Forum: pol
Page 3320
Subject: OT...A brief bit of levity

  Posted by: sarge33rd - [116461011] Fri, Jul 10, 2009, 12:46
shamelessly copy/pasted from another forum. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

THOUGHT YOU MIGHT ENJOY THIS:



'Someone 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. !

'Mom cooked every day and when the man of the house got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what Mom put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'


By this time, the 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.

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



Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis , set foot on a golf course, 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 & 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. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow).

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 10.

It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a..m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.


I was in Jr. High before I ever had a taco, or knew what one was. And I 17 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.


I never had a telephone in my room.

The only phone in the house was in the hall way 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 --my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6AM every morning.

On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.



Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without 20 profanities or violence or most anything offensive.


If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.


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

MEMORIES from a friend :

My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me 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.

How many do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor of the car.
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. <= /SPAN>

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
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines on the telephone
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels [if you were fortunate])
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S& H greenstamps
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. Drive-ins
24.. Studebakers
25. 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 16-25 = You' re older than dirt!


I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life..


FTR, I scored 24. Studebaker is the only item I don't personally remember on a first hand basis.
 
1Boldwin
      ID: 467910
      Fri, Jul 10, 2009, 13:13 		I remember when marriages almost never ended in divorce and you could actually trust your spouse.

Oh wait, that's reality in my religion today.
 
2Perm Dude
      ID: 154552311
      Fri, Jul 10, 2009, 13:24 		Ditto.
 
3sarge33rd
      ID: 116461011
      Fri, Jul 10, 2009, 13:58 		TY Boldwin for interjecting your own brand of self-righteous BS, into yet another thread in which it was uncalled for.
 
4Boldwin
      ID: 467910
      Fri, Jul 10, 2009, 14:45 		Social anachronisms are only unheard of because the world has gone crazy. Not because too much time has gone by.

 
5sarge33rd
      ID: 116461011
      Fri, Jul 10, 2009, 15:11 		Boldwin...do us all (and yourself) a favor. Look up the word "levity".
 
6Boldwin
      ID: 467910
      Fri, Jul 10, 2009, 15:18 		Just sticking up for the good old days. Reports of mankinds' progress are highly exagerated where they aren't completely mistaken.
 
7Tree
      ID: 41371322
      Fri, Jul 10, 2009, 18:17 		Sarge - i'm going to just say this to counter Baldwin.

the good ol' days you remember also had blacks and whites going to different schools, eating at separate lunch counters, using separate restrooms, and so on and so forth.

the good ol' days you remember - and still long for - encouraged women to have fetuses ripped out of their bodies with coat hangers or in back alleys somewhere.

the good ol' days you remember had homosexuals forced to live in secret shame, or else face a very real possibility of being beaten to a pulp or killed.

and so on and so forth. just go away, and please try to leave one thread to those who really want to not be bothered by your level of insanity, which is reaching some pretty epic peaks.

as for your quiz Sarge, some of is pretty funny, as things like Black Jack gum made a comeback in the late 80s when i was in college, and again a few years ago when "Hipsters" seemed destined to take over the world.

i'd be older than dirt because a lot of things on that list were still fairly regular things in the 70s. i'm pretty sure that as a kid i could flip through the table-side juke box, OR wait at home for my pizza to be delivered.
 
8Perm Dude
      ID: 154552311
      Fri, Jul 10, 2009, 18:20 		Yeah--that whole thing about not having a taco until Jr. High seemed a bit too whitey to me.
 
9Tree
      ID: 41371322
      Fri, Jul 10, 2009, 18:33 		Yeah--that whole thing about not having a taco until Jr. High seemed a bit too whitey to me.

Taco Bell is 47 years old this year, and it was first being franchised within 2 years of the founding. it was founded by an ex-Marine who had a hard time getting restaurants to prepare tacos to go, and he preferred to eat on the run instead of sitting in a restaurant.

so obviously that was all happening prior to 1962.

Pizza hut is even older, as it celebrated it's 50th anniversary last year. Shakey's Pizza is even older.

Pizza was being sold in the streets of places like NYC and Philly and Chicago and SF in the late 1800s, and the first pizza restaurant opened at the turn of the century.

but it really took off as an American staple just after WW2, so really, we're going back more than 60 years, and it's making me think a lot of what is above is a bunch of hooey.

fun, but hooey. :o)
 
10C1-NRB
      ID: 31050820
      Fri, Jul 10, 2009, 18:57 		It has a certain "Paul Harvey-ness" to it.

I got a thirteen on the quiz, mainly because many of the things on the list did persist well into the '70s (S&H Green Stamps, Blue flashbulbs [5 on a bar], mimeograph paper) and/or made an appearance during the early '80s "1950's Retro" phase (Blackjack gum, wax Coke bottle candy), or are still around today (drive-ins).
 
11Boldwin
      ID: 467910
      Fri, Jul 10, 2009, 19:51 		I remember them all except party lines which were around but just not in the cities.
 
12 astade
      Sustainer
      ID: 214361313
      Fri, Jul 10, 2009, 22:38 		Sarge, thanks for the fun forum posting. It made me better appreciate the way our lives unfold (things forgotten in such a short time frame).

Regarding Baldwin, I tend to lurk in the politics forum because of his insane remarks. I don't care about partisanship (it happens to us all), but his nonsensical arguments are so outrageous that I don't want to open that can of worms. It is counter-productive and stagnates proper debate/discussion.

So, I wonder, could we could create a 'donate to RotoGuru' drive where we all donate funds in order to request that Baldwin not post on the forum (all in the name of a good cause)? If there is enough interest, maybe we should start a separate thread. Email me so I can gauge interest and so we don't clutter this thread.

 
13Richard
      Dude
      ID: 204252420
      Fri, Jul 10, 2009, 23:00 		I'm older than dirt (25 of 25).
 
14sarge33rd
      ID: 13647119
      Sat, Jul 11, 2009, 10:50 		I have no knowledge where this post/commentary originated, but it smacks of Andy Rooney to me.
 
15nerveclinic
      ID: 26642813
      Sat, Jul 11, 2009, 11:50

My first thought upon reading it was: "What a boring F'ing life, thank God times have changed."

Sounded like an episode of "Leave it to Beaver". This guys explaining this to some kid, and the kid is thinking jeezuz grampa is a boring old man.

I mean just strap me to a chair and drive pins under my finger nails anything but making me relive that way of life described above.

I don't even want to think of life without my Ipod Touch, Agave Tequila, high speed internet, sushi, Thai food let alone Mexican, Real Beer (like the micro brews,) not the watered down garbage like Budweiser that barely passes as swill, Cars that you don't have to warm up before you drive,...the list goes on.

Take away my list above and you might as well shoot me.

I remember when marriages almost never ended in divorce and you could actually trust your spouse.

Oh wait, that's reality in my religion today.

Yeah sad for the men and women in your religion who are secretly miserable in a terminal marriage with a creep who will make the rest of their life on earth living hell. Another great reason not to drink the kool aid.

Tree you left WWII off your list where over 50 million people+ were slaughtered in those wonderful, simpler times.

Hey kids, back in the old days we went off to war and slaughtered tens of millions of people! Then we came home and sat at the table until we finsihed eating everything on the plate.

All the above said with complete levity after my first glass of El Charro 100% Agave tequila. (Unlike Toral I can be amusing when I am drinking) Now let's go get some Sushi!!!





 
16nerveclinic
      ID: 26642813
      Sat, Jul 11, 2009, 12:03
By the way I got 19 of 25 on the poll, which I read using my Mac book while listening to techno music on my Ipod touch and drinking my agave tequila.

Items on the list I miss?

5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes (Of course these still exist but you do have to listen to the great unwashed's taste in music every time they drop 4 quarters into the slot)

6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers (I get all my groceries delivered for free but the milk is in plastic, small price to pay. I will take all groceries delivered over milk bottles.)

14. 45 RPM records 12” are better and I have 25 crates of them in a storage bin in San Francisco (I left my heart in, San Francisco…remember that song?)

The rest of the list? Good riddence.

Fun Stuff though Sarge.




 
17nerveclinic
      ID: 26642813
      Sat, Jul 11, 2009, 12:05

Dayum I gotta answer the door...grocery delivery is here.

 
18Texas Flood
      ID: 205282316
      Sun, Jul 12, 2009, 18:25 		Older than dirt and thanks for the memories Sarge!

 
19Boldwin
      ID: 467910
      Sun, Jul 12, 2009, 22:56 		Felix the Cat
 
20Seattle Zen
      ID: 366482517
      Sat, Jul 25, 2009, 20:26 		Maybe I don't feel as "American" as the average guy because I don't feel the same nostalgia for these material goods. It seems to me that so many people define their lives by what they bought or wanted.
 
21Boldwin
      ID: 376192015
      Sun, Jul 26, 2009, 16:59 		A) You smoked it.

B) You would be nostalgic for it if you could remember.
 
22Perm Dude
      ID: 154552311
      Sun, Jul 26, 2009, 17:27 		Ah, yes, couldn't have Zen promote a Christian virtue, right? So a personal attack was in order, it seems.