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Someone asked the other day………………..
“What was your favorite 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. “Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, & 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 kid 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.
Here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled 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 in our house until I was 10 It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at 11, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God It came back on the air at about 6 a.m. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people… I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn’t know weren’t already using the line. Pizzas were not delivered to our home… But milk was & so was bread.
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers — my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. He had to get up at 5AM every morning
Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies! There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most 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 gut laughing. Growing up isn’t what it used to be, is it?
MEMORIES:
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother’s house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to ‘sprinkle’ clothes with because we didn’t have steam irons. Man, I am old.
How many do you remember?
Headlights 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 telephones 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 had a TV!!
7. Pea-shooters
8. Howdy Doody 9. 45 RPM records
10. 78 rpm records
11. Hi-fi records 33 1/3 rpm 12. Metal ice trays with lever 13. Blue flashbulb 14. Cork popguns 15. Studebakers
16. Wash tub wringers
<><><><><><><><><><> If you remembered 0-3 = You’re still young If you remembered 3-6 = You’re getting older If you remembered 7-10 = Don’t tell your age, & If you remembered 11-16= You’re older than dirt!!! THAT’S ME!!!I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life. Don’t forget to pass this along!! Especially to all your REALLY OLD friends |
3 thoughts on “Memories for us “older people””
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I too am older than dirt. I remember all of the things mentioned, and I’m glad to have these memories. It seems that life was simpler then, less stressful, or am I just remembering through rose colored glasses.
Another older than dirt person who really enjoys reading about the “good old days”. Fast food was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in between jobs that my parents had assigned me when I wasn’t in school. Another fast food was running through grandmother’s kitchen and scooping out a gob of dough before the bread was made. I don’t know why it tasted so good, but that’s the way I remember it!!!
I am happily older than dirt. I do remember the beginning of fast food here in CA. In Culver City there was a place that sold hamburgers, fries and shakes. I remember if you got a * on your receipt your order was free. My grandma got one once. I may be wrong about the city but it was some place near there.