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Post by fantastic5 on Jul 13, 2017 14:48:10 GMT -5
Silly putty and the Sunday comics. Who knew you could kill so much time having fun with those? I have a vintage Super Spirograph, with ALL the parts, that I pull out sometimes. My Spirograph was one of my most favorite toys. To this day, I'll find myself stuck on some mundane conference call and I'll be doodling in spirograph.  |
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller 
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,509
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Post by Sabre52 on Jul 13, 2017 14:48:31 GMT -5
We still have hayrides here on the ranch every Christmas. Too much fun!....Mel
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Post by rockpickerforever on Jul 13, 2017 14:59:34 GMT -5
I loved my Spirograph! And who can forget the Etch-a-sketch?
Recently, someone told me about seeing an older (now that term is relative, lol) gentleman signing his name for a package being delivered. He didn't like how it came out, so he wanted to redo it. He flipped the pad over and started shaking it! Thought that would reset it. Didn't realize the screen would clear at the touch of a button.
He was probably my age, ha!
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Post by rockjunquie on Jul 13, 2017 15:21:39 GMT -5
I loved my Spirograph! And who can forget the Etch-a-sketch? Recently, someone told me about seeing an older (now that term is relative, lol) gentleman signing his name for a package being delivered. He didn't like how it came out, so he wanted to redo it. He flipped the pad over and started shaking it! Thought that would reset it. Didn't realize the screen would clear at the touch of a button. He was probably my age, ha! That's funny! |
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Post by Pat on Jul 13, 2017 16:27:44 GMT -5
Bike with fat tires, roller skates that clamped onto shoes, skate key on a string around my neck, homemade stilts, record player that played both 78s AND 45s, seeing the first tv show in my life. It was on a neighbor's black and white tv. It was a western show. Interesting : the cowboys could only be seen as they passed behind the tv. I could not see them approach the tv, or see where they went. I was nine.
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Post by vegasjames on Jul 13, 2017 18:56:27 GMT -5
My favorite were the science kits I always for birthdays and Christmas. Especially the chemistry kits. Loved mixing things to see what I could make. The biology kits with microscope and dissection tools was a lot of fun as well.
We also spent a lot of time just playing in and exploring in the desert back in the day when you can could actually do that freely.
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Post by beefjello on Jul 13, 2017 19:15:21 GMT -5
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Post by coloradocliff on Jul 13, 2017 20:28:02 GMT -5
My favorite were the science kits I always for birthdays and Christmas. Especially the chemistry kits. Loved mixing things to see what I could make. The biology kits with microscope and dissection tools was a lot of fun as well. We also spent a lot of time just playing in and exploring in the desert back in the day when you can could actually do that freely. Those little chemistry sets were the gateway drug that led to endless hours of quantitative, qualitative, and organic labs. |
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Post by 1dave on Jul 14, 2017 7:31:40 GMT -5
Our first movie. 1944. I was 8. Mom decided it was time for us to know what she was talking about when she said "Daddy was away at war," so she took the four of us to the theater to see.
I was spellbound by how tough those big men were up on the silver screen.
Days, weeks, months passed and not one of them ever had to do #1 or #2 !
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Post by 1dave on Oct 1, 2018 23:10:35 GMT -5
Do you still remember your first home phone number?
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quartz
Cave Dweller
breakin' rocks in the hot sun
Member since February 2010
Posts: 3,359
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Post by quartz on Oct 1, 2018 23:38:23 GMT -5
I don't remember the number, but I do remember picking up the phone and an operator would say "number please", all local numbers were 3 digits long. I do remember the second one, folks built a new house in 1957, got 7 digit number then. In the gap between selling the old house and moving into the new one, about 8 months, we lived in a rental a couple miles away, had no phone, that's when the phone system changed.
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Post by fernwood on Oct 2, 2018 6:45:09 GMT -5
lol. My first home number on party line was 2406. No clue why I remember this. It was changed when I was 8 years old to 2503, which it remained for the next 30 years, until my Mom disconnected it when moving. I re-established the phone line when I moved back there and was able to get that number back.
Back on the original subject. I have some original Coke and Pepsi bottles and others throughout the years. Some of the cardboard cases they were in, 6 pack style and one wooden case. As a child, my Mom was for Coke, me for Pepsi. Coke was better for floats/shakes, Pepsi for drinking straight.
In my "old age", I have grown to appreciate more natural, locally brewed colas.
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Post by 1dave on Oct 2, 2018 8:19:29 GMT -5
lol. My first home number on party line was 2406. No clue why I remember this. It was changed when I was 8 years old to 2503, which it remained for the next 30 years, until my Mom disconnected it when moving. I re-established the phone line when I moved back there and was able to get that number back. Back on the original subject. I have some original Coke and Pepsi bottles and others throughout the years. Some of the cardboard cases they were in, 6 pack style and one wooden case. As a child, my Mom was for Coke, me for Pepsi. Coke was better for floats/shakes, Pepsi for drinking straight. In my "old age", I have grown to appreciate more natural, locally brewed colas. Do you still have a four digit number? Ahhhh all the memories I have of soft drinks. Around 1950 the local Sears store had a contest. They placed a wire basket about six inches in diameter and a foot high filled with bottle caps. Guess how many and win a case of coke. I was around 14 and spent a week estimating the number in a layer, the number of layers, multiplying, over and over until I finally had the only possible correct answer and turned in my guess. My brother Bob, age 10 won. insult to injury, I was the one who had to walk the two miles to the bottling plant to claim the prize and pack the case home. Any idea how awkward those wooden cases full of bottles are to hold onto? How many rest stops I made? How I began to wish he had never won it? |
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Post by rockpickerforever on Oct 2, 2018 10:25:18 GMT -5
Do you still remember your first home phone number? BR3-1012, until we moved in 1966.
Area code was 714, but never included it, as all of San Diego, heck, most of Southern California, was 714 back then. With the need for new phone numbers (fax, cell, etc), now there's a BUNCH of area codes. Your home phone can be one area code, your cell phone a different code!
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Post by fernwood on Oct 2, 2018 11:12:36 GMT -5
lol. My first home number on party line was 2406. No clue why I remember this. It was changed when I was 8 years old to 2503, which it remained for the next 30 years, until my Mom disconnected it when moving. I re-established the phone line when I moved back there and was able to get that number back. Back on the original subject. I have some original Coke and Pepsi bottles and others throughout the years. Some of the cardboard cases they were in, 6 pack style and one wooden case. As a child, my Mom was for Coke, me for Pepsi. Coke was better for floats/shakes, Pepsi for drinking straight. In my "old age", I have grown to appreciate more natural, locally brewed colas. Do you still have a four digit number? Ahhhh all the memories I have of soft drinks. Around 1950 the local Sears store had a contest. They placed a wire basket about six inches in diameter and a foot high filled with bottle caps. Guess how many and win a case of coke. I was around 14 and spent a week estimating the number in a layer, the number of layers, multiplying, over and over until I finally had the only possible correct answer and turned in my guess. My brother Bob, age 10 won. insult to injury, I was the one who had to walk the two miles to the bottling plant to claim the prize and pack the case home. Any idea how awkward those wooden cases full of bottles are to hold onto? How many rest stops I made? How I began to wish he had never won it? What one did for family in the day. My current phone number is a 10 digit one. Before I moved 3 years ago it was 7 digits. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2018 12:17:21 GMT -5
Do you still remember your first home phone number? You folks had phones? We eventually got one, but there was no reason for us kids to remember the number - not allowed to use it. |
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Post by rockpickerforever on Oct 2, 2018 14:12:37 GMT -5
Do you still remember your first home phone number? You folks had phones? We eventually got one, but there was no reason for us kids to remember the number - not allowed to use it. r2d - I think most kids growing up in the late 50s - early 60s (me!) had their name, address and phone number pounded into their heads before they were old enough to go to school. Just in case something happened to them, can never be too safe.
That, and having their name sewn into the back of their underwear, lol.
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Post by Pat on Oct 4, 2018 18:26:20 GMT -5
Yes re phone number HO 5-0103. The HO stood for Howard.
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Post by 1dave on Oct 4, 2018 18:59:55 GMT -5
The very first day at school!
What is that smell coming from the sawdust they used to clean the floors?
Are all those other kids feeling as lost as I do?
A towel to lay down on and take a nap - I might survive this!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2018 21:06:49 GMT -5
What is that smell coming from the sawdust they used to clean the floors? Ah, yes. Later on, they tinted it red or green and it smelled much worse. And then there was the asbestos insulation that occasionally peeled off the ceilings. We didn't get a lie-down nap in kindergarten, but did have milk and cookies after recess during the half day we were there. Unlike now, didn't have to read or do math until 1st grade. Later on, when we moved to a bigger city elementary school that had lockers, I recall the horror of having to remember a combination. Forgetting it became a frequent feature of nightmares thereafter. Remember trips to the city and riding on the electric trams in the days before gas/diesel buses - and giant soft pretzels served with mustard on the street corners. Cars were beginning to replace the commuter rail lines that stretched out to the suburbs - my mom's parents didn't need a car back then; dad's parents were better off and had cars anyway. Every city of any size had one or more of its own large department stores, with stuff you couldn't get anywhere else - could spend an entire day in some of them without seeing everything (and get breakfast, lunch and dinner in their own restaurants). I remember the first "exotic" foods with more flavor than everyday grub - first pizza, first Mexican food, etc. Oh, and going from Ohio to New Jersey on the Pennsylvania Turnpike back when it was new and smooth (first expressway I can remember - don't know where the money collected went, but as time went on it became one of the most bone-jarring highways in my experience, so obviously didn't go for maintenance). Going other places meant winding roads through small towns with wonderful local restaurants and cafes. Going to see a movie meant either a trip to town to a rococo palace that would put Trump's glitz to shame (complete with a huge pipe organ that rose out of the floor during intermissions, an orchestra for big-budget films, and AIR CONDITIONING), or going to the new-fangled drive-in theaters on summer evenings. For your 50ยข or $1 you (or your carload at the drive-ins) got 2 cartoons, a featurette and 1-2 feature films. Those days, salt and butter were good for you, and the popcorn was made on site and wonderful. There are less rosy memories, too: those first franchise fast-food joints that seemed to blossom with the Interstates and crowded out the mom & pops; desperately poor people and older/disabled folks barely scraping by; polluted rivers and air that stank; pervasive racism north-south-east-west-rural-city; trucks that went through the suburbs and rural area spraying DDT and who knows what else; polio; kids' beginner chemistry sets that included radioactives, cadmium, lead and other toxics; worry about Russian missiles after Sputnik; flying out of our seats during even minor fender-benders; lots of people about with missing fingers or limbs; and - worst of all - tiny little screens on tiny televisions that broadcast mostly "snow" (during the few hours per day that they were actually on-air) and made those big old radios with the hot glowing tubes almost more entertaining. These days, seems like folks are going back to watching TV and movies on teeny screens - and paying for it. |
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... to the New Guys from The ChatBox V.2 Crew