I Remember When......

[Dan Bussiere]

I remember when we remembered that politicians didn't tell the truth.

And we didn't expect them to!

[Chuck Saunders]

The best part about Tom Terrific was that when things got really bad and there seemed to be no other solution, Tom would resort to thinking.

Captain Kangaroo was how I started my day.

I remember 6 cent stamps and the mail being delivered twice a day.

My first carton of cigarettes was $3.18 which I bought at age 13. But I quit 9 years ago.

I remember gas at 30 cents and when it got to 50 cents we all swore we would do without if it ever got to a dollar.

My first job was $1.45 an hour.

TV shows in color were noted in the TV Guide and All of Julia Child's ingredients had tape over the labels because pubic tv was commercial free.

Picking up pop bottles was my only source of income.

[Dennis Peacock]

I remember No Seat Belts in cars.

I remember sitting over the emergency break handle on a pillow in an Opel Cadet between my mom and dad...taking a trip from Alabama to Texas and back....in the summer....without any air conditioning.....and I got to help dad "change gears".

I remember pulling corn by hand and taking it to "the crusher" to get flour and cornmeal.

I remember my grandmother storing her flour in a large pullout drawer in her kitchen cabinets. It would hold 50 pounds of flour.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I vaguely remember when I could remember stuff.....

[Roy Hatch]

Can't remember what I did yesterday, but I can remember when:

I looked down at my feet and saw minnows swimming in our yard after a hurricane. We were a
mile from the Caloosahatchee River and it had overflowed

Dad paid .50 for my first 2 wheel bike (it was used)

People knocking on our back door begging for food in 1938

Dad worked for the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)

My mother listened to Just Plain Bill and Portia Faces Life while she did housework

The Japs (that's what they were called then) attacked Pearl Harbor

My allowance was .10 a week and my cousin got .50 for a muskrat pelt

My first job paid .50/hour and then I went big time with 1.25/hour with the B&O Railroad

In 1959 I bought a new Volvo PV544 for $2250.

I could go on, but I'll give you a break

Roy

[Bob Moyer]

The starter on the floor of a car or truck.

Standing in the bed of a pickup truck as we went for ice cream.

Drive-In movies

S&H Green Stamps

Rod & Gun clubs in school and you could bring your gun to school.

Singing hymns in music class.

[Charles Wiggins]

I'm apparently much younger that some of you, but anyway:

I remember when the TV and stereo were pieces of fine furniture.
I remember standing in the front seat of the car while my parents drove around town.
I remember walking to town as a teenager, and my parents didn't worry that they'd never see me again.
I remember when hearing someone curse on TV or radio was a big deal.
I remember when the only places open on Sundays were restaurants and a couple of gas stations that we'd never stop at because the price was too high.
I remember the days before Black Friday, when the day after Thanksgiving was another day to spend with family.
I remember when meeting a kid who's parents had divorced was startling.
I remember getting spanked by teachers and the school principal.
I remember when any shopping trip invariably included seeing some kid get a spanking from a parent, usually their mom.
I remember getting spanked by a neighbor, and I came home and told my Dad, and he said, without knowing what I had or had not done, and without diverting his gaze from what he was doing, "GOOD!"
I remember all of the kids in the neighborhood were always covered with bumps and bruises and no one called DSS or sued for negligence.
I remember paying $25 cash (no insurance) for the last COMPLETE physical that my pediatrician gave me before I started college.

[Duff Bement]

Don Amichie traveling circus -

Our first remote control TV that would change station if you would jingle a set of keys in the room or Mom grabed a handfull of silverware.

Everybody swearing they would quit smoking if cigerettes if they hit 50 cents a pack.

Gas wars -

My Grandpa thinking it was snowing because the TV picture was fussy

Leading my Dads prize cow thru our town to the elevator to get him weighed

People helping people (even if they weren't someone you knew)

You respected the police

[Jim Shaver, Oakville Ont]

I remember when the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup, ......the next day in our Laurentien Village elementry school we were so depressed....then the Habs won the next two in a row...

[Dexter Hahn]

My first real pocket knife, my dad bought it for me at a "trading post" somewhere in PA, when I was 12. I still have scars on my hands from cutting myself with it while whittling or whatnot, and I never had it taken away from me, just told to be more careful. Dad's gone and so is the trading post, but I still have the knife on my desk at home.

Sitting in the "way back" of the family Caprice station wagon, no seatbelt, back window wide open, sometimes dragging little toys behind on strings until they fell off.

50 cent packs of smokes (quit in November after many years, cold turkey! )

Just holding hands with a girl you liked was a big deal (still is to me, kind of).

Rollerskating parties in elementary school.

Watching Mr. Roger's Neighborhood on the b&w set on the rare occasions mom let us eat dinner in front of the tv.

Leaving my wet mittens on the big gas heater too long, they melted to it and left a mark that could be seen for two more decades until it was replaced.

Knocking the asbestos insulation off the pipes in my grandfather's (our Pop) basement with pieces of scrap wood, we had no idea what it was or that it could be bad for you... it was everywhere.

Listening to old fox trot music on the 1930's hi-fi set in Pop's attic.

Recording our voices on an old reel-to-reel home recorder with Pop, we found them years later after he had died and it was great to listen to how young we sounded, and especially to hear Pop's voice again.

Bringing a longsword to school for show and tell, and a single eyelash was never batted!

[Belinda Barfield]

Great thread!

You guys have covered a lot of mine but here are a few to add . . .

Takin' off tobacco (before bulk barns) for 0.03 a stick and at the end of the day having enough money to go to Mr. Rooster's store and buy a Dr. Pepper and peanut butter crackers. I also remember the hissy fit my mother had every single day because Grandpa let us ruin our supper.

Goin' with grandpa and the tobacco to the warehouse for sale day.

Fishin' in the black water creek.

My first trip to the Okefenokee Swamp.

Wax Lips.

A HUGE crush on Bobby Sherman.

Wanting a Mrs. Beasley doll so bad I thought I'd die if I didn't get one. I'm still here so I guess I was wrong.

Bell bottom hip huggers.

Getting a paddling in third grade. I was wearing a dress and had to bend over and touch my toes. My biggest concern was that the new boy in school saw my underwear.

When boys had cooties!

Going to the drive in and firing up the mosquito coil.

Riding on the tailgate dragging my toes in the dirt.

When my granddaddy's dog Buster died. He bit me the day before, so I bit him back. Then he died and granddaddy told me it was because I bit him. Twenty years later I found out he died because he was bitten by a rattlesnake.

Turning 13 on the 13th, which was also Friday the 13th.

When summer days seemed to last much longer than they do now.

Water skiing late in the day when the lake was like glass.

Falling on the metal frame of a friend's trampoline and shattering my two front teeth on Christmas Eve, then finding out that Santa was a lot closer to me than I thought (I was eight).

Going shopping downtown with my grandmother and having to wear my hat and gloves.

Going to church with my great grandparents. They were Primitive Baptists and we went to church all day. There was no indoor toilet. There was a large water bucket with a metal dipper in front of the pulpit, and we all drank from the same dipper.

My first bike and how many miles I rode playing "One Adam 12".

Not an oldie, but a goodie, Magnum PI.

Really good cartoons.

Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Mo, and Double Dog Dares.

Ants In Your Pants and Barrel of Monkeys

Picking up roots to clear new ground.

The time a train derailed in my small hometown. My daddy helped with the clean up. One of the boxcars was full of boxes of laundry detergent and daddy got to bring home all of damaged boxes he could haul. We did buy detergent for a year AND we got lots of new glasses and dish towels!

When I actually got something, even just a card, for Valentine's Day. Honey is soon going to have fond memories of the nights before he was forced to sleep on the couch!

[John Hixon]

Scrounging 6 RC bottle caps to get into the Saturday Matinee.

Filling the gas tank in the FIAT for $1.00 and driving all week.

Pigging out at the Krystal, 3 burgers, fries and coke for a quarter.

Not even having a lock on the door to the house.

Riding a bicycle, for transportation.

Bonanza was the only show in color, and going somewhere just to see it.

Driving between Florida and California... No interstates.

Sitting on a cake tin so I could see out the windshield.

No seatbelts.

Doing J turns and donuts on Daytona Beach in the middle of the night.

Air Conditioning was ONLY in the movie theater.

You had full size spare tires because you needed them often.

Mechanics weren't "Technicians" and could fix cars.

I wasn't "too tired" when I went to bed.

[Tom Sherman]

What a cool thread Dennis, great idea. I have a couple to list that I don't think I saw:

Howdy Doody, and Cowboy Bob and Farfel
Sherri Lewis, and Lambchop
My Friend Flicka
Milton Berle
Elvis's first tv appearance and my mom's reaction to it
riding street cars the electric kind
going to the bank and everyone knew us
gas wars and gas .10 a gallon
mom sending me to the corner store for a loaf of bread and 1/2 gallon of milk with only a dollar and telling me to bring her the change
local fish frys
setting on the stoops with all the neighbors
catching fireflies at night
paper drives
first job at a grocery store as a stock boy made .50 an hour, and worked all day saturday.

Boy some of these things I haven't thought of in years.

[Colin Giersberg]

Being able to see the stars at night. Still can in the right place, but dang it, there are just too many streetlights now.

Paying cash for everything.

Hide and go seek, Simon Says.

Changing the TV station without a remote control.

Nothing was cordless. Now, your lucky if you can remember what they are all for.

Walking to town because it was only a couple of blocks away.

When you bought furniture, and it was made with solid wood, not MDF, particle board or some unknown substance.

Cheap aluminum windows on the house with even cheaper plastic locks, that when they broke, the window bowed up in the middle enough to where you could slide a magazine through the gap, and the room that this happened in just happened to be your bedroom, and the only heat on in the house was the wall unit in the den, by the door to the carport. Brrrr, I get cold thinking of that.

Washing dishes by hand. Come to think of it, I still do it, even though we have a dishwasher.

No ceiling fans

Not needing glasses to see what you are reading, or looking at.

Phonographs, record players for us old geezers. I still have mine, and it still works. I still have around 70 albums, and several 45's.

Video disk players by RCA.

When McDonalds came to town. Boy that was great. Finally, we had another fast food restaurant to go to.

Floor dimmers on cars and trucks.

When pickup trucks were meant to be used for work, and were not that common to see.

Being polite

Minibikes, Banana seat bicycles, pogo sticks, horseshoes, throwing a frizbee, camping out in the back yard.

Regards, Colin

[Joe Mioux]

How about exhaust fans for the house. this was before AC.

I still remember as a kid in the 1960's where mom and dad would relax and sit outside in the backyard. they had those lawn chair recliner things. Us kids, would play outside until 9 pm or until dark.

by then the house was cool enough. I still remember that big attic fan in the hallway and all the windows open.

Mom always had clean sheets on the bed, or atleast they were crisp and all cotton.

the night air blowing through the window, across me and out into the hallway was always refreshing.

Even when the Summer night temps were near 90, that combination of air and cotton sheets sure felt good.

joe