Remember when ... ?

[loosehead]

I was a teen during the 60's and as P.J. O'Rourke has said, "If you can remember the 60's, you were not there!"

 

[SecondCor521]

I'll be 39 soon and reading these is a mixture of, "Oh sure, I remember that", "I remember my parents talking about that", and "What is that?"

But each generation has it's own version. For me, I had to explain to my 12 year old son what a typewriter was ("Kinda like a computer keyboard, but the backspace key only worked on one letter"). He was confused and somewhat doubtful about the usefulness of such an archaic device. I didn't dare tell him that I took an entire semester class on how to type on one (IBM Selectric, which were still quite fancy then).

2Cor521

 

[tjon72]

How 'bout 'BURMA SHAVE' ..........

 

[W2R]

How 'bout 'BURMA SHAVE' ..........

I googled and found this article, which includes some of their roadside ads!

Feeling nostalgic? Now you'll rave! Here's the story of Burma Shave. by Martin Waterman Issue #37

 

[Walt34]

But each generation has it's own version. For me, I had to explain to my 12 year old son what a typewriter was ("Kinda like a computer keyboard, but the backspace key only worked on one letter"). He was confused and somewhat doubtful about the usefulness of such an archaic device. I didn't dare tell him that I took an entire semester class on how to type on one (IBM Selectric, which were still quite fancy then).

In high school I took a typing class (one of the more useful things I learned there) for two reasons: First, I knew they couldn't require that we buy a typewriter and therefore could not assign homework, and two, I was one of two guys in a classroom full of girls. He was there for the same reasons.

Talk about a target-rich environment!

This was before IBM Selectrics though, they were manual Underwoods.

 

[unclemick]

In high school I took a typing class (one of the more useful things I learned there) for two reasons: First, I knew they couldn't require that we buy a typewriter and therefore could not assign homework, and two, I was one of two guys in a classroom full of girls. He was there for the same reasons.

Talk about a target-rich environment!

This was before IBM Selectrics though, they were manual Underwoods.

I had forgotten that one. About the same ratio when I took typing.

heh heh heh -

 

[Goonie]

there were no walk in closets?

the array of door to door service?
the bread man?
the milk man?
the egg man?
the fuller brush man?

"sneakers" were inexpensive?
most kids had at most one pair of shoes and one pair of sneakers?
everyone wore rubbers and galoshes when it rained or snowed?

there were no supermarkets?

department stores were just that?
payments were sent to a central cashier by pneumatic tube or by "rope and pulley" tram?

school children went home for lunch?

I remember:

Outhouses and chamber pots, well pumps, b&w tv, monophonic recordings, milk men, milk in glass bottles, dime stores, soda fountains, wringer washers, beer cans w/o pull tabs, .....highways pre-interstate, ........ drive-in movies, drive-in restaurants with carhops, service stations...

I remember when our little town had a furniture store, a clothing store, a dime store, and passenger rail service...

Kids "smoked" candy cigarettes

Cars had fins and no power steering, no power windows, no power seats, no automatic transmission, bench seats with cloth, huge steering wheels, small triangular windows next to the roll up ones, trunks were huge, backseats were the size of a living room sofa,.........

Small towns had railroad tracks through the middle of town; frequently dividing the town in half.

Yep, I remember a bunch of those things! And we still don't have walk-in closets! We DO have those big, heavy cast-iron radiators in each room....they sure are nice when you come in from out in the cold & snow, you can sit on one of the low ones and get warm quickly....also great for drying wet mittens!

We had milk, bread and eggs delivered every other day...and a bit extra on Fridays to last the weekend. And we were fortunate.....because we had one pair of sneakers, and TWO pairs of 'real' shoes (1 pair for school & 1 for church). And though they are starting to disappear....we still have a couple of furniture stores, and 2 clothing stores (1 is men's clothing only, and the other is women's clothing only). We just lost our last 'downtown' shoe stores about a year ago....it had been open for over 100 years....but the likes of Payless and Wal-mart "done 'em in".

The 2 old maids that used to live behind us had the last outhouse in town. We still have a B&W TV in the back room at home....with UHF & channels 2-13! Also still have (and occasionally play) 45's & 33 1/3 vinyl....and have an 8-track player hooked-up and working on my stereo. Our town was (is) split north to south AND east to west by railroad tracks.....and BOTH used to offer passenger service. There is still one operating Drive-in movie theater not too far away! And another town just a few miles away has a family owned burger joint with car-hops! The same family has run it since the 1920's!

And my 1st cars and trucks were big enough that I could climb in under the hood, sit on the fender-well, and work on them. We always thought power-anything was for sissies! One time I rear-ended a mid-70's Dodge Dart with my '69 Ford Galaxy 500 at about 35-40mph, it put a dent about the size of a golf ball in the front of my hood and cracked a couple of spots of bondo......put the rear bumper of the Dart about 6" from the little old lady's backseat....I guess she had "crumple zones"!

Sure wish they made cars like that today.....like my ol' Galaxy, or my Pontiac Bonneville and Catalina, or how about the '68 Chrysler New Yorker.....talk about tanks! Those were the days! Cars were HUGE.....and SOLID.....and gas was CHEAP!

 

[Walt34]

And my 1st cars and trucks were big enough that I could climb in under the hood, sit on the fender-well, and work on them. We always thought power-anything was for sissies!

Sure wish they made cars like that today.....like my ol' Galaxy, or my Pontiac Bonneville and Catalina, or how about the '68 Chrysler New Yorker.....talk about tanks! Those were the days! Cars were HUGE.....and SOLID.....and gas was CHEAP!

Yes, I remember setting the points on a '55 Dodge flathead six. I was skinny enough (130 lbs.) that I could wriggle down in there and sit next to the engine.

For a while we had a '62 Chrysler New Yorker station wagon bought used. The thing was a tank. 440 c.i. hemi, dual exhaust, four-barrel carb. Washing it, the roof looked the size of a football field. It had A/C that worked for about a year, but Dad was too cheap to have it fixed.

 

[myself]

I'll be 39 soon and reading these is a mixture of, "Oh sure, I remember that", "I remember my parents talking about that", and "What is that?"

But each generation has it's own version. For me, I had to explain to my 12 year old son what a typewriter was ("Kinda like a computer keyboard, but the backspace key only worked on one letter"). He was confused and somewhat doubtful about the usefulness of such an archaic device. I didn't dare tell him that I took an entire semester class on how to type on one (IBM Selectric, which were still quite fancy then).

2Cor521

I remember learning how to type on a manual typewriter. That was before the electric models were more prevalent.
The backspace key only moved the carriage back, and didn't erase the letter that you typed. You just had to manually hold a "white-out" piece of paper and hope your fingers didn't get hit by the letter punch.
I also remember trying to figure out how we'd be tested for knowing how to type. Until I found out we had to take a timed test, with a sheet of paper taped to the top of the typewriter so that we couldn't see our hands.

 

[73ss454]

Yes, I remember setting the points on a '55 Dodge flathead six. I was skinny enough (130 lbs.) that I could wriggle down in there and sit next to the engine.

For a while we had a '62 Chrysler New Yorker station wagon bought used. The thing was a tank. 440 c.i. hemi, dual exhaust, four-barrel carb. Washing it, the roof looked the size of a football field. It had A/C that worked for about a year, but Dad was too cheap to have it fixed.

Walt, Chrysler never made a 440CI Hemi. Senior moment? The 440CI was a wedge.

 

[W2R]

You just had to manually hold a "white-out" piece of paper and hope your fingers didn't get hit by the letter punch.

I still have some of that "white-out" paper in my desk drawer here at work, as well as bottles of that liquid white-out (which are pretty much dried up by now). Maybe it's time to get rid of these products!

 

[HFWR]

Walt, Chrysler never made a 440CI Hemi. Senior moment? The 440CI was a wedge.

Different topic...

 

[travelover]

I still have some of that "white-out" paper in my desk drawer here at work, as well as bottles of that liquid white-out (which are pretty much dried up by now). Maybe it's time to get rid of these products!

How do you get that stuff off the computer screen?

 

[HFWR]

Aggie text editor?

 

[W2R]

How do you get that stuff off the computer screen?

Aggie text editor?

ROFL!! Maybe so! Did I mention that I have 3 degrees from A&M?

Yep. Time to pitch it. The liquid is drying up, and I don't even have any of the thinner for it. Or do I? Hmmm.

I forgot to mention that I also have the white tape with sticky on the back. Actually I still use that sometimes to do a quick correction to a map or figure before xeroxing for a report or handout.

 

[HFWR]

It's just white latex paint; thin it with a drop or two of water.

 

[Nords]

I forgot to mention that I also have the white tape with sticky on the back.

I have a roll of that; it's been in the Navy longer than I was.

Indispensable for labeling keys or other small objects.

It's a lot easier to use than white-out-- just peel it off the screen instead of worrying about nicking the LCD panel with a razor scraper...*


*(Yup, Justin fans, this is sarcastic humor too!)

 

[haha]

How about-

"937 miles to Harold's Club, Reno."

Or

"See Rock City"

 

[Walt34]

Walt, Chrysler never made a 440CI Hemi. Senior moment? The 440CI was a wedge.

Must've been a senior moment. It was the largest size available at the time, obviously I've forgotten what the CI was.

 

[73ss454]

Must've been a senior moment. It was the largest size available at the time, obviously I've forgotten what the CI was.

Walt, most likely it was a 440CI wedge motor. Chrysler didn't use the Hemi in 1962 as I remember. In the 50's they used a 392 Hemi and then in mid 1964 they came out with the 426 street Hemi to replace the 440 max wedge engine but did keep the 440 street version.

Sorry, off topic again.

 

[Goonie]

How about-.......

"See Rock City"

We saw those barn-roof ads a couple of weeks ago on our trek through TN on the way to FL.

 

[Martha]

Rich's Weekly Reader comment made me nostalgic. Remember Goofus and Gallant from Highlights?

 

[Ronstar]

there's an email floating around with a link to a quiz of about 20 "old fossil" questions. I'll track it down monday and see if I can post it.


reading some of the old things in this thread reminded me of a visit I made to my grandmother. She was outside scrubbing the windshield of her new car, trying to get a line off the glass. I had to explain to her that it was her radio antenna in the glass. Sometimes I think that things were a lot better back then.

 

[Gonzo]

Dick and Jane books at school.

 

[mathjak107]

a tv with 13 channels and no remote