I read a blog recently that really struck a chord with me. I've lived long enough that some of the interesting things that have happened during my lifetime, to this point, are pretty funny and sometimes amazing.
I remember when young women wore girdles and stockings every day. To work, college, and any social gathering. Pantyhose made our life so much easier. Not long before that we wore stockings that hooked to our girdles with garters.
Most homes had one, centrally-located, black, table top phone. Everyone made and took calls at this one spot. There were party lines, where more than one family used the same telephone line. You could pick up the receiver and hear talking. I was a telephone operator in Southern Montana and the switchboard had plugs that I would plug in to attach lines to receive a call. I had to memorize the ring for each family. The ring would be one short and two longs or two longs and three shorts...etc. I wasn't supposed to listen in but I did quite a bit. This was pre-answering machine days and no voice mail either.
I remember having a milk truck that would deliver milk in glass bottles to our front door. There were zinc boxes to put the bottles in so they wouldn’t freeze. The tops of the milk bottles had crimped paper caps with the name of the dairy on a disk on the top. The disks became collectibles.
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| Milk Bottle Caps |
I remember long hot nights with a rotary fan moving air around the room. No air conditioning. The fan’s cord was thick and had a woven cloth covering.
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| A Rotary Fan |
I remember real ice boxes a big box on the back porch. A guy would come and drop 50-pounds of block ice into it, using huge tongs, and you would put food in to keep it from spoiling. OK, I barely remember it because it wasn't long after I was born that refrigerators became available.
I remember having a pump in the house that I had to pump water out of by hand. The water was used for cooking or filling up a large metal tub for me to take a bath in. There was no indoor plumbing, no toilet inside. So, of course, I remember using an outhouse every time I had to go to the bathroom. Many of my Alaska friends use them even today.
I remember pulling into a gas station and having a guy (always male) come out, wearing a coverall uniform and a hat, put gas in your car, wash your windshield, and check your oil. You paid for gas, but not for the other work. And no tipping.
I remember having to do the dishes every night after dinner. I had to wash the dishes by hand. I would wash, using a tub of hot soapy water, rinse by dipping the dishes in a tub of clean, hot water, and then placing them on a towel beside the sink area. Another person (if I was lucky) would dry the dishes using linen towels with designs embroidered on them. Glasses, plates, knives and forks, and pans. We always used different towels for utensils.
I remember only have a radio, a huge radio console, in our living room. I would lay in front of it on the floor and listen to my favorite programs. We didn't get a television (black and white only and only one channel) until I was 12 years old.
I remember the first shuttle launch...and how almost impossible it was to imagine a man walking on the moon!
So in my life there have been many inventions and upgrades to those inventions. Why I didn't even start working on or even using a computer until I was in my 30s. Many people didn't even have electric typewriters for a very long time. I actually got my fastest time typing on a manual typewriter (90 wpm) when I was in school. I remember I got a job I really wanted because I knew how to use a new IBM Selectric typewriter. I remember that when I started working on computers that the only operating system we had was DOS. I remember when we didn't even use a mouse. WoW!! So many things.....
Do you remember things from your past like these things???
I hope your weekend is wonderful!!
Janie
When I was a kid we had a milk man and a bread man. The milk man would leave two gallons of milk in our milk box on the front porch. In the winter, the cream would rise to the top and freeze. We'd fight over that frozen cream (ice cream!). A couple of times, my brother would bank a bottle on the front door step and it would break. The bottles were glass, and they were recycled. You'd leave them in the box for the milkman to take back with him.
ReplyDeleteThe bread man would drive slowly down the street like ice cream trucks did. He not only had bread, but he had donuts and other treats too. Every two weeks, when my dad got paid, my mom would buy a dozen donuts. We were so excited!
We had a Charlie Chips guy too. He delivered potato chips and pretzels to homes in the neighborhood. We didn't get them delivered, but my best friend did. They were so good!
My parents didn't invest in central air conditioning until I was well into my teens. Up until they did, we slept with only two box fans. One would go in the front window blowing OUT, and the other would sit in my bedroom window (straight back from the living room) blowing in. This made the cooler night air circulate through the house. I remember nights it was so hot, that I would go to bed with a squirt bottle and spray cool water all over my body trying to cool down.
The day a man walked on the moon I was home sick. It was one of only a handful of days I was home sick. I fainted that morning after slamming my thumb in my dresser drawer. My mom was working part time and left me alone for a couple of hours. I remember I was mad because the only thing on the TV was the moon mission! LOL I was only 10 and didn't realize the significance of the event. I was mad because there were no cartoons to watch.
I remember hot summer days and someone opening the fire hydrants so we could run through them! And playing kick the can with the neighborhood kids, and when everyone would sit on the stoop talking (I was born and raised in Philadelphia). No one stayed inside parked in front of the TV. Everyone sat outside and talked.
Neighbors looked out for each other, and looked after the other kids too. You knew if you did something wrong, someone was going to tell on you!
I wish my sons would have had the childhood I had. By the time I had them (1979 and 1983) kids were starting to be abducted and molested, and our world didn't seem so safe anymore.
Sad...
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By the way... my grandfather was an ice man. He delivered those big blocks of ice with tongs!