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Are you getting old?


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I remember when TV stations (the few we had) actually SIGNED OFF at night.

George

Yeah, I can remember stations signing off - and there being snow or a test pattern. We had 3 maybe 4 stations that we could get reception for - usually a little snowy too.

Ah, and the radio shows - I know there were some good ones that were very popular before I came of age, but I do remember some of the more recent ones - like story time with Art Linkletter, some 30 second or so spots of "Chicken Man" - you know he's everywhere, he's everywhere!! -- good ole Benton Harbor - mild mannered something or other.

Never had the "sound of the milkman's truck" early in the morning, but do recall the sound of milking machines on our farm - the electric compressor motor that made them run had a slow stacatto noise - something like "psh-psh-psh." Cows milk - fresh/raw - whatever you want to call it - was pretty good. That, and farm fresh eggs tasted good.

And I can remember hearing the noon-time siren blowing at the fire station every day - from the village a couple miles away. I don't know if small towns still do stuff like that, certainly not around where I live now.

Ah the memories - if you're gettin old, you'll have them, hopefully.

Per

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I'm so old that my daddy used to send me to the corner store for his ciggys when I was 8. It was legal then! I also remember the stations signing off at night. I remember when cartoons were only on on Saturday morning. I remember when home satellite systems were several thousand dollars and had a huge dish that would take up the whole back yard. I remember when kids didn't have cell phones, stayed out all day long, and had to be in by the time the streetlights came on, or they got a spanking. Yes, a good old fashioned trip to the woodshed was encouraged by law enforcement.

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When i was in high school we had a smoking lounge for the students to smoke cigereetes in between classes and at lunch.

We didnt need to be 18 , nor neccesarily smoke just cigereetes, although it was just high school , in junior high we had to go across the yard and smoke in the woods nearby!

today it is illegal to smoke in any public building.

We used to have "sit ins" in school where the entire school would sit in the hallway and not go into class and bomb threats although i do not remember any explosions in our area.. the civil rights had taken effect and busing began from the inner city to the subarbs .

today kids bring guns to school and every door has a metal detector.

Edited by pond
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I remember that the Big Money Movie came on at 2 in the afternoon in the summertime. My big chore was to do the ironing for our family of six--and we ironed almost everything, even pillow cases. We had the whole ironing stash--the little covered board for cuffs on long sleeves, some kind of stuffed thing called a ham( can't remember what that is for now), this little rubber sprinkler thingy, spray on starch. And seams were to be ironed open, shirt sleeves creased a certain way....No wonder I joined a cult!

I would do my ironing while watching the movie, and looked forward to it--especially Elvis movies.

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I remember riding my bicycle about a mile or so to Katy Lake with my .22 rifle across the handlebars where I'd meet up with some buddies and we'd shoot cans, rats and other assorted targets.

The lake was drained and Seminary South Shopping Center built there in 1962 or so. I have no idea what it's called today.

I often wore a white tshirt to jr. high and high school with a pack of Luckies tucked neatly into the rolled up sleeve...when the weather permitted...and of course, the ever present Zippo lighter.

It seems we all had nicknames like "Outlaw", "Froggie", "Holder", "Tuna"....mine was "Bushy" because of my disdain for barber shops...or "Red"....just depending.

Or we all addressed each other by our last names.

We all loved motocycles. I had an Indian, but after a couple of bad cases of "pavement rash" and that incident involving the sparkplug coming loose and falling in my boot, I haven't been on one since 1964.

I missed voting in my first general election for POTUS in 1968 by three weeks...my b'day is in late November.

Check this link out...it's worth your time...

http://moreoldfortyfives.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm

Wonderful music and cool memories.

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Nicknames----Yep, we all had them.(at least the guys did, don't know about the gals.)

And you couldn't just give yourself a nickname, you had to wait until it was thrust upon you.

We had Punkin Head, Poncho, Buzzy, B.O., Skeeter, Skooter, Craigasis, 'Tard, Monkey Man, Pine Cone, and Stosh.

I got stuck with Froggie for a couple years.

I used to go down to the local pond and catch frogs which I then sold to the pet shop for a penny or two each.

They used them to feed the snakes.

Guess Froggie must have suited me better than Snake.

'Nother thing we did in the late '50s was "calling" for your buddies at the back door.

Might of been a Cleveland thing, dunno.

Never met anyone from somewhere other than Cleveland that did it.

What you would do is go to the back door and "call" for your buddy.

You couldn't knock or ring, that was intrusive.

You would call out in a kind of monotone sing-song voice that dropped pitch on the last syllable.

"OHH Bobbeeee-ee-------OHH Bobbeeee-ee"

No one in the house, other than Bobby, was expected to answer the door.

If you did it 3 or 4 times without a response, it meant he wasn't home or not at liberty to answer the door.

We did that until we became teen-agers.

Motorcycles--HaHa!

Had a Whizzer that I "co-owned" with another kid.

Remember those? They were 24 or 26 inch bikes with a motor mounted on them. You got them from Western Auto.

We got ours from another kid who didn't know how to fix the broken clutch.

It had a soup can replacing the long departed muffler.

Don't get me started on .22's.

"You'll shoot your eye out,kid!"

Edited by waysider
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I remember when pantyhose hadn't been invented yet, and you had to wear a garter belt and nylons. Some of them had seams up the back, and you had to struggle to get the seams straight.

I remember when girls wore dresses or skirts and white gloves to go shopping downtown.

I remember when single girls got pregnant by accident, not on purpose.

I remember when all the kids I knew looked like the kids in A Christmas Story.

I remember when we had not only a milkman but a bread delivery man, an egg man, and a "truck farmer" who came around selling produce in the summer.

I remember Pinky Lee and Howdy Doody and the original Mouseketeers.

So yes, I'm getting old!

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