I'm so old I remember when...

[mdmf007]

I remember my parents "Mortgage Burning Party" They were considered High Rollers when everyone saw their house cost 49,000 to build.
I remember gas was 79 cents when I started Driving.
I remember when there was fish in the stream where I grew up.
I remember shooting guns in the drive by shooting range at BMAN.
I remember getting spanked at school.
I remember the National Anthem on channel 5 at about 1 am, then nothing but the color bars on tv Channel 13 (Victoria B.C.) had a better closing with the Canadian National Anthem, overlaying a slide show of all of heroic Canada. Followed by Good Night" on the color bars.

how time flies.

[nocturnal_steve]

.... you had to use an underscore in a file name to denote a space, as seen in my nickname on eplaya.

I still use the underscore sometimes out of habit.

[Thecatman]

Until the Flintstones came along!!

I remember an episode of The Honeymooners that showed Ed and Trixie Nortons (Art Carney and Joyce Randolph) bedroom. They had double beds that were attached to each other.


This is a scene from the episode that shows Ralph (Jackie Gleason) in bed.

[tatonka]

I was 5 or so when I started fishing My folks and when I stayed at my grandfathers house would have me fish all the time. I was young so I didnt need a liense
I would put my bamboo pole in a metal tube that was staked to the ground , would set the pole up by the end of the reeds. The catfish would swim thru the reeds and my minnow would be at the end. Each day I would bring home a string of fish for dinner

[robbidobbs]

HR Puffinstuf. I had the 45 of the theme song on one side, and Oranges Smoranges on the other.
I'll stop there.

[^Rhino!]

HR Puffinstuf. I had the 45 of the theme song on one side, and Oranges Smoranges on the other.
I'll stop there.

Dude.

before THAT there was the Banana Splits.

Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky.

Now I'm REALLY feeling old......

[Jovankat]

Four bananas make a bunch and so do many more!

And now that's stuck in my head....

[BeeWeeDee]

ooh eee ooh ah ah
ting tang walla walla bing bang

ran through my head a lot.

or "flying purple people eater"

[Martiansky]

Im so old I remember

Playing records on my record player, using the little plastic adapter for the 45RPM records(fav song then The Tokens-Lion Sleeps tonight)
Recording music off the radio with my cassette player so I could listen to it later
Later having a small portable cassette player with headphones
Riding the bus downtown to visit my gramma at the Gold Bond store where she worked
putting money in the little coin machine as you walked up the bus steps(and that cool noise it made counting your coins)
Going into Woolworths to look at the parakeets in their pet section
Muscle beach movies on tv with Frankie and Annette

[Thecatman]

Recording music off the radio with my cassette player so I could listen to it later

reel to reel tape recorders

[Captain Goddammit]

I remember listening to faraway AM radio stations late at night.
I also remember Casey Kasem counting down America's Top 40, and telling some sort of story about most of them as he cued them up.

[GreyCoyote]

Captain Kangaroo! He announced my 4th birthday on TV!! And Mr Green Jeans getting ping pong balls dumped on his head.

"Thunderbirds" and "Fractured Flickers". "Queen For A Day" (blech!)

Watching the moon landing. Live.

Mechanical calculators that were called "adding machines"

Credit card machines that rolled across the face of a credit card to make an imprint on a triplicate carbon.

[Captain Goddammit]

Let's go back to the Captain's place!

[unjonharley]

When the math teacher told me I was cheating, using a slide ruler..

[Thecatman]

...we' d go out to eat, a few times a year, usually dinner, we'd bring some leftovers home, and
my dad would ask for a doggie bag, not a ("take out box") never heard of a ("take out box") back then.

[Mojojita]

ooh eee ooh ah ah
ting tang walla walla bing bang

ran through my head a lot.

or "flying purple people eater"

Other old really bad songs: Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini; Tie a Yellow Ribbon; Knock Three Times; etc…...

[Aurelia]

Thank you !
now those songs are twanging around in my head
It is kind of comforting though
certainly better than "do your ears hang low ...'

[Elderberry]

I'm so old I remember dial telephones, operator assisted calls and party lines. (Though I didn't think that was so old, until one of our high-school interns noticed the candle-stick dial phone and saw how much trouble he had using it. He never thought to stick a finger in the hole, and asked how you knew what number you were selecting as I watch him turning the dial much like you'd tune in a radio. Then I felt old.) (speaking of which, I still remember radios--as big as small TV's)

[gyre]

He's never seen an old movie?
Not even film noir?
That's sad.

They're always dialing phones.

[AntiM]

When girls had "hope chests" and filled them with examples of their needlework (embroidered pillowcases, quilts, crocheted and knitted throws, even samplers with the name left blank for their married name) for their future home. I never got one, the plan was to give me one as a wedding gift. Ha. Hahaha. Came to mind because we found a cedar chest in the thrift shop last week, and I have always wanted a blanket chest at the foot of my bed.

[unjonharley]

My daughter brought home a blond Lane cedar chest last Sat.

She still has the one I gave her on her 16th B day..

She was mad at me for not building one for her.. Holds blanket just as good now..

[unjonharley]

I was sitting on the corner of laurel & main street curb naming car as they drove by..

All the church bells and fire siren started and all the car were blowing there horns..

It was VJ 1945..

[FIGJAM]

Beehive girls, and I don't mean the hairstyle.

[unjonharley]

A Dagwood sandwich

[Captain Goddammit]

A Dagmar sandwich would be better

[AntiM]

I remember Dagmar's Hot Pants.

[DoctorIknow]

I'm so old I had a paper route in 5th grade.
Woke up before the sun, grabbed the stack tossed on the folks sidewalk, rolled 'em up proper for tossing, just like my boss, an expert, showed me.

Stuffed 'em in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette canvas bag with strap, hopped on my Schwinn 2 speed, and delivered to 50 houses.
Back home for breakfast then bike to school.

Every Sunday night, collected the money from the 50 customers. Had a nifty change maker on my belt.
Gave the money to the boss the next morning and got my cut.

(yes, this was lily white suburbia in the 1950's where the biggest fear was an atom bomb wiping us out. BTW, a few years ago at BM, someone brought
an incredibly powerful siren...diesel powered...and blasted it during a big burn...only a few operating ones in existance, but every week it was tested in cities all over America to get us ready for Armageddon )

Saved every penny from being a paper boy until I had $50 and bought a 7 transistor GE "portable" radio, leather case with earphone pocket. Rechargeable too!
Without that exposure to and embracing of the beginnings of rock and roll, I'm sure I'd never have come to Burning Man.

air raid siren.JPG

[Molotov]

That ain't no wimpy euro-diesel siren. It's powered by a big honking by-God Chrysler Hemi engine putting out 30,000 watts of Freedom Sound. There were several cities around the country that had them. http://www.victorysiren.com/x/index.htm

Here's a recording of one in action:

[media]

[Captain Goddammit]

Yeah I had a paper route too, in about 1980. I had the canvas bag, and also the cart that you could tow with a bicycle by putting the handle around your seat post.
When I did it, for the Seattle Times, you were essentially running your own business. It was up to you to get customers and collect the money. You paid your bill from the times for however many papers you ordered and whatever was left was your profit.

[theCryptofishist]

(yes, this was lily white suburbia in the 1950's where the biggest fear was an atom bomb wiping us out. BTW, a few years ago at BM, someone brought an incredibly powerful siren...diesel powered...and blasted it during a big burn...only a few operating ones in existance, but every week it was tested in cities all over America to get us ready for Armageddon )

Dust Devil, Crude Awakening, 2007