Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favourite 'fast food' when you were growing up?' 'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him.'Except for Fish and Chip shops and we ate it all so unhygienically from newspaper wrappers' 'All the other food was slow.' 'C'mon, seriously.. Where did you eat?' 'It was a place called 'home,' I explained. 'Mum cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate, I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'
By this time, the lad was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I'd figured his system could have handled it:
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore jeans, set foot on a golf course, travelled out of the country and credit cards had not been invented. My parents never drove me to school. I had my mothers bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow).
We didn't have a television in our house until the Queens Coronation. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at 10 pm, after playing the national anthem and epilogue; it came back on the air at about 4 p.m. and there was usually locally produced news and everything was live.....or film. I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.
Pizzas were not delivered to our home... But milk was. All newspapers were delivered by boys and many boys delivered newspapers --My brother delivered a newspaper, seven days a week. He had to get up at 6AM every morning. Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the films. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence (except cowboy films) or almost anything offensive.
If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing. Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it? MEMORIES from a friend: My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it... I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.....
How many do you remember? Headlight dip-switches on the floor of the car. Ignition switches on the dashboard. There were two postal deliveries per day. Trouser leg clips for bicycles without chain guards. The street lights were turned off at about 11pm each night. Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner. Using hand signals for cars without turn indicators. Corona fizzy drinks were delivered in glass bottles by lorry each week, and the empties returned. .
Older Than Dirt Quiz: Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about.
1. Sweet cigarettes 2. Coffee shops with juke boxes 3. Home milk delivery in glass bottles 4. Party lines on the telephone 5. Newsreels before the film 6. TV test card patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again. (There were only 2 channels[if you were fortunate]) 7. Peashooters 8. 78 rpm records 9. 45 RPM records 10. Hi-fi's 11. Metal ice trays with levers 12. Blue flashbulbs 13. Cork popguns 14. Wash tub wringers
If you remembered 0-3 = You're still young If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older If you remembered 7-10 = Don't tell your age If you remembered 11-14 = You're positively ancient! I must be 'positively ancient' but those memories are some of the best parts of my life. Don't forget to pass this along!! Especially to all your really OLD friends....I just did! (PS. I used a large type face so you could read it easily) -- Kindle for Christmas? ... Get cheap e-books here!
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