What old customs do you remember from childhood that are gone today?

[Gewehr98]

I remember my maternal grandfather eating his green peas by lining them up on his knife.  He had a spoon and fork on the table, but he ate them off the knife like it was second nature.

He was an expert carpenter and cabinetmaker by trade, and whenever he garfed his fingers or hands, the red mercurochrome came out of the cabinet.  Do people still use that stuff? Maybe it had something to do with him being a B-17 flight engineer in the 8th Air Force out of England during WWII, and mercurochrome being a common antiseptic, much like betadine solution is these days?

Depending on where I go, I see folks eat spaghetti with either just a fork, or a fork and spoon, twirling the spaghetti in the spoon before sticking the food in their gobs.

My paternal grandfather used to stop working at almost the same time each summer afternoon, place a folding tv-tray in front of his lawnchair, get a glass full of ice cubes, pour a beer into it, and then shake salt into the drink.  I always wondered if the beer tastes so bad it needed to be doctored, why drink it? (Corona and lime notwithstanding)

Cod liver oil.  Need I say more?

How about liver & onions once a week?  I still gag at the thought...

We always went to Friday fish fries.  You know, the good beer-battered cod or haddock - and we're not Catholic.  Is that a Wisconsin thing?

Tomato juice does actually work to get the skunk smell off a dog.  

Old obituaries often stated folks died of apoplexy.  What does that equate to these days?

Wife says if she's on top, it'll be a boy.  If I'm on top, it'll be a girl.  I'd like to see that one played out on MythBusters.

Who figured out that if you put a glass of beer on or in the ground near your strawberry plants, it'll be full of slugs and snails overnight and your strawberries will be protected?

Ok, that's enough for me.  I've been sick now for about 4 weeks, and the wife finally brought my laptop to the master bedroom.  Bless her heart, it makes trips to the throne room easier when the nausea and other fluid loss hits me.  I hate Gatorade, too.

[onions!]

Sunday dinners w/the whole family.

I remember being bored to death having to go to Grandmas' every sunday afternoon.After the Grandparents died the family scattered-I've not seen uncles & cousins in years.

[Standing Wolf]

How about liver & onions once a week?  I still gag at the thought...

What my mother did to liver and onions should have been a federal felony. I was well into my twenties before a girl friend could sweet-talk me into trying an extremely small bite of chopped chicken liverwhich, naturally, I enjoyed enormously.

I'd sooner go hungry for a week than sit down to another meal of fried beef liver that could do double duty as shoe sole substitute.

I'll bet it's been awhile since anyone saw iced tea made from loose tea and water.

I'll bet it's been awhile since anyone baked a loaf of bread starting with flour, yeast, salt, water, et cetera.

I'll bet it's been awhile since anyone watched a black and white television, and awhile longer since anyone had to go to the drug store with a paper bag of tubes to test and replace as needed. The last I heard, the only tubes still being made were Russian, far from plentiful, and expensive.

[Gewehr98]

Standing Wolf, they're coming back, in a big way.  This one's the main amplifier in my living room system, and it's all of about 7 years old (and $1200):



I agree about the bread thing, and I don't think my bread machine is a suitable substitute for hand-made bread from years gone by.

[grampster]

Gewehr,
I remember a thread awhile back about you running at both ends.  Are you still ill with that.  How are you doing?  Are you on the mend?  Do you know what the problem is?  Sorry to hear you're still not well.

We used to got to gramma's house on Friday nights.  Go to the grocery store, come back to her house, have dinner then watch the Friday Night Fights (Gillette), Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca (sp?)

Follow the ice man who delivered at homes to replenish the Ice Box.  He'd chip off a piece for us to suck on.  Drinking the ice cold milk the milk man brought with the layer of cream on top; in glass bottles with a cardboard cap.  Fresh veggies and fruit from the cart the farmer drove around the neighborhood.  He upgraded to a truck from a horse and wagon when I was about 7 or so.
Gathering at the neighbors house, the whole neighborhood was there, they had the only TV.  Eating a pizza when nobody knew what a pizza was.  Going around the neighborhood collecting newspapers, magazines, metal, glass etc to turn in for cash for the movies.  Movies were 6 cents, candybars, 6oz cokes and popcorn were a nickel.  You could spend all day Saturday at the movies.  2 features, a serial, a newsreel, several cartoons and previews.

(I was at the Consumer Electronic Show in Vegas a couple years ago.  They had a whole wing of a motel featuring equipment with tubes.  Waaayyy expensive.  Audiophile geeks were walking around with T shirts that exclaimed Tubes Rule!)

[Larry Ashcraft]

Riding around on our bikes picking up pop bottles to cash in.  What were those people thinking?  Throwing a Pepsi bottle out the window when it was worth .02 if you turned it in.

Regarding liver and onions, it was never one of my favorites, BUT...

Once dad shot an elk up at Medicine Peak when I was in my twenties.  We brought the elk down and the liver was in a plastic bag.  I put it in a cold stream to cool out and we had liver and onions that night in camp.  One of the best meals I ever remember.

[Guest]

When one received a knife as a gift - the recipient gave the giver a coin. So a to not "dull" the friendship.

If service was bad at a restuarant - one left a single penny to show displeasue with service.

Parents took a pc of clear tape, folded it to make "double stick" tape and placed a dime on the kids new Ked's Tennis shoes sole at night. Come breafast - well I'll be darned..."Ked's Stop on a dime! "

I happen to like Liver and onions.

Never warmed up to Castor Oil.

Vick's Vap-O Rub.  "Good Grief Mom, I only coughed once." Head gets forced down into a sauce-pan with hot steamy water with the Vicks in it of course, next Mom's pinkie shoved more Vick's up my nose, then she slatered my chest with Vick's.  I got more sick because I couldn't sleep at night. To make matters worse my Oatmeal tasted like Vick's...yeah of course same heavy sauce pan I was forced to hang head over with a towel over my head the night before.

Getting to stay up late and watch TV. Had to wait until the "Star Spangled Banner" finished, and "wait....wait" had to see the Test Pattern and check out the Indian, and check out every detail of that Test Pattern.  9:30 PM was late when I was a pup.  Then of course the dart gun with suction cup darts had to shot at the TV. I mean me  being a cowboy and all...we had "injuns" invading thru the TV.

 FWIW I had a matching pair of 1911 style dart Guns with a Dancing horse on the plastic stocks...*GRIN* Yeah I was too cool - huh?

TV quit working, the drug store has all sorts of tubes. One checked what they brought, and could buy one to fit, check it of course, and the TV was fixed.

I miss the little Red Coca-Cola ice boxes. For a nickel one got a 6 1/2 oz  Coke, always had ice in the neck of the Bottle. Stick a nicke in, raise the sliding door up, the cylinder would turn and there you were.

These had the bottle opener on the machine too.

Then the metal 'ice boxes' with other brands of soda were really good. Folks were honest back them. Grab what you wanted, use the bottle opener on the side of the box and paid for the drink before you left.

I cleaned so many soda bottles and made "so much money" at .02 , later .03 each, Turning in for deposit. I wonder how many miles I put on my wagon doing that.

Tent Revivals at night...oh these I did not find soda bottles during the day-  I found little whiskey bottles, and money! Mostly change, but I found a ten dollar bill once  I was rich!  I couldn't give it back - the Tent Revival folks had pulled up stakes and left town...

Car Hops. Oh yeah Sonic has them. Back in the day LOTS of places had them.  Nothing like the Car Hop bringing the BBQ, Shrimp baskets, and Fried Chicken to the door. Glove boxes  designed to open and set your drink on them too.

The various Cowboys that would show up for kids B-Day parties. Bring the horse carousel in tow, do magic tricks, tell cowboy stories, do quick- draw and all sorts of stuff for Cowboys and Cowgirls.  They always made the neatest animals with balloons too.

The neighborhood Ice cream man...

Lemonade stands

The bread man [ small loaves of bread for kids] the Milk man [ small glass bottles with cardboard tops like the school had]

When milk started being put into the waxed cardboard containers...that is what you put Fish in the Freezer with.  Also worked for other game meat too.

We all got out of school to see the Parade in town

Bringing knives and guns to school for show and tell, after the 25th of Dec holidays were over - or after your B-day. We all just had to show, and liked seeing what the other kids, and teachers got.

"Writing" the mean old teacher's name in their yard with Mortons Salt. Well the name we called them anyway...

Putting the mean old teachers VW b/t two trees...

Crashing / raiding the girls gyms lockers area - especially during showers

Stealing the opposing teams mascot [ we never got busted, it was tradition]

Drag Racing on the street in front of HS on last day  of classes [ never got busted, Cops watched, flagged the start, it was traditon]

Driving Motorcycles across the Steps of HS on last day and popping wheelies on the flat part , before heading down the other steps. This was tradition too. Even the ElectroGlides in Blue rode up and down with us

Water balloons and city buses...from back behind the hedges

Limburger cheese on a manifold of anyone getting married, or anyone you wanted to

The Pickle Barrel at the store, Grocer always let a kid have one to eat while in thier with mom/ parents.

Everyone had one haunted house they were dared to 1) enter, 2) ring doorbell or 3) light the dog poop in the paper bag ring door bell and runnnnnn!

I know nothing about the teacher that could not find their  VW that always seemed to have trees grow up in front and back of it during school.  It was "lost' on the last day of school so the story goes. Seems the VW was found later in the Gym under the South basketball goal. Wonder how that happened?

[Gewehr98]

Grampster, the antibiotics killed the infection.  Unfortunately, they also killed everything else - I cannot digest food.  The flight surgeon says I need to just take things slowly until my system kick-starts itself again.  That means yogurt and acidophilus milk, and lots of bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast to hold things together.  Did you know it's cheaper to buy Charmin in the super-giant economy pack sizes?

I'd almost forgotten about the Vicks Vapo-Rub.  All over my chest, and smeared in the cup of that electric hot-water humidifier.  

We froze our bluegill fillets in the cardboard milk cartons, too.

As a smallish critter, we spent time on the uncle's dairy farm.  The buckets of milk got the cream scooped off and deposited directly onto our morning Cheerios.  My wife thinks I'm sick because I'll still do that every now and then, but with a carton of whipping cream these days.

I used to carry my Remington 521T target rifle on the school bus every Thursday.  We had Junior Smallbore Rifle Club matches in the locker room/indoor range every Thursday after classes.  Nobody gave it a second thought.  That was around 1978, rural Wisconsin small town grade school.  Imagine the scene it would create these days! (I still have that rifle...)

[Guest]

Coffee grounds being tossed from the percolator outside.

I got bigger and my job was to toss the grounds. I got fussed at for "tossing them out the wrong door".  I was a kid, how was I supposed to know when you went from tossing them onto the tomatos and green onions out back to the rose bushes out front?
I still do not understand the "proper seasonal tossing methodlogy".

[Larry Ashcraft]

Picking up pop bottles (yep, around here it is "pop")  We would use my sister's bike.  It had the basket.  Mine was stripped down for speed, no fenders, handlebars turned upside down.  If I used my bike, I had to carry a gunny sack for bottles.

We used to camp out in the neighbor farmers' fields.  Just find a nice tree, make a little fire and camp out.  We had our Pork 'n Beans, if it rained or snowed, we could just eat them outta the can. Might catch a sunfish or two outta the pond while we were at it, always let them go.

The farmers never bothered us.  "Those boys are just playin', let 'em be."  We would clean up our "campsite" and go back home.

I don't think we have progressed nearly as far as we think we have.

[crt360]

I'll bet it's been awhile since anyone watched a black and white television

I'm actually watching one right now.

Playing cowboys and indians with cap guns that used the paper roll caps.

[garrettwc]

We always went to Friday fish fries.  You know, the good beer-battered cod or haddock - and we're not Catholic.  Is that a Wisconsin thing?

Nope. We had them here too. Every Friday or Saturday night at the Mason lodge.

Riding a genuine "made in the USA" Schwinn Stingray, without a helmet or spandex body suit.

Going to the hardware store in the neighborhood and buying a sack of ten penny nails, a new pocketknife, and a box of .22lr Super X in the Gold and Blue box. And having change left for the soda machine.

[Guest]

Quoting:

>>Wife says if she's on top, it'll be a boy.  If I'm on top, it'll be a girl.<<

OH MY GOD WE'RE HAVING A PUPPY!

[Perd Hapley]

Going to the hardware store in the neighborhood and buying a sack of ten penny nails, a new pocketknife, and a box of .22lr Super X in the Gold and Blue box. And having change left for the soda machine.

You can still do that in North St. Louis County, at Branneke Hardware.


I seem to remember clapping at the end of movies.  That would have been in the 1980's, when I was a little-un.

[brimic]

d whenever he garfed his fingers or hands, the red mercurochrome came out of the cabinet.  Do people still use that stuff?

My grandmother had a jar of that stuff and it was used whenever I skinned a knee. haven't seen that stuff in at least 25 years. Not sure if it contained mercury or chrome but the name would scare the hell out of most people today.

Red Ryder BB guns- how many kids on on your street own one of these nowadays? There were 3 on my street, I had to use the use the crappy pump up gun for bb gun fights.

Green glass bottles of coke- My grandfather ran a tavern, one of my fondest memories was being allowed to pick a pop out of the cooler when I visited him on saturday afternoons.


canning vegetables, gardening, making fruit preserves, making pickles- my whole family did these activities in order to trim the food budget and provide healthier food. How many people do this today, other than hobby gardeners?

Buying eggs directly from the farmer.

Buying chickens, hogs, beef directly from the farmer and going out to the farm to butcher the animals ourselves.

Riding out to the range on a bicycle carrying a cased .22.

using a pay phone

[Guest]

Does it still "rain" rock-salt over melon patches?  Did that when I was growing up. Funny how that "rain" was nowhere else , except over melon patches. Fences seem to be the dividing line.

Radio shows!  
Lets see there was Amos & Andy, The Shadow, The Lone Ranger...
Every Halloween we played HG Wells "War of the Worlds" on the phonograph, later I got it on 8-track to play on my Channel Master Stereo...
Emerson AM Radio...one ear plug, and catching "Beaker Street", with Clyde Cifford. Supposed to be sleeping, but the show came on at midnight.  Really cool when I could catch Wolfman Jack...

Playing Cards:
Thems for bicycles and making noise on the spokes- worked better with Esso Tiger handlebar grips with the streamers...
Oh, playing cards for tossing into hats, and  you could always use them for targets.

Halloween meant tossing toilet paper and eggs, I learned boiling eggs meant the eggs would not bust when carrying and a whole lot easier to toss further...

I guess kids don't jump off the porch with towels anymore, how are you supposed to be Superman now-a-days?

Emerson Window fans.  Raise the window and have the fan pull the breeze throuhout the house.

Light bugs in mason jars

Digging in the yard for worms and putting in a Hills Bros Coffee can for fishing...

The skeleton key from Sterlings fit the neighbors house doors too. So if the neighbor actually locked the door when they went out of town, you brought the mail in , and the papers too and put them on their kitchen table.
They did the same for us...

Neighbors just showed up with stew, soup, cornbread, and stuff if you were sick. You got yelled for not telling them you were sick.  Of course you fussed at them when you took them food when they were sick for not telling you.

Mowing the neighbors yard if they were sick, hurt or out of town.  You also trimmed their side of the hedges .

Rolled up biscuit dough for bait at the Game & Fish Pond caught the big goldfish, turn them loose and catch them again.

Public Library :
Really cool place.  Mom could drop you off while she took the younger ones shopping for shoes or for the sister a dress [yuck] and the HS, College kids or the Library folks would read these really cool new books to you. When you got bigger , you took the bus all by yourself, and made a day of it. They will even let you drink you mason jar of milk, eat your PB&J and read the cool books. Big day when they showed you how to work the Micro- Fiche machine...never read a paper from NY until that day.

Oh really cool , for the little kids that had coloring books and crayons to use. Even had free coloring books and crayons you could bring home to lil sibs.

Field Trips:

Firestation always had treats and let us kids slide down the pole all we wanted.

Policeman let us turn on the lights, and siren. If we went to the station, well if we didn't turn out all right, listen to parents, teachers, do good in school and behave ...SLAM! They would close a cell door on us and look at us from the other side of the bars.
We jumped. Then they couldn't find the keys, we got worried, they always found the key to our cell and had treats upstairs for us.
We took turns trying to twirl the baton.

D o boys still tie the long hair of the girl siting in desk in front of them to back of their desk?  It stops them from doing that head thingy and hitting your face with long hair.  One can get slapped or a black eye from the girl ...once her hair gets untied from behind her...

Camping out in the back yard

Reading comic books, books in general under the covers with a flashlight in bed.

I wonder if kids still put fish in the bathtub? One  has  to put them somewhere while you get the stuff ready to clean them. Moms are not impressed.  REALLY not impressed if you clean them in the  bathtub...

Putting fish entrails in the trash attracts stray cats, this leads to slingshot practice...

[Subby]

"Wife says if she's on top, it'll be a boy.  If I'm on top, it'll be a girl.  I'd like to see that one played out on MythBusters."

If it involves Kari from the show, I humbly volunteer.

Sub

[thorn]

well seems like most of the mentioned still take place.....

there are too many things that used to go on in the suburbs that don't anymore, like bb gun wars.
mostly thigns that have become too "liable"

PLAYGROUNDS. they all changed right before i got to really use them.
i remember being real little and seeing all the crazy cool stuff, only to se it all ripped out for being too dangerous before i really got to use anything, then years later, just as i was getting too old they replaced everything with safer stuff. i think things are even "safer" now. arg.

certain pranks with fireworks we carried out may not be taken so lightly today.... (NO! not animals, just well placed noise!)

ahhh ,the percolater, that one i remember, and is gone, thanks for reminding me!

 that photo stirs THis up=== they aren't really even called "STereos" anymore!
it's a sound system, entertainment center, in my case a digital surround hooked to my computer, but that whole Term "Stereo" is fading- almost everyone has more than 2 channels nowadays, and even with 2 channels its still more often a "system" than a "stereo"......

[telewinz]

Your neighbors "policed-up" their own neighborhood.  From an abusive husband to a misbehaving boy, the cops were called seldom.  Being on relief was rare and having a child out of wedlock was shameful.  Doctors DID make house calls!  The TV had rabbit ears and had to "warm-up" a while.  Arthur Godfrey on the radio and Art Linkletter on TV "Kids say the funniest things".  And lastly, military parades down main street.

[Guest]

Sunday evening routine:

Take a bath and watch Disney.

Can't remember what night Wild Kingdom was on, but that was another favorite.

Mercurochrome. Wow. What *was* that stuff??

[280plus]

Mercurochrome,,, YOWSERS!! Just the name brings visions of HazMat teams suiting up...

Speaking of mercury, we used to take it in the palm of our hands and poke at it with our fingers cause it was cool. Last I heard a local school had a "mercury spill" and that was enough to send the kids home and a have massive cleanup effort.

MY most fond rememberance was getting "WORMS!!" if there was something grandma or grandpa didn't want you to do diet wise they would tell you it would give you worms. If you put too much cheese on your macaroni (when did it become "pasta" BTW?) you would get worms. Too much soda = worms. I'm laughing just thinking about it. Then there was the "Boogieman" if you went somwhere they didn't want you to go they would tell you "The boogieman is down there!" (usually the basement). Grandpa called him "Jake". If there was a noise from the basement it was "Jake".

I mention the worms thing to grandma now and she gets this little wry smile on her face. Kinda like "You caught me."

Then there was, "OH MY GOD!! I forgot it was Friday and had a CHEESEBURGER!! I'm goin' to HELL!!

Lawrence Welk!:O Lassie on Sunday nights.  

OH and how about the sugar cereals? Sugar pops are now "Corn" Pops. Sugar Smacks? Now "Honey" Smacks. There's more but I can't remember them all right now. Talk about PC

[JAlexander]

Mmmm...  Mercurochrome.  I used to hate that stuff.  Everytime I got a bad splinter my dad would take down the special pocket knife with the tiny, scalpel-sharp blade and work the splinter out.  Then he'd dab on the mercurochrome.  Oh, the pain...  I was always happier when I was over at my granny's, because she used a needle to get the splinters out, and ST-37 on the wound.  Do they even make ST-37 anymore?

People don't pull over for funerals nearly as often as they used to, at least in most places.  I always stop, unless it's too dangerous to do so, but most folks around here don't.  I pulled over for one in San Francisco one time, and I was literally the only person to do so.  My wife had never heard of the custom, and I think she still thinks it's bizarre.  Now by contrast, I went to a funeral in Marshall last year and virtually every car we met stopped until the funeral procession was past.  They're still a little more old fashioned in east Texas.

One of the things that I notice the most in terms of change is words and expressions that people don't use much anymore.  For instance, when the sun was shining and it was raining, my dad and granny used to say 'the devil's beating his wife', but except for me, I can't think of a single person who uses that phrase anymore.  I'm sure there're quite a few, but I've never heard them do it.  

Does anyone else have favorite words or phrases that have passed out of common usage?  

James

[Guest]

Appliance Boxes:

Maybe someone got a new washer, maybe you got the box from an appliance store ( the man would fold it and put in the station wagon) maybe your uncle brought one over...no matter how....TANKS!

Get inside the box and roll down the yard, steps, and really really cool if more than one appliance box - then you  had TANK wars.  Going head to head against each other.  [Girls would giggle right before they 'smacked" into you - then they had a really weird laugh]. Tired of going head to head to head, team up and flatten the flower bed...by accident of course.

Which reminds me...

Does anyone else have favorite words or phrases that have passed out of common usage?

"Go get a switch, and you better get a big one - don't make me have to go out there and pick a big one".

[We had hedges on all 4 sides, I still hate hedges, no matter how tall I got, the hedges were always just a bit taller  than my arms -and I had to use a step ladder ( not a kitchen chair, I learned that lesson real early).

hedges are ..."unkillable".  Me cutting, whacking, running lawnmowers into them, getting rid of gasoline , and who knows how many switches...dang hedges lived.  I think I was more happy to have younger sibs - hoping they would get into trouble and even more switches were going to be pulled off them hedges.  Hedges are still there last time I checked...]

"Go to the coaches office" - Read: Coach has a new paddle with holes drilled different this time and he needs to test it.

Shop Teacher -"Take this paddle to coach" - Means Shop teacher has a new design with holes he wants the coach to try out".  

Coach " Run them bleachers until you Puke".

Coach - "You puked because you didn't take your salt tablets".

Coach "Run that mile again, in better time, or I will kick your butt and then try out my new paddle".

Coach "Steve, you had better win that cross- country race, or I will kick your butt and bury you in that vacant lot and you will never be found".  [ I never run so hard in my life]

"Don't eat the bones, thems for your younger sibs".
The drumstick was called "the bone", the idea was little kids could eat the "bone" better than other cuts of chicken, not get choked on them.

Mom getting the ladder out- "climb up to roof honey, and adjust the TV antenna - I'll holler out when the station is right"

Mom- "What are you doing on the roof? - Playing aren't you?"
"No mom - I was adjusting the TV antenna..."

Saving Tuna fish cans and digging holes in the yard to play "Washers".

'Honey, why is the tuna fish in the mason jar in the Fridge?" "Why did you open ALL the cans of tuna?"
"'cause Terry, Berry, John, Phyillis, Betty...did not have "Washers game in their yard to play with".

"So how do I know this Persimmon is ripe?"
"Ewww [yuck, pucker pucker, yuck]"
"Now you know honey".

"Why did you shoot the feral cat with a Persimmon with your slingshot?"
"'cause is was not ripe".

I ate everything on my plate, I recall other kid's did not always. Remember...

"Clean your plate -there are starving kids in Cambodia".

One neighbor kid found out not a good idea to suggest to his mom " Well then send this crap to them kids - this stuff sucks".

"Honey, what are you doing on the roof again...and what do you have in that coffee can"
"Moooommm...I ain't doing nothing but shooting the feral cats with 'simmons with my slingshot"
"And just what is wrong with doing that from the tree house in Terry's yard"
"Gee mom, we done got all them cats over his way...a few come over this-a-way"
"Okay honey, be careful , if you fall and break your leg, don't come running to get me..."

[grampster]

Mercurochrome was for WIMPS!  That was the pain free cut stuff. Around my house we used Iodine.  Iodine in a cut was your earthly taste of Purgatory for getting the cut; must have been misbehaving.

After reading all of the aforementioned comments it occured to me that I was intimately connected to all of them.  Nice nostalgia trip.

Parochial school:  Writing 1000 times "I must be obedient" , usually a daily occurence. I was able to control three of those big fat blue pencils so I could do three lines at a time.  Having Sister Mary Ralph connect with a 90 mph green gum eraser dead bang in the middle of one's forehead for talking in class.  Then getting sent to "Father's House" for a further butt whippin' and then looking forward to being chased around the dining room table by my mother while she was yelling "Wait till your father gets home, young man".  (music)An tic i pat ion.
Practicing wind sprints to be able to be in shape to outrun the upper classmen in grade school who routinely "pounded" us younger kids on the way home.
Playing neighborhood tackle football during the day, pass and tap under the steetlights at night, neighborhood baseball, Kick the Can, Capture the Flag, Run Sheepie Run, Pom Pom tackle, soaping windows in late October, Knocking on doors and running.

[garrettwc]

Jim March you owe me a keyboard.

brimic, you can still get the green Coke bottles here at the local grocery. They sell them in a six pack in the novelty drink section, along with Orange Crush. For me it was my uncle's barber shop. My mom still cans vegetables (she's in her 80's) and my girlfriend made homemade pickles and relish this year.

Barbara, in our town Wild Kingdom came on right before Disney on Sunday nights. Which brings up another thought. It was "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom". Remember when the shows had sponsors, rather than 20 minutes of commercials?

JAlexander +1 on the funerals.

SM, place my dad worked at always had some kind of big machine that would come in one of those boxes. They were square, not tall like a fridge box. You could cut holes in them and push them together and make a fort with all sort of rooms. They were wax coated so they were good through several rainstorms. If you took care of them they would last almost all summer.