[John B]

Take a happiness walk down "Memory Lane"  Enjoy!!!

 Bring back any memories?
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 Dad got home from work, we sat down 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).

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 10.
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 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people...

Pizzas were not delivered to our home... But milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers --My brother delivered a newspaper, seven days a week.  He had to get up at 6AM every morning.

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 don'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 in December) 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 patterns 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-fi's
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.

[Shambles]

You escaped the good old HOS by a whisker


I remember when...

[Surferdude]

Hell, I remember 78rpm records.
And sorry. NO coffee shops when I was young. There were cafes with juke boxes. Coffee came in a jar of instant granules or powder from the grocery (corner) store.
Only one TV channel for the first few years. And living on the south side of Tugun hill, we had a 60' aerial and more snow than picture.

There's a facebook page called "Do you remember the Old Gold Coast? which is well worth a look if you're in that area.

[eye30]

Portion of chips 6d pre decimalisation.

[Phil №❶]

Oh yeah, I remember a fair share of those. Like I said a while ago, I wanna go back.

Holden ignitions without the key, quite common in the 60's

[Dazzler]

  Very good John.. Well not that good (I got 11!) 

[John B]

Very good John.. Well not that good (I got 11!) 

Not as bad as me I got 14

[John B]

You escaped the good old HOS by a whisker


I remember when...

knew I was sailing close to the wind, I guess thats why they call me Sloop.

[John B]

Portion of chips 6d pre decimalisation.

Don't forget the massive big jar of pickled onions on the counter. Well they seemed big to me at the time.

[Just Rick]

Oh yeah, I remember a fair share of those. Like I said a while ago, I wanna go back.

Holden ignitions without the key, quite common in the 60's

Even my old FX had a key,but you still had to push the button,I got 14 to but like SD I remember cafes with dukeboxes no coffee shops back then,I also somewhere still have a couple of 78's,their as heavy as F@*% and about an 1/8th of an inch thick  then there's number 14 not one of my favorite memories,I got my fingers caught in a mangle,they where named that for a reason.

[Lakes]

Good one John.
We never got a TV when they first came out as my Dad thought they needed a few years to see how long they lasted so was not wasting his money, all Pound's Shilling's & Pence then. Not Dollar's & Cent's. I used to go up the road to watch the Micky Mouse Club once a week.
I don't think we had cafe's then I think the Juke Box was in the Milk Bar. Milk shacks had milk that had about one inch of cream at the top so where real creamy so was Ice Cream.
I drove an old straight eight Buick that never used a key. Just turned a switch on the dash then put foot flat on throtle to start, starter button was under the throtle. Petrol was so cheap the price was never posted out the front of the servo, & you did not even get out the car to fill up, that all started after the gulf war in 70's to control fuel fashioning. You got a full driveway service & they even checked the tyre's put air in them for you. I played dibs on the way to school.
Was no seat belts & was ok for kids to ride on the back of flat bed trucks holding onto the back board.
Some servo's never had a pump they used to hand pump the fuel into a glass measure then gravity feel into your tank.
Most side streets in Sydney were all dirt with only the highways having tar or con rest surface.
We had a Tic gate on the NSW QLD boarder. & had to use punts to cross most of the rivers on the road from Sydney to Brisbane took ages to get up there.

[John B]

Oh yeah, I remember a fair share of those. Like I said a while ago, I wanna go back.

Holden ignitions without the key, quite common in the 60's

Even my old FX had a key,but you still had to push the button,I got 14 to but like SD I remember cafes with dukeboxes no coffee shops back then,I also somewhere still have a couple of 78's,their as heavy as F@*% and about an 1/8th of an inch thick  then there's number 14 not one of my favorite memories,I got my fingers caught in a mangle,they where named that for a reason.

Yes I remember when I was a little kid, my meek old grandma who would not say a word out of place caught her hand in the mangle and came out with all the swear words you could possibly name, she suddenly remembered I was there and looked at me and said " silly old thing isn't it " ( like that made it all right to swear ) 

[Doggie 1]

Being a lot younger than most of you, I do remember y2k.   

[John B]

Being a lot younger than most of you, I do remember y2k.   

AHH the old 2 YK Millennium Bug when all the planes would drop from the sky and all computers stop working and the world come to an end.

[Doggie 1]

I was 3.

[asathorny]

Some of what you recall is true for me, but quite a bit is not true for the UK.   Mind you, we were being bombed at the time so having permission to leave the table was more a case of who could run the fastest to the bloody air raid shelter 

The only time Ozz got bombed, I believe, was Darwin when the japs, the same Japs who bombed Pearl did a raid on Darwin.  In that instance the air raid sirens didn't go off and the anti Aircraft guns remained silent for the first half hour cos there had been no practice <sigh>   After the second raid (half hour later) by heavier bombers most of the town scattered into the bush and the soldiers left behind looted the town.

Which is why ya never hear about the Darwin raid <sigh>

When I were a lad we used to rummage through the bombed buildings looking for shrapnel and bullet cases et al.   Whilst simultaneously eating our jam butties. 
My point being that, childhood memories will depend where you spent your childhood 

[Surferdude]

Some of what you recall is true for me, but quite a bit is not true for the UK.   Mind you, we were being bombed at the time so having permission to leave the table was more a case of who could run the fastest to the bloody air raid shelter 

The only time Ozz got bombed, I believe, was Darwin when the japs, the same Japs who bombed Pearl did a raid on Darwin.  In that instance the air raid sirens didn't go off and the anti Aircraft guns remained silent for the first half hour cos there had been no practice <sigh>   After the second raid (half hour later) by heavier bombers most of the town scattered into the bush and the soldiers left behind looted the town.

Which is why ya never hear about the Darwin raid <sigh>

When I were a lad we used to rummage through the bombed buildings looking for shrapnel and bullet cases et al.   Whilst simultaneously eating our jam butties. 
My point being that, childhood memories will depend where you spent your childhood 

I think your Darwin history needs work.

[asathorny]

REALLY !!!!!!

Explain?

[AlanHo]

My memory of a mangle was when I was about 16 years old.

Next door were posh and they had a Parnall top loading washing machine with a removable mangle that plugged into a powered socket on the top of the washer.

I was in the garden one day and heard yelling and screaming coming from next door. It transpired that the lady had got her fingers caught between the powered rollers and it had rolled beyond her wrist before her husband rushed in and, instead of operating the emergency release lever which sprung the rollers apart, he had operated the reverse lever.

The result was it rolled her hand out of the bite and forced all the blood into her fingers which blew up like sausages. What would have been bruised fingers became a hospital job.

I just found this video of a similar machine. 


Vintage Parnall washing machine - YouTube

[John B]

Ouch.

[Surferdude]

REALLY !!!!!!

Explain?

Yes there were four aircraft carriers involved that also took part in the Pearl Harbour attack. But these were fighters and dive bombers.
Most of the damage was done by over 50 land based bombers.
There were a  lot of things done wrong in Darwin at that time. Ships in the harbour were anchored too close together. There were a number of American ships there who were also caught napping.
Most importantly, these two attacks were the forerunners of 100 similar attacks on and around Darwin. So. Not just two.
The air raid sirens weren't used because the attacking aircraft were wrongly identified as a American (which were in the area).
There had been very little practice for the AA gunners because they had no amunition. One very sad and little publicised problem in Australia during WW2 was that the unions, in particular wharfies and miners almost crippled the country with continual strikes and deliberate sabotage of war materials, often necessitating the armed forces of both Australia and the US taking over the wharves Pilfering, even of care packages on their way to serving troops was rife.
So, ammunition shortages were common.
My main issue with your post was that "you never hear about the Darwin raid". It's common knowledge here in Australia.
And that there was only the one day of raids.
There's a lot of background to why things that happened on that first day, happened.
Oh. Also, almost the same tonnage of bombs which were used at Pearl Harbour were used on Darwin.

[asathorny]

REALLY !!!!!!

Explain?

Yes there were four aircraft carriers involved that also took part in the Pearl Harbour attack. But these were fighters and dive bombers.
Most of the damage was done by over 50 land based bombers.
There were a  lot of things done wrong in Darwin at that time. Ships in the harbour were anchored too close together. There were a number of American ships there who were also caught napping.
Most importantly, these two attacks were the forerunners of 100 similar attacks on and around Darwin. So. Not just two.
The air raid sirens weren't used because the attacking aircraft were wrongly identified as a American (which were in the area).
There had been very little practice for the AA gunners because they had no amunition. One very sad and little publicised problem in Australia during WW2 was that the unions, in particular wharfies and miners almost crippled the country with continual strikes and deliberate sabotage of war materials, often necessitating the armed forces of both Australia and the US taking over the wharves Pilfering, even of care packages on their way to serving troops was rife.
So, ammunition shortages were common.
My main issue with your post was that "you never hear about the Darwin raid". It's common knowledge here in Australia.
And that there was only the one day of raids.
There's a lot of background to why things that happened on that first day, happened.
Oh. Also, almost the same tonnage of bombs which were used at Pearl Harbour were used on Darwin.

I hope that's made you feel better, you have more or less said the same as me !!!!!

If I have somehow offended you, it was not intentional.   

We on this sceptered Isle have suffered many of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in all the wars we have had, no use getting upset at the re-telling of them.

 

[Lakes]

You two are a lot older than I am , I was not born then
They love Jap tourist's over the State's now.

My mother told me they kept the air raid on Darwin Quite so as not to scare us, in Sydney, but we got a midget Jap Sub come into Sydney Harboured.
ASA your going well for a 90 yo 

[Asterix]

Old buggers, the lot of you....          

(I only got 5)

[Phil №❶]

A late relative of mine (also working for the PMG in those days), lost her best friend in the Darwin air raid on the Post Office. Direct hit.

[Lakes]

I don't think any of us old bugger's would be happy to go back in time
We have too much of a good thing now.
I'm sure Dazz would not like it at all, but we would all love the old price of fuel & oil. Just not the old basic wage.
Cheers
As they say ..... You can never please a people.

[diablo]

I don't think any of us old bugger's would be happy to go back in time
We have too much of a good thing now.
I'm sure Dazz would not like it at all, but we would all love the old price of fuel & oil. Just not the old basic wage.
Cheers
As they say ..... You can never please a people.

Well I wouldn't want the old days back. It used to be bloody cold in the mornings in winter, what with single glazing and coal fires that had to be lit, brrrr. I remember the frost on the inside on my bedroom windows.

I scored max on the quiz even though I ain't as old as some others on here. I'm only a fossil, not a super-fossil as yet but I hope to be one someday. We used to have a manual mangle when I was about six but got a power mangle with the Hoover (I think) washing machine, which was soon replaced with a twin tub.

The pubs used to be better in those days though. 

[John B]

When I was young I used to play on these empty parcels of land that was only  3  houses down from where I was born and lived in London. When I was a bit older I was told that there were houses on those plots that took a direct hit from a bomb . My mum said it was terrifying and as a little bub thankfully I can't remember it. As dad was in the Army away fighting she was on her own.  When the bombs were dropping ( doodlebugs  V-1 flying bomb) she said she heard it go quite and knew it was coming down very close,luckily she had huddled my brother and sister plus myself under the stairs. We sustained quite a bit of damage but unlike the neighbours survived. After that we were evacuated to Devon away from London that was blitzed.  To this day after my mothers account of that terrible day I have thought how lucky we were . Any problems I have encountered since I always remember I am lucky to be here, unlike so many others during the war. No doubt there are many on the forum that have similar stories. How many remember the old ration books for the food, no wonder we were all slim, you should see me now though, made up for it since 

PS @ Diablo, I remember the old frost in the morning on the inside of the windows, used to pull my clothes of the chair next to the bed and get dressed under the blankets.    Perhaps the heading should have been the good old bad days.

[Sydney Lady]

I was born in UK and remember buying Smiths potato crisps with small blue paper packets of salt which you opened and sprinkled on the crisps before you ate them.
Milk delivered in glass bottles which used to freeze in winter on your doorstep ( I lived in Leeds, Yorkshire) in summer the birds would peck through the foil caps for the cream at the top of the milk.
We had no fridge, just a pantry with stone shelves to keep food cool
First washing machine was just a boiler and mum used a hand mangle. Eventually updated to a Hoover twin tub.
I remember her 'handkerchief soup' as no paper tissues then, only cloth hankies which were boiled in pan on stove.

We used to listen to 'The Flying Doctor' on our radio which was an Australian series. No TV till I was 11.
When we were called to eat, the radio/TV had to be turned off, no matter if you were listening to a serial, mum's word was law.
You sat at table till you finished all your food.
Frozen meals didn't exist, all home cooking. Fish and Chips was the favourite fast food treat, wrapped in newspaper of course.
My parents never owned a car, dad cycled to work always. Mum stayed home to care for us 3 kids and do all the cooking and cleaning with our help. Our rooms had to be kept clean & tidy by us or we were in trouble.
No cordless phones or computers.  Our phone (round dial) was in the hallway downstairs and you had to sit on the bottom stair when using it.
No shower, just a bath.
Coal fires till they made us a smokeless zone, they we had to burn coke.

I only learned to drive after emigrating to Australia in 1971, had no experience with cars before that.
Things have sure changed....

[John B]

Yes can relate to all of that,Thank you . Good posting.