The days long before Lexus

[royoftherovers]

I saw this on a Mercedes website this morning and it reminded me of the happy days long before I had imagined I would ever own a Lexus.

I hope that it excites your memories as much as it did mine.

Regards

John
 

 

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How Old Are You?

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Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favourite 'fast food' when you were growing up?'
'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him.
'All the food was slow.' 
‘C'mon, seriously … Where did you eat?' 
'It was a place called 'home,'' I explained. 
'Mum cooked every day and when she got home from work, we sat do wn together at the dining room table,
And if I didn't like what she put on my plate, I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'

By this time, the lad was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I'd figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore jeans, set foot on a golf course, travelled out of the country or had a credit card.

My parents never drove me to school … I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed (slow). Before I had a bike I walked.

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 7.
It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at 10 PM, after playing the national anthem and epilogue; it came back on the air at about 12 noon. 

Pizzas were not delivered to our home … but milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers — I delivered a newspaper, seven days a week. I had to get up at 5.30 every morning except Sunday when I had a lie-in until 6.30.

Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the films. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or almost anything offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just do n't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend:
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died recently) and he brought me an old lemonade bottle. 
In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. 
She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember? 
Headlight dip-switches on the floor of the car.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Trouser leg clips for bicycles without chain guards. 
Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn indicators.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom.

1. Sweet cigarettes
2... Coffee shops with juke boxes 
3... Home milk delivery in glass bottles 
4... Party lines on the telephone
5.. Newsreels before the movie 
6. TV test cards that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. 
(There were only 2 channels [if you were fortunate])
7.. Peashooters 
8. 33 rpm records
9. 45 rpm records
10. Hi-fis
11. Metal ice trays with levers
12. Blue flashbulb
13. Cork popguns 
14. Wash tub wringers 

If you remembered 0-3 = You're still young
If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older
If you remembered 7-10 = Don't tell your age
If you remembered 11-14 = You're positively ancient! 

I must be 'positively ancient' but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.

Don't forget to pass this along!
Especially to all your really OLD friends …. I just did!

(PS. I used a large type face so you could read it easily).

 

Regards

John

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

[steveledzep]

Positively ancient here too ! 

[The-Acre]

Excellent, definitely one I'll be keeping.  Oh, and thanks for reminding me of my age, I remember them all!  I remember riding my heavy bike with a sweet cigarette in my mouth and hearing and old lady say "Smoking at that age, disgusting"!!

[mikeyv]

2 channels?, that's quite modern!!

Ditto on the bike thing, except the cigarette was real, possibly even the supposedly "healthy" option of menthol.

[IanA2]

TV starting in the evening and ending with the National Anthem. 

Coal man delivering by horse and cart.

(I got them all and some others....)

[PCM]

Catweazle

Sunny Summers

Saucy Tanner Ice Creams

Portion of Chips for 3d

Corona drinks

Comics!

 

[The-Acre]

5 hours ago, mikeyv said:

2 channels?, that's quite modern!!

Ditto on the bike thing, except the cigarette was real, possibly even the supposedly "healthy" option of menthol.

I did unfortunately graduate to the real thing before giving it up 30 years ago!

[mikeyv]

58 minutes ago, The-Acre said:

I did unfortunately graduate to the real thing before giving it up 30 years ago!

A lot did, unsurprisingly, given the amount the tobacco companies spent on advertising and product placements.

Nearly ten years since I last smoked.

[The-Acre]

2 hours ago, mikeyv said:

A lot did, unsurprisingly, given the amount the tobacco companies spent on advertising and product placements.

Nearly ten years since I last smoked.

And here's a good example.

 

[Bluesman]

Its unbelievable how that looks so strange now but then we took it as normal.

[mikeyv]

Even more bizarre, I remember being in hospital for a couple of days, in 1966, and each bed having an ashtray, not to mention the trolley coming round twice a day, with newspapers and fags!!

Never did us any harm, oh wait.......................

[OldTrout]

Scored 14.

I never had a paper round but I did help the local milkman with his horse drawn cart for 6p/day.

John

 

[Diesel Do Nicely Brian]

Unfortunately not that old 

[PCM]

Horse drawn rag and bone man...

Cars with indicators that flipped up at the side...

Early closing on a Wednesday afternoon...

 

[OldTrout]

34 minutes ago, PCM said:

Horse drawn rag and bone man...

Cars with indicators that flipped up at the side...

Early closing on a Wednesday afternoon...

 

Don't remember rag and bone with cart. Our milkman was one of the last horse-drawn floats. Horse was very good and knew the route precisely. Would move without any prompting to be exactly where it should be at any time. I guess driverless vehicles my be able to do this eventually.

My first car, (actually an A35 van to which if fitted rear windows so children could see out), had trafficators.

Early closing on Wednesday hung on for ages outside of the big cities.

I feel a Monty Python sketch coming on.

John

[Verbout]

One car in the street of about 40 houses.

salvation army band doing a singalong on Sunday mornings at the bottom of the street.

sitting upstairs on the bus and writing on the nicotine stained ceiling, yuk.

outside loo.

 

[PCM]

Going on holiday in a taxi ( Ford Zephyr ) with bench seats at the front - and no seat belts?

Summer Special comics.

Flying Saucers  - 4 for a penny.

Ice on the inside of our bedroom windows.

 

[OldTrout]

Outside loo? Luxury. We just had pit in't garden.

And my sister's hot water bottle froze one night.

 

[Verbout]

1 hour ago, PCM said:

Going on holiday in a taxi ( Ford Zephyr ) with bench seats and the front - and no seat belts?

Summer Special comics.

Flying Saucers  - 4 for a penny.

Ice on the inside of our bedroom windows.

 

Oh yes, that made me chuckle, our house was heated by a coal fire, no central heating.

Downstairs was red hot, the bedrooms were freezing, you could see your breath as you laid in bed.

[royoftherovers]

Pantry

Dolly tub

Mangle

Sunday Pictorial

Reville

Wagon Wheels

Nibbits

Highway Code for1penny

Pumps for PE.

Ford Pilot

 

Regards

 

John

[PCM]

47 minutes ago, royoftherovers said:

Pantry

Dolly tub

Mangle

Sunday Pictorial

Reville

Wagon Wheels

Nibbits

Highway Code for1penny

Pumps for PE.

Ford Pilot

 

Regards

 

John

Pantry with that metal guaze over the window...

[The-Acre]

White dog poo!