Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favourite '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 'home,'' I explained. !
'Mum 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 lad 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'd figured his system could have handled it:
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore jeans, set foot on a golf course, travelled out of the country or had a credit card.
My parents never drove me to school... I walked. My brother had a bike and if I was lucky, he would let me ride it to piano lessons. We had raincoats and galoshes. So we didn’t get wet.
We didn't have a television in our house until I was 10.
It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at 10 PM, after playing the national anthem and epilogue; it came back on the air at about 6 am. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people...
Pizzas were not delivered to our home... But milk was.
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers --My brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. No Saturday papers.
He delivered each day at 5:00 pm but Sunday was at 5:00 am. And during the summer, he would cut grass. There were no riding lawn mowers, they didn’t even have motors. You pushed by hand. My spending money was earned by selling coke bottles and clothes hangers. Glass coke bottles were returned to the store for a $.02 deposit. Clothes hangers were returned to the dry cleaners 2 for a penny. $.10 would get you in the movies.
Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the films. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or almost anything offensive.
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 lemonade 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?
Headlight dip-switches on the floor of the car.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Trouser leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn indicators.
Older Than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom
1. Sweet cigarettes
2. Coffee shops with juke boxes
3. Home milk delivery in glass bottles
4. Party lines on the telephone
5. Newsreels before the movie
6. 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])
7. Peashooters
8. 33 rpm records
9. 45 RPM records
10. Hi-fi's
11. Metal ice trays with levers
12. Blue flashbulb
13. Cork popguns
14. Wash tub wringers
15. Old 78 rpm records
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Back when I was a Kid
BACK WHEN I WAS A KID. HOW MANY CAN RELATE TO THIS.
Clothes were not disposable they were recycled. A lot of folks called blue jeans Dungarees. It was quite easy to tell if it was a new pair. First it was usually the beginning of the school year or after Christmas. Next the kids who had them might scratch a lot. Those new pants were so stiff that when you took them off you just stood them up in a corner. Giveaway number two was the deep blue color or the new blue tint to ones shirts. This meant that someone's mother forgot about the jeans and washed them with the other clothes. Color Fastness had not been invented yet. Another giveaway was how high the cuff was turned up. New dungarees were purchased to last a while so as you grew the cuffs grew shorter. The more you grew the better the fit! Boys were boys back then so without indoor electronics to keep them on their butts like today's kids grass stain and knee scuffs were a mother's biggest challenge. Then came the solution of adding some protection. This came by means of handy iron on knee patches before any knee wear occurred!
It was common to have at least 2 sets of clothing and if you were very lucky you had a third set.
Set1:
School clothes: take care of these clothes. When you come home from school you remove them before you do anything! If not something will go wrong and you will be in deep trouble. School clothes are inspected regularly for grass stains, tears and stains. Avoid either because you have to have a story for each. Not just a story, a believable story. Nor everyone had special school clothes but they were usually neat and clean.
Set 2:
Play clothes
Yes you played in this set. These clothes might be formerly known as school clothes. Grass stains, small tears, mud etc was acceptable in moderation. Major damage to these clothes could result in possible bodily harm from unhappy parents. Standing in a corner would have been a cake walk to many unruly lads of the day. I could see this as planning time for their next misadventure.
Set 3:
Church Clothes
We were raised to wear your best clothing to church. No, everyone did not have a special set of church clothes but what they did wear was as clean as possible and pressed. No t shirts, no jeans, no sneakers, etc. The rules were not as strict for younger children. Easter was a standard time to get a new set of church clothes. Who knows what started that. My personal guess was that it was an excuse for the ladies of the church to shop for their new Easter Bonnets! My opinion was that you keep your church as immaculate as can be afforded so why not look your best when you enter it. You didn't dress like you were headed to Wal-Mart, formerly called the Dime Store in my child hood.
I believe it might be an old school thing identified as RESPECT and PRIDE in your church and yourself.
DO NOT damage these clothes! You grew out of these clothes sometimes resulting in younger siblings getting -- New Sunday Clothes!
Even slight damage to church clothes could result in a Come To Jesus experience.
BACK WHEN I WAS A KID
Clothes were not disposable they were recycled. A lot of folks called blue jeans Dungarees. It was quite easy to tell if it was a new pair. First it was usually the beginning of the school year or after Christmas. Next the kids who had them might scratch a lot. Those new pants were so stiff that when you took them off you just stood them up in a corner. Giveaway number two was the deep blue color or the new blue tint to ones shirts. This meant that someone's mother forgot about the jeans and washed them with the other clothes. Color Fastness had not been invented yet. Another giveaway was how high the cuff was turned up. New dungarees were purchased to last a while so as you grew the cuffs grew shorter. The more you grew the better the fit! Boys were boys back then so without indoor electronics to keep them on their butts like today's kids grass stain and knee scuffs were a mother's biggest challenge. Then came the solution of adding some protection. This came by means of handy iron on knee patches before any knee wear occurred!
It was common to have at least 2 sets of clothing and if you were very lucky you had a third set.
Set1:
School clothes: take care of these clothes. When you come home from school you remove them before you do anything! If not something will go wrong and you will be in deep trouble. School clothes are inspected regularly for grass stains, tears and stains. Avoid either because you have to have a story for each. Not just a story, a believable story. Nor everyone had special school clothes but they were usually neat and clean.
Set 2:
Play clothes
Yes you played in this set. These clothes might be formerly known as school clothes. Grass stains, small tears, mud etc was acceptable in moderation. Major damage to these clothes could result in possible bodily harm from unhappy parents. Standing in a corner would have been a cake walk to many unruly lads of the day. I could see this as planning time for their next misadventure.
Set 3:
Church Clothes
We were raised to wear your best clothing to church. No, everyone did not have a special set of church clothes but what they did wear was as clean as possible and pressed. No t shirts, no jeans, no sneakers, etc. The rules were not as strict for younger children. Easter was a standard time to get a new set of church clothes. Who knows what started that. My personal guess was that it was an excuse for the ladies of the church to shop for their new Easter Bonnets! My opinion was that you keep your church as immaculate as can be afforded so why not look your best when you enter it. You didn't dress like you were headed to Wal-Mart, formerly called the Dime Store in my child hood.
I believe it might be an old school thing identified as RESPECT and PRIDE in your church and yourself.
DO NOT damage these clothes! You grew out of these clothes sometimes resulting in younger siblings getting -- New Sunday Clothes!
Even slight damage to church clothes could result in a Come To Jesus experience.
BACK WHEN I WAS A KID
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