bahmer

Someone 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 'home,'' I explained. !

'Mom cooked every day and when Dad 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 lad 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'd figured his system could have handled it:


Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore jeans, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card.


My parents never drove me to school... 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 15.

It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at 10 PM, after playing the national anthem and epilogue; it came back on the air at about 6 am. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people...


Pizzas were not delivered to our home... But milk was.


All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers -- My
brother delivered a newspaper, seven days a week. He
had to get up at 6
every morning.


Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the films. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or almost anything offensive.


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 recently) and he brought me an old lemonade bottle.

In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter 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?
Headlight dip-switches on the floor of the car.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Trouser leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn indicators.


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


1. Sweet cigarettes
2. Coffee shops with juke
boxes
3. Home milk delivery in glass bottles
4. Party lines on
the telephone
5. Newsreels before the movie
6. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show
and were there until TV shows started again in the morning.

(There were only 2 channels [if you were fortunate] )
7. Peashooters

8. 33
rpm records
9. 45 RPM records
10. Hi-fi's

11. Metal
ice trays with levers
12. Blue flashbulb
13. Cork popguns
14. Wash
tub wringers


If you remembered 0-3 = You're still young

If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older

If you remembered 7-10 = Don't tell your age

If you remembered 11-14 = You're positively ancient!


I must be 'positively ancient' but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.


Don't forget to pass this along!

Especially to all your really OLD
friends....I just did!


(PS. I used a large type face so you could read it easily)

Bcon

Amen to all of it. No regrets at all.

no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun

I can remember 11, guess I am THAT old. We used a wringer washer until I was in high school. I still have a box of 45 and 33 records, haven't wanted to throw them out. Finally gave the metal ice cube trays to Salvation Army when we moved here, and wish I still had them, they worked much better than the plastic ones.

SWMBO

bahmer

I remembered all the way through to #14 but I bet that badbobby can remember that and beyond at 92.

Common_Sense_Matters

Sorry, I may fall into the category but I refuse to consider myself "positively ancient".





Edit: Milk was NOT the only thing the milkman delivered, we got orange juice that way too. A little metal box on front porch and each morning there was milk AND orange juice waiting for us in that box and a paper somewhere on the porch or in the yard, dependent on how well the kid aimed and threw.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

I'm still young at heart.

BTW, if 'sweet cigarettes' are the same as candy cigarettes...I remember 'em all.

Bcon

That is the only way to be. Never give in.

bahmer

Yup they were candy cigarettes and I remembered them all as well badbobby can remember all 14 and beyond I am sure.

Hug

Bahmer, did you work a team of horses in the field?

bahmer

Not that I can recall I didn't.

badbob85037

Does anyone remember the Spud Gun? You cocked it by shoving the end of the barrel into a spud but carrots made it sting more than a potato.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

I have vague memories of The Spud Gun, but myself and the kids I hung out with used slingshots. Most of them were homemade. Chinaberries were a common form of ammo.

bahmer

Chinaberries are supposed to be poisonous are they not? Would they not cause the same condition if they broke the skin and somehow got into the bloodstream?

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

I don't recall losing many victims to our marksmanship. Anyway, we always used the hard, green, not-yet-ripened berries. They caused more pain.

bahmer

I am not familiar with the Chinaberries as they do not grow this far north as far as I know.I hap to look them up on the internet and they said that they are native to Iraq and Texas is about as hot as Iraq I suppose so that makes sense to me. But the article said that the bark and leaves as well as the berries were toxic to humans and animals.