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Title: Gotta Be Over 40 to Understand
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Published: Jun 9, 2006
Author: unkonwn
Post Date: 2006-06-09 13:05:30 by Jethro Tull
Keywords: None
Views: 3410
Comments: 232
Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't get food poisoning. My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat a bite raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper, in a brown paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but I can't remember anybody getting e.coli. Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then. The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system. We all took gym, not PE... and risked permanent injury with a pair of hightop Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built-in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened, because they tell us how much safer we are now.... Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything, and she could even give you an aspirin for a headache or fever. I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself. Oh yeah..and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed! We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked! Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat. We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either, because if we did, we got our butt spanked there, and then we got butt spanked again when we got home. I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house. Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a "dysfunctional family". How could we possibly have known that we needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac! How did we ever survive?
Poster Comment: LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA, AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T---- SORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED. I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING
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#76. To: mehitable (#70)
I also drew the line........myself and gram wasn't allowed to do it to my kids, though she could make a 'plaster' to put in their chest when they had a cold or were congested.
Au contraire...there are actually KITE STORES here and there around America. Of course, they are those 'prissy' ones...the long, flowing multi-colored tails instead of the tails we made out of old sheets.
I don't drink them either. HOWEVER,if I thought I could get a glass-bottled RC Royal Crown Cola, the real thing, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Well.....I'd probably have to have 2 cause one I'd have to stick some peanuts in the bottle for old times sake! :)
That's great to know, thanks! The medical "professionals" try to keep us from any kind of self care. Don't know how people survived this long without Harvard Medical School.
"I woke up in the CRAZY HOUSE."
Well.............back to reality! Gotta run (drive) to the store (grocery store) and get some dog food else Luv will think I don't love her anymore! Later........
LOL...no wonder those are gone...just like those vending machines where the goodies hung from hooks front to back, so when you put a quarter in; the hooks would rotate forward and drop the item into the drawer below. Screw that...rock the machine back and forth, and goodies would fall like a hail during a thunderstorm into the drawer. Free candy...now we're talking.
One thing that never changes....puppy love!!!
"I woke up in the CRAZY HOUSE."
Yeah...great for picking up girls. Unfortunately; I used baseball cards. I ruined an ass-load of $1000 'rookie cards'.
Still considered a nutrious breakfast in the Southern Appalachians; if served with a moon-pie.
If you're a rats ass over 40, or lived away from urban areas, you could find coinage circulating from all the way back to the 1800's, because the composition was consistent. Since you were young and oblivious at the time though, you might spend the buffalo and V nickels, the Indian Cents, and the Barber and Mercury dimes on penny candy and $0.15-0.25 comics :-) Not only did "Co' Cola" (Coke) and other sodas come in super thick bottles that often showed the wear on the high points of being refilled dozens of times, but you could get a whole nickel or dime for them at the supermarket and the deposit wasn't a government mandate, it was because the company wanted them back for re-use. At the general store I worked at while a young teen, old people would ask me to put their purchases in a "poke", and were surprised when I pulled out a paper bag knowing the phrase. The hitching posts still were used there too! Grandparents (and I am blessed with having all of mine still) possessed doorways to alternative universes called "The Atttic" or "The Shop" or "Garage" where gadgets, tools and clothing existed from times so far back people didn't use the stuff anymore (which often puzzles said grandparents too). Parts got washed in gasoline. On farms and in the country, that gasoline frequently also ran air cooled 4 stroke engines made of cast iron which were majorly heavy, but never seemed to wear out and if they started using oil you could replaces the rings or pistons after having honed out the cylinder with a cut coffee can wrapped with emory cloth attached to a drill. If you spun a crank bearing, even on cars, you could drop the oil pan, pull the rod end cap and push the upper part off the crank, polish the surface and put new babbit bearings in and be on your way. Even I got to work at a gas station where you weren't charged more for full service, and the full service included windshield and window cleaning, fluid check, and tire pressure check. Fresca was made with real sugar, and Grandma always had those big returnable bottles of it on hot summer days. I-66 did not exist to connect to I-81 in the Shenandoah valley. In order to go to the grandparents cabin in the mountains you had to take a circuitous route over two sets of mountains on State Route 29 and 211. While the specific place will mean little to most, the connection resulted in the decline and dissappearance of a host of Mom and Pop restaurants, highway stands and curio shops. There was always something odd, new or noteworthy about that route. Afterwards it just became a ribbon of concrete and interstate traffic with the only thought being "can I do this any faster than the last time" whereas before if it took you 4.5 hours your only thought was "That was THAT long?!?!"
"To wield onself -- to use oneself as a tool in one's own hand -- and so to make or break that which no one else can build or ruin -- THAT is the greatest pleasure known to man! To one who has felt the chisel in his hand and set free the angel prisoned in the marble block, or to one who has felt sword in hand and set homeless the soul that a moment before lived in the body of his mortal enemy -- to those both come alike the taste of that rare food spread only for demons or for gods." -- Gordon R. Dickson, "Soldier Ask Not"
I actually grew up in an old neighborhood in inner city Boston - we still had hitching rings on the street. They were simple iron rings, but they used to fascinate me when I was a kid thinking about the horses that used to be tied up there. We still had horse drawn carts with fruit and vegetable peddlers too, and a real ice box until I was a toddler.
"I woke up in the CRAZY HOUSE."
BWAHHAHAHA!!! I did that too when Dad was stationed in Alabama and Georgia!
"To wield onself -- to use oneself as a tool in one's own hand -- and so to make or break that which no one else can build or ruin -- THAT is the greatest pleasure known to man! To one who has felt the chisel in his hand and set free the angel prisoned in the marble block, or to one who has felt sword in hand and set homeless the soul that a moment before lived in the body of his mortal enemy -- to those both come alike the taste of that rare food spread only for demons or for gods." -- Gordon R. Dickson, "Soldier Ask Not"
Let this thread never end...
"To wield onself -- to use oneself as a tool in one's own hand -- and so to make or break that which no one else can build or ruin -- THAT is the greatest pleasure known to man! To one who has felt the chisel in his hand and set free the angel prisoned in the marble block, or to one who has felt sword in hand and set homeless the soul that a moment before lived in the body of his mortal enemy -- to those both come alike the taste of that rare food spread only for demons or for gods." -- Gordon R. Dickson, "Soldier Ask Not"
Only thing is........dang, it burned. "To wield onself -- to use oneself as a tool in one's own hand -- and so to make or break that which no one else can build or ruin -- THAT is the greatest pleasure known to man! To one who has felt the chisel in his hand and set free the angel prisoned in the marble block, or to one who has felt sword in hand and set homeless the soul that a moment before lived in the body of his mortal enemy -- to those both come alike the taste of that rare food spread only for demons or for gods." -- Gordon R. Dickson, "Soldier Ask Not"
Yes, the simple, and often simple-minded, things that we did and enjoyed back in the day, I fear may be forever lost; except in our memories.
My parents have one of the ice boxes as a phone stand. My mom has been real retentive about having the grandparents record their memories and also of gathering up items from the extended family to preserve. Back at their place they have stuf like an 1890's tredle [sp?] Singer sewing machine and a hand crank phone from the turn of the century. We lost some spectacular stuff when the will was contested at my great grandfathers death (by a distant aunt, he'd outlived 5 of 6 wives so he had some progeny scattered around). Saw an axe made by a 7 generations back father (It had his initials and 1723 burned into the home made handle) go to the witch, and saw my great grandfathers surveying set go to a museum in Elkton. I wanted that set so damn bad...
"To wield onself -- to use oneself as a tool in one's own hand -- and so to make or break that which no one else can build or ruin -- THAT is the greatest pleasure known to man! To one who has felt the chisel in his hand and set free the angel prisoned in the marble block, or to one who has felt sword in hand and set homeless the soul that a moment before lived in the body of his mortal enemy -- to those both come alike the taste of that rare food spread only for demons or for gods." -- Gordon R. Dickson, "Soldier Ask Not"
Though, for hope, one can always keep the ember kindled by taking time to chat up the neighbors on a warm evening, turn off the TV, find an old reel style mower to cut the grass (or a "Big Wheel" style gas powered one with the cast iron Clinton engine...) "To wield onself -- to use oneself as a tool in one's own hand -- and so to make or break that which no one else can build or ruin -- THAT is the greatest pleasure known to man! To one who has felt the chisel in his hand and set free the angel prisoned in the marble block, or to one who has felt sword in hand and set homeless the soul that a moment before lived in the body of his mortal enemy -- to those both come alike the taste of that rare food spread only for demons or for gods." -- Gordon R. Dickson, "Soldier Ask Not"
It did! :-D
*sigh* great post, Ax.
Funny how we thought nothing of buying Coke in those chipped up used bottles. I
can personally attest to the indestructibility of them. As hard as we tried,
they’d rarely shatter. But if they did, the chunks became little land minds
capable of blowing out any size car tire.
yeah, but i dont got no boyfriend.....got a lot of admirers, tho... dang...if i wuz gay, i could be a player.... funny, im at this seminar in denver, and like, damn near all the hotel front desk guys are gay.... i approach the counter, and theres always at least one chick back there...i get to like ten feet out and the guys are all...'can i help you sir?' uh yeah, i need help with my sense of style and design.
'We shall no longer hang on to the tails of public opinion, or to a non-existent authority, on matters utterly unknown and strange. We shall gradually become experts ourselves in the mastery of the knowledge of the future.' ~ Wilhelm Reich
Used to be used alot. It sometimes turns your teeth orange I think.
Mumbly peg! I don't miss that one.
and we didn't have no cell phones with GPS Big Brother tracking either, just 2cans and a string.
The mind once expanded by a new idea never returns to its' original size
I always wanted one of these
Funny Grumble. I really should comb the back woods of Centre County...
Had they tried this Big Brother crap back then it would have met some resistance, for sure. Now it's been eased in over the past 30 years and the sheeple simply bend over.
Right and the Title on FR s/b "You have to be under 40 (IQ)"
The mind once expanded by a new idea never returns to its' original size
Puppy love.........and first loves. *sigh*
Dang it all....I may have to reconsider the Carolinas! LOL.
Hey, yeah.......I remember that coke bottle deposit stuff. Remember the name Fresca, too, though I never drank it. And I remember full service ALL the time at service stations. I used to work for Atlantic Richfield, ARCO. I can remember gas wars when gas that was usually selling for 15 or 16 cents a gallon would get all the way down to something like 8 or 9 cents a gallon. Diesel was a 'waste' product, normally selling for well below gas (like maybe 8 or 9 cents) and how, I think it is higher than gas.
Regarding that spraying.....it's really been a very long time ago, but I think the crop dusting planes used in the San Joaquin Valley in Californicate also spray for 'skeeters' with DDT.
Something sort of rings a bell.......don't know if it's the name, or the green color. I can remember it being kept on a shelf in the bathroom--not a medicine cabinet shelf, but a linen shelf where other stuff like that was kept.
This thread is sooooo neat. I learned to sew on my Mom's old, ancient treadle Singer machine. In fact, she wishes she still had it because these new fangled ones just aren't as dependable or reliable as the old treadle ones were. I had a boss at Atlantic Richfield who inherited one of those; Bob wound up taking the guts out of the machine and making the cabinet a table for house plants. It was a beautiful piece. At the ranch in Montana, I 'inherited' a couple of old treadles. My husband had done a lot of woodworking and he tried to restore--but they were simply too far gone. I was lucky that he was able to finish a replica old-fashioned ice box for me out of oak before he died.
. Oh yeah...........you, too!!!!
me too(late) you row(dee) aka me Tarzan you jane
The mind once expanded by a new idea never returns to its' original size
That one is from about the late '60s -early '70s then they stopped making them. The earlier ones are better. The painting is more Rockwell-like and the back is a Coke bottle. I haven't seen one in almost 40 years.
Funny - thanks. (Sadly, true)
Comments (117 - 232) not displayed.
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#77. To: Grumble Jones (#50)
Kites...nobody flies kites anymore.
#78. To: who knows what evil (#73)
#79. To: Grumble Jones (#72)
#80. To: All (#78)
#81. To: Grumble Jones (#55)
We would open the bottle and hold a cup under it...lol...free soda
#82. To: rowdee (#80)
#83. To: lodwick (#57)
Remember clothespinning playing cards on your bike's fork for the neat effect?
#84. To: rowdee (#78)
HOWEVER,if I thought I could get a glass-bottled RC Royal Crown Cola, the real thing, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
#85. To: all (#84)
#86. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
#87. To: Axenolith (#86)
The hitching posts still were used there too!
#88. To: lodwick (#26)
running behind the mosquito-spraying truck sucking up whatever chemicals...
#89. To: Grumble Jones (#47)
Yep....I can remember that unique smell when I opened a bottle of Coke. The cross between the smell of the Coke and the cork lined caps...ahhhh.
#90. To: rowdee (#56)
There was some sort of horse salve [sorry, having one of those sometimers moments here] that my parents thought cured most everything on the exterior. The least cut, and out it came. Chapped? Bring it on.......
#91. To: Axenolith (#89)
Let this thread never end...
#92. To: mehitable (#87)
and a real ice box until I was a toddler.
#93. To: All (#91)
#94. To: Grumble Jones (#93)
Damn - that stuff should cure whatever ails you.
#95. To: lodwick (#91)
Yes, the simple, and often simple-minded, things that we did and enjoyed back in the day, I fear may be forever lost; except in our memories.
#96. To: lodwick (#94)
#97. To: Axenolith (#86)
While the specific place will mean little to most, the connection resulted in the decline and dissappearance of a host of Mom and Pop restaurants, highway stands and curio shops. There was always something odd, new or noteworthy about that route. Afterwards it just became a ribbon of concrete and interstate traffic with the only thought being "can I do this any faster than the last time" whereas before if it took you 4.5 hours your only thought was "That was THAT long?!?!"
#98. To: Axenolith (#86)
Not only did "Co' Cola" (Coke) and other sodas come in super
thick bottles that often showed the wear on the high points of being refilled
dozens of times, but you could get a whole nickel or dime for them at the
supermarket and the deposit wasn't a government mandate, it was because the
company wanted them back for re-use.
#99. To: christine (#20)
hey, and i was on the handlebars of boyfriend's bikes many a time...try that nowadays!
#100. To: mehitable (#69)
Can people use tetracycline?
#101. To: lodwick (#91)
Yes, the simple, and often simple-minded, things that we did and enjoyed back in the day, I fear may be forever lost; except in our memories.
#102. To: Jethro Tull (#98)
#103. To: Itisa1mosttoolate (#102)
#104. To: Grumble Jones (#103)
#105. To: Itisa1mosttoolate (#102)
#106. To: Jethro Tull (#105)
#107. To: mehitable (#82)
#108. To: who knows what evil (#84)
#109. To: Axenolith (#86)
#110. To: Axenolith, lodwick (#88)
#111. To: Axenolith (#90)
#112. To: Axenolith (#92)
#113. To: Itisa1mosttoolate (#102)
just 2cans and a string.
#114. To: rowdee (#113)
#115. To: Jethro Tull (#104)
#116. To: Itisa1mosttoolate (#106)
Right and the Title on FR s/b "You have to be under 40 (IQ)"
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