Diaper Services, Milk Boxes, and Other Bygone Things

Telegrams.

it is still posiible to send telegrams from canada world-wide - but you have to phone the message in to an operator .
hbg

...SEND A TELEGRAM...

CB radios.

i still have a (portable) cb radio in my car ; it allows me to listen to the weather reports of "environment canada" directly ... and a few other users .
hbg

Old cars used so much water, it was necessary to carry a canvass water bag for the purpose.

that's one reason why we drove a VW BEETLE - water was only required for the driver(who's taking the picture) and his crew
hbg

hamburger- Funny that you should mention Beetles. When my son was small, in the 1960's, we had a little game that we would play while I was driving. It was called "Count the Beetles". There were so many VWs on the road then, that it kept him very busy while I was driving.

As a result, I don't ever remember him saying, "Are we there yet"!

Drain your radiator;
as a child i remember my grandfather in the winter going out to drain the radiator on both cars. I don't remember if it was because anti-freeze was rare or just expensive but to keep the engine from freezing (and cracking) it was necessary to drain out the water during cold weather and then replacing it when you needed to drive somewhere.

Your question had me think way way back into the past.
Probably not as far as you can, but still!

I used to buy milk as a little girl in a 'milk bar'.
You'd get the milk from a tap straight into the container you brought with you!

A friend (who's only four years older) and his family used to go to a public bath for their weekly bath!

We never had a telephone until I was 10 or 11, so I still remember trips to the phone box with lots of change.

I remember waiting at 17:00h for the daily television program to start.
I remember actually having a black and white TV.

I remember by grandmothers vinyard, and my dad's garden growing everything from potatoes to peas, beans, carrots, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, peppers, pumpkins, blackberries, blackcurrant, redcurrant, peaches, cherries, plums, pears, apples, hazelnuts, parsley, chives, celery, coliflower, brussel sprouts, walnuts, ...
He's still got the garden, but growing mainly flowers, with a few apple, peach and pear trees.

And I had a CB radio, too!
Great times those were!

phoenix wrote :



and during the 50's and 60's in canada , it was customary for beetle drivers to wave at each other

i also remember that when we were in texas in 1979 drivers would greet each other with a short (two finger) salute when meeting on country roads , a nice custom we thought . is that still the custom ?
hbg

Big ol' delicious donuts, dripping with grease.

Everybody waves.

You can be on your bicycle on the loneliest section line road in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma but you can bet all your money that when the next truck comes over that little rise, it's driver, male or female, will give you a little hello sign, a little wave, maybe just the briefest motion, but still, a recognition of your presence.

It may be another hour before you see another human being so it's nice to know someone has seen you.

Joe(Where in the hell am I?)Nation

today's news as reported by the CBC :
home milk-delivery is about to be discontinued in prince-edward-island - canada's smallest province .
a local business still doing home delivery is down to about 2,000 customers and they think it's about time to discontinue the service .

IT WAS A SLOW NEWSDAY FOR CANADA
hbg

When I was a lad, I hitched across the country and back a couple of times. You could still do that back in the 1960's. Interstates were not as prevalent. I saw VW's, particularly VW vans, as prime sources for lifts. There definately was an attitude amongst VW drivers that was different from folks driving other cars. Towards the end of the decade VW buses reeked of the smell of pot.
As a total aside, after Vietnam and a stab at a real job, I took off traveling full time. I got, while hitching, two lifts in Rolls Royces in the UK. Go figure.

I had two vw's. The first one, in '67, was the first car I owned. About a week after I got it, I scraped it against the brick column that sat protectively at the corner of my parents' house while I was backing out their narrow driveway. Narrow even for vw's. Alas, I had spent extra money to have the sweet car painted with the porsche brown paint instead of vw brown. After the scrape I was out of play money, and had to have my brand new car painted at Earl Sheib in mediocre brown for $19.95, yes, $19.95, at Earl Sheib, that's $19.95...

My next one was a used van (I was beginning to learn, but still buying too many cars), which I took to Earl Shieb again and had painted a metallic blue (gads, what taste) for, by then, a $29.95 expense. My later to be husband and I got stopped in a nice neighborhood (I was showing him the great Sycamore trees.. if I remember, the street is Mesa, in Santa Monica). They said there had been a report of a burglary, would we please get out of the van...

Not sure they said please, but they weren't completely rude. Had the van to carry big paintings, but it was empty at the time. No pot for them....
Wonder if they would have accused me of stealing my own paintings.

no more real "zeppelins" !
during 1937/38 zeppelins would cross the skies over the city of hamburg on occasion . i still remember the thrill when dad would call us to watch the huge zep floating through the skies .
my dad snapped this picture with an agfa box-camera when the zep was flying over our house !
i think it must have been the hindenburg , but can't be sure .
hbg

"Doing" the wash. Remember when Monday morning used to be a laborious occasion?

Washers and Driers are wonderful inventions. Of course there are some young twits that feel folding the laundry is an unfair burden upon them.

Ah, yes. The back yard, full of hanging, drying laundry.

Edgar--

Every so often I get nostalgic about the definitive sound of sheets flapping in the wind. KERRack!

And the dog tugging at the items hanging too low.