Older Than Dirt

Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'

'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him.

'All the food was slow.'

'C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?'

'It was a place called 'at 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 kid 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 figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levi's, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card.

My parents never drove me to school. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow).

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 19.

It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.

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 all boys delivered newspapers --my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week.. He had to get up at 6AM every morning.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most 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?

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?

*Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.

*Ignition switches on the dashboard.

*Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.

*Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.

*Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about.

Ratings are at the bottom.

1.Candy cigarettes

2.Coffee shops with tableside juke boxes

3.Home milk delivery in glass bottles

4.Party lines on the telephone

5.Newsreels before the movie

6.TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (There were only 3 channels -if you were fortunate.)

7.Peashooters

8. Howdy Doody

9. 45 RPM records

10.Hi-fi's

11. Metal ice trays with lever

12. Blue flashbulb

13.Cork popguns

14. Studebakers

15. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-3 = You're still young

If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older

If you remembered 7-10 = Don't tell your age,

If you remembered 11-15 =You're older than dirt!

The Next Story

Return To Best Inspirational Stories

Go To The Homepage From Older Than Dirt

Read some of the
poems
and stories
visitors have shared.

Popular Searches
.

Contact
Bereavement Poem
Be A Friend
Healing Begins
Garden Stones
Inspirational Life Quotes

Please Contact
If You Have
Something Inspirational
To Share.