ARE YOU?? Older Than Dirt?
 

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 'at 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 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 handled 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 & 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 5.
It was, of course, black and white,

I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it wascalled '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 4. It was an old
black Dodge.
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.
Pizzaswere not delivered to our home. But milk was.
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered
newspapers my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents
a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at6AM every morning. On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his
customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told
him to keep the change. His 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 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?

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 colored sugar
water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that
dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke
boxes
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. 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 3 channels)
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S& H greenstamps
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!

I might be
older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.


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

Re: Older then dirt.
 

24 of 25.

Remember using playing cards attached with clothes pins on your bicycle spokes to make it sound like a motorcycle?

How about that home entertainment center called a radio that was a large wooden furniture piece. If you were lucky- your dad let you listen.

Remember going with your father to get a winow replaced? The man cut a piece of glass with a simple tool called a glass cutter.

You went to the butcher to get your meat cut daily if your family was well off. The butcher in the store always had aged sharp cheese that he cut a slice off for the kids.

Anyone remember a candy that was red hot and ping pong ball size? Not jaw breakers?

Atomic Fireballs? Those are still made. Unless you mean something different.

A tube tester.

25 of 25......
Do any of you remeber when the TV didn't work, taking the glass tubes out and taking them to the department store, where you plugged them into a testing board and then found the bad tube and bought the replacement tube and fixed the TV yourself???

20 - 25

There should be an addendum to this one.....

11. 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 3 channels).....

....and before the channel went off the air, they played the our National Anthem.

Yep the tube tester asked about by Sten. Got 25 of 25 and remembered everythign asked so far. And I am young compared to soem of the oldies here.

That story was the story of my life. I remember going to the one kids house every afternoon to watch Howdy Doody and Claribell on the only TV in the neighborhood. What was Howdy Doody's sister's name? :D

I'm only in my mid 40s but I can remember a time when nobody drove Japanese cars because there weren't any.

Weekends at my Grandfather's house. He had a TV. Two shows that I especially remember were, The Lone Ranger and a circus show. The spinning plates were my favorite act.

Taking the bus to school that took an hour and a half if you were first on and last off. You didn't know what a snow day was, even if the trip was delayed and you only were there for half a day.

The gas pump for your farm machinery had a glass cylinder on top with graduations on the side.

Heidi :lifter


What was his Twin Brother's name?
:munchin

Was it Dandy Doody?

How many freckles did Howdy have and why?

25 out of 25..........:p

Do you remember Princes Summerfall Winterspring? They also showed those fat guys that were called the "tons of fun" boys when they went to those old time movies......How about that crusty old guy Mr Fillabuster......:rolleyes:

Remember going to the "war surplus store" just after WW2 and getting all sorts of stuff.....I had a pilot hat that had special ear covers and straps that I had no idea what they were used for...... ;)

Big Teddy :munchin

No, sorry, not Dandy.


Freckles.....48. One for each state in the union at the time the show started.

According to my classmates, it was Howard Cohodas. Even my mother said I looked like him. Oh my.

The funny thing about Captain Kangaroo was watching a young actor using makeup to look older in the '50s grow into the role over the years.

I seem to recall something like a "Magic Screen" transparent plastic sheet that we put on the TV screen and drew on with a crayon to reveal a picture.

Seem like yesterday. :(

Pat

Winky Dink

I believe he was Double Doody. :lifter :p

Magic Screen, had one and you had to draw on it to find the next episodes secret message, much like the magic decoder ring. :D

Perhaps, but I never watched Winky Dink. Maybe the Captain copied the idea. :confused:

I never heard of WD until today.

Pat

Yes Atomic Fireballs.
 

Read where they make them again. I think Michigan?

Made a bad choice one time to draw on the screen without the "magic screen" attached. I think my mother actually broke the wooden spoon on my back side on that fateful occasion.....

More TV nostalgia:

• Five Fingers
• The Third Man
• Zorro
• Annette Funicello

I not only remember taking the tubes in, but also remember going to the shoe store and after getting MY shoes which took 3 minutes max , having to wait for my sisters to get their shoes (which could take FOREVER - in kid time). While killing time, I'd stand on the big machine, stick my feet into the slots at the bottom, and watch my feet, with shoes around them on the "fluoroscope"! Wiggle my toes, move my feet - heck, I could entertain myself for a long time. Couple that with running behind the DDT fogging truck pretending I was in London, and I guess I am lucky to be alive!

I was thrilled when we moved to Phoenix lonnnng ago. Phoenix had the three network stations AND an "independent" channel - Channel 5, KPHO. No more "President on all 3 channels"!

Oh, yeah - 25/25... older than dirt. :)

In Junior High I worked as a stock boy in a shoe store. In the back we had one of the old Buster Brown fluoroscopes. I tried my damnedest to get that thing to work. I had big plans for the Science Fair. :eek: :D

Pat

19/25 But I sorta forget. . . somethings, sometimes.
Here is my trick for staying young-ish. (I think 45 is youngish).
When you're 45, talk your Reason For Living into having a baby boy. (Or did MRFL trick me into it? Maybe she just took the initiative -- with ME! Shad-dup, you!).
Call baby boy Little Dude. As he grows up teach him to play/love baseball, BoyScouts, School. (Notice you will play.love everything else he does.)
Then, since you have a really great job to do, just stop having Birthdays until he graduated from college. Piece of cake.:D

That 46/66 birthday in 2023 is going to be a little tough, might not be pretty.

Rembering when
 

The furniture sized radio...we sat around in the evenings. Amos & Andy, Jack Benny etc.

Finally got a black & white TV. Watched A-bomb tests, Ed Sullivan etc. My favorite show..."I led 3 lives".

Hand crank telephone with party line. Everyone on the road knew what was going on.

Hand crank clothes washer and of course wash board for the big sink.

Jeans with the cuffs about 6 inches high...guess I was supposed to grow into them.

Duck tail hair cut.

Box of long rifles for 50 cents.

No one locked their house.

Counter checks at the stores.

Diesl 13 cents, by the barrel

You are correct Sir !!!!! :p