The last time we got Yellow Pages, we were informed it was made out of a type of paper that couldn't be recycled.
The last time we got Yellow Pages, we were informed it was made out of a type of paper that couldn't be recycled.
Haaaaaaaaaaaa...too many phones...i'm flipping out over here!!!
Did we talk about house and basement parties? The red or blue light in the basement? The Sliw Drag? Jamming to GQ, Heatwave, Parliament Funkadelic. Block parties?
Oh yeah,always a fun topic, for my crowd those parties always ended on a slow note with a smokey song...ooo baby baby- folk in the rqad...the golden days!!
Yeah, we hit those way back at the beginning. I'll never forget sneaking into the basement as a kid when my folks were dancing with all of my uncles, aunts and their friends. A lot of the stuff on the new version of ABC's The Wonder Years reminds me of my experiences in the '60s and '70s. Anybody else watching it?
Remember when people didn't mind taking a joke against themselves?
We've forgotten how to laugh at ourselves, as the joker would say....why so serious??
I remember my grandparents gave me some to try once when I was about 5 years old and I thought it was poison!!
Remember when being in elementary school was fun...and safe?
Man, I never had an active shooter drill. The level of stress kids carry into classrooms is horrifying. I'm glad I'm not the parent of a schoolkid.
Jerry, i told my daughter who has two little ones to homeschool em,i know we can't protect em from everything, but I'll be damned if I'm sending them into a fire zone just by them going to a school house!!
We had air raid drills in the Fifties and had to wear dog tags with our blood types.
Somehow, I was never frightened by it. Just seemed like a precaution.
I remember we used to get tuberculosis tests in school. I got them almost every year in elementary school ['60s] but don't remember having one in junior high or later.
For the UK section - remember when you walked to school. From the age of 5, I walked to school and back 1 mile each way in all weathers. Admittedly, I did have my 7 year old brother to help me cross the road - when he could be bothered.
Remember when[white wall tires]was a thing?
Ed H: I walked five blocks to elementary school with my big sister and brother; the last two years by myself. I'd never let a kid do that in 2022. I lived a mile and a half from my junior high school and we walked there, as well. Then, we lived two miles from high school and guess what? We were two blocks short of the distance necessary to catch the bus. I walked in blizzards and thunderstorms before thankfully getting my license in my junior year.
I'll never forget the day [as a sophomore] when we were called to assemble in the afternoon. They told us we were under a tornado warning [not a watch; a warning meant that a funnel had been seen in the area] and sent us all home two periods early. I was walking two miles home in a storm while checking the skies for a twister when, for no good reason, my sister saw me and gave me a ride home. I'm not even sure why she was looking, she had no clue that we'd been let go. Others don't have to be religious, but little things like that lead me to believe there's something out there that's outside of human understanding that doesn't control our lives, but influences them.
When I ask my sister why she came for me, she still can't answer.
In Winnipeg, back during the 1940s and 1950s, they almost NEVER cancelled school days for too much snow. We used to ski to school [[on cross-country skis). We didn't even bring them into the classroom. We just stood them against the outside walls of the classrooms. No one would steal them back in those days. Nowadays, they'd likely be stolen.
We didn't have skis, but we had to walk in the streets for much of the road because people didn't always shovel their walks after heavy snow. It kills me when my local school district cancels classes the night before 2 or 3 inches of snow are predicted to fall. In my 13 years [including kindergarten], I'm sure we had no more than 5 total calamity days. Other than the '77 blizzard, where schools were closed for a week. Now, schools usually cancel 5-7 days a year and sometimes, it doesn't even snow.
I was in walmart the other day and saw, a duncan imperial yo-yo, brought back some great memories!
How about this. The rubber string would break and you would tie it together until it got shorter and shorter....or was that just me? LOL
[QUOTE=ms_m;723335]How about this. The rubber string would break and you would tie it together until it got shorter and shorter....or was that just me? LOL
We called them "Bolos." I loved them and they were inexpensive. When the string became useless we would try using a ping pong ball without a string. I guess "Paddle
ball" was a more descriptive name. I might be crazy but I think we paid fifteen cents for them. Of course, that was a lot of money for a kid -- three large candy bars.
Looking at the paddle ball reminded me of clackers [which we called 'click-clacks]. You held the plastic ring and tried to lift/lower it in rhythm to make the balls strike each other above and then below your hand. I was never good at it, but I knew people who were great.
Never heard of them. Jerry, you are SO much younger than I am.
Wikipedia:
"Clackers, also known as Clankers, Ker-Bangers, and numerous other names, were toys popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
"Clackers were taken off the market in the United States and Canada when reports came out of children becoming injured while playing with them. Fairly heavy and fast-moving, and made of hard acrylic plastic, the balls would occasionally shatter upon striking each other."
Yeah, the balls would chip and small sharp pieces would fly off. I'm sure some kids got them in their eyes. What a simple age that was when kids could spend hours playing paddle ball, clackers, jacks, hopscotch, tether ball, dodge ball, hide and seek, tag, etc., etc., etc. Now, a kid will think you're nuts if you think he can entertain himself/herself without a cell phone or a tablet.
And I've been recovering from back spasms for the past week. When I read your post and got to "late 1960s and early 1970s", my back tightened up again. Thanks for that reminder, Nina.
Reminder of what, Jerry? How young you are? Try early 1940s.
LOL....I just told my doctor the other day how getting old was REALLY interesting!
15 cents sounds about right 9a. I think I use to get them from Woolworth's for that price; a real 5 and dime type store back in the day and known for other things as well but that's another topic and thread!
You guys have me crying with laughter reading through this thread...
and Jai I didn't know greasy grady's was still around. Thought the health department shut it down years ago. LOL
I must confess I rarely keep cash on me these days. Not too long ago I was looking in my wallet and realized I actually had cash in it. Don't even know how long it had been there. Nice surprise though!
You have me by a... few years. Let's just say that I'm old enough to thank God for every day when I get a new one. When I watch the new version of The Wonder Years, it lands with me because the kid in the show would have been about two years older than me [as old as my brother].
"5 and dime?" We called it "dime store" here in Detroit. Furthermore, it prompted
some research about Kresge's and Woolworth's. It seems Woolworth is older by a
few years. We preferred Kresge's. Can you name any songs that have Woolworth or 5 and dime [5 and 10 cents] in them?
Woolworth and Woolco were both referred to as five-and-dime stores in Columbus, too.
Remembering childhood toys, who remembers playing Jacks or Pickup Sticks?
Both games could be played solitaire. Inexpensive. I got pretty good at
both.
Here's a real oldie -- Who played Hopscotch by using a lump of coal on
the sidewalk? You're all too young. Remember coal?
I remember coal, but not when playing hopscotch. The kids in my neighborhood just found a rock. And I remember my sister and cousin playing jacks. They were good. They could get up to fivesies and sixsies and I could never complete a round of twosies. And I remember pickup sticks, too. I never had them, but we played with them in school.
Oh, and some of us will remember playing with these:
Plastic toys were just coming into existance when I was a child. They were considered fragile and cheaply made, often from Japan.
Girls were better at Jacks than boys. Just saying ...
I hear ya, Sis...
I'll bet you remember this:
I remember it somewhat. Did you do cat's cradle?
I didn't do it, but saw my elementary school friends do it. To be sure, I never understood the appeal of playing with string. But I think the whole point of games like jacks and cat's cradle is the fun you have with your friend playing them. I wonder if that aspect of early socialization is missing in this modern digital age? Kids still play on the playgrounds at school, but I wonder if something has been lost?
I'd also like to know if any of those old games would be therapeutic to kids on the autism spectrum. I'd think their unique focus would make them more interested in doing anything with their hands, be it with a friend or alone.
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...hey ms m, they've been trying to close grady down since the end of[wwii] legend has it that it was his food that started that war, hey jerry i remember those clack clacks, i used to miss and hit my hands[ouch]!!
"Till that day you know darn well, Baby..."
Here's another --
I Found a Million Dollar Baby [In a Five and Ten Cent Store]
My sister's played jacks, pick-up sticks and hop-scotch. But boys in our neighbourhood didn't. They played Street Hockey in May and early June and September and early October. We were in The Netherlands all summer, where girls did play Hop-Scotch, but boys played voetbal [[soccer). We had a double [[2) backyard ice rink. So I played hockey every day from late October through April. No time for frivolous games.
As for coal, born just after The War, I remember it very well. All you had to do was go down to your basement and pull a lump out of the coal trough [[box), where your coal chute empties. But, around Christmas time, you can just pull one out of your Christmas stocking. In The Netherlands, we can do that in early December. But, we still might get a spanking from Swaartje Piet, even if our stocking is empty. Of course, I'm Jewish, so I don't have to worry about that. Along with my similar aged 1st cousin, I was our family's main furnace coal shoveler from ages 12-16, in two different countries. And main walkway and driveway snow scraper/shoveler, too!
Last edited by robb_k; 12-01-2022 at 07:58 PM.
Last edited by 9A; 12-02-2022 at 07:37 AM.
Hey,remember when houses had oil heat and the whole house would have that smell, after the oil man came?
Do you all realize that[1980] was forty two years ago??? 1980!!!
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