Older than Dirt
Bob Giddings
apparently I am older than dirt, for I actually remember them all
except the soldering irons. Far as hand signals, I remember that and
something even stranger: the little flipper things on early
('57)Volkswagons. The ice box I remember was in a trailer. The
newsreels were in the early fifties, along with serial shorts. FWIW,
I was a mere child.
Bob
Do you remember .......
> >
> > Head lights dimmer switches on the floor,
> > Ignition switches on the dashboard,
> > Heaters mounted on the inside of the firewall,
> > Real ice boxes [Ask your Mom about that],
> > Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards,
> > Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner,
> > Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.
> >
> > Now here is the "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 bottle
> > 5. Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes
> > 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. Beanie and Cecil
> > 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!!!!
telestar
"Bob Giddings" <bo...@igg-tx.net> wrote in message
news:87aleu4ck8uc0omiv...@4ax.com...
cbhoelzel
>
> > > 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'm not sure about Beanie and Cecil, so I'll take a 24. Besides that,
my foamie (for the beer can) says so!
Chuck
N4BJX
Marc Callier
I'm pretty sure it's actually "Beany and Cecil"...Beany was a
little boy who sported a propeller beany and Cecil was a sea
serpent. There was a 50's tv show, "Time for Beany" and then a
60's cartoon, as well, exact title I can't recall.
I scored 25, but a lot of the items aren't all that old...mostly
the same vintage as "Beany and Cecil". To catch the really *OLD*
folks...how many of you remember when thos little wax bottles of
colored water were 2 for a penny?
--
Chris Bryant
>This was sent to me, and I pass it on for your amusement. BTW,
>apparently I am older than dirt, for I actually remember them all
>except the soldering irons. Far as hand signals, I remember that and
>something even stranger: the little flipper things on early
>('57)Volkswagons. The ice box I remember was in a trailer. The
>newsreels were in the early fifties, along with serial shorts. FWIW,
>I was a mere child.
>
>Bob
Hmphh- the only ones *I* didn't remember are:
Blackjack chewing gum
Butch Wax
Phone number with the word prefix
Studebakers
And I'm 44- of course while I was growing up in the 60's, we
still had people ask if they closed the doors to the fort at night (I
grew up in Ft Collins, Co.).
--
Chris Bryant
Bryant RV Services- http://www.bryantrv.com
Tom J
3 #3 wash tubs with a rub board, a black iron pot to heat the wash water
that we hand drew from an open dug well. We wrung them out by hand, and
hung them on wire clothes lines to dry. We Ironed with flat irons that
were heated on the wood cook stove in summer, or standing in front of the
wood fire in the open fire place in the winter.
The bathroom was a 2 hole out behind the house, and transportation was 2
mules hooked to a wagon.
Lighting was oil lamps.
Our ice box WAS A BOX - about 4 foot cube filled with saw dust to keep the
block ice from melting.
"Good old days" - NOT ME!! I like these good new days.
I'm only 72, but was raised on a farm in rural South Georgia by share
cropper's.
Tom J
"Bob Giddings" <bo...@igg-tx.net> wrote in message
news:87aleu4ck8uc0omiv...@4ax.com...
Jerry
Tom
Hey,
I got a perfect 25 and I'm still young!
Tom
Kenn Smith
your window which you turned with a number up to tell the ice man how
much to deliver for the ice box. I owned a Studebaker and hopped a milk
truck delivering milk in glass bottles (with cream on top). More than
once I got my little fingers caught in the wringer of my mother's
washing maching. I guess that makes me older than granite.
BTW, I turned 70 last Saturday and celebrated by playing 18 holes of
golf then and 36 on Sunday.
HHamp5246
>> > >
>> > > Head lights dimmer switches on the floor,
This reminds me of a funny story...... my parents divorced when I was one year
old. For many years I would visit my father, an alcoholic, in Maryland. He
lived in Parkton, my grandmother lived in Bel Air (at this time). I would spend
time at my grandparents then go visit my father for two weeks, then back. Same
at Christmas vacation. They lived about 40 miles from each other.
This time, when I was about 13 or 14 I was visiting at Christmas vacation and
after dinner my father was to drive me back to Bel Air. Only he was pretty
snockered. He asked me if I could drive..... I had driven the tractor on the
farm so I said "Yes". Is there anything we can't do at 13-14? (c:
Off we went, me at the wheel...... it was dark.
The drive is completely back roads.... We must have driven for 10-15 minutes
until we came to the first car approaching us.....
I remembered to hit the floor dimmer switch........
Here comes the funny part..... My father slurred, "Oh good, you can drive."
Hunter
Tom
When someone comes at you with the high beams on, does your left foot still
move?
Tom
b b
dow...@bellsouth.net says...
> > Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner,
>
>
built a stainless steel water tank, and soldered it with BIIIG copper
soldering irons heated in a gas flame. They had enough mass to heat and
flow bar solder into the seams of the tank to seal it...and NO, it was
not leakproof on the first try... <g>
Gee, does that make ME older than dirt.... ?????
Barrie B
Will Sill
Hehehehe! I was gonna say the same - never heard of Beanie & Cecil -
maybe they put that one in as a credibility check. All the rest I
know.
Will KD3XR
telestar
for a while, when I was young. We lived in the mountains and kept our
poultry live until time to cook them. Anything else we raised, in the garden
or shot, in the woods. Once or twice a month we walked to town for flour
and a few things we couldn't raise on our own.
I still remember Grandma and Mama getting redder than red clay cooking over
that old wood burning stove during July. They washed clothes on Monday and
ironed them on Tuesday. I had to draw the water. One Bath on Saturday. Did I
mention i had to draw the water.
I was only four or five and Mama told me to kill acouple of chickens for
Saturday dinner( lunch). The men didn't work but half a day on Saturday and
we always had a big dinner. Afterwards was the free time of the week. We
went to town, the fair or fishing.
I didn't know a couple from a dozen. I chased down and rung the necks of
five or six chickens. The last one, I didn't get the head off all the way.
It ran around the yard for a while and I felt a little guilty. I called Mom
and said I didn't want ot kill any more chickens. She said Lord, son your
Grandmother will skin you for killing all them chickens. Grnadma came out of
the house said consarned you little dickens, I'll learn you not to kill all
my chickens. She chased around the yard, about two acres, a couple times
before she gave up. She was in her sixties then and boy wa her face red. I
had to pluck all the chickens and help dress them, for killing so many. I
thought I was doing the right thing. They never explain to young'ins what a
couple or a few means til later. My Uncles and Dad had a laugh at my expense
and teased me for a long time about it.
"
BoltNeck
"Tom" <tmari...@aol.comnojunk> wrote in message
news:20020521181603...@mb-cm.aol.com...
Mine does! But that may be because my truck has a floor dimmer switch!!
(1991 F-150 pickup)
Will Sill
>I must be older than that, because we didn't have a wringer washer. We had
>3 #3 wash tubs with a rub board, . . . . . ..and transportation was 2
>mules hooked to a wagon.
>Lighting was oil lamps.
Wellllll . . . we wuz rich folks - Ma had a Maytag (of course with a
gas engine) and Pa had a '30 Ford "panel truck". But Grandma's
house had actual electric lights AND (by gum) a telephone.
Will KD3XR
Sandy A. Nicolaysen
wrote:
I owned a '77 Chrysler Newport that had what seemed to be 2 dimmer
switches on the floor. The second one was for changing the radio
stations.
I did own a Jeep that had the engine starter button just to the right
of the gas pedal.
- Sandy
FLiP
Frank
Vigilance Committee
I've still got a steel fishing rod with one eye soldered in place using
one of those old soldering irons. The iron belonged to my
father-in-law (farmer) and had a corn cob for a handle. Heated it in
the wood stove, slid the corn cob on and did the job. The old fishing
rod is still usable too.
LZ
Mark Kovalsky
"Will Sill" <wi...@epix.net> wrote in message
> Hehehehe! I was gonna say the same - never heard of Beanie & Cecil -
> maybe they put that one in as a credibility check. All the rest I
> know.
Will,
Maybe Beany & Cecil was AFTER your time! ;-)
I'm 44 and I remember watching them.
Apparantly I'm also older than dirt. I even own two vehicles with the dimmer
on the floor, and one has the heater on the dash. A third car doesn't even
HAVE a heater!
Mark
Jynndi
Aging is a victory, NOT a defeat!
Digger, AKA Grumps (old and crusty)
hometown.aol.com/jynndi/myhomepage/profile.html
All errors; spilling, grimatical, ore tieping intenshunal.
吵o吩oo
> colored water were 2 for a penny?
I do. I thought they were great, but Mom would sigh and say, "That's
only colored sugar water in there."
I got this list in e-mail awhile back and found I was beyond "older
than dirt" cause I remember many things a lot older than what's on
the list. <sigh>
--
吵o吩oo
Hughbd1
Damn, disgusting isn't it? 25 for 25.
Hugh
Lon VanOstran
> Hmphh- the only ones *I* didn't remember are:
> Blackjack chewing gum
> Butch Wax
> Phone number with the word prefix
> Studebakers
Our phone number was Lakeside 1 3538. Everybody used Butch Wax on their
flat top hair cut. Blackjack gum was re-released in a special just a few
years ago. I OWNED a 1963 Studebaker in 1969.
Lon, who remembered em all.
No Spam
Damn I'm old. That's it! gonna quit my job and go full time before I get
any older.
Marc Callier <cal...@spot.colorado.edu> wrote in message
news:3CEAB4A9...@spot.colorado.edu...
Charles Piercy
OLD is when you used to dim the lights with the switch in the center of
the steering wheel-anything else is new!
Ted Piercy
Mark
Hmm... is this deteriorating into a Monty Python (no Snoshoo...this isn't about
snakes) sketch?
Mark - a box? You had a cardboard box?
Life isn't a spectator sport...
Tom J
"Mark" <mtsof...@aol.committed> wrote in message
news:20020521215739...@mb-mt.aol.com...
> Hmm... is this deteriorating into a Monty Python (no Snoshoo...this
isn't about
> snakes) sketch?
>
> Mark - a box? You had a cardboard box?
No, it was a wooden box, with a hinged top that just lifted at the front
and lay back against the wall while getting ice and chilled food out of
the saw dust.
Tom J
Guess Who?
by Bob Clampett. FAIK, it was a local show, until it returned as a
cartoon in the 60s.
Stan Freberg got his start in show biz, as the voice of "Cecil, the
seasick sea serpent", on the puppet show.
My favorite character, was "D.J" Dishonest John, the world's
meanest crum........
Don
Guess Who?
and we never had a "dial" phone, until we moved to Whittier, CA, in
1955. Then our number was, WHitney 1-5037.
Don
Mark
>isn't about
>> snakes) sketch?
>>
>> Mark - a box? You had a cardboard box?
>
>No, it was a wooden box, with a hinged top that just lifted at the front
>and lay back against the wall while getting ice and chilled food out of
>the saw dust.
>
>Tom J
Er...yeah... I've heard about those... my comment about the box was actually a
part of the Monty Python sketch that started off with three guys talking about
how hard they had it as kids... one finally tries the topper...'we lived in a
cardboard box on the number 10..." the other retorts: "box? you had a box?"
Mark - not only old, but obscure...
Hughbd1
I had four of them, Stupidbakers that is. A '46 Champion 2 dr, a '50
Champion Starlight coupe, a '53 Commander 2 dr and a '54 Commander 4 dr.
Good cars, too many grease fittings.
Hugh
Bob Giddings
wrote:
I had a '54 Studebaker in 1965. I drove it to the University of Texas
while one cylinder after another died. Finally quit altogether on 4.
Only car I ever literally drove into the ground, because I couldn't
afford to fix it. Put the wreck in the school paper, and someone came
and hauled it off for free. Styling was pretty cool for '54.
Aerodynamic ahead of it's time. Friend of mine had a real Studebaker
Avanti. Now there was a car.
Bob
Vigilance Committee
My first car was a 1936 Ford. Cost me $50. Had a manifold heater.
Anyone remember those?
LZ
Jynndi
Good thing it was a two door or you might have tried to get in the backseat and
drive.
I loved them if only for appearance and visibility
R.J.(Bob) Evans
<Bryan...@cfl.rr.com> wrote:
> Hmphh- the only ones *I* didn't remember are:
>Blackjack chewing gum
>Butch Wax
>Phone number with the word prefix
>Studebakers
I can remember my father owning a Studebaker Lark, but I still only
scored 14. Maybe your memory is just better. I was born in '58 as
well.
> And I'm 44- of course while I was growing up in the 60's, we
>still had people ask if they closed the doors to the fort at night (I
>grew up in Ft Collins, Co.).
I took a year of school - grade 3 - in Ft. Collins in 1966 while
father did a Masters at CSU. We were living in Aggie Village and I
rode the bus to some converted duplexes that they were using as
classrooms but I can't remember where they were.
R.J.(Bob) Evans
(return address needs alteration to work)
Kenn Smith
Studabaker favored. Loved that car even though it had a habit of eating
clutches. Finally traded it in on a '53 Chevy BelAire coupe, their neat
blue and white paint scheme. That was a good car, too.
midwesterner
> Bob Giddings wrote:
> >
> > > > 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'm not sure about Beanie and Cecil, so I'll take a 24. Besides that,
> my foamie (for the beer can) says so!
>
> Chuck
> N4BJX
Beer cans is another one to add to the list. Being able to crush a
beer can with your hand used to mean something. OK, that is a little
before my time, but a friend of mine told me about when aluminum beer
cans first came out.
Some of this has to do with where you grew up. The two drive-ins that
I remember going to in the 60's as a kid are still in business and I
bet my high school didn't stop using mimeograph machines until
recently.
Jynndi
> I can't remember where they were.
You qualify "older than dirt" and sinility is setting in. 8--)
Jynndi
>Beer cans is another one to add to the list. Being able to crush a
>beer can with your hand used to mean something.
That was when they were made of steel, NOT thin wall aluminum
.> I
>bet my high school didn't stop using mimeograph machines until
>recently.
How did we ever get this far without photocopiers?
How about Indian head pennies?
Lon VanOstran
>
> Some of this has to do with where you grew up. The two drive-ins that
> I remember going to in the 60's as a kid are still in business and I
> bet my high school didn't stop using mimeograph machines until
> recently.
Hah! Speaking of drive-ins..........
Lansing, MI is considering re-opening "the gut", 42 years after killing
downtown by closing it (and making it a parking mall) to get rid of the
"cruisers". As if anybody would actually *GO* downtown today. The damn
fools chased everybody out, then they have spent several million dollars
trying to attract people downtown. Too late. Like all bureaucrats they
are a little slow figuring out the cause of their problem. (themselves)
Lon
Will Sill
these words:
>I can remember my father owning a Studebaker Lark, but I still only
>scored 14. Maybe your memory is just better. I was born in '58 as
>well.
No wonder you scored only 14 - you are a mere child! We have a son
your age!
"Most people are about as happy as they make up their
minds to be." [A. Lincoln]
Will KD3XR
HHamp5246
writes:
>Say Hunter did you go out through Whitehall or through MD Line?
Sure...... always went through White Hall to get to Bel Air. Been to MD line
plenty of times.
The farm (200 acres) was cut in half when 85 went though. Are you familiar
with Hill House? It was the main house.
Hunter
Mark Kovalsky
> My first car was a 1936 Ford. Cost me $50. Had a manifold heater.
> Anyone remember those?
> LZ
My 1930 Ford had one, but I removed it when the manifold cracked.
I didn't like all that exhaust in the car!
Mark
Guy Noir - private eye
Well, does anyone remember adjusting points and setting timing on his car?
D.B. Young. Team OS/2!
-->this message printed on recycled disk space<--
antique computer virtual museum, turbo pinto + more at
www.nothingtodo.org
Delete the obvious (Aolsucks) to reply.
Jack Jackson
first got in to use it, it had a floor switch for the horn! I immediately
flashed back to my first car, a '51 Ford V8 flathead ...... with a floor
dimmer switch. Ahhhhhh, memories .... your first car .... first dates ...
and hot summer nights!
Jack
BoltNeck wrote:
> "Tom" <tmari...@aol.comnojunk> wrote in message
> news:20020521181603...@mb-cm.aol.com...
> > << I remembered to hit the floor dimmer switch.. >>
> >
> > When someone comes at you with the high beams on, does your left foot
> still
> > move?
> >
> > Tom
> >
> >
>
> Mine does! But that may be because my truck has a floor dimmer switch!!
> (1991 F-150 pickup)
Frederick G Young
list. The five I don't remember are strictly American phenomenon. I learned
to drive on a car (1930 Riley 9) that had no synchromesh and had to be
double declutched when downshifting. The fuel tank was right behind the
engine. I guess I'm older than dirt ++. Now if only I could be comparably
wise. <G>
Frederick
"Bob Giddings" <bo...@igg-tx.net> wrote in message
news:87aleu4ck8uc0omiv...@4ax.com...
Tom J
"Guy Noir - private eye" <supr...@aol.comAolsucks> wrote in message
news:20020522131620...@mb-md.aol.com...
>
> Well, does anyone remember adjusting points and setting timing on his
car?
>
On my first car, a Model A Ford, there were levers on the steering column
to adjust the "spark" for cranking & cold weather, and then you advanced
the timing as it warmed up. So yes, I use to set the timing every time I
cranked that car.
Tom J
Frederick G Young
Not only adjusting points but filing them to remove the burnt sections. That
seems just like yesterday. How about when real aircraft had two wings, one
above the other<G> The first maintenance unit I was sent to in 1942 was a
Fairey Swordfish unit that was rebuilding them for service aboard British
Carriers. Top speed 90 knots, landing speed about 30 knots. If you have any
interest in old things.........inanimate <G> take a look at
http://www.warbirdalley.com/sword.htm.
This aircraft looks like it was poorly restored. The fabric work is
horrible.
Frederick
"Guy Noir - private eye" <supr...@aol.comAolsucks> wrote in message
news:20020522131620...@mb-md.aol.com...
> >how many of you remember when those little wax bottles of
Vigilance Committee
Guy Noir - private eye wrote:
>
> >how many of you remember when thos little wax bottles of
> >> colored water were 2 for a penny?
> >
> >I do. I thought they were great, but Mom would sigh and say, "That's
> >only colored sugar water in there."
> >
> >I got this list in e-mail awhile back and found I was beyond "older
> >than dirt" cause I remember many things a lot older than what's on
> >the list. <sigh>
> >--
>
> Well, does anyone remember adjusting points and setting timing on his car?
>
Certainly. When I shipped over to Spain I had to become my own mechanic
in a hurry. Had a Chevy 6 and it was no problem changing plugs and
points and timing the thing in 30 minutes. Had to retard the spark
sometimes for 80 octane gas.
LZ
Frederick G Young
getting old. My eldest son is 56 this October. After a bad start, he's not
doing so bad now, and with a bit of luck he might turn out OK <G>
Me, I'm 78 years young. Unfortunately it feels like my left hip was born
before me because it's wearing out prematurely.
Bricklayer
> Do you remember .......
>
> > > 7. Party lines ...
Yup. We had one of those in Laingsburg, Michigan up 'til
about 1983. Finally getting a private line was a pretty big
deal!
Brick
Hughbd1
Green was the color of my '50. Purchased in '56, only had 30,000 miles.
Owned by an elderly couple, never broken in. Original wide whitewalls.
Blew out three in the first week. Burned a quart of oil every 500 miles.
Got down to four quarts to get to work and four quarts to get home.
Stopped every night and bought a fresh two gallon can. Never bothered by
skeeters while parked <grin>. Traded it in for a '50, black 4dr baby
Lincoln. Wish I had that one back.
Hugh
Lon VanOstran
Laingsburg? Shux, I could darn near spit to where you are. We camp at
Sleepy Hollow often.
Lon, temporarily in Williamston.
R.J.(Bob) Evans
We moved to our farm in Nipawin in the summer of '86 and had a party
line for several years after that - I can't remember exactly when but
we had private lines by '92. There were four of us on our line - 2 on
each "side". Real party lines had a lot more than that.
I never got any big charge out of listening in but I can remember my
grandfather sitting in the hallway with his hand over the mouthpiece.
My uncle was on a line where one of the neighbour women was so
obsessed with listening in that she had a speaker permanently wired
into the phone so she could hear everything without picking up the
receiver. It took the phone company a long time to figure out why
there was the extra load on the line.
吵o吩oo
> On 22 May 2002 22:06:56 GMT Bricklayer <te...@moose-mail.com>
wrote:
>
>> Bob Giddings wrote...
>>
>>> Do you remember .......
>>>
>>> > > 7. Party lines ...
>>
>> Yup. We had one of those in Laingsburg, Michigan up 'til
>> about 1983. Finally getting a private line was a pretty big
>> deal!
>
> We moved to our farm in Nipawin in the summer of '86 and had a
party
> line for several years after that - I can't remember exactly when
but
> we had private lines by '92. There were four of us on our line - 2
on
> each "side". Real party lines had a lot more than that.
Yes, they did...and some women made it a hobby to "rubber". We all
knew everybody's ring (ours was "2 longs and a short") and some
conversations were better than others. Sometimes there were so many
"rubbering" that it weakened the connection and one of the talkers
would make a broad reference "...if all the rubberers would hang up
so we could hear", sometimes even mentioning names! <lol>
Immediately there'd be a series of clicks on the line. After we got
the newer party-line version (2 on each side), "rubbering" was no fun
anymore as one could only hear the other party on your side, maybe
somebody who wasn't interesting.
> I never got any big charge out of listening in but I can remember
my
> grandfather sitting in the hallway with his hand over the
mouthpiece.
See? Wasn't only women who "rubbered". <g>
> My uncle was on a line where one of the neighbour women was so
> obsessed with listening in that she had a speaker permanently wired
> into the phone so she could hear everything without picking up the
> receiver. It took the phone company a long time to figure out why
> there was the extra load on the line.
LOL...now that was ingenuity at work.
We had a wall phone and it got very tiring to "hang on the phone".
Much better when we got a desk phone, but then that new party line
came along, too.
I was too young to care about grown-ups' conversations about nothing,
but Mom "rubbered" on occasion if she had time and it was a ring she
was interested in. My grandma "rubbered" a LOT. <g> She lived in a
more "interesting" neighborhood.
--
吵o吩oo
Mark
>
>D.B. Young.
Hmm..better put a years limit or some other qualifier....like new car/less than
1 year old.. somepeople still do on their collector's items. <G>
Mark
Life isn't a spectator sport...
Mark
>
>> I can't remember where they were.
>
>You qualify "older than dirt" and sinility is setting in. 8--)
>
>
>Digger,
"Sinility"???? Is that being too old to sin or something?
Mark <G>
Norm Newhall
looks similar to a Flash Gordon ray gun, in the original plastic case, with
instructions. I suspect someday my kids will wind up donating it to a
museum. :-)
Norm
Tom
stand out?
Tom
Tom
>>
My brother's Plymoth Golden Camando engine had dual points for so that they
didn't float at higher rpm. The dwel angle reading was the average of the two.
So you had to do it right with the feeler gauges.
Tom
Hughbd1
I used soapstone.
Hugh
bill horne
I still have my Knight Kit timing light. And I use blackboard chalk for
the timing mark. Neither are for sale.
--
bill
Theory don't mean squat if it don't work.
jhn...@hal-pc.org
1. Model T had a hand brake that when set, put the gears in neutral so
you could crank the engine by yourself.
2. When you cranked a 'T' (no electric starters in those days) you
put your thumb behind the crank handle so when it kicked it wouldn't
break your thumb.
3. We had a car (Overland, I seem to remember) that had the starter on
a button in the center of the steering wheel. You pulled it up to
crank. That car also had the horn button on the floor (looked like a
dimer switch).
4. They used steam engines to thrash with. My uncle had one and he let
me steer when on the way home and passing our house. In those days
that was like today letting a little boy go to the cockpit of a 747
and fly the bird for a while.
5. Chamber pots on a cold winter night. Better than going to the
outhouse but still 'cold' to sit on and when you were small you had to
worry about falling in :-).
6. Hot water bottles or the irons that were heated sitting on the
stove, wrapped in towels or part of a blanket and put in bed to warm
your feet spot up before you went to bed on a cold night.
7. Feather ticks. You haven't slept until you slept on one with one
over you on a cold night up north with stove banked for night and no
heat left in the house (like a bug in a rug :-).
8. Having coal delivered via a chute through a basement window to the
coal room in the basement. Had to get out of the house as it went
bang, bang, bang down the metal chute and shook the house.
9. Told by the pilot to quit playing on the bottom wing of his WWI
Jenny.
10. Listening to "Dutch' Reagen on the radio in Des Moines, IA.
11. Sitting on my grandfathers lap and him telling me about his part
in the Civil War. Just got his Civil War medal.
12.Talking to Mrs Pancho Villa
13. Flying a RearwinJr with a 3 Cyl Zeskley (sp) engine.
14. Flying a Taylor Cub (prior to Piper cub). Single ignition, no mag
check. If it ran you flew or tried to.
15. Flying the first straight winged supersonic fighter the Air Force
bought.
Older then old which is better than the alternative. Been a great
life.
Big John
On Tue, 21 May 2002 15:07:36 -0500, Bob Giddings <bo...@igg-tx.net>
wrote:
Lon VanOstran
> 11. Sitting on my grandfathers lap and him telling me about his part
> in the Civil War. Just got his Civil War medal.
Please send me an e-mail telling me as much as you have time for.
Lon
Neon John
>This was sent to me, and I pass it on for your amusement. BTW,
>apparently I am older than dirt, for I actually remember them all
>except the soldering irons. Far as hand signals, I remember that and
>something even stranger: the little flipper things on early
>('57)Volkswagons. The ice box I remember was in a trailer. The
>newsreels were in the early fifties, along with serial shorts. FWIW,
>I was a mere child.
>
>Bob
>
>
> Do you remember .......
> > >
> > > Head lights dimmer switches on the floor,
> > > Ignition switches on the dashboard,
> > > Heaters mounted on the inside of the firewall,
My Fury has all that stuff. Thank heavens.
> > > Real ice boxes [Ask your Mom about that],
I have my great grandmother's 1928 GE Monitor Top 'fridge that still runs like
a top. Does that count?
> > > Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards,
Yup.
> > > Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner,
Still use one routinely for heavy sheet metal work. I like soldering coppers
(NOT irons) much better than the electric versions.
> > > Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.
Er, yep, when the turn signal cam breaks on my Fury :-)
> > > Ratings at the bottom.
> > >
> > > 1. Blackjack chewing gum
Yep.
> > > 2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
Still available. Have a box in the restaurant to hand out to kids, hopefully
to get 'em to SHUT UP! Been known to sneak a few myself :-)
> > > 3. Candy cigarettes
Still available.
> > > 4. Soda pop machines that dispensed bottle
Still available. I do have the original bottle dispensing machine from the
old Honest Charlie's hotrod store. For those with REAL old memories.
> > > 5. Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes
Still available. Faddish these days.
> > > 6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard
>stoppers
Yup.
> > > 7. Party lines
Still had one until about 10 years ago at our cabin in the Tellico mountains.
> > > 8. Newsreels before the movie
> > > 9. P.F. Flyers
> > > 10. Butch wax
Yep.
> > > 11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (Olive - 6933)
We only went to full 7 digit dialing here about 10 years ago. Before that it
was only 5 digits. Don't quite remember the manual switchboards.
> > > 12. Peashooters
Yep. Used to sit in the balcony and shoot peas with short pins stuck in 'em
at members of the rival school. Yeah, we were mean little cusses.
> > > 13. Howdy Doody
> > > 14. 45 RPM records
> > > 15. S&H Green Stamps
yep.
> > > 16. Hi-fi's
Do you remember the old home entertainment centers that had a hole and a place
on the selector switch for a TV - as soon as it became available? My
grandmother had one of those and since TVs weren't allowed in our house until
I was in high school, I always wondered when they'd get around to buying a TV
to go in the hole.
> > > 17. Metal ice trays with lever
> > > 18. Mimeograph paper
> > > 19. Blue flashbulb
Yep.
> > > 20. Beanie and Cecil
Missed that one.
> > > 21. Roller skate keys
> > > 22. Cork popguns
Yep. Getting popular again.
> > > 23. Drive-ins
We still have 'em around here. I was one of the weekend projectionists while
in high school at the long-gone one that was actually in-town. Loved those
old carbon arc projectors.
> > > 24. Studebakers
> > > 25. Wash tub wringers
Yep. Question is, do you remember the old gasoline engine powered Maytags? I
can recall my great grandmother cussing like a sailor trying to get hers
started when Granddad had gone to town. After sufficient cussing, she'd get
out the old wash tub and scrub board and do it the REAL old fashioned way.
> > > 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!!!!
Must be some pretty young dirt cuz I ain't THAT old!
A few more:
Remember the kerosene refrigerators that you filled with kerosene once a day?
The elephant ball absorption refrigeration units that converted ice boxes to
refrigerators. Activated by putting one ball in the fire for awhile and then
sitting the other ball inside the ice box.
Delco lighting plants? 32 volt light bulbs and radios? I can recall grand
dad, being too stubborn to go out and start the lighting plant, sliding closer
and closer to the radio as the batteries ran down.
Stokers?
Mechanical thermostats hooked via chains and cables to the stoker?
Gravity hot air furnaces?
Arc lighting?
Knob and tube lighting?
Hit or miss engines actually being used on the farm?
The electric motor mounted on a large cart that replaced them?
Hay mattresses?
Root cellars?
Dipping eggs in water glass to preserve 'em?
All-electric homes being the cheapest ones to operate?
X-ray machines at the shoe store?
Calling the train station to get the correct time?
Stoking up the wood cookstove to heat water for a bath in the attached water
heater?
Heating bath water on the cook stove?
Bathing in the stock tank?
Having a summer and a winter kitchen so that cooking heat could be kept out of
the house in the summer while keeping the wood stove going all day long?
Plowing with a mule?
Seeing granddad hitch himself up in front of the mule to give him some help
while grandmother ran the plow?
Planting corn by hand by sitting on the back of a mule-towed sled poking seeds
in the ground with your fingers?
Picking cotton by hand?
Killing and plucking chickens before supper? Watching the chicking run around
without a head after having it deftly snapped off with a one-hand flip?
The fall hog killin'? The smokehouse? Boiling chitterlings in a wash pot?
The odor?
Actually having to use an outhouse? The annual
dig-the-new-pit-and-move-the-outhouse ritual? Checking for wasps and spiders
before the morning constitutional?
Hand-digging wells? Still can't believe grand dad dug a 100 ft deep one by
hand!
When you went to the movie not to watch the show but to enjoy the only air
conditioning in town?
Sitting with other neighbors on the one neighbor's porch who had a TV while
watching it through the screen door?
When "charge cards" were metal?
When TVA and the REA brought power to town?
Such was the life in rural Alabama not that long ago...
John
---
John De Armond
johngdDO...@bellsouth.net
http://personal.bellsouth.net/~johngd
Cleveland, Occupied TN
Bob Giddings
<johngdDO...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
snip
>
>A few more:
>
snip
>
>All-electric homes being the cheapest ones to operate?
>
I remember them being advertised as such. Not sure it was ever true.
If so, not for long. Gas was cheap and available a long time ago in
Texas.
>X-ray machines at the shoe store?
Yes. I actually played on the thing for half an hour till they made
me quit. Made a little kid actually think about his insides. Perhaps
explains my mutant tendencies.
snip
>
>Having a summer and a winter kitchen so that cooking heat could be kept out of
>the house in the summer while keeping the wood stove going all day long?
>
My cousins had a house built with a breezeway between the kitchen and
the rest of the house. They used to eat outside there when it was
real hot in east Texas.
>Plowing with a mule?>
>Seeing granddad hitch himself up in front of the mule to give him some help
>while grandmother ran the plow?
Lord Almighty. Best forgotten.
snip
>Killing and plucking chickens before supper? Watching the chicking run around
>without a head after having it deftly snapped off with a one-hand flip?
Watched this when I was about 5. Our neighbor kept chickens right in
town. Watching him chase that headless chicken, still squawking away,
made me roll on the ground with tears in my eyes.
snip
>Actually having to use an outhouse? The annual
>dig-the-new-pit-and-move-the-outhouse ritual? Checking for wasps and spiders
>before the morning constitutional?
I remember my first campground outhouse. I was about eight, and it
was in the middle of the night. Took a flashlight, and after I sat
down, I noticed THE WALLS WERE MOVING. There were perhaps a thousand
grandaddy longlegs spiders all over the walls and ceiling. I jumped
up and ran out the door, and the flashlight fell down in the hole,
pointing up. It became sort of a game with the other boys to cover it
up with crap over the next few nights.
snip
>
>When you went to the movie not to watch the show but to enjoy the only air
>conditioning in town?
Yes. Hopalong Cassidy movies.
>
>Sitting with other neighbors on the one neighbor's porch who had a TV while
>watching it through the screen door?
>
>When "charge cards" were metal?
>
>When TVA and the REA brought power to town?
>
>Such was the life in rural Alabama not that long ago...
Texas wasn't much different in the fifties. My grandmother still
started a fire in the back yard and boiled clothes in a kettle until
the early fifties. I "helped" her when I was about six.
But from the sound of things, John, you went to school with Marse
Robert.
Bob
b b
mail.com says...
> 7. Party lines ...
>
> Yup. We had one of those in Laingsburg, Michigan up 'til
> about 1983. Finally getting a private line was a pretty big
> deal!
>
>
longer offered for new subscribers, and they cannot find anyone to put on
the line with you... I'm grandfathered until I give up the service or
move. <g>
b b
says...
> > Would you like to buy my bar of soap with phosphorus to make the timing mark
> > stand out?
> >
> > Tom
>
> I used soapstone.
> Hugh
>
>
Barrie B
Tom Marik
feathers.
In the basement of the butcher, my grandmother and others like her would
hand pluck geese for their down. It took weeks to accumulate the down for
a big, thick quilt. Since they all spoke Polish, I don't know all the
technical details.
Tom
jhn...@hal-pc.org wrote:
> More of the good OLD days :-) beyond the easy 25 listed.
>
>
> 7. Feather ticks. You haven't slept until you slept on one with one
> over you on a cold night up north with stove banked for night and no
> heat left in the house (like a bug in a rug :-).
>
R.J.(Bob) Evans
>2. When you cranked a 'T' (no electric starters in those days) you
>put your thumb behind the crank handle so when it kicked it wouldn't
>break your thumb.
I had a Flathead V8 in a '49 Merc 2-ton that I crank started because
the 6V wouldn't spin it fast enough - that took a real arm.
Eventually I put a 12 V. battery on the passenger floorboard & a 2nd
solenoid so I could "help" the 6 V. starter.
Cricket
bill horne <red...@rye.net> wrote in message
news:3CEC6116...@rye.net...
Appliance white paint with the tiny little brush, best timing mark marker
out there.
bill horne
Don't need the best - just need adequate. Not only is chalk cheaper than
a bottle of paint and a brush, but chalk doesn't have to be cleaned
after use, doesn't dry up, and still works even if you drop it and break
it.
telestar
surrounding our small farm. The reason was that Grandma always warned us
that the Indians would get us. She had witnessed one of her Fathers sisters
abducted by the Indians. They broke her back. Grandma never did elaborate on
how this happened but she was returned to the family. The Indians hadn't
been around since Grandma was a child herself of course but when your a
child you don' know these things.
We used coal oil lamps and you couldn't read worth a durn with them. When we
got electricity, it was like entering a new world until they got the first
bill. I remember clearly the fuss that was raised over a 3.50 light bill.
They promptly had it cut off. It was some time before they got it back.news:71ppeuc8oft74uqnd...@4ax.com...
Vigilance Committee
I always got by with white shoe polish or chalk.
LZ
Tom
> > Tom wrote:
> > >
> > > << Would you like to buy my timing light? >>
> > > Would you like to buy my bar of soap with phosphorus to make the timing
mark stand out?
> > >
> > > Tom
> >
> > I still have my Knight Kit timing light. And I use blackboard chalk for
> > the timing mark. Neither are for sale.
> > bill
> > Theory don't mean squat if it don't work.
>
> Appliance white paint with the tiny little brush, best timing mark marker
> out there.
I always got by with white shoe polish or chalk.
LZ
I think you guys are just making do because you mislaid that bar of soap from
the sixties.
Tom
Cricket
Well, *you* obviously never had my clutzy kid as a toddler - a bottle of
appliance white (a whole whopping buck and a half last time I bought one)
never dried up in my house! Always a new chip out of something needing
touching up. Doesn't need to be cleaned up either, the brush comes in the
bottle (like whiteout, which I've also used and which is *not*
satisfactory!). Of course, I suppose most people's kids never made
percussion music by whacking the dryer with a horseshoe! ;>)
Mark
>the sixties.
>
>Tom
>
Nope... I used chalk even in the 60's...
Mark
bill horne
Each to his own, but I prefer chalk exclusively. I don't have to see
what I'm doing. Just crawl under, find the timing slot by feel, scrub
the chalk all around it, and under the timing light, I have a white blob
with a black timing slot running through it. No muss no fuss. A blind
man can do it - although he'll need someone to actually set the timing.
Big....@hotmail.com
I've still got the 'blow torch' that heated the soldering irons when
you had an 'outside job. :-)
Much older than dirt
Big John
On Tue, 21 May 2002 15:07:36 -0500, Bob Giddings <bo...@igg-tx.net>
wrote:
>This was sent to me, and I pass it on for your amusement. BTW,
>apparently I am older than dirt, for I actually remember them all
>except the soldering irons. Far as hand signals, I remember that and
>something even stranger: the little flipper things on early
>('57)Volkswagons. The ice box I remember was in a trailer. The
>newsreels were in the early fifties, along with serial shorts. FWIW,
>I was a mere child.
>
>Bob
----clip----
Bricklayer
> Bricklayer wrote:
>>
>> Bob Giddings wrote...
>>
>> > Do you remember .......
>> >
>> > > > 7. Party lines ...
>>
>> Yup. We had one of those in Laingsburg, Michigan up 'til
>> about 1983. Finally getting a private line was a pretty big
>> deal!
>>
>> Brick
>
> Laingsburg? Shux, I could darn near spit to where you are. We
> camp at Sleepy Hollow often.
We were within walking distance of Sleepy Hollow. Never camped there,
but it's a nice park. Since we're in Seattle now, we don't get out
that way much any more.
Brick
Dfrenchy
>I still have my Knight Kit timing light. And I use blackboard chalk for
>the timing mark. Neither are for sale.
>
I tossed my timing light and dwell meter when I moved 3 yrs ago.
Don in NH
Dfrenchy
(midwesterner) writes:
>Some of this has to do with where you grew up. The two drive-ins that
>I remember going to in the 60's as a kid are still in business and I
>bet my high school didn't stop using mimeograph machines until
>recently.
Teachers around here still use them.
Don in NH