----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]----Hi Rob,
Thanks for sharing the memories....I remember everything on the list and then some.
By the time the '57 Chevy was being sold I was on my second overseas tour with the USAF.
I was raised in a house with a 'pitcher-pump' outside the back door and a 'path' of wooden planks to the 'outhouse. The bathtub was a big round galvanized "wash tub" that mom did the laundry in. On Saturday night it was in the middle of the kitchen floor and the bath water was heated on the woodburning stove that was used for cooking as well as heat. The walls in one room were bare wood and the other room had real wallpaper (made of paper) that mom put up with paste made of flour and water and applied with a brush.
Dad had a Ford model "T" flatbed truck that he used to go out in the country and cut trees, cut it into stove length (12"), split it, haul it into town, deliver it, and stack it for whoever bought that truck load.....All for 50 cents a load. (Prabobly about 2 or 2 1/2 cords of wood per load. He gave me a penny from every load that I helped him load, unload and stack. Later after I'd started school and couldn't go out and help him, my allowance was 10 cents a week....IF I did all my chores around home to help mom and helped dad only on the weekends. This went for candy, clothes and school supplies.
Remember when all bicycles were 'one speed' and some of them had a 'coaster brake' rear axle. And those metal skates that clamped onto your shoes could be disassembled and fastened to the botton of a board with an apple box nailed on the top of the board and it was called a 'scooter'.
Remember when "CrackerJacks" were only 5 cents and there was a 'real' toy in the box? And 'Sugar-Daddy' suckers, Baby Ruth, Oh Henry, and Uno Bars were only a nickel as were Coke, Pepsi, RC, Nickel Cola and Double Cola. Later there was 'Grapette and Orangette' and all the different flavors from 'Nehi'. We used to make homemade RootBeer and bottle it with an old fashioned 'bottle capper'. And we used to go along the roads and railroad tracks picking up beer bottles and pop bottles and sell them back to the grocery store for a penney each. I bought my mom a 'Match-Box' Radio for her birthday one year with my 'bottle-money'.
Then there was 'Vin Fiz', 'The Sparkling Grape Drink' that was made popular by the first plane that crossed the United States in less than 30 days. (This great feet was done before my time, 1911, but I remember the drink.)
Most people now days think 'recycling' is new...Anyone out there remember during WWII how 'everyone' was helping the war effort by recycling and when meat, dairy products, coffee, chocolate, nylon stockings and gasoline were rationed and we used tokens and stamps to get these items. And when yu bought milk it was really 'milk'. Now you have to forge through about a dozen different 'types' of milk to find what you want and it's still not really 'milk'. Good old fashioned 'Raw' milk is about as common now days as an Auborn or a Terraplane. Anyone know what they were?
I could continue down 'memory lane' all day, but I've got more e-mail to answer. Thanks for jogging the ol' memory Rob, it's been nice. I'm forwarding this to 'coupers' also, I hope nobody is offended by us 'ol codgers' reminiscing a little. After all, the first Ercoupe hadn't been invented yet when most of this was popular, and 'most' of the people flying Ercoupes today are younger than the plane is.
Think about that......is anyone driving a car that's older than the driver is?
Bob Saville
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Do you remember any of this stuff? I remember most of it. Wonder if that
makes me "older than dirt?" Some of you may be too young even for the more
current stuff..... yes, i'm old :-( Enjoy. Rob
> Take a stroll with me and go back, before the Internet...
> before semi-automatics and crack' before SEGA or Super
> Nintendo. Way back! I'm talking about sitting on the curb,
> sitting on the stoop, about hide and go seek, Simon Says,
> Red light - Green light. Lunch Boxes with a thermos.
> Chocolate milk, going home for lunch, penny candy from the
> store, hopscotch, butterscotch, skates with keys, Jacks,
> Hula Hoops and sunflower seeds, wax lips and mustaches,
> Mary Janes, saddle shoes and Coke bottles with the names
> of cities on the bottom. Running through the sprinkler,
> circle pins, bobby pins, Mickey Mouse Club, Rocky &
> Bullwinkle, Kookla, Fran & Ollie, Spin & Marty, all in
> black & white.
>
> When around the corner seemed far away, and going
> downtown seemed like going somewhere. Climbing trees,
> making forts, backyard shows, lemonade stands, Cops and
> Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, staring at clouds, jumping
> on the bed, pillow fights, ribbon candy, angel hair on the
> Christmas tree, Jackie Gleason, white gloves, walking to
> the movie theater, running till you were out of breath,
> laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Remember that?
>
> Not stepping on a crack or you'll break our mother's back,
> paper chains at Christmas, silhouettes of Lincoln and
> Washington the smell of paste in school and evening in
> Paris. What about the girl who dotted her i's" with
> hearts? The Stroll, popcorn balls, & sock hops.
>
> Remember when: There were two types of sneakers for girls
> and boys (Keds & PF Flyer) and the only time you wore them
> at school was for "gym." And the girls had those ugly gym
> uniforms. When it took five minutes for the TV to warm up.
> When nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got
> home from school. When nobody owned a purebred dog. When
> a quarter was a decent allowance, when you'd reach into a
> muddy gutter for a penny.
>
> When your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces. When
> all of your male teachers wore neckties and female
> teachers had their hair done, everyday and wore high
> heels. When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked,
> and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time.
> And, you didn't pay for air. And, you got trading stamps
> to boot!
>
> When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels
> hidden inside the box. When it was considered a great
> privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant
> with your parents. When they threatened to keep kids back
> a grade if they failed -- and did! When the worst thing
> you could do at school was smoke in the bathrooms, flunk
> a test or chew gum. And the prom was in the auditorium
> and you danced to an orchestra. When a '57 Chevy was
> everyone's dream car. . . To cruise, peel out, lay
> rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady
> and girls wore a class ring with an inch of wrapped
> bandaids, dental floss or yarn coated with pastel frost
> nail polish so it would fit her finger. And no one ever
> asked where the car keys were because they were always
> in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never
> locked.
>
> Remember lying on your back on the grass with your friends
> and saying things like "That cloud looks like a -- " And
> playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the
> rules of the game. Remember when stuff from the store
> came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one
> had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger. And with all
> our progress... don't you just wish, just once, you could
> slip back in time and savor the slower pace... and share
> it with the children of today... When being sent to the
> principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that
> awaited the student at home. Basically, we were in fear
> for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive by
> shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and
> grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we survived
> because their love was greater than the threat.
>
> So send this on to someone who can still remember Nancy
> Drew, The Hardy Boys, Laurel & Hardy, Howdy Doody and
> The Peanut Gallery, The Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows,
> Nellie Belle, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk as well
> as the sound of a reel mower on Saturday morning, and
> summers filled with bike rides, baseball games, bowling
> and visits to the pool.. and eating Kool-Aid powder with
> sugar.
>
> Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, "Yeah, I
> remember that....".
>
> If you don't remember, you missed some good memories...
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