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Location: Approximately 50 miles from Missoula MT/38 yrs full time after 4 yrs part time
2,308 posts, read 4,125,200 times
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....with all this talk (memories) of situations that "date some of us" ....consider these:
...gas at .12 1/2 cents per gallon....dispenced (gravity feed) out of the 10 gallon "Glass Reservior" located on the "Top of the Pump".....which was filled by "Hand-Pumping" the gas into the reservior with the pump handle located at the bottom of the pump.
....in the summer, getting to ride in the "rumble-seat" of the 1934 Ford on the 'way-home-from-church' on Sunday-----if we didn't "whisper-in-church".
...opening the "Back Porch Door" for the "ice-man"....who came every few days with a "50 pound-block-of-ice" that fit into the upper compartment of "THE ICE BOX" located on the back porch.
...in the winter,:..put on our "High-Top" Lace Up Boots" and attach our "Clamp-on ice skates" to the boots with a "skate key".......same situation in the summer....except the "skates" were "Clamp-On Roller Skates". And if you lost your Skate-Key, mom would "with-hold desert" for two days.
...Friday night bath.......with "Life_Boy_Soap".....and mom did the laundry with "Fells-Naptha" bar soap and a "wash-board".
...every day on the way to school:..check my "Trap-Line":....got 25 cents for every Muskrat....one dollar for a mink...$1.50 for an Ermine and $2.00 for a Beaver.
..............THE GOOD OLD DAYS.......................
^^^My grandmother had a washboard!! Wooden framed thing, with a corrogated metal
inner. She scrubbed her washing on that thing using Fairy household soap. She had a big
metal barrel that was filled with hot water. Her washing was put in the barrel. then she
pummeled it with a wooden pole with a big round piece of wood on the end of it. She
then put it through a ringer. Also when she did her ironing, she had three steel irons she
heated on the cooker!!! Also a tin bath hanging on her back door. Boy, I used to shake
my head at the primitiveness of it all, till I had to live with her for a while when I was 14!
I was horrified, especially by the outside toilet!!!
I remember the 5 and dime stores that had their merchandise laid out on flat, table top type counters and none of it was in packaging--it was just neatly arranged on the counters.
I had my feet in the shoe store fluoroscope machines countless times when being fitted for shoes, not to mention measured by the shoe salesman, who would then bring out half a dozen pairs of shoes for me to try on. And the shoe boxes were sturdy enough to mail a package in. Those poor shoe salesmen covered a lot of ground going back and forth to bring out a fresh load of shoes if you didn't like what they brought out the first time. And then they had to put it all away after you left.
Little girls wore DRESSES almost all the time, often even in summer for play time wear. BRRRRRRR was that cold when walking to school in the wintertime and that cold air went up your body even though you were wearing a coat, a cap and mittens.
I frequently see portable typewriters at auctions. And sometimes an old dial telephone (which are very collectible to some people.)
Those fluroscopes were nothing more than an unshielded cathode tube producing Extreme levels of Xrays. The actual location of the tube was right at crotch level of most kids. We looked into them in detail when I was taking a course in radiation training while I was working in the nuclear industry. When a person stuck their feet into one of those machines and stood there looking for one minute they recieved a massive dose of radiation. More than 1000 modern Xrays would give you. I actually surprised that any of us who put our feet into these things a few times were able to have children.
Ow! Going barefoot anywhere, into grocery stores, offices - no one minded. (Though I dont remember seeing grownups barefoot!) Just like people smoking everywhere.
So that's why some stores had to later put up signs out front that said "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service" - one of my earliest memories after learning to read.
I remember when cashiers actually counted the change back to you (and counted up from the sale amount). We still have some here who do that, and can do it without a computer screen, but most are lost if the computer goes down.
I remember when cashiers would patiently give me time to put my change and receipt away in my purse afterward and not make me feel rushed like they do nowadays (even when nobody's in line behind me...I wonder if they're in a hurry to get back to their cigarette break/gossip session with coworkers/or whatever...no idea why they seem to hurry me away from their register line and out of the store once I've got my change back).
Anyone remember when parents or grandparents tried to dress their kids alike, even if they were NOT twins? My grandma would buy me and my younger sister matching outfits. I hated it! Why on earth did people do this?
We only used to get new clothes once a year at a time known as Whitsun. On Whit Sunday
there were groups of kids marching through town in church groups, alongside brass bands,
everyone in their new clothes. After, we would go to relatives houses, aunts and uncles would admire our new outfits, and give us small amounts of money. The tradition is totally
gone now. Funny how these things end, and you can never remember when or how they
finished.
I remember the gas pumps with the gasoline in a glass container atop the pump but I never rode in a rumble seat. However, I do remember seeing people in them. We didn't have a car so we rode a public bus everywhere. My mom made all our clothes--many from flour sacks. She made two identical dresses--one for me, one for my older sister. End result was that I got to outgrow mine and then wear out the one my older sister had outgrown. I hated hand-me-downs and to this day I still hate them. The one exception is jeans and I am delighted when I find a pair of used jeans that are big enough and long enough for me.
We went barefoot all summer except to church and "to town".
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