and you thought i was through

more from the past;
corner grocery store with sign on door "come in its KOOL inside".
sitting in the balcony at the theater so you can smoke your "KOOL" and place feet on back of seats
circular imprint on your billfold from the condom you carried. just in case
birch twig to clean your teeth. pre-tooth brush days
your momma dipping "snuff"
drinking from a cleaned snuff glass
buying oatmeal with glass wear inside
fill up with gas and they would give you a free bath towel with chose of color
saving green stamps and stamp redemption store
tent meetings (revivals)
tv with channels 2-15 vhf only
radios with a/m only
hair cut in back yard with hand operated clippers
playing basketball on grass-dirt-mud
first black/white tv, poor reception and snowy
dad making you get up change channels
horizonal control bar knob on tv
going off air screen and then just snow
tv back on air with "star spangle banner" song
going outside to adjust tv antenna's direction
neighbors at your house on saturday night to watch wrestling
vacuum cleaners with a water reservoir for dust collection
rotary telephones
straight cords that kinked on your phone's handset
pre-curled wrap placed on cord to make it curly
party phones with a designated ring
home pump organs with a claw foot stool
covering up half of car radiator with cardboard in winter
playing in snow with no gloves or boots
extension cord across ceiling from porcelain fixture
spring clip on shade for bare ceiling bulb
bathroom added to the house as a lean-to addition
pliers, adjustable wrench, screwdriver and spark plug wrench was your tool set
most all screws were the flat blade type
purchases were in cash or bought on account
can you still buy a grape neheigh?
brogan boots/shoes
shoe heel taps
having baby shoes bronzed
white high top baby shoes from "kayes" shoe store
cloth diapers
home diaper service
baby car seat that hooked over back of car seat
house hold garbage burn pile
gully outback for trash
glass ketchup bottle prized for bb shooting
never buying cat/dog food; table scraps for them
scratch or laying mash, depending on time of year
quart oil cans made of cardboard
oh well, i quit, for now.

ooh, more from the past, the out house.

Well, the downstairs bath in my 100 year old house is a flat roof addition. I also just used my Farmall M to chore with the cardboard on the radiator. I also have a pump player piano in the front room (a Gulbranson). I also have two water trap vacuums. One of them I bought brand new about three years ago. I wouldn't have any other vacuum than a Rainbow. They are the best.

All of this goes to show you that those ideas were SO good they are still worth doing!

Now you are scaring me, I remember them all.

You forgot one, how about the soda fountain in the corner drug store.

Phone numbers that started with letters
Musical entertainment for the evening involved widing up the Victrola first
Sears catalog in the outhouse wasn't for reading
Whole family taking a bath in the same bath water
Your address started with RR.. and ended with Box..
Never locked your doors, even if no one was home
Left your keys in your car or truck, even in town
Playing cards slapping on the bicycle spokes
Opening your Coke with the bottle opener mounted on the front of the Coke machine
Mom using a half a can of hair spray getting ready for church
Getting your mouth washed out with soap...for real
Mom taking you along to the green stamp store to redeem her stamps, she always got something for the kitchen no matter how hard you tried to tell her what you wanted
Bias ply tires
White wall tires
3 sizes of car tires, 13" 14" and 15"
Filling up the car for $4, and that was 16 gallons
Getting a free map at the gas station
Foam antenna toppers free at the gas station
Free air at the gas station
Well over half the population smoked cigarettes
Everyone knew what "the other side of the tracks" meant
Pay phones
3 speed column shift autos
23 channel CB radio
Buying groceries, dinner, movie tickets etc. with cash
Enjoyed your job, loved your neighbor and never missed church
Got married, and stayed married
Whole family got together to make that special long distant phone call to a relative, passing the phone around so everyone could talk to them
Paper grocery bags
Store employee asked if you needed help
Fast food wasn't super sized, if you were hungry you ordered 2
Milk came in a glass bottle and could be delivered to your front porch
Paper boy came to your front door to collect
The Fuller Brush Man came by now and then
Gimme hats were worn with the brim forward most of the time, and backward when working but NEVER sideways
Elders were always respected and they all had the same names, Sir and Mam
2 words you heard every day, Thank You
Black and White TV
You knew all your neighbors
All your neighbors knew you
Kids walked or rode a bike to school
Kids liked their teachers
Teachers like their students and were not afraid of them.
Paddle didn't just hang on the wall, it was used for discipline
"Just wait until your father gets home" worked because you had a father and he was coming home, and the saying actually had real meaning to it
At dinner you ate everything on your plate because you were told to
We took a snapshot with a Brownie, now we take a pic with a phone???

Now those are great ones. Thanks

"pete black; I think these posts are GREAT!

My dad driving kids to the one room school and home again, as there was no bus service for the rural schools

asking Miss Fortune, the only teacher, if I could come in early and pull the rope to ring the bell for recesses and at noon

staying with Grandma on 'the farm' and listening for her to leave her bedroom and head downstairs, I would quickly get up and help 'build fire' in the cookstove and then it was down into the basement to 'build fire' in the furnace this time of year.

folks not using ANY foul language

going outside to play after changing out of school clothes

iron-on patches that saved mom a lot of time instead of mending pants for school, work clothes as she did for years

clocks that showed the time...back when time wasn't just a number on a display

Dial soap with the clock on the bar

Colgate toothpaste in an aerosol can

cream, not milk on cereal and berries and peaches and cream in coffee made on the stove

A & P grinding coffee up front for Grandma

the egg market

Tippy, the farm dog

laying in bed on the farm and hearing the windmill moaning and the rooster crowing

I still leave my key in my truck, and I leave it running at the gas station, when I go in for a paper, or soda,,I see other people lock there cars up and I laugh!

I still leave my key in my truck, and I leave it running at the gas station, when I go in for a paper, or soda,,I see other people lock there cars up and I laugh!

Pete - -good ones, Thanks!

In another thread, you mentioned NW Alabama - if you don"t mind, where are you? I ask, in that I have relatives near Redbay and Belgreen.

thanks al, amazing how similar across the country.
thanks for all the others. they just keep on
coming;
port-a-wall white walls for your black wall tires
removing your hub caps and painting rims black and
dad telling you it was illegal to have your nuts
showing
sears christmas catalog
sears roebuck sold christmas trees and had a true
toyland
lowering your car in the rear
remember exhaust cutouts placed before the muffler
watching some one else eat a corn dog because you
didn't have the money to buy one
chicken wings were desperation eating, not a
delicacy
mom would fry the whole chicken including the back
and neck
biscuits were made every morning
you worked all day on friday
you went to work, sick or not
same for school
couldn't afford streak-of-lean bought fat fat with
the rind on instead
mom would boil a smoked picnic ham
left over ham bone always went in pot of beans
dried beans almost every meal
home from school, bean juice and white bread, no
beans, for snack, later mom would add water back
to bean pot for supper
wouldn't apply for commodities no matter how
little you had to eat
i'm sure there will be plenty more

10 miles south of tuscumbia in the small community of new bethel. 25 miles or so to redbay, i too have relatives there.

hey downsouth, as a young teenager i would spend a lot of time in the nnalert section of the sears catalog, my version of playboy for the era.

OMG Pete, I hate to admit it but I did the same thing.
My Mom worked at Monkey Wards for years and years and she would bring home every catalog they have put out, same thing!
And I remember annoying my folks to take me to Sears so I could get the Christmas catalog so I figure out just exactly what I wanted that year.......and never got.
I remember in PE the guys would all get dressed quick so they could run over to the girls side to watch them run out of their locker room. I was smarter, I was always late getting back in as I hung around the entrance and watched them run back in since they were all hot and sweaty by then. LOL.....ahhh the good old days...
Coach called my Mom one time and told her what I was up to. She told him, yea he got that from his Dad. Oh my...

yea my favorite was when they would lay on their back with legs and feet extended up in the air and and and, well, i used to remember.

Wow, Pete, what a trip down memory lane! I can relate to 98 percent of those things you and the other guys named. Here are a few of my recollections of "back in the day...."


Guys rolled up the sleeves of their short-sleeved shirts.
Guys rolled a cuff on their jeans.
Guys rolled their pack of cigarettes up in the sleeve of their t-shirt.
Guys used Lucky Tiger hair wax to make their flattops stand up and to make their “ducks” hang tight. Only the uncool still wore their hair with a part and used Vaseline Hair Tonic or Wildroot Cream Oil, (Charlie).
Guys “shaved” the hood and deck of their cars. Added chrome extensions to their tailpipes. Added clip-on fender skirts. If they couldn’t afford new whitewalls, they bought Porta-Walls that fit around the rim on the outside of the tire. Dressed it all out with brushed aluminum “moon” wheel covers.
Cool guys cleaned their fingernails with a switchblade knife.
Cool guys could pop open their Zippos with just two fingers.
Black high-top tennies with the white circle on the ankle were not a fashion statement, they were just tenny-shoes.
In high school If a guy tried to give the impression that he was “getting it on” with a girl, you could be almost certain he was lying. A girl getting pregnant out of wedlock was almost unheard of. There were a fair number of weddings that were announced in the paper after the fact, though.
Nothing was open on Sunday.
Country folks generally went to town only on Saturday. They stayed all day and just hung around on main street, visiting.
With few exceptions, the old farmers wore bib overalls: there was either a Prince Albert can in the front pouch, or a Bull Durham sack with the tag hanging outside. Often the stem of a pipe (either a Kaywoodie or a Dr. Grabow) was visible. There was also a pocket watch tucked into one of the pockets, with a chain and fob anchored to one of the button holes put there for that purpose. Usually a carpenter’s pencil protruded from the pencil slot. The old guys wore a blue or khaki long-sleeve shirt with the top button buttoned.
On wash day mommas boiled their white stuff in the big iron pot, and added Mrs. Stewart’s Blueing to make those whites look even whiter. Other stuff she washed in P&G Soap.
The older women pretty much had one hair style: waist-length, rolled into a tight bun at the back of their heads. They also had an apron for every occasion, and they didn’t go outside without their bonnet. The older women wore light brown opaque stockings, held up just below the knee with an elastic garter, with the top of the stockings rolled down over the garter. Lace-up shoes with a 2-inch heel. Attractive.
Other random recollections: Life Buoy Soap, Octgon Soap, Groves Chill Tonic, cod liver oil, milk of magnesia, Ipana Toothpaste, Orange Crush, Nesbitt’s, Grapette, Nehi, Fleer’s Double Bubble, Holloway All-Day Sucker, ten-cent comic books.

Nice!

Wasn't it channels 2-13 on VHF? Actually, found this: Television was added to the VHF band in 1941 on channels one through six. During World War II, channel one was removed and used only for war purposes. Later, in 1945, channels seven through thirteen were added.

Still have a local station that goes off air after Letterman, Fergison, and a Friends rerun every night.

I still have a rotary phone on the wall, rented from the phone co. Was a party phone line at one time, old phone but a good loud ringer I can hear outside!

Still have cistern water off the roof for soft water.

Neat list, sorry for my rumblings.

Paul

Sitting in front of the fireplace at Grand Dad's on a Sunday afternoon.
Grand Dad opening the front of the mantel clock and taking out the key and winding the clock.
Listening to the rain on a tin roof.
Free coffee cup with a fill up at the service station.
Quart oil cans made of metal.
Chrome trim rings on your wheels that were held in place by the hubcap and gave the appearance of a full wheel cover.
Around here most of us went for the "spinner" or "flipper" type wheel covers.
The long "cruiser" style fender skirts, patterned after the 57 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser.
BTW, I have a brand new set of port-o-walls, I think they are 13 inch, and two or three sets of the chrome trim rings. I got them when we relocated the dealership and the parts manager was going to throw the stuff away. I also got the lighted genuine Motorcraft clock out of the showroom.

Rustred

Remember "The Specialist"?

I remember.
grease on the school bus windows. From all the guys.
playing in the dirt at the local garage,soaked in who knows what.
the oil recovery barrel at the garage.
getting full service at the gas station
getting snow cones at the ice house
hauling ice to my grandmothers ice box
the bell ringing when someone pulled into the station
watching tv on grandma's tv on a yoke
churning butter
Sunday making ice cream on the porch
trying to fiqure out how bluing made something white
party lines
old ladies and their bullet proof blue hair
midnight in paris perfume
certain sections of the sears and monkey wards catalogs
2x4 holding the gear shift in place on the hay truck
getting kicked by my first cow
fighting the hens for the eggs
watching cows after they had their fill of fermented silage juice I thought they were sick. Dad said no just drunk.
four tv channels one was part time

My grandma used to whip my butt for doing that. Told me nice boys don't look at such things.Couldn't always hear her coming. Because of the clock she had. Tick Tock so loud you could hear it all over the house.

I see so much that I still have or have had and done. Still got those cardboard oil cans.

Some of the things I remember might be a tad different since I grew up in cotton country on the south plains of Texas, but some are the same.

Going to the country store with wood floors to buy a pound of bologna (baloney) or pressed ham and it being wrapped in brown paper from a big roll. And sawdust on the floor behind the meat counter.

Going to the gin office and listening to the "old" men tell stories while they played dominos or checkers.

Playing "farm" out under the old shade tree using an old claw hammer as a plow, then using a rake with a broke handle as a harrow.

Going to bed at night in the summer with the window open and being lulled to sleep by the sound of a Chrysler 318 irrigation motor running in the field.

The rapid "tick tick tick" of static on the old TV when Dad got close to the house on the farmall M.

In the 60s hauled corn to RED BAY night and day. Seems like there was dog food plant or something. I know back then it was a all day turn from here in Northern Tenn but they paid more for corn than anyone.

The corner news stand where your dad did his Christmas shopping.Pipe tobacco for both grampas and a roll of Copenhagen for the farm hand.The cigar selection consisted of Dutch Masters,King Edward,and Roitans.

The hardware store that sold carbide lanterns and also had the parts to fix"em.

The autoparts store where the owner was the main counterman.He usually smoked a pipe and knew the number and location of what you needed.He also kept a box under the counter full of STP and other stickers for the kids to decorate there bike our note book with.

The neighborhood garage with the Blue Streak cabinet full of points and condensers.They changed oil and air up bike tires.And also put a new gasket in moms pressure cooker.

Rainy days meant a trip to the ford tractor dealer,local feed store and the shop that sold lawn mowers and repaired tires.

These are all personal experiences but I'm sure other's can relate.

Fishing for minnows in the creek with string and a bent pin hung off a stick, on the old neighbor's place. He came down and instead of running us off, brought us some real line and hooks to use.

Bottles of oil with a fill spout screwed onto the top, at the service station.

Gas pumps with a crank to zero out the total from the last fill-up.

Helping the service station guy adjust your brakes by slowly spinning the wheel while he took up the slack on the "star wheel" inside the brake drum- soon as it stops the wheel, back off two clicks.

Oblong boxes at the store where he kept each customer's receipt book, to keep track of their "tab".

Laying around on the floor at Sears, bored out of your mind, while Mom looked at dress patterns for her and your sisters.

The smell of the old feed stores- kind of a combination of grain, and the oiled wood floor.

Whole wall behind the counter at the hardware store, filled floor to ceiling with little bins, and a ladder that moved on a track to get to the high ones.

We didn't get bit by the old dog at school (from across the alley) because the teachers told us not to get near King, or he'd bite us. Seems like a lot easier solution than fences, lawsuits and the police.

Long pole with a little hook on the end, that stood in the corner of the school room, to open the top of the windows for ventilation in the spring.

Thanks, Pete and JM. Beautiful country and nice folks in that part of the world.

Going to the tire recapper in town to get farm equipment and car tires recapped.

Going to the local dairy with gallon pickle jugs to get fresh milk.

riding bikes to the nearest stream or lake for the first day of fishing season.

Helping out a friend and not expecting anything in return.

laying in bed listening to the coyotes sing you to sleep.

Leonard

Very familiar stuff to be sure. 69 years young, no more like OLD. Grew up in Mich and South Carolina. Dave

Very familiar stuff to be sure. 69 years young, no more like OLD. Grew up in Mich and South Carolina. Dave