Author	[Modern View]
pete black 01-12-2013 08:41:32 166.205.68.22 Report to Moderator	you might be, if: you straddled a drainage ditch with your car to work underneath it. the bottom plate for the bumper jack was left in the mud from the last time you used it. using a bumper jack and the bumper moves several inches before it lifts the frame. lifting the frame and suspension is still to low to change tire. car jacked up, starts to roll and you grab the top of the bumper jack to stop it and pinches hand. the emergency kit in trunk was; 3 quarts of oil, 2 spare tires with the cords showing, a scrap piece of lumber for the bumper jack plate and an empty coal oil can. if you ran out of gas in-route and walked to the filling station with the coal oil can. didn't have your own can, the filling station attendant would loan you an empty can, usually a metal anti-freeze can with a punch can opener hole in it. his last statement to you, be sure and return the can, please. the kitchen sink had an outside style faucet on it and it was cold water only. later on it had a soap dish attached to it between the faucets and it held lava soap. you had a swing out towel rack mounted on the wall near the sink. it usually had 3 racks. 1 for hands, 1 for dishes and 1 for whatever else needed swiping. mom hollering out; who wiped their greasy hands on my towels? the cabinet underneath the sink had a curtain over the opening and it held all kinds of posions. the sink had a rubber stopper with a chain attached to it. the sink typically just drained to the outside on top of ground. this is where you dug for your fishing worms. the bed springs required slats and sometimes they would bounce out. oh, the inhumanity of that. people really did use old bed springs for tv antennas. use a car differential on tv antenna pole to change direction of antenna. if you were real ingenuous, the drive shaft extended inside so you could fine tune for yourself. entering the back door without mom knowing and she hollers out; wipe your feet or don't slam the door. the only thing you washed at night was your feet. sliced bread came in a cellophane wrapper with a useless sticky tab to reseal. in your 50's? the twisty ties with the expiration date printed on them. grass control, if any, a push reel mower. weed control, a sling blade. brush control, a bush hook. saturdays as followed: tv; westerns first, cartoons second then outside to play for awhile. afternoon movie theater-serial, previews, cartoon and then the movie. end of afternoon movie they would make you leave the theater. after movie it was to the five and ten store. not to belittle some, but that stood for five cents and ten cents. every thing from clothes, hardware, toys and home of the cheap perfume. stop by lunch counter only to smell and lust; no money. walk home to hamburgers cooked in an iron skillet and an rc cola. speaking of cartoons; remember these? little lulu, baby huey, woody woodpecker, heckle and jeckle, speedy gonzales. [Reply]   [No Email]
Richard from SE AZ 01-12-2013 21:36:22 206.169.89.203 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to pete black, 01-12-2013 08:41:32   How about the glass bottles with the attached funnel that held bulk oil ( motor oil out of a 55 gal drum) cuz it was cheaper than oil in cans. Usually a rack full of them at all service stations. [Reply]  [No Email]
super99 01-12-2013 17:09:21 74.32.242.52 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to pete black, 01-12-2013 08:41:32   I was born in 1951, remember all of these things. BUT, no one mentioned the honey bucket (chamber pot to you young'uns). As a little kid, being afraid to use the outhouse because the bees were flying around the seat. Slop bucket outside the back door that was dumped to the pigs. Dad had a 56 Chevy with a 283 automatic. Whenever he saw a fox on the gravel(dirt) road, he would mash the accellerator and run it down and cut the ears off for the bounty. Walking soybeans cutting out the weeds. Our church had a coal furnace with a large square grate in the floor in front of the pulpit. All us kids would stand on it to get warmed up before Sunday School started and drop our pennies thru the grate to hear them rattle around the ductwork. I'll think of more later, Chris [Reply]  [No Email]
VicS 01-12-2013 16:11:54 70.195.11.109 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to pete black, 01-12-2013 08:41:32   Yep I remember it all. Sure is nice in here, temp 72. Don"t have to do anything to keep it that way! Do have a wood stove in the basement for emergencys. And a little dry wood in the shed. Plus a generator in the shop. We couldn"t live without a TV could we? :-) Vic [Reply]  [No Email]
Ralphwd45 01-12-2013 13:29:18 66.243.215.13 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to pete black, 01-12-2013 08:41:32   I am 73, and remember everything that Pete talked about, aparently he came from a poor farm family also! Our first TV came when I got one in 68 when I got married. When we went to town in the bed of dads 49 chevy pickup, on sat night to get groceries, mom and dad rode in front with whoever was the baby at the time, and us kids rode in back. we would only see TV when we went in the John Deere dealers show room, and he had coke for a nickle, and Blackstone the magician on his TV.There ended up being 6 of us kids by 1951,and we didn't know that we were poor. I wouldn't trade my life with anyone, and am happy that I learned to harness horses, ride a gelding of my own,cultivate corn with hand lift cultivators on a F20 Farmall, plow with a L Case, where you dropped the front wheel in the furrow, and set back and almost steered it self,scoop off ear corn, into the elevator going up to the roof of the corn crib, and hurry back to the field with the empty wagon, to pickup the wagon dad was filling. Bucking bales for the neighbors to earn 1 1/2 cents a bale for spending money,being taught to help a cow , by pulling a calf, that didn't want to come out in 20 deg weather( don't blame it), swimming in a somewhat muddy hole in Little Blue creek, catching Blue Gill and sunfish, with a cane pole, hunting squirels, with an old single shot 410, which I used in the stalk fields in the winter, to get cottontail rabbits. Dad was stingy with shells, but didn't mind if you brought in squirels, or rabbits. THOSE WERE GOOD DAYS! [Reply]  [No Email]
MSD 01-12-2013 12:44:29 67.4.60.56 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to pete black, 01-12-2013 08:41:32   How many peeked where you shouldn't have in the front of the Sears catalogue out in the out house? When peaches were in season we had really nice tp. Used the bumper jack to get unstuck more than once on our weekly hunting expeditions. Jacked the car up as high as you could and have somebody give the car some gas when you pushed it ahead. When it fell off the jack nine out of ten times it came unstuck. [Reply]  [No Email]
Retired Farmer 01-12-2013 12:26:30 207.200.116.74 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to pete black, 01-12-2013 08:41:32   I forgot one. Walking down the highway three miles or riding bike to my aunt and uncle's store, stopping along the way to pick up pop bottles and aluminum beer cans to turn in for a nickle or dime,usually found enough to buy two bottles of pop at a dime apiece. [Reply]  [No Email]
D Slater 01-12-2013 12:16:06 184.15.8.141 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to pete black, 01-12-2013 08:41:32   Also the gas pump dials turned faster for gallons than price. Didn't know enough about politics to get upset. Lots of trips you carried something to eat or drink, no fast food at most exits or wide spots in the road. Started growing up with no interstate highway around. [Reply]  [No Email]
Pops1532 01-12-2013 11:31:40 68.58.114.55 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to pete black, 01-12-2013 08:41:32   Life was so simple back then. People worked harder but I truly believe they were happier. [Reply]  [No Email]
theoldtexasfarmer 01-12-2013 11:11:41 108.71.188.64 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to pete black, 01-12-2013 08:41:32   There was a bucket on the back porch wher mom poured dish water and vegetable peelings and you were constantly being told to empty it across the fence.....Hot water was a kettle on the stove.....Weak water well so bath was a kettle of hot water and 5 gallons of cold water and reused by father and then used to flush toilet.....bathroom put in by father before he married a city gal....kitchen sink and hot water heater came later......all heaters turned off at night.....going to church in thin suit pants and feeling the cold from plastic seat covers......cars without heaters(optional in Texas).....having only two pair of jeans and always to short.....How did we live like that? [Reply]  [No Email]
theoldtexasfarmer 01-12-2013 11:53:27 108.71.188.64 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to theoldtexasfarmer, 01-12-2013 11:11:41   More......Gras control in yard was the milk cow and her calf.....father milking cow twice a day,mother pasturizing milk with a modern electric pasturizer,mother making cottage cheese and butter,making ice cream in deep freezer out in an outside barn and running out to stir it....washing clothes in a wringer washer on the back porch.....watching uncle knock a calf in the head then cutting its throat,then father and uncle pulling it up on a block and tackle,skinning it and butchering it ,then freezeing it in their Sears Coldspot freezers.Liver and brains werent frozen but were for supper on butchering day.......salting the hide to sell at the hide house.....My wife says I should write these memories down as the kids dont believe me.......I still have and use my fathers and uncles tractor,1949 farmall super A,along with an assortment of mule drawn implements. [Reply]  [No Email]
pete black 01-12-2013 12:20:15 166.205.55.37 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to theoldtexasfarmer, 01-12-2013 11:53:27   i was raised on the edge of the city but in the fifties there was rural ways. when i was about 12 i had walked up the street to a friends house where his dad cut hair on the back porch for 25 cents. walking back home there was a group of men around an old shed with a calf tied to it. i walked up just in time to see a man draw back with a sledge hammer and hit it right between the eyes. the calf just sorta blinked and looked at him. he drew back and hit the calf again and this time the calf just crumbled down dead. man i left scared to death and never told anyone about for a long time. [Reply]  [No Email]
1970-1655 01-12-2013 10:54:42 50.127.120.207 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to pete black, 01-12-2013 08:41:32   I remember mom's uncle had a hole in the wall about the size of his fist. When he wanted to turn the TV antenna, he would reach out the hole and rotate it. This is in Indiana, summer or winter. The restroom/reading room where I grew up was outdoors until 1964. My daughter still lives in a place that has that convenience. [Reply]  [No Email]
Fixerupper 01-12-2013 10:12:42 100.42.82.30 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to pete black, 01-12-2013 08:41:32   I still have the soap dish you mentioned, hung between the two faucets on the entryway sink. The old one that was on there since I was a kid rusted out and a new one was nowhere to be found anymore. One day about ten years ago I walked into the old hardware store in Cordell OK when I was on the harvest and found one. He had two of them and didn't know what to charge cause they had been there so long. He finally asked if I'd pay two bucks for the one I bought. I've been kicking myself ever since then for not buying both of them. Jim [Reply]  [No Email]
Tinker In TN 01-12-2013 09:35:41 98.240.23.241 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to pete black, 01-12-2013 08:41:32   What about the newsreels shown at the theaters? [Reply]  [No Email]
Dave Sherburne NY 01-12-2013 10:30:52 50.48.57.19 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to Tinker In TN, 01-12-2013 09:35:41   Here you go http://www.britishpathe.com/video/queen opens new victoria line/query/queen tube [Reply]  [No Email]
RN 01-12-2013 09:26:19 205.213.104.118 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to pete black, 01-12-2013 08:41:32   And perhaps the toilet was outside a couple hundred feet from kitchen door in a little shed?? And bath tub was hung on wall until saturday night when it was set on floor close to wood stove that heated water so you could get scrubbed for church next day? The horse mower and rake still had long tongues-and the 2 old draft horses were still used on them? And the first bought tractor had hand crank only, no lights, and hand levers for equipment? The "new" tractor had electric start and a light, hydraulic lift for the cultivator- all the "options" at the time? RN. [Reply]  [No Email]
WGWKy2 01-12-2013 09:13:41 98.23.57.82 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to pete black, 01-12-2013 08:41:32   Yep, you bout covered it, cept the cardboard windows with peep holes on the car. [Reply]  [No Email]
in-too-deep 01-12-2013 09:09:23 70.197.197.163 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to pete black, 01-12-2013 08:41:32   Mmmmm RC [Reply]  [No Email]
Billy Shafer 01-12-2013 12:36:34 173.184.45.8 Report to Moderator	Re: in your sixties? in reply to in-too-deep, 01-12-2013 09:09:23   That should be RC cocacola and a moon pie. My mother cleaned everything with Borax. Took many baths with Lava soap. Skin was always red. [Reply]  [No Email]