Actually I do remember 45 RPM records too. When I was in 1st grade I had 45 RPM singles of "Our House" by Madness and "Mr. Roboto" by Styx. Those were my first musical acquisitions.
My first acquisition was the "HELP" LP by The Beatles and a 45RPM of "Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf. I was nine years old at the time. I later got a 45 of "Hey Jude" by The Beatles. And then the "Abbey Road" LP.
During those days my tech toy was a Sony AM radio that was about the size of a pack of cigarettes that had a single earphone. And, believe it or not, I still have that radio. I always took great care of my things so it is still in near mint condition with the original leather carrying case and, yes, even the owner's manual. I must have thrown away the box.
As for the other things on the list...
DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN...? All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?
We never had coed gym class so, no, not really.It took five minutes for the TV warm up?
Yes. We didn't even get a color television until 1972.Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?
My mother was always at home. We always had a home cooked meal.When a quarter was a decent allowance?
Yes.You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?
I can honestly say that I never did. But I might have.Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?
She might have but I never knew.All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels?
Yes.You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time? And you didn't pay for air? And, you got trading stamps to boot?
I remember all of that but as a kid. My mother got stuff using S&H Greenstamps she got from the grocery store.Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box?
I remember it sort of...but it wasn't a part of my life so not really.It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents?
Yes, absolutely.They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed... and they did?
Yes, and those kids were total dicks to everyone in the class because they were bigger and stupid and mean.When a 57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise, peel out, or watch submarine races, and people went steady?
That was before my time. My first car purchased used was a 1969 Firebird.No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?
Not when I was a kid but I live somewhere now where I can do that and I do.Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?
I remember the pre-Tylenol poisoning days quite well.And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace, and share it with the children of today?
No. The "good old days" sucked in too many ways.When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home?
No, actually it wasn't. I got the crap beaten out of me by the vice principal. He used a bat that had holed drilled in it to increase its power upon striking me in the ass. It seriously hurt and there was nothing even vaguely approaching that level of pain at home.Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we survived because their love was greater than the threat.
Not really. Not for me.Can you still remember Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Dowdy and the Peanut Gallery, the Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows, Nellie Bell, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk? Silver?
No. Before my time by at least a decade.I double dog dare you to pass this on. To remember what a double dog dare is, read on. And remember that the perfect age is somewhere between old enough to know better and too young to care.
How many of these do you remember?
Candy cigarettes
Yes. They were stupid and tasted awful.Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside
Yes. They were horrid.Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
Yes.Coffee shops with table side jukeboxes
Absolutely.Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum
No. I hated gum.Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
When I was very young, yes.Newsreels before the movie
No. But I remember cartoons before movies.P.F Fliers
They ran ads on tv that promised they could make a kid run faster. They lied.Telephone numbers with a word prefix...(Raymond 4-601). Party lines
No.Hi-Fi's
My dad always had one. The first one I remember he built himself and it had tubes. I got my first one in the early seventies. It was a Sony. 15 watts per channel. Not a lot of power.45 RPM records
Yes.78 RPM records
No.Green Stamps
Yes.Metal ice cubes trays with levers
We had them.Roller-skate keys
No...never roller skated until the 1970s and they didn't have them then.Cork pop guns
Seen but never used. I had a Daisy BB gun and got into a lot of trouble with it.Studebakers
Nope.Washtub wringers
My grandmother had one and I ran my brother's arm through it. I got into a lot of trouble over that one.Erector Sets
Seen but I didn't have one.15-cent McDonald hamburgers
Yes but we almost never ate out and never there.5-cent packs of baseball cards - with that awful pink slab of bubble gum.
I had several shoe boxes of the things which was strange because I didn't really get into baseball until I was in my teens. I am pretty sure that my mother sold all of them at a garage sale for a few bucks. Thanks, mom.Penny candy
Yes.25-cent a gallon gasoline
I remember "gas wars." Yeah, those were the days.Do you remember a time when...
'Race issue' meant arguing about who ran the fastest?
That wasn't what we called it but I get it.Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?
I did that once.The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was 'cooties'?
I remember that but being a serious child I thought it was stupid.Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?
Heck, we MADE weapons in shop class.'Oly-oly-oxen-free' made perfect sense?
I played many a game of "kick the can" but that word never passed my lips.Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for the giggles?
Yes.The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?
Yes.Baseball cards in the spokes that transformed any bike into a motorcycle?
I did that.Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?
No, but smoking pot did.Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?
Actually, we did that in our teens but we modified it a bit. We had a Chevy van and set up a giant slingshot using surgical tubing and the frame of the van's side door. You could drive up right next to someone, slide open the door and literally knock them off of their feet (or off of a bicycle) with a well placed shot. That setup was later taken to college and used with a dorm window to target people in the quad from three stories up.
