OT: Quiz time

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Count the stuff you remember.

1. Blackjack chewing gum 2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water 3. Candy cigarettes 4. Soda pop machines that dispensed bottles 5. Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes 6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers 7. Party lines 8. Newsreels before the movie 9. P.F. Flyers 10. Butch wax 11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (Olive - 6933) 12. Peashooters 13. Howdy Doody 14. 45 RPM records 15. S&H Green Stamps 16. Hi-fi's 17. Metal ice trays with levers 18. Mimeograph paper 19. Blue flashbulbs 20. Beanie and Cecil 21. Roller skate keys 22. Cork popguns 23. Drive-ins 24. Studebakers 25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!

-- New Guy (Newguy@Newbie.com), January 31, 2000

Answers

Sorry about the format.

-- New Guy (Newguy@Newbie.com), January 31, 2000.

Count the stuff you remember.

1. Blackjack chewing gum 2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water 3. Candy cigarettes 4. Soda pop machines that dispensed bottles 5. Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes 6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers 7. Party lines 8. Newsreels before the movie 9. P.F. Flyers 10. Butch wax 11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (Olive - 6933) 12. Peashooters 13. Howdy Doody 14. 45 RPM records 15. S&H Green Stamps 16. Hi-fi's 17. Metal ice trays with levers 18. Mimeograph paper 19. Blue flashbulbs 20. Beanie and Cecil 21. Roller skate keys 22. Cork popguns 23. Drive-ins 24. Studebakers 25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!

-- New Guy (Newguy@Newbie.com), January 31, 2000.


Can some explain what I am doing wrong?

-- New Guy (Newguy@Newbie.com), January 31, 2000.

NewGuy: You need double line breaks to force a new line. A single hard return won't do it. I remember those lever ice trays! Good post!

-- Heckie (hlujan45@aol.com), January 31, 2000.

Being apparently older than dirt (and unqualified to know what's behind the last door since I'm not a monk), I don't think I'll tell you... ;P (Hint, though: 86 the paragraphs, put a line break after each line.)

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), January 31, 2000.


Scored a perfect 25. Better call the meat wagon. I'm comin' Beanie boy!

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), January 31, 2000.

There's nothing wrong with being older than dirt. Add Pixie Straws, Fizzies, and "Winston Tastes Good like a Cigarette should!"

Or ... (somewhat later) Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and a sesame seed bun. (hehe)

-- (ladybuckeye_59@yahoo.com), January 31, 2000.


That was an easy 25.

I used to smoke Avalon cigarettes, before I switched to Wings. Sulfa drugs were the miracle drugs of the day. Remember polio? And the March of Times donation cannisters before the main attraction (double feature, of course)?

And who can forget "Don Winslow of the Navy" "Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy" "Our Gal Sunday" "Easy Aces" "Mr. Keene - Tracer of Lost Persons (or as Bob and Ray would have it, "Mr. Trace - Keener than Most Persons") and the other radio greats.

-- really old (oldas@the.hills), January 31, 2000.


Black Cow suckers, jawbreakers, running boards on automobiles, Fibber Mcgee and Molly, The Intersanctum, "Ten, Two and Four, The pause that refreshes", human pin setters at bowling alleys, Big Band music, nickel cokes, soda fountains.

-- Nadine Zint (nadine@hillsboro.net), January 31, 2000.

Hi New Guy, then you must remember catching polywogs and watching them hatch into frogs; catching lightning bugs in a mason jar; smoldering a piece of material to keep away mosquitos; Good Humor half raspberry, half orange popsicles; playing iron horse; hide and seek after dark; putting plastic bags over your socks because your snow boots leaked; leggings; socks for gloves; hearing a train on a Saturday morning and feeling great because you didn't have to go to school. No computers, no cable tv, no rock concerts. God we were happy, guess we just didn't know any better.

-- Trish (adler2@webtb.net), January 31, 2000.


I just barely made a perfect score. Studebaker's weren't being made anymore, when I was a child, but it was still one of the cars of choice, for old people. The memories of newsreels, before movies, are dim, but I can remember it happening.

You missed a biggie, though...those "duck and cover" civil defense drills.

-- Bokonon (bok0non@my-Deja.com), January 31, 2000.


The Lone Ranger, pez and pez dispensers, rock candy, pennies in your loafers, crinolyns, harburt skirts, pony tails, West Point Story, the Millionaire, and--as Ed said yesterday--the $64,000 Question.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), January 31, 2000.

Pollywogs? I haven't thought of them in a long while.

Remember Victory Gardens? Air raid wardens with white hard hats (like my dad) "Loose Lips Sink Ships" Air raid drills?

And the blue stars on the flags in the windows, that sadly turned to gold stars as the war dragged on?

-- really old (oldas@the.hills), January 31, 2000.


Mara: I remember The 64 Dollar Question - no thousands then. It was on the Blue Network (now NBC) early Sunday evening. My father could never get over the idea that someone could win $64 - three weeks pay at the mill! - by answering some simple questions.

-- realy old (oldas@the.hills), January 31, 2000.

--had a cousin on ted macks amateur hour. we had the first tv on the block, a 9" oval screen philco, all the neighbors would come over and watch. You could fry chicken on top of it. h-m-m remember getting ice from an ice wagon pulled by a horse at my granmas house.

know what I miss? nowadays politically incorrect amos and andy show! It was hysterical! Lightnin was my favorite

lemme see, for the older than dirt crowd, party lines-the early internet-nickel phone calls, like 6-7 loaves a bread for a buck, 5 lbs of chopped meat for a buck, oh ya, a biggee, going on two week family vacation and not locking the doors, because you never locked the doors, in fact, I don't remember seeing any keys except for car keys.

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), January 31, 2000.



Bok, wasn't the "Avanti" a Studebaker product? (I wish Ramses III was still around -- he was so good at this stuff, as I recall!)

-- Older Than Compost (Yeah@I.Missed.One), January 31, 2000.

---I forgot, I OWNED two studebakers. Also a nash. she-e-e-e-esh

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), January 31, 2000.

Just couldn't resist this thread. Sigh. I made "older than dirt". I'll add, "Sky King", "My Friend Flicka", "Fury", "The Pinkie Lee Show" (Hello, it's me. My name is Pinkie Lee...) and "Miss Frances' Ding Dong School". Also hula hoops, bicycles without gears or handbrakes, pogo sticks, stilts, the games Red Rover and Kick the Can, the FIRST darn Barbie doll (didn't like her, didn't keep her, could kick myself now) and I also remember the first TV dinners being marketed.

Trish, you really gave me a blast from the past about the plastic bags over your socks! (Everybody in our neighborhood did that.) Heaven help me, I'm even old enough to remember when we HAD to wear dresses to public school! And when the school gym showers were always open for the farm boys who had already been up doing chores for hours before catching the bus. Also I remember how shocking it was when the first ad came on TV for a gasp! "bra". (You only got to see underwear in Sears' catalogs prior to that. Grin.) And there were NO double beds shown on television shows for years.

Zog, I remember the telephone "party" lines, too. You answered the phone according to the number of rings. Relatives, who still lived on a farm, cooked on a wood stove, too. Cloth diapers and diaper PINS! Glass baby bottles. Garter belts and stockings -- pantyhose didn't exist. Girdles. (Some things have gotten better!)

Little Golden Books were a new thing, also "Pocketbooks" (paperbacks). My wood school desks still had the hole in them for the inkwell holder, but I was past the pen and ink days. See Puff run. See Spot run after Puff. Playing triangles and Rhythm sticks in the elementary band. Seeing the fit of your shoes with a "fluoroscope" the shoe store had. Buster Brown and Tighe? Mothers not worrying about their kids playing outside, even at night. Knowing every single one of your neighbors on the whole street, and all the side streets.

Overall, I believe the quality of life was better then.

-- Bonnie Camp (bonniec@odyssey.net), January 31, 2000.


Older than dirt and glad that I'm not under it just yet ~;O)

"The Bobbsey Twins", candy lipstick [the good stuff, not like they have now!], ice skating on the pond your dad made in the backyard each winter, playing hockey with the neighbor boys [3 highschoolers against 3 elementary-age GIRLS] and winning! Ruff and Ready, Captain Kanganroo, Sherri Lewis [the first time around]. Getting dressed up to visit Grandma and Grandpa on Sunday afternoons. Picking up worms on the local golf course after a spring rain to sell to the local fishermen.

-- justme (justme@myhouse.com), January 31, 2000.


Hey Guys, turn away for a moment. Bonnie and others of our gender, do you remember the pastel long legged girdles in high school? White was not cool. How about pettypants? Only the well-off girls got those. Or when pantyhose came out, they were so expensive. If you ran one leg you saved the pantyhose til you ruined another pair, then cut off the bad leg and wore both. Am I showing my age or what!

-- Trish (adler2@webtv.net), January 31, 2000.

Keep your backs turned Guys...

Trish and others, what about the garters for sanitary pads? Soooo glad we have *wings* now. ~:O)

-- justme (justme@myhouse.com), January 31, 2000.


"From out of the blue of a western sky...", God how many Saturday mornings did I start that way in front of an ancient old Silvertone. But now let's crank it up to heavy-duty human antiques in the technology world.

How many can recall steam-powered trains, and steam-powered passenger trains at that? Remember when your mom was enthused because the new diesels didn't leave soot and cinders all over the laundry hung outside? And what about the soon-to-come atomic locomotives?

Do you recall regularly seeing DC-3s flying around? Recall when most airliners were piston-popwered? Remember when swept-wing jet aircraft were novel?

Recall when automatic transmissions were not available on all models? Do you remember straight-eight Buicks? How about when "flathead" V-8 engines were the norm and "overhead valve" engines were new. What about when there was no such thing as a four-speed manual transmission, much less a five or six speed transmision? Remember the days before radial tires, when Rayon was the wonder material for your bias-ply tires?

And what about when microwave ovens were always something talked about for kitchens of the future, but for restaurants, cafeterias and hospitals only because they were so big?

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), January 31, 2000.


---what???? pantyhose is an improvement over garters and stockings with seams? not for us geezer gawkers it ain't! Take a poll!

hhehehehehehehehehehehee

Ok I got a good one--anyone remember the touring phillipino duncan yo yo champs? they'd have a school assembly so we could watch them.

school dress codes--ak-k-k, I was instrumental in getting them STOPPED! One of my first activist "rabbles roused", that's for sure.

lemme see, remember pegged skirts pretty well...strap-on ice skates that went on your shoes......hmmm--bought gas at 11.9 cents a gallon once, but it "shot up" to 17 cents........yep, duck and cover, and yep, wooden desks with inkwells, had one of those $#%^*&*$ schaefer leaky disaster pens, too........I remember my old man in something that I'm sure was a zoot suit, years later when he was razzing me about my long hair I dug out a pic of him wearing it, got him to lay off on the "you're weird looking" routine.....hey, what were those magnetic closing notebooks? had one, don't remember the name now......I got a GREAT ONE!--TV used to be REALLY live, no 7 second delay. so I'm watching bozo the clown one afternoon from wls I think, chicago, over the lake into michigan. So, he's got the studio kids playing this dumb game, like 7 buckets lined up, the kids have to pitch the ball into ever farther away buckets. So this little wiseacre kid goes to pitch the ball, and clean misses. "***T!" the kid sez. Deathly silence for a minute, then bozo sez "now little billy (or whatever), you shouldn't use language like that!" the kid turns to bozo, flips him the bird "*** k you, bozo!"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA this is a true story, saw it with my own kid peepers! still makes me crak up!

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), January 31, 2000.


This thread reminded me of a piece I wrote for my mom's birthday a couple of years back. Today she marks another birthday and is a wonderful 88.

-------

Today is my mother9s birthday; she is 88. I9ve been thinking lately about her life, her generation, and the path of human history she has witnessed. She was born in 1912, into the rush and prosperity of the Industrial Revolution. America had begun to recover, at least economically, if not emotionally, from the Civil War, and was strangely fresh and new at the beginning of a new century. It was time for a generation willing to put away the past and seek out their nation9s future. It was a time of patriotism, pride and promise. It was time for a generation like none before them. Mother was barely three months old when the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in the cold Atlantic. She was five when America was drawn into the first great war (World War I), and 29 when her new husband went off to fight in World War II. She was on hand for the birth of both Tupperware and Microsoft. She witnessed the appearance of the automobile on American streets, and the lunar rover on the moon. As a child, the family wagon was drawn by horses. Trains were propelled by steam locomotives, and she was 15 when 3Lucky Lindy2 landed in France. She was thrilled by radio shows, faithfully watched 3The Honeymooners2 on television, and has surfed the Internet. She was witness to some of the highest, most awe-inspiring moments of human history, and some of the lowest, most heart-wrenching advents of humankind. The Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, floods, fires and fairs, all came and went and she sent her sons off to school ("your clothes may be old, but at least you9re clean2), to church and to war. Yes, she was a witness, but more; she and her generation were the authors and actors of all the events of this almost-century. Today, we like to talk about the accomplishments of the Baby Boomers, the promise of Generation X and the global economy. But we sometimes forget that the real shapers of today9s world are members of my mother9s generation. They were the dreamers and the doers. They were artists and architects, entrepreneurs and engineers, motivators and mad scientists. They built cities, smashed atoms and spread the wealth. They were the New Deal, NASA, and the NAACP. Their accomplishments became foundations for today9s society, as their names joined our national legend - Frank Lloyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller, Jonas Salk, Amelia Earhart or Albaert Einstein. They were, and are, a unique generation. They first visualized the world as a community, related and dependent, one upon the other. They fought for the good of their world, sacrificed for the future of their children, and passed on a legacy of learning, peace and tolerance. I believe history will record them as the most remarkable and important ingredient in this grand experiment we call America.

-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), January 31, 2000.


Oh, my golly. Pettypants. And (those) garter belts...and the home economics room where you could go use the washing machine if you had "an accident". Sure do remember that stuff. Trish, you must have been in a little higher class high school than I was, because white was okay, no pastels. What was NOT okay was the girls whose mothers still made them wear T-shirts instead of getting that "training" bra.

Guys, you can turn around now. Were any of you daring enough to buy condoms when they could only be had by ASKING the store clerk for them, and you just KNEW he'd tell your father?

And talk about showing your age...my first babysitting jobs paid 35 cents an hour. And that included doing the supper dishes and folding the laundry, along with getting the kids to bed. Ironing added sometimes got me 50 cents an hour or a tip. Now I can't find a kid who'll even shovel my sidewalk and driveway for me, and I'd pay handsomely for it. Guess I do qualify as old...grump, grump, grump, this younger generation is so spoiled...grump, grump. Now back in my day we ate sandwiches which were nothing but two pieces of bread spread with a thin coating of Kraft Sandwich Spread (pickle relish mixed with mayo). Okay, now I'm laughing. No wonder I was stick- thin then!

Thanks for the memories, all.

-- Bonnie Camp (bonniec@odyssey.net), January 31, 2000.


Sorry for the format. I copied and pasted, and forgot this system totally messes up on punctuation and such.

-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), January 31, 2000.

Great Posts, Damn, I remember way more than I'd be willing to admit, at least to most of the folks I work with. Sometime's it's better to not admit all of your experiences.

Sometimes it's not, who knows?

I sure don't hide anything.......

-- Michael (michaelteever@buffalo.com), January 31, 2000.


Shoot, thought I was done and Wildweasel did it to me again. Automatic transmissions? What were those? Even our school driver education class didn't have nuttin' "automatic". Stick shifts and clutches. And you double-clutched a truck. Later, one of my folk's cars had push buttons for changing gears, very cool, that, but I can't remember what kind of car it was. Nash?

Lon Frank, that's a nice birthday letter! A few years ago when my parents celebrated their 50th anniversary, they didn't want gifts at the party I planned, so I had the idea of asking the guests to bring only a token present that represented some memory that they would share with mom and dad and all the guests. My parents got things like bacon and eggs for the picnic "breakfasts" they'd taken neighbors on, and a crocheted "heart of gold" for the time they'd taken care of someone's children when the mother was in the hospital. It worked out better than I had imagined it would, and I'd recommend it for anybody who wants to do something special and still avoid the gold trimmed plates and traditional gifts which are usually not needed. There was lots of laughs, too. Older friends out of state who couldn't travel to be at the party even sent a videotape of them sitting around a card table, beer in hand, and reminiscing about all the card games and other fun times they and my folks had had. Others who couldn't be present wrote letters telling of memories; one lady included a package of seeds because my folks always had a big garden. When "things" no longer matter or aren't needed, memories shine better than gold.

-- Bonnie Camp (bonniec@odyssey.net), January 31, 2000.


Oh, great! Now you got me going. Sonic Booms!

-- justme (justme@myhouse.com), January 31, 2000.

I could remember only 20 so I must be old enough to be dirt's younger brother.

We did have the first color TV on the block. My dad won it in a contest. It was a 19" oval Zenith. I remember watching the Virginian. No one in the family liked the show but it was one of the only ones in color.

-- Doug Fletcher (dflet@succeed.net), January 31, 2000.


hey Wild Weasel--yes indeedy. all the biguns had props! zoggerette is visiting folks now, but she told me of stewin" in elektras and other such prop jobs. Asked her if she still had any of the old stewie uniforms---drat, no......

Lemme see, had about 4, no maybe 6 vehicles with flatheads, wish I had one now! had a jeep wagon woody, was "boss". Ford panel truck looked like dobie gillis's old mans meat wagon. ford pickup flathead. chevy 7 window pickup. studes had OHV engines, can't remember the nash engine, it was serious crap tho...remember "your choice" bolt action surplus rifles at the store, 11$....m1 carbines for 20$ through the gun club and the gov civvie marksmanship program....HERTER'S CATALOGS! the BEST! How about American Sportsman on ABC when they actually went hunting? --h-m-m-m- Kleins from chicago full page ads in the back of the magazines..speaking of which, Argosy, True, and Saga..took a bolt .22 to school once for a swap on the bus..no big deal at all....havin to mow the grass in the summer with one of them hunnert lb no motor push jobs.......in fact NUTHIN around the yard had a motor! hedge clippers, sling blade, push mower, leaf rake, shovel fer garden no tiller action, hoe for weeds.......snow shovel at O dark thirty before the bus came, so dad could get out and go to work, if that snow wasn't gone, well.....having to endure sisters and mom home permin their hair, stunk up the house.......any sort of "crime" was serious front page news...what the heck....big ole huge steel frame fans that turned back and forth.....oh man, my shortwaves! don't have any of them now, big monster tube jobs, wires tacked to the ceilings, big rotary dials that had countries labeled out in lines from the middle....crystal radios attached to the steam radiators....

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), January 31, 2000.


7-Up floats were the treat of the week. Just had to wait for "Gunsmoke" to come on.

Catseyes and aggies. Tops with thumb tacks in the top to keep them from being split during fighting. Cabana sets (shorts and shirts that matched). Saulk vacine on sugar cubes.

And Bonnie, my dad had a push-button automatic Dodge, around 54 or 55, I think. Boy was he proud of that car!

-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), January 31, 2000.


Lon, I surely did get a kick out of our push-button car, I can imagine how your dad felt. At the time, it was a whole lot more exciting and wondrous than a computer or microwave was when they came out.

And alas, it was the original polio shots for me -- a series of three. I wasn't blessing Jonas Salk at the time, but all the mothers were, of course. We all also had smallpox vaccinations. There was no prevention for "Old-fashioned" measles, German measles, mumps, whooping cough and chickenpox. I got four out of five of those immunities the hard way. Oh, and I had my tonsils removed, too, like the majority of kids did "back then". With an honest to goodness black rubber gas mask used to deliver the anesthesia! And an iron "crib" was the hospital sleeping accomodations for any kid shorter than four feet. One thing has not changed over the years. The hospital food of bygone days was as bad as it is now.

-- Bonnie Camp (bonniec@odyssey.net), January 31, 2000.


Wow- brings back so many memories, since I'm older than dirt, too. How about food and gas rationing? And how hard it was to find nylons, during WW2. We school kids would check with the small town grocer, frequently, to see if he got any candy bars in. Once in a great while, we were allowed to buy a semi sweet Hershey's bar. Sugar ws rationed, and candy bars were scarce, at least where I lived. Maybe it was different, in the city.

Mom used to put out our meager ration of sugar....we were on the honor system to use from our own bowl, for cereal. One time, my father (he and my mom were divorced) sent us a box of items we could rarely find....like Crisco, pudding mix, etc. It was so special!

I can recall how we would save any scraps of tin foil and wad them up in a ball, which we donated to the "war effort", along with any scrap metal.

Radio soap operas were my favorite entertainment.....like "My Gal Sunday", "Helen Trent" and a few others. ""Inner Sanctum" and "The Lux Radio Theater" were other favorites, along with Jack Benny, George and Gracie Allen. Then, Kate Smith had her radio show- she was a marvelous singer, who never had a singing lesson. I still enjoy her rich voice- have a casette of her songs.

No ballpoint pens- we used real ink. No refrigerators.....when I was first married, I used to put a card in the window, indicating how many pounds of ice for the iceman, who came a couple of times a week, to put it in my ice box.

Two and three grades in a class room, small country school. We sang the old songs, like "My Grandfather's Clock" every day, in school.

Grandma was so poor, when I was a child, that she used to spread Crisco on a piece of homemade whole wheat bread, in the place of butter. Her refrigerator was the cold water she pumped up into a pail that she kept in her "sink". That is how she kept butter cold, when she did have some. I can't remember ever having leftovers- no way to keep foods, without refrigeration. People probably cooked just enough and no extra, back then.

The mailman would come twice a day!

Kerosene lamps were the norm- no electricity, where I grew up. (Ours were not Aladdins!) Bedtime was 9 p.m. No TV, and not easy to read, by lamplight, tho we managed.

My parents even used a horse and buggy, when I was small! (They were used commonly, when my mom was younger.) And, we can't forget the outhouses! And the potbellied wood stove that had to heat up the whole house (luckily, we lived in a tiny abode!) Hey, no air conditioning, either, but we lived in Minnesota, and it didn't get hot very often.

When I was a kid, we used to take our baths in a big galvanized aluminum wash tub, every Sat. nite. Mom would heat the water on our wood burning range. (No plumbing.) And she'd have to heat the stove for cooking, summer or winter. Not to mentin the "sad" irons we used to use to press our clothes. And in those days, there wsn't any perma press pleats! Believe it or not, I used to enjoy pressing pleats, tho I didn't have more than one pleated skirt, I'm sure. Saturday nite dances were the high spot in my young life. Visiting bands would come and we loved to do the schottische, polka and butterfly. Anyone remember doing all those? So much fun when you're young and pretty and asked to dance every dance, all nite. Boys were gentlemen, then, and girls were ladies.

Swearing was unheard of, even when I went to high school. No drugs, tho a few of the "wilder" boys smoked. Smoking was taboo for girls- I didn't know any who smoked.

Pregnancy was rare for unmarried girls, too. The ones who did get pregnant were looked down on. I didn't know any students who got pregnant. (I'm sure there were shotgun marriages, and possibly girls who went off to live with a distant aunt, where they had their baby, and to then adopt it out.)

You could see a movie all day long, if you cared to stay in the theater that long- no extra charge.

Grandma had an old treadle sewing machine...used it her entire life. My aunt still uses it!

I was just 13 when the War ended, and being that we were so poor, and sweets were hard to get, Mom and I celebrated by driving to a country store and buying a bottle of green olives- also a treat for us! That was our celebration. Funny, how one remembers things like that!

I enjoy some of our present inventions; I feel so blessed. Yet, those times when we had so little hold a special place in my heart.....I'd love to go back, even for a little while, to revisit those precious moments in time. Thank you for letting me reminisce. And, thanks for all your memories- I'll print them out, to remind me of the past things we experienced. (Sorry this is so disjointed- just wrote down the memories as I thought of them.)

-- Jo Ann (MaJo@Michiana.com), January 31, 2000.


X-minus ONE on the radio. 5 scoops of ice cream for .25. Black leather jackets after Brando movie. Dances called "Hops". Gang fights without guns. Reputations counted. Peyton Place being banned. Robbie the robot. Teachers being respected and teachers actually able to teach and being allowed to teach. Public figures worthy of respect.

Anyone have a time machine I can borrow?

-- Mr. Pinochle (pinochledd@aol.com), January 31, 2000.


Sunoco THREE STAR EXTRA news on the radio.

Northwest Passage on before Steve Canyon.

Delta Darts and Daggers (F-103 and 4 I think?? because the F-105 was a Starfighter?? or was that the 95)

52's when they were NEW

Sunday picnicks at the airport to watch the planes

DeSoto's with FINS (Chryslers, Caddies, and Dodges too)

Playing Shadow tag in the evening on a WARM summer night

Going "for a ride" later on the summer night, just to cool off.

training wheels, and graduating to a 24 inch bike

the first "English" bike with hand brakes in town

"Great Caesars ghost"

5yrs old and you went into the bar because that's where the barber worked, in the hotel in town.

collecting a season's worth of cabbage by the mail box (you had to live in the country)

Roy, Dale, Hoppy, Cisco, and all the rest (Duke of course)

Saddle shoes and White Bucks

Lincoln Logs

tinker toys

Erector sets

Mr. Wizzard

Merrilee and Eddie and the Magic toy Shop (wups ya hadda be in Central NY)

Schultz, Dooley, Officer O'Reiley (I think) "Oh brew me a brew with natural bubbles, no artificial brew like today" (Utica Club)

Hemlock Lake Water

LSM,FT (and ALL the variations, clean and otherwise)

Walk a mile for..

Rather Fight than switch

Silly Little Millimeter...

If you were SAC, the Savoy just off Griffis

Armed Forces Days when you WANTED to go to the Air Base

Yup, some of these are older than others and yes I remembered ALL 25 of the originals

OH yeah Nash Motors.

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), February 01, 2000.


Chuck! You remeber those talking beer steins? That was Utica Club, too, wasn't it? Or maybe it was Genesee...

Remember when soda in cans was a new concept? And you had to open it with the pointy end of the bottle opener? Remember when the bottle openers with a pointy end were a new invention?

School dress codes, yeah, I remember those. Little girls wore knee socks, unless your parents were 'rich' and could buy you tights for everyday. Standing out in the wind waiting for the bus with my brother's old 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea' lunch box... beet red knees & thighs until it got cold enough to wear 'leggings' underneath to keep warm (just until you got to school, then all the girls would be in the cloak room (cloak room!) balancing on one leg trying to get the leggings off.

Remember rubber overshoes? And teachers who felt it was part of their job to help the kids get them off? The vaccinations... they don't give them in school at all anymore, do they? The line of kids down the hall from the office of girls & boys in their underwear... girls and boys, no modesty. At least up to about fourth grade or so... feeling real sorry for the kid with the torn undies...

Also, in 7th grade, one of the kids in my class had to move away because her parents were getting a (lower voice) divorce!

I ramble.... thanks for the memories! (and Bob Hope singing that in Viet Nam?) Oh, yeah, all of us waiting by the TV every evening to watch for my brother's name... Thank God we never saw it. Remember the Draft?

Tissue, anyone?

-- Arewyn (artemis31@msn.com), February 01, 2000.


You KNEW you had grown up when you stopped watching Bob Hope's Christmas tours for the commedy and started to watch for the faces of family and friends.

Newguy, damn you! Thanks for the trip down the lane.

They ain't all sweet.

C

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), February 01, 2000.


Trish, the only thing in your post I don't remember is 'Iron Horse'. Scored 16 on first post. Didn't know I was that old at 44.

-- Kyle (fordtbonly@aol.com), February 01, 2000.

Sea monkees where a "must have item", as well as the 500 piece Revolutionary Soldiers. Likewise, when they first cameout, Mom just had to have a brand new set of T.V. trays.

Rubber chickens, chocolate covered ants and grasshoppers where just as funny one weekend to the next on "unsuspecting" guests. Bannana seat bicycles with streamers--the latest fad. And plastic farm and cowboy and Indian sets...where each figure was created uniquely.

Going to the city to Christmas shop ment going to Woolworths and the once a year treat of riding the escalator. And you bought or baked a little something for Christmas for every person you have ever met, including the postman, the teacher, the milk man and the paper boy. Christmas cards took days of working around the clock to get out...

And, ladies, let us not forget days of the week panties and actually seeing girls pass out in the fifth grade "health class films". Non-coed gym class, and Mom would write you a note to excuse you on occassion for personal reasons.

Pants suits and Bobby Brooks sweater and skirt sets out of JC Penny's catalog? With that elastic waist, you could roll them up two notches, until called into the principles office to get on your knees next to the yard stick.

Mood rings and pre-engagement rings, which made "petting" legal in all 50 states, or so I was told.

Pre Big Bird, we had Romper Room, "do be a do bee, don't be a don't bee". Oh, gosh, Lets not forget Dick and Jane, and for some of us...being new math guniea pigs.

Remember how you would get another piece of china with a gasoline fill-up, and with Dad's push-button transmission New Yorker, we got alot of fill-ups.

-- Lilly (homesteader145@yahoo.com), February 02, 2000.


This is a great thread. I scored really high and didn't think of myself of being that old. You guys have covered everything except for a few things. One slice toasters. Bicycles with fenders and lights and everything else including the playing cards you would put into the spokes with clothes pins. Cellophane tape from 3M, The TV show "My little Margie". My best memories, were going to the dairy to pick up bottled milk, watching newsreels at the theater, Seeing my first color TV show, collecting S&H Green Stamps, Buying my first cork gun with my own hard money at the hardware store.

-- Bill (sticky@2side.tape), February 02, 2000.

Ahhhh, How cool, feels as if I went back to the 60's....

Eskimo Pies, real ones, pumpkin seeds, 8 tracks, Felix the Cat, and my old time fav Hillbilly Joose...not mountain dew then.

Thanks for the reminders....

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), February 02, 2000.


Thanks for the memories, all, and especially New Guy for starting this. Yeah, perfect 25 for me!

Walking to our neighbors on Sunday nights to watch "The Wonderful World of Color" in living color!. Listening to my sister's record player that only played "45"s, stacked high with Elvis, Little Richard, and Fats Domino. Collecting Action Comics featuring "The Man of Steel", and Detective Comics starring "The Caped Crusader". Getting "swats" at school (with parents' blessing) for mouthing off to a teacher. Getting that Salk vaccine, you bet, what with my Dad being a doctor and his having one leg an inch shorter than the other from childhood polio. Watching my heroes in "Gunsmoke", "Have Gun, Will Travel", "Bonanza" and even the lesser lights, such as "Cheyenne". Getting my very own toy replica of that modified lever-action used by "The Rifleman", and later one of 007's well-armed briefcase. Laughing at "Topper", Jimmy Durante, Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Lucy, "The Honeymooners", and later at "Laugh-In", The Smothers Brothers (note: Tommy turned 62 today, I believe), and the wonderful topical humor of "That Was The Week That Was". Seeing Walter Cronkite almost overcome by emotion when he announced that President Kennedy was dead.

Never locking the house, nor the car. Seeing my parents hang in there through some really tough battles and work it out, with divorce absolutely not an option. Growing my hair to my shoulders when I went off to college, and getting it cut bigtime during my senior year, when I just got tired of hassling with it.

Wow. So good just to rummage through those files for a while...

-- DeeEmBee (macbeth1@pacbell.net), February 02, 2000.


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