# Older than dirt



## Tmax

OLDER THAN DIRT

"Hey Dad," one of my kids asked the other day, "What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?"

"We didn't have fast food when I was growing up," I informed him. "All the food was slow."

"C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?"



"It was a place called 'at home,'" I explained. "Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it."


By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it: 



Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, travelled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a store card. The card was good only at the Co-Op. 



My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was 14, It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.



I didn't have a car until I was 25. 



All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. On Saturday, I had to collect the money from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.


Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them. 


If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing. 


Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?


Older Than Dirt Quiz: 

How many do you remember? 
Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom.

1. Whips and tops 
2. Trams and trolleybuses
3. Sweetie cigarettes
4. Soft drink machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or milk bars with juke boxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with foil 
stoppers
7. Party lines for telephones
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. Austin sevens
10. Street lamplighters 
11. Grocers patting butter to order 
12. Peashooters
13. Wash tub wringer
14. 78 RPM records
15. Steam trains
16. The Hotspur 
17. The cane at school
18. Using hand signals for cars without turn signals
19. Bread delivered by horse and cart 
20. Head lights dimmer switches on the floor
21. Ignition switches on the dashboard
22. Food safes ( before fridges )
23. Horse and cart transport
24. Trouser leg clips for bicycles without chain guards
25. Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner 

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.

Tom

Toujours a Vacances !


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## Zebedee

Strewth Tom, that quiz is bloody terrifying. :evil:

I can remember milk with cardboard stoppers. Better than the foil ones as the blue tits couldn't peck their way in and steal the cream. In fact I remember milk being delivered in churns, and measured out into a jug which Mother took out to the van.

I recall with fondness The Hotspur, The Rover, The Adventure with stories like "I flew with Braddock"and "The Tough of the Track".

We had a cheap food safe with zinc mesh on the door, but posh ones had a cotton mesh curtain with lead weights

I've still got some trouser leg clips.

You forgot the milk coolers before there were fridges, flyholes with buttons, and Granddad's pocket watch on a siver chain. I don't want to go into detail about the outside lavvy. 8O

*How about a few more memories from the good old days. This could become a fascinating post. Nice one Tom*

Cheers


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## annetony

Oh my God I didn't realize I was that old 8O 8O to remember lots of those :lol: :lol: 
We had the rag and bone man coming round with his horse and cart and my Mum used to buy donkey stones off him, I also remember the wooden hole which was the toilet at my Grans and my Mums Auntys, and sheets of the radio times for loo paper , amongst others

Anne


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## tinkering

*older than dirt*

On a saturday morning,before getting our pocket money, sixpence a week,
so my brother and I could go to the local flea pit to see Roy Rogers, Keystone cops ect

cutting up newspapers for the outside loo
Chopping kindling wood for the fire
cleaning all the shoes in the house
And we were naughty waiting for lorries to stop at the traffic lights on Treboeh way SOTON we grabbed hold of the lorries tailgate and get pulled all the way up to St James Park before we let go Magic days!!>


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## 97201

Fry's Five Boys

Can anyone remember the sequence?

Real liquorice root

Loose biscuits out of a glass topped tin at the grocers.

Smiths crisps with a blue bag of salt

Bob a Job Week, knocking on complete stanger's doors and asking 

Ian
Three Green


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## litcher

*Re: older than dirt*



tinkering said:


> cutting up newspapers for the outside loo
> Chopping kindling wood for the fire
> cleaning all the shoes in the house


Yes, these were my jobs too.

And I remember quite a few from the list.

Also:

Using the carpet sweeper (Ewbank), sweeping and dusting my bedroom and polishing the lino in the bathroom every Saturday morning.

Cycling down to the village on a Saturday (primary school age) to get the shopping, buying a 3d bar of Caramac as a treat then cycling home with the bags on the handlebars. I can just imagine asking mine to do that. 8O

Cars with running boards and starting handles.

The barrel of salt herring that my grandfather used to get for the winter. I hated salt herring and used to hoist myself up on the edge to see how many were left.

Hand-milking the cow - it was my job to tie a piece of twine to her tail and hold it to stop her from swatting my grandmother, who was sitting on a little three-legged stool milking her.

My first little transistor radio - bought with the proceeds of potato-picking when I was seven. (I also had to buy new wellies as I tore mine on a wire "tattie hamper"!) I had that radio for years - used to listen to Radio Luxembourg through an earpiece when I was supposed to be asleep.

Learning to write using a slate - I'm not really that old, but it was a very small village school. 

Clarks brown leather round-toed school shoes - I hated them but was forced to wear them. :evil: Still, I have no bunions or any other foot problems, but it didn't seem worth it at the time.

Sitting in front of the tv watching the test card (the little girl on BBC1), waiting for the children's programmes to start. Mine can't imagine life without 24-hour tv, cable, dvds etc.

Chocolate smokers' sets - no-one in our family smoked, I've never smoked, but I loved these. We'd get them at Christmas along with an apple, an orange and sugar mice.

Viv


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## tinkering

*older than dirt*

Did any of your dads have a Last? they were for repairing the soles of shoes.


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## litcher

*Re: older than dirt*



tinkering said:


> Did any of your dads have a Last? they were for repairing the soles of shoes.


There was one at my grandad's. Dad's big thing was Copydex! He'd stick patches on the knees of our trousers - these were our "playing clothes" as we lived on a farm - and the knees were always semi-rigid after that! He'd also stick new soles on our shoes with Copydex. In fact I don't think there was much he wouldn't try Copydex on. :roll:

Dad cut peat during the summer holidays for some extra money when I was nine or ten and I went along to play. (This was in the middle of nowhere. Really safe playing in a peat bog - especially the day the fog came down and two of us got lost! We make our way towards the voices whilst remembering the stories about whole horse and cart outfits disappearing into the bog without trace. 8O ) We were terrified! Also I used to collect lemonade bottles I found buried in the peat and take them to the one and only building in sight, an old inn, to claim the money. I bought the Observers Books of Dogs, Cats and Birds that summer - I don't know what the hotel thought about all the filthy bottles I brought in, but they humoured me and always paid up, 3d per bottle.  I think the books were 5/- each (for those of us who remember shillings) so that was a lot of bottles.

I'd bring home frogs and newts that I found and keep them in the cattle trough. :roll:

Although I cut up endless squares of newspaper with my grandfather we never actually had an outside toilet - and my granny always bought toilet paper. :? Maybe just a little habit from his past?

Viv


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## waz

Did not have wardrobes did not need them with only 2 sets of clothes one for school and one after school and weekends and having to turn the mangle for my mum.
Waz


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## 100004

Nostalgia not what it was! Polio, rickets, and rats etc. H


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## Zebedee

*Re: older than dirt*



tinkering said:


> Did any of your dads have a Last? they were for repairing the soles of shoes.


I've still got one. It holds the kitchen door open.

Might post a photo tomorrow if anyone's interested enough to ask.

Cheers

Thought this would turn into a great thread. It's coming along nicely, but needs Dougie's dry wit. Where are you Dougs - not at work (Yeeuukk) I hope.


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## 97201

Nobody yet remember the Fry's Five Boys sequence?

Ian
Three Green


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## viator

My first writing material at school was a framed piece of slate with a pencil shaped other piece of slate for writing with and a damp cloth for cleaning. After the basics of putting together words like cat, mat, bat etc., and 2+2 we graduated to what we called a jotter(exercise book). I remember schoolbooks being fiited with covers made of wallpaper cuttings. Discipline was physical, the main theme being that action spoke louder than words. Am I old? No just older.
viator


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## litcher

Viator, I'm from Ross-shire too - my first school (the slate one) was Gledfield in Ardgay. 

Viv


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## Zebedee

. . . . . . "We are the Ovalteenies, little girls and boys . . . . . . "


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## patman

Zebedee said:


> "The Tough of the Track".
> 
> Alf Tupper?
> Patman


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## Zebedee

Zebedee said:


> "The Tough of the Track".
> 
> Alf Tupper?
> Patman


That's my boy!


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## 97201

listen with mother - on the wireless receiver
Meccano - without the plastic bits
Eagle Annual at Christmas - I still have vols 1-9
Robinson's Gollywog
In Scotland - Black Bob (a clever canine)

Ian
Three Green


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## Zebedee

Schoolboys in short trousers.

Bikes with little engines in the back wheel, or above the front wheel.

Footballs boots with leather studs held on with nails.

Footballs which drove your head down into your body if you headed them.

Little bottles of free milk in school.

Pot-belly stoves in the school rooms, with a guard for Sir to lean on.

Lighting the Tilley lamp because there was no electricity in the house.

Fetching water from the shared standpipe because there was no water in the house.

Feeding the pig in its sty at the top of the garden.

The tin bath in front of the fire. Roasted red on one side and blue on the other.

The kettle on the swivel plate over the open fire.

*Granddad reminiscing about the good old days!* :roll: :roll: :roll:


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## 97201

Hey Zeb

Are we the only two keeping this going?

I would have thought it would be quite popular!

I'm suprised no one answered the Frys Five Boys without Googling of course :roll: 

Ian
Three Green


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## Zebedee

camperian said:


> Hey Zeb
> 
> Are we the only two keeping this going?
> 
> I would have thought it would be quite popular!
> 
> I'm suprised no one answered the Frys Five Boys without Googling of course :roll:
> 
> Ian
> Three Green


Yes Ian, I also thought it would be a winner.

Maybe we are surrounded by geriatric teenagers who won't admit they can remember Mantovani and his Orchestra, let alone Xavier Cugat or Ambrose.

An even more terrifying thought - - they might all be years younger than us, and really can't remember further back than Gerry and the Pacemakers.

Ah well. We enjoyed it.

Regards


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## ksebruce

I remember Mantovani and Joe Loss 8O We have a Last to hold our door open. Anyone remember sitting in the cafe listening to Love Letters in the Sand by Pat Boon?


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## teamsaga

*older than dirt*

hi tinkering
I can remember when tebourba way did not have three sets of traffic lights and a speed limit. did you go to saturday morning pics at the savoy in totton or the regent, rialto, or atherley in shirley. when we were "older" we used to go to sunday night x films at the atherley cinema, this usually consisted of naturists playing tennis. 
on coronation day we went to our neighbours house, they had one of those newfangled televisions.


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## teamsaga

*old as dirt*

"journey into space" on the steam radio I think it was sunday night


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## 97201

Saturday afternoon matinee at the Odeon for 6d until my father found out that three of us were going to see "Bus Stop" with Marylin Monroe and put a block on it.

Ah yes, coffee shops with real juke boxes!

Got to stop now. Bl***y Telefonica now down to snail mail again, 7 mins to get to this stage.

Signing off for now  

Ian
Three Green


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## tinkering

Zebedee said:


> . . . . . . "We are the Ovalteenies, little girls and boys . . . . . . "


 
In town tonight, Much binding in the marsh, Down your way,Dick Barton,WAKEY WAKEYEE.


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## tinkering

It was the Atherley, Teamsaga, we lived in a Brand New council house no 10 Pennine way The institute of learning (and correction!!) was Regents Park.
We pupils took turns to be either the milk/ink/coke monitor (the coke you burnt on the big cast iron fire!! )
Twice a week we were given a large dose of malt (very nice) caster oil (Bl..dy Awfull),once a month the Nit nurse made her rounds !!,
The teachers word was law, when he entered the classroom you stood up,
until told to do otherwise.
Children should be seen and not heard was the order of the day!
Misdomeaners ie talking, whispering (if caught) a piece of chalk would arrive at great speed and accuracy and hit you on the bonce, for more serious crimes, ie lifting up the lid off your deck just to make sure that the Stag beetle/wasp/frog/ ladybird /worm had not escaped from the match box in your desk or chewing a small piece of blotting paper rolling it into a small ball before winging it across the classroom with the aid a wooden ruler, for that after the chalk had arrived! you were hauled by the ear to the front of the class and stood faceing the wall! ,not of course that this ever happened to me!.  

Take care Les.


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## Spacerunner

'Uncle' Bill lodging upstairs, in fact a Canadian artilleryman billeted with us during the war. Swinging on the front gate and yelling " got any gum chum to Canadian and US soldiers. Nursery school with beds when I was threeyears old because Mum was doing war work. Celebrating VE day.
Going down to the bakers in the morning and asking for sixpen'th of stale bread to feed the chickens on, in truth our breakfast, the chickens got the leftovers. Paper round when I was nine years old, had to give half of my earnings to Mum for keep! Short trousers till I was twelve. The most desired item of clothing was a pair of jeans with six inch turn-ups.
Going to the gasworks every saturday morning to get a cwt of coke in a soapbox cart and pushing it up three hills to home.
Chickens and rabbits bred for eating and not pets. Picking primroses for Mothers day. Collecting nuts in autumn.
What a lot today's kids are missing. I'm so glad I was born when the Great in Great Britain really meant something.


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## 97201

When most of my school atlas was coloured pink!

Latin as a standard subject

Edinburgh trams

Ian
Three Green


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## ksebruce

Loose biscuits sold from tins. Could get a big bag of the broken ones for a farthing!


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## 97201

camperian said:


> Fry's Five Boys
> 
> Can anyone remember the sequence?
> 
> Real liquorice root
> 
> Loose biscuits out of a glass topped tin at the grocers.
> 
> Smiths crisps with a blue bag of salt
> 
> Bob a Job Week, knocking on complete stanger's doors and asking
> 
> Ian
> Three Green


Beat you to it on page 1

Ian
Three Green


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## Zebedee

Negroids!

Anyone remember them? Lethal little brutes!!!


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## chapter

i have a set of photos of five boys /my father he lived near the frys summerdale factory which is now cadburys keynsham near bristol but not for much longer its being closed down and the work is being moved to poland
also i scored 16 
chapter


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## 97201

Negroids

Were they the same as Black Imps?

Burnt your mouth and left you with a very black tongue and teeth!

Ian
Three Green


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## ksebruce

Gobstoppers, I'm convinced they were made of marble 8O


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## Zebedee

camperian said:


> Negroids
> 
> Were they the same as Black Imps?
> 
> Burnt your mouth and left you with a very black tongue and teeth!
> 
> Ian
> Three Green


Worse. Far worse! My lips are still tingling 55 years later! 8O

Cheers


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## annetony

Zebedee said:


> Negroids!
> 
> Anyone remember them? Lethal little brutes!!!


Dont remember these but Meloids were the same as,

I also remember the little indicators that popped out on the side of the car, and the cranking handle that used to start the car,

virol (not made anymore)Mum used to stick my dummy in it then in my gob to shut me up 8O 8O ,

and Birds Golden Raising Powder which Mum used to make some very delicious scones, which dont turn out as big or taste the same without it, can't get that anymore 

Anne


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## JohnsCrossMotorHomes

I can remember when our country was called Great Britain with pride and one could run a business without a load of jobsworth idiots poking their noses in.

When one could make jokes about the Irish, Welsh, Scottish without some idiot saying you cant and the gollywog trademark.

I can remember Maggies handbag and Winston's salute, pity we dont copy that a bit more often.


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## Zebedee

annetony said:


> virol (not made anymore)Mum used to stick my dummy in it then in my gob to shut me up 8O 8O ,
> 
> Anne


Does that still work Anne. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

_Sorry, couldn't resist it! :roll: :roll: You should be getting used to my rotten sense of humour by now._


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## annetony

No cause its not made anymore   
Tony wishes there was a replacement though :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: 

Anne


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## JohnsCrossMotorHomes

The american version with MUSIC!!

http://objflicks.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm


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## Tmax

Here are some more for you.
I was born in Belfast just before the war and can remember
Air raid sirens, Barrage balloons, Air raid shelters in our street, Ration books, Gasbags on top of cars, ITMA, The Baker, Butcher and Coalman all delivering by horse and cart, Brandy balls and Clove rock, Ruby Murray,The football badges which came in the tops of HP sauce bottles, and later when I started work the infernal butchers message bike with the enormous basket in front. If this thread continues I will be back.

Tom


Toujours a Vacances !


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## tinkering

JohnsCrossMotorHomes said:


> The american version with MUSIC!!
> 
> Magic moments JC!!,
> I cannot remember what year it was but our house master allowed us to stay up to listen (on a valve radio) to the world heavyweight fight between Don Cockle and Rocky Maciano (spelling wrong sorry)the home allowed us to keep rabbits and a few piqeons the home had four bikes between about twelve of us scallywags and for a treat we were allowed to roam the countryside on them ,something, sadly that the children of today cannot do,
> Anyone still got a stirrup pump?
> 
> Take care Les.


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## teamsaga

hi tinkering,
we used our stirrup pump to empty the fish pond. many moons ago.
after my parents were bombed out, we were given a new prefab, then moved to a new council house in evenlode road. I went to the new wimpson school which has now been demolished to make way for more houses. the savoy, regent, rialto and atherley cinemas have all gone.
regents park school still exists it is girls only now.


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