Are you old enough to be one of us.

[Artful]

A little house with three bedrooms,
One bathroom and one car on the street
A mower that you had to push
To make the grass look neat.


In the kitchen on the wall
We only had one phone,
And no need for recording things,
Someone was always home.


We only had a living room
Where we would congregate,
Unless it was at mealtime
In the kitchen where we ate.


We had no need for family rooms
Or extra rooms to dine.
When meeting as a family
Those two rooms would work out fine.


We only had one TV set
And channels maybe two,
But always there was one of them
With something worth the view


For snacks we had potato chips
That tasted like a chip.
And if you wanted flavor
There was Lipton's onion dip.


Store-bought snacks were rare because
My mother liked to cook
And nothing can compare to snacks
In Betty Crocker's book


Weekends were for family trips
Or staying home to play
We all did things together –
Even go to church to pray.


When we did our weekend trips
Depending on the weather,
No one stayed at home because
We liked to be together


Sometimes we would separate
To do things on our own,
But we knew where the others were
Without our own cell phone


Then there were the movies
With your favorite movie star,
And nothing can compare
To watching movies in your car


Then there were the picnics
at the peak of summer season,
Pack a lunch and find some trees
And never need a reason.


Get a baseball game together
With all the friends you know,
Have real action playing ball –
And no game video.


Remember when the doctor
Used to be the family friend,
And didn't need insurance
Or a lawyer to defend


The way that he took care of you
Or what he had to do,
Because he took an oath and strived
To do the best for you


Remember going to the store
And shopping casually,
And when you went to pay for it
You used your own money?


Nothing that you had to swipe
Or punch in some amount,
And remember when the cashier person
Had to really count?


The milkman used to go
From door to door,
And it was just a few cents more
Than going to the store.


There was a time when mailed letters
Came right to your door,
Without a lot of junk mail ads
Sent out by every store .


The mailman knew each house by name
And knew where it was sent;
There were not loads of mail addressed
To "present occupant”


There was a time when just one glance
Was all that it would take,
And you would know the kind of car,
The model and the make


They didn't look like turtles
Trying to squeeze out every mile;
They were streamlined, white walls, fins
And really had some style


One time the music that you played
Whenever you would jive,
Was from a vinyl, big-holed record
Called a forty-five


The record player had a post
To keep them all in line
And then the records would drop down
And play one at a time.


Oh sure, we had our problems then,
Just like we do today
And always we were striving,
Trying for a better way.


Oh, the simple life we lived
Still seems like so much fun,
How can you explain a game,
Just kick the can and run?


And why would boys put baseball cards
Between bicycle spokes
And for a nickel, red machines
Had little bottled Cokes?


This life seemed so much easier
Slower in some ways
I love the new technology
But I sure do miss those days.


So time moves on and so do we
And nothing stays the same,
But I sure love to reminisce
And walk down memory lane.


With all today's technology
We grant that it's a plus!
But it's fun to look way back and say,

HEY LOOK, GUYS, THAT WAS US!

[trapper9260]

I remember alot of those days. it was so simple then. Now it is some thing else.

[starmac]

Wow, you had a bathroom inside the house. lol

[Iron Whittler]

Yep, been there, done that. I'm a young un at 67, but was around to pick cotton after school and follow the wheat harvest in the summertime. Gathering hay bales in between harvest days. Helping the farmer milk cows at 5am in trade for fresh milk right from the milk cow. You are right, simpler times, but hard work for your wages. There was no "political correct" in them days, only the way the BOSS wanted it done. It was his way or git on down the road. Sadly, too much of the old ways is missing today.

[Skunk1]

We had 3 channels on the tv. Still nothing to watch. Remember shucking corn when the 7' Clipper broke down. Honest work for a living.

[buckwheatpaul]

Artful, Guilty on all account....I wish life was still that simple and people were still that good! Thanks, Paul

[xs11jack]

Had a inside bathroom at home but the one room school house had two outhouses, one for the girls and one for the boys and both had hornets in the spring, and the teacher was a personal friend of each student. In fact, my family and her's visited often years after I was out of highschool.
Ole Jack

[Hogtamer]

I would make "arrowheads" from coke bottle caps retreived from the local market and bend them around sticks to shoot. Usually that trip to the market was made pulling a wagon full of coke bottles that I'd picked up and get 2 cents apiece for them. A load of bottles would get me all the bbs I could shoot that week and a pocket full of squirrel nut zippers and mary janes too! Oh, and it was Coca-Cola then, not Coke.

[Don Purcell]

61 yrs. old and remember all of that. I can remember some difficult times when younger but you sucked it up and worked through it. I'll take all the old bad times in exchange for the B.S. we have to put up with now.

[Rooster]

Goobers & coke-a-cola!!! 50 years in an instant!

[bubba.50]

take away that indoor bathroom & add a party-line phone & put it all on the farm and you've pretty much described my early years. we got three channels. only trouble was two of them were NBC. watched Don Reno & Red Smiley and the Bluegrass Cut-ups every mornin' before school.

[Pipefitter]

And the phone on the wall in the kitchen was on a party line.........

You young'uns will have to ask someone older than you what that was.

[geezer56]

I remember when a party line was an improvement. For my first 10 years the closest phone was about two miles away. And only one channel on tv. Darn mountains keep getting in the way.

[fortrenokid]

I remember when getting on an airplane was not all that much more difficult than getting on a city bus. Oh, they wanted to make sure they got paid but after that, little or no hassle.

Dem days iz done gone!

Fort Reno Kid

[opos]

78 so seen and lived much of it....the real beauty is now in the twilight I've had all the "good old days" I modified them as my career ran...as my kids were growing and had new and wonderful things to see and as we moved around the Coutry...we've been settled in our retirement now for some years and many if not most of the things that were so important in the "good old days" have come full circle and we with it...the things that held such importance 30 years ago are long forgotten and we'd not chase them for all theworld...We are taking a well earned rest these days..if our style doesn't fit "today's good old days" so what? I'm glad folks are living the lives they are....they would have been bored with our lives and frankly as I watch I think I'd prefer to not do much of what is "important" today...

[starreloader]

Artful, thanks for bringing back those memories from years ago.. Grew up on a farm in the Appalachian Mountains of central PA back in the late 40's through the 50's and 60's.. Still remember when we got a wall phone, and yes it was on a party line with 6 other families.. Some of my best memories are from that long ago time!!

[gunoil]

Who dont miss the 50's & 60's, i wanta go back rite now, u can have my iphone. I only have a huge antenna on my chimney rite now for 7 & 1/2 years, No cable coming to my house except pwc power. Embarrassing to say a couple muscle vehicles i once had, who knew.

Sundays , going to sicily drop zone watching the honest john rockets go off and the 82nd airborne drops. We played serious putt-putt for big money. We never thought about the price of gas.

Ride bicycles to rexall drugs and make gunpowder. T-bone steaks tasted better, everything tasted better. Mini-bike before teens w/no helmet. Mom cooked breakfast every morning. Dairy-Queen& tastee-freeze.



_________________
velosRus.com

[ohiomadman]

We got milk delivered to our front porch. Those were the days......

[nvbirdman]

I remember when my grandmother was flying to Hawaii. She was flying out of L.A. International airport. We walked out to the plane with her, but they didn't let us walk up the steps with her.

[starmac]

I even wound up hitchhiking once with my shotgun even after dark. A guy would get a ride in todays world, but doubt if he would like it. lol
Remember even before my teens, riding a bicycle several miles to see friends, leaveing on fridays and camping and fishing trips till sunday evenings, at 12, I was the oldest by a year than the friends I fished, hunted and camped with. Parents would go ballistic these days.

[bayjoe]

My dad bought our first TV the day before Kennedy was shot.
I remember watching my mom and brother milking the cows by hand and squirting milk in the barn cats mouths.

[jonp]

guess so. I remember the first color tv we had and when it showed up. The first show we saw was the opening to Walt Disney World with the fireworks over the castle. Wow....frozen milk pushing the pogs off the top, grandmother still using an old roller washing machine, putt putt at the drive-in, bunch of us kids walking down the road through town with .22's on a Saturday to go woodchuck hunting and nobody batting an eyelash, porn was getting stuck at the top of the Ferris wheel at the Fair and looking down to see the Hoochy Coochy show had no roof on it and watching the woman in sparkly outfits dancing on stage. Looked at my dad and said something like "look at those clowns dancing" and he just laughed.

[WRideout]

Yeah, Southern California was a far different place when Eisenhower was president. I don't think I could go back there, now. I never considered myself a geezer since cutting the grass has not become a consuming passion, and I do not own a poodle, chihuaha, or pekingese dog. On the other hand, I have put pictures of my grandchildren on the screen saver at work. And I am now quoting prices of gasoline and movies from the fifties and sixties, which I said I would never do.

From time to time, someone younger asks me for help on the computer. When it works, I believe I qualify for an age discount of up to three years on my calendar age; isn't that right?

Wayne

[w5pv]

We never had a TV until 1956 and then the reception wasn't all that good,but we hunted and fished after the chores were done and had a good time in doing so .

[hockeynick39]

Might not be quite as old as some, but the poem did send some memory shivers. Didn't have five cent cokes, but did have 10 cent cokes. Also remember watching my grandmother do laundry in the old roller tubs and even use the old wash boards from time to time on the rough linens. I also remember on Friday's at school, as long as we had a permission slip from our parents we could take a box of .22s and our rifle to school and go shoot squirrels on the way home. Also remember having four channels until I hit about 12, then we had 5 (PBS, ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX). About three years later cable was moving through town and my parents didn't get that until maybe 10 years ago. Good times!

[rancher1913]

we were uptown going up. our outhouse was a two hole and it had a cast iron hot water heater that was fed off the house heating system.

[frkelly74]

I even wound up hitchhiking once with my shotgun even after dark. A guy would get a ride in todays world, but doubt if he would like it. lol
Remember even before my teens, riding a bicycle several miles to see friends, leaveing on fridays and camping and fishing trips till sunday evenings, at 12, I was the oldest by a year than the friends I fished, hunted and camped with. Parents would go ballistic these days.

I think you would get a ride allright. But not where you want to go and in the back seat with no handles.

I can remember Remember Ike.

[Freightman]

Yep no electricity, no refrigerator , no gas cooking stove, no furnace, no insulation, no dish washer, wait that was me. Yep good old days but it was fun.

[phonejack]

I remember all of it. But it left out leaving home and not having to lock the doors

[dverna]

Thanks Artful!

Lots of good memories. The family car was a 1953 Monarch with a flat head 8. Six of us piled into it every weekend and of course no seat belts. Worked the garden, helped canning, etc etc Hand knit socks. Mothers stayed home and were mothers and wives. Did not need both parents working --- but did not "need" two cars and we never ate out. Two pairs of shoes and a pair of boots. All was good.

[Kraschenbirn]

Oh yeah, I can recall every bit of it...including party lines and phones without dials (you picked up the handset, waited for the operator, and gave her the number you wanted...usually only three digits). 10 years old, rural southern Illinois, riding my bicycle a mile out of town to my uncle's gun & tack shop early on Saturday mornings to sweep floors, windex the display cases, and dust off the racks and shelves...after which I'd receive two or three boxes of .22s, grab something out of the 'used' rack, and head out back to the shop's 50-yd 'demonstration' range. Jump ahead a few years to Junior High in northwest Illinois, closer to Iowa than to Chicago; carrying my cased Win. 52D to school and checking it into a storage locker in the Industrial Arts shop and, after school, checking it out and riding a city bus - rifle case between my knees - out to the Nat'l Guard Armory for Boy Scout rifle team practice.

Bill

[Col4570]

Yes I remember most of those lovely and not so lovely times.At my age (79) many of the things we did or purchased or made are akin to those across the pond,give or take a few things we are very much alike.i remember the day JFK died,I was at work and someone came in on the next shift and gave us the news.We thought it was Rolf Kennedy a shift manager at work until it was all explained, that day sticks in my mind and will forever.In these days of extreme technology we tend to forget about those times when life ran at a lower pace.Remembering those that have past on and those that have aged with us is part of lifes rich pattern.It is wise to reflect that this is not a rehearsal so we should make the most of it.Anyway,I am going Clay shooting tomorrow using both Black Powder and Modern Shotguns.Best regards to all who go back a long way and to those of a younger age.

[Lloyd Smale]

yes sir I remember. Had to chuckle at memory you brought back. My father and mother worked. My mother was a teacher so she was gone every day till supper time and dad worked shift work so he cooked most of the time. Ma was a good cook and baker but didn't do it often. Kids in the neighborhood allways hung around our house because we had store bought cookies like oreos and they never saw them other then on tv so it was more of a treat to them to come to our house. To me it was just the opposite. I KNEW moms made better cookies and allways wanted treats from there house. Kids in the neighborhood were absolutely flabbergasted that I could walk into the house and gets some cookies or that there was about allways a picture of Kool-Aid in the fridge. Even that was a treat to some of them.

Also I believe we were the first family in the neighborhood to have two cars because both of my parents worked. They sure were much. In all reality id consider all the cars they had up to the time I was in the service beaters to me. They got there first new car in 1976 and dad about wore it out polishing it.

We also had the first colar tv. Dad said it paid for itself in the first two years. Before him and all the men in the neighborhood took turns on football sunday hosting all the men. When they got the colar tv it was ALLWAYS at our house. Whoever hosted didn't have to buy the beer so dad said for two years he his beer savings paid for it. You didn't lack friends on Saturday night either with the first colar tv

Ill pass my mother memorys that go back even further when her dad put in the first flush toilet in town. He actually had people stop by just to use it! Ma said she was so happy she didn't have to go outside anymore that she cried. She didn't even get a Christmas present that winter. the toilet was the present for all of them. She said it was the best Christmas she can remember before she had her own kids.

[blackthorn]

My Dad farmed with horses until 1948. We had no power until 1049 and got a 13 count party line in 1954. My folks had no TV until well after I left home in 1956. The folks never had plumbing in their home until they retired to town around 1965. We carried water from the well, about 1000 yards from the house and it had to be hand pumped first. The well had an 8 foot long by 30 inch deep trough for watering the live stock and it had a home built stove right inside it to keep the water from freezing until the stock had been watered and then it had to be drained. Water for the chickens and pigs had to be hauled in 45 gallon barrels on a flat skid we called a stone boat. In summer the same skid was used to haul rocks off the fallow fields. We had an "ice house" that we cut and hauled ice from the river (2 miles) to fill in winter and it would serve to keep things cool all summer. Great times for sure! But I think the old saying---"Those who pine for the long ago should remember the outhouse at forty below"--- pretty much covers it all.

[robg]

Looking back you only remember the good times .but they were definatly better times.

[perotter]

The main things I miss is that during Holy Week and the week between Christmas and New Years Day most things shutdown so people could do things other than think about money. Plus, that every business closed on Sundays except for a gas that was on a busy highway.

For us the week between Christmas and New Years was a week of visiting relatives. One in the afternoon and a different one at night. Normally one family came each day and we went to one each day. Basically each family came to our place and we went to their place once that week.

[nvbirdman]

I think one sign of getting old is when you realize that half the people you have ever known are dead.

[woodbutcher]

:bigsmyl2: As the old song says"Ah yes,I remember it well".
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[Lead Fred]

I call it real America, have you seen it?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fw4uSiBxlE

[smokeywolf]

Vaguely remember Ike. Remember that we were on a party line, the EMpire exchange. I remember the family doc coming to the house and giving me a shot while Mom held me down on kitchen table; think I was about 3 years old.
16 oz Coke was 10 cents and you got 5 cents back on the bottle. Gas was 20 cents/gal.; 18 when there was a gas war.

[Artful]

Ah, Gas War's - and the free gifts for filling up your tank and spend the huge sum of $12.00

[smokeywolf]

Ah, Gas War's - and the free gifts for filling up your tank and spend the huge sum of $12.00

Artful, your dad or mom's car/truck held 60 gallons? At 20 cents/gal, $12.00 buys 60 gallons.

[Lloyd Smale]

how about green stamps. Just about every business gave them out. I remember my mother saved them up and actually bought her first couch using them. I remember getting a stuffed dinosaur from the sinclar station because my dad had a card punched when he bought gas.

One other from my days in the service. I'm sure theres a few that can post cheaper but we bought cigerettes when we were underway and out of US waters tax free for 2 bucks a carton. that's 20 cents a pack. What are they now? about 7 bucks a pack. I remember buying buck 110 folders for 12 bucks a piece and that was considered a pretty expensive knife. I had a sack full of them when I left the ship for gifts for the family.

I loaded them in my 1973 340 duster that I paid 3200 bucks for out the door. My first new car. My car payment was 102 bucks a month for 3 years. Seems cheap but i was making less the 400 bucks a month in the service when I bought it. Do you even remember 3 year new car loans. I remember when some banks wouldn't even give 4 year loans on cars. Probably because some of the cars wouldn't last that long. I'm sure lots here are even older then me and my numbers don't seem that impressive. I can remember in the service that my buddys back home working the mines were making an impressive 6 bucks an hour. I thought "boy if I could just make that much id be about rich" got out and started with the power company at 6 an hour. Probably worth more after inflation and cost of living then the 29 bucks an hour I made when I retired.

Times were good around our area in the 60s and 70s. Now the Air Force base is closed, one of the two big iron ore mines in the area that are the biggest employers by far up here announced last month that its closing its doors. My nephew and his wife will both be loosing there jobs along with hundreds more. Only thing left up here other then that one mine is tourist businesses. I guess thank God some of you southern guys still want to come up here and see Gods Country and from the Illinois, Wisconson and Ohio people want to come up to the best snowmobiling in the country. I really thank God that I'm not back in the workforce worried about this stuff. I wonder if 30 years from now the workers starting out today will affectionately look back at there lives????????

[Artful]

Artful, your dad or mom's car/truck held 60 gallons? At 20 cents/gal, $12.00 buys 60 gallons.

Truck with dual tanks - think gas was $0.35 per gallon then.

[mold maker]

When I started driving there were gas wars and the price was 13.8 cents/gal. Basically, the gas was free and you only paid the tax. Cigs were 17 cents/pack, or $1.50 a carton. The Sat movie was .07 and lasted from 8 AM til 4 PM so for a quarter you spent all day with a hot dog, french fries, drink, and change.
BBs were a penny for a cellophane pack. Candy was 1 or 2 pieces for a penny.
Unless the weather was extremely bad we walked to school and hurried to get to the crossing every evening to see the big green and chrome Southern RR steam train pass. We watched as the station master hung the mail sack and swung it out for the passing mail car to hook.
I grew up at the end of the road, three blocks from the next house, and half a mile from the nearest neighbor boy. As a child, I gave names to the pine trees in the yard, and on windy days, they talked back to me.
The first car in the family was a 37 chevy we called 'old lacey' because the finders were so full of holes.
I remember leaving home after chores with my trusty Daisy 25 pump and wondered for miles through the country. I'd stop at the Sherman farm and carry in a couple arm loads of wood. Mrs. Sherman would always have fresh pies of some kind and a piece was always offered for the filled wood box.
During hunting season, I carried my 22 to school and left it behind the principal's office door. In the evening, I retrieved it to hunt through the Oak and Hickory woods on the way home. It was normal to have 2-4 squirrels for supper.
In the Winter, I'd take 5 eggs to the grocery and trade for 3 shotgun shells. Next evening I'd go rabbit hunting and usually bring home 3 rabbits. Mom said the rabbits fed us lots better than the eggs.
Yes, we had one of the party lines and I could always tell when the widow lady was listening in. She always had her radio playing next to her chair.
Thanks for the treck down childhood memory lane. It's been a long time but the memories are still vivid.

[Kraschenbirn]

1965: Had a 426 wedge in a Coronet 330 2-door sedan (Mopar's cheapest, lightest body) that ran best on Sunoco 260 at $.38/gal. Name brand regular went for $.29-$.32/gal.

[jonp]

S&H Geen Stamps Lloyd? How about dishes in the box of laundry detergent?

[dragon813gt]

Um, I'm 36 and all but the milkman apply to my childhood. Vinyl is back in style thanks to the hipsters. I only have one bathroom in my house. The cabin has an outhouse. Not all of that stuff has gone away. Especially the family part. You only have yourself to blame if it has.

And I'm 99% certain that when I worked at Super Fresh in the mid 90s we gave out green stamps. I know for a fact food stamps were paper and you could see shame in the eyes of people that didn't want to have to use them.

[Col4570]

I remember as a kid after WW2 we had rationing for food,clothing etc.For instance we had Ration Books and when purchasing something like Bacon, Cheese,Lard, Butter etc the Shopkeeper would stamp your Book to make sure you had only your quota.Oranges and Bananas where Luxury items.Tea was plentyfull,Coffee was scarce.We had Clothing Coupons to purchase what where utility items.Recent Statistics say that on the whole people where healthier then than now and obesity was rare.Things gradualy became available and the coupons system was abandoned.I started an apprenticeship 1952 and joined the Merchant Navy 1957 and did this for 6 years.Been married for 57 years (you get less than that for armed Robbery)no she is a keeper.

[avogunner]

I was cleaning the gun room and found a long forgotten box of stuff......
167410167411
I don't think this was from that long ago either, maybe late 90's? I'd love to see these prices again though.
(Sorry about the sideways photos)

[10x]

You grew up in a home with indoor plumbing and electricity?
Must have been nice.

[Mad Jack]

I sure do miss those days. After I get past a couple health issues my wife and myself are moving to Alaska. We plan on completing our disconnect with most modern technology.

[bob208]

I remember carrying wood in for my grandmother for the cook stove. I do know that a lantern does not put out much heat in the winter when you had to go the outhouse. I remember the general stores with big wood or coal stoves in the middle of the store. still don't know how they can call it a hardware store if it does not have a well worn oiled floor. first engine I helped change was a Pontiac straight 8 ordered from sears. just about every body had a pocket knife most were barlows.putting well worn buffalo nickels in a coke machine to get a coke. picking up bales of hay and straw for $1.25 hour and glad to get the work.

[David2011]

Ahh, Green Stamps. Bought my first hunting knife with them in the '60s. It was in my tackle box, in the boat's dock box when Katrina came through. The whole dock was swept away. I miss the knife more than the boat. Got a '67 Mustang in '72. Cost $5.10 the first time I filled it. Wowzers! How was I going to afford driving it? Then the gas wars kicked in and for a while premium was only 19 cents. The car had a 390 in it and choked on regular. It did run "pretty good," though.

Thanks for for stirring the memories.

David

[Boaz]

I remember , born in 52 . I remember a lot of good things that were simple compared to now . Folks appreciated any time off because they worked harder to make a living . I remember the polio kids with the braces . They took up money in school to buy them more iron lungs to keep them alive .People keeping the old folks up at home because they had no where to go . People expected to die much earlier than now , a person in their 80's or 90's was a curiosity . Food was good but much more limited as to variety, we were actually thankful for it . Everyone had teeth problems . Surgery was a last ditch effort to save someone , odds were it could kill you quicker than what ailed you . Many babies were still born or died shortly after birth .

We have come a long way but don't think we have used the gifts given very wisely most of the time . Appreciation seems small , what we have now would have seemed miraculous back then .

[victorfox]

Heck i lived in a small town close to the capital,Gun shops were our mallFriends with everyone whether boy or galWe had our guns back thenAnd respect for all

[MT Gianni]

I was born on 54 to older parents. My grandfather died at 94 just after I turned 5. He never drove a car. If it couldn't be done from a horse it wasn't worth doing. Mother wore a lot of dresses to school made from the materiel that the flour came in. Sack dresses and they fit the times. Dad's side had it tough. His grandfather always shipped cows to San Francisco from central Utah to sell at the cow palace. First sign of the depression the sale price was 10 cents a head less than the shipping costs. He never caught up and they lost the ranch.

[Col4570]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2nG1jGdh2o
This song says it all when remembering past times.

[Lloyd Smale]

man that's another one I forgot! How about a 12 year old kid going into the hardware store and buying his own 22 shells.
S&H Geen Stamps Lloyd? How about dishes in the box of laundry detergent?

[Mad Jack]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/images/misc/quote_icon.png Originally Posted by jonp http://castboolits.gunloads.com/images/buttons/viewpost-right.png (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?p=3633152#post3633152)

S&H Geen Stamps Lloyd? How about dishes in the box of laundry detergent?


man that's another one I forgot! How about a 12 year old kid going into the hardware store and buying his own 22 shells.




I remember collecting books of both green and blue stamps.

I think I was 12 or 13 when I bought my first 20 gauge. Over the counter purchase at Gemco. My stepmom had to be there but I paid and it was my transaction.

When I was that 13 and younger it was no big deal to ride your bike around with a rifle slung to your back. Try that now days.