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MEMORIES OF YEARS GONE BY

 

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Heard 50 years ago

Funny......yet sad...55 years
ago....

  
Comments made in the year
1955!
That's only 55 years ago! 



'I'll tell you one thing, if things keep
going the way they are, it's going to be impossible to buy a week's
groceries for $10.00.

'Have you seen the new
cars coming out next year? It won't be long before $1, 000.00 will only buy
a used one.

'If cigarettes keep going up
in price, I'm going to quit. 20 cents a pack is ridiculous.

'Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging 7
cents just to mail a letter

'If they raise
the minimum wage to $1.00, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the
store.

'When I first started driving, who
would have thought gas would someday cost 25 cents a gallon. Guess we'd be
better off leaving the car in the garage.

'I'm afraid to send my kids to the movies any more Ever
since they let Clark Gable get by with saying DAMN in GONE WITH THE WIND, it
seems every new movie has either HELL or DAMN in it.

'I read the other day where some scientist thinks it's
possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have
some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas
.

'Did you see where some baseball player
just signed a contract for $50,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn't
surprise me if someday they'll be making more than the
President.

'I never thought I'd see the
day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even making
electric typewriters now.

'It's too bad
things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to
work to make ends meet.

'It won't be long
before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids
so they can both work.

'I'm afraid the
Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign
business.

'Thank goodness I won't live to
see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes
wonder if we are electing the best people to government.

'The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather,
but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on.

'There is no sense going
on short trips anymore for a weekend, it costs nearly $2.00 a night to stay
in a hotel.

'No one can afford to be sick
anymore, at $15.00 a day in the hospital, it's too rich for my
blood.'

'If they think I'll pay 30 cents
for a hair cut, forget it.'

 

 

What it was like, way back when

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways… yadda, yadda, yadda 
 
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay
 a bunch of garbage like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!  

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.  You've got it so easy!  I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in Utopia!   And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it! 
 
I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet.  If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library (Big room with Books) and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!
   
 
There was no email!!  We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen (No Spell Check - dictionary...In Big Room with Books) !
   Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there!  Stamps were 10 cents! 
 
Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us.  As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to Bust Us ... No where was safe! 

 
There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes!  If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!
 
 
Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up!  There were no CD players!  We had tape decks in our car.  We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless.  Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby!  Dig?
 
 
We didn't have fancy stuff like Call Waiting!  If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it! 

 
There weren't any cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH NO !!!  Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! To check in with your folks you had to stop and use a pay-phone (ask an oldtimer)  And then there's TEXTING.  Yeah, right.  Please!  You kids have no idea how annoying you are. 


And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was!  It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!!  You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister! 

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics!  We
 had PONG and advanced to the Atari 2600!  With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'.  Your screen guy was a little square!  You actually had to use your imagination!!!  And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever!  And you could never win.  The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died!  Just like LIFE! 

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! NO channel surfing! (there were only 3-5)  You had to get off your couch and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!!  NO REMOTES!!!  Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

 
There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning.  Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait 
ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks! 

And we didn't have microwaves.  If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove!  Imagine that! 
   

And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long.  Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort.  And if you came back inside... you were doing chores! 
 
And car seats - oh, please!  Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on.  If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!  
See!  That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten!  You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd
   

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FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO REMEMBER YOU WILL LOVE THIS ONE AND THOSE WHO DON'T THIS IS THE WAY IT REALLY WAS...
HEY,WASN’T THAT US? SURE WAS!!!

A little house with three bedrooms, one bathroom and one car on the street
A mower that you had to push to make the grass look neat. 


In the kitchen on the wall we only had one phone,
And no
 need for recording things, someone was always home. 


We only had a living room where we would congregate, 
Unless it was at mealtime in the kitchen where we ate.. 


We had no need for family rooms or extra rooms to dine, 
When meeting as a family those two rooms would work out fine. 


We only had one TV set, and channels maybe two, 
But always there was one of them with something worth the view. 

For snacks we had potato chips that tasted like a chip, 
And if you wanted flavor there was Lipton's onion dip. 

Store-bought snacks were rare because my mother liked to cook, 
And nothing can compare to snacks in BettyCrocker's book. 


Weekends were for family trips or staying home to play, 
We all did things together -- even go to church to pray. 


When we did our weekend trips depending on the weather, 
No one stayed at home because we liked to be together. 


Sometimes we would separate to do things on our own, 
But we knew where the others were without our own cell phone. 

Then there were the movies with your favorite movie star, 
And nothing can compare to watching movies in your car. 


Then there were the picnics at the peak of summer season, 
Pack a lunch and find some trees and never need a reason. 


Get a baseball game together with all the friends you know, 
Have real action playing ball -- and no game video. 


Remember when the doctor used to be the family friend, 
And didn't need insurance or a lawyer to defend?

The way that he took care of you or what he had to do, 
Because he took an oath and strived to do the best for you. 

Remember going to the store and shopping casually, 
And  when you went to pay for it you used your own money? 


Nothing that you had to swipe or punch in some amount, 
Remember when the cashier person had to really count? 


The milkman used to go from door to door, 
And it was just
 a few cents more than going to the store. 


There was a time when mailed letters came right to your door, 
Without a lot of junk mail ads sent out by every store. 

The mailman knew each house by name and knew where it was sent; 
There were not loads of mail addressed to"present occupant." 


There was a time when just one glance was all that it would take, 
And you would know the kind of car, the
model and the make. 
 

They didn't look like turtles trying to squeeze out every mile; 
They were streamlined, white walls, fins, and really had some  style. 
   


One time the music that you played whenever you would jive, 
Was from a vinyl, big-holed record called a forty-five.
 


The record player had a post to keep them all in line, 
And
 then the records would drop down and play one at a time. 


Oh sure, we had our problems then, just like we do today, 
And always we were striving, trying for a better way. 

Oh, the simple life we lived still seems like so much fun, 
How can you explain a game, just kick the can and run?  


And why would boys put baseball cards between bicycle spokes,  
And for a nickel red machines had little bottled Cokes? 
  
 
    

This life seemed so much easier and slower in some ways, 
I love the new technology but I sure miss those days. 

So time moves on and so do we, and nothing stays the same, 
But I sure love to look back and walk down memory lane.

 

 

This is one of the best 50's video's I've seen. You will enjoy this. But only if you were in our generation or very close. . . .  And if you were not in this generation -- listen and eat your hearts out. It was one of the best of times...

More nostalgia: Whether you are a Billy Joel fan or not, you probably remember his great song, 'We Didn't Start the Fire.'
Here it is, set to pictures... very, very cool. Had to share this one. It's a neat flashback through the past half century. I never did know the words.
Turn up volume, sit back and enjoy a review of 50 years of history in  less than 3 minutes! Thanks to Billy Joel and some guy from the University of Chicago with a lot of spare  time and Google. Top left gives you full screen.....top right lets you pause.  Bottom left shows the year.  The  older you are, the more pictures you will recognize.  Anyone over age 60 should remember over 90% of what they see. But it's great at any age. 

We Didn't Start The Fire    

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Ads that just don't work anymore.

 

 

Brace yourself -- the copy reads: Though she was a tiger lady, our hero didn't have to fire a shot to floor her. After one look at his Mr. Leggs slacks, she was ready to have him walk all over her. That noble styling sure soothes the savage heart! If you'd like your own doll-to-doll carpeting, hunt up a pair of these he-man Mr. Leggs slacks. Such as our new automatic wash wear blend of 65% "Dacron®" and 35% rayon-incomparably wrinkle-resistant. About $12.95 at plush-carpeted stores. 

Some excerpts from the ad above: It says- "this young man is 11 months old- and he isn't our youngest customer by any means.  

For 7-Up is so pure, so wholesome, you can even give it to babies and feel good about it. 
 -By the way, Mom, when it comes to toddlers- if they like to be coaxed to drink their milk, try this: Add 7-Up to the milk in equal parts, pouring the 7-Up gently into the milk.  It's a wholesome combination- and it works!  Now we know the origins of ADHD......

Remember Slow Food?


'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.


But 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, never wore Levis, never set foot on a golf course, never traveled out of the country or had a credit card.


In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck.
Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.


My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer.


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 11.


It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, 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 19 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.' When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.


I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it 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--my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents.  He had to get up at 6 AM every morning.


On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.


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.


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.


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


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?


Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.


Ignition switches on the dashboard.


Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.


Real ice boxes.


Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.


Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.


Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.


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 glass bottles

5. Coffee shops or diners with table side jukeboxes

6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers

7. Party lines on the telephone

8 Newsreels before the movie

9. P.F. Flyers

10. Butch wax
(that was our hair product)
11.. 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)

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. Packards

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!



I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.


Don't forget to pass this along!!
Especially to all your really good
OLD FRIENDS

 

  

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