Memory Lane

OK... Michael's (Mr. Darcy) poem about an ice cream van gave me this idea to post things that were around in our childhood but have now met their fate in the obsolite heap...I know there is quite an age gap in the age of members here but...that could make it all the more fun for us 'older more mature' members. Will we admit that we know some things are now considered junk because we still use them on a daily basis? Will our younger members think..WTF is that? and google furiously? OK..

Our first phone (and I was a teenager back then) was a bakelite phone...smart phone owners ...google google google haha!!

My first mobile phone was affectionately named 'the brick' yeah google that also lol!!!

What is yours???

Our first television was a monstrous box 3 feet wide 2 feet high and 3 feet deep. It played only black-and-white (nothing was broadcast in color yet any). But we loved watching Howdy Doody on it along with Hopalong Cassidy.

My first experience with electronics was a small one speaker record player that I could smell the tubes warming up when they calmed me by letting me watch the turn table spin . It had a small speed changer for single records that played at 45 RPM's
The albums played at 33 RPM's The 78 RPM records where not in use anymore . or at least were not being sold new lol

It would be another 20 years before I actually thought about what inspired the Big Bopper the sing like he did on that 45 I wore the grooves off of
https://youtu.be/FsCkelaSppE

Gosh...I remember both of these 'things' haha!!! Some TV's even had doors on them..not that anyone closed their 'pride and joy' off.. oh no...you were considered to be quite well off if you owned a TV :)

Record players were also huge back in the day...just think of the room these things took up haha!!

Did anyone make stilts using baby formula tins?

No I never made the stilts . My favorite homemade toy was the large button and a string. I remember trying to eat a lot of oatmeal to get tops and yoyo's . I rarely played jacks ,but I liked to spin the pewter ones . they went the plastic much latter. Do you remember the pewter game characters on the old monopoly game?

Do I remember them? Er...I think I still have them lol!!! there was the iron..top hat...boot..jeez..what else?

I bought a big bag of marbles for my grandkids but can't really remember the games now...can anyone help? I know there was one game where you drew a circle on the ground and placed marbles inside and everyone got a turn at knocking them out but...I can't remember how it actually worked???

Also...five stones comes to mind...did anyone play that game?

Https://www.google.com/search?q=pewter+monopoly+pieces&biw=1067&bih=522&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAmoVChMI086mjOO8yAIVyM-ACh3NswKi

Wow...the three I mentioned are there but...most of the others I don't recognise so maybe it differed from country to country?

They tell me that the huge computers that took up whole walls existed ,but would not be able to do what the average cell phone does today lol

Probably quite correct...anyone remember the microfiche system??? Goodbye filing cabinets hello nightmares :)

One of my main aspie quirks is the love of mostly useless information though I am not quite as bad as Rain Man was portrayed . I was in my seventh heaven scrolling through census Data and old newspaper clips on microfilm trying to piece a puzzle together in genealogy . I remember being amazed at the speed it was used to find parts though relatively it was much slower than the computers used at auto parts stores now

I used to listen to Notre dame football and Phillies baseball games on a radio that was four foot tall and two feet wide and it had tubes in it, my grandfather carried a tool box in his truck, he would pull over to the side of the road and open the hood, and get right down in the front between the engine and wheel well and work on the car, nowadays you can't even get a wrench in there.....movies at the movie house were 15 cents, popcorn was a nickel as was a soda, so for a quarter you could have fun and they showed about 30 minutes of cartoons before the movie. A brand new car cost under a thousand, a pack of cigarettes and a gallon of gas were 19 cents apiece.....damn I'm old......

Spacehoppers, stylophones, Chopper push bikes, Mag wheels on BMX's, Hstreet skate boards with santa cruz speed wheels and Wagon wheels that used to feel like they were a frizbee.....ooooo...frizbees!!!!

Michael's description of smelling the vacuum tubes heating up brought back a visceral memory of that very sensation, along with their low humming. Funny how smells and tastes are deeper than sight or sound.

I remember at eight or so making my own crystal radio: a hand-held contraption that you clipped onto a fence to use as an antenna.

I remember as a kid being on the beach at Lake Chickamauga and getting shocked to watch three men emerge from beneath the surface and walk out of the water from nowhere. It took me thirty years to finally learn SCUBA for myself.

My first exposure to frisbees was from my brother-in-law who had one that was bigger than a pizza pie. He & my brothers and I played for hours.

And pizzas! They were relatively new in Tennessee when I grew up. There were two pizza parlors in Chattanooga: a family style sit down & the "cool" one for teens with only take-out where we'd sit around on car hoods eating it outside.

Pizza parlours and fast food outlets were not around and the family treat was a visit to the corner chippy on a Friday night...I can still remember the length of the queue and how my stomach would rumble with impatience!

Frisbees...brought back to mind those slinkies which were absolutely useless when I think of it and yet...we played for hours with them haha!!!

Best slinkie scene: Jom Carry, When Nature Calls sending the slinkie down hundreds of stairs from the Tibetan temple.

Remember the plastic shark you could propel through the bathtub with baking powder inside it?

No...don't remember the shark...don't remember the bath either haha!!! We shared an outside toilet with three other families and washed at the sink every night...ugh!

How about tamagotchis? More recent toy...something my kids grew up with but...I ended up 'babysitting' them when the school banned them lol!

My son collected Voltron & transformers (long before the movies there was a cartoon series).
My daughters got Pokimon cards & beanie babies and Breyer Horses.

Hmmmm.... memories. I remember going on vacation and having to use an atlas to get where we wanted to go.Was no GPS smartphones or anything. If you were lost you stopped and got directions from gas station or map. As far as toys of my era... cabbage patch kids, big wheels or green machines, Sony walkman. I remember walking to the store with our little red radio flyer wagon loaded down with Coca-Cola bottles to get cash back on the bottle deposits. Mommas gave us permission to get a sack of penny candy each after we purchased her items. I could go on and on.... those were the days.

^road trips, yes.....are we there yet....lmao

The earliest memory I have, is riding a bike for the first time without training wheels at age 5, I was so proud lol.

Great thread Hellon.

My parents had a radiogram. I remember the smell of the valves gently warming up. I would look through the grill to see them glowing and this fascinated me. Every Sunday my mother would play her Beatles records after cooking the roast, stacking the arm with 5 or more records which would drop one down once the previous one had finished.

Toys... I had a spinning top which you pumped the plunger and let it spin and hum around the floor.

I owned a chopper bicycle with a unique handlebars and gear shift. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM16bQZNijU

I remember the smell of Lifebouy soap (no longer manufactured now, owing to health and safety restrictions!), the first time I heard the new release from the Beatles 'She loves you', and was totally blown away by this new pop group, watching the 1966 World cup football match when we (England) won it for the first and last time!
The day President Kennedy was shot, also Bobby Kennedy. The smell of valves (also) warming up in Mum and Dads radio set, our first black and white TV (only people down the road to have one!), and later, me playing with matches and setting light to the television by accident! (I got a wack from Dad for that!) lol!. Having to light gas mantles in Mum and Dads front room, because there was no electricity at that time down our road, watching the Bakers horse and cart deliver our bread, and my dad rushing out with a spade to collect the horse droppings so he could spread it onto the garden!, watching Neil Armstrong step foot onto the moon....... I best stop, because I could go on forever here! lol!

Just had to post a few more memories. One of my most fond memories was sometime around 1984 -85 when the breakdancing scene was becoming popular. My brother, best friend and myself had decided to practice in the living room on mommas hardwood floors in the middle of the night. We had heard or seen somewhere that baby powder would make things slicker and easier to do spins like the windmill or moonwalk. So we proceeded to layer the floor in baby powder giving no thought to my parents sleeping in the next room over. We were giggling and laughing when all of a sudden we hear the bedroom door come open, not knowing who it would be but bracing ourselves for butt whooping because of mess and the noise. Momma appeared and didn't fuss or anything. She asked what we was doing and when we explained she asked us to teach her. I can just see her now trying to spin on her back lol. Wow I miss my momma Sorry that had nothing to do with ancient gadgets. How about TV dinners that you had to heat in oven. No such thing as a microwave, or having to pop popcorn in saucepan with lots of butter and make sure you had lid on and keep it moving across burner to distribute heat so popped corn wouldn't burn. Lol.

^^
great memories guys.

The only heating we had was a coal fire downstairs. Upstairs on the landing between the bedrooms we all shared a Aladdin Pink Paraffin heater: http://centuryads.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/aladdin-pink-paraffin-sensible-dog-and.html

my brother and I would sit on the landing unknown to mum and dad and playing with the flames. Dangerous I know.

Back in the 80's and a boy of 12 I would collect this fuel by myself. I am sure health and safety these days would have something to say about that!

I also have fond memories of hot water bottles. dad would make them up, filling boiling water into each and making sure all the surplus air was out. The smell of hot rubbery air brings it back to me. We would then race up stairs and put them under our sheets and blankets (no duvets then) to warm the bed up!

In the morning, the room would be so cold the windows froze on the inside. The trick was to get dressed beneath the blankets to save getting cold.

Weekly baths together as it was too expensive to have the emersion tank on. My sister and brother and I would share a bath. One by one they would be removed by mum leaving me (the eldest) to languish in there all by myself - luxury!

Fifty pence gas and electric meters. I recall most Saturday night watching TV, something like the game show 321: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM7Xe3y22GQ

then the lights would go out as the meter had run out. Dad would get up, curse as he walked into the coffee table looking for more 50p's to feed to the meter.

Power cuts - in the 80's we had loads of these. So, similar stumblings in the dark, firstly to discover if the meter was empty, and then after discovering the neighbours dark houses a search for candles.

^^^

Some very cracking memories you have come up with Michael...hot water bottles lol!!! I remember them with much love (when they were warm of course)...funny how they always ended up at the bottom of the bed or slung on the floor when the cooled down and...I do remember my mum checking the neck of the bottle to make sure the rubber grip was still intact otherwise your siblings would accuse you of weeing the bed! Ice on the inside of the windows...a common occurrence ..sometimes my dad who had to leave for work very early had to leave his false teeth behind as the cup they were soaking in had frozen over haha!!

While I have no recollection of putting money in the meter for electricity I do remember the single shilling (pre decimalisation) for the gas meter. How I loved when the gas man was 'in the street' and couldn't wait for him to arrive at our door knowing that, if mum got a rebate we'd get a little treat!

Of course, going on a road trip was an adventure and I clearly recall the 'are we there yet' probably around 20 minutes into the journey!

What about the provy cheque man? Anyone remember him?

Awwwww, listen to all you old farts xxxxx

In my day, we would decide to meet somewhere at a certain time, and that was the commitment at last communication. If someone was late, we'd keep waiting there for up to an hour.
It was the pits.

I miss the feeling of safety. When I grew up (in the seventies) all people had a cord hanging from the letterbox and you could pull that to go into your home, no key needed. No one would even think of going into the house of a stranger to steal something. Nowadays, you have at least three locks and still the burglars find a way in. Even in the small communities people need to lock their doors nowadays.

I miss Button Moon....

Do any of you UK guys remember
'The Magic Roundabout?!'
Zebedee, Florence and Dillan! Magic memories!

^
Button moon. Zooming off with Mr Spoon to Button Moon. Yes, I remember that.

The magic roundabout. Yes, that too.

How about The Wombles?

And...Rainbow?

^^^

I remember all of those shows and...stretching my mind back even further, what about Andy Pandy , the Wooden Tops and Bill and Ben the Flowerpot men? All Children's shows.

Also Z Cars and The Sweeney...anyone remember them?

Although in my study of progress I believe more Americans became used to indoor plumbing around the thirties I still remember the old outhouse at my grandfathers house . Smells are not easily recorded and in many cases there is little demand for that sort of thing lol

Michael,

These venerable box-constructs (with the crescent moon slot in the door) are still available if you take some scouts on a trek through the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. There are also a number of varieties of open air arrangements: pilot-copilot (side by side), pilot-navigator (side-by-side but facing opposite directions), back-to-back.
Being in the open wilderness, we always used a stick before sitting to clear out the spider webs.

Venerable box-constructs indeed lol

This wasn't from my childhood, but my Dad had an Atari that he and I used to play pong on all the time as a kid. I grew up with the Sega and original Nintendo, and that was always a ton of fun.

My fondest memory from childhood would have to be playing outside until the streetlights came on. I didn't play inside much, even if it was cold and raining, instead we'd play outside in the fort or around the bonfires. I'd ride my bike all over town and check in when it was time to eat lol.