Along those same lines, here's a list I've been collecting over the years.
Things from the past, Way Past
Car Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Car Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Car Heaters mounted on the inside of the firewall.
Cars had to be started by turning the motor over by hand with a crank.
And no one ever asked where the car keys were 'cause they were always in the car, in the ignition and the doors were never locked,
Riding on the car?s Running Boards.
Fender Skirts, Spot Lights, Fog Lights and Fox Tails were on most cars. (Young Guys)
When a '57 Chevy was everyone's dream car to cruise, peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races
Long gone are cars named Packards, Henry J?s, Cords. Tuckers, Studebakers, Hudsons, Morgans, Lincoln Zephyrs and Nashes
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.
When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, for free, every time. . and, you didn't pay for air. . .and, you got trading
stamps or free drinking glasses to boot!
Real ice boxes and there was an Ice Man that delivered blocks of Ice and put them in the Ice box for you, Size and amount depended on the sign you put in your front window.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner or wood stove, in the kitchen.
Washing Machines That you had to fill by hand, and run the clothes thru a ringer on top of the machine,
Before that, washing clothes in a washtub, scrubbing them on a scrub board.
Blackjack chewing gum
Penney loves of bread about 5? long
Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
Candy cigarettes
Soda pop machines that dispensed bottles
Coffee shops with table-side jukeboxes
Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
Telephone Party lines
Telephone numbers with a word prefix (Olive - 6933)
Newsreels before the movie
P.F. Flyers
Butch wax
Peashooters
Howdy Doody
78 and 45 RPM records
S&H Green Stamps and Blue Stamps
Hi-fi's
Metal ice trays with lever
Mimeograph paper
Blue flashbulbs
Roller skate keys
Cork popguns
Drive-ins
The Green Hornet, Inter Sanctum, Gene Autry, Captain Midnight, Sky King and Jack Armstrong, the all American boy, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Amos & Andy, George Burns, Fred Allen and Red Skeleton, all on radio.
Black and White TV?s with round screens that you sat a tri colored screen in front of to make believe you had colored TV.
Sleeping in front of an open door on hot summer night because you had no AC.
Laying awake al night trying to kill Mosquitoes
Wash tub wringers
I'm talking about games and things like hide and go seek at dusk,
Sitting on the porch,
Simon Says,
Kick the Can,
Red light, Green light,
Chocolate milk,
Going home for lunch,
Penny candy from the store,
Hopscotch,
Butterscotch,
Skates with keys,
Jacks,
Mother May I?
Hula Hoops and Sunflower seeds,
Whist and Old Maid and Crazy Eights,
Wax lips and mustaches,
Mary Jane Shoes
Saddle Shoes,
Coke bottles with the names of cities on the bottom,
Running through the sprinkler,
Running behind the DDT truck,
Running behind the water truck as they water the dirt streets to keep the dust down.
Sitting on the curb, (What Curb)
Staring at clouds,
Circle pins,
Bobby pins,
Mickey Mouse Club, Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Kukla, Fran & Ollie, Spin & Marty all in black & white,
When around the corner seemed far away, and going downtown seemed like going somewhere,
Bedtime,
Climbing trees,
Making forts, Digging Tunnels out behind the house,
Out Houses,
A Coaster made from orange crates and an old skate,
Swinging on a rope from a tree like Tarzan,
Backyard Shows,
Lemonade stands,
Cops and Robbers,
Cowboys and Indians,
Jumping' down the steps,
Jumping on the bed,
Pillow fights,
Having "Company",
Ribbon candy,
Angel hair on the Christmas tree,
Running from the neighbors at Halloween while trying to steal Pumpkins from their patch,
Jackie Gleason as "the poor soul",
White gloves,
Walking to church,
Walking to the Community Center,
Being tickled to death,
Running till you were out of breath,
Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt,
Being tired from playing . . . Remember that?
Not stepping on a crack . . . or you'll break your mother's back,
Paper chains at Christmas,
Silhouettes of Lincoln and Washington,
The smell of paste,
Buck bags and Evening in Paris,
Crowding around in a circle for the 'after-school fight', then running when the teacher came.
What about the girl that had the big bubbly hand-writing. . . who dotted her "i's" with hearts??
The Stroll,
Popcorn balls, & sock hops,
Lunch Boxes with a Thermos (that broke).
When there were two types of sneakers for girls and boys (Keds & PF Flyer) and the only time you wore them at school was for "gym". . .
And the girls had those ugly uniforms,
When it took five minutes for the TV to warm up,
When nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school,
When a quarter was a decent allowance, and another quarter a huge bonus,
When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny,
When girls neither dated nor kissed until late high school, if then,
When your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces (or when you did!),
When all of your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done everyday and wore high heels,
When nobody owned a pure bred dog (except Bohart),
When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box,
When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry groceries, and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it,
When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents,
When they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed . . . and did!
When the worst thing you could do at school was smoke in the bathrooms, flunk a test or chew gum,
And the prom was in the auditorium and we danced to an orchestra, and all the girls wore pastel gowns and the boys wore suits for the first time and we stayed
out all night,
When people went steady and girls wore a class ring with an inch of wrapped dental floss coated with pastel frost nail polish so it would fit her finger,
And you got in big trouble if you accidentally locked the doors at home. No one ever had a key. If you had a key it was a skeleton and it fit everyone?s door
And lying on your back on the grass with your friends and saying things like "That cloud looks like a.....
When stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals 'cause no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger,
And playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game. Then....baseball was not a psychological group learning experience, it was a game.
When you took you Sat. night bath in a washtub that you filled with the water you had to heat on the kitchen stove.
There was the laundry you hung on a clothes line, out back except in the winter then you hung clothes in the house to dry.
