What was it like "back then"?

[The Voice of Reason]

Thanks, Ceridwen. Every member on here has memories such as mine - yours are simply newer. In time, your's will be the "old days" memories, and you'll be talking to someone that looks at you with a mixture of respect and contempt. C'est la vie.

In response to your statement that you didn't realize the true importance of 9/11 until a few days later, that is a trait that you should retain. To many people react too quickly to an event, without giving time the opportunity to let them digest what they have just experienced. I know that we are on opposite sides of the aisle politically, so I'll use an example in that arena:
When Reagan ran against Carter, I voted for Reagan. He said the right things, about the right issues (the economy) and Carter was left holding the bag. After four years, it was obvious (to me, at least) that supply side economics were a scheme to take from the poor and give to the rich. Funny thing - in the primaries for that election, EVERY one of the Republican candidates called supply side economics "Voodoo" economics because they understood what I did not. After Reagan won the candidacy, all of a sudden, "supply side" economics was a viable answer to these same Republicans - because they could win the White House with it.
I didn't vote for Reagan on his second term, for a variety of reasons, but I retained the lesson on "supply side" economics, and I see them being validated again, with George W. Bush and a deficit that staggers the imagination.

So, hang on to your memories - they are worth more than just the "warm fuzzies" that we get from them. Just as the old saying goes - "Those that do not learn from History are doomed to repeat it".

Thanks,
TVOR

 

[½ Sane]

I remember this very well. :biglaugh:

I used to hide nude girlie picture in T-shirts I kept rolled up in my shirt drawer so my parents wouldn’t find them. We had a cookout at church one very hot day and when it was over they needed help taking down the canopies and folding up the chairs. Being young I was always asked to help out after church activities so I would bring old clothes to change into knowing I would sweat terribly.

I went out to the car and got my clothes that were rolled up in a ball and walked back to where everyone was gathered. I told the pastor I needed to go to the bathroom to change clothes but some ladies were trying to get to coolers under a table that need to be moved first. The pastor asked me to lift the other end of the table so I handed by balled up clothes to one of the old ladies standing next to me.

I had no idea my nude girlie pictures were in the shirt and you know old ladies don’t like seeing clothes rolled up in a ball. She unrolled them and you know what fell out on the ground in front of the entire church congregation and my parents?

I don’t know why I’m sharing this. :banghead3 :biglaugh:

 

[Melody]

I remember......

The day JFK was shot - walking home with my aunt (4 years older) who was sobbing and (me) not really understanding what was going on...just that we got out of school early.

Life before seatbelts -- going on vacation in a VW bug with my parents, 3 brothers and sister. We looked like the clown car at the circus.

Getting my license and paying .38 a gallon for gas.

Buying a 12 oz bottle of Coke for ten cents.

Watching Neil Armstrong take his first step on the moon.

The end of the Vietnam War the year before I graduated from high school and the relief I felt at knowing none of my classmates would have to go fight and possibly die.

Mini skirs, midi skirts, maxi skirts, and platform shoes.

Ironing my hair so it would hang perfectly straight.

The first video game - Pong

The Beatles

Nixon and Watergate

The Manson murders

Hippies and flower children

Wringer washing machines and hanging clothes on the line because only the well to do had dryers.

I'm sure there's more and I'm just blocking it out

 

[The Voice of Reason]

I went out to the car and got my clothes that were rolled up in a ball and walked back to where everyone was gathered. I told the pastor I needed to go to the bathroom to change clothes but some ladies were trying to get to coolers under a table that need to be moved first. The pastor asked me to lift the other end of the table so I handed by balled up clothes to one of the old ladies standing next to me.

I had no idea my nude girlie pictures were in the shirt and you know old ladies don’t like seeing clothes rolled up in a ball. She unrolled them and you know what fell out on the ground in front of the entire church congregation and my parents?

Don't leave us hanging - did you get that table moved or not?

TVOR

 

[½ Sane]

did you get that table moved or not?

TVOR

Actually no I didn’t. The pastor was cool about it. :jam: He took me in his office and explained a few things. The only person that wouldn’t let me live it down was the piano lady.

Until I caught her smoking a cigarette one day on her back porch. :biglaugh:

 

[Fat Old Sun]

I remember going to the store with $2.00 to get cigarettes for my parents. Yes, they would sell cigarettes to a five year old back then. I would get a pack for my mother, a pack for my father, catch the ice cream truck on the way home, and still have a nickel left.

I remember the summer of '76, when everything here was red, white, & blue.

I remember thinking that Jimmy Carter was the most boring person who had ever lived, and couldn't figure out why they would put him on all five channels all the time.

I remember having only five channels.

I remember when I was the remote control. I always got in trouble for spinning the dial too fast.

I remember hearing Jimmy Page's guitar solo on Whole Lotta Love and instantly thinking "I have to have a guitar."

I remember the original cast of Saturday Night Live.

I also remember when Steve Martin and Chevy Chase were funny.

I remember standing in the unemployment line with my mother in that nasty, crowded, hot, humid building in Detroit. It would take almost half the day to get through because it seemed like half the city was there too.

I remember when the first Taco Bell opened in Detroit.

I remember when parents said things like, "Eat your meat, it's good for you."

I remember being afraid of going to war with the Soviet Union.

I remember the day that John Belushi died

I remember the first time The Who performed their last show ever. :biglaugh:

I remember listening to Ronald Reagan and deciding that I was going to be a Republican.

I remember listening to Ralph Reed and deciding that if this clown was still around in a year that I was not going to be a Republican anymore.

I remember when condoms were just back up in case you met a girl who wasn't on the pill.

I remember when AIDS was just a gay thing.

I remember the first time that someone I knew died of AIDS, and the second, and the third.

I remember when Michael Jackson was cool... and black

I remember when Mtv played music, and some of it was even good.

I remember when we liked Iraq because they didn't like Iran.

I remember when we liked Osama Bin Laden because he didn't like the Soviet Union.

I remember being the first kid in town to have a mountain bike.

I was also the last kid in town to have moon boots.

I know I remember all kinds of other crap, but I'm so tired right now, I can't remember. If I remember later, maybe I'll remember to post more.

 

[Scuba Pete]

Oh... I almost forgot Trenton Florida...

The year was 62 or 63 and we moved to a little one light town just west of Gainesville called Trenton. My mom got a job there as a school teacher. This was the VERY FIRST INTEGRATED SCHOOL IN THE SOUTH. You see they had both white and black schools on the same plot of land!

Paula Dempsey was my next door neighbor and she lived a block away (the next house). School was let out for a week in the Spring to pick watermelons. I had to go help, though I don't think I got paid. I remember chasing snakes through the melon patch and the farmer yelling at us to get back to work. One day after we had finished, her daddy found me playing with the "colored kids" near some sink holes. He whipped me until my butt bled. I was so ashamed I didn't tell my mom, but she saw it during my bath time. She blamed my dad. I remember the trip to Chiefland for the Watermelon festival. I had my first taste of a snowcone.

I remember when the Suwannee flooded and we had to wade through some of the streets. We weren't worried about the gators as much as the leeches.

I was in first grade back then, and Mr Dempsey would always let me have a sip of his beer when I came over on Saturday to play with Paula. I remember how she used to tell me we were going to get married some day. I think that's why I moved!

 

[The Voice of Reason]

I remember having only five channels.

I remember three channels - and no matter where you lived, you could only get the signal for two of them. If you wanted to watch something on the other channel you had to visit someone that lived on a hilltop.

I remember listening to Ronald Reagan and deciding that I was going to be a Republican.

I remember listening to Ralph Reed and deciding that if this clown was still around in a year that I was not going to be a Republican anymore.

LOL - GREAT use of juxtaposition. Absolutely great.


TVOR

 

[The Voice of Reason]

I remember how she used to tell me we were going to get married some day. I think that's why I moved!

She sounds like she was quite the tease.

You made me think back to the first girl that I liked - she was a Japanese girl named Sun. Beautiful hair, knockout smile, great skin - all this and she had a neat lunchbucket that was shaped just like a schoolbus. I tell you NetDoc, she had it all. The complete package. Be still my beating heart.

TVOR

PS - I still carry the scars of an unrequited love. Then, in the second grade.....

 

[Faust]

I remember being able to remember.

Faust.

 

[Yerda]

Nostalgia is an uncomfortably beautiful feeling. A homely itch you'll scratch relentlessly and still hope it wont go away.

 

[Faust]

Progress,far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness...
those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana

History repeats itself. That's one of the things wrong with history.
Clarence Darrow

I like history.
Faust.

 

[t3gah]

My parents talked about and still talk about the events that formed this country. They told me that the whole world was scared when JFK had his hand on 'the button' and they also told me that they remember when Martin Luther King, Jr. was marching and many things went crazy, etc. They also told me that they and evryone else they knew wept for days when both JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. were gunned down, be they white, black, hispanic, oriental, asian, etc.

But the good stuff they remember was a loaf of bread that costing pennies. The space program and everyone 'glued' to their miniture screen/humungous box televisions. Or listening to the radio's that we now see in museums.

My dad remembered World War II when he was a kid and how scary the whole thing was. My dad being of oriental descent got interrogated or rather looked over because they thought he was a japanese child, etc. My grandfather talked about that too.

Then there was the depression which my dad relayed was tough but he obviously made due by working whatever job was available no matter what pay scale it was.

My parents said the 40's and 50's were the "quiet times" of US history. And then came the 60's which my parents just freaked out about. Vietnam, the drugs, long hair, everyone's behaviour changing like it was a twilight zone movie.

Just goes to show. The USA is one dangerous and weird place.

 

[martha]

I remember my first apartment of four rooms costing $ 85.00 a month. I remember when the Catholic Mass was in Latin. I remember green stamps that we would save and paste in a book to turn in for some great gifts. I remember my first Barbie doll. I remember when the Beatles came to America. I remember the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I wonder what ever happened to him? I remember the phrase "Never underestimate the power of a woman", when women's lib was coming into fashion. I was child of the sixties, and wore Nehru jackets, beads,elephant bell bottoms and flowers.

I remember being terrified when we had our "duck and cover " drills at school. We all had to run out into the school corridors when the siren went off and get down on our knees on the floor in preparation for a possible bombing.

I remember my first English Racer bike. I remember smoking pot...but I never inhaled...yeah right!

I remember Buster Brown shoes, boy I hated them. I remember when children respected their elders and would never think of talking back, yeah really. I remember Mr. Scott, our teacher, taking John Torta into the art supply room and I remember John coming out with a big red hand print on his face. John was apparently a wise guy and Mr. Scott didn't suffer wise guys very well. In those days you would get whacked by the teacher and then by your parents when you got home.
I am 50 years old.