Middle Aged Memories
Comments
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Yuk! At least you don't have to use a rotary phone anymore.
I remember how glamourous I thought it looked on TV when a secretary used her pencil to dial the phone, then as time progressed, the eraser end to push the buttons on the pushbutton phones.
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My parents still have the same number after over 50 years. The area code's changed several times but I remember YEllowstone5-XXXX. And party lines, too. Our neighbor was usually pretty good about sharing. Remember waiting for a friend or boyfriend to call? There were times when I wouldn't leave the house, waiting for the phone to ring and Heaven help the sibling who was on the phone. I'd be yelling at them to get off the phone! No call waiting, no answering machine and no cell phones. How did we manage to survive???
My mom had anger management issues, one of several issues, and routinely ripped the phone cord out of the wall. We'd have to call the phone company to come out and fix it, until my dad learned how to do it.
Remember TV dinners? Those tinfoil trays with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and peas and carrots? I'd put huge amounts of butter in the potatoes and veggies. When I babysat as a teenager, one of the parents use to buy me the kind I liked and a frozen child's meal for the boy I was watching. What were those called? The box opened into a serving tray with characters on it. Crud....chemo brain. Treasure somethings????
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Had 65 mustang 1st car 150.00, put yellow shag carpet on back window deck. Those feet foot pedals,8track,and I was ready to roll.
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Cindoe, I am sooooooo jealous. Got my license on a 9 passenger station wagon. Cool
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I had a Poppy Red '65 Mustang with the "pony package" wood veneer on the dash. Black carpet, black seats and glass packs! Vroom Vroom!
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I guess a lime green VW Bug wasn't quite a dream car, huh?! But I drove that thing like it was stolen!
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My first car was a Pacer-it was like driving an upside down goldfish bowl, but with the wide wheel base it went through any amount of snow! I thought I was really coming up in the world when the next car had a tape player. . .
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My boyfriend (he's my dh now) had a blue Ford cargo van with orange flowered curtains on the back window and a mattress in the back. It couldn't go over 50 mph and needed oil every other day.
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My dad promised me and my brother a car when we were 16 if we didn't smoke. (My parents were heavy smokers). At 16, we both got '65 Mustangs with 8 tracks. I would give anything to have that car today. I lived in Hawaii where the gas was 75 cents a gallon.
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I only got the car until I got married. The car stayed and my parents sold it. I didn't miss it right away because my new hubby had a brand new 280ZX for me. As soon as we sold it for a family car, I wanted my mustang back.
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I didn't have a car of my own until I graduated from college....until then I would borrow one from my parents. I learned to drive my Mom's VW for my driving test because I knew I could park a small car a lot easier. It was Bahama Blue and we had a name the VW contest when she got it and the man up the street won with the name Schultz. I loved driving that car with its little sun roof and I have driven a stick ever since. The first car I bought was in 73 and it was a Honda Civic and that was when they were quite small. I still prefer driving a small car and now have a Mini. I don't even think they teach parallel parking these days. The car I had that I loved most of all was a MGB GT. Our phone exchange was Elmwood 3. In the 50's there was a phone strike in our town which lasted for 6 months....we would drive to Chillicothe to use a pay phone so my mother could call her parents in Michigan. A lot of businesses went under because of the stike and my father always says that strike was the beginning of the demise of our town.
When we would go on trips in the car, pre-station wagon days, I used to like to climb up in the back window and sleep. How my father could see out the back window, I don't know, but he allowed me to stay up there. He always said travleing with us was so much easier after he got a station wagon because we were't hanging over the seat breathing down his neck asking How long til we get there?
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Anybody remember having to dim/brighten the headlights with a "button" you pushed with your foot on the left floorboard?
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My dad was really good to me and senior year in high school he bought me a brand new 1974 Red Mustang II Mach I. They only made these for a few years. I wish I had it now. How I loved that car. All the senior boys were jealous and wanted to drive it.
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I remember the button on the floor to dim the headlights! I also remember how confused I was when that changed! Seat belts were an option. We had one care that had an alarm if the driver's seat belt wasn't buckled--Dad didn't use one then and spent hours finding the mechanism and shutting it off. Mom used to throw her arm toward the back seat when ever something scared her-- I guess she thought she could catch us kids or something. And riding in the "way back" when riding with friends who had a station wagon.
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My mom always put her arm out to keep the empty passenger seat from folding forward when the car stopped short. There was no catch to keep it in place, and it folded down to let the backseat passengers climb in and out. Do you remember toddler car seats that hung on the back of the front seats, and were not strapped in at all? Ours had a little steering wheel and horn on the bar across the front of it.
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My parents love to tell the story of traveling from California to Colorado when I was about 3 months old. They went to a local appliance store and picked up a television box. They cut the side down, lined it with blankets and I rode in it in the back of their station wagon most of the trip. No car seats for my 3 and 5 year old siblings either.
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Oh, my goodness! My mother has a picture of me in one of those hanging car seats with the little steering wheel!
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Hey NativeMainer, I rode in the 'way back of the 9 passenger Plymouth wagon. Only thing was the rear seat faced backwards and I could see where we had been but not where we were going! My babysister rode in a laundry basket, tucked "safely" between the second and third row of seats.
When my kids were little, we also had a huge Ford wagon, the kind with the wood on the sides. It got 6 miles to the gallon, but gas was cheap then. My 3 yr old sat nicely in her seat belt. The year old twins figured out in about one second how to push the button in the middle of the belt to release it.
Now I watch these children of mine who are now mothers. Before I put any of their kids in their car seats, I need to take a course in mechanics, they are so complicated with extra safety. Sue
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Remember skates and skateboards with metal wheels? Skate boards were straight pieces of wood, with the metal trucks on each end, they didn't come decorated, you collected stickers and put them on it.
We watched a show yesterday "American Eats". It went through the evolution of certain products developed in the US.
Remember when Kellogg's had Sugar Smacks? Then they changed the name to Honey Smacks, now it's just Smacks.
And Jell-O, remember when the waxed paper envelope it came in just folded over? My dad said he remembers when it was just a flat sheet of waxed paper folded into a pocket, no heat or glue sealed seams.
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I instilled in my kids the importance of seatbeats. So much so, my oldest would throw himself into a fit if any adult in the car was not belted in.
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Agreed, Meece. My family all buckles up. You have to anyway these days. But I think of how dangerous it was back in the old days, especially if they were slapping and fighting in the back seat......or on the floor as the case may be.
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My sister always took one window seat, my brother the other. I sat in between and most of the time I sat on the edge of the seat with my arms leaning on the front seat so my sister wouldn't screem that I was touching her.
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Meece, we used to complain that "he or she looked at me wrong" or was breathing in my face. Six kids. We loved to bicker.
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Thank goodness for the mini van!
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How about fighting over the arm rest ? He's on my side of it ! Am Not ! Are too ! And roadtrips on a matress in the back of a station wagon? I remember laying back there and listening to Gullivers Travels on the radio. And of course, no road trip would be complete without stopping at Howard Johnsons with the orange roof (~Sigh~ the last one [in NYC] closed about 2 years ago.
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Howard Johnson or Best Western, the family hotels. How about those vibrating beds? Lots of fun when you were 8 years old!
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What about airplane travel back in the day? People dressed nicely to fly back then. Kids got the pilot wings with a real pinback. On my first flight ever, I got a miniature flight bag from Eastern Airlines. Remember Eastern?
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Oh Wow!!! I remember how elegant everyone looked. And I even remember planes that had lounges in the front where adults could go to have a cocktail ! Now we are barely allow to stand to go to the restroom !
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Remember smoking on an airplane???
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And perky stewardesses in miniskirts... looking alot like Barbie dolls. And HUGE, HARDSIDED, MATCHING LUGGAGE...not a wheel in sight...with matching carryon makeup cases. How much makeup did ladies wear back then ?
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