For The "Older Coots"

[SARGE]

A gem from Longhorn Fan Zone. You younguns won't understand. ;)
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Stroll with me...close your eyes...and go back before the internet...before bombings, aids, herpes, before semiautomatics and crack...before SEGA or Super Nintendo...way back!

I'm talking about sitting on the curb, sitting on the steps...about malt shops, hide-and-go-seek, Simon says and 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 and Cracker Jacks, hula hoops and sunflower seeds, wax lips and mustaches, Mary Jane's, saddle shoes and Coke bottles with the names of cities on the bottom.

Remember when it took five minutes for the TV to warm up. When nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids arrived 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 teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels. Remember running through the sprinkler, circle pins, Bobby pins, Mickey Mouse Club, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Kookla, Fran and Ollie, Dick Clark's American Bandstand...all in black and white and your Mom made you turn it off when a storm came.

When around the corner seemed far away and going downtown seemed like going somewhere. Climbing trees, making forts, 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, white gloves, walking to the movie theater, running till you were out of breath, your first haircut, laughing so hard that you stomach hurt...remember that?

Not stepping on a crack or you'd break your mother's back, paper chains at Christmas, silhouettes of Lincoln and Washington, the smells of school, of past and "Evening in Paris" perfume.

When you got your windshield cleaned, oiled checked and gas pumped without asking-all for free-every time. 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 to a real restaurant with your parents. When the worst thing you could do at school was flunk a test or chew gum. The prom was in the gym or the lunch room and you danced to a real orchestra. When they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed -- and they did it.

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 so much greater than the threat.

Remember when people went steady; and girls wore a class ring with an inch of wrapped adhesive tape so it would fit their finger. When no one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the car and house doors were never locked.

Remember playing baseball with no adults needing to enforce the rules of the game. And, with all our progress, don't you wish, that just once you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace...and share it with the children of today?

Remember The Lone Ranger and Tonto, The Shadow Knows, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Trigger and Buttermilk...As well as the sound of a real mower on Saturday morning, and summers filled with bike rides, baseball games, bowling, visits to the pool...and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar from the palm of you hand.

There, didn't that feel good? Just to lean back and say: "Yeah, I remember"

cfs

[bailey]

yes been there and done that.
the good ole days
that go into the late 40's and early 50's

feel sorry for the kids today to miss out on all that good life

[SonicVanguard]

I remember some of those things. Thanks Sarge, that was quite nice.

Dave.

[lil Jimmie]

Ok, I remember a lot of those things and yet I don't feel that old but I was a young whippersnapper when I think back to many of those things. It is a different world now.

[Redo40]

I remember most of those, plus how neighbors and family got together every weekend...for nothing more than sitting on the porch making ice cream and relaxing. Things definitely were slower paced and seemed less stressful then. People either had the time or made the time to help others.
.

[Doobie]

I remember most of those things and I’m not that old.... Must be because I grew up in a small town.

I remember when I was younger and used to complain that it was dull but now that I think back after reading this…. I have to admit those were good days….

Thanks Sarge for making me depressed… ;)
Why can’t I go back…? Youth is definitely wasted on the young…

[lil Jimmie]

I will add that I was raised as an army brat and my folks came from a small town so that may have a great impact on my upbringing. Most bases we were stationed at had the small town feel to them and military families ususally were close and did things as a community.

[Alfie]

Most of the things listed have been eridicated by political correctness,we feared our parents more because we felt our heads might be handed to us!
The educational system is far too left and relies more on B.S. rather than abc's,the good old days were based upon common courtesy,something that is now considered old fashion.
Progress is meant to be just that,I fear we have regressed,never before in the history of the nation have we witnessed such apathy.

[ktkendall]

On our second teenage daughter now and I'm amazed that they won't even leave the house unless they are driven in a car somewhere. We bought our first home here in a neighborhood 6 years ago for their sake and now I wish we had moved to the country like we wanted since they don't want anything to do with any of the kids here in the neighborhood anyways nor do they seem to be able to find good wholesome things to do around the neighborhood. Hopefully it won't be that way with my 2 younger boys...

[raftero]

i even remember no tv,no electricity,we had a battery radio and only listened at night,but there was lux theater,the squeaking door,fibber magee and molley,and we really enjoyed them.now there a hundred channels and hardly any worth watching.went tho the picture show on sat evening for 5 cents.but it's not all bad-now we have internet.
i liked that SARGE it brought back memories.

[mouse1]

AMEN Sarge,I remember all that,wasnt that a great time,thanks for the memories as ole Bob Hope would say...GaryD

[mbossman2]

ahhh childhood memories....thanks sarge..

[Panama Red]

You just described my childhood, Sarge. Thanx. And some more memories from then. Baseball games on the radio (we didn't have tv yet). Party lines, Kick the Can games under the street lights, no jeans or levis in school, no long hair over the ears for guys, white bucks, Red Ball jets, Keds, bikes with one speed and coaster brakes, downhill "racers" made from old ironing boards and baby buggy axles and wheels, hitch hiking all over town (and the country for me) without fear of who picked you up, and picking up hitchhikers without fear of them attacking you, and my all time favorite: the first time you heard a solid lifter cammed small block Chevy with open headers changing gears at 7200 rpm's!!!!!

[glc]

Riding your bike into town, parking it anywhere without chaining it down, going into a mom and pop store for a 10 cent soda in a real glass bottle, calling the owner Mr. or Mrs. whatever, being helped with a smile, going to a 25 cent double feature matinee at the theater, no ads, 25 cent popcorn, and lots of CARTOONS!

[not important]

That seems like so long ago! I remember it all very well.
Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob, Mickey Mouse Club all on a black and white TV.

[bailey]

don't forget clareabell

[Kubie]

Sarge,
I know that most of that didn't apply to me but thanks for the memories.:D

Carl

[not important]

Originally posted by bailey
don't forget clareabell
I forgot about the clown!

[bailey]

now that is not a good sign

and how could you forget lambchop

[WJWheels]

Originally posted by Kubie
Sarge,
I know that most of that didn't apply to me but thanks for the memories.:D Hehehe.. you shoulda written it down if you can't remember Carl. I bet you remember those 50 cent knothole tickets in the south endzone. ;);)

[Force Flow]

Amen, Sarge, Amen.

Coming from a small town, there were many of these things while I was growing up. I was brought up with all of these "old family values", so I can see how much has changed...

[DarkHorse]

I'm a young 'un, but I still get nostalgic hearing those things.

I guess living in the country and not having cable made me a pseudo old timer.

[Strider]

I remember most of those things. I can't even get a teenager nowadays to rake my leaves, because they don't go around knocking on doors for jobs anymore. I guess they're busy playing PS2 or something. :mad: :D A couple of years a couple of kids did come up to my door and ask if they could rake the leaves and I said sure, what's funny is that one of the kid's father ended up helping them. :D Oh, well I guess I going to have to find time to rake the leaves myself after putting 60 hours in at work :(

[brassman]

Wow!! What memories. I remember it all like it was yesterday. Thanks Sarge.

[liegelord]

talking about Clarabell the clown the guy playing the part got his own show(Capt Kangeroo) I was of the coast of Florida in 1957 when I first saw American tv the program was Capt Kangeroo we were on he Lykes line cargo ship the ss kendall fish sailed out of Southhqmpton about three weeks earlier had to hop skip and jump arround huricanes in the Alantic. The 2nde mate climbed up at6op of the bridge and put up a tv antenna as a 11yr old I was definitely enamoured wit6h the tv 73 Jock

[SARGE]

I also remember using playing cards hooked with a clothespin to my bicycle spokes to give the bike a "cool" sound". We'd also place a board on a brick and ride the bike over it for a stunt. And remember taking an old pair of skates and mounting them to a board - sorta the first skateboard. Anyone remember candy cigarettes?

[bailey]

shall we even mention our first home made chrystal set made from a quaker oat meal box

[HAL9000]

LMAO... I'm not that old.. but I know of many of the things listed there.

[bailey]

how about the newest and latest thing, the rocket radio.

it was very small and had a short wire with a allagator clip that you could clip onto the bed spring and a crystal ear piece to plug in your ear and listen to your favotite music or even the shadow.

no batterys or ? well the transistor was not even invented yet

[WJWheels]

The Shadow knows......

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/1031/trans/xtal/Rocket2.jpg

[bailey]

does any body on here remember the fox hole radio and what it was made out of ?

it was well known during the war

which war ? the first one of course

[bailey]

damm wheels where in the world did you find that at

just like the one I had when I was 8 yr old

heck,goes to show you how good google is

[bailey]

give up ?

ok the fox hole radio was used in WW1 by the troops stuck in the fox hole for long periods of time.
it was made with a rusty razor blade and a pice of pencil lead
(carbon) and a earphone and some wire .
it works, tried it when I was a youngester.
the rusty blade and pencil acter like the cat wisker detector used in the later chrystal sets.

[GaryRouth]

hey bailey - you remembered lambchop - how bout Shari Lewis when she was such a youngster (we lost her last year - what a wonderful person: my wife's stepbrother is a recording engineer and had the pleasure of working with her on a project)

I was a babyboomer, so my memories (with the exception of those handed down by my family) don't start till '53 - but remember the block parties? Folks would put barriers on either end of the street, put up the tables & it was neighbor fest = especially on the 4th of July.

Like Luis Armstrong sings in that famous song, it's still "A Wonderful World" Always will be. Each generation seems to find its own magic. . .
. . . Gary

[bailey]

yes I remember her very well.
she got her start at a detroit tv station, WXYZ I belive,
I have met her in person at a policemans field day.
also one you may not know
supy sales

I also met bob hope geary more and joe staford at a state fair.
my dad was a personal excort for bob hope.
he gave bob the grand tour of detroit on the back of his police motor cycle.

if you can visulize that, you would not belive the things bob did on that ride in public,
kinda like a schriner clown if you know what I mean

[GaryRouth]

What a joy Bob Hope was. I had some friends who always used to drive by his place here in the valley, hoping to catch a glimpse.

Some of my older friends were big Soupy fans. Those crazy arms and "WubbaWubba"s (was it "Fang?" or something silly like that?) I didn't keep track of time very well [not then, and still not too good at it now, either], so I'd usually chance upon T.V. shows mostly when my older sister was watching something. Kinda hit-and-miss. They had the craziest shows on about 5 in the morning (before the folks woke up & started lecturing about watching too much TV) = strange things like Ivanhoe and old Zorro reruns. :)
. . . Gary

[bailey]

right it ws fang, poor dog
suppy started in detroit at the same station too I think
he was a real nut case.
watched him every day when I came home from school for lunch.
his big down fall was the sligh comment he made while he was still on camera live, he thought the camera was off, any way he said " maby that will keep the littel basta### for the week.
after that comment he was never seen again.


PS: I have some pictures of bob and my dad together.

[glc]

I've met Soupy - and the 3 Stooges.

Let's see - Romper Room....Mickey Mouse Club.....The Hardy Boys......American Bandstand with Dick Clark....Truth or Consequences......Howdy Doody.......Zorro.......all on a black and white TV with rabbit ears antenna (the only TV in the house). When the same TV started screwing up, pulling all the tubes out and going down to the drugstore to use the tube tester and buy new ones.

The wonder of seeing the first color TV brought into the house - and the clarity with the switchover to a roof antenna. Discovering UHF stations.

Falling asleep in bed with a handheld 9 volt transistor AM radio and earpiece listening to stations all over the country on the "skip".

[Kubie]

Guess what?
There were nerds back then too!

Carl

[raftero]

first television i saw was i Fla. where i was stationed in the navy,it was in a window display,and i guess it didn't have an antenna hooked up,all you saw was blurry figures sliding across the screen,i thought that would never sell.that was in 1951.

[WJWheels]

My parents owned and ran a small mom & pop hardware store in a small town in Nebraska. In the store was the first tv in town, with a 7" screen. I remember all the men in town and a few farmers from around coming in every friday night to watch the fights on THIS! (http://www.tvhistory.tv/1948-Sentinel-400TV-7in.JPG)

I later moved the tv to my room (upstairs over the store) and with the picture tube giving out and only showing a 3" diameter, would watch it late into the night.

[Panama Red]

I'm sure most of you have visited here, but if not take a walk back in time. Many of the original classics, just the way we remember them.

www.radiolovers.com