Some 'old timer' notes...who can relate to these ?...

[TeeTees]

Some of you will remember this, and some are too young. These things are TRUE.

"Hey Dad," my kid asked the other day, "What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up? " "We didn't have fast food when I was growing up," I informed her. "All the food was slow."

"C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat ?"

"It was a place called 'at home,'" I explained. "Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa 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 she was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell her the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told her about my childhood if I figured her system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears AND Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. 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 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day. Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.
I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called "pizza pie." When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

We didn't have a car until I was 15. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a "machine."

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it 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. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning.. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them.

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?

[BuckeyeFan]

Oh my!!! I could be telling over half those things without any exageration. My Grandma always called cars 'Machines'. Our pizza was Chef-Boy-R-Dee brand from a box. We knew what soccer was, but my parents opinion was if I could run 5 miles in Cross Country practice, I could surely walk the 1.5 miles home.

These were great!

[RobinN]

I remember much of that too.
No fast food ever. Walked three miles barefoot out of choice to swim practice.
No TV until my brother built one. Dad was given a car every two years from work.
One telephone, connected by a long cord. My brother was the newspaper boy.
Had to wear dresses to Elem School until the girls revolted. Gas was around 36¢ / gal
Milk was delivered, and the milk man would sit at the kit table talking politics with my mom.
There were ice cube trays but no auto ice makers.
We ate out a couple times a year, mostly at the same restaurant... Henry's.
Girls were not allowed on the school swim team or to take auto mechanics class.
Gardeners were a rare sight.
Girls did not call boys on the phone.
We repaired things, we did not throw them out. We did not need recycling bins because we rarely threw things away.
LP Records were our ipods of the day

Fun to remember

[Mr. Pibb]

Milk was deliverd in glass blottles and set on the steps and kept cold by ice. On hot days the milkman would bring out the ice pick let Us chip off a chunk and feel trusting enough that knowone would get hurt in the prossess.

I told myself the first time that the price of gas hit a dollar I would sell my car and take the bus, I did summer 1980.

Someone told me to go fly a kite I did and used it to propose to Pam With a tail that said Pam will you marry me love Jerry 20 yrs. come this September Made it as the cover story, on the front page of the Milwauee Journal.

[RobinN]

Someone told me to go fly a kite I did and used it to propose to Pam With a tail that said Pam will you marry me love Jerry 20 yrs. come this September Made it as the cover story, on the front page of the Milwauee Journal.

Congratulations Jerry!
My Jerry proposed 25 yrs ago this August. We didn't make a cover story though. I guess there is still a chance.

[brain]

Ummm ...

It was easier to DIAL the phone
with a pencil (with the eraser end)
or the dialing stick ... and of course
the ROTARY PHONE - I still use in
spite that I have Digital Phones.

I know what a Party Line is...


If you're on a Party Line, you could
dial your neighbor by a 3 or 4 digit
without having to dial the whole
series of numbers or ask the Operator
for the number.

There were no Postal Codes, that was
reserved for "Big Cities". And when they
did come out, half of the time the folks
didn't even use it! *laughs*

You could buy bread - 6 loaves for $1,
Bananas were 5 cents a pound, Daily
Grind (Ground Meat), was 11 cents a
pound, Chicken was 9 cents a pound,
Eggs were 8 cents a dozen, Newspaper
was 5 cents. I could go on and on.

But of course, my favorite, ICEE, Large,
8 cents!

By the time I was a teen, ICEE went up
to 25 cents, Hot Dogs were 10 cents,
Fries were still a nickel and so was
a Cup of Joe (coffee), however Soda,
was 10 cents.

I actually watched gasoline go from 25
cents a gallon to all the way up to over
$3.98 a gallon in my life span! As well
watched it go from Full Service Stations
to Self-Service!

=================

FUNNY - BUT TRUE - BUT SURE
GLAD IT'S NO LONGER AROUND
ANYMORE!

I remember when it was VERY VERY
IMPORTANT that you had to always keep
a dime, a nickel, and some change on
you at all times!

WHY??

Well, when nature calls, and you've
gotta go. Public Restrooms weren't
"Free". You better have some money
on you if you wanted to use the terlit!
And of course they always had a maid
there to make sure no one tried to crawl
under the stalls and cheated! And those
maids there expected a TIP!

But they keep those bathrooms spotless!

======================

AND OH, the elevators - Remember
the Bellboys?

"Floor?"

"5th"

(holds hand)

(you give them the tip)

Then they slide the gates shut, if it's
an old place or then shut the door.
And takes you to your floor.

Always tipping their hats or caps and
telling you have a nice day.

---------------------

Now it's time to go down....

Push Button

"FLOOR?"

"Ground"

(extends hand)

(you fork out another tip)

Same old, same old.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~





NOW I see why a lot of folks took
the stairs or escalators, I ought to
write a book on this!