Older 'n dirt

Janna

New Member
LightningBugs / Older 'n Dirt!!

"Hey Dad," one of my kids 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. "Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa 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 her e 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 AND 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 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day. Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.

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 15. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a "machine."

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living r oom 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 and all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My 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 water 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< /SPAN> 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. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
12. Peashooters
< U>13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S&H Green Stamps
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 the best part of my life.
 

dreamer

New Member
JANNA! me, husband and the kids were just talking about this stuff yesterday!

ah yes, I remember the milk man. and no drive thrus or happy meals. and the sprinkler for the iron, and no microwave, no color tv, codrded phones and certainly no VCRs and camcorders, heck even photographs were black and white. and yes we had a paper route, too and pants guards from the chain on our 1 speed bike and yes yesterday I said gosh I wish the headlite brights switch was still on the floor, husband said well then you would not have power windows, LOL.
OK the only 2 things I did not have as part of my normal life was a packard and studebaker. LOL.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
I got a 15, too. lmao

My kids thought Royal Crown Cola was a generic brand. :rofl: Til I explained it was Big when I was growing up.

I introduced my kids to candy buttons. Anyone remember those??? OMG they're good! And I hunted down the old penny candy we used to buy, including candy cigarettes, and would get it for them.

I tried to give my kids the fun I had as a kid. It wasn't always easy. Far too often they would think Mom had gone off her nut. Til they discovered it actually was fun. :grin:
 

muttmeister

Well-Known Member
You guys are mere children. I remembered all 25.
When I subbed last week it was cold and one girl wore a dress and the kids were having a fit. I had to tell them that I am so old that we were not allowed to wear pants to school, even when it was below 0. We couldn't wear pants at college either, even though we had to walk sometimes over a mile to class (I'm sure it was uphill both ways!LOL) And the only time we could wear pants to eat in the dorm was Saturday breakfast. And you had to dress up for Sunday dinner or they wouldn't serve you.
Yup, I'm definitely older than dirt!
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
MM. I must be older than dirt too, because I got 25 out of 25!

We were NEVER allowed to wear anything but a dress or skirt when I was in school. That didn't come where I lived until the year after I graduated! When I was a little kid in St. Louis, even in a foot of snow, we wore dresses. But little girls winter coats came with snow pants that matched the coat! Remember those??? And then you wore boots over those! Boots that went OVER your shoes! No kid could get those snow pants on or off by themselves! Or the boots! The teachers back them must have spent half the day getting those things on and off of the kids!

When I started college, girls were not allowed to wear shorts on campus except for Saturdays! And this was in Florida! If you had to walk to a PE class all the way across the campus, you had to wear a raincoat over your shorts, even if it was 110 degrees outside! And NO, I am NOT kidding! We all hiked across campus in the hot sun and humidity wearing trench coats! People actually had heat strokes sometimes in those trench coats! But if you keeled over, you were expected to fall gracefully, carefully assuring that your legs were modestly covered at all times. Of course, if it was Saturday though, it was OK!

Thinking about it now, the colleges had completely different rules for the girls as they did for the boys! And it never occurred to anyone to object! And they had some really stupid rules! The girls dorms were locked promptly at 10:00, midnight on weekends. And if you were late, they wouldn't let you in! This was "pre-Ted Bundy", of course. You had to walk all the way across the dark campus to the "Night Office", and then they would bring you back to the dorm, in total disgrace. Of course, there were ways around that! If we knew that we wouldn't make it back by curfew, we'd just stay out all night! You'd be in big trouble for coming in late, but there was almost no chance they'd catch you if you stayed out all night, especially if people covered for you! :blush:
 

mstang67chic

Going Green
I didn't really keep track of how many I remembered but it was a lot. The switch for brights being on the floor made me remember "wings" in the car windows. husband's Jeep has those and I love having them again.

I do have to wonder though. We HAD a wringer washing machine when I was growing up so does that make up for the ones that I didn't remember???
 

WhymeMom?

No real answers to life..
I just can't believe you guys that are 35, 36 remember this stuff. I truly am older than dirt (I remembered all and a few more) but living long enough to be older than dirt I so appreciate not having to live without cell phones, computers, and most of all heated car seats.....(how did I ever live without them?) Guess that doesn't mean much to you who live in warmer climates....
:surprise:


So what new fangled invention could you not live without?????
:wink:
 

mstang67chic

Going Green
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: WhymeMom?</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I just can't believe you guys that are 35, 36 remember this stuff. </div></div>

LOL.....keep in mind that, at least for me, I grew up in a rural area that somethings were longer lasting. I actually was born and raised in the county just south of you and as most of it was rural, we kinda kept a lot of that stuff longer than the more "sophisticated" areas! lol

Not only did we have the wringer washer but we heated with a wood stove (soley) so I've done the ash pan, carried in wood...all that. My grandma was raised on a farm and even though my mom was raised partly in the country and partly "in town" (lol, think that little town just over the county line south of you on the north/south highway and the county seat....you know, that bustling metropolis!), alot of what my grandma did and used growing up, was passed on to my mom. So of course she did things the same also. I guess that makes me older n dirt in spirit!!! :rofl:
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I got 21 but I will blame it on being the only child of older parents...lmao. Yes that is it.

I loved penny candy...those candy buttons, root beer hard candies, pixie sticks, wax bottles, all of it. Remember running around in the yard catching fire flies and putting them in old mayo jars? Those were our summer time night lights...lol.
 

WhymeMom?

No real answers to life..
I so completely know what you mean. I actually grew up in small town west and north of here and remember my grandmother making lye soap in big wash tubs out in the yard. We lived in "town" but rode our bikes(one speed, coaster brakes) everywhere. Don't know that I would want to go back, but some things seemed much simpler then.....
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
mstang, lots of people where I live STILL use wood heat! In fact, up until three years ago, the house I lived in had just a wood stove for heat! If you have wooded land and a way to cut and haul the wood, it's a free source of heat in the winter. It's also a heck of a lot of work, really messy, and a general PITA! I hated it, and it scared me to death! But still, when the power was off for a week after an ice storm, we were still warm!

Is there even still such a thing as "penny candy"? I doubt it. We LOVED it! Where I grew up in St. Louis, there was a small store by our house and the lady who ran it had probably thirty kinds of candy in big glass jars. Thinking back on it now, I don't know how she ever had the patience ... I'd take fifteen minutes deciding how to spend a dime, then when she have it all counted out in the little brown bag, I'd change my mind and she'd have to start all over again! Then my brother would start picking out his! And a lot of times we didn't have actual money to pay for the candy - we'd bring in dirty old Coke bottles for the deposit and take out our "proceeds" in penny candy. The woman was a real saint!

Today anybody giving their kids little candy cigarettes would probably get reported to CPS, but we loved them! They came in that cute little box, and we felt so grown up! Pitiful, ain't it! We had the little wax "Coke" bottles with the sickly sweet stuff inside them, and the flat, dried up bubble gum that had a real baseball card inside the pack. And around Halloween there were the big red wax lips and the black licorice-flavored moustaches that you'd play with for a while and then chew like gum. We thought we were hysterically funny with those big red lips on! And those brown and white striped things with the peanut butter stuff inside, and the "root beer barrels". Remember them??

I once tried explaining to my kids about the candy "dots" on the strips of paper and they looked at me like I had suddenly sprouted antenneas on my head! I don't know what their real name was, but we just called them "dots". The lady at the store would tear you off a strip about a foot long for a penny, or if she liked you, it might be a few inches longer! We LOVED them and they kept us busy for hours gnawing them off the paper. And if some of the paper was stuck on them, you ate that too!



 

mstang67chic

Going Green
Ugh........I never did understand the whole chewing on wax thing. Yuck. I still see those around though as well as candy cigs. (not too often but every now and then) The pixie sticks.........ohhhhhhhh.......I always wanted the really big ones but I only got them if I did it myself and hid them from my mom. I was kind of a hyper kid anyway. lol

My folks had wood heat up until the late 90's. They probably would have kept it except dad is to the point that he can't cut wood anymore. I wouldn't mind having a wood stove again as long as it wasn't our sole source of heat. Nothing like coming in from the cold and standing by the stove. And if it is REALLY cold, open the door for direct access! lol

I've been on a big sweet tart kick lately and have also rediscoverd the bottle caps. I didn't know they still made them. I buy them by the 6 oz box and eat them all myself!
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
LightningBugs / Older 'n Dirt!!

"Hey Dad," one of my kids 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. "Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa 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 her e 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 AND 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 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day. Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.

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 15. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a "machine."

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living r oom 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 and all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My 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 water 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&lt; /SPAN&gt; 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. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
12. Peashooters
&lt; U&gt;13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S&H Green Stamps
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 the best part of my life.
I remember everything! Such an old-fogy I am! LOL!
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
LightningBugs / Older 'n Dirt!!

"Hey Dad," one of my kids 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. "Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa 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 her e 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 AND 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 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day. Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.

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 15. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a "machine."

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living r oom 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 and all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My 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 water 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&lt; /SPAN&gt; 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. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
12. Peashooters
&lt; U&gt;13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S&H Green Stamps
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 the best part of my life.
I totally remember getting my pants cuffs caught in the bike chain! It made one heck of a mess of your pants!

You're only older than dirt if you remember cloth diapers and rubber pants! LOL!
 

Jabberwockey

Well-Known Member
I remember McDonald's being around when I was younger. We only ever got something like that when we were on vacation and dad thought we were behind schedule so didn't want to stop at an actual restaurant. On that note, who remembers the Styrofoam packaging for the burgers back then? And here's a bonus question...After McDonald's quit using Styrofoam, how did they package the Big Mac for a short time?

Guess I should add that I personally experienced 14 out of 25 as a kid but heard about several others. Mom and dad had an actual washing machine because they both worked full time, which was almost unheard of back then, and with seven kids it was the only way to get the laundry done. I do remember for a long time we did have the cloths line though.
 
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Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
I remember McDonald's being around when I was younger. We only ever got something like that when we were on vacation and dad thought we were behind schedule so didn't want to stop at an actual restaurant. On that note, who remembers the Styrofoam packaging for the burgers back then? And here's a bonus question...After McDonald's quit using Styrofoam, how did they package the Big Mac for a short time?

Guess I should add that I personally experienced 14 out of 25 as a kid but heard about several others. Mom and dad had an actual washing machine because they both worked full time, which was almost unheard of back then, and with seven kids it was the only way to get the laundry done. I do remember for a long time we did have the cloths line though.
I remember enjoying the likes of McDonald's only twice during my childhood. We were so poor there was no such thing as eating out no matter how cheap it was, but what a treat McDonald's was, and so, so good! :)

Yes, I remember the Styrofoam burger boxes back then!

Hmmm... regarding your Big Mac question, did they use a yellowy coloured paper? I seem to remember that but may be mistaken. Fun question! Great post!
 
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