'Older than dirt quiz'

[left-of-center2012]

[Glorfindel]

1. I remember all of them. I also know

that Mrs. Woodring, my fifth-grade teacher, would have given me a "0" for using "then" instead of "than."

[hunter]

85. You get old, you die, and then you are dirt.

Older, then dirt.

[Glorfindel]

92. Well done, hunter!

The best thing about getting old is that it's better (so far) than the alternative.

[Trueblue1968]

108. i remember 15 of them

[EYESORE 9001]

2. I remember them, with a couple of exceptions

Butch Wax was not a part of my childhood memories, although Brylcreem, Vitalis, and Wildroot Cream Oil were available to give men's hair a greasy sheen.

Howdy Doody's first run was over by the time I came along, but the shows were in syndication for some time afterward. I was more into reruns of the Mickey Mouse Club, however.

[Freddie]

4. We must be around the same age

Howdy Doody was before my time but my brother (4 years older) remembers him. Newsreels before the movie were gone by then too.

[EYESORE 9001]

6. Yeah, newsreels...

It was kinda hit-or-miss for newsreels at the small theater of my hometown, but I remember that they were a thing.

[wnylib]

40. I remember all of them.

On Mickey Mouse: The new Disney Program was advertized before its first day on the air. I was looking forward to it, but then my tonsillectomy got scheduled for that day.

The surgery was very early in the morning. I was awake and alert again by early afternoon. The program would start at 5 pm. When my father joined my mother at the hospital, the doctor came into the room to tell them that, although everything went well, they liked to keep young kids overnight for observation. I was afraid of being in the hospital all night, but mostly disappointed that I would miss the first Mickey Mouse show. So I begged the doctor to let me go home. (The surgery did not prevent me from speaking on something so important to me.)

After checking me over and talking to my parents about home aftercare and watching for any signs that would require medical care, the doctor agreed to let me go home.

That reminds me of another bygone thing from long ago - ether as an anesthetic.

[EYESORE 9001]

43. I was the first of my siblings born in a hospital

My mother said that the doctor would stick the mask over her face to deliver a lungful of ether, then take a hit from the mask for himself.

[wnylib]

76. I remember that the ER nurses got

frustrated when I didn't go under with the ether like they expected me to. The problem was that they gave me a task that required conscious thought from me, so I was fighting the effects of the ether.

One nurse asked if I had learned to count to 100 yet. When I said yes, she told me to try doing it backwards. Well, that required some conscious thought and mental imaging of reading numbers backwards. I did well until about 96, and then caught myself making a mistake. I remember saying "Oh sorry" and the nurse saying it was ok. But I said it wasn't and went back to 100 to start over. The ER people talked about it as if I weren't there.

I heard things like, "She's starting over? She should be out by now." And "What's wrong with this kid?" Then, "So give her more."

When I woke up in a bed with my mother beside me, I asked when they were going to do my operation. Did not believe it when she said it was over. Total time disorientation.

[FalloutShelter]

3. Test pattern after the playing of the National Anthem

at the end of day TV broadcasting.

Holy crap...I'm old.

[2naSalit]

13. My dad...

Used to make us stand and place our hands over our hearts if we were in the room at sign off. He was like a drill Sgt.

[packman]

29. I recall the national anthem then this poem at sign-off

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, --and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of --Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

[Hotler]

42. High Flight; by Jon Gillespie Magee jr.

http://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=819

"Put out my hand, and touched the face of God." An awesome line. I must have been about 8yrs. old when I first heard this a sign off.

[caraher]

55. With this video

[Midnight Writer]

96. Same here. And we only got one TV station in our area. Often went off at 11:00 PM.

[dixiegrrrrl]

102. Indian head test pattern.

then around 12 am snow.
Indian head back around 6 am, then farmer news bulletins, then, if I remember correctly, something that looked like a funeral card....lilies, sunrise, soft music, then 7 am or so, first of the Sat. morning cartoons.
I just know that around 7 am, me and my cereal bowl were in front of the tv, low volume, watching cartoons while the adults all slept in.I was 7-8 the first I remember of this...it went on for years in the summer.

[Siwsan]

5. I had to look up 'Butch Wax' but I did find a couple of these when I moved to my house

And, yes, I remember using them, back in the day. I wonder if they freeze the cubes faster than the plastic. Hmm. Might have to give them a try.

[EYESORE 9001]

7. They do freeze water faster

Metal conducts heat faster than plastic. My mother wouldn't give up hers.

[Siwsan]

10. I guess that means it's time for a good wash and swap out!

Thanks!!

[Buckeye_Democrat]

8. I experienced, or was well-aware, of all of it.

I never saw newsreels before movies, but I was aware that it happened a few years earlier.

Too young for Howdy Doody, but saw numerous references to that TV show at a young age as well.

It's funny... I used to hear about "Leave It To Beaver" a lot when I was younger, but I never saw a rerun of that TV show until I was middle-aged! I was kind of excited to finally see it, then "meh".

[bluedigger]

9. let's just say The Dead Sea was merely feeling under the weather...

Howdy Doody was before my time.

[Croney]

11. Didn't have 1, 9, or 10. In 1954 when I was ten,

I rode my bike home from school every day for lunch, and one day our first TV had been delivered and when I rushed in the door, I heard "It's Howdy Doody time, it's Howdy Doody time." What a thrill.

[ashredux]

32. My first show after my Dad got the antenna up...

Ed Sullivan

[multigraincracker]

88. Only in black and white

[kacekwl]

81. Had to walk home for lunch.

Then in 7th-8th grade got to be a patrol boy and was allowed to ride my bike. Whooooo Hoooo.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

12. These drive-in theater ads were still being shown...

... in the early 80's around here!

The guy at about the 7:28 mark of this video usually caused laughter that could be heard from parked cars everywhere.

Edit: Good grief, I finally noticed the can label from that particular ad!

[left-of-center2012]

16. That was fun. Thanks

I went to the drive-in a few times in the 1950's when I was about 10.
My older brother and his girlfriend took me, at the urging of my mother.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

17. I was a kid of the 70's and 80's, but those ads...

... came to mind because they were so anachronistic for that time period. I remember wondering if the drive-in owners just kept running the same ones for decades, never bothering with updates. Some of the stuff wasn't even available at the concession stand anymore!

[niyad]

14. Than. But I remember them all. Ooooooooold!

[Goonch]

15. Decoder Ring

[tblue37]

18. All of them. Teaberry was my favorite gum!

[smirkymonkey]

100. I remember most of them and Teaberry was also my favorite gum!

Wow, that was such a blast from the past! A lot of those things I remember from very early childhood, but I do remember them. A few items are completely unfamiliar, but kind of fun to be reminded of those days. Life was so simple back then. *sigh*

[I_UndergroundPanther]

105. Clove gum is

My favorite get it nowadays from cracker barrel.

[Srkdqltr]

19. I remember them all .

#6 we used the cardboard stoppers as play money when we played store.

[dragonlady]

20. All of them

The milk man would open the back door, read Mom's note of what she wanted, and put the bottles in the hallway. It was a whole different world then.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

26. My mother had an "egg man".

He delivered milk too, but she mostly got fresh eggs and some other farm products from him. He was a bearded Dunkard man, wearing a black hat.

[KPN]

41. Our egg man ended up in Guiness's Book of World Records for

the shortest legal name. His name was Ed Ek.

Just one of those quirky thing in life you never forget.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

51. That's certainly the shortest name that I've ever seen!

Thanks for sharing!

[KPN]

56. Yeah, thanks for the "egg man" memory reminder.

First time I’ve thought of that in probably 2 decades.

[customerserviceguy]

59. My high school

chemistry teacher was Al Ko. Of course his unofficial nickname was "aluminum potassium oxide".

[Buckeye_Democrat]

66. Appropriate nickname!

It's amusing to me when people have names that fit their occupations -- e.g., a "Dr. Brain" who is a brain surgeon.

It seems to happen quite often, but it's surely random and the funny matches just stand out more.

My mother applied for a cooking job at a restaurant called "Proud Pig" when I was a teenager long ago, but returned home pretty quickly to share with me that the manager who interviewed her was named "Dick Duck". She already thought the restaurant's name was kind of odd, but then she thought of "Dick Duck, manager of Proud Pig" after hearing his name.

Then she couldn't stop laughing. She said he was often glaring at her as she continued to laugh, embarrassingly unable to control it. So she predicted that she'd never get that job, and the place indeed never called her. She kept wondering why he couldn't have just used used "Richard" instead, given his surname.

[Atticus]

21. I remember every last one PLUS: "coonskin" caps like Davy Crockett wore; a 10" round screen

of the monstrously huge oak cabinet first television I ever saw; sidewalk roller skates with keys; listening to Jack Benny, Arthur Godfrey and "soap operss" on a table top radio with tubes that had to "warm up" when it was turned on; our doctor made "house calls"; telephones were heavy, black, had rotary dials and were on "party lines"; lawn mowers were human-powered with sharpened feel blades that only moved when the mower was pushed.

Much more, but I have already pegged myself as a fossil, so I will stop.

[Ocelot II]

33. All of those things!

Clunky metal roller skates with a key, phones that could double as boat anchors, cars with back passenger doors that opened front to back (I nearly fell out of one of those; there weren't any seat belts either), and at my grandma's place, a toaster where you had to flip open doors and turn the bread over, and a refrigerator with a big cylindrical compressor on top.

[NNadir]

22. 13 out of 17. n/t.

[colsohlibgal]

23. Aced It Too

Party Lines were bizarre you would pick up the phone and hear others talking.

Time flies and paradigms shift. God knows what life will be like in 2077.

[Goonch]

24. America's First Interactive TV Show Encouraged Kids to Draw on the Screen

https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/americas-first-interactive-tv-show-encouraged-kids-to-d-1720375427

[left-of-center2012]

25. Tom Terrific ? Beany and Cecil ?

[KPN]

45. Hah! I loved Tom Terrific but forgot all about

“Mighty Manfred”. Thanks for the memory jog.

[DENVERPOPS]

75. How about

flash gordon ???????????

[KPN]

93. And Buck Rodgers!

[hvn_nbr_2]

27. 45 RPMs? Heck, I remember 78 RPMs on my uncle's Victrola. nt

[bluescribbler]

28. All of the above

Including Butch Wax.

[birdographer]

30. We never had a party line

But that might be due to location, they were probably still around rurally. What about cap guns--we just stretched out the roll of caps and hit them with a hammer. Not gun fans even back then.

[MLAA]

31. Remember them all except home milk delivery and news reels.

Those waxy bottles of coke! Hadn’t thought of them in years. 🙂

[johnnyknj]

67. Nickle-Nips, I believe they were called.

[niyad]

70. There is a retro candy shop here where one can still buy those. And lots of other oldies as well.

[left-of-center2012]

34. Wax lips ?

[LakeArenal]

58. Also those little round candy on an adding machine tape.

Or the candy necklace.
Using the switches on the tv
Listening late at night to KAAY Little Rock
Wolfman Jack
Saturday morning Westerns
Captain Kangaroo
Getting a chunk of ice from the milkman
Kids playing outside til streetlights came on.

[pecosbob]

35. Newsreels were already gone but I saw all the rest

I remember JFK's funeral and riding on the miniature train on the Engineer Bill Show (a local children's program in Los Angeles). My mother won Queen for a Day (another local Los Angeles television program) in 1963 or perhaps it was 1964. I remember Kirby vacuum cleaners that were built like trucks. Matchbox cars were a thing...Hot Wheels was still a decade in the future. I remember our first remote control television and when phonograph records were all mono. Power steering and power brakes were new things. I recall when movies were not rated for age and when signs still said whites only on bathrooms and water fountains.

Some things change, some don't.

[lonely bird]

74. At one time Lesney, the company that built Matchbox cars, was the largest car manufacturer

in the world. I loved Matchbox cars!

[Haggard Celine]

84. Yes, I remember seeing segregated water fountains.

The colored fountain would always be broken down and dirty-looking and the white fountain would be nice and clean, like new. It was a very clear reminder that segregation was not so long ago. It was also quite clear that the phrase "separate but equal" was a sick joke.

Segregation lasted a long time after the civil rights era. There is still de facto segregation in some parts of Mississippi, although it is self-induced. The battle over integration had to be fought over each town separately here, they didn't just change the laws and the segregated places started opening their doors for everyone.

[oldbones]

36. Comic books

I remember trading comic books. We werent the first in my area to get a TV. So when it got to be Howdy Doody time I had to hustle my comic books , to trade at that time. It seemed like it was forever before we got a tv, and when we did. Dad had to go out back and unhook the line, so the neighbor kids would go home. It was a hugh piece of furniture with doors and had a very small snowy picture lol, I was in heaven

[niyad]

72. Welcome to our ancient, doddering, DU family.

[Shrike47]

37. I remember them all and lots more: wax lips and mustaches at Halloween that tasted good, etc.

I visited Disneyland the year it opened; I’d never heard of it so no pre-visit anticipation.

[nuxvomica]

38. I don't remember 1, 8, 10, or 13 but we still have 5 locally

The diner is called "Steve's Place" and last I checked they still had the booth jukeboxes connected to a large jukebox on the floor. But the last time I ate there it was outdoor dining, which they never had before the pandemic.

[sinkingfeeling]

39. I remember everything except butch wax.

[DownriverDem]

44. No party line

My Mom didn't want a party line so we never had one. No news reels before movies were shown at our neighborhood show.

[Greybnk48]

46. All of it. I have a pair of P.F. Flyers in my closet right now

that I bought a few years ago, just for old time's sake. Low top black. I threw a fit until my parents let me have a pair in the late 50's, even though I was a girl. I was supposed to wear white Ked's.

My 30 something daughter wears them out now and then, and people always comment without fail.

[INdemo]

47. Could I add a couple items?

Remember the David Crockett racoon caps ?
Cap pistols ?
When the hula Hoop was first introduced ?
The nuclear fall out shelter signs at school ?

[Ocelot II]

87. My little brother had a (fake) coonskin hat

and he'd run around the house with it on, singing the Davy Crockett song from the tv show. We had cap pistols but mostly we'd just pound on rolls of caps with a hammer or a rock so they'd all explode at once; I loved the smell of gunpowder. And I got pretty good at keeping the hula hoop going.

I also remember the fallout shelter signs and the duck and cover drills.

[Hotler]

48. No one hasseled you for pop bottle rockest and M-80s

BB gun fights......

[appleannie1]

49. I remember sitting on the floor in front of the floor model Zenith playing with my Log Cabin logs

while my parents listened to Fireside Chats about the war.

[edhopper]

50. I remember al of them

But we did not have Party Lines in my town and they mostly stopped showing Newsreels before I started going to the movies. We had 8 channels, including PBS and UHF

[left-of-center2012]

52. 'Duck and cover'

[JohnnyRingo]

53. OK Boomer

haha ...I feel like I've been waiting my entire 68 years to use that.

The only other time was when the singer from Three Dog Night sat at the edge of the stage and went on about touring during the good old days, and I passed it up.

Of course I knew all those things, and though we didn't have milk delivered to our door, the rich people next door did.

[img][/img]

[amb123]

54. Remember them all except ...

1. Blackjack chewing gum and Teaberry.

&

13. Howdy Doody (before my time).

Also, in reference to #7, I remember rotary dial telephones and phone booths.

[barbtries]

57. i missed on a couple, but bottom line

I'm older than dirt.

[wryter2000]

60. I never had a party line

I guess I knew about them, though, so all of these apply to me.

I wonder what the "older than dirt" items will be 20 years from now. Flip phones?

[gibraltar72]

61. All of those plus hand crank phones

where you called central and they directed your call. Wind up record players too.

[left-of-center2012]

65. Wow, how far back do you go?

[gibraltar72]

71. Right after war was my birthday. I've seen a lot.

[left-of-center2012]

77. Which war ?

I was born in '46.

[gibraltar72]

90. 1945 Even have my ration stamp booklet. Mom got more because she was with child.

[sarge43]

62. Remember them all

Last edited Mon Apr 12, 2021, 06:48 AM - Edit history (1)

Also remember 78 RPM records, no TVs, newsreels, then two cartoons, peashooters and sling shots (paid to come fully armed), Sunday paper with full page, full colored running serials - Flash Gordon, Prince Valiant, Tarzan, Terry and the Pirates, the original graphic novels

[Paper Roses]

63. Remember when the milk man came and he would give you a chunk of ice to enjoy?

How about the bread deliveryman, twice a week with fresh bread. My house, only wheat bread, Mom would not buy white bread.
The list is so long. Roller skates with a key and they clipped on your shoes? Part time jobs that paid 90 cents an hour? Walking to school? It was almost 2 miles and we did it daily. If you got into trouble, you had detention and walked home! Gym suits that had 'bloomers, one piece , the ugliest things ever created.

I aced this list above and could probably spend a week listing all the old time "remember when's".

BTW, I still have a can of Butchers wax. Loved the smell of that stuff! When you were lucky enough to have a nickel, you could buy a bottle of Coke after putting your arm down into the ice water in those old red Coke bins.How about real 'Penny Candy'. The real good stuff. Oh, the good old days.

[lonely bird]

64. I knew of newsreels but didn't see one

I remember Eagle Stamps, Red Ball Jets sneakers, stereos that had a 45 spindle that slid down over the 33 spindle, Beeman’s gum, Nik-L-Nips which were the wax bottles with flavored sugar water, NECCO wafers and for those from Northeast Ohio...

Little Tom sodas.

[BobTheSubgenius]

68. Some of those, I remember only their existence.

We didn't have S&H green stamps, but I remember my American aunt and uncle collecting them for dandy prizes. I have no idea what they merch they claimed, and I can't even be sure that they were S&H, but I don't know if there was a rival stamp operation or not.

Likewise Butch Wax and PF Flyers. Not Canadian things, but I remember them. Can't remember the exact context of the memories, though.

Those accepted as memories - 17/17. I need no reminders of that upstart parvenu, Dirt, however.

[Hoyt]

69. All. I can smell butch wax right now that we used on those dog ugly flattops.

[TygrBright]

73. I can't be that old. I never used butch wax. n/t

[kacekwl]

82. The barber used Butch Wax

on the flat top or crew cut I'd get. He'd smack my head around putting that stuff on.

[iamateacher]

78. Wide World of Disney on Sunday nights

Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone
My parent got us out of bed to see the Beatles perform the first time on Ed Sullivan.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

86. I remember Disney on Sunday nights!

I often felt a little sad while watching it, since it was a harbinger of school the next day. The programming was sometimes entertaining enough to help me forget school, though. (I was always a good student, but still usually hated going to school.)

[Pluvious]

79. Alas... Hobo Kelly has been forgotten

And the Amazing Mr. Ed ( a horse of course )

And Tammy.

[Jetheels]

80. No butch wax, but brylcreem as some other said.

Also, footsie and hump-a-jump.
Close-up toothpaste, it was red.
Banana seat bike, sissy bar.

[usaf-vet]

83. Gee thanks I was already feeling old and achy. It's 11:00 in the morning and I need a nap.....

.... 74, But better than the alternative.

[Hoyt]

104. Dread days I won't be able to take a nap.

[Pas-de-Calais]

89. Except for 5 & 8 all yes

[Paladin]

91. TV Test patterns---with the image of a Native American chief.

And thanks to LBJ, those of us who grew up in Austin TX had one TV channel---KTBC, channel 7 (changed to KLBJ, after the president's death).

[Mr. Ected]

95. Born in 1960 and I personally remember all but

6, 7, 10 and 13.

[Wolf Frankula]

97. Telephone Exchange names instead of numbers

Like ALPine and PENNsylvania.

Wolf

[left-of-center2012]

98. 'Exchange names'

We were shown a film in junior high (late 1950's) to explain the change.
The example they used was 'Bubbling Brook".

I can remember that, but sometimes I can't remember to take my pills these days.

[FakeNoose]

99. Yes to everything except butch wax - don't even know what that is

Might be something in the eastern states?

I grew up in Saint Louis, MO. Just a normal, quiet suburban childhood in the 1950's.

[left-of-center2012]

101. What was 'Butch Wax'?

Last edited Sun Apr 11, 2021, 08:02 PM - Edit history (1)

Was in a jar, used to keep a guy's 'butch-style' crew cut hair to stand up.

[FakeNoose]

106. OK, now I know

I didn't have any big brothers or older cousins. That explains why I never heard of it.

Thanks LOC!

[retread]

110. Flattops!!

[ProfessorGAC]

103. Almost All

I don't recall ever seeing a newsreel before a movie, although like most everyone else, I know they used to do that.
I remember party lines because my mom's dad had one.
As to milk delivery, we had it delivered cheaper than going to the store & buying it there. My dad was one of the guys who got the milk to the supermarkets, so we got delivery at cost! He used to buy ice cream & confections at cost, too.
Finally, I remember butch wax at the barber, but thankfully my parents never cut my hair so short that I would have needed it.

[Laffy Kat]

107. Everything but Butch wax.

Gonna have to look that one up.

[left-of-center2012]

109. It is explained in post 101 above. n/t

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

111. I remember all except Party Line Phones

Never had a party line, never knew anyone who had one. All the rest, yes.

I also remember making popcorn in a big pot on the stove. Oil, corn, shake, shake, shake,... eventually, there's popcorn.