The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsI'm old enough to remember..... thread. Please add!
Last edited Mon Jan 17, 2022, 09:43 PM - Edit history (1)
Im old enough to remember when the shopping mall had stores in it!
On Edit: Good god some of you are oooooolllld! I thought I was old at 50! No offense intended, just sayin. Some of you all are making me feel relatively young! LOL! Thanks for the contributions all. I don't care if you're 20 or 120. Glad we're all on the same side of things....
Glam
FoxNewsSucks
(10,435 posts)and why it was great
Glamrock
(11,802 posts)We just watched Convoy on Amazon over the summer. Worst movie ever! And now that song is an inside joke to me and the Mrs. Saw your post and belly laughed! Thanks for the contribution!
samplegirl
(11,500 posts)remember a sub sandwich cost 33 cents in SS Kressge!
Scrivener7
(51,004 posts)local Kresge lunch counter when I was in high school!!!
(But I think the subs were more than 33 cents by the time I worked there.)
wnylib
(21,606 posts)popsicles, fudgesicles, and candy bars for a nickel. My father bought cigarettes for 25 cents a pack. 10 cents for a glass pony bottle (7 oz.) of Coke with a 2 cent deposit.
Hot dog and ice cream soda at W.T. Grant for 75 cents.
Hospitals had cigarette machines in the lobby and allowed visitors in patient rooms to smoke.
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)I lived in a Chicago burb. Lots of ethnicities blended. Best hot dogs anywhere & they were 4/$1 loaded with toppings.
wnylib
(21,606 posts)SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)In hospice. Hadn't eaten, had a drink, opened his eyes, or talked in days. He started singing when he smelled hot dogs.
Marthe48
(17,018 posts)Didn't get them often, because my Dad and Mom owned a grocery store, and "you can make one at home" lol
MyOwnPeace
(16,937 posts)falling asleep watching a show - and awaking to "The Star Spangled Banner" and a test pattern!
wnylib
(21,606 posts)between the JFK assassination and the funeral on Monday, instead of the test pattern they showed a US flag and photo of JFK with music in the background all night.
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)you weren't sure when the landlines would be connected, you'd have to give them the phone number of a friend or relative as a temporary answering service.
FalloutShelter
(11,878 posts)SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Jilly_in_VA
(9,995 posts)We had a woman on ours who, if she picked up and heard one of us kids on the line, would claim she had an "emergency" and needed the line right away. One time my little brother, then about 9, quietly picked up a couple minutes later and heard her chatting away to a friend. He told our mom, who said she would put a stop to that. She told us to let her know the next time it happened. A few days later, here came Ms Busybody again (we were pretty sure she also listened in on us), this time on my other brother, claiming she need the line for an "emergency call". He politely turned it over and called our mom, who quietly picked up on the other phone just a few minutes later. As soon as Ms. Busybody was finished with her call, mom picked up the phone, called the phone company, and reported what the woman had been doing. She was removed from our party line. Not too long after that, most of our area got private lines.
Backseat Driver
(4,394 posts)school savings passbook programs, and buying a birthday book for the library, "This book presented to the library on the occasion of Backseat Driver's birthday - I know one was the story of a horse - Misty of Chincoteague" of illustrator of which also came to my elementary school for a visit and going to the cupboard to prepare and serve the 1/2-day kindergarten refreshments of juice and cookies and walking home alone.
tblue37
(65,487 posts)Concern about it was so great that no one in the house could make any noise. It was as though we felt the people on the other end were just yelling out the window from hundreds of miles away.
ShazzieB
(16,513 posts)One time, I answered the phone at my grandma's house, and the woman on the other end of the call thought I was her kid and started chewing me out for not coming home when I was supposed to. She was hopping mad, yelling at me to come home right this minute!
I tried to tell her I wasnt who she thought I was, but she wouldn't believe me. She just accused me of "sassing" her and got even madder! Thinking about it now, it's hilarious, but at the time, (I was 9 or 10, I think), I felt bad because I figured when her kid did get home, they were going to be in extra trouble for my "sassing" her, even though that wasn't really what happened. I told my mom and she reassured me that it wasn't my fault and there wasn't anything I could have done, but I still felt bad for that poor kid, having such a horrible mother. 🤣
To this day, I don't know if that woman just dialed the wrong number, or if she was dialing somebody else on the party line and I picked up by mistake. (There was supposed to be a different pattern of rings for each number on the line, so you could when it was for you, but boy, it was hard to tell sometimes.)
Marthe48
(17,018 posts)Cleveland to western NY. Gram had to call the operator, hang up and wait for the operator to call back when she had a connection to the cousin.
Bobstandard
(1,328 posts)Three stories and there were houses between the Halekulani and the Royal Hawaiian. A lady who lived in one would give us cookies.
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)one.
FalloutShelter
(11,878 posts)And walking over to the TV to change the channel.
Glamrock
(11,802 posts)Old enough to remember being my fathers remote control for the tv!
FalloutShelter
(11,878 posts)wnylib
(21,606 posts)get a clear picture. Also, adjusting rabbit ears to get better reception and eliminate "snow."
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)ShazzieB
(16,513 posts)Those old TV sets took a long time to come on and a long time to go off.
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)They sure did!
Totally Tunsie
(10,885 posts)cost $.77 at Korvette's!
Scrivener7
(51,004 posts)wnylib
(21,606 posts)Same price. Murphy's kept a list of the top 10 and top 50 posted by the shelves where the 45s were. The top 10 were shelved in order, 1 to 10.
Totally Tunsie
(10,885 posts)I'd get to buy whatever records landed in the Top 10 for the week. I still have many of them - jackets included, although many were destroyed by crashers to my 16th b-day party...devastating!
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Glamrock
(11,802 posts)I barely remember that! Those were gone by the time I was 7 or 8
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)wnylib
(21,606 posts)had a counter where we could get hamburgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, flavored cokes, ice cream sundaes and sodas. They stayed in business like that well into the 60s and early 70s when no one else had soda fountains any more. It was within walking distance of my home and my friends and I spent a lot of time there in our teens.
They had makeup samples and we never thought about how unsanitary it was to try samples that other people had tried, too. Made up our eyes and lips, flipped through teen magazines, then had a cherry coke or ice cream soda at the counter and gossiped about school, boys, etc. Since it was in the neighborhood, it was a convenient place to go to on "dates" with boys in junior high, before any of us were old enough for a driver's license.
Scrivener7
(51,004 posts)No one knew where we were, and no one worried!
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)😱
Glamrock
(11,802 posts)SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)wnylib
(21,606 posts)within a couple downtown blocks of each other. When I was in grade school, we only had one car, so my mother would take me on a bus to shop downtown in August for school clothes, or in winter for Christmas shopping. We'd stop for lunch at one of the dime store counters, usually Grant's. They had the best sundaes and sodas and the best prices.
consider_this
(2,203 posts)toilets are ridiculous, phones made sense then.
mike_c
(36,281 posts)...to withdraw spending money for the weekend.
Cant remember the last time I had cash on my person!
Totally Tunsie
(10,885 posts)was a tri-color plastic square (blue on top, yellow in center and green on bottom) placed on the TV screen to simulate sky, earth, grass.
Anyone else here have this?
ETA: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/358317714078297150/
Diamond_Dog
(32,057 posts)FalloutShelter
(11,878 posts)Remember like it was yesterday. Watching Bowie and the Spiders on the Midnight Special and thinking HOLY SHIT!WOW!
Just blew my mind.
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)And high school kids working part-time could afford one!
gblady
(3,541 posts)when gas was 25 cents a gallon, bread 25 cents a loaf, and hamburger 25 cents per pound during my last year of college in '70.
Diamond_Dog
(32,057 posts)And my dad would give me two quarters to go fetch him a pack I was probably around 7 or 8 years old.
Glamrock
(11,802 posts)My dad used to send me to the gas station two blocks away to pick him up smokes! 8 years old and buying Marlboros! Had to have a note first couple times..
Diamond_Dog
(32,057 posts)The cigarette machine was usually in the bar. No one ever said anything to this little blond haired girl going into the bar and buying smokes from the machine. I guess they had seen me there with my parents. Really strange now that I think of it!
Archae
(46,345 posts)Mid 1970's.
wnylib
(21,606 posts)wheeled their carts around. Smoking was allowed in the halls of classroom buildings at college. Some colleges (not mine) allowed smoking on the classroom.
in the movie theater when I was in college.
wnylib
(21,606 posts)Freddie
(9,273 posts)When I started there they had smoking in offices and patient rooms, and a cigarette machine next to the soda and candy machines in the lobby. In the 90s they banned it inside the building but you could smoke on the grounds, so wed see patients in their skimpy hospital gowns dragging their IV poles outside for a smoke. Now you have to drive off the grounds to smoke.
Diamond_Dog
(32,057 posts)Glamrock
(11,802 posts)Crazy!
Mr.Bill
(24,319 posts)the flight attendants had little packs of five cigarettes they would give you if you asked. I wasn't old enough to smoke then, but I remember my dad smoking them.
rurallib
(62,448 posts)Jilly_in_VA
(9,995 posts)with a real meatcutter (1976) and bakery and you could walk there. It was an IGA. Also a neighborhood mom and pop pharmacy with a soda fountain.
cbabe
(3,549 posts)nonprofit and told the Board we needed a website. Board president said, whats that?
LAS14
(13,783 posts)Sneederbunk
(14,300 posts)Baked Potato
(7,733 posts)calling the phone company to complain about clicks and dropouts
the phone company said our lines arent meant for data.
I remember when you could smoke while shopping in Safeway.
I remember when you could smoke in a hospital room.
I remember beer vending machines in Army basic.
I remember going to a wrecking yard and buying a used Muncie 4 speed on the floor for $35.
questionseverything
(9,658 posts)Lunabell
(6,105 posts)And you could borrow your sister's. But I got caught once when the bouncer looked at the height. I was 5'8" and she was 5'3".
Glorfindel
(9,733 posts)My father's business number was 26. My aunt's residential number was 56R3 because she was on a party line and only answered after the third ring. This was in the early to mid-50's. We didn't get telephones out in the country until 1958. Somehow we managed to survive.
sarge43
(28,945 posts)The one I really miss - Sunday morning newspaper with serial cartoons. Flash Gordon, Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon, Prince Valiant
gibraltar72
(7,511 posts)you cranked to get Central. when gas was $19.9 and I was pumping it. When gas station attendant checked oil water and washed your windshield and that was me. Today I was reminded of the Suez Canal incident on TV and remembered it as a child.
Freddie
(9,273 posts)My brother had just gotten his license (I was 12) and hed drive 5 miles to get 29.9 gas when it was 32.9 in town. Dad would tell him he wasnt saving any $$ that way. A few years later when I started driving it was .79/gallon (gasp!) and the Energy Crisis was on, complete with gas lines.
LastDemocratInSC
(3,649 posts)markie
(22,757 posts)to not be able to remember much of anything anymore
although I do remember typewriters, making copies on a mimeograph machine, going to one of last few "one room schoolhouses" and heating my sandwich for lunch on the woodstove... maybe I remember more than I think I do??
or maybe I just think I remember
Jilly_in_VA
(9,995 posts)because we weren't allowed to smoke in our rooms.
And gas being $.28.9....I was with a friend who drove a decommissioned school bus and we drove into a gas station and he asked the attendant for a buck's worth. The look on the guy's face was priceless!
Hamburgers were $.15 at McDonald's.
The guy next door to us was in college and owned a '51 pickup. On summer evenings he would sometimes load up all the kids in the neighborhood who fit in the back and drive us around, ending up at DQ, where he'd buy us all nickel cones. I think I was 9 or thereabouts.
consider_this
(2,203 posts)in the back.
whistler162
(11,155 posts)Ocelot II
(115,836 posts)And skating on sidewalks with no helmets or knee pads, which were unheard of. Still got a couple scars on my knees.
hamsterjill
(15,224 posts)Our elementary school had a sidewalk that went completely around it and I spent many a recess skating!
Fun memories!
sakabatou
(42,174 posts)red dog 1
(27,849 posts)and dial telephones
Submariner
(12,509 posts)I'd ride with Dad when he would get Sunoco gas for 17 cents a gallon, instead of the more expensive Gulf gas across the street at 19 cents a gallon.
MyOwnPeace
(16,937 posts)Fill the books and go to 'their' store to get some kind of junk!
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)Skittles
(153,193 posts)yes indeed
LuckyCharms
(17,457 posts)Skittles
(153,193 posts)I am one of the few people who disliked Thriller, I hated that hiccupy sound - I liked his real voice.
LuckyCharms
(17,457 posts)Skittles
(153,193 posts)LuckyCharms
(17,457 posts)LuckyCharms
(17,457 posts)When that song came out, I was pretty good friend with these two black guys, and I got close to their family. I mention this because it's notable that at the time, there were only two black families in town.
I used to go to their apartment and all five family members (parents, two boys, one girl) would dance for HOURS to this song, so I would dance with them. Such good memories. As a kid, I wasn't used to people dancing like that in their homes, and I though "Wow! This is some good stuff! "
Skittles
(153,193 posts)I was a GI brat so the black and Hispanic kids I knew were in the same boat, our dads were enlisted and we ALL hated the officers kids LOL
I was in England in 1970 and remember being very proud that I was American like Michael Jackson was, I just loved him
LuckyCharms
(17,457 posts)You have led an interesting life!
I loved him too. still do in a way. But over the years...all of the stuff that has happened...the way the father treated him...it's a shame.
Skittles
(153,193 posts)he was very handsome, they all were
yes, his dad did sound like a tyrant
Response to Skittles (Reply #67)
Skittles This message was self-deleted by its author.
Aristus
(66,462 posts)Stupid, really. Our Dads rank wasnt our achievement. But rank consciousness was important back then.
I attended DoD schools in the 1970s. My elementary school was open to kids of both officer and enlisted families. But only a few years before, it was reserved for officers kids only, and the enlisted kids had to go to an elementary school a little further away.
Skittles
(153,193 posts)in the personnel office I would get the snotty attitude from officer's wives...I mean, WTF, even as an airman I outranked THEM, they didn't even serve!
Aristus
(66,462 posts)She was at the commissary on post in Frankfurt and saw a woman with her shopping cart trying to push to the head of the checkout line. When the other protested, she snorted "My husband is a lieutenant!"
Standing behind her was the wife of the post's commanding general, and she said: "I'm sorry to hear that, but you're still going to have to go to the end of the line."
My mother loves that story.
Skittles
(153,193 posts)I was doing ID cards.......a colonel's widow came in, she had lost her dependent ID card....she had brought the required death certificate....keep in mind I was literally still a teenager then, and I went to go make a copy down a hallway..... I was always a bit morbid and would check out the listed cause of death........you know, usually cancer or a heart ailment or Vietnam war-related......but THIS death certificate said, "ASPHYXIATION ON APOLLO".
I made the copy and when I ran into CMSGT Horn on my trek back to the office...I said, hey Chief, is this one of those astronauts? He asked me, WHERE DID YOU GET THIS? Oh I said, his wife is in the office getting an ID card. He ran off to go see her. Pretty soon a lot of base brass showed up, including the base commander.
Yup, it was Betty Grissom.
Later when I process her ID card I apologized for all the commotion. She was a very lovely, gracious person.
Aristus
(66,462 posts)I had always admired, and felt sorry for, the luckless Gus Grissom. I'm glad to hear what a wonderful person Betty Grissom was. They sure did her wrong in The Right Stuff where she comes off as a self-absorbed, complaining shrew.
Skittles
(153,193 posts)the families were treated very poorly indeed, the powers that be wanted to distance themselves from them
Michael Jackson was something else. His entire life is just...what was that???? In a way he never had a chance and in other ways he was just way beyond.
Boomerproud
(7,964 posts)on this thread.
wnylib
(21,606 posts)LAS14
(13,783 posts)alphafemale
(18,497 posts)OK, Not that long ago.
It just seems backward from having streaming services.
Talitha
(6,613 posts)Stopped smoking LONG ago - when they got to be $1 a pack.
I also remember when savings accounts earned a decent interest rate.
YoshidaYui
(41,861 posts)WHEN DU got into an UPROAR when WE bombed the Moon!!
Retired Engineer Bob
(759 posts)Musicians used to give indoor performances to large groups of people, they were called concerts.
Folks would gather in buildings called theaters to watch movies.
NNadir
(33,544 posts)...US Constitution.
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)Aristus
(66,462 posts)when you turned it off.
consider_this
(2,203 posts)you got a little tiny sparky shock
ruet
(10,039 posts)was actually a big box that was hard-wired to cable box.
ruet
(10,039 posts)frogmarch
(12,158 posts)came up with when we were 9 or 10 that we called Stretch-em, or sometimes Stick-em. It was kind of like the modern game Twister, but for changing body positions we took turns throwing knives into the ground near each others' feet - ideally, without stabbing them. I still have a scar from it, thanks very much, Orvie Ransom.
wnylib
(21,606 posts)me to play that game. My mother was horrified when she caught us at it one day, for two reasons. First because it was dangerous. Second, because he was teaching a "boy's game" to me, his little sister.
yellowdogintexas
(22,270 posts)As an aspiring cheerleader (never got there) I had a fairly good stretch. I beat a lot of guys who were fooled by my short legs.
Solly Mack
(90,785 posts)with psychedelic images of people dancing, the images by themselves, as well as couples walking about in fields with the sun shining, etc., in the background.
They announced over the school pa system in my 7th grade class, the President had been shot. A while later the vice principal came into my classroom, talked to the teacher, they both giggled, he left, the teacher told us Pres. Kennedy was dead. I have been as they now say "woke" ever since. By the way, it was an all white school,Monterey County, CA, with a few Mexican American students whose parents worked in the fields/agriculture. I can can still hear them giggling and saying it good thing to happen. I am, of course, old enough to remember party lines and only getting one tv station, that was always snowy/fuzzy.
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,856 posts)... an older brother told me about some people who were happy about it, which he struggled to understand as a 12 year old.
He said one man opened his front door to look at the headline of the newspaper that my brother had just delivered to his porch (the day after the assassination), followed by the man's giddy exclamation that it was the "best news I've read in years."
He said those experiences were among his first lessons that demonstrated Republicans were simply mean people.
Boomerproud
(7,964 posts)Not quite the whole story. 🕯
Rastapopoulos
(675 posts)elleng
(131,104 posts)(after school.)
yellowdogintexas
(22,270 posts)This is important and we will watch it. Then she explained it all to me -----
I was in 3rd grade.
Of course back then it was the only thing on TV ......
BluesRunTheGame
(1,620 posts)Schoolyard chant.
Jilly_in_VA
(9,995 posts)at the main campaign HQ in Madison in 1960 during the primary. Mom and I had gone down to the campaign HQ for some reason and I was assigned to the coffee machine. He came in and was greeting everyone and shook my hand and said how nice it was to see young people working for him and how much he appreciated it. Later that evening there was a bean supper for him. We were seated near the front and Bill Evjue, who was the publisher/editor of the Capital Times (local paper) and a frightful bore who had known Bob LaFollette, was droning on and on. I looked up at the dais and caught Humphrey's eye and I swear he winked at me! I think he was as bored as I was! He was a lovely, gracious man and would have made a fine president. Either time.
BluesRunTheGame
(1,620 posts)The only politician I ever met was Dick Lugar. I was a little guy tagging along with my dad. His union was volunteering to help renovate an old building to be used as a community center.
Lugar was the mayor and stopped by to thank everyone for making the city a better place to live. Being the only kid around he had to come over and say hi cause thats what politicians do.
Jilly_in_VA
(9,995 posts)more than a few times when he was a grad student at UW. Those interactions were not pleasant. He was just as much of a jerk then as he was later. And Terry McAuliffe, when he stopped by a RAM clinic where I was volunteering...very pleasant guy. And a number of more or less local Wisconsin politicians when I was dating a guy who later became sheriff of Dane County. And I forget when I met Fred Risser, who was a WI state senator until a year or so ago...as in, practically forever...it was either around the time I met Humphrey, or around the time I was dating the future sheriff. Fred was a pretty amazing guy. I also knew Shirley Abrahamson, who until a couple of years ago was Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, rather well in my youth because my mom worked for her. And Judge James Doyle, because I went to school with his kids. A lot of these names will mean something to Wisconsin folks.
Earth-shine
(4,044 posts)consider_this
(2,203 posts)or girdles, with those little fastener thingies. For the women before panty hose was a thing.
wnylib
(21,606 posts)Since nobody mentioned it up thread. Garter belts or gurdles to hook the stockings to. Yuk. Sitting in school all day wearing those things. Pantyhose did not come out until after I graduated. Also, slacks for girls were not allowed in school until the year after I graduated.
consider_this
(2,203 posts)How the heck does this contraption work??? LOLz
wnylib
(21,606 posts)and putting down the receiver after playing with the dial? Do they think that they need to reset or reboot it?
consider_this
(2,203 posts)remember those? designed as if you are always walking uphill, the heel lower than the toe. All the rage for a while.
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Emile
(22,910 posts)Bantamfancier
(366 posts)2 grades in each room.
There was a kitchen but no lunchroom.
They brought us our lunches on trays and we ate at our desks.
Extra milk was 2 cents.
If you were still hungry, you could go at recess to the back door and the cooks would make a PB&J for you.
marie999
(3,334 posts)Wolf Frankula
(3,601 posts)This from the 1972 election. "Don't change Dicks in the middle of the screw, Vote for Nixon in '72."
Wolf
yellowdogintexas
(22,270 posts)and getting to stay out until they came on !
you could buy a bottle of Coke for a nickle
using hand signals to turn when driving
dimmer switch in the floor
those big wing vent windows in cars that pulled in fresh air.
there were only AM radio stations in cars.
when all the little radio stations using 650 frequency turned off at sunset and WSM/Nashville blanketed the nation. (Grand Ole Opry)
giant reverse breeze boxes to pull cool air through the house at night.
hand cranked water pumps in folks' kitchens
Cisterns to capture rain water which we drank, used to wash our hair, wash dishes etc. cistern water does make the best iced tea!! (of course I never want to know what was living at the bottom of those cisterns!) One night my sister and I went out the back door and there were around 500 slugs crawling across the top of the cistern. Well you know what we did - went back insided for the salt shaker. I never did know where all those things came from!
separate restrooms and water fountains
separate sections on buses
we had a phone operator who knew everything before everyone else including who just found out they were pregnant!
civics was required in 8th grade.
Parents supported the teacher's rules
freezing and canning food all summer.
when the dry cleaning and the milk was delivered to you house.
3catwoman3
(24,041 posts)Texaco station and saying to the guy who pumped the gas, Give me a dollars worth.
ShazzieB
(16,513 posts)He would make a statement about his position on something or other, then a voiceover would say say (in a rather pompous fashion), "In your heart, you know he's right!"
The anti-Goldwater kids at school (of which I was one), would say, "And in your guts, you know he's nuts!"
LAS14
(13,783 posts)day after that. And, I remember everything else in this thread. Fun! Thanks!
Emile
(22,910 posts)Wicked Blue
(5,851 posts)JimWis
(1,751 posts)I remember when staying on my grandparents farm, we had to use the outhouse. When I was in maybe 12 years old, the family pitched in and added a indoor bathroom as a Christmas present for my Grandparents. I remember, when really young, my Grandfather still using a team of horses for some work. I remember getting our first TV at a young age, and our first phone when I was in Jr High.
TrogL
(32,822 posts)Actually, it was the booster that was visible.
My father had some sort of involvement in the International Geophysical Year. One night the phone was ringing and ringing, a rare occurrence, then everybody was outside pointing at the sky and saying "Sputnik".
Raven
(13,899 posts)electric_blue68
(14,933 posts)I had to confer with a relative. Didn't you have one of those when we were kids? 😄
Said she and her best friend used to listen in.