Old people, attend me!

[pdxKingsFan]

Have 4th of July fireworks been mentioned yet? I don't know what's still legal in Sacramento, they were banned everywhere I lived in SoCal and in Boston. When I moved to Portland I was blown away, while "Safe and Sane" is only legally sold here its a 15-minute trip across the river to all the "Dumb and Dangerous" your heart desires. The best part about Washington fireworks is all the good safe and sane stuff from my childhood feature a firecracker ending. Ground bloom flowers that go boom are awesome.

 

[kennadog]

I used to do that also, not because personal computers didn't exist, but because they cost more than a used car.

I'm older than you. I had no options, unless you count an electric typewriter as an alternative. Most people I knew didn't have those at home.

I grew up in SoCal when no fireworks were banned that I know of, except maybe cherry bombs and bottle rockets. One 4th, my Dad had to go to the emergency room, because he burned his hand with a roman candle. I really miss sparklers, even though I burned a finger on one of those as a kid.

 

[Prophetess]

pretty sure this was a early to mid 80's thing. it goes with the baby oil to get a better tan.

Mixng Hydrogen Peroxide and Lemon Juice with water in an old pump hairspray bottle to apply to your hair when outside to lighten your hair color.

what lovely sunworshippers we were.

 

[Bricklayer]

Me and my trouble maker cousin also used to go to that park unsupervised. One time she found a duck nest and she grabbed one of the eggs. The ducks went crazy and they started to dive in from all over the place. They started jumping out the bushes, flying in from the air and swimming over from across the pond.

Well you abducted one of their kids ya little jerk, what did you expect?

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

I was a latch key kid who "raised" two other latch key younger sisters.

I remember walking with friends to stores by ourselves. I remember being able to stay outside playing until the sun came down. My parents rarely let me go anywhere without knowing where I was supposed to be but I could go freely to and fro.

Shoot, I remember Saturday morning cartoons and being excited when the new season started and each BROADCAST tv network had a preview show to give us kids a sneak peek at the ones that were going to start. I lived for Saturday morning cartoons as a kid.

I guess we were more progressive where I grew up, girls played smear the queer where I grew up.

I also remember that you used to be able to go trick or treating in your neighborhood and not have to worry about anything but the urban legend razors and needles in apples.

My family would drive across country every couple of years or so and I remember one year I thought we were sooooo cool and advanced. We had a b/w television in the back seat plugged in to the cigarette lighter slot and could watch television while my parents drove at least while we were able to get reception. I remember getting ABSOLUTELY excited to see a Texas Rangers game on tv as we passed through the Dallas area. That was back in the day when you couldn't see every team on every channel 24/7...sigh...

Punk kids get to control dvds and video games from the backseat now...hrumph.

I remember double-features at theaters....

When I was maybe 5-6, probably younger, that's just when I remember the thing...we had a tv that had an attenna on the roof and a box on the top of the television with a nob you had to twist to change the direction of the attenna to get the channel you wanted.

 

[hoopsfan]

I typed high school and college term papers on a manual typewriter.

Oh yeah...I forgot about that. Remember the little eraser with the weird brush at one end??



MBF...I used to walk to the liquor store with a dollar...buy 10 HUGE candy bars and proceed to eat them as I walked back home. (I didn't get them all gone by the time I got home, but most of them...and they didn't make me sick!)

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

I remembering being able to buy a slurpie AND a bunch-o-candy with a dollar

I also remember buying a WHOLE stack of baseball card packs for about a dollar or so. And I did this a LOT lol...at least when I had a dollar or so.

EDIT: I remember getting a manual typewriter for xmas one year. But my parents had an electric one. I sooo remember that eraser with the brush on the other end...and how it used to screw up my erasable paper when I used it instead of a regular eraser.

I thought about this other other day for some reason, I guess as I went through a box of old papers from college. Carbon paper in addition to the erasable paper.

 

[SacKings7]

I had great fun as a kid sliding around in the backseat of our 1950-something Mercedes which did not feature seatbelts or door locks. And of course, while stopped at a red light, a random drunk passerby opened the door, hopped in next to me, and asked to be taken to a nearby bar... my mom informed him in all seriousness that the trucker in front of us had already agreed to give him a ride, and so he got out and talked to the driver briefly... and sure enough, got his ride.

Jagged metal playground equipment... jagged metal toys... toys made out of solid (gasp) LEAD!!! Which undoubtedly explains my obvious brain damage.

Playing with matches as a one-year old... this huge jar of matches was seriously my favorite toy... I have pictures.

Swimming in the lake... without a lifevest!

And no words necessary:

~~

lol, I had to do the same thing when I was a kid, only it was the power button that I cracked off with my foot. I had to use tweezers to turn it on or adjust the volume (doing so ended up turning it off more often than not). And it'd take like 10 minutes to get a grip on it. I eventually kept everything clear of the button, and just unplugged it when I wasn't using it.

And I remember blowing on NES cartridges to get them to work right, even though the instructions stated not to do it

 

[Kingzrool]

When I was maybe 5-6, probably younger, that's just when I remember the thing...we had a tv that had an attenna on the roof and a box on the top of the television with a nob you had to twist to change the direction of the attenna to get the channel you wanted.

Lucky. If we had one of those fancy boxes, I would not have crushed my finger turning the damn thing.


I remember when MTV first started they had only music videos and no commercials.

 

[bozzwell]

I remember coke in bottles AND with real sugar. Actually, all soft drinks and candy were made with real sugar. They tasted sweeter and they didn't make me sick on the occasions that I would overindulge.

I remember meat from butcher shop, wrapped in paper, not previously frozen and smelling real nice.

I remember fresh fruit, so ripe that if you didn't eat it same they it would start rotting away.

Fresh, unpasteurized milk that had to be boiled before you drink it on its own, freshly baked bread with no additives (so it would turn into a cinder block next day, unless you toast it or french toast it).

All those foody stuffs are still available in Chicago if you look really hard, but short of winning the lottery I just can't afford it.

 

[kennadog]

I remember when MTV first started they had only music videos and no commercials.

I remember when cable TV first came out. They claimed superiority, saying that since you paid for it, there were no commercials....and there weren't. Course, we couldn't afford anything that fancy shmancy.

 

[NME]

Before Sacramento got cable, there were several services that you could receive with a special antenna and convertor box. I don't know if each one kept morphing into another or my dad kept switching services, but from the late 70's to early 80's we seemed to have a different configuration every year or two. At one point it was just Home Box Office (before they primarily went by initials), there was SelecTV and ONTV. I remember one service that had a movie channel which played the Ringo Starr movie Caveman 50% of the time, and another channel that played Andy Griffith and Leave It To Beaver on a loop (I think it was the early incarnation of TBS).

One of those services ran a commercial that had a guy sitting in his lounge chair repeating "I'm waiting for cable" as cobwebs grew over him.

 

[Mad D]

When I was little I thought all TVs always had cable and that it was standard.

...carry on

 

[NME]

When I was little I thought all TVs always had cable and that it was standard.

...carry on

What are you doing in this thread? Get off my lawn!

 

[Bricklayer]

Ah...the halcyon days of NME's youth:

(mom was kind of a hottie btw -- got any revealing pics? I could add her to a pretty girl thread...)

 

[kennadog]

Ah...the halcyon days of NME's youth:

(mom was kind of a hottie btw -- got any revealing pics? I could add her to a pretty girl thread...)

Wow, looks just like my youth. (No, I'm not kidding.....)

 

[Kingzrool]

Any one listen to the Shadow on the radio? Me and my dad used to listen every morning on the way to school. "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men..(bla bla bla)...The Shadow knows." Maybe it was an East Coast thing.

 

[kennadog]

I never really listened to radio shows like that. I do remember how exciting it was to be able to listen to the world series on transistor radios at school. Well, I got to listen to updates from someone who had a transistor radio at school, anyway. Transistor radios wee the iPods of their day, in a way.

 

[hoopsfan]

Milk delivered in glass bottles from Alta Dena Dairy...3 white and one chocolate...the ones with the lids you peeled off.

Is there anyone else here who grew up in SoCal that remembers the Helms Bakery trucks?? Yum! If you wanted them to stop in front of your house, you would put the Helms Bakery sign in your window. It was a panel truck and when the back doors were opened, there were trays and trays of baked goods like eclairs, donuts, cookies, bread and also candy... I always got candy necklaces and the flat taffy in wax paper. My sister got those icky little wax bottles with the flavored liquid inside. Those were gross!
I still have the sign we used to put in the window!

 

[pdxKingsFan]

We were just talking about the Helms Bakery, how funny. Apparently my wife's crazy neighbor had one in his garage and now its been restored and at the Bakery. We used to get stuff from there all the time in my Sony days. I guess I can add that to Randy's donuts on the small list of things I kinda miss from living down there.

 

[GoGoGadget]

Since we're talking about growing up in Southland, there are few things on the planet as instantly nostalgic as the packaging of Ralph's brand generic products.

 

[Bricklayer]

Don't know about Ralph's generic, but I am old enough to remember the 80's Generic brand that packaged everything, no matter the product, in a plain white wrapper (hence generic, get it?). Generic dishwashing soap, generic mac n cheese, generic toilet paper, generic margerine...you name it, all in a plain white box/bag.

 

[kennadog]

OMG, Hoopsie. I thought of the Helms Bakery trucks the other day and then forgot to post about them. (Yes, I grew up in SoCal.) I loved getting a donut. Can't remember which dairy, but we did get dairy stuff delivered to the door.

60's in SoCal, pre-the British Invasion: Madras long shorts, baggies, big broad-striped t-shirts (like red/white), huaraches, Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, Surfaris, long boards, Woodys, skateboards with roller skate wheels, Roller Derby skates and days at Torrance Beach, James Bond and ***** Galore. Yes, I am that old.

 

[Bricklayer]

60's in SoCal, pre-the British Invasion:

Are you referring to the musical invasion the better part of half a century ago, or the 1760s before we threw their tea into the ocean?

 

[kennadog]

Are you referring to the musical invasion the better part of half a century ago, or the 1760s before we threw their tea into the ocean?

Pretty amazing that an old lady like me can even see to type, ain't it? And no cracks about my lousy typing you young whippersnapper.

 

[Entity]

I remember riding my bike to school at age 9 for 3 or 4 miles.

Trick or Treating in the neighborhood where mom and dad stayed home and I came back to check in about every hour or so.

Checking in

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I remember coke in bottles AND with real sugar. Actually, all soft drinks and candy were made with real sugar. They tasted sweeter and they didn't make me sick on the occasions that I would overindulge.

I remember meat from butcher shop, wrapped in paper, not previously frozen and smelling real nice.

I remember fresh fruit, so ripe that if you didn't eat it same they it would start rotting away.

Fresh, unpasteurized milk that had to be boiled before you drink it on its own, freshly baked bread with no additives (so it would turn into a cinder block next day, unless you toast it or french toast it).

All those foody stuffs are still available in Chicago if you look really hard, but short of winning the lottery I just can't afford it.

Wait, back up: wasn't pasteurization developed in the 1800's? How'd you manage to get unpasteurized milk in the twentieth century?


... Or did you?

Maybe you weren't actually referring to the twentieth century...

 

[bozzwell]

Wait, back up: wasn't pasteurization developed in the 1800's? How'd you manage to get unpasteurized milk in the twentieth century?


... Or did you?

Maybe you weren't actually referring to the twentieth century...

Back in the old country, you could get two kinds of milk: cartons of pasteurized/homogenized milk, the exact same stuff like here. You could also get 1 liter plastic bags of fresh milk. I am assuming it was not pasteurized as people would open bags, dump it in a pot and boil it straight away and drink it within few days. It was always local and dated the day before it's put on shelves.

I understand that this would be highly illegal in USA. Even if milk is used for cheese, it has to be pasteurized or aged 60+ days, which means that some of the best cheese and yoghurt/sour milk is unavailable here and has been for quite a while. I read somewhere that nuns in a monastery somehwere in the NE were getting away with breaking the law for a while and had wooden cheese molds with cultures hosted by the molds for decades, before they got shut down. They use stainless steel molds now and cheese is just a run of the mill stuff, where it used to be as good if not better then french original.

 

[kennadog]

My great-uncle was a harness-racing owner/trainer/driver. As a kid, I'd visit his ranch and get to "ride" one of the old ranch horses. I'd also get ice cold milk, straight from the cow. Creamy and yum!

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Back in the old country, you could get two kinds of milk: cartons of pasteurized/homogenized milk, the exact same stuff like here. You could also get 1 liter plastic bags of fresh milk. I am assuming it was not pasteurized as people would open bags, dump it in a pot and boil it straight away and drink it within few days. It was always local and dated the day before it's put on shelves.

I understand that this would be highly illegal in USA...

Okay, so exactly what, for you, is the "old country?"