remember...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Mr. Potato Head came in a box containing no arms or feet; only several plastic eyes, noses, mouths, hats, ears; each backed with a sharp point instead of the blunt rods seen today; all were inserted into a real potato that you had to supply from Mom’s kitchen (really)

Cloth diapers

Looking up at the sky: Is it a daytime star/planet? Is it a Russian satellite? Is it the “big one?”

Spaldeens

Slide rules

Heavy wooden desk chairs with huge spring between seat and base, allowing it to (squeak-squeak) adjust to weight shifting.

Paper chains made from folding gum wrappers and linking them together into a long zig-zag tape.

Plastic lanyards woven into long, useless squared-off “cylinder”

One of my best friends across the street had a fall-out shelter; the only one in town. She made it perfectly clear that when the bomb came, only her family, no friends, would be allowed in.

Playing jacks

Lining up with the entire town to take the first oral polio vaccine delivered by sugar cube (well that must be how they got the idea for LSD delivery)

Reel to reel home movie projectors

2

When “post-its” were pins.

3

Wow. Back in the olden days people played with potatoes. All I gotta say is: Thank God for Nintendo!

Not that I truly remember this fact from experience, but I wore cloth diapers sometimes as a baby. Despite numerous reports to the contrary, I do not currently wear cloth diapers. Really. Well, ok, maybe on New Year’s …

I used to do that. Only it was Iraq and not Russia. And now China. And, of course, since I had a super-inflated imagination as a child (which has since been ground out of me the the Public Education System) the little green aliens from Alpha Centauri.

Don’t tell me: This is some sort of cross between spleens and canteens? “The Organ You Can Drink From!”

At my college there’s a display with the title of something like “The History of Computing”. Included amongst Apple IIc’s and 8-inch floppies, is a slide rule. It was the first time I’d seen one. I was in awe.

Hmm. Well, I suppose one must have to shift whilst playing with potatoes.

My sisters and I made a 13-foot long chain of gum wrappers. Yes, my childhood was rather pathetic. :slight_smile:

I can honestly say that I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. What’s a lanyard?

Does making a fort out of couch cushins count? No?

Well, doesn’t everyone enjoy a good jack now and then?

Now that is interesting. I came into the world being taught that before too long, diseases would be a thing of the past. Then AIDS became a huge scare, and cancer was another big fear, and now people are once again saying that before too long, disease will be a thing of the past due to such endeavors as the Human Genome Project. Hope, disillusionment, hope, disillusionment.

Dear lord, such things existed??

4

Ohh. Cool. This would make a nifty sig. Mind if I borrow it?

Dear lord, such things existed?? **
[/QUOTE]

I’ve only seen these things in school. Took me half an hour to figure out how to thread the film. Half an hour. I can set up a computer in less time.
Oh well, I may be smart, but some times I’m a slow as a post. :slight_smile:

5

Our (repulsive) next door neighbor had his backyard dug up and a shelter “installed.” My younger brothers came home one day to say that he had made a point of telling them that he had a shotgun and that if the bomb came, he would use it to defend the shelter from any neighbors who did not have the foresight to build their own.

My mom replied that he needn’t worry. If those people were the only ones who were going to survive WWIII, she’d just as soon not be around to see it.

6

I remember having to get up off my ass to change the channel, and only having 6 stations to choose from.

I remember looking forward to getting free stuff when my father pulled into a gas station (where someone actually pumped it, and it was 39 cents a gallon). Fill the tank and get a Presidential Coin to add to your collection, or a steak knife, or a glass, etc.

I remember that me and my friends actually played outside :eek:, and didn’t fritter our lives away playing video games inside all day. We didn’t have to “make a play date” either.

If we were bad, we got our asses whipped by our parents, and didn’t get a “time out” or counseling.

I remember when “sue” was just a girl’s name. When you were responsible for your own actions, and couldn’t collect money for being an idiot.

I also remember that we didn’t have all this cool stuff, either. It’s fun to reminisce about the good old days, but I like all the conveniences we have today.

BlackKnight - a Spaldeen is a red rubber ball, like if you shaved a tennis ball. We used it to play stick ball, punch ball, and stoop ball (anyone remember that?)

7

You try and tell kids about slide rules these days and all they say is:

“One at a time and no pushing.”

Anyone remember the Curta compact mechanical calculator? It was the size of a small peppermill and could do complex math.

8

Memories From A Boondocks Girlhood In The Late 1980’s

Being unable to build a real treehouse, my friends and I raided the trash gully and made a “fort” under an ancient oak tree in the woods. We had other peoples’ cast-off chairs, tables, sawhorses, chipped pottery… it was a trash-picker’s heaven and a 6 year old’s haven.

My Little Ponies

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Maybe my childhood was odd for my time, but I NEVER played video games – my family didn’t own a gaming system til I was 8 and I didn’t actually play with one until I was 12. Instead, I played outside with a couple of friends or by myself, or I’d play make-believe games with my community of My Little Ponies. I had at least 100 and each of them had their own unique personality. It was a microcosm in my bedroom.

Building dirt tracks for my Matchbox and Hot Wheels in the backyard.

When personal computers were only for the well-off, and 16 colors were a luxury.

9

I remember:

19 cent a gallon premium gas.

29 cents a pack cigarettes.

Going on vacation for a week and NOT locking your house.

When a computer took up an entire room.

Black & white tv was all that there was, and only 1 channel to watch, and it didn’t come in very well because nobody sold rooftop antennas.

The first Polaroid camera was the size of a shoe box.

O.K. I’m depressed now. :D:D

==wanders off to the corner sucking his thumb==

10

Dire Wolf,

Here in England, we still have only 5 (terrestrial) channels. :o

11

We still have those, if they’re what I think they are. They were “in” when I was in fourth grade. That would have been in '96, I think.

12

Go right ahead, and I’m glad you like it! :slight_smile:

13

Sweet. Thank you.

14

Oh yeah, I remember doing this. I used to build elaborate tracks, designed them on paper first and everything (what a geek!)

I also remember having to ‘dial’ a telephone.

15

Still have a dial phone. The thing costs $4.64/month and it sits gathering dust. Realy need to get off my fat and bring it back to the phone comp.