artstuff

You've all heard of the Serenity Prayer, well here's the Senility Prayer, for all us old folks. My friend just sent this to me.

***Senility Prayer***
God grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked, the good fortune to run into the ones that I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.

Enjoy your week...Peace. >-

Robyn

CaymanSue

I'm so old, I learned to drive on an Edsel!

Neil_Oz

Manual telephone exchanges have already been mentioned. My wife grew up in a rural area outside Sydney and remembers the postmistress, who doubled as local operator, being asthmatic. Subscribers hearing a thin wheeze across the line would stop to say "Isn't that right, Mrs D?", at which the uninvited third party would disconnect.

Lately I've been entertaining younger members of the family with astonishing stories of the Pre-Espresso Age, when hardly anyone "ate out" and the local Chinese restaurant was always suspected of dressing up cat as chicken; when the only computers were corporate mainframes that disgorged punched cards, the nearest you'd get to a mobile phone would be Dick Tracey's 2-Way Wrist Radio, and interstate communications were often by telegram (by what?).

Also, when buying a condom required you to wait until the pharmacy counter was clear of other customers before sheepishly muttering your request. Depending on how the sales assistant reacted to your order, you might consider asking her out. Unfortunately, on my first attempt I was kicked out of the shop by the pharmacist, who I discovered was a Catholic of the old school and who was outraged that I'd put such a request to the shop assistant, who happened to be his daughter. I didn't ask her out.

Scarlett

I'm so old that I remember when this thread was posted!
LOL
Actually, I am enjoying reading this every day..of course, I am so young that most of this is just stuff I have read about

vcl

Despite what our grandchildren think, I was not personally acquainted with Adam and Eve. But I do have a bit of age on me.
I remember paper drives and scrap metal drives and bond drives and ration coupons.
I remember Superman and The Lone Ranger and Fred Allen and Twenty Questions and The Singing Lady on radio.
I remember our 10-inch black and white television set and 45 rpm records.
I remember our first car after the war -- a robin's egg blue '48 Plymouth -- and trying to learn to drive it. I finally learned to drive on the replacement, a '56 Plymouth with push button automatic transmission.
I remember home permanents and poodle skirts and bathing caps with rubber daisies all over then. I remember annointing my body with babyoil and iodine in pursuit of the perfect tan.
I remember the Kennedy assassinations and the Martin Luther King assassination and the Malcolm X assassination.
I remember Atlantic City before casinos and seeing the diving horse on Steel Pier.
I remember our first trip to Europe -- and how nice the London cabdrivers were to us Americans the day Richard Nixon resigned.
I remember being allowed to smoke on airplanes.
I don't smoke anymore, but I do love to travel. Hate to have to wait until September to head for London again.

bevzy

I just saw Bill Bryson talking in Perth W.Australia. He said his next book will be about growing up in the 50's and what a happy time that was.he might be interested in all these memories-anybody know his email address??!!!

ira

>Also, when buying a condom required you to wait until the pharmacy counter was clear of other customers before sheepishly muttering your request. <

To a female person?!!

When I was about 17 and working in a "drug store", a gentleman of about 40 came in for that product. He waited until everyone else was gone, looked at me, decided I was too young and asked to speak to the pharmacist.

The relief pharmacist was a woman. He looked at her, muttered an apology and walked out.

>He said his next book will be about growing up in the 50's ...<

They've already done "Happy Days". Did anyone see the 30th anniversary GTG?

NJtoTX

Hey Soujourn and the NJ contingent.
I grew up in River Edge, next to Hackensack and also was dragged to Arnold Constable and Best & Company by mom.
Korvettes - the "Eight Jewish Korean Veterans" founders was an urban myth.
Alexanders - The big mural is in storage somewhere
Other memories - Packards, Kresge's, Newberries, Grand Way, Grand Union, The Steak Pit, Two Guys from Harrison, Playhouse on the Mall, The Hanger, The Fox and Oritani theaters, Frankie's Market, Manero's, The Browse, Palisades Amusement Park, Freedomland, Darlington lake, Food Fair, the ice rink at the Bergen Mall, the huge santa at the Garden State Plaza, bowling alleys under both the Mall and the Plaza, ...

erielackawanna

NJtoTX, I grew up on the Paramus, Oradell, River Edge border...and you have stolen all my memories...but, do you also remember getting your hair cut at Best & Co., and how they'd give you a lollipop to keep you quiet, but all the hair clippings would get stuck to the lollipop and it would be gross? Do you remember teenagers coming to your door to collect for The Record, and thinking your dad was buying a new LP record? Do you remember The Sugar Bowl and Smith's Stationary on Kinderkamak? Do you remember Joanna Farms milk being delivered in glass bottles, with pogs?

ucsun

90210 was my "OC"...

almcd

I remember sheltering from German bombs by hiding under a metal lined bed in a three-bedroom house that my father had bought for 300 pounds. That same house today sells for 300000 pounds! If only I had held on to it. In these days, a holiday was travelling 50 miles by train to the sea for a fortnight in a boarding house. I suspect that we had just as much fun as todays far- travelled children.

NJtoTX

Sorry, Erielackawanna, I'll have to give some of those memories back, eh? The Sugar Bowl rings a bell, and we did get milk in glass bottles at the back door (sometimes frozen!) but I wasn't sure of the source.

I lived off Howland Ave between Van Saun Park and Bogert Road. Luckily I always got my hair cut at Emils, in the Huffman and Boyle area near Manor Drug, Thrift City Stationery, and the A % P. I still remember the smells of places like Best & Co. though.

Do you remember the Dugan's bakery trucks? http://www.virtualnewarknj.com/memor...eld/dugans.gif Good Humor ice cream trucks - we'd jump in the cab and ring the bells when the driver got out. Calls from the Avon lady? The phone prefix Colfax-2? Signs for the Red Apple Rest and Motel on the Mountain? The Honeydew Market, Flying-A and Sinclair Gasoline, Maxine's, Holly M. Davis School, Garden State Farms? Or how about the farmer who lived across the stream from what is now Temple Sholom and would threaten anyone who came near his place with a shotgun?

The local TV shows: Wonderama with Sonny Fox, the Sandy Becker Show (Norton Nork, you've done it again) Captain Jack McCarthy (4 bells, and it's time for Popeye), Diver Dan and Baron Barracuda, Officer Joe Bolton and the 3 Stooges, Claude Kirchner, Chuck McCann
The Bob McAllister Show, Shari Lewis...

thomthumb

I'm so old that I own "the best walking shoes ever" and they have dinosaur crap on them!

leylander

Seeing that most people on this post are U.S.based,may I say as a Brit, most of you are not very ancient at all, I well remember milkmen on their rounds measuring milk from churns into jugs, then leaving them on doorsteps with a saucer covering the jug, all from a horsedrawn milk float and who had central heating in those days ? Coal was also delivered by horse & cart as were most heavy goods in those far off days. We also walked to school, some of us a couple of miles, we also created our own games & entertainment. Much happier days altogether. No violence or bullying,street crime was unheard of ,discipline began at home & school,I was never ill-treated. Yes happier days indeed. Born 1930, by the way I was in U.S.A.& Canada only 2 years ago, thought it was great,off to Berlin soon, travelled all over Europe, without any problems.Life is worth enjoying, we aren`t here that long. Happy living to all of you. A.S.

erielackawanna

NJtoTX - Ohmygod, what I thrill ride through my past! I remember almost all of what you mention. My Mom actually worked for Channel 5 and knew Sonny Fox (what an obscure dance with fame that is). My house was Colfax-1, but my neighbors on both sides were Colfax-2. I remember the big announcement in the paper that Huffman & Boyle was now Huffman Koos. I remember the water cooler at Arnold Constable, where you would pull down a flat piece of paper, make it into a cone and then pour the water into it. I remember them building the Paramus Municipal Pool. I remeber Emil's Foodtown (nothing to do with your Emil's) on Forest and Midland. I remember when Public Service buses became Transport of New Jersey buses on Kinderkamack. I grew up right by the Jewish Community Center on Spring Valley and Midland and spent summer days that we didn't go to Darlington Lake at Van Saun Park - always visiting that red Macaw they had in the little cutesy cage on a pole. I remember the horse riding stables nextdoor to VanSaun Park and how the horses would come down my road. I remember the cole slaw and fresh turkey at Koomsas' Farms (I know my spelling is way off on this one). I remember when half the developments in Paramus were farms, where you'd buy tomatoes and eggplant at the roadside stands. I not only remember Sinclair gasoline, I think I may still have a dinosaur I got from them somewhere! I also remember the Gulf on Midland gave out plastic horseshoes that you would put on your car like a bumper sticker, to show that your car had been kicked by Gulf gasoline. I remember when they were opening the Garden State Farms on Midland and the one on Kinderkamack. I remember seven feet of water in our basement after Hurricane Agnes. And, wow, this is fun... I could go on forever.

erielackawanna

I forgot one really important one. I'm so old I remember when a man in an old station wagon would come to our house and knock on the door and offer to sharpen our knives. My mom would give him all our knives and scissors. He'd take them to the back of his car, grind them down, and then bring them back.

purgaowner

tttt

ira

>...I'm so old I remember when a man in an old station wagon would come to our house and knock on the door and offer to sharpen our knives. <

Station wagon??!!

Our knife sharpener came on foot, carrying his foot-operated grindstone on his back.

JJ5

I remember going to the movie theatre on Saturday morning by streetcar in Chicago- and taking my 5 year old brother (2 years younger than I) by the hand, and into the show, and then coming out after 30 cartoons and a feature and taking the reverse route home. Sometimes we had a nickel each to get penny candy with. And we could do this safely with no adults. Totally different world.

I can also remember entering Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie and having to have an escort to view certain areas in the DDR. Also our itinerary and lunch were fixed by the authorities who accompanied us. And I remember than in the subway under Berlin, my DDR money couldn't go "in" fast enough to make the connection without my cousin throwing the money in while I dialed etc. And we took those Icelandic to Luxemborg flights that someone else mentioned. OH! It was all so reasonable and seemed so less hurried then.

FAMOUSUNCLEART

My memory of those days of my youth, weak as it is, brings tears of pleasure to my eyes, and they are much weaker.


I was in this southern camp for young boys, Camp Wheeler in Macon,GA.
And my uncle came to me and said, "Famous, you really go see Europe". I said "That is generous, Uncie, but I like it here in camp Wheeler".

He insisted and I never could resist him when he smacks me upside my head and shouts "Get on the Goddamn boat.

It was a cruise boat called SS General Brookes, not very pretty, painted gray, and we travelled with a lot of other different boats, I dont think they were on a cruise.

We were mostly boys but there were some girls on the cruise but they had red crosses on thier sleeves and only spoke to some of the boys who wore bright metal things on their shoulders.

I didnt have any metal things on my shoulders so I only spoke to the other boys, southern boys and big city boys. Oh I learned secrets about girls from them. Whew, what I learned astounds me now
We had a sort of casino, mostly us boys playing around a blanklet on the ship's keel, I learned how to play a fun game with an odd name "Craps", the lessons were expensive, lost most of my payroll.


The movie projector was broken so we spent about 14 days without a movie but we didnt mind because they had a great buffet where we patiently lined up and ate what they fed us..some of the boys did not like the cuisine and threw the food away, not exactly, they threw it up into the sea.

We talked to one an another and some of the southern guys didnt like us easterners and we had some fun fights.Not me, I hid in lifeboats and read.

We were happy when got to Le Harve, we were tired of rolling back and forth and were stiff. we were billeted in tent -camps named after cigarettes. Ours was the lucky Strike Camp. I learned to smoke there.

They gave us rifles and we trained and trained and cursed and cursed, but the hills around Le Have were beautiful, but hard to climb.

After a day or so, We left beautiful Le Havre and filed into box cars, French, called forty and eights which meant the box car could hold forty people and eight horses.
So we trained through France and some ofthe guys, practised their target shooting by hitting signs and a stray cow here and there.


After three days or so, we got off,stiff and tired and were assigned to an great outfit called the 1st Division and then..and then..and then
we walked, and we walked, through France and Belgium. I couldn't tell what country we were in because most of the buildings, even in the small village were destroyed, shattered, and the people were hungry and kept asking us for food or cigarettes.And the weather seemed always dark rainy or snowing. I dont remember a true sunny day. So much for the brochures.

We gave them as much food and cigarettes as we could. They were friendly but some other people were not too happy to see American Tourists and they began to shot at us.

Luckily, we had those rifles, and I had a special one called a BAR. It was as tall as I was and I guess I looked silly walking along the long tree line roads carrying a rifle almost a tall as me. I got good at shooting it, but I didn't think they'd really shoot at me.

Wrong! Wrong!

So, when they shot at us, we shot back and we walked and walked and walked and the scenery looked the same ,shattered, dark and empty.

Soon, the other guys said 'alright, you win but we gave a good fight.' They did.
It was over.

At first we werent allowed to talk to them,especially the girls (they had no rad crosses on their sleeves) If we did we would be fined $64 jbucks which was a lot of money back in 45. WE guys were very unhappy but finally the boss said okay you can talk to them but be careful.

We were. Some of us weren't and they got sick and luckily went home. There were no bars, no museums, not too many buildings and if we went out at night, we had to have some sidearm with us, sometimes the losers would hit back.

I did get to Copenhagen, Paris, Rome and Florence where I spent a couple days in a cell, down the hall was an Italian General who had killed 45 GI's, him they gave great meals , I got c rations.

So you can see I had a pleasant trip through Europe and I think I qualify as one of the oldest.

That's hold old I am. Is there a prize?