I Remember When......

[Dennis Peacock]

I've seen many things posted on the Creek from various people's memory and experiences from days gone by. Thought I'd start a thread to all each of us to share things we remember as it relates to economy or life in general. So here goes:

1. My granddaddy worked as a professional pipe fitter for 25¢ per day and loved the money he was making.

2. I remember paying 19.9¢ per gallon for gasoline.

3. I remember gasoline being in 2 grades - Regular & Ethyl

4. I remember my dad complaing about the high interest rate for our new home - and I quote - "What is this world coming to?? 2-1/2% for a home mortgage. You'd think I was trying to borrow the entire bank or something"

5. I remember when our bathroom was a two-hole outhouse sitting about 100' away from the back of the house.

6. I remember when fried chicken from supper meant that we'd have one less chicken running around the yard.

7. I remember getting a windows air conditioner installed in our house and remembering that this put us in the upper class of people in the community.

8. I remember when the price of a brand new car was under $1,800...fully loaded.

9. I remember that family and friends would sit outside on the porch or under the "shade tree" and visit every week giving everyone a strong sense of community.

10. I remember when we never locked any door or window. Didn't have to because there was no crime and you trusted every neighbor.

11. I remember picking cotton by hand.

12. I remember when we got a tractor that didn't start by a hand-crank.

13. I remember when banks would not lend you money if they thought you didn't make enough money to pay it back.

14. I remember that if you didn't have the cash money to pay for something? You didn't buy it.

So...how's that for starters?

[Jim Becker]

I remember...when I could remember...

[Greg Heppeard]

I remember

1. Running downstairs in the morning to put my cold feet against the oil stove to warm them up before putting my socks and shoes on.

2. I rmemeber my four digit phone number.

3. I remember listening to Hank Sr. a lot.

4. I remember Grandpa listening to the ball game on the radio on Sunday afternoon.

5. I remember shoveling coal into our new central furnace.

6. I remember thinking "I'll never get a date driving this '57 Bel Aire" or the '66 Nova for that matter.

7. I remember taking my first driving lesson at age 8 on the farm.

8. I remember being happy to go to work for $1.00/hr (age 12)

9. I remember wearing my father's old bib overalls that he had worn as a kid...Grandma found them in the attic.

10. I remember waking up before dawn to get ready to milk...before breakfast.

11. I remember cranking the butter churn. And ice cream freezer

12. I remember how good the fruit tasted in mid-winter that we had canned in late summer.

13. I remember taking a bath in the kitchen in the square galvanized tub in the middle of the floor. (It was nice being first)

14. I remember walking the corn field to find all the corn that the one row picker didn't get.

15. I remember the lazy days of fishing with my Grandpa and Dad.


NEXT..................

[Art Mulder]

I remember when

... there was a rack beside the pop machine for you to return your glass pop bottles

... going out to dinner was rare and special

... watching olga korbett (??) in the '72 olympics (TV was new for us)

... our whole family agreed to skip Christmas, so that my folks could afford to buy a brand new colour TV



Or if you want to be a bit more current to this generation...
I remember when Star Wars came out.

[Andy Hoyt]

Addresses that ended with something like: NY 12 NY

Just because the phone rang, it didn't mean the call was for us. We were: one long - one short

Fallout Shelters and nuclear attack drills at school.

Leaving the house after breakfast in the summer and all mom would say is: "Have fun - be home for supper".

When the NFL was just the NFL.

Mr. Green Jeans was my hero.

[Greg Cole]

I remember when gas hit $1 a gallon....
I'd chime in more, but I think you guys already made yourselves feel old enough....

Greg

[Mitchell Andrus]

I remember the 14" B/W television sitting on top of the forever broken console color TV in the livingroom, the only room in the house with a set.

I remember 300 Meg hard drives. Yes - 300 MEGs. Huge at the time.

[Glenn Clabo]

1. I remember when kids (like me) could get a job pumping gas...AND they would wash your windshield and check under the hood.

2. I remember when you had to listen when you picked up the phone to make sure one of the other four "party line" people weren't using it.

3. I remember when people would wave at every car passing by.

4. I remember filling the potholes holes in our dirt road every spring.

5. I remember when you respected people who were older than you...even when you were old yourself.

6. I remember when teachers were respected.

7. I remember when my memory was good enough to know why I was standing in front of the icebox with the door open.

[Earl Reid]

I remember:

1 All of the above

2 Our first phone had 3 numbers

3 Dozens of WPA workers digging sewer lines

4 first steady job, paying $0.20 per hr and buying a war bond every month

5 Hitch hiking and ridding on the running board

6 Delivering and getting a penny per paper( it had to be on the porch or behind the screen door

7 Driving a modle A ford when in the 5th grade

8 Driving a modle T ford pickup , ( burned the trans bands the first 500 ft) also 5th grade

9 Buying my first car,1930 md A; cost $15.00, got stopped by OSP no drivers license and unsafe vehicle, $ 39.00 and cost
10 gas was 16 cents

Earl

[Jim Becker]

Ok...I remember Huntly-Brinkley evening news...in black and white. And our first phone number...early 1960s. OR6-3538. But don't ask me what I forgot about yesterday, 'cause I can't remember that...

[David G Baker]

1. I remember corduroy roads.
2. Thunder mugs.
3. Hand pump in well house.
4. Plank roads.
5. Pulling a trailer to the local granary to pick up a load of coal and shoveling the coal into the coal bin.
6. Wasps in the two hole out house.
7. My Mother brining pickles in a large crock.
8. Pulling an Alice Chalmers combine with our Oliver 55 that my Dad bought for me because he was afraid that I would hurt myself on the John Deere.
9. In the grain bin with bearded barley that was damp. Had to spend the whole night moving the grain so it wouldn't get hot and burn the barn down.
10. My arms looking like I had measles after a day of tossing bales of hay.
11. Lifting heavy bales of hay that were baled when it was humid out. Think they weighed 90 lbs.
12. Our first indoor water faucet.
13. Playing hide and seek with the dog while hiding behind sheets hanging from the clothesline.
14. My feet staying ice cold from the first heavy frost until Spring time.
15. The Daffodils poking through a snow bank as the first sign that Spring was on the way.
16. The long ride from Michigan to Arizona in 1946 and my Dad under the trailer with matches trying to find the propane leak.
This could go on for a long time.

[Michael Gibbons]

1. Getting up off the couch to change the channel.

2. Cigarettes were .50 a pack and some gas stations had them hanging in a cabinet on a post between the pumps.( Clark)

3. Burger King actually tasted good.

4. There was no such thing as bullet proof glass in a party store.

5. Cartoons were only on tv on Saturday morning and you played outside the rest of the time till the street lights came on.

6. Grampa working as a journeyman grinder hand for 6.00 an hour and having a good life and only working 6 months a year due to no midyear changeovers. Gone fishing the other six.

7. When people actually liked when police roughhoused a criminal and there was no such thing as excessive force.

8. No computers. No Atari even!

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Gas at 12Cents.
Families that had one car one bath and took vacations together.
Military service was a thing of which to be proud.
People expected to pay their own bills.
Kids could play out doors all day & into the evening and no one worried.

[David G Baker]

Grandparents weren't raising their grand children.
Marriages lasted more than a few years.
Tires had white walls
Packards were still being made.
Tractors were still made in America along with most auto parts.
My Dad bought a 80 acre farm with very large house and 5 out buildings for $10,000.
Politicians didn't get caught telling lies as much as they do now.
Most families went to church together on Sunday.
The strongest drugs that were available to teens were tobacco and alcohol.

[Bob Rufener]

I remember our telephone number was 84R and you had to be careful when you picked up the phone that others weren't on it (party line)

My first job-I worked 40 hours a week during the summer and cleared $31.50.

Beer was $.10 a glass

Dad actually took a two day vacation so we could go on a big train trip to Niagara Falls. (It was the only vacation he ever took)

My first car was a Nash Rambler with lay down seats.

Our first TV was a 16" round screen model.

Bath day was Saturday whether you needed it or not.

Playing kick the can and moonlight starlight with all of the kids in the neighborhood.

Rows of seats bolted to the floor at school.

Life was good!!!