You know you are getting old when ...

Bufford said:
Those black and white TVs that took a long time to warm up. First pull the 'on knob', then it would hum, followed by sound and then finally a fuzzy picture that became brighter after several minutes. Heck there were only a few channels, and most of them did not start broadcasting until later in the day. When I was a kid I thougt the test pattern on the screen was some kind of super gun used to keep the Russians away.

We used to play army, and sometimes yell out, 'The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming', and we played war games all after noon in the fields.

Of course one thing too was the great promise that started after WW2, at that point thought that things would only get better, and we would all work less. In school we were taught that by the year 2000 we would all be flying around in our little space ships. What happened to this great vision of promise?
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YEA! Where's MY personal Jet-Pack anyway??? Like the one that George Jetson used.
 
I'm "only" 40 and remember lots of these as well.

I remember bringing my shotgun to school on the bus, leaving it in the principals office (after he took it out and admired it) during the day and going to my buddy's place after school to hunt grouse, ducks, rabbits, or whatever. They let me keep my shells since they'd fit in the locker.

If I missed the bus home, I had to walk, 45 miles all the way home, but there was usually someone on the way through that would pick me up after four or five miles.

The importance of a good reputation was one I'd forgotten! Any of the adults in our community was free to correct or discipline anyone else's kids which was then reported back to the parents. If you had a good reputation, you could do just about anything without folks "watching out for you".
 
Driving along the radio would go out when you went under an over pass.
Made baseball exciting.

Windshield wipers that slowed down when you went up hill.

Knife sharpener guy with his push cart ringing his bell.

Plaid Stamps...Green Stamps too

Gas stations giving stuff away to get your business.
Dishes, toys, smokes.

And my all time favorite:
Ice Cream Parlors Chocolate Egg Creams....YUM :D
 
Iv'e got one!-remember the plastic piece you put over the b&w tv to make it color;)You know-blue on top green in the middle,crap don't remember the bottom,or maybe it was just blue and green.Been a while:grumpy:,anyone else remember that,or maybe i'm the oldest one here:(--Butch

Oh yeah,anyone else have a 45 rpm player in your car!
 
Yes on the screen thing but we didn't have a TV so we watched it on the neighbors. Iv'e seen the 45 rpm and a 33 rpm but never owned one. Has a 4 track in my 54 chevy tho.....lol. Anyone remember the little round doo-hickey that went on your car window as a cheapo air-conditioner...bout the size of a 10 inch wide tube about 2 feet long...you put water in it and pulled a string and wet air would come in your car while you drove...Hi falutin stuff in the late 40s.....lol. Every once in a while I'll see one at a car show but their prolly worth a zillion dollars now. How about Buster Brown shoes? Pluck your magic Twanger Froggy!!!

Seniors idea of Software - A comfortable undergarment.
 
Oh man! I rember most all of those things listed above am I that old?
I rember when a remote controled TV was like magic; it still was black and white though. It was a Zenith, the remote went "ping", no infared, it used sound to change channels.

And why can't I see without glasses now?::eek::rolleyes::(
 
I know I'm old when I remember that we used to go OUTSIDE to play. And not organized sports either. We just went outside and made our own entertainment - fishing, climbing trees, shooting BB guns, playing catch, riding bicycles ungodly distances just for the joy of riding. Our parents made us come inside to eat, then we would go back outside until it was time to go to bed. Lord, how I loved the summers.
 
T-BAG said:
Yes on the screen thing but we didn't have a TV so we watched it on the neighbors. Iv'e seen the 45 rpm and a 33 rpm but never owned one. QUOTE]

The 45 rpm records. I had stacks of those. I remember playing The Lion Sleeps Tonight by The Tokens, over and over and over.... so many times that it started driving my sister nuts, then my mother, until she confiscated it. I was really upset. Finally it was given back to me but if I wanted to play it loud I had to either close my room door and play it low, or go out in the garage.

Well in the garage I quickly learned that music sounds better, and the garage led on to many other things, the kind of stuff that my parents didn't need to know.:D
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Putting a matchbook under your 8-track tape to make it play right.

The only time you got to see a picture of a naked lady was if one of your friends could slip his Dad's Playboy out of the house.
 
akivory said:
Candy cigarettes
Wax coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside
Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
Hoola hoop contests
Buying milk from a vending machine for a quarter, with your penny change taped to the side
Coffee shops with tableside juke boxes
Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum
Home milk delivery in glass bottles, with cardboard stoppers
Party lines
Newsreels before the movie
P. F. Flyers
Butch wax
Telephone numbers with a word prefix .... (Drexel-5505
Peashooters
Howdy Doody
45 RPM Records
Green Stamps
Hi-fi's
Metal ice cube trays with levers
Mimeograph paper
Blue flash bulbs
Beanie and Cecil
Roller skate keys
Cork pop guns
Drive ins
Studebakers
Wash Tub wringers
The Fuller Brush man
Reel-to-reel tape recorders
Phonographs
The "twist", "mashed potatoes", and "funky-chicken"
Tinkertoys
The Erector Set
The Fort Apache Playset
Lincoln Logs
15 cent McDonald hamburgers & 10 cent fries
5 cent packs of baseball cards..... with that slab of pink bubblegum
penny candy
35 cent-a-gallon gasoline
When the first man walked on the moon
When Elvis Presley first appeared on the Ed Sullivan show
When the Beatles arrived
When the Barbie doll hit the scene
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All of them plus.....

The ice delivery truck
The man who came around the neighborhood sharpening knives and scissors
The bread deilvery man
Gas at 18 cents per gallon (not that long ago)
penny candy
Xray machines at department stores to show how shoes fit before buying
Saturday mantinee's with double features, serials and cartoons
Innersanctom
Fibber McGee & Molly
Dragnet
Amos and Andy
Buster Brown
etc., etc.
 
Bastid said:
OK looked them over again. Who were Beanie and Cecil?
:D.
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Here ya go Gus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beany_and_Cecil

"I'm coming Beany Boy!"

So many fond memories from this thread. I was trying to explain to the younger guys at work that they missed the Golden Age of Free Love, the time after the Birth Control Pill and before AIDS. :cool:

Already mentioned was the color overlay to turn your B&W tv into color, but how many remember the Winky Dinky & You tv show where with a plastic overlay on your tv screen you could draw on your tv to complete puzzels? I sent away for the kit, but couldn't wait so I just drew on the tv screen with my Crayollas.

My favorite tv promotion was from Sgt. Preston of the Yukon where you could send away and purchase one square inch of land in the Yukon. I've got to find that Deed, because I still plan to build my retirement dream home on that land. I just hope none of my neighbors are too close. ;)
 
The Three Stooges.

"I'm trying to think, but nothing happens!"

Nyuk nyuk nyuk
 
akivory said:
Candy cigarettes
Wax coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside
Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
Hoola hoop contests
Buying milk from a vending machine for a quarter, with your penny change taped to the side
Coffee shops with tableside juke boxes
Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum
Home milk delivery in glass bottles, with cardboard stoppers
Party lines
Newsreels before the movie
P. F. Flyers
Butch wax
Telephone numbers with a word prefix .... (Drexel-5505
Peashooters
Howdy Doody
45 RPM Records
Green Stamps
Hi-fi's
Metal ice cube trays with levers
Mimeograph paper
Blue flash bulbs
Beanie and Cecil
Roller skate keys
Cork pop guns
Drive ins
Studebakers
Wash Tub wringers
The Fuller Brush man
Reel-to-reel tape recorders
Phonographs
The "twist", "mashed potatoes", and "funky-chicken"
Tinkertoys
The Erector Set
The Fort Apache Playset
Lincoln Logs
15 cent McDonald hamburgers & 10 cent fries
5 cent packs of baseball cards..... with that slab of pink bubblegum
penny candy
35 cent-a-gallon gasoline
When the first man walked on the moon
When Elvis Presley first appeared on the Ed Sullivan show
When the Beatles arrived
When the Barbie doll hit the scene
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OK... So what if I remember pretty much all of that?Are you saying I'm old just because my kids are teenagers and they know more than I do?LOL.I remember life as cheaper and easier and closer to home.I just don't remember needing so much stuff that cost so much.And if I get it right....my kids will know it too.:)
 
I'm going to start this off with I'm 17. I remember when I was in elementary school probably 4th grade through 6th grade. My dad ran a tutoring center about 5 miles from our house he would pick me up and bring me there and let me roam around the area. I made friends with a mechanic at a shell station in the area he let me operate the hydraulic car lift, and he gave me my first ever maglite. Construction workers around the area would talk to you and give you cool looking metal scraps to play with. Even since then in only 5-10 years things have changed too much. I can't imagine how it feels to have remembered all the stuff some of the older fellows here have.

And for the record my father being nearly 60 now has kept a lot of old stuff, stories about the past, we still own technics and pioneer audio stuff from over 30 years ago, and it works fine, we have records and I can listen to them, cassettes were the only way to go and both of our cars only play cassettes and the radio. It's certainly a new age, best to embrace it the best you can than wish for the past again.

Cheers.
 
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