Among Friends

[AngelPuppy1]

We had a big heavy old telephone -- black, with a rotary dial.  We were on a party line and each house had an individul ring.  You had to wait your turn to use the phone.  If you picked up the phone and it was in use, you just put the receiver quietly down and tried again.  If you had a true emergency, you simply told the person on the phone that you needed to make an emergency call.

Also, you called the operator for Information -- to get phone numbers of people, etc.  I believe you just dialed "O".  

We did look forward to returning "pop" bottles to the store for money.  As a very young child, we never drank pop only on a special occasion. But later on, we would get cases of it and then our parents allowed us to return the bottles for money and we would get candy or ice cream with the money.  

Everyone that I knew had a little address and phone thing by the phone.  It was metal and was indexed by the alphabet.  There was a little metal pointer on it and when you pointed it to the letter, you opened it and it wold be the section of the alphabet you wanted.  Most people had a phone stand which had a place for the phone and phone book and sometimes even a seat.  A lot of times the phone would be in the hallway so everyone could use it.

We had a non-electric washing machine -- it was a hand rung one.  And no dryer!  You hung things on the line.  

As for hair, we used a lot of Dippity-Do and pin curls and/or foam rollers.  Ladies would often do their chores at home with their hair in their rollers with a scarf wrapped around to cover them!!! 

Appliances -- t.v., refrigerator, etc. - didn't get thrown out when someting was wrong --- you called a repair person and the came to the house and fixed it.  T.V.s had all these tubes, etc. then.  And the problem was usually some sort of tube that needed replaced.  

A little local grocery store woulld give us kids a small brown bag of penny candy when our parents would pay the grocery bill.  Yes, they would write all your purchaes down at the time on a pad that had a carbon copy of it.  You would get a copy of it and they would keep the original.  

We at first had a hand pushed lawn mower --- no gas, no electric. Also, we either weeded by hand or used these gizmos that looked like big scissors!

[Imadickens]

Jlkz: How awful! I'm so sorry! On my wedding day my uncle used a flash bulb. It, too, broke! I was afraid my dog would get cut, so after everyone left for the church I crawled around in my wedding gown making sure no glass was left!

[Imadickens]

such great things! I had forgotten many of these. Also, everyone dressed up to go anywhere! I saw a clipping of an old baseball game. Men were in suits and ties! My mother had different names for dressing, ...play clothes, school clothes and church clothes. All she had to do was say, go put on your...and I knew what she meant!

[viva923]

some of the remember when items i remember were

remotes for t.v., if we wanted to change the channel we had to get up to change it

higher channels than channel 12. grew up with 3=12 were the only channels we got on our t.v..

mail boxes on street corners.

phone booths on street corners, phone booths in drug stores.

juke boxes in small diners where kids could hang out without any problems.

i still own a land line phone and use it all the time. i do own a cell phone but that is only for emergencies.

these are just a few things off the top of my head.

[Imadickens]

---

@viva923 wrote:

some of the remember when items i remember were

remotes for t.v., if we wanted to change the channel we had to get up to change it

higher channels than channel 12. grew up with 3=12 were the only channels we got on our t.v..

mail boxes on street corners.

phone booths on street corners, phone booths in drug stores.

juke boxes in small diners where kids could hang out without any problems.

i still own a land line phone and use it all the time. i do own a cell phone but that is only for emergencies.

these are just a few things off the top of my head.

---

I'm the same about phones! You reminded me of mail delivery twice a day! We got it at 9:am and 1pm! And the stamps were 3 cents and had to be licked!

[Yardlie]

---

@Imadickens wrote:

---

@viva923 wrote:

some of the remember when items i remember were

remotes for t.v., if we wanted to change the channel we had to get up to change it

higher channels than channel 12. grew up with 3=12 were the only channels we got on our t.v..

mail boxes on street corners.

phone booths on street corners, phone booths in drug stores.

juke boxes in small diners where kids could hang out without any problems.

i still own a land line phone and use it all the time. i do own a cell phone but that is only for emergencies.

these are just a few things off the top of my head.

---

I'm the same about phones! You reminded me of mail delivery twice a day! We got it at 9:am and 1pm! And the stamps were 3 cents and had to be licked!

---

Yes. I remember getting mail twice a day when I was a child. It was usually first class in the morning and junk mail in the afternoon, but occasionally we received some first class in the afternoon too.

I remember all those green stamps. There was also something about milk cartons. We must have been given stamps for them. I remember my sister and I devised a scheme where we talked the school janitor into saving all the milk cartons for us for a couple days. After school, we dragged all those bags of milk cartons home. After supper one day, we got our dad to take us down to the place where we traded in all the milk cartons for all kinds of prizes. We got new metal roller skates, board games, watches, Lincoln logs, curling irons, presents for my brother, mother, and dad. We had a ball...thought we struck it rich!

[Plaid Pants2]

I was born in 1970, and I remember rotary dialed phones.

My parents had a shed stuffed full of "old" stuff, and I loved exploring it!

There was a mimiograph machine, and boxes filled with carbon paper, an old Singer sewing machine, that had the foot pedal that you would rock back and forth to get the machine to work.

I think back to some of those things, and wish that I still had them, because I wonder if they would be worth any $.

[Bird mama]

Anyone remember this knuckle buster?

[Newgate]

I remember when a couch or sofa was called a "davenport" and when little girls like me would get "perms"!  I guess we were all supposed to look like "Shirley Temple"!

[CJC]

I was born in 1944, so I remember very well everything mentioned in your wonderful responses.  A funny memory for me......my family was asked to "test" a new product by a sales rep who knocked on our door.  We tried it for 2 weeks then the rep returned to our home to ask us a bunch of survey questions.  The new product?  Peanut butter!  I also remember being a test subject at school when my second grade class had to visit the restrooms each morning to brush our teeth.  The new product?  Toothpaste with fluoride!

Our tiny black & white TV worked great for watching Roy Rogers and I Remember Mama.

I zoomed around my neighborhood on metal roller skates tightened to my hard-soled shoes with a skate key worn on a string around my neck.

I drank Nehi soda pop, and traveled by passenger train every summer to visit grandparents.  Trains had the best dining cars and tiny bathrooms.

My grandma always cleaned her wallpaper with a gray squishy putty -- kids use the same stuff today only it comes in colors and is called Play-Doh.

Fun memories.  Technology has certainly moved us forward, but has it made us better people?  I don't think so but then, Holy Moly, what do I know?