My great uncle Dave, after being pestered for many years, to put a toilet in the house, broke down and put a toilet in the house (he was much against it as being unsanitary) he put the toilet smack dab in the middle of the kitchen just on the other side of the coal/wood cook stove.
didn't anyone ever tell him you don't **** where you eat?
He probably put it next to the wood stove because he got tired of freezing his butt off in the outhouse.
Thanks for the post Au, very funny.
Fishin' I remember wishing the same thing, except it was cooked turnip or porridge or the especially horrid kidney, yeuckkk.
OAK, my dad can still quote his war number, I think this had something to do with rationing.
I slightly remember ration books, but it wasn't the same situation in Dayton, Ohio as in England...
Anytime I want to feel old I tell this story:
My mom used to send me to the store with two quarters to buy a loaf of Wonder bread and a pack of Chesterfield Kings.
I got to keep the change. (3 cents.)
I could either buy three feet of sugar tabs, (dots of colored sugar pasted four across on a long piece of white butcher paper.) or if I had another penny I could get a Hershey bar with almonds. If I have saved two cents from other errands I could go to Farr's soda shop and buy a chocolate ice cream cone with shots sprinkled all over the top or for seven cents I could go all the way and get a Chocolate Cow (that's Hire's Root Beer and Chocolate Ice Cream.)
I didn't eat all the profits. For real fun you needed a diamond kite.
A dime bought a paper kite with Superman's picture on it and 250 feet of string.
When I was twelve I got two dollars for my April Birthday. I bought ten kites and ten rolls of string. I tied a six foot tail on each of them then tied them all together in a long train, the lead of the first to the back of the second and so on. With about a hundred feet of string between them, the first pulled up the second and then they both pulled up the third. I had read about the Signal Corps using kites like this during WWII. It worked better than I ever thought it would. With all ten kites in the air I let out all the string and watched the glorious dance for over an hour then ------disaster or wonder---- the string between the lowest kite and the rest broke------ and off they flew.
There they went, twisting and climbing, turning and rising like some great flying serpent - a Chinese dragon -- Superman's S come to life to fly across the earth.
I often think about that day. I wonder what people thought as they saw this thing come sailing over their heads with the new green leaves on the trees and the clouds drifting against the blue blue sky.
Joe
sometimes it would be great to know a year
bubblegum cigars for a nickle
We used to get a dime every sattiday, my sister and i, when we were just liddlies. That was one coke and either a candy bar or a comic book. Drink the coke, and take the bottle back, and you could get three or four pieces of "penny candy," which usually sold two for a penny.
My grandfather told of his boyhood before the first world war, when they would purchase a watermelon for a dime, or three cantaloupes. Although i knew that to be cheap, watermelons were only 50 cents when i was a child, and cantaloupes ran 10 cents to a quarter, depending on the season. We used to take two cents to school, for milk--two cents a pint.
I also recall the butcher shop of our neighbor, Mr. Henry. On the meat case were signs such as: "Ground Hamburg Steak, 11 cents," "Fryers, 25 cents," "Roasting Hens, 30 cents," "Round Steak, 17 cents/lb." (Damn, expensive!)
This is a great thread because it makes me feel so comparatively young.
I remember refusing to pay 30 cents or more for a gallon of gas. I would just wait until another gas war started (there were 3 stations to choose from at an intersection about 2 miles from my house) and I would just wait until it dipped back down to a reasonable sum.
This was in the late 60s and early 70s.
I was a little bit grinning on another thread (
18th Century Lady's Maid ), since the description there isn't
thus different from what I remember as a child. :wink:
Setanta wrote:I also recall the butcher shop of our neighbor, Mr. Henry. On the meat case were signs such as: "Ground Hamburg Steak, 11 cents," "Fryers, 25 cents," "Roasting Hens, 30 cents," "Round Steak, 17 cents/lb." (Damn, expensive!)
Well, it's still the same here, they only use kilos and Euros instead (and it's written in German).
I remember being able to buy a hot dog and a large mug of root beer on the boardwalk at Coney Island for a dime. Pack of cigarettes cost 15 cents. Subway ride was a nickel.
I remember my dad pitching a fit when they raised the price of cigarettes from 20 Cents to 27 Cents a pack. "Highway robbery!" He quit smoking in protest.
I remember when you could buy one cigarette for a penny. We, if I remember correctly, called them "loosies". The store keeper would have an open pack of cigarettes and sell them one at a time. I also remember when $8 dollars a week was a livable salary. Come to think of it they were not the "good old days"
I can still remember that on Saturday mornings, back in the 50s, my mother used to say, "we can't go & do the shopping yet. the milkman & the baker haven't called for their money" she hated the idea of the bill building up.
The baker had a horse drawn cart & the horse would follow the breadman & always stop at every call without any signals or orders. He knew the route better his governer.
I can remember picking up the phone and hearing the operator say "Number, please."
When we first got a television, my grandmother was outraged that we did not want to watch it. But hell, we didn't want to miss The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, and The Inner Sanctum--those were great entertainment!
