What childhood memories can reveal about our age?

[Evo]

I'm wondering if we can guess the age of members by what they remember of their childhood?

I remember Saturday mornings watching the test pattern on one of the 3 tv stations in our area. Tv didn't start until after 6am, and went off the air at 10pm, except on Friday and Saturday nights. I can still sing CBS' "Late Show" theme song.

I remember taking tv tubes to the tv repair shop and my mom plugging one after another into the "tester" to see which one needed replacing.

I remember standing in very awkward positions holding the rabit ears covered with aluminum foil trying to get a tv signal clear enough to see.

I remember when Disney had their "Wonderful World of Color", at my neighbor's, my dad was a miserly engineer and kept waiting for color tv's to become popular and the price to go down. I thought the world outside was in black and white.

I remember waiting up to 20 minutes for the tubes in my radio to warm up so I could listen to the radio.

I remember when seat belts in cars were introduced as a novelty.

I remember having to put the meat for tomorrow's dinner out to thaw the night before because microwaves didn't exist.

If a book wasn't available at your local library, it didn't exist.

We played with rocks, sticks, and mud, and we were happy.

 

[Astronuc]

Evo pretty much covered my list.

I remember however, BBC radio. We didn't have a TV until we moved to the city.

I do remember the Saturday morning test pattern. Bugs Bunny was the first cartoon show.

I made mudpies with the girls.

At my maternal grandparents' place, the hot water for baths come from a pot boiled on a cast iron stove - fuel by wood. I split the wood and made the kindling. I learned to use an axe and saw at 5. My grandfather was a station master for the railroad, so I spent holidays and many weekends at the station, and playing in the freight yard. My grandfather let me set the signals and switches - with his supervision. I got to ride some of the last steam engines on the line, and road in the new diesels.

My brother and I spent much of our time climbing trees and riding bikes.

I lived in two small coastal towns, so I spent a lot of time at the beach.

 

[Math Is Hard]

As a kid my favorite song on 8 track was Donny Osmond's "Puppy Love". I had Sea Monkeys and Magic Rocks for entertainment. I also had one of those weaving looms to make countless numbers of potholders out of stretchy cloth loops.

As a preteen, I saw Star Wars in the theater, wore Love's Baby Soft, and thought I was very grown up when I purchased Tickle deodorant. I had every flavor of Kissing Potion, and my Leif Garrett poster was proof of that. I frequently had Pac Man blisters on my hand.
I had a disco party in 8th grade. When the B-52s first album came out, I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever heard. I had a Pet Rock or two, and Earth Shoes. I drank Tab and ate Figurines to be slim. I used Body on Tap shampoo to make my long hair fluffy and full.

In high school, I ripped the collars out of my sweatshirts and wore leg warmers so I could look like Jennifer Beals in Flashdance. Then, I cut off my full and fluffy hair and made it orange with hydrogen peroxide so I could look like Johnny Rotten from the Sex Pistols. There were no cell phones, and no computers except for the crappy Tandy machines in the school lab that no one (including the teachers) knew how to use. But there were arcades, where I could blow my $10 allowance on lots and lots of Tron games, until I got really good and could go for hours on a couple of quarters.

 

[Evo]

As a kid my favorite song on 8 track was Donny Osmond's "Puppy Love". I had Sea Monkeys and Magic Rocks for entertainment. I also had one of those weaving looms to make countless numbers of potholders out of stretchy cloth loops.

As a preteen, I saw Star Wars in the theater, wore Love's Baby Soft, and thought I was very grown up when I purchased Tickle deodorant. I had every flavor of Kissing Potion, and my Leif Garrett poster was proof of that. I frequently had Pac Man blisters on my hand.
I had a disco party in 8th grade. When the B-52s first album came out, I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever heard. I had a Pet Rock or two, and Earth Shoes. I drank Tab and ate Figurines to be slim. I used Body on Tap shampoo to make my long hair fluffy and full.

In high school, I ripped the collars out of my sweatshirts and wore leg warmers so I could look like Jennifer Beals in Flashdance. Then, I cut off my full and fluffy hair and made it orange with hydrogen peroxide so I could look like Johnny Rotten from the Sex Pistols. There were no cell phones, and no computers except for the crappy Tandy machines in the school lab that no one (including the teachers) knew how to use. But there were arcades, where I could blow my $10 allowance on lots and lots of Tron games, until I got really good and could go for hours on a couple of quarters.

You young whipper snapper!

 

[Math Is Hard]

You young whipper snapper!

AHAhahahaha!

 

[Evo]

AHAhahahaha!

I had the first Barbie that was marketed, in her black and white stretch catalina bathing suit with her metal stand. And high heels.

 

[lisab]

I remember having only 3 channels too! Before ending the broadcast they would play the nation anthem.

My first ski boots were actually leather, and the bindings were a cable that wrapped around the back of the boot.

 

[Pyrrhus]

I remember color TV with 12 channels. Mostly national channels. I remember having a computer with MSDOS, and I remember not knowing what the internet is. I remember not having a cell phone, then having a big cell that looked like line cord phone. I also remember pagers, but I never had one. I also remember digital and analog signal for the cell phone. I remember Dial up internet, and how much I hated it.

Hmmm, I remember 2D games (Lemmings, D/Generation,..), then isometric 2D games (Warcraft 2). Hmmmm =). I REMEMBER MY FIRST BEER, I was 12. I drank it at a pub =P, and I remember the first time I went to a strip club, I was 14. Maybe I should stop here

Oh, I did Childhood and Youth. oh well

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I remember pretty much everything on Evo's list +

Sandy Koufax pitching for the Dodgers. I delivered the daily newspaper to his parents but never got to meet him.

Mark Spitz

Buying fertilizer for the lawn at the local dairy. I don't remember the price, but you just left the money in a box that was mounted on a post.

Going to the dairy for milk

M-80s, cherry bombs, roman candles, and esp., guns, were appropriate for ten-year old boys. Yahoo!

Reel-to-reel sound was the best you could get

Using the tube-checker at Save-on Drug Stores, or some place like that.

CB radios were all the rage

Also some sad but memorable moments and semi-local events:

The Disneyland helicopter crashing right by my house... I think in 1968. We were close enough that the explosion was very loud.

The Sylmar earthquake. My uncle had a plane at the time so we flew all around the LA basin the next day. It was quite an experience. Entire sections of the I-5 had completely collapsed, as did two hospitals - one large hospital.

The accident on the launch pad with the Apollo I

The Watts riots. We lived less than ten miles from Watts at the time

The SLA shootout - also near our home.

A Goodyear blimp came down near our home for some reason. We lived very near the base for the blimps, so it was common for them to pass over our home. I remember going with my dad and seeing it hanging over the road, suspended by powerlines. Tsu tried to find something about this online but didn't spot anything. I think it came down in Paramount, Ca. round about 1966.

Lassie
Felix the Cat
Winky Dink
Captain Kangaroo
My Three Sons
The Carol Burnett Hour
Ed Sullivan

 

[jtbell]

I remember Saturday mornings watching the test pattern on one of the 3 tv stations in our area. Tv didn't start until after 6am,

On my favorite Saturday-morning station, the first cartoon after the test pattern was "Felix the Cat." Then came Popeye cartoons, then the Three Stooges, and Laurel & Hardy.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I remember when they invented dirt. They used it to make hills. Hills were introduced as a novelty too.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I remember my father being very vocal about how Nixon was the only possible one to vote for while my mother discussed how handsome Kennedy was with her friends behind my Dad's back.

I remember that the leader of the commies was a very evil bald man named Kruschyoff, who came over here and pounded his shoe on the table at the UN and shouted "We will bury you!" They played that over and over on the news. It was fricken scary.

I remember when my oldest sister came home with a 45 that she played about 20 times a day. On one side the song was called "I Want to Hold your Hand." On the other: "She Loves You". Pretty soon I was hypnotized and believed this was the greatest music ever written.

When we got sick my mother called the doctor and he came over to the house with his Doctor Bag: a kind of large black leather case. That was cause for alarm because, among other things the case held needles.

In those days you heard sonic booms all the time. Our house was probably rattled to the foundations about once a week. Also, you could go out any night and watch satellites slowly making their way across the sky with the unaided eye. They looked exactly like stars, except they were slowly moving.

I went to Catholic school, taught by nuns. One day something very peculiar happened: someone rapped on the classroom door right in the middle of class. This kind of interruption was unheard of. The nun was clearly rattled by the mere fact of it, and I think she suspected the nun in the hall doing the knocking had lost her mind. Our teacher went out into the hall and was out there for a very long time. There were about 25 of us in the class and we sat there pretty quietly for a bunch of kids.

When the nun came back there were tears streaming down her face. She said something like, "Children, I have some very bad news. You are going to have to get your things together and get ready to go home early. The buses are coming. We're going to line up quietly outside and wait for them."

Someone said "Sister, what happened?"

She winced, and choked up. More tears. Then she finally said "The President's been shot!"

 

[Chi Meson]

I remember standing up in the passenger seat (actually, the passenger side of the continuous front seat) leaning against the front windshield as my mother drove us all to the stores.

 

[Astronuc]

The accident on the launch pad with the Apollo I

I remember the Gemini and Apollo program. My favorite astronaut was Wally Schirra. I got his autograph and some photos of the moon.

The Watts riots. We lived less than ten miles from Watts at the time

I remember the riots in '68, and the assassination of MLK and Robert Kennedy. I came to the US the year after the Watts riots, and people were nervous in '66.

 

[MotoH]

I remember bag phones

I remember colour TV.

I was born in the technology boom of the early 90s.

I remember when two-strokers reigned supreme over MX and SX pro races.

I feel so young!

 

[leroyjenkens]

I remember car phones right before cell phones made them obsolete.

I remember getting a Nintendo, thinking it was new, but it had actually been out for quite a few years.

I remember not caring about the OJ verdict.

I remember not knowing that the WTC buildings existed until they were hit by planes.

I remember posting in this thread, thinking about how sad it is that I didn't know what the WTC buildings were at that age.

I remember bubble tape and how no one actually ate it like it was supposed to be eaten. People just took the whole thing out and stuck it in their mouth.

On the subject of candy, I remember candy cigarettes when people thought that was a great idea. Also, Big League Chew. Nothing like showing a kid how to simulate drug use.

I remember when the TV guide channel had no advertisements. The list actually filled the whole screen. Now you have programs on that channel, with commercials.

I remember bag phones

I remember colour TV.

I was born in the technology boom of the early 90s.

I remember when two-strokers reigned supreme over MX and SX pro races.

I feel so young!

37?

 

[BobG]

I had every flavor of Kissing Potion, and my Leif Garrett poster was proof of that.

That's a little scary. I hope you don't have any posters of how he looks now.


I remember crouching down in the school hallway covering my head, while a girl in the class stood behind me, bending over and shielding my body from whatever havoc would be wrought by incoming nuclear missiles.

I remember the family driving into A & W rootbeer stands and getting our rootbeer in frosted mugs on a tray that hung from the car window. Geez that was great!

I remember when you needed a key for your roller skates (in fact, later on, one of my favorite songs was, "I've got a brand new pair of roller skates, and you've got a brand new key")

I remember when kids walked to school with no more than a warning, "Don't talk to strangers".

I remember building forts in the forest (well, kind of a forest, a really, really, small forest, anyway). I remember the fort we built in the ground in the farmer's cornfield even better. We tossed a piece of plywood over the top and buried it in dirt. Imagine our shock when the farmer came along in his tractor to harvest his corn. I think he was almost as shocked as us at seeing all these kids come tearing out of a hole in the ground.

I remember a commercial that showed a young Nolan Ryan getting tossed out of a game for a foreign substance on the baseball and a "veteran" Tom Seaver (of about 22 or 23 years old) teaching Nolan Ryan that if he used Vitalis instead of that greasy kid stuff, he wouldn't get tossed out of games anymore.

I remember my Sting Ray bicycle and leaving long skid marks and doing wheelies.

 

[dilletante]

I remember when the milkman delivered milk, and it was in bottles. I remember leaving a note on the neighbor's doorstep for the milkman to deliver chocolate milk, and sneaking over before dawn to pick it up.

I remember using silly putty to transfer pictures from the Sunday comics.

I remember when service stations had gas wars, and one dollar of gas would take you a long way.

I remember where I watched the moon landing, and when the announcement of the Kennedy assassination came on the school P.A. system.

I remember the old coke machines where they sat in a cooler of cold water and you slid the bottle along the slot where they hung to get them out.

I remember buying comic books for a dime.

I remember when Mel Allen announced for the Yankees, and when Roger Maris hit 60 homers.

I remember when it was safe to leave the house unlocked and the keys in the car. Then one day my car was stolen and the world changed.

I remember the Twist and Hula Hoop contests.

I remember when kids dressed nice for school and Weeguns were the shoe of choice.

I remember when bicycles had one gear and hills were tough.

I remember soda fountains in drugstores.

 

[Tobias Funke]

I'll just rattle some off:

Mr. Wizard, You can't do that on Television, my aunt watching Star Search, the big baseball card boom, followed by the comic book boom (Image comics), Jurassic Park, Nintendo, Rodney King, recording the Simpsons on VHS, Superman movies, square pizza in aluminum on Fridays at school, Reebok pumps, pagers, T2, SNES/Genesis wars, the beginning (for most of the public) of the internet...

It's funny how many stupid things I remember, most either video games or TV.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I remember when Mel Allen announced for the Yankees, and when Roger Maris hit 60 homers.

Do you remember when he hit 61?

 

[physics girl phd]

I remember having only 3 channels too! Before ending the broadcast they would play the nation anthem.

I remember this... and I called the pre-broadcasting fuzz in the morning (before "Popeye" came on) "the ants"... and would "watch" it while I ate Cheerios and played with Legos. My favorite afternoon cartoon was "Tom And Jerry"... later "Voltron" (the lion one).

My brother, sister, and I didn't have an Atari but instead the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnavox_Odyssey%C2%B2" .

Later dad brought home a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trash_80" of course.

We should turn this into a forum game: "What year was I born?"

 

[Evo]

I remember playing with tinker toys, erector sets, Lincoln logs, and Tonka trucks were great.

We had great toys in the 60's that children can't have anymore because they are too dangerous. I remember the Water Wiggle and super balls, and that plastic ring you stuck your foot into that had a tethered ball attached that you swirled around and jumped, what was that thing called?

 

[Dembadon]

... and that plastic ring you stuck your foot into that had a tethered ball attached that you swirled around and jumped, what was that thing called?

Skip-it! I remember having one of these as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z5eNcFRit8M&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z5eNcFRit8M&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

 

[Evo]

Skip-it! I remember having one of these as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z5eNcFRit8M&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z5eNcFRit8M&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

That's it, except when they first came out, there was no counter, it was just a plastic ball.

Ahahaha, the Air Blaster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxZu_Y_m8i4&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxZu_Y_m8i4

 

[zoobyshoe]

I remember a couple years ago when a girl in her twenties asked me to describe what it was like in the eighties.

 

[ideasrule]

I remember fiddling with the phone line and trying to get the Internet working.

I remember playing Diablo near the time it first came out.

One of my earliest memories was of my grandparents telling me about nuclear weapons. This was after they saw something on TV about them. In hindsight, the TV was probably talking about North Korea's nuclear program.

I was doing something like learning to divide when my mom walked me home for lunch. On the TV, I saw footage of towers collapsing and references to New York. Of course I had no idea what New York was at that time.

 

[BobG]

We had great toys in the 60's that children can't have anymore because they are too dangerous.

Like those clacker things where the two glass balls would swing back and forth knocking into each other. "I dare you to put your hand in between them!"

And never play with a superball in a bowling alley. It really ticks people off.

And old tires. I don't know who came up with the idea that it could be a good idea to let kids play with old tires. Especially if they live at the top of a hill. And especially if the store at the bottom of the hill has a plate glass window.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I remember bag phones

I remember colour TV.

I was born in the technology boom of the early 90s.

I remember when two-strokers reigned supreme over MX and SX pro races.

I feel so young!

My first Yamaha, a YZ, had a phenomenal six inches of travel on the rear shocks.

When Suzuki's RM 370 hit the market, it represented a quantum leap in motorcycle technology. No one had ever seen anything like it! It was by far the fastest thing on the dirt under 500cc.

 

[BobG]

I was doing something like learning to divide when my mom walked me home for lunch. On the TV, I saw footage of towers collapsing and references to New York. Of course I had no idea what New York was at that time.

It's things like this that bug me. I can understand a lot of people have no concept of what it was like to follow the Mercury program, the Gemini program, the Apollo program, and, finally, to have man set foot on the Moon. We don't do stuff like that any more, so to a lot of people, that's just stuff from a history book.

We're still fighting the wars from 9/11. How can it be ancient history?

 

[Astronuc]

I remember when the milkman delivered milk, and it was in bottles. I remember leaving a note on the neighbor's doorstep for the milkman to deliver chocolate milk, and sneaking over before dawn to pick it up.

I remember that too. Our milkman used a horse drawn carriage - into the early 60's. Bread was delivered in a van. And some guy would show up periodically selling honey. Those were the days.

I also learned to use a slide rule. Used it during my freshman year of university, but transition quickly to a first generation calculator - with 3 memory address.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Oooooh, Helms bread trucks. Those smelled good!

Fuller Brush salesmen

I remember this old Fuller Brush guy trying to sell my mom brushes while his nose was running like a faucet. He left long wet buggers all over our porch.

 

[Evo]

I remember that too. Our milkman used a horse drawn carriage - into the early 60's. Bread was delivered in a van. And some guy would show up periodically selling honey. Those were the days.

Door to door salesmen. The Fuller Brush guy. He always had those tiny lipstick samples to give out. Kirby door to door vacuum salesmen and the Avon lady.

I remember the milkman too and home doctor visits. I remember when they sold paregoric (opium tincture) over the counter for use by children.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I remember the mailman sitting and crying on our porch. He had heard the news report on our TV that Kennedy had been killed.

 

[DanP]

- playing in the wilderness of evergreen forests from dawn to nightfall.
- endless hours of football
- Tom&Jerry, Woody the woodpecker, Chilly Willy, Pluto, Micky mouse .. all for 10 mins at national TV on Sundays.
- birth of Star Wars who many later termed "the legend of my generation"
- Bud Spencer & Terrence Hill movies
- having hot water for several days / month only
- daily power outages to save energy for the "country"
- seeing ppl in endless queues at 4.30 AM in the hope theyll be able to buy milk and meat.
- black and white TV . TV sets with tubes

 

[Monique]

I remember listening to fairy tales on long playing records.

I remember having to wait an hour for a computer game to load from tape.

I remember having television with three channels and no remote control.

I remember all kinds of street games: land conqueror, elastics, or hop skip jump.

I remember having roller skates in fluorescent yellow and pink.