Are You Older than Dirt?

[Studlover (imported)]

These were the best memories. Enjoy

OLDER THAN DIRT

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 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 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 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 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 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 box s

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

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.

Don't forget to pass this along!!

Especially to all your really OLD friends....

[Riverwind (imported)]

MacWolf, this is for you, I know you will understand all of these and can explain some of them to me later.

River

[talula]

I got 18 remembered and I am not that old.

[JesusA (imported)]

Yup! I'm clearly older than dirt. I got a perfect 25. Not only did I own a Packard and two Studebakers, I still even have my collection of cardboard milk bottle caps.

[Slammr (imported)]

25 out of 25-and I could add a few:

Signs that we put in our window to tell the man delivering ice how much we wanted that day. We rotated the sign so that the amount we wanted was at the top. We had an icebox in the kitchen-not a refrigerator.

Rationing stamps for sugar and other scarce items during WW II.

Having to sell our car because tires were unobtainable during WW II.

Taking baths in a washtub on the back porch of my grandmother's house. She had no indoor plumbing. There was a well in the backyard, and the out house was out by the barn.

Irons for ironing which were heated by placing them on a stove.

Sewing machines which were powered by treadle instead of electricity.

Phones which had to be cranked to ring the operator, who then connected you to the person you were calling-sometimes you just told the operator the name of the person to whom you wished to speak.

Television screens which were circular and only a few inches in diameter.

Being 11 years old and seeing my first TV.

Getting our first TV when I was 13.

Watching Captain Video-kind of a kid's Sci Fi hero.

Television antennae which were on posts which were in the ground and extended above the roof of the house. There was a box on top of the TV which pointed them in different directions. My other grandmother had one. She lived in a town. The nearest TV station was in Dallas, 120 miles away. Unlike the grandmother who lived on a farm, she had indoor plumbing. Her phone number was 30, no prefix, just 30. Whenever one picked up the receiver, an operator answered and connected you to the party you were calling.

Oral Roberts healing on TV.

Listening to the Green Hornet and other radio programs.

78 rpm record players.

25 cent hamburgers

25 cent malts

25 cents for a pack of cigarettes

25 cents for a beer

5 cent cokes-all in glass bottles. There were no pop cans or plastic bottles.

5 cent candy bars.

a nickle for a song on the jukebox.

drive-in's with carhops

penny candy and gum machines

5 cent phone calls and newspapers

20 cent a gallon gasoline. When I was a kid, I usually just bought a dollar's worth at a time.

Using fountain pens in school. There were no ballpoint pens.

9 cents to go to the movie for a kid. Newsreal and a cartoon before the movie. We never checked the time of the movie before going. If we came in during the middle of the movie, we stayed until until after the next showing started and reached the place where we came in.

The whole family sleeping on the front porch because it was too hot in the house. There was no air conditioning for homes then. Our washing machine had a wringer.

25 cent movies for kids on Saturdays which included 7 cartoons, a serial, an old cowboy picture and the regular feature. The price included a box of Crackerjax-which then had a real prize, not just some paper cutout.

When haircuts went up in price from .50 to .75.

Working after school while in high school for .50/hour.

3d movies-Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.

My first airplane ride at eighteen years of age.

My first ride on an escalator at 12 years-old in Dallas. Dallas had only two. One at the railroad station and one at the Republic National Bank.

Trains with steam locomotives.

Trains which stopped in our small town of 5000 people.

A Western Union Office which actually delivered telegrams. It was by the Train Station.

The first helicopter I ever saw. Lyndon Johnson stopped in our town to make a campain speach for senator.

Remembering when Truman fired MacArthur.

Hearing over the radio that President Roosevelt was dead.

Playing war and having to be a Jap.

Sneaking into drive-in movies by hiding in the trunk of the car.

Being for Ike when my parents and everyone else was voting for Adlai Stevenson.

When the South voted as a block for the Democrats.

The first automatically opened door I ever saw. It was in Dallas at a restaurant. It had an electric eye which opened the door when your foot interrupted the beam. I was about 12 at the time.

Texas League baseball games which were almost as popular as Major League games. All the Major League teams were back east.

Brooklyn Dodgers

NY Giants

Does this make me older than those who are older than dirt-or was Texas just behind the times?

[Studlover (imported)]

25 out of 25-and I could add a few:

Signs that we put in our window to tell the man delivering ice how much we wanted that day. We rotated the sign so that the amount we wanted was at the top. We had an icebox in the kitchen-not a refrigerator.

Rationing stamps for sugar and other scarce items during WW II.

Having to sell our car because tires were unobtainable during WW II.

Taking baths in a washtub on the back porch of my grandmother's house. She had no indoor plumbing. There was a well in the backyard, and the out house was out by the barn.

Irons for ironing which were heated by placing them on a stove.

Sewing machines which were powered by treadle instead of electricity.

Phones which had to be cranked to ring the operator, who then connected you to the person you were calling-sometimes you just told the operator the name of the person to whom you wished to speak.

Television screens which were circular and only a few inches in diameter.

Being 11 years old and seeing my first TV.

Getting our first TV when I was 13.

Watching Captain Video-kind of a kid's Sci Fi hero.

Television antennae which were on posts which were in the ground and extended above the roof of the house. There was a box on top of the TV which pointed them in different directions. My other grandmother had one. She lived in a town. The nearest TV station was in Dallas, 120 miles away. Unlike the grandmother who lived on a farm, she had indoor plumbing. Her phone number was 30, no prefix, just 30. Whenever one picked up the receiver, an operator answered and connected you to the party you were calling.

Oral Roberts healing on TV.

Listening to the Green Hornet and other radio programs.

78 rpm record players.

25 cent hamburgers

25 cent malts

25 cents for a pack of cigarettes

25 cents for a beer

5 cent cokes-all in glass bottles. There were no pop cans or plastic bottles.

5 cent candy bars.

a nickle for a song on the jukebox.

drive-in's with carhops

penny candy and gum machines

5 cent phone calls and newspapers

20 cent a gallon gasoline. When I was a kid, I usually just bought a dollar's worth at a time.

Using fountain pens in school. There were no ballpoint pens.

9 cents to go to the movie for a kid. Newsreal and a cartoon before the movie. We never checked the time of the movie before going. If we came in during the middle of the movie, we stayed until until after the next showing started and reached the place where we came in.

The whole family sleeping on the front porch because it was too hot in the house. There was no air conditioning for homes then. Our washing machine had a wringer.

25 cent movies for kids on Saturdays which included 7 cartoons, a serial, an old cowboy picture and the regular feature. The price included a box of Crackerjax-which then had a real prize, not just some paper cutout.

When haircuts went up in price from .50 to .75.

Working after school while in high school for .50/hour.

3d movies-Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.

My first airplane ride at eighteen years of age.

My first ride on an escalator at 12 years-old in Dallas. Dallas had only two. One at the railroad station and one at the Republic National Bank.

Trains with steam locomotives.

Trains which stopped in our small town of 5000 people.

A Western Union Office which actually delivered telegrams. It was by the Train Station.

The first helicopter I ever saw. Lyndon Johnson stopped in our town to make a campain speach for senator.

Remembering when Truman fired MacArthur.

Hearing over the radio that President Roosevelt was dead.

Playing war and having to be a Jap.

Sneaking into drive-in movies by hiding in the trunk of the car.

Being for Ike when my parents and everyone else was voting for Adlai Stevenson.

When the South voted as a block for the Democrats.

The first automatically opened door I ever saw. It was in Dallas at a restaurant. It had an electric eye which opened the door when your foot interrupted the beam. I was about 12 at the time.

Texas League baseball games which were almost as popular as Major League games. All the Major League teams were back east.

Brooklyn Dodgers

NY Giants

Does this make me older than those who are older than dirt-or was Texas just behind the times?

In a lot of ways Texas was behind the times. I am a native Texan so I can relate to it. About the time of Viet Nam Texas caught up with the times. We found out that you could get out of Texas in a day if you took an airplane. But we have a saying here: "The sun is risen; the sun is set and we ain't out of Texas yet."

Studlover

[Dave (imported)]

I walked one mile to school uphill both ways! In winter without snowshoes tooo!

HA!

I'm so old I read books by candle light in a log cabin (so there!)

HA!

[Slammr (imported)]

I walked one mile to school uphill both ways! In winter without snowshoes tooo!

HA!

I'm so old I read books by candle light in a log cabin (so there!)

HA!

I actually lived in a log cabin for a while, but that was much later, in Alaska, and I read by a propane lantern. I had running water-in the summer, until the stream in front froze up; then, I had to drive six miles to a spring which ran year round. I started with a wood stove, but graduated to one which burned fuel oil. It was interesting-beaver in the stream, bears poking their noses in my front door, temperatures of -55 F.