I Remember When

[vharrison]

So, the older members here have seen a lot of changes, progress over our lives. I thought it would be fun to share a few.

I remember going to see my Grandmother in a place called Valona, Ga. We lived in Miami, would pack up the Station Wagon with blankets in the back and leave before dawn. Once there, we would also visit my dads Aunt who lived about a mile from her. I loved going to see her because she had horses in the field. i wanted to call my grandmother to tell her about the horses and asked the Aunt what her number was,
She tells me the number was 453, Hmmm, 453, what is the rest of the number as in Miami, we had to dial 7 numbers to make a call. Nope, back then, in that part of Ga, only three numbers would get my Grandmother on the phone . I thought that was the craziest thing ever.
They probably had a switchboard operator actually making the call, listening to every word, lol

 

[Treeaddict]

My parents took my 3 siblings and I to Disney when we were young. We were in the very back of the station wagon where we had blankets and pillows. No seat belts or car/booster seats. Perfectly acceptable.

 

[stig]

The old manual switchboards in Copenhagen had female names.
So when I wanted to call my Grandmother from the little village, we lived in, I'd ask for Eva.
Then when they answered, I'd ask for 52-45.

Funny that I can still remember the number.

When we went to see her, we travelled on the now long defunct Fuglede-Jerslev railroad, which in the early 60es was still using steam engines.
I still remember sitting on the hard, wooden seat, sliding the window down and looking at the cloud of smoke and sparks.

Thanks for starting this thread, could turn out to be really inteersting.

 

[cory]

Yes, great thread idea.

 

[Burnham]

Yup, the family station wagon with the kids sleeping in the back like a litter of puppies, early mornings heading off the Grandfolks house in Charleston, SC.

Seeing most of the farm plots along the way being worked with mules.

 

[pete mctree]

Was chatting about this last week. I remember being at my grandparents house - small stone terrace sat amongst the now demolished cloth mills that my hometown was world famous for. Nearly every house was burning coal, I can still taste and smell it. I vividly remember the scrap man still had a horse and card and cried “rag and bone” - approx 45 years ago but probably had more in common with 1900 than 2000

 

[lxskllr]

 

[lxskllr]

Specialty stores that carried one thing. When you needed $thing, you went to the store that sold it. If you also needed something else, you went to a different store to get it.

More ambiguously, older design. When I was a kid, there was still a lot of design from the 50s around, and some places went back to the 30s. I've always liked old stuff, and the older design is more appealing to my eyes. Most of those places are finally gone, and everything looks more generic and unappealing to me. Dunno if that's solely personal taste, or if a pro would agree with me, but I miss the old stuff being around.

 

[SkwerI]

Hmmm... Some of my early memories as a kid (moved to Florida before my 4th birthday) were a milk box on the front porch for the milkman to deliver fresh milk. We kept our garbage cans on the side of the house and the garbage men would come collect the garbage without having to put the cans to the curb. I remember my mom taking us to see the preview center at Disney World about 6 months before the park opened. Growing up we always had a big jar full of ride tickets for Disney for when out of state family came to visit. A,B,C,D and E tickets. The E tickets were the most expensive for the best rides. I remember when Space Mountain first opened. But one of my favorites was Mr Toad's wild ride (or something like that) and it was only a C ticket.

 

[Cobleskill]

I remember Bell Aircraft (later Bell Aerospace) testing rockets at a site about 5 miles away. Every once in a while one would explode.

We had a dairy farm and when I was quite young Dad would haul the milk cans out to the road and a flat bed truck would pick them up and haul 20 miles to the city. Must have got pretty warm in the summer. They would pick up full ones and drop off your empties from the last haul.

 

[stig]

I remember when the first mechanical harvester came out, the Logma:

We were told not to worry, Denmark was too small for mechanical timber harvesting to be viable.

I still get a laugh out of that, since nowadays the harvesters have put 95% of the hand fallers out of business.

The original Logma is on show at the forestry museum in Jönköbing, Sweden.

I went there about 15 years ago.
Waited till no-one was around and pissed on it's left front tire.

That was the same visit, when I found out that my first saw, a Jonsered Raket 70 was on display in a museum.

Did that make me feel old.

Yep!

 

[stig]

As for the dairy farm milk pickup, I can beat that:

When I worked in Schweiz, I'd bring the Milk from our cows and the neighbour's to the creamery in the evening by a horse drawn wagon.

In the mornings the neighbour would go with a small wagon, drawn by 2 Grosser Sennenhund dogs.

The other neighbour, up the mountain, would send his daughter with the milk driving a small carriage pulled by a 2 wheeled hay mower.
She'd be yodeling all the way.
Beautiful 15 year old girl with a great yodel, quite touched my heart.

Bear in mind that Swiss yodeling is not like the stupid Austrian stuff:

 

[CurSedVoyce]

And I grew up with 78, 45, 33lp, reel to reel and 4 track. 🤣

 

[Steve Mack]

As for the dairy farm milk pickup, I can beat that:

When I worked in Schweiz, I'd bring the Milk from our cows and the neighbour's to the creamery in the evening by a horse drawn wagon.

In the mornings the neighbour would go with a small wagon, drawn by 2 Grosser Sennenhund dogs.

The other neighbour, up the mountain, would send his daughter with the milk driving a small carriage pulled by a 2 wheeled hay mower.
She'd be yodeling all the way.
Beautiful 15 year old girl with a great yodel, quite touched my heart.

Bear in mind that Swiss yodeling is not like the stupid Austrian stuff:

I remember when this was my favourite song.



Scenery was a bit different to where you were but we had a few hills and a creek and I had a good imagination.

Fred used to come every afternoon to pick up the milk cans at 3.30. Nice bloke, he was about the only person I saw other than my parents and grand parents until I started school. Except some Saturdays when we went to town.
Not much of a town, butcher, barber and general store.

He had a truck like this, only cream. Well it had to be cream, they were Jersey cows.

 

[treebogan]

Walking into Clausens Saddlery ,through the swinging doors like the old west,the smell of tack filling my nostrils.Hearing the floor boards creak under my feet to be met by the beaming smile of old Mrs Clausen behind the counter.Putting my four dollars on the desk and getting a packet of Winchester powerpoint .22 that felt like it weighed a ton jambed into the side pocket of my cut off jeans shorts.

Riding home on my BMX sun shining on my back,little contrails of dust whisping up from the tyres of my bike as I churned along the gravel road. Asking my dad if I could borrow "my " Rifle and filling the tube magazine with 15 precious cartridges when I got to the end of the driveway.

Slinking through the long grass hunting into the wind,pollen scratching my eyeballs peering between the bushes for the back tips of a Hares ears squatted down in the grass.Slowly taking aim along that barrel that felt like it was 10 yards long,squeezing off the shot to be rewarded with that solid thump as the Hare lept up,dead before it hit the ground again. Skipping over to my kill,the smell of blood heavy in the summer air. Carrying my prize home,pausing at the end of the drive to empty the magazine,slipping the bolt from the action. Skinning and gutting the Hare as the cats did their best to nearly rub their fur off on my legs,hopefull for a titbit.

Calling a Spanish woman in the next town,telling her I had a Hare for sale,organising to drop it off the next day after it had hung in the fridge over night. Feeling that $5 note between my fingers after peddling the the two miles the next morning to her house.

Can't believe this was a bit more than 35 years ago. I wonder what 11year olds do in their School holidays now?

 

[vharrison]

Ahh, yes guns for hunting. I remember, again, going to see my grandmother, seeing rifles hanging in the back window of the pick up trucks. To me, that was a clear sign that the man could and did hunt. I wonder if that is still allowed anywhere in America, Texas maybe??

 

[Cobleskill]

I remember taking my shotgun on the school bus. Checking it in at the high school office. Picking it up at the end of the school day and riding a bus to my friends house to go hunting. Talk about big changes. Lots of gun racks in pick up back windows.

 

[Burnham]

Plenty of them still here, too...with guns.

Hell, my USFS work trucks had gun racks in the back windows, up until the early 2000's. Cone sampling and scion collecting rifles, as has been mentioned by me before in other threads.

I also remember when it was common that Forest Service employees routinely carried their personal hunting rifles in the course of their regular field work during deer and elk hunting seasons, or even bows for that season. That practice got put to bed by the early 1990's, hereabouts.

 

[Burnham]

I should say, those "normal" hunting activities went away not because anyone was against hunting or thought a personal gun in a gov't rig was a hazard to the public or the workforce.

It was because it became obvious that taking time out of one's workday to opportunistically harvest an animal was an abuse of one's position. Public opinion was moving against that sort of unofficial "perk".

I cannot disagree, nor did I at the time.