Do you remember?

[Woussko]

Do any of you remember buying little glass bottles of CocaCola for only 5 cents? How about pay phones where you dropped in a dime only after the party you called did in fact answer? If you put it in too soon, there was NO way to get your dime back. How about fresh hot doughnuts for not more than 10 cents each? A gallon of Regular grade name brand gasoline for 26.9 cents? Being able to see a good full size automobile with a sticker price of only $3000? How about the first color TV sets? AM-FM mono radios before stereo broadcasting came along? The milkman bring glass quart bottles of milk to your door and taking away the empties? Returning soda and milk bottles to the market and getting paid for them rather than being yelled at for doing such today? How about being able to mail a letter and postage was 5 cents or even less?

I remember all of the above but some was when I was pretty young and thus I have to stretch the old thinker but I do remember them. As for CocaCola being only 5 cents that was when I was too little to buy it, but I sure do remember it for 10 cents very well. The old red rounded top vending machines and they had a bottle opener on them and a hand crank. You put in 2 nickles or one dime and cranked it until you heard the bottle drop.

What do you have fond memories of as a child other than family things?

[garager]

I remember party lines, it was fun listening to other peoples conversation when I was a kid.
I remember waxed coca cola bottles, drink the drink then chew on the bottle.
I remember when gas was .36 Cents (1978), just started driving. 1980 or so it shot up big time...
I remember Ice Boxes instead of an electrical refrigerator. I was in Germany
I still have comic books that I paid .03 cents and .05 cents, Sad Sac, Spider Man, Archie's, and many others.
I still have an 8 track stereo that works, w/about a 100 tapes.
Wheres Pipestonekid?, I'm sure he's seen a huge change in life.

[westcoastplumber]

Do any of you remember buying little glass bottles of CocaCola for only 5 cents? How about pay phones where you dropped in a dime only after the party you called did in fact answer? If you put it in too soon, there was NO way to get your dime back. How about fresh hot doughnuts for not more than 10 cents each? A gallon of Regular grade name brand gasoline for 26.9 cents? Being able to see a good full size automobile with a sticker price of only $3000? How about the first color TV sets? AM-FM mono radios before stereo broadcasting came along? The milkman bring glass quart bottles of milk to your door and taking away the empties? Returning soda and milk bottles to the market and getting paid for them rather than being yelled at for doing such today? How about being able to mail a letter and postage was 5 cents or even less?

I remember all of the above but some was when I was pretty young and thus I have to stretch the old thinker but I do remember them. As for CocaCola being only 5 cents that was when I was too little to buy it, but I sure do remember it for 10 cents very well. The old red rounded top vending machines and they had a bottle opener on them and a hand crank. You put in 2 nickles or one dime and cranked it until you heard the bottle drop.

What do you have fond memories of as a child other than family things?

I don't remember any of those since i' m, from europe..but i do remember me and my friends going to coca cola factory with empty gallon of bottle and they would refill it for free..we would go twice a week..what a good employees...It wasd so nice being a kid

[Drain Medic]

Those things are before my time...But i do remember when you could buy a pack of baseball cards for .50. I remember the summers being alot longer, and the days alot hotter....I remember when lunch boxes were all metal and had superman or spiderman and they looked 3d cause the metal was popped out...stupid stuff like that ...

Greg

[BadgerDave]

I remember when a pack of baseball cards(including gum) was 5¢. I remember when you could walk down any street at night and feel perfectly safe. Candy bars were 5¢ and so was a roll of Lifesavers. Drug stores had soda fountains where malts were made from scratch and a Coke was made with syrup and carbonated water. Wanted a cherry Coke or vanilla Coke, no problem, just add a little cherry or vanilla syrup.

I also remember when God wasn't controversial and the Pledge of Allegiance meant something. Children used to respect their elders and parents would smack them in the backside if they dared call a grown-up by their first name.

All that's gone now but some still insist that these are the best of times. I wonder?

[BHD]

yes on many of the items, if I don't it was because they were not in our area, such as the "milk man" we lived in the country, and there were few deliveries, except for the MAIL, and to have the mail car come and in the summer we kids would run down to the mail box, (about 1/4 mile) to retrieve it. I vaguely remember a pop machine (coke) that was more like a chest type, you lift the lid and the pop was in a cooled water bath, it was in the Coop oil building, you put your money in the coin box and it was on the honor system. and open the lid and take out your selection of pop.
there was one store that payed a nickel for the bottles and the other did not as kids we would buy at the store that did not charge and take to return the bottles at the one that payed the nickel, :) for the refund.

I remember one of the school teachers bringing one of the first AM transistors radios into the class room, a radio that one could put in your pocket,and carry and listen to it at the same time, and not plug in or need a battery that size of car battery to run, it was amazing,
and another one of the school teachers had a color TV, and for a class outing she took us to her place so We could see the "Color TV", for a number of years the only one in the area,

I remember my dad bringing home a "power saw" (handheld type) and a 1/4" single speed electric drill, not that they were new invention, but new to us and many as at that time electricity was relative a new thing, to the farm,
and the day he brought home a air compressor, a little 1/2 horse unit took a week to pump up it seemed like, but what a blessing over a spark plug pump,

my dads first tractor he had hydraulics on was amazing as well, you touch a lever the machine lifts out of the ground, when ever you want it to or to adjust it depth, you did not have to stop the tractor and crawl out on the machinery and pull levers and lift it out by hand, (yes some had wheel lifts that you would pull a rope and it would engage the wheel and the motion would activate a system that would lift it out, and pull it again and it would drop, but you had to be moving, and when you were stuck it was a mess),

Balers over binders, when putting up feed, (hay), on a binder it was a two person job jsut to cut the feed, one on the tractor and one on the binder, and it would cut the feed and drop it on to a moving canvas, and then bunch it and tie it in to bundles, and then kick it out on a basket type platform, then when you got enough bundles for a shock, you would dump the basket, and to run the binder there were foot pedals to control the basket and levers that need adjusting for the amounts of the hay and the heights you wanted to cut, then you would go back out in the field and take the bundles and build shocks of feed you would take the bundles and build like what looked like a tee pee of feed bundles, then you would go out with (horses or a tractor pulling a hay wagon and pitch fork the feed on to the wagon to feed it). (I remember going out with my dad and trying to shock the feed some times the bundles were as big as I was),
but the baler and the swather you went out and cut the feed let it dry and then bail it, and they also had machines to pick up the bales and stack them, but even with it was still easier to handle bales than shocks of feed,

[Drain Medic]

I remember when a pack of baseball cards(including gum) was 5¢. I remember when you could walk down any street at night and feel perfectly safe. Candy bars were 5¢ and so was a roll of Lifesavers. Drug stores had soda fountains where malts were made from scratch and a Coke was made with syrup and carbonated water. Wanted a cherry Coke or vanilla Coke, no problem, just add a little cherry or vanilla syrup.

I also remember when God wasn't controversial and the Pledge of Allegiance meant something. Children used to respect their elders and parents would smack them in the backside if they dared call a grown-up by their first name.

All that's gone now but some still insist that these are the best of times. I wonder?


AMEN!!!! now you smack your kids for them doing wrong or discipiline...and you go to jail

[PLUMBER RICK]

i remember when thrifty's/ now rite aide had icecream for 5 cents a single, 10 cents a double and 15 cents a triple.

i would drop 15 cents and get 3 singles.

now it's 99, 1.49 and 1.99:eek:

usually just a single now;)

rick.

[Josh]

I remember when music and tv used to make an attempt to inspire people to work hard and take pride in anything they did. Now music (rap) teaches the new generation to be as selfish and irresponsible in every way that you can think possible.

I remember when kids stayed in shape because they were outside playing instead of inside eating and playing video games and watching tv.

I remember when I used to have to look things up in books instead of opening google and finding it in 4 seconds.

[Pipestone Kid]

Here I am, Garager. Yes, I remember all of those things, and more. I used to pay 18 cents a gallon for gas and got free dishes with it! Now those same dishes bring a fortune at auctions. Go figure. I remeber ice cream on a stick(called Cheerios in the Twin Cities) that had at least one stick that had FREE witten on it. If you were the lucky kid that got it you just took it to the store and they gave you another for free. Of course, most of us thought we were extremely lucky if we had the nickel for the first one. I also remember applying for my first drivers liscense-- went to the local bank, got an application, filled it ou and mailed it in with 35 cents. The DOT stamped it and sent it back and you were liscensed. Must have worked, cause the only accident I was close to being involved with was when a guy ran into my parked truck. Did any of you roll a barrel hoop down the street with a stick? Now don't ask me what a barrel hoop is........

[res057]

I remember a small town police chief named George. He knew everybody by their first name. He kept a close eye on us boys. He let the small stuff go and pulled in the reins just often enough that we are still alive to tell our stories. The most honest man that ever wore a badge. Had the honor to have him as a co-worker after his retirement.
I remember that we had a willow tree out back and part of your punishment was cutting your own switch. Got lots of spankings and deserved EVERY one I got. As much as I hated that tree, it helped teach me right from wrong. You didn't get rewards for being good (that was what you were supposed to be doing in the first place), you were just able to keep your privelages.
I remember having two TV channels (three on a clear day) and a tv that had to be fine tuned to the channel.
I remember saying "Yes, Sir" when the teacher told me to shut up and sit down. I remember when if you weren't good enough you didn't make the team and there were no lawsuits filed to change it.
I remember that the old rotary phone was mounted on the wall in the kitchen and its cord was no more than 3 feet long. Made for much shorter calls. And yes, it was a party line.
I remember nothing being open past 8 p.m. and very, very few stores being open at all on Sunday. Radio stations that went off the air at 10 and tv stations off the air at 1 a.m.
Dinner was ready when Mom said it was ready. If you were late, you got to make your own.
The "good old days" weren't ALL good, but at least the world let you do your own thing. Didn't have government agencies deciding what was best for you. Good people flourished and were successful, bad people were dealt with according to their deeds.
My parents did good. Any faults I have are of my own making.

[DuckButter]

I remember when respect was replaced with expect.
I remember when kids were expected to clean their rooms BEFORE they could go out and play, now they expect playstation and Spongebob before they do their homework.
I remember when the "breadwinner" was respected, now he/she is expected to provide ALL the conveniences modern technology has to offer without expectations, as long as there no "verbal abuse" there might not be any legal ramifications.
I remember when you were respected for achievements on the job, now you're expected to take a back seat to affirmative action. (No, there's nothing wrong with giving someone a fair shake who would be otherwise discriminated, but where's the line? Shouldn't my local police officer be the most qualified at his job?)
I remember when we had to respect life's experiences and learn to grow from them, now we expect the doc's to prescribe instant solutions like prozac because we're "depressed".
I see foreigners enter this country with a drive that we no longer possess, because they still know the difference between expecting and respecting.

[mrs. westcoast]

I remember when respect was replaced with expect.
I remember when kids were expected to clean their rooms BEFORE they could go out and play, now they expect playstation and Spongebob before they do their homework.
I remember when the "breadwinner" was respected, now he/she is expected to provide ALL the conveniences modern technology has to offer without expectations, as long as there no "verbal abuse" there might not be any legal ramifications.
I remember when you were respected for achievements on the job, now you're expected to take a back seat to affirmative action. (No, there's nothing wrong with giving someone a fair shake who would be otherwise discriminated, but where's the line? Shouldn't my local police officer be the most qualified at his job?)
I remember when we had to respect life's experiences and learn to grow from them, now we expect the doc's to prescribe instant solutions like prozac because we're "depressed".
I see foreigners enter this country with a drive that we no longer possess, because they still know the difference between expecting and respecting.


I'm a foreigner and i respect more then i expect. If i expect it has to do with my myself...like expecting myself to work harder to get what i want and i will..drive,integrity,passion,honesty and persistance is what i expect from my work as a future realtor and posibly future mortgage broker:)

I don't expect for everthing to be given to me nor i want it..doesn't drive me..makes me lazy and pathetic:)

I need to be challenged with my knowledge and work and always have to climbe the ladder..cannot stay on one position...:)

[gear junkie]

Woussko, this is one of the best threads I've ever read. Beautiful responses from all the guys. There's nothing I can add that hasn't been said already.

[BHD]

What does it mean if you still have rotary phones, yes one in the kitchen,
and only got off the party line systems a few years ago,
still only get a few TV stations, via antenna,
and the county Sheriff still calls you by your first name.

[Woussko]

G J
There's got to be something special that you remember. Please think really hard. :)

Zeljka
Please tell us about things you remember back home in your childhood days. I'm sure everyone would love to read it.

[Woussko]

This is something I sure do remember and wish they would have today. FULL SERVICE at the local gasoline stations and where they actually did have a full time mechanic that we got to know by name who cared about his work. Today I see far too many high $$$ YUP-PEE cars under a year old blasting blue smoke out the exhaust. Can anyone guess why that is? How about looking a little in parking lots and seeing tires that NO way have more than 10 PSI air pressure in them? There's far more than just fueling up and driving.

I can remember the old black cast iron rotary dial table top phone made by Western Electric that just would never die no matter what and that had a real bell ringing sound that you could hear in a noisy area. The phone company paid good money for them and when they switched to Touch Tone service we had to upgrade. They would sell them for $100 each and at that time NO one in his/her right mind was about to pay that much for one. Today on flea bay I bet one in nice shape would being over $1000.!!!

[plumberscrack]

What does it mean if you still have rotary phones, yes one in the kitchen,
and only got off the party line systems a few years ago,
still only get a few TV stations, via antenna,
and the county Sheriff still calls you by your first name.


In my town if the sheriff knows you by name that's a bad thing :D

[garager]

Went to Grand Rapids MN., for a soccer game. Stopped at a gas station in a town called Floodwood. They had full service and the gas was cheaper than where I live. He checked the oil, windshield fluid, washed the windows and pumped the gas, went to tip him and he absolutely refused my generosity. He also was the cashier, there was a couple inside waiting for him and they didn't look mad or anything for having to wait....

[mrs. westcoast]

:)G J
There's got to be something special that you remember. Please think really hard. :)

Zeljka
Please tell us about things you remember back home in your childhood days. I'm sure everyone would love to read it.


Childhood?? Going to the shelter couple times a day cause there was a war..kinda being excited cause i was able to hang out with my friends for 5-6 hrs a day..or beign afraid if the serbians are going to come and kill us all:(Hearing the sirens and people panic everywhere:(

My parents having divorce and was able to control both of them...missing school saying to my dad i was sick and not to tell my mom or telling my mom i'm going to school and go shopping and later to my dad's house:)

Double presents..:D:D:D

Cleaning the house and my dad giving me the reward money to get ice-cream:D:D

Making homemade pizza or helping my mom in the kitchen:)

My mom always cooking for me whatever i want,now i'm the one that cooks:)

Having a hamster that excaped and got behing the sofa and someone moved the sofa and squashed him...my mom told me he died cause he ate too much:)

Fresh bread-bakery in my buidling,just had to go down the elavator

Seaside for 2 months straigs..clean sea,salt water,seing fishes swimming around you

Dinners along the shore,ocean breeze,clean fresh air

2 months vacation a year that we croatians get

People respecting each other

Lot of knowledge in the schools

Milk in the karton thingy

Yellow eggs not white like here

Small cars

Not paying for the HOA-S-we take care of our surrounding by ourselves

Morning coffe-don't drink or juice in the city with bunch of gossip

Going to Italy -2 hrs away from my moms house to go for cheaper clothing

[jbergstrom]

I remember being around 17 or 18 and being able to go out on a friday night with $10.00 in my pocket and waking up with change...:eek:

Draft beer was .45¢ a glass and cigarettes were .50¢ a pack :D:cool:

[gear junkie]

I remember going to school in Hawai'i with my bodyboard and heading straight to Pipes right after school ended on the #52 bus for 75 cents. Our house had no climate control and we never needed it. On weekends, my friends and I would surf all day and fish at night and sleep on the beach listening to the waves. We would laugh at the haoles as they would ask us if we understand english and accepted American money. I would freedive at 3 tables and sit on the bottom for what would seem like an eternity watching the fish curiously swim towards me. The national cigarette of Hawai'i helped out.

I remember going to South Point on the Big Island during the summer and camping out for a month at a time eating what we catch. I remember bringing fish to families because the husband lost his job at the the Dole plantation. We were never rich but we always had food because other families would do the same for us when times got tough. Families would always stick together. We would sit at parties and listen to the old papa san tell us stories of the days before the hotels and overdevelopment of the land.

We always respected our elders and there were many a time when one of my Samoan friends' dad would come to school because their kid was acting up. They wouldn't get a talking to either, it usually involved a belt coming off and being used as a medivial weapon. I remember when they would burn the sugarcane fields and the ash would settle on our house looking like black snow. The rainbows were seen everyday and taken for granted until you remember them as in only memories.

The chicken katsu, loco mocos and spam musibi at Zippy's were the best. There was a Samoan church in Kahuku I would go to on Saturdays for their fundraisers. $5 bought you a meal big enough for two serving(Samoan size portions). We were always having a luau somewhere and everyone always showed up. No one was ever denied.

I can still smell the ocean and I remember how the breeze felt. Most of all, I remember waking up everyday and thinking how lucky I am to be growing up in Hawai'i. Sniff sniff, thanks Woussko, you got me all homesick now.

[mrs. westcoast]

:DI remember going to school in Hawai'i with my bodyboard and heading straight to Pipes right after school ended on the #52 bus for 75 cents. Our house had no climate control and we never needed it. On weekends, my friends and I would surf all day and fish at night and sleep on the beach listening to the waves. We would laugh at the haoles as they would ask us if we understand english and accepted American money. I would freedive at 3 tables and sit on the bottom for what would seem like an eternity watching the fish curiously swim towards me. The national cigarette of Hawai'i helped out.

I remember going to South Point on the Big Island during the summer and camping out for a month at a time eating what we catch. I remember bringing fish to families because the husband lost his job at the the Dole plantation. We were never rich but we always had food because other families would do the same for us when times got tough. Families would always stick together. We would sit at parties and listen to the old papa san tell us stories of the days before the hotels and overdevelopment of the land.

We always respected our elders and there were many a time when one of my Samoan friends' dad would come to school because their kid was acting up. They wouldn't get a talking to either, it usually involved a belt coming off and being used as a medivial weapon. I remember when they would burn the sugarcane fields and the ash would settle on our house looking like black snow. The rainbows were seen everyday and taken for granted until you remember them as in only memories.

The chicken katsu, loco mocos and spam musibi at Zippy's were the best. There was a Samoan church in Kahuku I would go to on Saturdays for their fundraisers. $5 bought you a meal big enough for two serving(Samoan size portions). We were always having a luau somewhere and everyone always showed up. No one was ever denied.

I can still smell the ocean and I remember how the breeze felt. Most of all, I remember waking up everyday and thinking how lucky I am to be growing up in Hawai'i. Sniff sniff, thanks Woussko, you got me all homesick now.

Those are such a nice memories Ben...

I thought you were born in germany:confused:

My mom is crazy about hawaii......

I'm trying to convince robert to go next year..You will definatly tell us where to go:D

[CWSmith]

I don't have a memory of Hawaii (wish I did though), but I remember most of the other stuff quite well.

When I was a little kid, I remember home delivery was no big deal. The Dry Cleaner would stop at the house, if you put the card in the window. Milk got delivered twice a week, and the "egg man" used to stop by once or twice a week. Even the Doctor would come to the house with his little black bag. But there was no such thing as "food delivery", unless of course your Mom was sick. Then she could call her order in to the local grocery store and they'd deliver it to the house... without delivery charges!

We never knew any mothers that "worked". As I recall, the only women that worked were single. Ah, liberation!

My Dad was an automechanic in a gas station and with that, he could afford to buy a house and a newer car every three years, take us on a vacation every now and then, and still afford to save a bit here and there. And yes, they had one of those red Coke machines that rolled out a glass bottle for a nickle deposit.

I remember the big radio with the tiny little amber light in the dial. Listening to Paul and Mary Ford (music), Pam and Jerry North (suspense), The Green Hornet, The Intersanctum, Jack Benny, The Lone Ranger, etc. I remember that I was only seven or eight when I joined the Boys Club and it was safe to walk a dozen blocks to get there. That was the year we bought our first television; and as I recall my Saturday mornings were filled with Space Patrol, Rin Tin Tin, and Sky King.

My first real job after high school was as a bus boy in Fowler's dept. store in downtown Binghamton. It was 1963 and I was paid $1.25/hr and my shift was only 28.5 hours a week. I got that job in August and by Christmas I had saved enough money to buy my mother a Smith-Corona typewriter and my dad a Rockwell sabre saw, and that was on top of the $17 a week I gave my folks for "room and board". The best shirt in the store cost me about three hours of work and a pair of thier best leather gloves was about four hours.

I left the bus boy job at the end of that year and took a job in a factory making $1.35/hr as an electro/mechanical quality inspector. In October, I moved up to job in an office building. I was making $1.85/hr and by May, 1965 I bought my first brand new car. It was VW 1200 Beatle which cost me $1856, complete with the AM radio, white wall tires and optional "gas heater". As I recall the minimum wage was still $1.25.

I do remember that beer was 20 cents a glass and steamed clams were 35 cents a dozen and the new McDonalds sold burgers for 15 cents and fries for 20. A milkshake was 35 cents and it all fit my meal budget quite well.

Likewise, the movies were 85 cents and a box of popcorn was a quarter and there was always a "double-feature". Gas was 28 cents a gallon and they came out to pump it, clean your windshield, and if you filled up, they'd give you a free steak knife or a glass.

If you wanted pizza (what we all called, "hot pie") you'd have to go to one of only a handful of restaurants that sold it. If you wanted to take it home, you called in your order and then picked it up at the "back door" to the kitchen!

Having to go for a hospital stay, was a budget killer though. In the mid-to-late 60's that was about $35 a day! We used to gripe that you could stay at the best hotel in town for half the price. I remember when my son was born in 1969, the bill came to almost $400. My work medical paid the whole thing though...except for the phone and televion in the room. That cost us $12, as I recall.

Up until the late 60's we had what were referred to as "Blue Laws". That meant that certain types of business could not be conducted on Sunday. So, it was rare that anyone worked on Sunday, as retail stores were closed, as well as most restuarants and gas stations. Therefore, Sunday's were always spent with family and even in my late teens and early 20's, Sunday dinner was a well respected event. Funny how we managed to survive that.

Funny too was the fact that, even during the week most businesses closed at 5:30 or 6:00 pm. The only shopping night in Binghamton was on Thusday, when the stores would be open until 9:00... even during the Christmas shopping season.

But by the late 60's all that seemed to change. Retailers screamed for repeal of the "blue laws" and it happened. By 1968 the "Mall" became part of our vocabulary and they were open every night until late and were always open on Sunday. The downtown stores just started fading away. Inflation became a key word in the news (remember Nixon's wage/price freeze?) and the cost of everything seemed to almost double overnight.

During the 70's, the American dream started turning into a nightmare, IMO. People worried about gas shortages, factory closings, taxes, high food prices. Movie theaters dropped the "double-feature" and many dropped thier concession stands.

As prices went up, quality (and the sense of quality) went down. More "fast food" places, more malls, and discount department stores. But the full-service gas station became a thing of the past.

I remember that while VW's were fairly popular in the 60's, nobody owned anything from Asia. I do remember one of the supervisors at work bought a Datsen for his wife. That was in 1968. It was really small, and rather gauddy in style with little "winglets" stuck on the rear quarter roof pillars.

By the mid-70's, most American cars turned into pure junk. My new 76 Mercury had over 30 defects on it that took the dealer over a week to fix. Purchased in May, it had rust through by August, and paint literally falling off it by fall. It was almost embarrassing, to admit that I actually paid money for that. By 1984 the car was so corroded it couldn't be driven.

Fortunately we've come a long way since the 70's. I don't think we'll ever return to the rememberances of the 50's and 60's (real or imagined). But it's nice to take a minute or two to look back. If you missed it, well then I'm sure you'll look at your time fondly too. I do wonder how we'll view these past few years, with a :) or :eek: ?

CWS