Good ole days

[greebs]

what a great thread. Here's some of mine.

the rabbit ear antenna on the b & w tv and how when you turned the tv off, a big white dot would form in the center of the tv and when you turned it on waiting a couple seconds for it to warm up.

baling hay and always thinking the cool guys were the ones who got to ride on the hay trailer behind the bailer. the guys that had to stack in the barn or load on the elevator just didn't seem to get the glory.

walkie talkie's and then the day we actually bought a couple cb radio's. I remember many nights just flipping the channels listening to people talk about nothing. On occasion, late at night, you could hear people from a long ways away calling out "skipland, skipland, how aboutcha skipland" and hoping to heck he'd hear your answer of "go ahead skipland"

grade school sports where not everybody got to play equal minutes. If you didn't get to play much, you just worked all the harder.

walking through town looking for pop bottles in hopes of getting enough to turn in to earn you a free pop.

riding our single speed banana bikes four miles around the section and not thinking twice about having to tell folks where you were going or taking along water.

cleaning out the cistern on the farm before the water truck showed up to refill it. there would always be an assortment of lizards, frogs, snakes, etc. and never bothered us that we were drinking from that source.

everybody in our small town attending school events and talking about the chances of making it to state tournament.

riding bikes down to the river and catching a mess of small bullheads because that's the only kind of fish I even knew existed other than an occasional carp.

hoping for snow days (except on days that there was to be a basketball game) also hoping for heavy snow every saturday night in hopes of sunday church being canceled. and who can forget the saturday morning Christmas program practices at church where all the moms showed up with their hair in curlers.

automatic respect (and fear) of any adult just because they were an adult.

going to the drive in with the whole family. we'd pop buckets of popcorn ahead of time to pack and take along a big jug of koolaid for our treats.

those are just a few that I can think of.

[eyehead]

Awesome Guys!!! My grandpa tells me some of the story's from "the good old days" Keep them up!

Boss Hogg, I gotta ask what is "Church Keys" ??????

[fishing tech]

Old bottle opener.

[cold one sd]

Back in the good old days beer and soda didn't have screw off tops and beer cans didn't have pull tabs. A church key had one end for taking caps off of bottles and the other end was for putting holes in in the top of cans so you could drink out of them. We really had it rough. If ya put two holes in a can of beer you could down it in a matter of seconds.

[fishing tech]

What about pin guard, 4 wheeling in Lilydale, quarter beers at the K.O.D. and they were not the small cups? Drag racing on highway 52 when it was being built. Listening to WDGY because it was country music and that is what Dad wanted to listen to.

How about when the weather man could actually predict the weather with out all the doppler dump and be right.

Bias ply tires and split rims.

Wash tub full of water and ice with a canvas over the top for a cooler.

Cutting the neighbors lawn for $5 and breaking their windows playing street hockey and told not to worry about it they are just having fun.

Brick roads in downtown St Paul.

Copenhagen for 65 cents and saying if it goes over a buck

I will quit. I did. Thank god I didn't make some stupid deal about BEER.

Homemade Birthday cakes. Boy my Grandma and Mother could cook!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[The Grebe]

Does anyone remember the weather ball on top the Foshay tower? Alot more accurate then todays forecasts!

How about Coreys sporting goods on the main level? Rollie Johnson sports casts?

Sky King, Flash Gordon, Buffalo Bob, Casey Jones, Axels Tree House, and Rama Of The Jungle on the tele?

[King Canada]

Andy Devine...plunk your magic twanger Froggy..."Hiya kids Hiya Hiya!!!

[nytelyter]

when the wather ball is glowing red warmer weatyher is ahead

when the weather ball is glowing white snowy weather is in site when the weather ball is glowing green steady weather is forseen. i think thats the way it goes. and the beautiful window displays in daytons and the downtown shops for christmas. cat and mouse on friday and saturday nights.

[The Grebe]

The eerie, totally empty streets on Sunday mornings before church.

Cisco and Pancho, Amos and Andy, The Little Rascals, The Bowery Boys.

[waskawood]

I remember:

When the best kid job in town was setting pins at the local bowling alley.

When catching sparrows in the clothes line poles and putting them between someone's screen door and door then ringing the door bell was about as malicious as vandalism got.

When boys asked girls out.

When the phone operator said "number please" then connected you

When we would have to go cut our own switch for a spanking. If you came in with one that was too small Ma sent ya back out and gave ya a couple extra swats and stated, "that'll learn ya to sass back".

Lazy Ikes, Bass-a-renos,

Wow what memories. Thanks for starting the post.

[Boss Hogg]

eyehead: A Church Key is a small metal opener, about 4 or 5 inches long, that would puncture a metal beer can. You would put two holes opposite each other in the top of the can. One for air, one to drink from. One end of the Church key was for cans, the other could pry caps off bottles. After cans came out with pull tabs, and bottles had twist off tops, church keys pretty much disappeared. Up to that point, bartenders always threw a couple in your off sale bag.

[genegodawa]

Here's some of my TV/Movie memories:

-Bozo's Circus, and wanting to get on there to play the Grand Prize Game

-The Mickey Mouse club

-Three Stooges, and running home from school to watch them

-Beverly Hillbillies, I was in love with Ellie Mae

-Petticoat Junction, ditto with Bobbi Joe

-Burke's Law

-Green Hornet

-Red Skelton, one of the greatest comedic shows ever

-Andy Griffith, was Barney great or what? not to mention the Darlins, or Ernest T (or Floyd or Gomer or Goober)

-Gomer Pyle USMC - Golllleee Sarge!

-F Troop and western shows like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers (and the aforementioned Lone Ranger and Cisco Kid)

-Bugs Bunny cartoons, and then when they combined him with all those other characters (Daffy Duck, RoadRunner, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepe Lepew)

-Clutch Cargo cartoon, with Spinner and Paddlefoot

-the first time I saw the Hardrock, Coco, and Joe Xmas cartoon

-Tobor the Great, I remember seeing that movie on Family Classics (EVERYBODY knows that Tobor spelled backward is Robot, right?)

-The Time Machine, it would be so cool to travel back

-Deliverance with Burt Reynolds, saw it in High Sch and it was probably my first time learning about, well, you know,"squeal like a piggy"...still haven't taken any rafting trips

So many more....

PS Still have a small church key in my tackle box and one hanging in the garage - never know when I'll need it again.

[nytelyter]

stan larel and oliver hardy. larel and hardy and the little rascals. and wakeing up to boone and ericksons morning show with good morning good morning were glad to see you and good morning..... and waiting for the school closeings to be read the morning after a good anow storm. batman and robin boom boof and pow and the cards in the spokes yuppers we used to snich the neighbor lady's clothes pins to clip them on. smashing pumpkins on halloween and not the music group. hide and seek after dark like said. was great at this one. wow i totally ageree nice post. OMG leisure suits. and polyester pants that if you slid on the gym floor on your knees they melted thru. dodge ball and crab soccer.3 speed and then 5 speed and ten speed bikes, after you out grew your bannanna seat bike. makeing choppers out of your old bannanna seater hard to steer them things. the old met and the north stars at the old met center. ok here goes BOB LERTSIMA (splck) lou nanny alan page and carl eller. freddy cox.oh and the goalie that didnt wear a mask. cant remember his name. ok for now i AM dateing myself again

[The Grebe]

Hey, do any of you fellas remember the red and white checkered oily smelling kitchen table cloths?

Me, I don't mind if my memories give away my age...I was 58 on my last birthday...it is what it is...my wife won't let me date anyways, so I don't have to hide it from the ladies!

[setterguy]

I'm not that old yet (30) but I still have some good ole day memories,

Dukes of hazard every Friday night, dallas was after and we weren't allowed to watch that.

bread bags in the moonboots when they got wet, we weren't coming in just because of cold wet feet.

Star Wars guys, everywhere.

Knight rider big wheel, the one with the tassels.

Be home when the street light comes on, I still don't understand this one. By the time it came on, you were late.

Mcdonalds seemed like prime rib.

NE mpls parade

Sledding at Columbia

Hockey for hours upon hours at the rink, maybe ate one meal a week during X-mas break.

I remember fireplaces that used actual wood.

[BobT]

Speaking of mass media...when censorship made it safe to let your kids watch television or see an advertisement in a magazine or on a billboard.

Bob

[Eric Wettschreck]

I grew up in Linwood and went to high school in Forest Lake and remember a few things......

Burger Chef on Broadway.

Holy dump, they're building a McDonalds.

Shooting ducks in the swamp that is now Famous Daves Ribs.

The Northland mall being built, then sinking into the swamp not one but two times.

Der Lach Haus....Turned into Quon Yees.....Now it's whatever the heck the name of the place is on the corner of Broadway and 61.

The Village Inn had the worlds best fries and malts.

Tracys ice cream.

Southwest Jr High is getting a swimming pool!!!!!!!!!!

Central Jr High, and split shifts.

1 stop light.

J's pizza.

Bud Grants son was our football coach, and the team sucked.

Outdoor hockey.

[genegodawa]

-Bringing up Laurel and Hardy, reminds me of Abbott and Costello - "Who's On First" is a classic and I don't think I ever laughed so hard as when I watched their "...Meets Frankenstein..."

-And what about Laugh-In? Some great lines from that one: "Here Comes Da Judge, Here Comes Da Judge...", "You Bet Your Sweet Bippy".

-Flip Wilson's Geraldine...."What You Say"

-Bill Cosby's Fat Albert..."Hey, Hey, Hey"

-George Carlin's Class Clown and the "Seven Words You Can't Say on TV" I didn't say ANY of them until I got to college.

-Censorship? Remember Smoking ads on TV? Or before there was swearing or (semi)nudity on regular TV? DESPICABLE now!

PS Isn't dating overrated AND expensive and cuts into fishing time?

[efgh]

I remember walking two miles to country school, in the spring arriving at school wet from wading in every ditch that held water, picking milk weed silk in the fall in onion bags for the WW 2 efford, the D.Defence used them for insulation in pilot vests I was told. collecting scrap iron for the same. Playing Indian with home made bows, we shot cat tails in the fall at each other, when you were hit the cat tail exploded and covered you with fuz. Walking two miles to either Gorman or Sabre lake to fish bullheads and carring the sack of your catch home, did anyone else ever try to skin a bullhead with a worn out pair of pliers?, its a slow job. First bicycle we had, had to be shared between 4 of us and you didn;t dare ride it till it was your turn. I had to drive horses while all the other kids in the neighborhood drove tractors, still don;t like horses. Getting up at 6 A.M. to do chores before school, the country school teacher sent me home to clean up one time. Only going to town twice a week, church on Sunday and on Sat. nite and dad giving me a quarter and saying don;t spend it all in one place and meaning it. Throwing a rock at my brother and missing him, the rock went threw the back window of dads 33 chev, always blamed my bro. for moving. Making sling shots out of a small tree fork, had to use a strip of red rubber inter tube for a real good one, we usually shot small round rocks found in the river, for amo. horseshoe nails were the amo. of choice, 10 cents would get quite a few at the local hardware store. This was how most of the farm boys intertained them selves back in the forties, are you other guys still worried about dating your selves with your posts?

[Bobby Bass]

[and the goalie that didnt wear a mask. cant remember his name.

---

Gump Worsley, now I am dating myself!

[genegodawa]

40's? You forget more than I have remembered?

I concede.

[echotrail]

Grebe

I remember the checkered red and white oil table clothes! (I'll be 57 next month) my brother and I would fight at the table over who got to squeeze the red dye coloring pack into the oleo package and who got to stir the peanut oil into a new jar of peanut butter.

[nytelyter]

YEAH!!! THE GUMP ty bobby how about sledding in the winter. and not with those plastic sleds either the old wooden toboggen that took two of ya to drag back up the hill. man i thought we were kings when santa brought us a new aluminium one for christmas. was so easy to drag back up the hill and went like crazy back down the slope. was the best thing until the first time it was jumped with and the curl in front folded down upon impact. back to the old wooden one. and the metal runnered sleds that would need a nice hard snowpack to run on. i remember taking the steel wool to those runners every winter to shine them up from the rust that had accumulated over the summer. and some before had said something about the hood pulled down the street behind the car. i remember my dad going down the hill in a canoe with his buddy. i remember my first ride on one of those new fangled snomobiles. dad knew a rep that worked for... ok dating myself again.... moto ski. it was a 45 horse grand prix. he took us all for rides all day on it we had a nice place to play right in my back yard. and a nice hill for the adults to climb up on it. well about the end of the day i got the privelidge to drive it with terry riding behind me. we got to the bottom of the not so steep hill. and he said for me to "hit it". but forgot to tell me to let off as we hit the top of the hill. well we flew up the hill and with a full gripon the throttle. as we hit the ground again proceeded to travel at quite a rate of speed untill we collided into my fathers tv service truck hit it at the rear wheel no one injured but the sled was not in the same condition as it was when terry had showed up. heheheh welll long story short and a few brandys later terry had headed back off on the now impaired sled, slightly impaired him self and while crusing across lake minnetonka drove it thru a fish house. (the headlight was a casulaty of the previous impact with the van) i am sure he had some 'splaining to do at work on monday on the condition of this now very damaged sled. we still laugh about it. ... paul WOW WHAT A POST!!! keep 'em coming

[The Grebe]

Exactly! Who would have ever thought those things would be smile producing memories as one got older....How about the wringer wash machine and the scrub board in the kitchen?

[genegodawa]

And can you remember before the automatic dishwasher?

I had THREE dishwashers in my house ---> my sisters!