The good old days for people over 40: Check this post.

[JadeOrchidSong]

Just read this and love it.

http://www.homeschoolreviews.com/forums/4/thread.aspx?id=87301

[Sophia]

I remember the safety arm, lol!

[Mothersweets]

Thanks for the laugh! I think I'll have to force my kids to go outside and do some time traveling today.

[KidsHappen]

I think I fell somewhere between the generations. I had to walk five miles in the driven snow to school each day! :tongue_smilie:

[Robin M]

That is so great and such memories it brings us. The safety arm. I learned to do that from my folks. I once did that to a female friend a few years back and and she gave me the funniest look. Had to explain about the safety arm and it was just reflex.

[Chelle in MO]

I think I fell somewhere between the generations. I had to walk five miles in the driven snow to school each day! :tongue_smilie:

 

And surely it was uphill both ways, too! ;)

[Joy at Home]

" Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our but! Nowhere was safe!"

 

Yep, the good old days:confused:. (I know this is supposed to be taken light-heartedly, but this part annoys me. I see this type of essay written in different variations in different places, but let's face it, some things have changed for the better as well).

 

Lisa

[MomOfOneFunOne]

I gave my poor daughter a bloody lip with Safety Arm (eventhough she was buckled). Don't tell protective services!

[nono]

" Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our but! Nowhere was safe!"

 

Yep, the good old days:confused:. (I know this is supposed to be taken light-heartedly, but this part annoys me. I see this type of essay written in different variations in different places, but let's face it, some things have changed for the better as well).

 

Lisa

 

Did you read the lead in sentence to that? It was:

 

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

 

 

 

I think she's agreeing with you .:001_smile:

Edited January 22, 2011 by nono
ETA: My last sentence disappeared! Sorry!

[mcconnellboys]

No tape players around my house! But we did have a microwave. Fast food was the Dairy Queen, only game in town.... No seatbelts required in cars, even when I went to college. I drove a 1963 Pontiac Bonneville with a 400 cu. in. V-8 engine and a glass pack muffler. Everyone wanted to race. It's a wonder I survived.....really.

[Joy at Home]

Did you read the lead in sentence to that? It was:

 

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

 

 

I think she's agreeing with you .:001_smile:

 

I really didn't read it like that, though. She concludes:

 

See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! Kids today have got it too easy. They're spoiled rotten! How long would many of today's kids last if they had to go back to the 60's and 70's. Maybe 5 minutes.

 

 

Don't get me wrong, I agree with most of this:) But I can't think of the beatings I got as a kid as the "good ole days".

 

Lisa

[gardening momma]

and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

:lol:

I do remember slamming into the back of the front seat (I was in the backseat) when we got into an accident late at night. I had been asleep, and of course none of us kids were buckled.

[Kathleen in VA]

One of the commenters mentioned rotary phones, too. There was no re-dial either - if you got a busy signal you had to go through the whole sequence again waiting for the dial to return to its original position after each number. Try winning a radio contest that way!!!

[hsmamainva]

I read the blog to my kids a little while ago! :lol:

 

I loved the one about having to actually go to the library and look things up! I had to explain to them about the library having card catalogs with drawers and drawers of index cards...and that was how you found the book you were looking for!

[Joy at Home]

I read the blog to my kids a little while ago! :lol:

 

I loved the one about having to actually go to the library and look things up! I had to explain to them about the library having card catalogs with drawers and drawers of index cards...and that was how you found the book you were looking for!

 

 

Yep. The Dewey decimal system always confused me:D

[Mommee & Baba]

:lol: I had to read that for dh. He enjoyed every bit of it :)

 

Thanks for sharing!

[redsquirrel]

Gosh, I am 40 and I had a car seat. Ok, it didn't keep me safe but my mom was trying, lol. That was back in 1970 vermont. My mom had me and my sister in the back of her VW bug! I remember her having a sort of huge bucket thing for my baby brother as well. it was rear facing and had no padding so my mom had him all wrapped up in blankets and sort of trapped by the seatbelt. It wouldn't have done a thing to keep him safe in an accident.

 

Good thing we weren't in the Ford Pinto, huh?

 

I remember remote controls and push button phones being pretty common. I do remember rotary at my grandfather's house but I don't remember not having a TV remote. We got MTV when I was in middle school. We had a microwave oven then too. I didn't have cartoons on a channel but they were def. on every day before school and after. We didn't have to wait for the weekends. I had nintendo with mario brothers, movies on the VCR, TV with cable and HBO and music on CDs. I know we had call waiting when I was in middle or early high school.

 

I think this is more for people closer to 50 maybe?

[PinkInTheBlue]

That was outstanding! Thank you :)

[The Girls' Mom]

Gosh, I am 40 and I had a car seat. Ok, it didn't keep me safe but my mom was trying, lol. That was back in 1970 vermont. My mom had me and my sister in the back of her VW bug! I remember her having a sort of huge bucket thing for my baby brother as well. it was rear facing and had no padding so my mom had him all wrapped up in blankets and sort of trapped by the seatbelt. It wouldn't have done a thing to keep him safe in an accident.

 

Good thing we weren't in the Ford Pinto, huh?

 

I remember remote controls and push button phones being pretty common. I do remember rotary at my grandfather's house but I don't remember not having a TV remote. We got MTV when I was in middle school. We had a microwave oven then too. I didn't have cartoons on a channel but they were def. on every day before school and after. We didn't have to wait for the weekends. I had nintendo with mario brothers, movies on the VCR, TV with cable and HBO and music on CDs. I know we had call waiting when I was in middle or early high school.

 

I think this is more for people closer to 50 maybe?

 

Maybe its regional too. I'm 34 and most of this applied to my childhood. No remotes, rotary phone, we did get an atari when it came out, no cable, getting kicked outside all day...lol.

[Sophia]

I think this is more for people closer to 50 maybe?

 

Maybe.

I'm 46 and could identify with it all.

[LibraryLover]

I remember my mother sadly telling me that sometimes social workers wanted to use SPCA laws to prosecute child abusers, since there were laws against animal cruelty, but there were no laws against beating children in those days.

Edited January 23, 2011 by LibraryLover

[KidsHappen]

And surely it was uphill both ways, too! ;)

 

Of course it was. :D

[Vida Winter]

I remember the "safety arm" LOL. My mom still does this, and we're a couple of old ladies!

 

And oh yes to the rest of it (I turn 50 this year - gasp).

[Michelle O. in MO]

We actually had a remote control for our TV, but it only had two buttons. One was the on/off button, the other was to change the channel. Unfortunately, the channel only changed forward so you had to go through all three channels to find something you liked. Beats having to get up and turn the channel every time. Oh, and we only had to dial the last four numbers of the entire seven digit phone number to call anyone in our nice, tiny town. Nice and simple. :001_smile:

 

Oh, and one last thing, it was a very big deal when a local bank got the first ATM machine in town. My mom was first in line to try it out.

Edited January 23, 2011 by Michelle O. in MO

[Mabelen]

Maybe.

I'm 46 and could identify with it all.

 

Me too, except for the party line. I don't think we had those in Spain!?

[Aggie]

When we left the house, Mom or Dad always asked, "Do you have a quarter?":lol:

 

For you young 'uns, the quarter was for the pay phone in case we needed to get in touch with our parents.:lol:

[nono]

When we left the house, Mom or Dad always asked, "Do you have a quarter?":lol:

 

For you young 'uns, the quarter was for the pay phone in case we needed to get in touch with our parents.:lol:

 

That's highway robbery! For us, if we could talk fast it was a dime! Only if we talked too long we'd hear the operator cut in and say, "Please deposit 15 cents."

 

As for the party line, in some/many metropolitan areas they didn't exist anymore in the late 60s, but in the mountains of PA they sure did. I remember we had to listen for a certain ring sequence to know the call was for us. Now at the shore in NJ, nobody had a phone. If someone wanted to get a message to you, they'd call the police station. It was very common to have an officer stop by and say, "Your brother called. They're coming to visit this weekend." :) Nobody thought twice when a policeman pulled up to your house.

[Heather in Neverland]

No party line for me but my parents still had a rotary phone back in the 90's. :lol:

 

No car seat or seat belts...just the safety arm.

 

My mom kicked us all outside in the morning and we did not come back until the street lights were on (except for lunch).

 

I got my first CD player at age 20, my first cell phone at 27, my first computer at 25. But no internet til 27.

 

I remember when cable tv came to our neighborhood. I was 12.

 

We got a microwave when I was about 16 I think but it was HUGE and made all kinds of noise! I am SURE I have some kind of radioactive poisoning from that! :lol:

[RegGuheert]

When Dad would drive to town my brother and I would BEG to ride in the bed of the truck and then we would fight over who got to sit on the wheel well on the driver's side so we could be closer to the oncoming traffic! When I was about 10 he got a new truck which had wheel wells which were rounded (spherical) instead of flat on top. We TRIED to sit on them, but it was no use!

 

We would sometimes spend all day for several days down in the creek pulling debris out. (Although I think I developed my rather well-developed fear of snakes in that creek!) All day bike rides were the norm in summertime, as well.

 

We didn't have a party line, but our playmates two doors down did. I can't tell you how confused I was when I picked up the phone one day to call home and there were people talking on it! Strange!

 

...but we STILL do not have cable at the house where we live now, though the house where I grew up does.

[MaMa2005]

LOL! I can also remember when we were calling our grandparents that we would call them 'collect' and they would refuse the call. Then they would call us right back. It was long distance to call them, but a local call for them to call us back. The good ole days! (And I turn 50 this year, too!)

[Danestress]

Old habits die hard!

 

That was fun to read.

[LisaKinVA]

Umm, we definitely had a toaster! In fact, I think toasters were around for my parent's generation (the 50's and early 60's)

 

I remember the safety arm, rotary phones, and the first microwave. I had to walk to school. I don't remember a party-line, though... maybe growing up in Silicon Valley had its advantages!

 

I remember when MTV played Music Videos (and I remember that there were a very few... and they repeated over and over). We got one of the first PONG sets when I was in the 5th grade, and we got the Atari a few years later.

 

I remember when the VCR came out... and I remember the BETA. I remember having a color television... in fact, that's all I remember, except when the television started to go out and it was various shades of green. My dad wouldn't replace it until it died.

[Harriet Vane]

:lol:

[TrixieB]

We got a microwave when I was about 16 I think but it was HUGE and made all kinds of noise! I am SURE I have some kind of radioactive poisoning from that! :lol:

My parents still HAVE and USE the microwave they got in... 1975, I think it was. It's built in one piece with the stove, and since the stove still works fine, and the microwave seems to work okay (though it makes some pretty strange sounds and the lights flicker off and on) they see no reason to replace it.

 

The upper part of the stove/microwave combo has a "digital" clock with numbers that roll around on cylinders. When we were kids, we'd run around the house pretending we were airplanes every night at 7:07, 7:17, 7:27, 7:37, 7:47 -- all the Boeing models. My mom got really tired of this! :D

[RegGuheert]

When we were kids, we'd run around the house pretending we were airplanes every night at 7:07, 7:17, 7:27, 7:37, 7:47 -- all the Boeing models. My mom got really tired of this! :D

Hmmm... :glare: There was no Boeing 717 until the late 1990s when Boeing bought McDonnell-Douglas and renamed the MD-95 the Boeing 717.

 

No wonder your mom was annoyed! ;)

[Dawn in OH]

I think this is more for people closer to 50 maybe?

 

Oh I don't know about that. I'm 38 and a lot of that applies.

 

I remember getting our first microwave. I remember having *gasp* black and white TV's in the house, our olive green rotary phone, the safety arm (and riding in the front seat under the age of 12!), and a host of other things mentioned.

[Vida Winter]

I thought of a few more...

 

remember the first calculators? They were *thick* and all they could do was + - * /, and they cost a fortune.

 

and when blow dryers were first introduced?

 

and back when I was young, "Seventeen" magazine was a big (in size) oversized magazine - and it was wholesome (not now - cringe).

[elegantlion]

I think some of it depends where you grew up. I was a suburban gal and some of resonates with me. We got cable and remotes while I was in middle school. I wasn't out chopping anything or feeding anything, except the cat.

 

I do remember our first microwave, I do remember watching DJs and videos on MTV, and I remember the phone my dad brought home from work. He worked in a TV station and it had no dial at all, just the red light in the center. It sat in the hall and if you needed to use it you drug the 50ft line into your room. If you wanted to dial out you had to go to the living room and use the rotary dial phone, which I think was a rental from the phone company.

 

I also remember when you could cruise the mall, in your cars, after closing. The security wouldn't kick you out until after midnight. :auto:

[Baseball mom]

Of course there were remotes for the tv. They were called the kids. :lol:

 

I remember my dad yelling at one of us to come to the living room and when we got there he told us to change the channel. We would stand there and change until he found what he wanted to watch (not like there was that many channels anyway ;)) It never bothered us, we just went right back to what we were doing.

 

Btw my dad didn't do it all the time.

[Chelle in MO]

Hmmm... :glare: There was no Boeing 717 until the late 1990s when Boeing bought McDonnell-Douglas and renamed the MD-95 the Boeing 717.

 

No wonder your mom was annoyed! ;)

 

There's a smart aleck in every crowd! ;)

[JFSinIL]

I remember when Dad had to take the station wagon in to have seat belts installed. He refused, himself, to use one.

 

I remember how exciting it was to have a Pong game on the b/w set in the family room.

 

When we first got cable tv - 30 channels!!!!!! WOW!!!! (I was in high school)

 

Our VW Bug had a running board - Mom let us hang-on while she backed down the driveway.

 

When the price of silver skyrocketed and the old movies I had been buying once a month with my babysitting money ($20 for a two-reel Chaplin) became too expensive. (I still have tons of 8 and Super*mm reels in the basement...)

 

I am currently watching Mad Men (thanks, Netflix!) and every time they show the Draper's home the kitchen, in particular, LOOKS LIKE MY MOMS!!! (and why don't we have dual ovens anymore? I miss baking cookies in one oven while a roast is in the other.)

 

We had the Draper's hi-fi stereo cabinet, too.

 

And - when did little kids stop making hand-print or leaf-shaped clay ash trays at school as gifts for Mom and Dad???

 

My in-laws still talk as fast as they can and then abruptly hang-up when they use the phone. Idle chit-chat wastes money!!!!

Edited January 23, 2011 by JFSinIL

[Soror]

I am only 31 but a lot applied to us. We lived rural, our town which we lived 10 minutes out of the city limits, had a population of 600. We had a party line- ol Granny was on there all the time! We got cable sometime in highschool, but only for a while and even then we only had 20 channels or so. Before then it was 1 channel and yep, cartoons on Saturday, that was it. My parents still have their old microwave as well. We didn't get CDs until highschool along w/ a computer I got right after graduation. We got a Nintendo at some point and had 3 games, everything the most basic.

 

Dh's family had more money and lived closer to the "big" town. They had one of the big honkin' satellites, one of the first VCRs, atari, nintendo and whatever else.

 

No carseats for any of us. We had to take the bus, it was like an hr in the morning. These days most kids get drove by their parents, my mom was even talking about how they take and pickup my niece and how horrible it would be if she had to ride the bus- I was scratching my head on that. My brother and I did actually try to walk to school once- we knew we would be in trouble for missing the bus. Luckily a teacher picked us up. I don't know what we were thinking, it was at least 10 miles!

[ThatCyndiGirl]

I remember my mother sadly telling me that sometimes social workers wanted to use SPCA laws to prosecute child abusers, since there were laws against animal cruelty, but there were no laws against beating children in those days.

 

 

Actually, our modern social work system IS an outgrowth of the SPCA. (We had required reading when I started working in Child Welfare and the history of Social Work was part of it.)

 

I am surprised that a subsequent poster on that thread mentioned the good ol' days of the "non-politically correct TV shows"....like All in the Family. Perhaps she didn't realize that they were MAKING FUN OF Archie Bunker and all of his racist/bigoted attitudes. :001_huh:

[Myra]

"That is so great and such memories it brings us. The safety arm. I learned to do that from my folks. I once did that to a female friend a few years back and and she gave me the funniest look. Had to explain about the safety arm and it was just reflex."

 

 

Well..........worse than that...I once did it to a male passenger and when he was no longer in agony and could breath again......then I had some explaining to do!

[Myra]

"When we left the house, Mom or Dad always asked, "Do you have a quarter?":lol:

 

For you young 'uns, the quarter was for the pay phone in case we needed to get in touch with our parents.:lol: "

 

 

And.....I do remember that but do you remember penny loafers? I was so excited when I got a pair instead of the ugly old school shoes that tied! But my excitement died and turned into embarassment as my parents insisted I put dimes in them in case of an emergency I could make a 10cent pay phone call home!

[ccm]

And.....I do remember that but do you remember penny loafers? I was so excited when I got a pair instead of the ugly old school shoes that tied!

 

Yes! I LOVED my penny loafers.:)

 

Editing to add: Great thread! Brings back so many memories.

[TrixieB]

Hmmm... :glare: There was no Boeing 717 until the late 1990s when Boeing bought McDonnell-Douglas and renamed the MD-95 the Boeing 717.

 

No wonder your mom was annoyed! ;)

We had no idea... we knew there was a 707 and a 747 and the "digital" clock gave us six excellent excuses to run around the house every night. BTW, we ran around at 7:57 too and there wasn't one of those yet in the late '70's. :D

 

Poor mom, always dusting... now that I'm a mom, I understand why she was annoyed. :tongue_smilie:

[Manamana]

I would call home from the pay phone at school after volleyball and let it ring three times. Then they would know I was ready to be picked up and I saved the quarter for the next time I needed to call.

 

Does anyone remember phone numbers beginning with letters instead of numbers? Our number was ES7-####. I think there were words associated with the letters.

 

I also remember my sister earning a whole set of china from making deposits at the local savings bank. They gave away premiums to attract customers before interest rates were deregulated. Hairdryers, toasters, curling irons...those were the good old days.

[nono]

Does anyone remember phone numbers beginning with letters instead of numbers? Our number was ES7-####. I think there were words associated with the letters.

 

 

 

Yes, the letters were remainers from having operators complete all calls. They were the areas, though I don't understand exactly how they worked. We were "Elgin" but that wasn't our town. My Grandmother was "Wayne" which was her town. Elgin went down to EL6-xxxx by the time I came around. The only reason I know about the whole "Wayne" part is that my Uncle, to this day, can imitate my Dad trying to get some privacy in the house and asking the operator to complete the call so he could ask out my Mother. :)

[RegGuheert]

 

We had no idea... we knew there was a 707 and a 747 and the "digital" clock gave us six excellent excuses to run around the house every night. BTW, we ran around at 7:57 too and there wasn't one of those yet in the late '70's. :D

Now there is the 707, 717, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, 777 and 787. So you and your siblings were simply ahead of your time! :D Your poor kids will need a new clock in order to be able to handle the additions of the last few decades! Then they will be able to annoy you thoroughly! ;)