When we were your age

[jas]

There is a magazine out called Reminise, I love it! It is so fun to read all about days gone by.

[mamamia]

Oh, Mamamia-- Thanks for the memories! Wise potato chips! I grew up in western Pa and that's the only kind we ate. When I go back for a visit this spring I'll have to see if they still have them back there. Hugs! You made my day.

LOL! You are so welcome ohio47! It's so funny when we remember things like that, isn't it? As for me, I guess I lucked out because they have them here where I live now in Fl. Believe me, it makes me feel so much better eating those things when I get homesick. There's not too many NY foods here, but it is getting better. They just can't 'DO' pizza or Italian Ices here no matter what they claim

Ya know, I always thought that Wise was in NY, and was surprised when I read they're in Pa. I'm guessing that's probably one of the reasons you ate them exclusively.

Well I hope you find your chips I'm thinking you might be able to order from them. Just might be worth a try.

Theresa

[Inkstain82]

Kids today. They have it too easy, they don't know the value of money, their music is just noise and they should get off my lawn

Every generation repeats this forever

It fascinates me that my son will grow up entirely in the Internet age. I desperately wanted a little computer I could play around in DOS and BASIC with when I was a pre-teen, and I was 14 when we got our first dial-up connection. It's going to be tough to explain to him what it was like without it.

[imagine]

I remember riding my bike to the local little grocery store and buying candy.

Some children in my town still ride their bike to the convenience store to buy candy.

I walk by the convenience store nearly everyday.

On a nice day ( evening or summer) there are generally several children to play with at the school play ground. I tend to stay with my children sometimes I'm the only Mom sometimes I have company to chat with.

On cold days you can generally find several children to play with at the Library. The children's section is not a quiet place.


When I was Son's age (13)

1)Then we had just got cable tv and we rented a vcr along with tapes at the store. Now, Son has cable a DVD.
2) Then We had two family computers Now we have two family computers
3) Then we had walk-mans and cassette tapes Now son has MP3 player.
4) Then phones were attached to walls and Dad had a CB in his car Now in the house the phones are attached to walls but we (adults) have a cell phones
5) when I was 13 I was looking forward to driving next year son will have to wait four more years.
6) Then I had a working mom and carried a key to let myself in. Now Son has a stay at home mom and doesn't have a key to the house.
7) Then I was 13 I was reading Little House on the Prairie. I had the set in hard back now my 9 year old is reading the same hardback Little House books.
8) Then swimming pools were a concrete hole with water and a diving board now they at least and a slide too.
9) Computers was a required course in high school it is a required course in son's middle school.
10) Then we had an Atari and some hand held electronic games now son has the X box and Nintendo DS ( as well as our original Atari)
11) the dress code at school then and now the same.
12) Then we had a Walmart to shop at but it didn't sell groceries.
This was fun!
Makes me wonder if Times have changed all at much after all. Sure technology has upgraded a bit but has life and children/teenagers changed that much?

[dcompton]

I'm even older than Grainlady, LOL. I graduated high school in 1966. Yes, we had PE and I hated it. There were still "girl" subjects and "boy" subjects. I wanted to take drafting in high school, was given reluctant permission, along with a girlfriend who also wanted it, but that was withdrawn before classes started. I was pretty mad, but decided to take German instead. Boys could take shop, girls could take home economics, but it was not compulsory - a good thing, since I hated that too.

The exciting technology of my childhood was transistor radios. We had a tv by the time I was in school, one, with, I think, three channels. For years, most of them had westerns, and my dad loved westerns, so guess what we got to watch? I mostly read books, except for Saturday morning cartoons and kids shows like Rin Tin Tin and Fury. Roy Rogers and The Lone Ranger were acceptable westerns because of the beautiful horses. Somewhat later my sister loved American Bandstand that I thought was a really stupid program. Read more books.

Aren't all school worksheets supposed to be purple? We only had memeograph machines (no idea how to spell that) when I was in elementary school. You could buy lunches at school but most brown bagged it and left their sandwiches unrefrigerated in lockers -- that were quite hot in the fall and spring -- until lunchtime, and no one died. No air conditioning in the schools. In Texas. Not nice.

At one point my parents bought us the Encyclopedia Britannica. That was our "internet."

Computers? When I was in college the hot new thing was word processors, and there was a lot of suspicion about them among more traditional academics. Even as late as when I wrote my dissertation, xeroxing could be used for copies to committee members, but the official copies had to be typed, with a carbon, on special cotton content paper. I had to hire a typist - I was wasn't good enough for official carbons without making my life a misery.

Remote controls did not exist.

We would never go to a movie theater. Theaters were drive in with those little speakers you hung in the window and had terrible sound. I'm old enough to have seen Fantasia at a drive in when it was new.

When the family ate out occasionally, it was usually at a drive in. When I was in junior high, or maybe high school, a MacDonald's opened near us - 15 cent fries, and I think the hamburgers were about the same. Imagine. I grew up in a world without MacDonalds! There were no pizza places, and no one delivered food to your door unless it was milk or bread.

There were some good things about the good old days, but there are also some good things about the good new days. I'm pretty attached to my computer, my air conditioning in home and car, and, when I was still watching tv years ago, a great absence of westerns.

[imagine]

I'm even older than Grainlady, LOL. I graduated high school in 1966. Yes, we had PE and I hated it. There were still "girl" subjects and "boy" subjects. I wanted to take drafting in high school, was given reluctant permission, along with a girlfriend who also wanted it, but that was withdrawn before classes started. I was pretty mad, but decided to take German instead. Boys could take shop, girls could take home economics, but it was not compulsory - a good thing, since I hated that too.

The exciting technology of my childhood was transistor radios. We had a tv by the time I was in school, one, with, I think, three channels. For years, most of them had westerns, and my dad loved westerns, so guess what we got to watch? I mostly read books, except for Saturday morning cartoons and kids shows like Rin Tin Tin and Fury. Roy Rogers and The Lone Ranger were acceptable westerns because of the beautiful horses. Somewhat later my sister loved American Bandstand that I thought was a really stupid program. Read more books.

Aren't all school worksheets supposed to be purple? We only had memeograph machines (no idea how to spell that) when I was in elementary school. You could buy lunches at school but most brown bagged it and left their sandwiches unrefrigerated in lockers -- that were quite hot in the fall and spring -- until lunchtime, and no one died. No air conditioning in the schools. In Texas. Not nice.

At one point my parents bought us the Encyclopedia Britannica. That was our "internet."

Computers? When I was in college the hot new thing was word processors, and there was a lot of suspicion about them among more traditional academics. Even as late as when I wrote my dissertation, xeroxing could be used for copies to committee members, but the official copies had to be typed, with a carbon, on special cotton content paper. I had to hire a typist - I was wasn't good enough for official carbons without making my life a misery.

Remote controls did not exist.

We would never go to a movie theater. Theaters were drive in with those little speakers you hung in the window and had terrible sound. I'm old enough to have seen Fantasia at a drive in when it was new.

When the family ate out occasionally, it was usually at a drive in. When I was in junior high, or maybe high school, a MacDonald's opened near us - 15 cent fries, and I think the hamburgers were about the same. Imagine. I grew up in a world without MacDonalds! There were no pizza places, and no one delivered food to your door unless it was milk or bread.

There were some good things about the good old days, but there are also some good things about the good new days. I'm pretty attached to my computer, my air conditioning in home and car, and, when I was still watching tv years ago, a great absence of westerns.

Donna, I was born after you graduated.

I remember the milkman and milk deliveries in glass containers. You could have them deliver eggs too. The dairy in my childhood home town stopped delivering when I was a pre-teen but you could still go to the dairy and pick up milk and eggs. My town I'm growing my children up in the milk for school is delivered form a local dairy but it isn't in glass containers.

We also had the "delievery man" he was from a catalog grocery store ( it also had other things like cleaning products, shampoo, toothbrushes etc) he came once every few weeks you placed your order and he brought you your stuff when he returned.I remember really good cookies.

We watched movies at he drive in. My childhood town got a movie theater when I was in high school but it closed. The drive in is still a working drive in theater though. Always a double feature.

[shoiji]

Yup. We had the great outdoors to play. Always told to go outside and play.

Sometimes we even used pliers to change the channel. You know when the knob came off. Plus aluminum foil gave you better reception.

To leave a phone message someone had to answer the phone and the other person had to write on paper.

Oh, the good old days. lol

[shoiji]

Wasn't it Snyder potato chips in a cream and brown tin? I think they also had pretzels that came in a tin. Definately remember them from family get togethers. That and coke in coke bottles.

[leighcat]

I was born in 1980. I remember garbage pail kid stickers with a piece of gum in the pack. Planters cheeseballs. 8-tracks and beta tapes were just phasing out. Casette tapes were way cool and boomboxes playing Madonna and Michael Jackson. Thriller was the coolest album ever lol! Cindy Lauper was my hero and Goonies was my favorite movie along with The Dark Crystal, ET, and Labyrinth. Transformers and Masters of the Universe were my favorite t.v. shows. We had a rotary phone, and turn-dial t.v. Our phone had an annoying cord that would get all twisted up. Our favorite game was using our imagination. We played with matchbox cars for hours. We rode our bikes a half mile from home by ourselves and lived to tell about it. Pants were still called dungarees. McDonalds was a rare treat. Our computer was a comidore 64 or Texas Instrument. Everyone cool had an Atari. Plastic charm necklaces and bracelets were hot commodities. Popples were as popular as beanie babies.
Thanks for jogging my memory! I can't believe I am almost 30 lol!!

[geckoace]

Leighcat I'm just 2 years older than u and I loved all of that stuff. About a year ago I begged my husband to buy me labyrinth in DVD because as a kid I had watched the tap until it actually snapped.

To add I remember we had a Betamax with a corded remote and we thought it was really something! plus We got cable when I was about 12 or 13 and I remeber it was a big deal in elementary school when we hit a touchtone phone.... Oooh high off the hog

[pat in east texas]

I'm a 1935 model. I can remember picking up the phone, telling the operator what number I wanted, and she'd connect me. If it was the rare and expensive "long distance" call, the operator would tell you to hang up and she would ring back when the call was put through. And on both ends of a "long distance", the parties would talk at a high volume so the voices would get through all that distance.

[max915]

I graduated in 72 and we too had to wear dresses everyday and boys hair could be no longer then the top of their collars. NO sports for girls..if you had a car to drive to school meant you either had a job or your parents had money..if you got into trouble at school you knew you would be in even more trouble at home. Cinnamon toothpics!! forgot all about those...

[Rhayne]

About a year ago I begged my husband to buy me labyrinth in DVD because as a kid I had watched the tap until it actually snapped.

I still love that movie! lol

[Thrifty Mom]

I loved reading all of these. I graduated in 74.

We also used the pliers to select one of the three channels on TV, since our knob was broken too. No remotes, that's what kids were for.

Our phone was a party line & we kids did not use it to chit chat. We only used the phone when we had permission & for only two or three minutes. When making a long distance call, you had to tell a live operator the number you were calling from.

We had a "drip" coffe maker. You poured boiling water in the top & it ran down through the grounds.

We got potato chips in a large can, I think ours usually were Beckers. The can had to be returned.

We made Chef Boy Ardee pizza from a box. I didn't have boughten pizza until I was a teenager.

Pop & beer were in returnable bottles. When you did get cans, the little pop top came off. As an older teen we made beer tab "chains" out of these.

Girls did not wear pants of any kind to school.There was always a debate about skirts being too short. Boys were not allowed facial hair & had to have hair above their collars. Boys wore dress pants & dress shoes. The only girls sport was GAA- Girls Athletic Association & they just played the area schools.