Do you remember when?

Do you remember when you could go to the Safeway food store and buy 6 whole chickens for a dollar when they were on sale?
Do you remember when you could go to a drive-in burger joint and get a hamburger for 15cents, an order of fries for 15cents and a coke for a dime?
Do you remember when you could go to a Ben Franklin's and buy any kind of candy by the pound?
Do you remember when any comic book cost a dime?
Do you remember when you could buy gas for 15-20cents a gallon.
Do you remember when a loaf of bread was 30 cents?
Do you remember when a gallon of milk was a buck and a quarter? or less?
Do you remember when you could climb up under the hood of your car, place both feet on either wheel well, and fix just about any problem.

I'm not quite old enough to remember as far back as some of you. But I would love to hear some of the good things you remember. How much was a dozen eggs 40-50 years ago? I never rode a city bus growing up. How much did it cost? Diners had great prices back then. Anybody remember a favorite meal and how much it cost? Were newspapers just a nickel? Did folks really gather around the radio every evening for entertainment? Was the movie house a 15 cent luxury only for the weekends? When did your father buy his first car?, and how old were you?

There are just so many wonderful memories in the minds of so many of you. And I would love to hear them all. After all, you are our heritage, our link to what used to be. Please share.

bmlb - I seem to remember most everything on your list...can't really relate to climbing under the hood of the car, but I do recall the starched w/sugar water full crinolines to make skirts as full as possible.
I recall the fresh bread/rolls or some wonderful "after-school" snack mom had ready.
I recall the store had a pneumatic system for sending paperwork/money back and forth/depts and how interesting it was to see and hear.
The theater had popcorn machine that you placed a bag into and it filled/vending machine like. Don't remember what the cost was, but affordable.
You've started something good..
Kiska
Alaska

What a neat thread! I'm really excited to watch this one. I remember 10 cent candy bars, the Monkey's were my favorite music group and the day my dad brought home our very first color TV. It's just like Yesterday! Gunsmoke in color! Mom didn't want us playing with the ringer washer... said we'd get our fingers caught. My sister is 13 years older .. I think I'll give her a call..

Hmm.. remember back when we didn't have the internet & Dave's Garden .....

Kiska, you brought back a fond memory. The popcorn vending machine in the theater lobby. Can't say I remember anything about starched skirts since I'm not a female, but I do remember having a pair of blue suede shoes back when Elvis was singing about them. I remember gooping on wildroot cream oil so thick that I could actually comb some of it out of my hair. Remember guys with duck tails? Yeah, that was me.

Duck Tails??????? LOL My sister had a poodle skirt !!!!! Probably still does! LOL

Like Laverne & Shirley?

Aw blmlb, this makes me miss dad. I LOVED listening to his stories, only not the ones where he was walking 10 miles to school, in the snow, without any shoes!

Crash, I was always a city boy, but I remember when we would visit granny's small farm house, her chasing a chicken around the yard so we could have fried chicken for supper. Then, eating the fried chicken and thinking about that bird running around the yard, I kinda felt like a cannibal.

Ben Franklin sold not only candy in bulk but peanuts, pistachios, cashews under a heated lamp and in bulk. It was wonderful!

I am not that old (LOL) but yes to almost all of the above memories. The JC Penney store had a pneumatic tube that was cool!

BTW, eggs were free. We had laying hens. DM sold eggs to the hatchery for grocery money.

When first married we could buy 4 #'s burger for $1.00 but money was tight and that was alot of money. If I remember minimum wage was $1.25. Does that date me?

pod, not as old as me, apparently. My first year in college I worked at a hamburger joint for 75 cents/hr

HA! Me too! My mom's folks had a dairy farm in KY. My granny used to 'wring' their necks. Scared me, first time I saw it! They didn't get indoor plumbing 'til the early 80's! They still live, and milk in Somerset, KY.

I'm sorry for bumping people, need to slow down!...... blmlb, I meant to say my uncle is still there. That would make granny pretty old, huh?

I remember my granny sending me to the country store which was only about 200 yards away, with a quarter to buy her a pack of unfiltered Cools. I remember Grandpa sending me to the store to buy him a can of Prince Albert tobacco. I remember telling him that the tobacco smoke didn't smell good, and I remember him telling me "Yeah, Prince Albert's been can sh***ing for years". And I remember granny had a very old fridge, the kind you had to put a block of ice in to keep things cool.

They grew their tobacco, mom's mom chewing tobacco, and dad's mom rolling Prince Albert, as amatter of fact, with one of them old slide rolling machines! But cigarettes for for 25 cents????? Ice on top of the fridge?? How cool, to have these memories!

Loved reading and having more memories bubbling up..
My husband, back when we were dating, brought the newest Elvis Album, for me. I still have all those albums, in great condition, (DH, too)>>>Now, our 5 year old GD loves to play those albums, Big CD's, as she says.
Kiska

My brothers used "Butch Wax" in their hair, and I swear I slept in those darned "brush rollers" every night of my life, while in High School.

We grew up on the farm, and while it wasn't legal for us to drive a car yet, we could run errands for Mama in a near town, if we (brothers and I were like 10-13 yrs old) could drive one of the tractors there, on the highway no less! Mama would just send a note, if we were to pick up a pack of cigarettes.

In high school, the town Marshall opened up the gas station for any of us teens, just to get a gallon of gas@.$25/gal!

Remember those little plastic toys that they used to put in the penny gumball machines. Sometimes you'd just get the gum and sometimes you got a little plastic toy with the gum. DW has a jar full of them Just dug them out and took a photo. The oldest ones are in the top right corner of the pic. The are made of metal and go back about 50 years. The plastic ones came later

I remember my grandmother giving me a 1/2 dollar to go the the store at the ned of the alley to get as much liver as it would buy - she was cooking for 7 plus some unexpected guests - I was 7 - had so much I almost couldn't carry it.

Milk was .50 gal and bread was .20, You could fill the back seat with groceries for less than $10.

Also remember outhouses, then a "chemical" toilet from Sears catalog store.
Kerosine lamps, white-gas stove, ice-house for cold storage, spring house for cool storage, hand pumped water - and if you had one inside - that was really fancy. Until we had a well dug, had to haul water from a neighbor about 1/2 mile away - used 20 gallon milk cans from a dairy. Kept a pail hanging by the porch and a long handled drinking cup hanging from the pail.

The TV test pattern with the indian head, Kukla, Fran & Ollie, Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle, Diana Shore Show sponsored by Chevrolet, " See the USA, In your Chevrolet ", Bishop Fulton Sheen, Dragnet, Fibber Magee & Molly, Geroge Burns & Gracie, I Love Lucy, Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, Mighty Mouse, My Friend Flicka,
Superman, Buck Rogers, The Lone ranger, Cisco Kid, Hopalong Cassidy.

Cherry chocolate cokes at the drug store soda fountain. Nickle Cokes from machines. Clark Bars.

Movie theaters that would let us bring in our own snacks - but we always bought Charms, Dots, and other candy that was not sold anywhere else.

More later.

Bubba,
What a great memory. Remember Sky King, Playhouse 90, Gene Autry, Howdy Doody with princess summer/fall/winter/spring? And, of course, Clarabelle? The original Walt Disney with the Mousketeers on an oval black&white? How about that other morning show for little kids, can't remember what it was called. Where you had a transparent piece of plastic film that you could stick on the TV screen and draw pictures along with the cartoon character on the TV?
One nasty memory. I remember Mom cooking liver & onions and trying to get us kids to eat it. God-awful bad. To this day, even the smell of liver & onions makes me run the other way.
Ever collect big fat earthworms after a heavy rain? Ever had to mow the lawn with one of those "manual mowers"? Not the kind that worked with gasoline. The kind with that big rotary wheel that only worked well if you shoved it forward 2 feet and then pulled it back 1 foot. Dad was always sharpening the blades so that I could push it, and so that he didn't have to.
Do you remember when you first learned to tie your shoes, all by yourself? I do. Dad was driving me to the local movie house on a saturday morning. I was maybe 5 years old. He didn't even slow down. Just carefully gave me all the instructions I needed sitting there in the front seat next to him. I remember I was so proud that during the movie I kept untying and tying my shoe laces. One of the biggest accomplishments of my little life.
Ever laid out on the lawn at night watching for falling stars til Mom called you in? Ever had a paper route when you were a kid and then depending on Dad to drive you around the neighborhood at 6AM because it was raining?

where are the drive-in movies today? Ever go to a drive-in movie and rent an electric car heater that plugged into the speaker post? Ever go to a drive-in movie and pile several buddies into the trunk of the car to get them in for free?
Ever had a date to a drive-in movie when you weren't old enough to drive. Convinced Dad to drive and then he sat on the benches in front of the concession stand while my date and I were discovering things in the car. Now, THATS a memory.

Winky-Dink is what you were thinking of.

Mowed many lawns with reel mowers. Was amazed when I saw and had a chance to use one with a motor. The grass catcher was in front of the mower.

Tying shoes - my step-dad took a 1x4 board and nailed 8-10 pieces of parachute cord to it. Then showed me how to do it. Once I could do it on my own, he started timing me to see how fast I could do all of them - I was 4.

Earthworms after a rain are something, but attaching wires from an old magnito to a couple of croquet hoops placed a couple of feet apart, and cranking really fast and they literally leap out of the ground. Made fast work of collecting some for afternoon fishing.

Comic books were a dime, and I found a used comic book store where they were a nickel - and you could trade them back 2 for 1.

My uncle sold Coneys for 13 cents and Hamburgers for 20. All of his sodas were a dime.

An old magneto to stir up earthworms? Thats a real kick. Coneys are hotdogs, I would guess?
Had to take a short break to do my income taxes. Can you spell 'procrastinate'?

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

Fabbros Restaurant, Atherton CA
1965
Free Marinated Dungness Crab and authentic San Francisco Sourdough bread on the table when you sit down. Free.

Check out the cost comparison worksheet at the top. Please remember your annual income at the time of those $.19 a gallon gas prices in 1963. Things just haven't changed that much other than your job may have moved off the North American Continent.

i remember we had a thread like this late last year. i think i got remembered out with that one. LOL it was a grteat thrad and so is this one. the one thin that always stands out in my mine when i was a kid was gong to the rivoli movie that featured a balcony and a loge section and seeing 3 movies, 21 cartoons and a tarzen short along with world news for 15 cents.

Just outside Wimberly, TX is a walk-in outdoor theater, seats are cut-off stumps.

Lowest I ever remember gasoline was 14.9 cents - 1962 -- major gas-war in Tulsa. It had been less than a quarter for years, but one summer it was crazy. Consumers is the brand that did that super-low price - lasted just 2 days, but I bought some old 55 gal barrels and had a friend help me move them and pump the gas form my car into the tanks. Spent almost $200 on my mom's cc, which really upset her, but when we drove for about 6 months without buying any - she understood.

Those really were times worth remembering. Herbie, no doubt I had a mis-spent youth. I recall paying the price of admission to the movie and then sneaking down to the fire exit to open it to allow a few friends in for free. We thought we were right up there with bank robbers.
Bubba, I grew up in Dallas-Ft. Worth area. I remember the gas wars. It was really nuts. Up and down the main drag most stations would be selling gas for maybe 21.9 But if you knew where to shop, you could find a couple of stations right accross the street from each other, and they would be dueling to see who could post the lowest price. You could get gas for .15, 16, or .17 cents/gal. And for a young teenager with no money, it was a big deal.
Let me ask you this. Did you ever lay pennies on the railroad track and wait for the train to flatten them out? (Again, a mis-spent youth). We would do that on a regular basis. A few, (1 or 2 of the pennies) would be flattened to nearly the perfect size for a cigarette machine. A flattened penny would get you a 25 cent pack of cigarettes from the local gas station vending machine.
I shouldn't even mention this because we had no "REAL" use for them, but we could also use some of the flattened pennies in the gas station restroom condom machines. The condoms were great for water balloons. And honestly, the last time I ever bought a condom was in that gas station 50 years ago. Times change, don't they.
How about this. Once you got your driver's license and asked a girl out on a date, how oftern were you met at the front door with a smiling date, along with both of her parents standing right behind her, staring bullets right thru you?
Do you remember Sadie Hawkens day? That was when the girls had to call the boys to make a date for the school dance. Do they still do that today? Or is it ancient history?

blmlb,
Not only pennies, but dimes and nickels, too - amazing how big the buffalo would get. Beyond money, old brass keys also got the "train treatment".

I remember Sadie Hawkins Day and dances when in the 7th grade - the florists daughter and I were quite an item. But SHD, is how it all got started.

Remember a triple date at a drive-in movie one winter - the other couples asked me and my date to move to the back seat - we so steamed up the windshield that they could not see the show - lol. I could write a short story about that incident.

Hey bubba, we didn't have all that many nickels and dimes. Pennies we stole from my little brother. HeeHee.
Steamed windows at the drive-in movie, I remember well. My memories would not allow a simple short story. And DG would definitely NOT allow me to elaborate. Suffice it to say, until I discovered the magic of drive-in movies, I never knew the charms of the opposite sex.
For all of you out there, whether you were a boy or a girl, those are memories worth remembering! Am I wrong?
How about this. Did you ever have a job as a pin setter at the local bowling alley? When I was 12 they gave me a nickel a line. Had to jump down in the pit, grab the pins and shovel them into the setting machine. Had to grab the bowling ball and send it back where it came from. And then push the pinsetter down. And all the time I had to keep my eye on the alley in case some smart-butt decided to try to take my legs out. More than once I had to jump up behind the pit to avoid a broken leg. Risk/reward. And at a nickel a line I could make up to a dollar an hour.
Do you remember those 'paper drives' they used to have? All of us elementary school rug rats had to go door-to-door asking for used newspapers. The class that brought in the most newspapers won some stupid prize, like an afternoon at school without any afternoon classes. Looking back, I think we should have asked for more.
Do you remember playing marbles? How about that game 'around the world'? Remember agates, swissies, jumbos? There used to be a whole lot of "hard" trading. And nothing was off limits. A really fine jumbo might be worth 2 comic books, or vice-versa.
Ever have a pair of rollar skates where you had to tighten down the skate over your shoes with a skate key? Ever had your Dad make you a skooter, I mean a real skooter, with a bed slat with skate wheels at each end, and an upright post that allowed you to steer the thing?
Ever had one of your teeth pulled out by a string tied to a doorknob? I did. And it was kinda neat. Never felt a thing. I believe parents still do it today.
Ever spent the night at one of your parent's friends, where they had a daugther about your age (maybe 8)? I did. And I remember that it was unnerving as hell. Not that anything would ever happen, but it was just so alien, and almost abnormal. Girls were just such an unknown phenomenon back then. I think I kinda liked them, but I wasn't so sure I wanted to be close to them, certainly not sleeping in the same house with them.
Winky Dink! Does anybody else remember Winky Dink? You got a piece of cellophane, maybe in a box of cereal, along with a pencil without lead. You pasted the cellophane film onto the TV screen. And then Winky Dink would guide you thru making a picture on your cellophane. It was the FIRST INTERACTIVE. (I think things have gone downhill since).
Do you remember when telephone numbers were a bit cryptic? My phone number when I lived at home was Butler2-2075. Then they changed it to BU2-2075. A couple of decades ago they finally simplified it. It became 282-2075. Ain't progress grand?
How about this one for national trust. Back in the early 1960's I could go into a supermarket and gather up all the stuff I wanted to buy. Didn't need a check book. When I got to the checkout counter there was a bank of 'counter checks' available. There was a checkbook there for every bank in town. You simply picked the one for the bank you dealt with, and you wrote out a check. No ID required. Trust and honesty prevailed back then.
I've got a few more, but I'd like to hear all the other millions out there.

Wow! This is fun to read! Only I think I'm out of this one. I'm not complaining mind you.......but we did do the flatten the coin thing on the tracks ( won't even tell you what else we did on the tracks)! But we collected pop bottles, so we could go to the laundro-mat to ride the dryers for fun! Only I got a woopin when Mom found out I put my little brother in one and left him there! I can remember sneaking out at night and it was safe! Doors were never locked. Shoot my kids think it is the end of civilization if they lose the TV remote! Tell them we grew up without microwaves and vcr's, they give you a look of complete horror!............... I'm not so sure growing up in the age of technology is the greatest thing for kids nowadays.

Phone numbers - wow.
Our 32 party line in rural MN had a number - 51F12, but you had to know what that meant - 1 long and 2 short rings. Phones ran on 2 dry cells. We had a "modern" desk phone but most houses had the phone on the wall with the speaker on a cord and the mouthpiece attached to the "box".

Fire - was 5 long rings. A friend's call was 5 shorts, and his nickname was Shorty, but if anyone called him, you would have to yell for him to hear - everyone that heard 5 identical rings would pick up the phone, so maybe 20 people were there.

We enjoyed having parties at our house, so dad or mom would call Shorty and invite everyone listening - lol.

In a small town with a switchboard operator our number was 302. In Davenport, IA, my grandparents number was 5 digits, but I cannot remember the exact number.
Next advance I remember was the 7 character numbers where the first 2 were alpha and had a formal name for the prefix. And now we have 10.

I finally found out what those prefix names meant - I worked in telecom for a couple of years - those were the names of the CO (Central Office) that served that area.

Where we live (near Houston) our CO is BlueRidge, so the names are still there, but not represented in the numbers anymore - computers allow multiple prefixes from a single CO now.

Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I recall when Mom & Dad were on a party line. Couldn't pick up the phone unless your series of rings happaned. Now that's serious history. I never saw seperate dry cells or a seperate speaker. I guess we were hi tech then.
Here's another sneaky we did. In the old days you bought a ticket to get into the movie theater. There was always a guy there ready to tear your ticket in half, and he would let you in. He would take your 1/2 ticket stub and drop it into his little cannister. We would wait until halfway thru the movie and then rifle his cannister when nobody was in the lobby. 9 out of 10 stubs would be just that -- stubs. But there were always a few whole tickets that were never torn in half. We pocketed those for future free entries. It was definitely fun to be a little devil back then. I think I'd do it again today, if I was small enough.
Did you ever try to steal the tiny offspring from a mother skunk when she was leading them accross the highway? Tried it one time ONLY. Not only did we get sprayed, but our car was a victim as well. We eventually got clean. The car never did.
Ever visit granny and expecting her to be up before the chickens. Of course. She got up before you were ready to, and she cooked up a big batch of bacon. Then she would make a whole mess of scrambled eggs. By the time you got to the breakfast table, everything was pretty much ready to eat. But then she would grab the salt shaker and start shaking salt over everything. That would have been OK, but her hand already shook uncontrollably, and then she added her own shake. It was tough to eat and smile at the same time.
Back, right after granny had a small septic tank installed right under her garden, hi tech seemed to be the order of the day. But whenever we visited, the rules were that you could crap or pee, but you could not flush toilet paper. And there was a seperate trash can next to the pot where you could deposit your toilet paper. Not the most appealing bathroom I ever visited.
Do any of you remember hunting for 4 leaf clovers? It was a passion back then. I even found one a few months ago. Brought a smile to my old face.
Ever fly kites? Box kites were the only way to go. Straight up into the sky, no muss, no fuss. Diamond shaped kites were always iffy. The only way to make them work well was to tie a tail on them that was so heavy that it was hard to get them airborne.
Ever used a little magnifying glass to charcoal ants?
Ever tried to dam up the street rain gutter to hold back a summer shower?
Ever gather up some tadpoles for Mom to help you with? Did any of them ever survive?
Ever find yourself wondering where it all went?

Do I remember correctly? Back in the days of yore, wasn't one of the selling points of cable t.v. channels the fact that they didn't have commercials?

Finding tadpoles of both frogs and toads - very different egg patterns.

Making our own bows and arrows using green tree saplings. They would work for a day or two, but sooner or later the bow would break.

Playing stretch with pocket knives at recess - now a kid would wind up in hand-cuffs for even bringing a knife to school. I got my first at 6.

Got my first shotgun at 8. Killed a deer that fall - he was pawing through the snow and eating to tops of my strawberry plants.

Watching birdnests for eggs and chicks. Making birdhouses.

Being allowed to drive the boat - meant having to wind the rope and pull it to start - Johnson outboard - probably 3-5 horse.

Also had a Minnkota electric trolling motor. Dad let me take the big round-bottom rowboat out with a girl-friend with the electric. I was having a blast turning circles and figure-8's. Did not notice that the transom bolts were coming lose until the motor jumped off the boat. Quickly grabbed the wires and pulled it back, turned it off and set in in the bottom of the boat - broke out the oars and rowed to shore. Dad would have been mad, but he saw it happen and was still laughing when we pulled on shore. No damage to the motor - used for many years after that. To this day, I always check the bolts to make sure they are tight whenever I am in a boat with an outboard motor.

I remember when we got our first TV...1952...a Hallicrafter with a record turntable on the bottom for 78 & 45 records. Then in 1956 we got a BLOND-wood Motorola. The TV repairman was called constantly on that one.

I think we got our first vacuum cleaner in 1952 too. It was an Electrolux from a door-to-door salesman.

I remember the ice truck too. Some families still had ice boxes back then.

The little town I lived in back then had two movie theaters. The State was the first-run theater and was 25 cents and the Victory showed old movies and was 15 cents. Candy bars were a nickel, popcorn was a nickel or dime bag, sodas were a nickel or dime paper cup.

I remember when popsicles from the ice cream truck went from 2 cents to 3 and then a year after that 5 cents!

My dad's first car was a used Dodge. I don't remember the year but it was probably 42-45. He got it around 1948. His first new car was a 1954 Studebaker.

My favorite TV shows back then were mostly cowboy shows. "Have Gun, Will Travel" was my favorite cowboy show and probably one of my top 5 TV shows of all-time.

I don't remember the radio shows much because I think they were fading out then. I remember my grandmother listening to the Shadow and the Whistler. Mr. & Mrs. North was on radio and then TV. Arthur Godfrey was highly successful transitioning from radio to TV too. I remember when I saw my very first TV set. It was at a kid's house who was having a birthday party. It was around Spring 1951.

I remember the TV newscasters back then were Douglas Edwards and John Cameron Swayze. CBS & NBC were the main TV networks, with ABC & Dumont being the weak sisters.

EDIT-

I have to comment about Winky Dink. I had a Winky Dink kit. My mom bought it for me at the toy store. It consisted of a big soft/flexible blue green plastic sheet and some crayon-like pencils of various colors that you could wipe off and re-use. You pressed the sheet up on the TV screen. Winky Dink was a cartoon character that was always needing ladders and stairs and such drawn for him in his adventures. I don't think it lasted very long. I only used my kit once and was bored with it.

-Ron-

This message was edited Apr 21, 2007 1:25 AM