Things growing up have fallen by the wayside

Another thing I haven't seen is many kids that ride bike here. The baseball cards cloths pinned to the forks on bike so that the card would hit the spokes to make a sound when riding.
I haven't seen that around here and just another cheap thrill for a kid.
 
street said:
Another thing I haven't seen is many kids that ride bike here. The baseball cards cloths pinned to the forks on bike so that the card would hit the spokes to make a sound when riding.
I haven't seen that around here and just another cheap thrill for a kid.
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I hate to think of the baseball cards I ruined in the spokes if my banana bike. Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew and many other Hall of Famers. Mom would get mad for us taking her clothes pins.

When we got older, too old for banana bikes and too young for cars, we made choppers out of them. We welded extensions on the front wheels and painted them up. We were about 13-14 using someone's dad's welder in his garage and then we "borrowed" his paint sprayer. Man we thought we were cool. Our town's main street was only 3 blocks long and we about wore it out. The whistle blew at 10:00 and that meant curfew and we had to peddle home quick. We were the town cop's biggest problem, imagine if it was still that simple today.
 
street said:
Another thing I haven't seen is many kids that ride bike here. The baseball cards cloths pinned to the forks on bike so that the card would hit the spokes to make a sound when riding.
I haven't seen that around here and just another cheap thrill for a kid.
Click to expand...

Ah, yes. I discovered at about age 10 that balloon-animal balloons worked very well instead of baseball cards. Of course, they didn't last very long in most cases. But the sound was amazing by comparison to baseball cards. I figured out that if I put 4 balloons on my bike, at least one of them would still be working 10 minutes later. Sounded "just" like a motorcycle. Oh, and I had to slow down!

I wonder what kids do today to entertain themselves. I guess they just use electronic devices. Kinda sad, but what do I know? I'm an old guy so YMMV.
 
Looking at the McDonald's discussion on another thread reminded me of a couple of things. One is the independent mom and pop drive-in restaurants. We would occasionally go to Bob's drive-in. The food was really good. You ordered through an intercom system that was at each parking space under the canopy and the food was brought out by a carhop on a tray that rested on your car window. The burger patties were formed by hand from real meat. There was also an army of not so patient sparrows waiting for you to throw a bit of bun or french fry out the window. Probably the fattest sparrows in town!
The first "factory" fast food I had was Burger Chef. Maybe it is just the rose colored glasses of nostalgia, but I think they were superior to McD's for sure!
 
EarlyandLate said:
Looking at the McDonald's discussion on another thread reminded me of a couple of things. One is the independent mom and pop drive-in restaurants. We would occasionally go to Bob's drive-in. The food was really good. You ordered through an intercom system that was at each parking space under the canopy and the food was brought out by a carhop on a tray that rested on your car window. The burger patties were formed by hand from real meat. There was also an army of not so patient sparrows waiting for you to throw a bit of bun or french fry out the window. Probably the fattest sparrows in town!
The first "factory" fast food I had was Burger Chef. Maybe it is just the rose colored glasses of nostalgia, but I think they were superior to McD's for sure!
Click to expand...

Reminds me of car hops - another thing that was common and now rare. DW was a car hop at 16. Daily, she had to fend off a dozen offers of rides home or dates. Worst thing was that her last two pay checks bounced as her boss took the money and ran. Live and learn!
 
Stormy Kromer said:
I hate to think of the baseball cards I ruined in the spokes if my banana bike. Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew and many other Hall of Famers. Mom would get mad for us taking her clothes pins.

When we got older, too old for banana bikes and too young for cars, we made choppers out of them. We welded extensions on the front wheels and painted them up. We were about 13-14 using someone's dad's welder in his garage and then we "borrowed" his paint sprayer. Man we thought we were cool. Our town's main street was only 3 blocks long and we about wore it out. The whistle blew at 10:00 and that meant curfew and we had to peddle home quick. We were the town cop's biggest problem, imagine if it was still that simple today.
Click to expand...

I can relate to everything you said about growing up in a small town and smaller than the one described. Cop in those days had to be an easy job and he never wore a uniform.

Who knows I might have burned up some very valuable cards also. Who knew!!!

Koolau, we sure did have a lot of fun in those days and didn't cost much.
 
Stormy Kromer said:
I hate to think of the baseball cards I ruined in the spokes if my banana bike. Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew and many other Hall of Famers. Mom would get mad for us taking her clothes pins.

When we got older, too old for banana bikes and too young for cars, we made choppers out of them. We welded extensions on the front wheels and painted them up. We were about 13-14 using someone's dad's welder in his garage and then we "borrowed" his paint sprayer. Man we thought we were cool. Our town's main street was only 3 blocks long and we about wore it out. The whistle blew at 10:00 and that meant curfew and we had to peddle home quick. We were the town cop's biggest problem, imagine if it was still that simple today.
Click to expand...

When I was around 8 years old, we would modify our stingrays with extended forks as well. We would ride a mile to the town dump and the guy that ran the dump would let us pick through the garbage looking for bike parts. Imagine the liability issue today letting kids rummage around a dump. We didn't weld the forks, but instead just pounded them in to the existing fork, which usually held for a while.
 
Book of the month club.
 
Gumby said:
On that model -
Columbia House Records and Tapes.
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You could have gone all day without mentioning that one.:facepalm: So happy the day I got out of that. What a pain. YMMV
 
JoeWras, I have been haunted all my life by that fire too. It was spoken about in hushed tones. Have you read To Sleep With the Angels?
 
Riding mopeds at 15 years old up to 30 mph with no helmets.
 
Dtail said:
Riding mopeds at 15 years old up to 30 mph with no helmets.
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Oh yes, riding motorcycles at 70+ mph (waaay plus!) on I-495, the Washington Beltway, with no helmets. We were indestructible then. At least we thought so.
 
homestead said:
I don't know looks pretty good to me

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The devil is in the details (read the fine print.) I was constantly heading off shipments of records they were "sure" I would like (or, worse, returning records I didn't want, etc.) If it sounds to good to be true... YMMV
 
Anyone else have to taking dancing in gym class? We did alot of old style group stuff like the Virgina Reel and Square dancing.
 
Ronstar said:
I remember the drag strip ads. I used to listen to WLS 89 and WCFL 1000 Chicago, pushing buttons to alternate between the 2 in my 67 impala. Until I got fm.
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As young teen, the family would go visit my aunt in Dowagiac Mi, my slightly older cousin would always have WLS playing on the radio. About an 80 mile trip going across like Michigan. Later he built up a 57 Chevy that would lift the front wheels over a pop can. That was a bet he made and won. :cool:
 
old medic said:
Anyone else have to taking dancing in gym class? We did alot of old style group stuff like the Virgina Reel and Square dancing.
Click to expand...



We had square dancing in grade school and junior high. I do not remember it in high school, but I know some high school’s had it. All the boys were mortified to have to hold a girl’s hand! In high school that would have been fine! Looking back on it, it was something different and was fun.
 
As a young teenager down in the deep south we could only get WLS late at night. Many late nights were spent listening.
 
Great thread! Love the Highlights reference - just ordered it for my 6yo grandson. It’s still published! Something tells me he won’t enjoy it as much as I did. :-(

Staying up until the TV stations signed off. On weekends, that usually meant watching an Abbott and Costello flick.
 
TripleLindy said:
Great thread! Love the Highlights reference - just ordered it for my 6yo grandson. It’s still published! Something tells me he won’t enjoy it as much as I did. :-(

Staying up until the TV stations signed off. On weekends, that usually meant watching an Abbott and Costello flick.
Click to expand...



Or the opposite. When we were very young, we would get up early on Saturday morning and watch the “test pattern” until the cartoons came on.
 
Rocket Man said:
Or the opposite. When we were very young, we would get up early on Saturday morning and watch the “test pattern” until the cartoons came on.
Click to expand...

I recall that right before they signed off at night, the TV station would show a film of the US flag and play the national anthem.
 
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