How many of these can you say "Yes" to?

[DURHAM D]

You pulled into a gas station and someone came out and greeted you, pumped your gas, cleaned your windows, offered to check the oil and tire pressure?

Had a rotary phone.

Had a tv without a remote control.

Had to hang your washed clothes outside to dry because there was no such thing as a dryer.

Know how to drive a stick shift.

Took typing in school.

[drray23]

1. All of these.nt.

[DURHAM D]

4. Did your family have a locker at the grocery store

before deep freezers for homes became a thing?

[drray23]

11. no,not that. We had a cold room and later on a deep freezer.nt

[DURHAM D]

19. I don't know what a cold room is.

Did you live on a farm?

[drray23]

194. also called root cellar.

it's dug deep under the house in the dirt so temp stays the same year long close to 32. Yes we were living in the country ( in France).

[DURHAM D]

196. We called that a 'fraidy hole. nt

[electric_blue68]

73. Never heard of that!

[DURHAM D]

83. It was pretty cool actually.

My grandfather would kill a cow or pig and then take it into town to the butcher at the IGA and he would process it and then place the packaged and labeled meat into the four lockers of my grandparents and each of their three children. I think that grocery store had about 50 lockers. The butcher had a master key.

Before I started school my mother would give me a note and I would walk to the store and hand it to the butcher and he would go into our locker and get out whatever my mother needed. Later she gave me the key and I would go in and get it myself. It was really cold in there - like being inside a freezer.

[electric_blue68]

88. Wow, ok then. 👍

[panader0]

145. My family's dairy farm in upstate NY had a bunker built of heavy timbers and covered with

a couple feet of earth. In they winter they hitched the horses to a wagon, went to the frozen
lake or river nearby and cut huge slabs of ice. Then back to the bunker where the slabs were
set inside, lining the walls. My mom said it kept everything cold for months.

[DURHAM D]

180. Very interesting. Thank you for sharing. nt

[pazzyanne]

122. We lived across the street from the locker plant in our town.

So yes, we had a locker there. That is also where we bought our beef and pork products.

[Tommymac]

174. All of the above plus my grandmother had a real ice box. And a washboard and a press dryer.

Dry ice was delivered regularly.

Also a clothes line from the back porch to the garage.

A coal bin in the cellar.

Fresh milk was delivered daily. (Booze once a week).

And the knife guy came by twice a year to sharpen things.

Black and white 12 inch TV.

Huge fancy radio in a cabinet.

Cod liver oil.

I used them all as a kid - we lived in a 3 family house, each generation had it's own floor.

[ratchiweenie]

176. Yes, we did have a meat locker and it was just 2 blocks away. Forgot all about that.

Yes to all of the above too. My mom made her own soap on an old wood stove in the washing shed and used an old ringer washer and hung the clothes to dry.

[DURHAM D]

183. Yes to your soap, wood stove, washing shed and

ringer washer. Maybe we grew up in the same house.

[ratchiweenie]

212. LOL.

[Ms. Toad]

199. Yup - although slightly different.

When we had a critter that wouldn't bring market price, we had it butchered an the butcher held a significant portion of it there so we could pick it up in smaller lots.

[Hoyt]

2. Aced that test. In fact, I avoided remote controls thinking it would make me lazy.

[aggiesal]

85. We were my dad's remote control n/t

[Cha]

116. lol

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

138. And his antenna.

Hold the aerial with on hand, hold the other hand in the air.

If you stand on the ottoman, we can pick up the baseball game on the Toledo station

[Otto_Harper]

3. Every Single One

Numerous times. For large chunks of my life.

(Does this win me the "OK Boomer" award?)

[DURHAM D]

6. Yes - you get the Super Ok Boomer award.

Do you want a Daisy Rifle or manual cream separator?

[Sneederbunk]

5. All of them.

Also at one time had a wall phone without a dial. Pick it up and give a number to the operator. Did not need a remote because only had one channel.

[DURHAM D]

9. Do you remember your phone number?

My Grandparents number was 45. In my little town our box number at the post office and telephone number were the same.

[trocar]

75. CL2-1983 nt

[aggiesal]

90. WEstmore3-7832 n/t

[tblue37]

92. Yes, and the one before that, plus Grandma's. Plus addresses.

Our phones didn't remember phone numbers for us, so we memorized them ourselves.

We had to be quiet during long distance calls, because reception was so weak.

We also had a party line well into the sixties.

[Ms. Toad]

201. I had a party line until 1981.

78-81 was by choice to save money.

[ShazzieB]

127. AM7-4903.

That was our first phone number. We moved around a lot, and I've forgotten most of the others. Except that when we moved from Chattanooga, TN to a small town in Illinois in 1962, our phone number there was 32246. Yes, only 5 digits! Some people in town only had 4 digits, and none were more than 5.

When they modernized the phone system in that town later in the 60s, everyone got a new 7 digit phone number.

[lamp_shade]

132. Yes. It was "12J". We lived upstairs in my grandmother's house and

used her phone when needed. Small town along the Erie Canal. No dial phones. Calls placed via switchboard operator.

[Ocelot II]

7. All of them.

[Enter stage left]

8. All of the above...

Started driving in 1962 and the last time I had a manual transmission vehicle was 2014 when I sold my Turbocharged 2005 Legacy GT.

We sold our house, sold our cars, bought a Honda CRV that could be towed behind our RV, and became full-time RV'ers.

Really miss my manual transmission vehicles.

[DURHAM D]

10. Can you still buy a regular new car with a manual transmission? nt

[Enter stage left]

33. Anything with a manual trans now days is the very lowest priced vehicle available...

My 2005 Subaru Legacy GT Wagon was turboed with 250 HP, leather interior, sunroof, climate control, cruise control every option available...and without a doubt the most enjoyable vehicle I've ever owned.

I started racing sports cars in the mid 60's, all with manual transmissions, and finally gave in up in 1985. I held numerous track (in my class) records and loved every moment of it, even though it payed off with a $5.00 plastic trophy.

I would buy ANY Subaru that could be flat towed behind my motor home, but when I called Subaru NA in 2014, they said there was no way they would build one to my specs.

That's why I ended up with a Honda. Not bad, but not a Subaru.

[captain queeg]

63. Having a manual transmission makes your car a lot less likely to be stolen.

Majority of younger people don’t know how to drive them. I don’t remember the stats but it well documented (about likelihood of being stolen).

[Gore1FL]

72. Last I looked, Subaru, Volvo, Volkswagen, and high-end sports offered a manual option nt

[sir pball]

148. Every New Car You Can Still Buy with a Manual Transmission

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g20734564/manual-transmission-cars/

[DURHAM D]

167. Thank you for the link.

Better selections than I assumed.

[sir pball]

218. I learned on stick, and I still love the engagement of it..

..but having recently driven a proper road, in a proper sports car with a paddle gearbox...I think I'm a reluctant convert. The DSG is so easy in traffic and just so much faster in the twisties; 3 pedals is still the most engaging drive by far, but I'm generally a "faster at all costs guy" so I can accept the loss of that as a tradeoff for more speed - but then again, I used to run a suspension setup more suited for Le Mans than Altoona in my old 240SX, so I just might be a wild-eyed speed freak

[Ms. Toad]

204. I'm getting to the point where I'll need a new car -

and it doesn't look like my Honda Insight will last until the Elio gets built . . . and it has now shifted from a projected 82 MPG gas to 110 miles per charge vehicle, and the price has is nearly double. Even if it gets ready, I'll have to rethink that. There are times I'll want to drive more than 110 between charges.

https://www.eliomotors.com/

So it's good to have ready alternatives. Thanks!

[NutmegYankee]

187. Yes. I have a 2019. nt

[Ms. Toad]

202. Yes, but it is getting harder.

My daughter (age 31) refuses to buy anything else. (We've been buying used - since there are more of them around, though.)

[ornotna]

12. Still drive a stick

'99 F250 with a 6 speed manual. Had the opportunity to but never took typing in school. I made some nice screwdrivers in shop though.

[DURHAM D]

18. Interesting that you made screwdrivers in shop.

I, of course, did not get to do that because girls could not take shop. Meanwhile, boys could not home economics - otherwise known as cooking and sewing class.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

45. In my school

Boys and girls took shop.
Made a cast aluminum lion and a cat doorstop.

Boys and girls also took home ec. Won the cupcake contest with my psychedelic cupcakes.

[DURHAM D]

51. You must be several years younger than I am. nt

[I_UndergroundPanther]

52. How young are you

I'm born in 65 first year gen x

[DURHAM D]

59. FDR was President when I was born. nt

[cannabis_flower]

64. Have any of you heard of

Generation Jones. I have for years resisted considering myself a Baby Boomer but felt I didn’t belong in Generation X either. I read that someone has coined the term Generation Jones to be the children who were born roughly between 1958 an 1965 as Generation Jones.

I was born at the end of 1958 and definitely identify as Generation Jones.

https://www.considerable.com/life/people/generation-jones-group-boomers-gen-x/amp/

[I_UndergroundPanther]

78. I feel stuck between jobes and x

Some ways Im full blown x but there is some jones there too.

[electric_blue68]

96. Hmmm... this might have been age related...

We didn't have either shop, or home ec by the time I was in HS '67 - '70.


But my sister has a sweet black painted little wooden rectangular stool our dad made in his shop class!

If I caculated correctly - it's now 💖 85 yr old!

[ShazzieB]

129. I graduated high school in 1968.

Home ec and shop classes were a thing, starting in 7th grade. Shop was only for boys and home ec was only for girls.

Some larger high schools even had different kinds of shop and home ec classes: wood shop, auoshop, etc., for the boys; and home ec classes that were all cooking or all sewing (instead of some of both) for the girls.

My daughter had home ec in middle school (late 90s), but both boys and girls took it.

[electric_blue68]

130. Home ec in the '90s, huh!

I graduated HS in '70.

I did go to a specialized Music & Art HS. Sooo.... maybe at least some of those classes replaced Shop & Home Ec 🤔

[StarryNite]

25. We still have our 1982 Ford Bronco.

We bought it new. My husband ordered it special with the manual transmission. It's one of the family.

[Skittles]

13. all

total geezer

heck, in high school I drove a "three on the tree"

[DURHAM D]

20. I had to look up three on the tree.

Learned something new.

[Skittles]

35. my boyfriend got ridiculously drunk

it was his car, and I had never driven a car like that.....but, I managed to do it, to get us home safely

[Zorro]

48. Learned to drive using "three on a tree"

My father forced me to learn that way. I'm pretty sure my father hated me.

But learning to drive a stick is something one never forgets; it's probably the best theft deterrent out there. I finally gave up my last stick shift car about 3 years ago when I sold my '93 Miata.

[DENVERPOPS]

120. LOL

AND I remember driving my first car......with no turn signals...........

[Brainfodder]

14. 5 of 6 here.

Always had same dryer, was never replaced in those 12+ years in the house growing up though.

[LizBeth]

152. Always had the dryer too.

[LoisB]

15. All of them plus had an ice box (and yes, the ice man cameth) as did the milk man and the bread

man and the paper boy. Don't ask me how my grandmother baked anything in that wood stove in the kitchen.

[DURHAM D]

23. Didn't know about a bread man.

Did you live in a large city?

I remember my grandmother cooking on a wood stove. So much work.

[LoisB]

65. Grandmother baked our bread in South Carolina. Bread truck in small town in Pennsylvania.

Unbelievably good food came from that wood stove.

[Nay]

191. I remember all of the OP's stuff -- plus my mom had a wringer washer. That wringer

washer was replaced by a regular Maytag washer when we moved to a small house when I was 8. That Maytag lasted until my mom's death 55 years later. In fact, it was still working fine.

When I was a toddler, I remember the milkman, but we didn't have a bread man. However, Mr Nay's father WAS a bread man. He sometimes went with his father on his route, and his father often met up with the milkman and they all had a break eating donuts and drinking milk!

Twice a year an itinerant knife/scissor sharpener came to the area. All the moms had their knives and scissors sharpened by this guy.

[LoisB]

206. I totally forgot about the knife sharpener guy. That is so cool about the milkman and bread man

meet-ups.

[applegrove]

16. Most.

[William769]

17. I got five out of six.

Whose first video game was pong?

[DURHAM D]

24. Do you still have your Atari? nt

[Earth-shine]

29. I have three Atari 130XE machines (more advanced than the classic 800s) in my closet.

Does anyone want to buy? They'll be on eBay soon.

[DURHAM D]

34. lol nt

[William769]

40. Sadly no.

It went with the great flood of 77 along with so many other possessions.

[DURHAM D]

50. oh dear...can not imagine getting through that

Sorry William.

[William769]

53. It was a long time ago.

Prompted my parents to move to Florida. Been here ever since.

P.S. It's great seeing you.

[DURHAM D]

56. Nice to see you as well.

I noticed a couple of days ago that you were posting and wondered where you had been hanging out?

Hope your Governor remains a plague isolated to Florida. He is so damn scary. In some ways more than Trump because he is actually smarter.

[William769]

61. He's a plague I wish on noone.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

49. My cousin and I played it

All day,often.lol.

Funny I never really got into video games later but I was vicious playing air hockey.

Liked space invaders tho.
Burned up quarters at the 7-11

[bamagal62]

21. All of the above!

[7wo7rees]

22. I can!! There were dryers in town at the little laundromat.

Just a tiny town, pop 1200, in southeastern Colorado, on the Arkansas River.

Ms.7wo7rees

On edit......

What fun memories we all have. Very rich!

And oh yes, my father made me learn to drive a stick shift first. And then I had a little red mustang, 3 on floor and then i got a little yellow fast back and put in 5!! Wish i stilll had it.

[SheltieLover]

26. 5

At least I think we had a clothes dryer. But, recalling old "monster" Maytag wringer washer, maybe not.

Mom always said she preferred to hang clothes outside because they smelled nicer.

[Earth-shine]

27. Are you trying to smoke out the old geezers?

That would be me. Five out of six.

[DURHAM D]

32. I will admit that I am surprised by the number of

mature posters we have on DU.

[Earth-shine]

37. I learned to drive a stick from a large-scale video game in an arcade.

I learned one quarter at a time. So, theoretically, I know how to drive a stick shift, but never really done it. Does that count?

[DURHAM D]

39. I think I would say no

but wonder what other posters think.

There is just a certain amount of fear/risk in driving a stick.

[NutmegYankee]

190. shifting is easy.

The trick is getting the clutch/gas feel just right to not stall the car on takeoff. Once you learn that - the rest is easy and you'll be able to drive any stick shift.

[sir pball]

150. This isn't really an "old geezer" list, even elder Millenials can tick most of the boxes.

I'm (barely) GenX and I've got 5.5/6 (we had a dryer but Mom liked the clothesline).

If I wanted to find some dusty old mummies, I'd have asked:

Who had a phone number with letters in it?
Who had a washtub with a board and a wringer?
Who had a literal icebox that the ice man had to come around for?
Who knows how to double-clutch, to shift an unsynchronized gearbox?
Who remembers that doctors say Luckies are best, because "It's Toasted"?

[Earth-shine]

153. That's quite a reply. I was simply being ironic. nt

[sir pball]

155. It wasn't meant to be angry or anything lol

Just pointing out that what a lot of folx on here think is "old" isn't as old as they think it is; I'm guessing the target demo is my dad's age so I thought I might list the things he'd have done that I wouldn't (except for clutching, that's still useful).

[Earth-shine]

157. It's about geezers, simply because I am in the group.

My back hurts today, I didn't sleep, I didn't poop, I'm cranky and I'm willing to be funny about it.

I am 57. The last of the baby boomers.

You are as old as you feel. Today, 57 feels old. Yesterday, I felt young and overdid it.

It waits for you, young one.

[sir pball]

219. Right, and as a 42 year old none of the OP questions scream "geezer" to me

Maybe I'm more of a geezer than a hep cat these days, but none of the original questions made me think of folx my dad's age, 74.

Sure, he could answer Yes to all of them, but so could many of my cohorts including people young enough to be Millennials including my born-in-82 sister. I was playfully (but seriously) pointing out that which you think is "old" isn't really that old, and maybe reminding you of that which is really "old" to even us fortysomethings...if your childhood phone number didn't have letters in it, you aren't old to us even if you did have to use a rotary dial!

Also - I took three Aleve today for my back, if I don't get my daily Metamucil I don't have a good poop in the morning, and sleep is starting to get evasive. Watch who you call "young one", you're barely old enough to be my parent

[Earth-shine]

221. I can see that you are really taking this seriously.

I am not.

[Celerity]

28. I can drive a stick, and many nations have petrol attendants

The others, nope, before my time.

[Archae]

30. Hmmm...

"You pulled into a gas station and someone came out and greeted you, pumped your gas, cleaned your windows, offered to check the oil and tire pressure?"

I even did that, working at a Clark station.

"Had a rotary phone."

Yup, big black bakelite one.

"Had a tv without a remote control."

3 or 4 of those.

"Had to hang your washed clothes outside to dry because there was no such thing as a dryer."

For a just-starting-out bachelor, yup.

"Know how to drive a stick shift."

Never really liked it, or got the hand of it.

"Took typing in school."

Sure did, freshman year.

[Irish_Dem]

31. All of them.

[dweller]

36. The whole shebang

Gas at .19/gal … with a dollar I could drive all week


✌🏻

[IcyPeas]

38. 3

[I_UndergroundPanther]

41. 4

I was young when there were full service gas stations.

However my ex and I were driving around north carolina, about 15 years ago and we stopped at a gas station. It was a full service station. We were shocked.

Still type with 2 fingers had typing class but failed it! I tried so hard too.

[FakeNoose]

42. Yes to all but the last one

Never took typing in school. I was in the (ahem) college prep track.

[DURHAM D]

46. I took all the advance placement classes

in high school but at my father's suggestion I also took typing I and II and shorthand I and II. To be honest learning shorthand was the best college prep course I took.

[pazzyanne]

125. "To be honest learning shorthand was the best college prep course I took."

Agree 100%!

[3Hotdogs]

43. Diid you go to Sears and pump your own car's motor oil into a jar and it was

from a 55 gallon drum they had on the store's floor?

[DURHAM D]

47. No. But I remember those. nt

[HubertHeaver]

44. All of them

And more. I used a friend's hand-crank wooden wall phone. Turn the crank to flash the operator.

[murielm99]

54. All of them.

My 93-year-old mother still does not have a dryer. She hangs things on the line outside, and in the basement in the winter. They are so wrinkled! She just never got used to the idea of a dryer.

We had a party line phone when I was a kid. We used to tell the operator what number we were calling. It was a big deal when we switched over to rotary dial phones.

[vanlassie]

55. Gas stations gave green stamps, and sometimes

drinking glasses as incentives.

[moonscape]

119. I remember the drinking glasses

with various black-etched birds on them. They were actually attractive. Esso gave them as I recall and everyone in town had them!

[moonscape]

123. We had a combo clothes washer dryer at

one point - one machine. In the 50’s. Can’t remember the maker, started with a ‘B’ I think.

Anyway, we and friends of my parents had one and it rarely worked. The repairman lived at both our houses and there were plenty of runnings jokes about ‘we’ll take him MWF this week, you TuTh - next week we can switch’ sort of things.

All the others on the list are a yes except I never took typing lessons. Taught myself at my first job.

[chowder66]

57. There is a gas station by my mom that still gives full service.

I used full service.
Had a rotary phone and a tv without a remote (B&W).
We had to hang our clothes on a line until we could afford a dryer which my mom still has.
I tried to learn how to drive a stick shift but failed miserably and took typing in school.

[moondust]

58. Party line?

[DURHAM D]

60. Yes to that. Good one. nt

[electric_blue68]

86. Oh, missed your party line photo! 😄

[AZLD4Candidate]

62. all of them. in fact, my camaro z28 is a stick shift now.

I call it a millennial anti-theft device

[iemanja]

66. All except for hanging clothes outside

I mean, I've done it, but not because there wasn't a dryer available.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

67. All of the above and many more......

Said "yes ma'am" or "yes sir" to anyone older than me (still do).

No air conditioning until college.

Smoking was the manly thing to do (so was helping to cut tobacco every year).

Most pets were kept outdoors.

Remember using party telephone lines.

Remember pranking the telephone operators on New Years Eve.

Until I left home in '65, all phone calls in my home town were made by just dialing four digits.

Whipped the pie meringue and cake icing for mom by hand.

Operated many a hand-cranked ice cream machine.

Going to see a movie was a very, very special treat.

Only very wealthy folks had color TV.

Repaired radios and TVs with 100% tubes when there was no solid-state ones.

Used a slide rule exclusively in engineering school.

Wrote computer programming on punch cards.

Operated a teletype machine (amateur radio) and Morse Code key.

Operated a Ditto (mimeograph )machine.

Used maps to navigate every where I traveled.

Mowed grass with a manual rotary mower and trimmed with hand clippers.

Could list many, many more but my brain now hurts.

I think I just admitted I'm over 39.........

KY

[electric_blue68]

108. I guess you have! 😄 ...

My dad was an electrical engineer for a bit.
He still had his slide ruler post college.
I could never get the hang of it, though I thought it was a great tool.

Occasionally mowed some of the lawn at my cousin's house with a rotary.


And I think you'll get a kick out of this....

You could watch literally certain types of technology advancement in procession over the decades by what
celebrants at NYC ticket tape parades tossed out the windows going up Broadway. 😄

At one point for a time the various colored punch cards would be tossed out.
And then "Poof" so would the punched out bits like a grainy cloud go out the window as well! 😂

[KY_EnviroGuy]

158. Lordy, I wouldn't want to be a street cleaner in NYC.

That made me think of a couple more:

Remember the days before we had recycling?

Remember when dry cleaners used carbon tetrachloride, gasoline and paints contained lead and asbestos was the miracle insulation?

Have a great Valentines week, Electric_Blue68.........

[electric_blue68]

189. I do. You as well. 👍

[captain queeg]

68. An old 55 gallon drum out back for burning garbage?

The only one I missed was the clothes drier. I think we always had one though my mom preferred hanging stuff on the clothesline.

[DURHAM D]

79. I forgot about the trash drums

On Halloween we went down the alley and overturned the ones for people that didn't have good treats.

[Gore1FL]

69. 4/5. We had a dryer. Sometimes my mother used a clothes line, but not extremely often. nt

[gblady]

70. 4 out of 5

Although we had a dryer, my mom preferred to dry clothes on the line outside. The others were definite yeses.

[electric_blue68]

71. Rotary✔️ pre remote TV✔️ some line drying✔️ ...

never learned to drive


we had a washing machine when people were allowed to have them in apts
We also had some clothes hanging things we could open up


Someone mentioned this on another thread -
party line phone
My cousins in a Jersey town had one in the late '50's ✔️😁

Oh, I was forced in HS to take typing ✔️🙄
We had to go from our HS near 135th St to East Midtown Manhattan in the 50s (St) once a week.

[coolsimo]

74. Yep to all

Last edited Sun Feb 13, 2022, 02:44 AM - Edit history (1)

Yes to all of them. Used to pick up the phone and the operator would say “number please”. Didn’t have to even dial. My number was 3277 and my dad’s number at the gas station was 91.
On edit… to this day I go to gas station that has full service like that. Small town in Michigan’s UP. I love it. “Ding ding”

[niyad]

76. All the above.

[Rhiannon12866]

77. No on the stick shift and even though my mother always had a dryer, she sometimes like to hang clothes

Outside. And I took tying as a summer course in elementary school, but I never learned. But since I had to type on a computer for my job, I got pretty fast and rarely make tyops.

[Pas-de-Calais]

80. Yes to all. 65 yr old here

[slightlv]

81. Yes to all. 66 yo here

Our phone number even started with letters instead of numbers. And I may not remember what I ate for breakfast today, but I remember what that number was! (EM7-5484) We even had a "party line"... yuk!

[RockRaven]

82. Four and a half...

I'm counting a half point on the first one... My experiences with places/times where we didn't pump our own gas didn't (to my recollection ) involve an offer to check the oil and tire pressure.

And I don't remember not having a clothes dryer, even if we did use clothes lines on occasion anyway. So I can't say I had to.

[aggiesal]

84. All of them n/t

[tblue37]

87. Four and a half. We hung out clothes but dryers did exist.

[radius777]

89. For Boomers and even X'ers most of these would be true.

As an X'er:

1. it was very common up til the late 90s to see full service gas stations.
2. we had several rotary phones, only got touch-tone maybe in the late 80s.
3. we had several tv's (some b&w) without remote. our first remote tv was in the mid 80s.
4. we always had a dryer, but it was common for people to hang-dry alot of clothes.
5. most of us learned to drive on automatics as by the 90s most cars were automatic. i later learned stick and drove one for the fun factor, which quickly wore off (is a pain in city traffic) and i switched back to an automatic.
6. typing, yes i took such classes which were common even in the 90s. we also had to learn penmanship, ie how to write properly in script and printing.

7. bonus: I remember a time before we had a microwave oven. When we got one in the mid 80s it was like the biggest deal.

[lagomorph777]

91. All of them

[Sympthsical]

93. None of them

I should probably learn stick. I've simply never had to. One of those things, "Maybe someday."

I'm sure I'll rue not knowing it at some point.

[MoonlightHillFarm]

94. All but one

We always had a clothes dryer growing up. I had to learn to drive on a stick shift, and really prefer to drive that way, even now. We were on a party line for our phone, and I still remember our number. We got a stereo in 1954 and a tv in 1956. I didn’t have a color tv until after I got married. Times have changed.

[aggiesal]

95. How many had a milkman ...

pick up the empty milk bottles and leave filled ones?

Or how about bottle hunting to get the deposit money?

[DURHAM D]

97. Yes and also on Thursday

the cleaners delivery/pickup van. You put their sign in the window if you wanted them to stop and pickup cleaning.

[coolsimo]

99. We had a milk man

As a kid I was always so excited to bring in the milk.

[Otto_Harper]

118. I did that too.

[pazzyanne]

128. Yes.

In the winter, the cardboard cover would pop before we brought it in. The milk was delivered at 4 AM.

[PatrickforB]

98. I can say yes to all of these.

[Timewas]

100. Yup

All of em

[Texasgal]

101. Yes to all...

Damn I'm old! LOL!

[IbogaProject]

102. All but we had a dryer

House had a drier as it had the upper tier Levitt appliance set.parents bought house from Mr Levitt's secretary. Have done or had all the rest. And we got milk delivered, early 1970s. I'm from first 1/3 of Gen-X.

[littlemissmartypants]

103. All of them...

I still drive a stick, six speed. And we didn't have indoor plumbing until 1971. My grandmother raised me and we were very poor but I remember her cooking a big breakfast, with eggs, biscuits, grits, homemade sausage and coffee percolated on the stove, every day between five and six in the morning.

I also remember pumping buckets full of water that we had to heat on the (first wood, later gas) stove for baths, dishes and what not because it was the coldest water in the world from our eighty foot well. I bathed in what is called a foot tub. Our washer was the hand roller type until we got indoor plumbing. We never got a dryer.

I don't remember food stamps or any food pantries but I do remember shelling peas and butter beans and eating tomatoes fresh in the garden right off the vine. We had a good sized garden which was lots of work. I learned how to plant, hoe, weed, string up string beans and cut okra.

We had a milk cow, a laying hen that lived under a big cast iron pot and we raised our own pigs which grew to enormous sizes. They went to the slaughterhouse and into the smoke house. We also ate squirrel, rabbit, duck and deer that were either killed by my uncle or shared by neighbors.

I don't remember feeling deprived, ever. I was loved and happy and it doesn't seem that long ago. I miss my grandmother every single day.

Interesting OP. Thanks, DURHAM D.

❤ pants

[DURHAM D]

110. Interest post. Thanks for sharing.

I had to hesitate at the eating squirrel part then I looked at your profile and notice that you are from North Carolina and I said "awwwh Brunswick stew".

May you continue to enjoy your rich life.

[littlemissmartypants]

112. Actually, Brunswick Stew is more of a coastal plains, SC low country dish.

Squirrel stew is a dish all its own.

Thanks for the reply, DD. ❤

[DURHAM D]

117. Didn't know that.

I have some really fat and healthy squirrels in my neighbor but never thought about eating them.

[littlemissmartypants]

133. So, I did some research (yikes) the dreaded

"research"...

And I stand corrected. Yes, squirrel stew is its own thing but Brunswick Stew hails from a more expanded geography than I was aware of...

For example, Brunswick County Virginia and Brunswick in Georgia claim the provenance. But Native American culture seems to be a likely original source, too.

My friends from South Carolina who make it also sometimes refer to this type of dish as a "Bog."

Though you could cook your Brunswick Stew with squirrel as the primary meat, I've only ever eaten it two ways, 100% veggie and with shredded pork and chicken.

Here's one recipe reference with four variations, including a Kentucky version, in case anyone is interested.

https://www.thespruceeats.com/brunswick-stew-recipes-4144882

1) Brunswick Stew with Pork and Chicken, classic

2) Brunswick Stew with Cornbread

3) Georgia style

And 4) The Kentucky burgo version.

This one is "Easy Brunswick Stew" from My Recipes.com:

https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/easy-brunswick-stew-1

https://imagesvc.meredithcorp.io/v3/mm/image?url=

Enjoy!

❤

Ps: I wouldn't eat your fat and happy squirrels, either. I have some of those, too and they're too entertaining to eat.

[DURHAM D]

216. That looks delicious.

Spare the squirrel.

[Retrograde]

137. My grandmother had a stove that could use coal or wood

a big black thing, as I recall. I don't recall her using coal, but she did regularly use wood to heat it. I remember the flat iron plates on the top that you had to get hot to cook anything. I always figured that was why my mother was such a bad cook.

[Ms. Toad]

209. We had indoor plumbing -

But also an out-house.

The electricity went out frequently enough that hand-pumping water from the well (and using the out-house) was common.

The one-room country school I attended got indoor plumbing a couple years before I started there.

My father (justturned 90) is now reverting to those ingrained out-house habits . . . mainly no need/ability to flush. Embarasses my mother to no end when guests are over who need to use the bathroom.

[rpannier]

104. First 3 yes

My mom did 4-6

[canetoad]

105. Never owned a clothes dryer

Washing drying in the sun as I type.
Drive a manual.

The others - all yes.

[shanti]

106. Yup, I'm a Boomer

Have done all of them, plus all of my sons can drive a stick too. Might be a good skill to know someday.

[denbot]

107. 100%

Still driver a stick shift, and FIOS kill our rotary land line only 2 or 3 years ago.

[dchill]

109. Six.

[Stinky The Clown]

111. Yes to all . . . . . .

You pulled into a gas station and someone came out and greeted you, pumped your gas, cleaned your windows, offered to check the oil and tire pressure?
Yes plus I was the guy who did all that, too.

Had a rotary phone.
Not only yes, but we still have two of them that work.

Had a tv without a remote control.
We had one in the late 50s that tuned like a radio for the few UHF stations that existed.

Had to hang your washed clothes outside to dry because there was no such thing as a dryer.
Yup. On two clotheslines with pullies, not one of those sort of carousel things that into a socket in the ground.

Know how to drive a stick shift.
Yes, and we still have a stick car.

Took typing in school.
Yes, and managed 40-ish WPM just like I do now. Left thumb and index finger and right thumb, index and second fingers.


We had a floor model radio. I still have it but it doesn't work. We have a light inside to light up the colorful dial and a speaker inside to face it.

[DURHAM D]

115. I think one of the most interesting census questions was in 1930

when they asked every household if they had a radio set. I noticed a couple of my ancestors had reported that they did have a radio set but I knew they lived on farms in the middle of nowhere and did not have electricity until the late 30s. I was told they figured out how to run them off of the tractor batteries or perhaps some sort of generator they put on windmills.

[Stinky The Clown]

179. If they had a tractor, they had gasoline. If they has gasoline, they may have had . . . .

. . . . a stationary engine. These were used to power all sorts of things, including washing machines and even electric generators for small load occasional use. Various accessories were available, all powered via a leather belt. These engines were around from the 1890s to the 1940s.

I have seen these at shows but have no first hand experience with them beyond that.

[Cha]

113. All except the Stick Shift..

My grandparents had an Automatic.

[DFW]

114. All of the above.

We even had the egg man.

(But not the walrus)

[pazzyanne]

121. All of them.

Those were the good old days - I guess.

[electric_blue68]

124. I got two to add...

I don't know if it was a thing if you lived in a Dairy State in particular... or in the upper Mid Atlantic.

So there was a small store in the '60's in NYC in my neighborhood called Daitch. It was a brand, too.

Anyway I remember going with my mom, and they'd have these cold storage "lockers", cases - metal with glass doors.
They were around "18 - "20 inches high, 12" or so inches wide , ? 10" inches deep.

In the two I remember were these big boxy shapes of butter in one, cream cheese in the other. There probably were two for butter - unsalted, and salted. The counter person would cut out a chunk of about what you wanted.
-----------------------------------------

In Brooklyn in the '00s in our nabe once a week a small truck would come around with a bell that did knife, and scissor sharpening. Obviously that tradition was around along time before that!
And then 2 or 3 weeks later my local public radio local show highlighted "old timey" things still around. That was one of them. 👍

[ShazzieB]

126. All of these.

But we didn't hang blothes outside to dry because there was no such thing as a dryer. They existed; we just couldn't afford one when I was really little. We got one when I was 7 or 8, so it would have been sometime in 1957-1958.

Even after we had a dryer, my mom used to hang laundry outside when the weather was warm, as least some of the time. I still remember how good the clothes smelled after hanging outside in the sun. Mmm, heavenly!

[GoneOffShore]

131. Yes to all of the above and still drive a stick, and hang clothes out to dry.

[lookyhereyou]

134. all but typing

46/75 still drive stick, still can't type or spell , so keep posts short
and always use spell check; still get my gas pumped.they will also
check tires and oil if I ask so I'm very loyal. this site is the best

[Paper Roses]

135. All of the list. n/t

[Retrograde]

136. I knew dryers existed, but didn't have one

Hanging stuff on the clothesline was OK most of the year here in California, but drying things during the rainy season was a challenge. When we rented an apartment in Spain a few years ago, it had a washer but no dryer - hanging clothes and towels all over the place brought back memories.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

139. All of them. nt

[MissMillie]

140. all except the clothes dryer (n/t)

.

[Martin Eden]

141. I still drive a manual transmission, and so does my wife

All my cars since 1980 have had a stick (currently a 2016 VW Golf). My wife has a 2014 Subaru Outback, the last year they still offered a stick in that model.

She's even more of a die hard for manual transmission than I am, refusing to consider anything else. After 2022 Subaru will no longer offer a manual trans in their smaller Crosstrek, so she might jump on that while she still can.

[USALiberal]

146. I don't get the appeal. Nt

[Martin Eden]

165. Ever drive one?

I like to choose my own gears and more engaged with driving, always thinking ahead and aware of my RAMS. After all these years, it's second nature.

[NutmegYankee]

188. You feel more connected with the machine.

It really helps to cut down on distracted driving. You pay more attention to the conditions in front of you, because you might need to down shift or up shift in response, and you listen to the engine (for revs) more.

I also like Volkswagen because they do a good job with their steering of still allowing road feel to travel up to the steering wheel. Many Electro-mechanical power steering systems create a "dead wheel" that lacks any sensation. Volkswagen allows it to travel up so you can feel when the tires are losing traction. It really makes driving in winter so much better.

[Ms. Toad]

211. For one - far easier to get out of a snow-drift.

Rocking out is much harder with automatic.

I like both the slightly better gas mileage, and the control.

Ever have an automatic refuse to shift down when you need to speed up quckly? Not a thing in a manual.

[Emile]

142. All of them. We had a dryer, but have you ever smelled bed sheets that dried outside

on a clothesline? Heavenly smell

[malaise]

143. All

Still hang clothes on line because there is sunshine most of the year and using the dryer is a waste of energy

[GoCubsGo]

144. I still drive stick shift.

I hate automatic transmission.

I used to hang my clothes because I couldn't afford a dryer at the time.

[sir pball]

147. All of them, and I was born in 1979.

The past isn't really that distant...

Though we did hang the clothes outside either to save energy or make them smell nice, not because we didn't have a dryer.

[JHB]

149. Four, five if I can replace "typing" with "shorthand"

Here's another: Used or saw someone using a slide rule.

[ProfessorGAC]

151. Yes, To All. But, A Story About One Of Them

Last edited Sun Feb 13, 2022, 11:46 AM - Edit history (1)

In my high school, everybody took typing first semester sophomore year.
My mom was an executive secretary for an oil company's regional office before I was born. She was a wiz at typing, so much so, that she could type up transcripts of meeting by simply listening to the tapes. Probably around 120 wpm, on a manual typewriter.
So, I learned to type even before I knew how to write cursive.
Get to sophomore year and the first class. I sit down, put a paper in the platen and start typing the textbook. I was showing my friend Kevin how easy this class was going to be for me.
Just before class teacher walks up and yanks the paper out, thinking I was messing around. (I was probably clicking away 65-70 wpm.)
He looks at the paper, turns the book so he can see it, and a few seconds later says "Why don't you just go shoot hoops during this class. You already get an A."
Class was even easier than I thought!

[ChazII]

154. I cannot drive a stick shift

and since I live in the Phoenix valley I still hang my clothes because I don't own a dryer. I joke that my clothes dryer is solar powered.

[krispos42]

156. I did own a Samsung CRT TV with knobs, no remote

Power/volume knob, VHF knob with fine tuner, UHF knob with fine tuner.

This was the late 90s. We had a VCR on it, and that had a remote

I can drive a stick, my parents had a rotary phone when I was little, add I took typing freshman year in high school, on a PC with a monochrome monitor.

As an aside, I had to add "CRT" and "VCR" to my phone's dictionary...

[dumbcat]

159. All except the typing

I was on a science/engineering track in high school, so we took Mechanical Drawing (drafting) instead of typing. Looking back on it, after a 40 year engineering career, typing would have been much more useful.

[kacekwl]

160. All of the above. And

I was the kid who greeted you and pumped your gas etc.

[Solomon]

161. All of them.

[ananda]

162. All of the above for me. Lol

I seem to remember that I was young once.

[ananda]

163. Oh, and Jim Crow.

It was everywhere in Dallas when I was little.

My mother hated it. We were so happy when
Johnson got the Civil Rights bill passed.

[Hangingon]

164. All but the last one

My high school did not offer typing.

[mnhtnbb]

166. All but the clothes dryer

It's possible my mom didn't have a dryer when I was born. My earliest memory around age 4 or 5 is that there was a dryer in the basement laundry room of the house. But my mom also had one of those square clothes line/multiple lines set ups in the backyard and would use it to dry sheets in nice weather. That was mid '50's NJ.

Fast forward to now and I only use the dryer for sheets/towels. I hang everything else to dry in my laundry room.

I learned to drive--in 1966--a manual transmission on the old Willys Jeep (WW II era) that my dad had for driving around the orchard. The first car I owned had a manual transmission and I continued to only buy cars with manual transmissions up until about 20 years ago.

[sinkingfeeling]

168. All of those. And I have never owned an automatic shift car.

[Deuce]

169. All of them!

[Lettuce Be]

170. Are you trying to out the oldies?

Typing in school was my favorite class!

[DURHAM D]

171. That was not my intent but

there are a lot more of us than I realized.

[Emile]

172. How many of you lived in a house heated by coal?

How many of you lived in a house with no inside toilet?

[captain queeg]

213. We did for quite a few years. It was a huge furnace in the basement.

Last one to bed had to stoke it up but was mostly burned down by morning. Incredibly inefficient looking back. And the house had no insulation, just plasterboard with an open void between the outer wall. I guess the house before that just had a potbellied stove though I was too little to remember that.

[hippywife]

173. All but one...

I can't drive a stick. Someone tried to teach me in the 80s, but it didn't take.

[Liberal In Texas]

175. The thing that was the most useful high school class I took was typing.

And yes to the rest of the items, except I remember a dryer always being around even though mom did hang things outside frequently.

I remember some relatives having a TV with a remote that clicked loudly as it struck a tuning fork type device inside. About all it did was cause the channel dial to turn mechanically. The first TV I owned with a remote was a Sony Trinitron in approx. 1979. Really high tech!

[captain queeg]

214. Yes typing was probably the most useful class I had in HS.

Not till many years later with the advent of computers but most of it came back pretty quickly. At least the letters, still have to look for numbers and punctuation.

[bikebloke]

177. All of them.

[BlackSkimmer]

178. Yes to all the above.

And I still dry my clothes on the line.

My John Deere tractor has a stick lol.

[sakabatou]

181. 3

Had a rotary phone in the house.
Had a TV without a remote control.
Took a typing class.

[Wingus Dingus]

182. 1, 2, 3 and 6.

Born in 1969. My parents had an automatic transmission car that I learned to drive with, so I never had to learn to drive a manual. We also always had a dryer, at least as far back as I can remember.

[Boomerproud]

184. All except stick shift and no dryer.

Mom did hang the laundry out in the summer tho. Rotary phones were a pain when you were trying to call into a radio station to win a contest. Lol.

[treestar]

185. All except the dryer

We had a dryer as long as I can recall.

Not sure if by the time I started driving, the self-service pumps had not begun. But I was in the car as a kid plenty of times, watching the station attendant wash the windshield and back window.

[hauckeye]

186. No to the stick shift

I'm 67 and when I took driver's ed, all the cars were automatics. My family didn't have a stick shift, so I have never learned. So far I don't regret it

[Tommy Carcetti]

192. ....

1. Sort of. I remember full service gas, but only gas pumping and windshields. Not oil or tire pressure.

2. Yes. When my grandmother moved in with us, she actually preferred rotary.

3. Yes.

4. No, we always had a dryer. Although my parents would occasionally still air dry.

5. Define “know.” I attempted to learn, burnt out my parents’ clutch, and never tried again.

6. Yes. Although it was on computers.

[11 Bravo]

193. Every one of them. (Thanks for reminding me how old I am.)

[MineralMan]

195. All of them, plus a phone with no dial at all.

Our small California farm town didn't get dial phones until 1963. Before then, you picked up the phone and waited for the operator to say, "Number, Please." I can't remember my phone number from back then, but I remember my girlfriend's. It was 852. My father's workplace phone number was 42.

[Quakerfriend]

197. I can say yes to 4 out of 6

We all still drive sticks in my family! 😉

[Ms. Toad]

198. All 6.

Still have a TV without a remote control (and no cable - so essentially it is a box taking up space).

I don't recall whether "there was no such thing as a dryer," but we certainly hung clothes out to dry when I was growing up.

My 31 year old daughter drives a stick - refuses to get an automatic transmission. Her parents have compromised one by necessity (the Honda Insight I had to buy used was only available in automatic transition, since there were so few of them made. It's now got about 240,000 miles on it & still getting mid-40s mpg), the other didn't really care.

Typing was the best bang-for-the-buck class I've ever taken. I can still out-type the administrative assistants at my old law firm.

[Sogo]

200. Like so many here, all of them.

[GrapesOfWrath]

203. That would be me

To everything you listed

[Dave says]

205. Yes to all the above except the last one

I’m getting old!

[MsLeopard]

207. Yes to all of them

I’m really old…….

[gulliver]

208. 5

[MiniMe]

210. Yes to all except hanging clothes outside because there was no such thing as a dryer

We hung things outside, but there was a dryer.

[2 Meow Momma]

215. Yes, yes, yes, yep, uh huh, and affirmative! nt

[Mr.Bill]

217. All of them,

assuming when you say there was no such thing as a dryer meant we didn't have one rather than the dryer not being invented yet. The electric dryer was invented in 1937, but when I was a kid in the 50s, we didn't have one.

[Solly Mack]

220. All but the dryer. Dryers were around before I was born.