# Official Old Fart Thread!



## Jack Straw

Have you ever explained to today's youth how things have changed since you were young? You know things like; soda cans that needed an opener, pay phones, wearing bread bags on your feet to keep them dry in your boots and 8 tracks. It's amazing how things have changed since I was young. What changes do you remember?


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## Backwoods Savage

Jack, I once started to list some things and was amazed at how long the list was and I'd barely gotten started.

Just today a neighbor and I were talking about when we first saw the speed limit signs that read 65 mph but at night they read 55 mph. That was amazing back in those days. But so many changes. One could start just one one subject and come up with hundreds. Take automobiles, trucks or tractors for example. I remember when we had 3 tractors and every one of them had either a crank or you spun the flywheel to start the engine. But then, I also remember our family car when I was a little boy and we had to crank start that one too. Then think of little things like when we saw the first turn signals. Wow! Folks no longer had to hold their arm out the window to signal where they were turning. What about the dimmer switch for the headlights? Used to always be on the floor and you used your left foot. Sometimes that got interesting during the winter when ice would freeze up the switch.

And how about schools. I wonder how many of us had attended a true country school, where grades went up to 8th and there was only one teacher for the whole school. Also our first task every morning through most of the school year was to start a fire in the furnace. We weren't too bad off as we lived only 1 3/4 mile from the school so the walk wasn't so bad.

I also remember our first television set and our first phonograph that would play records and we didn't have to crank the thing up first. Of course we could go on and on but maybe this will get things started.


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## Ashful

Jack Straw said:


> Have you ever explained to today's youth how things have changed since you were young? You know things like; soda cans that needed an opener, pay phones, wearing bread bags on your feet to keep them dry in your boots and 8 tracks. It's amazing how things have changed since I was young. What changes do you remember?


 

I remember all those things (was just talking about the bread bags with someone recently!), but... soda cans needed an opener? I remember juice cans needing an opener, and soda / beer cans having the hateful pull tabs that would slice open your foot on the beach, but never a soda can that needed an opener!

Kids today will never have to rewind or fast-forward any cassette of any type. Most have never actually touched a record with their own hands. Weird. Perhaps the biggest change is the entire concept of waiting for things. If you missed the Charlie Brown Halloween special or Rudolf on TV... you had to wait 'till next year to see it again. My son thinks everything is instantly available right now. He's right!

<-- just rounding the top of the hill now


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## webbie

I remember when women didn't wear bras!


But, realistically, not too much has really changed. We went on vacation on jet aircraft when I was a kid, drove in cars with AC and automatic transmissions and made phone calls. Cable TV even came along when I was in my mid to late teens!

The biggest change, IMHO, is in communication, specifically the internet and other networks. 

8-tracks sounded great! I'll bet a decent one still does. I remember my buddy firing up the 8-track with the Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" and telling me how all the tracks were laid down...

We had $60 Harmony Electric guitars when I was a tween...my bro still has his and uses it regularly!


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## osagebow

Kind of in the old fart kiddie pool at 42. Remember bread bags in 3rd generation hand me down boots and a steeler hat with a pom pom on top lol...we had it kinda rough.

And our video games were horrible.

Our shop teacher hit a deer one winter coming to school, and butchered it in shop the next day. Never would see that today. I can't even let kids dissect a USDA beef heart. Gotta be a pickled biological specimen.

But I'm so glad the stuff I did in my teens didn't wind up on facebook or youtube within the hour


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## hossthehermit




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## webbie

I would have been arrested as a terrorist and tortured. I don't think making gunpowder for bombs and chlorine gas just for kicks would go over well today.


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## BrotherBart

Before 1962 you didn't put bread bags on your feet. Bread all came in waxed paper packaging up till then.


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## Jags

osagebow said:


> Never would see that today. I can't even let kids dissect a USDA beef heart.


 
For my Freshman year in high school I did a speech on how to clean a shot gun - with a real shot gun.  Can you even imagine that today?  Loose .22 shells were common pocket fodder.


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## webbie

How will I ever explain that my parents drank.....cocktails? Beer was only for the poor and wine was thunderbird.


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## Jags

7 and 7's and old fashions (brandy).


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## BrotherBart

webbie said:


> How will I ever explain that my parents drank.....cocktails? Beer was only for the poor and wine was thunderbird.


 

An hi-balls didn't refer to how you wore your jeans.


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## Jags

BrotherBart said:


> An hi-balls didn't refer to how you wore your jeans.


 
heck - they even had their own glass (rounded and heavy bottomed).


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## Delta-T

tupperware parties (apparently these still exist, but I think they are more like reenactments, SCA type stuff where people dress up in fake armor and swordfight)

tupperware comes from NH
also, the first retractable tape measure invented here too...both in Berlin.


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## BrotherBart

Three words, Fuller Brush Man.


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## Delta-T

look at that guy's square manbag! that is old fashioned.


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## Ashful

webbie said:


> I would have been arrested as a terrorist and tortured. I don't think making gunpowder for bombs and chlorine gas just for kicks would go over well today.


 

We used to make pipe bombs in the basement, and set them off on the railroad tracks as teenagers.  The thought of taking one into a school never even crossed our minds.

I once took my Swiss Army knife to school to show off to a few friends.  A teacher saw it, and simply told me to put it away.  Point taken.  No zero-tolerance suspension necessary.


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## webbie

I remember showing off my boy scout penknife in elementary school. 

We never considered bombing the school, but cherry bombs in the toilets were not considered "the school".  I don't remember ever doing it myself, but it was the promised land in terms of rumors.

Here is a small sampling of our gas and explosives story:
http://www.craigsfire.com/?p=349


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## webbie

Although this still occurs, there was a time in the 70's where many of your friends turned into insurance salesmen and hassled you to no end.
MLM is a pox on us all.


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## webbie

Of all the proof of the "way things were", the least believable might be my concert ticket to see

Jimi Hendrix
Grateful Dead
Steve Miller
Cactus (big at the time)
NY Rock and Roll Ensemble (also fairly well known).

ALL TOGETHER in one night.

$5


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## Jags

webbie said:


> I remember showing off my boy scout penknife in elementary school.


 
I carried a pen knife (and still do) since I was 6 years old.


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## begreen

I can recall when rock and roll was taboo and considered too racy. Of course, we ignored that ban completely. I also remember when a "portable" radio weighed no less than 10 lbs and often more. Our first TV, a 1948 Philco, had an 8" screen in a 30" cabinet. Postcard stamps were 1 cent.


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## Jags

And mom would drag out the old cast iron hand grinder and feed it bologna and pickles and a bit of onion to make a sandwich spread.


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## begreen

Cool, that sounds creative.


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## begreen

How many folks were on a party line? Two nostalgic losses for me were the passing of the steam engine on the Hudson line and losing our local telephone operator. I never met her in person but she was nice to us kids when we wanted to use the phone.


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## Pallet Pete

Man I leave for a few weeks and come back to farts ! Sheesh lol 

Pete


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## jharkin

Joful said:


> Kids today will never have to rewind or fast-forward any cassette of any type. Most have never actually touched a record with their own hands. Weird.


 
Many will never touch any type of media, even books  with their hands. It will be all download.


But I'm making sure at least some do


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## jharkin

I probably dont qualify for this thread either, being 3 years shy of the hill yet...

But even in my generations time things have changed. I still remember using the paper card catalog at the library. Mail ordering by sending a check in an envelope. Having to turn the control for the big Yagi TV antenna on the roof before changing channels, without a remote (my dad had put stickers for each channel on the control dial). Rotary dial phones. Pay phones. Having to set the choke before starting the car. Hand crank windows in the car.


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## jharkin

webbie said:


> I would have been arrested as a terrorist and tortured. I don't think making gunpowder for bombs and chlorine gas just for kicks would go over well today.


 


Joful said:


> We used to make pipe bombs in the basement, and set them off on the railroad tracks as teenagers. The thought of taking one into a school never even crossed our minds.
> 
> I once took my Swiss Army knife to school to show off to a few friends. A teacher saw it, and simply told me to put it away. Point taken. No zero-tolerance suspension necessary.


 
Make that 3 of us.  I always carried a knife to school, and we used to get fireworks (parents bought for us in NH) and I would use my dad drill press to drill the poweder out of the big ones and make one giant bomb out of it then blow things up in the back yard.  Lucky I never lost an arm.


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## BrotherBart

Rabbit's feet. Royal blue ones. Key chain attached.


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## lukem

I remember when our neighbor got a satellite dish....but juuuust barely.  Was probably 8.


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## Backwoods Savage

begreen said:


> How many folks were on a party line? Two nostalgic losses for me were the passing of the steam engine on the Hudson line and losing our local telephone operator. I never met her in person but she was nice to us kids when we wanted to use the phone.


 
I remember the first time we heard about someone not being on a party line. Neat idea but it took a long time coming to us. Our first phone was the old wall hanger with the crank on the right hand side. I think our number was 1 long and 2 shorts. And yes, the earpiece hung on the left side while you talked into the "mike." Phones were usually installed for the "lady of the house" height.

Then came rotary phones and our party line dropped to only 4 of us on one line. Don't remember the year we got a private line but do remember we loved it. No more waiting for the neighbor kids to end their hours lone conversations.

I'm also wondering how many of us had cars with 6 volts rather than 12 volts? It doesn't seem that long ago when they switched. Also generators. I remember many times changing the brushes in those old generators. Seems they did not last that long.


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## jharkin

lukem said:


> I remember when our neighbor got a satellite dish....but juuuust barely. Was probably 8.


 

Was it one of those 8 ft monsters that was ground mounted in the back yard? We had a couple of those on our street.


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## Backwoods Savage

Does anyone here remember Champagne Velvet beer? Or Drewries?


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## gmule

How about those plastic window things that people used to carry pictures in their wallets?





Now everyone has pictures on their phone.


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## fossil

Hanging from the dash of my '55 Chevy Handyman Wagon was a chrome Automatic Radio 4-track tape player.  Had a reverb box wired in too, in case I wanted to echo things up a bit.


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## BrotherBart

lukem said:


> I remember when our neighbor got a satellite dish....but juuuust barely. Was probably 8.


 

I remember when the Russians put the first satellite in orbit.  Never realized someday it would cost me $65 a month.


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## fossil

My mom took me outside one night to watch Sputnik pass overhead.  Oct 1957.  I was 8.


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## BrotherBart

fossil said:


> Hanging from the dash of my '55 Chevy Handyman Wagon was a chrome Automatic Radio 4-track tape player. Had a reverb box wired in too, in case I wanted to echo things up a bit.


 

Want a Pioneer reverb unit or eight track recorder? Got'em in the basement.  Same box as the TRS-80 Model 1 and the six pack of Billie beer.


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## fossil

I had an 8-track recorder.  Made a lot of re-mix tapes I remember quite well...that was in the early '70's, in my early 20's...was prob'ly on ~my 3rd 8-track player by that time.


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## lukem

Backwoods Savage said:


> Does anyone here remember Champagne Velvet beer? Or Drewries?


Champagne velvet made right here...making a comeback from what I understand.


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## HDRock

BrotherBart said:


> Three words, Fuller Brush Man.


I remember those guys , and we had milk delivered in glass bottles, later on, U had to take your empty milk bottles back to the store.
I remember our first tv, 12" screen, in a big cabinet   wow we have come a long way in that area
Ask a kid today , what is a milk man


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## HDRock

Jags said:


> I carried a pen knife (and still do) since I was 6 years old.


 
I was 7 or 8, Saved up bazooka gum wrappers  and got a 2 blade pocket knife, (imagine that today)   I have been carrying a pocket knife, every day of my life since the day I got it.
Today I carry A Leatherman Wave ,nothing like that back then.


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## Doug MacIVER

HDRock said:


> I remember those guys , and we had milk delivered in glass bottles, later on, U had to take your empty milk bottles back to the store.
> I remember our first tv, 12" screen, in a big cabinet  wow we have come a long way in that area
> Ask a kid today , what is a milk man


 to this day a few local dairies have local delivery locally in mass and i'm, sure the rest of New England. as with fuller, lost are the bakery delivery , the rag man, and home doctor visits.


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## Hills Hoard

im only 35 and already turning into a salty old bastard...ive turned into that dude in traffic that tells people off for doing the wrong thing...like when i spot p  platers (probationary drivers) texting away while they are driving i have to pull up next to them and give them an ear full....and chicks doing make up at the lights who dont see the light turn green...rrrrgghhhh!!....and now that im old i leave heaps of room between me and cars in front and people tailgate my ass so i have to give them an ear full too........i busted a chick driving along picking her nose in traffic the other day so i pulled up next to her and beeped my horn till i got her attention then i waved....needless to say she was quite embarrassed but we both had a laugh....


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## blades

Hand crank tractors, gravity feed fuel system, later on truck had electric start no key needed no locks, cistern in basement with a hand pump upstairs on side board ( that was a real up scale luxury), 1/2moon little house out back, Big life change when we got electric power about 1960. After that things started changing fast. We had a portable radio took a 67.5volt battery and a few "D" cells ( it was constructed with peanut tubes) Doctors making house calls and quarantine sign if someone had the measles / chicken pox  ect.


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## Ashful

HDRock said:


> Ask a kid today , what is a milk man



"Dad?"


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## PapaDave

I'm too old to remember anything.
ETA:
Milk chutes in the outside wall and the milkman to go with it.
Got my 1st transistor radio when I was about 11.
"Portable" record player that looked like a suitcase/luggage.
3 on the tree.
Rotary phone (Dennis has us all trumped with the wall hand crank).
Stepdad was a cop, and I "found" his little leather wrapped billy club and took it to school to show off. He got a call, and I got in trouble, but was right back in school the next day instead of being labeled a terrorist. I'd venture a guess that those aren't exactly "PC" anymore.
I'm sure I can come up with some more......later. The memory banks are churning.


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## webbie

Remember when Japanese products were considered shoddy? That probably ended with the Honda 90.


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## Jack Straw

I remember taking Opie to the fishin hole while aunt Bee made a pie and let it  cool in the window. Ottis would get drunk and let himself into the jail cell.  Barney only had one bullet. 

Oh heck, that wasn't me!

That reminds me, remember shows you could watch  with your kids without having to explain what a wang is!


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## Shari

My first car ('61 Buick) did not have a radio.  Radio, power steering/windows, auto transmission a/c were all 'options' back-in-the-day.  I think white walls were also an option.

"Reverb" - man, haven't thought about that for awhile. Hubby had one in his car when we were dating. I thought it was the neatest thing. I think we still have the reverb - stored in a box somewhere......


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## begreen

HDRock said:


> Ask a kid today , what is a milk man


 
Ask them what an ice man is. We loved when he came through our neighborhood in the summer. He always would give us a shard of nice cold ice.


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## Shari

About 8 yrs. ago our teenage niece was visiting and wanted to make a 'personal' phone call.  I sent her to the bedroom to use the phone in there.

After a bit she came back and said "How do you use that phone?"  Heh heh it was a rotary dial phone.


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## Backwoods Savage

lukem said:


> Champagne velvet made right here...making a comeback from what I understand.


 

Please tell me more Luke!


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## Backwoods Savage

I miss white sidewalls and two-toned cars.


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## lukem

Backwoods Savage said:


> Please tell me more Luke!


http://www.champagnevelvetbeer.com

Upland down in Bloomington is bringing it back.  Used to be made in Terre Haute.


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## woodgeek

You dudes are old.  I remember rolling around in the back of the station wagon when I was a kid.  And as a young man, i spent a lot of time on corners waiting for my friend(s) to show up at the appointed time.  And getting lost and having to ask folks for directions. Kids nowadays have no idea.


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## fossil

I know I'm 6 months away from age 65, because apparently Edward Snowden has alerted all the folks who want to sell me Medicare Supplemental Insurance.  And there are a lot of them.


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## BrotherBart

fossil said:


> I know I'm 6 months away from age 65, because apparently Edward Snowden has alerted all the folks who want to sell me Medicare Supplemental Insurance. And there are a lot of them.


 

It starts over every year during "open season". For life.

Funny thing is two of our docs now have signs in their offices "We no longer accept any Medicare Advantage plans. We still accept standard Medicare.".


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## webbie

Back in my day, the government ONLY Investigated leftie groups. Imagine!


But, seriously, our local doc in Philly made house calls regularly. His office was not a glorified medical center, but the basement on the end unit of a bunch of row houses...

Actually, the thing that freaks out most young'uns today is when you honestly and carefully explain to them how the draft worked in the 60's. It's interesting that people worry about us having LESS liberty when it seems we have MORE than ever. Realistically, what could be worse than simply scooping up millions of teens for a war which had nothing to do with defense or our security?

My employees, who were only 10 years younger than me, didn't think I was telling the truth when I informed them of this. That is, how soon we forget!

Such a deal folks have today. They have the internet, cell phones and cable...and tivo, and NO DRAFT.


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## Ehouse

Sugar Ray (the original), Carmen Basilio, Gene Fulmer, Archie Moore and Rocky (the original) on the fuzzy blue screen, brought to you by Gillett;  "To look sharp.....".  Watch Mister Wizard,  Crunch and Des,  Industry On Parade....  "Twang your magic twanger Froggy!"


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## BrotherBart

Hair over the top of your ears. Barely. The reason my girlfriend's mother made her break up with me. After I came back from the Army I stopped by and had a beer with her mom. Seems the girl ran off with a biker. 

I am finally back to the sixties after 40 years in corporate America.  The ex-hippie is the one on the left.


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## fossil

OMG, that's a_ great_ pic!  Where/when was that taken?  Was this during labor/management negotiations?


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## BrotherBart

fossil said:


> OMG, that's a_ great_ pic! Where/when was that taken? Was this during labor/management negotiations?


 

Yeah. He thought by picking up that breakfast check under his hand I would give up the enhancement to the paid sick leave policy. Didn't work. It is now the original no days times four.


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## begreen

Yer darn lucky you still have hair to grow!
Still looking good BB.


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## Ehouse

Ah, Cracker Barrel!  A sure sign of oldfartiness!


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## webbie

Mohammed Ali lived a couple blocks away from me - and that is when he was fighting!

Long long time ago....

I think I can put this all to rest by stating that we all listened to Mick Jagger when he was still in his teens!


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## BrotherBart

I'm so old that Keith Richards looked like this when the Stones recorded their first record that I purchased in 1965. _Last Time_.


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## Gark

Toys -my avatar. Silly putty which came in an egg. Rocket Radio. My sister's doll - Betsy Wetsy. Paint By Numbers. Grow your own seahorses in the back of comics. Slinkey. Mousetrap game. Barrel of Monkeys. Gilbert Chemistry Set, which had sulpher, saltpeter and charcoal right in it....


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## Backwoods Savage

I had one of those erection sets when I was young.


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## gyrfalcon

BrotherBart said:


> I remember when the Russians put the first satellite in orbit.  Never realized someday it would cost me $65 a month.


Hah!  We went up on the roof of the apartment building to watch the 2nd Sputnik go by.  Never connected it to pay TV either.


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## save$

I remember pealing asbestos fibers off from the asbestos rock and rolling mercury around in the palm of my hands in high school science class!


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## fossil

Christmas morning, 1954.


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## gyrfalcon

fossil said:


> Christmas morning, 1954.
> 
> View attachment 105128


 
Oh, what a great pic.  We used to have a train set that ran around the Christmas tree every year when I was a kid, too, until it died.  Haven't seen one in a good 50-some years now.  I used to love that.  Thanks for the memories.


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## fossil

This was the start. My dad and I built a big outfit in the basement.  Mountains, tunnels, trestles, the whole really fun deal.  Long time ago.  It's all long gone...except I still have that very locomotive, tender and caboose on my dresser right next to this picture.


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## gyrfalcon

fossil said:


> This was the start. My dad and I built a big outfit in the basement. Mountains, tunnels, trestles, the whole really fun deal. Long time ago. It's all long gone...except I still have that very locomotive, tender and caboose on my dresser right next to this picture.



Oh,that's so cool.  We never got into it to that extent, but man, I sure miss that chug-chug-chug especially around Christmastime.

You know that the modern "hacker" culture started with elaborate electric train set-ups in the basement of MIT, yes?


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## fossil

No, but I'm intrigued.


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## BrotherBart

My wife's 62 year old train set is in a crate, in the way, in the garage. For 50 years is was stored in a shed at her mothers house and is a mess.


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## gyrfalcon

fossil said:


> No, but I'm intrigued.


This is an older but fascinating book I found revelatory.  http://books.google.com/books/about/Hackers.html?id=mShXzzKtpmEC  Should be available for pennies used on Amazon, and very well worth the (easy) read.  I worked at MIT doing PR for a computer lab for a few years, and what this book describes absolutely rings true.  The hacker culture didn't just spring full-blown from the mind of somebody like Julian Assange, it took some time to evolve.


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## fossil

Bart, I got some decent $$$ for the bulk of mine & my dad's train stuff from a dealer in Manassas, just off 66 at Sudley. I think it was "Train Depot". Maybe it's still there. I felt that I was treated fairly.

ETA:  I also was quite happy with a bunch of my related eBay auctions.  People out there collect and will buy anything.


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## gyrfalcon

BrotherBart said:


> My wife's 62 year old train set is in a crate, in the way, in the garage. For 50 years is was stored in a shed at her mothers house and is a mess.


Um, not to be crude or anything, but stuff like that is worth a fair amount of pennies these days, even if you're not interested in reviving it yourselves.  A real shame in any case to let it molder and rust away in a garage for half a century, IMO.  It's not my thing to devote time and $$ to it, but to see it working and chugging around the track is just thrilling.


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## BrotherBart

The term "hacker" originated to describe people that put together their own computers. Back in the seventies. Somehow it morphed. "Hackers" became "geeks" and people that should be hung up by their toes came to be known as "hackers".


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## fossil

I thought geeks bit the heads off chickens.


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## Dix

fossil said:


> I thought geeks bit the heads off chickens.


 
No, Rick ... that's Ozzie Osbourne, or was it Ted Nugent?


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## gyrfalcon

BrotherBart said:


> The term "hacker" originated to describe people that put together their own computers. Back in the seventies. Somehow it morphed. "Hackers" became "geeks" and people that should be hung up by their toes came to be known as "hackers".


Yeah, it's complicated.  That's why this book is so interesting and useful because it traces all that, including the "phone phreaks" of the '70s.  It's a fascinating sort of primer on the core mentality that all this grew out of.


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## BrotherBart

Cool that you worked at MIT. Used to go to Boston once or twice a year. Many an evening on the Back Bay with interesting folks in the "business" back then. One lady had worked in IT at MIT for years and couldn't get another job anywhere. I told her the problem was she wasn't telling lies on her resume.

She called me the next month and said "Why didn't you bastards tell me that five years ago! Just got a great job offer.".


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## hossthehermit

Backwoods Savage said:


> I had one of those erection sets when I was young.


 
Sure could use one now


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## Ashful

hossthehermit said:


> Sure could use one now


 
Little blue pill ain't doing it for you anymore?


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## northwinds

Jags said:


> 7 and 7's and old fashions (brandy).


 
I remember being a ninth grader paper boy, and collecting for my paper route by going door to door.  A couple in their 70's would be drinking brandy old fashions every evening, and if I came at the right time (after dinner), they would invite me in and make me a watered down one with lots of cherries.  Today, that would probably get them arrested.


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## Jags

northwinds said:


> Today, that would probably get them arrested.


 
Not if you are from Wisconsin.  That was pretty normal stuff back in the day.  Going to a pizza joint (made by real Sicilians) my parents would order a half carafe of wine and 3 glasses.  At 8 years old they only allowed one.


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## Ashful

northwinds said:


> I remember being a ninth grader paper boy, and collecting for my paper route by going door to door. A couple in their 70's would be drinking brandy old fashions every evening...


 
Same story here, except I was a fifth or sixth grader and one old couple in my route must have been in their late 80's, and the woman would usually answer the door wearing nothing but a too-loose nightgown or robe. Then she'd bend over to fish a few dollars out of her purse, and while the 12 year old version of me couldn't help but look... it was sort of like driving past a bad car accident.


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## Jack Straw

TMI


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## Redbarn

Saw a recent article on human progress (?).

A person born 60 years ago, was born before:

- television
- penicillin 
- polioshots
- frozen foods
- Xerox copiers 
- contact lenses
- Frisbees 
- the pill
- instant coffee

There were no: 
- creditcards
- laser beams
- ball-point pens
- Pizza Hut
- McDonalds

Mankind had not invented:
- pantyhose 
- domestic air conditioners 
- dishwashers
- clothes dryers (clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air)


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## fossil

Left a few off.  Like, say, the transistor


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## Backwoods Savage

Ya, that list could be huge!


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## gyrfalcon

Redbarn said:


> Saw a recent article on human progress (?).
> 
> A person born 60 years ago, was born before:
> 
> - television
> - penicillin
> - polioshots
> - frozen foods
> - Xerox copiers
> - contact lenses
> - Frisbees
> - the pill
> - instant coffee


 
Yup.  And lemme tell you, getting those kid ear infections pre-penicillin was no joke.  Burst my eardrums repeatedly and ended up with slightly impaired hearing as a result.


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## BrotherBart

They could get carried away with penicillin though. The last time I was a patient in a hospital I was in the 4th grade. They shot me full of the stuff at six in the morning and six at night. Ended up making me allergic to the stuff.


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## Ashful

fossil said:


> Left a few off.  Like, say, the transistor



Without a doubt, the single-most important invention of our generation.  Perhaps the most important invention since the wheel.  But, it did exist more than 60 years ago!  1948.


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## fossil

So did I.  I was invented in 1948.  60 years, 64 years...what's the diff?


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## BrotherBart

When I saw that list my first thought was "Yeah, they were born before the invention of the X-Box or iPhone too.".


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## fossil

Hell, _cordless_ phones...let alone cell phones.  And microwave ovens, and commercial jetliners, and on and on and on...


----------



## HDRock

One thing I wish they had never came up with, is,  Insurance Commercials  
Remote controls are so great,  aren't they?
I was the youngest of 5 siblings, so   I ended up being the channel changer most of the time


----------



## BrotherBart

fossil said:


> Hell, _cordless_ phones...


 
I think that one is my favorite. Back before 800 and 900 mhz I bought a cop scanner and put it in my garage shop. The very first thing it snagged was my neighbor's wife on her cordless phone when her boyfriend called her at home while her husband was away. 

I went in the house and tossed ours in the trash.


----------



## jharkin

fossil said:


> Left a few off. Like, say, the transistor


 

60 years ago is 1953. Transistor was invented in 47.

For that matter, dishwashers, dryers and air conditioners all go back decades before the 50s. Not as common as today but available.


Edit: oops this was mentioned already.


----------



## BrotherBart

I think readily available to the masses is the thing here.

I mean hey, the Babbage Engine was a computer.


----------



## fossil

jharkin said:


> Edit: oops this was mentioned already.


 
Yes, it was.  And it's also nitpicky BS.  The transistor was developed over a long period of time.  They weren't commercially viable or produced in quantity until the mid-1950's.


----------



## jharkin

Gark said:


> Toys -my avatar. Silly putty which came in an egg. Rocket Radio. My sister's doll - Betsy Wetsy. Paint By Numbers. Grow your own seahorses in the back of comics. Slinkey. Mousetrap game. Barrel of Monkeys. Gilbert Chemistry Set, which had sulpher, saltpeter and charcoal right in it....


 
Wow I remember playing with all of those toys in the 80s!


----------



## jharkin

fossil said:


> Yes, it was. And it's also nitpicky BS. The transistor was developed over a long period of time. They weren't commercially viable or produced in quantity until the mid-1950's.


 
Point taken.  It was an honest goof, I really did just hit the button before reading the thread.

 Sorry.


----------



## Ashful

fossil said:


> So did I. I was invented in 1948. 60 years, 64 years...what's the diff?


 

Says the guy who's 64.


----------



## save$

We had a kitchen stove and an oil stove in the living room.   We sat around a floor model radio in the evening.  Mom did the wash in some sort of tub with rollers on it.  The clothes were hung out to dry.  We did have an indoor flush, so that was different from what some of our friends had.  Any toys we had were either wood or metal.  We did get a phone, but it was a party line.   You had to count the rings to know when to answer.  Any calls further than a few miles was long distance  and cost a lot so we were forbidden to do that.   The lawn was small because those push mowers were very had to move.  You were licked if you let it grow more than a couple inches.   
I could buy a candy bar for three cents!   Old enough!


----------



## BrotherBart

And walking to school in the snow it was uphill. Both ways.


----------



## firefighterjake

First color TV . . . small screen with these plastic doors made to look like wood that would close up to hide the TV from view so folks supposedly would not know it was a TV . . . and of course no remote and only three or four channels . . . heck, in college (1988-1992) I was one of the few there who did not have access to cable or satellite TV.

Went to school -- Kindergarten through 12th grade in the same building. Not the same room mind you . . . it was not a one room school house, but it was the same building. Knew every student in the graduating class.

Party line phone . . . the good news it was with my grandparents and Uncle up the road.


----------



## BrotherBart

We had the first color TV in our town in 1959. Daytime Truth or Consequences was the color show and on Sunday Bonanza. Everybody ooohing and ahhhing at the color of the fire burning through the map on the intro. Me sitting on the couch steaming because I wanted to watch The Untouchables in B/W on the other of two stations. Our house was always packed on New Years Day with people eating our food and watching the Tournament of Roses Parade in color.

The TV burned up a flyback transformer about once every two months. 

Dad was a preacher and one Sunday night he paused in the sermon and said "OK. Everybody settle down. You are going to get home in time for Bonanza.".


----------



## Hearth Mistress

Ok, so I don't consider myself an old fart yet, just turning 40 in march, but today, the "oldies" station was playing not only motown oldie but goodies but Bon Jovi and Prince. I guess the "80's" is old now too 

Anyway, I have a few to chime with...
-our "big as a boat" Buick that my dad would take corners on pretty much 2 wheels so my sister and I would slide across that massive back seat hysterical laughing while playing the Bay City Rollers on the 8 track
- the smell of raw gas and manual choke on the "farm truck" beater my dad used to haul hay
- my dad buying my mom a microwave for mothers day in 1978 and not only it being the size of a VW beetle but all of us terrified to use this "space technology" My mother swore we'd all glow in the dark from radiation poisoning
- phone numbers ST267, not 10 digit dialing!

Speaking of phones, just recently, we were finally cleaning out old crap piled up from Sandy now that the shed was rebuilt. My neighbors kid, 22, was fumbling with a phone and we couldn't help but laugh, he was trying REALLY hard to figure out how to use it, it was rotary, blew his mind!

And these....My favorite t-shirt


----------



## HDRock

Hearth Mistress said:


> Ok, so I don't consider myself an old fart yet, just turning 40 in march, but today, the "oldies" station was playing not only motown oldie but goodies but Bon Jovi and Prince. I guess the "80's" is old now too
> 
> Anyway, I have a few to chime with...
> -our "big as a boat" Buick that my dad would take corners on pretty much 2 wheels so my sister and I would slide across that massive back seat hysterical laughing while playing the Bay City Rollers on the 8 track
> - the smell of raw gas and manual choke on the "farm truck" beater my dad used to haul hay
> - my dad buying my mom a microwave for mothers day in 1978 and not only it being the size of a VW beetle but all of us terrified to use this "space technology" My mother swore we'd all glow in the dark from radiation poisoning
> - phone numbers ST267, not 10 digit dialing!
> 
> Speaking of phones, just recently, we were finally cleaning out old crap piled up from Sandy now that the shed was rebuilt. My neighbors kid, 22, was fumbling with a phone and we couldn't help but laugh, he was trying REALLY hard to figure out how to use it, it was rotary, blew his mind!
> 
> And these....My favorite t-shirt
> 
> View attachment 105240


I still have some 45s


----------



## Jags

Hearth Mistress said:


> And these....My favorite t-shirt
> 
> View attachment 105240


 
The clutch off of a McCullough 240?


----------



## Ashful

Just with regard to cars, and what was once common knowledge:

Tune-up signs at gas stations
Gas stations associated with garages
Full-service stations (they're all self-service here)
Tune-ups
Knowing when it's time to change your cap and rotor
-- actually _having _a cap and rotor
Mechanical / vacuum advance
Carburetors
Chokes

Anyone here ever try hot-rodding a car with vacuum wipers or headlight pods? I remember lots of Corvettes driving around with one headlight down, because the driver had a high performance aftermarket cam / intake combo, and couldn't generate enough vacuum to pull both headlights up!


----------



## Jags

Don't forget bias ply tires.


----------



## Ashful

How could I?  I still have some.


----------



## BrotherBart

Joful said:


> Anyone here ever try hot-rodding a car with vacuum wipers or headlight pods? I remember lots of Corvettes driving around with one headlight down, because the driver had a high performance aftermarket cam / intake combo, and couldn't generate enough vacuum to pull both headlights up!


 
Or have a valve in the wiper hose under the dash to open so it would lope at red lights like it actually had a high lift cam.


----------



## northwinds

This car talk made me remember my family's Rambler station wagon made in Wisconsin (looked exactly like this one). As a youngster, I got behind the wheel and pretended to operate the controls one Sunday morning. Little did I know that playing with the accelerator flooded the engine, and the car wouldn't start when the family got
ready to go to church. I don't remember any seat belts. My brother and I loved to ride in the way back all of the time. "Stop that roughhousing," my parents would yell.


----------



## Jags

Too funny - my parents had the same car (ours had a roof rack, I remember getting in trouble for hanging on it) - and no, there were no seat belts.


----------



## Delta-T

...cars used to have an ash tray for every passenger...fancy cars had cigarette lighters all around. My Dad had a Chevy Caprice/Impala (forget exactly) that was fully loaded...his Dad worked many years at GM cr factory...he got a good deal on that beast.


----------



## Ashful

northwinds said:


> My brother and I loved to ride in the way back all of the time. "Stop that roughhousing," my parents would yell.


 
Yeah, but dad's swinging arm couldn't reach you in the "wayback".

<-- Thought the "wayback" was a local (east coast) term for the back of the station wagon!


----------



## BrotherBart

Joful said:


> Yeah, but dad's swinging arm couldn't reach you in the "wayback".
> 
> <-- Thought the "wayback" was a local (east coast) term for the back of the station wagon!


 

"Don't you make me have to stop this car!"


----------



## fossil

Yeah, we had a backward-facing wayback seat in our big old green Plymouth station wagon...must've been a '57 or '58.  Made a lot of faces at the folks in the cars behind us.


----------



## begreen

We have some great windy rural roads. My kids loved to scramble into the wayback and roll around with the curves.


----------



## begreen

fossil said:


> Yeah, we had a backward-facing wayback seat in our big old green Plymouth station wagon...must've been a '57 or '58. Made a lot of faces at the folks in the cars behind us.


 
LOL, that was a flashback. I remember that too!


----------



## BrotherBart

The one we had. 1957 Pontiac Starchief Safari. The Pontiac version of the Chevy Nomad.







347ci four-barrel. The sucker _would_ run.


----------



## Backwoods Savage

My first car.  1952 Plymouth


----------



## Backwoods Savage

I was out on a bike ride this afternoon and for some reason this thread came to mind and I though of all the roads that used to be gravel. This included many State highways, including the one that is near us. I remember when it was paved too and that was in 1958. It was neat because they cut out several of the crooks and turns which meant lots of construction. It was the first time I'd ever seen an earth mover except for the one I saw on tv. That time on tv was a documentary showing what Disneyland would look like and they showed some of the construction going on at the time.

Another thing I remember and miss was the free movies. We used to go often during the summer months to several villages where they would show free movies. Naturally before the show there was always a ball game going on. For us farm kids just getting to go to town was a treat. The movies were like icing on the cake.


----------



## BrotherBart

We could take some milk carton tops to the theater on Saturday morning for free movies. It was a really long walk into town to that dang theater. And twice as far back.


----------



## save$

BrotherBart said:


> We could take some milk carton tops to the theater on Saturday morning for free movies. It was a really long walk into town to that dang theater. And twice as far back.


we only had glass milk bottles and they had pull off caps!   Reminds me of an old joke.  Two drunks in a bar.  "Sorry I'm late, I got a flat tire when I ran over a milk bottle."  Other drunk, You couldn't see a milk bottle in the road?"  First drunk, "No the kid had it under his coat"


----------



## BrotherBart

Dad had a milk route with those glass bottles. I used to ride with him and loved getting a cold bottle of chocolate milk off the ice in the back of the truck for lunch.

He drove one of these.


----------



## Hearth Mistress

Growing up in MD in the 70's we had a milk man and an egg man, different guys but other local farmers. Also, A-Treat soda truck would come around, lots of flavors in thick glass bottles. my mom used to let us each pick 4 bottles since there were 3 of us kids to make a case. they were capped but we had these rubber bail things we'd stop the bottles back up with. I haven't thought of that in 30 years!

When we moved to PA we had a Charlie Chip man and a Jewel T man (like a five and dime in a panel truck).  I can still get A-Treat soda but it's plastic 2 liters in the grocery....not the same


----------



## Backwoods Savage

BrotherBart said:


> We could take some milk carton tops to the theater on Saturday morning for free movies. It was a really long walk into town to that dang theater. And twice as far back.


 
The first time I remember going to the theater is cost $.08 because I was under age 12. For that age and up to 18 it was $.12. I think the adults had to pay a quarter.


----------



## Backwoods Savage

BrotherBart said:


> Dad had a milk route with those glass bottles. I used to ride with him and loved getting a cold bottle of chocolate milk off the ice in the back of the truck for lunch.
> 
> He drove one of these.


 
I think that be a Divco Wayne truck. We still have a dairy using them out of Saginaw, MI.


----------



## WeldrDave

My God, I caught this tread late but, hate to say it, after reading all your posts, my how it bring's back things. Here's one, my Dad had a 59 studebaker lark and we would go get ice cream at the local stand then he would get gas at the Sinclair station after that on friday night.


----------



## Ehouse

Backwoods Savage said:


> My first car. 1952 Plymouth
> 
> View attachment 105265


 

When I was about 5 years old, my wise elders set me upon a horse so they could take some pictures and away we went!  All the way to the top of the mountain!  I hugged down and clutched his mane and road it out.  Horse and I sat on top of the world watching Grandad's Plymouth wind up the farm road behind the restaurant to fetch us.


----------



## Ehouse

Hearth Mistress said:


> Growing up in MD in the 70's we had a milk man and an egg man, different guys but other local farmers. Also, A-Treat soda truck would come around, lots of flavors in thick glass bottles. my mom used to let us each pick 4 bottles since there were 3 of us kids to make a case. they were capped but we had these rubber bail things we'd stop the bottles back up with. I haven't thought of that in 30 years!
> 
> When we moved to PA we had a Charlie Chip man and a Jewel T man (like a five and dime in a panel truck). I can still get A-Treat soda but it's plastic 2 liters in the grocery....not the same


 
Yep, Charlie Chip' s in those big round tins. My dad was a milk man so they say.....


----------



## WeldrDave

Joful said:


> Yeah, but dad's swinging arm couldn't reach you in the "wayback".


 


BrotherBart said:


> "Don't you make me have to stop this car!"


My God, LOL... after Dads studebaker, we had a 1962 Plymouth station wagon, I think it seated 16......." you know what I mean"  It was huge..... Mom had an elastic arm and could smack any kid "ANY where in the car


----------



## Ehouse

Dave USCG said:


> My God, I caught this tread late but, hate to say it, after reading all your posts, my how it bring's back things. Here's one, my Dad had a 59 studebaker lark and we would go get ice cream at the local stand then he would get gas at the Sinclair station after that on friday night.


 

Studebakers, +1


----------



## begreen

Anyone remember riding in a rumble seat? I was lucky enough as a young tyke to ride with an aunt to the lake in a Model A roadster with one. Fun stuff. I also remember riding to the same Kirk Lake in the back of my dad's 1951 red International pickup. It was almost as good as riding a motorcycle. Can't do that anymore.


----------



## Hearth Mistress

begreen said:


> Anyone remember riding in a rumble seat? I was lucky enough as a young tyke to ride with an aunt to the lake in a Model A roadster with one. Fun stuff. I also remember riding to the same Kirk Lake in the back of my dad's 1951 red International pickup. It was almost as good as riding a motorcycle. Can't do that anymore.


YES! RUMBLE SEATS! My dad restored Model A's (then later Corvairs) another memory this thread as jared loose


----------



## BrotherBart

One of the many things that is a lot better now than those old days. The roadsides of this country were literally, should say litterly, covered in trash. Because whenever the burger or soda, or even the newspaper was finished it went out the car window.

We have come a long way on that one.


----------



## WeldrDave

BrotherBart said:


> Because whenever the burger or soda, or even the newspaper was finished it went out the car window.


Brother Bart, I can agree in some places, but I must say people down here at the shore were a little more self consience about that.  Yes we did have our litter bugs but they were mainly tourists.  In the early 60's my mother and father were always on us kid's about bringing in your trash if you were out playing.

I will say our beaches are "MUCH" cleaner, the fines went $$$$$$$$$$ into orbit as they should in my opinion


----------



## Hearth Mistress

This episode of Mad Men had people talking for weeks (skip to 1:36 -2:05)


----------



## BrotherBart

Along the Interstates it used to look like a garbage dump all across the country. Few people people outside of the state realize that the "Don't Mess With Texas" thing was a declaration of war on roadside litter. Not a redneck battle cry. 

Funny thing about that. I was doing some work at our Joliet, IL refinery. The refinery manager was from Texas too. His secretary told me that she asked him why he bought a new pickup instead of a car? He told her it was so he could throw the empties in the back when driving.  She freaked.


----------



## Ehouse

BrotherBart said:


> One of the many things that is a lot better now than those old days. The roadsides of this country were literally, should say litterly, covered in trash. Because whenever the burger or soda, or even the newspaper was finished it went out the car window.
> 
> We have come a long way on that one.


 
Yes, I remember the garbage window, and Herons and Hawks nailed to barn doors and fence posts, much better now , but (butt) cig butts everywhere.  Pigs are everywhere.


----------



## BrotherBart

Ehouse said:


> but (butt) cig butts everywhere. Pigs are everywhere.


 
Oink.


----------



## HDRock

Backwoods Savage said:


> My first car. 1952 Plymouth


 
We had one of those when I was a kid ,it was brown in color



I pushed an Ice Cream Cart for a couple of seasons, when I was a teen, to make some money, any one ever see them any more 
I haven't seen any in a long time

Us kids made out good picking up empty's.
The next street over was a dead end street , it was a party spot at the end, we would take our wagons and fill them over and over with returnable bottles.
The half mile long dirt road was also littered on both sides in the ditches with empty's  ,deposit was 2 cents


----------



## Paulywalnut

I remember no seatbelts in cars. I rode standing next to my dad with my arm around him when he was driving. That was with metal dashboards.
Stopping quickly and banging your head was common place  but we survived. My favorite place was to lay up under the back window above the back seat.
That was real cool.


----------



## WeldrDave

Paulywalnut said:


> I remember no seatbelts in cars. I rode standing next to my dad with my arm around him when he was driving. That was with metal dashboards. Stopping quickly and banging your head was common place  but we survived. My favorite place was to lay up under the back window above the back seat. That was real cool.


That's when cars were made of real steel, not chrome painted plastic.  The first car I remember us having seat belts in was a 1969 pontiac bonneville.  "What a battleship"...


----------



## Paulywalnut

Dave USCG said:


> That's when cars were made of real steel, not chrome painted plastic. The first car I remember us having seat belts in was a 1969 pontiac bonneville. "What a battleship"...


My parents got a 67 Plymouth fury with lap belts that they stuffed down into the front seat never to be seen again.
.


----------



## Backwoods Savage

And let's not forget the Burma Shave signs. I was still young when they went out.


----------



## begreen

Dave USCG said:


> That's when cars were made of real steel, not chrome painted plastic. The first car I remember us having seat belts in was a 1969 pontiac bonneville. "What a battleship"...


 
First for me was a '67 Barracuda.


----------



## fossil

~1967, my best friend's mom insisted that we go into Tahoe City and find a set of seat belts to retrofit my '55 Chevy before she'd let us drive back down out of the mountains from Tahoe to the Bay Area.  The story of why (what happened on the way up) is too long to relate here.  So, that was my first car with seat belts.


----------



## Ashful

All my cars had seat belts growing up, but we never wore them (perhaps outside of a big trip on the interstate) before 1985.  That was the year I was hit by a car, and we all started wearing seat belts after that incident.  I think there were some advertising pushes around that time, because I remember a lot of folks who never wore them, starting to about that time.


----------



## HDRock

First car was ,1960 chevy bel air,  black.
Did not  look any where near this good , It was a Party Car, paid $125.00 for it in 1970, _*gas was 19 cents a gallon*_ 
When the tranny went out , I traded my Schwinn Sting Ray Bicycle for a tranny, the guy wanted the bike for his son.
When the tranny went out ,I still had reverse,  I drove that car 4 mi backwards, stop lights and 2 left turns,  no bull


----------



## BrotherBart

Backwoods Savage said:


> And let's not forget the Burma Shave signs. I was still young when they went out.


----------



## WeldrDave

Backwoods Savage said:


> And let's not forget the Burma Shave signs. I was still young when they went out.


Wow, I had forgotten that......   I was a very "young kid" but I remember one about "Cupid and a girl"  I think?  Help me out here.......


----------



## BrotherBart

In Cupid's little
Bag of trix
Here's the one
That clix
With chix
Burma Shave


----------



## Jack Straw

This what my grandmother used to wash clothes, how dangerous was that!






My grandma cleaned the house on Mondays and Wednesdays, Tuesday was clothes washing day and Friday was for buying groceries. I'm not sure what she did on Thursday, maybe baked?


----------



## Backwoods Savage

That washing machine looks much newer than the ones we had. Even when my wife and I got married (51 years ago today) she had a wringer washer and a solar clothes drier.


How about looking back to the time when we planted corn 2 rows at a time and picked it (not shelled) one row at a time. That is scary compared to today's machines.


----------



## Ashful

Happy anniversary, Dennis!


----------



## WeldrDave

Backwoods Savage said:


> (51 years ago today)


Congrats ....


----------



## Jags

Ya had to kick start my grandmothers ringer washer.

(Happy anniversary, Dennis.)


----------



## begreen

What she didn't have to go down to the river and beat it on the rocks?


----------



## Backwoods Savage

Think about bicycles. When I was a little boy all the bikes were basically the same. Then along came the 3 speed English bikes and wow! Many years later I saw a 10 speed and could hardly believe it. I also could hardly believe how the handlebars looked. I thought it was foolish until I rode one. That was an awakening. Now today there are so many styles out there it is amazing. Here are a couple of my bikes that I ride today.


----------



## Retired Guy

webbie said:


> I remember when women didn't wear bras!
> 
> 
> But, realistically, not too much has really changed. We went on vacation on jet aircraft when I was a kid, drove in cars with AC and automatic transmissions and made phone calls. Cable TV even came along when I was in my mid to late teens!
> 
> The biggest change, IMHO, is in communication, specifically the internet and other networks.
> 
> 8-tracks sounded great! I'll bet a decent one still does. I remember my buddy firing up the 8-track with the Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" and telling me how all the tracks were laid down...
> 
> We had $60 Harmony Electric guitars when I was a tween...my bro still has his and uses it regularly!


 
When I was a kid in upstate NY heaters were an option in cars and the wipers worked from vacuum motors that stalled when you accelerated.

This list proves that you are not an old fart.


----------



## WeldrDave

Retired Guy said:


> This list proves that you are not an old fart.


I agree  I'm definatly not the oldest fart here, but I can still out work the 20 somethings I have working for me. Ive been active duty longer than they have been alive, and you should here them whine and cry..... I have banned cell phone use "during" working hrs,  That absolutely kills them....They have no idea what it is to do a honest days work.


----------



## webbie

A difficult part of oldfartness is getting used to the reduced value of money. My dad is pretty cheap...in some ways. His dad was even cheaper, and the story there was that he would pick a penny out of a urinal...

So, here it is 2013 and I find myself thinking 20, 50 or even 100 dollars is a lot of money. But it's not. Yet it's almost impossible to adjust my thinking. Seriously!!

On one hand, this is a good thing. It drives me to incredible levels of thrift and savings. When our refrigerator started dumping puddles on the ground a couple weeks ago, I should have just called the repair guy. But it would have probably been $150-$200. So I did all my internet research and found some frozen blueberries clogging the defrost drain.

I know I need to reframe my monetary thinking, but can't figure out an easy formula to do so. For instance, it would be easy to just 1/2 or double the value - that is, think of $10 as $5, etc. - but that's not steep enough. On the other hand, doing it by decimal poins is too much - that is, thinking of $100 like $10 is probably going too far.

I don't want to turn into a cheap old fool (from the current cheap upper-middle aged one).....so I am on a quest to better understand the current value of a buck. Maybe it would be good to think of a $50 as a $20? Or maybe go as far as thinking of a $5 bill as $1??


----------



## Retired Guy

webbie said:


> A difficult part of oldfartness is getting used to the reduced value of money. My dad is pretty cheap...in some ways. His dad was even cheaper, and the story there was that he would pick a penny out of a urinal...
> 
> So, here it is 2013 and I find myself thinking 20, 50 or even 100 dollars is a lot of money. But it's not. Yet it's almost impossible to adjust my thinking. Seriously!!
> 
> On one hand, this is a good thing. It drives me to incredible levels of thrift and savings. When our refrigerator started dumping puddles on the ground a couple weeks ago, I should have just called the repair guy. But it would have probably been $150-$200. So I did all my internet research and found some frozen blueberries clogging the defrost drain.
> 
> I know I need to reframe my monetary thinking, but can't figure out an easy formula to do so. For instance, it would be easy to just 1/2 or double the value - that is, think of $10 as $5, etc. - but that's not steep enough. On the other hand, doing it by decimal poins is too much - that is, thinking of $100 like $10 is probably going too far.
> 
> I don't want to turn into a cheap old fool (from the current cheap upper-middle aged one).....so I am on a quest to better understand the current value of a buck. Maybe it would be good to think of a $50 as a $20? Or maybe go as far as thinking of a $5 bill as $1??


 

A six of domestic beer should cost $1.25 in my monetary frame, but it costs about 8X that. So to get the RG value I just divide the current price by 8 to fit into my mind.


----------



## WeldrDave

Retired Guy said:


> A six of domestic beer should cost $1.25 in my monetary frame, but it costs about 8X that. So to get the RG value I just divide the current price by 8 to fit into my mind.​


 And you are "RIGHT" on the mark with that, example..... when that six pack was $1.25, a pickup truck was about $4000.00,  now Beer, $8.00 a sixpack, Pickup $32,000


----------



## begreen

I can remember seeing gas for $0.10/gallon in Texas. I'll bet BB saw it even lower.


----------



## Backwoods Savage

The cheapest I've ever bought gas was $0.079 per gallon. No, that is not 79 cents per gallon, it is 7.9 cents per gallon. I also remember once when I was driving a Volkswagen and it really ticked me off because it cost over $3.00 to fill that tank. That really got me at the time.... But then, I also used to send mail with a $0.03 cent stamp and then there was the penny postcard.

I can easily relate to what Craig wrote too. To me a $10 bill is still a lot. But then, it takes almost that much just to get a haircut. Cost me $8.00 here but I know it is higher elsewhere.

I also remember buying our first brand new car. $1835.00.


----------



## PapaDave

Happy anniversary Dennis and Judy. Sorry I missed this yesterday.


----------



## begreen

Backwoods Savage said:


> The cheapest I've ever bought gas was $0.079 per gallon. No, that is not 79 cents per gallon, it is 7.9 cents per gallon. I also remember once when I was driving a Volkswagen and it really ticked me off because it cost over $3.00 to fill that tank. That really got me at the time.... But then, I also used to send mail with a $0.03 cent stamp and then there was the penny postcard.
> 
> I can easily relate to what Craig wrote too. To me a $10 bill is still a lot. But then, it takes almost that much just to get a haircut. Cost me $8.00 here but I know it is higher elsewhere.
> 
> I also remember buying our first brand new car. $1835.00.


 

Back in the early '70s $3 was pretty common for a fill up and the tank had to be pretty low. Gas was like $.15/gal before the oil embargo up in rural CT at the time. If my Barracuda needed $3 of gas it was running on fumes.


----------



## Jack Straw

I think a big problem when gas prices rose is that old gas pumps could only go up to $9.99. If you needed more you had to reset the pump.

http://www.vintagevending.com/vintage-gas-pumps-and-gas-prices


----------



## WeldrDave

begreen said:


> Back in the early '70s $3 was pretty common for a fill up and the tank had to be pretty low. Gas was like $.15/gal before the oil embargo up in rural CT at the time. If my Barracuda needed $3 of gas it was running on fumes.


I don't remember gas that cheap, but I was a kid pumping gas at an ARCO station during the OPEC embargo B.S. 1975 I think,  Gas went up every day I went into work! we had odd and even days, Only allowed to get $5.00 max for the day.  I saw fist fights, people swapping tags in the parking lot, a guy wanted to trade me a case of beer one time for $2.00 worth of gas, I was beat up once after I put $5.00 in a persons car and they couldn't pay, "not an easy task for them"  Ah, the good old days


----------



## Ashful

Jack Straw said:


> I think a big problem when gas prices rose is that old gas pumps could only go up to $9.99. If you needed more you had to reset the pump.
> 
> http://www.vintagevending.com/vintage-gas-pumps-and-gas-prices


 

I have the same problem now, that most stations around here stop the pump at $100. I can't remember the last time I went to the station and needed less than $100, between the truck, tractor, and lawn mower.

One station around here still stops their pump at $75!  I don't bother resetting it. I hope that seeing lots of max'd out $75 charges will encourage them to finally set a more realistic limit.


----------



## BrotherBart

I never thought I would see the day I gave thought to how much it cost to fill up the garden tractor. 

Nineteen cents a gallon is about as cheap as I remember. I do remember getting chewed out by the lady that owned the station when I didn't cut the pump off soon enough on a one dollar purchase because the extra ate her profit for the next ten gallons sold.

I was busy washing the windshield and checking the oil and tire pressure. Standard practice then but when is the last time ya seen that? Or a free drinking glass with a fill-up.


----------



## begreen

It costs me now about as much to fill the lawn tractor's wimpy tank as it did to fill my car in 1971. And I am going through 12-15 gallons of fuel a month when the grass is growing strong.


----------



## Ehouse

BrotherBart said:


> I never thought I would see the day I gave thought to how much it cost to fill up the garden tractor.
> 
> Nineteen cents a gallon is about as cheap as I remember. I do remember getting chewed out by the lady that owned the station when I didn't cut the pump off soon enough on a one dollar purchase because the extra ate her profit for the next ten gallons sold.
> 
> I was busy washing the windshield and checking the oil and tire pressure. Standard practice then but when is the last time ya seen that? Or a free drinking glass with a fill-up.


 

Or a free cup of coffee if you wandered in.


----------



## DAKSY

Just got back from a run on the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec. $1.359/liter = $5.144/gallon. Not gonna get into the conversion rate. Many places took NO US Dollars, so you had to use a credit card & then get hammered with additional "out-of-country" fees...


----------



## Ashful

Well, at least you got a cool avatar out of it, Moderator Daksy!


----------



## Retired Guy

DAKSY said:


> Just got back from a run on the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec. $1.359/liter = $5.144/gallon. Not gonna get into the conversion rate. Many places took NO US Dollars, so you had to use a credit card & then get hammered with additional "out-of-country" fees...


Late week we were up north and exchange rate was a couple pennies from par with the dollar a bit stronger. Cdn. gas taxes and 18% sales tax take a big bite.


----------



## begreen

Yep. Many folks come down from Vancouver to shop and fill up in WA state.


----------



## DAKSY

begreen said:


> Yep. Many folks come down from Vancouver to shop and fill up in WA state.


 
Agreed. We gassed up in Calais, Me., on the way in & most of the cars in the station had New Brunswick plates. They came across, gassed up & headed back north. Probably one of the more profitable Citgo stations on the planet!


----------



## MasterMech

Backwoods Savage said:


> How about looking back to the time when we planted corn 2 rows at a time and picked it (not shelled) one row at a time. That is scary compared to today's machines.


 
I don't qualify as an "old fart" by any strech, but I did spend a good bit of time as a kid on a '47 John Deere B cultivating corn 2 rows at a time. (Organic Grains Farm, who else uses cultivators anymore? ) Lot's of time to think on that one. 

We had a one row picker too!


----------



## WeldrDave

MasterMech said:


> I don't qualify as an "old fart" by any strech,​


 Well, my daughter is 20, so anything over 30 is an old fart to her.  Now I'm under the impression that baby boomers back qualify as old farts, hence  50+..... I'm sure the peanut gallery will let us know, what's your take Dennis?


----------



## begreen

If you ask Dennis, an old fart is one whose wood has long gone dry.


----------



## Jack Straw

It's a state of mind........you would rather wear something comfortable as opposed to something cool.


----------



## webbie

I'd say 50 is a good cutoff date...


----------



## BrotherBart

webbie said:


> I'd say 50 is a good cutoff date...


 

That is the age where I stopped having "elders".


----------



## Backwoods Savage

Dave USCG said:


> Well, my daughter is 20, so anything over 30 is an old fart to her. Now I'm under the impression that baby boomers back qualify as old farts, hence 50+..... I'm sure the peanut gallery will let us know, what's your take Dennis?


 
I'm amazed to realize none of our grandchildren ever lived when there were no computers. I guess I'm a bit too old to be a baby boomer but 50+ works for me.

Ya Begreen, the wood dries faster as you age....


----------



## Backwoods Savage

Then there was the day when I realized our US President was younger than I....


----------



## Ashful

Backwoods Savage said:


> Then there was the day when I realized our US President was younger than I....


 

As long as you're not talking about Reagan, you're in okay shape.  

<-- assuming Clinton.


----------



## BrotherBart

The morning after Reagan was elected I woke up hearing a groan on the other side of the bed. I said "What's the matter kid?". She replied "I just woke up and realized that a bad B grade movie actor is the president of my country.".

Any question why me and that girl have been married for 38 years? Well, sharing a closet for 40 years.


----------



## Backwoods Savage

A real old fart also remembers the time he could change a spark plug without removing many other things before he could even see them!

I also remember when the family car had a crank. One used that to start the engine. Many folks also learned new words as engine was being started.


----------



## Pallet Pete

Backwoods Savage said:


> A real old fart also remembers the time he could change a spark plug without removing many other things before he could even see them!
> 
> I also remember when the family car had a crank. One used that to start the engine. Many folks also learned new words as engine was being started.



I learned a few bad words on our old ford tractor growing up. 

Pete


----------



## webbie

You ARE old, BS. You bring a whole new level to old fart. Crank up cars? That's well before my time! I do remember, however, taking auto mechanic classes when I was 12 and being able to adjust valves, replace plugs, etc.


----------



## Lake Girl

I used to marvel at the new inventions that my Great Aunt had seen in her lifetime (born in 1900, died in 1982).  I guess my life to this point has seen lots of changes too (52)  It's been fun reading through all the pages of memories...  I learned to drive a standard with a 1963 Rambler - 3 on the tree ... a complete stop to shift into first  Folks had a 67 Rambler wagon too and loved the "way back".  Dad had a 57 Ford convertible - he added the seatbelts when he refurbished it.  I remember those steel dashboards well - too up close and personal

I saw the mention of Sputnik but I recall the TV being brought into the class for Apollo missions....   Remember the first color TV in our house and watching the Wizard of OZ - the switch from black and white to color was pretty impressive.  It was weird watching Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" in black and white on a color TV too!  I got to be in the studio audience for a Bozo the clown show - big deal when your in elementary school

8 Tracks were easy compared to the reel-to-reel my Dad had.  He was pretty into his stereo equipment (receiver, turntable and reel-to-reel) and wired the house for sound in several rooms with switching to control the speaker output.  Come to think of it, the 8 tracks were a pain when they broke or jammed.  I can remember hand reeling 8 tracks with my brother after they were spliced

While the Draft never touched our family personally (brother had a medical condition),  I remember Mom and I gave a lift to a hitch-hiker that she recognized.  A week later he was on the Grand Island Bridge (NY) shooting at cars.  No one hurt but I'm sure he didn't get the help he needed for PTSD.

For the ladies of the forum of a certain age, do you remember Chrissy dolls?  Her hair could be wound and un-wound to go from shoulder length to waist length  How about the Francie doll - one of the first Barbie's that had bendable legs!

No one mentioned Polaroid cameras

A personal favorite was my 10 speed bike....


----------



## Retired Guy

My mother saw her first airplane when she was in her teens and lived to fly on the Concord. She saw huge changes in her life.


----------



## tfdchief

"Say good night Gracie"


----------



## begreen

Holy Mackeral der Andy!


----------



## tfdchief

begreen said:


> Holy Mackeral der Andy!


"Aunt B, just call the man"


----------



## begreen

N'yuk n'yuk, n'yuk. To the moon Alice!


----------



## HDRock

begreen said:


> Holy Mackeral der Andy!


 I use that phrase once in a great while


----------



## BrotherBart




----------



## Hearth Mistress

Lake Girl said:


> For the ladies of the forum of a certain age, do you remember Chrissy dolls?  Her hair could be wound and un-wound to go from shoulder length to waist length  How about the Francie doll - one of the first Barbie's that had bendable legs!



Just turning 40 they are a bit before my time but know what your talking about, doll collectors go nuts for them.  I remember the Ginny doll re-released in the 80's for Sasson jeans and getting this "Kimberly" doll for my birthday. My sister had one too but hers was a cheerleader.


----------



## Hearth Mistress

Gas station gift! Hah! My mom still has and uses the "jelly jar" glasses from Esso, later Mobil/Exxon.  There was a Hess station too my Dad liked, not only did he buy my little brother the Hess trucks, at xmas time, free rolls of wrapping paper with fill ups.  I swear, my parents were still using that wrapping paper a decade later we had so much of it.

Being July 4th season, I grew up near Aberdeen Proving Grounds (MD) and we'd see the fireworks from our farm. My dad didn't smoke but on July 4th he'd by a pack to smoke to light the fireworks, usually roman candles off the deck as my mother screamed he was going to burn the house down.  Oh, the childhood memories...and many years of therapy


----------



## BrotherBart

Free road maps at the gas station. Hand towels in boxes of laundry soap. Air and water at the gas station without putting quarters in slots.

Trading stamps everywhere. People bagging your groceries and carrying them to the car.


----------



## WeldrDave

BrotherBart said:


> Trading stamps everywhere.


We used to get S&H green stamps at the grocery store as well as the Sinclair and Amoco station.


----------



## BrotherBart

When I managed a truck leasing company branch I was reviewing fuel tickets. I caught where some drivers were leaving the Interstate in Arizona, driving a hundred miles South, filling up the three hundred gallons and driving a hundred miles back to the Interstate. To get double S&H Green Stamps for the fill-ups. We were charging their company by the mile for the trucks and trailers.


----------



## Lake Girl

tfdchief said:


> "Say good night Gracie"


 
I got to see George Burns and Cab Calloway in 1979 (Grade 12) when they reopened the Shea's Buffalo.   Beautiful building and wonderful evening in performances


----------



## tfdchief

BrotherBart said:


>



That is my other most favorite one. 
Funny story....my daughter in law called the other day to ask me a question.  She said "Dad, you wouldn't know anything about this would you?  I was putting Chloe (my 6 year old granddaughter) to bed and she says to me "Good night Mrs. Calabash wherever you are."


----------



## tfdchief

BrotherBart said:


> When I managed a truck leasing company branch I was reviewing fuel tickets. I caught where some drivers were leaving the Interstate in Arizona, driving a hundred miles South, filling up the three hundred gallons and driving a hundred miles back to the Interstate. To get double S&H Green Stamps for the fill-ups. We were charging their company by the mile for the trucks and trailers.


Hey, I still have a bunch of S&H Green stamps....are they worth anything?


----------



## BrotherBart

tfdchief said:


> That is my other most favorite one.
> Funny story....my daughter in law called the other day to ask me a question. She said "Dad, you wouldn't know anything about this would you? I was putting Chloe (my 6 year old granddaughter) to bed and she says to me "Good night Mrs. Calabash wherever you are."


 

In 1966 he finally confessed what it meant. Him and his wife stopped in a town name Calabash and his wife loved the name of the town and he started calling her Mrs. Calabash from then on. After she died he added "Wherever you are." People had been trying to guess for decades.


----------



## WeldrDave

tfdchief said:


> Hey, I still have a bunch of S&H Green stamps....are they worth anything?


I had about 15 books in the attic that my mother had saved, I've looked around "not lately"  But there pretty much worthless unless you collect S&H memoribelia. The only thing I can say is put them on E-bay and see who bites.  I chucked mine years ago.


----------



## webbie

BrotherBart said:


> Free road maps at the gas station. Hand towels in boxes of laundry soap. Air and water at the gas station without putting quarters in slots.
> 
> Trading stamps everywhere. People bagging your groceries and carrying them to the car.


 

I was the kid who carried the groceries to the car.....really!


----------



## WeldrDave

tfdchief said:


> Hey, I still have a bunch of S&H Green stamps....are they worth anything?


Well I guess I was "wrong" you can now cash the in at  Greenpoints.com    I didn't know it even exsisted.


----------



## Backwoods Savage

Does anybody remember the flour sacks? Cotton with a print. All farmers saved them and they made many dresses, aprons, shirts, pillow covers, etc. Yes, I also wore shirts that my mother made with flour sacks and she sewed on a treadle sewing machine. I also remember how happy she was when her sewing maching was converted to electric.


----------



## MasterMech

BrotherBart said:


> Air and water at the gas station without putting quarters in slots.


 
Still have that around here.  Has to be a Stewarts tho.  (Big chain in the area).

I'm following this thread wishing for a time machine.  I know, I know, "the good old days, weren't" and all that but did we have to get rid of _everything?_  Would do a lot of these kids good to carry groceries to the car and use the phrases "Thank You", "Have a nice day", and "You're welcome sir/ma'am."


----------



## webbie

This guy - Elmer - who was a friend of ours in WV, was 88 years old when we hung out with him. He remembered when the first car was in Parkersburg, some 200 miles away from where he lived.

He also remembered when ONE black dude came to the area. That was 50 years ago (1920, approx) , and he told us the guy was quickly run out of town.

He'd be long gone now.....he built that fine house you see in the background and still chopped all his own wood - no fancy splitter like you, Back......


----------



## webbie

One of the good pursuits from my youth is still around in it's original form.....highly recommended for semi-technical kids if you have any around...yes, Estes Rockets!


----------



## WeldrDave

webbie said:


> yes, Estes Rockets!


I blew one up in my garage and almost burn't the place up, I was about 10.  Needless to say I didn't have anymore of them.


----------



## webbie

We've been vindicated
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/09/s...good-for-quite-a-bit-research-shows.html?_r=0


----------



## BrotherBart

I am nostalgic for the days when I wasn't nostalgic.


----------



## BrotherBart

If you can do this, you are not an old fart.


----------



## Jags

And her brother...


----------



## fossil

BrotherBart said:


> If you can do this, you are not an old fart.


 
Yeah, but if you spend your time cruising the net looking for vids of lithe young girls...you might be.


----------



## Jags

fossil said:


> Yeah, but if you spend your time cruising the net looking for vids of lithe young girls...you might be.


 
Hey - wait a minute.  Mine was a dude.   It means nothing, nothing, I say.


----------



## fossil

Jags said:


> Hey - wait a minute. Mine was a dude.  It means nothing, nothing, I say.


 
Perhaps even more revealing...


----------



## DAKSY

BrotherBart said:


> If you can do this, you are not an old fart.




I just hurt myself watching that one...


----------



## DAKSY

Jags said:


> And her brother...





That's a balk!


----------



## BrotherBart

On the radio sports news the guy was going nuts about that video and telling everybody to go look at it.

That's my story and I am sticking with it.


----------



## Backwoods Savage

Talking about old farts, a friend and I were talking today and got to talking about prices. Naturally gas prices came up. Cheapest for me was 7.9 cents per gallon and he said he remembered 19 cents as his low. My first brand new car cost $1835 out the door. His was around $2000. (His son just bought a new pickup for $62,000. 

Then he told me about his father calling him crazy when he paid $12,000 for his house (don't remember the year). My first house cost $7,500 and it was completely furnished right down to the dishes and silverware.


----------



## Ashful

You paid 4x more for a house than a car?  Your buddy, 6x.

In that case, houses have become more expensive.  My current house cost 26x what I paid for my truck, when new.  I wonder, what were salaries when houses were $7500 or $12k?


----------



## MasterMech

Joful said:


> You paid 4x more for a house than a car? Your buddy, 6x.
> 
> In that case, houses have become more expensive. My current house cost 26x what I paid for my truck, when new. I wonder, what were salaries when houses were $7500 or $12k?


 Funny thing is, back when houses were $7 TO $12k, 30 year mortgages were unheard of!


----------



## Pallet Pete

Backwoods Savage said:


> Talking about old farts, a friend and I were talking today and got to talking about prices. Naturally gas prices came up. Cheapest for me was 7.9 cents per gallon and he said he remembered 19 cents as his low. My first brand new car cost $1835 out the door. His was around $2000. (His son just bought a new pickup for $62,000.
> 
> Then he told me about his father calling him crazy when he paid $12,000 for his house (don't remember the year). My first house cost $7,500 and it was completely furnished right down to the dishes and silverware.



When I learned how to drive gas was .69 cents when it hit a dollar we had a line literally 2 miles long to get gas at the local 76 station. My first vehicle was a old truck I mowed lawns for. The first vehicle I paid for was a 79 Gmc Sierra Grande it was $500 and had holes so big you could put your fist through them and no floor boards. It got fixed with black stove pipe and rivets lol. 

Pete


----------



## begreen

Pallet Pete said:


> When I learned how to drive gas was .69 cents when it hit a dollar we had a line literally 2 miles long to get gas at the local 76 station. My first vehicle was a old truck I mowed lawns for. The first vehicle I paid for was a 79 Gmc Sierra Grande it was $500 and had holes so big you could put your fist through them and no floor boards. It got fixed with black stove pipe and rivets lol.
> 
> Pete


 
What, no pallet floorboards?


----------



## DAKSY

My first car (in 68) was a 61 Corvair. Needed to put 2x4s under the front seat to keep it from dropping thru the floor. Paid $80 for it. Drove it for 10 days & it caught fire & burned up on a hill out in the woods where we were "bush drinkin." Bunch of kids pushed it over the embankment & it fell about 80 feet. It stayed in that spot for almost 40 years til that land was bought & houses were built. Probably had 1000 bullet holes in it the last time I saw it...


----------



## BrotherBart

I drove my girlfriend's new Corvair on a hundred mile round trip one time. I liked the thing. Seemed a little nicer than my 1950 Chevy.


----------



## Backwoods Savage

Joful said:


> You paid 4x more for a house than a car? Your buddy, 6x.
> 
> In that case, houses have become more expensive. My current house cost 26x what I paid for my truck, when new. I wonder, what were salaries when houses were $7500 or $12k?


 
Joful, the house and the car were not purchased in the same year. We had been married many years before we could afford a new car. Our house was more important to us and we bought that before we were married. I think my friend was somewhat in the same situation. And no, salaries back then were not what they are now just like houses do not sell for the same price now as they did back then.


----------



## Ashful

Backwoods Savage said:


> Joful, the house and the car were not purchased in the same year. We had been married many years before we could afford a new car. Our house was more important to us and we bought that before we were married. I think my friend was somewhat in the same situation. And no, salaries back then were not what they are now just like houses do not sell for the same price now as they did back then.


 

True, but I think housing prices have gone up faster than cars or salaries, which is what I was driving at. My dad's house cost 2x his yearly salary, at the time. My first house cost 4x my yearly salary, at the time. I see some "kids" today buying houses that are 6x - 8x their yearly salary.

I did the same as you, bought my first house at 23, married at 30. Didn't have my first new car until 31, in fact I'm still driving it today!


----------



## Hearth Mistress

Ahhhh Corvairs, aka "poor man corvette" as my dad use to say.  He restored them for years, he had 4 beauties back a few years ago, sold them once they were done. With the thrill of the chase gone to find the parts to restore them, he lost interest.

I took the 65 red convertible to my senior prom (1991) but I had to drive as my boyfriend at the time didn't drive stick!  

I love cars, drives my hubby crazy when I drag him to a car show and guys want to talk "shop" with him, he's clueless but the look on their face when I chime in is priceless.

Going to an antique "Brits on the Delaware" show this weekend up the road from me, can't wait


----------



## Ashful

Hearth Mistress said:


> I had to drive as my boyfriend at the time didn't drive stick!


 
... and your dad still allowed you to date him?


----------



## Hearth Mistress

HAH! Around here, I think I may the only one around that know how to! My hubby doesn't drive stick either! When we bought our Jeep on black friday, we had to wait two weeks to order one in automatic! How embarrassing?!? Since we had to order it I did upgrade the suspension and wider wheel base (so it doesnt always feel like it's going to tip over) so at least I got something out of waiting


----------



## Ashful

I went the other way.  My wife didn't know how to drive stick, and after 4 years together, it seemed like she would never learn.  So, I traded in our only automatic for a second car with manual.  She learned real fast.


----------



## Hearth Mistress

My neighbor has a old Rhino.  We had awful rain and it slide down the hillside, well became a mudslide, landing up against their shed blocking the door. He is a pilot and was away on a business trip.  His wife called me in a panic and asked me to send my hubby down to move it for her.  She laughed when I showed up


----------



## BrotherBart

When I met the little brown haired girl she was flogging a MGB. Bought her new car in 1973 and it had to be a four speed. Same with the next one. She finally acquiesced along about 1988 and let me get an automatic in her new car.

And totaled it.


----------



## rideau

I have a rotary dial wall phone in my kitchen.
I have a mangle in the basement.
I have a treadle sewing machine.
I have a spinning wheel. 
I have wooden planers, a hammered iron hammer, wooden furniture clamps.
I have a clothes line. 
I have a log lifter with cast iron head that weighs a ton. 
I have a wheel barrow with a iron wheel and wooden sides.
I have soapstone bed warmers and linen linens and silver silverware.
My son swears the family tractor is from the 30s.  I wouldn't know.  It's been there my entire life.
Sherwood road is still gravel.
Huge converted coal to oil burnham furnace from 1894. 

The ice house is gone (four years ago).
The Findley Cookstove is gone.
The refrigerators that held iceblocks are gone. 
The henhouse is gone.
The cows are gone.
The old 8 -0- ring 2 phone is gone, as is the much more recent party line I shared with my nearest neighbor - my aunt who happened to have the same last name,.  We had an interesting 6 months when Bell misconnected a feed out at the road.
The lake is no longer the easiest car route in the winter. 
The TV no longer sits with its front in the LR and open back in the closet (where we kids took out all the tubes).
The radio is no longer a 3 x 5 foot piece of furniture. 
The dishwasher doesn't connect to the kitchen sink. 
We no longer have a separate tap for drinking water. 
The lake is no longer our summer bathtub.  
No more milk delivery in glass jars;, before that milk separated in the basement after carried from the barn.
No more churning butter and ice cream.
No more Krug's bakery delivery (and there was another company before them...began with a D, I think).
No more wax on the jelly jars. 
No more penny candy counter at the general store.
No more general store.
No more rowing to town to buy the Sunday ice cream, which was wrapped in newspaper (8 pints! for the thirteen children and all the adults), tied with string and put under the seat while we rowed in the hot sun the two miles from town.
No more walking three miles to town for a 5 cent ice cream cone. 
No more 10 cent subway ride to Yankee Stadium (I remember when it went from 5 cents).
No more air raid drills with us crouched under our desks.
No more school desks with attached chair that one had to slide into.
The 10 cent movie price isn't missed, since we never were given money to go to the movies.
Though my sister and I went to Psycho, without permission, at a very young age, as our first movie.  My older sister held my head down half way though the scariest scene. 
No more Jan's Ice Cream parlour with its Kitchen Sink, no more Dipper Dan's. No more Lady's store with it's great sundaes. 
Fishing trips in the bully-bull frog, a heavy wooden four seat rowboat with inboard motor and tin lined under seat fish storage bin. 
We had some cool things:  1957 DeSoto station wagon, red and black, huge wings, beautiful car - semi-hemi head engine, push button transmission, custom airline seatbelts.  My Dad drove that over the top of the speedometer (over 125 mph) on the newly opened Taconic Parkway when we drove to Cornwall to see Ike and Queen Elizabeth open the ST Lawrence
 Seaway.      Commercial GlenCo refrigerator and freezer installed around 1960.  Built in Kitchenaid dishwasher of the same vintage.  Great sound system built into the BigRoom in 1962 - along with our first TV since our move from Levittown in 1954.
Rooms full of books, from the 1890's on...Many, many original children's books:  Just So Stories, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Uncle Remus, Beatrix Potter.  We've always had hundreds and hundreds of books.  Microscope and telescope.  Sailboats, including to Herreschoff's.  Boston Whalers.  Old Town Rowboats and canoes, kayaks.
Fabulous home baked cakes and cookies and pies all the time, homemade bread. Set to rise on the Burnham furnace.   (Bread machine bread just isn't the same).

FREEDOM.  To live and learn and make mistakes and grow. 

The Burma Shaves I remember were not stacked like those posted...one line every hundred feet or so in upper NYS...were still there fairly recently....This is something that will never come to pass, a backseat driver out of gas.
                                   Thirty days hath September, April, June and the speed offender.


----------



## Ashful

rideau said:


> Huge converted coal to oil burnham furnace from 1894.


 
You must have a very old furnace tech, or a few younger ones scratching their heads!



rideau said:


> No more wax on the jelly jars.


 
Come again?


----------



## BrotherBart

When you made homemade preserves you covered the top of the preserves with melted paraffin that congealed and sealed the jar.


----------



## rideau

Two thin layers.  First one, which cooled, then another thin layer on top.  Then covered with a lightweight metal cap that just slid on, once the wax was cool.  Worked fine.  We never had any problem with the preserves.


----------



## Ashful

Ah... you learn things here.


----------



## oldspark

webbie said:


> One of the good pursuits from my youth is still around in it's original form.....highly recommended for semi-technical kids if you have any around...yes, Estes Rockets!
> 
> View attachment 105824


 Did some body say rockets, love building rockets, not quite like the ones in the picture but rockets still the same.


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## Doug MacIVER

hey dad, what's a dragnet?


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## MasterMech

rideau said:


> newly opened Taconic Parkway


 

Wow, that is a little bit of history there.  I grew up near that road and still use it frequently.  Maybe not so much anymore as my parents have since moved from the area.


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## rideau

It and the Northway were amazing roads for their time. 

I still love driving the Taconic.  I can and often do drive 60 miles on is upper reaches without seeing a car.  Love that it is there as an alternative to the Thruway.  Or 22.


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## MasterMech

rideau said:


> It and the Northway were amazing roads for their time.
> 
> I still love driving the Taconic. I can and often do drive 60 miles on is upper reaches without seeing a car. Love that it is there as an alternative to the Thruway. Or 22.


 
The fun is really overrated once you get south of Dutchess County. I grew up (in northern DC) in the era just before the at-grade crossings were closed. Many, many, accidents on those intersections. But now I get all pissed off when I try to navigate the area and the median is closed or my GPS stupidly attempts to navigate me, the truck, and the trailer back to the Taconic.  (No commercial traffic allowed!)


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## rideau

Yes, unless it is really late at night, I switch over to 84 at the intersection, take 84 to 684, and 684 to the Hutch.  Can still get stuck on the Hutch at certain hours, but one can switch over to the New England in White Plains.....and I know Westchester really well.  But it is seldom worth getting off the Hutch.....

The drive from Ontario to Westchester seems to go much more quickly when I get off the thruway in Hudson, take the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, then keep switching roads as I go south...never too long on any one road, which keeps things from getting too boring and sleepy making.  Going the other way, fueling in Watertown, then customs, then 401, then 32, then 15 keeps one alert...enough changing there.


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