ARE YOU?? Older Than Dirt?

[BMT (RIP)]

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...

[alright4u]

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?

[Slantwire]

Originally Posted by alright4u

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.

[Sten]

A tube tester.

[Rogue]

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???

[Sdiver]

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.

[longrange1947]

Originally Posted by Rogue

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???

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?

[mojaveman]

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.

[Sdiver]

Originally Posted by longrange1947

What was Howdy Doody's sister's name?

Heidi


What was his Twin Brother's name?

[jlcoad]

Originally Posted by Sdiver

Heidi


What was his Twin Brother's name?

Was it Dandy Doody?

How many freckles did Howdy have and why?

[greenberetTFS]

25 out of 25..........

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......

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

[Sdiver]

Originally Posted by jlcoad

Was it Dandy Doody?

How many freckles did Howdy have and why?

No, sorry, not Dandy.


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

Originally Posted by Sdiver

Heidi


What was his Twin Brother's name?

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

[PSM]

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