Do You Remember?

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

How many do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.

Ignition switches on the dashboard.

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. Candy cigarettes

2. Coffee shops with table side 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 3 channels if you were fortunate.)

7. Peashooters

8. Howdy Doody

9. 45 RPM records

10.Hi-fi's

11. Metal ice trays with lever

12. Blue flashbulbs

13. Cork popguns

14. Studebakers

15. 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 11-15 = You're older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.

[smokie36]

I scored 7....

Only cos I remember my granny slaving over a twintub....luckily she has an automatic...oh and an iphone these days!

[endure]

11

[PingManDan]

Got them all right, guess I am an older then dirt old fart , but back then the world was a happy place.:jap:

Edited July 25, 2011 by PingManDan

[Patron]

15 My dad was a milkman, we left glass bottles of milk in a box outside peoples homes. the 60s

[ronz28]

I remember all that plus my grandfather's ice box that used real Ice blocks for cooling, water well on the side of the house, out-house between the house and the barn, chicken coop but all the chickens preferred to roost in the tree next to the house at night, watching my grandfather grab a chicken snake by the tail and swing it around like a bullwhip and popping its head off, cutting the snake open to investigate a lump and finding a wooden egg inside, riding horses bareback, grinding dried ears of corn down to the cobs with a hand crank device, (but the horses preferred to do it themselves and spit out the corn cob), driving the wagon to town for groceries and hitching the horses up to the post outside the A&P (1950s and it was unusual then too), milking cows by hand, watching a Raytheon black and white TV, listening to an RCA phonograph, went to Disneyland the year it opened, etc. Well I could go on and on but would put you to sleep. I don't feel old, but I remember too.

Edited July 25, 2011 by ronz28

[Naam]

15 My dad was a milkman, we left glass bottles of milk in a box outside peoples homes. the 60s

and at 06.00 hrs (mon-sat) an apprentice from the bakery hung a bag with fresh rolls and croissants at our front door.

[thaibeachlovers]

13

Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner I've still got some of those.

You could have added-

no seatbelts.

hand cranked telephones with the big batteries and an operator that you called for numbers not on the party line.

When making a toll call was a big deal

British motorbikes and aviator goggles

travel to the colonies by steamship

prop propelled passenger planes

303 rifles

Bobbies that actually walked a beat

Polio epidemics

Measles and mumps

wine gums- 4 for a penny

Pounds, shillings and pence

No tv at all

When families actually sat together and listened to the radio

Kid's flicks on Saturday afternoon.

double feature films on Sunday evenings

when kids could go out all day, and no one called the police

when you really didn't have to lock your door

Before PC

No dole

Full employment

women staying home to bring up the children as a matter of course.

When a man could earn enough that his wife didn't have to go to work.

I don't feel old

That's the tragedy. You still feel young, but the body isn't!

[thaibeachlovers]

15 My dad was a milkman, we left glass bottles of milk in a box outside peoples homes. the 60s

and at 06.00 hrs (mon-sat) an apprentice from the bakery hung a bag with fresh rolls and croissants at our front door.

Going to the grocery shop to buy a loaf of ( uncut ) bread for mum, and eating the middle out on the way home,

[thaibeachlovers]

I remember when:

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.

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

( Monty Python )

[slapout]

Scored 15 as well. Remember the ice box, crank wall phone party lines,steel wheeled tractor, but vegetable garden (about 3 acres)worked with team of horses. To really date myself, the cook stove used kerosine and the first powered washing machine was purchased after electric was brought to farm.

Every house did their own baking, milking, churning, etc as only delivery, was block ice (summer time, unless it rained). Everyone had a proper shoe rebuild/repair kit, flour was purchased in, matching pattern, sacks. The egg and cream sale proceeds, purchased staples for the kitchen.

By my comparisons, I figure we had progressed in the mid to latter 50's, to where the Thai villages are today.

[David006]

good thread guys...depressing yet fun...

remember Billy Joel's song "we didn't start the fire"?

a few more Uk and Canada..time frames are mixed..

Buying five "Weights"

The Coronation street parties

dad raising rabbits to help feed us

digging the "allotment" in the rain

hand drills,saws, box planes, rawl punches

Indicator 'arm" on my old rusted out Austin A35 van

No windshield washers, only one wiper, no heater..

carburetors, dynamos and relay regulators

doing a "decoke" and grinding valves,putting in "oil saver" rings

Mum carrying 15lb of potatoes about a mile from the market...the bus was too expensive at 2D..tuppence

no fridge

no TV

listening to "The Goons" on the radio Sundays

learning Morse code from my dad with homemade key and an old door bell without a gong

listening to "Luxemburg" on home made crystal set under the bed covers

delivering groceries after school on a bike with a huge basket on the front..in the snow!

having gang fights with Webley air guns

enormous Guy Falks bonfires you spent the previous month "building"

18c an Imp gallon gasoline to fill my 455cu V8 "land barge"

my dad practically making "offerings" to the new 14" colour TV...only he was allowed to switch it on!

think I am older than the sun....lol

now I AM depressed!

[BuckarooBanzai]

Enjoyable thread. I was on the Howdy Doody show 2 times and met the 3 Stooges in their dressing room when they were appearing on the Steve Allen Show. Those were the days. Not in a million years would I have guessed I would retire in Thailand as at the time I didn't know what Thailand was.

[David006]

Enjoyable thread. I was on the Howdy Doody show 2 times and met the 3 Stooges in their dressing room when they were appearing on the Steve Allen Show. Those were the days. Not in a million years would I have guessed I would retire in Thailand as at the time I didn't know what Thailand was.

maybe it was Siam in those days..."The King and I" eh?

[DP25]

Candy cigarettes aren't that old I can remember buying them about 20 years ago

[BuckarooBanzai]

Enjoyable thread. I was on the Howdy Doody show 2 times and met the 3 Stooges in their dressing room when they were appearing on the Steve Allen Show. Those were the days. Not in a million years would I have guessed I would retire in Thailand as at the time I didn't know what Thailand was.

maybe it was Siam in those days..."The King and I" eh?

Sam I am

I am Sam

I am Sam

Sam I am.

Green Eggs and Ham -

was about as close as I came to knowing anything about Siam as well.

Just happen to remember that back in those days TV was broadcast live and during the Steve Allen show mentioned a seal got loose in the audience. (one of those critters that clap it's flippers). What a hoot on live TV. Brings me both a smile and a tear to remember.

[Patron]

I still remember going to a neighborhood party to see the first baseball game in color on TV.

I also remember one day in school the teacher being called out of class and then coming back.

She was crying and said class is over go home. When I got home my mother was crying.

She said...Oh my god they killed him, JFK is dead.

I remember one night bartending at a very busy bar in Palm Springs,Ca. when a news flash came

on the TV. John Lennon has been shot, the place went quiet.

[Bagwan]

78 rpm records

Anderson and Morrison air raid shelters

Trolley buses

Trams

Steam locomotives

Calling girlfriends fathers Sir

Trousers with pressed creases

Shiny shoes

The Radio Doctor

Sunday was a day of rest

Dick Barton, Special Agent

[CNF55]

Candy cigarettes aren't that old I can remember buying them about 20 years ago

They are - you could also buy them 50 years ago.

[Latindancer]

When I was a boy, my mother washed some of the clothes in " the copper".....a large gas-fired copper pot on legs.

And occasionally when the car wouldn't start, she had to crank it over by hand, using a handle which was kept in the boot. Luckily it was only 4 cylinder.

My first dentist had a drill which was powered by a cable which went up articulated arms, and it didn't go very fast at all. He never used anesthetic, either. Luckily I was only a kid, and the holes were never too deep.

In grade 3, my teacher who was a cranky old Scottish dragon, slapped me very hard on the shoulder for shrugging when I didn't know the answer to her question, saying........."It's not polite to shrug"....

Edited July 26, 2011 by Latindancer

[Nignoy]

Landing at Don Muang amongst the paddy fields, only samlors or bus into town,what taxi,s there were, were hotel only The Mandarin had just opened, the road east of Bkk turning into a track after Korat, The Broken Arrow Shack in Korat, collapsing wooden bridges, the leper colony at Amnat Charoen, and of course pattaya not a bar ,katoi or lump of c oncrete in sight, photgraphing my first wild tiger in the hills between patong and rawai guess that makes me a real old fart

[DP25]

Candy cigarettes aren't that old I can remember buying them about 20 years ago

They are - you could also buy them 50 years ago.

I mean as in something they used to have and don't anymore, I know they were around 50 years ago. I don't know if they still sell candy cigs, but I know they did 20 years ago.

[Patron]

When I was a boy, my mother washed some of the clothes in " the copper".....a large gas-fired copper pot on legs.

And occasionally when the car wouldn't start, she had to crank it over by hand, using a handle which was kept in the boot. Luckily it was only 4 cylinder.

My first dentist had a drill which was powered by a cable which went up articulated arms, and it didn't go very fast at all. He never used anesthetic, either. Luckily I was only a kid, and the holes were never too deep.

In grade 3, my teacher who was a cranky old Scottish dragon, slapped me very hard on the shoulder for shrugging when I didn't know the answer to her question, saying........."It's not polite to shrug"....

I remember that drill, my mother would say...If you don't brush more, I'll tell him to make it go slower.

It made your whole head vibrate.

[Atmos]

3 - milk deliveries, tv test pattern, and 45s.

Unsure when milk bottles/deliveries stopped, maybe early 1990s; 45s - my brother worked for a radio station and brought home many of the demo discs.

but maybe not a fair comparison country-wise (people still say NZ is 20 years behind); where I lived we got colour tv and a second channel mid-late 1970s. I think USA had colour TV 20 years before?

After much debate they decided the second channel could be called TV2. A few years later a third channel became available - and yes, it was (and still is) TV3. Briefly we had TV4 but it went bust, another channel couldn't be sustained - three were enough.

I found a Youtube clip of 'Goodnight Kiwi' the clip they showed each night when tv broadcasting finished (note - he puts the milk bottle out!).

Now that's nostalgia!

Edited July 26, 2011 by Atmos

[kandahar]

I'm not all that old but the bulk of the list was being used by everyone when I was a kid. Of course, I grew up far from any cities and we were a few years behind the city folks. Propeller driven airplanes- They use those still for short trips in the USA.

I remember the original hard candy cigs and then later, the improved models, which allowed you to blow a little puff of white dust out the end of it when you first started on it. I heard they only recently banned the candy cigs, because it was leading children down the wrong path. How many things do we not have today because someone else decided that we ( or our children) aren't responsible enough to have them? Which leads me to another for the list-

Cigarettes sold in vending machines.

And how about wooden phone booths in hotel lobbies.

Stationary, envelopes, postcards, notepad and pens or pencils, in every hotel room, regardless of of the cost of the room.

Hotel wake-up calls where the desk attendant called you or lightly rapped on the door to wake you.

Ash trays in all of the arm rests in airplane seats.

Movie theaters with balconies and only the "older" people could use the balcony.

A cartoon before every movie and sometimes, after the movie.

Saturday "specials" at the theater.

Nobody carrying on conversations during the movie.

Respecting the ushers in the theater.

Seeing a policeman and knowing he was a friend, even if you had never met him.

Meeting a patrol car when you were speeding on the backroads and knowing if you could outrun him, he would just give up and go about his business.

[smokie36]

Aah proper fresh milk. Not like the tasteless stuff that keeps for a week nowadys. In the winter it would be frozen solid...in the summer the sparrows would peck at it to nick the cream...crafty beggars!

Red phone boxes...complete with local phone book in every one.

A time when 'a clip round the ear' might be administered by any adult....smokie received a few of these....

They never caught the phantom six year old fireraiser though....with his box of scottish bluebell....

Those candy cigs were terrible...the paper used to get stuck to the cndy....yuck!

Sending the dumbest kid off to buy a quarter of heeby jeebies....aye kids can be cruel alright....

[kandahar]

This is a cool thread and it does bring back some memories. Thanks for starting it and thanks to all for contributing.

I'm not old enough to remember cigarettes in the c-rations and of course, the tinned foods in those meals. Still, those kinds of things fascinate me.

I hope to see some more lists here.

Until then, keep your powder dry.

[meatboy]

aint it great when your getting old and you start to forget the past,i remembered when i used to bathe in front of the fire in a tin bath,and put a house brick in the oven on the side of the hearth to warm and wrap it in a old cotton sheet then take it upstairs and put it in the bed also OH SHIT WHAT WAS I TALKING ABOUT.

[thaibeachlovers]

I'm not all that old but the bulk of the list was being used by everyone when I was a kid. Of course, I grew up far from any cities and we were a few years behind the city folks. Propeller driven airplanes- They use those still for short trips in the USA.

I remember the original hard candy cigs and then later, the improved models, which allowed you to blow a little puff of white dust out the end of it when you first started on it. I heard they only recently banned the candy cigs, because it was leading children down the wrong path. How many things do we not have today because someone else decided that we ( or our children) aren't responsible enough to have them? Which leads me to another for the list-

Cigarettes sold in vending machines.

And how about wooden phone booths in hotel lobbies.

Stationary, envelopes, postcards, notepad and pens or pencils, in every hotel room, regardless of of the cost of the room.

Hotel wake-up calls where the desk attendant called you or lightly rapped on the door to wake you.

Ash trays in all of the arm rests in airplane seats.

Movie theaters with balconies and only the "older" people could use the balcony.

A cartoon before every movie and sometimes, after the movie.

Saturday "specials" at the theater.

Nobody carrying on conversations during the movie.

Respecting the ushers in the theater.

Seeing a policeman and knowing he was a friend, even if you had never met him.

Meeting a patrol car when you were speeding on the backroads and knowing if you could outrun him, he would just give up and go about his business.

I meant propellor driven planes that went from one country to another. NZ still has domestic prop planes. I arrived in NZ on a TEAL prop plane way back.

Oh, and the days when everyone actually stood up for the Queen before the movie.

Things I don't remember with fondness:

corporal punishment from prefects

school cadets

teachers that taught with the cane, and were rubbish anyway

fagging

"Beatle" haircuts

beehive hairdos

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

I can remember Lucky Strikes Green . A pack that they gave you (about 6 cigarettes) when you boarded a commercial flight.

Cigarettes cme out of the vending machines with 4 cents change in the cellophane and a book of matches.

The movies had a serial every saturday, that left you hanging by your fingertips all week.

The movies would give you a dinner plate every time you went.

The service stations filled up your car cleaned the windscreen and checked the oil.

In grade school they did not have enough room so the older kids went in the morning and the younger ones in the afternoon. Same classroom.

You could go to the movie and get a box of popcorn for 25 cents.

You didn't need a helmet to ride your bike.