and Tin Foil (not Aluminum Foil) on those rabbit ears to enhance the reception and then the poor soul who made the reception better by touching those rabbit ears and being told, "stand there! don't let go!"

oh you guys rock! i remember the first remote controls where my dog ran across the room, and the jingle from his tags turned the tv off! ;-)

I remember early cable having maybe 50 channels if that and worked by hooking up a huge box onto your tv.

Also remember Hi-Fi console cabinets?  Speakers, turn table, and radio built into a side board or credenza of sorts... it was a heavy duty piece of furniture... and so was the tv!  You could get a tv that was "encased" in a wooden cabinet thingy

i'm old enough to remember being home from school sick and watching  phil donahue!

I remember when penny candy was actually a penny. I remember a time before scheduled play dates when children actually had to occupy themselves and use their imaginations. I remember walking to school, a thing rarely done anymore. Or, walking where I needed to go in general. I remember milk money pinned to my coat . I remember when CB radios were the latest rage good buddy. I remember mood rings and pet rocks.  I remember when there was nos such thing as an ATM. You had to go to the bank to withdrawal money or have someone cash your check. I remember when MTV actually stood for Music Television and that is what you got. I remember the first time I saw HBO. All I wanted to do is watch movies all day. I remember when it was rare for a kitchen to have a microwave in it. I remember if you did not want to prepare ameal you could have  a TV dinner , a rare treat in our home.

I remember when video games were new and everyone was crazy about the new Atari game system and Space Invaders and Asteroids and PacMan.  In fact, one Christmas (I think it was 1979) over rich relatives' house I got play a game of space invaders... but not many turns.  The adults were mainly playing on it and the kids went in the other room and played together using our imaginations!  lol

I also remember blowing on video game cartridges for them to work... had to do this with the Nintendo as well ;)

maryanne, i once twisted up some tin foil all the way out the window and over several feet just to get some reception! ;-)

I remember when the telephone was attached to the wall, and to get any modicum of privacy, I would stretch the cord far enough to go into the pantry and close the door. I remember getting a busy signal when you called someone and they were on the phone.  I remember having to make detailed plans before you left the house because you couldn't call en route.  I remember television with only 3 channels (plus TBS).  There was no remote control, you had to get up off the sofa to change the channel.  I had siblings, so if they wanted to watch something else, I had to stand at the tv and hold on to the dial with all my might to continue watching my show.

margaret, i remember that infernal busy signal! maryanne, what a COOL STORY!

I remember when Atari that made pong came out with Pong because I worked with Nolan Bushnell at Atari when the entire company had just moved out of a garage into a small dinky warehouse and we were trying to get Sears to take a gamble and sell the game :-) The first order was for 2000 Pongs and we worked our tushes off filling it! Before that, I remember living in the SF Bay area and everywhere you went it was nothing but fields and fields of veggies and orchards and orchards and orchards of fruits. There were little buildings in the shape of oranges and others in the shape of an artichoke. You could buy fresh orange drinks from the orange stand and artichokes fixed a zillion different ways from the artichoke stand. That was before the microchip and oh yes! Does anyone recall the first computer? Where you had to first create your punch tape and then feed those huge reels into the computer for it to do your bidding? I do :-) those computers were huge "machines"! I also remember Atari discussing whether to go into the personal computer business and they voted against it because they figured there were not enough savvy consumers to warrant it :-)

Oh gosh! Having to actually change the channel on the TV using a knob! Anyone every get sent to the store with the TV tubes to test them and buy new tubes for the set?

AND the TV actually went off the air at midnight and that test pattern would come on .....

I remember test patterns and the sign off messages.  "(call letter name of channel) has finished it's programming for the broadcast day..."

Oh my I could go on for years...I am old enough to remember buying U.S. savings bond stamps at school...to remember the pledge of allegiance before "under God" was put in seeing newsreels at the movies....no TV's and Lisa, your comment of remember watching something on TV when you were sick...I was home sick when the first Sputnik was launched and was listening to the radio...got so excited I ran into the living room to tell Mom and Grandma and they thought I was hallucinating...

oh nancy, how funny about you hallucinating sputnik! well i don't seem to remember the test patterns but i do remember the late night weekend alfred hitchcock hour creeping me out!!!

oh wait! i DO remember the star spangled banner happening late at night with the tv!!!! hahah

I Remember Mama!

ha, sherry! i remember batman. POW ! BOP! WHAM!

oh wait! i have one. i'm old enough to remember when digital clocks were the latest cool thing!

I am old enough to remember when panty hose came out!

 

I am old enough to remember.....I better shut up about what I remember ;-)

 

ok...milk man left milk outside the door. Cream on top. Glass bottle!

Hated that cream, Sherry!!!  We had an insulated box that the milkman would leave the new bottles in, taking the old bottles that Mom washed and put in there when they were empty.  We also had a bread man (he would let us ride in his truck sometimes - can't imagine that now!).

 

And thanks to whoever mentioned smudge pots!!!  What a neat memory!

Oh yes !!!! loved that and running behind the milk truck to beg for ice....and the older I get the more I have to remember so it gives me a good excuse when I forget something...ooops not enough memory...LOL

Elle...we had the breadman too.

How about unwrapped penny candy?

ok dig this...i remember getting in the car with my dad when we were looking for something to do and just driving to people's houses we knew for a visit. and the people were happy to see us! just an old fashioned "hey stopped in to say hi" visit!

Lisa....what about driving for miles to nowhere just to drive ( no thoughts of gas prices) and then get an ice cream cone...which cost 10 or 15 cents!

geez... I really am older than dirt ;-)

we didn't have to drive to get to the best ice cream in town...and the corner stores had such great penny candy...we knew where all the drinkers lived and would collect the empty beer bottles to cash in for massive amounts of penny candy and comic books...

When penny candy actually cost a penny?

Nancy...we used to collect cases of  coke bottles and get cash and do the same thing. Had we only known that the bottles would be more valuable today!

Do you remember those extra thin licorace strips with candy dots on them...ot the wax lips?

little wax  bottles with syrup in them!

 

sherry, you are not older than dirt. i promise dirt is older! :-) i loved the little bottles with the syrup. do they still have them??? and i loved those little dot candies on the paper strips. i remember stingray bicycles!

I can remember leaving my house and playing, really playing, all morning all over the neighborhood with all the kids, then my Mom, with the other Moms, would yell out the back door when it was time for lunch! We did it all again in the afternoon, and then after dinner until the street lights came on!! It was something!! :-)

I was so cool, I really was :-) I had a purple stingray bicycle with a leopard print banana seat and I wore cool sunglasses that were bright yellow with a single skinny strip of colored plastic that you looked out at the world through (girl watchers although I was watching those surfer boys) and I wore bubble rings and would  make them fit by wrapping dental floss or string around the inside part and then paint it with nail polish and I was cool because my hair was all parted on the side and part came down in a smooth sweep covering one eye and I strutted around in my cool stripped surfer T. Yep, I was so cool and this was coolness before the expression, "far out" and "bitchen" ... the coolness was expressed by saying, "cool man cool" and I danced to the song Surfing Bird by the Trashmen ... yep ... I remember :-)

I remember being able to climb up on the little ledge by the back window of the car.  I'd lay there and look out, especially at night, on road trips.  Seat belts weren't even in some cars, and if they were wearing them was optional.

speaking of cars and no seat belts, i remember us always having some huge boat of a car, and i would roll around the back seat banging into things on a sharp turn! ;-)

1956 Pontiac with an amazing Indian hood ornament :-) Loved those long road trips and being in the "back window" area looking up at the stars! Lisa, I didn't get to roll around because our car was always packed with kids! I remember since I was the smallest/youngest having the honor of sitting on the floor board or being up on the window ledge ... and as mentioned ... seat belts? What seat belts! and (this is horrible) I remember my parents chucking the trash right out the window as we sped down the highways!

i remember us speeding down the highway at close to 90 mph, maryanne! speed limits? what were they?

Dear Lisa, As thrilled as I am for the fantastic response to this group,my mailbox is overwhelmed .Can I filter out these memories ,since continuity of thought is not needed here. I leave you with love & skate keys.

Ilene - just under the box where you write oyur comments, it says (next to a little red letter icon) "STOP FOLLOWING" - "Don't email me when people comment"  Try clicking on that link.

yep, if you don't want the notifiations, just click the stop following...right you are, elle!

I have to wonder if all the penny candy had something to do with the fact that i ended up with bad teeth...duh ??? most likely but it was so much fun to fill up a bag for a few cents...and some were two for a penny even..

speaking of candy, and pure sugar at that, do you remember pixie stix??

i'm old enough to remember when pasta was called spaghetti

pixi stix came after the lickamade in little packs I think they were so messy...............and yep pure flavored sugar...you could make sort of cool ade out of them but of course we never did.....

How about breaking thermometers and putting mercury on dimes....or jusr breaking the mercury in little balls. Were we nuts?

 

I remember breaking thermometers for the mercury and smearing it on coins and also have mercury ball races ... trying to see who could get their mercury balls to become one big ball first. And Pixie Stix remind me of the nuns .. I would always stop and buy an orange Pixie Stix on the way to catechism and trying to eat it during class :-( getting caught and surrendering my treat! but I would do it again and again and again!

i still like the glass ones and want to know where you can find them!!! i just broke my last one and had mercury all over the place! maryanne, pixie stix are worth getting yelled at by nuns! :-)

we probably poisoned ourselves with all that mercury :-)

 

I have one in the medicine cabinet still...loved to play with the mercury when the blood pressure cuffs broke back in student days..yes we knew better so most of the time we used a test tube to catch it in....just took it out to play with it for a few now and then...