OT : Silly things you remember but are now long gone
- Thread starter mrtailgate
- Start date
Fond memories of buying baseball cards as a kid. 1979. I was jealous when my friend got Steve Garvey. He was jealous when I got Carlton Fisk. We’d get Topps rack packs at the food store.
There were also these comics wrapped around a piece of gum:
There were also these comics wrapped around a piece of gum:
We would go all over town looking for bottles to return so that we could buy more baseball cards: 5¢ a pack/ 6 packs for a quarter.Fond memories of buying baseball cards as a kid. 1979. I was jealous when my friend got Steve Garvey. He was jealous when I got Carlton Fisk. We’d get Topps rack packs at the food store.
There were also these comics wrapped around a piece of gum:
YES!!! In sixth grade we had to walk to basketball practice after school. We’d stop at McDonald’s to eat on the way. Mom would give me two 50 cent gift certificates and a nickel. I remember it that I’d get a cheeseburger, small fries and small coke for $1.05. But maybe it was just the hamburger.
I remember wax packs for 25 cents. They were probably a bit cheaper when I was really young and started collecting.
Spoiled kids....my hometown didn’t even have a McDonalds (it still doesn’t)....it was a special trip to the “city” to get McDonalds for us.
This would be 1970. We played in a grade school Catholic League on Friday after school and then played Friday night at the Jardel Rec League in the Northeast. Our coach, the great Whitey Sullivan who was a Catholic League high school football coaching legend at Judge, would give each kid on the team a buck for dinner at the Burger Chef down the street from the gym. Pretty generous to say the least. We would all go for the burger, fries, and drink. Our Center, Bobby Buchanan, surveyed the menu and wanted to get the biggest bang for his buck. Burgers were 19 cents so he’d buy 5 and woof them down before the game. At some point, he’d throw up. Those were great times.
Automotive:
Cars with a dimmer switch on the floor
Cars with a choke
Oil bath air cleaners
Kickstarters on motorcycles
Other:
Chalk boards, eraser cleaning duty
Opaque projectors, mimeograph machines
Howard Johnsons
Cars with a dimmer switch on the floor
Cars with a choke
Oil bath air cleaners
Kickstarters on motorcycles
Other:
Chalk boards, eraser cleaning duty
Opaque projectors, mimeograph machines
Howard Johnsons
And mimeograph machines. The scent of a fresh stack of mimeographed handouts is still fresh in my mind.
Sports- the condensed versions of Notre Dame football games, broadcast on Saturday night or Sunday morning. Lindsey Nelson did the call. Everything outside of the plays themselves, and often quite a few plays, was eliminated to fit the game into an hour.
Other- Wax Bottles or Nik-L-Nips, depending on where you lived:
Other- Wax Bottles or Nik-L-Nips, depending on where you lived:
Small wax bottles with a kool aid like drink inside. Bit the head of off the bottle to drink. Had a car guy in my neighborhood that would put his wire wheel hub caps in the dishwasher and use Tang to clean them Man, they shined like a cat's ass. One final thought: If FSU had invented Gatorade instead of Florida, we'd be drinking seminole fluid!!
LOL, We now move to further action in the third quarter!Sports- the condensed versions of Notre Dame football games, broadcast on Saturday night or Sunday morning. Lindsey Nelson did the call. Everything outside of the plays themselves, and often quite a few plays, was eliminated to fit the game into an hour.
Other- Wax Bottles or Nik-L-Nips, depending on where you lived:
We were able to receive the Pittsburgh channels along with WSTV in Steubenville and WTRF in Wheeling. On Sundays I could watch The Bobby Bowden show (WTRF), The Woody Hayes Show (WSTV), The Johnny Majors Show, (WTAE), PSU Football Highlights, Grambling Football Highlights (loved the band) and Norte Dame Highlights That made a great lead in to the NFL games on Sunday mornings.
Kalas with Ashburn...
Ashburn complaining openly about umpiring and then Maddux throwing a ball 3 feet outside; Kalas being much more subtle in his criticism, calling it "low and outside, he struck him out!"
Or for the Phillies pitcher:
"Right down the middle for Ball 4" LOL
Turning peoples roof antennas for a few bucks, so they could get Philly stations.
Dusk to Dawn drive in movies, intermission count downs - 3 minutes to show time.
Coal candy with hammer.
Pea shooters, apple fights.
Bailing trees, climb up a birch tree as high as you could and the weight would carry you to the ground, release the tree and it would whip you if you didn't do it right.
Wiffle ball, unorganized sports with games that would go on forever.
Mowing a lawn with a non motorized mower and shoveling snow with a coal shovel.
Pre - non rear window defogger, worked for it. Cars took forever to warm up, AM only radios.
Dusk to Dawn drive in movies, intermission count downs - 3 minutes to show time.
Coal candy with hammer.
Pea shooters, apple fights.
Bailing trees, climb up a birch tree as high as you could and the weight would carry you to the ground, release the tree and it would whip you if you didn't do it right.
Wiffle ball, unorganized sports with games that would go on forever.
Mowing a lawn with a non motorized mower and shoveling snow with a coal shovel.
Pre - non rear window defogger, worked for it. Cars took forever to warm up, AM only radios.
Tapping a phone with a bobby pin to call for a ride home from Rainbow Gardens or Kennywood
My sister and a couple of her daughters are down visiting this weekend for my little sister’s 40th birthday. She told a story last night about working at Burger King when she was in high school and they had a special .10 hamburger day. She was working the line with one other person making the burgers and was getting annoyed that people were coming through the drive they order 15-20 burgers a shot. Then they got the call that somebody in the drive thru ordered 100 burgers. She and the other burger maker flipped out about the idiot that would order that many burgers at one time in the drive thru. When the car pulled up to the window it was my father. She said he was laughing uncontrollably and she starting laughing in turn when she saw him.You young kids! Here's what I remember:
All that to say, I miss a day of .10 hamburgers and my father.
I expected the scratch and sniff foldout in Hustler to be amongst your memories.
Some silly, some not:
Neighborhood kids working on their forts and tree forts throughout the year.
Nuns slapping you into the middle of next week.
Flipping baseball cards against a wall with the closest card to the wall winning and taking all other cards.
Volunteering to do the memeograph machine in school so you could snort the smell.
Lava lamps.
Back in the day when everyone knew everyone else, no matter where you went in town the most frightening words you ever heard were.....(insert your name) "I'm going to tell your mother what you're doing!"
Teachers with paddles.
Fallout shelters and hiding under your desk drills in school to avoid a nuclear explosion!
Pledge of Allegiance was done each morning before classes started.
I don't think I've ever seen my grandmother without an apron on.
Clamdigger attire.
Gun safety classes in school. Most boys started with a Daisey Red Rider BB gun, then a .22 and on up.
Going to school and having your shotgun mounted on your rearview truck window mount or laying on the backseat of your car so you could get to your favorite hunting spot as soon as school left out. And no one blinked an eye.
Family stationwagons. We went everywhere in those things.
Building rafts over the winter in your yard so you could conquor the mighty Susquehanna River. Greater majority sank but never our resolve.
The Lone Ranger was a badass.
Neighborhood kids working on their forts and tree forts throughout the year.
Nuns slapping you into the middle of next week.
Flipping baseball cards against a wall with the closest card to the wall winning and taking all other cards.
Volunteering to do the memeograph machine in school so you could snort the smell.
Lava lamps.
Back in the day when everyone knew everyone else, no matter where you went in town the most frightening words you ever heard were.....(insert your name) "I'm going to tell your mother what you're doing!"
Teachers with paddles.
Fallout shelters and hiding under your desk drills in school to avoid a nuclear explosion!
Pledge of Allegiance was done each morning before classes started.
I don't think I've ever seen my grandmother without an apron on.
Clamdigger attire.
Gun safety classes in school. Most boys started with a Daisey Red Rider BB gun, then a .22 and on up.
Going to school and having your shotgun mounted on your rearview truck window mount or laying on the backseat of your car so you could get to your favorite hunting spot as soon as school left out. And no one blinked an eye.
Family stationwagons. We went everywhere in those things.
Building rafts over the winter in your yard so you could conquor the mighty Susquehanna River. Greater majority sank but never our resolve.
The Lone Ranger was a badass.
Yeah, slapped across the face by a teacher when I was asking for it. Let’s not get onto a big debate about it here, please. I was asking for it, it was 50 years ago. There are better ways to get ones point over, though, and it’s a good thing that this doesn’t happen any more. Full stop. But I learned from that.
Complete games thrown by pitchers
20 game winners
Baseball games under 2 hours
As a side not, I’m sitting here watching MLB and it’s the final game of the 1971 World Series and Curt Gowdy is talking about the desire to speed up games. Mind you he just said that the first 5 innings of the 71 Game 7 was completed in an hour and five minutes and he’s talking about speeding it up further.
20 game winners
Baseball games under 2 hours
As a side not, I’m sitting here watching MLB and it’s the final game of the 1971 World Series and Curt Gowdy is talking about the desire to speed up games. Mind you he just said that the first 5 innings of the 71 Game 7 was completed in an hour and five minutes and he’s talking about speeding it up further.
I remember learning to square dance in coed Gym class.
MTV playing videos.
Don Kirshner's Rock Concert.
The Midnight Special.
Mike Douglas.
Merv Griffin.
Dinah Shore.
Don Kirshner's Rock Concert.
The Midnight Special.
Mike Douglas.
Merv Griffin.
Dinah Shore.
And then during the week came the PSU TV Quarterbacks show on PBS with Fran Fisher, Jim Tarman, and Joe Paterno.
Loved those shows.
Yeah, for me that was the first time a girl’s hip was more than hypothetical. Laugh if you must, but I remember that hip, vividly. I don’t remember her name but am grateful for her contribution to my life.
Nerf football and basketball. The rim on top the door frame gave us all a chance to be Darryl
Dawkins.
Dawkins.
