Just how vintage are you?

[Chas]

> Blackjack chewing gum ~yup.
> Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water ~ I never understood those.
> Candy cigarettes ~oh, yeah.
> Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles ~ yes. For a dime.
> Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes ~ They still have them at the Rodmay Hotel in Powell River, British Columbia!> Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers ~ not glass bottles, but for certain in plastic bags.
> Party lines - Yes, They were a never-ending source of fun for me. For listening in, and for joining in the conversation. Hilarious.
> Dad and Grandfather wearing a Fedora ~ no
> Newsreels, travelogues or cartoons before the movie ~Cartoons, for sure.
> P.F. Flyers ~ no.
> Butch wax ~ yes
> Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933) ~ no.> Peashooters ~ Oh, yeah. I was good with those.
> Howdy Doody ~ Yes.
> 45 RPM records ~ definitely.> S&H Green Stamps ~ not in Canada. > Hi-fi's ~ For sure.
> Metal ice trays with lever ~ Yes
> Mimeograph paper ~ Yes.
> Blue flashbulb ~ Made cool missles.> Packards ~ Yes> Roller skate keys ~ Yes.
> Cork popguns ~ I had one.
> Drive-ins ~Yes.
> Studebakers Oh, yes. Like Packard they survived into the fifties.
> Wash tub wringers ~ Only in a couple of backyards.

I grew up in small-town British Columbia in the 1960's and 70's. Time moves at a different pace there, so it was like growing up in the 50's, except there were hippies.

 

[pgoat]

I'm in my 40s....

....but I only remember 7.

Maybe I'm becoming senile.[huh]

 

[Brinybay]

I remembered about 20, and can add a few:

Hula-Hoops

Mono records

Dick and Jane readers.

 

[Flivver]

I remember all of them.

Of course all of these things were commonplace in the 1950s when I was a kid.

A friend and I were talking yesterday about the pneumatic tubes used to send paperwork around in old department stores. These were really neat! Does anyone else remember them?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Our local banks still use those tubes at their drive-thru windows. *Whoosh!*

A few other additions for the list --

School desks that were bolted to the floor. With holes for inkwells. (Bonus points if yours actually *had* an inkwell.)

Gas pumps with globes on the top.

Typing class -- with real typewriters.

Laundry bluing.

Only having to dial 4 digits for a local call.

Defrosting the refrigerator.

The noon whistle.

 

[Jovan]

> Blackjack chewing gum Rings a bell.
> Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water My uncle used to give me and my cousin these... I'd bite off the "top" and drink the contents.
> Candy cigarettes Same as above. They didn't have any powdery stuff to make it look like smoke, though. I believe they may have been renamed to "candy sticks" by then, but he referred to them as "candy cigarettes," probably because he's known them as that from his youth.
> Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles Yes! The only place that had one of those here is sadly gone now -- The Chuck Wagon, it was called.
> Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes Yep!
> Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers Would be convenient, but no.
> Party lines Can't say I do.
> Dad and Grandfather wearing a Fedora I certainly wish! The grandfather may have worn one in his youth though.
> Newsreels, travelogues or cartoons before the movie Nope, but it may be coming back, at least for Disney movies.
> P.F. Flyers Only heard of.
> Butch wax Only heard of from my stepfather.
> Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933) Heavens no.
> Peashooters Nope.
> Howdy Doody Nope.
> 45 RPM records Nope.
> S&H Green Stamps Nope.
> Hi-fi's Depending on your definition, yes.
> Metal ice trays with lever Metal? Yikes.
> Mimeograph paper Nope.
> Blue flashbulb Nope.
> Packards Nope.
> Roller skate keys Nope.
> Cork popguns Had the pleasure of playing with one as a kid.
> Drive-ins Been to a few all over the place, first experience was in Minnesota.
> Studebakers Nope.
> Wash tub wringers Nope.

I'm 21 and "getting older"? Goodness.

 

[Quigley Brown]

Party lines - growing up in rural Iowa we had one. There was always one nosy neighbor who listened in. Another neighbor...an elderly widow...would forget to hang up the phone once in a while. My mom would have to blow a whistle into it to get her attention (if that didn't work I had to ride my bike down the gravel road and let her know)...lol

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

Amazing how growing up out of the US can make one young.

 

[Luddite]

I remember most of the ones relevant to UK; washtub wringers hold a special place in my heart as my friend Helen got her hand caught in her electric mangle whilst I was there one morning. I laughed until I cried, which didn't go down all that well. I remember sweet cigarettes very well indeed. At my first school, one of the teachers used to pass out the sweet cigarettes during class, and what's worse, she used to walk round with a lighter and pretend to light them! I don't think that'd happen now. We didn't have word-prefix numbers over here (that I remember), but I did still have a three-digit telephone number until relatively recently!

WRT the US-only items, I have a few questions..
> Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water.
> P.F. Flyers
> Butch wax
- What were these for?

> Roller skate keys - why did roller skates need keys?

 

[LocktownDog]

I remembered most. But it helps that I grew up in a family that refused to roll with the times and actually had a lot of those items in the house at one point or another. I also lived with my grandpa on his farm for a time (where I learned to smoke a pipe, kill and clean hens, and take a nap on an idling tractor ).

Richard

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Amazing how growing up out of the US can make one young.

Indeed. I was going to point this small fact out. But you have instead. :eusa_clap

 

[LocktownDog]

> Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water.

- What were these for?

There's a vintage candy shop up the road in Virginia City. They still carry all the old sweets, including the wax bottles. Picked some up a year or so ago (as well as a whole lot of other items) and found them to be a refreshing journey into the poor taste of youthful ignorance. Nasty! My memory of them was better than the reality apparently. Strangely, my kids liked them.

Richard

 

[LizzieMaine]

WRT the US-only items, I have a few questions..
> Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water.
> P.F. Flyers
> Butch wax
- What were these for?

> Roller skate keys - why did roller skates need keys?

The wax bottles (or "Nickel Nips" as we called them) were a candy store treat -- you bit the top off the bottle, sucked out the liquid, and then chewed up the wax like it was gum. And then you went the dentist.

PF Flyers were and are sneakers -- they came in black for boys and white for girls.

Butch Wax was something boys used to make their crew cuts stand up straight.

Roller skates were the kind with metal wheels and clamped onto the soles of your street shoes. The key was used to loosen the bolt and allow them to clamp on or off, and to adjust the size to fit. It was usually worn around your neck on a greasy shoestring.

 

[nobodyspecial]

Nothing better than soda, especially Squirt, from a glass bottle. Two types of machines as I recall, one was tall and narrow, open the door and pull out the bottle. The other was counter top height, open the top and slide out the bottle on rails.

 

[pgoat]

"I got a brand new pair of roller skates....."

Roller skates were the kind with metal wheels and clamped onto the soles of your street shoes. The key was used to loosen the bolt and allow them to clamp on or off, and to adjust the size to fit. It was usually worn around your neck on a greasy shoestring.

remember the old Melanie song ca. 1970?

 

[Twitch]

Remember all of them 1st hand. Guess I'm older than dirt

 

[carter]

Some when we lived on the farm and some after we moved.

I remember all of these as well as:

Our 1st TV - a Philco

Laundry pick-up and delivery by a route truck.

Fresh Eggs delivered by a route truck.

Hanging clothes on the clothesline after they were wrung through the wringer. The washing machine was rolled into the kitchen and attached to the sink every week.

The cream that formed on the top of the bottled milk.

Having a garden every summer.

Homemade ice cream.

Milking cows by hand before we had electric milkers in the dairy barn.

A surplus WWII Army Jeep that was wrecked by my dad and his uncle one night when they were drinking and spotlighting rabbits in a pasture. They drove off a short rock cliff (5' or so).

Aluminum Christmas trees and color wheels.

 

[pgoat]

Not old....

..."seasoned"

one of my favorite adjectives as I age!

 

[dhermann1]

To be more specific

Black Jack Gum: Not for every taste. You had to suck on it for a while before you really chewed, or else it would just crumble to bits. But flavorful. Also made by the same company was Beamon's gum. They were more "grown up" flavors.
Home milk delivery: How many people understand the joke that so and so's kid looked like the milk man? You could get regular pasteurized, where the cream would separate, or you could spend an extra couple of pennies and get homogenized. We always got regular pasteurized. On a cold frosty morning the milk could freeze, and a column of frozen milk would erupt vertically out of the bottle.
45 RPM records: Before them there were 78 RPM's. You stacked them on a record changer.
Howdy Doody: The first commercially successful TV show, starting in 1947. Great book on the subject :"Say Kids, What Time is It?" by Stephen Davis.
I was a total Howdy Doody maniac in 1952.
Mimeograph paper: Ahh, the smell!
Wash tub wringers: Anyone remember the big slanted deep sinks, designed to be used with wash boards, for hand washing laundry? They also had wringers attached, but all the energy was human.

OK, here's another similar question that boils it down ever further: Who is your first president? Which is the first president you were aware of? For me it was Harry Truman. If there's anyone here who remembers before Franklin Roosevelt, my hat's off to you! Kids, don't be embarrassed to say Ronald Reagan! Or Bush the first! Holy cow, there may be some of you who only remember Bill! This may need to be set up as a survey as well.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Howdy Doody: The first commercially successful TV show, starting in 1947. Great book on the subject :"Say Kids, What Time is It?" by Stephen Davis.
I was a total Howdy Doody maniac in 1952.

Did I mention I *knew* Buffalo Bob? After he retired he moved up here to Maine, where he owned a couple of radio stations. Around the early '90s, the Maine Association of Broadcasters did a tribute to him, and I provided some audio from Bob's early-morning 1940's radio program which he hadn't realized was still extant. A very nice guy all around -- the way he seemed on TV was the way he was in real life, and he always had time for kids.

Some may remember the mid-70's Howdy Doody revival series, which is where I saw him. Very much in the same style as the original show, except Howdy had a new and poofy haircut.

OK, here's another similar question that boils it down ever further: Who is your first president? Which is the first president you were aware of? For me it was Harry Truman. If there's anyone here who remembers before Franklin Roosevelt, my hat's off to you! Kids, don't be embarrassed to say Ronald Reagan! Or Bush the first! Holy cow, there may be some of you who only remember Bill! This may need to be set up as a survey as well.

Well, I was born during Kennedy, but was first aware of Johnson, largely due to my grandfather's scatalogical comments about his administration. I remember seeing the picture of LBJ in Life magazine holding up his beagle by the ears, and immediately disliked him.