It's hot, our AC isn't working - so it's time for some nostalgia (no AC for us back then either!)...

[NRaleighLiberal]

I am in my mid 50s - if I think way back these are some things I really enjoyed as a kid -













How about you?

[Systematic Chaos]

1. 43 here and almost always had some type of AC, thank goodness.

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[texanwitch]

3. The ac is not really working in my truck.

It is now getting to be 100 now, no driving in the daytime hours.

Try to stay cool.

[HopeHoops]

14. Check the coolant level. We've got a leak and that's the first sign it is low.

[HeiressofBickworth]

2. Lived in Indiana until I was 10

We had no AC but we did have a nice cool basement and I always loved to read. It made those hot summer days bearable.

[GoCubsGo]

4. My Chicago Twister top was blue.

I had a Wizzer, too.




And, because my dad worked for a heating and plumbing wholesaler, we also had A/C and a dishwasher.

[HopeHoops]

13. I still have a couple of those. The walk around the cone trick was my favorite.

[davsand]

20. I remember seeing one of those tangled up in the neighbor kid's hair.

He'd revved that thing up and tried to sit it on top of his head. It tangled in his hair because of the spinning. He was screaming and his mom was royally pissed at him for doing it. They ended up cutting that thing out of his hair and then gave him a crew cut for the balance of the summer.

Wow. Hadn't thought about that for years.

Come to think of it, this was the same family that the dad broke an ankle on New Year's Eve trying to prove he wasn't too bombed to use the kids' toy called something like "The Joggle" or "The Bobble." It was a ring like a mini hula hoop that went over your foot and around your ankle. Attached to the hoop was a ball on a string. You were supposed to skip and swing that ball around in circles. The Dad failed to prove his point and spent the rest of New Year's Eve in the ER.



Laura

[Kaleva]

5. One can still buy the Wham-o Super Ball

Made with the amazing Zectron!

[mrmpa]

6. The skybar............

the best. I still find it on occasion and I buy more than one to stock up.

[WinstonSmith4740]

40. These folks have carried Skybar in the past...

I didn't see them in the current catalog, but if there's anyplace that will have them, these guys will. Even if you can't find Skybars, they've got all kinds of good stuff. Enjoy!

http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/store/jump/Food_&_Candy/Candy_&_Chocolate/Nostalgic_Treats/100623

[mrmpa]

48. The cracker barrell carries them............

and of all places, the gift shop @ the hospital near me. I also find them at some convenience stores. I should have thought of the vermont country store, my mom gets their catalog.

[Live and Learn]

68. I don't remember Skybar (do remembr the rest) but saw them recently at OSH.

Wait, now I do remember them. It was like having a box of chocolates in one bar. Might have to pick myself up some although all the nostalgic candy OSH was selling was at ridiculous prices.

[fizzgig]

7. i'm 31 and have never had ac

not even in my car. really didn't need them in your house until about 15 years ago, but i would have killed to have had ac in my old car. an 82 volvo wagon with leather seat covers is hotter than the hinges of hell with the added bonus of losing a layer of skin when you got out.

the only thing that saved me from completely overheating was the air vent next to my feet. it was so gross.

[bluesbassman]

8. A nostalgic tune for your trials and tribulations...

Open the door and the flies swarm in, shut the door and I'm sweatin' again. Life gets teedjus, don't it?

[texanwitch]

16. That song says it all.

It is so true.

[Art_from_Ark]

9. I remember the fizzies and the superball

I got the superball for my 8th birthday, and the first thing I did was go out in the street and throw it on the pavement as hard as I could to see how high it would go. It landed in a neighbor's lot that had lots of shrubbery in it and I never did find it

[NRaleighLiberal]

28. I think my brother and I each went through several Super Balls -

what you said! They were so active and we wanted to see their limits......so it didn't take long before they were lost! (a friend hit one with a baseball bat and broke a second story window across the street)

[Denninmi]

10. Bosco? Bosco? What kind of man are you?

"So, what's your pleasure? Is it the salty snacks you crave? No, your's is a sweet tooth. . . ."

[raccoon]

11. I HATED fizzies. They must have been a Communist plot. One thing about the past that trumps

everything else.....











NO AIR CONDITIONING.

[HopeHoops]

12. I LOVE SkyBars!!!!!!!!!!!

[NRaleighLiberal]

15. ah - but which part? I liked the nougat part best....then chocolate - worst was PB

taste has changed slightly since decades ago (or maybe my taste buds have!)

Charleston Chew is another I loved. and Forever Yours (now renamed Midnight Milky Way or something like that)

[HopeHoops]

19. The whole fucking thing. They rock.

[pipi_k]

17. Don't need no

stinkin AC here...it's only 60 degrees.

Anyway...I am 59...my list









The bigger the better...to really make our dresses fluff out all over!





And some really cool-ass cars...

[bluesbassman]

60. Here's a tune for your cool-ass car...

Last edited Thu Jun 28, 2012, 02:11 AM - Edit history (1)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

75. Colorforms! Had not thought about those in a couple of ice ages!

Little plastic shapes you put on a background, that stuck to it until you peeled them off. Sort of like a high tech version of paper dolls. See Charlie Brown in the picture.

[OriginalGeek]

18. I barely remember having no AC

when I was young however I had no AC (in Florida!) the first 8 years or so of my marriage.

Every year my mom would buy me one of these and, until they started making them all plastic, every year I would invariably get to school one day and find the glass inside the thermos broken. Which was fine with me - I liked buying milk at school better anyway.
...


Also, I was in love:


My mom had a silver one of these

(but it was a POS bought used and fixed to running condition by my stepfather - I didn't say "restored" I said "fixed to running condition"...there is a sad sad difference.) I'm fairly sure it's still sitting as a rotted hulk in their back yard...long since picked for parts and left to die.

This didn't work for shit but we had fun throwing it around anyway:


These worked a little better in that they did indeed fall apart on impact but you still had to mostly throw them to get them to impact anything.

until it got thrown away because you left a door or hood lying on the living room floor and your dad stepped on it in the middle of the night. That happened to my Legos too.

[riderinthestorm]

25. Gah! The worst pain is stepping on a Barbie shoe in the middle of the night

On the flip side, the worst feeling is stepping into something squishy and smelly in the middle of the night.

[OriginalGeek]

26. Yick!

and that is why pets are no longer allowed in our bedroom at night.

[bhikkhu]

49. Try stepping on a LEGO barefoot -

that's real pain!

[RebelOne]

21. I grew up in Miami, FL, with no air conditioning.

That was a long, long time ago. I could not do it again. I live in North Georgia now, so there is no need for A/C all year round.

[bluesbassman]

22. Clacker Balls.

This fad was huge when I was in Jr Hi. Then they got banned because they had this nasty habit of exploding.

[GoCubsGo]

23. I never could get mine to clack more tha a few times.

The same goes for the paddle with the ball attached by an elastic line. And, I never could hula hoop, either. I had no skill or coordination. I still don't.

[bluesbassman]

24. You probably just got all the defective ones.

[OriginalGeek]

27. I don't remember them exploding

but I damn sure remember getting beaned in the face twice.




You'd think Id'a learned after once but I'm kinda dense.

[texanwitch]

29. The damn things were dangerous.

Kids were injured playing with them.

I saw a kid knock himself out after hitting his head.

He was ok, just a headache.

The joy of childhood was playing with dangerous toys or doing stupid things.

[OriginalGeek]

31. lol I still carry more than a couple scars

from joyous dangerous stupid things.


But I'd probably have a heart attack if I had ever seen my daughter do any the dumb things I did...My boys have a few of their own scars but they swear it was worth it...

[texanwitch]

32. We used to play in the railroad yard, a busy railroad yard.

We would jump off a swings at the park, and were high up.

We would dare each other, stupid kids.

It was fun.

[OriginalGeek]

33. I don;t recal a railroad yard anywhere near

but I remember an apartment complex under construction behind where I lived and for months it was just all the trenches were the plumbing and sewer would eventually be laid. A maze of gigantic proportions with rocks and dirt clods already stacked to the moon.


Not to mention enough spare wood lying around to make ramps that Evel Knevel woulda been proud of.

[texanwitch]

34. Bet you had fun.

Kids today don't know what they are missing.

Railroad yard was fun, nothing like climbing in and out of rail cars.

Climbing over and under the cars, also big yard rats.

[bhikkhu]

50. Worst stupid kid's game story from the 50's -

Talking about stuff we did as a kid that we never told our parents about, I worked with a guy a few years older than me, who said him and his buddies had a kid's bow and arrow set which was dangerous enough - wooden arrows whittled sharp. But what they would do is go out to a field and shoot as straight up in the air as they could, then run around like mad, looking up, to spot and avoid the arrow as it came back down. None of them ever got hurt, but that topped any stupid thing the rest of us did.

[TheMightyFavog]

59. Clackers (albiet with a different design, and made of plastic) came back when I was a kid...

[bluesbassman]

64. I've seen those. Different plastic.

This type probably uses polypropylene or some such (backwoodsbob would know, I believe he's in that field). Anyway, these have a little give to the material. The ones from when I was a kid, pictured above, were acrylic. Super hard. That's where the name came from because the sound they made when striking each other really was a "clack". The downside was that those things would fracture and explode. I saw it happen a couple of times.

[Tx4obama]

65. I had that! But after everyone heard that they could explode no one played with 'em anymore :( nt

[1monster]

30. Oh I LOVE Bosco, It's rich and chocolaty.

Mommie puts it in my milk to try and poison me.
But I fooled Mommie!
I put some in her tea.
Now I have no Mom to try and poison me........

[Curmudgeoness]

35. I still have no a/c.

Of course, I don't live in Houston anymore---and would not have been without it there. In fact, if it weren't for a/c, I believe that it would still be a one-horse town.

I remember summers playing jacks, jumping rope, hide-and-seek, red rover and Kool-ade and popsicles and freeze pops.....we were always outside!

[texanwitch]

36. We played in the heat all the time.

Window fans and attic fans cooled down the house.

We didn't have so much cement either, houses had yards.

I can take heat I just don't like it when it is humid.

[Curmudgeoness]

37. I have heard that attic fans did wonders.

You are in Houston, right? I also like the heat----to a point, about 85 or so and I weaken. But the humidity there was brutal, not that Houston has the market cornered on it. There is a lot of humidity up here in W PA too. But in Houston, the temps plus the humidity were tough. I remember the couple of weeks in an apartment when I lived in Houston without a/c in a heat wave---had to wait that long for a part. Window fans saved me, and I still use them now. It is surprising how much they help, especially if you wait till the sun goes down to turn them on....cool air.

[texanwitch]

39. From what I remember the attic fans were loud but they did work.

The trick with window fans is that you point the fans outward during the day and inward at night.

They do not help when it is humid.

I like my ac but I don't keep the temp any lower then 78.

With a fan of some kind 78 is cool enough.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

44. Fans make it worse when there is high humidity.

The doctors finally figured out that if you have no AC and a fan, the fan just circulates the heat faster and it cooks you like a convection oven.

We had pitiful room air conditioners and never got the whole house cooled down when I was growing up in Houston. Couldn't take it. Had many a sleepless night when it was 85 or 90 degrees and I read Michener novels.

Houston and Dallas and the South in general would not have the populations they do if not for AC.

[texanwitch]

46. You got that right.

Without ac it would be hard to live here.

I have the ac on 79 right now with ceiling fans on and it just fine.

Without the ac it would be really sticky.

I have neighbors without ac, they don't want.

Their kids bought them a nice window unit, but they won't use it

They can afford to run it but they just like the heat.

I do worry about them when it gets 100 and beyound.

[riderinthestorm]

54. Attic fans do NOT work! I finally got AC 5 years ago, after 45 years without it in IL

My parent's house had the attic fan and I can tell you from personal experience that doesn't work. Then I went to college - no AC there either for my poor starving ass. 25 years in a very old house where even a window unit wasn't allowed (house was owned by our employer who didn't want the unsightliness of it, nor did they want the potential drip stains so it was forbidden).

[WinstonSmith4740]

38. Maypo!!

You forgot Maypo...great ad campaign, horrible product! And you know how much those "Happy Fizzie" parties at the local ice cream parlor indeared us to the waitresses!!

BTW, one of my sisters lives in the North Raleigh area...I didn't know they allowed liberals. Hold down the fort for us!!

[NRaleighLiberal]

42. sssshhh....."they" don't know we are here!

actually of course they do - my truck is loaded with DU and liberal and Obama bumper stickers. I think we are an amusement/curiosity for many that surround us!

[JDPriestly]

41. Still have my early 1950s Toy Builders -- like Lego but wood.

And my early 1950s plastic Legos that were called American Plastic Bricks.

Does anyone remember those toys?

[Major Nikon]

43. I remember attic fans and swamp coolers

I remember my dad installing a timer on our attic fan because during certain times of the year he got tired of waking up freezing to go turn the attic fan off. Most every room had a ceiling fan, which is what I still have today. I still can't sleep unless I have a fan going.

20 years ago when I lived in west Texas, I had a swamp cooler. They were very cheap to operate, but when the temps got above 95 or so they stopped being so effective.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

45. I have an Erector set in the metal box.

[HarveyDarkey]

47. I'm 63 here are some of mine

[Art_from_Ark]

51. Next to the Fizzies in the grocery store were these:

It wasn't long before "Injun Orange" was changed to "Jolly-Olly Orange" and "Chinese Cherry" became "Choo Choo Cherry"

[NRaleighLiberal]

53. I definitely remember those ads! We bought and drank lots of Funny Face drink mix!

[Warpy]

52. I remember the first AC units I ever saw

There had been a fire in a factory that produced them for businesses down south and a neighbor had bought four totally cooked ones. I was fascinated watching him knock out all the soot, burned insulation, toasted wiring and other detritus out of them and wondered if there was going to be enough left to do anything.

Well, he did manage to get them back together and running and they didn't even stink of char broiled factory. Two completely cooled his house, one upstairs and one downstairs, and he sold the other two for a nice profit. Those people were the envy of the neighborhood.

My mother's strategy, on the other hand, was to use window fans at night to cool the house off and then seal it up tight during the day behind heavy, lined drapes. It was like living in a cave, but by golly, that place stayed cool most of the day. I'm doing the same thing this year since the swamp cooler is being balky, using the cooler only for a couple of hours in the evening to cool the place off enough that the window fan can take over and I can get some sleep. Some mornings I even wake up with a sheet over me.

I'm finding I cope rather well until the temperature goes over 95. Then it's all I can do to sit directly in front of a fan and keep breathing. It was sure a lot easier when I was younger and watching that guy put those AC units back together in a Maryland summer.

[texanwitch]

55. How do swamp coolers work?

I have seen them in the movies.

We had window fans, big metal monsters.

At night it could get cool, rather have my ac.

[Warpy]

61. How works a swamper?

There's a reservoir of water in the bottom. A pump sucks it up and distributes it overhead onto some excelsior pads. Once they're soaked, you turn the fan on. It sucks hot, arid air through the pads, which cools the air down a good 15 degrees while making it more humid, distinctly swampy.

I'd rather be in a humid 80 degree house than a dry 95 degree house any day.

ETA: my cooling bill averages $10-15 a month when I leave the cooler on all day.

[hobbit709]

66. Unless you live somewhere where it 100° AND humid as hell.

[Warpy]

70. I know, it's one reason I moved here, cheap AC,

instead of moving to the wet side of the mountains. Our humidity has been well under 10% for weeks, only 6% yesterday afternoon. People around here start complaining when the relative humidity hits 20%.

Refrigerated air would cost at least ten times what the swamper does.

[hobbit709]

71. It's currently 92° with 47% humidity here.

[reACTIONary]

56. Silly Putty !!! How could you leave out Silly Putty...

And look... It's BATMAN !!!

[NRaleighLiberal]

57. and I forgot these three important iconic toys I loved -

[TheMightyFavog]

58. 32 here, young by some standards, but i think I'm entitled to SOME nostalgia...

Isn't there a DUer here who actually worked on this show? I seem to recall her talking stories about weird love letters the female character got from grown men...


My Dad HATED most commercial TV, except for the local news, Carson, Bill Cosby and THIS... It wasn't till I was older that I found out this show had a LOT of great humor that went over my little head, but was targeted tot he grownups


Another great toon with jokes for the grownups...


One of the first anime series I ended up really liking... Wasn't until college that I learned the story behind the dub scripts...


This show was a really cool import from France that I got into...


This is a property that is fucking DUE for a reboot...


So much time wasted playing this... *sigh* Fuck you, Harmony Gold. Fuck you very much for killing FASA... And fuck you one more time for putting a halt to the reboot *grumble, grumble*...






Build up a megapolis, then DESTROY IT!!


Pullover Starter Jackets.. I got a Packers jacket for christmas when I was inhighs chool. it was the warmest, most comfortable winter jacket I ever had. they were actually well made.


Back before we hated him...


This made the family road trip to South Dakota much more bearable...

[Digit]

62. My high school in Northern Va did not have A/C

Young whippersnappers of today have it too easy!

I was a renegade and I wore (gasp) culottes to school and was sent home to change. The authorities at
my public high school said they were not allowed as they had a strip of fabric between the legs and were therefore
pants. Slacks, pants, and such were allowed. Nor were earrings on any sex. My mother was called regarding
my earring infraction also. She gave them a piece of her mind.

[NRaleighLiberal]

63. my wife got sent home from high school for wearing culottes! she still chuckles about it....

[Digit]

72. What wild women we were!

Tsk, tsk!

[Motown_Johnny]

67. Do you have a basement and forced air heating?

If so then go turn the gas off on your furnace so it can't possibly turn on, then set your thermostat all the way up. This should kick on the fan to draw the cooler air from your basement up through the house.

It isn't air conditioning and once your basement heats up it won't do any good at all but for a little short term help it is better than nothing.

[Live and Learn]

69. Ours isn't working either

and although I remember living without it, I don't know how. Not even that hot here yet and I am miserable.

[nclib]

73. Goodness, I hope it's working now.

Or that you have a place to stay until it is. Stay cool.

[NRaleighLiberal]

74. Hey friend! Seems time for a get together, hey! Yes, it's fixed...

well, there is a coolant leak - so a bandaid fix (added refrigerant) - so I think we are looking at a total downstairs system replacement (yikes!).

Just came in from watering - feels like the Arctic in here! Pondering a local DU Salsa party on our deck sometime soon!