More memories

[nurktwin 2,143]

i didn't write this, i had pizza well before i was 16!!

'Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'

'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him.

'All the food was slow.'

'C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?'

'It was a place called 'at home,'' I explained !

'Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the kitchen table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it :

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, never wore Levis , never set foot on a golf course, never traveled out of the country or had a credit card.

In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck.

Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow)

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 13.

It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a..m. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.

I was 16 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.'

When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had..

I never had a telephone in my room.

The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home But milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers -- my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6AM every morning.

On Saturday , he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

[Amber 70]

Yep me too. We made it ourselves. We didn't know it was supposed to be round until later. We always made it in a rectangular pan. I had my first "clock in" job at 14 at the local Burger Chef (that name itself dates me), where I was allowed to have fast food. Until then, it was a very rare occassion when my Mom would buy us a slaw dog at the local newsstand or Dairy Queen. I went to an A&W rootbeer drive in place when I was 12...and I thought it was soooo cool to hang out with the teenagers. We ate at home too. I did not go to a real "sit-down" type restaurant for a steak until I was old enough to date and the guy took me there. He was a lawyer's son so he could afford it. Most dates were to the movies or once in awhile a hamburger joint. We didn't have access to the amount of money kids have today.

I don't even bother telling young folks this stuff anymore. They just look at you like a deer in the headlights. It is so foreign to them, they just can't comprehend it.

[weird monkey 0]

The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

That doesn't make any sense. You just checked to make sure someone wasn't already on the line before dialing. Maybe it was different in cities, but you always knew your neighbors and you were all grouped on the same line.

I look pretty good for an 80 year old, eh?

Eh?