jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Sometimes, one isn't enough.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

When my father bought his hardware store there was some stationery from the previous owner.
The phone number listed on the letterhead was 2.
At least there was someone else to talk to.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

My mother, now almost 98, grew up on a rural farm before they had electricity - they used a carbide tank to generate gas for gas lights and had a cold spring where they kept the butter that the churned by hand every day. My life was certainly easier growing up in the late 40s and 50s, but didn’t have a (B&W) TV until the the 3rd or 4th grade - we grew up with radio (which I still love). One car, one radio, one bath and one phone (party line).

Cykdelic Loc: Now outside of Chiraq & Santa Fe, NM

One pair of shoes at a time.

jonsailhob

One parent of each gender...

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Ah, the good old days.................

R Dubs Loc: Linloln,Ne.

We had 1 TV but it had a remote---Dad would say "son go change the channel"

Rich2236 Loc: E. Hampstead, New Hampshire

Same here. LOL. We had one 10" oval screen tv, which was all you could get in 1948. There were basically only two channels, Uncle Milty, (Milton Berle, for those to young to remember,) and wrestling...Gorgeous George, Antonino Rocca, were the main wrestlers. My parents would set up chairs like in the movies so that the neighbors could come in and watch. They would sit there and stare at the "Indian" head, expecting something to change, lol, and then....and then....Milton Berle!
And there was also a magnifier that could be fitted over the screen, but it distorted the picture quite a bit, and of course "color," that was a piece of colored cellophane (from top to bottom,) tones of Red, Yellow and Blue which gave you red faces yellow bodies and blue legs. LOL. BUT it was color...Right?

Oh, how I remember!!!!!
Rich...

When uncle milty came on, it was preceded by the Texaco men....." Oh, were the men from Texaco, we work from Maine to Mexico, etc......"

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

One bike -- and when that was stolen, that was it -- bus around the city after that! I grew up poor in Memphis, no car no t.v., until I was about 10. It was a 19" b&w in a perfectly square metal box and was purchased at a Western Auto store (are those still around?). At some point we got a phone but I don't remember using one until I was close to teenage years. I waked to school then walked home put my books down and walked about 12 blocks to the Y.M.C.A. where I could swim, play basketball etc. until my mom got off work at the downtown restaurant where she worked. We never owned a car while my mother was alive (she passed away when I was 15). I went to live with my sister who was quite a bit older than me but she didn't own a car until I had graduated and moved away. My kids grew up with so many advantages -- always living in a nice home with their own rooms, horseback riding lessons, ski lessons, both parents with autos so transportation was never an issue. I look back on my childhood and think of all the things I missed out on, but then realize I didn't miss them at all because when you are in a situation like mine, you don't know what you're missing because when you didn't have them in the first place, you have nothing to compare life to. I was happy as a kid, playing sandlot baseball, learning to play golf at 13, going to church and outings sponsored by the church and Boy Scouts, going to Junior Achievement meetings and to regional and national conferences, being on bowling teams etc. I heard a statistic recently that said the current generation as a whole is the first in American history that doesn't have a realistic shot at advancing the quality of life of the last generation. What a shame.

2Dragons Loc: The Back of Beyond

That one phone was probably on a 2,3 or 4 party line.

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

I'm sure our parents were also critical of our generation, and our grandparents were critical of our parent's generation, and our great grandparents were critical of our grandparents generation, etc, etc.

2Dragons Loc: The Back of Beyond

The only things that I can think of that really made my parents' socks roll up and down,.................were Elvis Presley and Rock and Roll. In my not so humble opinion, music has devolved drastically from the beautiful melodies of the '30s and '40s. My son, who was a devout Aerosmith fan, now listens to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, etc.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

That phone had a hand crank where you could do the ‘longs’ and ‘shorts.’

BB4A

I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our Mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah!

But you try and tell the young people of today that... and they won't believe you.

Amielee Loc: Eastern Washington State

One of each, but to paraphrase Bob Hope; With 4 kids in the family and only one bathroom that is how I learned to dance.