older than dirt!

[RICHARD]

Does this bring back memories?!


OLDER THAN DIRT, HUH?

Hey Dad," one of my kids asked the other day, "What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?"

"We didn't have fast food when I was growing up," I informed him. "All the food was slow."

"C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?"
"It was a place called 'at home," I explained. "Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it."

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have hand led it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears AND Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow).
We didn't have a television in our house until I was 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's la wn on a sunny day. Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.

I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called "pizza pie." When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

We didn't have a car until I was 15. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a "machine."

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was. All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing. Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend:
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it.

I knew immediately what it was, but Kati had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something.

I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to "sprinkle" clothes with because we didn't have steam irons.

Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.
Real ice boxes.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Older Than Dirt Quiz: Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about! Ratings at the bottom.

1. Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with color ed 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 lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19. Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers

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

Don't forget to pass this along!!
Especially to all your really OLD friends

[slick]

OOOOOOOO does that bring back memories or what. I had a TV growing up but we actually had to get up off the couch and walk over to change the channel. And I don't recall having anything called Cable. And I guess I'm older than dirt because I can remember all items on the list. Ouch.

Forgot to mention the caps, those little red dots that you put on the sidewalk and drop a rock on it and it makes a loud pop.

And hey, I still have vinyl at home. Even have some Elvis 78's.

[RICHARD]

Originally posted by slick

And hey, I still have vinyl at home. Even have some Elvis 78's.


These days vinyl is a fetish!!!!


:confused: :eek:



4-track tape decks!!!

[gini]

Curling irons? Anyone know what those are? Nope, not the electric kind..........the hair singeing kind you heated on the stove.

My straight hair could become a sizzling mass of curls in a burning minute with my aunt in charge.

[slick]

Originally posted by RICHARD
These days vinyl is a fetish!!!!
Drat....I was hoping no one would find out :D :D :D

You know the really sad thing is that in a few years VHS tapes will be on the list....

[slick]

Originally posted by gini
Curling irons? Anyone know what those are? Nope, not the electric kind..........the hair singeing kind you heated on the stove.

My straight hair could become a sizzling mass of curls in a burning minute with my aunt in charge.

I had a curling iron but in addition, when I was growing up ironing your hair was a trend.

[lizbud]

Great.....A quiz where I remembered them ALL. All 25 plus
curling irons. I feel a nap coming on. :D :D

[Pam]

Count me in as an older than dirt person too. Like Liz, I remember them all. :eek: Speaking of hair, does anyone remember the "home permanents?" I can remember a couple of friends of mine coming to school after being 'home permed" over the weekend and looking like poodles in need of a good grooming! :eek:

How about going to a gas station and asking for $1.00 worth! We used to do that in our teens when we were lucky enough to be able to borrow the family car. Today that would be about 1/2 gallon! :D

[zippy-kat]

I remember 3!
* Wax Coke-shaped bottles with color ed sugar water
* Candy cigarettes
* Soda pop machines that dispensed bottles

[slick]

Originally posted by Pam
Count me in as an older than dirt person too. Like Liz, I remember them all. :eek: Speaking of hair, does anyone remember the "home permanents?" I can remember a couple of friends of mine coming to school after being 'home permed" over the weekend and looking like poodles in need of a good grooming! :eek:

Absolutely!! My Mom gave me many home perms when I was little and I even have pics of them. Don't go there....I'm not posting them.....too embarrassing :eek:

[Freckles]

Only one I didn't recognize was P.F. Flyers.

Fortunately, Ask Jeeves on my PC tells me they were really cool tennis shoes in the '60's.

[RICHARD]

Originally posted by Freckles
Only one I didn't recognize was P.F. Flyers.

Fortunately, Ask Jeeves on my PC tells me they were really cool tennis shoes in the '60's.

kinda like Red Ball Jets!!!

[catland]

ah - S&H green stamps - when Tuesday was double-stamp day at the piggly-wiggly.

Save up about a ga-jillion stamps and you can get a toaster.:D

Just the other day at work, a contemporary of mine and I reminisced about the 45's and how if you coudn't locate the little plastic thingy to put in the center you had to try to put in on the turntable just right:) You should have seen the look on the faces of the younger ones (those under 30). Too funny.

[gini]

P. F. Flyers - Richard, I would bet the list doesn't mean the shoes.........how about the wagon?

The other things listed seem to be around that age. (not mine of course) (liar, liar)

[Cataholic]

12!!! Goodness. Where are my Doan's pills?

[RICHARD]

Originally posted by Cataholic
12!!! Goodness. Where are my Doan's pills?

wait until you hit 23.......

it's doan's, carters, exlax and pepto bismol cocktails!

Gini,
Radio Flyer!!!!

lol, i bought my dad one for his firewood!!!

[gini]

Originally posted by RICHARD


Gini,
Radio Flyer!!!!

lol, i bought my dad one for his firewood!!!

Sounds like a good drink to me..............

[mugsy]

I remember 14 of them. I LOVED the S & H Green Stamp store...I also liked putting them in the books.

[moosmom]

Richard,

OMG, you brought back SOOOOO many memories for me!! The green stamps, wow! My grandmother bought my brother his first guitar with books of greenstamps!!

I remember ALL of them!!! I remember ironing my hair (almost burnt it once). I also remember my Mom using the coke bottle with the holes in it before they had steam irons.

You took me down memory lane, Richard. Thank you. As much as I should be taking a DIRTY NAP right now, it definitely put a smile on my face.

I also remember gas being $.39 a gallon. Remember drive-in movies? I used to go to them with my parents in my pj's. We'd bring out pillow and blankets and fall asleep in the back seat. I also remember the phone numbers. My granparents number was Chapel 49970. That was in Connecticut at the time.

Thanks for the memories!!

[popcornbird]

I remembered ZERO! :eek: :eek:

Does that mean I'm still very young?:p *sigh* No ancient experience. :p

A word before a phone number?!?! :eek: I never knew something like that EVER existed! :eek:

[slick]

Originally posted by popcornbird
I remembered ZERO! :eek: :eek:

Does that mean I'm still very young?:p *sigh* No ancient experience. :p

A word before a phone number?!?! :eek: I never knew something like that EVER existed! :eek:
Oh to be young again! **sigh** Yes, many decades ago our home telephone number was Hemlock-42245 so you dial HE4-2245. And get this, no area code.

PCB you are very young but when you get to be my age you'll look at your kids and tell them about video tapes and the fact that cars used to use gasoline. Patience girl, you'll get there soon enough.

[moosmom]

Anyone remember Spoolies? Those little rubber things you used to curl your hair with???

[slick]

Originally posted by moosmom
Anyone remember Spoolies? Those little rubber things you used to curl your hair with???
Yup, I used them too, when my Mom wasn't perming my hair.

[Freckles]

Originally posted by moosmom
Anyone remember Spoolies? Those little rubber things you used to curl your hair with???

Are those the ones that folded over to keep your hair inside? Awful to sleep on:(

[rg_girlca]

OMG, to think I am older than dirt.:eek:

It's even scarier that I still USE metal ice trays with lever.
Still have my roller skates with the key and glass milk bottles.

Also to think that our milk was delivered in a wagon pulled by a horse. We would wait outside for the milkman cause we always had a carrot for the horse whose name was Dolly.

Remember the old wringer washing machines? Where there were two wringers on top so you could put your clothes through to press the water out of them cause there was no spin cycle.

[delidog]

Ouch!!!
24 of 25!!!!!!!
The only one that I did not remember was "Butch Wax"

Older Than Dirt!!!!!
;) :)

[moosmom]

Freckles,

Yup! Thems the ones!! :)

[lizbud]

Delidog,

I had four brothers so that's why I remembered "Butch Wax" .
The boys all wore their hair in buzz cuts or crew cuts and used
this gooey wax stuff to make it stick up in front. Cool huh? :p

[kingrattus]

3. Candy cigarettes
I still eat these


4. Soda pop machines that dispensed bottles
Ever been to PEI??? its bottles only!


5. Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes
Yep Rocken Johnies still has them.


7. Party lines
Yep, used one a few yrs back.


12. Peashooters
Friends had em.


14. 45 RPM records
r those the square ones?? called A tracks, if its the same thing, them yep, we have about 50 of em & they still work too.


22. Cork popguns
Those were fun


23. Drive-ins
I went to one a yr ago


25. Wash tub wringers
my grandma had one at the cottage when I was young.


So thats 9 :) I'm getting older

But I'm only 21yrs old!!!

[K9karen]

I just realized I'm as old as a deck of cards. Thank God I had my afternoon nap! I remember sticking my finger in the wringer washer to see if it would get flat. It didn't, but ouch. I remember we left our doors open or unlocked all the time, cars too. I remember black and white TV's..do they still make them? Mono vinyl records, no stereos...Transitor radios ..AM only...I'm stopping now, all this thinking is shorting out my old brain.

[delidog]

Lizbud,
Thanks...Growing up an only child...I was wondering how I missed this one...That explains it!!;) :) :D

[carole]

Being a New Zealander I am not familiar with most of your terms, but I have experienced a Drive Inn, In USA, we never had them here, and those yummie candy cigarettes, still buy those for my daughter.

Never used curling irons, as have natural curls, so no need.

We used to call going to the movies the FLICKS, or pictures.

Still have my collection of L.PS, cannot seem to part with them, although most of them would not play, as they have seen many a party, spillages and scratched to death.

I remember one of the in sayings in my young days was NEAT AHYE, wow I mean isn't that so cool.:rolleyes:

[Felicia's Mom]

I can remember all of them.:eek:

[Twisterdog]

If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,

Sheesh, that's kind of surprising ... I remembered 11 of them! And I'm 35 years old! Could it be .... I'm getting old?!?! *faints*

Here's another one .... and I know all of these. *sigh*


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Shocking events that let you know you're old


Providence Journal
09.17.2003


I remember being shocked when typewriters began showing up in antique stores.

It's gotten worse.

You can now find early computers there - or in the antiques section of Web sites like Ebay.

It got me thinking about a new definition of old.


Old doesn't just apply to those who can remember life before airplanes or television.

You qualify if things you once considered cutting-edge technology are now antiques. Or when the latest trends you swear you embraced just yesterday are things the MTV generation never heard of.

So, today, a list.



You know you're getting up there if you remember when:

* Your computer's ready-mode was a black screen with a single curser.

* Apple was bigger than Windows.

* Or should I say PCs, since for a while, there was no such thing as Windows.

* There was just "DOS."

* And they were called microcomputers instead of PCs.

* Contrary to free-market theory, your phone choices and bills were much easier because AT&T was a good old-fashioned monopoly.

* There was this amazing new video game called "Pong."

* And you thought it had the most advanced graphics imaginable.

* AOL was just another start-up online service that could easily have lost out to rivals called Compuserve and Prodigy.

* A 20-something guy named Dell came up with the nutty idea of selling computers by mail.

* Jane Fonda went from sex symbol, to feminist activist, to dutiful wife of a powerful man, to obscurity.

* And that powerful man was known not as Ted Turner founder of CNN - but "Blackbeard Among the Bluebloods" for winning the America's Cup while scandalizing Newport society with raucus behavior.

* And there was no question U.S. sailors would of course win the Cup - forever.

* It was called VD instead of an STD.

* The first true laptop computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80.

* And if you were hip, you referred to it affectionately as a TRASH-80.

* Burning a CD was the act of a pyromaniac.

* Sean Connery was Pierce Brosnan.

* The new walkaround phone that gave you astonishing mobility was a cordless one you could take around the house.

* And it got better reception than the one you can now take all over the country.

* Only wives got alimony.

* Steve Jobs ran Apple. I mean, the first time.

* There was a guy on 60 Minutes named Mike Wallace who was so old you figured he'd retire at the latest by 1990.

* TheMideast was simpler because Iran was run by a dictator called The Shah, who wanted power rather than Jihad.

* Mail was something you wrote on a piece of paper and put into a stamped envelope.

* And you didn't get 110 unsolicited pieces of it every morning promising to enhance your anatomical assets.

* No normal person had speakers on their computer.

* The diners at the next restaurant table were smoking cigarettes and you barely noticed.

* The only thing you knew about Robin Williams was he played a weird alien named "Mork" on television.

* A 1-gig hard drive seemed as big as a warehouse. (Today, most are 40-times that.)

* An 8-track tape the size of a paperback book was an advanced concept in compact music recording.

* Everyone knew what an LP was.

And now the final test of whether you're getting up there:

* Even though there are plenty of LPs in antiques stores, you still have 400 in your attic, because deep down, you still think the format will come back.

[Pam]

Aaah yes Twisterdog, and who can forget Atari. I can remember my family and I practically lining up to get a chance to play PacMan on the TV screen. Geesh, even my kids are getting old because they remember it well! :p

[carole]

Remember owning an amiga 500?

[slick]

Originally posted by Twisterdog
* Even though there are plenty of LPs in antiques stores, you still have 400 in your attic, because deep down, you still think the format will come back.
ROFLMAO!! I still have stacks and stacks of 33's and 45's I just can't seem to let go of. I'm just dreaming of the day I walk into an antique store to buy a turntable.

[delidog]

O.k. Now I'm afraid....I still have my Album Collection...(Stored and Filed Alphabetically) a Total of almost 5,000 albums!!!!:rolleyes:
What do I do with them now?!?!?!?

Oh and Twisterdog,I used to date the guy who wrote the book
"How to Beat The Video Games" I.E. Pac Man!!!!
John Le "Something French"
So long ago I don't remember his full name!!!
They say that "The Memory is the First to Go,Be Thankful that it is"
How True

[Pam]

Originally posted by delidog
O.k. Now I'm afraid....I still have my Album Collection...(Stored and Filed Alphabetically) a Total of almost 5,000 albums!!!!:rolleyes:
What do I do with them now?!?!?!?

We sold all of ours about 5 years ago at a yard sale. I guess there were maybe 100-200. They had been sitting in the basement for a few years and I got tired of looking at them. The same person bought all of them. :eek: Maybe he knows something I don't know! :confused:

[Rachel]

Pam, on HGTV I saw that guy from Collector Inspector buy some albums at this garage sale. I think it's probably the album covers that people collect rather than thinking they will play the records.

You probably could have made some money selling them at a flea market or something, but who wants to go to that effort, not me. Leave it to the people who do that for a living.

[Andie]

2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with color ed sugar water (You can still get those around here)

3. Candy cigarettes (these too)

4. Soda pop machines that dispensed bottles (for 5 cents)

11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (Olive-6933) (ok I don't remeber that but I do remember just having to dail 4 numbers)

12. Peashooters (We have one of those somewhere)

14. 45 RPM records (Yep they're in the bottom drawer of Mom and Dad's entertainment center)

17. Metal ice trays with lever (For the first six years of my life I thought that was the only kind of ice tray)

22. Cork popguns (I had a friend's brother who ran around with one in each hand)

23. Drive-ins (Remeber going to a couple)

25. Wash tub wringers (These are still in our laundramat)

I also remember being the remote control after I was mobile as a child.

pssst.... we still have 2 turntables and an 8 track player in this house.

[emily_the_spoiled]

If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age...

Okay, this is making me feel REALLY old. I just had a birthday a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't think I was "old". Hey a couple of days before my birthday I was asked for ID at an airport bar in Nashville (and it wasn't policy to ask everyone), so I figured I was doing OK. This is not good...

[catland]

regarding ice cube trays.

A few years ago my nieces were visiting and they wanted a drink of water. First they stared at the refridgerator, looking for the water dispenser. (I do have lots of junk on my refridgerator).

Once they realized that they had to get the water from the sink :eek: they wanted ice. I opened the freezer and handed them the ice cube tray (the plastic kind that you twist), and received the same blank expression.


too funny:D :D

[moosmom]

OMG,

More memories!!! I remember the wax coke bottles with the sugar liquid inside, and the candy cigarettes! I used to make believe that I was "moking". Then they came out with bubblegum cigarettes. It was bubblegum wrapped in cigarette paper. If you blew threw the end, white powder would come out, making it look like it was smoke.

I also remember manual typewriters. I worked at a newspaper when I was 18 and that's all they had. We had to use paper with a bazillion sheets of carbon paper!!! That was back in 1972.

I also remember McDonald's selling hamburgers (loooooong before drive-thru) and cheeseburgers for 15 cents and 20 cents.

Thanks RICHARD. Now I really feel older than dirt!!!