Memories From Someone Older Than Dirt

[Shamu]

'A young person asked me the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'

 

'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him.

'All the food was slow.'

 

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

 

'It was a place called 'at home,'' I explained. ‘Mom 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 figured his system could have handled it :

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, never wore Levis, never set foot on a golf course, never 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 & 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 12. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a..m.. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.

 

I was 21 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. Pizzas were not delivered to our home but milk was.

 

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.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers --my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6AM every morning.

 

On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His 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. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without

profanity or violence or most anything offensive.

 

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

 

MEMORIES:

 

My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it.. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?

 

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.

 

Ignition switches on the dashboard.

 

Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.

 

Real ice boxes.

 

Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.

 

Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.

 

Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

 

Older Than Dirt Quiz :

Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about.

Ratings at the bottom.

1. Blackjack chewing gum

2.Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water

3. Candy cigarettes

4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles

5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes

6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers

7. Party lines on the telephone

8 Newsreels before the movie

9. P.F. Flyers

10. Butch wax

11.. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels... [if you were fortunate])

12. Peashooters

13. Howdy Doody

14. 45 RPM records

15. S& H greenstamps

16. Hi-fi's

17. Metal ice trays with lever

18. Mimeograph paper

19. Blue flashbulb

20. Packards

21. Roller skate keys

22. Cork popguns

23. Drive-ins

24. Studebakers

25. Wash tub wringers

 

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young

If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older

If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,

If you remembered 16-25 = You' re older than dirt!

 

I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.

 

Sent to me by my daughter.

[hxtr]

nice shamu....

 

Damn I remember when I had to stand up to change the channel and at times adjust the antenna. What would kids do if that had to do that?

[little_old_man]

Kids today not only don't know what any of that stuff is, they don't want to know. All they want to do is sit on their computer or game system. If they go to a friends house, they sit there on their friends computer or game system.

 

When I was growing up and it wasn't a school day, from the age of 6 I was out the door as soon as my chores were done and didn't get home until it got dark, unless the neighborhood kids got together and played kick the can for a couple hours after dark. I didn't want to be home, I wanted to be out hunting, fishing, hanging out with friends at the city pool, stealing wood from construction sites and building tree forts out of it in the woods, ANYTHING BUT SITTING AT HOME. If I wanted to go someplace I rode my bike, even if it was 10 miles away. When I turned 16 and got my drivers license I was gone even more. Then all I wanted to do is get laid and hang out with friends. My dad worked my brother and I hard. I cut 7 acres of grass a week, tended to an orchard and livestock, but I got it all done and had fun.

 

Computers and technology are great, but it's turned an entire generation of kids into fat, lazy, good for nothing dead-beats that don't know how to interact with people face to face and will never know how to find a good job.

[wildthing]

OH MY GOD I am older than dirt.

[PigDog]

Good post Shamu.....but a little hard to read the white font

 

@little_old_man, I was the same way.....always out on my bike somewhere. The problem is, now I am a big kid and sit around all day on the PC.......except I do have a good job

[Shamu]

Good post Shamu.....but a little hard to read the white font

 

Hmmm, first I have heard that. I find the standard XI font dull and hard to read so I usually changed my posts to white that looks good to me. Anyone else find white hard to read?

Edited January 17, 2013 by Shamu

[Shamu]

BTW, I always had dinner time at my house old school style. We all sat down together, if the phone rang I would only take a message and allow return calls after dinner. My wife and I also did not talk about any kids problems over dinner. Problems could be handled after dinner.

 

Only my daughter still follows a loosely similar dinner time with her family.

[Joe Canadian]

'A young person asked me the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'

 

'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him.

'All the food was slow.'

 

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

 

'It was a place called 'at home,'' I explained. ‘Mom 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 figured his system could have handled it :

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, never wore Levis, never set foot on a golf course, never 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 & 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 12. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a..m.. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.

 

I was 21 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. Pizzas were not delivered to our home but milk was.

 

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.

 

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers --my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6AM every morning.

 

On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His 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. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without

profanity or violence or most anything offensive.

 

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

 

MEMORIES:

 

My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it.. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

 

How many do you remember?

 

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.

 

Ignition switches on the dashboard.

 

Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.

 

Real ice boxes.

 

Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.

 

Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.

 

Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

 

Older Than Dirt Quiz :

Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about.

Ratings at the bottom.

1. Blackjack chewing gum

2.Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water

3. Candy cigarettes

4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles

5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes

6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers

7. Party lines on the telephone

8 Newsreels before the movie

9. P.F. Flyers

10. Butch wax

11.. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels... [if you were fortunate])

12. Peashooters

13. Howdy Doody

14. 45 RPM records

15. S& H greenstamps

16. Hi-fi's

17. Metal ice trays with lever

18. Mimeograph paper

19. Blue flashbulb

20. Packards

21. Roller skate keys

22. Cork popguns

23. Drive-ins

24. Studebakers

25. Wash tub wringers

 

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young

If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older

If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,

If you remembered 16-25 = You' re older than dirt!

 

I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.

 

Sent to me by my daughter.

 

Very nice post Shamu. I have worked all my life and never had time for video games or other things when I was a kid. We had the black and white TV that took forever to "warm up", and eventually managed to get an 'ATARI", but times were really different. It's pretty hard to compare being objective at the same time. Cheers

[JohnnyDos]

The only one I didn't know was Butch Wax.Now can you tell me what it was or is please.

[ldoz]

If you had a crew cut or flat top you put on your hair to make it standup

Damn I must be OLD!

[TheHammer]

wow your as old as me one thing you forgot is the radio shows . i grew up with 3 brothers and 3 sisters and 1 tv so we had a radio the we listened to as well , remember the shadow, also the lone ranger, tonto , major mud & seargent billy , and we all grew up with the best comedy team of all time the three stooges. god rest there souls

[Shamu]

The only one I didn't know was Butch Wax.Now can you tell me what it was or is please.

 

Idoz beat me to it, it was wax to help hold a "butch" haircut standing up. Sometimes called Flat Top Wax.

[JohnnyDos]

The only one I didn't know was Butch Wax.Now can you tell me what it was or is please.

 

Idoz beat me to it, it was wax to help hold a "butch" haircut standing up. Sometimes called Flat Top Wax.

I used " A little dab will do ya" Brylcreem.LOL

 

Edited January 17, 2013 by JohnnyDos

[Shamu]

The only one I didn't know was Butch Wax.Now can you tell me what it was or is please.

 

Idoz beat me to it, it was wax to help hold a "butch" haircut standing up. Sometimes called Flat Top Wax.

I used " A little dab will do ya" Brylcreem.LOL

 

 

Brylcream came after Butch Wax and was more for the Greasers, you know black leather jacket, pompadour and DA held in place with Brylcream.

 

Been there, done that................when I still had hair.

 

PS: DA = Ducks Ass for you youngsters.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck%27s_ass

Edited January 17, 2013 by Shamu

[blk_plague]

Good post Shamu.....but a little hard to read the white font

 

Hmmm, first I have heard that. I find the standard XI font dull and hard to read so I usually changed my posts to white that looks good to me. Anyone else find white hard to read?

I find your white easier to read than the normal. But could just be these old eyes.

[Bogleg]

If you are using the elegant theme you can't see the white font at all. You have to highlight all the text to read it - which makes it impossible to read on the mobile version.

 

My childhood was almost exactly like LOM's. In addition to my regular chores, I got a couple of paper routes when I was 12 and woke up every day of the year at 5am to deliver morning papers, no matter the weather. My daily route covered about 3 miles and I did it on my bike as it was only 30 or so papers - my Sunday paper route required me to walk and refill my bag at least 4 times - due to both the size of the Sunday paper and how many I had to deliver - seemed like every single house in my neighborhood and the one next to me got the Sunday paper. I bought my first real ten speed with my own money from my paper route (a red Schwinn Traveler). I loved that bike - I put over 10000 miles on it. Then some lady hit me and totaled it, so I replaced it with a red Trek 440. I put over 10000 miles on that bike too between the age of 16 and 18. I sold it when I went to college - stupid decision.

 

And while I played all kinds of sports and fished the local river every day - even in the winter - I still rode my bike 8 miles each way to the only mall in town in the summers nearly every day so I could blow some quarters at the arcade. I held the Centipede and Tempest records at that arcade for a long, long time.

 

I really got into riding my bike anywhere I could - most mornings during the summers when I was in high school, even though I didn't have my paper routes anymore and worked at a short order restaurant/ice cream parlor (Bridgeman's), I still got up at 5am and rode my bike for 2 or 3 hours, usually 30-45 miles each day. This was in the early 80s, when I could wear a Walkman on my bike without some asshat yelling at me about it.

[Sonovabich]

I didn't have any problem seeing the type, it was nice and clear for me

[TBB]

If I invented all those things does that make me dirt???

[vipersniper]

Kids today not only don't know what any of that stuff is, they don't want to know. All they want to do is sit on their computer or game system. If they go to a friends house, they sit there on their friends computer or game system.

 

When I was growing up and it wasn't a school day, from the age of 6 I was out the door as soon as my chores were done and didn't get home until it got dark, unless the neighborhood kids got together and played kick the can for a couple hours after dark. I didn't want to be home, I wanted to be out hunting, fishing, hanging out with friends at the city pool, stealing wood from construction sites and building tree forts out of it in the woods, ANYTHING BUT SITTING AT HOME. If I wanted to go someplace I rode my bike, even if it was 10 miles away. When I turned 16 and got my drivers license I was gone even more. Then all I wanted to do is get laid and hang out with friends. My dad worked my brother and I hard. I cut 7 acres of grass a week, tended to an orchard and livestock, but I got it all done and had fun.

 

Computers and technology are great, but it's turned an entire generation of kids into fat, lazy, good for nothing dead-beats that don't know how to interact with people face to face and will never know how to find a good job.

you read my mind i so totally agree little old man . nice post shamu and i like the bright lettering . Edited January 17, 2013 by vipersniper

[GorillaXI]

Looks like I'm older then dirt also. I can remember 18 items on the list.

[3rdCdnInfty]

My Grandfather told me about all these things hahaha

[RANDALL]

I'm only 21, but when I was growing up, I played outside non-stop and summer time meant no shoes, just barefoot. Basketball, football, baseball, soccer, and swimming at the local pool were highlights of my childhood. Everything changed though in high school when I turned 16 and started playing multiplayer online video games. Really, it was when I got my PS3 and Call of Duty 4 came out. Before that, I would play my Gameboy, or N64, or whatever for about an hour after my homework was done and playing outside until dark. Video games are fun, but playing outside growing up was always the most fun. I am also thankful for being a Boy Scout and earning Eagle Scout. Camping, hiking, and everything we did was a blast. I hate how addictive, yet convenient, video games are.

[baldie]

Damn I am old as dirt too wow how time fly's

[tsw 8.5]

some of us can remember when the dead sea was just sick ..yes older then dirt

Edited January 17, 2013 by tsw 8.5

[little_old_man]

And for you really old farts, remember when women had full bushes?