showing your age...

[lvpets2002]

You all know of those Bigg Fat Pickles that are $1.00 to $2.00 now == Well I can remember them at a .05 cents.. And on for another .05 cents you could have 5 pieces of candy.. It was called penny candy.. Also I can remember BirthControl Pills at .75 cents for a whole month.. Thought it was hwy robbery when they was $1.25 a month pack.. Hey this is all fun..

[kokopup]

Post by BenniesMom

Great thread....

Not to add to the pile but....
Who had a Polaroid camera?

When I went through Navy Basic training in 1958 they were fairly new. I bought one at the PX and started taking pictures of other recruits in their uniform. In no time I was sending my friend to buy film. In just one afternoon I paid for my camera. I had a line of sailors around 100 feet long. I would snap a picture and pull the picture from the camera. While I was taking the next picture my friend was waving the one I pull from the camera,in the air, to develop it faster. We had quite an assembly line going.

[kokopup]

Originally Posted by pomtzu View Post

Remember when drug stores were drug stores, and not mini Walmarts? And of course every one had a soda fountain where you could sit down at the counter and get sodas, shakes and sundaes.

My best memories as a kid was going to Mr Wombles drug store for the fountain drinks. I loved the "Vanilla Coke","Cherry Coke" and the real squeezed fountain "lime aid".

Today the only way to know if you are in a drug store or not is to look for the tire section. If there are tires then you are probably in Walmart. The Walgreens and Rite Aids must do alright though because you see one on every corner.

[blue]

Me too. It was a little more expensive in Florida but it got cheaper and cheaper as we headed further west.

Alaska refines our own oil into gas and heating oil yet we had some of the highest prices during the fuel crisis. Its wierd.

[blue]

Does anybody recall an item that we used to call a "typewriter?"

My stepdad still has one, and he still uses it.

[blue]

Uh oh. I'll just bet there is no one who remembers having to get off the couch, walk across the room, and turn the knob in order to change channels.

I was the remote control, I learned numbers before I could read.

[blue]

Great thread....

Not to add to the pile but....
Who had a Polaroid camera?

My mom used to get very pissed at my stepdad and the polaroid camera.

[Medusa]

I was the remote control.

Now that's funny!

[pomtzu]

My mom used to get very pissed at my stepdad and the polaroid camera.

I'm not even going to ask you to elaborate on that statement.......

[pomtzu]

Have you seen the movie about Rocky Point - You Have To Be This Tall? I saw it when I visited my brother in East Greenwich a few years ago. Boy, the memories it brought back. It's available on DVD now.

Thanks for that info. I definitely will send for it.

[mruffruff]

I remember, too. Maybe too much!

We had an outhouse when I was about 7. It got real cold in the upper Michigan winters and smelly in the summer, so we didn't spend much time out there. Baths were Saturday night in the kitchen. Mom hauled the water from the pump next door on a wagon and heated it on the wood stove.

My brother & I were sent out to scour the edge of the roadway to collect bottles to turn in at the nearby store so the parents could afford cigarettes.

Dad had a shop where he fiddled with electronics. We had an oscilloscope to watch before there was a TV station in our area. Later, he repaired other people's TVs and finally got one of our own. All of the programs looked like they were being done in snowstorms.

We didn't have a phone for a long time. When we finally got one, it was a party line. We only had three numbers, no exchange.

Mom & Dad built the house I grew up in. The neighbors brought their dray horses over and pulled the logs from the woods so they could be stripped and slotted to fit. I remember using a two handled knife to strip the bark off the pine trees. Lard was the only thing that got the sap off your hands.

The big city of Marquette was 5 miles away. The school bus stopped right in front so I didn't have to walk "uphill both ways". Mom spoiled me in the winter by putting my socks on before I got out of bed because the wood stove wasn't hot yet. And she made me Coco-Wheats (chocolate flavored farina) in a glass so I could drink it before school. I still have a box of Coco-Wheats in my cupboard but I don't think they sell them anymore.

It was a good life, although I didn't realize it then. It certainly made me appreciate running water and central heat

[Willow Oak]

We had an outhouse when I was about 7. It got real cold in the upper Michigan winters and smelly in the summer, so we didn't spend much time out there.

I caught the tail end of the outhouse era. I've often wondered how folks in the upper regions got along during that time -- especially in the dead of winter.

I know that when I was very young there was not even an outhouse in some cases. We would go to a country church. There was a pump in front of the church if you needed a drink of water; and a path behind the church if you needed to ...

Dad had a shop where he fiddled with electronics. We had an oscilloscope to watch before there was a TV station in our area. Later, he repaired other people's TVs and finally got one of our own. All of the programs looked like they were being done in snowstorms.

I recall the man coming over and changing out the tubes in the TV. Then later on you could go to 7-11 and test your tubes there or buy new ones.

[Medusa]

I caught the tail end of the outhouse era. I've often wondered how folks in the upper regions got along during that time -- especially in the dead of winter.

I know that when I was very young there was not even an outhouse in some cases. We would go to a country church. There was a pump in front of the church if you needed a drink of water; and a path behind the church if you needed to ...



I recall the man coming over and changing out the tubes in the TV. Then later on you could go to 7-11 and test your tubes there or buy new ones.

Oh my gosh, yes! Testing tubes! I totally forgot about that.

As for outhouses, my sisters grew up resenting me because by the time I came along, we had indoor plumbing. One summer when I was a teenager, Dad took us (mom, one of my friends and me) to a cabin in the woods for a "vacation". (Groan.) I asked him if the bathroom was inside and he said "yes" so I figured all was ok. When we got there, I looked for the bathroom and said "Ok, where is it?" He said "Where is what?" "THE BATHROOM!" I answered. He pointed to the outhouse and I said "You lied to me! You told me it was inside!" He said "It is inside. It's inside that building right out there." My eyeballs were floating by the time we got home because I was stubborn and I think I used it only once.

[Willow Oak]

Some of you may or may not have such a recollection of running hot water into your kitchen sink, filling it with dirty dishes, and then scrubbing said dishes by hand. I say that because although I do have an automatic dish washer I have never used it.

Also, this summer will complete four years since I bought Willow Oak. The clothes-line poles and line are still intact behind the house. I have never used the clothes-line here -- I use an electric dryer, of course -- but well do I recall the days of watching my mother hang the clothes out back to dry.

[Randi]

Medusa, your post bring back memories.... a half an hour before I had to get up, my dad lit up the stove (that took petroleum, and I believe coal when I was real little), and put my clothes in front of it. I have always hated getting up early, so every trick counted.

When I grew up, there was no hot water coming out of the tap, no, we had to boil a keddle of water if we wanted it hot! Sometime in the 70ties, my parents got a gas heater above the sink - what a luxury!

WO, I still don't have a dishwasher, I wash up by hand - and it's really not that hard, unless you have dinnerguests. I would much prefer a washing machine, but then, I have the laundrette everyone in the building use down in the cellar 2 min away. You really should try air drying your clothes, it's so much better!