A little light humor for the Old Farts (of which I is one)
25I stole this, fair and square, from someone’s post over on Facebook, and it made me laugh enough that I figured I’d share.
How many of those things do you remember? I remember every single one. Then again, I really am older than dirt.
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14,so I guess I’m not too old?
@sammydog01 Which ones did you not remember?
@Barney 7, 8, 10, 11, 12. I mean I have heard of all of them but they were before my time. Wait I just remembered my grandmother had a party line so change my score to 15.
@sammydog01 One more and you’re looking at “dirt”.
@Barney Hahaha! You dirt people are soooooo old.
@sammydog01
Dinosaurs
roamed the earth.
Saw 'me almost every day. Sometimes rode them to school and back
/giphy dinosaur
@sammydog01 @f00l
I guess I’m older than dust.
@Pantheist And oh, so young!
@Pantheist
STFU and send me some stash.
@f00l Come visit in about 2 months
16, dirt
We have a drive-in movie theater here.
@sammydog01 We still have a drive-in here, too.
@sammydog01 We do, too. About 10 minutes away. First run.
Yay, a test I aced. I can remember the smell of the mimeograph, too. Our phone prefix was FED(eral). And yeah, I go to the drive-in theater at least once each year.
@sligett Ours was WHitehall.
@sligett My grandma’s number used to be 3-1491, on a 4-party line. Then it became 353-1491. Then they got area codes and all that. Mine used to be GArden 4-3216. Older than dirt.
@Barney My granny’s in Wichita was WHitehall too!
@kc5rbq Hmm, “granny”. Now I really feel old.
@sligett My parent’s number was ER1-xxxx no idea what ER stood for. Transformed into 371-xxxx
@sligett In the 70s, Boushelle, a carpet & upholstery cleaning company in Chicago, aired TV commercials that featured their phone # as a jingle: HUdson 3-2700.
I’ll never forget that number
12 personally. Add watching “Matinee at the Bijou” on PBS for secondhand newsreels. A couple of others as ‘recent past’ (we had milk delivery into an insulated box but it was wax paper milk cartons except for cream in bottles). So not quite so decrepit yet.
They could add:
@duodec Yep, remembered all of those, too. We used to play with mercury. How about those wood burning kits?
@duodec I still have my old Thingmaker.
@duodec Other than the first, I (or my family) had all of those.
I still have my Heathkit Oscilloscope and several used and new-in-box mercury switches.
Our Pontiac Tempest station wagon (I think it was a 1968) had a pair of mercury switches in the glove compartment mounted in a little custom-built box with thumbscrews that my dad made. It could be adjusted so that if someone jacked up the car to steal a wheel, it would set of the alarm. I still have that box in a junk box somewhere.
My Thingmaker and other thermosetting plastic molding devices (my sisters had some too) were damaged in a flood and tossed about five years ago.
I do still have the iron from my wood burning kit.
@pooflady Ah yes mercury. Thermometer broke and we’d roll it all over the kitchen table, smash it and then reconstruct it into bigger balls…
Do not remember 1,2,7,8.10,
Drive-ins are current.
Remember all of @duodec’s list.
(Not sure what was in the electric switches, bit the houses were built 1920-1940’s and electrical not re-done.
WAlnut and PErshing.
@f00l
I was aware some people had party lines. Didn’t know anyone who said they did tho.
Newsreels before the movies were something my parents discussed. They prob would have skipped the newsreels before Dumbo and Bambi and 101 Dalmations anyway. .
@f00l
Ain’t telling you people the childhood phone number because a relative still has it.
@f00l LOL so do my parents, come to think of it, but it started MUrray7-
@f00l Thise wax bottles are still available.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003WEC8KQ/ref=mp_s_a_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1484761814&sr=8-2&keywords=nik-l-nip+wax+bottles
@f00l you probably got some wax coke bottles for halloween as a kid and just threw them out, henceforth forgotten
@Yoda_Daenerys
Could be. I seem to have no memory of them tho.
Ours was Hunter
and don’t remember butch wax
Otherwise, yeppers, I am old
I’ve seen a longer version of this too
@Cerridwyn My dad had a butch haircut and used the wax. His nickname was also “Butch”. I guess he would go by “Larry” today.
@Barney
Dad had a flattop for a while.
16 out of 19. Damn you!
TWinbrooks
Also:
Brownie cameras
Double features
Gas price wars
@KDemo My neighbors had a Brownie camera and they let me use it. My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic.
@Barney - I kind of remember Instamatics too. Didn’t they have the first film cartridges, so you didn’t have to load the film by hand in the dark?
@KDemo
Remember all on your list. Dammit!
At one time the two stations on the nearby corner had gas at under $.15/gallon for more than one year I think? Finally they called a truce?
@KDemo Right you are, old lady!
@Barney - Busted.
@f00l - You win, I seem to remember $.25 - possibly $.24? Gas stations used to give away “collectible” glasses.
Oh, and did anyone else have 7-up movie matinees? Kids could get in for three 7-up bottle caps.
I skimmed this topic title far too quickly; came in expecting humorous tales of lighting farts.
Coonskin and fake coonskin caps.
Only getting three TV channels
Putting tin foil on the rabbit eats
Paying a nickel for a candy bar
Leaving the house all day to play, no one worried. Just be home by dinner time…
Wing windows on cars
I remember all of it… sigh… I had a flat top haircut & used the wax to hold it up.
Phone prefix: ALpine
@daveinwarsh Yep, came home when the streetlights came on.
I remember everything that’s been put here. We called them cozy wings. Long distance was less than 15 miles away and you didn’t use it except for an emergency.
I guess I am officially older than dirt now - I remember them all. Mom still has a party line. I believe she has the only one left in MA - the other “party” is long gone but technically it is still a party line - she refuses to let it go.
I’m getting there! I just bought some candy cigarettes and they were just as good as I remembered.
I remember them all. However, four (#7, 8, 11, 12) had already started to fade away when I was a “youngin.” I recall helping my mom paste TONS of those S&H Green Stamps (and the Blue Chip Stamps - anyone recall those?) in the stamp books and going to the redemption center for whatever “prize” she was saving for.
@Cheddy There were also plaid stamps.
@Cheddy I’m still using the kitchen canisters that Mom and bought with their green stamps. Mom give them to me as a wedding gift. Gee, I love those old canisters.
@Cheddy We saved Green & Blue Chip stamps, but mostly the Green stamps. My mother was so proud of some silverware set she got & showed them to everyone.
We would buy gas & shop only on ‘double stamp days’.
I pity the poor gas attendant that forgot to give the stamps promptly…
Didn’t go to the movies much growing up so didn’t see many news reels. First movie I remember was Swiss Family Robinson when I was 6.
Our phone number was TEmple 2-2015. Don’t know why I remember this but I do. Now what did I have for lunch today??? Did I have lunch today?!?
Also:
Metal dashboards in the cars.
Sleeping in the back window on long trips.
Dealing with the hump in the back seat floor.
AM radios with a single speaker… if you even had a radio.
Sea Hunt and Sky King on TV.
Cigarette ads on TV.
TV remotes (AKA The children)
Trying to watch TV through the snow.
Newspaper routes for kids. Hell, anymore just newspapers.
Well, time to take my Geritol and Doan’s Liver pills.
@Mehrocco_Mole
Sitting between Mom and Dad in the front seat.
I suppose I should add some things of my own. When I was a teenager, we had an 8 party line (yes, I did say EIGHT), and you could hear four of the rings. Ours was two shorts and a long. It got changed to a four party line when I was around 17. There was also a special ring that said everyone should get on the phone, because it was an emergency of some sort.
I still have two of those Brownie cameras, and the flash attachment. I think at least one of them is still in its original box.
Not only do I remember S&H Green Stamps, and Blue Chip Stamps, I also remember Gold Bond Stamps. I bought baby things when I was pregnant with the last of the green stamps I had. Good thing I used them. That store was gone a couple of years later.
I still have a roller skate key, and a “hoppy taw” for playing Hopscotch. Far as I know, you can still buy Blackjack Gum, too. Uh-oh. I just went looking for it, and they quit making it in 2013. Wikipedia, as usual, is full of entertaining information about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Jack_(gum)
@Shrdlu Oh, lordy. I bought all my son’s baby stuff with green stamps. My mother canvassed her friends and showed up with the better part of a grocery bag full of books and loose stamps. We also got plaid stamps from one grocery store and the gold ones from another.
@Shrdlu Our exchange was FLanders.
Grandpa’s phone had a crank, it was 2 longs & a short. Couldn’t call across town after 5 because the operator went home.
I remember every one, also. Definitely makes me older’n dirt. Reading everyone else’s contributions, I remember all of them, also. We only got three TV channels because that’s all there were. “Penny candy” was really only a penny, and nearly all candy bars were a nickel. Cap guns with caps that came in bright red rolls that were inserted into the gun itself. I had a “coonskin” hat and a nifty Zorro sword that had a place in the tip where your mom could insert a piece of chalk so you could really make a Z on the sidewalk. The phone exchange was FORest. And I remember when ZIP codes were first assigned.
@magic_cave
The first TV station I worked at (age 14) was an ABC/NBC/PBS affiliate. We cherry picked which ABC or NBC shows to air. PBS (remember Electric Company with a very young Morgan Freeman? Hey you guys!) came in on 16mm film or 2" tape. It was a few years later we got the third and fourth TV stations that took over the ABC and PBS programming.
Well, crap. I remember all of it. As well as a lot of b/w tv (Romper Room, Diver Dan, Sonny Fox, Soupy Sales, etc.), Still have a bag of green stamps, some blue ‘square’ flashbulbs, and an ice cube tray with lever somewhere.
In addition to milk delivered to a metal box on the porch, we also had wood cases of assorted bottled soda delivered. Birch beer was the best. If you wanted to call someone in town, you only had to dial the last four numbers. No prefix necessary. Accompanying dad to the hardware store to use the tube tester and search the boxes in the cabinet for the needed tube was the best.
Didn’t take much back then to keep us kids amused.
@lordbowen My brother won a poodle on Romper a Room (I assume the local station). I was on TV!
My parents had to purchase our first B/W TV because we embarrassed them by going next door all the time to watch the neighborhood TV (the family had kids our age).
Specific to FW - some of my classmates went downtown on the morning of Nov 22, 1963 to see Pres Kennedy give a speech in Fort Worth before he went to Dallas. Some of their parents met the Kennedies the evening before. Big FW social event. FW welcomed the Kennedies. Over in Dallas, not so much. My teachers were afraid, and wished he wouldn’t go to Dallas. One of them - one of my favs - said so in class that morning. That was about 10am. Then they were all crying in the halls before they came into the classrooms to tell us he’d been shot. Then the principle came round classroom by classroom to tell us he had died and that it was Pres Johnson now.
@f00l
Didn’t matter where you were Nov 22nd, 1963. I was a 4th grader in Midland, Michigan and I remember everything about that day.
@Mehrocco_Mole
I know everyone remembers the moment they heard and where they were. That’s a huge imprint for all of us.
The only diff for me is that some kids I knew had heard him speak in person at the Chamber of Commerce breakfast that morning or seen him just after or stood out for the motorcade. And the hate from some groups in Dallas was so strong, you thought you could feel it in FW. I think one kid my brother kinda knew had been introduced and shaken his hand. A few hours later…
Those kids were really in shock. It took longer for them to stop being numb with that thousand yard stare afterwards.
@f00l - I was in Marin Co, it started raining after our teacher told us about it. I thought the sky was crying.
Watching Dolly Parton on the Porter Wagoner Show.
Have Gun, Will Travel.
We used to ride around standing on the back axle of the tractor holding on to the fender. Mom said that wasn’t safe but Grandpa said, “Leave them kids alone.”
Just shy of dirt (15). A few of the items on the list I was familiar with, even if I didn’t experience first-hand. but “Butch Wax” was the only one that I had never heard of.
I only remembered 4. However the drive in movie theater the only time I have been was last year.
@CaptAmehrican
Which 4?
@f00l
1
2
3
19
My grandfather liked blackjack gum I used to special order it online for him. Candy cigarettes and soda candy are still a thing as well
All of them.
Our address when I was a kid was “Route 8” as there were no box numbers. Most folks didn’t even have their names on the boxes, but the postman knew where everyone lived.
No phone, because the phone lines hadn’t reached us yet. I had a “city aunt” (because she lived on a road where you could see the neighbor’s house) with a party line. She also has a neighbor who picked up the phone whenever it rang so she could listen to everyone else’s conversations. So, of course, everyone visited and had a friend call so we could have conversations that were bizarre, or cryptic, or interlaced with profanity, just to give the old gal a thrill.
Radio shows.
4 people need to change the tv channel: One to watch the TV and shout when it was getting a clear channel; one to stand outside the window yelling directions to the kid on the roof who was turning the antenna, and a fourth to hold onto the kid on the roof to keep them from falling.
@rockblossom
That adjust the antenna thing: every football game for some reason.
never saw a newsreel except on TV. But the rest oy
@cranky1950 I’mone of the few people that actually saw the Johnson/Humphery Nuke ad on TV. Hell of an impression on a 14 y/o I gotta tell ya.
@cranky1950
Counting flower petals?
@f00l Came home after school one afternoon and turned on the TV and this came on a short while later.
@cranky1950
Yeah. Saw it.
My parents - in Texas!!! - were for Goldwater.
<Thumps head.>
I’m a whippersnapper.
@RiotDemon Baba Louie
@cranky1950
Baba Booie
<sorry, can’t help it>
@f00l D wheep and The whippersnapper!
@cranky1950 A not very politically correct Hanna Barbera cartoon.
@cranky1950
<Billy West doing Al Michael’s voice>
and Baba Booie to y’all.
I have no idea what’s happening.
@RiotDemon
The Howard Stern Show
Gary Dell’Abbate, the show producer, collected original animation stills as a hobby, including Baba Louie stills. One day on the show he misspoke: said “Baba Booie” instead of " Baba Louie".
The rest of the show cast never let him live it down. It’s now, 25-30 years later, his nickname and a catchphrase on the show and used by fans.
Billy West was on the show as a writer, comedian, and voice impressionist for a few years in the 90’s. Billy West is one of the greatest voice artists living and one of the few who is certified to do the Mel Blanc Warner Bros cartoon character voices.
West can do a perfect impression of the voice of Al Michaels, the sportscaster. Michaels loves the Stern show and calls in a lot.
After the OJ Simpson slo-mo car chase, during which Al Michaels had been on the air as a commentator in CA, and during which a prank caller who was a Stern Show fan managed to get on the air with Peter Jennings in NY, pretending to be a moronic and doped up live witness to the Simpson house standoff, Al Michaels called into the Stern Show a few days later to talk about it.
Billy West immediately started imitating Michaels’s voice, so that a sane Al Michaels was apparently having an on-air conversation with an insane Al Michaels, all about OJ Simpson and the rest of the universe. The real Al Michaels took all this in stride.
I know it’s a “you had to be there” moment, be even now on tape, it’s insanely funny.
Ducking under the school desk for nuclear bomb drills. Maybe the desks were lead lined? lol…
A job I got early was TV repair. I’d carefully remove each tube, most needing a slight wiggling to remove and being careful not to smear the lettering on the tube. I put them in a paper sack (wrapped in rags) & rode my bike to the Rexall. They had the tube tester there that I just loved! I scrolled through the index to find each tube, insert it in the correct spot, set each dial, double check everything & press the button. The tube had to register very bad before it got replaced. I purchased the new tube (most were stored underneath), & biked home. TV’s all had an easy-to-read schematic behind the TV showing tube placement. I carefully wiggled the tubes back into position, double-checked, plugged it in & the TV would work again! Amazing!!
I would go to the neighbors to watch Bonanza and some cartoons in ‘Living Color’! So life-like!! My parents didn’t see the need for that new technology…
@daveinwarsh We didn’t have a color tv till 1973. My father didn’[think they were perfected yet.
@cranky1950 Some shows just were not the same in black & white.
The early color sets were kinda funky & needed adjusted a lot, but luckily our neighbor had one & didn’t seem to mind having me show up occasionally. (A school friend lived there)
@daveinwarsh
Bert the Turtle says: “So effective!”
@cranky1950 I think we got our first one in '70. And only because my grandfather worked for Motorola.
16 (as in I experienced them directly).
I’m missing 6, 8 and 10.
@baqui63 obviously some old guys somewhere must still use this stuff:
https://www.amazon.com/Lucky-Tiger-Butch-Control-3-5oz/dp/B00279LKBK?th=1
well… shit. I remember all of them.
Also. TV remotes attached to the TV with wires, rabbit ears TV antennas, 78 RPM records, avocado green appliances, and wing windows in cars.
And no, I’m not old enough to retire yet.
@Steve7654 We had a Packard Bell black and white 25" console TV; the remote had a ~20 foot cable attaching to the TV with all the controls. There were none on the TV itself. It also had a speaker in the remote; you could use the TV speakers, both, or just the remote if you wanted it to be close and quiet. Rabbit ears antenna too.
I loved that old box.
@Steve7654 I miss the wing windows.
2 and 3 are the only ones I personally remember having experienced. And both were quite a while ago.
Albertsons still does grocery “stamps” ala S&H green stamps that you can redeem for cookware.
http://www.albertsons.com/collect-cuisinart-for-your-perfect-kitchen/
Not quite the S&H experience but some of the “old farts” around here enjoy it every year.
@Collin1000
Do you know approx when the S&H local catalog showrooms and stamp redemption centers start closing? I can’t remember, tho I remember being in one a few times as a child.
Seems like Green Stamps were a huge thing, and then suddenly they werent.
@f00l Just for your edification (although it doesn’t actually say when the brick and mortar stores closed):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26H_Green_Stamps
On the other hand, you can still redeem any green stamps you had:
https://www.greenpoints.com/greenpoints/help_faquse.php
I seem to recall that the stores closed down in the mid seventies.
@Shrdlu
I know where a redemption center was. I may visit the current occupants and ask if they know when S&H shut down the location.
@f00l Ours shutdown I think 1978 or 9, Publix finally quit giving stamps in 1989.
<Fantasy: many decades from now>
“Yeah, I remember the day way back when, the day the worst president in American history was inaugurated. It was bad.”
“Fortunately, our country and the best parts of civilization got over it and moved forward.”
@f00l I doubt that even The Donald will displace Andrew Jackson from the top (bottom?) of that list…
@compunaut
I know. And there are several other peaches on the list.
Just have to see how he does.
@f00l On the other hand Saturday Nite has not had such great fodder since Jerry Ford. Taking bets on when the next knockedup bimbo shows up?
@f00l I’m also predicting mounted cavalry. Reagan recommissioned the battleships, Trump went to military school and has always wanted a charger and a nifty uniform. At least they won’t blow up from using 50 y/o unstable gunpowder.
@cranky1950
I’m predicting he delivers on few or none of the campaign promises he made at his midwestern and rust-belt campaign appearances.
If he goes all cavalry, poor horse. Unless he means Air-Cav.
@f00l Nah, it’ll be horses, copters don’t do parades well.
@cranky1950 You know that President Trump wanted a parade of tanks and other military hardware for his inauguration? After all, North Korea has tanks in its ceremonies, as does China and Vladie’s Russia. Why couldn’t he have tanks like them? WaaaaH! No fair! I applaud the military leaders who had to explain to him why he couldn’t play with their tanks and line them up for a nice parade. There’s actually a long list of reasons, but the one they thought he might actually understand was that the DC bridges couldn’t bear the weight and tank tracks would rip up the streets and cost lots of money to repair.
@rockblossom Great place to start the infrastructure revitalization, military leaders are so short sighted.
@cranky1950 Or not. Since the voters in DC are about 90 - 95% registered Democrats, fat chance of getting money to fix the roads. The Arlington Memorial Bridge is already closed to anything heavier than small cars and foot traffic for fear it will collapse.
A friend told me a loonnngg time ago…
You know you’re old when you can’t trust a fart.
(Think about…those that are old will understand.)
Ugh… all of them. I can still smell the mimeographed paper… and the paste… can’t forget the paste.