YOU ARE GETTING OLD IF YOU REMEMBER
The TV took 5 minutes to warm up.
When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, for free, every time.
When nobody owned a pure-bred dog.
When a dime was a decent allowance, and a quarter a huge bonus.
When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.
When your mom wore nylons that came in two pieces.
When prayer started every school day.
When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents.
When you placed the needle onto the record?
A splash of cherry extract in your "soda" at the soda fountain....5 cents.
You put rubber bands on the sole of your shoe cause it came loose and flapped.
When the washing machine was located on the porch or an outside shed.
Whacking the TV put the tube back in place....but you had to adjust the antenna?
TV channels had to be changed manually: The horizontal and vertical holds were adjusted with a small knob on back of set.
And after 11:30 all you got on tv was the test pattern. There were only 3 channels, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
Listen to "The Shadow Knows" on the radio (no TV black and white or color).
Gas "wars" brought 18 cents for a gallon of gas.
No air conditioning...just a glass of lemonade or iced tea and a fan.
I remember when you bought coffee beans at the A&P and had to grind it at the end of the checkout counter. Every counter had a coffee grinder.
You ran home from school to see if your decoder ring or glow in the dark badge from Tom Mix, Terry and the Pirates, Orphan Annie, or Captain Midnight came in the mail?
I remember also getting wax lips and candy cigarettes.
When the political body of this nation held respect and the President was looked upon with admiration.
When a handshake was a binding agreement.
Your phone was also rotary dial and came in any color you wanted -- as long as it was black.
When Eisenhower's policy wonk had to quit because of a vicuna coat?
A hot dog made with everything cost 5 cents but a hamburger was 10 cents.
The only dirty magazine was Confidential.
Mad Magazine...Our Price 25 cents. Cheap
10 cent comic books.
Comic book Classics....great for book reports.
...skate key around your neck on a shoe string
You remember before Interstate highways.
In 57 my father was transferred from Norfolk to San Diego. He drove it in 7 days.
We stopped in every small town on US 60: they all had stop signs (or so it seemed to Dad)!
We ate from grocery stores or at local restaurants ( there weren't any national fast-food franchises then).
We saw whatever was along that two-lane road: junk yards, slums, homes, farms, businesses, locals going about their life.
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