Remember When

[rblammon]

I am wondering what you remember growing up that the children today will probably never hear or see. I am thinking the sound of the dinner bell to call us home for lunch, or eaves dropping on your neighbor on a rotary dial party line phone. What say you?

[seashorecaroline]

I used to love listening in on the phone party line!!!! :1rotfl:

[2BNTV]

Having to physically get up to change the television station. :)

[Posh 08]

The milkman delivering.

[hockyb]

I would get my gasoline tank filled, the oil changed, and a lubrication. Then they would give me my change -- $.50 from a $5.00 bill!!!

[BogeyBoy]

Bakery truck - Mom going out to see today's baked goods.

Frozen cream on top of milk left on the back porch step.

[DandyGirl]

A real ice cream truck like Mr. Softee where you got cones, sundaes and banana splits...not popsicles.

[2BNTV]

The ice man delivering ice for ice boxes. :)

P.S. I know it's grammatically incorrect to use the same word in a sentence two or three times.

[ladylake1]

The egg man with farm fresh eggs and in the summer farm fresh produce he grew. Those were the days!!!!!!

[BogeyBoy]

This would be considered very dangerous in today's world:

A farm truck would pass our house with a load of peas, still in the pods and still attached to vines. We would stand by the side of the road and grab a vine as the truck passed, fresh peas were a great mid-afternoon snack. (We had already consumed all of the candy and soda allocated for that day.)

[2BNTV]

I remember a salesman selling shirts, sweaters out of the trunk of his car.

[Bill-n-Brillo]

Gasoline at 19.9 cents/gal. I could fill up my VW Bug for $2!

Bill :)

[Barefoot]

I am wondering what you remember growing up that the children today will probably never hear or see. I am thinking the sound of the dinner bell to call us home for lunch, or eaves dropping on your neighbor on a rotary dial party line phone. What say you?

I was raised in a small village of 600 people and have wonderful childhood memories. I remember calling the phone operator to ask for my girlfriend's number. And having the operator say "Anne isn't home, she is visiting Judy, do you want me to ring her there?"

At night we'd play outside games, like Red Light, Green Light, until it got dark and our mothers yelled for us to come home.

In the winter we'd get boxes from the local hardware store and use them to toboggan down the hills. Our noses would be running and our fingers would
be freezing, but we'd keep sliding down the hills until we were forced to go home.

[ladydoc]

The neighborhood candy store by your grammar school. Remember those strips of little dot candies and the bulls eyes?

[mrsanborn]

Having to physically get up to change the television station. :)

with a pair of plyers!

[coralway]

The Good Humor man.

http://gothamist.com/attachments/nyc_arts_john/051308goodhumor.jpg

[downeaster]

Anybody remember the "big little books"? They predated comic books.

And then there were WPA, CCC, and ration books.

Knickers? I believe the Brits call them "plus fours".

[2BNTV]

The neighborhood candy store by your grammar school. Remember those strips of little dot candies and the bulls eyes?

Penny candies.

[Bill-n-Brillo]

'Rabbit ears' for television reception, complete with tin foil! (My dad was the best at it!) :pepper2:

Bill :)

[villages07]

Yellow Top Value or green S&H stamps. Got stamps for your purchases, pasted them into a book, and once you accumulate so many you could trade them in for a prize. Maybe even had to send away for the prize?

Remember ordering stuff by mail from catalogs and waiting six weeks or more for it to arrive?

[Bill-n-Brillo]

Yellow Top Value or green S&H stamps. Got stamps for your purchases, pasted them into a book, and once you accumulate so many you could trade them in for a prize. Maybe even had to send away for the prize?.......

I remember going to local Top Value and/or S&H stores - actual brick-and-mortar stores! - with my mom when she'd redeem her full stamp books. She got TONS of stuff!!!

I think you might be right - after a while, the stores went away and I believe you then had to send away for things.

Bill :)

[Bonny]

Playing Red Rover, Tag & Hide & Seek. Saturday afternoons at the Roller Skating Rink. :laugh:

[batman911]

$.25 movie, $.10 grape sodas, watching the World Series on a B&W TV at the local VFW with my Dad and his friends on a Saturday afternoon, my first portable transistor radio, roller skates with keys, riding our bicycles with cane fishing poles to a stream for some fish'in on a lazy summer day.

[coralway]

ace, king, queen

[jblum315]

Trolley cars. I believe Richmond, Va., where I grew up, had the first commercial electric tram lines in the entire country. They lasted from 1888 to 1949.

[Posh 08]

Trolley cars. I believe Richmond, Va., where I grew up, had the first commercial electric tram lines in the entire country. They lasted from 1888 to 1949.

Do you remember the RF&P Railroad?

[angiefox10]

Naw.... It was all before my time! :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

[2BNTV]

I remember a coal delivery man shoveling coal onto a chute going into the basement of a house so it be used for the furnace.

[mrfixit]

I remember a coal delivery man shoveling coal onto a chute going into the basement of a house so it be used for the furnace.

...ME too. OUR coal-man had a Dray-wagon with a BIG sign that read........ " C. COLE and BE WARM " "Ph. 9-6055". That IS right ...only 5 digits in the Phone number in our town. The owner was Mrs. C. COLE and she sold COAL. The Dray was pulled by 2 giant (to me) horses. YUP...then my job was to shovel the coal to the furnace (as needed) ...and...haul out the "clinkers" after the coal was burned...I would smash the clinkers to dust--in the garden. DANG things grew big where the clinkers went. I THOUGHT I was a "BIG SHOT" because I was responsible to keep the house warm. When I was 11 we switched to natural gas. ......Today it would probably be considered "child abuse" to have a "little-shaver" like me open the "hot pot" and shovel in the coal. ....ME.....from 6 to 11 yo ....I thought i was "THE MAN"

[2BNTV]

...ME too. OUR coal-man had a Dray-wagon with a BIG sign that read........ " C. COLE and BE WARM " "Ph. 9-6055". That IS right ...only 5 digits in the Phone number in our town. The owner was Mrs. C. COLE and she sold COAL. The Dray was pulled by 2 giant (to me) horses. YUP...then my job was to shovel the coal to the furnace (as needed) ...and...haul out the "clinkers" after the coal was burned...I would smash the clinkers to dust--in the garden. DANG things grew big where the clinkers went. I THOUGHT I was a "BIG SHOT" because I was responsible to keep the house warm. When I was 11 we switched to natural gas. ......Today it would probably be considered "child abuse" to have a "little-shaver" like me open the "hot pot" and shovel in the coal. ....ME.....from 6 to 11 yo ....I thought i was "THE MAN"

You are da man!!!! :)

I thought I would be the only who remembered the coal man when I posted.

I remember my grandmother being the first one to have a refrigerator instead of an ice box. I remember telling her I was thirsty and she got a glass of water that she stored in the frig.

Funny how I still do the same thing today. [/B]

Kids today's reaction would be, "what do you mean there were no refrigerators". :a20:

[2BNTV]

I remember my grandmother using a washing board to wash clothes and then ringing them out on a roller type device. Then she hung them up on the clothes line by the back porch.

This was before washing and drying machines were invented.

Darn, I'm feeling old.

[jblum315]

Do you remember the RF&P Railroad?

Of course I do. Loved the Richmond train station.

[eweissenbach]

Lived in a small town of about 700 in rural Missouri. Every Saturday nite in the summer we had a free movie in the city park. I would walk 1 mile to town and buy a quart Vess cola for $.15 at Sterle and Myrtle's Jot-em-down store, and watch a tarzan or other semi-current flick, then walk back home, sometimes alone, sometimes with my cousin, at 11 PM. That was the forerunner to nightly entertainment at the squares!

[Barefoot]

Do you remember the first time you ever watched TV? My father brought home a new television, no colour of course, and we watched I Love Lucy!

[eweissenbach]

Do you remember the first time you ever watched TV? My father brought home a new television, no colour of course, and we watched I Love Lucy!

Actually I don't remember NOT having a television. My dad owned a bar and grill and bought a TV for it when they first began broadcasting in Omaha, and bought one for our home at the same time, 1947/48 when I was either one or two years old.

[2BNTV]

Do you remember the first time you ever watched TV? My father brought home a new television, no colour of course, and we watched I Love Lucy!

I first saw a 6 inch Philco television when my uncle had his buddies over for a beer to watch the World Series and I remember looking up from playing with a truck on the floor and seeing Joe DiMaggio saunter under a fly ball.

Color came a while later and the big thing was watching the map of Bonanza burning up and The Wonderful World of Disney.

Who would thunk disneyland for adults was in our future.:)

[rblammon]

I remember going to Tidkeys department store in downtown Toledo, Ohio. I would go over to the elavator and push the button on the wall. Soon the doors would open up and a man would ask me, What floor please. Also the two hole outhouse. :cold:

[Mikeod]

The drug store in the center of town had cokes for $0.05. If you wanted a vanilla coke or cherry coke, it was an extra nickel.

Remember getting an encyclopedia one volume a week at the grocery store?

Of course, don't try to explain to a current grandchild about using 78 or 45 rpm records or stacking 33's on a turntable spindle. All you'll get is a strange look.

[JimPete]

Do you remember the first time you ever watched TV? My father brought home a new television, no colour of course, and we watched I Love Lucy!

Yes. A friend's father brought one home and we stood and looked through their window while they got it going. It was a while before my parents got one. But even then, we spent far more time outside than setting in front of the tube.

The big thing for us was when dad took us all to the drive-in movies.

[JimPete]

I remember going to Tidkeys department store in downtown Toledo, Ohio. I would go over to the elavator and push the button on the wall. Soon the doors would open up and a man would ask me, What floor please. Also the two hole outhouse. :cold:

I've used an out house. We always had indoor facilities but a few of my relatives didn't.

[tippyclubb]

I miss the smell of burning leaves.

Every fall we go out and rake up 30 or more bags of leaves and it always reminds me of being a child. Way back then we would rake them to the street ( after jumping in the huge piles first ) and set them on fire. I would love to smell burning leaves again.

[deanna1950]

I remember, brother Mom knew we could hear that dinner bell where ever we were and we better get home

[chuckinca]

Stevenson's Bowling Alley with two lanes in the basement of the Kresge's five and dime on 79th St near Cottage Grove on the Chicago South Side.


.

[mrfixit]

I miss the smell of burning leaves.

Every fall we go out and rake up 30 or more bags of leaves and it always reminds me of being a child. Way back then we would RAKE THEM TO THE STREET and SET THEM ON FIRE. I would love to smell burning leaves again.

...DANG.....so that is what I was supposed to do with them.....HECK...I would use my HIGH-PRESSURE washer and blow them over to the edge of the tree farm........no mess, no dust, no air pollution..the lawn looked like it had just been gone over with a carpet cleaner and then vacuumed........ the leaves turned into topsoil the next year....Of course, where we lived you'd get a $ 400. fine if you burned them.

[redwitch]

Flying from Europe (Germany, I think) to the U.S. and having to stop in Ireland and, I believe, Greenland to refuel. There was no way for the planes to make it across the Atlantic non-stop. And, of course, the entire flight took over 14 hours.

My Kentucky hills grandmother was, to put it mildly, very frugal. Rather than buying coal all of the grandkids would go out very early on Saturday morning and grab the coal on the railroad tracks, put it in buckets and lug it to her house.

My favorite memory as a child was making a lunch, taking it out in a paper bag and just goofing around in the woods or with friends. I'd come home when the sun was starting to set, eat dinner and then back outside to play kick the can or hide n seek (except on Sunday night when Wonderful World of Disney and The Ed Sullivan Show was on).

How about sneaking transistor radios into school to listen to the world series?

[hedoman]

Having to physically get up to change the television station. :)

My brothers and I were the "remote control" for dad and the television

Penny candy stores

Walking to school

The old station wagon (NO SUVs) When we got a 2nd car we had "arrived" and we were "somebody"

When the only color tv show was Walt Disney's Wonderfull Wrold of Color

TV soaps that actually were sponsored by a soap company

Mom blowing the boat whistle and we had better come running

Rope swing over the river

and the list goes on........

[jblum315]

I've used an out house. We always had indoor facilities but a few of my relatives didn't.

We had an outhouse. It was completely surrounded by crepe myrtle and I once walked into a hornets nest outside it. Needless to say I never made it inside.

[CaptJohn]

Gasoline at 19.9 cents/gal. I could fill up my VW Bug for $2!

Bill :)

Same here. Good ole gas wars! Regular price 25 cents a gallon.
Also my country aunt's double seater outhouse, mules and chicken house complete with wood stump for cutting off their heads. Oh yeah, and that pie safe in her kitchen corner full of fresh baked from scratch pies!
Then there was playing behind the fogger truck spraying for mosquitos, probably using DDT which killed the bald eagles.

[mgjim]

Penny candy...the outhouse in sub-zero weather...Saturday baths (we had to carry our own water).

And I'm young.

[JimPete]

This time of year we checked the mail every day looking for the Sears toy catalog and then spent days studying every page while we made our Christmas wish list.

[KYWildcat]

How about the sand lot baseball games that we would play all day.

[2BNTV]

How about stick ball in the streets using a broom handle and a Spaulding type ball.

They say Willie Mays was a three sewer man. :)

[islandgal]

jblum315-
I grew up in Richmond too and remember frequently going to the beautiful and opulent Byrd theater
that was initially built in the 20's for silent movies. (Hey, I don't remember them!!)
Remember the huge Wurlitzer Organ that was, and still is, played before each film?

[jblum315]

jblum315-
I grew up in Richmond too and remember frequently going to the beautiful and opulent Byrd theater
that was initially built in the 20's for silent movies. (Hey, I don't remember them!!)
Remember the huge Wurlitzer Organ that was, and still is, played before each film?

Do you remember the Mosque theater? They had live performances, magicians, operas, wonderful stuff. Loved the Byrd Theater too.

[mac9]

We had a "rag" man that would drive his horse-drawn wagon around the neighborhood yelling "rag-man." My mother would go out with old clothes and sheets. He would weigh them and pay a penny a pound for them. He was kind of creepy and my mother would threaten to sell us to the rag man when we misbehaved. Mom had such a sense of humor!

[Posh 08]

For you ladies from Richmond. Remember Thalhimers and Miller & Rhoads. The Tea Room. Christmas time at those stores were really special.

[islandgal]

It is so nice to hear from people from Richmond - haven't met anyone from there in the five years I have been here in TV.
jblum315 - my high school (TJ) graduation was at the Mosque.
Posho8 - Happy memories of lunch in the Tea Room and visiting Santa at Miller & Rhoads.
M&R is now a lovely hotel I have been told.

[2BNTV]

I remember playing with an empty box. Making a quasi fort out of it.

Today's kids would be looking to see if anything is in the box and if it is empty say, "where's the toy". :)

[PennBF]

- Building an ice sail boat out of old skates and going pretty fast across the
lake.
- Going to bed with an oil lamp (farm house)
- Gathering wood for my grandmother to cook on the stove. Great fresh
breakfast. Would go down by the barn and get fat back from the barrels.
- Going to the out house in the winter when it was freezing.
- Planting veg, (e.g.patotes, etc.) with a team of horses when very young.
- Pitching hay and playing in the hay in the barns.
- Milking the cows and drinking fresh milk directly from the cows.
- Going to the movies once a week and getting excited with the weekly western serials..
- Picking cherries and always trying to get the sweet trees as opposed to the sour cherries..
- Slopping the pigs
- Listening to "Mr District Attorney" or the "Green Hornet" on the radio
And so forth..

It was a great life as are the Villages with a little different twist. In those days vicks was a major medical treatments with the Doctor coming out and saying no problem it will pass and it did.
Hope we all know how lucky we are to have made it this far and enjoying as the movie title said "The Wonderful Life".:wave:

[Walt.]

Eating Shredded Wheat just to get the Straight Arrow cards in each box.
Getting pictures of movie stars on dixie cup lids.
Hearing the annoying "Melrose 5 5 three hundred " jingle being sung for years on the radio. It was the phone number of a furniture store in the Bronx.

[2BNTV]

Getting a prize in a box of crackerjacks.

My uncle used to yell at other drivers, "where do you get your license in a box of crackerjacks"? :)