Everybody tells us that some places in the outback is like stepping back in time... so we made sure we have the money for it.
I want to find a place where Lindy can still get two Honey Bears for a Penny.
Seriously...
I love hearing Lindy talk about what it was like when she was a kid, back when the Gold Coast only had one stop light. I've stories of my own about walking to the country store with my Mom and Dad and getting a bag full of candy for a nickel... of course, that was different candy (being it was the USA).
Who has a story about what you remember buying for a penny...
Licorice blocks ! four a penny or two for a happeny ! Metro bubble gum.Sometimes mum would give me 4d and I would take my sister to the phone box and climb up and sit on the phone book shelf and align the 4 pennies on the angled rack and ring my grma on JJ5238 when she said "ullo' I pressed the button and the pennies rolled into the box and bingo! we would talk for ages ! Life was good ! Cheers.
Dougwe said
01:57 PM May 11, 2018
That's one way of doing it Darrell but I don't think you will get far on any of that now
Dougwe said
02:04 PM May 11, 2018
moamajohn wrote:
Licorice blocks ! four a penny or two for a happeny ! Metro bubble gum.Sometimes mum would give me 4d and I would take my sister to the phone box and climb up and sit on the phone book shelf and align the 4 pennies on the angled rack and ring my grma on JJ5238 when she said "ullo' I pressed the button and the pennies rolled into the box and bingo! we would talk for ages ! Life was good ! Cheers.
I remember all what you have said John. Licorice Blocks 4 a penny was my favourite. I can remember mum asking if I had been eating Licorice Blocks on the way home from school and I would say no I still can't work out how she would know
You just bought back some good memories mate, including the phone box story.
Keep Safe on the roads and out there.
dogbox said
03:21 PM May 11, 2018
moamajohn wrote:
Licorice blocks ! four a penny or two for a happeny ! Metro bubble gum.Sometimes mum would give me 4d and I would take my sister to the phone box and climb up and sit on the phone book shelf and align the 4 pennies on the angled rack and ring my grma on JJ5238 when she said "ullo' I pressed the button and the pennies rolled into the box and bingo! we would talk for ages ! Life was good ! Cheers.
the good old phone boxes with the press buttons if you could find two together you could get the operator to connect you for a long distance call she would tell you how much to deposit put hand set box 1 into box 2 deposit coins box 2 she would connect you thru box 1 press button B in box 2 to refund money when even younger use to get spending money by putting tissue up coin return hole to stop coins coming down for unconnected calls pull tissue out to see how many coin where up there maybe I was naughty
the rocket said
05:31 PM May 11, 2018
mum sent me to the shop to buy some chocolate. I told the shopkeeper the name and he went and got it. I took one look at it n my eyes boggled out of my head at the size. I told him, Wow, i am going to eat it all on the way home. I was very excited. In a panic he said no, no, do not do that, it is not cholocate, it is for constipation. I took it home n gave it to mum. Here, she said, have some chocolate. I looked at her n said no thanks.
mullpadd said
06:02 PM May 11, 2018
I can remember asking the old Italian fruit and veg man how much a penny stick costs.
Dougwe said
06:16 PM May 11, 2018
I think they were sixpence for memory, mullpadd
JA2340 said
06:32 PM May 12, 2018
The phone stories remind me that I used to ring home from boarding school, put the money in and dial, then reverse the handset and yell, recover the coins for next time! Worked OK for a while!
Then the stamps used for the obligatory letter home each week ... I used to recover them, and if not too badly cancelled, recycle with clear glue over them. told mum to keep the stamps for me as I was collecting. Those stamps did a couple of rounds before someone at the PO twigged!
Things we used to do, huh!
Cupie said
04:51 PM May 15, 2018
Your stories about rorting Public Telephones brings back memories ...
I was a PMG Tech at one time taking my turn to fix faults on Publics.
'CNS' .. Coins no service, was a common fault with people like you lot claiming that they had put the money in but didn't get connected. Only after a certain number of reports in a given time from the same Public Phone would we go out & look, usually finding nothing wrong. Of course Special Inspections would result if the same phone was continually reported & a Specialist Senior Technician was sent out.
'Coin Tin Full' was a popular fault. Often when you went to these there would be a very large back up of 20c coins (not pennies) spilling over into the mechanism area. Others, not me of course, would have lots of beer money for the next little while. We were supposed to ring to a special telephonist number & she would listen to the tones as we inserted the coins. That's what I always did of course.
We were often doing mods to the older phones to counter the tricks that you criminals got up to. Like glueing string to the coins & pulling them back up the chute to stop them going into the coin tin. An easy fix. And putting fake coins in .. A balance arm weighed the coins & got rid of lots of slugs. If the coins weren't going as fast down the race then they were diverted to the refund chute (that you lot had plugged up with paper to back up the coins that you collected later. I could go on for ever. Of course today's technology & the introduction of card readers has improved the situation out of sight but I suppose there are still lots of people out there cheating the system.
Tony Bev said
10:48 PM May 16, 2018
I use to be able to buy a penny sherbert, for one penny, until there was a price rise
I do recall a small shop keeper, selling one fag, and one match, for one penny, to us school kids
I remember a one penny liquorish stick, looked like wood and tasted like liquorish
Dave1952 said
12:34 PM May 19, 2018
Sixpence to go to the afternoon matinee at the local school of arts hall. Threepence for entry and threepence for an icecream and some lollies for the movies.
landy said
11:04 PM May 21, 2018
Dogbox I thought we were the only ones sticking paper up the return chute, must be a case of great minds think alike. Dose anyone remember smokes in packs of 2 , pocket money friendly.
Cupie said
09:53 AM May 22, 2018
landy wrote:
Dogbox I thought we were the only ones sticking paper up the return chute, must be a case of great minds think alike. Dose anyone remember smokes in packs of 2 , pocket money friendly.
Can't remember the packs of two but a favourite was a small cardboard pack of 10 or so red tipped 'smokes'.
We used to smoke pith cane from basket weaving classes. No added chemicals there.
Wasn't the PMG great in supplying a ready source of paper (phone books) to stuff the chutes with?
It was common practice to hit the refund button as you passed banks of publics & feel up the refund chute as you went by. This often rewarded you with a handful of coins. Always put the paper back in ... of course.
Planning it to the penny...
Everybody tells us that some places in the outback is like stepping back in time... so we made sure we have the money for it.
I want to find a place where Lindy can still get two Honey Bears for a Penny.
Seriously...
I love hearing Lindy talk about what it was like when she was a kid, back when the Gold Coast only had one stop light. I've stories of my own about walking to the country store with my Mom and Dad and getting a bag full of candy for a nickel... of course, that was different candy (being it was the USA).
Who has a story about what you remember buying for a penny...
That's one way of doing it Darrell but I don't think you will get far on any of that now
I remember all what you have said John. Licorice Blocks 4 a penny was my favourite. I can remember mum asking if I had been eating Licorice Blocks on the way home from school and I would say no
I still can't work out how she would know 
You just bought back some good memories mate, including the phone box story.
Keep Safe on the roads and out there.
the good old phone boxes with the press buttons if you could find two together you could get the operator to connect you for a long distance call she would tell you how much to deposit put hand set box 1 into box 2 deposit coins box 2 she would connect you thru box 1 press button B in box 2 to refund money when even younger use to get spending money by putting tissue up coin return hole to stop coins coming down for unconnected calls pull tissue out to see how many coin where up there maybe I was naughty
mum sent me to the shop to buy some chocolate. I told the shopkeeper the name and he went and got it. I took one look at it n my eyes boggled out of my head at the size. I told him, Wow, i am going to eat it all on the way home. I was very excited. In a panic he said no, no, do not do that, it is not cholocate, it is for constipation. I took it home n gave it to mum. Here, she said, have some chocolate. I looked at her n said no thanks.
I think they were sixpence for memory, mullpadd
The phone stories remind me that I used to ring home from boarding school, put the money in and dial, then reverse the handset and yell, recover the coins for next time! Worked OK for a while!
Then the stamps used for the obligatory letter home each week ... I used to recover them, and if not too badly cancelled, recycle with clear glue over them. told mum to keep the stamps for me as I was collecting. Those stamps did a couple of rounds before someone at the PO twigged!
Things we used to do, huh!
Your stories about rorting Public Telephones brings back memories ...
I was a PMG Tech at one time taking my turn to fix faults on Publics.
'CNS' .. Coins no service, was a common fault with people like you lot claiming that they had put the money in but didn't get connected. Only after a certain number of reports in a given time from the same Public Phone would we go out & look, usually finding nothing wrong. Of course Special Inspections would result if the same phone was continually reported & a Specialist Senior Technician was sent out.
'Coin Tin Full' was a popular fault. Often when you went to these there would be a very large back up of 20c coins (not pennies) spilling over into the mechanism area. Others, not me of course, would have lots of beer money for the next little while. We were supposed to ring to a special telephonist number & she would listen to the tones as we inserted the coins. That's what I always did of course.
We were often doing mods to the older phones to counter the tricks that you criminals got up to. Like glueing string to the coins & pulling them back up the chute to stop them going into the coin tin. An easy fix. And putting fake coins in .. A balance arm weighed the coins & got rid of lots of slugs. If the coins weren't going as fast down the race then they were diverted to the refund chute (that you lot had plugged up with paper to back up the coins that you collected later. I could go on for ever. Of course today's technology & the introduction of card readers has improved the situation out of sight but I suppose there are still lots of people out there cheating the system.
I use to be able to buy a penny sherbert, for one penny,
until there was a price rise
I do recall a small shop keeper, selling one fag, and one match, for one penny, to us school kids
I remember a one penny liquorish stick, looked like wood and tasted like liquorish
Dose anyone remember smokes in packs of 2 , pocket money friendly.
Can't remember the packs of two but a favourite was a small cardboard pack of 10 or so red tipped 'smokes'.
We used to smoke pith cane from basket weaving classes. No added chemicals there.
Wasn't the PMG great in supplying a ready source of paper (phone books) to stuff the chutes with?
It was common practice to hit the refund button as you passed banks of publics & feel up the refund chute as you went by. This often rewarded you with a handful of coins. Always put the paper back in ... of course.