Diaper Services, Milk Boxes, and Other Bygone Things

As a small child, our family went to visit another family member in a remote area of Vermont. This great Aunt was over 80 years old - she lived on a beautiful lake (people were trying to buy her property from her as it was such a beautiful spot).

She did not have a bathroom, but an outhouse, she has a wood stove and lived in what appeared to be a shack from the outside. It was actually quite comfortable on the inside.

I would guess there are not too many outhouses any longer.

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http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o235/taichi_photos/essentialstructure.jpg

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This is an essential structure at our northern property Linkat. There is no indoor plumbing or running water but the well does have a hand pump.

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I guess you are right - cabin in my hubby's family in Montana has an outhouse. It now has a bathroom, but the outhouse is still there.

I suppose it is just shocking to see it in a primary residence though.

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Linkat wrote:

I guess you are right - cabin in my hubby's family in Montana has an outhouse. It now has a bathroom, but the outhouse is still there.

I suppose it is just shocking to see it in a primary residence though.

Well, it's a vacation place at the moment, but we did go up in December and let me tell you an early morning walk to the privy through 6 inches of snow is no picnic Laughing

(The, er, "compost" generates heat and so there were tiny icicles hanging from the seat!)

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I have a vague memory of trolley cars in NYC. But the trolley tracks were embedded in the streets long after the cars disappeared.

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Roberta wrote:

I have a vague memory of trolley cars in NYC. But the trolley tracks were embedded in the streets long after the cars disappeared.

I can remember trolley cars. When I was a little kid, my mom bought a lovely suit. She purchased extra material, and made herself a matching hat. It was quite snazzy.

At the debut of the outfit, my mother was taking me somewhere or other. I can remember that it was a very windy day. The hat flew off her head, and before she could retrieve it, was flattened by a passing trolley car.

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I remember the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary docked along the Hudson...

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Phoenix, did you live in NYC in 1950? I forget...

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ossobuco wrote:

Phoenix, did you live in NYC in 1950? I forget...

I lived in Brooklyn until 1957, and then moved to Long Island until 1994, when I moved to Florida.

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We are, I think, about the same age - Roberta's the baby - but we all lived there at the same time, for a bit. We lived in the Bronx just long enough to make me always love New York.

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Our walls seem rather subdued these days, not like when everyone's walls it seemed were a garden of someone's imagination

http://turkeyfeathers.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/wallpaper.jpg

And here's a throw-back to earlier days:
A staple of 1950's Televison

INDUSTRY ON PARADE

This one is about my favorite bicycle company COLUMBIA. I had a forty-five pound monster of a bike which I rode up and down the hills of Manchester, Connecticut. I had a huge basket on the front for my papers/

Click on the link to watch the short movie:

Columbia Bicycle Company

Joe(fascinating)Nation

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Great film; thanks Joe. I miss my old 45 lb bike -- no gears, coaster brakes, perfect for a Luddite like me. "As up-to-date as tomorrow's newspaper" made me laugh ruefully though. Bikes may be here to stay, but newspapers?

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my "pride and joy" when i was in my early 20's and courting the (now) mrs h .
99 cc two-stroke engine , 4.5 hp ! probably not enough to power a lawn mover Laughing

.
it would do 40 mph , going downhill with the wind at the back - but man , was i proud ! while most of my friends just had a bicycle - i had a
MOTORCYCLE !
hbg(aka EASY RIDER Shocked

!)

IMME MOTORCYCLE - EARLY 1950's

http://www.zweirad-museum.de/cms_media/module_bi/78/3882_1_gross_119_1915.JPG

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I own one Columbia bicycle. Fire engine red. 3 speeds, wheel gets stuck every 50 meters or so. But it's beauteous.

This here were pioneers:

http://www.mix.sk/data/socializmus-2001/w_pioniersky_slub.jpg

I was one, too. It was the communist youth organization, resented by everybody (especially kids) except for me. I was clueless. I wanted to be in. I wanted to REPREZENT at any occasion. I'd scramble to get into all school and city events. Usually that consisted of me and one other pioneer standing as two asses without a flinch through hours long brainwashing tirades during Teachers' pledge to the communist party, or some official state visit or so. I'd be there as a reward, the other kid usually for punishment. Oh well, to each her own. I'd know better if I was a bit older then.

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Quote:

"As up-to-date as tomorrow's newspaper" made me laugh ruefully though. Bikes may be here to stay, but newspapers?

Newspapers have morphed before, they used to be single or double sheets of paper. (circa 1690) I'm sure there were people then grousing about change....

"What's wrong with just having a suitable town crier to convey the news of the day? Why should I be forced to read column after column of uneven letters in order to inform myself?"

Joe(And what will the scribes do if this printing fad takes hold?)Nation

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I loved the Sunday Comics in the old days. Many of these glorious works of art filled the whole page. Ches and Wal (the Nut Brothers); Alley Oop; Steve Canyon; Joe Palooka; Toonerville Trolley; Krazy Kat; Casey Ruggles; Winnie Winkle (featuring Denny Dimwit); Katzenjammer Kids; Lil Abner; Pogo Possum; and on and on. Comics today are mostly too small to read. I skip some favorites because of the struggle to understand them.

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Joe Nation wrote:

Quote:
"As up-to-date as tomorrow's newspaper" made me laugh ruefully though. Bikes may be here to stay, but newspapers?

Newspapers have morphed before, they used to be single or double sheets of paper. (circa 1690) I'm sure there were people then grousing about change....

"What's wrong with just having a suitable town crier to convey the news of the day? Why should I be forced to read column after column of uneven letters in order to inform myself?"

Joe(And what will the scribes do if this printing fad takes hold?)Nation

Don't mind me, Joe, I'm just cranky. Some days the world seems to be changing faster than I can keep up (especially without gears).

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Whatever happened to the newspaper delivery kid on the bike?

Rolling Eyes

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You don't see baby carriages anymore. They were movable cribs. Now it's all strollers.

http://www.cobwebstudios.com/cws_404_10.gif

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How about Saturday afternoon at the movies? You sat in the "children's section", (at the front of the theatre, on the side) which was controlled by an overweight white haired marcelled "matron", who shone a flashlight at you if she thought that you were doing something wrong.

You saw one "A" movie, one "B" film, some cartoons, some coming attractions, and a Movietone News. In the spring, the guys from Duncan yo-yo would put on a show, and give prizes. You were in that theatre from noon until after 5 p.m.

As kids we always went together in groups. I can never remember going to the movies with my parents.

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Diaper Services, Milk Boxes, and Other Bygone Things

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