Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favourite '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 'home,'' I explained. ! 'Mum cooked every day and when Dad 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 lad 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'd figured his system could have handled it: Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore jeans, set foot on a golf course, travelled out of the country or had a credit card. My parents never drove me to school... 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 17.. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at 10 PM, after playing the national anthem and epilogue; it came back on the air at about 6 am. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people... Pizzas were not delivered to our home... But milk was. All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the films. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or almost anything offensive. 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? How many do you remember? Headlight dip-switches on the floor of the car. Ignition switches on the dashboard. Trouser leg clips for bicycles without chain guards. Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner. Using hand signals for cars without turn indicators. Older Than Dirt Quiz: Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom 1. Sweet cigarettes, Fags 2. Coffee shops with juke boxes 3. Home milk delivery in glass bottles 4. Party lines on the telephone 5. Newsreels before the movie 6. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (There were only 2 channels [if you were fortunate]) 7. Peashooters 8. 33 rpm records 9. 45 RPM records 10. Hi-fi's 11. Metal ice trays with levers 12. Blue flashbulb 13. Cork popguns 14. Wash tub wringers If you remembered 0-3 = You're still young If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older If you remembered 7-10 = Don't tell your age If you remembered 11-14 = You're positively ancient! I must be 'positively ancient' but those memories are some of the best parts of my life. (PS. I used a large type face so you could read it easily)
Oh my god I'm positively ancient as I can remember just about all of them! I also remember when we got our first colour tele, I was eleven and my old man set it up so it was flickering on black and white, and then "adjusted" it to colour! I didn't notice to start with as I was too busy recalling my first football match for the school team.
Serving my apprenticeship as a joiner we never saw a single power tool on site and very few hand held power tools in the workshop. Now we have them I have to work twice as fast. Steve
I'm positively ancient I remember all of that too Though I'm more relaxed than my parents not that it's doing me any good in the long run Think I better start introducing some hardship into my kids lives
All of them.........and more.......like my Grandmother's mangle.....(I said 'mangle').......and the meat safe in the larder; paraffin stoves; spills to light the coal fires; a needle record player; 78 rpm records; Reveille newpsaper; torn up newspaper squares on a bit of string in the outside bog; Bronco bog paper.........and plenty more. I guess the OP must be about the same age as me, because he had the same life it seems..... PS.....I still have all my 33.3 rpm records and many 45's. AL
Before the MOT test ("10 year test") was introduced in 1960, there were loads of ancient pre-war vehicles still on the roads with rusted out floors, bald tyres, hardly any brakes, lights not working, you name it. I remember well my father had a 1936 Vauxhall which had been in a shunt at some time, so the chassis was bent - it couldn't easily be driven in a straight line. In 1960 these old death traps were all scrapped, and people could only drive cars which actually worked after that. Memories, eh.
A positively ancient 11/14, but then I can also get health insurance without any tests and a free Parker pen just for applying. On the plus side I can get fully comprehensive insurance on a Panigale for less than the price of its major service.
I know I'm getting old when I have to enter my date of birth when booking something on the tinternet, 1965 seems to take bloody lot of scrolling through the years!
I'm a bit younger than all of you, but I still remember the test cards and national anthem, sweet fags. My first tv was black and white and I had to turn a dial to tune it. Some of the op's values we have in my house though. We all eat as a family at meal times, if the boy doesn't want it he waits until we're finished. He soon gives in and eats. This is important to my wife and I. Some of our friends find it strange. He knows his please and thankyous and we make sure he uses them. A lot of people comment how polite he is, especially as he is only 4! Manners cost nothing, which is lost on some people now a days.
great thread, was listening to madness on the radio the other day, the nipper in the shop said I love madness, I said me too, saw them in concert in 79 , he said oh yeh, then said they werent around then they only been around a few years, nope same one I said lol , in 79 used to put 50 pence worth of petrol in my vespa 50 and last me all week, you could go in a newsagents and ask for 5 cigerettes and they would open a packet and take five out, or buy one if you where desperate, did anyone have the onion man call once a week on his bicycle and sell onions to you on your doorstep, Saturday matinees at the local cinema, funny the things you remember as a kid like all the blokes walking to the shipyard in the donkey jackets with flasks and lunch boxs, hardly any cars, just bicycles and Honda c90s
Interval before a film in the cinema started so the icecream lady could go round. Mmm raspberry ripple
I remember decimalisation - my pocket money changed and I had to pay for my copy of Jackie magazine in WHSmith with shiny new pence
My mom had a mangle, and a sewing machine operated by a foot treadle. I was fascinated by the mechanism. We used to keep milk bottles in a bucket of water in the pantry to keep it from going off. Many years before we got a t.v., fridge or 'phone (my dad would not have a 'phone installed, I had to pay for it myself after I started work). I'm definitely a member of the old farts club!!!
..and we though it was hilarious! I don't remember if it was Friday or Sunday nights, but we all used to go round to my grandparents to watch a compilation show of silent movies on the "family t.v." I think it was hosted by Michael Bentine.
