Do you remember when?

rondetto
rondetto Member Posts: 2,526
edited 31. Jan 2010, 14:48 in Community Chit-chat archive
Someone asked me 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 'at 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 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 jeans , set foot on a golf course, holidayed 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).

I remember we had a television which was really a piece of polished furniture, the screen seemed about 6” square (that is 150mm in new money).
It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people...

I never had a telephone in my room.The only phone 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 --my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. He had to get up at 6AM every morning.

Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most 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.

My first burger was a “Wimpey”, however, you had to sit down on a chair, at a table. Then a waitress asked you politely, ”what would you like”. Your food was brought to you on a plate and you were also provided with a “knife and fork”. But the strange thing is……you paid for it after you had eaten it!!!!


Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

How many do you remember?


Headlight dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches were on the dashboard and there was a magazine shelf underneath.
Using hand signals for cars without indicators.
You had to pull the “choke” out to start the engine
MOT’s hadn’t been invented.
One license covered everything on wheels.
Bicycle clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.

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
2.Coffee bars with juke boxes
3.Home milk delivery in glass bottles
4. Party lines on the telephone
5.Newsreels before the main feature film
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 3 channels [if you were fortunate])
7. Peashooters
8. Andy Pandy
9. 78 RPM records
10. Hi-fi's
11. Tin Baths
12. Blue flashbulb
13. Cork popguns
14. Wolsley, Riley, Austin, Morris, Triumph and Vanden plas, made Motor Cars
15.. Sweets actually filled the wrappers
16. Washing machines with 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 11-15 =You're older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.

Comments

  • moonseed
    moonseed Member Posts: 289
    edited 30. Jan 2010, 09:47
    You forgot Muffin the Mule and ribbons in my hair
    Balloons with nets hanging from them to catch the gerry planes
    Starting handle on my Morris Minor
    Pathenon News at the Cinema
    9d seats at the cineman (the back row)
    6d for a Hovis loaf of bread (equivalent to 2 1/2p in today's money)
    conductors on buses
    trams
    RATION BOOKS
    POWDERED EGGS
    MARGERINE
    And it always snowed in the winter every year

    Can't think of any more at the moment. You've done that already.
    Good on ya!!!
    Steph

    PS Board games like snakes & ladder, ludo
    Leather lace-up foot balls
    skipping ropes
    five stones
    the horse and cart that delivered our milk who I followed to pick up his droppings in a bucket to put on our vegetable patch.
    the chimney sweep
    the coal man
    The HUGE wooden ringer in the air raid shelter that I had to ring the sheets with
    cleaning out the grate
  • joyful164
    joyful164 Member Posts: 2,401
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    It was just Fish and Chips fast food
    Use to go to the pictures for 9d. and 3d. of chips on the way home.
    lovely

    joy
  • chris7
    chris7 Bots Posts: 2,696
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    OMG Ron

    I'm older than dirt and not yet quite 50 :shock: Perhaps I just have a good memory?
    Had a good laugh at this, yes we ate altogether at the table and had to ask permission to leave the table before helping with the washing up! You most definately did not eat in the street! mum would have had a fit. :roll: :roll:
    We also had the twin tub washer and the radiogram which looked like a coffin, not forgetting the essential glass cabinet for the posh cups!! Oh and the fun we had with that party line too :lol:
    Happy days indeed.
    Chris :wink:
  • bertyboy
    bertyboy Member Posts: 1,860
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    thanks for the memories
    :D memories for me are going over the hill to the farm to fetch the milk in a billy can chickens in nearly every back garden , country dancing at the vicarage after the bring and buy sale , real nativity playsat school and church , sing some thing simple on a sunday tea time and of cause the ARCHERS on the radio the only fast food were the mobile butcher and grocer , and the icecream van happy days
    I know i am a lady ,all life is a journey xx MAY xx
  • barbara12
    barbara12 Member Posts: 21,280
    edited 30. Jan 2010, 10:58
    OMG i am older then I thought :!: That is brilliant Ron
    Glad you mentioned wimpey my grandkids would not believe me that it came on aplate :lol:
    Barbara x
    Love
    Barbara
  • annie_mial
    annie_mial Member Posts: 5,614
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I remember being sent down to the Jug and Bottle for a pint of vinegar - and I also remember getting clipped round the ear for drinking some on the way home :!:
    Also going to the grocer's for half a dozen cracked eggs, broken biscuits and real cheese with a rind!

    Annie
  • valval
    valval Member Posts: 14,911
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    you forgot the old boiler in the kitchen to heat water to wash clothes in, gass poker to light fire, toasting fork, space hopper,aztec chocolate bars, parafin delivered to door, buns and bread as well . rag and bone man . am i only 48 lol back and white telly .atari comp game
    val
  • annie_mial
    annie_mial Member Posts: 5,614
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    My grandad, who always wore a cap, even indoors..........he only ever took it off when he went to bed and then it hung on the bedpost. If he ever woke in the night the first thing he did was put it on again..........he was a Cockney, a real one...........

    Annie
  • annie_mial
    annie_mial Member Posts: 5,614
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Making 'camps' on the common, my favourite seat in the apple tree where I could read without interruption, my mum's homemade soup in the winter and hot pennies so that we could thaw a peephole in the ice on the inside of the window in the winter.

    Annie
  • kathbee
    kathbee Member Posts: 934
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Hi Ron

    Memories eh?

    I remember all 16 so I am def older than dirt.

    Hey, and I was an Ovaltiney.
    It was on Sunday night radio?

    Kath
  • bertyboy
    bertyboy Member Posts: 1,860
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    codliver oil and malt every morning dont know why but still love the taste today , watch with mother ,emergancy ward 10 , dr Kildare ,
    I know i am a lady ,all life is a journey xx MAY xx
  • barbara12
    barbara12 Member Posts: 21,280
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Does anyone remember having the box fitted to the TV in the 1950s to receive bbc 1 or 2 not sure.
    Love
    Barbara
  • annie_mial
    annie_mial Member Posts: 5,614
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Definitely Emergency Ward 10, but before that Round the Horne, Educating Archie and of course, The Goons........

    ........and Tiger Nuts

    Annie
  • barbara12
    barbara12 Member Posts: 21,280
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    The best invention was the penny arrow, do they still do them I wounder :?: 20p arrow.
    Love
    Barbara
  • tkachev
    tkachev Member Posts: 8,332
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I just remember walking everywhere for miles and until the sun set even from age 3/4.I remember learning the words to I am the Walrus and yellow submarine when they were new records.Playing in the woods without fear of gangs(we would all play together if met new children).Leaving my window open all night,Bunty and Tiger magazines,sugared mice with long string tails.......

    Elizabeth
    Never be bullied into silence.
    Never allow yourself to be made a victim.
    Accept no ones definition of your life

    Define yourself........

    Harvey Fierstein
  • barbara12
    barbara12 Member Posts: 21,280
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Oh I used to get bunty, my first one had a ladybird ring in it. Playing in the middle of the road, has there wern't any cars, well not many.
    Love
    Barbara
  • tkachev
    tkachev Member Posts: 8,332
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Bunty was great. Bella Barlow the gymnast was my favourite and the four marys....field,cotter,radleigh and Simpson( hope I remembered that correctly)

    Elizabeth
    Never be bullied into silence.
    Never allow yourself to be made a victim.
    Accept no ones definition of your life

    Define yourself........

    Harvey Fierstein
  • rondetto
    rondetto Member Posts: 2,526
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I remember having The Beazer comic.
    We used to go to the pictures on a Saturday morning to see The Three Stooges and a western film.
  • trisher
    trisher Member Posts: 9,263
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I can just remember Christmas.

    We made paper chains, we got the strips and licked the end and put through the loop then stuck them togeather. We carried on doing that until they reached from one corner to the other.

    The candles we clipped them on the branches of the tree, I cannot remember if they were lit or not.
  • annie_mial
    annie_mial Member Posts: 5,614
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I remember them Trish and they are still around if you know where to look - I still buy them for my grandchildren and ship them off to NZ!
    I remember the candles, too, wonder if those tin candlesticks are still around, must have a look in my favourite junk shop!

    Annie
  • babette
    babette Member Posts: 128
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Hi
    Like collywobble I remember popping massive tar bubbles in the road during the summer of '76/77. My granny made the evaporated milk and jelly concoction - she called it fluff!

    I remember the test card and that strange dot that took ages to disappear from the screen when progammes ended for the day. Childrens telly only lasted for about an hour before tea and that was it - oh and it was in black and white on a very small screen and you had to play with the tuning dial and ariel for ages before you could get a decent picture.

    My partner fondly remembers aztec bars although no one else seems to; he will be delighted to know he's not alone! Who can forget cremola foam and eating jelly cubes/cooking chocolate in lieu of real sweeties either because a) real sweeties were too dear and were thus an extravagance only to be had by going for the messages or b) the shops were all shut as nothing was open beyond five o'clock. As you might have guessed I scored quite highly in this quiz.

    Bx
  • bertyboy
    bertyboy Member Posts: 1,860
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    isnt it amazing that just a word can bring back so many happy memories thank you all
    I know i am a lady ,all life is a journey xx MAY xx