What childhood memories can reveal about our age?

[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.