Memories

[anotheoldgit]

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 until I was married with children. 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 local school boys. My brothers delivered newspapers, seven days a week, they 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 their guts laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

Ah memories, how many do you remember?

Headlight dip-switches on the floor of the car.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Trouser leg clips (Bike Clips) for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn indicators, or if you were up to date 'Elephant Ears' (large flashing amber lights fastened either side of the car's roof).
If one was lucjy enough to have a car radio, the aerial was a long carbon rod fastened under the 'running board' of the car.

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 jukeboxes
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-Fi's
11. Metal ice trays with levers
12. Blue flashbulbs
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!

[mazie]

1. Sweet cigarettes
2. Coffee shops with jukeboxes
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-Fi's
11. Metal ice trays with levers
12. Blue flashbulbs
13. Cork popguns
14. Wash tub wringers

All of the Above Plus.............

Journey into Space on the Radio (Scared me silly)
Dolly Ponch
Blue bags for the white wash
Outside coppers to fill the washing tub

[Baldric]

Sadly, quite a few of them,
in fact all 14, and I'm only 62 :-(

[grasscarp]

What - No mention of 78s with wind up gramophone and the little drawer on the side with spare needles in it?
More than once a day post deliveries
Telegrams
Starting handle for the car .....

[mazie]

We didn't have a fridge either, just a pantry and an white enamel bucket filled with cold water to stand the milk bottle in.

[ummmm]

1. Sweet cigarettes

3. Home milk delivery in glass bottles

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-Fi's

[woofgang]

ancient and then some.

[anneasquith]

I refuse to answer this question :)

[gness]

Positively ancient! Slightly different but when I was a child I loved Muffin the Mule. An aunt who liked me bought me a tiny one with a magnetic turnip. Yes...we were easily amused but I adored that toy and played with it endlessly until my mother...who didn't like me.... threw it out.
Last Saturday, in a junk shop in Honiton, I saw a little Muffin the Mule. Different colour...but otherwise the same and still with its magnetic turnip. What memories it brought back! Probably paid over the odds but he is now on my mantelpiece.... ☺

[EcclesCake]

I'm forty flippin' three, this has made me feel like a dinosaur.....and I will tell my age!!!!

I blame my oldfashioned parents!

[Baldric]

Blimey,
all of aogs + 3 out of 4 of mazies

[anneasquith]

G. a mum who didn't liked you ? that's so sad ,

[craft1948]

I think I was brought up with mazie but also remember my nan...
1) donkey stoning the front step
2) black leading the fire range

[gness]

Ah well, Anne...it happens. She never wanted children and really hated redheads...then surprise, surprise....she accidentally produced a redhead.
Didn't stand a chance.... ☺

[craft1948]

Only to you fat fingers!

[Georgiesmum]

I remembered them all plus
fish and chips wrapped up in newspaper from the shop.
going to buy a block of ice cream from the shop, that always came back wrapped up in newspaper.
collecting empty corona bottles and taking them back to the shop to get the 3d back on the bottle
scrumping!
hula hoops
five stones game
playing cats cradle at school.
making "music" with a piece of tissue paper and a comb!
penny for the guy
going blackberrying
going for a nature walk every friday afternoon at our primary school
playing leap frog
metal roller skates
going mushrooming and selling the mushrooms to the local greengrocer
and so much more.....

[pixie373]

I remember 6 of them and I'm 39.

[gness]

Making squeally noises with a button on thread and did anyone else steal the washboard to form a not very successful skiffle group?

[Clanad]

Here in the U.S., cars (before air conditioning) had a tank like device attached to the right passenger window. The tank part was on the outside and one filled it with water. On a drive from Wyoming to southern Missouri to visit relatives in the summer, it may have actually worked (slightly). Additionally, Dad always hung a canvas water bag in front of the car. The evaporation cooled it so it was drinkable but also cooled the passing air to the engine of the car to help keep it cool.

Back home at the ranch, a rather ornate oak "ice-box" had to be filled with a big 20 pound block of ice at least one a week. Loved going to the 'ice-house' with my grandfather. He paid the man 25 cents for the ice which then descended a long plankway from the top of the ice house and grandfather hoisted it onto his shoulder with a pair of ice tongs to place it in the trunk of an ancient car, covering it with several layers of burlap to minimize melting... but only after he chipped off a piece for me to suck on as we went home... ahhhh! It was clear and blue... had a wonderful non-taste in the mid-August heat...