OT: Bygone Behaviors

[Duncan Idaho]

Letter writing. I receive a letter from my cousin about once a month. I cherish every single cross out, scribble, misspelled word and silly animation.
Its the way she chooses to stay in touch, I love it.

 

[DaddyChoc]

A cab? What were you slumming?

we weren't familiar with the subway system... so 4 kids chipping in on a 8.00 cab fare was no biggie. once we were old enough to drive we rented cars and drove to Queens (Jamaica Ave) or Brooklyn (Albee Square Mall). I never been on a subway in the many times Ive been to NY

 

[Husky25]

I have a letter from my grandfather to his father telling of my mother taking two friends to the then equivalent of a 7-11 and treating them to some candy. She told the shop owner to put it on her father's tab. He did. My mom was three-and-a-half at the time.

Penny candy actually costing a penny.
A dime bag actually costing a dime.

 

[Husky25]

I can't remember anyone putting salt on a driveway or even shoveling one. You just drove over the snow. Roads too.

Fun times with only rear wheel drives, no traction control, or downhill assist.

How about Gasoline costing less than $2.00/gallon in a robust economy?

How about Cars being more mechanical than computerized, allowing Dad to fix anything in half a day?

 

[boontonbomber]

in the 40s my uncle would pull into a gas station and say " I'll have $2 worth".

 

[Buzzyboy]

In the late '40's my mom would put me on the #23 bus, telling the driver (who she did not know personally)
that my grandma will be waiting at Hudson Blvd. and 67th St. (3 towns away). I arrived safely each time.
I was 6 years old.

Are their acts you know of that are no longer part of our culture?

Just noticed your picture of Bishop Fulton Sheen whose face I hadn't seen in a very long time. I used to enjoy (as a kid) seeing his TV show! I'm curious as to why you picked his picture! Good choice, though!

 

[rocky rococo]

Adjusting the rabbit ears.

 

[wire chief]

Just noticed your picture of Bishop Fulton Sheen whose face I hadn't seen in a very long time. I used to enjoy (as a kid) seeing his TV show! I'm curious as to why you picked his picture! Good choice, though!

Like you, out of childhood admiration.

 

[ed4ourgirls]

The "good old days" weren't always good. How about telephone party lines.

Forget about the NSA - you had to be worried about Mrs. Jones monitoring your conversations.

 

[wire chief]

The "good old days" weren't always good. How about telephone party lines.

Forget about the NSA - you had to be worried about Mrs. Jones monitoring your conversations.

No, they weren't, since the ancestors of many of our favorite young women were deprived of civil rights.

 

[Sonny44]

Hitchhiking everywhere.
unwrapped Halloween candy

Yes, often cookies or popcorn.

 

[Sonny44]

1) A bit more 'historiccal' may be using ashes from the coal stove on the sidewalks and also the road/hill? (Especially interesting when the ashes were still hot from the fire)

2) 1) Reminds me of recapped tires, which were commonly used for both snow tires and regular to save $.

3) The thing about 'touching' people is creepy. Similar to the danger of being arrested or at least suspected of bad intentions for smiling at or saying 'Hi' to a youngster in public, especially while shopping.

Remember cinders?

 

[Sonny44]

Surprised no one mentioned this one:
When you wanted to play with a friend you walked over to his door and started shouting his name as loud as you could. John-eeeeeeeeeee oo Bob-eeeeee, until they either came out or there mother told you to go away. Remember?
No worries about waking up the neighborhood.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

Fun times with only rear wheel drives, no traction control, or downhill assist.

How about Gasoline costing less than $2.00/gallon in a robust economy?

How about Cars being more mechanical than computerized, allowing Dad to fix anything in half a day?

I grew up in a refinery town. The lowest price I ever paid for gas was 15.9 cents per gallon.

 

[TDiNozzo]

24 cents in New Haven, and they pumped it, and checked your oil.... and gave you a glass or steak knife...1967

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

How about walking around as a kid with the postman on his route (well, the couple of blocks near your house) or even, now-a-days, actually knowing your post-person.

Also, I do remember milk delivery, but seem to recall seeing the Diaper Service as well. And visits from the Fuller Brush Man.

Also, folks from the neighborhood coming around and collecting for charity. You would sign up and get a block or 2 to collect from, I forget the charity.

And, lest we forget, S&H Green Stamps. And some other brand, I forget, they weren't green.

 

[Dove]

I remember playing games with kids that actually burned calories. And not in structured leagues, either. Actual neighborhood pick up games

 

[DaddyChoc]

Surprised no one mentioned this one:
When you wanted to play with a friend you walked over to his door and started shouting his name as loud as you could. John-eeeeeeeeeee oo Bob-eeeeee, until they either came out or there mother told you to go away. Remember?
No worries about waking up the neighborhood.

now you text them "come out, Im around the corner"

 

[DaddyChoc]

I remember playing games with kids that actually burned calories. And not in structured leagues, either. Actual neighborhood pick up games

a game of "21" with 8 other sweaty teenagers... you got 20 and if you miss the freethrow you go back to 11

 

[Zorro]

Putting pennies on the rr tracks to be flattened. Hitching rides on the (always empty) caboose of the Missouri Pacific freight from town (very small town Kansas) out to the railroad bridge just outside of town, jumping off and rolling down a grassy slope. Sometimes swiping a few flares from the caboose. Fishing with a cut sapling, a piece of string and a bent pin. (Don't remember if we ever caught anything; doubtful.) Making "rubber guns" out of wooden cut-outs, clothespins and cross-sections cut from the real rubber that inner tubes used to be made from. (Those things could really raise a welt) Cooperative hay, wheat and corn harvests of bunches of neighbors that moved from farm to farm during harvest season, and the incredible meals that the farm wives and daughters would bring to farm being harvsted. Pies, roasts, fried chicken by the tub. Makes me hungry just thinking about it. Playing basketball in someone's driveway from schools out til it got too dark to see.

 

[JRRRJ]

The earliest deposit/refund system implemented in the U.S. for bottles and cans was 1972 in Oregon.

Sorry, I collected soda and beer cans and bottles for refund in Connecticut starting sometime in the early- or mid-sixties. By the 70s I was in college and more interested in emptying bottles than collecting them...

 

[JRRRJ]

Fun times with only rear wheel drives, no traction control, or downhill assist.

How about Gasoline costing less than $2.00/gallon in a robust economy?

How about Cars being more mechanical than computerized, allowing Dad to fix anything in half a day?

During the mid-60s gas wars, my dad would pull the '64 Beetle into the cheap gas station (one of the first self-service station in town) and put 75 cents of gas in after a week of commuting from Manchester to south Glastonbury. Gas got as low as 12.9 and was under 20 cents a gallon for an extended period.

 

[JRRRJ]

I can't remember anyone putting salt on a driveway or even shoveling one. You just drove over the snow. Roads too.

Not when it was more than a foot deep, which wasn't uncommon in the 50s & 60s. And sometimes it was a foot of wet snow. Super-double-plus-un-happy for shoveling.

 

[Fishy]

This is an old people only thread, isn't it?

In ye olde days, we could strangle a Seth Green lookalike and hide his body without having to answer too many questions about it. Then again, we could probably get away with it today, too.

Free reign as a kid, as long as you were home when the street lights came on. Biking into other towns to see friends, hiking for miles in the woods were all fair game.

During the summer, you were just gone as soon as you got out the front door - you could be gone for 10-12 hours, be miles and miles away and your parents never worried a bit. I guess there's always the chance they were trying to get rid of us, but still.

 

[JimGunther]

That would probably be 1962 or 1963 -about the time some of the "third / lower" octane grades (such as Gulftane - were introduced.

I had just turned 16 and had to go to Texas to recover my brother's 1952 MG TD. In the Air Force, he had blown the motor before shipping out to China (Taiwan or Formosa).
Long story short: I passed a number of gas stations in Texas -where there were oil derricks visible nearby the stations - and gas was on sale for OVER 20 cents per gallon.-- 25 to 35 percent higher than in Connecticut!
Never figgered how that could be....still puzzles me somewhat.

During the mid-60s gas wars, my dad would pull the '64 Beetle into the cheap gas station (one of the first self-service station in town) and put 75 cents of gas in after a week of commuting from Manchester to south Glastonbury. Gas got as low as 12.9 and was under 20 cents a gallon for an extended period.