I remember a time when a "SODA" was also refered to as a "FLOAT", and to get A&W root beer - we had to go to a Drive-In (Just after they did away with the littler places that were shaped like a root beer barrel).

I wonder if there still are places where I can get a Coke, with a big ball of ice cream floating in it, with nuts and syrup, and a little cherry on the top? Wouldn't that be wild....

There used to be a Drive-In restaurant on highway 51 near Munford in Tennessee, but the last time I was back home it had become a used car lot, unfortunately. I liked that place; they even had waitresses hired from the local middle and highschools that came around with the trays while on roller skates!

Well, most of them. Some had roller blades...

No - I'm not going to devolve this into a standard "What's wrong with the world we live in?" rant. But it does interest me that things from the old days like that, which stick in my mind, seem to have disappeared without anyone attempting a newer more up to date version.

-Although I can hear it already:

"You want what in your soda? Think of all that processed sugar! Your glucose levels will be out of this world..."

Yep. ( he says confidently ) And don't forget they rot your teeth out, too...

Man, those things were wonderful!

I would be willing to bet that if there was a service station in California where a half dozen guys in nineteen fifties service station uniforms came running out and surrounded a customers car (Let's not forget the 'Joe Friday Highway Patrolman' hats either now) - washing windows, checking the oil, wiping down the dust on the car, and checking the tire pressures, half the customers would be hiding under their dashpanels waiting until it was safe to leave...

And all of those things are right there on the old advertisements we sometimes find on the internet, or in old books and magazines. What an incredible business opportunity if someone were to pick up on it, and give it a run.

Sometimes I look at the current gas prices and think about that. Then I shrug, get out of my petroleum guzzling monster and go fill the tank myself. Such is the twenty first century.

But I swear - if I found a gas station doing that in this day and age I would forgive them their prices in a heartbeat!

It would be worth it to stop into a place like that once in a while just to half close my eyes and perhaps think: "Yeah, this just might be the good old days"

But in those good old days - things seemed so much less expensive because we tend to forget that wages were much less also. And the cost of everything has pretty much followed the average income through all the years, and so I can't help wondering -

Why DON'T businesses model some of the nicer things from an earlier time? After all: "A JOB IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE"

And frankly - such an enterprise could be a lot like running something on the order of a small ( a very small! ) Disneyland.


Can anyone else think of some of the "Golden" things from times past?

Please share them???

*coughs*

Okay~

"PRETTY PLEASE WITH A CHERRY ON TOP!"

*grins*

~ There! I said it!


~Wolf

 

'round here they just started opening "A&W" resturants. Usually combined with a K.F.C. but they serve root beer floats.

 

A little off the subject, but something that came to my mind while reading Greywolf's post......
I remember when I was a kid, the 600 or so miles from Birmingham to Daytona Beach was a BIG deal. I don't remember there being as much in the way of Interstates in the late 60's, and the trip meant lots of 2-lane hiways and lots of "how much further" questions.
Funny, one thing we all take for granted wasn't around back then...the fast food drive through. So, we'd stop at the road side parks and rest areas and have a picnics. I don't ever remember worrying about "wasting too much time" stopping to eat. It was all just part of the trip. It was always the middle of summer so it HAD to have been as hot as blue blazes, but I don't remember the heat - I just remember the fun.
The fun we had when we got there! The Boardwalk and arm wrestling the "muscle man" who was made of iron and you you had to feed him a quarter and see how many lights you could make light up. Skee-ball, cotton candy and salt water taffey. Playing on the beach and playing Shuffle Board. Do people - especially KIDS! - still play Shuffle Board??
Now days it seems video games, Game Boy and cable TV are all as necessary as clean clothes. Heaven forbid that a trip be undertaken without lots of fresh batteries and a goodly selection of Game Boy cartridges. Heck, you can even watch the latest movie on DVD in air conditioned comfort while riding down the road!
Stopping for lunch now means a quick exit from the Interstate, hitting a Wendy's drive-thru, gassing up and back on the road. I remember dad buying gas on the trips to the beach, and some guy came out from inside the building and pumped it for us - just like Greywolf mentioned.

No, there's nothing "better" about the trip when I was a kid, and there's nothing "worse" when the trip is made now days. I just wonder if MY son will remember our trips with the same degree of fondness I remember those of my childhood. Or, has life become so full and "entertaining" (thanks to all the electronic gadgetry, Internet, etc. etc.) that what was a "VACATION" for me as a kid, amounts to a "trip" for him?

I hope he's as lucky as I was. I hope he doesn't remember playing his Game Boy riding down the road, and I hope he DOES remember...."Hey dad, you remember that time we went on vacation to ......."

 

Hey Dutch,

Let me help you re-live those days, I miss them too.

 

Brian - you just reminded me of something:

I think I will always remember a vacation I went on to Saint Augustine Florida in the seventies with someone elses family.

The things that stand out in my mind the most are these:

Walking around in the restored Williamsburg Virginia, with people all in costume, and imagining how things were made at the time.

Camping out near Jamestown - and the fireflies at night!

The smell of wood in the firepit at the camp...
It connects me in some way to all of those other evenings I camped out, and each time I go camping all of those memories come back because of the smell of the wood smoke.

Perhaps this is why smoke is sacred to native americans? A smell can transport me in an instant to someplace years away....

The smell of the tanning oil we used in Florida also makes me think of all these things, and the little medallion on a chain I bought for my mother at a gift booth, which was made from butterfly wings so I was told, and was a small oval picture of a palm tree at a beach. -Yet in brilliant colors!!!

Ripleys (Believe it or Not) Museum, and wandering through it looking at vaguely disturbing things...

And many hours talking back and forth in the big van that we were driving down there in, with a pop-up trailer in tow.

Kevin's Dad worked at Goddard Space Flight Center, he was the friend who invited me. The topics that came up were things that added to my sence of wonder, as if it wasn't fully developed by having an aerospace engineer as a father of my own....

All long past, yet a thought away -

Thank you for reminding me!

 

I remember the drive-ins. I remember the guy in the 50 Merc. Midnight Blue two-door hardtop that had the full bubble skirts and couldn't get up the incline without trashing his sheetmetal, had to park on the street.

Jerks ruined all that. Because the guys after my generation didn't kill the few a-holes that wanted to spoil it for everyone, you got 'Rent-a-cops' and slow down curbs, can't get out of your car, no music, no dancing in the parking lots, no necking in the cars, if you ain't buying, you are leaving.

It was like a High School Movie of babes, friends, babes, fun, babes and a place where we could play Elvis Presley and Joey Dee without parents yelling and meet babes that knew how to twist in a poodle skirt.

Too bad for you younger guys, you truly missed a wonderful time, it made American Graffiti look second rate.

To illustrate, I used to be a newspaper boy in Detroit, Michigan. We used to have two weekend editions of the paper. The one called the 'Bulldog Edition' would give you your Sunday comics on Saturday evening. The delivery boy would collect for the weeks paper as he delivered the bulldogs and often got home well after dark with pockets bulging with money. I never heard of anyone getting robbed or hurt. Try that tonight.

Your loss, thank goodness you don't know what I do or you would be bitter and angry at crime, punks and people that won't get involved.

I used to like that huge onion ring served with a burger. As we have increased our taste buds for things like Heinz tomato ketchup, shouldn't they increase the size of the package? It takes fourteen of them when we have a family burger in today’s burger joints.

My wife and I went into a Sonic Drive-in in our little roadster convertible and everyone was parked nose in, not even watching the cars and babes driving through behind them.

Sick I tell ya.

 

OKAAAY! That did it - I have to write a short one right here and now. (It's close to how it was)

"Hey!" I hollered at my (one year) older brother in the back seat "That's MY Dinosaur!!!"

I made an attempt to grab it, but missed...

"AAAAhhhh HAHHHHH!!!!" he exulted.

"SHADDAP YOUSE, gosh darnMIT!"

"George..."

"WHAT???? They're MISBEHAVIN'!!!! Actin' like PUNKS!"

My father looked back over the bench seat of the 1957 Olds 88 and declared:

"PUNKS!" He waggled a finger at us, menacingly.

"GEORGE! WATCH YOUR DRIVING!"

He wipped around instantly -

"JEZZUSS KRIPES....."

Our heads tugged forward, as brakes were applied. Larry was snickerring...

(Poppa) "YOU SON OB A B***** OF A ******* YOU!!!! (to the annonymous driver ahead)

"George, you almost hit that car...."

"NO I DIDN'T!!!!"

"I saw the sunnabab***"


And so we arrived at the theatre.....

"Now remember - (to Larry) YOU'RE FIBE!" (in his odd and gruff pennsylvania German coalminers accent)

"But George...."

"Shaddap! They charge too much anyways...."


Strangely - it was in the mid sixties. And yes it was pretty much like that.

OH - Sorry, the movie we went to see -

"Easy Riders", with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper....


Lord how I miss the ACE DRIVE IN THEATER in Lemon Grove

 

I breifly worked for a place called Oil Can Henry's in FL. It was an oil change place, where the attendants wore these old-style uniforms. I wore this white shirt with brown pinstripes, brown pants, and an old-style driver's cap. Oh yeah, a bow tie too. I hated that job. Not only did the pay suck, but they made you wear this goofy getup. Got a lot of odd looks, my girlfriend liked it, but it was just too much.

 

They Use To Know how to COOK a real good hamburger, made from quality meat, that had a patty that was squeezed by Patty cause she had strong hands from her wrestling matches with Mr. G. Wolf while they were parked in the very last row at the drive in. Oh! how we miss the good old days . Foreplay and lots of cartoons and then at the intermission you could walk up to the concession stand and look at the Alligator that lived in 12 inches of water year round. Things will never be the same. Most of the vehicles parked on the back row were Fords. fd

 

I'm not old enough to remember all the things mentioned (only 21) but I do remember the A&W drive ins. We usually went inside though to eat, and I do remember the rootbeer floats I must have been only about 8 maybe when they closed around here. It seems like there are some around yet though. I don't remember full service stations either. I think it could be a good deal today for some people, since most people don't check their oil or tires or wash their windshield. It probably wouldn't work though since everybody seems to be in a hurry anymore, I mean when people can't even take the time to go inside and pay for their gas and have to pay at the pump. I do remember the long trips and the fun we had, like getting to stay in a hotel It's hard to believe the trip we use to have to take two days to make can be done in one now. Like a little over a week ago my brother and I went to a meeting across the state and we spent five hours driving over then after the meeting we turned around and drove five hours home after 10:00 at night. I'm not saying they were the good old days what you guys are talking about, but I don't think they were bad. Like being able to trust your neighbors and all that stuff. We still are like that around here, but it is slowly going away as new people move in. I still like remembering the long trips though and all the fun we had

 

I remember going to the grocery store with my dad when I was little kid. We didn't have a choice of paper or plastic then, it was paper bags only.

My dad would unload the groceries from the basket and place them on a round turntable. The checker would grab items as they came through and punch the keys on the register without looking, as every item was marked, ringing up the correct price price. No bar codes or automatic scanners back then either. Then the items would then travel down a conveyor to the box boy. I guess the term "box boy" was held over from the time they use to place items in boxes instead of paper bags. The box boy was usually a kid working a summer job or after school.

Now this is one of my fondest memory of going to the grocery store. The box boy would grab a fresh paper bag and with one hand give it a sharp fling and the bag would snap open. "A-WAP!" I would stand in awe as the box boy would grab items as they came off the conveyor as fast as any machine could do if they had such a machine. Speed, skill, attention to detail were all apart of his job and he seemed to enjoy his work and showing off his skill to those watching.

One hand inside the bag, one hand grabing the items. My dad always told me to unload the basket and put the like items together so it would be eaiser to run them through. I still do that today. Anyway, all the can goods came through at once and the box boy would work so fast at grabing the cans, eyes focused on the items as the came off the conveyor, at the same time figuring how to pack each bag with the items comming down the pipe. Now, with a flip of the wrist, each can would spin in mid air on its way to it's target and into bag it would go. Large or small, made no difference. The hand inside the bag would catch the cans and stack them neatly in the bag. "Clunk, Clunk, Clunk, Clunk, Clunk.....", like a well oiled machine. Heavey items on the bottom, light stuff like bread, eggs on top. One bag full of boxed goods, another with paper items, meat and vegatables in one, cans in another. Grap the full bag, place in empty shopping cart. Grab fresh bag,...fling, "A-WAP!" . Keep going with out a miss. A really good box boy could have one item in mid flight while at the same time grabing the next item. The checker and the box boy worked as a team. The checker kept items flowing and the box boy made sure items didn't get backed up on the conveyor. Much faster than today using those plastic bags.

Where have all the Box Boys gone.....? Replaced by plastic, every one....

 

I remember the old Helm's Bakery trucks that would deliver fresh baked goods right to the curb side every morning. Toot toot, was the call to run out an buy a still warm donut for less than 5 cents.

Those little Ice Cream hand cart vendors who would jimgle their bells, would draaw us kids like flies for a really big PushUp, or 50/50 or even a regular Popsicle.

I really loved having the waitress bring out our tray of food and set it on the door sill of the car, that was eating in style.

We used to buy those little turtles with the painted shells and take them home as new pets.

Those funny candy stretchy necklaces, yeah sissy stuff but they were fun. Bubble gum cigarettes and cigars that actually puffed a bit of I guess sugar smoke, talk about 4 alarm major not PC. I never took up smoking and never even considered those things as making me want to smoke the real thing.

Those funny littel Gas-a-mat stations where you would buy those big coins for a dollar and fillup your gramp's car and it would only cost him maybe 3 bucks to do it.

Starting gramp's tractor with the hand crank. You learned real quick how to do it right.

It was a simpler time and lots of fun. We didn't have a lot but then we didn't need much. Now it seems like we need whatever it is and can't live without it, just ask my kids.

Oh well, I guess in 20 years or so I'll get to tell my grandkids how great things were in the last half of the 20th century and early part of the 21st.

Jim Henderson

 

I remember when I was maybe 11 or 12 and my Dad would sometimes give me the first sip off his freshly opened beer. Guess they frown on that nowadays.

I remember getting whipped with my Dad's belt when I had been acting up. Guess they frown on that too nowadays. If we tried to hide he would use a psycological technique of folding the belt over and snapping it every couple seconds as he searched for us. Once I really got him mad and my sister helped me sneak out the door before he could find me. We knew Mom could help cool him off.

In the '60s we had Krunchee Potato Chips (not sure how they spelled it) that had a little fake coin or some such thing in the bag.

I remember alleys that you could walk up and down and find all kinds of fun stuff (or trouble, depending on who else was walking the alleys that day).

 

Where have all the Box Boys gone.....?

DD.

One of them is still around.

Boy that brings back memories.

I wouldn't ever pack a whole bag full of cans only the bottom of the bag.
You have to think about the person carrying them in from the car

First >>>> two of those noise for a double bagging.

The rest of the bag gets filled with light things and so nothing would get crumbled during transpost.

Eggs & Bread always on top of a bag.


I can still do the flip the can into one hand from the other.

It drives Michelle crazy when I do this.

WE still have some stores with the old equipment around here.

Thanks for bringing that one back.

Maybe a Pump Jockey Story will come by soon too.

I have tons of memories of that topic.

My favourite was one Firday night this Guy from school came into the station and asked for $0.50 worth of gas.
He obviously wanted someone to clean his windows.

After he got his gas & windows cleaned and started to leave, I said :

"Hey hang on a minute.... I forgot to sneeze in your tires!"

 

I miss the colorful and creative signs that the drive-ins used to display along the old Routes. Even as a young kid I was able to judge time and distance by using the signs as landmarks. One in particular stands out: a HUGE hotdog in a bun sitting on the roof of this little shack that sold franks and sodas and such. This sign was about 3 times the size of the shack! The end of the hotdog was virtually sticking out into traffic, the sign was that close to the side of the road. It had braces all around that you had to duck under before you could get to the service window. But the food was worth it. And you could see that big 'dog for over a mile away!

These days, you have to fill out 100 forms and go through 25 zoning meetings before they let you put up a 3' x 3' piece of plywood for a sign, and even then it's usually some generic thing with generic colors.