

The word gay meant being happy.

Reheating food meant firing up the oven.

When we first got a microwave and just how does that thing work???

Having a party line, and listening in to the old ladies that shared ours and NEVER got off.

Dialing for assistance was dialing ZERO and a real person answered.

Oh wait... DIAL PHONES! I sear my kids wondered what those were when it was mentioned on tv... I looked at them like they must be kidding.

When disco was cool (ok, just who exactly was responsible for that??)

Seeing hippies out and about.

When all phones had cords on them.

Anyone here NOT remember leaded gasoline? Ok... so no young woodworkers?

Hearing about Elvis's death, and not believing it. No not The King! (By the way he is somewhere in Arizona by last account...)

Lee Koepke
03-11-2008, 12:10 PM
I remember when a POST was a piece of wood stuck in the ground for a fence :D

Glenn Clabo
03-11-2008, 1:08 PM
And a "Thread" was something hanging from my button.

Rick Gifford
03-11-2008, 1:46 PM
I remember when woodworkers were out in their shops and not hanging out on the internet. :p

Ok just kidding. heh heh

Steve Campbell
03-12-2008, 9:27 AM
OK you got to me at last.
Waking up in the morning in an old drafty farm house upstairs and the blankets frozen to the walls.

Going out every morning to milk the cows, By HAND.

Ice skating parties down on the pond behind the house.

Big bonfires

4-H hayrides

Teen dance parties

Riding my motorcycle everywhere.

Riding my motorcycle all winter long in northern Wisconsin. (didn't have a drivers licence yet.)

Trading my motorcycle to my grandfather for my first car.

Wisconsin winters before Thinsulate and Goretex.

Rubber winter boots that you froze in.

cars that didn't start when it got cold.

Ice fishing out on the lake when it was cold and clear. I swear you could see every star there ever was.

The northern lights dancing in the sky.

laying under a car in a snowbank changing a starter.

My dad used to haul milk for a local creamery. They used to have to have big V-plows on the front of there trucks to get through the snow covered roads.

Putting tire chains on said truck.

Getting stuck 6,8, or more times a day with said truck.
the problem with V-plows is if don't get through a drift the snow comes back around the back side of the plow and you can't back up again.

Flat tires often

frozen radiators

Frozen gas lines.

Oh well they say the good old days. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm complaining because I'm not. It was good. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

That's all folks

Steve

Ken Fitzgerald
03-12-2008, 9:35 AM
I can remember being a young kid in the car for rare Sunday afternoon drive with my family. We were somewhere between Frontier Wy and Big Piney Wy....came up on some Basque shepherds...herding sheep using their highly skilled dogs....the shepherds on horseback......one of them driving their wooden wagon/camper...horsedrawn........

Paul Kunkel
03-12-2008, 10:12 PM
I can remember being a young kid in the car for rare Sunday afternoon drive with my family. We were somewhere between Frontier Wy and Big Piney Wy....came up on some Basque shepherds...herding sheep using their highly skilled dogs....the shepherds on horseback......one of them driving their wooden wagon/camper...horsedrawn........

Heheh, saw that scene Mon. outside of Mannasa, Co only the wagon was hauled by a pickup.

Bobby Hatfield
03-13-2008, 8:25 PM
Grand Ole Opra, Saturday night 1939. Bobby

James Carmichael
03-14-2008, 5:03 PM
I remember...when I could remember...:eek:

ROLOL Jim!

Let's see:
I remember when we got our first color TV. It came with UHF, which doubled our viewing options from 3 to 6 channels. I also remember when TVs came with some nice furniture, cause I still have the cabinet from that one.

I remember when going out to eat mean't the local mom & pop diner, or Dairy Queen.

I remember dressing up to go to the movies, being shown to a seat by an usher, who also wore a tie (and who kept everyone quiet), all for the princely sum of 50-cents.

I remember when "flight-attendants" were stewardesses, and, on a startup airline called Southwest, they wore mini-skirts;)

I don't recall 19-cent gasoline (it was a whopping 33-cents when I started driving). But I do remember not having to get out of your car to fill up.

James Carmichael
03-14-2008, 5:33 PM
Oh yea...It was Death Valley Days....and Boraxo. Been way too long. Thanks!

And a 40-mule team...

I remember when there didn't seem to be a direct relationship between a professional athlete's talent and the number of illegitimate offspring he had fathered.

Cowboy games at the Cotton Bowl in $2 end-zone seats ($7 got you between the 30s.) After the game, players would politely sign autographs for a mob of twerpy kids.

Hand-cranked, homemade ice cream.

Waking up in the mornings to the sputtering of mom's radio as it warmed up.

Dad's blue-jay eradication program. He hated blue-jays with a passion, and shot every one he saw in our yard.

Speaking of shooting and yards, shooting off fireworks (legally) in our front yard (we still don't talk about that unfortunate roman candle incident that befell my brother:rolleyes:)

Taking a WWII Japanese rifle and bayonet to fourth grade show and tell with the full approval of my teacher. No SWAT team showed up at the school.

Bill Cunningham
03-16-2008, 10:18 PM
Being a Canadian, life was not much different from you folks in the U.S. Particularly if you lived near the border, and regularly got the U.S. T.V shows on your first T.V. in the early 50's.. I particularly remember the day my mother sent me out to confront the ice man, to tell him we no longer needed ice because we now had a refrigerator .. I can remember him saying "OK..." then muttering "Everybody seems to be getting those things" .. My favorite T.V. show was 'Space Patrol' And I remember taking $8.00 of my birthday money at 14, and going to the surplus store and buying my first rifle. A Cooey single shot 'pattern' 22, and bringing it home on the bus (still have it today... the rifle not the bus). Shows (movie theaters) were 15 cents, and you got two movies a cartoon and a 'serial'. At 9 years old, I could get on a bus and go to the 'Toronto Canadian National Exhibition' all alone, and my parents never worried because I could look after myself! Even though the drinking age in Ontario 'was' 21, I never had any problem at 18 saying "drop 5" to the waiter in the mens room at the local hotel and pay 15 cent per draft.. Women were not allowed in the "men's room" they could only go to "Ladies and Escorts, and they had to have a man with them.. Skiing was something done by Nordic folk living in Canada, after all, who else would tie boards to their feet and slide down a mountain:eek: That mountain near Georgian Bay, used to be totally covered in trees, now it looks like it's been strip mined just to please the folks with boards on their feet.. When I started driving, gas was 40 cent a gallon, but it was a 'Canadian' gallon almost a liter bigger than a U.S. gallon, but no one knew what a liter was anyway.. And, if you had a Rambler with Fold Down Front Seats, you were 'the man' and no one would let you take their daughter out once they knew ('Air' was clean, 'Sex' was dirty) :D
I better shut up!! I'm starting to ramble...:rolleyes:

Scott Shepherd
03-17-2008, 2:15 PM
I remember when you could go into a convenience store and it was convenient (Pre-Lottery era).

Fred Voorhees
03-17-2008, 3:00 PM
I remember when I thought I knew it all. I know so much more now.;)

Sam Yerardi
03-17-2008, 3:11 PM
For me, late 50's - early 1960's when I was a young lad.

1. Gas was around 25 cents and the station across the street had price wars with them.

2. When you would pull into the station you would say 'give me a dollar's worth'. Gas had that nice color when it had lead in it.

3. I remember when you had to open pop cans with a pop can opener. No tabs.

4. I remember on Halloween staying out past midnight, still trick or treating.

5. I remember not being able to afford a 'flat-top' ($1.35) and all I could afford was a 'burr' (50 cents).

6. My first job I got 50 cents/hr at a gas station. I asked for a raise and he took me up to 75 cents and then started taking out taxes. I think I made more at 50 cents/hour.

7. I remember when you knew everyone in the neighborhood.

I could go on and on.....

Butch Edwards
03-18-2008, 8:07 PM
....I remember most everything mentioned here... but I miss the Respect that was given to one another, the most....

Lee Koepke
03-18-2008, 9:56 PM
....I remember most everything mentioned here... but I miss the Respect that was given to one another, the most....
true words.
very true words.

Bill Cunningham
03-18-2008, 10:03 PM
General terms of respect are certainly diminished.. I'm 61 years old, and when someone says "Mister Cunningham" It still feels to me like their talking to my father!

Jon Crowley
03-20-2008, 5:24 PM
I'm only 30, and a computer geek, so this may be quite different. :)

I remember:
When there was no internet.
My first 286 / 12mhz computer. Had 640k RAM, and a 20MB HDD. State of the art 16 color EGA graphics since my dad used it for CAD! :D
Sending email via UUCP.
Dialing my 2400bps modem into BBS's.
The prices I paid for some of those old computers... OUCH!
10base2 networks daisy chained with BNC connectors... unplug one and they all died.
NO ONE had a cell phone. Now people who get their home phone shut off for not paying the bill still manage to get one somehow. :mad:

When my parents bought our first VCR. The first movie on it was Teen Wolf.
Seeing the originals of all the shows that have been remade - American Gladiators, Dukes of Hazzard, Scooby Doo, etc.

Watching (helping?) my dad build a deck... he nailed everything with a simple hammer, and cut everything with a hand saw.
They also had someone dye the carpet on the entire first floor to change the color. Nowadays it would just be ripped out and replaced... everything is disposable.
Garbage Pail Kids cards.
Leaded gas.

Mark Singer
03-20-2008, 5:34 PM
Huh? Huh? Huh? oh Yeh! Huh?

Joe Pelonio
03-20-2008, 6:15 PM
I just got my first MP3 player, a sansa 2GB, and it reminded me of the various ways I have played (and recorded) music over the years. Now I'm not old enough to say this, but I actually had a wire recorder. It was US Navy surplus when my father brought it home for me as a kid. I am also too young to remember cranking gramaphones but we have one in the living room and it still works. My father had a record player that also cut recordings on them. He also had a 1957 Chrysler wagon, an option on those was an underdash record player.

After that I had:

Crystal Sets
Tube radios
transistor radios
reel-to-reel tape
8 track tape
cassette tape
CD
DVD

Dennis Peacock
03-20-2008, 6:41 PM
I remember when there wasn't all this "junk mail" we get today.

I remember when students respected each other and every teacher was respected by their students...if you wanted to respect them or not.

I remember.....boy...it's sure nice to remember. :D

Scott Vigder
03-20-2008, 9:13 PM
Wow what a fine trip this has been! I distinctly remember:

The 1964 Worlds Fair in NYC. FutureWorld!

My father casually predicting that Johnny Unitas was going to take the snap and throw the ball out of bounds...how was I supposed to know that's how you stopped the clock?

The E-lec-tronic whirly-gig we had on the TV antenna to change its direction for better reception.

My baby-sitting cousin letting me stay up late one night to watch Cassius Clay box on TV.

When Jeopardy clues were in the 100's of dollars.

Waxing Dad's Corvair.

Walking over a mile to school as a 7 year-old 2nd grader. I wouldn't dream of letting my 1st grader walk 1/2 mile to school today.

The biggest troublemakers in my public school either were fighting, chewing gum or talking out of turn.

The milk man used to press the button on the garage door opener to let himself in so he could leave the milk and cheese next to our door, inside the garage. The garbage men came in and took the trash cans out, and neatly replaced them.

Learning to drive in a Gremlin.

My first car. A 1966 Mercury Monterrey. Big as a city block. Six people's luggage fit in the trunk for vacations to Florida from Ohio. Used to cruise Alligator Alley @ 104mph. After-market air-conditioner that hardly ever worked. Found a model of that same car at the hobby shop, and it will be the first model my son and I put together some time this summer.

Louis Rucci
03-20-2008, 10:56 PM
1. I remember stopping at the local Italian baker after Sunday services for the fresh Italian bread.

2. I remember watching my mother make spaghetti from scratch. Kneading the dough, using her hand crank machine to roll and cut the spaghetti, all the while ensuring the tomato sauce was simmering for that unforgettable Italian flavor.

3. I remember going with my father to his job site during the summer. He worked concrete and even helped with construction of I-95 and Roosevelt Blvd in Philadelphia.

4. I remember our first color TV.

5. I remember my father's 1966 Impala.

6. I remember my father's workshop in the basement.

7. I remember our winery nook under the kitchen, where he stored his wine barrels. Made the wine himself.

9. I remember the candy store we had and the Italian Ice we made and sold in the summer.

10. I remember the fold down desk he made for my sister's and I to study by.

11. I remember walking to school and back, uphill, both ways in winter. We had boots.

12. I remember "Wheat" pennies and silver dollars.

13. I remember 'Open House" at the Philadelphia NAvy base.

14. I remember the "Mummers" parade.

15. I remember my father, uncle, and friend from the old country playing poker, drinking wine and having a grand old time.

16. I remember our phone number was REgent 5-6853

17. I know if I keep this up I'm going to cry.

Louis Rucci
03-20-2008, 11:03 PM
I remember them also, & I was in my 30's

Dave Verstraete
03-20-2008, 11:09 PM
I remember
when I could fill a 20 gal. gas tank for about $5.00 not $70.00.


P.S. I still have an attic fan and we use it all most of the summer.

Denny Rice
03-20-2008, 11:44 PM
I remember:

1. Gasoline at .39 cents a gallon
2. The first time I ever laid eyes on my grandfathers moonshine still.
3. People in the 1970's standing in line, waiting for gasoline and filing stations running out of gas.
4. My father's BSA motorcycle
5. My first ride on my uncles Harley
6. A neighbor calling my dad at work and telling him to come home, his 12 yr old son had the hood up on the 1965 Impala taking parts off the engine!!! Yes, it really happened, my butt hurt for a week.
7. our first microwave, and it was not cheap
8. our first Beta VCR
9. Getting expelled from high school for standing on the yellow line (des. smoking area) 1/2 of one of my feet was outside the line. I was expelled for 3 days.
10. I remember when somethind said "made in Japan" you didn't buy it, it was junk.
11. black and white TV with 12 channels
12. when TV's had tubes you could replace
13. our first color TV going out and my dad paying close to 400.00 for a color panel. (you can but 4 new TV's for that now)
14. in the 7th grade--the first year I walked into a woodshop, the rest is history.
15. my woodshop teacher in HS teaching me drivers ed.
16. my jr. year of high school that summer I took a job with my woodshop teacher to teach disabled kids woodworking. It was a lot of fun.
17. when I had my paper route(5 yr job) in the late 70's early 80's pulling down 150.00 a year at Christmas time from my customers.I was rich for a week! LOL
18. my first 35mm camera (when cameras still took film)
19. my first car--1968 Charger R/T 440 C.I.D. 727 torque-flite transmission.
20. the day 20 yrs later I sold my 1968 Charger, I cried. It was the most stupid thing I ever did.

Bill Cunningham
03-21-2008, 3:24 PM
Just how far back can you remember? or What is your oldest memory? I can remember many things that happened before I was three years old.. (I'm 61 now)

Two memories come to mind.
First; I was 2 years old, and I'm standing under the milkmans horse, reaching up on my tiptoes to pat its belly (downtown Toronto 1948)

The Second, still gives me a laugh.. Again, two-three years old on the sidewalk a few doors down from our house with my sister who is five years older.. She points to a house, and tells me the people that live there are 'invisible'!. Of course, I had no idea what invisible meant, so she explained that in that house, there were people that you could not see.. Just at that minute, the house door opened, and this 'shadow' moved into view, picked up something from the porch, and moved back inside... I was amazed, and just stood there till my sister led me away.... There were obviously not a lot of black folks in Toronto at that time...:D

David G Baker
03-21-2008, 4:22 PM
I can remember quite a few things that happened around me between the age of 2 and 3. Family members didn't believe me until I started telling them about things that happened back then. I made a believer out of them. Now if only I could tap into some of those memory abilities and put them to use in my current life 60 some years later.

Belinda Barfield
03-21-2008, 4:50 PM
Good question Bill. I have two distinct early memories, one from about three or four years of age, the other from around 4 to 5. The first, when my first puppy died. My mother accidently killed him and couldn't bring herself to help me bury him (she has always been a little bit lacking in mothering skills but "she done the best she knew how"). Our neighbor came over and helped me dig a hole - which I'm sure I wasn't doing too successfully on my own - gave me a shoe box for a casket, and helped me fill the hole. We planted flowers over his grave (the dog, not the neighbor). His name was Brownie. My second early memory is of the one and only spanking my father ever gave me. I was a fierce tree climber. My grandfather was visiting and I wanted to show off my skills. My father told me not to climb a Mimosa tree and I started to climb it anyway. He gave me one warning, then two, at which point I thought about things for a minute and then told him "I know you're gonna' whip me, but I'm climbin' it anyway." Climb it I did, and spank me he did. He literally snatched me off of a limb and whupped my butt good. It was a temporary fix though as my stubborness has not decreased in the least after all these years.:)

mark page
03-21-2008, 4:51 PM
Does anyone remember the coin Mil's or Mill's?? Don't know of the correct spelling. I do believe that they were either 1/10th or 1/100 of a cent. Can't remember which and no time to look it up right now....

Scott Kilroy
03-21-2008, 5:36 PM
and we called the remote "the clicker" cause it make a snapping/clicking noise when you pressed the buttons and I thought it was most amazing thing in the world.

Curt Fuller
03-21-2008, 11:12 PM
When I was in high school (late 60's) my friend was the first of our group to get a car, a 1957 Chevrolet 4 door, small V-8, 3 speed on the column. We would scrounge up enough change to put a bucks worth of gas in it (19 cents a gallon, 16 cents if it was a gas war), head out on saturday night to "drag the boulevard" and try to pick up some "chicks". None of us would have known what to do if we ever picked any up. Our favorite thing to do was to pull up next to some girls and roll down the windows. When they would roll theirs down we'd ask them if someone farted in their car too. Man we thought we were SO funny! No wonder we never picked up any girls!

David G Baker
03-21-2008, 11:43 PM
Mark,
I remember Mills or Mils but don't remember their value. They were tiny little copper things about the size of a button for a shirt. Haven't seen one since I was a kid in the mid 40s.

mark page
03-22-2008, 6:29 PM
David,
I am only 47 yrs old now, but I remember my grandmother worked at the local livestock sale barn in the early 60's and every once in a while someone would come in with a pocketful of them. I think it would take a pickup load of them to buy an ice cream cone, lol. And ice cream cones then were a nickel for a double dipper.

Gary Garmar
03-23-2008, 12:30 PM
Remember this exclusive club?




http://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/attach/bmp.gif

Dennis Peacock
03-23-2008, 2:39 PM
Does anyone remember the coin Mil's or Mill's?? Don't know of the correct spelling. I do believe that they were either 1/10th or 1/100 of a cent. Can't remember which and no time to look it up right now....

Sure do Mark...I have one here at the house. There were Red Mils, Blue Mils, and even copper Mils. Each one represented various things and the value of many were 1/100th of a cent. They were primarily used to not only pay tax on things but also used as standard coins to aid in keeping the vendors from making more than their fair share of profit on any given sale.

Richard M. Wolfe
03-23-2008, 3:32 PM
I haven't kept up with the posts but might as well go ahead and toss in a couple:

1. the Watkins man

2. listening to the radio and every so often hearing that oil production had been set at such and such "% allowable". Had no idea what it meant for a long time until I found out production limits were set by the railroad commission to keep the market from being flooded.

Ernie Nyvall
03-27-2008, 12:09 PM
Swinging on grapevines across the clay pit

Building a cart out of anything we could find and riding that cart down the hill

Finding an old car hood and riding that down the hill

Bicycle races through the woods

Piggy wants a signal

Summer vacations out west

Playing jump/dive at the pool

Playing hide and seek at my older sister's birthday party... they never found me:rolleyes:

Digging holes in a trail so my sister and her birthday party friends would fall in

Sitting in my grandpa's lap with a hershey bar

A gumdrop tree my grandmother always had for me

Can't emember much before last year though.

Howard Grant
03-27-2008, 9:01 PM
Sky King didn't have a daughter PENNY was his "NIECE"

Howard Grant
03-27-2008, 10:05 PM
Ok...What was Sky King's daughter's name......I'll give you one if you can answer that one........:D(just kidding)
"PENNY" was Sky Kings niece if I remember correctly

Dennis Peacock
03-28-2008, 8:25 AM
Remember the Opel Kadett? My dad bought one brand new when I was small for $1,600 off the car lot.

Richard M. Wolfe
03-28-2008, 6:50 PM
My brother had an Opel something or other station wagon....not really that old - early seventies. He got it totaled out in a "bumper-car" type accident on a freeway in Houston, but no frame or engine damage so he continued to drive it to work. Said it was neat, because nobody would park within three or four spaces from him. Put well over 100k miles on it.

I came close to having a Corvair. Know a guy here in town with a Corvair fetish and who had three or four, including a station wagon.

Jim Becker
03-28-2008, 8:18 PM
I came close to having a Corvair. Know a guy here in town with a Corvair fetish and who had three or four, including a station wagon.

The 'rents had several Corvairs. We did at least one, if not more than one, family trip to Florida in one...two adults; two kids; luggage for two weeks...:eek:

Andy Hoyt
03-28-2008, 11:03 PM
Corvair? Harumpf.

I always wanted an Amphicar (http://www.amphicars.com/).

Rich Engelhardt
03-29-2008, 5:46 AM
Hello,

Remember the Opel Cadet?
Yep!
Mom had one - BTW it was a Kadett.(minor technicality). Hideous green colored thing. She bought it over choice # 2, which was a Checker Marathon.
LOL!
That was well over 50 years ago - had she bought the Marathon, it would probably just be getting broken in at this point ;).

Other stuff:

- $.02 a box for Indian brand punkin seeds - more salt than seed. For a dime you could eat yourself sick for a week :D
- When zip codes first took over instead of the other code - (Pittsburgh 34, Pa.)
- Gas for $.24.9 a gallon.
- Cigarettes for $.25 a pack/$2.00 a carton.
- "Sampson" - the lazy old St. Bernard at the gas station near the church we went to. They had a huge penny candy selection and my brother, sister and myself used to run there after church each week and blow our allowance. You had to climb over Sampson to get into the store.
- When newscasters had trouble pronouncing Viet Nam. Some said Vi-eet-Nam, Viet Name.
- Watching Grahm Kerr - the galloping gourmet - when I was home sick from school. The guy was hilarious - clarified butter and wine :D. By the end of each show - he'd be half in the bag and the humor would turn a mild shade of blue. Most was dry Briish humor that slipped by the US censors.
- Emma Peel.
- Old Frothingslosh
- Stories of my great grandmother. Gram had a mouth like a drunken sailor, but always swore in German so as not to upset the neighbors. Problem was, all the neighbors were German and/or spoke German :D
I think she was the reason us kids never learned German :D

John Hahn
04-21-2009, 6:48 AM
I remember being in John's car when he was doing the donuts and J turns on the beach at night!

I also remember us going into the traffic circle at the foot of one of the bridges and going around and around for awhile stopping traffic...once in the circle you had the right away so every one had to stop until you left the circle!



Scrounging 6 RC bottle caps to get into the Saturday Matinee.

Filling the gas tank in the FIAT for $1.00 and driving all week.

Pigging out at the Krystal, 3 burgers, fries and coke for a quarter.

Not even having a lock on the door to the house.

Riding a bicycle, for transportation.

Bonanza was the only show in color, and going somewhere just to see it.

Driving between Florida and California... No interstates.

Sitting on a cake tin so I could see out the windshield.

No seatbelts.

Doing J turns and donuts on Daytona Beach in the middle of the night.

Air Conditioning was ONLY in the movie theater.

You had full size spare tires because you needed them often.

Mechanics weren't "Technicians" and could fix cars.

I wasn't "too tired" when I went to bed.

Rory Talkington
04-21-2009, 8:30 PM
I remember my dad, uncle, and Grandpa carrying our first TV into our house. Then going up on the roof to tune the antenna.:confused::D

....Watching the moon landing live on TV.

....My first Cub Scout pocket knife.:D

....Holding on to the steering wheel of my Grandpa's Buick with my left hand and reaching over to turn on the radio.:eek:

.....UHF TV.:confused:

....Grandma canning...everything.

....Seeing an airplane was unusual much less flying in one.

....Walking or running everywhere.

....Silver coins

Jim Rimmer
04-21-2009, 8:52 PM
I remember:

"number, please"

Neighbors telling you what to do (or not do) and it was OK with your parents

Several neighbors taking turns to host others on Sat. night to watch Have Gun Will Travel and Gunsmoke

Not worrying about what time the movie started. You just go when you want and watch the second showing to the point where you came in.

And to misquote Tim McGraw, "when a screw was a screw, the wind was all that blew. Coke was just a coke and crack was what you were doing when you wre cracking jokes"

Lee Mitchell
04-22-2009, 3:40 PM
I'm glad I found this thread. Thanks to all for the memories it has brought back.

A few more memories to add to the list.

I remember when Mama cooked on a wood stove. We ate our meals by oil lamp light. (I still have one of her lamps.) Daddy cut and split the wood. After school, we had to bring it in for the kitchen and the tin heater in the front room. During this time period, I remember Mama washing clothes in a wash pot over a wood fire in the back yard. And, Daddy bringing home 25# blocks of ice for the ice box.

Later, we got electricity when REA ran the lines. Mama bought a new electric stove. It sat in the kitchen, covered with a pink bedsread for months, while she waited for the power lines to our farm. I remember light bulbs screwed into a porcelian fixture in the middle of the ceiling in each room. A cord tied to the pull chain served as the "switch".

With electricity came a wringer washing machine. Since our water still came a bucket at a time from the well, Mama would put wash tubs at the edge of the back porch to catch rain water. I remember her hands being raw from the cold when the sheets she put on the line froze before they could dry.

I remember hog killing and Daddy rendering lard in Mama's wash pot. I remember salting down the meat and stuffing sausage in cloth bags.

I remember when trains belched black smoke and you knew the time of day when the train went by. You also knew the time when the dinner bell rang. (We ate dinner at noon, and supper at night.)

I remember picking wild strawberries, blackberries, mulberries, plums, may pops, hickory nuts, black walnuts, just to name a few. Even, today, they still taste better than anything at the local mega market.

A few more... fresh caught fried cat fish, warm milk straight from the cow, homemade butter, quarts and quarts of home canned vegetables, corn bread fried in lard, Mama's biscuits made twice a day, ice cold water melons picked and stowed away for eating later and so much more....

In closing, my first computer was a Vic-20 with 5 k of ram. I was in hog heaven when I bought an upgrade cartridge that added 8K more. Programs were load via a tape cassette. Just think about it, a word processing program using less than 5K. BTW, that computer, monitor, software, manuals, etc. are packed away. Couldn't bring myself to toss it, like I have so many others since then.

Thanks again for sharing your memories and letting me share some of mine with you.

Lee in NC

Rob Cunningham
04-23-2009, 9:51 AM
I remember:
Taking a soda bottle back to the corner store and getting 2cents
Captain Kangaroo
Sally Starr
Getting up early on Saturday morning to watch Looney Tunes Cartoons
Being allowed to stay up "late" to watch the moon landing
G.I. Joe
My first job for 50 cents an hour
Our family vacation canceled because of race riots- my father was a
policeman
The Honeymooners
The Flyers winning back to back Stanley Cups

Bob Rufener
04-23-2009, 2:16 PM
Our first tv was had a 16" round screen.
Hitting my head and breaking the windshield of our 41 pontiac when my mom hit the brakes rather hard-no seatbelts.
College tuition at a two year county teacher's college was less than $25 per semester and included books!
Buying new tires after about 25k because they were worn out and if your car hit 100K, it was a miracle.
Burma shave signs
A visit to the doctor was $3.00
Playing kick the can and moonlight-starlight with the neighbor kids
Penny post cards and $.03 for 1st class mail
Our school desks were in a row and bolted to the floor
Seven burgers for $1.00 at George Webb's
$.15 for a ticket to the movie theater and $.10 for a box of popcorn
All my clothes came from the local J.C. Penny store.
Gravel side roads
Our telephone number was 84R
Sledding at my grandparents place and coming in to put my feet on the steam radiator and enjoying some sliced apples for a treat.
My uncle having work horses to help out on the farm.
Bill Haley and the Comets

Anthony Whitesell
04-23-2009, 2:35 PM
On that note, I remember 20MB Hard Drives. I once paid $400 for a 140MB hard drive. I also remember paying $800 for 32MB RAM because 8MB wasn't enough. (I don't think you can even buy that little nowadays).

Burt Alcantara
04-23-2009, 3:06 PM
Kick the can
bean shooters
Mary Janes - the candy and the shoes
My first suit at Bonds
Five cent bus rides
Double deckers in NY
15 cent pizza
gummy ice cream (and that was the good stuff)
wearing hand me downs (from my sister no less)
Pledge of Allegiance (...and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands...)
linoleum guns
double bubble
wax soda bottles
Goldberg's Peanut Chews
When Worlds Collide
Saturday Afternoon kid shows at the movies
Laurel and Hardy
not understanding the concept of parking
Henry J. Kaiser
Buster Brown
Crime Busters
The Shadow
Your Show of Shows
Ernie Kovacs
Sky King
Rin Tin Tin
dirty books
Our Gang
Mumbly Peg
The Crew Cuts
Earth Angel
Blackboard Jungle
On the Waterfront
Black Leather Jackets
Mule Train
Eartha Kitt
Spam - Proof that adults hated children
Harvard Beets
dungarees
chinos
LSMFT
Iodine/Mecuracrome
bottle cap taps
Have Gun Will Travel
Steve Allen

glenn bradley
04-23-2009, 3:15 PM
Does anyone remember Crusader Rabbit? Or Tom Terrific from the Captain Kangaroo show?

Yep, and Clutch Cargo and Beanie and Cecil, Hobo Kelly, Superman in black and white . .. Oh, wait a minute, there was only black and white.

Gene O. Carpenter
04-23-2009, 6:42 PM
Anybody remember "Soupy Sales" or Kukla, Fran & Ollie?
Soupy had White Fang and Black Tooth and was always getting hit with a pie.
Karl

Soupy Sales was from Norfolk Va..

Keith Outten
04-23-2009, 8:43 PM
I remember:

Staying up late at night to listen to WABC am radio in New York. It was the only station that played Rock and Roll music which was illegal almost everywhere in those days.

20 ounce denim jeans that were so stiff they would stand up by themselves, you didn't need a hanger you could lean them against the wall :)

We bought food from a local market and you could have groceries delivered by a guy on a bicycle, before the new fangled supermarkets came to town.

Air conditioniong only existed in the new supermarkets and movie theaters.

There wasn't an Interstate highway anywhere in Virginia.

Shooting the breeze with all of the original seven Astronauts at Smitty's Better Burger in Hampton which was just one block from my home. They used to frequent Smitty's for lunch and I would ride my bicycle to Smitty's to joke with them and do wheelies in the parking lot.

There weren't any ball point pens.

Not one family in my neighborhood owned a television set.

Only men went to work in the morning.

Steve Schlumpf
04-23-2009, 10:02 PM
Flashlight Tag
Kick the Can
Catching lightning bugs
Laying on our backs in the cool grass at night watching for Sputnik to go by
The Ed Sullivan Show
Crew cuts
Running trap lines with my Dad and younger brother before school
Hunting and fishing for food - not sport
No fast food restaurants, if you wanted to buy a hamburger you went to Big Boy
Learning to drive at 12
Being taught every day through example that a man has integrity!
Talking back to Mom was hazardous to your face!
Being proud that my Dad was in the Air Force!
Living in Alaska before it was a state
Driving the Alcan highway when it was a washed out 2 lane dirt road - a very long one at that!
Talking to Grandparents and loving the history

Yup........... great times!

Belinda Barfield
04-24-2009, 8:13 AM
Seeing The Goat Man.

Having my picture taken on Saturday afternoons by "The Picture Man". He lived in a bus that also served as his dark room. He would park in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot and take pictures for 15 cents, developed while you wait. My friends and I would all pitch in for the photo. I have some great pics of us just clowning around and being typical small town kids!

Bob Moyer
04-24-2009, 9:34 AM
I just purchased a new suit for a couple of family weddings this summer; it reminded me of when I got my first suit at Robert Hall anyone remember them.

Also, it was the first time someone measured my inseam - the guy didn't even ask me to cough.

Steve Sawyer
04-24-2009, 10:20 AM
My 17-year-old and I were walking through Best Buy the other day. I started laughing out loud when I saw a 3-pack of 2gb thumb drives for $40!

Had to explain to my son that I remember when I upgraded my first PC to a Hard Drive and thought I was runnin' with the big dogs - all 5 MEGABYTES worth of HD!! It was huge, heavy and sounded like a 747 taxiing.

I remember skimming the cream off the top of the glass milk bottle for Dad's coffee

I remember getting on the bus and spending the entire day downtown with a couple of friends - window-shopping at Hudson's, playing escalator tag at Cobo Hall, getting a Sub sandwich at Woolworth's - when we were TWELVE!!

I remember listening to Ernie Harwell and George Kell broadcasting Tiger games over the neighbor's clock radio that he'd wedge into the window so he (and the rest of the neighborhood) could listen to the game while he did yard work.

I remember walking home from school for lunch, and watching TV on a 12" B&W console TV while I ate (Soupy Sales?).

I remember our phone number when I was a kid (and yes, it was a party line) - KEnwood 2-7601

Bob Genovesi
04-27-2009, 10:28 AM
I remember,



President Eisenhower addressing the nation on B&W TV
When there were 4 party telephone lines
Candling eggs in the basement
When the price of a new car was $2,200
When gas was 5 gallons for a buck
When we built a bomb shelter
When Nikita Khrushchev was removed from the UN meeting
The Cuban missile blockade and the bay of pigs
The Nuclear weapons testing of the 50's and 60's
When a bottle of soda was .07 cents
When the Police stopped criminals
When a letter cost .04 cents to mail
Getting a new pair of shoes was the best thing in the world!
My first real job I got paid .50 cents an hour.
Getting drafted into the Vietnam war - #41
When going out to eat was a special treat!
Respecting others
Waving to each other as you drove by
When talking back to you mother meant a beating from your father.
When America meant something

Bob Moyer
04-27-2009, 11:25 AM
As someone who is in his 60's I often take a trip down memory lane; here are a few things I remembered recently

Living in the country had it's advantages;

We knew almost everyone who drove on the road where we lived.
Fresh Milk and Eggs
Actually taking a rifle or shotgun to school; we had a rod &gun club as one of the activities and we would go hunting after school
Blowing up things with firecrackers and not be considered a terrorist
Praying in school
I remember when girls wore colored leotards to school and that put them into the "hot" girl class
Baseball cards in spokes of bicycle
Teachers administering punishment only knowing that when you got home it would be worse
Chocolate Cigarettes
Model airplanes made out of balsa wood?? and would eventually break, wow what a difference duct tape would have made at that time
School bus rides in the snow; and than that rumble when the bus got on the bare highway with chains

Lee DeRaud
04-27-2009, 11:34 AM
I remember...when I could remember...:eek:That was before my time. :cool::p

glenn bradley
04-27-2009, 12:30 PM
- Music came on LP's that you bought at the Hi-Fi store
- TV comes in color? You're kidding.
- Thrifty ice cream at a nickle a scoop (or cylinder if you know what I mean).
- a scooter made out of a plank, a crate and an old keyed roller skate with the frame pounded flat.
- A whole summer's worth of movie passes stuck to the fridge with a magnet. One of those an 15 cents and you were in heaven for the whole afternoon.
- Parking you bike outside the theater for hours and not even locking it.
- setting out milk bottles
- The whistle on the Helm's bakery truck, mmmmm warm donuts.
- The annual Fireman's Pancake Breakfast in town and EVERYBODY went.
- Every house on the block had an incinerator out back.
- Stereo came out . . . WOW!!!

Steve Sawyer
04-27-2009, 12:43 PM
Funny how when folks play this game, it's only the good stuff we recall. Sometimes it's a little easier to accept The World as it Is when we consider that not EVERYTHING was wonderful back in the day...

I remember:


Watching a young black man get off the bus and thinking how sad it was that his life prospects were so much more limited than mine.
Being amazed along with the rest of the class that one of our classmates' mother drove a taxi. This was in the day when the only thing most girls could aspire to was to be a nurse, a teacher or a housewife. Noble occupations all, but a bit of a limited choice.
Lying awake at night worrying that the plane I heard passing overhead was the one with The Bomb.
Listening to the neighbor who was a police officer speak disparagingly in the most graphic terms of every group that wasn't a WASP, and never seeing any kind of negative reaction from any other adults - at least not in public.
A few teachers who thought nothing of dishing out the most distasteful personal attacks and emotional abuse, and who would hold students up to ridicule by their classmates, including public sexual harassment - things that would get a teacher fired today
Seeing teachers, responding to the national shock over the launch of Sputnik trying to introduce some more effective and creative teaching methods in the classroom, met with anger and hostility by parents that were convinced that the methods back in their Good Old Days were sufficient to meet the threat of global technological and intellectual competition.
How those of us sufficiently well-heeled got to go off to college, while our less-affluent friends and fellow students got drafted - and none of us had any say in the matter - we couldn't even vote.
How many of us started smoking at 11 or 12 because you didn't have to confront an adult to acquire cigarettes - all it took was a quarter and a cigarette machine - or the skill and chutzpah to sneak a couple from Dad's pack!
How kids were killed (I knew one) just riding their bike down the Big Hill back in the day when there was nothing to secure a loose wheel other than the kid's weight on the forks. I really hate how bicyclists today refer to those restraining flanges on their bike forks as "Lawyer lips".
How my 14-year-old car was such an oddity, folks would ask if it was an antique or an historic vehicle. Cars' abominably short life spans contributed greatly to the accusations of "Planned Obsolescence". Also, no air bags, no seat belts, no traction control, no ABS - we were lucky that they had safety glass in the windshields.
How Martindale Beach at the local Metro Park was all black, and Maple Beach at the same park on the same lake was all white.
How family members who had "personal" problems such as pedophilia were tolerated, and never reported to authorities, but gay cousin Steven, in a stable long-term relationship, was ostracized.

Yeah, there are lots of things I remember fondly about my early years - but in many, many ways I think that things have changed, and are continuing to change for the better, and I'm thankful every day that I live in 2009 and not 1959!!

Rod Sheridan
04-27-2009, 1:08 PM
Good post Steve, we've improved a lot, more required.

Regards, Rod.

Mike Henderson
04-27-2009, 1:16 PM
I remember when the cops stopped a drunk, one of them would drive the car and drunk home and the other would follow in the cruiser.

I glad things have changed.

Mike

Jeff Dege
04-27-2009, 1:52 PM
I remember when we got our first color TV. It came with UHF, which doubled our viewing options from 3 to 6 channels. I also remember when TVs came with some nice furniture, cause I still have the cabinet from that one.
When I was a kid, if you wanted to change channels, you had to walk all the way across the room...

Larry Browning
04-27-2009, 2:46 PM
I remember 300 Meg hard drives. Yes - 300 MEGs. Huge at the time.

300? Man, I remember 10meg external hard drives on a PC, and remember thinking "how could you ever fill that thing up?" And it cost $2000 too!!!! (Just the hard drive, the 8088 IBM PC was $5000)

Oh, yeah!, I remember when Visicalc was the standard in spreadsheet software, not Excel. I think Visicalc was actually the first real spreadsheet application. At least that's the one I remember.

Allan Froehlich
05-07-2009, 6:41 AM
First off, I'm 27 so this is a bit different...

*The first time I filled my car and it cost $0.99/gal. Fuel priced began their modern climb a few weeks later.
*The retired WWII vets meeting in my neighbor's garage and talking about B17s.
*Working at the last full-service gas station in town until it closed.
*1$ would buy two candy bars.
*Watching Jurassic Park 10 times in the theater.
*The hitting spoon. It was only second to the belt.
*One kid still had some M80s!
*My dad laughing at the neighbor who could not drive stick.
*Magic Johnson has a new disease called "aids."
*My teacher telling us that the 90s began!
*10-year-old cars still had carburetors.
*My neighbor being angry because Beta Video lost to VHS.
*Our first DVD player.
*Women thinking shoulder pads were stylish.
*The Metric system was eventually going to take over!
*The Berlin Wall fell!!!
*End of the USSR.
*Michael Jackson and his first controversy: was his Thriller video supporting the occult!?!

*The stuff I accomplished before I had a computer with an internet connection.