Older than Dirt

[bridesmom]

'Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite 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 'at home,'' I explained. 'Mom 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 kid 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 figured his system could have handled it :

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

In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck.
Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. 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 16. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a...m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.

I was 21 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.' When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

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, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6AM every morning. On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

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

[temom]

Yup.
Slow food
you ate what was served. Period.
No charge cards
One car, dad drove it to work everyday
First pizza was in my early teens
My parents never owned their own house until my grandmother died in 1979
No soccer. Heard about it in highschool
had a b&w tv set, heard about the neighbor having a color set when I was about 10.
We finally had a second phone installed in the upstairs hall when my grandmother couldn't navigate the steps any longer.
No food deliveries, but I remember Meryl the Milkman. He seemed like a very nice fellow. He delivered in the early mornings, and collections were one afternoon a week. He was always cheerful.
Newspapers were delivered by boys. I couldn't get a regular route so I got a route selling Grit. That was hard work, but I did it for about 2 years. I made about 30 cents a week.
Babysitting was horrible hard work for less than a dollar an hour. It still makes me shudder.

[bridesmom]

That reminded me of the milk wagon that was pulled by a horse! And we lived in the city too. The horse had blinders on it, probably so the cars passing by wouldn't scare it. And the milkman for years and years with those glass bottles.

[sewingmom]

I had my first pizza as a child but it came from an Itallian restaurant where there was ambiant lighting and it was reasonably quiet and the tables were far enough apart thet the other tables conversation was private . I didn't like the pizza pie. I really don't want much of it now. The first carry out food was not fast food and it came from the local Bar-b-cue place that was family run and it was a restaurant also. They made the best white BBQ sauce for roasted chicken (mmmmmmm) We ate there about once a year. Eating out was rare. By the time Hardies came into being, Mom and Dad owned/ran a business and worked many long hours so, we ate from there 2-3 times a month. Mostly my sister and I started supper so it would be ready when they got homw and then we all sat down in the dining room to eat. Sometimes we ate on TV trays in front of the TV in the living room. Our one phone was in the hallway.
The party line phone was in its last days when I was 7-8 years old so I do not know a lot about it except you could listen to others conversations and even put in your 2 cents worth.. When mom put food on the table we were expected to eat some of everything that was on the table if it was just one bite and we would never have yucked any of it. The exception was turnip greens. Mom would put spinache on the table for my sis and me. For some reason they turnip greens tasted bitter to me and I just couldn't make them go down.
I can remember a few spankings, even one at age 18 years. I deserved most of them and They were effective in causing me to be respectful and courteous and to give thought to the consequences of my actions. Dishonesty cost at a dear price. Not always a spanking but the disaproval of my dear parents that I knew loved and sacrificed for the good of the family.

Sorry, guess I am to wordy. The vacation run in with the grands has left me brooding over how things are now and once were. I miss the 1950's.
I miss the cream that rose to the top of the milk that was delivered door to door. Mom collected it for several days and saved it for whipped cream to put on strawberry shortcake when strawberries were in season. They seemed to be better tasting then.

[sewhappyrtr]

Ha Ha Ha!!

Loved it!!
Yep.. we all ate at home.. I don't remember first pizza.. but we did have a root beer place where you had car hops to deliver the food.. probably when I was in 7-8th grade..
and tv.. probably was when I was .... I have no idea how old.. but I member my uncle bringing over his small color tv so we could watch " The wonderful world of color... with Walt Disney... in COLOR

[trini]

I so identify with most of these experiences its amazing.
Lei.

[bridesmom]

We had the first color tv on the block and dad got it for the Grey Cup, so all the neighbours crowded into our living room to watch the game on color tv. I remember mom making bacon wrapped cheese things cause I got to help make them.

[lendube]

We got our first color t.v. for the 1964 Olympics. Each new t.v. my folks got was just in time for the Olympics.

[sewingmom]

We got our first color TV when about 36 years ago, shen Youngest DS was around 3 years old. Memory is fuzzy. Not sure about that.