What do you miss these days?

Like Handejector, I too miss the old, 6 oz. Cokes. I've tried the Mexican variety...and it's not the same. It's "better"...but not the same.

Ferrilmerril hit the jackpot again. He and I are about the same age, and through a long association with this forum have found that we have a number of things in common.

The "old" Coke would burn and sting so much you could not hold it in your mouth. The current stuff is nothing like that. I believe the old stuff would take the chrome off an automobile bumper..(back when they "had" chrome on them. See, showing my age again.)

I also miss that grape soda called Grapette, it was from Camden, Arkansas and I don't know if it was national. It had a grape flavor that was like manna from heaven. I picked up a bottle of it at a Wally a couple of years ago...and it was not the same.

Why can't they just leave these things alone? They were great the way they were first conceived, then they try to "improve" it, and they screw the pooch.

Popsicles were another thing from the 40s that are just not the same today. The orange flavor original "Popsicle" was the benchmark from which all others should be judged. It's just not the same today.

Dentyne gum back then was better than it is today. It's like chewing a piece of plastic now!

What about BlackJack, Clove and Beeman gum. I believe they were made by a company named Adams. Recent replicas of these are produced periodically,....but again....not the same.

Remember the James and Triumph brit motorcycles back in the fifties? Yes, there are some hot bikes now....but none could bring a smile to your face like these old treasures.

How about those wonderful Mossberg .22 rifles from the 40s and 50s? These were just the greatest, went out of style for a while, and are now being appreciated again.

Last but not least, those post war, 1946 vintage Piper aircraft, the J3, PA11 and PA12 brought smiles to the faces of more fledgling aviators than anything before or since.

Ah, for the good old days.
 
I remember taking my lunch money (two bits) and walking down to the local Gas station, grocery store, that sold guns and bait. Buying a huge baloney sandwich, ( they sliced the baloney to your liking while you watched), a bottle of RC cola, and a sack of bull durhamn, and had change left to by 2 cent milk in the after noon.

We could smoke in school, that is if you were in 7th grade and above, 6th grade and below had to have parents permission.

Also took guns to school and worked on them in shop.

Somebody always managed to store a bullet or two in the furnace.
 
handejector said:
A REAL Coke.
That would be a 6-1/2 oz Coke, in a glass bottle, sweetened with SUGAR, with a crimped on cap you had to have an opener for. It cost 5 cents, unless you kept the bottle for 2 more cents.
Properly chilled, it was the embodiment of satisfaction.
Along about the late 50's, the King-sized Coke came out, and the slide to perdition and the end of the American Way of Life began.......

__________________________________________________

The Soda Fountain in a drug store- marble topped, with stools that swiveled.
Click to expand...

Your bringing a tear to my eye:(
Just a little addition, as kids we discovered the RC Cola which came in a 16 oz bottle, more bang for the buck, then I believe Coke came out with there matching product.

Anybody remember Bireley's, Grape, Orange, Pineapple and Chocolate all non-carbonated, could be a East Coast only product.
 
loutent said:
Speaking of Cokes and "sodas" in general - we had a "gas station" about a block from where we lived. They had the glass bottles of soda stored in a rectangular cooler with cooled (refrigerated) water up to the neck. To buy one, you deposited your nickel or dime and slid the bootle of choice along the metal tracks that held them in place until you reached the end where you pulled it out to complete the purchase. I usually got an orange (being about 7-12 yrs old) but on occasion I pulled a "Moxie" to show I was a "man" and could drink a bitter tasting soft drink. You opened them with an opener mounted to the front.

A nickel bag of chips made everything perfect. Bad eating habits continue to this day :D
Click to expand...

Those chest type soda machines were gone by my time. I remember the upright machines with the tall, narrow door which you would open and pull your soda out. As kids we would try and pull two out at once, although I don't remember that ever working.
 
Campfire Marshmallows, in a box!

Heavy & chewy when 'raw'. But pure heaven when roasted over a family campfire.

Don't agree about most people speaking English. Where I grew up everybody spoke English but just about everyone's parents or grandparents spoke English and German, or Russian, or Polish, or Slovak, or Italian, or.....

At Christmas my Slovak grandmother would wish everyone "Merry Kreetsmoose".

My Italian grandfather never owned a car; it was his machine (I wish I could write his accent into that word). He would tell us to wait "While I getta the machine out of the garage." Turquoise '56 Chevy.

Uncles who played the accordion at family picnics.

As the old folks died I mentioned to my brothers & sisters how sad it was to have those wonderful accents disappear. Then I realized that 40 years from now Vietnamese, Mexican and who knows what else grown kids will be saying the same thing about their parents & grandparents.
 
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Toms'........My neighbors dad back in the early 70's drove a delivery route for Toms. Those peanut bars were the best!!!!!!!
I miss the diversity we had up till the early 80's. The "country" was somewhere we could have fun and the city was where my country cousins came on the weekend to go to the movies and the women would shop. Now strip malls and cookie cutter subdivisions are marring the landscape across America.
I miss real auto parts stores with real men behind the counter who knew their part numbers by heart.
I miss Blue laws.....Sunday was when we did family things. I know blue laws aren't right, but they had a purpose.
I miss 8oz beers. Just the ticket for these hot southern summers. larger beers get hot before you finish them.
I miss being able to go out on the water and enjoy a relaxing afternoon. Now every gold chain juice monkey has a 500hp 40ft boat flying down my once quiet rivers.
 
I remember and miss every thing you guys have already mentioned. I think the end of the good times began when cowboy shows were no longer on Saturday morning tv.
 
Gasoline at 10&1/2 cents for regular and 11&1/2 cents for eythl. Nehi chocolate pop. News reports containing facts in lieu of personal opinions and agendas.
 
Like gutpile charlie said. I had a 46 whizzer motorbike when I was 12. Use to carry a stick of belt dressing in my overalls. A number of other guys rode cushmans. Then I had a CZ or check. First car was a 42 studebaker commander, then a 46 chev followed by a 50 studebaker champion starlight coup. Then moved up to a 56 chev 210 coup. Come west in that one. Charlie, I had and crashed a 1957 piper tri-pacer PA-22. Mine was metalised! Think I had paid $5,000 for it.
Back then I had a lot of older relatives that would still speak german when they got together. In fact several churchs that we went to would hold two services. One in english and one in german.
The schools I went to (one room 8 grades, another two rooms 1-4 and 5-8) were so small that we had several radio teaching programs we had to listen to. Professer Gordon for music we had to sing with, and Ranger Mac where they taught us about nature history and conservation.
We also had some 8th graders that drove a car to school! Remember singing "Old black Joe" in school.
 
I really miss playing sandlot baseball. It seems that we did that every chance that we got. Always riding our bicycles with our baseball gloves hooked through the handlebars. The flat rock was second base, and a ball glove belonging to one of the players on the batting team was first or third base! We used black electrical tape to repair the balls that we ripped the covers off from overuse! Cracked bats got a couple of screws put into them and then got the tape treatment.

I really miss those days. We thought they would never end.


WG840
 
Hank & Casey's Casino Club in Glen Park (Gary, IN) had THE BEST Italian Beef Sandwiches ever made! Mmmmmmmm

I also miss The Pan Head Harley - Rigid Frame and all. Ahhhhhhh Sweet
and
Kick starters
 
As the description reads, my wife and I moved to a much smaller town in Wisconsin. There is a lot of 'old time' things here. Nice people who wave, friendly service at stores and....in nearby Portage WI, there is a drugstore with a soda fountain! A chocolate soda sets you back$1.95.
Inflation ya know....
 
I couldn't have said it better, only that i long for the days with NO cell phones.


DeathGrip said:
Products that were made to last a lifetime,Made in the U.S.A.

Everyone pretty much speaking English.

Manners and respect for others.

Running the neighborhood without a worry in the world.

Holidays like Christmas without some idiot setting off fireworks and Halloween candy by the pillowcase that you could eat and the worst that would happen was a belly ache.

Boyscouts that actually had a mission other than pestering people at the store for a hand out.

Teachers that cared.Tough coaches.Good principals.Moms lunch packed with care.Walking to school.(or at least from the bus stop)

I could go on......I'm only fifty and have seen all of these things go by the wayside.

One more,personal responsibility.

D.G.
Click to expand...
 
They don't make cars anymore that I know how to work on.

There was something quite satisfying about changing the plugs, points, condensor, rotor and cap, or diagnosing a bad spark plug wire or coil.... and getting that V8 to run a little smoother.
 
ChattanoogaPhil;They don't make cars anymore that I know how to work on.

There was something quite satisfying about changing the plugs, points, condensor, rotor and cap, or diagnosing a bad spark plug wire or coil.... and getting that V8 to run a little smoother.
Click to expand...

Phil, maybe you should buy an older vehicle, and restore it. I have been doing that with a 1960 Willys Jeep for the past 5 years. It is very rewarding and therapeautic. A bit of a trip down memory lane as well!


WG840
 
kennyb said:
i have a 1950 coke machine out in the garage...still works just fine...those small cokes can be hard to find and pricey when you do but so correct...they are great!i find them on occasion in the 6 1/2 oz.rarely...more likely in the 8oz.size
Click to expand...

The old coke machines that had the crank when it changed from nickel to a dime if you cranked it fast enough ( 2 times fast) it would get you another bottle. My older brother showed me this and we would do it there @ the old Bohacks/A&P Near the LIRR Station in Massapequa, NY back in the mid 1960's. LOL they were the small bottles.
 
Lee, I was going to say the old 6 1/2 oz. Coke. In the bottles before they had painted letters, and they had the bottler location on the bottom. If you remember these, then you remember the big nasal burp, after drinking one. What do I really miss? Mini skirts, Braless hippie chicks in halter tops, and big, air-cooled 4 cylinder Japanese motorcycles with a comfortable riding position, no fairings and an engine you can see. Hand ejectors, like they used to make. Colt revolvers, remember them? Then, lastly, as most of us would say...Dad.....I miss him most.
 
Real cigarettes, like the old non fire safe Chesterfields. Now that was a smoke, never changed from the 50s. Something like Jack Webb would have smoked.

I miss imported rolling tobacco at good prices too. Used to be that you could get real "Drum" from Holland, not the pale immitation sold today, for less than two dollars. And then there was the Javenese "Jongens" stuff that was pure black and twice as strong. Had to have someone bring me that back from Holland. Just about passed out the first time that I smoked it. Now that was tobacco.

Then there were the old Sobranie Black Russians.Can't get them any more, the tobacco used to be grown aound Sarajevo. Once the war came, they were never the same, nor was the Bosnian tobacco I suppose. I don't think that they are even imported any more.

And those French cigarettes in the little blue packs. Now those were something.

These days the only way left to get a real smoke is to roll up some Prince Albert. A shame really.
 
Growing up in the City.

Standing in line on Saturdays to enter the Strand Theater for the matinee, the line being a block long and the theater packed with all us kids.

Playing tag rush (Football), stick ball, hit the point, kick the can on our playing field, the street.

Checking the mail everyday to see if our little package of frogmen, submarines, soldiers have arrived from Kellogg's.

Selling Grit newspapers and hoping to become wealthy.
Waiting at the square for the Boston Daily Record evening edition to arrive. We were given 20 papers to sell, we made .01 for each sale plus of course any tip we may receive. I always ran into all the Bar rooms, that's where the big tips were given.

Shining shoes in front of the White Tower on Sunday morning, right on the sidewalk with my shine box which was purchased at Morgan Memorial. Had to make a buck in them days, if you wanted spending money. Allowance? Not in my family, wanted money you had to make it yourself.

Just a few things, I could probably go on forever.
Great memories, never to return. Thinking today, seems like I was much happier when I had nothing.
 
handejector said:
A REAL Coke.
That would be a 6-1/2 oz Coke, in a glass bottle, sweetened with SUGAR, with a crimped on cap you had to have an opener for. It cost 5 cents, unless you kept the bottle for 2 more cents.
Properly chilled, it was the embodiment of satisfaction.
Along about the late 50's, the King-sized Coke came out, and the slide to perdition and the end of the American Way of Life began.......

__________________________________________________

The Soda Fountain in a drug store- marble topped, with stools that swiveled.
Click to expand...

Me Too and all the other things that were made with sugar. Corn syrup just doesn't taste the same.
 
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