Not done like this anymore - share a memory

[Pegasus]

The 1970's era VW van was designed for 7 passengers.  Every summer, my parents stuffed it with 9 people, the family dog, and enough camping gear to manage 3 weeks.  No one wore seatbelts and car seats for young children were not yet a thing. We then drove almost 1,000 miles with no air conditioning and no overnight stops. We camped on wooded privately owned land, in the middle of nowhere, with no water, electricity, or outhouses. We hauled drinking water from a spring, bathed in an ice cold stream, oooked on an open fire and a campstove, hiked for miles, and fought off clouds of mosquitoes.

 

Strangely enough, these are great memories.   :laugh:

 

Please share a memory of your own of something no longer done.

Edited December 23, 2015 by Pegasus

[MEmama]

Oh yeah...sitting backwards in the way back of the VW wagon, waving at the people in the car behind us.

 

Making mixed tapes by holding the boom box up to the radio when your favorite song came on the radio and hoping to hit the record button on time.

 

Poor kids these days. They don't know what they are missing out on. :)

[elegantlion]

Two week vacations as a kid. We had a pop up and my family was not quite as adventurous as yours. Huge station wagon, tent trailer, and 2 weeks. My mild mannered dad would drive 500 miles in one day sometimes so we could camp in national parks. I've been to most of them in the Rocky Mountain area. We would hike and watch the stars. I had hoped to do more of that when ds was little, but ex had different ideas about vacation and we never had two weeks anyway. My last real vacation was 2009. 

[Junie]

Watching movies through windshield wipers, because it always seemed to be raining when we went to the drive-in.  :)

[J-rap]

Drive-in movies.  My father and uncle would pile us 7 kids (my siblings and cousins) into a station wagon and watch drive-in movies on warm Saturday nights.

[Junie]

Drive-in movies.  My father and uncle would pile us 7 kids (my siblings and cousins) into a station wagon and watch drive-in movies on warm Saturday nights.

 

We were posting at the same time. ;)  Did your family take you to the movies in the rain, too?

[MomtoCandJ]

Riding in the back of my dad's truck to the beach and back :)

[J-rap]

We were posting at the same time. ;)  Did your family take you to the movies in the rain, too?

 

Ha, I'm sure there were rainy showings too!  I remember having to turn the engine on from time to time to turn on the defrost.  :)

[ikslo]

Talking to your friends/boyfriend all evening tethered to your rotary phone in the hallway, preventing everyone else from receiving calls.  Your butt hurt and you got a crick in your neck, but you just HAD to call your best friend and tell her what so-and-so said.  And it was really annoying when your sister wanted to use the phone, because who could she possibly need to talk to?

 

Stretching the cord as far as possible to bring the phone into the laundry room to at least get some privacy.

[Cinder]

My mom used to take that middle bench in the VW and turn it sideways. She even made curtains for the windows.

 

I remember also having that much longer phone cord so you could walk around the kitchen while on the phone. And more recently, remember not being able to make any phone calls at all while you were on the internet?

[Miss Peregrine]

Calling the "time lady" and listening for several minutes so that your boyfriend could call through on call waiting and no one would hear the phone ring.

[Annie G]

We had a VW camper van and I remember sleeping on the bed in the back while Dad drove us home through Atlanta traffic after a weekend at the lake. 

 

My sister's first baby was overdue (1979) so we took her to an all you can eat fish fry place then went mudding -she and I sat in the bed of the pickup truck  while we slipped and slid all over the place.  

 

Good times...but definitely not safe!!!!

[SKL]

My dad had a TV repair business.  Back when there were only 4 kids in our family, our only vehicle was my dad's van, which had only a driver's seat.  My mom had a kitchen chair where the passenger seat would be.  One kid got to sit on the engine (between Mom & Dad) as a special treat.  Two of us sat on the wheel wells, and the fourth kid sat on an old milk stool.  When we went camping, it was the same setup except with tents, sleeping bags, and pillowcases full of clothes back there with us.

 

When we were a little older, my parents bought one of those station wagons with a third seat facing backward.  We used to shoot spitwads (small paper scraps wet with spit, rolled into balls, and shot from empty pen barrels) out the back window at the cars behind us.

 

Another naughty thing we did a few times was prank calling.  You can't do that nowadays.  :P

 

We all walked to & from school every day, without an adult in tow.  We were free to do what we wanted after school, as long as we were home for supper.

 

We got a weekly allowance that was paid in pop bottles.  Every Saturday, we would carry those bottles a few blocks to the convenience store and exchange them for cheap stuff.  My favorite store was an antique store called "Grandma's Attic."  I couldn't afford much of anything there, but it was fun to look at the old dolls and doll carriages.  :)  In the summer we had a corner ice cream stand where they had a different "flavor of the week" each time.  Then we would all go play at the playground until we got hungry and went home.

[KungFuPanda]

I know this isn't the point, but WHY would anyone have to drive 1000 miles to find a primitive campsite??? This does no compute.

[Lady Florida.]

-Lying in the back of a station wagon with my cousins, in our pajamas at a drive-in movie.

 

-Driving from NJ to Daytona Beach every year (before we moved to FL) for a mulit-family vacation. Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and close family friends who we called Aunt and Uncle so and so, would all stay in the same hotel. We spent the day on the beach, and nights running between each others' rooms in the hotel (we had connecting doors whenever possible). We pretty much took over an entire floor of the hotel. When I think back, I feel sorry for anyone who wasn't with us who happened to be on our floor.

 

-One uncle had a VW van (which was called a Volkswagen Bus at that time) with nothing in the back. We'd go everywhere in that thing, with the back loaded with kids. Jeez that was dangerous.

 

-College memory: My roommate and I collecting soda bottles to return for beer money. Our parents sent us money for necessities but we couldn't ask them for beer money. :) It's no longer done in FL because there's no longer a deposit charged on bottles.

 

 

[Alessandra]

Checker cabs in NYC. Roomy with jumps seats in the back. Drivers who spoke English, well, Brooklynese, Bronxese, etc, and kept up an unending monologue on politics, sports, etcetera.

 

8 ounce Coke bottles

Woolworth's

 

No security. I remember walking into the U.S. Capitol with a friend and strolling into the Senate chamber. Walking into the U.N. And sitting in for a Security Council debate.

Edited December 23, 2015 by Alessandra

[Onceuponatime]

 

 

Another naughty thing we did a few times was prank calling. You can't do that nowadays. :P

 

.

Believe it or not, there is an app for that. One of my husband's friends pranked us last summer.

[Cinder]

Speaking of no security . . . My dh travels a lot and sometimes we'd take him to the airport. Back in the day the dc and I would go a little early, grab a TCBY and eat it in the gate area while watching the airplanes and waiting for dh to come off the airplane.

 

I also remember as a kid, one of the free activities we did as a family was walk around the airport terminal looking at all the different airplanes.

[Pink and Green Mom]

When you were sick, the 10" black and white TV (with rabbit ears) being wheeled into your room from Mom and Dad's room so you could watch TV all day (all 3 channels; 4 if the leaves were off the trees and it wasn't cloudy).

 

The roller rink.

Edited December 23, 2015 by Pink and Green Mom

[Alessandra]

Speaking of no security . . . My dh travels a lot and sometimes we'd take him to the airport. Back in the day the dc and I would go a little early, grab a TCBY and eat it in the gate area while watching the airplanes and waiting for dh to come off the airplane.

 

I also remember as a kid, one of the free activities we did as a family was walk around the airport terminal looking at all the different airplanes.

I remember that -- the observation deck. Also, as a kid, getting to visit the pilots in the cockpit.

[MBM]

Really roomy plane seats. No TSA. Yeah, those were the days.

 

After school immediately going outside to play with neighborhood kids until it was time to go to bed taking a break only for dinner and to maybe help wash dishes. No homework.

 

Three TV channels. Everything was boring anyway so no one watched. Saturday morning cartoons and the neighbor kids would come over and everyone would flop on the dilapidated basement couches to watch them.

 

[Carol in Cal.]

Holding the TV antenna to get a better picture.

[Junie]

Talking to your friends/boyfriend all evening tethered to your rotary phone in the hallway, preventing everyone else from receiving calls.  Your butt hurt and you got a crick in your neck, but you just HAD to call your best friend and tell her what so-and-so said.  And it was really annoying when your sister wanted to use the phone, because who could she possibly need to talk to?

 

Stretching the cord as far as possible to bring the phone into the laundry room to at least get some privacy.

 

We used the powder room near the kitchen phone.  We still call it "the phone booth".

[bettyandbob]

Prank calls before caller ID. When I was 8 I remember an older friend came over and prank called the local Hardee's. He told them he was a coach and would be being his baseball team by in a couple hours. Apparently they had an abundance of burgers premade that evening.

 

I also remember being free range way before that was a term. BUT that is another thread.

[bettyandbob]

One TV that was black and white. Now I'm sounding old.

[Amira]

We'd take long road trips in our giant blue van.  My dad took the back bench out and put in a wooden platform.  All the bags and camping stuff went under there and two people could lie down and sleep on top.  I had no idea how good we had it.  He also rigged up a TV back there and we were watching videos in the 70s and 80s in our car.  Some of our trips were really long (3 weeks going all over the US with a pop-up trailer- I loved that trailer) so being able to lie down during the drive helped a lot.  There were five of us so we'd rotate who got to be back there.  My mom also made pocket things than hung over the seat backs where we could stash stuff to do.  She'd go to AAA to pick up maps for the trips and wrote to different states to have them mail tourist info about their states to us.  

[SKL]

Oh yeah, phone privacy, LOL!  Whole different world.

 

And using a bent coat hanger to get reception on the TV.

[SKL]

When map reading abilities actually mattered.

[SKL]

When my (foreign student) friend and I went to Washington DC by train.  We walked up to the White House and were given a tour inside.  No prior registration/permission necessary.

[SKL]

Popcorn on the stove top.  No microwave.  No dishwasher.  Percolating coffee.

 

Metal rollerskates with a key.

 

Saving up paper route money to buy a wagon.

 

When "shoe-boots" were a fashion statement, not the norm in winter outerwear.  Rubbers or boots worn over shoes were what kids wore.

 

When you couldn't see how your photo turned out until after you used up the roll of film and left it at the store for a few days to be developed.  When people didn't act stupid for the camera because stupid cost too much.

[Liz CA]

Running a record on faster or slower speed to distort the singer's voice. Half the people on this board probably don't have a clue what I am talking about.

[Laura Corin]

In the mid sixties, my mum still bought sugar as a sugarloaf, which she took apart with shears.

[Catwoman]

Calling the "time lady" and listening for several minutes so that your boyfriend could call through on call waiting and no one would hear the phone ring.

:lol:

 

I remember calling the time lady from pay phones when I wanted an excuse to get out of a really bad date. I'd say I had to call in to work/home/my sick aunt, and of course when I called there would be some kind of emergency and I would have to leave right away.

 

Oh, and I remember pay phones. :lol:

[bettyandbob]

i grew up in DC. I used to wonder in and out of any museum. No metal detectors. Nothing blocked then entrances of government buildings. it was open doors everywhere. 

 

I learned you had to pay to enter a museum when I was in college.

 

Now when I go to the Smithsonian, I want in lines for metal detectors. I was 17 when they started putting physical obstructions in front of places like the state department. 

[Laura Corin]

One TV that was black and white. Now I'm sounding old.

 

Our family was the first that I knew to get a colour TV - my dad worked for the BBC, and he needed to see what the programmes looked like in colour.

[SquirrellyMama]

Popcorn on the stove top.  No microwave.  No dishwasher. 

 

Come to my house and you can relive these memories, and do my dishes :) I'll make you some stove top popcorn, because our microwave died almost a year ago, and we haven't yet replaced it.

 

Kelly

 

[Minerva]

Spending hours looking through my parent's record collection and choosing the record based on the cover.

 

Encyclopedias

 

 

 

 

[TechWife]

dp

 

Edited December 23, 2015 by TechWife

[TechWife]

Walking to school without anyone batting an eye

Riding in the "way back" of the station wagon on the way to church (and many other places)

Watching black & white tv with local channels only

Staying up late to watch the 30 minutes of music videos a local station played after the news on Saturday nights

Greeting visiting friends and family at the airport gate

Calling the bank for time and temperature

Playing in kindergarten

Playing in the creek

Lemon pledge (do they still make that stuff?)

Atlanta before I-285 (yes, I am that old  :lol: )

Oh yes, a friend and I walked through the underground tunnels that connect the Senate Office Building to the Capital Building. They have a tram down there and everything! Now you can't get close to something like that. 

 

 

 

 

 

[SKL]

Calling the "time lady" and listening for several minutes so that your boyfriend could call through on call waiting and no one would hear the phone ring.

 

Ha ha!  I come from before the days of call waiting, but I had forgotten all about the time lady!

 

at the tone,, the time,, will be.......

 

 

We also used to call the weather to see if it was warm enough to go swimming at the public pool.

 

[Seasider]

What great memories! I like every post here!

 

I miss the days when no one carried their phones in their hands everywhere, people actually fully engaged in whatever they were doing.

 

So many more things, I cannot list them all, I will enjoy what the rest of you post.

[raptor_dad]

No security. I remember walking into the U.S. Capitol with a friend and strolling into the Senate chamber. Walking into the U.N. And sitting in for a Security Council debate.

 

My favorite thing about the Capitol when I was a kid was the little underground train that anyone could ride unescorted between the office buildings and the Capitol proper.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol_subway_system

[Cinder]

Remember when tv stations actually went off the air and would play the Star Spangled Banner before signing off?

[Carol in Cal.]

Trip Tix from AAA!

 

They were so cool.

 

You would tell them where you were going, and they would lay out the route for you and give it to you as a little spiral bound set of maps for every segment along the way, complete with recommended places to stay.  It was a free benefit of membership.

[Catwoman]

I remember the dark ages before cable tv and home computers and the Internet.

 

And somehow people still managed to be happy. :)

[Garga]

Ranging all over my neighborhoods, alone, from age 8 up--check

One black and white tv--check

No cable until I got married in 1992--check

No microwave until I was 17 (1990)--check

No seatbelts and being VERY ANGRY when it became a law to wear them --check

Riding in the bed of trucks---check

Drive ins, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes--check

Waiting 4-6 or even 6-8 weeks for delivery--check

Map reading--check

Waiting by the phone without answering machine--check

Commonly calling people and they not having answering machines so you had to keep calling over and over until you finally got a hold of them--check

Having questions with no answers, because who really goes to the library to look things up? We just wallowed in our ignorance (before the internet)--check

Playing computer games with synthesizer music and little dot-whatever characters--check

synthesizers!--check

 

 

And so much more. But gotta go.

[SparklyUnicorn]

We frequently went to drive in movies.  There may be a few left out there, but when I was a kid there were a lot more of them. 

 

 

 

 

[bettyandbob]

Remember when tv stations actually went off the air and would play the Star Spangled Banner before signing off?

 

Didn't they also show Air Force jets as the Star Spangled Banner played. 

 

I had a night shift job at a home for persons with disabilities. I hated being awake in that facility by myself. TV stations would sign off at 2 am, except the local station that played horror movies all night. I couldn't watch horror. 

[Pawz4me]

I'm surprised so many of us have memories of Volkswagen buses.  My parents had several over the years, and a few Bugs (Beetle).  The summer before I started school we took off out west in a little Bug.  I was small enough to ride in that little back cargo area.  I think I probably rode most of the way from NC to Colorado (via Texas and Oklahoma) in that little compartment.  We took that thing up Pike's Peak.  It barely chugged along, but we passed a LOT of overheated cars that couldn't make it.

 

I remember when people actually looked forward to reading the newspaper and watching the nightly national news.  Walter Cronkite.  If you heard the "special report" music you knew it was something really important.  Not like the cable channels nowadays that call every little thing breaking news.

[Lady Florida.]

I have a friend who makes popcorn on the stove. It's delicious!

 

 

Our family was the first that I knew to get a colour TV - my dad worked for the BBC, and he needed to see what the programmes looked like in colour.

 

Our family was one of the last. We got our first color TV in 1970. One aunt and uncle who didn't have kids were the first people we knew with a color TV. Every year we and our cousin's family would go there to watch The Wizard of Oz, so we could see the Oz part in color. The adults hung out in the kitchen drinking coffee and eating Italian pastries while us kids were parked in the TV room (do people still have TV rooms?) to watch the movie.