Good ole days

[stmichael]

my mom tried to pin me down with the metal spoon with the slots in it and then tell me to hold still...yeah right...looking back I should have sat still, I had to deal with dad after mom hitting me all over but the target area (buttocks). I can imagine the site...an octopuss with a slotted metal spoon going nucking futs cause her child would not sit still.. I am actually laughing outloud right now.

I did not dare complain, besides, I had a feeling I probably deserved it. It still makes me laugh at times...bawl like a baby other times.

[echotrail]

Archer;

Mabe our dads went to school together, 'cause mine made the same 4 mile double uphill walk in the dark. He also said he hand milked 30 cows before going to school and had to beat the fence with a stick to keep the wolves away. On the way home in the winter he walked the train tracks picking up about 25 pounds of spilled coal so he could have a hot dinner and sleep in a warm bed.

[delmuts]

i had to walk up hill both ways!!! ( course there was a valley in between!! ) and it was only a mile! i got in on the last two years of country school before they closed them all down.building tunnels and forts in the hay mow.( til one collapsed in on DAD !!

i remember being told! "JUST WAIT TIL YOU HAVE KIDS"!!!! OMG!! it is so true!!!

[ocf]

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Sliding down the hill with the rest of the neighborhood kids was a contact sport. (Can't do that nowdays, someone could get hurt.)

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What??? hurt??? ok maybe your right some kids got broken noses goin off this ramp last year, i used to stand up on my sled and i had some nasty wipe outs

[The Grebe]

Geeze, I thought getting hurt once in a while was part of the deal when I was a kid?

Of all things, we used to have rock fights! It would last until someone got a rock in the head, which usually left a big bloody, purple and blue knob.

We also ingaged in BB gun fights once in awhile...this always got someones folks involved, but you never heard of anyone getting sued...maybe have someones big brother kick your butt, or someones dad shake you by the arm, but never any law suits.

We also used to shoot green apples at each other with our sling shots....same deal, usually lasted until someone got hit.

Once we bet my younger brother he wouldn't get into a 50 gallon drum and roll down this big hill, off Glenwood Ave., over by Fruens Mill. He did and ended up in Bassetts Creek with about 50 holes punched into him...we didn't think of the burrs on the inside of the drum where someone had punched some holes!

We used to hop freight trains, shoot pidgeons for the hobos with our sling shots, smoke corn silk we got from the farmers market, and raid gardens...everything was better then, all the fruits and vegetables were excellent.

It was also darker way back when, not as many lights around and I think we all had better night vision.

We would play hide and seek, kick the can, pom pom pullaway, dodge ball, and a bunch I can't even remember.

This is a good walk down this road! Makes me smile about things long past and it makes me feel good for having been there! When I read some of the other posts, it brings back memories of my own, of things I haven't thought about in many, many years.

[upnorth]

We stuck my buddies little brother in a laudromat clothe dryer once. He look a little green around the gills when we let him out.

I remember dodge ball and all those, we would play until it got so dark out you couldn't see. Some how we managed to entertain ourselves without nintendos and all that dump.

Duluth had like 3 channels when I was a kid, I now have 60 or so and I really don't think there is anymore worth watching on tv with all those channels.

[percherman]

I grew up in a small town just south of Sioux Falls. We use to hide on top of the bank downtown and bring a box of snowballs to lob at cars. It all ended one night during a snowstorm. We ended up pegging a guy on a snowmobile and he and his friend saw us and they chased us till they caught us. That was absolutely the worst white wash thrashing I have ever had or have ever seen anyone since receive. I had a raw face for three days.

Rode around on our homemade go carts and had bottle rocket wars. I still have a scar from that one.

Climbed trees! Just for fun. I swear I haven't seen a kid in a tree for years.

When I was done collecting on my paper route I treated myself to the only candy bar they had at the local gas station, Bing and a real glass bottle of Dr.Pepper that you had to pop the top off not twist off.

We rode our bikes out to the country rodes with grocery sacks to collect asparagus for our mothers.

I remember walking beans for 3-4$HR and actually pulling the weeds. Then they switched to a knife and a hook.

I guess they started riding on a tractor with booms using squirt bottles to spray the weeds, probably were getting paid allot more to (lazy buggers).

The old lady at the end of the block use to pay us a quarter for each squirrel or rabbit tail we brought her from her property.

Catching bullheads the length of my arm with dad and going home and nailing their heads to a piece of plywood and skinning them all night it seemed.

Some not so favorite.

Son its 20below out, that woods going to crack real well today, so get out there and split at least two rows for me.

The day my buddies older brother decided to pull us with his truck down a country road in the winter in a old VW hood. It was not pretty, hood ended up in the ditch and he thought it would be fun to take us over an approach at about 45. I ended up in the ditch but my friend ended up in the barbwire. Trip to Er screaming mothers the whole way there.

Beatings with the belt when dads got home from work.

Eating Liver and onions.

If you acted up at the table you got the big end of the butter knife banged on your forehead.

This has been a great thread! It has brought back some great memories for me. Thanks Guys.

[ocf]

i grew up in a small nebraska town, seward

we would climb trees all day, barefoot

we would have roman candle wars

we could be total pyros since everyone knows we know what we are doing

didnt matter where you ate lunch

i dug a pond for a neighbor for 200$ and 200$ in fireworks

[MntkaFishin]

I remember working at a gas station in high school when gas went over $1.00/gallon and people were PO'd. It's amazing how things change.

PS - We still have bottle rocket/roman candle fights these days.

[ocf]

Quote:

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PS - We still have bottle rocket/roman candle fights these days.

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sweet... can i come

[BobT]

I remember my first job paying me $1.62/hour when minimum wage for an adult was $2.00. Don't even know if there is a distinction between minimum for minors vs. adults these days.

I remember that first job was at a gas station and the price for gas was $.38/gallon. Then going to college a couple years later and seeing 92 octane at $.74 and thinking I'd have to get rid of the car if regular ever got that high.

I remember mom gettting us kids (there were seven of us) up at 6:30am during the summer so she could get her housework done. We were given an option to help her or get out of the house. We disappeared until lunch and then again until dinner and mom didn't have to worry about where we were.

I remember having no heat in our bedroom and cotton sheets. Burrr! The blankets would freeze to the wall from frost.

Bob

[Ely Lake Expert]

I can't think of anything to say right off hand. I just can't compete with all of you senior citizens. J/K lol Realisticly I am about the same age as mntnkafisher, because I remember gas being 99 cents a gallon the year I got my drivers license.

[Nodak7mm]

Man what a good thread... I am not that old (42), but grew up in the sticks (TRF/Plummer area) on a farm. So it was only 30 some yrs ago I remember such things as:

Putting up hay meant, a sickle mower, a dump rake on the "B", and the "60" powering the stacker. In winter with my dad and uncles, going out in the field, clearing the snow off the stack and "forking" onto the trailer.

Putting in a bulk tank for the milkman to pick it up instead of hauling to the creamery in cream cans. Picking up milk meant taking can out to barn, into milkroom and filling it.

Installing a barn cleaner, now that was getting fancy.

Grandpa using his Blacksmithing forge..

Up to armpit in cow trying to turn calf... (For the unknowning, I better add that this was certainly not done for fun, but to assist cow in delivery when things were not quite coming out right)

Getting a tractor with a cab and a radio, WOW!

Starting a tractor by throwing the flywheel or crank.

50 cent bounty on pocket gophers. Catching badgers & skunks in our gopher traps.

Putting pennies on the RR tracks and totally freaking when I got brave and put a nickle on the tracks, thought I was gonna derail a train..

Putting whatever little farm critters in the stock tank to see if they could swim. All of em could.

Up in the hayloft, having the best forts out of bales, throwing cats in the air as high as you could to see if they always came down on all 4 feet. And they always did..

Getting the town kids or city cousins to touch the electric fence or better yet, pee on it...

Be gone all day wondering around the woods, fields, etc with guns and just show up to do chores. No one worried..

Go spear northerns at Pine Lake with Grandpa after Sat morning chores. Fishing Red Lake when it was good, before it was bad. Going to Rocky or Stoney (can't recall which one for sure) but walking thru the fish house after the commercial fisherman came in and seeing fish larger than myself in the boxes..

Deer huntng was a bigger family gathering than any other holiday. When deer season was closed one yr or two in our zone because of low populations.

Driving a farm truck at 8 yrs old or staying home from school to plow.

Walking out to end of driveway to catch bus with .22 rifle, hand it to bus driver (Clarence) to keep it till ya got to school, bring it into office to keep till after school for Firearms saftey (1976) taught by a guy named "Stub". Entire 6th grade class took this class, all 17-18 of us..

Not ever remembering parents going grocery shopping with exception of stopping at local store on Sunday for ?? Ice cream maybe... Had 1/2 acre garden with at least an additional acre of sweet corn and taters.

Stopping harvest or whatever field work, cause here comes Grandma with lunch. (couple of times a day)

There are 1000 more memories.. All good, I was blessed to have grown up in the sticks. I treasure these memories and more each day.. Dang proud to be a farmboy!!!

Rod

[fishing tech]

19 cents per gal. at target gas station, popcorn and your 1 can of pop for the week while watching Hee Haw. AM only radio, Practicing putting on oxygen mask at school because by the time you graduate you are going to need them to breathe. Going to grandma and grandpa's on Sunday. Outdoor hockey. Met Center Tailgating. quarter beers, Strohs, Schmidt, and the Hamm's bear. When you could trust people and didn't have to ask for help, they would just offer. I made more 10 years ago then I do now, I don't see things getting better so I am just enjoying watching my kids grow up and hope they can have some good old days.

[HaywardBound]

Nodak...

"Getting the town kids or city cousins to touch the electric fence or better yet, pee on it..."

I was that city cousin that got zapped! Not you but it brings up memories of years past. I still feel bad at what we did to the frogs and that electric fence!

[nytelyter]

had a paper route when i was 11 or 12. kept it for three or four years earned a trip to donnybrook (brainerd international raceway)with them and saw a can am race. camping trips every summer with the family. to places like yellowstone south dakota washington dc canada and lots of places inbetween. washing dishes and cookin in the local resturant till i was 16 then pumped gas for ok here goes 21.9 during the price wars. yes i said 21.9 then workin in two differenty bakerys for my jr and sr year of high school. ment getting up at 1230 in the morning to go to work before school. oh and the trouble we avoided. heheeheh was buying beer and alcohol when i was 16 in the local store. and never got carded. leagel age was 18 then. and i looked it. booze crusing the gravels at night. hitting the old wooden bridge out side of town as fast as we could drive our cars to see how far we could fly. and by the hand of god never wrecked it. should have tho. yes this thread bring back memories. ... paul

[blgoose]

Trucks & Cars had wing windows and 3 on the tree

Waking up to captain kangroo

Coming home from school to jetsons, flintstones

Building forts out chairs blankets,couches and having rubber bander fights

Riding bikes 3 miles to the river to fish

Dad saying this is going to hurt me more then you :Belt:

Mn fighting saints games, new civic center

Wards and Woolworth stores in the midway.

Letting mice go on the city bus we bought at woolworths

Lil gengral stores and 7/eleven stores

Born 63

[cold one sd]

Main entertainment Saturday night was Lone Ranger and Tarzan on the radio. Listening to The Shadow and Dick Tracy on Sunday mornings on the way to and from church. Read a lot of books back then. Standing in front of a hardware store on friday night watching professional wrestling because it was the only television set in town. Standing on the running board of the car scraping ice off of the window while going slow so dad could see. We also used a cloth bag full of salt if it wasn't too bad. Going the last five miles to my uncles farm by bob sled because the plows hadn't been there. Walking 10 blocks to school in a blizzard and then home again because it was closed. Went sledding down the local hill all day. My mother was going to buy me a breach loading rifle from way back for one dollar and decided that a dollar was too much for an old gun.

[genegodawa]

I know a high percentage of the previous postings and they bring back some real nostalgia for me. Here's some of mine:

-Being a city kid and wishing I was in the country-still do!

-The guy with that big-wheel cart ringing his bell whenever he would come around the neighborhood to sharpen knives and scissors for Mom

-When streets were empty all day because Dad had the only car at work with him

-Getting old enough to be allowed to go play at the school yard or the park instead of in the streets, actually pre-arranging games between diff blocks of kids and having everybody show up at the right time and having enough kids so we didn't have to play "pitcher's hands" or "right field out"

-Playing street hockey after church on Sunday for 6 hrs straight - until suppertime

-Hide and Seek games at night

-Sleeping in tents, and going out at 1am throwing tomatoes at diff neighbors homes/garages and then all the Moms talking over the fact that some houses got hit with tomatoes on the same night we camped out. Coincidence? I think not.

-Going to church ONLY on Sunday and NOT being able to touch the host---> a sacrilege back then

-"Tackle" football WITHOUT eqpt

-Walking to the reservoir with snow shovels to clear off our hockey "rink", and when there wasn't any snow having a "no slapshot" rule or else we'd end up watching the puck slide about a mile away after a missed shot

-Sitting in FRONT of the house where all the neighbors could stop by to gab

-Having to be home when the street lights went on

-Building a go-kart out of leftover wood and never getting the axle to stay on for more than 2 or 3 rides, using a piece of clothesline rope to steer the go-kart, and all the while really wanting to ride a neighbor's gas powered mini-bike -- man, that kid must be rich to have one of those!

-Videotaping our first MN fishing trip with a Super8 camera that had the really bright light that blinded everyone in the cabin - and NO sound

-That hockey game with the metal players and buying new players so you had all the teams after NHL expansion back in about '69

-Grannie's garden in our backyard growing numerous veggies so we didn't have to buy them at the store - to this day, I wish we could have grown MEAT instead!

-Mom going to 5 diff grocery stores EVERY WEEK just to get the best price on EVERY item, and using hundreds of coupons of course

-My first car, a '65 Chevy (Impala I think)

-My first real job stocking a shoe store (after having had a paper route for 10 yrs) and being "promoted" to sales and then having to wear a suit and tie and not get dirty anymore

-The afternoon paper edition

-Hunting the alleys for bottles we could return for deposit and then use the money to buy a bottle of pop

-Ordering Friday dinner out, steakburgers from Cock Robin, was a BIG treat for us. Shoot, having Dad bring home a case of soda bottles in diff flavors- black cherry, cream, orange, rootbeer - was a big treat too.

-Soft serve ice cream and The Good Humor man

More to come later I'm sure ..........

[Eric Wettschreck]

Listening to the 8 track player in dad's brand spankin new 1967 chev truck.

Burgers at Zappas resort on Martin Lake, which turned into the Martin House. All gone now.

My older bro and myself turning the lights off in dad's gargage and throwing Tonka trucks at each other.

Trying to actually dig a hole to China.

Older bro and myself building our underground "Hogans Heros" fort in the woods.

Sunday morn, after church, all star wrestling with Mad Dog Vachon and the Claw. Followed by Kung-my-mom-sees-this Theater and Godzilla.

Since we didn't have x box or play station we shot cats.

Pick up games of hockey on the pond.

Dad drank Blatz beer that he bought by the truck load.

Blowing up beaver dams.

Friday after chores with my backpack all packed up, looking at mom and dad and saying "See ya Sunday" as I went off into the woods.

Jumping on the 67 "Ole Yeller" Olympic and the 72 TNT 440 and finding, then cutting down the perfect Christmas tree.

Watching the Vikings at the Met, with dad, getting snowed on, hittin the schnapps.

[genegodawa]

Here's some more from my good ole days:

-Watching Superman (played by George Reeves)

-Playing Superman with my Halloween costume at around age 9 and wishing I could fly

-Schlitz/Blatz/Hamm's in quart bottles in our fridge for Dad

-Getting a finger of whiskey rubbed onto my sore gums by Mom

-Wanting to grow up to be a priest LOL

-Having a crush on my 3rd grade teacher (not a Nun)

-Having a crush on my Frosh Spanish Teacher (oooh la la)

-Bumper pool, ping pong, and darts in the neighbors basement

-Hand stands in the shallow end of the pool

-Those airplanes that you held onto with string while they flew and you turned in circles to keep it going with that engine that made the noise that sounds much like today's weedwackers

-My sister making us a cake in her EasyBake Oven

-Homemade frosting and licking the mixer parts

-Ash trays EVERYWHERE and everybody smoked (LS/MFT on Lucky Strikes did not mean Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco, it really meant Loose Straps Mean Flappy T...)

-Knock knock jokes

-the Beatles on Ed Sullivan's "really big shoe"

-Registering for "the Draft" and my Mom praying over and over that I not be taken from her by Vietnam

-Neighbor parents coming over to play board games/cards after we were sent to bed

-When divorce just didn't happen

-Delivering the afternoon paper to the local tavern and seeing my high school teachers in there for happy hr on Fridays

-2 for 1 Happy Hr (outlawed now I believe)

-And speaking of wrestling: trying out the "pile driver" or that leg-lock submission hold made famous by Dr. X (the "Figure Four" leg-lock)on the smaller kids

[UdeLakeTom]

They weren't homemade go-carts, they were called "chugs".

No wheels of anykind were safe, they were all fair game to us.

Baseball cards came with a stick of gum for 1 penny, and you stuck them in your back pocket with a binder around them. Lucky the guy whose mom didn't throw the out when he quit collecting them.

Any mass after 9:00 am on Sunday was the "drunkers mass".

All these postings make good memories, but I like some of the new things a lot better. Warm beds and air conditioning to name a couple.

[New Yankee]

Genegodawa - your post could have been written by me, although dad had cans of grain belt not quarts

[genegodawa]

Great NY, now for perspective I'll let you all know I am 50.

Been daydreaming for a few days now about the past...just can't stop, so here are some more that come to mind:

-Catching lightning bugs and putting them in little glass baby food jars with blades of grass for food and punching holes for air into the caps with Dad's screwdriver

-Finding a big spider web and feeding the spider small moths we would catch in the tall grass/weeds then watching the spider come get them

-Playing a game of Red Rover on the front lawn

-Whiffle ball games, Bounce or Fly, 500, Off the Steps

-"Johnny Tag" at recess where you start with a bunch of people running from one side of the playground to the other and one person is "it". Then everyone they tag continues to be "it" and tag everyone else until only one person is left trying to dodge all the other kids to get to the other side

-Two-wheel scooters that required real leg power to go anywhere and a footbrake that bent and didn't work anymore after the first time you really had to use it to stop quickly

-My first bus ride to school

-My first bike ride to school - and didn't even have to lock it up 'cause nobody stole things back then

-My first train ride to downtown Chi-town, passing the Ghetto, and feeling so bad people have to live like that

-Wetting my pants in 1st grade because I was too afraid to ask the Nun to go to the bathroom

-Teaching myself to ride a 2-wheeler, but not being able to ride my bike around the block at age 7 without kids down the block picking on me so my Mom and Grandpa would drive in their car around the block behind me to watch me (which I didn't know) THEN earning the other kids' respect by fighting and winning against one of the bullies.

-My first confession and first holy communion and confirmation

--Fast Pitch against the school wall with that chalked box for a strike zone and the big X right in the middle

-Comic books (Batman and Superman/Superboy were my favorite, then Archie), the anticipation for the new ones to come out, and making the trip to the corner drug store just to see if any new ones were on display

-Stealing tomatoes from the neighbors garden and eating them like apples

-Water pistol fights BEFORE those giant rifle-type ones were invented

-That goofy Slip'n'Slide on which there was no lack of fear by Mom that we were gonna bust our head open

-A game of Bike Tag

-Playing in the shell of a house that was just being built

-Running away from the mean old man on the corner - just because we set one foot onto his lawn he would yell at us to get away from his yard

-Buying balloons at The Dime Store and having water balloon fights

-Penny candy

-Swimming Lessons and my first dive off the HighDive

Coming up for air now........

[Bobby Bass]

Good ole days, it sounded like a good idea. After reading all of these posts regarding the good ole days I thought I would relive my youth and have a good old day. So I called up some of my friends and we started to plan a day out. The day arrived and I jumped up out of my bed, I immediately fell back into bed with a head spin rushing through my brain, Got to remember to get up slowly. I recovered after a fashion and got dressed, going into the kitchen I made myself a bowl of sugar cereal, I got half way through it when the wife took it away and reminded me about my blood sugars. I fought off the urge and walked past the coffee pot. I went over to the garage and got my borrowed grandsons bike, Carefully I put the two joker playing cards from the deck onto the spokes. Grabbing my old baseball glove I slipped it over the handle bar and with my bat laying across the bars I pushed off down the driveway directly into the gravel ditch where I flipped upside down. As I was laying in the ditch looking skyward and watching the wheel of the bike spinning slowly my wife blocked the sun and said something about not being kid anymore.

She helped me in the house and soon the rocks were washed out of the palms of my hands and they were covered in red meracrome. Returning to fetch my glove and bat I decide to walk over to the vacant lot that we were going to play baseball at. Finding a can I decide to have a little game of kick the can on the way, but I could not look down over my belly to kick the can so I had to just swig the bat at it. I was going to be late so I just stepped on the can and was rewarded with a nice crushing sound. At the lot we only had enough guys for pitchers hand and no one had a hardball so we used a softball. Bottom of the first inning Loyd gets the bat around and drives the ball right through the storm window in the little white house next door.. Hahah we laff you just broke old man Lloyd's window.. Loyd standing and looking at the broken window sees his wife coming out and says " but I am old man Loyd" off he goes to fix his window.

Baseball game is over so we decide to go and shoot off some Estes rockets. I still have a few old engines and Pat has a three stager that we can launch. We head to the football field and assemble our launch area. Spreading out across the field we rub our hands together and look forward to reliving our youth, We start the countdown 5-4-3-2-1 we hit the switch and nothing happens. Jigging wires we laff this is just like old times, Then with out warning the rocket sputters and we back off just in time as the first stage ignites and heads skyward, for about 10 feet it then falls off to one side and heads straight at Josh before the 2nd stage ignites sending the 1st stage tubling across the 20 yard line. 2nd stage does a right turn coming back at launch control, we run behind the blocking sled as it passes overhead and the 3rd stage ignites heading upward till the parachute pops out and catches fire!. The now drifting flaming rocket is drifting toward the tinder dry baseball field. We kind of run towards the landing area all of us huffing and puffing when Josh says between gasps of breath, " yup just like the good ole days"