I'm so old I remember when...

[BAS]

I remember when my hearing was better and my memory didn't give me the message: "Hey, I know this is wrong, but what about <fill in the blank>?" for about five to ten minutes before finally coming up with the (hopefully, finally) right answer. And then there are the physical complaints: <nine hours of footage missing>.

[Ratty]

You had to chose leaded or unleaded. Hell, I remember when there WAS no unleaded. (My first gas costs 25 cents a gallon.) No. I'm not old enough to remember when there was no gasoline.

[Thecatman]

You had to chose paper or plastic. or you brought your own. I remember when there was no plastic. Just paper.

Note the selection of bag sizes

[Thecatman]

And if you bought a 1/2 gallon of ice cream, the box boy, as baggers were called then, would put it in a pre sized, thick paper bag, usually foil lined. And they would say thank you.

[Thecatman]

And the produce bags were pre sized brown paper bags that were stored in little "cubby holes" under the produce. No mush causing plastic.

Note the cubby hole behind the shopper

[ygmir]

yeah I was a "box boy" in 1977.

[Ratty]

Why, you're just a pup. I was a mother of 3 in 1969.

[mdmf007]

I remember gasoline being 89 cents a gallon when I started driving, and I remember being able to shoot guns at TTITD.

[DoctorIknow]

In 1956:
I remember it well having a choice to buy my first record, the new Little Richard song, Long Tall Sally, on a 78rpm 10" shellac or a 45rpm 7" vinyl. My dad suggested I get the 78 because it was the standard and the new 45's might just be a fad. I started buying 78's until I broke two (incredibly fragile things) and went to 45's. Still have the 45's, but none of my earliest 78 purchases. Yeah, I was 8 in 1956 and most of my allowance and leaf sweeping money went to buying that newfangled rock n' roll.

BTW, my parents hated this devils music, but going by the extremely popular Dr. Spock book "rules" on how to raise children, they let me listen to it. (Spock basic philosophy was for parents to be more flexible and affectionate with their children, and to treat them as individuals. Conservatives to this day blame the downfall of America on him.)

If you've never seen a record spin at 78rpm, check it out.

[media]

[Meat Hunter]

Mom burned Ethel in her automobile.
Dad burned regular in his work truck.
Some stations had little tanks over to the side of the building that contained kerosene for those who used it for their home lighting and for the starting of wood burning stoves.

Both cars were 3-speed manual shift with had four controls on the floor: Clutch, bake, foot feed, the metal starter bulb which was located on the left side of the foot feed.

Gas pumps had 5 gal glass containers on top. First you hand-pumped how many gallons of gas you wanted into the glass container and then you drained that amount of gas into your vehicle.

I am sure that there are a number of more mature folks on this site that remember all of these. These things that we remember doing are not all that long in the past. We must have been doing somethings right because we are still around to talk about them.

[Skuzzy61]

I remember our first phone number was only 5 digits (ex..2-7323). I remember when it went to 2 Alpha + 5 numbers (ex..TU2-7323).

[Ratty]

Oxford 59583 It was a party line. It was also the first two numbers given out to phone booths. 59. So if I wanted to reverse the charges the operator wouldn't do it.

[Skuzzy61]

Ahhh,..TU was Tulip. It was ours.

[Captain Goddammit]

I'm so old I've forgotten our way-back number but it was CHesapeake something-or-other.
As of the early 1990s, when I was last there, in the ultra small obscure town of Choteau, Montana you only had to dial 4 digits to make local calls.

[Sham]

All this talk about old telephones is getting me awkwardly aroused. Empire 1-4779.

[Aurelia]

That is pretty funny Sham !

My number in NYC was a Butterfield 8 and the Jimmy Stewart murder film really rocked me.

And the dear babushkaed ladies who grated fresh horse radish for you on the street...

xoA.

[DoctorIknow]

Oxford 59583 It was a party line.

Old childhood phone numbers (with Oxford, Butterfield, Tulip, or Neptune plus the digits) can make great passwords that are impossible to forget. Especially for us old folks whose long term memory will be all we have left at some point.

[Elderberry]

Oxford 59583 It was a party line. It was also the first two numbers given out to phone booths. 59. So if I wanted to reverse the charges the operator wouldn't do it.

Sweetbriar 51685 was ours--also party line.

Then there was Beachwood 45789

[unjonharley]

Three shorts and a long.. Woolstock Iowa 1946..

[Sham]

Hold the phone people. I remember when.....
Phone numbers were done with 2 capital letters. EMpire 1-4779 then we moved to SUnset 4-2693.

[Dr. Pyro]

Ivanhoe IV-76402

And I remember gasoline in Goleta, CA in 1973 at some oddball station at 23.9 cents/gallon. Most places were 28.9. Geeze I'm old.

[Thecatman]

I remember having an OXford number. I remember hearing a radio commercial and the phone number for the advertiser was BRadshaw 28611

[Thecatman]

yeah I was a "box boy" in 1977.

And weren't they called that because the stores quite often used boxes instead of bags?

these "blasts from the past"

[ygmir]

yeah I was a "box boy" in 1977.

And weren't they called that because the stores quite often used boxes instead of bags?

these "blasts from the past"

sort of a hold over by then, but yeah, it was explained to me, that before paper bags were introduced and or popular, boxes were often packed with groceries.

and, I could have worked in the meat dept.............

[mdmf007]

OMG some of you are old.

[TomServo]

aut viam inveniam aut faciam

[Elderberry]

It's interesting that we should remember those phone numbers. (Especially when compared to what I've forgotten about that time.)

[Captain Goddammit]

Yeah, nowadays in my world, Elliot's phone number is "Hey Siri, call Elliot!"

[Eric]

Apparently I'm so old that I can remember when a lot of you were middle aged.








running, ducking, and hiding

[FIGJAM]

I had a paper route with my bike.