Older 'n Dirt (with a test)

[mitchtv]

"Older 'n Dirt"

"Hey Dad," one of my kids 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. "Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa 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, my 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.


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Here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:

Most parents NEVER owned their own house, never wore Levis or set foot on a golf course or 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 AND 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. For transportation I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one Speed, ( slow).

I was 13 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.

We didn't have a car until I was 21. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a "machine."

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. I delivered a newspaper,The Newark Star Ledger, seven days a week. My income was 7 cents per week per customer. Each paper cost 3 cents a day for a total of 18 cents per 6 day week (5 cents for me), Sunday papers cost 10 cents each (2 cents for me) for a total of 28 cents per week. I had to get up at 5 AM every morning.
Every other Saturday, I had to collect the 56 cents from my customers (just about everyone was a 7 days a week customer). My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 60 cents and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day. (p.s. This a True Story. I delivered these papers. Frank)


I got 100% on the test

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?


MEMORIES from a friend:

My Dad cleaned out my grandmother's house and he brought home 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.


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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.


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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 (Oh yeah!!)
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S&H Green Stamps
16 Hi-Fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19 Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Studebakers
24. 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 16-24 = You're older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.
Don't forget to pass this along!!
Especially to all your really OLD friends.


"Senility Prayer"...God grant me...
The senility to forget the people I never liked
The good fortune to run into the ones that I do
And the eyesight to tell the difference."
Have a great week !





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[iamjoy]

1. A Low Score Could Mean REALLY Old

you know, so old that the person has CRS (can't remember stuff).

[MADem]

2. Christ. I am OLDER THAN DIRT!!!! nt

[Hepburn]

3. Just as I suspected!

NO 1. Blackjack chewing gum
YES 2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
YES 3. Candy cigarettes
YES 4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
YES 5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes (Oh yeah!!)
YES 6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
YES 7. Party lines
NO 8. Newsreels before the movie
YES 9. P.F. Flyers
YES 10. Butch wax
YES 11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
YES 12. Peashooters
YES 13. Howdy Doody
YES 14. 45 RPM records
YES 15. S&H Green Stamps
YES 16 Hi-Fi's
YES 17. Metal ice trays with lever
YES 18. Mimeograph paper
YES 19 Blue flashbulb
YES 20. Packards
YES 21. Roller skate keys
NO 22. Cork popguns
YES 23. Studebakers
YES 24. Wash tub wringers

Ummmmmmmmm.....21 here....guess I am OLDER THAN DIRT! :hi:

[Wilber_Stool]

12. Yep

Here's some more:
My dad took me to watch his team bowl and they had boys setting pins.
Door to door salesmen. Fuller Brush man.
An Italian guy with a cart that sharpened knives.
DDT foggers in the summer.
Pennies taped to packs of cigarettes in machines.
Rocky Jones: Space Ranger.
Girls didn't have sports teams.
Church keys for cans without pop tops.

Probably think of more later.

I ment this for the OP.

[frogbison]

17. Why on earth

would anyone tape pennies to packs of cigarettes in machines?

[Wilber_Stool]

20. Change.

I don't remember how much they cost but if they were 33 cents a there would be two pennies taped to a pack. Some machines didn't make chang in pennies. I remember watching the guy do it at the bowling alley.

[zalinda]

4. I remember all of it

but then I have a really good memory. I think I remember that stuff from when I was a baby, yeah, that's the ticket.

zalinda

[mitchtv]

5. I remember the old Italian man who came around with an accordian

and sang for coins thrown out the winfows of the apartment blgds, wrapped in a tissue, also the Umbrella man and horsedrawn junk collector, this was in Queens, NY

[napi21]

6. YEP!! I remember each and every one of them!

I even can add a few.

My mother got all excited when the milk company supplied an insulated milk box so the milk didn't freeze in the winter or go bad in the summer before you took it into the house.

Our mailbox was attached to the side of our house close to the door, and the mailman didn't have a mailtruck, he had a big bag he slung over his back to carry all the mail.

A farmer used to drive up our street once a week selling fresh produce and all the while he would be yelling "Get your lettuse, tomatoes, potatoes, corn" loud enough so the housewives would be able to hear him and come out to buy something.

We got our first TV when I was 6. It was B&W and there was only one channel we could get...Dumont.

Along with S&H Green stamps I also remember Plaid Stamps and some called TV Yellow Stamps that we got a one of the grocery stores.

There wasn't a bakery in the supermarket, we always went to the local baker shop for our bread.

We also got all our fresh meat from the butcher shop.

[Sal Minella]

18. And in the butcher shop there was sawdust on the floor and the meat got wrapped in pink paper and

tied with string that came down from the ceiling. And the butcher would give you soup bones or scraps for your dog if you asked. And the dime store had Roy Rogers cap guns and red rolls of perforated caps that made a wonderful smell if/when they decided to go off.

And the drugstore had Evening in Paris perfume in exotic faceted blue bottles and Necco Wafers for five cents, which would last all the way through a movie if you were careful. Movie was fifteen cents and popcorn was a dime.

And watching "The Hit Parade" on TV wasn't as much fun as listening on the radio. And when I was in high school and people started talking about Elvis, I was certain he was going to be just a flash in the pan, but Ricky Nelson was going to be famous forever.

(he was the son of Ozzie and Harriet, the handsome, younger one)

[DURHAM D]

7. I remember all of those things.

However, I also remember when the girl's sports teams had to practice on Saturday (or before school) because the boy's teams always got the gym or the field during the week. Also, the girls had to buy their own balls, bats, shoes, etc.

I remember when the Boy Scouts got to meet in the local school but the Girl Scouts had to find another (private) facility.

I remember when driver's education was for males only.

I remember when girls were not allowed to have a paper route.

I remember when boys could get a driver's license at 14 but girls had to wait until 16.

I remember when the school district paid mileage to parents who drove boys to events like a ball game - but not if they drove girls to a ball game. They would also pay for the boy's meals but not for the girls.

I remember when if you were in 4H and you were a girl you could not show livestock - you had to bake cookies.

Those were the good ole days. I could go on for days about those days.

[jkshaw]

8. I'm way WAY older n'dirt

We never had a telephone. We went down to the telephone booth outside of the corner candy store when we absolutely had to make a call. Usually in cases of sudden death or extreme illness. Doctors, though, actually came to the house.

I never had a bike, didn't learn to ride until I was 32. (You really can't learn to ride WELL at 32.)

S&H Green stamps I remember at about age 24. Also, Studebakers. We had a used Buick, very boxy, bought after my father was taken back on at the shipyard. This was about 1935, and FDR was our savior.

78s were the first records I remember. We had a windup Victrola, on which we listened to songs from the First World War, sung by a tenor with a very high voice. (Even higher right after it was wound up.) Songs like, "Would you rather be a colonel with an eagle on your shoulder, or a private with a chicken on your knee?" I remember "Pennies from Heaven," but I think that was from the radio.

We had milk delivered by the Supplee wagons in Gloucester New Jersey--rubber tires, but pulled by a horse.

Great fun, this. Thanks Older

[Dervill Crow]

10. Wow, you're not only older than dirt, you're older than I.

My best friend's mom had a Victrola, but we weren't allowed to play with it. Our record player was in the same console as our B&W television with the round picture tube.

Those old 78 records are great.

[azurnoir]

9. 15 here

You can still get those wax coke bottles with colored water (Nickle Nips)

A few more here

Penny candy that really was a penny

Fizzies

Cyclamates(sp)

The NBC peacock before shows that were in color.

editted to add one more

zone numbers rather then zip codes

[Hepburn]

21. OMG!!!!

FIZZIES!!!!!!!!!!! :hi:

[hyphenate]

11. I know I'm older than dirt

and I didn't need the test to tell me! (I got 18 on the list)

A few things to add:

reel to reel tape recorders
laundromats for a quarter for a wash, and ten cents for the dryer
rents for $50 a month
my first job, at $2.10 an hour
a seafoam green Rambler station wagon
when people actually dressed in suits to go to work
how excited we were to get our first "new" television--a black and white, 19" model
"flying saucer" candy--it was the stuff wafers are made from, with multi-colored beads (non-pareils) inside
approximately 6 channels of TV--you could order a gimmicky thing which gave you the UHF channels, but it wasn't always reliable
parents would skin you alive if you were on the phone for more than 15 minutes--or less!
paperback books were about 95¢ and even less if you could get them without their cover
birthday parties meant you had to invite all the kids in the neighborhood, even if you hated them the other 364 days of the year
you could go out and spend hours without have to worry your mom about where you were


I'm sure there are more, but that's the "good" side of them. There were also WAY too many bad things that I gave up trying to remember them years ago. BTW, if it helps, I'm 51.

[yellowdogintexas]

13. every single damn one of them. I am way older than dirt.

I even drove a car with dimmer on the floor and ignition in the dash.

[Thirtieschild]

14. So old we didn't have t.v. because there wasn't any.

So old...
In the first grade when we went to war. (WWII)
Neighbors had a car they started with a crank. A crank on the outside of the car.
Rode in my uncle's model T with a rumble seat.
Our first phone was a party line, one of those oak ones on the wall. Our number was 59F12, which meant the call was for us when we heard one long ring, two short.
When you made a call you turned the crank and the operator said "number please".
My first baby-sitting job (I was 13) paid 25 cents an hour.
In college worked in the journalism library for 35 cents an hour.
Tuititon was $40 a semester, room and board $54 a month.
We never lost the car keys because they were always in the car.
If you wanted your milk homogenized, you shook the bottle to combine the cream and milk.

[ThingsGottaChange]

15. Our first phone number...

EVergreen 5-2260. A party line, of course!

[juajen]

23. My husband's phone # was 2.

He lived in a mining town. His father was the bookkeeper; the mine manager's number was 1. Their wonderful, spacious house came with the job and also came with a maid. His mother taught school. He has some wonderful memories of a small mining town in the old south. They loved that wonderful woman who took care of them all. She was black, of course, and named White. Her first name was Fairest. Didn't her mom have a sense of humor?

[JanusAscending]

16. Well..................

I checked off every "damn" one of them, and you're right, I'm older than dirt too, but what fond memories for me ! I even remember taking fat drippings to the First National store for some loose change, and the rag man coming around every Saturday. Also the ice man, and the fish monger!!! Being older than dirt aint so bad tho', now is it???? Oh,...I almost forgot.........rationing books!! Remember them?

[ninkasi]

19. I remember all of those things...

Not too long ago, my youngest granddaughter, who is 14,was visiting, and somehow, the subject of T.V. came up. When she disccovered that we didn't get television until about 1949 or 1950, she looked horrified. She asked, quite seriously, "What did people DO then?"

I had to explain that we had radios, we visited with neighbors, we talked, we read, any number of things. She left still in shock about a world lived without television. Since I was born and raised in Houston, I didn't have the heart to tell her that we also lived without air conditioning, as well.

[RebelOne]

22. Yep, older than dirt. I remembered 23.