I remember when you could turn on you high beams without having to go into contortions in order to get your foot up to the steering wheel.
I remember there was a time when I knew my age...
and ice cream only came in 2 flavors...yes and no.
You are getting old when your arms are too short to allow you to read the printed page signaling the need for reading glasses.
au1929 wrote:You are getting old when your arms are too short to allow you to read the printed page signaling the need for reading glasses.
I just place the book on the floor and stand at the top of a flight of stairs.
(gets rather exhausting though going up and down the stairs to turn the pages)
Sturgis
Spoken like a true frugal New Englander.
I'm with you on not remembering my age. I hope you have my good fortune of still remembering my birth year and having the ability of doing the subtraction thing.
Here's a Christmas rememberance:
Remember back in the '60s when mandarin oranges came in a wooden crate and were individually wrapped? You had to use a hammer to pry it open.
And, the only ones available were the Japanese variety. At the time, they were a real treat and somewhat pricey.
I remember in some of the apartment buildings built I would guess at the beginning of the 20th century the tank containing the water for flushing the toilet was just below the ceiling. There was a chain you pulled to activate the flush. I was reminded of this the other day when my wife asked me if I pulled the chain. Anyone remember that bit of long ago technology.
I don't remember a chain. I only remember going out in the dark of night to a small structure with a smelly hole to sit over, and a newspaper to wipe with.
sure do, au. i also recall that there were apartment buildings (in germany, early '50s) that had one john per apartment floor - and these were quite respectable apartments.
i also remember when punched cards and tabulating machines were considered quite modern office equipment in the early '50s. i had learned to to operate punched card equipment before leaving germany for canada in 1956 and had no trouble finding an office job quickly because of my "advanced" (???) knowledge of these machines. the department operating the equipment was actually called "IBM Department" ! hbg
Outhouses as far as I know were gone from NY City before I was born.
"IBM tabulating machine" - about the size and weight of a sherman tank .
We used an outhouse in Fresno, California, as late as 1956, and it was still in use after we left there.
edgar : are you familiar with "two-holers" ?
we still had them on some farms in ontario in the '60s -you never were lonely for long - farmers would usually greet you with a friendly "good morning ! " or such when they entered. hbg
THE TWO-HOLER
by Judy Lee Green
Sitting on a two-holer with my granny,
a broom straw in her mouth,
kicking my legs, knocking flies,
listening to the drone of dirt daubers
in the upper corner of the outhouse,
thinking about Little Miss Muffet as I watched
a spider descend from the ceiling on a thread of silk.
Sticky with the cotton candy heat
of a July morning I was
inhaling barnyard odors,
listening to chickens softly cluck
and scratch for worms outside the door,
hearing the creek gurgle
down the hill behind us,
crows caw, songbirds sing,
my granddaddy, as he called to the mule
in the lower forty
as he plowed,
feeling the rough cut
of the sawmill board
as my hand played
along the edge of the seat,
watching my granny
fan with a Sears and Roebuck sale catalog,
noticing light leak through
the cracks of the walls
and hopscotch on the floor,
savoring the salty taste in my mouth of
country ham and mouth-watering
cathead biscuits and sawmill gravy
for breakfast,
shuddering at the bucket of corn cobs
in the corner and dreading
their roughness,
smelling old maids beside the door
and hollyhocks growing up the side,
anticipating making hollyhock dancers
and floating them in the creek again today.
Sitting on a two-holer with my granny
and wishing summer vacation would never end.
We had use of one two holer. I recall some kids making much of the fact that a man and his wife would go in there together. I recall Richard Nixon as a college student found and used a five holer for a prank.
oh, the good ole' days ! hbg
(what was it that archie bunker sang with edith :... when men were men ... ; sorry archie)
It seems like yesterday that the ice-man delivered our block of ice, that I burned trash in our incinerator, that kids were all thin because there was no TV to keep them indoors. Does that makes me a really smelly f*rt?
