Do you remember when

[another old car]

howdy folks

came across this today - might I share it with you

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN...?

All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?

It took five minutes for the TV warm up?

Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?

Nobody owned a purebred dog?

When a quarter was a decent allowance?

You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?

Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?

All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every

day and wore high heels?

You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped,

without asking, all for free, every time? And you didn't pay for air? And, you got

trading stamps to boot?

Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box?

It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents?

They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . ..and they did?

When a 57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise, peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady?

No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?

Lying on your back in the grass with your friends and saying things like, "That cloud

looks like a ..."

Playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game?

Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?

And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once, you could slip back in time

and savor the slower pace, and share it with the children of today?

When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home? Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we survived because their love was greater than the threat.

The Shadow knows, and I can still remember

Nancy Drew,

the Hardy Boys,

Laurel and Hardy,

Howdy Dowdy

the Peanut Gallery,

the Lone Ranger,

Nellie Bell,

Roy and Dale,

Trigger, Buttermilk and Champion

Summers filled with bike rides, baseball games, Hula Hoops, bowling and visits to the pool, and drinking Kool-Aid powder with sugar.

Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that"?

To remember what a double dog dare is, And remember that the perfect age is somewhere between old enough to know better and too young to care.

How many of these do you remember?

Candy cigarettes

Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside

Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles

Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes

Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum

Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers

Newsreels before the movie

P.F. Fliers

Telephone numbers with a word prefix....(Raymond 4-601).

Party lines

Peashooters

Howdy Dowdy

45 RPM records

S/H Green Stamps

Hi-Fi's

Metal ice cubes trays with levers

Mimeograph paper

Beanie and Cecil

Roller-skate keys

Cork pop guns

Drive ins

Studebakers

Washtub wringers

The Fuller Brush Man

Reel-To-Reel tape recorders

Tinkertoys

Erector Sets

The Fort Apache Play Set

Lincoln Logs

15 cent McDonald hamburgers

5 cent packs of baseball cards - with that awful pink slab of bubble gum

Penny candy

35 cent a gallon gasoline

Jiffy Pop popcorn

Do you remember a time when...

Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"?

Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"?

"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest?

Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?

It wasn't odd to have two or three "Best Friends"?

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties"?

Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?

A foot of snow was a dream come true?

Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures?

"Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense?

Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?

War was a card game?

Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?

Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived!!!!!!!

Have a Great day

[Tom M]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside</div></div>

I found a little carton with five bottles at my Grandmas one day. I still have them along some other goodies I have come home with from there.

[Peter J.Heizmann]

RJ...thanks for posting this...really appreciate it.

Nice memories...

Regards, Peter J.

[Guest]

God but I feel old. I remember all of them.

One more: Volunteering for the armed forces even though you knew you stood a good chance of not coming home, because it was the right thing to do and not because you got a lot of free education points for doing so. And you were looked up to, instead of being called stupid and other uncomplimentary things by those left behind. And nobody spit at you when you came home.

We were a better nation back then. I believe it was because we were Americans first and not a bunch of hyphenated Americans, each putting his or her own self interest group first.

Excuse me for being nostalgic for better times.

hvs

[Dave@Moon]

Do you remember when....

People like Sal Mineo and Montgomery Clift had "a terrible secret" that had to be kept hidden.

Everyone in your pew at church looked like you.

Everyone in line at the Safeway looked like you.

Everyone seated at the restraunt looked like you.

Everyone on your little league team looked like you.

etc.

Or else.

Every once and a while one of the girls from the neighborhood would "visit their aunt" for 9 or 10 months?

A lot of your friend's Moms seemed to drink a lot and need to see the doctor for their "medicine" all the time.

You were unfairly prevented from owning every radio and TV station in town.

Your parents were the only two people in the world who shared a bed (for some reason).

There were a lot of dirty men sitting on the sidewalk downtown selling pencils who seemed to have had terrible accidents at one time.

Lynchings.

90 proof "vitamin tonics".

If a pesticide killed the bugs, it worked and that's that.

No car ever had a design defect of any kind that it needed to be recalled for. Neither did anything else.

Every once and a while you'd get sick and Mom would have to find a new butcher.

Dad was so tired all the time.

Grandpap allways seemed to need help getting to side of the room where his cigarettes were.

Football was played in your old dress shoes.

Your mom would give you orange flavored asprin when you were sick, and think nothing of it.

All the semitic people in historical dramas looked like Charleton Heston, and all Romans spoke with English accents.

The strongest, bravest African you ever saw in the movies was English.

Africans weren't on TV.

Your teacher hadn't necessarily gone to college, and his/her dicipline policy and behavioral insight would often reflect that background.

Cigarette machines in the malt shop.

You'd hear the lady next door yelling "NO! PLEASE! STOP!" night after night. For years. She's still there.

The kids from next door were at your house all the time, but they didn't talk much. Their former spouses say they still don't.

"The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit", "Future Shock", "Catcher in the Rye", were dangerous books.

Faking orgasms.

"Fruit juice" often wasn't.

Your commanding officer probably wasn't going to tell you to set some civilian's house on fire.

A temperature inversion in a PA steel town could kill 200 people.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Excuse me for being nostalgic for better times.

</div></div>

It's all perspective.

[Guest]

Dave ~ You clearly reflect the cynacism of your generation. Did you ever serve in the military of the United States, voluntarily or otherwise? You sound like a child of the Vietnam generation. Sorry for your having to live in this "terrible" country.

Just a few random thoughts raised by your post.

hvs

[1937hd45]

Good ol Dave, you never run out of wet blankets do you?

[Peter Gariepy]

http://www.suddenlysenior.com/goodoldaysgood.html

[Peter Gariepy]

http://www.kencollins.com/hope-27.htm

[Peter Gariepy]

http://www.tintota.com/archive/good.htm

[Peter Gariepy]

http://www.examiner.net/stories/022203/jef_022203013.shtml

[Guest Hal Davis (MODEL A HAL)]

Dave,

No period in time has ever been perfect. DJ chose to focus on the positive aspects of earlier times. You chose to focus on the negative. A lot of the things you mentioned still go on today.

Take spouse abuse, I'd be awfully surprised if it's not more rampant today than in the 50's.

If a girl still had to visit her aunt for 9 months today, there would be a lot less illigimitimacy and dare I say welfare dependents? No, it's perfectly morally and socially accepted nowadays to get pregnant at 14 and unmarried. In some circles, it's even a status symbol! She can even take the child to school with her. Yeah boy, things are much better nowadays. At least her civil rights aren't being violated by having a stigma attached to her actions. Used to be, there were consequences for your actions. Thank the Good Lord we have seen the light and now realize that consequences violate peoples rights.

If teachers were still allowed to put a paddle accross a kid's @$$, there would still be some order in the classroom. Kid's might learn something useful in school.

I could go on, but WHY?

[Ron Green]

I remember getting my #ss paddled and you knew the next time your plan better be fool proof or this is was the consequence. I now watch people raise their children and give them "time outs" or even the schools offer conseling. Some of this is fine but the paddle seemed to always get my attention. I wonder if I can now sue my parents for paddleing me?

[dennis passan]

your post had me, then somewhere along the line, it lost me.

that's life...lot's of different memories! im trying to live in the moment,

and lean on my memories when i need them.

how the heck does howdy-dowdy get a double

mention in your post!!!

i'm still trying to get over the way

it's spelled- "dowdy" or "doody" you decide, im clueless.

oh yeah! that pink slab of gum you mentioned with the baseball cards,

that's the only reason i bought that, i use-ta throw the cards out at first

until we started to flip them at recess in school.

and now that you know that, i would like to have the last word.

beat this one!

my am portable radio

has 15 transistors!!!!!!

[1937hd45]

You bet you can sue, email Dave for the ACLU hotline number!

[Myron Williams]

As usual, you're a real ray of sunshine, Dave.

[6219_Rules]

Thank you, RJ. I reread this and just sat thinking about it all. I have very fond memories of those days when my Grandmother and I would take the dinky bus (a tiny yet exact miniature of the large buses) down to the little grocery store (now called a convenience store) where she would by some 7-UP and a loaf of bread, chat with the owner and let me get into all the interesting smells like the potatos in large boxes, coffee in a barrel ready for grinding. Then off we would go to the smells of the town, exhaust, flowers, cut grass, the wind as it came in from the north...carrying with it the smell of fall and the ever present odor of soybeans which were processed down near the rail road tracks. Oh yeah! And the trains!! Those wonderful trains.

I don't know a generation that does not have these memories and fondness for their past. Most of us had little to worry about and those times marked an innocence that is lost with puberty and socialization. Those have good memories too. Was the past better? I doubt it but for me it was good.

Dave is absolutely correct, there were problems...there are always problems. Poverty, violence, hatred, prejudice, disease...all there from the beginning and will be at the end. Remember, it depends on how you look at it. Pandora released the ills on this world and slammed the lid on Hope. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Do you remember the terrible problem with teenage delinquency back in the 50's? It was a major issue, one with no answer frustrating the police, parents and good citizens. Or the college boys in the twenties in the raccoon coats and straw hats...or the Molly McGuires...we all remember prejudice against Blacks, Orientals, the Irish, the Italiens, the Germans...etc, etc, ad infinitum. We recall the 60's with its drug use and social anarchy amoung the young and disenfrancised. How about the Teddy Boys? Or drug use at the turn of the century when marajuana was legal and smoked in the coffee houses, when cocaine was a miracle drug and was infused into soft drinks and tinctures. Its all there. It always was ... so why focus on it?

Today we have legalized behaviour, catagorized life into self-help books on how to be a healthy person; legitimized poor behaviour and excused criminal behaviour with environmental influences. No one is responsible because the devil made me do it. The twinkies I ate caused my blood sugar to rise critically then crash exacerbating my depression....I killed but I didn't want to...or the medicine I take made me a nymphomaniac so its ok that I turned my home into a brothel servicing the good and righteous of our town...my husband pimping for me...because I took that medicine. And so on, and so forth. Perhaps we have let our good intentions overwhelm our common sense, but that does not mean these are not good times. There are wars and young people dieing senselessly, hopelessness and genocide...and there are good people helping without a thought of gain, charity and compassion. It is all there.

I am glad you posted this, RJ because it reminds us of the good that we have, and the memoriess that make us glad. We should be more thankful of that, and share them more often. There is plenty to be miserable about, and yet, somehow I feel in our country, with all that we have and all that we share, it is almost a sin to bemoan our fates constantly. Yes materialism is rampant, but so is the standard of living we enjoy. Yes, our country does questionable things in foriegn policy, but it also does wonderful things in sharing food, medicines and supporting the major organizations that keep other countries on their feet. Its all there. The good and the bad.

As citizens, I believe it is our duty to question and probe into what our elected officials do, it is our duty to raise a flag when we see something not quite right. It is our patriotic duty to correct the inequities in our society and government rather than go along because they had our vote.

But as good people, it is our right and priviledge to bring out the good that is there, to hold high our beliefs and to enjoy our lives rather than wallow in despair and want. We have it very good in this time. We have every reason to be happy and to enjoy it. Just as we have every right and duty to protect it and to be vigilant from within and without. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

A good thread...very thought provoking.

[Guest Hal Davis (MODEL A HAL)]

Ron,

I remember getting what we called "whoopin's" with my Daddy's belt. I was a bad boy, so I got a lot of them. I felt sorry for a couple of kids I knew whose fathers were barbers. They got theirs with a razor strap.

Of all the ones I got, I don't recall but one that was undeserved, and you can bet there were plenty of times I deserved one and didn't get it, so I really was still ahead of the game.

Was I an abused child? HECK NO! Just raised by parents that CARED!

[Ron Green]

And one of the reasons we did grow up somewhat better was because of the paddle. It would stop you from mouthing off, causing a fuss in public, respect for others, etc. Now a days the teachers have very little control of the kids in school. Now when my dad had to come to school when I did something stupid, look out!!!

[Guest BillP]

No Hal, parents who really care have those yellow diamond signs hanging in the back window proclaiming, "CAUTION! Baby on Board".

I could never figure how I should conduct myself differently when driving near one of those nitwi....excuse me....loving parents. I mean, what, is the kid going to blow up or something, like forty thousand pounds of dynamite in a semi? Same thing with those conversion vans, usually white, with a sign on the back saying, "Caution! Show Dogs". Usually drive by those and the birdbrain show dog is sitting on the drivers left arm drooling at the traffic. Don't get me started.

[Guest]

Bob ~ I have been thinking since last night about Good ol' Dave and his outlook and remembered something I heard many years ago. "You needn't waste your time trying to reason with a pathological malcontent, it don't do no good."

So, I ain't gonna. ~hvs

[Guest BillP]

Howard~ I try to follow this one: "Run, Don't Walk, Away From Negative People."

[Guest Skyking]

I get really depressed when I go to my dad's and look at some of the old photos there. My mother always had the camera out, taking pictures. There must be hundreds of phoros of us 5 kids through the years standing in front of one of dad's shinny Buicks. That was always the way back then, taking photos around the family car. Back then the family car was really part of the family. We were always close.......today familys live in all different states. It's not the same, and it will never be the same. I'm just glad I grew up in the 50's....It was the best time ever....................

[Amphicar BUYER]

1/2 cent candy

Playing away from home all day and nobody was worried your were kidnapped

And yes I remember 95% of the "list" Ahhhhhhhhh.

[Peter J.Heizmann]

Very well said, Howard...that's about how I had the guy pegged years ago.

It could be a beautiful day...sun and blue sky, yet, this type will give a a littany of nonsense that it is a cloudy, nasty day just to satisfy their egos to prove you wrong, although you are correct. Just the way their mindset works.

Still wish his type would take all of their knowledge and go over to the Pacific Rim to force their issues and regulations on the foundries to make it a level playing field in the U.S. Heck, he would be a hero for helping industry in the country where he is free to blow steam at will. He may actually create jobs to make up for the thousands lost here due to "some" good regulations, however, "some" ridiculously costly regulations. Pacific Rim countries, where the casting work relocated couldn't care less about our regs, they only love the jobs it created. (Reminder folks: In China, for an example, the profits from these state-owned companies are buying armaments for their military machine...) Wishful thinking on my part. This type guy from experience, would not have the guts to serve one day in the military. Very good and professional at cricizing practically everything and everyone, however, no guts to serve. If he served, then I apologize in advance.

Sorry folks, this is how I have always had the man pegged.

Sorry, RJ for ruining your fine thread, but, this guy triggered me...I will understand if my post gets deleted.

Peter J.

[48LCCOUPE]

Heck, I can even remember Michael Jackson before He was white!

remembering that whatever you do, don't lock the doors to the house, no one knows where the keys are!

the whole family sitting down at the table for dinner, and not just at Thanksgiving. good memories are enjoyed,welcomed and easy flowing. bad memories take effort to pull up and poison those around you for no other reason than to gain attention. sure there was polio, smallpox, hairlips, lack of care for those less fortunate. but there was kick the can, hitchhiking as a valid form of transportation, stopping to help a fellow motorist in trouble, not being worried about being sued so you would actually stop at an accident scene and offer help. There was the good, bad and the ugly. I miss it.

[Guest JT]

I don't know what to say about Dave's post other than he reminds us we don't live in a perfect world; as if we need reminding

I'm glad my memories from the old days are fond Thanks for the reminders RJ!

[R W Burgess]

David, Family dinners! We'd have dinner at my Mom's, (she, one of 7, now down to 3), family after church on Sunday's back in the 50's. I'll never forget that heaping table of Chicken, vegetables, Chicken, and the best?, cornstarch pudding (tastes like banana pudding)with the miraine(sic) on top. It looks like molasses was bubbling out the top, Yum,Yum. I sure miss my aunt's and uncles, times most kids nowadays will never experience. W.

[Guest Skyking]

Guys, you know what's really sad? We are not leaving our grand kids the country that our grandparents left us. Think about that!

[ex98thdrill]

....and that was his brain on drugs

[ex98thdrill]

Howard,

His generation was before mine, but I hope you don't classify me in the same crowd. We have to tone this down before someone pulls a "stress card" out and requires us to attend sensitivity training.

Our rudeness could require someone to spend several months on the couch explaining to someone taking their hard earned money why we upset them sooooo bad.

[Jack Harlin]

Another Old Car

Im probably older than the oldest, that enjoys the previlage of the web, as I remember the complete list

How about when Doctors made house calls, Insurance man came to your

house to collect on policys. The Jewel Tea man, farmers driving through

town, selling their products, including live chickens.Trash man traveling

the alleys in horse and wagon, shouting, to let you know he was there, hanging a card up for the ice man to deliver ice in your unlocked house. Green stamps

given at stores & turn them in for merchandise. Shoveling snow for movie money

corner houses $.25 in between ones $.15. Jack

[ex98thdrill]

How about having to wait for the bank to open to get money because an ATM didn't exist?

[kuhner]

Better yet can you remember when you could tell the year of the auto by the way it looked? They actually had changes from year to year!

I was always facinated by my Dads ability to tell the make model and year with just a quick glance.

greg

[Guest]

When I was growing up in the 30s and 40s I could tell the make and year of any car from about 1935 on that came by. However, all of the older stuff looked alike to me and outside of As and Ts I couldn't tell one from another. Today I can tell the make and approximate year of most any car from 1955 back. Just don't ask what anything from the 60s up is.

Guess that is one thing 40 years in this hobby has done for me.

hvs

[Guest]

Ok, I read the whole thread, and now I can't remember what was on the list in the first post about stuff that we were asked if we remembered.

sigh.....

is that a sign of something?

[Jack Harlin]

One more, automobile related.

powder puff paint jobs? Jack

[Guest imported_56BuickSuper]

How about sticking your finger in a dial and spinning it to make a phone call? Or a choice between AM and AM on the radio?

Dan

[Guest]

Jack ~ How about the Powder Puff Derby? Not automotive, but aviation related.

Also 30 Years Difference!

1972: Long hair

2002: Longing for hair

1972: The perfect high

2002: The perfect high yield mutual fund

1972: KEG

2002: EKG

1972: Acid rock

2002: Acid reflux

1972: Moving to California because it's cool

2002: Moving to California because it's warm

1972: Growing pot

2002: Growing pot belly

1972: Trying to look like Marlon Brando or Liz Taylor

2002: Trying NOT to look like Marlon Brando or Liz Taylor

1972: Seeds and stems

2002: Roughage

1972: Killer weed

2002: Weed killer

1972: Hoping for a BMW

2002: Hoping for a BM

1972: The Grateful Dead

2002: Dr. Kevorkian

1972: Going to a new, hip joint

2002: Receiving a new hip joint

1972: Rolling Stones

2002: Kidney Stones

1972: Being called into the principal's office

2002: Calling the principal's office

1972: Screw the system

2002: Upgrade the system

1972: Disco

2002: Costco

1972: Parents begging you to get your hair cut

2002: Children begging you to get their heads shaved

1972: Passing the driver's test

2002: Passing the vision test

1972: Whatever

2002: Depends

[Amphicar BUYER]

About a month ago both my modern phones quit. All I had left was my 1944 desk phone. When it rings (remember when phones used to actually ring?), I know it's my phone! I am glad I have a private line. Party lines were no party! Our phone was 2 longs and a short. If you had a party line, you know what that refers to.

As a kid, I used to see what far away AM stations I could get at night.

In school, if you were in trouble, we had a choice. Dr. Profitt (principal) would simply hold up his phone in one hand and "The Board of Education" in the other. Your choice. If more kids were taught to respect authority, I feel a lot of todays kids would be less violent and better prepared to accept concequences rather than shift the blame.