Older than Dirt

[BosnMate]

I got this email this morning, and in fact I'm older than dirt, most of this stuff I easily remember. My words in red.

I'm older than dirt !!
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Someone 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. 'Mom 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.' ​

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. ​

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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.

My folks purchased a house on a large corner lot and as long as he lived dad was fixing it up, adding on. We had a large garden along with chickens and rabbits. I don't know how much the house cost, but it couldn't have been much more than 5 or 6 K.
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My parents never drove me to school. 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 10. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at 11, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God. 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 was actually in the Navy when they bought their first TV. The first TV I saw was in a store window in a big city when I was about 12.

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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.

We picked up the phone, and the operator asked, "number please," and if I was calling home, it was 649-J. We were in town, so didn't have a party line and didn't have to turn the crank. Relatives in the country did turn the crank though.

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Pizzas were not delivered to our home... But milk was. ​

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers -- my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. He had to get up at 5 AM every morning.

I delivered newpapers and made enough money, as I recall almost $20 a month, and I laid away a Colt .22 Huntsman pistol and it took me three months to pay for it. When paid for I carried it out of the store and took it home, and I was still on a bicycle, didn't have a car yet. Wish I still had that gun. Gave it to dad when I went in the Navy, then when he died I was away from home and my brother took it and sold it.

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Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive. ​

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

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MEMORIES: ​

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. I still have one.
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How many do you remember? ​

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Head lights dimmer switches on the floor. ​

Ignition switches on the dashboard. ​

Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards. ​

Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner. ​

Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Yes, all of them. Got in a couple of wrecks from my pants getting caught in the bike chain. Without a chain guard we rolled out pants up.

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Older Than Dirt Quiz :
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Count all the ones that you remember, NOT the ones you were told about . ​

Ratings at the bottom. ​

1. Candy cigarettes ​

2. Coffee shops with tableside juke boxes ​

3. Home milk delivery in glass bottles ​

4. Party lines on the telephones ​

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 3 channels if you were fortunate).
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7. Peashooters ​

8. Howdy Doody No Howdy Doody for me.

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9. 45 RPM records
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10. Hi-fi records ​

11. Metal ice trays with lever ​

12. Blue flashbulb ​

13. Cork popguns ​

14. Studebakers ​

15. Wash tub wringers ​

If you remembered 0-3 = You're still young ​

If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older
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If you remembered 7-10 = Don't tell your age, & ​

If you remembered 11-15 = You're older than dirt!!! THAT'S ME !!! That's me!
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I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.. ​

 

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[Rebel - KGC]

DJ, cue the music... MEMORIES.

 

[spartacus53]

Bosnmate, just think of all the new things that came along in the past 20 years that are already obsolete

Remember Betamax

 

[BosnMate]

Bosnmate, just think of all the new things that came along in the past 20 years that are already obsolete

Remember Betamax

No fool'n. It's to the point I give up, no apps on a phone for me. My Whites DFX is a bit more than I can fathom. I just bought and hooked up a printer to this computer, and was estatic that I was able to do that by myself. That said, I just did my own turbo tax, and it took hours, including at least an hour on the phone to a Tech, but that was also a major computer success for me. So I like to remember back to a simpler time, all this fancy new stuff is leaving me in the dust.

 

[Produce Guy]

I remember my mom had a small,maybe 10oz. coke bottle wit a top on it to use when she ironed,I don't remember the newsreels before the movies,but I remember the 1st. movie I saw was 20,000 leagues under the sea,I also remember candy cigs,going out on October 30th. called beggers night,or the night before Halloween,Drive-In theaters that showed 2 movies on one screen.My dads car didn't have seatbelts,you had to buy them,the highbeam switch was on the floor, and you had a vent you could open up.I also had a newspaper route and I went hunting for bottles on the sides of the roads,and soda cans had pull tabs you could throw on the ground.

 

[Frankn]

BosnMate, I got to tell you! When I read your posts, it's like looking in my memory but I must make a couple of alterations. I delivered morning, evening, and sunday papers. My sunday route was 300 papers. I also collected for the route owner. I earned $20 a week. My first gun was a Colt woodsmen with the 6" barrel and adjustable sites. I bought it from a gunshop used when I was 16. My first car was a '35 ford roadster that I paid $50 for with my paper route money. My first shotgun was a 20 guage Mossburg bolt action with select choke. It was great on rabbits. My first rifle was a .22 hornet Savage bolt action with a weaver 4X scope. Great on crows which were vastly more abundant than they are today. Wonder if I had anything to do with that! lol Frank... Hay, I aced your questionair.

 

[BosnMate]

BosnMate, I got to tell you! When I read your posts, it's like looking in my memory but I must make a couple of alterations. I delivered morning, evening, and sunday papers. My sunday route was 300 papers. I also collected for the route owner. I earned $20 a week. My first gun was a Colt woodsmen with the 6" barrel and adjustable sites. I bought it from a gunshop used when I was 16. My first car was a '35 ford roadster that I paid $50 for with my paper route money. My first shotgun was a 20 guage Mossburg bolt action with select choke. It was great on rabbits. My first rifle was a .22 hornet Savage bolt action with a weaver 4X scope. Great on crows which were vastly more abundant than they are today. Wonder if I had anything to do with that! lol Frank... Hay, I aced your questionair.

View attachment 762121

My first car was a 29A with a 32 grill and solid wheels, painted metalic green. I was 16 when I got it with help from dad. Cost $50. I'd get a couple of dollars worth of gas and 5 gal of used crank case oil. It burned more oil than gas, but the oil was free. Went in the Navy when I was 17 so didn't have the car much more than a year. First shotgun was a Wards Hercules double 12ga. First .22 rifle was a single shot .22, don't remember the brand, it was replaced when I was older with a model 1906 Winchester pump with the open hammer. I was legally deer hunting at age 7 using a 218 B, but the year I turned 12 was the year the youngest a kid could be to deer hunt was 12 and the 218 B became illegal for deer hunting, so moved up to a 25-35 and Dad used an Army surplus '03 Enfield. Never owned a scope until I got out of the service when I put a Weaver scope on a 7mm mauser. Then I got a job horse back so traded the 7mm for a model 94 saddle gun in 30-30. I still have the 30-30 and the 25-35 carbines even if I don't get horse back anymore.

 

[bill from lachine]

I guess I'm as old as dirt also.....got all 15...

Rebel,

Here's your song.....

DJ, cue the music... MEMORIES.

 

[Dave44]

I missed 3, I am very unhappy about this! When did I get older than dirt?
In reality I think it was simply because we grew up so far out in the sticks.

Our grade school showed those old news reals every morning before school ( we were ther an hour before school started for some reason)

 

[onfire]

Wow I made it to dirt Remember when carbide was a blast. 2 cans a length of string made a phone. Baseball cards in the spokes of you bike. or sometime a balloon. A old peach create some roller skates made a great go cart. Ever straighten out a old nail and use it. Why waste 5 cents a pound when you can reuse. And when the street lites came on you went home.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

I guess I'm as old as dirt also.....got all 15...

Rebel,

Here's your song.....

THE KING! TY!

 

[G1sammons]

Fellas iv really enjoyed reading all of this ! Though I'm not old enough to pass the test I do remember many of the things in it .
I'm only 42 but remember the bar test on the tv the dimmer switch on the floor 45's and yes the long hours delivering papers... Metal ice trays, and many more bust most of all I remember when people had time and respect for one another....
Boy the world has changed while we have alot more connivence in our lives people have changed and not for the better!
I remember my Grandfather and what honor he brought to his family friends and his country . Standing up for what he believed in
And being so proud to be American and service member ... I look around me anymore and it seems those kind of men are gone ..
I now see guys who fraud there country to collect a check or guys who fraud there ins to get money to build a barn but most of all fraud there children but not raising them with any discipline , honor or respect for others or themselves ... I see a country falling apart and can only hope they find there way back someday to what it ment to be a American back in the day...
Iv always wondered just what happened to people and why they lost so many of the values that made us such a great people!

 

[Critical Recovery]

Thank you Boats. I enjoyed that. While I was born in the 70s, I feel that we as a society have NOT advanced since 1960. I think we have DEVOLVED.

 

[speter42]

Anyone know what a "chug" was

 

[onfire]

Anyone know what a "chug" was

A few? chug a lug? or a lugee?

 

[arnofarrell]

Ever straighten out a old nail and use it. Why waste 5 cents a pound when you can reuse. .

I still do that all the time. Why waste the money. Also I only managed about half of those questions but i am 28 so.

 

[arnofarrell]

I was born in the eighties but my parents brought me up like they were brought up. It is amazing how fast things change now a day. Buy something and the next day it is obsolete.

 

[GPS53]

I am officially older than dirt, I got them all right, now, what was that again about what I won in a contest about dirt, I like to play in it.