Old or Ancient

[Flying Trucker]

Goodly morning all...

Some one sent me this...

I think many of us will remember this time in our lives. We said yes to all the questions at the bottom except for one. How about you?

Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favourite '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 'home,'' I explained. 'Mum 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 lad 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'd figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore jeans, set foot on a golf course, travelled out of the country or had a credit card.

My parents never drove me to school... 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 the '50s. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at 10 PM, after playing the national anthem and epilogue; it came back on the air at about 6 am. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.

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, seven days a week. He had to get up at 6 every morning.

Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the films. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or almost 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 recently) and he brought me an old lemonade 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?

Headlight dim-switches on the floor of the car.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Trouser leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn indicators.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom.

1. Sweet cigarettes
2. Coffee shops with juke boxes
3. Home milk delivery in glass bottles
4. Party lines on the telephone
5. Newsreels before the movie
6. 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 2 channels [if you were fortunate])
7. Peashooters
8. 33 rpm records
9. 45 RPM records
10. Hi-if's
11. Metal ice trays with levers
12. Blue flashbulb
13. Cork popguns
14. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-3 = You're still young
If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older
If you remembered 7-10 = Don't tell your age
If you remembered 11-14 = You're positively ancient!

I must be 'positively ancient' but those memories are some of the best parts of my life...

[Apex]

"Headlight dim-switches on the floor of the car." Wow, flash-back time. My father's 1950 Nash (ouch) had one. Totally forgot that memory. Hmm, it also had the shifter on the steering column.

Bob Dylan once said, "The times, they are a-changin' . . . You'd better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone."

Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) also said on their 1st album, "This was how we were playing then – but things change – don't they?"

Yep, there's nothing like the good ol' daze, but like it or not, things change, don't they? That's life in the big world. You gotta dig ever now-moment, 'cause it may not be there tomorrow.

Now if I may be excused, time for a short walk on a long beer. That's one thing that had better NOT change.

[Romulus111VADT]

Wow, we had very similar up brings and I remember all quiz items very well.

My mom and dad bought our first color TV I believe about 1965 when I was in my mid teens. The very first color TV show I watched was the animated Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer; watched it with my little brother. The TV was massive with it's 13" screen....lmao. Up until then we had a variety of B&W TV's and the biggest was about 19". I was lucky, my mom and dad had a modern home. We had indoor plumbing; Thank God!

My grandparents didn't get indoor plumbing until the mid 60's (they moved there in the early 30's). They had an outhouse that needed to be moved every so often to a new hole and have the old one filled in. Not my idea of a fun Saturday afternoon to say the least. During the winter they would use a slop-jar; this needed to be taken out to the outhouse every morning and emptied. My uncle was normally in the dog house with his mom and ended up getting the nasty job.

They use to bring water up from the creek to cook, bathe and do laundry. They had to heat water on their gas stove for a at best warm bath. The bath tube was an old claw foot cast iron monster and they had to drain it into buckets to empty it.

They first got running water installed (early 60's) that helped cut down on the work bring it up from the creek. Still had to heat it on the stove. Next came a water heater. Much to my uncles dismay the working toilet was the last thing to be added.

The really ironic part of this is that the home use to sit about 30 miles outside Washington DC in what was then the rural part of the county.

[Fozzer]

My dear old Mum and Dad never owned a motor car for the whole on their lives, (1900 - 1990), all their travelling was done either by 'Bus or Train, neither did they ever own a telephone.
I never owned a Telephone until 1998, when the "Internet" forced me into having one!
All my travelling was, and is, done on various Motorcycles.
The last time I owned or drove a motor car was in 1990. (Its still sitting in my Garage).
..and with traffic on the roads the way it is now, I don't think I will ever own or drive a motor car again!
I've never flown on a Passenger Jet aeroplane...(and I don't think I ever will!)
Europe is some place across the English Channel...full of foreigners (trying to escape over here).

Eastern America had Gangsters. Western America had Cowboys and Indians.

Paul...I can remember when the whole World was coloured black and white...and England owned most of it...(coloured red on the School maps)..... ...!

[Tug002]

I guess that I am older than I thought as I remember all of thoes things. The last time I saw a dimmer switch on the floor of a car was in my 68 Buick Special

Keep smiling
Tug

[Hagar]

I remember all of the above so must be positively ancient.

These memories might surprise some of our cousins across the Pond.
My dear old Mum never had a fridge until I bought one for her after I'd left home in 1968.
We didn't get a TV set until the early 1960s. As a special treat I was sometimes invited to my aunt's house to watch the Wednesday Night play.
Only one channel (BBC1) was available until 1955 when the commercial ITV started broadcasting. A second BBC channel (BBC2) was added in 1964.
Colour TV wasn't broadcast in the UK until the end of 1967. To start with colour could only be received on BBC2 - ITV and BBC1 were first shown in colour in 1969.

More interesting facts here --> http://www.retrowow.co.uk/television/television.html
For example:

In the 50s, the hours people watched television were tightly controlled - the 24 hour broadcasting of today was unheard of. The Postmaster General stipulated how many hours of television could be shown each week.

In 1956, for example, the BBC was allowed to broadcast television on weekdays between 9am and 11pm, with not more than 2 hours before 1pm.

There was also a period between 6pm and 7pm when no television was broadcast. This period was used by parents to trick young children into thinking that the evening's television had finished so they would go to bed without complaint - it was known as the 'toddlers' truce' -imagine that today!

At the weekends, the rules were no more relaxed. A maximum of eight hours broadcasting was allowed on Saturdays and 7 3/4 hours on Sunday. On Sunday another anachronism reigned - television shown between 2pm and 4pm was intended for adults - children were meant to be at Sunday School! Gradually the rules on broadcasting hours were made less strict. The 'toddlers' truce', for example, was dropped in 1957.

[Romulus111VADT]

My grandparents always amazed me. They would listen to the radio and did until the late 60's. I think when my grandfather died in the early 70's they'd finally gotten a B&W TV and it was given to them by one of their children. I stopped by and visited with my grandmother in the late 70's and she rarely ever turned the TV on; she still would listen to the radio.

My grandmother still hung her clothes out on the clothes line. She even gave me a lesson on the proper way to hang your laundry so your "unmentionables" would not be seen by the neighbors. I think she finally got a true clothes washer in the late 60's and her first clothes dryer in the late 70's.

Heck I remember automobiles w/o seat belts. I'd normally either sit beside my parents/grandparents of even stand when I was really little. I remember my grandmother putting her arm out to try and keep me from falling onto the floorboard of the car.

Those were w/o a doubt, the best days of my life.

[Steve M]

I remember all of those also. Especially asking to be excused from the dinner table, if mother said no, I couldn't go.
Another thing in our home in the early 60's that I remember was called a mangle. My dad got it used from a laundry service. A useful device for a family of 9.

[Fozzer]

It was a time when all the Dads went out to work, and all the Mums stayed at home doing all the dusting, cleaning, polishing, washing, ironing, shopping, cooking, vegetable gardening, feeding everyone, keeping everything spick and span, and looking after all the children...

..in other words, a very busy housewife and mother...and worth her weight in gold!

I know my dear old Mum was!

Paul....I still miss my dear old Mum and Dad!... ....!

[OldAirmail]

I remember when a new restaurant opened up, somewhat near us, back in the '50s.

It was only a half hours drive away, but for only $1.50 my mother could feed the whole family.

No cooking, no mess, no clean up.


McDonalds

[ViperPilot]

Yes, I'm 'Positively Ancient'; I remember all of those items!

There's a couple more to add:

-- Cars (and trucks) with the Starter button on the floor.

-- 'D' cell Alkaline Batteries.

-- 8 Track Car Tape Players.

[Fozzer]

All the radio sets had thermionic valves, and we had long wave, medium wave, and short wave frequencies, with tuning condensers.

I even had a crystal set with a cats whisker and headphones.

Paul....still with boxes of valves!

[Anthindelahunt]

Remember all above.Great times.A lot
simpler than today.

Anthin.

[Sprocket]

Paul....still with boxes of valves!

Paul have you any Nixie tubes ? Something I am always looking for...



Jan

[Fozzer]

Paul....still with boxes of valves!

Paul have you any Nixie tubes ? Something I am always looking for...



Jan

Hello Jan... ...!

Nixie Tubes? Nah, unfortunately!

Try here...>>> http://cogwheelcircuitworks.com/how-to-buy-nixie-tubes/

All my valves are tubes for Radios and Audio amplifiers, from simple Diodes, Triodes, Pentodes, Rectifiers, etc, to KT88's, and a couple of CRT's for Oscillocopes...
...and boxes of carbon resistors, various wax and electrolytic condensers, transformers, tuning condensers, variable resistors...

...cobwebs and spiders...

All obsolete now!... ...!

Still got some ex-WD, WW2, Radios and Transmitters..... ...!

...in fact, a house full of obsolete stuff....a bit like me!!

Paul.... ...!