Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?


Does this stir any memories in you?
     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?' I explained, 'It was a place called 'home.' 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, or else made to go without anything.'
     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, (in fact credit cards were unheard of).
My parents never drove me to school. Children either walked or went on the school bus or else they 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 14. 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 a.m. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people ...
     I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone 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 -- Some children delivered a newspaper, seven days a week and had to get up at 6AM every morning.
     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. 
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? 
* 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.
(Scores 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 2 channels [if you were fortunate]) 
7. Peashooters 
8. 33 rpm records
9. 45 RPM records
10.78 RPM records11. Hi-fi's
12. Metal ice trays with levers13. Blue flashbulb
14. Cork popguns 
15. Wash tub wringers
16. Spud guns
17. Making your own bow and arrows
18. Going out to play and going home at 'meal time'

If you remembered 0-3 = you're still young
If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older
If you remembered 7-11 = Don't tell your age
If you remembered 12-15 = You're positively ancient!

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