Remember when?

[johnjeb]

I saw this and ran here to share it:

I remember these well but not fondly.

Just looking at this makes me want to run out for another Covid booster….followed by a Tetanus.

[9A]

Egads. I remember when they got stuck, too. Nowadays, a nice full paper towel dispenser is preferred. I hate when there is only a blow dryer on the wall. No patience.

[nativeNY63]

And when adult came over, us kids had to be quickly herded to the backrooms. All doors were closed and locked. And you better not even think about coming up front! You shoulda eat beforehand!! And you voice bet not be heard out of your room. No gaming, Internet, cellphones, or 99 inch Surround Sound 5K Viewing Stations[[TV set) in the late 60s-70s!! Many a kid perished from sheer boredom.

[nativeNY63]

Don't forget the plastic carpet runners!

[nativeNY63]

Or the ones where you messed up big time and rushed home early. Kid-figuring: by the time they get home [[from work or shopping)they would have forgotten; so you'll just go to bed early. Not. And No. The lecture was the easy part. I got whupped so bad one time that to this DAY I don't remember the whupping!! Follow me here, it was so brutal that my brain completely removed the memory from mind! The crime you say? We dumb kids were playing Hide and Seek. Simple enough, right? But no!! We were playing it at dusk. The time between sunlight and barely light and in the street. I yelled, Base! You couldn't find m...whammmooo!! Looking over my shoulder, running towards base [[a real brick mailbox) and didn't quite get my physics right. Needless to say, across the street neighbor[[where little brother NativeNY always ate our 1st dinner) Mom had to use her credit card to drive me to the ER to get my eyebrow stitched up and back on!!! Just one of those felonies ALONE is punishable with death!! I remember the doc wrapping the top of head up like Bela Logisi in The Mummy. I smartly preceded to fake-sleep, until Mommie Dearest came crashing through the house like gangbusters!! Lecture. And that's all I remember, honest. I see the scar, to this day at age 59!! Momma Said I'M Gonna Knock You Out!!!

[arr&bee]

i remember these well but not fondly.

Just looking at this makes me want to run out for another covid booster….followed by a tetanus.

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...immune or dead!!

[arr&bee]

Remember when the old[water hose]would be all tangled and it was your job[or your butt,hehe]to untangle it to water the grass?...darned grass,i wanted to replace it with cement,hehehe!!!

[Jerry Oz]

I remember having fun running through the sprinkler in the summer. That was a simple joy that only kids can truly appreciate. And also those blow-up "swimming pools" where you couldn't swim, but just sit down and soak on a hot day. It took my mom forever to blow it up by mouth [nobody had bike pumps or air compressors back then; my air compressor could blow one of them up - literally, blow it up - within 2 minutes]. I can still smell the plastic.

[arr&bee]

Haaaaaaaaaa,jerry you still[da man] i think every kid in america had one of those pools!

[arr&bee]

Remember when we kids would go to th top of a grassy hill, and just roll down to see who could get to the bottom first?

[Jerry Oz]

We had a hill in my neighborhood that we called "Kill Hill". We'd grab cardboard boxes from the trash bins of a local paper factory and climb up and slide down. Simple fun. I would swear that hill was 100 feet high, but when I drive by it now, it's probably about 35 feet high [with about 60 feet to slide].

I also remember playing football with my friends in local fields around my childhood home. Not sure how nobody ever broke a nose, leg or arm with how hard we hit each other. It was literally a crapshoot to avoid dog crap while we were out there. Nothing worse than smelling it and then realizing it's on your pants or shirt. Once we knew where it was, we somehow ran all of our plays far away from it.

Then, we also played a game we called Smear the Queer, which was essentially a rugby game where it was every man for himself. Imagine one guy running to the goal against 5-10 friends. It was brutal. But brutality is what we did.

We didn't play Buck Buck [thank God], but we played a game called Bebogees, where anybody caught saying a word beginning with a "b" got ruthlessly pummeled with fists into his arm, chest or back. And by "ruthlessly", I mean hitting as hard as possible. In order to stop it, the pummelee had to whistle and say "bebogees". [Try whistling while being punched].

We also played "Knuckles", where players whacked the back of their friends' hands a pencil until somebody gave up. Also, "Hot Hands" [one friend's hands on another, while the one on the bottom pulled his hand away to smack his opponent's hand] and gave each other "frogs", which was punching a knuckle into a friends' bicep to elicit a reflex where the muscle would contract painfully, looking like it had a frog in it.

And don't get me going on dodge ball.

[arr&bee]

Haaaa,we played[killer dodge]where we aimed for the face...ouch!!!

[ralpht]

I'll tell you a favorite of the dumb asses I hung with. A guy could punch you right in the shoulder as hard as he could but then......but then....if he said right away, "Just fucking around" you couldn't retaliate. Bright huh? Actually that one didn't last all that long.

[Jerry Oz]

Boys are the dumbest of God's creatures, to be sure.

And Jai, I'll never forget a kid I met in the 7th grade who got hit in the face playing dodge ball in 1st period gym class. It was against the rules and the thrower got eliminated, but the kid who got popped REALLY got eliminated. I talked to him in study hall about three periods later and he didn't know where he was. Pretty sure he had a concussion. He went home shortly afterward but returned later that week.

In 2022, that's going to get the gym teacher a lawsuit.

[lakeside]

Is anyone out there old enough to remember 'party lines' on phones? Your neighbors
could listen in to your conversations. These lines were cheaper, and you had to wait
until someone was off the phone to make a call. Way before area codes. I even remember our old number.....54OM. Sadly, I can't remember ANY of my passwords.

[arr&bee]

Haaaaaaaaa,hey jerry,every kid i hung with had a concussion,heck yeah i remember those party lines...the good old days!!

[9A]

Party lines were so annoying. At one point, we also had "limited service," and could
only make two calls a day. I remember my childhood phone number and my grandmother's. There were two letters and 5 numbers. The two letters represented the
"exchange." Ours was Townsend in Detroit.

Do you remember the weather service and also the time service? Did they count as
calls?

[Jerry Oz]

Up until about 20 years ago, my wife was able to hear calls made on cordless phones through a set of 900 mhz headphones I used to have. That was before cells were so prevalent. A couple of times, she heard our next door neighbor talking trash about us to another member of our resident association who used to try hard to pretend she was our best friend in the community. Upon hearing said smack talk, the "friend" told her we "couldn't put two sticks together", somehow commenting on our intellect, I guess.

And my aunt once picked up her cordless phone and overheard her neighbor the street complaining about "that bright yella ***** across the street" [referring to my aunt]. The neighbor would later act hurt when she'd wave at my aunt and be met with a cold shoulder.

[lakeside]

Remember the days before 'robo calls'?

[arr&bee]

I miss those days when you could dial[411]for[information.

[lakeside]

Before cell phones! I haven't seen one in years. Are they actually still around??

[lakeside]

And those early cell phones. Yikes! Remember when everyone had one
'strapped' to their belts?

[lakeside]

Let's not forget about 'pagers'. I worked in a hospital and all the docs had pagers.
It'd buzz and they'd then call the operator to see who they needed to contact. Wow!
The Dark Ages!

[sansradio]

Remember encyclopedias? These modern kids don't know how good they've got it.

[Jerry Oz]

I used to be so jealous of my cousins who lived in Virginia because they had a complete Encyclopedia Brittanica. I could pick up any volume and find hours of things to read.

By the same token, I contend the internet has created a world full of smart fools. To wit:
There was a time when I'd buy every football and basketball preseason yearbook to read up on my favorite teams [Falcons, Dolphins, Sixers, Nuggets, Buckeyes, and Tar Heels]. I'd soak up everything I could and then get my full $3 worth of knowledge by spending the next two months reading about everybody else.

Now? I never run out of information on the internet for my teams so I know dang near nothing about anybody that I don't like. It's the same with other areas, too. We know a lot about what we want to know and little about what we need to know for context.

But I digress. Encyclopedias were great.

[9A]

But I digress. Encyclopedias were great.

Wikipedia is great but not reliable. Anyone can contribute.

Ralph uses "The Oracle," by asking his phone, when wanting to learn the
age of a famous person or whether they are still alive. I race him on my
laptop to get the answer.

[sansradio]

My overachieving brother read our entire World Book set from A to Z. He's still a knowledgeable cat.

[arr&bee]

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...i still wear my phone on my belt!!

[lakeside]

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...i still wear my phone on my belt!!

I hope your phone isn't as big as some of these new ones that are approaching 'laptop'
status! That could be quite impressive....or uncomfortable! LOL!

[arr&bee]

Remember when[march]was the windiest month and you couldn't wait to fly your kite?

[Jerry Oz]

Curiously, I remember watching flocks with hundreds of birds in them flying south in the fall and north in the spring. I haven't seen migrating birds in decades. I wonder why?

[144man]

I wonder if those of us who grew up before the Internet are less likely to look things up before playing the Woed Association thread.

[Jerry Oz]

That's cheating, IMO. With that being said, I unabashedly refer to song titles that are on my computer when I'm stuck for a reply. There are probably 100,000 or so titles now. I can't imagine how many vinyl albums it would take to contain songs in my digital files.

[144man]

I sometimes need to check spellings of surnames. Other than that, a psychiatrist could have a field day with my answers.

We used to play word games like this at school from about the age of 10.

[Jerry Oz]

Every so often, I'll use Google to confirm the title of a song I remember or artist names. I have collections of some artists that include songs that were both solo records and part of groups/bands. It's not unusual to find out that a song was recorded under a previous name [some songs can be attributed to the Drifters and/or Clyde McPhatter, for example].

[144man]

The other day I couldn't remember who recorded "What Is Soul?". I had to look it up, which was really annoying as I've got the record.

[Jerry Oz]

Welcome to the club. I'm always having deja vu all over again with song titles and artists. I hear the song and suddenly remember how much I used to like it back in the day. Some were my favorite songs and I'll have to wonder who made them and what their titles were. One of those songs was Bernard Wright's "Who Do You Love" and Kenny G's "Hi, How Ya Doing", both of which sent a little light on in my head when I heard them recently. Played them until the tape broke back in the day and couldn't remember them until halfway through the song just now.

[arr&bee]

curiously, i remember watching flocks with hundreds of birds in them flying south in the fall and north in the spring. I haven't seen migrating birds in decades. I wonder why?

trump built a wall to keep em out!!

[Jerry Oz]

trump built a wall to keep em out!!

I think he did it to keep his deplorable flock in, not to keep anybody out.

[144man]

When I used to play out in the streets in London, there used to be sparrows. Now all we have left are the pigeons.

[sansradio]

Speaking of birds, I remember sitting under our tree in the front yard at @ 4 years old when a bird pooped on me from above. I ran into the house screaming for bloody murder that "a dodo bird just pooped on me!!!!!" My mom, suppressing a smile, calmly said, "Honey, the dodo bird has been extinct for 400 years." Guess I got my "dodo" and "doo-doo" mixed up...

[144man]

I'm sure they do it on purpose...

[Jerry Oz]

Speaking of birds, I remember sitting under our tree in the front yard at @ 4 years old when a bird pooped on me from above. I ran into the house screaming for bloody murder that "a dodo bird just pooped on me!!!!!" My mom, suppressing a smile, calmly said, "Honey, the dodo bird has been extinct for 400 years." Guess I got my "dodo" and "doo-doo" mixed up...

Okay, I LOLed and almost had to explain this to my wife.

[Jerry Oz]

Speaking of birds, some of you are old enough to remember when the easiest way to name your group was to think of which bird, car or brand of cigarettes hadn't been selected already. I arrived shortly thereafter when all bets were off the board for what you could name a group or band.

[144man]

I saw this and ran here to share it:

They still have these in the restrooms of stations on the London Underground network.
The company that operates them is called Towelmaster.

[nativeNY63]

I wonder if those of us who grew up before the Internet are less likely to look things up before playing the Woed Association thread.

Two words: Encyclopedia Brittanica.
Nature questions? Time-Life Books.
Easy or light reading? Reader's Digest.
What's on the tube? TV Guide.
Can't find that pesky phone number? Yellow Pages. Toilet clogged? White Pages.

[arr&bee]

Dial[o]for operator...try that today and a robot will tie up the line for an hour!!

[Jerry Oz]

Two words: Encyclopedia Brittanica.
Nature questions? Time-Life Books.
Easy or light reading? Reader's Digest.
What's on the tube? TV Guide.
Can't find that pesky phone number? Yellow Pages. Toilet clogged? White Pages.

Man, those days are gone. I don't think I get phone books anymore. I remember running to the mailbox ton Thursday afternoons to get the TV Guide so I could check to see who was playing football on Saturday and Sunday afternoons [there were no night games] as well as to see what monster/sci-fi movies were coming on in the slots that normally showed them [usually Friday nights and Saturday afternoons and nights]. Life was so much simpler for me back then.

Also makes me wonder if anyone gets magazine subscriptions anymore besides doctors' offices. We used to get TV Guide, Ebony, Jet, Time, Newsweek, and Reader's Digest. After I moved out, Pops was getting ESPN The Magazine for more than a decade. Nobody that I know even buys magazines now. Mom subscribes to the local newspaper, though. It costs $5 for Sunday and $2 for daily, even though it's a third as big as it used to be. Pretty sure it'll be gone within a decade.

[9A]

Dial[o]for operator...try that today and a robot will tie up the line for an hour!!

"Dial?" Is that still a verb? I use it with people who know what I'm talking about.



I just got a thin volume of the yellow pages a couple of weeks ago. It went
straight into the trash.

[arr&bee]

Maybe you shoulda kept it, the smithsonian might call someday!!