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Bring back any memories?
Someone asked the other day “What was your favourite
‘fast food’ when you were growing up?”
“We
didn’t have fast food when I was growing up,” I informed
him. “All the food was slow.”
“C’mon, seriously. Where did you eat?”
“It
was a place called ‘home’,” I explained. “Mum cooked
every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down
together at the dining room table, and if I didn’t like
what she put on my plate, I was allowed to sit there
until I did like it.”
By
this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he
was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn’t
tell him the part about how I had to have permission to
leave the table.
But
here are some other things I would have told him about
my childhood if I’d figured his system could have
handled it:
·
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis,
set foot on a golf course, travelled out of the country
or had a credit card.
·
My parents never drove me to school. I had a bicycle
that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed,
(slow).
·
We didn’t have a television in our house until I was
10. It was, of course, black and white, and the station
went off the air at 10 pm, after playing the national
anthem and epilogue; it came back on the air at about 6
pm and there was usually a locally produced news and
farm show on, featuring local people...
·
I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone was
on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to
listen and make sure some people you didn’t know weren’t
already using the line.
·
Pizzas were not delivered to our home... But milk was.
·
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys
delivered newspapers. My brother delivered a newspaper,
seven days a week. He had to get up at 6am every
morning.
·
Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least,
they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings
because all movies were responsibly produced for
everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence
or most anything offensive.
If you grew up in a
generation before there was fast food, you may want to
share some of these memories with your children or
grandchildren. Just don’t blame me if they bust a gut
laughing.
Growing up isn’t what it
used to be, is it?
Memories from a friend:
My Dad is cleaning out my
grandmother’s house (she died in December) and he
brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the
bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it...
I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no
idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt
shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat
on the end of the ironing board to ‘sprinkle’ clothes
with because we didn’t have steam irons. Man, I am old.
How many do you remember?
·
Headlights dimmer switches on the floor of the car.
·
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
·
The choke lever in your car.
·
Petrol station attendants who filled your petrol tank.
·
Trouser leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
·
Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner.
·
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.
Older than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you
were told about.
Ratings at the bottom.
1.
Sweet cigarettes.
2.
Coffee shops with juke boxes.
3.
Home milk delivery in glass bottles.
4.
Party lines on the telephone.
5.
Newsreels before the movie.
6.
TV test patterns that came on at night after the
last show and were there until TV shows started again in
the morning. (There were only 2 channels – if you were
fortunate.)
7.
Peashooters.
8.
33 rpm records.
9.
45 rpm records
10.
78 rpm records
11.
Record players.
12.
Metal ice trays with lever.
13.
Blue flashbulb.
14.
Cork popguns.
15.
Wash tub wringers.
If
you remembered 0-3 = You’re still young.
If
you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older.
If
you remembered 7-10 = Don’t tell your age.
If
you remembered 11-14 = You’re older than dirt!
I
must be ‘older than dirt’ but those memories are some of
the best parts of my life.
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