In my day, we [blanked].

[Nars Glinley]

Played records that we cut off the backs of cereal boxes.
Took our lunch to school in bread wrappers and got in trouble if we didn't bring the wrapper home.
Walked all over the neighborhood and our parents didn't know where we were.
Didn't wear seatbelts, but that was stupid.

Fill in the [blank].

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

In my day we actually played baseball in the park rather than on a computer.

Made up songs about our teachers as villains and they found it funny, not threatening, even when we sang about dancing on their graves.

Ate unrefrigerated leftovers from our lunchbox at school, including chicken that was only wrapped in foil, and never got sick from it.

[Lightnin']

Didn't panic when we found ticks after a day of running around like savages out in the woods.
Played all day long out in the hot summer sun and didn't have to worry about staying hydrated by anything more than a convenient waterhose.
Walked home three miles from school every day, and didn't see our parents 'til 6pm.

[Chefguy]

*Walked to school if it was less than a couple of miles
*Thought goofing off down by the railroad trestle was more fun than just about anything
*Left the front door unlocked
*Left the car doors unlocked
*Had one TV channel, and it was fuzzy

[tdn]

...were told not to leave our toys outside, because it might rain, and they'd -- get this -- RUST.

...had a clicker for the TV. It was as big as a briefcase, but it let us access all 8 channels.

[fessie]

- Were expected to change the TV channel for our parents because we "had younger legs" (and there was no remote control).

- Eagerly awaited the Sept. TV guide so we could check out the new lineup and plan our Saturday morning cartoon viewing.

- Sat in the front seat.

- Paid the same price for a Bruce Springsteen concert ticket as a year's subscription to National Geographic ($12).

- Ate fries that were cooked in lard.

[tdn]

- Paid the same price for a Bruce Springsteen concert ticket as a year's subscription to National Geographic ($12).

I remember paying about $5 for big-name acts. We're talking Allman Brothers, Aerosmith, Rush, Styx... I think the records were more expensive than that.

[fessie]

I remember paying about $5 for big-name acts. We're talking Allman Brothers, Aerosmith, Rush, Styx... I think the records were more expensive than that.

It was in my HS yearbook from 1980.

[Never Say Dice]

...saved boxtops to get decoder rings

...read comic book ads and thus hoped to buy Grit magazines so we could re-sell them and earn points to get a bike, but were stopped by our parents

...wanted Sea Monkeys, and this time were allowed by our parents, but soon were disappointed when they wouldn't hatch.

...had to go to Gramma & Grampas to see TV on a round screen

...longed to play pinball at the bowling alley but never found it free

[jjimm]

Were sent down to the lake to shoot cans with a musket and a rifle, aged 6 - but it was OK because we had a responsible 8-year-old with us.

Walked a mile to school and back on my own every day, aged 7.

Had a tin stashed with porn in the woods, aged 10.

Babysat my siblings, aged 11.

Rode in the flatbed of pickup trucks - any age.

[tdn]

It was in my HS yearbook from 1980.

Is that the year you graduated?

[Dinsdale]

Had one telephone in the entire house. It had a dial, was mounted on the kitchen wall, and was rented from the phone company.
Were each given a Smith Corona typewriter as a high school graduation gift.
Used punch cards in our college intro computer science class.
Had air-raid drills in grade school.
Were let out of public elementary schools on Wednesday afternoons to walk to the local catholic school for religious ed.
Had very few organized activities outside of school besides scouts, little league baseball, pop warner football, and a few through churches or ethnic societies.
Paid attention to when the Charlie Brown specials, Rudolph, and Wizard of Oz were going to be shown on TV that year.

[gigi]

I remember paying about $5 for big-name acts. We're talking Allman Brothers, Aerosmith, Rush, Styx... I think the records were more expensive than that.

Hee. I remember buying my first album, and my frugal record-collector father said never pay more than $3.99 for an album. It was U2 War and I paid $5.99 for it! You'd say just throw out the wrapper with the price tag? Nah, that had to be saved in case the record was scratched or faulty when played the first time. :smack:

[Bearflag70]

- Watched Match Game

[Daylate]

Back in 1936.....

Listened to Tom Mix on a battery powered radio.

Took a bath every Saturday night in a #2 washtub.

If it was raining, got to ride to school (first grade, one room country school) in a horsedrawn buggy. Fun times!

[RunSilent]

I could leave my bike unlocked all over town and it was always there when I returned.

[An Gadaí]

In my day, we went into the freezing Atlantic without a wet suit.

[corkboard]

...used sun tanning lotion at the beach to get as brown as we could.
...rode our bikes everywhere, from just after lunch until dinner time, and our families had no idea where we were.
...would "try not to" let the girls (the "kissing cuties") catch us on the playground to give us a kiss.
...sat in the front seat, without seat belts.

[tdn]

- Watched Match Game

You beat me to it.

[lieu]

- Rode a bike alone to the Singer sewing store to buy 45s.

- Went from Singer to the 5 &10 to buy real model glue.

- Got our dinner glasses from boxes of detergent.

- Considered Converse hightops too fancy and stuck with PF Flyers.

- Had to rake long trails of grass thrown out from the lawnmower.

- Stopped on the way home from church to buy a big block of ice we could chip for cold sweet tea at lunch.

- Use the leftover ice and rock salt to hand-crank homemade ice cream.

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Got up to change the channel on the TV.

Were excited when we first got cable.

Were even more excited when we first heard about a new channel that showed uncut movies with no commercials and actually showed nudity and swearing.

Thought Pong was the greatest invention ever, and the best Xmas present we ever got. It was a game you could actually play on your TV.

Roamed around town all day long without ever telling our parents where we were going (we wouldn't have had any idea when we set off out the door anyway).

Routinely bounced around in the back of a station wagon with no belts or restraints.

Were accustomed to seeing people smoke in stores, restaurants, airplanes, buses...pretty much anywhere, and no one thought twice about it.

When I was a small child in Lousiana, it was not only normal for parents to spank orswitch their kids, it was normal for adults in the neighborhood to spank other people's kids if they caught you up to no good.

We had to pick out our own switches to get whipped with, and don't think we could get away with finding something really thin and wispy either.

Watched Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies in their first run in theaters.

Knew that all big tits were real.

Could fill up a gas tank for five bucks.

Never heard of AIDS.

In the early 80's, one of my brothers played me a record by some guy named Kurtis Blow, and said he was doing some new kind of music called rap. I thought it sounded ridiculous, thought it was a fad and a novelty and confidently predicted that it wouldn't last a year.

Remember when the biggest sex symbol in the US was Brooke Shields, who was like 16 at the time. It never occurred to me to think that was creepy that the culture and the media had so overtly sexualized a teenage girl until many years later.

[kunilou]

Dressed up for the first day and the last day of schools, even though we wore jeans (dungarees) the rest of the time.

Went to a neighbor's to watch the first color TV on the block and saw purple snow and multi-colored ghosts.

Had AM radios with little triangles at 640 and 1240 on the dial so we could find the CONELRAD stations when the Russians attacked.

Played 45's on a portable record player. The hi-fi was reserved for our parents' parties.

Sat in the way-back in the family station wagon without a seat, much less seat belts.

Understood from an early age that a long-distance phone call was very expensive and getting one meant either very good or very bad news.

Tied a towel around our necks and tried to fly just like George Reeves in The Adventures of Superman.

Knew something big was going on when our parents started talking in the language from the old country.

[MsWhatsit]

Learned in school how to use the library card catalog.

Always had change in case we needed to make a call from a pay phone.

Had haircuts like Dorothy Hamill. (OK, maybe that was just me.)

[MsWhatsit]

Dressed up for the first day and the last day of schools, even though we wore jeans (dungarees) the rest of the time.

Still happens. MiniWhatsit spent about half an hour fretfully deciding which perfectly matching outfit and hair bow she would wear to her first day of kindergarten, this year.

[lieu]

Dressed up for the first day and the last day of schools, even though we wore jeans (dungarees) the rest of the time.Dressed up to fly in an airplane too. If you were flying you put on your Sunday best.

[Mr Buttons]

-we didn't have fancy internet porn. It was steal a penthouse from a friend's dad, or settle for scrambled porn on the Spice channel. :)

[Gary "Wombat" Robson]

Went to the airport to watch planes take off and land
Bought our records at the used record store
Recorded our own music off the radio using small reel-to-reel tape recorders with a microphone placed in front of the radio's speaker (when I was about 12, I actually called a DJ and asked him to play my favorite song without talking over the end of it)
Planned evenings around air times of our favorite shows
(as others have mentioned) Took off into the woods with a friend at dawn on Saturday to catch snakes, telling Mom you'd be home by dinnertime
Watched a cartoon before the movie in the theater

[Mrs. Cake]

Camped out in canvas tents
Took a peanut butter sandwich and some cookies out for a day of hiking in the snake-infested canyon with mom's blessing (age seven and up)
Went to the drive-in in our pajamas with a grocery bag of homemade popcorn
Rushed home from Girl Scouts to catch "Dark Shadows" on TV (Quentin was the dreamiest!)
Didn't understand what was so wonderful about Oz, since on our TV Dorothy stepped out of the farmhouse into a black and white landscape

[Emily Litella]

Said things like "Dig?" and "Groovey" and flashed the peace sign.
Stayed far away from people who were alone and talking out loud.
Turned our car's head lights on and off with a knob.
Going to a place to buy burgers, fries and hot dogs and eating them in the car was a treat.
We didn't have calculators to do math, we either did it in our heads or on paper.
I remember playing a record that was on the back of a cereal box too.
Yes, Quentin was the dreamiest!

[corkboard]

Remember when the biggest sex symbol in the US was Brooke Shields, who was like 16 at the time. It never occurred to me to think that was creepy that the culture and the media had so overtly sexualized a teenage girl until many years later.

During this time she appeared in print ads in jeans, bent at the waist, buttoning her shirt which was billowing in the wind, with the copy "Nothing comes between me and my Calvins."

That image ranked at the top of my spank bank for a long time.

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

Watched a cartoon before the movie in the theater
Listened to the national anthem before the cartoons that came before the movie in the theater.

[Oakminster]

-Cut out and folded together cardboard models of the Lunar Lander from the back of cereal boxes. (Age 4 & up)

-routinely took guns to school, during hunting season. The guns remained locked in our cars until after school. (Age 15 and up)

-Routinely hunted or went shooting alone (age 12 and up)

-were subject to corporal punishment from pretty much any adult--and if your parents found out about it, you got another spanking at home.

-did not swear at or near adults.

-Played "Captain America" with garbage can lids as our "Mighty Shield".

-Hated Nixon, largely because his stupid boring Watergate stuff pre-empted after-school cartoons.

-did not realize Miss Kitty was probably a prostitute

[tdn]

I remember playing a record that was on the back of a cereal box too.

Was it Davy Jones or Bobby Sherman?

[maladroit]

I remember listening to records that were shipped inside Mad Magazine, I think I remember one of burping to music but I'm not positive. Weird.

I used to lay on the kitchen floor in front of the heater vent to 'blow dry' my hair before school. My mom had one of those table-top hard plastic hood dryers but I had long straight hair (didn't everybody in 1972?) so that was less than helpful.

Jeezo petes, I'm nostalgic today, must be the season change. I wish more than anything that I was about 10 and going for a bike ride on the dirt roads I grew up on, just for today.

[kunilou]

I remember listening to records that were shipped inside Mad Magazine, I think I remember one of burping to music but I'm not positive. Weird.

Yup. The name of the song was "It's a Gas!"

[rowrrbazzle]

In my day, we had to look things up in a printed dictionary or encyclopedia. If your family didn't have them, you had to go to a library.

In my day, to find old newspaper or magazine articles, you had to go to the library and read through them or microfilm copies. And that's only if your library had them.

(And as an aside, between Google Books, Amazon's "search inside", my library's online access to newspapers, and the rest of the Web, the comparative ease of finding out definitive facts or obscure things is beyond miraculous. It pisses me off tremendously that people, including on many occasions the media and political campaigns, don't even think of Googling. And worse yet, the mere suggestion that someone look something up is considered quite rude.)

In my day, we programmers had to look up computer information in manuals. Each of us had a small collection of manuals that we needed for frequent access. Single copies of other manuals were kept in an unattended library room, and occasionally a manual would go missing permanently, i.e., taken by someone for their own private use.

[billfish678]

In my day, we....

Well, we just "we ed" because we didnt have anything after the we.

All we had were in, my, day, and we.... and we were damn glad to even have them!

[gotpasswords]

Had one telephone in the entire house. It had a dial, was mounted on the kitchen wall, and was rented from the phone company.

My father worked for the phone company, so we had that one phone, but it was white and it had a lo-n-n-ng cord.

Let's see what else...


Played with big blobs of mercury in our bare hands
Carefully guarded that spirally-looking thing to play 45s on the record player. If you lost or broke it, someone had to go seemingly away to South Nowhere to get another from the hi-fi shop.
Never heard of bicycle helmets
Rarely saw motorcycle helmets
Ate sandwiches with mayo at picnics and didn't die
Crammed ten people into the station wagon with only the driver wearing a seat belt, and that was only because the car had a loud buzzer that went off if the driver's seat belt wasn't on
Filled that station wagon's tank with leaded gas

[Bam Boo Gut]

We had a three digit phone number and it was a party line with the neighbours.
We watched the dot disappear after the TV at granny's was turned off.
We got sent to the pub to have the soda siphon filled for the adults whiskey.

My neighbour (he's about sixty) was over today and there's a small yellow bird dancing in the garden. What's that bird called locally I asked. We used to call it breakfast he replied.

[Waffle Decider]

...wrote letters to friends and family instead of calling or emailing them.

...actually used the library to do research for schoolworks.

...pilots flew without GPS or any other shiny computer driven gizmos in the plane.

[blondebear]

...had after-school activities that didn't require keyboards, controllers, or video screens.

[Mahaloth]

...had after-school activities that didn't require keyboards, controllers, or video screens.

Uh, we still have that....a lot.

Where do you live where activities are not offered after school?

[blondebear]

I interact with an admittedly-small sample-size of pre-adolescent children (my friend's nieces/nephews and grandchildren)--they spend most of their free time playing video games.

[Mongo Ponton]

We used to get $2.00 to walk into town and get a haircut.

But there was an old guy that had a shop that charged $.50.

"Shakey Bob"

If you got the 50 cent job you had a buck and a half left for chips or candy or what ever. And since we never had our own money (or junk food in the house) it was a big deal.

But you were gonna look like a dork....for a month.

I think I went for it about every other time. My friends sister would try to fix it a little. Only kids within walking distance of town looked like that.

A Shakey Bob cut was unmistakable so I think my parents knew but we had some independence and if an important event was coming Mom would take us to Peter's which was a real salon the next town over.

[Muffin]

. . . Barbi Benton.

[Mahaloth]

I interact with an admittedly-small sample-size of pre-adolescent children (my friend's nieces/nephews and grandchildren)--they spend most of their free time playing video games.

Hmmm....parental choice then.

[Harvey The Heavy]

...we all loved "Star Wars". Not "Episode IV", not "A New Hope", just "Star Wars".

...we rewound our cassette tapes with a Bic pen to save batteries.

...we rode in the tail-gunner position in the station wagon.

[outlierrn]

We used every part of the Mammoth

[Maggie the Ocelot]

- Watched Match Game

You beat me to it.

I hate you both.

Did you ever notice how often they came up with synonyms for "ass"?

Gene Rayburn: "Dumb Dora was really dumb. She wanted to save her money for a rainy day, but instead of putting it in the bank, she put it in her [blank]."

Betty White: "Well, Gene, I figured it was probably her 'keister'."
Charles Nelson Riley: "The answer is absolutely...'tushkis'"
Richard Dawson: "I think it was her 'back porch'"

[Isamu]

In my day we...

(ages 6-12)
- never locked our doors.
- roamed around on weekends wherever we wanted.
- turned up at anyone's house unannounced and used their backyards to play.
- took rides from strangers.
- journeyed 2 hours by ourselves each way to get to and from school.
- climbed trees that were about 40 or 50 feet high just to get to the very top part of the trunk that was so thin it would flex over to the side with your weight.
- had countless hours of experimentation with gasoline and other combustibles.
- played "ghosties" - which was riding our scooters down a hill as fast as we could and when we got to top speed, jumping off and rolling into onto the grass and seeing how far the scooter would travel by itself. (Now that I think about it, jumping off high/fast things into/onto other things was a frequent theme).
- would go down to the local store to buy cigarettes for my dad.

[willthekittensurvive?]

In my day, we blanked........I blame the drugs

[enomaj]

...sat in the car while mom did a "little" shopping. She said she would only be in there for a 'hot' minute. She lied. Every time.
...walked to grandma's house. Call me when you get there. -Mom
...climbed trees, jumped off roofs, played in construction sites, etc.
...told our parents we were going to the park, went to the park and then went everywhere else without checking back in.

[Koxinga]

. . . made a "computer" out of a kit using springs, different lengths of wire and prefabricated plastic slidey things. You would follow the instructions to connect the wires to the slidey things (via the springs) in a certain way, and then it would light up little bulbs at the top of the console to answer certain pre-set questions (like the one about the farmer crossing a river with a goose, a fox and a bag of grain). It was Educational.

[EvilTOJ]

... actually went to the dollar movies. Sure it was second run movies, but it actually cost a dollar! Sure was cheaper than paying $4.50 for the movies currently out. I mean really, who wants to pay that much!

[Shodan]

In July 1969 we went out into the back yard, looked up at the sky, and my father pointed to the moon and said, "There are people up there."

Regards,
Shodan

[Gary "Wombat" Robson]

In my day, we programmers had to look up computer information in manuals. Each of us had a small collection of manuals that we needed for frequent access. Single copies of other manuals were kept in an unattended library room, and occasionally a manual would go missing permanently, i.e., taken by someone for their own private use.Our school district had an IBM 360, and I contacted IBM to get all the programming manuals so I could learn BASIC, FORTRAN, and PL/1 when I was in 9th grade. They took up about six shelf-feet. There was an entire manual just to explain the error messages the FORTRAN compiler produced.

[kushiel]

...had McDonalds as a special treat when we drove into town from the farm for weekend grocery shopping
...mapped every part of the field on a bike
...Mama's lap was your carseat until you were old enough to not fall over
...did not have protective mesh enclosures around the trampoline
...watched soap operas on summer vacation because we had farmervision, no fancy all-cartoon cable channels for us!

[Myrrajh]

...had a dancing hot dog and popcorn intermission at the movie theater (which cost $1 for a kid). When I saw the latest Harry Potter flick I wished for an intermission because I had to get up twice to pee. Their large drinks are way too large. :)

...amused ourselves with sticks and dirtballs

...spent summer evenings running around the neighborhood playing hide and seek, kick the can, Red Rover, and other games that involved jumping fences and running through hedges

...were allowed to ride in the back of the pickup truck

[salinqmind]

went out to play, ride bikes, etc. all day - often accompanied by the neighborhood dogs. No leash laws! The neighborhood was aswarm with curs and mutts. If we got bit on occasion, if it didn;t break the skin, our mothers washed it off good with Lifebuoy soap and we were lectured on 'teasing the dog'.

went out to a quiet stretch of street with metal skates that had to be tightened with a key - wobbled up and down the pavement with no helmet - I still have the scars on my debraded knees.

every Fall, devouring the back to school issue of Seventeen magazine from cover to cover. There were no articles on hooking up or how to get birth control, but there were always clothes to die for, and always something plaid. (in the fashion layout, there were always a few blouses or jumpers that were not ready-made, but were made from Simplicity patterns, and the home sewer could whip up a few au courant outfits on her Singer!) Every year in high school I bought the latest PLAID kilt held shut with a big brass pin at Lerners and felt very autumnal - and stylin'!

[Aithele]

What a great thread.

...played outside all day and didn't have to go home until the street lights came on.
...went trick or treating without fear of razor blades or poison.
...spent most of the day roaming around the woods (after we moved to the country).
...rode bikes without any sort of protection.
...drove down rural roads on a gocart.
...rode our bikes on hot summer days to the local drug store to have a cherry Dr. Pepper or vanilla Coke at the soda counter.
...had a Commodore 64. There was one game I used to love to play on it but I can't remember the name of it. The player flew an airplane over a city and dropped bombs to destroy all of the buildings. I have a vague memory of having to put in the cassette tape in order to play the game.

[Eugene of Sandwich]

Wore only a pair of shorts during the summer, shirtless and shoeless (male here), unless we were going somewhere then we put on a shirt.

[Nunzio Tavulari]

threw an old mattress on the ground and jumped off the garage roof onto it

leaned way out of the back window of the station wagon so we could watch the road speed by

stared at the picture of the indian on the TV set _forever_ on Saturday morning because there was no programming before 6am

played with authentic looking hatchets and rifles that shot hard plastic bullets and occasionally with hand grenades that our Dads brought home from the war and swore were duds

never had anything happen to us that everyone is trying to protect their children from today

[Myrrajh]

<snip>...had a Commodore 64. There was one game I used to love to play on it but I can't remember the name of it. The player flew an airplane over a city and dropped bombs to destroy all of the buildings. I have a vague memory of having to put in the cassette tape in order to play the game.
Was that Raid on Bungeling Bay? Did you have to fly an aircraft out of a hanger at the beginning? I still have my 64...with a disk drive, neener neener neener. :D

[curlcoat]

- got milk in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers, and cream on the top
- had a party line phone, with our own personal ring
- shopped around for gas that was less than 25 cents a gallon
- learned to drive on an old three on the tree in the back field of my employer

[WishIHadACoolName]

Raced home after school to watch The Magic Garden. Paula and Carol were great, and I adored the Giggle Patch. No drugs were harmed in the making of this children's show.

I babysat, starting when I was almost 10 and my oldest sister had a baby. By the age of 12, I was known as someone you could trust your infant with for several hours. And that summer, I was responsible for the care of my other sister's 9 month old for 8 hours every day. I don't know a single 12 year old today that I would trust as a sitter.

Big families were "normal", and were the result of the parents having sex. My parents had 9 kids, and very few of my friends were from 1 or 2 child families. We all felt terrible for the kids who were "onlies". Couples who wanted children but were not blessed naturally actually adopted kids in a process that usually involved their church. And nobody knew who was adopted unless the kid told you.

A giant pot of fresh from the farm corn was supper on occasion.

The dog had as much freedom as any of the kids. No leashes, no licenses, no electronic collars. If you owned a dog, you taught it not to be mean.

We slept outside whenever we could. Mom would let us put the tent up in the yard, OR we would just grab a pillow and sleeping bag and crash on the porch.

We walked everywhere.

We went into the woods to pick berries, and eat them right from the bush! You had to blow the little bugs off them first, but...YUM!

Walked to and from the public pool. By the time you walked home, you were exhausted and hot all over again.

Slept over at each other's houses.

As kids, we cooked! I was a good baker before I even got to high school. We also "experimented" with foods and beverages, mixing whatever struck us into one bowl, then actually tasting it!

Fun times, the 1970s...

[longPath]

we made black powder from saltpetre and powdered sulfur we bought at the drugstore. The powdered charcoal came from the bottom of the bag stored under the bar-b-que.

From the same drugstore we bought, by the pound, powdered asbestos which when mixed with water, made a kind of modeling compound usually used to fashion ashtrays which were proudly presented to the parents.

cough cough

[John Carter of Mars]

In my day everybody would drink and drive. Didn't even think much about it. Get some beer, load the back of a pickup up with fellow teenagers and whip around town raisin' hell. The parents got drunk and jumped behind the wheel of their cars too. Party all night in a bar and drive home trashed. Don't know how we all survived.

[Mahaloth]

Heh, in my day:

- The score of sporting events was not more or less continually on the screen. You had to say, "just until they show the score" when Mom or the wife wanted you to flip back to what you were watching.

[Mr. Miskatonic]

I hate you both.

Did you ever notice how often they came up with synonyms for "ass"?

Gene Rayburn: "Dumb Dora was really dumb. She wanted to save her money for a rainy day, but instead of putting it in the bank, she put it in her [blank]."

Betty White: "Well, Gene, I figured it was probably her 'keister'."
Charles Nelson Riley: "The answer is absolutely...'tushkis'"
Richard Dawson: "I think it was her 'back porch'"


Crow T. Robot's one robot tribute to Match Game (http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=18629)

[Mr. Miskatonic]

IN my day we had TVs that went "BUZZZZZZZ" when the overlay score of the game came up on the screen or the end of a Popiel ad had the phone number displayed on the screen.

Why the hell did TVs do that?!

[Jumpbass]

... the milk was delivered a couple times a week. The milkman would leave it on the front step.
...the garbage men would get the cans from the side yard through the gate.
... my grandfather gave my brother and I haircuts because he had experience shearing sheep.

[Gary "Wombat" Robson]

IN my day we had TVs that went "BUZZZZZZZ" when the overlay score of the game came up on the screen or the end of a Popiel ad had the phone number displayed on the screen.

Why the hell did TVs do that?!There were TV's that had difficulty with sharp transitions between colors as the electron beam painted the screen from side-to-side. These made a subtle little noise you'd never notice most of the time (like when the picture showed a dark house on a light background).

But when you had text on the screen (like that phone # or game score), there were lots of black-to-white transitions, and the noises all accumulated into a buzz.

[Aithele]

Was that Raid on Bungeling Bay? Did you have to fly an aircraft out of a hanger at the beginning? I still have my 64...with a disk drive, neener neener neener. :D

I googled images for it. It didn't look familiar. I remember it was a side view of a plane and buildings.

[lieu]

We had a TV that would leave a little dot of light onscreen for a couple of minutes after you turned the set off.

About once a day you'd hear someone drive by with a loose lugnut rattling around in their hubcap.

Kids would be glued to window of whichever side of the car the service station attendant was checking the tire pressure of.

On some dirt roads a truck would periodically spray an dilute oil mix to keep the dust down.

[Nars Glinley]

If there was a problem with our TV, my dad would take some of the vacuum tubes to store to have them tested.

[Nzinga, Seated]

threw an old mattress on the ground and jumped off the garage roof onto it



This one really takes me back. We did this exactly.

As a matter of fact, let's really bring the ghetto to this thread!;

Running down the street being pushed in grocery carts 'borrowed' from the grocery store.

Bringing ice water to the basketball court for the boys.

Breaking up cardboard boxes so the boys can breakdance, and also learning a few of the easier moves myself (the dolphin, some pop-lockin)

Watching the boys do back flips on the old mattresses

Making 'julips' and selling them for a quarter

Trying like hell to cut the government cheese in the brown box thin enough to make a good grill cheese sandwich, because it was not as good if it was too thick

Turning the tv with a set of pliers.

Lighting the oven with a piece of rolled up paper lit from the stove top

Putting cocoa butter on our necks and foreheads to sooth the burns from the hot comb.

One of the things that seems so dangerous to me now, that I can't imagine anyone allowing their kids to do to day is the way we handled the hot curling irons. They were big, heavy irons, made of...well, iron, I guess...very heavy medal, and we would heat it to hell on the stove top and then take it off and spin it madly to cool if off.

They were made with a rubber handle and the hot curlers would spin freely (http://i3.iofferphoto.com/img/item/669/167/11/o_4N74NRGpnKBHxfE.jpg). I can't believe we never had the damn things fly out of our hands to sizzle the eyeballs of the person whose head we were curling. I found this, which looks pretty much like them, except the rubber tips were always pulled off.

(posting for work, so excuse me if I repeated others; I had to skim the thread.)

Looking at back at my list, I see I spent a lot of time looking at or catering to boys.

[Omega Glory]

... actually went to the dollar movies. Sure it was second run movies, but it actually cost a dollar! Sure was cheaper than paying $4.50 for the movies currently out. I mean really, who wants to pay that much!

They still have this in my area (Rochester, NY) on certain days. Or at least they did. I haven't been there in awhile.

Had to wait until we got home to call someone

Had to make sure we were in front of the tv on time to catch our show, or that was it, until off season reruns. No youtube or torrents or DVRs. Unless you went through the trouble of programming your VCR, and who did that?

Were allowed to ride in a car without booster seats before age seven.

I can't think of many things we did that people aren't still doing now.

[Noel Prosequi]

Ah..
Building go-karts and riding them in suburban streets.

Hunting butterflies - I remember feeling the shock of the sense of Profound Importance when a mate and I discovered a whole new species of butterfly. Well, we'd[I] never seen it before, so that meant no-one else had, right?

Chasing penny turtles in the local creek.

Thinking sunburn was unbelievably cool because your back got completely covered in blisters which burst and left the back of your shirt all wet, and you had big strips of broken blister skin hanging off you.

Taking for granted that you could stay for dinner or sleep at the house of any mate you happened to end up at.

Getting caught up in the cycle of schoolyard Crazes - one month (usually August) it would be yo-yos and everyone had to have one and show off their tricks, the next it would be marbles, then games played with a long loop of elastic... at the time, not realising the cyclic nature of these things meant that the Universe seemed to be constantly providing us with new and unbelievably cool things [I]forever!

Violent schoolyard games - there were games where one person would sit on another's shoulders daring other kids to do the same and take us on in battles that were won by pushing the other kid off his "mount". The hefty kids finally came into their own here - they were the best kids to have on the bottom because of the low centre of gravity. Other violent games involved pelting each other as hard as possible with tennis balls, and so on. Any violent games that are left now have the spontaneous fun organised out of them.

Corporal punishment at school - I remember getting caned for some trivial misdemeanour. Christ it hurt, but there was no way you could ever let anyone see that it did, including the teacher.

[ArrMatey!]

...were told not to leave our toys outside, because it might rain, and they'd -- get this -- RUST.


My brother had one of his favorite toys rust due to this, although my parents were secretly delighted. It was a megaphone my aunt had given him. Never, ever give a hyperactive grade-school kid a megaphone!

[zenith]

threw an old mattress on the ground and jumped off the garage roof onto it

leaned way out of the back window of the station wagon so we could watch the road speed by

stared at the picture of the indian on the TV set _forever_ on Saturday morning because there was no programming before 6am

played with authentic looking hatchets and rifles that shot hard plastic bullets and occasionally with hand grenades that our Dads brought home from the war and swore were duds

never had anything happen to us that everyone is trying to protect their children from today

Didn't do the hanging out the station wagon window more than once. Dad hit the brakes and nearly sent us to the pavement saying, "Now you know why I nagged you not to do that." Child Abuse by today's wimp standards.

[SMullen]

Hi, all.

I love this thread!

We went to the kiddie matinee movies. Once the theater was jammed with kids we always started shouting "We want a show! We want a show!" as loud as we could.

We also bought strips of caps for cap guns and laid them out on the ground and hit them with rocks.

And a few times I remember a *lot* of kids cramming into one car and going to "Buck Nite at the Drive-In". Almost mandatory on the way to or from this sort of event was a Chinese fire-drill.

And sledding. We would always talk about the "big kids" who had toboggans.

On Halloween we went to as many houses as we could and always loved it when there were homemade cookies.

[zenith]

In my day everybody would drink and drive. Didn't even think much about it. Get some beer, load the back of a pickup up with fellow teenagers and whip around town raisin' hell. The parents got drunk and jumped behind the wheel of their cars too. Party all night in a bar and drive home trashed. Don't know how we all survived.

My Dad was a cop from the '40s til the early '70s. In his day a drunk driver not involved in an accident was driven home and their Old Lady or parents given the keys to and location of the car with a warning that next time he'd go to jail, lose his license , lose his job. Typically, the offender was male, back then.

If the offender had no Old Lady or parent , then the keys went to the station house to be picked up no earlier than the 12 hours deemed necessary to "sleep it off".
For the overwhelming majority, the "favor" was a long-term, if not life-long wakeup call to reform one's life.

If someone actually went to jail for DUI, he was castigated by the average person as a dumbass alky who didn't know what a favor the cop did'em the first time and deemed deserving of a good long dryout in jail.

None of this jailing those first offenders too poor to afford $2K for "pretrial diversion" programs and bilking those with just enough left on the VISA to stay out of jail.

[Nars Glinley]

Something happened today that reminded me of this thread. I hope it's not too late to bump.

In my day, we watched with eager anticipation as our car's odometer would rollover at a factor of 10,000. Going over 100,000 miles was a particular treat because cars didn't last as long in those days. Watching a digital odometer just isn't the same at all.

[kopek]

Yup. The name of the song was "It's a Gas!"

Weren't the records in MAD Magazine called "Fink Along With MAD"? I remember the one by heart
Although she isn't very pretty
Although she isn't very bright
I love her, I love her
Oh boy how I love her
Because she lets me watch her mom and dad fight

There is something about the old MAD stuff that just etched itself into your brain.




I remember, and miss, junior high and high school when we could hunt on the way to and from school. You would turn your firearm and ammo in to the gym teacher who would keep it in the equipment room behind his office along with the schools firearms and shells. (from the shooting teams and the regular parts of gym class) The ladies in the lunch room would stick small game in the cooler until the end of the day and if it was deer season and you got lucky in the morning, that was considered a valid excuse for missing school. This was later in the season, of course; opening day of deer everyone in the school had the day off.

It just never occurred to us to shoot each other. I remember at least once me and another kid having a great fist fight while our buddies held our shotguns. But to shoot or cut someone in anger? That just wasn't done!

[AskNott]

I learned to multiply by 12, because comic books at the drug store had gone up to 12 cents each.

[tacoloco]

- rode bikes without helmets
- thought Evel Knievel was the coolest guy ever
- collected football stamps from Sunoco
- fearlessly climbed trees
- played "war" with whatever we had handy

[Fear Itself]

Ate peanut butter sandwiches at school.
Drank soda out of glass bottles.
Got shoes resoled at a shoe repair shop.
Made phone calls on a dial telephone.
Saw movies made in Cinerama.

[Colophon]

I googled images for it. It didn't look familiar. I remember it was a side view of a plane and buildings.

I know the game you mean. I think it was called Blitz (http://www.retrogamer.net/show_image.php?imageID=2547).

Edit - actually that was the VIC-20 version. The C64 game was Super Blitz (http://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=http%3A//www.lemon64.com/reviews/view.php%3Fid%3D529).

[overlyverbose]

...drank milk or water at lunch and dinner unless we got a juice for a treat. Breakfast beverage was a mix of milk and instant coffee.
...at age 8 or 9 rode our bikes down to the gas station a few miles away to get candy.
...detassled corn in the fields to pay for said candy by age 10 (we could buy more candy).
...babysat by age 12 so we didn't have to detassle corn anymore.
...had a bedtime every single night but Friday and Saturday nights.
...had recess every single day and made the most of it, mostly without adult intervention. Teachers were only called over if someone fell off something or a big fight broke out.
...ate sugary cereal every morning that we prepared ourselves and managed to burn it off anyway by having street races and playing basketball in the morning, then getting dropped off at the pool after lunch and left there to swim until 5.

[Cardinal]

In my day, we watched with eager anticipation as our car's odometer would rollover at a factor of 10,000. Going over 100,000 miles was a particular treat because cars didn't last as long in those days. Watching a digital odometer just isn't the same at all.We have a picture of my dad and me on the side of the highway showing a 1 and three zeros because we only had four hands. We were trying to communicate 100K miles. My dad had a bit of a manly pride stance because he'd gotten a '68 Buick Skylark across the line. It then went on for quite a number of years after that, so I think he was working more from his childhood references. I'm going to be pointedly upset if my '06 Toyota doesn't make it past 200K.

[Dallas Jones]

To make money;

We would go out into the forest to peel cascara bark trees. It was used to make laxative. Climb way up a skinny tree with a pocket knife, slit the bark, and push your hand around the tree under the bark to pop it off. Fall out of the tree sometimes, miles from help. Pack the wet bark home in gunny sacks, (mom didn't pick us up in the SUV) clean it and dry it in the sun, bust it up with a baseball bat when dry and sell it. A full, dry bag took about 3 weeks and we got about $15 for the thing.

In June kids out of school would all pick strawberries. Had to get up about 4:30 am and a school bus would pick up the kids and drive us a couple hours to the fields where we would pick until early afternoon and then get taken home. Fun, romance, berry fights in the sun. Bought my first '10 speed' bike that way. Modern technology!

[Mehitabel]

My Bronx upbringing was a little less ghetto than Nzinga's but there were a lot of things in common. Basically, everything was dirty or broken in public places, like playgrounds and parks, phones didn't work, snow wasn't plowed, traffic lights broke, etc. so we all became little urban archaeologists and parkour experts. Ah, the 70s.

We:

Climbed the smaller trees in Van Cortlandt Park in our cordouroys.
Tried to climb up to the top of the two-story chainlink fences around the basketball court. This only lasted until your sneakers got too big to fit into the holes.
Swept the garbage out of park clearings to build a "clubhouse" and gave names to all the trees.
Had to drag little siblings along with us way too often.
Had to wait until Dad came home from work with THE car if we wanted to go anywhere; not that we could go many places since stores closed earlier.
Never wore bike helmets and rolled around in the back seat sans belts.
Babysat from ages 11-16 for extra money.
Took rattly city busses home from high school that were so crowded kids not only clogged the aisles but the door wells and windshield area, practically sitting on the driver's lap. Made even more fun by Mayor-Beame-era giant potholes.
Paid five cents for milk in 4-ounce cartons at school; Fridays mom gave me seven cents for CHOCOLATE MILK!!
Waltzed into lobbies of buildings and upstairs with no doormen or guards or, if there were any, bored glances to make sure you didn't have burglary equipment in your hands at the moment. Glad I got too see the Woolworth Building Lobby (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyandersson/317599068/) so often before it became terra incognita.
Ate any sweets we got without guilt, although portions were much smaller.

[panache45]

... actually went to the dollar movies. Sure it was second run movies, but it actually cost a dollar! Sure was cheaper than paying $4.50 for the movies currently out. I mean really, who wants to pay that much!

Well, in my day we went to 25¢ movies. Every Sunday. Not only did they cost only 25¢, but it was a double feature, plus newsreels and cartoons! This was back in the 50s, and they usually showed all those great sci-fi movies from back then.

[panache45]

For Halloween, we had Trick or Treat two nights, the 30th and the 31st. We lived in a neighborhood that was a grid of several streets, and both nights we went up and down all the streets. Each of us wound up with four huge shopping bags full of candy, and it lasted all year. I remember having a huge mountain of candy on the living room floor, sorting it all out. If there was anything we didn't want we took it to school to trade with the other kids. There was this one girl, Eleanor, who was so desperate for friends that she traded all her good stuff for the crap nobody wanted. She still didn't have any friends; she was pathetic.

[Category5]

Worked at a gas station as a "pump jockey" during the gas crisis.

[Maiira]

In my day, we had one 20-year-old TV set in the entire house.

In my day, we had a "rewind" dial on the remote that you had to keep holding, otherwise it would stop. We also recorded programs on VHS tapes, and had many "mystery tapes" with no label sitting on the shelf.

In my day, we played on playgrounds with wooden beams, loose nails, and nets made of chains. We'd get cuts, bruises, scrapes, and blisters, and it was awesome.

In my day, we watched 2D Disney films.

In my day, computers required big bulky monitors, and that newfangled "internet" took about a minute to load a single page. This was considered pretty speedy.

[Wheelz]

- Really looked forward to Saturday morning, because that was the only time cartoons were on.

- Ran home for lunch every day at noon and watched "Bozo's Circus."

- Tuned our car radios with a knob that moved a little pointer back and forth -- and stuck in an 8-track if we couldn't find anything good.

- Had "play dates" (not called that then) with whatever other kids happened to be wandering around the neighborhood that day. But we had to go home when the street lights came on.

- Had a dishwasher that had to be hooked up the the kitchen faucet, and made about as much noise as a jet engine.

- Bought candy bars for a dime and gumballs for a penny at the local Rexall. And if you got a gumball with a red stripe on it, you got a free candy bar! What a thrill that was!

[Soylent Juicy]

...walked to and from school, either alone or with a couple of friends. It was unheard of for a parent to walk you to school at any time past Kindergarten.

...played outside all day and didn't worry about the Air Quality Index. Was expected home "when the streetlights come on."

...sat in the car minding my own business while my parents did the grocery shopping.

...delivered my paper route alone in all types of weather and was dang proud of the $40 I earned every month.

...rode my bike and rollerskated without a helmet.

...walked home from school for lunch, or to a friend's house.

...went home after school, let myself in with my key, grabbed a snack and watched "Toronto Rocks", "Video Hits" and "Flipside" until my parents came home.



...
...

[Hello Again]

Another urban childhood

...had a swinging rope and sandpit in our playground. You stood on one raised platform and swung to the other over a sandpit. Absolutely nothing stopping you from cracking your head open if you let go too early.

...played "stoopball" in the street, if someone yelled "car" we had to get to the sidewalk, otherwise it was the infield.

...had to pay for a new "blue ball" at the corner store if we lost ours in the gutter while playing stoopball (stupid hilly street!). They had a milkcrate full in the front of the store.

...took the bus to the movies without any adult supervision if nothing good was playing at our neighborhood theater. And had to get "change for the bus" because the fare was $1.15 and it was a real pain.

...watched "North & South" on my parent's little black & white TV.

...often saw crack vials in the cracks of the sidewalk. (initially, I thought this was why they called it "crack").

... were crazy psyched when Dark Castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Castle) came out for the Mac 512. It was on 2 floppies! And always, always loaded it on Christmas Day just to see the Christmas tree where the suit of armor should be.

...played Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? on once-a-month "game day" in computer class, and learned that "titian haired" meant red headed.

...dreamed of winning the trip to Space Camp on Double Dare.

...watched Friday Night Videos because we didn't get MTV. And thought the video for "Wrapped Around Your Finger" was weird and boring.

[chacoguy]

Walked a couple of miles with my 14-year-old friends to get out into the country where we could shoot the rifles, pistols and shotguns we were carrying.

[KAndre]

The 70's in Houston...

Sucking the nectar from as much honeysuckle as you could collect.
Playing in the really cool cloud left behind by the mosquito truck
Carefully doctoring the paper transfers from Houtran (the bus service). If you tore the top off carefully enough, the bus driver couldn't see the date and would just wave you on...that saved you fifty cents!
Playing in the P-farm (penitarary farm) right on Mykawa Rd (I'm not not why they thought it was a good idea to put a P-farm in the middle of a neighborhood) until the prisoners working the field ran us off.
Babysitting a pair of neighbor's kids for 9 hours a day for $25 a week when I was twelve...and I was expected to fix them a hot lunch and clean the house.
Making the littler kids stand by the tv adjusting the rabbit ears (or the wire hanger after the rabbit ears were destroyed) because Speed Racer came in better on the UHF channel if someone actually stood there and held it.
Finding my uncle's Redd Foxx and Dolomite albums up in the attic, and setting a lookout so we could listen to the whole raunchy thing. Up until that point, I only knew Redd Foxx from Sanford and Son...it was something of a shock.
Knowing for a fact if you missed a TV show, you were shit out of luck - it would never be seen again

[MissSwitac]

In the winter when the streets were icy, we'd go bumper hitching, or shagging as we called it. Some of the better rides were when the driver would fishtail it down the road and you'd try your damndest to hang on.
Fridays nights were great TV nights. First there was That Girl with Marlo Thomas, Then Nanny and the Professor, The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family then bedtime :-((
When we'd go to our friends house, we wouldn't knock on the door or ring the doorbell. We'd call them out on their front porch in a sing songy yell: "Caaaaarrrie!! Naaaaanccyy!!!"
It was a huge event when The Wizard of Oz played on TV once a year or any of the Peanuts Specials with Dolly Madison snack cakes commercials. .
Most moms we knew in the 70's were stay at home moms and we were lucky to get a home cooked dinner every day, but a couple times a year we were allowed to have McDonalds. That was a big deal.
Word would get around fast that an impromptu baseball game was happening at the local field and every kid from miles around showed up with mitt ready to play.
We wouldn't think of asking our parents to drive us somewhere. We rode our bikes everywhere, no matter how far. As a kid in the 70's, your bike was your life!
Saving my money and running to Korvettes department store to buy the latest album. Racing home to tear off the plastic cover and the little thrill you'd feel as you opened the gatefold album cover to check out the cool pictures. It was extra cool when the album had lyrics printed on it.

[Kickback_Joe]

In my day, we played to win. It did not matter what we were playing. Whether it was football, baseball or who could climb the highest in the tree all that mattered was that you won and someone else lost. There was no trophy for losing and there were no awards just for competing. Sometimes life sucked and you lost or you did not make the team or you were not picked to play but that was life.

There were no lawsuits because little Johnny did not make the team or because little Suzy did not make the team or cheerleading squad. Parents would ask why and the coach would tell the parents that your little boy did not make the team because he could not catch or throw and that your daughter did not make the squad because she was not fast enough or did not know how to do cartwheels.

Life is not fair and I think we learned that lesson a lot earlier in my day.

[Nars Glinley]

We rode the school bus and sat on the steps right by the door. Every now and then, the bus driver would open the door while we were driving down the road just to scare the crap out of us.