Do You Remember?

[Patron]

Gasoline was 8baht per gallon.

[David006]

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.

remember my mum went ape shit after I brought home "gum" cigarettes instead of the sweet white candy type...used all my allotted sweet coupons on 'em..Poor confectioner got a f..g earful...lol

[smokie36]

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.

There's still a cigarette machine with single Woodbines at Uxbridge tube station in London. Probably don't work but I noticed it costs 1d a go.

No idea what that means but please send me all your d's anyway...just in case!

[WarpSpeed]

Gasoline was 8baht per gallon.

Per gallon or liter??

I remember all of that and gasoline (benzine for our British members) being 24cents per gallon at the corner Citgo, where they also gave away free little plastic antique cars, some say I'm crazy it was never that low but I remember it distinctly, an indelible memory for a child, my mom filled the tank for less then $5 now you'd be lucky to buy a gallon with that same $5 ... Yes, how times have changed..

That also brings up another memory which was looking skyward for the search lights held over from WWII that became a new way to signal a new store or gas station opening and free giveaways like hot dogs and free ESSO tiger toys!!

I'm not even close to being older then dirt though ...

Edited July 26, 2011 by WarpSpeed

[Latindancer]

In Australia in 1974, when it was quite expensive to phone interstate, teenagers discovered that if you went to a phone box with a piece of wire, and stuck one end in the mouthpiece so it touched the metal microphone, and touched the other end anywhere metal on the body of the phone itself, you could make untimed interstate calls for the cost of a LOCAL CALL !

My friend and I thought this was FANTASTIC !

This was before pesky teenagers in the States discovered that they could whistle down the phone to simulate the necessary tones to do the same thing, or even make OVERSEAS calls !

Buying my first packet of condoms in 1971 and dying of shame and embarrassment because I had to ask for " A packet of Wet Chek, please" ( it was the major brand). Jeez, what self-respecting kid would NOT feel mortified with a name like that ? It made you feel like you'd just wet your pants......

Edited July 26, 2011 by Latindancer

[Atmos]

this one will vary country to country in terms of dates, in my first employment after leaving school it was ok for people to smoke in the workplace, remember going in to the payroll office and I think they all smoked, like a scene from an old western movie with a cloud of smoke. That was stopped in 1990.

And in 2004 New Zealand banned all smoking in bars/restaurants.

[peter1963]

I hold on too the Oldschool!

[billd766]

I remember back in the UK during the late 1950's

smog

Measles and German measles (never could find the swastikas)

Domino cigarettes at 4 for sixpence

Black Russian and also Balkan Sobranie cigarettes which came in beautiful colours.

Jet petrol at 1/9d per imperial gallon

Cars before MOT tests

Buying a set of flashing indicators for my car (but they were 6 volts)

A big 90 volt battery powered radio with 2 accumulators for the valve heaters and going down to the garage with my Dad to get them charged up.

My 1953 VW Beetle that had a separate ignition switch and starter button.

My first powered machine was a bicycle with a 2 stroke motor in the back wheel and cost me 12/6d a YEAR to insure.

Trolley buses in Bournemouth and open deck buses in the summer.

Riding the footplate of the Wareham to Swanage railway.

The bad freezing winter of 1962/63 when steam engines had to have fires goind 24/7 so the boilers didn't freeze and burst.

Frozen water pipes at home.

Gas lighting and gas mantles as we didn't get electricity until 1964

Listening to Journey into Space with Jet Morgan, Mitch, Lemmy and Doc and sitting very close to my Mum while it was on.

Clockwork train sets by Hornby.

Meccano sets.

Going up the common land as a kid and asking Mum what time lunch was (I had no watch so it didn't really matter.

If you were thirsty or needed to use the toilet being able to knock on anybody's door and there would be no problems.

Getting caught scrumping apple by the local PC Plod, being dragged to the house owner to apologise the getting clip round the head from the PC and not daring to tell your Dad as you would get another one.

I will probably add more later when the brain cells kick in.

Life was good and fun and so safe in those days.

[Patsycat]

They stopped delivering milk in Edinburgh by horse and cart circa 1983 (I think) I still remember hearing him clip clopping along the cobblestones. The day they stopped my flat mate and I went down to give him a big bag of carrots for his retirement.

[StreetCowboy]

I remember back in the UK during the late 1950's

smog

Measles and German measles (never could find the swastikas)

Domino cigarettes at 4 for sixpence

Black Russian and also Balkan Sobranie cigarettes which came in beautiful colours.

Jet petrol at 1/9d per imperial gallon

Cars before MOT tests

Buying a set of flashing indicators for my car (but they were 6 volts)

A big 90 volt battery powered radio with 2 accumulators for the valve heaters and going down to the garage with my Dad to get them charged up.

My 1953 VW Beetle that had a separate ignition switch and starter button.

My first powered machine was a bicycle with a 2 stroke motor in the back wheel and cost me 12/6d a YEAR to insure.

Trolley buses in Bournemouth and open deck buses in the summer.

Riding the footplate of the Wareham to Swanage railway.

The bad freezing winter of 1962/63 when steam engines had to have fires goind 24/7 so the boilers didn't freeze and burst.

Frozen water pipes at home.

Gas lighting and gas mantles as we didn't get electricity until 1964

Listening to Journey into Space with Jet Morgan, Mitch, Lemmy and Doc and sitting very close to my Mum while it was on.

Clockwork train sets by Hornby.

Meccano sets.

Going up the common land as a kid and asking Mum what time lunch was (I had no watch so it didn't really matter.

If you were thirsty or needed to use the toilet being able to knock on anybody's door and there would be no problems.

Getting caught scrumping apple by the local PC Plod, being dragged to the house owner to apologise the getting clip round the head from the PC and not daring to tell your Dad as you would get another one.

I will probably add more later when the brain cells kick in.

Life was good and fun and so safe in those days.

'Safe' meaning 'free from unacceptable risk'; I put it to you that you were just as likely to get murdered, and more likely to get a good kicking, 40 years ago than you are now.

I don;t think one is at any greater risk now than in the past - merely that the media's ability to promote hysteria and bad news has improved, and people's expectations are much greater

"Oh, you never heard about that in my young day" - because it was not newsworthy!

My dear old late grandmother's aunt's house still had gas mantles, the first time I went to London - that would have been mid-Seventies, I would guess.

Hitch hikers.

The American war on the TV every bloody night, from Vietnam. Sorry, that hasn't changed, its just moved...

Coal miners. I still look back with sardonic fondness to Arthur Scargill, the coal miners' answer to Lord Cardigan. Except that would have been the charge of the lights-out brigade.

Space travel and science fiction

DO you still get beer adverts on TV in the UK?

SC

EDIT "in my young day middle-aged men respected their elders and betters.

Your nostalgia's crap. You want nostalgia from the old days, you do. Nostalgia's all just rubbish. How can you have pearls of wisdom in metric? Give them foreigners an inch and they'll take approximately 1609 metres"

Edited July 26, 2011 by StreetCowboy

[SteeleJoe]

9.

[StreetCowboy]

9.

I didn't realise you were German.

SC

[SteeleJoe]

I remember my dad bringing home a thing called a "calculator"...

And I remember when I was about 13 I had a special opportunity to begin working with something that was called "videotape" on VTRs (not VCRs mind you -- reel to reel, not cassette) and explaining even to adults what it was and how you could record things and watch them when you wanted or even make your own "videos" (of course if you wanted to film outside or be otherwise mobile you had to use a "PORTA-PAK"...):

Edited July 26, 2011 by SteeleJoe

[SteeleJoe]

Notice that guy looks pretty big? The backpack is a large reel to reel recording deck and those things were heavy! (Especially for a kid.)

And the camera was heavy too (notice the firm 2-handed grip)

Edited July 26, 2011 by SteeleJoe

[StreetCowboy]

Cigarette coupons

Co-op stamps

'... and for those of you watching in black and white, the blue is the ball just behind the green'

I don't know if kids still get jobs picking potatoes in the October holidays?

Smokie: do they still cut peat in Shetland?

I was going to say 'I hated that', but I didn;t; I was only five, or thereabouts, and I didn't enjoy the trip at all, but I enjoyed running about on the hillside (there;s not much else to run about on in shetland - my family rashly rented bikes...) while everyone else was cutting peat.

What do they call 'bob-a-job' week now?

SC

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

During world war 2 in the US they had gas rationing books which you needed to buy gas.

They also had rationing books that were needed to purchase scarce items.

Then somewhere along the way they had S&H Green stamps which you received when you purchased items at some stores. Later turned them in for free items.

Air raid warning sirens being tested. Get off the street dummy.

[xen]

What about the little plastic toys that were in the packets of Kellogs Corn Flakes or Rice Bubbles . They were always at the bottom of the packet and to get them you had to dig in and invariably spill cornflakes all over the place and so get a clip over the back of the head for yr efforts. I remember the plastic warships in particular.

[kandahar]

What about McDonald's Happy Meals BEFORE it was mandatory to include an apple in every one? Seems like it was only yesterday.

[kandahar]

What about McDonald's Happy Meals BEFORE it was mandatory to include an apple in every one? Seems like it was only yesterday.

Oh, wait! That was only yesterday. They just started that on 26July, 2011. What's the world coming to?

I miss burgers from the mom and pop places that fried the patty in the deep fat fryer. And chicks on roller skates bringing the burger baskets to your car window.

Edited July 27, 2011 by kandahar

[doggie888888]

I remember computer screens with green display. No choices, just that awful green. And it took 10,000 key strokes to work out what was 2 + 2.

I remember a time when anyone who had a mobile phone (that was the size of a brick) was a wanke_r and it was just plain rude to use it when you were out in public or with someone else. Now I am considered the rude one if I ask someone not to be distracted by the telephone when they are with me.

I remember when it was polite to be punctual for appointments, no ifs or buts. Now it seems OK to just text an SMS to say you are running late at the time when you are supposed to have arrived already!

[CaptainSplod]

Hmmm...The Billy Cotton Band Show, hotly followed by The Goons - and hoping that Mum was still very busy making the Sunday "roast", so that we could sit around the bakelite radio and listen to the whole half-hour. "Round The Horne", "Ray's A Laugh" (Ted Ray), "Hancock's half Hour", "The Black & White Minstrel Show" and "Two-Way-Family-Favourites" where at Xmas they'd send from all around the world, moving from country to country every few minutes. "The Archers" - an everyday story of countryfolk.....

Woman's Hour - and later on, Radio London and all the pirate radio stations. Listening to the very young DJ Kenny Everett and his (even then) zany humour.

In the fast-diminishing cinemas there'd often be an "intermission" in the longer movies, where the ice-cream ladies would stand at the bottom of the (usually 2) aisles with their trays of ice cream, ciggies, peanuts, sweets and popcorn. You'd have to hurry to be sure to get what you wanted - if you had any money for that sort of thing, of course. They'd gradually make their way back up the aisles, using a torch to accept/give change after the lights had dimmed again. A couple of cinemas in our town had emergency exits which weren't controlled - that meant being able to sneak up the outside alley and get into the cinema without paying - at least until everybody started doing it and the doors were changed so that they could only be opened from the inside.

A kettle with an aluminium whistle to tell you when the water boiled - the whistle always burned your fingers when you took it off the spout!

Banana sandwiches, chocolate spread, golliwog jam, 6d pocket money, putting bottles of milk outside on the window ledge to keep cool.

Frozen (outside) water pipes and having to collect water in saucepans, buckets - anything! - from the water truck that came once a day. Electricity coin meters - and the meter clicking loudly as the lights suddenly went out. Mum often had to run to the neighbours to borrow "a bob" (one shilling) until the next day. The meter man coming to emptying the gas/elecricity meter and Mum standing expectantly as he totted up the coins and gave Mum the remaining coins from the bill.

Going "bottling" along the beach, after the day-trippers had gone home. That was picking up the empty pop bottles (sometimes beer bottles, too!) that they left behind. There was 3d deposit on each on those bottles - and you could often come home with 5 or 10 shillings from returning all the bottles to the shops, an amazing amount of money!

Memories, smells and sounds of yesteryear - amazing!

Edited July 27, 2011 by CaptainSplod

[smokie36]

Cigarette coupons

Co-op stamps

'... and for those of you watching in black and white, the blue is the ball just behind the green'

I don't know if kids still get jobs picking potatoes in the October holidays?

Smokie: do they still cut peat in Shetland?

I was going to say 'I hated that', but I didn;t; I was only five, or thereabouts, and I didn't enjoy the trip at all, but I enjoyed running about on the hillside (there;s not much else to run about on in shetland - my family rashly rented bikes...) while everyone else was cutting peat.

What do they call 'bob-a-job' week now?

SC

The tattie picking in Angus was done by Romanian workers until they started chopping each other up and throwing the reamins off the cliffs. That's the trouble with these landlubbers...no idea of tidal patterns.

I used to enjoy picking rasps in the summer though...great fun....met my first girlfriend that way.....always liked a lassie who was willing to but her back into it!

Shetland is a wealthy place now SC. They didn't take their eye off the ball when the oil revenue was being divided up unlike the mainland so its all mod cons there now.....except on some of the outlying islands where they spoeak a dialect unknown to anthropologists....

Bob-a-job was arrested soon after the metric system was adopted...maybe he's out on parole these days...who knows?

Those wee plastic toys were rubbish...I preferred making pirate hats out of the boxes...."Suck creative talent" as my mum would say.....earning me yet another clip round the ear from my old man.....ahh those were the days!

Got a free kazoo once with my Eagle comic....now that was the business....loved my skateboard as well....and who had a spacehopper? C'mon time to fess up....

[smokie36]

Just remembered...my old Raleigh Grifter is still sitting in my mum's shed back home....great bike that was although I would have loved a chopper....

Spinning wheels....an array of guns which probably marks me out as a future terrorist...but only if we fall out with the japs or jerries

Wonder what happened to my collection of commando comics?

[StreetCowboy]

Just remembered...my old Raleigh Grifter is still sitting in my mum's shed back home....great bike that was although I would have loved a chopper....

Spinning wheels....an array of guns which probably marks me out as a future terrorist...but only if we fall out with the japs or jerries

Wonder what happened to my collection of commando comics?

Choppers were crap, with the wee front wheel that you could spin round while travelling at great speed, to the dismay of the dentist.

'Commando' comics - I never appreciated the double entendre when I was younger.

I'll take that as a 'no' regarding the peat-cutting, then. I suppose they'll have trees and everything nowadays.

If I'd had a kazoo to hand I could have joined in with the Folkers the other night. I used to always carry one, just in case...

SC

[smokie36]

Saturdays...out of the door at 9am off with your mates playing football or catching crabs on the beach...swinging around from trees or setting fires....annoying the miserable old git who never gave you your ball back....and then home at 5pm for a white pudding supper and the dukes of hazard....

Someone else can do Sunday mornings....

[smokie36]

I'll take that as a 'no' regarding the peat-cutting, then. I suppose they'll have trees and everything nowadays.

SC

No trees. Lots of rolling hills and a few more houses. Oh bring a woman with you is my hot tip....

[smokie36]

'Commando' comics - I never appreciated the double entendre when I was younger.

SC

Tintin was another favourite....although those had to be borrowed from the library....one at a time as I recall until the rules relaxed around '80 or '81....

[newtronbom]

I have to admit a 100% score too. We had the first and only B&W TV in our area when I was a kid. I can still remember the regular sight of about a dozen kids after school at our place sitting in front of it, watching either Bonanza or Sir Frances Drake episodes. There was still no color out back then. I can also remember the day dad bought home a huge wooden cabinet that had not only a radio, but a semi auto record player as well (had been around for a few years by then), to replace the thing with a brass horn on top that was used as a speaker. Dad still liked to listen to the old one now and then. The old 78s started getting replaced by the "new fangled" 33 rpm discs. Stereo started to come in around then too. Wish I still had that stuff and the LPs. Worth a fortune today. Remember less fondly the "push mower" that had a cloth catcher, metal wheels and no motor, that I had to use to get my pocket money! I hated that thing. Did my best to wreck it, but it was indestructible. Most cars back then, still had a hole in the front fender for a crank handle just in case. My younger sister and I both in our rooms by 6.00 pm. Lights out by 8.00. Good times. Many fond memories.

Edited July 27, 2011 by newtronbom

[xen]

Ahhh..... yes Eagle Comics with Dan Dare .

And Rupert Bear in his own comic Books .

[IMA_FARANG]

14 out of 15....but I already know I'm old.

I was born in 1946 and these things are mainly from the 50's, so they are part of my youth.

P.S. Sorry, But I'm an Anerican so I don't remember any British stuff, so the Archers on the radio has no meaning to me.

Edited July 27, 2011 by IMA_FARANG