NT - I am older than dirt

[jklcpa]

'Someone 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 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, 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 & 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 5. It was, of course, black and white,

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 10. It was an old blue Studebaker. A house until I was 13.

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. 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. 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?

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?

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

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)

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!

[Margaret CPA in OH]

I AM older then dirt. I remember all of them...

[JRS]

I thought I was. Now it is official. Of course, my wife says she only remembers a few. I accuse her of having short term memory loss, I guess I will have to expand my definition (quietly).

[Terry D EA]

Ah yes, remember them all. We call these the goodole days.

Terry D.

[mcb39]

Thanks for the memories. Yes, I am older than dirt and remember them all. I was actually born in South Bend, Ind, where they build Studebakers. We owned one in 1961 (newly married and living in WI, where I grew up) I think it was called a Golden Hawk and was real "class". We actually made a cross-country trip in that car, with a baby and no air-conditioning. Nobody had air-conditioned cars in those days, that I know of. Oh, I could go on and on. And, yes, I knew it was a sprinkling bottle as soon as I started reading. :D

[JRS]

"We actually made a cross-country trip in that car, with a baby and no air-conditioning. Nobody had air-conditioned cars in those days"

Does anyone remember the canisterlike cooler that attached to the outside of the car window and when you drove, it would suck up the air and would supposedly cool the interior? This is way older than dirt.

[Catherine]

I am older than dirt, too, but just barely; I remembered 16.

But that sprinkler top -- not only did I remember it -- I still HAVE one! My grandmother's. And yes, I use it. But not during tax season; who has time to iron? I'm lucky some days that I have time to get dressed!

Catherine

[jklcpa]

Hey, my dad talked about that a/c unit, but I don't remember it first-hand. I was born in '60, but I still qualified as 'dirt' too. Grandparents had a farm with party line, wringer washer, milk delivery, b/w tv with only 3 channels. Terry D was right, those were the good ole days for sure.

[TAXBILLY]

My parents bought me a car when I was 20 so that I wouldn't have to take the bus and subway to college, a two hour trip each way cut down to 45 minutes.

It was a Plymouth Belvedere that they bought for $25 that had part of the floorboard missing and had a gas tank leak which forced me to park with the right rear wheel on the sidewalk if I filled it too much . One day coming out of school I saw the NYC Dept of Sanitation truck about to put the car on the hook and tow it away because someone called and said that obviously it was an abandoned car!

I rewarded myself later in life by buying a Lincoln Town Car.

taxbilly

[Maura]

I was hoping I wasn't.... but,alas I am older than dirt too.

[Maribeth]

Hey, my dad talked about that a/c unit, but I don't remember it first-hand. I was born in '60, but I still qualified as 'dirt' too. Grandparents both had farms with party lines, wringer washers, milk deliveries, b/w tvs with only 3 channels. Terry D was right, those were the good ole days for sure.

Way older than dirt . . . .

Mom would call the operator on our party line out in the country and the opreator would call the next morning to wake us up.

It had to be a holiday or a birthday or some special day when the milkman would leave a bottle of orange juice. Yummy, yummy.

Remember driving home from the lake or swimming pool with all the swim suits hung around the antennae?

I still miss the bright light switch on the floor of the car.

Maribeth

[Bart]

4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles

My father-in-law still has a machine that dispenses glass bottles.

5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes

We still have one of these in town also. The tableside boxes even play music.

[MargaretMort]

I remember all of those things, some fondly, others not so. My husband was in the AF and we had a change of station from Michigan to FL in the summer. We drove from MI to Nebraska to NJ to FL, arriving July 5. Our daughter was 6 weeks old and bottle fed. Now, that was a trip and a learning experience I would not care to repeat ever again. Hardly anyone had air conditioning in cars or houses, most motels didn't have any either. We did use the cylinder cooler for a brief time.

Because we didn't trade cars frequently, we didn't have a car with A/C until 1969 when I threatened to buy one with my POA if he didn't buy one before he went to Viet Nam. We were driving a VW Bus and VW Bug and living again in FL at that time. By the way, we still have that '65 Bug but my car is a Lincoln Town Car.

[Lion EA]

I remember them all. Depressing.

[GeneInAlabama]

Does anyone remember the canisterlike cooler that attached to the outside of the car window and when you drove, it would suck up the air and would supposedly cool the interior? This is way older than dirt.

I remember that canister very well. It didn't work very well though. When I was 11 years old, my parents moved from Washington state to Alabama. It took us 3 weeks to get there. We wre pulling the biggest house trailer youj could buy (29 feet long) with a 1941 Chevrolet. We had to stop on the way and have the motor rebuilt on the car. Of course we also stopped and visited some friends on the way, and stopped at several places like the Redwood Forest and Grand Canyon. When we crossed the dessert, we bought one of those cannisters that attached to the window. I begged my parents to throw that thing away and roll the windows down on the car. I still think it would have been better if we had.

I was 15 years old before I ever even SAW a television. Soon after that, we moved to an area that actually had a TV station and my parents bought one. Programing didn't start until 11:00 AM, and I remember sitting and watching the test pattern until the programing started. It was several years before we had more than one TV station that we could watch.

[mcb39]

"We actually made a cross-country trip in that car, with a baby and no air-conditioning. Nobody had air-conditioned cars in those days"

Does anyone remember the canisterlike cooler that attached to the outside of the car window and when you drove, it would suck up the air and would supposedly cool the interior? This is way older than dirt.

In about 1963 or 64, we got really modern and had a plastic contraption that fit on the hump under the dash. You put ice cubes into an enclosed pan, plugged it into the cigarette lighter and a fan blew over the ice cubes and supposedly dispersed cool air. Of course, it was adding more humidity rather than taking it out.

[bstaxes]

Older than dirt, I guess I am. I remember them all. I have a soda machine that dispenses glass bottles, Coke. 45 rpm records, I still have a bunch and a lot of 78's and 33 1/3. Sometimes I play them on my jukebox. Metal ice cube trays still have them. My son has my wringer wash tub which he uses to wash his oil rags. I remember helping my grandmother with the wash and getting my hand and arm caught in the wringer. Thank God it opened. I remember shuffleboard machines and pinball machines. I have a Gottlief (sp) pinball machine with side action flippers.

How old is dirt????

[Eli]

Wow I'm in good company!! lol I remember 16.

Eli

[Diane]

I remember them all! I still have my first tax return. I earned $3,000/year. I also remember the ice man who delivered the ice for the icebox; the coal truck that dumped coal in our basement; the horrors of having a party line with the boy next door (who liked to listen in); our backyard pool was a wash tub filled with water. Now the pea shooter is another story -- we used our pea shooters and played in and around a house that was being built on our street. Remember plaster? The walls were plastered and when plaster dries it heats up. Well, there were peas sprouting all over the inside of that house. Unfortunately the builder knew our families. I guess I am also 'older than dirt'.

Diane

[mcb39]

Older than dirt, I guess I am. I remember them all. I have a soda machine that dispenses glass bottles, Coke. 45 rpm records, I still have a bunch and a lot of 78's and 33 1/3. Sometimes I play them on my jukebox. Metal ice cube trays still have them. My son has my wringer wash tub which he uses to wash his oil rags. I remember helping my grandmother with the wash and getting my hand and arm caught in the wringer. Thank God it opened. I remember shuffleboard machines and pinball machines. I have a Gottlief (sp) pinball machine with side action flippers.

How old is dirt????

Dirt is VERY VERY OLD!!!!! The dirt on our land up North is older than anything else I know. It has been unsettled National Forest back to the Native Americans. I, however, am not THAT old.

[OldJack]

Way older than dirt . . . .

Mom would call the operator on our party line out in the country and the opreator would call the next morning to wake us up.

It had to be a holiday or a birthday or some special day when the milkman would leave a bottle of orange juice. Yummy, yummy.

Remember driving home from the lake or swimming pool with all the swim suits hung around the antennae?

I still miss the bright light switch on the floor of the car.

Maribeth

I am way older than dirt also!

I also remember the country party line telephone that hung on the wall. Our telephone number was 3 long rings and 1 short ring. If you were calling us you just gave the operator our name. I was in high school in those days.

Yep! We had a milkman delivery up to about 1965. The wife still teases me about the milkman and our 4 kids.

I remember the shortage of sugar during WWII and the work in our "victory garden". Maybe that is why I love sugar so much today.

[Catherine]

<snip>

Yep! We had a milkman delivery up to about 1965. The wife still teases me about the milkman and our 4 kids.

I remember the shortage of sugar during WWII and the work in our "victory garden". Maybe that is why I love sugar so much today.

We had to-the-house milk delivery in Worcester until we moved here about 6 years ago. Local dairy (still runs an ice cream stand in the summer), milk, juice, eggs, homemade chicken pies (frozen), ice cream. I miss them.

[kcjenkins]

Brought back lots of memories. I'm older than dirt, for sure! I used to love it when the ice man brought the ice for the 'ice box' as he would always chip off bits of ice for us kids. That was a real treat. Pickles were something that your mother made, and jams and jelly, as well.

[JohnH]

I remember them all - as a teenager I even worked for a while delivering milk in the glass bottles. We'd start about 4 am and ride along standing in the doorway of the truck - had to learn the art of jumping off while the truck was still n motion and not dropping a metal carrier holding 4 bottles of milk. This was so my co-worker could jump off at the next couple of houses, and the driver would then stop the truck & deliver his 4 bottles. We'd then run to catch up with the truck before the driver got back in and off we'd go again to the next delivery point.

Whenever someone mentions the "good old days" I recall a story my father-in-law would tell. Sam would describe a big two-story house they lived in that only had a free-standing coal heater and 3-4 fireplaces. In the bathroom was one of those porcelain bathtubs that stood on curved decorative legs and had two 4-prong fancy handles for hot & cold water. One really cold morning he got up, fired up the coal heater, and went into the bathroom only to find that the pipes had frozen all the way inside the house and those two fancy handles had popped off & were lying in the bathtub. Said he almost broke into tears when he realized what had happened.

As Sam sat in his modern brick home with central heat & air, he'd finish the story by saying "Whenever somebody starts yapping about the 'good old days', I just remember standing there shivering in my nightshirt staring at those two #@#&** handles lying in that bathtub."

[OldJack]

>>yapping about the 'good old days'<<

Now that I am older I know the good old days were not a year or era, rather they were when we were innocent.