What childhood memories can reveal about our age?

[rewebster]

OMG, you have an air blaster! That commercial kills me. All the youngsters on here need to watch that commercial to see a bit of our past.

and it still works fine---it will 'move' things 30-40 ft away--just like it said in the commercial

 

[Dembadon]

I had one of the first generation of skateboards, with narrow steel wheels like they used to use on roller skates. In fact, they probably were roller-skate wheels, fastened to a wooden board.

I had to be careful going down the driveway or sidewalk so the wheels didn't hang up on a crack between the concrete sections.

My mom had given me a Banzai board very similar to the one in the picture. The board itself was/is made of solid metal and was very heavy.

 

[Danger]

This is weird. I'm seeing a lot of overlap from stuff that happened when I was a kid with stuff that happened when I was an adult... posted by the same people.
I remember sleeping with my cousin Marie because my mother was away (we lived with my aunt and uncle at the time). I was about 1 1/2.
I remember seeing my father, who I thought was a family friend, after we had moved from my aunt's place to one nearby. He worked then as a traveling encyclopedia salesman, and the first time that I remember seeing him was when I was sick and he brought me a Dinky Toy water truck. I still have that. It was at least a couple of years later that I realized he was my father.
Two moves later, I remember living with both parents in a 12' trailer on a farm that my dad got employment with. I was 2 1/2 then, which is when my parents got married. The patriarch of the farm paid me 5 cents per week for doing chores. While I don't specifically remember the event, my mother said that when I was 3 I strolled a mile or so out into the field, rounded up our 50 or so cows, and herded them in for milking. What I do remember about that time is that when I had accumulated 25 cents from my chore money, I bought a Golden Book of Mother Goose rhymes. In retrospect, it seems a bit peculiar that I could read at that age, but apparently I could.
Skip forward a few years to when I was about 7. We finally had a TV, in a new residence, which got 2 channels. Our dining room table was a 'card table'; a 1 x 1 m table with folding legs. When we weren't eating off of it, there was a blanket enshrouding it, and the underside was my 'fort'. (My bedroom was the couch, so that was my only private place.) I remember coming home from school and spending most of the evening throwing a minor tantrum in my fort because my Popeye cartoons were pre-empted... just because some guy that I'd never heard of got shot in Dallas.
I remember the Beatles' first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, and also Elvis with a black bar superimposed across his nether regions because the network censors considered his hip gyrations obscene.
I know that Evo is within about 6 months of me age-wise. I always thought that Astro was a bit younger, but his postings indicate that perhaps he has a head-start on us.
When I was in high-school, the first 4-banger calculators were introduced. Add, subtract, multiply & divide. No memory. They were about half the size of a brick, and cost upwards of $500. If you were caught with one on school property, even just in the glovebox of your car in the parking lot, you were expelled on the spot.
Oh, yeah... and at the SF club that I belonged to in my 20's, the professional computer scientists in the bunch were discussing that no one could ever need or use a meg of hard storage.

 

[rewebster]

My mom had given me a Banzai board very similar to the one in the picture. The board itself was/is made of solid metal and was very heavy.

funny--our dad made us skateboards (out of skates and board)

 

[DanP]

I remember sleeping with my cousin Marie because my mother was away (we lived with my aunt and uncle at the time).

Was she hot ?

 

[Math Is Hard]

I had the first Barbie that was marketed, in her black and white stretch catalina bathing suit with her metal stand. And high heels.

I had the Sunshine Family dolls:

They didn't look at all creepy to me at the time, but now I am pretty sure the "Sunshine Family" was some kind of cult. Look at Papa's wild eyes and hair and Mama's homespun, docile sweetness. I think there were probably other "Mama" dolls you could add to the collection, as Papa required.

I made clothes for them with this:

which was basically a sewing machine shaped glue dispenser.

 

[rewebster]

Was she hot ?

I remember playing 'doctor'

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Was she hot ?

Only if you used hot air to blow her up?

 

[Huckleberry]

I remember my Mom sending me to bed early so she and my Aunt could play Atari. I remember watching Doctor Who with her. She loved Tom Baker. I once told her that the girl from Tales of the Golden Monkey in the episode where she was dressed like an Egyptian princess was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I seem to recall her response was "Oh really? You think so?" There was also a girl in my first grade class I had a crush on that reminded me of Laura Engalls from Little House on the Prarie.

I remember my Uncle inviting me to play a game of Basic Dungeons & Dragons. I made an elf and named him Erkin. After he stopped playing I would draw my own dungeons on my Grandfather's work stationary pads and I'd annoy all my relatives until they would play with me. I'd hold the pencil pointing to their position on the map and describe what was happening. They got me my own books and I quickly found some people at school to play with, much to the relief of my relatives I think.

I remember wrestling in the playground and the teachers didn't stop us, but when we played football in gym class we used flags. I remember kids bringing in their Voltron toys and one kid had them all and made the giant robot. I was much amazed, though I preferred the show with the submarine in space. Every episode ended with it blasting something with an enormous beam that shot out of the front of it. At home I had tons of Matchbox cars, Tonka Trucks and Star Wars figures which the neighbor kids would always try to steal. My Mom worked at a Toy's 'R' Us store for a while. My Dad had a job deleading buildings.

My Dad got me a Huffy bike, I think for my birthday, and taught me how to ride it. I wanted a BMX because that's what all the kids were talking about at the time. I ended up loving my Huffy. That bike is still around somewhere. My Dad said that he never saw a kid crash as much as I did. He said I must have crashed into everything in the neighborhood.

I remember the 'thwip thwip' sound made from running around in the cordiroy pants that I wore. The first time I remember tying my shoes by myself was after a little league game. We were called the Lions, and I seem to remember the game was sponsored by the Lion's Club. I'm not even sure what that is. A few years after that they came out with velcro fasteners for shoes and I thought it was silly. They also had the high top sneakers. Those were cool. My older Cousin dressed like Madonna and acted like Billy Idol. She knocked the wind out of me with a football once.

 

[Borek]

Funny comparing things that YOU remember with things that I remember. Call it cultural difference.

Some things are identical - tube radios, limited TV (we got our first TV somewhere around 1972), non pasteurized milk in bottles (in Poland they were closed with thick alu foil, yellow for full fat, white for 2%).

There was a time when I was able to recognize almost all cars by their engine sound - partially because I have a much better hearing, but mostly because there were only several makes present in Poland.

Donald meant for us bubble gum with comic story, nobody knows where these were from, as they were not made in Poland and private import was impossible, yet they were present everywhere.

Dry soft drinks - I don't remember anyone dissolving and drinking them, we always ate them dry.

I remember when Coca Cola entered Polish market, earlier it was a symbol of American imperialism.

I remember each year in the summer listening to the news TV coverage of the shortage of the string for reaper-binders. It sounds hilarious, but that was always a real problem at the harvest time.

I remember ski made of wood.

 

[Andy]

Are you getting forgetful in your old age, maybe?

Probably, it has been a while since i have exercised the old noggin.

 

[Danger]

Was she hot ?

As a matter of fact, yes. At this moment, though, I'm far more interested in Huck's cousin.

 

[rewebster]

I remember ski made of wood.

we still have some pairs 'saved' from when we lived in Norway in the early 50's

 

[Danger]

we still have some pairs 'saved' from when we lived in Norway in the early 50's

Okay, you're officially old. I was born in the mid-50's.

 

[turbo]

My first several pairs of skis were entirely wood. When I got into JR High, I got my first pair of skis with metal edges (screwed on) and cable bindings. Boots were short leather lace-ups. My first pair of skis were just ash planks with upturned tips and the bindings were plain leather straps. To "tighten" them you just jammed the rubber pack-boot into them harder.

 

[rewebster]

Okay, you're officially old. I was born in the mid-50's.

well, you're old '-' a little...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I had one of the first generation of skateboards, with narrow steel wheels like they used to use on roller skates. In fact, they probably were roller-skate wheels, fastened to a wooden board.

I had to be careful going down the driveway or sidewalk so the wheels didn't hang up on a crack between the concrete sections.

And little rocks! Our neighbor had those little porous white rocks on her roof. Those things were responsible for several head knocks and bloody noses.

My first pair of roller skates had been my dad's skates when he was a kid. They were all metal with little leather straps. The base was a metal plate that could be adjusted to the foot size.

Lionel trains - wooohooo! And slot cars. I loved the smell of slot cars - lots of ozone.

 

[Huckleberry]

As a matter of fact, yes. At this moment, though, I'm far more interested in Huck's cousin.

Haha! I didn't get to spend much time around her. She was about 5 years older than me and was very busy doing important teenage things that I wasn't invited to. Grandma and Grampa usually disapproved of whatever it was she was doing. I have a feeling you probably would have liked her.

She was pretty cool with my sister and me. On special occassions she would invite us into her room to play, you know the normal bed bouncing, pillow fight, tent fort fun kind of stuff. I kind of idolized her as the coolest possible teenager in existence.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Here is a blast from the past. I just got off the phone with a person who works for a supplier of mine. He is 31 years old and didn't know how to send a spec sheet by email! Unbelievable! He has to fax it over. I haven't used my fax for so long that I had to look up the number.

 

[Andy]

Whats a fax?

 

[BobG]

I remember dyed baby chicks at Easter time. I got a blue one. I thought that was the coolest thing. We rented the upstairs of a farmhouse at the time, so, unfortunately, I could only show it off to a few people. I finally had to resort to showing it off to farm animals.

The only animal that really appreciated being introduced to it was the cat, which chomped it right out of my hand.

Running upstairs, screaming, with blood dripping from my hand sure got my mom's attention, though.

I wonder what most people did with their dyed Easter chicks after Easter. It's not like they were baby alligators that could be flushed down the toilet.

 

[Danger]

Whats a fax?

Dipped if I know. We had one at work, and I never figured out how to use it. I have e-mail now, but I use it for receiving only.

 

[Danger]

It's not like they were baby alligators that could be flushed down the toilet.

Thanks for reminding me. With that last place that I mentioned, when we got a TV, there was also indoor plumbing. It was another year or so before we got a gravity tank so we didn't have to fill the toilet tank with a pail, but it was a step up.

 

[Borek]

I know that Evo is within about 6 months of me age-wise.

I thought the same, either one of us is wrong or I am older than I thought.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

My favorite dude. I wanted one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlWaTAZUxUQ

 

[turbo]

Remember Tom Terrific and Mighty Manfred? I got introduced to them when I was deathly-ill with flu as a kid, and my father managed to round up an old B&W TV so that I had something to entertain me while I was bed-ridden. I wasn't a huge fan of lots of Captain Kangaroo's stuff, but Tom Terrific was entertaining, as were some of the occasional guests, like the Banana Man. There wasn't much on TV back then, so any kid-friendly entertainment was probably a break for my mother. Without TV, I'd have driven her crazy asking her to change records on the record-player her uncle had given us. The problem was that some of my favorites were on 45s and didn't last too long. I could have put her up the wall asking to hear "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" over and over again (and probably that's why we ended up with that crappy old TV).

 

[ideasrule]

It's things like this that bug me. I can understand a lot of people have no concept of what it was like to follow the Mercury program, the Gemini program, the Apollo program, and, finally, to have man set foot on the Moon. We don't do stuff like that any more, so to a lot of people, that's just stuff from a history book.

We're still fighting the wars from 9/11. How can it be ancient history?

I was describing a *childhood* memory (and pretty early in my childhood, too). 2001 was also the year after I immigrated to Canada. I had no idea about Canadian geography or buildings, let alone American geography or buildings.

 

[ideasrule]

I don't understand 90% of the proper nouns in this thread, but nevertheless, it's interesting to read these posts about what life was like a long time ago.

 

[Moonbear]

I remember going out to play in the snow after a big blizzard. We built snow forts and sledded until we were frozen through. Then we ran inside, stripped off the snowsuits, mittens, hats, scarves, boots and soggy socks and left them to dry and warm by the fireplace while we had hot cocoa or chicken soup. Then we gathered up a dry set of mittens, hats, scarves, boots, socks, and snowsuits, bundled up again, and headed back out into the snow until we were frozen through again!

Or that might just be me remembering shoveling the driveway this weekend.

 

[Moonbear]

And little rocks! Our neighbor had those little porous white rocks on her roof. Those things were responsible for several head knocks and bloody noses.

My first pair of roller skates had been my dad's skates when he was a kid. They were all metal with little leather straps. The base was a metal plate that could be adjusted to the foot size.

Okay, I know we're not that close to the same age, but I had the same kind of roller skates when I was a kid (don't lose the skate key or you couldn't adjust them!). And, it wasn't rocks that did me in, but acorns.

In grade school, we had roller skating parties at the roller rink, and that's where we got to rent the "fancy" rollerskates with 4 urethane wheels and a boot (that never fit quite right so you always got blisters on your feet). Popular lines to a song played at the roller rink were "We don't need no education, we don't need no self-control..." We all sang along to that.

The first video game I had was a box that connected to the TV and had a knob that let you select one of the three games on it...something like pong, jai alai, and paddleball...all three of which basically were played by turning another knob to move the straight line "paddle" up and down to bounce the square ball back and forth.

Eventually we graduated to the Atari 2600, that had Breakout, which was basically the same game, but in color and played with joysticks. We still played pinball in the arcades, along with PacMan, Caterpillar and Space Invaders.

On TV, we watched shows like Starsky and Hutch, Dukes of Hazzard, Wonder Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, and The Muppet Show...oh, and that was a TV where you had to get up and turn knobs to change channels, and whack the side of it when it started to hum or flicker while you were watching.

 

[turbo]

Okay, I know we're not that close to the same age, but I had the same kind of roller skates when I was a kid (don't lose the skate key or you couldn't adjust them!). And, it wasn't rocks that did me in, but acorns.

In grade school, we had roller skating parties at the roller rink, and that's where we got to rent the "fancy" rollerskates with 4 urethane wheels and a boot (that never fit quite right so you always got blisters on your feet). Popular lines to a song played at the roller rink were "We don't need no education, we don't need no self-control..." We all sang along to that.

The first video game I had was a box that connected to the TV and had a knob that let you select one of the three games on it...something like pong, jai alai, and paddleball...all three of which basically were played by turning another knob to move the straight line "paddle" up and down to bounce the square ball back and forth.

Eventually we graduated to the Atari 2600, that had Breakout, which was basically the same game, but in color and played with joysticks. We still played pinball in the arcades, along with PacMan, Caterpillar and Space Invaders.

On TV, we watched shows like Starsky and Hutch, Dukes of Hazzard, Wonder Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, and The Muppet Show...oh, and that was a TV where you had to get up and turn knobs to change channels, and whack the side of it when it started to hum or flicker while you were watching.

You're a baby!

 

[RonL]

My playground when I was about 4 & 5 years old, my friends and I ran through these planes at will, after they had been gutted on the insides, they are headed for the smelter.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/B-32s-walnutridge-1946.jpg


Ron

P.S. some had nose art, the only one that I remember was "cow cow boogie"

For anyone that likes history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walnut_Ridge_Regional_Airport

 

[Evo]

Rat finks, just saw them on Anthony Bourdain. Of course troll dolls.

 

[MotoH]

I remember when they turned GI-Joe into this sissy little plastic man. You used to be able to buy all sorts of accessories for them! Different kits and the like. Now they are these tiny not to scale solid plastic guys with all this goofy tech!

Oh and Stretch armstrong!

 

[edward]

There were no plastic toys when I was a kid. I do remember my old all metal Marx wind up Bulldozer with rubber tracks that could climb over just about anything.

 

[Zantra]

And now a word from the <50 crowd..

I'm a wee tot but...

I remember the 84 world series- or more to the point, the celebrating that went on after, and well into the night. Go Tigers!

I had a pair of those metal skates myself-pre roller blades

Black and white TV that clicked when you changed the channel- and then had to use pliers when the knob broke off

Colecovision, Atari 2600, commadore 128, Amigas, and yes even the pong/Jai Alai thing with the knob controllers. Sega Master System/NES 8-bit and All of these screwed onto the antennae screws on the back of your TV with an RF Converter

I remember the Challenger disaster because I was watching in class on TV when it happened.

Jessica and the well. Or was that more recent ?

I took my first programming class in high school -waterloo basic where we sat at dumb terminals that connected to the mainframe at the local college, which was probably the size of the entire classroom.

I remember when Michael Jackson was alive AND black, and everyone had a red leather jacket and could breakdance.. sigh

Tear down that wall Mr gorbachev

Anyone connecting with this?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eWW_F82HV-A&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eWW_F82HV-A&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Maybe I am weird for my age.

I played with legos, Lincoln logs, slinkies, and silly putty as a kid.

Aside from chess my friends and I mostly played games involving throwing dirt clods at each other and climbing trees.

The first real books (that is not kids books) I owned were Huck Finn and Black Beauty and my first favourite book was the collected adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

The first music I remember listening and liking other than classical was the Benny Goodman Orchestra.

I am withholding more age specific things though.

The first computer game I ever played was on a Commodore 64. It was called Face Maker. The first game system I ever owned though was a Nintendo(still as a kid).

I mostly watched Hanna-Barbera cartoons and I Love Lucy as a kid. When I was little though (young enough that I do not remember it) I watched nothing on tv but Popeye and Love Boat.

While my later books were older my favourite kids books were Pete's Dragon, Jungle Book, and The Black Hole (all Disney).

I owned a record player as a kid but I also owned a boombox.

When I was a kid we didn't have cable except for the year that my grandfather bought a giant satellite dish to get free satellite tv, it was some sort of promotion I think before they encrypted the signal and started making people pay.

 

[Borek]

oh, and that was a TV where you had to get up and turn knobs to change channels, and whack the side of it when it started to hum or flicker while you were watching.

Side whack was for horizontal stripes, for verticals you had to hit the top.

Unless it was a different model.

 

[Danger]

My first record player had a 78 setting... and I needed it.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

In the news, today:

Frisbee inventor dies at 90

SALT LAKE CITY – Walter Fredrick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, has died. He was 90.

...Morrison sold the production and manufacturing rights to his "Pluto Platter" in 1957. The plastic flying disc was later renamed the "Frisbee," with sales surpassing 200 million discs. It is now a staple at beaches and college campuses across the country and spawned sports like Frisbee golf and the team sport Ultimate...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100212/ap_on_sp_ot/us_obit_frisbee_inventor

I loved playing frisbee at the beach with girls in bikinis.

 

[Dembadon]

I remember when they turned GI-Joe into this sissy little plastic man. ...

That happened about the year I was born ('83). I thought you were much younger than me. The G.I. Joes prior to the version about which you are speaking died off around '78 or '79. I was never much into G.I. Joes. I spent a lot of time with Legos.

 

[Andy]

Anyone remember manta force?

 

[turbo]

Anyone remember manta force?

Nope, but when Saturday mornings rolled around, Sky King, Lone Ranger, and Roy Rogers were a pretty good break from cartoons, even if the plots were thin and dorky.

 

[Andy]

Roy rogers? He's john mclanes alter ego isn't he?

 

[turbo]

Hmm, Roy and Dale...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

My first record player had a 78 setting... and I needed it.

We had 78s. For some reason, childrens records were released on 78s long after the music industry had moved to 45s and 33s. I also remember listening to my grandmother's Victrola. It was already very old... probably one of the earliest commercial versions. I think those were all 78s as well.

Lazy Mary will you get up...

 

[turbo]

We had a large collection of 78s, inherited from older relatives. Our console record player played 45s, 33s, and 78s. When the power failed, we sat out on the glassed-in porch and listened to our crank-up spring powered Victrola. 78 only.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

My earliest memories would give you no clue to my age. I think the first thing I remember that might date me is when Hula Hoops came out. Perhaps you can better guess my age if I tell you what I forget, like whether I took my pills or not.

 

[Astronuc]

In the news, today:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100212/ap_on_sp_ot/us_obit_frisbee_inventor

I loved playing frisbee at the beach with girls in bikinis.

and drinking beer.

I liked playing Twister with girls in bikinis.

Actually, I liked doing anything with girls in bikinis!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

and drinking beer.

I liked playing Twister with girls in bikinis.

Actually, I liked doing anything with girls in bikinis!

Uh oh, now don't get me started. I had forgotten about Twister... and volleyball...and 151