# started me thinking



## JASHavanese (Apr 24, 2007)

I got this in email and it started me thinking of all the things I've seen change in my life and things my grandkids will never see. Remember the old rounded TV's or when they were black and white? I remember when cell phones came out. We went racing to buy them and mine weighed a ton and was the smaller one and hubby had one that was like a suitcase because it had a stronger signal. It was so wild to be driving in my car and call someone! Now it seems all kids have phones and oh do text messages fly. Remember when you had to sit at home and wait for a call? 
I remember our first washing machine. It had a wringer on it that you had to feed the clothing through then you hung them on the clothesline. I wonder how people in high humidity places dried their clothing?
Remember when you took pictures and waited a week to get them back? Wow when one day service came out that was something, then came one hour, then digital
What things have you seen in your time that really changed your life?

Years ago an Alabama
grandmothergave the new
bride the following recipe:
This is an exact copy as written and
found in an old scrapbook - with spelling
errors and all.
WASHING CLOTHES

Build fire in backyard to heat
kettle of rain water. Set tubs so smoke
won't blow in eyes if wind
is pert.
Shave one hole cake of lie
soap in boiling water.
Sort things, make 3 piles
1 pile white,
1 pile colored,
1 pile work britches and rags.

To make starch,
stir flour in cool water to smooth, then thin
down with boiling water.
Take white things, rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, and boil,
Then rub colored don't boil just wrench and starch. Take things out of kettle with broom stick handle, then
wrench, and starch.
Hang old rags on fence.
Spread tea towels on grass.
Pore wrench water in flower bed. Scrub porch with hot soapy water.
Turn tubs upside down.
Go put on clean dress,
smooth hair with hair combs.
Brew cup of tea, sit and
rock a spell and count
your blessings.


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## Pixiesmom (Jul 31, 2008)

This is the first thing that I thought of after I read this.
My first house I bought in Tampa when I was 21 was built in 1940 and it had no A/C. The original owners were just moved to an assited facility and they lived for 50 years in this Florida heat and humidity without it. NO A/C in this heat!!!! 
That alone blows my mind.


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## JASHavanese (Apr 24, 2007)

Pixiesmom said:


> This is the first thing that I thought of after I read this.
> My first house I bought in Tampa when I was 21 was built in 1940 and it had no A/C. The original owners were just moved to an assited facility and they lived for 50 years in this Florida heat and humidity without it. NO A/C in this heat!!!!
> That alone blows my mind.


There are houses in Corpus that don't have heat or ac and our humidity is much like yours along with heat. 
My aunt and uncle lived in their house (in Ca) without ac and put up a patio in back and front that ran the length of the house to block the sun. They'd open the windows at night then close up the house during the heat of the day. The house was normally at a comfortable temp and I don't know how they did it. When my mom moved in there, she put an ac in a window. The heater was one of those that shows on both sides of a wall and if you closed a bedroom door you froze during the winter


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## SMARTY (Apr 19, 2007)

I’m 62…..ouch did I put my age on an Internet Forum?…Ok who cares.

Things have really changed in my life, not just mechanical progress but with people have changed. Our way of thinking has changed.

I grow up in Atlanta, Georgia…….

When we were kids we walked or rode bikes every where;
We cut through the wood to make our trips shorter
to school, about 2 miles, rain or shine
to the corner store 
to our cousins, 3 miles away
to play with friends.

We didn’t worry about the perverts of the world, never heard of them.
You didn’t talk or get in a car with a stranger, even then, but my Dad would stop to help change someone’s tire or give a hitch hiker a ride.

We call adults Mr. Mrs. or Miss. no first names, no aunts or uncles that were not related. No one missed saying Sir or Mame . Everyone was respectful.

We just watched TV some nights and Saturday morning cartoons
No computer or TV games
We played outside everyday

No A/C’s at home, church, school or the movie theaters, just fans and we didn’t notice the heat as much we do now. We never locked a door.

Mom cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner. I did not know anyone over weight. Every child went home for supper….

If a neighbor had a problem with money, sickness or a death, someone would come around for a collection. Everyone took them home baked food.

You never heard fowl language or sexual innuendo. Sex was not something kids (or adults) thought they should or had a right to be doing with anyone or everyone. 
Movies left a lot to the imagination. Guns were for hunting.

Dogs lived in the yard.

I really miss the slower pace, the gentility, courtesy way of life and I am so sorry the younger generations will never know the fun of really being young.


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## Redorr (Feb 2, 2008)

This is fun. Here are some things that have come along in my lifetime - some for the better, some not so much. See if you can guess my age:
Bank credit cards
Handheld hair dryers
Clock radios with radio alarm
Plastic shampoo bottles - glass was not so safe
Shampoo other than Prell, Breck or Head and SHoulders
Toothpaste other than Crest, Colgate or Pepsodent
Soap other than Ivory, Dove or Dial
Twist off cap beer bottles
Pull tab drinks cans (anyone know what a churchkey is?)
plastic sandwich bags, then those with ziplocks
Car seatbelts, automatic windows
Child car seats
Electric can openers
push button phones; dialing more than the last 4 numbers in your town
Slow cookers, food processors, electric skillets, toaster ovens
TV channels other than ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS
Concerts in stadiums and auditoriums (I saw the Who in the same hall as the symphony)
T-Shirts as outerwear
"athletic shoes" - just Keds and Topsiders



Yeah, just some of the things. I am pretty happy to have most of them.


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## SMARTY (Apr 19, 2007)

Redorr said:


> This is fun. Here are some things that have come along in my lifetime - some for the better, some not so much. *See if you can guess my age:*


Are you nuts? This could be hurtful. I've got a real good idea, but I'm not telling.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

Ahhh Jan , the good old days. The internet has to be the biggest change. Wow we can have communication and information at the tips of our fingers. And a scarry movie was King Kong . Ice cream cones were 5 cents. And you walked to school two miles ,uphill both ways. Like Bob Dylan says "the times they are a changin".


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## Lunastar (Feb 9, 2009)

Pixiesmom said:


> This is the first thing that I thought of after I read this.
> My first house I bought in Tampa when I was 21 was built in 1940 and it had no A/C. The original owners were just moved to an assited facility and they lived for 50 years in this Florida heat and humidity without it. NO A/C in this heat!!!!
> That alone blows my mind.


I agree. I don't know how they did it. And the bugs!


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## Lunastar (Feb 9, 2009)

Computer Graphics has revolutionized special effects. I love watching those old movies that were the height of fx for their time. 

I remember my husband muttering through the house trying to locate the phone and my granddaughter who was about six or seven at the time saying they should but a string on the phones to attach it to the wall so you would never lose them. hahaha 

I miss my vinyl records. LOL


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## Scooter's Family (May 23, 2008)

I may regret saying this because I have 3 teenagers but...I miss having just one tv that everyone gathered together to watch. I grew up in an 1800 square foot, 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house with 5 brothers and 2 sisters and we all got along with our one tv. No remote either, we would fight over who would get up to change the channel. Our family room looked like a crime scene with bodies all over the furniture and the floor but we had some really great times! We all shared bedrooms and learned to take turns with the bathroom, we weren't allowed to use our the one in our parents room.

We're meeting at the beach next week, all 8 of us with our families, and we'll tell stories that we've told a million times but our kids will beg to hear them again. We'll laugh until we hurt and it will be wonderful! I can't wait! Just wish my parents could be there with us.


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## JASHavanese (Apr 24, 2007)

The Bachelorette is coming on in a couple of minutes so I'll name a couple of things now and come back to it. 
Party line phones
Phones where you had to go through the operator to call out
Walking to school in all weather because the bus system said they'd only get kids that were something like 2 miles away.
Digital watches and clocks and ones that show the time on your wall now
Curling irons instead of sleeping in rollers


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## JASHavanese (Apr 24, 2007)

SMARTY said:


> We didn't worry about the perverts of the world, never heard of them.You never heard fowl language or sexual innuendo. Sex was not something kids (or adults) thought they should or had a right to be doing with anyone or everyone.
> 
> Dogs lived in the yard.
> 
> I really miss the slower pace, the gentility, courtesy way of life and I am so sorry the younger generations will never know the fun of really being young.


Perverts were covered up back then, same with incest or rape. There was an underground network of really sick magazines, ones that if you saw today would make your hair curl. Your choices back then were staying and dealing with it or being put in juvenile hall or changing your birth certificate and getting married very young to get away. Kids were the property of the parent so everyone turned a deaf ear and blind eye to it. That's one area we've come a long way with but now it goes overboard with parents being afraid of child services. We still need to find a balance there.
Dave mentioned computers and they're wonderful if used right. I've seen a few marriages fall apart because of them. Either one of the partners finds someone who sounds wonderful on here or couples spend too much time on the net and not with one another. 
It seems we've gotten so much that we're in a transition period where we learn moderation. I remember when I used to send my daughter an im from the other side of the house telling her dinner was ready and get to the table. :laugh:
And as I was getting ready to post this, my phone started going off with a bunch of weather alerts that I can't freeking shut off.....but at least I know we're going to have temps that are too high which reminds me of the weather channel where you can find out quickly what to expect. Yikes, imagine a hurricane coming at you and you don't even know about it?
Now we have HD tv and listen to the people on talk shows talk about their complexion not being perfect with it. I can't help but giggle at that. It's ok to have a pimple! :laugh:


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## Renee (Mar 27, 2008)

I'm not even 40 yet, but I do remember party lines. We lived in a rural area, and I can still recall the nosy neighbor that listened to every call! It's amazing to think practically everyone has their own private mobile phone now a days. I had to laugh when one of my kids got into my dad's old pickup and didn't know how to operate the roll down window. "Where's the button?" they said. And how did people function at work before Google?? I get so much information off of the internet. Although DH hates the internet. He sees all the bad things that happen because of it. But it's a reality now, and we have to teach our kids how to properly use it....


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## JASHavanese (Apr 24, 2007)

Renee said:


> But it's a reality now, and we have to teach our kids how to properly use it....


I've watched my daughter (and listened to her rant) with the internet. Her daughter loves to read and has kid sites that she's on a lot. My daughter looks at each page and if there are words on there she doesn't like, she tells her to get off the page. She also monitors her niece, my other grandkiddo who is a teen now on My Space. Oh boy if she puts something on there that my daughter doesn't like she gets on the phone and calls me or her mom and rants until it's taken off. She's pretty good at ranting too :laugh:


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## JASHavanese (Apr 24, 2007)

I'm trying to remember the things I've seen change. Race is a big one. I remember when I was 6 years old we drove across country and stopped at a rest stop. I went to the water fountain and there was a sign above it that no N word people were allowed to drink out of it. I had to go ask my mom if I could drink out of it because I had never heard the N word before and had no clue what it meant. Whoa was I in shock when I found out that only whites could get a drink of water!
Remember when women couldn't get credit? I still remember the day my mom got credit in her name without a man on there. It was through Sears
And the microwave. Imagine being able to stick a plate of food on a plate and have it warmed up. My dad had one of the first microwaves and I think he got it through a restaurant. That thing was HEAVY and took a few of us to lift. Now they're built in or lightweight.
Blow dryers......remember those machines with the big bonnet we wore over curlers to dry our hair?
There was a spray that we used to use to lighten our hair and it seemed almost everyone I knew used it. We got some funny color results from it....was it Sun In?
Streaking our hair....and then men started streaking theirs. 
Screw back earrings
Pantyhose! Oh what a change that was and a welcome one


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## Renee (Mar 27, 2008)

My son (who is now 14), saw his first black person (a waitress) when he was a couple years old in Kansas City. He wanted to know why she was "chocolate". And he said it in a loud voice for all to hear. 

Don't forget the introduction of Diet Soda! Was Tab the first diet soda??

And remember when VCR's came out, they cost about $800?? Now you can pick them up for $50!


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## JASHavanese (Apr 24, 2007)

I think Tab was the first diet soda and was pretty popular.
They keep changing electronics, probably to keep us spending money. The guy who lives behind me plays awesome old music that I love and the clarity is great. I asked him what CD he was listening to once and found out he plays records. He somehow 'fixes' the records to play so clear
My husband was telling me that when his brother was young he set up a record player in his car. I wonder why the needle didn't skip all over the place?


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## Renee (Mar 27, 2008)

If you have a good record player/needle, the quality is supposed to be even better than CD's. My husband is a music buff, so we still have many vinyl albums in the basement rec room. Not sure how that would work in a car? I'll have to ask DH if he's ever seen that!!


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## SMARTY (Apr 19, 2007)

JASHavanese said:


> Perverts were covered up back then, same with incest or rape. There was an underground network of really sick magazines, ones that if you saw today would make your hair curl. Your choices back then were staying and dealing with it or being put in juvenile hall or changing your birth certificate and getting married very young to get away. Kids were the property of the parent so everyone turned a deaf ear and blind eye to it. That's one area we've come a long way with but now it goes overboard with parents being afraid of child services. We still need to find a balance there.:


Perverts, incest and rape are still covered up a majority of the time. This underground nework you talk of now is in easy reach of anyone with a computer connected to the internet. For the majority of us time has not changed for the better in this direction.


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## JeanMarie (Mar 2, 2008)

I scored "Older than Dirt".....

ENJOY!


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. 'Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa 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, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, 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 AND 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, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger. 

I was 13 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. 

We didn't have a car until I was 15. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a 'machine.'

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 I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 
4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My 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. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them

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 tableside juke boxes 
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 greenstamps 
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 the bestpart of my life. 
Don't forget to pass this along!! Especially to all your reallyOLD friends..


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## Scooter's Family (May 23, 2008)

#17 gave me chills, like fingernails on a blackboard! I hated those things!!!


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## JeanMarie (Mar 2, 2008)

From my personal memories:

Always wearing a dress or shirt to school, even when it snowed. 
All adults were Mr or Mrs or Miss..you never called an adult by a first name.
Swinging out over a pond on the neighbors property from a tire swing....and letting go! (No one thought of sueing anyone!)
Walking everywhere...and I mean miles and miles. We never had "rides" to anywhere...unless it was a special occasion.
If you got in trouble at school...it was nothing compared to the trouble you got at home.
Guys had to take "shop" and their first project was making a paddle that was used on them if they acted up.
Guys shirts had to be "tucked" in and girls skirts were measured by having you kneel on the floor and that hem had better touch the floor!
My first transiter radio!
Getting a hoola hoop!
Going to the World's Fair in Seattle!
Herfy's drive-ins
Drive-in movies
My mom didn't let me go on a car date till I was 16...and never to a drive-in unless there was another couple...(Like that mattered!lol)

Oh my....


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## Redorr (Feb 2, 2008)

I forgot about the lack of Fast Food. My dad took us all to Arthur Treacher's fish place once after skiing. I might have been 12. That was my first fast food. I didn't have anything from McDonalds until I was in College. 

And we did have milk delivered in glass bottles. And dry cleaning picked up and delivered. I liked that. 

I rode in my first elevator when I was 6 and the whole family went to Toronto to see the musical "Oliver!". I can still sing every word. I was fascinated by anything that had people my age in it - so I was glued to the TV on Sundays for The King Family variety show. Loved them!


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## JASHavanese (Apr 24, 2007)

I found out I'm older than dirt. :Cry::Cry::Cry:

I remember getting a donut and coke on my way to jr high every day and going to I think it was Thrifty drug store and eating at their counter every Friday. They had a really cheap fish dinner that night and if I remember right, it was all you could eat. McDonald's was down the street from the donut place but I don't remember what year that was but I think it was one of their first places. Burgers for 15 cents!


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## Lunastar (Feb 9, 2009)

I remember gas being 50 cents a gallon. You could forever on 2 dollars. LOL


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## JASHavanese (Apr 24, 2007)

Lunastar said:


> I remember gas being 50 cents a gallon. You could forever on 2 dollars. LOL


There I go back to thinking I'm older than dirt. I remember it at 25 cents a gallon. I used to walk to the store every day to pick up dinner for my Mom or Gram to cook and had to walk past the gas station to get there.
Seems like when we're kids we love the smell of gas but when we get older it's not as great anymore.
I read a few years ago that the head of the patent office quit his job in the late 1800's because he said they'd gone so far that there was nothing left to invent. Imagine putting him into the world today :bounce:


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## Lunastar (Feb 9, 2009)

JASHavanese said:


> I read a few years ago that the head of the patent office quit his job in the late 1800's because he said they'd gone so far that there was nothing left to invent. Imagine putting him into the world today :bounce:


Wow, Yes he should see just how wrong he was. :doh:


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