My ancestors arrived in Philadelphia on a ship from England in the late 1500's. Ira asked how far back some of us go -- well, one of my greats was a brickmason who built the home occupied later by William Penn. The family moved south, lost their English heritage, and became Tennessee hillbillies.

I recall with pleasure something in my past that we'll never see again. The gasoline stations ("filling stations" as we called them) used to have those tall gasoline pumps with a huge glass globe on top. The globe was marked in gallons and half gallons, and a lever was used by the attendant to pump the gas from its underground tank up into the globe to the desired level. Then the hose would be inserted into the car, and the gas would be fed by gravity into the car's tank. I'd love to have one of those old things now, but I suspect they must cost thousands.

I have a Parisian friend whose father was born in 1860. This friend's grandfather was born in the 1820's I think and was a painter.

I also was friends with a Parisian woman who died in 1983 at the age of l00. On day in about 1980, we went out for Sunday dinner at a restaurant near the Paris Bourse (the stock exchange). As we left the restaurant and were walking past the Bourse, Rachel said "I used to work in an office in that building over there. It was in about 1917." I said, naively, "I guess the neighborhood has change a lot since then." Rachel looked around and said, "No, not really."

>Ira, that's sort of like the six degrees of separation concept, yes?<

As the French might say (travel related), "Si, pas exactement".

With 6 degrees, we could go back to about 1500.

I was thinking more like: I know Mrs H, age 85; her Grandmother was there when Sherman took Atlanta and told her about it. Her Mother lived through Reconstruction.

(Probably explains why the South is still fighting The War).

My Grandmother saw the Japanese sink the Russian Fleet at Port Arthur.

I'm so old that I can't buy green bananas!

The four people facing the camera are my wife and sons. They are direct descendants of the guy on the horse (Charlemagne I).

<b>http://www.vaioshutdown.com/2004/DSCF0131.JPG</b>

Hi Robe,

If your wife is a direct descendant of C, aren't your sons collateral descendants?

No. Since they're her children too, they're lineal (direct) descendants.

I'm not related to Chas. - that I know of. My parents were from a Mayflower family (Hicks) and Tenedos in Asia Minor (Kyriakou).

<i>How far back do you have a link?</i>

Geneology hobbists on both sides of the family. On my side, back to Devonshire ca. 1500 - first recorded ancestor in the New World got married near Porstmouth NH in 1635, but he had cousins that had moved there from Mass. Bay colony earlier.

[Travel theme] We visited a number of ancestral homes in the New Hampshire/lower Maine area a couple years ago - amazing that some from the 1600s are still standing and in good nick. Will try to hit Devon this summer if possible.[/Travel theme]

My wife's side has folk traced back to Bohemia ca. 1550.

Hi all,

When I asked, &quot;How far back do you have a link?&quot;, I meant you personally, eg, you know or knew someone who met Teddy Roosevelt.

As far as family links go, I am a lineal descendant of Adam and Eve.

In 1950, I shook hands with a guy 101 years old who had met and shaken the hand of Abraham Lincoln early in 1865. He had been a drummer in the Union Army. This was in Burwell, Nebraska while visiting my grandparents.

Being in French class on that awaful day in November 1963 when all of a suddent the PA came on. At first we thought someone had leaned on the wrong button in the office because it was hooked up to the local radio station. Then it all began to make sense and we all fell apart.

Movies for 50 cents on Saturday at the Palace, the Plaza or the Ridgeway in Stamford, CT.

Those before Labor Day school clothes shopping trips to Alexander's in White Plains.

Reciting the Lord's Prayer at the beginning of every school day (as a Jew, I stayed silent).

The Pledge before &quot;Under God&quot;.

Milk in bottles.

Phones with rotary dials.

My sister watching &quot;Ms. Francis' Ding Dong School&quot; and &quot;Romper Room&quot; on TV as I went off to big school.

Uncle Miltie.

Summers spent hanging out at West Beach til my brains fried and I was glad to return to school.

Sleepovers in Girl Scouts with smores.

Playing outside until it got dark.

Putting this screen over the TV screen so we could find out the &quot;secret&quot; in some kids' TV show.

Girls having to wear dresses to public school.

Yes, licking all those green stamps and turning them in for premiums.

My Dad saving Raleigh coupons from his cigarettes.

People smoking all over without knowing it was bad for you.

Roller skates that adjusted to your shoes with a skate key. Taking a skate apart and using an orange crate to make a scooter.

Ice cream cones for 10 cents with two flavors at the corner store. Of course, the choices were chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and butter pecan. I always got chocolate and strawberry and my sister always got chocolate and vanilla.

All my relatives living within an hour's drive. My grandmother living across the street. The lilacs in my grandmother's backyard in spring.

My first public school going only through 3rd grade.

Finally hitting a baseball and getting to first base in 3rd grade. The teacher calling my parents about this because she was more excited than I was.

Watching Don Larson's perfect game on TV. Being a rabid Brooklyn Dodger fan. Watching baseball on TV when the games were played during the day after school. Sneaking a transistor radio into school for the World Series.

The Dodgers finally beating the Yankees in the World Series.

Never going farther than Connecticut or NY until I was in high school (I went to New Hampshire for a debate tournament for my 3rd state).

Not setting foot in an airplane until I was 16 and went to Saskatchewan, Canada, to visit a pen pal (3 airplanes, all propeller, all day).

Hitching a ride on Eugene McCarthy's campaign plane in 1968 to get back to college from Wisconsin because he was going to the airport I needed to go to (Yes, I really did this).

Being crazy about the mouseketeers and dancing to all the numbers with my sister when we watched the program.

And, finally, &quot;squandering&quot; my $900 inheritance from my maternal grandmother on a 6 week trip to Europe when I was 24. That $900 paid for the entire trip, by the way.

I think that is enough for now. Thanks for the great thread--even if it has almost nothing to do with travel.

This has been a wonderful thread. Thanks for starting it PalQ. I have to put my 2 cents worth in.
I remember my parents buying our first RCA b&amp;w tv which had a 12&quot; screen. Remember Uncle Miltie? Texaco Star Theatre. Also remember Captain Video and his Video Rangers.
I grew up in the Md. suburbs of Washington, DC. My Dad was a Civil Air Warden (not sure of the title) during WW11. He would go around the neighborhood to be sure everyone's black shades were drawn and no lights were showing.
I remember helping my mother squeeze a plastic package of oleo to make it look like butter.
My grandparents would give my parents their shoe rations so they could buy me shoes as my feet were growing so fast. I think I was about 4.
We had one car. No one had 2 cars. My mother and I would walk to the local grocery store.
There wasn't any a/c. On Sundays in the summer, we would drive through Rock Creek Park to cool off.
Travel would be a 2 week trip to the beach until I was in my early teens.
When I got my driver's license, I would get 50 cents worth of gas for my mother's car. How cheap!
When in high school, we watched American Bandstand. And yes, I remember many dates at the Hot Shoppes. Mighty Moes and Teen Twists!
As kids, we would play outside until dark. Parents weren't worried as they knew everyone in the neighborhood. We roller skated, played hopscotch, etc. Great growing up days and good memories.

&gt;Being crazy about the mouseketeers...&lt;

Annette was my first love.

&gt;...our first RCA b&amp;w tv which had a 12&quot; screen.&lt;

My father hit the number once and bought a TeleTone with an 8&quot; screen.

I had forgotten about playing outside without parents worrying about where you were, or even asking. In the summertime we'd play kick the can and sardines well past dark.

Dang, I am getting up there.

Boston Blackie: didn't he have a dog with a black circle around its eye. As for old gas stations - wasn't the phrase 'fill it up with ethel' the saying, not buying the cheaper stuff?
My first tv thing i fell in love with was Felix the Cat...Fleix the Cat...Felix the Cat - a wonderful wonderful cat...Felix the Cat, Felix the Cat..Pinkie Lee. Soupy Sales, a Detroit thing, a kids show, also enthralled me - White Fang, Black Tooth and last but not least Willie the Worm, the 'Sickest worm in all Detroit' - Soupy's words of wisdom written on the blackboard - some benign b.s. really but it all made an impact on us. The power of the media to shape thought - even early on.

t

Love these memories.
I lived in the north of England and took time off school to see the Beatles, Rolling Stones etc around town and in clubs in the early sixties.
Then I went to London and saw Pink Floyd at UFO, Cher shopping at Carnaby Street and stood near John Lennon at a 'love-in'. My 15 year old will never forgive me for not talking to him.

Boston Blackie: &quot;Enemy to those who make him an enemy. Friend to those who have no friend.&quot;

Boston Blackie started out as a convict character around WWI, and eventually evolved over the decades into a private detective through various silent films, talkies, radio shows, etc.

sojourn - the B &amp; W Bakery is still alive and well in Hackensack, NJ and still makes the best crumb cake I've ever tasted. Packards was torn down and there's now a Target in its place. I always hated going to Packards, especially the area around the butcher shop where they had sawdust on the floor. Mt mother made me get a permanent wave at the beauty shop on the top floor (only one escalator - going up, you had to walk down the stairs to get down) and I looked like a stuck my nose in a light socket...frizz for months!

I also remember duck and cover...yes, we'll all be fried, but we'll be able to see the carnage...

And the day that JFK was shot. It was report card day. I was in homeroom, waitng for them to be passed out, and the director of the music department came out of his office and turned on the console radio in the middle of the bandroom (homeroom). We all sat shocked by the news on the radio. He then sent us to our next classes and told us to tell the teachers what had happened. My friend ran to tell her French teacher, who stopped her cold and instructed her to SAY IT IN FRENCH, as they were not allowed to speak English in class...My poor friend trying desparately to think of the word for dead...and finally blurted out le president e mort, and even then the teacher didn't believe her.

There were tens of thousands of burned and blinded survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who would have not been injured if they had ducked when they saw the flash. &quot;Duck and cover&quot; was a viable protection.