Older than dirt - been around a while, but still good

Yeah, I passed with a perfect score too. I AM older than dirt, I guess. Feel free to comment and add your unique memories.

'Someone asked the other day,'What was your favorite 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. 'Mom 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.

By this time, the kid 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.

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

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the countryor had a credit card. They had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice.

This was mostly because we had never heard of soccer.

I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds,

and only had one speed (slow).

We didn't have a television set in our house until I was five.

It was, of course, black and white.

I was 13 when I first tasted pizza. It was called 'pizza pie.'

When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too.It's still the best pizza I ever had.

We didn't have a car until I was four.

It was a black Dodge, four door sedan.

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living roomand it was on a party line.

Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn'tknow weren't already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home.

The milk man and the bakery man camethree times a week.

Mail came twice a day and stamps were three cents.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers.

My brother delivered a newspaper six days a week.

It cost seven cents a paper, of which he got to keep two cents.

He had to get up at 6AMevery morning.

On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers.

His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change..

His least favorites were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them

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 Royal Crown Cola 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'd tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the wooden ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons.

Man, am I old?

Remember saying "God Bless You every time someone sneezed?" ( and they covered their nose and mouth always)

How many do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.
Real ice boxes.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals because cars had no turn signals.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:

Count all the ones that you remember,

not the ones you were told about.

(Ratings at the bottom.)

1 Blackjack Chewing Gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with

colored sugar water insude
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda machines that dispensed glass bottles
5.. Coffee shops or diners with tableside jukeboxes

6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyer'tennis' shoes
10. Butch wax
11. TV test patterns that came on at night

after the last show and Star Spangled Banner,

and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. There were only three channels.
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 33 1/3 RPM records
15. S& H Greenstamps
16. Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19 Blue flashbulbs and Brownie cameras
20. Packard automobiles
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Air raid drills
25. Wash tub wringers

IF You remembered 0-5? You're still young.
IF You remembered 6-10? You are getting older.
IF You remembered 11-15? Don't tell your age.
IF You remembered 16-25?

You're older than dirt!!!!!!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.

GOD BLESS YOU!

I CAN STILL SAY THAT AND MEAN IT WHETHER YOU SNEEZE OR NOT!!!!!

One more that came to my mind was:

We all walked to school. Most of us did not have a second car and the dads typically had the first one at work, so rain, snow, sleet and sun, we walked (and we wore dresses - no pants were allowed). Our parents didn't worry that we would be kidnapped on the way (at least they didn't let us know if they had such fears - that would have scared us). I do remember being a little scared (and cold) walking down the road without sidewalks about a mile and having the cars whiz by throwing the slush onto us or forcing us into the muddy shoulder. Once I was late coming home (I liked to stay and help the teacher) and some guy drove slowly past, learing, then turned and did it a couple more times, but he never actually tried anything. I did pick up my pace, however!

More: I remember the 8 oz Cokes in green glass bottles. Other sodas were just as interesting. I thought of this the other day when hearing an ad on the radio about the "new" old-shaped Coke bottles in 2 liters and the grandma is reminiscing with the granddaughter about it.

I remember graham crackers and milk for snack in kindergarten and "nap time" as well as real play areas where we played "house" at school, with dolls, kitchens, etc.

I remember savings books where we would bring our change to school, buy stamps to put in the book that could later be redeemed for cash. I bought my first bicycle in the first grade this way. (Yes, the big, one-speed, blue used bicycle and it was the only one I ever had).

I remember "fat" pencils we had in school through the second grade I think.

I used to lament that I never learned shorthand in school like so many of the other girls - just too many classes I wanted to take. Looking back I'm glad I didn't sacrifice one of the others for that one - now very much out-dated, though I envied the stenos who, in college, took great notes.