Someone sent this to me recently. If you remember number 16..... then you are older than dirt.
Older Than Dirt Quiz : Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom. 1. Blackjack chewing gum 2.Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water 3. Candy cigarettes 4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles 5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes 6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers 7. Party lines on the telephone 8 Newsreels before the movie 9. P.F. Flyers 10. Butch wax 11.. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels... [if you were fortunate]) 12. Peashooters 13. Howdy Doody 14. 45 RPM records 15. S& H green stamps 16. Hi-fi's 17. Metal ice trays with lever 18. Mimeograph paper 19. Blue flashbulb 20. Packards 21. Roller skate keys 22. Cork popguns 23. Drive-ins 24. Studebakers 25. Wash tub wringers
If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!
I wonder what it means if you read posts on Audiogon that are titled;
"What is Hi-Fi", "How is mid-fi defined", "Hearing tests, where and how", "I need help with a Dual 1291 that rumbles", "New stereo trend", "Tubes and moisture", "TT sounds so bad, I cringe", "Real audiophiles dont like remotes", "Who needs a MM cartridge type when we have MC", "What did you own in the 60s?", "Vacuum tube chess set", "Aging technology verse inevitably aging ears", and this lollapaloozer "An audiophile goal" and finally "Farewell my friends".
1. coal furnaces 2. ice boxes 3. ice men bringing ice 4. operators asking "number, please." 5. men coming down the street ringing bells to sharpen scizzors and knives. 6. crystal radios 7. irons heated on a wood stove 8. portable record players 9. horse drawn beer delivery wagons 10. Penny post cards
Also, I remember when everyone used "lamp" cord as speaker wire, stock power cords that came with equipment, wooden equipment cabinets, cider blocks and wooden planks for audio equipment, electronic kits, hearing classical music in public school classes, record changers, and music consules with speakers, tuners, and record changers built in.
78's Metal toy soldiers. Shoe store x-ray device for sizing Sturmey Archer shifter on bike top tube Onion-skin marbles Cherry Mash candy (still available)
Scored 100%. I remember taking tubes from our old RCA Victor radio to Thrifty Drugs where there was a floor standing tube tester. The days of crew cuts and Pomade! "Flash Gordon", "Space Cadet" and "Spy Smasher" at the Sat. matinees.
I remember when Billy Barty used to sub for Sheriff John and when he sung "Put Another Candle on my Birthday Cake", it would be Sheriff John's voice. At first it freaked me out, but I got used to it. I just couldn't figure out the hows and whys.
I, too, remember the tube testers at the store and testing the new ones to put in our TV. One day when my dad was replacing a tube there was this big slamming noise. We looked over there was my dad, looking a bit dazed, in a seated position, flat up against the wall, warning us to be very careful when replacing tubes.
I realize we were kids, but we were some dumb little bunnies. Anybody remember "Flash Gordon" or "Space Cadet"; they could have picked those sets up at the 5 and dime store, and we thought it was all real. How about "Saturday Night Raslin"; Dick the Bruiser was the bad guy, and Lou Thez was the good guy. We believed every fake minute of it. Although I was too old for "Howdy Doody", I looked at it with my little cousins; what else could you do on a rainy day.
The supermarket had a floor standing self tube tester. They sold Fizzies drink tablets. We would suck on them while colored foam spewed out our mouths. My dad had a 56' Studebaker Commander 3 spd. In 66' I was 8, he taught me to drive it. The tavern sold draft quarts to go in paper containers. After dinner, kid in the driver seat, beer in the passenger seat in suberbia on a summer's eve. Mom was pissed! Then Christmas, the little Daisey BB gun under the tree, Mom hadn't know about...pissed again! Ah, fond memories of good ol' days!!
I must be 2 days older than God as it seems like yesterday when I read this list. I remember milk being delivered to my door, the Helmsman bakery truck, clothes lines, local dairies, walking under streets in downtown LA, seeing my feet while in the ocean, seeing passing satellites streaking through the MIlky Way, in the Valley! (try that now) 10 cent colas that you had to pull out horizontally, horney toads and lizards, chasing quail on my front yard, roosters taking credit for the rising sun, Damn I'm getting old.
I had the only good one they ever made; the SL-2 or something. B&W used them to demo the origonal 801s. I was a dealer for them and used one to drive mine; finally sold it with a pair of them. Most of their home amps were way bright.
. Bob, I was more a fan of the HO scale cars. I had an Aurora set with 40 feet of track. I bought a set for my 13 year-old son.....and he sneered at it. He'd much rather play with his XBox 360. .
I told my wife that I wanted an I phone and she asked me why. I told her because you can use it as a compass! I must have watched too many spy films.
And those big 1/24 scale cars on those tracks were the bomb, I remember saving all summer for a hot motor named the "Green Hornet" for one of my cars. It cost a cool $20. Which was big money for a 12 or 13 year old.
. The thing that amazes me is that I used to drool at the cool gadgets that Napoleon Solo, James Bond, Derek Flint and Maxwell Smart used to carry around. Now I have a gadget that I carry around that puts all their stuff to shame.
i remember wooking a wire to the metal grate covering the heater ducts and listening to static on a radio i got for my birthday. this was a week after we went to the fair and won a chameleon you attached to your shirt collar with a string
Mighty Mouse, Alice the Goon(popeye), Roadrunner at drive-ins, actually saw the 3 Stooges live at the Fulton Theater in Pittsburgh-wanted to run out and poke them in the eyes and kick them in the shins, Jack Paar, clodhoppers, Biblical epic movies, listening to the 1960 world series on the new-fangled transistor radios, Redi kilowatt,
I don't feel older than dirt, but I remember everything on the list and 99% of all else that has been mentioned here. For extra credit: who played Clarabell on Howdy Doody and what were the only words spoken by Clarabell? Answer: Bob Keeshan aka Captain Kangaroo. And, on the very last Howdy Doody show, Clarabell looked into the camera with tears in his eyes and said "Goodbye kids" ok ok I guess I have been around for awhiile.
the only place to buy records was the furniture store. albums were 6or7 78's in an album. flat top with fenders pegged paints,so tight you had to lay on the bed so your mom could help you pull them up.
That was pre Motorcycle Boots and my parents like yours wouldn't allow it. Does anyone remember Winky Dink ?? This may have been the first interactive TV show but it might have been only local viewing.And for those from the Philadelphia area. Bandstand before Dick Clark hosted and took it national with the named changed to American Bandstand
HA! You're right Goldeneraguy - Other than the belt and buckle placement many of us couldn't get out the door with a DA, T-Shirt and pegged pants. At least my folks stood in the way!! There was also the wide black "engineer's belt" and "engineer's boots" - I managed to get the belt.
Mapman, I LOVE those message tubes. I think they are SO cool. I have always wanted to buy an old building with pneumatic message tubes just to have them.
Puerto It was either a Garrison belt on Levi's or Wranglers or a thin plastic colored flexible belt with 14-15 inch pegged pants.And yes the buckle must always be somewhere other then center
East coast Older than Dirt people: Sealtest Ice cream, Dixie Cups with the movie star on the reverse of the peel away lid, fender skirts, fuzzy dice, donkey dicks, (crome pipe extensions), tee shirts with a cigarette pack rolled up in the sleeve, levis with rolled up cuffs and white socks - don't forget to put your belt buckle to one side (anywhere but the middle), DA haircuts, poodle skirts, saddle shoes and pony tails. Carling Black Label beer.
Mapman: You win one "attaboy"! Ras422 I totally forgot about the cat. Nice going! Then there was Milton Berle, George and Gracie, Jack Paar and Ajax the foaming cleanser - floats the dirt right down the drain. The Doublemint twins and going to sleep with strains of God Bless America still ringing in your ears - Thanks Kate!
2muse thanks for the memories. I fell in love with Princess Summerfall Winterspring the first time I saw her.They replaced her with another the following year so I stopped watching the show. Good Humor Bars were 12 cents so I waited for the Bungalow Bar truck they were only 10 cents.After all I was saving for a 78 record player. I remember Buster Brown shoes but cant remember the name of his dog who lived in the shoe.I didn't care for Black Jack gum but loved Double Bubble and Bazooka along with the comics that came in the wrapping. The best deal was the free hard stick of bubble gum that came in the package of baseball cards,all for a nickle. I still remember the first kid in the neighborhood to have a TV.He never knew he had so many friends.Tuesday night was Capt.Video followed by Milton Berle.We would all sit on the floor in the darkened living room stretched out wall to wall.His parents had to step over us just to move about. The music sounds much better on today's playback components and a lot of equipment has come and gone,but I will always gathering with childhood friends and listening to 78's
Howdy Doody (Clarabell, Mister Bluster, Flubadub, Princess Summerfall Winterspring, and I just read that Chief Thunderthud's greeting was "Kowabonga!") on a 5" square b/w TV, but later I got to be on the show in the "Peanut Gallery" at Rockefeller Center! I remember my sister complaining about Buffalo Bob smelling funny. Disney showed Disneyland being built and we were very excited about actually getting to go there when it was done. I remember Buster Browns, but forgot Tige's name (that should qualify for extra points). We wore corduroy clothes. I remember them all except I don't remember Blackjack chewing gum either (was it regional?), but we had Double Bubble and Bazooka gum. Three Musketeer bars were a nickle and big enough to split between 3 kids. The UPS man was a big deal and of course the Good Humor Ice Cream truck. So was an airplane flying overhead. I learned to drive in a 1948 Dodge (3 on the column tank) and I named my first Jeep Nellybell. By high school we had McDonald's with 15¢ hamburgers and 12¢ fries. JFK was high school lunch time over the PA. Meanwhile, back at the ranch... (Hopalong Cassiday movies) Favorite entertainment: Freddy the Pig books. My first audio system: a hand-cranked 78 player in the basement playroom.
I remember when the tubes were the latest thing, they replaces a system of metal boxes which traveled on an open metal lattice up to the cashiers office, much cooler to watch. But not as cool as the automated donut making operation a department store in Terre Haute , In. use to have in its front window. The dough was shaped and dropped into a long channel of hot grease in which it meandered around being flipped over a couple of times until it reached the end of the journey and was automatically flipped out ready to eat. Almost certainly unhealthy but dammed good. It was in this store that I first encountered an escalator, my account of a stairs that moved by itself brought cries of Liar! Liar! from my elementary schoolmates until the teacher intervened. I was in the Chicago Theological Seminary cafeteria eating lunch when someone turned up the radio and we heard about Kennedy. A friend and I wired a Heathkit transistor amp [ my first SS] to distract our minds while we watched the events on TV.
How about stores with pressurized brass air tubes and capsules similar to modern equivalents that banks use for drive thru banking (proper name??) for moving papers, money, etc. from floor to floor?
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