Author Topic: Oldster test, see if you pass.  (Read 26039 times)

280plus

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Oldster test, see if you pass.
« on: January 16, 2011, 10:13:18 AM »
From a friend:

                         .. THOUGHT   YOU MIGHT ENJOY THIS ...
'Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'
 
'We didn't   have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him.
'All the   food was slow.'
'C'mon,   seriously. Where did you eat?'
It   was a place called 'at home,'I explained.
'Mom   cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down
  together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she
  put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer
  serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how
  I had to have permission to leave the table.
 
 
But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood
if I figured his system could have handled it :
 
 
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, never wore Levis, never set
 foot on a golf course, never traveled out of the country or had a credit card.
 
 
In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card
  was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck. either
  way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never   had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only   had one speed, (slow)
 
We didn't have a television in our house until I was 19. It was, of course, black
  and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing
  the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6
  a..m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.

I was 21 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.'
When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung
  down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the
  best pizza I ever had.

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the
  living room and it was on a party line. 
Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.
 
 
Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was.
 
 
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers --
  my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6AM every morning.
On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.
 
 
Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for
  everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything
offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren.

Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.


MEMORIES
  from a friend :
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.
How many do you remember?
 
Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
 
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
 
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.

Real ice boxes.

Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
 
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
 
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals..

Older Than Dirt Quiz :
Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about.
Ratings at the bottom.
 
1.    Blackjack chewing gum
2.Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3.  Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5.   Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines on the telephone
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last
  show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning.
(there were only 3 channels... [if
  you were fortunate])
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14.  45 RPM records
15.  S&H greenstamps
16.   Hi-fi's
17.   Metal ice trays with lever
18.   Mimeograph paper
19.   Blue flashbulbs
20.   Packards
21.   Roller skate keys
22.   Cork popguns
23.  Drive-in theaters
24.  Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are
  getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you remembered 16-25 = You' re older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.

Don't forget to pass this along!!
Especially to all your really OLD friends.
Avoid cliches like the plague!

red headed stranger

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2011, 10:18:08 AM »
18 here, but I am nowhere near older than dirt.  
« Last Edit: January 16, 2011, 01:58:35 PM by red headed stranger »
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Tallpine

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2011, 10:44:38 AM »
We used a wringer washer (worsher) in the mid-Eighties  :lol:

Water came from the creek, and later through a gravity hose from a spring.

It sure did beat a 100 mile round trip to town to do laundry  ;/
Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward toward the light; but the laden traveller may never reach the end of it.  - Ursula Le Guin

Grandpa Shooter

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2011, 10:47:07 AM »
I am so old I created the dirt.

280plus

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #4 on: January 16, 2011, 10:49:11 AM »
We used a wringer washer (worsher) in the mid-Eighties  :lol:

Water came from the creek, and later through a gravity hose from a spring.

It sure did beat a 100 mile round trip to town to do laundry  ;/
Damn Tallpine, what the hell century are you living in out there?  =D
Avoid cliches like the plague!

HankB

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2011, 10:51:39 AM »
19 out of 25 . . . didn't count Studebakers, because by the time I was interested in cars, the few good looking Studebakers still on the road were "classics." (Golden Hawk and Avanti)

Now, if you'd added taxicabs based on the Checker Marathon . . .  ;)
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280plus

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2011, 10:56:02 AM »
I had a friend with a garage, in the garage was a Checker Marathon. I tried like hell to talk him into sellint it to me. He also had a 60's era Cadillac ambulance. Sweet.

BTW, Avanti was a Studebaker? Add one more to my list, I just got older.  :facepalm:

18 for me... but at least I didn't create the dirt.  =D
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kgbsquirrel

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #7 on: January 16, 2011, 10:57:04 AM »
Got 18 here. They forgot to mention backyard clothes lines and wooden toys.

Tallpine

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #8 on: January 16, 2011, 10:57:29 AM »
Damn Tallpine, what the hell century are you living in out there?  =D

I keep trying for the mid-1800's  ;)

No, seriously - at that time we were summering in our log camp located at an old mill site on private land.  We actually had electricity up there but no phone.  Elevation was about 10,600' according to the topo maps.
Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward toward the light; but the laden traveller may never reach the end of it.  - Ursula Le Guin

280plus

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2011, 10:59:23 AM »
I keep trying for the mid-1800's  ;)

Yup, that's about where I placed you ok. Works for me.  ;)
Avoid cliches like the plague!

Lee

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #10 on: January 16, 2011, 11:26:20 AM »
I remember most of those things.  Reading stuff like this really does make me feel old...which is OK. There are many good things about the present, and there were many good things about the past.  I was bored a lot back then - but I do miss the slower pace and simplicity of the old days. I think people had a lot more time for each other back then.   

cassandra and sara's daddy

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #11 on: January 16, 2011, 11:34:23 AM »
22  and i'm not that old
It is much more powerful to seek Truth for one's self.  Seeing and hearing that others seem to have found it can be a motivation.  With me, I was drawn because of much error and bad judgment on my part. Confronting one's own errors and bad judgment is a very life altering situation.  Confronting the errors and bad judgment of others is usually hypocrisy.


by someone older and wiser than I

Tallpine

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #12 on: January 16, 2011, 11:42:03 AM »
22  and i'm not that old

When Ladypine and I were 25-35, most of our friends were 50++

We just didn't fit in with most of the people our own age (we didn't do drugs and party).
Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward toward the light; but the laden traveller may never reach the end of it.  - Ursula Le Guin

Perd Hapley

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #13 on: January 16, 2011, 11:47:04 AM »
My wife bought me some Blackjack a few years ago.
"Doggies are angel babies!" -- my wife

Ben

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #14 on: January 16, 2011, 12:21:30 PM »
I know about all of them but only have personal experience with 17.

Party lines were a hoot when I was five. I don't remember well, but the folks say I used to get on the phone all the time and insert myself in all the random conversations.

Bottled soda from vending machines was the best.
"I'm a foolish old man that has been drawn into a wild goose chase by a harpy in trousers and a nincompoop."

RoadKingLarry

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #15 on: January 16, 2011, 12:58:21 PM »
Direct 1st hand experience with 21 out of 25.
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.

Samuel Adams

Monkeyleg

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #16 on: January 16, 2011, 01:03:33 PM »
I remember all 25, although I never saw a new Packard.

My memory of a wringer washer is very distinct. I was putting one thing through the wringer and didn't release my hand soon enough, and found my arm caught in the wringer right up to my elbow. Hurt like hell.

Damn, I'm old.

BMacklem

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #17 on: January 16, 2011, 01:04:52 PM »
I think I saw most of those things in an archeology class I stumbled across one day.

BlueStarLizzard

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #18 on: January 16, 2011, 01:12:44 PM »
I had candy ciggerettes! Thats all though, i'm only 26 after all.  =D
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Hawkmoon

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #19 on: January 16, 2011, 01:25:12 PM »
I remember all 27 of the 25 items. I lived through them all, including Studebakers and Packards. (Checker Marathons, too.)

A cousin recently sent me an e-mail with images of a bunch of stuff from the "good ole days." My stepson (adult) was looking over my shoulder while I looked at the images and he was stunned to see the McDonald's hamburger for 15 cents. So I just had to explain that, back when I was in high school, McDonald's advertising slogan was "45 cents for a three-course meal? Sounds to me like that's a steal." The three "courses" (of course) were the burger, a side order of fries, and a soda. Today that would cost around $3 to $4.
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lee n. field

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #20 on: January 16, 2011, 01:49:59 PM »
Quote
Older Than Dirt Quiz :
Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about.
Ratings at the bottom.

Direct memories of all except 8, 10, 12, 13 and 25.

Dad's farm was a dairy until 1968.  Our milk came from the barn, pasteurized at home.
In thy presence is fulness of joy.
At thy right hand pleasures for evermore.

Monkeyleg

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #21 on: January 16, 2011, 03:03:42 PM »
Quote
I think I saw most of those things in an archeology class I stumbled across one day.

Thanks a lot. Want to kick me in the knees, too? ;)

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #22 on: January 16, 2011, 04:40:27 PM »
Older Than Dirt Quiz :
Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about.
Ratings at the bottom.
 
*1. Blackjack chewing gum
*2.Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
*3. Candy cigarettes
*4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
*5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
*6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
*7. Party lines on the telephone
*8. Newsreels before the movie
*9. P.F. Flyers
*10. Butch wax
*11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last
show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning.
(there were only 3 channels... [if
you were fortunate])
*12. Peashooters
*13. Howdy Doody
*14. 45 RPM records
*15. S&H greenstamps
*16. Hi-fi's
*17. Metal ice trays with lever
*18. Mimeograph paper
*19. Blue flashbulbs
*20. Packards
*21. Roller skate keys
*22. Cork popguns
*23. Drive-in theaters
*24. Studebakers
*25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are
getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you remembered 16-25 = You' re older than dirt!

I also remember:

26. Drawing your water from a well.
27. Out houses were yer ONLY bathroom!
28. Red Rubber Hot Water bottles that sometimes had a hose and funny nozzle on it that you never saw used if you were a boy.
I might not last very long or be very effective but I'll be a real pain in the ass for a minute!
MOLON LABE!

BridgeRunner

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #23 on: January 16, 2011, 04:54:13 PM »
Last I knew, the Canadian channel that we got in Detroit (and I think most of Michigan) had a sign-off time and test patterns.  Roberto's, aka Rubber-Toes, a greasy spoon in Farmington, MI just off I-696, still has tableside jukeboxes, and last I knew, a few of 'em still worked.  The bad news is that nothing in that place has been cleaned since it was new.  Never had candy cigs, because they either weren't kosher or were too expensive--stock reasons why I never got any of the cool stuff. We had chewing gum cigars though. 

And although I absolutely recall non-nostalgic glass bottles, we never used vending machines, so that leaves me with exactly zero items as a recollection of the past. 

280plus

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Re: Oldster test, see if you pass.
« Reply #24 on: January 16, 2011, 05:05:23 PM »
Remember when all TV stations signed on and off with "The Star Spangled Banner"?
Avoid cliches like the plague!