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Possum3


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I'm older than dirt.
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Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favourite '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. !
'Mum 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 like it.'

By this time, the lad 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.

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

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore jeans, set foot on a golf course, travelled out of the country or had a credit card.

My parents never drove me to school... I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed (slow).

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 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 am. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people...

Pizzas were not delivered to our home... But milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers --My brother delivered a newspaper, seven days a week.
He had to get up at 6 every morning.

Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the films. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or almost anything offensive.

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 lemonade 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.

How many 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.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom

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. Hi-fi's
11. Metal ice trays with levers
12. Blue flashbulb
13. Cork popguns
14. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-3 = You're still young
If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older
If you remembered 7-10 = Don't tell your age
If you remembered 11-14 = You're positively ancient!

I must be 'positively ancient' but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.

Don't forget to pass this along!
Especially to all your really OLD friends



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Possum; AKA:- Ali El-Aziz Mohamed Gundawiathan

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Sheba


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biggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrinbiggrin !!!

 

Me too,  Possum3. 



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Dougwe


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Me 3 Possum. Not one thing I don't remember. To take the 'sweet cigarette' a step further, you could add the 'sweet cigar'. What about sherbet in a bag with a plastic spoon sticking out the top. Heaps of great memories.

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Mike Harding


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Just for a little perspective:

I remember all of them but had a bad and unhappy childhood and am damn glad it's long gone.



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dorian


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Possum3 wrote:

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

Some parents NEVER owned their own house ...

I think this observation is out of place. Home ownership is declining as I understand it. In fact the only home that many young people can aspire to owning is the one they will inherit.



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Possum3


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dorian wrote:

I think this observation is out of place. Home ownership is declining as I understand it. In fact the only home that many young people can aspire to owning is the one they will inherit.

 Dorian, I think you will find that home ownership (for the majority) was only after the Great Depression and two World Wars. Even through to the 50's unless some had won a Star Bowkett Society ballot it was only the few that had their mortgage paid off at retirement.

For those who don't remember (or are too young) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starr-Bowkett_Society



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Possum; AKA:- Ali El-Aziz Mohamed Gundawiathan

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Tony Bev


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It looks like I am also positively ancient, as I remember everything on the list





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dorian


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Possum3 wrote:
dorian wrote:

I think this observation is out of place. Home ownership is declining as I understand it. In fact the only home that many young people can aspire to owning is the one they will inherit.

 Dorian, I think you will find that home ownership (for the majority) was only after the Great Depression and two World Wars. Even through to the 50's unless some had won a Star Bowkett Society ballot it was only the few that had their mortgage paid off at retirement.

For those who don't remember (or are too young) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starr-Bowkett_Society

Thanks.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "owning" your own home. I was thinking more along the lines of a home owner being someone who owns a mortgage as opposed to a renter who has no financial interest in the property.

I wasn't aware of those old schemes, although I knew that returned servicemen had access to special loans. The Housing Commission was another scheme, but I think it was more than just a rental agreement.

 



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Possum3


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dorian wrote:
Possum3 wrote:
dorian wrote:

I think this observation is out of place. Home ownership is declining as I understand it. In fact the only home that many young people can aspire to owning is the one they will inherit.

 

Thanks.

I was thinking more along the lines of a home owner being someone who owns a mortgage as opposed to a renter who has no financial interest in the property.

I wasn't aware of those old schemes, although I knew that returned servicemen had access to special loans. The Housing Commission was another scheme, but I think it was more than just a rental agreement.

 

 As in my original post I'm older than dirt;- and remember the hardship back then. As an aside;The Housing Commission tenants were permitted to purchase their rental property after a period of rental time (from memory it was 5 - 10 years), with a no deposit agreement to purchase, with repayment set at rental rates https://www.facs.nsw.gov.au/housing/policies/sale-homes-policy Again foggy memory tells me it was in the Gough Whitlam era (70's) that this scheme was established.

Returned Servicemen (WW2) were afforded a lower interest loan, to assist with home purchase.



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Possum; AKA:- Ali El-Aziz Mohamed Gundawiathan

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Greg 1


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I am getting old because I remember it all. Dad returned from the war and cleared their block of land and levelled it by hand. Pretty much built all of their home himself. Moved into it very unfinished and used to come home from work to work on the house. Had a large block of land then, and Dad grew his own vegetables and kept chooks. No fast food. Mum cooked all our meals. Funny though, the pace of life seemed a lot slower and peaceful. Unlike Mike I was very fortunate to have a very good childhood despite Mum and Dad not having much financially through the 50's. Got on their feet a bit in the 60's I have very fond memories of that time and am glad that I grew up during that era. No regrets.

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Greg O'Brien
Possum3


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Greg they were the Soldier Settlement blocks normally in rural or semi rural areas, that were gifted (either 5 or 10 acres) on the condition that the block was cleared and fenced within 12 months and a habitable dwelling was built within a certain time frame. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_settlement_(Australia)

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Possum; AKA:- Ali El-Aziz Mohamed Gundawiathan

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Greg 1


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No the one Dad and Mum bought was a suburban location but just happened to be about 1/2 an acre. I was aware of the soldier settlement scheme but this wasn't part of it. They did get a war service loan to build their house though at very low interest rates. They could have paid it off years before they did but as Dad said where could you find money that cheap.

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Greg O'Brien
Cupie


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I'm certainly ancient and older than dirt as I can remember, fondly, all of the things in the OP & the sherbet straws.  I actually delivered papers, milk & ice until I discovered pool halls & made more money there.

My parents never had a motor car but neither did any of my friend's parents.  We lived in a rental house until Dad tragically died as a passenger in a car accident before I started work at age 14 1/2.  Mum purchased our first house through a War Widows loan and had a little payments book until she got a small 'windfall' from the Jap Govt. ...  Something to do with sale / reparation of the Burma Railroad where Dad slaved for 3 years as a POW.

Since retiring 20 years ago I have used a notebook to record bits of my child hood & working life.  Every now & then I get a bit nostalgic and add a bit to it.  Maybe someone will read it one day, but probably not.  I might just select a bit of it & modify it for reading at my funeral.  I'll put it in my 'In case of Death' file.

 

On that rather macabre note ...  Thanks for the post I enjoyed reading it & recalling those great days.



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