# Stuff the youngsters will scratch their heads over... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 18, 2000, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005 "2000-07-18T19:12:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![Scribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Scribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribe)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2000, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/301 "2000-08-12T19:54:32Z")
I was in the library yesterday, reading some old issues of Life from the early 1950s. I spotted an ad for Armour pork sausage, with a big picture of a frying pan full of cooking sausage burgers. Cartoon characters surrounded it saying nice things about the sausage… One of the plaudits for the sausage was “Fresh as dew!” I was scratching my head, because as yummy as I think sausage is, I don’t think of fried sausage and a pretty garden, say, in the same sentence. Unless I’m really, really hungry. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/302 "2000-08-16T18:36:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jab1 \* > \*\*I used to drink Dr Pepper with peanuts. If DP was unavailable, I drank orange soda, usually Nehi. \*\* Actually, it was Orange _Crush_ I would drink. The peanuts were always Tom’s or Lance. The soda was a dime (and only ten ounces!), the peanuts a nickel. The other day, I put some Tom’s peanuts into a **20-ounce** bottle of Barq’s root beer, and the total cost was more than two dollars. Remember when sodas came in glass bottles? On the bottom of every Coca-Cola bottle was the name of the city where the bottle had been made. We’d always look to see where our bottle came from. One of my uncles kept a bottle that had “Rio de Janeiro” on the bottom. If the bottle wasn’t worth keeping, you’d take it back to the grocer for the deposit. IIRC, a soda cost ten cents if you brought a bottle back, fifteen if you didn’t. I remember when they started stamping “No Deposit, No Return” on the bottles and wondering why they cost more if you couldn’t get a refund. Remember Continental Trailways Bus Lines? It was a competitor to Greyhound until the big running dog bought them out about fifteen years ago (or so). Their buses were red and white and they usually charged less than Greyhound did over the same routes. Some old Continental buses bought by Greyhound are still in use today! If the destination sign on the front of the bus is below the windshield and not above it, it’s an old Continental bus. My mother worked for Continental in Dallas in the 70s. She was in the Accounting and Bookkeeping Department running a big calculator called a _comptometer_. This sucker had 100 keys and was as big as a manual typewriter and twice as heavy! It was electro-mechanical and made a terrible racket. Remember the Ford Falcon station wagon? We had a 1960 model in 1964. Damn near blew out the radiator trying to drive up Pike’s Peak. ---
**Author:** ![jesuslynch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e99b99/32.png) [@jesuslynch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jesuslynch)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/303 "2000-08-16T19:25:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jab1 \* > \*\*… My mother worked for Continental in Dallas in the 70s. She was in the Accounting and Bookkeeping Department running a big calculator called a _comptometer_… \*\* First job I had out of college was at an Accounting firm where **2** of the partners used a comptometer. One was electric and one was manual. The managing partner usually would get out the company’s books about 4:45 pm every Friday and start “whomping” (that pretty well describes what he was doing) it. I can still hear that son of a bitch. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/304 "2000-08-16T21:06:40Z")
I didn’t read through the whole thread, so I don’t know if this was mentioned. Getting a color TV and FINALLY understand the “horse of a different color” joke in the Wizard of Oz. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/305 "2000-08-16T21:50:31Z")
FairyChatMom!: Sorry I missed your response! You are, of course, correct. (Although in one movie – I don’t recall which – "Slip’s middle name was given as “Montgomery”. But “Aloysius” was the usual middle name.) “Jughead” Jones’ real name was “Forsythe P. Jones” ---
**Author:** ![labradorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@labradorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labradorian)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/306 "2000-08-16T21:58:48Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Baloo \* \*\* > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Amthystre \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > Walking everywhere barefoot in the summer. \*\* > > I miss walking barefoot in the summer. \ \*\* How long ago did you stop barefooting? When I was on a holiday in Maine in 94, I don’t think I saw a pair of shoes anywhere, other than the two pairs on the two of us in the car, and the one pair which I bought. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/307 "2000-08-17T00:53:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jab1 \* > \*\*Remember Continental Trailways Bus Lines? It was a competitor to Greyhound until the big running dog bought them out about fifteen years ago (or so). \*\* Trailways is alive and well, albeit with busses being [stolen](http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/08/16/trailways.bus.theft.ap/index.html) by fourth graders. ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2000, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/308 "2000-08-18T17:15:41Z")
I read the story. It was probably a _Carolina_ Trailways bus. As the name implies, they serve mainly just the South East. They’re owned by Greyhound now also. _Continental_ Trailways served the whole nation, as its name implies, though they didn’t serve as many small towns as Greyhound did and does. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2000, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/309 "2000-08-18T20:33:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jab1 \* > \*\*I read the story. It was probably a _Carolina_ Trailways bus. As the name implies, they serve mainly just the South East. They’re owned by Greyhound now also. > > _Continental_ Trailways served the whole nation, as its name implies, though they didn’t serve as many small towns as Greyhound did and does. \*\* Memories of my college days–in the SF Bay Area, Greyhound went up and down The Peninsula to San Francisco, but didn’t serve the East Bay where I resided. If I wanted to catch a bus south to my home, I either had to get to SF, or take the dreaded Trailways (which in my memory had coal-powered buses, people clinging to the roof, and a guy in the back row with a crate of live chickens) to San Jose and transfer. To wrench this back to the topic: Back when the world was new, financial institutions were divided into Banks and Savings & Loans. You couldn’t get a checking account at an S&L. And banks were forbidden to operate across state lines. As somebody already pointed out, soda cans were hard to open. On the other hand, all over-the-counter medication was easy to open–just unscrew the top. ---
**Author:** ![SSgtBaloo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2000, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/310 "2000-08-19T04:58:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jsc1953 \* > \*\*…all over-the-counter medication was easy to open–just unscrew the top. \*\* Yeah, and cough syrup had codeine in it. When did that stop, anyway? ~~Baloo ---
**Author:** ![Scribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Scribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribe)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/311 "2000-08-23T00:44:12Z")
My mother remembers fountain pens, and seeing other girls in school getting their long pigtails dunked in inkwells by naughty boys. She remembers ink fights, after kids rigged their fountain pens to shoot ink out. I’m glad I was in the ballpoint pen era. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/312 "2000-08-23T03:29:38Z")
You want scary Scribe? My mother could do a creditable imitation of Hitler. She survived the Nazi occupation of Denmark and had to listen to Adolph’s drivel on the wireless all of the time. Das ist immer alles un aulung rauschmidt undt neimenstintz, ein potzen volksvagen, und schvell pizza. (Firesign Theater) Speaking of pidgeon German. How about the sign in the Audio Visual office at Berkeley High School: Achtung, alles lookenpeepers! Das instrumenten ist nicht fur gerfingerpoken und hittengrabben. Ist easy schnappen der springenverk, poppen corken und blowin fusen mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht fur geverken by das dumbkopfs. Das rubbernecken sightseeren keep der hands in der pockets und vatch der blinkin lights. Haven’t coughed that one up in over five years. BTW, you didn’t have to rig a bladder type fountain pen to squirt. All you had to do was pry the little fill lever on the side while the bladder was full of ink. Voila, el squirto… ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/313 "2000-08-23T04:48:36Z")
taking glass soda bottles to the corner store and getting candy back instead of the deposit. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2000, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/314 "2000-09-06T19:20:45Z")
I’m 42 now, just old enough to remember buying 10-cent popsicles and 8-cent bags of chips at the liquor store in Manhattan Beach. This would have been before 1970. If you were a kid in those days, a few bucks was a lot! ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/315 "2000-09-07T21:13:32Z")
Cable TV being used mainly because reception was otherwise so poor, rather than to have a whole lotta channels. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/316 "2000-09-07T22:39:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yabob \* > \*\*An automat was a self-serve resturaunt that was like a giant vending machine that delivered cafeteria style meals. Each item was behind a little glass door, and you put money in to get it out. I’ve never been in one. > \*\* I wonder if Automats were a casualty of inflation, i.e. you can hardly buy even an inexpensive meal with just coins. Y’know, wrt our (American) currency we’re getting to be just like a third-world impoverished country…hardly anyone else in the developed world issues currency notes that aren’t even enough to get you on the Metro. I wish we could move toward higher value coins like most European countries, but people just don’t seem to want it. ---
**Author:** ![mtthyme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@mtthyme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mtthyme)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2000, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/317 "2000-09-30T04:23:19Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Doubleclick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Doubleclick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubleclick)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2000, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/318 "2000-11-29T16:05:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wacky ninja \* > \*\*Liquid Television > REmote Control \ > Jem > Snorkels > Popples > Muppet Show was still airing new episodes > Hot Wheels > Turbo Booster > Square One Television > > \*\* What about: - Circle Square (TV Show) - The Electric Company. (Someone mentioned this but don’t forget the Cheesey Spiderman!) - Automan (Nice car!!!) - The Star Wars Holiday Special. (…Shudder…) - MTV and MuchMusic actually played music. - ThunderCats (Mmmmm Cheetara… 😃 ) - The Jokers Wild - Strech Armstrong (And that green monster dude) - $6M Man - With the ‘distributor cap’ thingy and the buttong on his wrist that would close his hand. - Original GI-Joe with the fuzzy hair and moving eyes. - Turbo Buttons on PC’s - AFX Tracks - There was a doll of a guy that had a see-through chest and when you pumped his back, his lungs would inflate and blood would pump. (Can’t remember it’s name.) - Root Beer flavored Jell-O - Woolco - Real-a-long story books that had 45’s in them and not tapes. - Green Machines - WordStar 2000 - P.E.T.s - Pop-Cicle’s were 5 cents. - BATS (A game writen in BASIC that I used to play on an OLD HP portable maching back in 83.) - TRS-80’s (Or any Radio Shack/Tandy computers) - BattleStar Galactica toys. (Before that kid ruined the fun for everyone else.) - Pac-Man: The Cartoon - Wizard of Oz cartoon, (Oh the world of Oz is a very funny place…) - Digital watches on pens that cost about $150 - Roller-rinks - 2 Darens on Bewitched - Clogs. (And the ones with retractable wheels.) - Star Wars Glasses from Burger King. - 4 toys for McDonalds promotions. (One for each week it ran) and not the 12 to 102 toys they have per month now. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2000, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/319 "2000-11-29T18:49:52Z")
Digging up the Zombies, are we **Doubleclick**? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2000, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005/320 "2000-11-29T18:59:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by whitetho \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by JosephFinn \* > > \*\*When does Jeopardy come on… \*\* > > In the good old days, Art Fleming was the host of Jeopardy, and Don Pardo was the announcer. And instead of a rack of TVs with the answers, they were printed on cards. Thus, when a contestant chose a category, someone behind the answers wall would lift up the card that was covering that answer – occasionally they would struggle to pull it up cleanly – which then allowed the contestants to see the answer that there were supposed to craft a question for. > > More importantly, _you didn’t have to wait for Art to finish reading the answer before you buzzed in_. If you were a hotshot, you could buzz in immediately, and read the answer yourself real fast. Of course, if the answer was harder than you thought, you ended up standing there in embarrassed silence. \*\* And second- and third-place contestants got to keep whatever money they’d won. Of course nowadays I think the losers get much better consolation prizes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-the-youngsters-will-scratch-their-heads-over/26005.md?page=17)