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Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favourite 'fast food' when
you were growing up?'
'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him.
'Except for Fish & Chip shops and we ate it all so unhygenically from
newspaper wrappers'
'All the other food was slow.'
'C'mon, seriously.. Where did you eat?'
'It was a place called 'home,' I explained.
'Mum 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 lad 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'd figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore jeans, set foot on a
golf course, travelled out of the country and credit cards had not
been invented.
My parents never drove me to school. I had my mothers bicycle that
weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow).
We didn't have a television in our house until the Queens Coronation.
It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air
at 10 pm, after playing the national anthem and epilogue; it came back
on the air at about 4 p.m. and there was usually locally produced news
and everything was live.....or film.
I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone 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 many boys delivered
newspapers --My brother delivered a newspaper, seven days a week. He
had to get up at 6AM every morning.
Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the
films. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly
produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence
(except cowboy films) or almost anything offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may
want to share some of these memories with your children or
grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.
Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend:
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December)
and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top
was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it... I knew immediately what
it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to
make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat
on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we
didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?
Headlight dip-switches on the floor of the car.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
There were two postal deliveries per day.
Trouser leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
The street lights were turned off at about 11pm each night.
Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn indicators.
Corona fizzy drinks were delivered in glass bottles by lorry each
week, and the empties returned.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about.
Ratings at the bottom.

1. Sweet cigarettes.
2. Coffee shops with juke boxes.
3. Home milk delivery in glass bottles.
4. Party lines on the telephone.
5. Newsreels before the film.
6. TV test card patterns that came on at night after the last show and
were there until TV shows started again. (There were only 2 channels,
if you were fortunate).
7. Peashooters.
8. 78 rpm records
9. 45 rpm records.
10. Hi-fi's.
11. Metal ice trays with levers.
12. Blue flashbulbs.
13. Cork popguns.
14. Wash tub wringers.

If you remembered 0-3 = You are still young
If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older
If you remembered 7-10 = Don't tell your age
If you remembered 11-14 = You're positively ancient!

I must be 'positively ancient' but those memories are some of the best
parts of my life.

Great post ! Sad to say, I can remember the lot!

Wide mouthed milk bottles with the cardboard disc. Before the days of tin foil tops so beloved by Blue Tits getting at the cream layer. That's another thing - cream so thick on top of the milk, you could hardly pour it. What ever happened to that?

Enough !!

You missed the part out that the BBC didn't start until 5:0pm and as we had mains DC not AC the 9" Bush tv had valve invertor, in summer we spent all our time out of doors, going to the park and to the beach and to the baths (if we had 6p) without all those nasty bad people chasing us unless we were scrumping apples, being wrapped in cotton wool and bubble wrap and getting picked up by car by your mum and dad was not even dreamt about, I think technology will be the downfall of the human race.

Oh dear all those memories and we could probably all add a few of our favourites.I remember the floor mounted dip switch well as I sometimes used to miss the clutch pedal and change gear pressing the dip switch instead.That was the days of double de-clutch as well so the speed had to be right.That was also the days of windscreen wipers working off the engine so going uphill meant very slow or no wipers. Dead right about children walking to and from school.

I agree wholeheartedly with all of you, I too am sure that technology will be our eventual downfall.

What a brilliant post, made me quite emotional it is SO true !!

Unfortunately I scored 14 out of 14

I got 6 so I'm not as old as I feel today

I remember my Dad coming home with a second hand radio "valve set" it was bigger than my Mums dressing table`I remember spinning the tuner and it would glide effortlessly from one end to the other`now there's quality` This was in the days when bigger meant better

I got 13 Wench, doesn't bode well does it?

We had smart toys then too.
Top and whips, pogo sticks and hoola hoops. Now you may say we still have hoola hoops, yes we do, but we were absolute wizzards with them. Kept them spinning for ever and had tiny little waists too.
Then there was the perfume of the day. 4711 cologne and Tweed talcum powder.I'm certain that everybody's gran had those.

Good topic Pinz

I meant to say that I got the 14 and I don't like to say it but maybe those who don't get 14 are losing their memory (only kidding).

13

I got most of them (but didn't have a telephone, so can't count the party lines thing).

Never mind newsreels at the cinema, do you remember having to stand for the National Anthem before they let you go home?!

Also, early tellys, watching the dot disappear as you switched off the set!

14 out of 14! but no prizes offered?

Trafficators with festoon bulbs, not flashing lights.
Dolly tub, with dolly pegs.
Two pin, 5 Amp sockets, 2 in our 1935 house!
Penny in the gas meter, shilling (5p) in the electricity meter.
Co-op divi number, 40352.
Etc, etc....

I got 3....this makes me a happy bunny haha :0)

Telegrams on birthdays.

You're not really 100 are you, granny?