I Am Old!

My friend Rita, a fellow teacher sent me an email on Weds.  It made me feel like I was 100....as if I didn't need any help with that.  The email was cute so I thought I would see how my readers fare. "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. (and we didn't.  I remember the very first McDonalds - I was in high school.  The A &;W Rootbeer stand was the closet thing we had to fast food...and it was anything but.) 'All the food was slow.' 'C'mon, seriously.. Where did you eat?'  'It was a place called 'home,'' I explained ! 'My stay at home mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table to eat, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate, I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'  I sat a long time sometimes.  I still hate liver in any form and boiled okra....and you can forget me eating beef tongue.  YUCKKKKK!  "By this time, the young person was laughing so hard so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to ask permission to leave the table.But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I'd figured he could have taken it seriously. The majority of parents . . . NEVER owned their own house, wore jeans, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. My parents rarely . . . drove me to school. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed . . . (slow) and on days when I didn't ride my bike....I had two perfectly good legs to use to get to school.  I was driven on rainy days....period.  We didn't have a television in our house until I was around 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 Skipper Chuck on, featuring local people. I never had a telephone or television in my room. My grandmothers only phone was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.  I loved the listening part.  I learned a lot about her neighborhood that way.  I also got a spanking and my mouth washed out with soup because of that party line.  I learned really quick not to repeat what adults say. Pizzas were not delivered to our home . . . but milk was....in glass bottles.  I remember the first time it was delivered in paper cartons.  All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers .  I wanted to deliver papers....but I was a girl.  Brushes and vacuum cleaners were sold door to door.....as were encyclopedias.  Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least . . . they did in the films. There were no movie ratings . . . all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or almost anything offensive. Did you grow up in a generation before there was fast food?  If you did then you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Keep a journal for them.....Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing. Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?  Frank and I were cleaning on weekend up at my grandmother's/parent's house  and I found 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 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.   So let me ask you....just how many of these 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.
Well if you remembered any or all of those....how about taking  the Older Than Dirt Quiz?
Count all the ones that YOU remember, not the ones you were told about.  Then scroll down and check your ratings.  Do you remember......
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
10.78 RPM records
11. Hi-fi's
12. Metal ice trays with levers
13. Blue flashbulb
14. Cork popguns
15. Wash tub wringers
If you remembered 0-3 = You’re still young
If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older
If you remembered 7-11 = Don't tell your age
If you remembered 12-15 = You're positively ancient!
Well guys, I must be 'positively ancient' but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.  How did you do?