5 things you had as a kid, but your kids did not have

[SoCalDem]

1. phones with cords
2. 25 cent a gallon gas
3. pogo stick
4. skates with a "key"
5. typewriter

[trof]

1. 1. The milkman

2. Adventure serials on the radio. Superman, The Green Hornet, Gene Autrey, etc.
3. Nickel pay phones
4. Knickers
5. 10 cent double feature cowboy movies in a theater with a hundred other screaming kids.

[NightWatcher]

2. ArmorAll'd rear bench seats

We used to slide around like mad when dad would corner too fast. I never remember booster seats and barely remember seat belts. Then we got a station wagon where the "way way back" was anything goes.

[pipi_k]

7. hahahah

I remember those big old cars...no seat belts...we would slide and go flying all over the place in the back seat. Some of them were big enough that we could actually stand up.

And the only station wagon we ever had...I loved it...you're right...the "way way back" was like another country for us kids

[Archae]

67. Did the "way back" seat face backwards?

We used to sit facing backwards and make faces at drivers behind us.

[pipi_k]

94. It did!!!

We didn't exactly make faces at the people in back of us...we just sat and stared at them.

In a most disturbing way.

Dad would have seen us making faces in the rear view mirror if we were energetic enough about it. He could never tell when we were just staring...

hahahahaha!!!!

I wish I could remember what make of station wagon it was. I remember the outside being kind of a tan/brown color with what looked like fake wood panels. The interior was a cream color. And I'm almost positive there was no shift...just buttons for choosing the gears. Some sort of Plymouth or Dodge product, maybe?

[hifiguy]

112. Almost certainly a Ford Country Squire.

I don't remember Chrysler Corp making a wagon with faux wood on the sides though I've been wrong before. But the only Ford product I remember with a pushbutton shift was the Edsel.

[pipi_k]

128. You're probably

right.

I was a kid and didn't pay attention, and am probably mixing it up with a Dodge/Plymouth car my first husband had back in the early 70s.

Beautiful champagne colored with cream convertible top, it was jacked up in the back, had Thrush mufflers and a push button shift.

[jmowreader]

147. You know about the freeper and the Country Squire, right?

A freeper's wife told him they needed a new car, and she was going by herself this time.

Two hours later she comes home with a Country Squire wagon with wood paneling on the sides. The freeper took one look at it, went in the garage, got a crowbar and tore all the paneling off. Then he looked at the car, looked at his now-pissed-off wife, and said, "Honey, it looked better IN the crate."

[A Simple Game]

64. We never had a station wagon but I remember sleeping on the ledge between

the back seat and the rear window when we went to the drive-in. And I was left there for the 10 mile ride home.

[SammyWinstonJack]

129. I was just thinking about how we did that too. Pjs and a pillow on the ledge between the back

seat and the rear window at the drive-in.

[BillStein]

3. childhood

just sayin'

[GeorgeGist]

4. .

1. polio
2. measles
3. chicken pox
4. mumps
5. scarlet fever

[SoCalDem]

9. yikes

and you survived

[pipi_k]

5. OK...

1. Measles

2. A very large extended family (lots of aunts, uncles and cousins)

3. Backyard garbage pail

4. Coal heat

5. Sonic booms (we lived in the flight path of a local Air Force base and the planes flew over the house all the time, some breaking the sound barrier)

[riderinthestorm]

6. Banana bike seats (with the accompanying tall handle bars), rotary dial phones,

8 track cassettes, regular commercial airplane rides with a cocktail lounge area (and smokers), moms with teased-up beehive hairdos

[YankeyMCC]

8. 1. Married Parents

2. UHF
3. Parachute Pants
4. The Wall (I don't mean the movie or the album)
5. New Coke

[guitar man]

10. I remember

Fender skirts

Breaker points in car ignitions

Rotary dial phones

Mini bikes with rope start engines and no real brakes to speak of

Green stamps

Riding in the back of dads pickup truck

[cyberswede]

41. We still have a rotary dial phone

I bought it for my first apartment in the 80s - I had to go to the actual AT&T store and buy the window display model - they were discontinued. I hated those first "cricket chirp" phones that came out, so I went on a quest for a rotary phone.

It's the only phone in my house now with the ringer turned on. I still prefer the ring of the real bell.

My kids answer calls on it now, but they don't make calls with it.
...and I was actually able to complete a phone-based survey on it the other day - all my answers were #1, so it worked. LOL

[guitar man]

47. Wow

I didn't know there were still any left in service. The last one I remember seeing in working order was about 10 years ago, belonged to an elderly neighbor who wouldn't give it up.

I remember ours when I was a kid. Avacado green and it sat on a little "telephone table" with a seat attached kinda like a school desk. I grew up in a little rural community and as long as we were dialing within the exchange , we only had to dial 4 digits to call our friends lol.

[cyberswede]

60. Awesome!

I see those little telephone tables at antique shows occasionally. I wish we had room for one!

[guitar man]

65. But the coolest thing by far....

Was the outdoor telephone bells. Dad was a union freight driver, over the road trucker. When they called him out for a run the phone absolutely had to be answered or they would call the next driver on the seniority roster.

So the phone company installed a box on the outside of the house with a couple of frying pan sized bells so if we were all outside doing farm work or whatever we could hear the phone. If it was dads call time and it rang, it was an all out scramble, drop everything and run like hell to get the phone

[snagglepuss]

73. My Aunt lived in a ranch style bungelow and there was a little nook in the

hallway leading to the bedrooms expressly designed to accommodate a little telephone table and chair. i thought it was the high of sophistication.

[pink-o]

139. The standard ring tone on an IPhone

Sounds just the the old bakelite rotary phone I grew up with in the 60s.

Just in case you wanna create it with 21st century technology.

Personally, I'm very old and a chick, yet I LOVE all my techie gadgets! What I remember from my childhood is warped and skipping records, broken cassette tapes, bad pix on the TV,huuuuuuge long distance phone bills, waiting in lines at the store to buy the latest book or music releases, wasting tons of cash on developing my film, when there was only one good shot out of 200...well, you get the point.

I also remember trying on clothes at Macy's and finding burn holes in them. Every department store had ashtrays around, and the women browsing thru clothes racks had ciggies hanging from their lips, not caring what they did to the merchandise.

So yeah, I had a happy, wonderful childhood with spontaneous games of tag and hide n seek, long afternoons playing with my friends outside, great 4th of July fireworks (now banned) but I love my life in the here and now. Happy never to dial another phone ever again!

[Sequoia]

140. Same here; it's a powder blue Princess Phone.

And it works when the electricity goes out. One day a kid came over to phone his dad and he didn't know how to use it. Remember old tv shows when the bad guy would dial a number and the agent/spy could tell what number he called based on the time it took for the rotary to spin.

[HopeHoops]

11. Mine have pogo sticks.

[JCMach1]

12. Ford Falcon with milk crates for back seats...

LOL

[SCantiGOP]

53. First car I bought was a 66 Ford Falcon

Paid $700 for it in 1972, it had 104,000 on it. I put almost 50,000 on it without a major repair, and when it conked out I was finally in a position to buy a new car so I sold it for $50.
50,000 miles for $650 is a value I will never get again.

The other notable thing I remember from my youth were LIBERAL REPUBLICANS! And liberal Southern Democrats. Some of the strongest opponents of the Viet Nam war were Republicans, many from the West.

[kwassa]

74. I drove to Woodstock with my friends in a Ford Falcon wagon

We lost the clutch on the Pennsylvania turnpike on the way home with no money and nothing to eat but saltwater taffy from HoJos.

[truedelphi]

123. It sounds like you were really there.

I remember visiting a friend of mine who lived on campus, and he was so excited one time because I brought him a can of tuna and a loaf of bread from my parents' pantry.

[raccoon]

13. 1. Mumps, 2. Measles. (I don't have kids, but thought I'd chime in on this.)

3. Black and white TV.

4. Non-sexual spankings and slapping.

[LibDemAlways]

14. The "children's table" at dinners with family and friends

doctor's house calls

the freedom to get on a bike and go to a friend's house without my mom arranging a formal "playdate"

drive-in movies

tvs without remote controls

cars without seat belts

[snagglepuss]

75. Yeah no tv remotes. Of course there were just a handful of channels so no need to

surf. Instead of surfing channels people continually eyeballed tv guides. What home didn't have a tv guide?

[LibDemAlways]

77. Having to repeatedly turn the tv dial manually caused it to fail quickly so that

someone had to fiddle with it in order to get anything other than snow. I remember that some stations wouldn't come in unless the dial was situated between two numbers. We'd carefully position it, then back slowly away, and if we were lucky it would stay for a few minutes.

Sure got a lot more exercise watching tv back then.

[snagglepuss]

81. That is a riot. I had no idea anyone else had to situate the dial between two numbers.

[LibDemAlways]

86. It had to have been a common problem. Those were also the days when

a tv repairman would show up with a tube tester and a truckload of tubes to make repairs when the whole thing went on the fritz - which was often. Today all my daughter has to worry about when she wants to watch some crappy show is hoping the satellite connection isn't momentarily lost. Technology has come a long way.

[Archae]

106. My Dad's first career was as a TV repairman.

He did TV and radio repairs on the side until tube TV's and radios finally simply went away.

I learned how to fix what were called "barn radios."

These were AM radios that a farmer would have in his barn, and I still remember the two tubes that usually went out and had to be replaced.

35w4 and 50c5.

I made about $5-10 a week fixing those radios, and to a 12-15 year old kid in the early to mid-70's that was good money.

[treestar]

121. Reminded me of another thing

The horizontal problem - where the picture would go up and you had to use that dial to get it to settle down

Also, snow in general. The unused channels that were all snow all the time

The TV going off the air at night and playing the national anthem

[RFKHumphreyObama]

133. Interestingly, I was a child of the 80s and lived in SE Asia

And we also had the TV go off at night and start again in the morning/afternoon playing the national anthem of the country I was in

[treestar]

136. And if sleepless at night - nothing to do but read a book!

[geardaddy]

15. 1. Curb feelers on cars

2. Sting-ray bikes (banana seats, sissy bars, and high handlebars)
3. Bub's Daddy bubble gum
4. Homemade skateboards
5. No facemasks on hockey helmets

[cyberswede]

36. Bub's Daddy!

Green Apple was the best!

How many of those could you cram in your mouth? We'd try to fit as many as possible - drooling & hardly able to talk.
Thanks for the memory.

[geardaddy]

38. I hated Green Apple.

LOL I loved grape.

I would always put the entire rope in my mouth.

[GoCubsGo]

49. When I was a kid, hockey players didn't wear helmets.

One didn't start seeing them until the late 1960s, after Bill Masterson died from hitting his head on the ice.

[geardaddy]

50. I played in the mid-70s

Pros didn't have to wear helmets, but kids did have to.

[GoCubsGo]

56. Most of the pros were wearing them by the 1970s, too.

But, it didn't become mandatory until 1979. The year I was born, there were still goalies who weren't wearings masks. No many, but I think they all came to their senses within a few years of that. Shows you how old I am.

[geardaddy]

59. I remember goalies without masks.

[hifiguy]

114. Gump Worsley

to be precise.

[geardaddy]

115. Bingo!

[truedelphi]

124. And as a kid, I don't remember baseball players all

Re-arranging their family jewels, in front of the fans. Maybe I was so young that behavior went over my head, but I sure don't recall it happening.

[geardaddy]

52. Coffee percolators

[laundry_queen]

79. At my grandmother's house

They still use her old percolator to make coffee whenever we have a reunion. That's the only coffee my grandmother would drink. It still works - must be 40 years old. So my kids actually DO know what one looks (and sounds) like, LOL.

[siligut]

66. And the Canadian hockey players had no teeth

Remember that? And it was just accepted because they were hockey players

[geardaddy]

92. Yep!

[benld74]

16. Yeah my kids say I sound old

1) 5 TV channels 2,4,5,9,11
2) ONLY - black and white TV
3) non-air conditioned schools
4) $5 gives you BIG fun on a Saturday night!
5) Police 'take' your beer away - AND THATS ALL

[madinmaryland]

24. We had UHF channels (14-82) also. PBS and a couple of independent stations.

[Arugula Latte]

17. ...

1. a horse
2. a stereo with a turntable
3. a waterbed (well, it was actually my sister's)
4. a classic metal swingset
5. one of these twisty radios:

[pipi_k]

18. Don't know if anyone

remembers these (or even had one) but when I was a kid we had these little radios that looked like miniature fire hydrants...red with a sort of metal rod on top with a knob that you pressed down to change the stations...attached to the radio was a wire with what looked like (when I got older and knew about such things) a roach clip on the end that was clipped to the metal bed frame.

I was about 8 or 9, so this was 1960 or '61.

[Arugula Latte]

19. That sounds cool. I don't remember those -- I was a 70s kid.

We did have a round radio, as well as the twisty one:

[GoCubsGo]

57. Wow! That's a blast from the past. Another...

Also from Panasonic:




On edit: Guess I should have read the whole sub-thread before I posted this. BTW, they're called "Toot-a-Loops". It's an S, it's an O, it's a crazy radio.

[nadine_mn]

108. oh that brings back memories!!!!

I had one, man, wish I still did!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

39. I had one of those but it looked a little more like this:

[GoCubsGo]

58. I had one that looked like this:

I shit you not.



I decorated it with stickers from the Harlem Globetrotters cartoons that was popular at the time. Got those from a cereal box.

[Arugula Latte]

103. Pretty damn boss as well!

The craftsmanship looks excellent, too.

[GoCubsGo]

107. Hey, it was free.

My dad worked at a plumbing and heating wholesaler. One of the suppliers gave it to him. It actually had a fairly decent radio inside.

[grilled onions]

61. One Was Shaped Like A Rocket

It cost under $3 and you clipped it to the telephone. Don't know what happened if the phone rand at the same time!

[geardaddy]

22. I always wanted one of those!

But I had the crappy transistor radio with the leather case.

Sort of like this:

[Arugula Latte]

26. It was pretty "boss" if I do say so myself!

[Myrina]

35. OMG I had one of those!!!

Thanks for the throwback!! I'd completely forgotten about it!!!

[Populist_Prole]

88. Had the same thing. Called a 'Toot a Loop'

[Arugula Latte]

104. Another thing we played with (didn't own, though) ...

Lawn darts. Living on the edge, baby!

[geardaddy]

20. I thought of another couple.

1. cameras with film
2. Flash bulbs or cubes.

[MatthewStLouis]

33. Isn't it amazing to think we only had 4 flash pics on there! And a roll of 24 pics was awesome.

[geardaddy]

40. I loved those cameras.

and remember when they came out with the pocket version?

[cyberswede]

42. and the Flip Flash!

[geardaddy]

44. Yes!

[pipi_k]

97. Yes!

We had one...

Also, I had one of these...



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaroid_Swinger

[Gidney N Cloyd]

127. "It's more than a camera, it's almost alive, only nineteen dollars and ninety-five"

B/W film and there was some chemical developer you'd have to CAREFULLY rub on the pictures.

[Baitball Blogger]

21. Open space.

[gratuitous]

23. A healthy respect for machines with moving parts

Imparted to me by my parents who had enough experience with the sometimes unpredictable nature of machinery, particularly in farm country where they grew up. They passed that fear/respect on to me and my siblings, but I don't see young folks nowadays with anything approaching an appreciation that this or that machine (as way cool as it is) might just punch your ticket if you're not careful or stand too close.

[Bruce Wayne]

25. 1. A mother

Poor little Damian. I so worry about him sometimes.

[Archae]

27. Lawn darts.

"Thingmaker" toy and any other toy that gave me 2nd-degree burns.

Chemistry sets that made stink bombs and other explosives.

Real playgrounds.

Actual music, not autotune.

[geardaddy]

28. My brother had the "Thingmaker"

[Broken_Hero]

29. Okay

1. walkman/stereo with a working cassette player, I'll also throw in 8 track, and record player.

2. type writer

3. Floppy discs

4. vhs player/beta max/laser disc player

5. solid lunch boxes, it seems all the lunch boxes I see are all very soft, unlike the metal tin battle hammers I had when I was growing up.

[RiffRandell]

30. Atari, Big Wheel, Sit n Spin,Typewriter, and records. n/t

[geardaddy]

45. I so badly wanted a Big Wheel and a Sit n Spin.

Didn't get either.

[RebelOne]

55. My son got a big wheel for Xmas one year.

I don't remember when, but I stayed up late on Xmas eve putting it together.

[SoCalDem]

62. There's a company that makes adult-version Green Machines

and I think they also do a Big Wheel version.. I almost bought one for my impossible-to-buy-for grown up son

[geardaddy]

90. Holy crikey.

I have to get one!

[SoCalDem]

110. a few links to try

http://bigwheelrally.com/store/adult.htm

http://www.huffy.com/products/Product.aspx?pid=413|2|10

http://blog.makezine.com/2006/02/14/diy-green-machine/

[geardaddy]

111. Thanks!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

31. more stuff

Suicide knobs on steering wheels
Smallpox vaccination
Coaster brake on bike
Unsupervised time
Encyclopedia
Sliderule

[MatthewStLouis]

32. I'd replace 4 with Saturday Morning cartoons; now they can be 24/7.

[Myrina]

34. Free time & the ability to go exploring alone or w/other kids ...

... nowadays kids are micro-managed to the max and not even allowed to stand at the end of their own driveways to wait for the school bus.

Shit, we used to walk to school and stop at the candy store, or detour to the park on the way home for a couple hours ... nobody disappeared & no parent was freaking out/calling the FBI.

[wysimdnwyg]

37. Let's see if I can come up with 5 without hints from others

1. 45 and 78 rpm records and my own player
2. Black and white tv with four channels
3. Candy cigarettes
4. The ability to safely go out and play in the yard - and other yards in the neighborhood - without adult supervision
5. Lawn darts

Yeah, some things actually do get better over the years.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

43. Afternoon TV

Last edited Thu May 3, 2012, 11:23 PM - Edit history (1)

Cartoons that weren't promoting a toy line or a colectable card game
25 cent comic books & candy bars
Vinyl records
Movies not written by the marketing department
Jim Henson

[geardaddy]

51. That's my childhood, baby!

[MerryBlooms]

46. 1. Learning to drive on back roads and your neighbors smiled and waved

2. Penny candy
3. Williams Bread Wrapper Day at the local movie theater
4. Mowing lawns for summer money
5. Parents smoking in the house

[SoCalDem]

63. I learned to drive on I-35

The section from Salina Kansas to Oklahoma was all paved, but not yet open, so my friend would take me out for lessons on that beautiful pristine Interstate..The car? a '56 yellow Cadillac

[MerryBlooms]

68. Beaut!

I grew up in the back hills of Jacksonville Oregon. My dad was a heavy equipment operator for the county, so any project he was working on was ok for me to learn/drive on after I turned 10 and then up the back roads of J'ville from 12 on. lol, great times and to this day I still drive a manual tran.

[solara]

48. Wow.. these lists really take me back

1. Black rotary phone with a cord AND a party line
2. Hula hoop
3. Nickle sodas and candy bars/25 cent movies
4. Schwinn bike without hand brakes ( had to back pedal to stop)
5. HI-FI with turntable, built in speaker and a 45 adapter

[hifiguy]

54. Quality food products that were locally made,

and not filled with processed crapola, like Peters' and Schweigert franks.

Whitewall tires - my dad had 'em on the tuxedo '59 Impala coupe we had when I was a boy (There are people I would kill to have that car just as it was back in 1963).

The neighborhood kids getting together and putting aside their feuds for sandlot baseball once a week.

Axel and His Dawg (possibly the single best local TV kid show in history - the surrealism of Monty Python one discovered in the teen years wasn't much of a reach if you grew up with Axel)


Axel

Real, hand-drawn cartoons whose purpose was no higher than good entertainment (Thank you Warner Bros.)

LP records.

[geardaddy]

95. I'm too young to have watched Axel

But I remember Casey Jones and Roundhouse Rodney at lunchtime (remember when you got to go home for lunch at Minneapolis Public Schools?)

I also remember Carmen, Clancy and Willy in the mornings. I'm friends with Alan Lotsberg's (Willy) daugher.

[hifiguy]

98. I remember Clancy the Cop and Willie Ketchum like it was yesterday

Every morning before heading off for school I'd check in with Clancy, after Clellan "Axel" Card passed away. When I was in early grade school I'd go home, or to our neighbor lady's house after my mom went back to work, for Lunch with Casey once a week or so. School was only about three blocks away in Bloomington.

Allen Lotsberg hosted Comedy for Big Kids/Comedy Classics on Sunday nights in the early 1970s and that was my introduction to the Marx Brothers and a lot of the Laurel & Hardy oeuvre. He warped me for life!

[geardaddy]

100. Allan's He's a super nice guy and a complete liberal

[mysuzuki2]

141. ooh ooh, I remember Axel !

did you grow up in Minneapolis in the 1950s?

[hifiguy]

142. 1960s, but I got a full dose of Axel.

Nothing ever better!

[MerryBlooms]

69. In the front yard before the street lamp came on!

[Tabasco_Dave]

70. Black & White portable tv

My parents watched the color TV in the living room and i watched my shows on the portable. Happy Days was like a real 50's show to me because i only saw it in B&W.

[grntuscarora]

71. A Chatty Cathy doll.

[IMG][/IMG]
Insert a teeny-tiny record, pull the string, and she'd say something. Primitive now, but state-of-the-art at the time

Also, neighborhood pick-up games of kickball, softball, & squirt-gun battles. Always spontaneous, noisy and fun with NO adult supervision.

[Burma Jones]

72. Hmmmmm, let's see.........it wasn't all skittles and beer.......

Segregated Schools
Chicken Pox
Awful Air and Water Pollution - I grew up in Gary, Indiana, in the mid 1960s - trust me, it's better than it was.......
Parents smoking
Corporal Punishment

[Taverner]

76. Cassette tapes

Vinyl 45s

A sense of purpose

Hand me downs they would wear

Hours of playtime

[one_voice]

78. ok..

1. drive-ins

2. 8 track player/tapes

3. dollar movies

4. penny candy

5. records.

[laundry_queen]

80. 1. Stationery

to write letters to your friends that had moved away.

2. Pop in glass bottles delivered to your house.

3. Yarn bows (girls who grew up in the 70's know what I'm talking about).

4. baby aspirin - my mom dished them out like candy before the whole Reye's syndrome thing.

5. mercurochrome - every scratch I had got plastered with this stuff

[snagglepuss]

82. omg yarn bows! I haven't thought of those for years. I didn't know

that mercurochrome is no longer sold. As for stationary my mom had 2 boxes from Regal Card Catalog, both scented, one apple blossom the other rose - I coveted both.

[cyberswede]

96. Yarn bows! LOL

My mom still has a bag of these that we used to wear. I bet my 9 year old daughter would blanche at the sight of them! LOL

Cindy Brady sporting yarn ribbons:

[fizzgig]

83. dial up internet

vhs
$.99/gal gas
tape deck
8-bit video game system

*disclaimer, i don't have kids (as the husband commented when he saw this thread)

conversely, i have had a type writer, record player, rotary phone and the ability to run around the neighborhood all day with my friends

[madamesilverspurs]

84. 1. Rabbit ears

2. Coffee can keys
3. Castor oil
4. Nylon stockings with seams
5. Five-slot chalk holders for making lines on blackboards

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

85. Not being able to go swimming in August because of polio.

Mantoux tests (for tuberculosis) in school.
The Mickey Mouse Club on TV (and knowing all the words to the theme song).
Andy's Gang ("Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!&quot .
Cool toys in cereal boxes.

[pipi_k]

99. Oh lord do I remember

that!!!

My mom always pointed us to images of kids in iron lungs as the result of what would happen from going swimming at the wrong time of year.

Add to that the fact that one of a pair of twins at the end of our street had a mild case of polio and had to wear braces on his legs and walk with those metal pole things.

I was terrified of getting polio and having to spend my life inside a big round barrel with only my head sticking out...

[madmom]

87. let's see..

headlights on cars had dimmer switch on the floor
45 records with the plastic insert to put on 78 spindle
hairdryers with the plastic hood/ hose coming out the back
having one room in the house hot as blazes (were the coal stove was) the rest of the house freezing
manual wringer washing machines

[NYC_SKP]

89. Time, Peace, Clean Air, Lack of Fear, A Future.

eom

[raccoon]

102. Lack of fear? Not entirely. Remember fear of nuclear war? nt

[truedelphi]

125. I remember. One nun told us in second grade that none of us would live to see our

13th birthday.

Another nun told us we could avert Nuclear War if we prayed a rosary every single day. (Fifty Hail Marys, a bunch of Our Fathers, and the Nicene Creed.)

I was too busy to do that during the day, but at night, I would lie awake praying. (When not listening to the top ten count down on my transistor radio.) If I fell asleep in the middle of the prayers, I was always amazed the next day that the planet was still around.

[hedgehog]

119. Not so much the clean air.......

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

126. When was that? When I was a kid we had:

Air raid drills in school - "duck and cover" (i.e., put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye).

Smog. In some places it was bad enough to kill people (12,000 people in London in 1952).

Daily strontium-90 reports from the aboveground nuclear testing out west.

The Cuyahoga River near Cleveland was so polluted it caught on fire in 1952 and 1969.

Love Canal.

Sonic booms.

The Cuban Missile Crisis.

The '50s and '60s were in many respects a much dirtier, scarier time than now.

[HopeHoops]

91. German Measles.

[GoCubsGo]

113. They first came out with the vaccine when I was in the 3rd grade.

We all got vaccinated at school. They had also just come out with those needle-free guns that shoot the vaccine into you. They were a lot quicker than needles. And, they didn't hurt a bit.

[Paladin]

93. Friends And Family Members Stricken With Polio.

The "Good Old Days" are highly overrated......

[4th law of robotics]

105. Well maybe not polio, but I could see a lot of those infectious diseases

that we'd largely wiped out making a comeback if the anti-vaccine crowd remains as large as it does.

Maybe kids will get some taste of the old days with regular outbreaks of measles, mumps, whooping cough and so on.

And who knows, polio isn't gone. It could be reintroduced here (although I suspect that would pretty much end the entire movement overnight).

[La Lioness Priyanka]

109. so true. that's why i find the anti-vac folk so insanely dangerous. nt

[4th law of robotics]

117. Maybe they're just hopelessly nostalgic

[schmice]

122. I remember the Shriners hospitals caring for children with polio.

I also remember Iron Lungs.

[TrogL]

101. realistic looking toy guns

Though I will admin the Johnny 7 rifle was a bit beyond state of the art at the time.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

130. I had a

black plastic Luger squirt gun

[SwissTony]

116. Sports games that lasted for hours

In my case, soccer. The game would start and kids would be called home to eat (no mobile, just your mum shouting "Your dinner's ready&quot or do something else, to reappear later and often have to play on the "opposing" team since the composition of both teams had changed radically in your absence. But nobody cared.

This was in Scotland in the 50s. I've been back many times and for a long time the piece of ground where I used to play now has a large sign saying "No ball games". Many other spaces have similar signs. I often wonder if this has contributed to Scotland going from a pretty strong soccer nation to one that many Scots are embarrassed about.

[lastlib]

118. record player, 8-track tapes, transistor radios.

[treestar]

120. Deliveries from milkman / milk box on front porch

Deliveries from potato chip truck

Doctors who came to the house

Pharmacies delivering medication to house

Non-chain restaurants with unusual themes - the "Chuck Wagon" in a building shaped like a wagon, for example

Walking to school - entire neighborhood every morning full of kids all walking the same direction and the reverse in the afternoon.

Book bags (backpacks seem better though) and/or plastic things to put around a pile of books to make they easier to carry

45 records

Drive-in movies (at least where I am, there are none now)

[Lars39]

134. I know where 5 drive-ins are here in TN.

[treestar]

135. Are they still in business?

That is cool!

[Lars39]

137. Yep. :-)

[TheCentepedeShoes]

131. Push button gear shift

Like we had on our '58 Chrysler New Yorker

[noamnety]

132. 1. An antenna rotator for the tv

2. stilts
3. a pong game that hooked to the tv
4. a well with a hand pump (we had indoor water, but also an outside hand pump that worked if the power went out)
5. candle dipping supplies - that we used regularly.

[yellerpup]

138. Lots of free time.

To play, to create, and explore.

[chrisa]

143. 1. Cap guns!

2. VHS videos from the store that said "Be Kind, Rewind" but no one ever did.

3. MS-DOS dungeon crawler games / the Atari / SNES (I was really obsessed with Mario)

4. That easy bake oven, or whatever it was called, and also the one that you made plastic bugs with, but burned yourself all of the time

5. Whiffle balls!

Honorable mention - Super Soakers, Slinkies (sp?), Board Games (including Monopoly, Sorry, Trivial Pursuit), and other games (like that game (?) Crossfire - you know, the one where you shoot the tiny metal balls that totally weren't a choking hazard at all), Legos, and finally, running around outside (which seems to be a past time now for some reason - darn XBox).

[LASlibinSC]

144. Wow...

45's, Bride dolls, alcohol and cigarette commercials, wall mounted bottle openers, trick-or-treeting without adults after dark, Jiffy pop, gogo boots Sunday afternoon rides in the car just for the ride

[alphafemale]

145. Record Stores

That staticy noise and that smell the first time you opened an LP.

The 99 center at KFC Two finger likun gud pieces of chicken roll and coleslaw

Skate rinks

Abandoned 1/2 mile long rail road tunnel

Dropped poo in a real honest to gawd outhouse.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

146. Phone #s with two letter prefixes. BEachwood 4,5,7,8,9 You can call me up and have a date

any old time.