I remember when.....

[Diamondback]

I remember when Commie T-72s massing around the Fulda Gap was still a real worry, and the SIOP (Strategic Integrated Operations Plan) was still the Air Force's big "Order of the Day".

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I remember an old-school Woolworth's in my hometown that still had a soda jerk bar thingie. It scared me when I was little because it was so old and kinda dilapidated and really old people always used to hover around it. Now I would give my right eye to experience it.

 

[JimWagner]

I remember -

Five and dime stores where a lot of things cost less than a dollar.
Shooting marbles at school.
Walking to school.
Fishing with cane poles and cork bobbers.
Bicycles with only one gear.
Roller skates that clamped to your shoes and had metal wheels.
Cap guns that actually went bang.
Spin and Marty and Winky Dink.
The only air conditioning in town was at the movie theater.
Steam engines.
Butcher paper.
My first brand new car only costing $3400. And it had 300 hp.
The draft. And all the men in my family (including me) doing our time.
Hearing Elvis sing Hard Hearted Woman over the a.m. when it first came out.
Seeing formations of Navy prop fighters from NAS Norfolk on a regular basis when I was a kid and then flying out of there myself as air crew when I grew up.

 

[Vintage lover]

I remember " I did NOT...HAVE...sexual relations with that woman".

My first brand new car only costing $3400. And it had 300 hp.

What kind of car?

 

[JimWagner]

What kind of car?

1970 Chevy Nova SS 350 with rally suspension and a Hurst 4 on the floor

 

[Undertow]

I'm young yet, but...

I remember when the "remote control" was a switch box hardwired to the TV, and my grandparents wouldn't buy one because it was just as easy to stand up and change the channel.

I remember when my grandmother took me to a local ice cream shop where they still served fountain sodas, fizzy concotions, real shakes and malts, as well as homemade ice cream with whatever toppings you wanted (place has closed since, and reopened as a posh bistro )

I remember when my parents used to gripe because gas rose to an astonishing, unaffordable price of $1.25/gallon. I also remember when it eventually fell back down to $.75/gallon for a short while later.

I remember when my city still had many gravel roads, and only nice/new houses had central air (everything else was window box or nothing).

I remember when Thriller was still really popular (I guess it still is).

I remember getting up early in the morning while my dad got ready for work so I could watch Danger Mouse and The Bozo Show. Later on, those cartoons turned into Thundercats, Transformers, He-Man, GIJoe, David the Gnome, etc.

I remember the Captain Kangaroo, Mr. Rogers and 123Contact shows very well.

I remember going with my parents to an electronics store to buy our first VHS (because my dad thought Betamax would fail). We also rented our first movies that same night, Wizards and The Secret of Nimh.

I remember learning how to use/navigate a computer using DOS (dir, cd win, cd.. ) . I also remember the advent of Windows 3.1 and wondering why anyone would ever want it. lol

I remember my dad selling his heirloom shotgun :eusa_doh: so we could have a Nintendo when they were rereleased in America. It came with Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt. We also purchased Rad Racer while we were there.

In fact, I remember all the young men of my family (my uncle, my dad, and their friends) getting together on the weekend, drinking Coors and playing Joust on the Atari!

I remember when our church (Catholic) mass lasted well over an hour, no air conditioning, every Sunday and some weekdays - and we weren't even heavily practicing! Everyone had to sing, everyone went through the motions and there was a special room for crying babies.

I remember when my dad bought a Ford Crown Victoria station wagon, used, from an auction for $200 and was able to keep it running for almost ten years because you could actually FIX older cars.

Speaking of fixing, I remember repairmen for: radios, televisions, consoles, refrigerators, washers and dryers, plumbing, electricity, etc. 95% of the time, the repairman was actually just my grandpa rigging things together long enough to function, but every now and again we'd have to get the pros out there.

I remember when cigarettes became too expensive at $1.00/pack. And as a result, Iowans drove to MO to buy their cheaper cigarettes for half the price.

I remember neon colored clothes being "cool", Joe Camel, alcohol ads on tv, and billboards for winecoolers.

I remember when Eddie Murphy played in movies where he was still called an N-word. And I remember when black actors were far and few.

And I also remember a time BEFORE Oprah!

 

[Honey Bee]

That's ok, Miss Annie, just you wait, one day that coin will be vintage!

I remember...
When the TV repair man came to the house with tubes to fix the TV.

Ed Sullivan was on Sunday nights...and yes, I saw the Beatles

My mom walking me quite a few blocks (she didn't drive) to Woolworth's where she would treat me to a hot dog and chocolate shake at the counter whenever the Beatles' had a new 45 release..her friend there would hold a copy for her till she got paid and then we had a day out

JCPenny was down the street from there and they had an escalator! Halfway down the escalator was a mannequin on pedestal...I wouldn't go up or down the escalator beacuse I was afraid she was going to jump out and grab me! But of course, I begged to go with the ladies in my house so they would take me...and then wish they hadn't [huh]

When we lived in Hawaii, my mom and I could run from our house, across the highway to the International Airport and catch the bus to Waikiki Beach. If there were a handful of cars, it was busy! I have heard if I tried that now, I would get killed!

I use to walk to kindergarten by myself. Today, I wouldn't walk in that town with a friend, much less drive there unless I had no choice..thank goodness I have choices

 

[Puzzicato]

I remember when paddlepops cost 20c.

 

[Harp]

When we lived in Hawaii, my mom and I could run from our house, across the highway to the International Airport and catch the bus to Waikiki Beach.

...ever catch the surf at Kaneohe?

 

[Big Man]

I remember " I did NOT...HAVE...sexual relations with that woman".

I remember when Marilyn sang, "Happy Birthday, Mr. President."

 

[Big Man]

I remember when ... this was me. Like they say, it's not the years it's the miles - yeah, right. [huh]

 

[Mid-fogey]

With a...

I remember when ... this was me. Like they say, it's not the years it's the miles - yeah, right. [huh]

...Yankees cap! For shame.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I remember --

Woolworths, where the floorboards reeked of linseed oil. Newberry's, where the hamburgers were like jar lids soaked in Vaseline. McLellan's, where I bought Big Chief tablets and those novelty pencil sharpeners shaped like a globe of the world. Grant's, where the Santa Claus smelled like Mentholatum.

When all the people I knew worked with their hands, making things, fixing things, moving things from point to point, or pulling the insides out of chickens.

When you could slide down a slippery slide sitting on a bread wrapper for extra speed.

Trying to finish a glass of fountain Coke before the paper straw collapsed.

Using discarded projector arc carbons to draw hopscotch grids on the street.

Broiler Day in Belfast, where the Broiler Queen was crowned, the chicken dinners were served with King Cole potato chips and Grant's Rocket-Ade, the fireworks started at 9:30, and you might see Tiny Little Tina sitting on a folding stool behind the freak-show tent smoking a cigarette and scowling at the rubes.

My mother sitting alone in the kitchen reading confession magazines.

Laughing at the first-grade classmate being forced to wear a baby bonnet and sit on a stool because he cut up rowdy in class.

Dunking my father's Chesterfields in Clorox because they stunk the house up so bad.

"My mother and your mother were hanging out clothes. My mother hit your mother right on the nose. What color was the blood?"

Seeing my first color television set and wondering what the big deal was, because it was showing a black-and-white program

Putting Buffalo nickels with rubbed-off dates in a jar of vinegar and waiting for the numbers to reappear

Sucking a hard-boiled egg into a milk bottle by dropping a burning piece of newspaper into the bottle first. Getting in trouble because nobody could figure how to get the egg back out.

Paul Bunyan's Cheez-Dogs.

"I'm a Brownie in a beanie, neath the beanie is my face."

Explaining to a lunch-counter clerk that a toasted cheese sandwich is not made in a toaster.

Spending the first money I earned babysitting to buy a 1939 Sears catalogue at a second-hand bookstore.

 

[lolly_loisides]

I remember when paddlepops cost 20c.

Me too! Oh I could really go a chocolate paddle pop right now, or a Golden Gaytime.

 

[Harp]

I remember --
Sucking a hard-boiled egg into a milk bottle by dropping a burning piece of newspaper into the bottle first. Getting in trouble because nobody could figure how to get the egg back out.

...that's pretty neat.

 

[Honey Bee]

...ever catch the surf at Kaneohe?

We pretty much stayed in Waikiki. I remember getting to ride on "Big Daddy's" surfboard for a little ways...I was only seven years old. I don't know exactly who he was, but I will ask my mom if she still has his picture...I rememeber she got a signed one from him

 

[Puzzicato]

Sucking a hard-boiled egg into a milk bottle by dropping a burning piece of newspaper into the bottle first. Getting in trouble because nobody could figure how to get the egg back out.

I remember Prof Julius Sumner Miller doing that trick on Cadburys chocolate ads.

Me too! Oh I could really go a chocolate paddle pop right now, or a Golden Gaytime.

I've been boycotting paddle pops since they discontinued Choc Toff.

 

[Vintage lover]

I remember when you could take most anything you wanted on an airplane, and being able to play in an empty one and ride all over the tarmac on a baggage car just because you had family that worked at the airport, and you could wait for out of town family at the boarding gate no matter who you knew.

 

[Miss Moonlight]

I remember-

-when the grocery store around the corner from where I grew up had signs up that said, "No horses on sidewalk." Those signs are gone. As are the local stables that prompted them. Now there's a trolley line, a membership warehouse, and a freeway.

-when Elvis died. I was six, and it broke my heart. My parents had gone to his last performance in Vegas, and I was upset they hadn't let me go, and more so when he died.

 

[davidraphael]

I remember when every town had its own little cinema. The employees wore uniforms and you'd be shown to your seats by torchlight.

In addition to the main feature, there would be a supporting feature, as well as cartoons. Between the main and supporting feature one of the employees would stand in front of the screen/stage selling ices, sweets and cigarettes from a tray.

I remember thinking that I had the same childhood as people like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg (I was a big fan when I was a kid), who were already adults when I was just a small child.

Back in the 1950's they would go to the Saturday matinees to watch Republic Serials such as Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, Rocketman, Zorro; films such as Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Charlie Chan; as well as comedy shorts such as The Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy. And on TV, shows such as Champion, the Wonder Horse.

By the early 70's all these shows were being shown on British TV on Saturday mornings, so when I read interviews with filmmakers, I always knew exactly what they were talking about...