How Old Are You?

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ioweddie

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Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favourite 'fast food' when you were growing up?'
'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him.
'All the food was slow.'
‘C'mon, seriously … Where did you eat?'
'It was a place called 'home,'' I explained.
'Mum cooked every day and when she got home from work, we sat do wn together at the dining room table,
And if I didn't like what she put on my plate, I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'

By this time, the lad was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I'd figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore jeans, set foot on a golf course, travelled out of the country or had a credit card.

My parents never drove me to school … I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed (slow). Before I had a bike I walked.

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 7.
It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at 10 PM, after playing the national anthem and epilogue; it came back on the air at about 12 noon.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home … but milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers — I delivered a newspaper, seven days a week. I had to get up at 5.30 every morning except Sunday when I had a lie-in until 6.30.

Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the films. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or almost anything offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just do n't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend:
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died recently) and he brought me an old lemonade bottle.
In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea.
She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?
Headlight dip-switches on the floor of the car.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Trouser leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn indicators.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom.

1. Sweet cigarettes
2... Coffee shops with juke boxes
3... Home milk delivery in glass bottles
4... Party lines on the telephone
5.. Newsreels before the movie
6. TV test cards that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning.
(There were only 2 channels [if you were fortunate])
7.. Peashooters
8. 33 rpm records
9. 45 rpm records
10. Hi-fis
11. Metal ice trays with levers
12. Blue flashbulb
13. Cork popguns
14. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-3 = You're still young
If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older
If you remembered 7-10 = Don't tell your age
If you remembered 11-14 = You're positively ancient!

I must be 'positively ancient' but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.

Don't forget to pass this along!
Especially to all your really OLD friends …. I just did!

(PS. I used a large type face so you could read it easily).
 
I'm only late 30's, but I remember 8 of those! And the table etiquette still exists in my house :) I'm forever telling my children to get their elbows off the table, eat over their plate, or leave their cutlery at "6 o'clock" to show when they're finished :) and they also have to ask to leave the table!
 
Thought I'd crop most and just do the list. :)

As for "fast food" though, we had chippies. (Most Fridays for me) Oh, and I still remember my Grandfather clouting me for getting up from the table without asking permission...

1. Sweet cigarettes Yes remember, but not blaming them for my smoking habit.
2... Coffee shops with juke boxes 2 in our town
3... Home milk delivery in glass bottles Still get this daily (apart from Sundays now)
4... Party lines on the telephone Never had a telephone till these were abandoned
5.. Newsreels before the movie Loads of Pathe stuff still on YouTube
6. TV test cards that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. Watched them for hours
(There were only 2 channels [if you were fortunate]) We only had BBC for a long time.
7.. Peashooters Yep, had one
8. 33 rpm records Still got loads
9. 45 rpm records Still got a few
10. Hi-fis Stereogram came before those new fangled things...
11. Metal ice trays with levers Never seen the lever ones?
12. Blue flashbulb And later the "Cubes"
13. Cork popguns Vaguely, cork on a string IIRC
14. Wash tub wringers Had one before the modern twin tub.


Cheers, you've made a happy man feel old. :(
 
Oh dear, I'm "positively ancient".

And I still have milk delivered in bottles...
 
I'm only late 30's, but I remember 8 of those! And the table etiquette still exists in my house :) I'm forever telling my children to get their elbows off the table, eat over their plate, or leave their cutlery at "6 o'clock" to show when they're finished :) and they also have to ask to leave the table!

You'd be amazed the number of kids who don't get even the most basic of etiquette training at home...watch some of them try to use a knife and fork!!!
 
Most of them aye, but I am 46.

KFC was around mid 80s but "fast food" for us was always the local chippie.
 
8. 33 rpm records Still got loads
Around 7 or 8 years ago, a friend who lives some way away visited with his family and his then 13-year old daughter was mesmerised when I played an album on my Linn LP12.

Up until that point she was totally unaware of any form of music reproduction system other than digital :(

After it, she was quite taken by the sound quality :thumb:
 
Fast food was a bag of crisps from the pub offy, a rare Saturday night treat
 
You'd be amazed the number of kids who don't get even the most basic of etiquette training at home...watch some of them try to use a knife and fork!!!

There's a lot of adults too, who don't know how to use a knife and fork properly. :doh:
 
I'm only late 30's, but I remember 8 of those! And the table etiquette still exists in my house :) I'm forever telling my children to get their elbows off the table, eat over their plate, or leave their cutlery at "6 o'clock" to show when they're finished :) and they also have to ask to leave the table!

I'm 43 and remember 8 of them also.

We have fairly old fashioned values. We always eat in the dining room and never rush our food. We enjoy having a chat about our day with each other and no one leaves the table until everyone has finished. Then it's a family team effort to tidy up in the kitchen.

I'm proud of the fact we haven't slumped into lazy habits. Another thing we've never done is talk over our daughter. If she talks then we listen. We know so many parents that talk over their kids or even tell them to 'shut up!' :eek:

Lastly, fun and laughter is a must. I grew up in a very hostile environment and therefor consciously want the opposite for our daughter.

Thanks for this thread Eddie. It's made me happy! :bannana:

Ant. :thumb:
 
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I thought getting my first State Pension payment 2 months ago was enough of a reminder, but I'm another who scored a full 14 - and to add to the list, my first memory of parent's motorised transport was a motor bike and sidecar (BSA Goldie 500 with Watsonian chair), I think Dad got his first car when I was about 5 and his first new car when I was about 10 or 11 - paid for monthly out of Mum's earnings.

From 11 I had a mile walk to the bus stop, then 1/2 mile walk after getting off the bus to get to school, come rain hail or snow! Here in the village we have little darlings being driven 3-400 yards to the primary school!
 
You can usually work someones age out by asking them how long their first house phone number was (assuming they had a phone)
 
No mention of Fat an Bread with a sprinkling of salt. Had this at my grandparents most weekends. Raw sausage...yummy, tripe swimming in vinegar.... Ooh the youth of today haven't lived....!
 
No mention of Fat an Bread with a sprinkling of salt. Had this at my grandparents most weekends. .... Ooh the youth of today haven't lived....!


Dripping!! I loved it!.
And chicken soup from the pressure cooker on a Mondat.
And mince and tatties with the little lumps of fat floating.
 
No mention of Fat an Bread with a sprinkling of salt. Had this at my grandparents most weekends. Raw sausage...yummy, tripe swimming in vinegar.... Ooh the youth of today haven't lived....!

I'm getting the bigger picture on how the username was chosen :D
vomit2.gif
 
Surely no one still alive pre-dates fish and chips?
 
If you are older than your mid 60's you should also remember 78rpm records and wind up gramaphones with wooden doors you opened for the sound to come out.

Redifusion wired radios, we lived in a terraced house no front garden and about 20ft of rear garden the Redifusion cables straddled the streets and gardens.
 
I remember, when young, waking up in a bed, with blankets, and a bedspread. Condensation would form from my breath. There would be ice on the inside of the windows. I would then have to go outside, to use the toilet, pulling the chain suspended from near the ceiling, to flush. (the orange lagging round the pipes out there always scared me as a kid).
I would then walk back past the coalshed and back indoors to a normally roaring open fire.
I would love an open fire now.

Neil
 

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