Born in '63

Here's some things I can remember....

Rotary phones.
reel to reel portable tape recorders.
8 mm home movies.
TV only had 13 channels, only a handful got decent reception.
TV stations all signed off every evening, and they would display a test pattern.
Watching the test pattern until the sunday morning cartoons began.
watching the moon landing on T.V. (most people I knew had black & white sets).
Even the news wasn't in "real" time.
kerosene road flares (looked like bombs)
Big rigs had "wig-wags" (low air pressure warning).
Coke machines gave out green bottles.
Returning the green Coca Cola bottles for deposit at the corner store.
Steel soda and beer cans that needed a can opener.
Huge poloroid cameras with the big blue flash.
putting baseball cards on your bicycle spokes.
Tonka toys were all heavy gauge steel
Empty fields and woods everywhere.
Conelrad station markings on all radios.
Almost everything electronic had tubes.
Mosquito patrol- (would come down the street and emit a thick plume of blueish white smoke that smelled of diesel fuel oil & insecticide. Moms would call their kids in the house but as soon as the truck passed by, we would all run out and ride our bikes through the smoke.)

 

I loved my Tonka trucks!!!! and I am a girl :P
they sure did change

 

Remember? I recall 5 cent cokes, 12 cent double feature movies, 25 cent hair cuts, doctors that made house calls, gas rationing (4 gallons a week), penny post cards, 3 cent postage stamps (6 cents for air mail), walking to school, service stations where you had your tires and oil checked while getting 25 cent gas, handshake business, unlocked doors, milk delivered to the porch, ice boxes, open windows in the summer, outdoor toilets, hitch hiking, divorce was rare, "living togather" was called "shacking up" and was wrong, lawnmowers without motors, the draft, the Army Air Force, 20 cent milk shakes, milk in bottles with cream on top, porches with swings and rocking chairs, never wearing shoes in the summer, fishing with a cane pole and worms, knowing every single person in your neighborhood, dating was not a "relationship", the husband worked at a job and the wife kept the house and kids, watermelons chilled in well water, hand signals when driving, tires with tubes, regular or Ethyl gas, bulk oil, hand chokes, 50 cents an hour meant working 60 minutes of each hour, wash hanging on lines, coming home and finding a basket of tomatoes from a neighbors garden, 48 star flags, small difference between gross and net wages, Zippo lighters, vacuum tube radios, slide rules, underware made from flour sacks, feather beds - It was a great time to grow up in.

 

As a former "hippie", I regret that my parents were not stricter. I'm much tougher on my kids than my parents were on me. And I do remember nickle candy bars and dime Cokes. I can't remember some of the '70s, though.

 

i remember many of those things, and i tend to think that maybe anyone born b4 1985 was the "last" great generation... of course all you older ones than me(about 21) are thinking the same thing for your childhood....

 

Wow, Mil just made me take a trip down nostalia lane, and it was a good trip, a 1952 baby here, thanks Mil for the memories of the way it was.

 

I was born in 1978 and I remember many of the things that were mentioned in some of the posts. One thing that we didn't have was much of was video games. Yeah, we had our ataris and the regular nintendos. But we didn't have 5 or 6 systems with 20-30 games for each one. I may have had 3 games at the most for the system that I had at the time. And we couldn't sit and play them all day long.

When it was daylight and nice out, we were outside playing. And I also remember having the slides that were 6-8' high, and real metal monkey bars. Not those plastic things in parks now. We didn't have all of these stupid lawsuits that we have going on now. If we got hurt, we learned our lesson.

I remember so many things that happened when I was little growing up. I can actually remember stuff from when I was 2 years old, but I can't remember things that happened last week.

 

Take Trip Back in Time to the 50's

 

I remember most of those on Mil.'s list. I was born in 1985, and I LOVED my childhood. I would do anything to be 12-15 again. I had ALL my best frinds in the neighborhood, compared to now. Most of my friends moved out, and the last one just went into the ASAF. You can have my truck, I'll take my childhood anytime.

 

You can have my truck, I'll take my childhood anytime.

mbnv992 aint that the truth.... ill do my whole life over again, learn more and be a bit tougher the 2nd time, and if im wiser id own my Super Duty in time, AND a sweet mustang also!

 

You guys are gonna bring tears to my eyes if you keep it up

Andrewdrice - I remember that slide. Rugburn madness - and we rode it all day long

I'm going to hit the sack - another day of work tomorrow.

XXL

 

Born in 1966 and I remember a lot of the good ol' days. Ones not mentioned:

Playing kick the can out in the street at night
Marsha Brady, always clothed and always hot
Jumping off the high dive at a swimming pool, seems most high dives have gone away because insurance is too much.

 

Born in 61 here; I'll add a few

*you could buy guns and ammo using mail, delivered right to your front door.

*for the most part, only V8 muscle pounded the streets.

*radial tires were a very nice thing to have and set you back some $. They improved gas mileage.

*Ford was having problems with the Firestone 500 steel belted radials; they were having blowouts. Some people were dying in accidents. That was about 1976; anyone else remember? The Explorer episide of recent times was about like the episode back then. People were worried/scared.

*toyota, HAHAHAH, looser, that must be your second car.

*premium gasoline had lead in it and when you put it in a glass jar and held it up to regular you could really see the difference.

*things were made of metal, not plastic. Appliances are a great example.

*microwave ovens, like VCR's didn't used to be in everyones homes. In fact, they wern't around, period.

*when in school behave, because teacher has a paddle and just might spank your **** if you got outta line.

*when kids in school disagreed, the went to the corner of the property, rolled up their shirt sleeves, and settled it. No guns or knives needed.

*children were taught to respect their elders and authority.

*when you're a kid and you want a Playboy magazine, just look in the grade school dumpster near the end of the month. Yeah, obviously the teachers had them in the teachers lounge. Try that today in the "New America".

*ice cream was real, not this flavored frozen water trash which is everywhere.

*cheapest gas I saw was 22 cents a gallon; cheapest I ever bought was 56 cents a gallon.

*not everyone had a color TV; black and white was common.

*AM radio in a car was an option, along with power steering and brakes.

*FM radio, especially with STEREO, was a bonus. That assumes, of course, that you had a receiver capable of stereo since many were not.

*families talked at dinner time and were not preoccupied with watching TV.

*if you held the door open for somebody else they actually said "thank you".

*paint and plumbing solder had lead in them.

*if it says "made in japan" don't buy it, it's cheaply made and will probably not last.

*DDT was a good insecticede until science discoverd that when it ran into ponds and such and birds drank it that the eggs they laid had thin shells and got crushed. I remember it took years before a good alternative came out.

*cracking a few race jokes now and then was funny; they were not "in your face jokes" though. There was a very popular series of books in the 70's such as "the official white folks joke book", then you flipped it over and it was maybe "the official italian joke book". Half of the book was one group, flip it over and you got the other half. And heck, if your country of origin was not the subject of the latest book, don't worry, it was probably in the pipeline. You can find these on ebay. We used to have fun kidding around back then.

*when we got a bit older, we'd go play "spin the bottle" out in the woods.

*being on welfare etc was something to be ashamed of, and it encouraged people to try harder. It humilated people. Not anymore. Heck, now it's actually a way of life.

*disco was red hot at one time.

*so were platform shoes and saddleback jeans.

*having a deep sun tan was not a health concern.

*US coins had silver in them.

*toys were made here, not in china.

*russia used to be "an evil empire".

*inflation once hit around 16%. Scary.

*a little over 10 years ago, a savings account at the bank payed 5% interest.

*there was a point in time that the national speed limit was lowered to 55MPH to promote fuel savings. I think that was back in 74.

*in the 60's, we were in a race with russia to be the first to put a man on the moon. We won, but we left a lot of human wreckage along the way.

*there used to be air raid sirens because we were concerned about nuclear attack. Those sirens were tested once a week. They also paused TV/radio shows to to a test of the EBS (emergency broadcast system).

*furniture was made of wood, not sawdust and a bunch of glue.

Chances are if you have been around long enough to see these things you too can probably conclude that this is a totally different country that it was not to many years ago. Not necessessarily for the better in all instances either.

 

Born in '57. Remember pedal cars? I had a bright red Texaco Fire Chief pedal car with a bell you rang by pulling a string. I wish I still had that thing they're worth a mint! On days when I had Cub Scouts I would wear my uniform to school with my Cub Scout pocket knife in my pocket and nobody would call the cops! Today if you accidentally bring a butter knife in your lunch box your expelled and end up on the evening news! America where have you gone? If I had school age kids today no way would they be in public school. They'd be home schooled or a good private school that respects God and teaches values. Things started downhill after '62 when they made it ILLEGAL to pray in school. Think about it. When they took God out of school who do you think came in? Just my 4 cents.--Jack

 

I have been around long enough to have sat and watched the guys at Shelby American.........after work.....play with 427's behind the shop next to LAX.


Dennis your list................our past!