[jebartle]

Yipsters, have we got it made now. I think I remember "party lines"

[asianthree]

Originally Posted by jebartle

Yipsters, have we got it made now. I think I remember "party lines"

In small towns in the south we didn’t dial anyone just picked up the phone and if nobody was on it Mabel asked who you wanted to talk to. That was in 1969. Dr. Made house calls in those days, but it was most likely in our household. The shaman came to take care of whatever illness we had.

Very common in those small communities to have your family dead on a table in the front parlor window. So anyone who wanted to pay their respects, could do so from the outside or inside.

Even though our family owned the funeral parlor my aunts uncles great grandparents viewing was front parlor.

Then off to the church in special made box, then the trip to either the White, Black, or Red cemetery (I kid you not entrance wrought iron gate had those words above still remain today ) another service was performed

[ThirdOfFive]

Fantastic thread, and some great insights.

Trying to pinpoint a more-or-less common theme...most of what is posted was done with, or concerned, FAMILY. Some adversity brings families, and communities, closer together. In large part, that is something that the young of the Third Millennium don't have to experience. I don't think that that is necessarily a good thing.

[manaboutown]

Thank you OP for opening up a topic causing me to feel nostalgic. Although I was born in a hospital in a city in NJ my parents lived on a small farm just outside a small town. I don't remember much about it except we had a female German Shepherd very protective of me that my mother left under my baby carriage with me in it when she went into stores in town. Nobody messed with that dog. I was told salesmen used to walk in the back doors of farm houses so my grandmother who lived with us kept a leather jacket over a kitchen chair which she occasionally had to throw over the dog's head when it started to go for a salesman.

When I was three in 1945 we completed a move to Albuquerque, NM which was a community of about 30,000 back then. I remember meat was rationed, little red and blue tokens which were portions of one cent - mils? - and stamp books for savings (war) bonds. We had no car at first so took the bus or walked. I remember mowing the lawn with a push mower, our pediatrician visiting me at home a couple of times when I got sick, a mailman delivering milk, a man with vegetables from his farm driving an old Model T truck stopping on our block to sell them to homemakers, ice cream trucks, penny post cards, 3 cents for regular mail, 5 or 6 cents for airmail. We had a two party phone line, no A/C and the furnace was an old coal burning one converted to natural gas. The house which was built in 1906 had a coal bin in the basement where my mother stored all kinds of vegetables, relish, jams and jellies, and pickles she prepared and placed in Mason jars. Most people did not bother to lock their front doors but that changed over time.

[coralway]

From the original OP list, I recall number 8 only. We (my Dad and I) putting in the storm windows for the Winter. I also recall lugging up the rugs from the basement and laying them over the linoleum floors before the Winter cold. Then, my Dad and I visited my grandmas house and doing the same things in her house. Then, in the Spring, or whenever my Mom said so, reverse the process for the warmer weather.

[Michael G.]

Food for thought:



We grew up in the 40s-50s

We studied and dated in the 40s-50s-60s-70s.

We got married and discovered the world in the 50s-60s-70s-80s.

We ventured into the 70s-80s-90s.

We stabilized in the 90s-2000s.

We got wiser in the 2000s.

And went firmly through the 2010s.



Turns out we've lived through NINE different decades...

TWO different centuries..

TWO different millennia...



We have gone from the telephone with an operator for long-distance calls to video calls to anywhere in the world.



We have gone from slides to YouTube,

from vinyl records to online music,

from handwritten letters to email and WhatsApp...

from live matches on the radio, to black and white TV, and then to HDTV...



We went to Blockbuster and now we watch Netflix...

We got to know the first computers, punch cards, diskettes and now we have gigabytes and megabytes in hand on our cell phones or iPads...



We dodged infantile paralysis, meningitis, H1N1 flu and now COVID-19...



We rode skates, tricycles, bicycles, mopeds, gasoline or diesel cars and now we ride hybrids or 100% electric...



Yes, we've been through a lot, but what a great life we've had!



They could describe us as "exennials" people who were born in that world of the forties, who had an analog childhood and a digital adulthood.



We're kind of Ya-seen-it-all.



Our generation has literally lived through and witnessed more than any other in every dimension of life.



It is our generation that has literally adapted to "CHANGE".



A big round of applause to all the members of a very special generation, which are UNIQUE.



Here's a precious and very true message that I received from a friend:



TIME DOES NOT STOP

Life is a task that we do ourselves every day.



When you look... it's already six in the evening;

when you look... it's already Friday;

when you look... the month is over;

when you look... the year is over;

when you look... 50, 60, 70 and 80 years have passed!



Do not stop doing something you love due to lack of time.



Unfortunately, time never returns...



The day is today!

WE ARE NO LONGER AT AN AGE TO POSTPONE ANYTHING. LIVE YOUR LIFE TO THE FULLEST EVERY SINGLE DAY!

[manaboutown]

My father was born in 1898 and passed away in the early 1990s. Now he saw some changes!