Older than Dirt, Yup I am I guess growing up in the country and all
Mar 29, 2015 19:33:51 #
Growing up in the country this is what life really was about, shame so many things have changed, guess we are just lucky we lived through it.
JIM WRITES,'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 'athome,'' 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, never wore Levis, never set foot on a golf course, never 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 19.
It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.
I was 21 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called '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.
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.MY GRANDPARENTS RING WAS 3 SHORTS ,A LONG & A SHORT. IF THE CALL WAS IMPORTANT, THE RECIPIENT WENT TO TOWN TO A PHONE BOOTH TO KEEP ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE FROM LEARNING YOUR BUSINESS.
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, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6AM 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. & MY DAD WOULD ALWAYS SAY WHO THE HELL WOULD CHEAT A KID OUT OF HIS FEW CENTS HE GOT FOR BEING THEIR PAPER BOY, & THEIR WAS A BUNCH, SPECIFICALLY GUYS WHO WERE DRAFTED & JUST CAME TO THE AREA LONG ENOUGH TO GET THE PAPER FOR A FEW WEEKS AND BE DEPLOYED.
Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most 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 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 jukeboxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines on the telephone
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...[if you were fortunate])
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15.S&H green stamps
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 some of the best parts of my life.
Don't forget to pass this along!!
Especially to all your really OLD friends.
JIM WRITES,'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 'athome,'' 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, never wore Levis, never set foot on a golf course, never 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 19.
It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.
I was 21 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called '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.
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.MY GRANDPARENTS RING WAS 3 SHORTS ,A LONG & A SHORT. IF THE CALL WAS IMPORTANT, THE RECIPIENT WENT TO TOWN TO A PHONE BOOTH TO KEEP ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE FROM LEARNING YOUR BUSINESS.
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, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6AM 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. & MY DAD WOULD ALWAYS SAY WHO THE HELL WOULD CHEAT A KID OUT OF HIS FEW CENTS HE GOT FOR BEING THEIR PAPER BOY, & THEIR WAS A BUNCH, SPECIFICALLY GUYS WHO WERE DRAFTED & JUST CAME TO THE AREA LONG ENOUGH TO GET THE PAPER FOR A FEW WEEKS AND BE DEPLOYED.
Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most 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 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 jukeboxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines on the telephone
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...[if you were fortunate])
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15.S&H green stamps
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 some of the best parts of my life.
Don't forget to pass this along!!
Especially to all your really OLD friends.
Mar 29, 2015 21:04:59 #
Security systems were different too. You locked the door and then put the key in a key box mounted on the wall. To get the key, you lifted the front panel of the key box and took the key. No fancy security codes. No one ever broke in or stole anything. Besides, your key fit nearly all the houses in the neighborhood.
I am older than dirt.
I am older than dirt.
Mar 29, 2015 21:31:44 #
Flyerace wrote:
Security systems were different too. You locked the door and then put the key in a key box mounted on the wall. To get the key, you lifted the front panel of the key box and took the key. No fancy security codes. No one ever broke in or stole anything. Besides, your key fit nearly all the houses in the neighborhood.
I am older than dirt.
I am older than dirt.
You had a key? Our first house had a wood latch, the nearest neighbor was 3/4 of a mile away, young Cory Gilbertson ( I think) the County Sheriff. We were pretty darn safe back then. The local Indians would come to grandmas house as she was on the road looking for any work or hand me downs. Too bad a person cant go back in time, I liked it a lot better then than now.
Mar 30, 2015 02:51:33 #
Black Bart
Loc: Indiana
bodacious wrote:
Growing up in the country this is what life really... (show quote)
I remember all those things but some did not come along until I was married. 45 rpm records was new we had 78 NO ice cube trays because there were no refrigerator but we had the ice man came every day delivered ice for the ice box. NO indoor bathroom Dad listened to the radio TV had not been invented yet.
You are not so old. :mrgreen:
I forgot to say I owned 2 Packard's and a Studebaker.
The Packard was a great car. I drove a Packard while dating my wife.
Mar 30, 2015 08:07:12 #
Another fun "old" memory was the appearance of the first Volkswagens with the engine in the rear.
Mar 30, 2015 08:34:54 #
Mar 30, 2015 10:58:53 #
I am older than dirt and it is actually my birthday today. I'm 56. I love #19 about the blue flash bulbs. Brought back a very funny happening in my younger years.
My Mom used to have an old camera (forgot what brand) but it had an attachment for the flash. It was the flash that you had to pop bulbs into that were about the size of a golf ball. They were blue of silver and had all sorts of thin wire wound inside. One day we all at a concert and the women in front of my Mom had the big hairdo. My Mom took a picture and the lady screamed "My hair is on fire! My hair is on fire!" Well, of course her hair wasn't, but you sure could feel the heat from that flash bulb. Both my parent's have passed (Both in 2010) but we still laugh at that story. Cheers.
My Mom used to have an old camera (forgot what brand) but it had an attachment for the flash. It was the flash that you had to pop bulbs into that were about the size of a golf ball. They were blue of silver and had all sorts of thin wire wound inside. One day we all at a concert and the women in front of my Mom had the big hairdo. My Mom took a picture and the lady screamed "My hair is on fire! My hair is on fire!" Well, of course her hair wasn't, but you sure could feel the heat from that flash bulb. Both my parent's have passed (Both in 2010) but we still laugh at that story. Cheers.
Mar 30, 2015 14:38:53 #
Really enjoyed this trip down memory lane! Yes, I'm older than dirt. :thumbup: :lol:
Mar 30, 2015 15:24:35 #
I like the part about security, on the dairy farm we had and I grew up on, had a loaded 12 ga double barrel hanging above the back door. Everybody knew most farms had loaded guns and they weren't meant for the 2 legged varmints but the four legged ones that might kill and eat your chickens or our calves. I'm sure this deterred the other kind.
71 years young.
71 years young.
Mar 30, 2015 21:26:09 #
OldEarl
Loc: Northeast Kansas
After school. I am out in the drainage ditch tracking a weasel--big enough from the tracks to be a badger or wolverine, not big enough for a lawyer--with my dog. It turned out to be one of the smaller weasels and had stripes so I end up chaining the dog to the fence so I can shampoo her with tomato juice--that's three less quarts my grandmother is going to make us drink.
I "helped" my grandfather with the Grange booth at the county fair so I collected the RC and Nehi bottles the customers left around and got about six bucks on deposits for bottles and wood cases.
I am supposed to know how to track game because my grandfather was a tracker for the sheriff.
At age 7 he taught me to use a pocket knife and hand axe. At ten he taught me to pop a bull whip--I didn't have to master it because my uncles got him a tractor to replace the horses he could no longer rent. I gave up on the whip when the teacher asked about the welts on my neck.
My dad finally got a professor job and we moved away. My grandparents came to visit us on an airplane. This was a man who had driven six hand of horses before he started buying trucks and prospering until the end of 1933 when they repealed the Volstead act and his business went bankrupt over a two year period. He did what he could but that Christmas in 1958 when I would walk with him and he would tell stories from before he married in 1910 but had no idea where we were. In the following march he had a visit from the old man's friend--pneumonia. I had so much to learn that I did not have time for.
Yesterday while shaving, I saw him once more. He was there in the mirror except the hair was white--two generations of European women erased the black hair that did not begin to turn until he turned 75.
Yes, I have become older than dirt.
I "helped" my grandfather with the Grange booth at the county fair so I collected the RC and Nehi bottles the customers left around and got about six bucks on deposits for bottles and wood cases.
I am supposed to know how to track game because my grandfather was a tracker for the sheriff.
At age 7 he taught me to use a pocket knife and hand axe. At ten he taught me to pop a bull whip--I didn't have to master it because my uncles got him a tractor to replace the horses he could no longer rent. I gave up on the whip when the teacher asked about the welts on my neck.
My dad finally got a professor job and we moved away. My grandparents came to visit us on an airplane. This was a man who had driven six hand of horses before he started buying trucks and prospering until the end of 1933 when they repealed the Volstead act and his business went bankrupt over a two year period. He did what he could but that Christmas in 1958 when I would walk with him and he would tell stories from before he married in 1910 but had no idea where we were. In the following march he had a visit from the old man's friend--pneumonia. I had so much to learn that I did not have time for.
Yesterday while shaving, I saw him once more. He was there in the mirror except the hair was white--two generations of European women erased the black hair that did not begin to turn until he turned 75.
Yes, I have become older than dirt.
Mar 31, 2015 00:20:43 #
Guess I'm older than dirt, remember them all. When i was about eight or nine years old I saw the last horse pulling the milk wagon keel over right down the corner from my house (yes, we were actually outside playing). That was the last horse to pull a delivery wagon in Philadelphia. Some good memories. Thanks.
Mar 31, 2015 01:43:11 #
More years ago than I care to remember, I went to stay in a village in Suffolk, England. I got a real bollocking from the locals because I locked my car! Did I think they were thieves or something? In this day & age I wouldn't leave my car for 10 seconds without locking it!
Houses were left unlocked. The rent man walked in through the front door, and picked up the rent money which had been left on the kitchen table. The insurance man, the gas man also collected their money which had been left on the kitchen table. If you wanted to borrow a cup of sugar, you went into your neighbour's house, helped yourself to their sugar, and left an IOU note. You took great care to return the sugar asap. In those days, people could be trusted.
How times have changed.
By the way, what is this dirt - this thing which is younger than me?
pc39
Houses were left unlocked. The rent man walked in through the front door, and picked up the rent money which had been left on the kitchen table. The insurance man, the gas man also collected their money which had been left on the kitchen table. If you wanted to borrow a cup of sugar, you went into your neighbour's house, helped yourself to their sugar, and left an IOU note. You took great care to return the sugar asap. In those days, people could be trusted.
How times have changed.
By the way, what is this dirt - this thing which is younger than me?
pc39
Apr 1, 2015 13:24:39 #
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