I'm old enough to remember when ...

I'm 70 and remember all of that stuff. I grew up with a crank phone between ranches. 2 longs and a short.
We didnt get roatary phones until 1962 and I climbed 60 miles of telephone poles "repping" for the family ranches and building the lines to ATT specs. We turned it all over to ATT for a $1.00
Every call we made until 2001 was a long distance call.
Rode a horse to school between ranches for the first 4 years.
We left the house open and the gas tank open in case we weren't home and somebody needed to use the phone or gas.
 
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Lee, grandpa would be at least 83 years old.
Clarence Birdseye first perfected freezing food in 1923 (that would put gramps at about 90), however, it wasn't until 1930 that Postum (Gen. Foods) actually had frozen veges on the market, putting gramps at about 83 years old.

I vaguely remember doing a school report on CB back in elementary school.
 
I remember when-
drug stores had soda fountains.

there were NO color TV programs.

there was a milkman.

Stanley products were sold door-to-door. Did your mom use the amber glue in a bottle with a brush afixed to the lid?

dry cleaning was picked up and delivered.

the owner of our grocery store was there, wearing an apron.

attendants at the bigger gas stations actually wore bow ties.

$2 worth of gas was a legitimate purchase, and they checked your oil and tires and cleaned the windshield. They checked the water if you asked.

tires were balanced with a bubble.

cars had grease fittings.

I remember my mom shopping for a big holiday meal at our house for numerous relatives. The tab was a little over $50, and she came home and cried! She had never spent that much on food, and she only went grocery shopping once a week.

the first Waffle House opened.

the only Phillips screwdriver was what we now call the #2.

I saw my first canned biscuits (cardboard tube)(NOT even close to equaling Mom's)

nobody asked or cared if a kid was buying 22 ammo.

kids in grade school often had a pocketknife.

a 12 year old could ride a bus across Atlanta ALONE.

if a cop shot somebody, the FIRST assumption the whole world made was that he probably needed shootin.

grownups that whined constantly were shunned by most other grownups. Maybe that's because they had just won WW II after surviving The Depression.
 
TV went off the air at night after playing the National Anthem to a waving flag background then the test pattern until the next morning.

Gas pumps only went up to $9.99, I still remember the first time I saw one roll over to $0.00, couldn't imagine anything taking 10 dollars worth of gas.
 
Our daughters tell us constantly that the wife and I live in "Pleasantville".

Life is a choice. If you choose to live in the 21st century, so be it.

We choose Pleasantville,,,,,

Yea, things cost more, but, income is up too.

We have no cell service at our home, neighbors sit on the porch in the summer, and wave.

The wife makes bread at least once a month, the garden is great.

We choose a walk down the driveway over a trip to a bar;

DSC_00441024x749.jpg
 
I used to get a set of steak knives or a ball point pen from the local gas station for being a loyal customer. That was typically right after I pulled in and got something like a burned out headlight replaced, including installation, for something like $4.


We didn't have a "Milk Man" who delivered milk. But we drove up to the counter and asked the clerk for whatever we wanted (Milk, butter, cheese etc). The cows that made the stuff were a few yards away on the other side of the fence.


I can remember when my family bought a stand alone, upright freezer. We went to the grocery store and bought two shopping carts full of meat, frozen veggies etc for the new freezer. Box Boys were betting on the total cost of the "biggest order they'd ever seen". It was $35.


Sgt Lumpy
 
penny candy

.05 cent candy bar

going to JC Penny, Sears, Montgomery Wards was a treat and they closed at 5:00pm during the week and they had catalogs that you could buy whatever you wanted.

no fast food joints

store clerk knew you by name and you could carry a note there till payday

getting your you know what whopped by the principle and not crying about it.

playing outside

taking a cold bath when it was hot out.

no worries or cares when you were a kid

settling any disputes with your fist.

playing baseball with no helmet.

walking to school over a mile and the school didn't have AC

S&H Green Stamps
 
In my early youth I remember I had a Western Flyer sled and a Western Auto bicycle.

Scrap metal drives for the war effort.

Ration books to buy food,gas or shoes.

Walter Winchell "Hello Mr and Mrs America and all Ships at Sea."

Horses plowed the sidewalk. Salt was spread at the intersections of streets with a man on the back of a dump truck throwing it around with a scoop shovel.

Air raid sirens going off and the dog howling under the bed.

Arm guards at the gates and towers of Kodak and Baush and Lomb factories.

Guards around the water reservoir.

Little flags in peoples front windows with a star in the middle showing they had someone in the military. Two colors I think gold and red. One meant they were alive and the other they had been killed.

Men selling vegetables off a flat bed truck going door to door.

Coal tuck dumping coal through the cellar window in the coal bin.
We burnt Coke cheaper than coal.

Lots to remember during WW2
 
growing up in the 1940's/50's the whole outdoors was our play ground from morning until supper time.....no one ever feared of being abducted, molested or shot..........

dinner every night with all the family at the table
cakes, pies were made from scratch by mom with fruit picked from the trees in the back yard...

"reality" TV consisted of ...two ton baker the music maker, lunch with uncle johnny coons........
 
vytoland said:
dinner every night with all the family at the table
Click to expand...

...and at our house it was always "May I be excused from the table" when dinner was finished. I also remember saying Yes Sir, No Sir to my father even while in High School.

Nobody had to tell us kids to Play 60 Minutes a Day...we usually stayed out until the street lights came on.

NFL.com - Play60
 
I scares the jeebers out of me when I think about all the things I was able to do in my years from grade school to age twenty-five that are impossible today. When I went to High School in the early 1980's you could:
-bring a pocket knife to school and the teacher would ask to use it, not confiscate it and call the police
-Have your deer rifle in the car so you could change into hunting gear in the school bathroom and catch the last two hours of hunting time after school.
-have elementary students walk several blocks to a bus stop and stand there waiting for the schoolbus. Today they pick-up at every corner or have a designated parent to guard the kids.
-hang out on a street corner just to talk and watch what was going on. Now the only kids on street corners are drug dealers or gang bangers.
-fill up your car, get a big bag a potato chips and a six pack of Coke and still get change from a $20
-Have a field party "kegger" where you stood around a fire drinking Old Milwaukee (yuck) from a red solo cup while listening to Led Zeppelin blasting from someones car stereo. -plinking in the woods, at old strip mines and dumps.
-Local cops who would see you had a burned out taillight and just tell you to get it fixed instead of writing you a ticket and demanding to search your vehicle.
-GC Murphy, Woolworths, Mc Crory's, W.T.Grant, Ames, and other cool stores that all had different inexpensive stuff.
 
Texas40 said:
Rotary phones

Party line phones that you had to make sure no one was on when calling out and had to know your ring from everyone else's

Black and white TV and getting our first color TV

Watching the moon landing on TV.

Having to adjust the rabbit ears on said TV

Walking down main street in your town carrying a bb gun or a 22 and no one freaking out about it.

25cent a gallon gas.
Click to expand...

I remember all of these... and miss them!
 
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