How Old is Grandpa?

[Peter Gariepy]

How old is Grandpa???

Stay with this -- the answer is at the end. It will blow you away.

One evening a grandson was talking to his grandfather about current events.

The grandson asked his grandfather what he thought about the shootings at schools, the computer age, and just things in general.

The Grandfather replied, "Well, let me think a minute, I was born before:

' television

' penicillin

' polio shots

' frozen foods

' Xerox

' contact lenses

' Frisbees and

' the pill

There were no:

' credit cards

' laser beams or

' ball-point pens

Man had not invented:

' hose

' air conditioners

' dishwashers

' clothes dryers

and the clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air and

' man hadn't yet walked on the moon

Your Grandmother and I got married first, . . . and then lived together.

Every family had a father and a mother.

Until I was 25, I called every man older than me, "Sir".

And after I turned 25, I still called policemen and every man with a title, "Sir."

We were before gay-rights, computer- dating, dual careers, daycare centers, and group therapy.

Our lives were governed by the Ten Commandments, good judgment, and co mmon sense.

We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong and to stand up and take responsibility for our actions.

Serving your country was a privilege; living in this country was a bigger privilege

We thought fast food was what people ate during Lent.

Having a meaningful relationship meant getting along with your cousins.

Draft dodgers were people who closed their front doors when the evening breeze started.

Time-sharing meant time the family spent together in the evenings and weekends-not purchasing condominiums.

We never heard of FM radios, tape decks, CDs, electric typewriters, yogurt, or guys wearing earrings.

We listened to the Big Bands, Jack Benny, and the President's speeches on our radios.

And I don't ever remember any kid blowing his brains out listening to Tommy Dorsey.

If you saw anything with 'Made in Japan ' on it, it was junk.

The term 'making out' referred to how you did on your school exam.

Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and instant coffee were unheard of.

We had 5 &10-cent stores where you could actually buy things for 5 and 10 cents.

Ice-cream cones, phone calls, rides on a streetcar, and a Pepsi were all a nickel.

And if you didn't want to splur ge, you could spend your nickel on enough stamps to mail 1 letter and 2 postcards.

You could buy a new Chevy Coupe for $600, . . . but who could afford one?

Too bad, because gas was 11 cents a gallon.

In my day:

' "grass" was mowed,

' "coke" was a cold drink,

' "pot" was something your mother cooked in and

' "rock music" was your grandmother's lullaby.

' "Aids" were helpers in the Principal's office,

' " chip" meant a piece of wood,

' "hardware" was found in a hardware store and

' "software" wasn't even a word.

And we were the last generation to actually believe that a lady needed a husband to have a baby. No wonder people call us "old and confused" and say there is a generation gap... and how old do you think I am?

I bet you have this old man in mind...you are in for a shock!

Read on to see -- pretty scary if you think about it and pretty sad at the same time.

This man would be only 59 years old!!

[Guest imported_CarFreak]

So if "Grandpa" is 59 years old then he would have been born in 1947 or so.

I have seen this "Urban Legend" when it made the rounds a couple months ago and spent some time on a cold rainy night checking the stats. The email is vague enough that it doesn't get into detail but the truth is:

Clarence Birdseye started selling his flash frozen vegetables in 1930.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfrfood.htm

The first practical dishwasher was invented in 1850 (your posting didn't specify electric).

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bldishwasher.htm

Air conditioning invented by Carrier in 1902:

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa081797.htm

Ballpoint pen invented 1935

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story055.htm

Television wasn't invented by one person but rather ideas of several persons (FDR speech broadcast on tv in 1939):

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_television_timeline.htm

And so on and so on...

[RPrice]

Peter,

I've seen this before. My sons have a hard time (and they're adults) realizing the things they take

for granted today, didn't even exist not so many years ago.

To give you a little perspective, I'm 69 years old.

I remember when we got our first television set. That was around 1950, it was black and white (of course) and had a 7 inch screen. Wow, what technology!

Rog

[26pack]

To add to your list, penicillin was invented in about 1939.

Maybe this list is a few years old <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

[The Old Guy]

When my Grand kids ask me how old I am , I just tell them "When I was born, the dead sea wasn't even sick, and General Motors was still a Private"

[novaman]

Birdseye may have have started the frozen food thing in the 30's. It took some time to get the freezing right and still have tasty food, but it wasn't until someone else got invovled (can't remember her name)and started renting freezers to the store to put the birdseye frozen food in did it start to take off. After WWII is when the American mass public really got to know about frozen food and as the highways improved the frozen foods found there way into the deepest reaches of rural America.

[Guest leadsled1953]

my Mom did not have electricity until she was 6 years old.i still remember the oil lamps in my Grandma's cellar.so even if some of these things were invented didnt mean you had them. <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[Guest Randy Berger]

I'm not as old as RPrice, but when I started at a different school in the third grade, it had outhouses - one for the boys and one for the girls.

[Guest imported_CarFreak]

My mom used to try to tell me that they didn't have disposable diapers when I was a kid until I showed her an ad in Life magazine from the late 1950s. Then she changed her story that they were too expensive.

Dad was an electronic gadget nut - VCR's didn't really start to get popular until the early 1980s but we had a video tape recorder at home as early as 1972 or 1973 . Compliments of dad, I have a "portable" 1949 television and a 1952 cabinet tv (gets sound but no pic) up in the attic.