NT - I am older than dirt

[Virtual Managed Solutions]

>>yapping about the 'good old days'<<

Now that I am older I know the good old days were not a year or era, rather they were when we were innocent.

Wow, that's a great look at it Jack. I've never heard it described this way before, but that really hit home. I love it!

[mcb39]

Brought back lots of memories. I'm older than dirt, for sure! I used to love it when the ice man brought the ice for the 'ice box' as he would always chip off bits of ice for us kids. That was a real treat. Pickles were something that your mother made, and jams and jelly, as well.

Pickles, jams and tomato juice are things that I still make.......not frozen, canned.

[Gail in Virginia]

My family won't touch store-bought pickles, and I won't eat store bought jam or jelly. I still can tomatoes and green beans, too, when I have enough. Good thing this stuff doesn't get ripe and ready to can in January, February, March or April!

[Maribeth]

>>yapping about the 'good old days'<<

Now that I am older I know the good old days were not a year or era, rather they were when we were innocent.

Old Jack, you touched my heart today. So true, so sad.

[Monkeyman]

I am only 31, but I think I can add some insight to this discussion (albeit from a young feller).

When I was younger, toys were much different. Tonka trucks were made out of this strange material called "metal".

I used to sit in the back of my Tonka dump truck and ride it all the way down the hill. It never broke.

Lunchboxes were also made out of metal and they all came with a thermos.

In Cracker Jack boxes, you got cool toys like rings, balls, little rubber aliens, and miniature joke books.

Now you get a paper car that you fold and blow across the table.

We used to ride in the back of my Dad's pickup to the lake. Glass bottles of Coke were 3/$1.

Candy cigarettes were called just that, if you can even find them now they are called "Candy Stix".

Our TV (yes, I have never known a world without TVs) was a wooden behemoth that sat on the floor.

We used to rent movies in the form of a large plastic cartridge that looked like a huge flat cassette the size of a record album.

We had to rent the machine as well. When we could afford a VCR it loaded from the top, and the remote had a wire.

Those are just a few of my reflections as I watch my little girls and the world they are growing up in.

It's not necessarily better or worse, just worlds apart from mine.

Kerry

[Gail in Virginia]

I am a bit older than Kerry (49), but I remember a conversation that I had with my son about 10 years ago when he was about 7. I was telling him that I did not have a computer in my house when I was his age, that in fact no one had computers in their homes and most businesses did not have computers when I was seven. His eyes got bigger and bigger and he finally asked me, "Did you have electricity?"

[mcb39]

There is a lot of area in Northern WI and MI that does not have electricity nor do cell phones work. A few months ago, my husband and I were way back in the northwoods making firewood when the truck broke. We walked five miles before we even saw a vehicle, which gave us a ride back to "town". From the point we were picked up, it was at least another 7 or 8 miles before there was electricity or cell phone service.

Do any of you remember the old RCA Victrolas with the large, thick records. You had to turn a crank to make it play and as the crank wore down, the record slowed up. Boy, that was one of the high points of going to Grandma's house. We took turns turning the crank and sang along with those songs. I particularly remember the one about "that dirty little coward" who shot Jesse James in the back. Oh, couldn't we just go on and on. Between us all, we could write a book.

[wendybooth]

I am only 42 but still remembered 17. When I was growing up my grandma did not have indoor bathroom. We had to use a chamber pot and take it out in the mornings to the wooden outhouse. My grandmother when she was alive NEVER had a shower or bath in an indoor bath tub.

I still remember Charles Chips being delivered to my house that was the best day of the week.

I remember walking home from school and buying bottle coke from the 5 & dime in Matthews, NC from not eating lunch at school and saving our money for on the way home. We got in trouble all the time for walking down the railroad tracks instead of taking the long way home. Oh the memories are great!!! When we were innocent!

[Daune/CA]

I am only 42 but still remembered 17. When I was growing up my grandma did not have indoor bathroom. We had to use a chamber pot and take it out in the mornings to the wooden outhouse. My grandmother when she was alive NEVER had a shower or bath in an indoor bath tub.

Yes, I remember it well. My parents did not have an inside bathroom until several years after I was married and had moved away. We rented rooms to a couple of teachers during the school year, and it was my job to empty those "chamber pots". There were no such things as "a shower", you positioned yourself in front of the kitchen sink and washed yourself all over the body. Besides it was cold, because the coal stove had not been going long enough to heat the room yet. Yes, "those were the days", but I don't think I care to return to them anytime soon.

Our telephone did not have a "dial", it was a crank on the side of the large phone hung on the wall (our phone ring was 3 long rings). We used those crank systems later to send a charge to people touching anything metal, or foolish enough to hold onto some wires while we cranked the crank. The radio was an "old Philco" that had to be grounded. Ours was grounded on the same metal stake that grounded our phone. (Even with it grounded, fire would shoot out of the phone during a thunder and lightning storm.) If the radio was on at the time the phone rang, you could hear the conversation of others on the party line over the radio. We got some "very interesting gossip on the raidio". Those were the days in Ohio. Yes, I am older than dirt!

Now in California, and with the weather they have been having in Ohio recently, I am glad to be in California, even if the legislature won't pass a budget.

Daune/CA