Are you older than dirt??

[ironglow]

  From Doublebass:
   
  "Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles - boy do I miss those things, we called it "tonic" in Mass. I used to love Coke in a glass bottle on hot summer days like today".
  oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
   Right Double..And you folks up around "Baahstun", call a milkshake a "Frap"..         just funnin..
 
  Imagine my surprise when I first tried the new ice cream treat from McDonalds here in western NY..  I asked the teenager at the counter, "I would like to try one of your new "fraps".  She looked condescendingly at this old timer and cooly said;
  "Oh, you mean our "Frahpaay".  Poor child, I nearly broke up before her..   
         
       I didn't like her "Frahpaay" anyway..especially at what they charge for it..
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
  Speaking of McDonalds; remember their early commercials.." A burger, fries, a shake....and change back from your dollar".
 
  OSR...  Mission Orange was big around here.  Curiously, I was out in my woods last fall and found one of those bottles.  It was the old painted label type..with all the paint intact.  Found it with an old "Fanta" bottle..gave them both to a friend who saves such things.. 
  Remember "Sundrop"..I always figured Mountain Dew took over for them..tastes the same & has much caffeine.

[RB Rooson]

I remember them all...!!  And Clove, Blackjack and Beeman's gum!!!

[powderman]

AS IRONGLOW mentioned I too remember polio. A cousin had it, it shriveled up his left arm real bad. We used to visit a bedridden girl South of town with polio. They were farmers and almost broke caring for her. They were close to a rr track and they would toss coal off for the family and collect magazines and newspapers from accross the country, bundle them up and toss em out to give Dona Marie something to read to occupy her time. People were more loving and caring  back then.
Back then every Mother or Father in town was yours. If they saw you doing something wrong you were corrected on the spot, no matter whos child you were. I remember the big hook by the RR track in town that bags of mail was hooked on as the train passed through town. I remember once when they missed the hook and mail was scattered over a large area, we helped pick it all up. Mothers stayed home and raised their children, Fathers made the living, and neighbors helped each other. Families were much closer back then. Not much money though for xtras. I guess by todays standards we were poor, heh, I reckon somebody forgot to tell us cause we never knew it. Lots more folks were in Church every Sunday, it's what Sunday was for.  POWDERMAN. 

[us920669]

I remembered most of them, also Pez dispensers, which I think was training us to use drugs.  We had a milk man and an egg man.  My Dad built our first TV from a kit.  There was no cabinet, he just told us not to stick our fingers in it - don't try that today.  There was a show called Boston Blackie, I think some kind of private eye.  When TV signed off they showed a Sabre Jet and had some guy in an echo chamber read the poem "High Flight".  Our neighbors had a Studebaker, the two door with the wrap-around rear window.  They would go away and ask Dad to drive it once in a while.  My sister and I would sit backwards in the rear seat and look out.  We thought that was so cool.  Kids were easier to please back then.

[Empty Quiver]

I'm not older than dirt but I do remember it being fresh

[Hodr]

I am not older than dirt, but my first job was in a nursery.  $0.25 cents an hour to pull weeds out of gallon cans.  $2 for an 8 hour day, no breaks, no lunch, no fringe.
 
Hodr

[blind ear]

A contry store mixed drink was an orange "CHUSH" with Dr Tichners poured in it. ear

[jedman]

  One of my fond memories of being a kid was in the fall, we lived in town but back then you could rake your leaves to the curb in front of your house and burn them.
 For a week or two every fall everyone on the street would burn there leaves and stand around with a rake in there hand and think , it dont get no better than this!!
Its just one of the smells from childhood thats still there , people probably still burn leaves  but it was almost a social event back in the 50's and early 60's.
   Jed

[Spirithawk]

Yep, I remember baths in wash tubs, wash boards, Washers with hand cranked wringers, sewing machines you made work by pumping with your foot, rain barrels, tin dippers to get a drink of water, motor oil came in cans and you needed a metal spout to pour it. 4  x 60 airconditioning in your car....you rolled all 4 windows down and drove 60 mph, no power brakes nor steering. Burma Shave signs along the highways. Fishing with cane poles and being proud to own one. I remember when toys were such that nowadays they'd go into shock if they saw a kid playing with one, yet we lived and had a ball playing with them. I remember bikes who's only brakes were the bottom of your shoe. Playing cards in the spokes. 5 cent cokes in 8 oz bottles. 5 cent candy bars and 2 for a penny candy. Black Cow and Slow Poke suckers. Tent Revivals every summer. Listening to the huge pipe organ on the upper deck of the Admiral as it cruised up and down the Mississippi River every day of decent weather. Fizzies, Speedy Alka Seltzer, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Deputy Dawg, Pink Panther, Mighty Mouse, Sylvester and Tweety Bird, Ect. The Micky Mouse Club. Lone Ranger, Daniel Boone, Davey Crocket, Cheyenne, Bat Masterson, Wyat Earp, Rawhide, Wagon Train, The Rebel, Bounty Hunter, Gunsmoke with Dennis Weaver as Chester Goode.... "Comin' Mr Dillon!", Palladin Have Gun Will Travel, Gene Autry, Roy Rodgers & Dale Evans, The Cisco Kid, Hopalong Cassidy, the movie Shane and many more. most of all, I remember when heroes were easy to find and were worthy to be called hero. Got to quit now. Going into culture shock!   

[JoeG52]

Yes I am!
23

[Bravo 51...Over]

     I do remember clove flavored gum, just not the Blackjack brand.  I remember going to my grandparents farm in AtlLaw's south Jawga ( is that spelled right Richard?)  No electricy, outhouse, well pump on the back porch, a bath in a # 3 washtub and she cooked on a wood stove.  Breakfast was eggs from the laying hens, grits with real homemade butter, slices of smoked ham from the hogs and her biscuts.  I can still smell that kitchen .
    I guess most of us here reflect back on those days as "good as it gets" times as compared to now.  Man, how things have changed!  I imagine every generation feels the same way.  Life was at such a slower pace and seemed much more enjoyable.  I really dread what the future holds for this country and  what my kids and grandkids will have to endure.     

[ironglow]

     I do remember clove flavored gum, just not the Blackjack brand.  I remember going to my grandparents farm in AtlLaw's south Jawga ( is that spelled right Richard?)  No electricy, outhouse, well pump on the back porch, a bath in a # 3 washtub and she cooked on a wood stove.  Breakfast was eggs from the laying hens, grits with real homemade butter, slices of smoked ham from the hogs and her biscuts.  I can still smell that kitchen .
    I guess most of us here reflect back on those days as "good as it gets" times as compared to now.  Man, how things have changed!  I imagine every generation feels the same way.  Life was at such a slower pace and seemed much more enjoyable.  I really dread what the future holds for this country and  what my kids and grandkids will have to endure.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
  Know what you mean Bravo..and have the same reservations...

[The Hermit]

Yes, me too. I remember when the first tv station came online in upstate NY. In black and white.
When you picked up the phone, there was a lady who said "number please".  3074 was my grandparents phone number.
Prior to that, we had a phone on the wall with a hand crank. I couldn't reach that, which was just as well, I suppose.
Red Killorin was the local cop. A great big Irish guy with huge hands, a .38 and a night stick. Never lost a fight.
We had an ice box and mom would put a card in the window telling the ice man how much ice we wanted.
Shot my first rabbit when I was 8.
Hearing my father talk about bank failures and loosing his money, condemming politicians....well, I guess somethings have stayed the same.
 
The Hermit

[Spencer, Carey]

Dirt....dirt...dirt....I know iv'e got that recipie around here somewhere......Not telling my score........ 

[powderman]

HEH. The thought just occured to me. If a kid today had to use an old outhouse how many would know that the sears catalogue was not for just reading?? POWDERMAN. 

[BUGEYE]

kids nowadays, even with all their electronic crap, just don't have it as good as we did then.
going back to the old ways would probably kill me, but I'd die happy.

[us920669]

Yeah, the kids will be using their Federal Reserve notes instead of the Sears or Dell catalog.

[BUGEYE]

Yeah, the kids will be using their Federal Reserve notes instead of the Sears or Dell catalog.

yeah, the face value and the paper worth will soon be about the same.
my daughter is 21, I feel sorry for her.

[powderman]

The smell of coal smoke from neighbors stoves as we WALKED to school, about a mile in all kinds of weather. School was never closed for snow or ice, bus drivers were all men then too. We rode buses to and from hs in all weather. Seen drifts higher that the bus, got stuck several times on the country route home and a farmer always came to the rescue.
My Dad told about when he was growing up that After Church most of the folks would go to the river, about 4+ miles. He said that they had to cross through one pasture with a mean bull. The men would occupy the bull while everybody else made it through safely. No cars, they rode horses or rode in wagons, buggys,  and buckboards. The men would build fires and then go fishing. They would catch a fish and throw it up on the bank where the women would clean them and start cooking them. They'd make a day of it eating, relaxing, and visiting with friends, family, and neighbors. Before leaving the men would catch more fish for everyone to take home. He said 50  years ago that people just didn't take the time to live anymore. POWDERMAN. 

[Hodr]

Argosy Magazine.  One of my godfather's was featured in Argosy.  Some how I lost my copy.  4th Marine Raider in WWII.  His surviving daughter is married to my brother.  They have had a glass cabinet built to hold his "Blues".  As I grew up I had stories of the Pacific from Ford Island to when he woke up on hospital ship in San Diego harbor.  I remember this  man had shrapnel still working out of his body until 1994.  At the end of the war my father was working in a combat shock ward at Presidio in San Francisco.  Dad always said these guys wern't crazy, They just needed to be put back to work.
 
Hodr

[Ex 49'er]

I remember never having to lock your door at night . During the day going into friends houses without knocking. Looking at the Sears and Monkey Wards catalogs a couple months before Christmas and saying "I want this and this and that" and dad saying "It doesn't hurt to want." I'm just a young 59.

[ironglow]

Argosy Magazine.  One of my godfather's was featured in Argosy.  Some how I lost my copy.  4th Marine Raider in WWII.  His surviving daughter is married to my brother.  They have had a glass cabinet built to hold his "Blues".  As I grew up I had stories of the Pacific from Ford Island to when he woke up on hospital ship in San Diego harbor.  I remember this  man had shrapnel still working out of his body until 1994.  At the end of the war my father was working in a combat shock ward at Presidio in San Francisco.  Dad always said these guys wern't crazy, They just needed to be put back to work.
 
Hodr
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Hodr;
  You might want to visit the Marine Raiders' website...   http://www.usmarineraiders.org/bookusmrdaley.htm

[powderman]

We stayed outside playing til dark, usually a bit after. No tv til later but listened to the grand ol opry on sat nights. We went to an outdoor theatre on the town square some Sat nights while visiting family up by Spfld Ill, just a 10 ft or so screen and a projector, can't remember what we saw though. Everybody brought a blanket to sit on and your own popcorn and drinks if you wanted any. We'd walk several miles through the woods to camp, just us boys starting in grade school. A family in town was dirt poor as far as material things went. Their Dad was killed in an accident and left a wife with 5 growing kids. We were close friends. The Mom took in laundry, cleaned folks houses, etc, whatever it took to make do. There was no welfare and nobody had their hand out. The kids all worked as best they could to help out. Willis and I went camping one weekend. I took milk, eggs, etc and fried some pork chops over the open fire, then made gravy. Willis said it was the first time in his life that he had ever had milk gravy. Boy, did I ever feel small, but blessed. A simple thing like milk gravy that I took for granted. All the boys carried pocket knives even in 1st and 2nd grade on up. I NEVER saw anybody cut or attacked. In hs we took army rifles and ammo to history class for show and tell. There were rifles from all the major player countries, ammo too, knives, bayonets, etc. Took em right on the bus. Nobody even thought of loading them, or shooting anybody. The pantywetters today would has a hissy. I truly feel that THE biggest difference between now and then was that more of us were raised in Church with God in our lives, not so today. Loved those moon pies and rc cola too. POWDERMAN. 

[sidewinder319]

I enjoyed your post Powderman. Made me think of some long forgotton days. I think we all lived out the same kind of lives so long ago. We were running rivers in home made canoes, cooking fish on river banks. I was a sun burned kid with a beat up Winchester and a tired old Paint Pony. We had a camp high in the hills hidden in a ceder break.  We used to get a few cigars and set around the fire talking about the guns we would own some day.  Some where along the way all those friends grew up all the good horses and dogs in or lives went away. The things we learned stayed with us and I think we were all better for the lives of our rural youth. Maybe out there some young Americans are still growing up free.  I sure hope so.

[DANNY-L]

15 and I remember the gum,I went to cracker barrel restaurant/store for the first time last year and they still sell it there,just had to get some.

[gypsyman]

Pumping gas for .25 and .27 a gallon. Every boy in the neighbor hood grabbed their BB gun and went off to the ditch banks to wage war on whatever was handy. Didn't have Popsicle's, mom's took and frooze up Kool Aid ice cube's and we'd sit on backyard picnic table's sucking them down as they thawed. IF, anybody had any money, took off on our bike's to the neighborhood carryout, and bought a qt. of Cadillac pop, usually grape, for .15, and we all shared the bottle. (nobody ever came down with a strange disease!!) And, whoever had the .15, turned the bottle back in for the .02 deposit, and got 2 Double Bubble gums. Not to much worry about obeisity back then. I think we could have inhaled gallons of Kool Aid and candy bars, by the end of the day we probably burned up 10,000 calories. I remember sitting in 3rd grade looking out the window at the fields turning yellow, and thinking about how there were still sparrows and rats running around the ditch's, and I had some BB's left. And here I am stuck in school. I'm not older than dirt, but sure smell like it sometime's   gypsyman

[BUGEYE]

PM, that was a good post.  it's heartbreaking to know that someone is not getting enough to eat.
and it's common in these days of unemployment.

[gstewart44]

WOW - did this bring back a lot of memories.... I counted all 25 even though the Packard convertibles were something we would only see in the annual Christmas Parade carrying the local politicians.    My dad was sporting a USMC style flattop ( a la Sgt Carter) that he kept proper with his Butch Wax.  Every other morning the local dairy had their milk truck come by and take back the empties and leave us new half gallon bottles of milk.  Chewed both Blackjack and Clove (away from the house - Mom wouldn't allow gum in the house).   My grandma got rid of her old wringer washer ( it had a powered wringer) when my cousin got her long hair caught in it and a clump was ripped out.   Dad taught me to drive his old Studebaker on the dirt backroads of NC before I was of legal age for a license.  My other grandma had an old windup Victrola, and a late 1800's player piano with the scrolls, but the player mechanism was broken.  In the summers my cousin and I would scour the ditches along the country roads and collect discarded bottles and take them to the Co'Cola plant for coin.  How 'bout this one - Steel beer cans that you opened with the triangular can opener 
My dad used to carry one on a chain around his neck when we were out fishing.   
Those were the days..... 

[powderman]

How in the world did we survive without video games, ipods, cell phones, nintendos, etc growing up?? Quite well. We had active imaginations and energy. All these gadgets have turned a lot of kids into lazy couch potatos. Last couple of years I've started paying attention in the winter to the almost total lack of snowmen in folks yards. Too much like work?? Don't know. Heather posted some pics last winter of her kids making snowmen, I enjoyed seeing that. That was a big thing back then, could hardly wait for the 1st big snow so we could build a snowman, Mom always had a big pot of hot cocoa waiting too. WE boys would hang around the local gas station in summer and wait for the farmers looking for hay help. They would pick us up and bring us home when the day was done. As the years went by those of us willing to work got fewer and fewer. Farmers would even come by the hayfield while we were working and hire us for the next day. I cut grass all over our small town, never got more than $1, usually 50 cents, sometimes for free if they really couldn't afford to pay. I had several older folks who wouldn't dream of starting spring withour their sassafrass tea, blood thickens up in winter and the tea thins it back out dontcha know. I'd dig the roots and sell it too, one lady always had me get her some crabapples for jelly. We basically did most anything to earn a $ or 2. Growing up in a small town or farm had a lot of  advantages and I believe made us better adults. My Dad and a couple other men would have them open up the grade school gymn for us. They set up a fake fence to teach us to properly cross it with a gun safely and lots of gun safety. They brought fishing poles to cast and many learned to use a flyrod too. HEH, I reckon I grew up in mayberry and didn't know it. POWDERMAN. 

[Doublebass73]

  From Doublebass:
   
  "Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles - boy do I miss those things, we called it "tonic" in Mass. I used to love Coke in a glass bottle on hot summer days like today".
  oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
   Right Double..And you folks up around "Baahstun", call a milkshake a "Frap"..         just funnin..
 
  Imagine my surprise when I first tried the new ice cream treat from McDonalds here in western NY..  I asked the teenager at the counter, "I would like to try one of your new "fraps".  She looked condescendingly at this old timer and cooly said;
  "Oh, you mean our "Frahpaay".  Poor child, I nearly broke up before her..   

Ha ha! I had the exact same reaction when McDonald's came out with those. I call them fraps intentionally just to irritate them, too!