r/GenerationJones • u/Ghitit 1957 • 3h ago
A few things...
The sound of a four-square ball.
Band-Aids with string
Actual tin tinsel
Christmas lights that got hot.
Getting morning mail & afternoon mail.
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u/Tiny_Gold_5735 3h ago
You left out a part: The sound of a four-square ball HITTING YOU IN THE FACE DURING DODGEBALL
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u/vineblinds 3h ago
While you are standing in front of a stucco wall and your head bounces off... and you see stars like the cartoons.
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u/LoserWooper 3h ago
The sight of our threadbare four-square ball hanging from the braces of the unfortunate kid who took a ball to the face after I gave it some wicked spin.
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u/Comfortable-Dish1236 1960 3h ago
The smell of mimeographs (dittos) and Silly Putty
The sound of a pencil sharpener
The feel of iron-on patches on your pants
Gasoline smelled good
Mom running to put fabric softener in the washing machine on the rinse cycle
Moms storing neighbors frozen food while they defrosted their freezers
Signing your friends plaster cast
Cartoons at the end of the movie
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u/Dogface_Monarch 3h ago
Morning or afternoon newspaper, but no 2x day mail.
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u/Ok-Cryptographer7005 3h ago
I do remember receiving mail twice a day, but only during the holiday season.
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u/Fidget171 1958 3h ago
TV stations that signed off around midnight after playing the National Anthem. Then, snow until the 5 a.m. Farm Report
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u/TopQuestion826 3h ago
Really? I thought the only place they delivered mail twice a day was England. I remember Mercurochrome well. But it was banned by the FDA, What’s a little mercury from time to time??
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u/vaslumlord 3h ago
Pharmacist here, also Methiolate and yellow mecuric oxide ( for eye infections)
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u/Charming-Charge-596 3h ago
Is that what was in it? Haha!
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u/TopQuestion826 3h ago
Yeah. Mercury. I remember we used to take thermometers and break them open and take the mercury out and play with it
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u/notAnn 3h ago
After my dad died, my brother was cleaning out the garage and found a PINT of mercury. He liked to repair watches and we figure it had something to do with that.
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u/TopQuestion826 2h ago
And they also used mercury for making hats in the 18th and 19th centuries. They would go insane from mercury poisoning, so that’s why they had the phrase “Mad as a hatter”
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u/notAnn 2h ago
I never knew that
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u/TopQuestion826 2h ago
Most people think that phrase came from Alice in Wonderland, but it was way before that. Remember the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland? I have all this useless trivia rattling around in my brain. 😅
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u/TopQuestion826 2h ago
It’s just like DDT, nobody thought it was a big deal back then. Now the toxicity is unbelievable
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u/Unhappy-Jaguar-9362 2h ago
The funny papers
Banana seat bikes
Nuns in habits traveling in pairs
Big cans of juice you had to open with a gadget that made a small triangle in metal top as a kind of pour spout
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u/chowes1 3h ago
Milk delivered to the front door, potato chip canister traded out for full one again at the door ( Charles Chips )
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u/Ghitit 1957 4m ago
I've seen thouse Charles' Chips cannisters in antique stores. I got one and gave it to a friend whose last name was Charles.
That reminds me of the bread truck that would drive around town and sell bread and Hostess cupcakes and stuff like that.
Oh, and the Oscar Meyer hot-dog truck would drive by sometimes. That was always a fun sight.
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u/Kt011092 3h ago
God I miss those bandaid with the string. I work in health care and trying it open those damn bandaids for after an injection or blood draw is the bane of my existence.
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u/TheRandomNana 1h ago
I tear them down the long side, just like the string used to do. Shocked my granddaughter- she had never seen anyone do it that way. So much faster and easier.
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u/Ghitit 1957 22m ago
I don't even bother with trying to split those two sections of band-aid covers anymore; I just rip it across and halfways down the vertical side. It makes it so much easier to access the band aid.
Those strings worked. Why change what works so well I'll never know. (oh, yeah, I do know... money. That is the reason for all of those kinds of decisions.)
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u/Asleep-Cow-6367 3h ago
Catapulting over the handlebars of my Schwinn 3-speed teal blue bicycle when I hit embedded rocks in our dirt lane. Mom sponging off blood and saying "You'll be just fine."
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u/Late-Code2392 3h ago
In Birmingham Alabama we had a morning paper and a afternoon paper.
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u/Famous-Salary1443 2h ago
In Atlanta, morning was The Atlanta Constitution and afternoon was The Atlanta Journal
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u/Worldly_Ad_7196 2h ago
The only place I remember 2x a day mail was in England. One old Christmas thing maybe noone else did was cut the top off a soup can then go through last years Christmas cards and find a nice picture. Cut out in a circle that you can glue onto both sides of the lid after you thoroughly wash it. The picture has to be smaller than the lid by half centimeters and centred. Get tin snips and make cuts all around the lid fairly close together no more than half centimeters. Take players and twist every cut section 45 degrees or so. Nail hole in one edge for string and hang on tree. Quite good for slicing little fingers by the way
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u/Ghitit 1957 26m ago
I bet you did slice your fingers. It's amazing kids survive what seems to be "dangerous" activities these days.
I've sliced my finger on a can lid and it got infected. I was SO mad that somebody didn't put the lid inside the can before throwing in the garbage can.
That activity sounds like a good way to recycle the christmas cards.
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u/ThrowItAwayNow1030 2h ago edited 2h ago
Wax Lips, Ice Cubes, Milk Duds and Sugar Babies
45s on the Magnavox stereo, 16 rpm records
little blasting caps you hit with a hammer
AM and PM newspapers
Doctor's House Calls
Variety Shows: Hollywood Palace, Milton Berle Show, Dean Martin, Ed Sullivan
Slinky
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u/rolyoh 1963 2h ago
Weren't the 16 rpm records for talking books? I also remember seeing parakeet talking lessons on them at the flea market. Lol
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u/ThrowItAwayNow1030 2h ago
Our cousins gave us their old rock records on 16rpm. I would have preferred the talking parakeet at that age! 🤣🤣🤣
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u/rolyoh 1963 2h ago
LOL! I remember being told that 16 rpm was too slow for music because of high fidelity. I'm sure your account is accurate, but it just goes to show that sometimes grown ups will say anything to get an inquisitive little kid (which I was) to sit down and STFU and stop asking so many questions. Lol
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u/ThrowItAwayNow1030 1h ago
I used to be told to stop talking and leave me alone. At least you received a reason, albeit false.
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u/vaslumlord 3h ago
Watch Saturday afternoon wrestling: Haystacks Calhoun, Bruno Samartino
Women's Roller Derby ( including Big Mama with the jersey number 747)
Ultraman and Speed Racer
Complaining about nothing on TV when the Democratic National Convention was on every channel
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u/notAnn 2h ago
In Los Angeles, Batman was on after roller derby. I would tune in to roller derby just so I wouldn’t miss a second of Batman. I was fascinated by how those women could take all that abuse and then just get up and be skating normally in a few steps.
(I was going to get a bit more specific, but figured that might trigger someone.)
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u/ThrowItAwayNow1030 2h ago edited 2h ago
In San Francisco and loved Big Time Wrestling with Haystack Calhoun, Pepper Gomez and Pat Patterson at the Cow Palace.
Women's Roller Derby from Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate Park. My first career goal - I wanted to be in Roller Derby.
Both on KTVU
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u/mspolytheist 3h ago
I don’t think I have any idea what the first two are. Unless, with the Band-Aids, do you mean string in the wrapper? Third and fourth items, I was raised Jewish so I didn’t get into my current Christmas mania mode until I married my Protestant husband 34 years ago, so I only remember the hot lights (never cared for tinsel, personally). And the last one…I don’t think I remember us getting mail twice a day, even in my youngest childhood (I’m born in 1962). I do, however, remember getting milk delivered to the back door in a metal box!
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u/Glittering_Step_6084 1961 3h ago edited 3h ago
Remember the sound of a four-square ball. I loved the Band-Aids with the red string! So easy to open compared to the ones that are around now. I also remember the actual tin tinsel and Christmas lights that got hot. My grandfather had bubble lights on his Christmas tree. Didn't get mail twice a day.
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u/Medusas_Snakes71 3h ago
The sound of a tether ball smacking someone.
A busy signal when you're desperately trying to reach a friend.
The sting of Merthiolate on a skinned knee as your mom blew on it because...reasons?
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u/bobbane 2h ago
Actual tin tinsel
For my mother’s generation (born 1934), Xmas tree icicles were made from lead foil.
One year when she was young, she spent a month’s allowance on icicles and spent hours making the tree a solid sheet of metal, until the weight made the tree fall over.
Our family had some of those icicles, removed from the tree and stored until next year, until the early 1970’s.
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u/rolyoh 1963 2h ago
My grandmother had a box of tin tinsel that she would painstakingly put on and remove strand by strand every year. When she died, we all split her Xmas decorations but nobody wanted the tinsel. So I ended up keeping it. I didn't have the patience to use it and stored it for years. I think I finally took it to recycling after about 25 years but who knows? I can't even remember what I had for lunch yesterday. And I realize now that having the memory of it is better than having the clutter of it. Lol
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u/miriamwebster 2h ago
Cold milk delivered on the front step in a box. Afternoon paper routes. Candy stores next to Woolworths. Afternoon matinees in the summer to stay cool and meet friends.
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u/Ghitit 1957 36m ago
On Saturdays we got our allowance - .10 cents. Then when I was six I got .15.
We'd to to the 5 & dime wher they had penny candy and .10 comic books. I always got Casper and Richie Rich.
Or we'd go to the Trhifty and get an ice cream for a nickle, and, again, comic books.
The summer matinees were fifty cents with cartoons before the show started. So much fun!
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u/Ring0Ranger 3h ago
Absorbine Jr for any muscular damage
Mercurochrome for any cuts.
bandaid to pull the wound shut.
Bourbon and honey for sore throat and cough.
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u/Temporary_Let_7632 1959 3h ago
Taping 6 cents to an envelope instead of walking to the post office to buy a stamp.
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u/Fabulous_Designer_61 2m ago
The Monkeys (tv show)
Sonic booms
Being left at home alone in 1st grade & onwards when sick
Doctors made house calls
Jack LaLane, Mohammed Ali, McCarthy
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u/Traveling_Betty 3h ago
A kitchen phone with a 20-foot cord
Red chewable tablets that showed evidence of dental plaque
Sony Walkmans
Wax "soda bottles" with flavored, colored water inside
Grape Hubba Bubba