Diaper Services, Milk Boxes, and Other Bygone Things

Of course, then there were TV shows like:

Reyn, Rusty and Rinty!! How I loved dat dawg.

I'm remembering when some rooms didn't have light switches in the wall. You had to feel around for a cord that was attached to the fixture in the ceiling.

I'm remembering those gigantic 75 records played on victrolas. No stereo. 45s and 33 and a thirds hadn't come along yet.

No remote control. You wanted to change a channel, you had to get up and walk across the room. There were dials on the tvs. No buttons. Fine tuning was an art. Fiddling with the fine-tuning dial was necessary every time you changed the station.

How was that triangle thingie in those records called again? Spindle?

Yes, the spindle. But the spindle on our victrola was round.

This reminds of record players not being portable. They were big, like pieces of furniture.

I'm remembering that it was the fifties when battery operated radios appeared. Prior to that the radio had to be plugged in to the wall.

No batteries. No portability. What a concept.

Electronic tubes.

I had a portable plastic battery operated radio, that used tubes instead of transistors, that was the size of a lunchbox.

My refrigerator had to be defrosted, which was one of my least favorite things to do.

I remember when phones had dials instead of buttons. Pay phones had a separate ear and mouthpiece, and a phone call was a nickel.

78's Robbie, not 75's..... hehe.




I remember squeezeing some orange goop into white oleomargarine...

You got me, osso. 78s for sure. Still have a few. I have Rhapsody in Blue on 78. I think.

Hours long lines when they got bananas or tangerines in the 'fruits and vegetables' shops. after communism fell, bananas were available anywhere anytime, so boring.

They always knew if the masses got enough potassium... .

Joe(to the barricades!!)Nation

no barricades. we couldn't afford them. we flung cow dung in defense... ah, the good old times.

Re: Diaper Services, Milk Boxes, and Other Bygone Things


I remember the ice man making deliveries to taverns in my Chicago neighborhood, when I was a young kid. The ice man had a piece of thick rubber thrown over his back, so the ice wouldn't stick to his skin in the Summer.

We played "Hide and go Seek" in my neighborhood, until a neighbor
threw a bucket of water out of the 4th floor window of her apartment. We then ran home.

Manual typewriters. Loud, clackety, slow. No photocopiers. If you needed more than one of something, you had to use carbon paper. I think up to ten copies were possible. One mistake and you had to ERASE on each copy. Special techniques were designed for this. One change of mind, and you had to retype the whole thing.

There wasn't any "WhiteOut"!

No white out. No correction tape. Erasers. That's it.

Gestettner machines with the purple ink and the special pink correction fluid. (No idea of spelling...)

I can remember when electric typewriters were "the big deal of the day"!

I also remember when there was no Visa, Master Card, or Discover card. There were charge cards, but they were basically from individual department stores, and gas stations. Oh yes, there WAS American Express, and Diner's club, but that was for the rich folks, at that time way out of my league.

I have a charga-plate on my key chain from Abraham & Straus, a defunct department store that was in Brooklyn. All you had to do was show the plate. You didn't even have to sign anything!

I still cant cut and paste an image from a previous post- SO, Picture, if you will the photo Of Rin Tin Tin and that kid with the army uniform that was posted a few pages back.

I had a stock fan picture of Rin Tin Tin when I was a kid. Rin Tin Tin actually signed it like "Good Luck" - Rin Tin Tin, and it wasnt till I was cleaning out the chest where I stored my kid stuff many years later that I realized that Rin Tin Tin probably signed it with an alias, his real name was probably Murry, so whenever he signed his checks he couldnt be forged..

I figgered this out all by myself.