Mil1ion.
You just shook loose another one. On the Ohio River Blvd. in Bellvue Pa. a suburb of Pittsburgh, a sign on a McDonald's said "Over 50,000 hamburgers sold" ... Wow! Unbelievable that so many could be sold by one company.!! We used to drive down there from the North Hills in my customized '52 Kaiser. I wish I had that car. I worked on it for months to repaint it and after just a couple days after I finished it, I spun out on a wet road and took out a mailbox and a peach tree. Dumb kid.

 

Just thinkin' .. White sidewall tires cost more and us poor kids couldn't afford them so they sold white sidewall paint. I used to paint them on my '37 Chevy .. In the 50's they came out with "Porta-walls". White rubber rings that were inserted between the tire and the rim . No problem with leaks, we had tubes.

 

I'm 26 years old and I too see the big obvious change in the last 20 years or so. I did watch Captain Kangaroo during his last few years on the air, I still have some old 45 records that I used to play on my fisher price record player. I had metal tonka trucks, but I still managed to tear them up some how. I tore the bed off the Tonka dump truck because I wanted it to be a flat bed. I knew then What I know now, I guess I wouldn't have played with them since they're so rare. My greatest memory is riding to the lake which was about a 45 minute ride in my dad's '79 Bronco and pulling the '75 Mark Twain ski Boat. I would sit in the console between my parents and when he had to stop real fast, they would grab me to keep me from hitting the dash. I remember when some stations sold leaded gas and some didn't. That Bronco would ping like crazy when he had to put unleaded in it. (Remember taking the cats off as soon as you bought a vehicle back in the late 70's and early 80's?) I remember dad pulling a friends' boat out of the lake on a loose-gravel bank because his jeep cj-5 would spin all 4 tires and not even move. The Bronc pulled that thing out like it was a piece of paper. He gave that Bronc to me when I was 16, and I still drive it today. Remember when trucks would last?

 

It's safe to say that this is no longer the country most of us grew up in. All this talk about how things used to be is depressing the hail out of me, so along those lines when I read this I couldn't resist.

Remember the toilets that weren't the ultra-efficient, water saving kind? You could flush a football down those things.

Yea, I've flushed something down that resembled a football a time or two.

We now return you to comsireating about the good ol days.

 

with all the talk of everyone missing the good ol days, itd be nice if somehow they could bring some if not most of all these things back. im only 17 but i sure wish i grew up before my time.

 

I'm sure if we all got together, bringing along our collectibles, we could very well have a " Nostalgia Meet ".

 

i mean bring back steel tonka trucks, drive ins, jukeboxes at the table, etc... as in still produce them today. although there is supposed to be a drive in theatre opening up around here in the next few years i heard. cant wait to go.

 

You younger guys are currently making you own memories,you just don't realize it just like we didn't.When i was young i longed to go back to a time when my father lived.He made it sound exciting,which to this day i still feel that way.But i have a lot of things in my life i wouldn't trade for all those memories.Not material things.Family.To see my grandchildren take their first step,or to walk my daughters down the aisle,or to see the look on my sons face when he gets his first car is priceless.Just make the most of life.It wasn't always a bed of roses back then.We are just recalling the good times.You'll have these same memories. Then you will see they come all too soon.Man,this thread make me feel sad.

 

I was born in 1942 and I remember the good old days very well! I am talking about the 50s and 60s though.

 

I am only 15 and i grew up like some of you guys that are 3 times my age. I loved shootin birds with my bb gun, or ridin bikes for miles to collect pop cans off the side of the road and my mom never thought nothin of it. I remember makin roads threw the garden with my brother with our tonka trucks and our tractors. I remember takin shovels and diggin holes lookin for gold (im not sure why i thought ther was gold 3 foot underground in our yard, but we sure had fun). I think that most of this over protection stuff is in the cities. I live out in the middle of a corn field and wouldnt trade it for nothin. I think that I have had the most fun of my life when I was 7. Man I would love goin back in time and doin all of the same things again.

 

I wished I lived in the middle of a corn field.

 

Well said, and so very true!
Like the old saying goes..."If I only knew then, what I know now".

 

We've still got a drive in theatre in my area. It's just like it was in the 50's and 60's. They even keep some of the old movie posters displayed. They charge $5 per person for late run double features,not bad. They keep a mint '55 Chevy in front of the snack bar cause that's the year they opened. Its a blast. If your ever near Blue Ridge Ga. check it out. It's called the Swan Drive In.--Jack