# What’s your “Back in my day, we…



## Bretrick (Nov 19, 2021)

…would go blackberry picking and Granma would make blackberry pies and serve them with whipped cream

Dinner was put on the table at 5pm, if you weren't home by then it was a cold meal for you.

had a black and white TV with only two stations to receive.


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## WheatenLover (Nov 19, 2021)

My sister and went blackberry picking and baked pies. We gave one to our mother, and the other to our neighbor.

The national anthem played on TV before it was off air for the night.

We read, played outside, played with our dolls and other toys, and watched very little TV (my mom didn't like it much).

We ate our meals at home.

We knew all of our friends in real life.

Long distance calls were super expensive. Before cell phones were common, it cost $1/minute to call my friend in Vermont from Boston.

I paid my way through college by working.


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## officerripley (Nov 19, 2021)

We were satisfied that "Duck and cover" would protect us from nuclear war, goshdarn it!


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## JimBob1952 (Nov 19, 2021)

I used to use something called Wite-Out to make corrections on a typewritten page.  When I tell young people this, I realize that I am really old.


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 19, 2021)

Another kid that grew up with blackcap and blackberry pies.

We also foraged for mushrooms, wild greens, wild strawberries. horseradish roots, etc... not because we had to, but because it was a country custom or tradition.

When we were little most of our summer meals came straight from the garden to the table.

My grandmother was part of the last generation in our family to grow up without electricity and mechanical refrigeration.

That meant that most fresh meat was available during the cold winter months.  During the summer it was mostly bacon, smoked shoulder or ham, chicken, and the occasional hotdog.

By the time I came along a full range of foods were available year round but her habits and patterns had already been set for life.

There was a lot more good than there was bad in those years of my life.


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## Gaer (Nov 19, 2021)

You were only given 30 seconds to open the refrigerator door.  You had to look real quick!  Costs too much electricity!

We hung the clothes out to dry, even in the winter.  They were frozen, so we just stacked them over our arms like firewood.
Stood the levies up in the corner.

We had a bowl of water to "sprinkle the ironing".  (make it damp for easier ironing)

Every morning we would cluster around the radio to listen to the "Halston Purina" hog prices.  Never knew why.

We had to turn off all the lights and close all the curtains during a thunderstorm or a blizzard.   Stay away from the windows.
Again, Made no sense!

Indians could not buy liquor because they couldn't handle it.  Cowboys would stand outside the bars on the sidewalk in bunches.
Just stand.  They hardly ever talked.  Just stand there.

I could go in the bars when I was 10 years old and play pinball.

As a teen, recreation was partying, 'dragging main" or "drag racing".  "Wolfman Jack" was THEE D.J.  of all time!


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## officerripley (Nov 19, 2021)

JimBob1952 said:


> I used to use something called Wite-Out to make corrections on a typewritten page.  When I tell young people this, I realize that I am really old.


I still use it for craft projects. I wonder if they still make Liquid Paper brand? Anyway, whichever brand we had at work, everybody called it "idiot ink".


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## OneEyedDiva (Nov 19, 2021)

JimBob1952 said:


> I used to use something called Wite-Out to make corrections on a typewritten page.  When I tell young people this, I realize that I am really old.


JB you would have loved how much I got picked on when I was first line supervisor and had my staff use white out, green out...whatever to neaten up their field records and reports when we were doing a study for CDC. My late, good friend who I worked with for decades and who was a PITA during our working years, teased me about that even after we retired. LOL   Now they have "white out" tape and I just bought a white out pen a few months ago.
@officerripley  First I heard that expression...funny! I think I saw Liquid Paper not long ago somewhere. But the options I mentioned above work well..especially the pen, except not if you have a huge area to white out.  I remember I used to pour nail polish remover into the bottle to thin it out.


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## horseless carriage (Nov 19, 2021)

When a cold winter left the car with a flat battery, you could insert a starting handle through a designed hole that hooked into the engine's crankshaft, a couple of turns was often enough to get the engine burbling.


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## Furryanimal (Nov 19, 2021)

..we had half a pint of free milk at morning break in Primary School.


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## JimBob1952 (Nov 19, 2021)

officerripley said:


> I still use it for craft projects. I wonder if they still make Liquid Paper brand? Anyway, whichever brand we had at work, everybody called it "idiot ink".



I think there was one called Wite-Out and one called Liquid Paper.  There was also a lot of fuss about the document called "the master" from which copies were to be made.  It had to be protected at all costs.


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 19, 2021)

My grandmother’s old farm house only had heat on the first floor.

I remember fighting with my sister for a place to stand on the furnace grate in the kitchen so I could warm up in the morning.

The forced air would inflate our nightclothes and we would stand there until the soles of our feet were starting to burn from the hot metal grate.


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## Ruth n Jersey (Nov 19, 2021)

My grandpa made a circle from rocks he gathered and every night during the summer and early fall he would build a little fire while we gathered around it to talk or just watch the flames. Sometimes he would get it all fixed and ready to go right after he came home from work.
All it took was one match, no lighter fluid or fancy store bought logs to get it going.
My grandma would sometimes bring out a pitcher of homemade grape juice or ice tea that I have never been able to duplicate.


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## Pappy (Nov 19, 2021)

Picked a lot of berries and ate a lot of grandmas pies. We had chickens and eggs and meat was plentiful. Use to sit out on the porch and shoot rats, headed for the garbage house, with my single shot .410 shotgun.
We also only had heat on the first floor. My bedroom was upstairs and I became very familiar with lots of blankets and hot water bottle. Little puffs of snow, inside my window, was a common sight on those cold windy winter nights.
Also had a entity that lived in my closet..but that’s another story.


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## hollydolly (Nov 19, 2021)

Furryanimal said:


> ..we had half a pint of free milk at morning break in Primary School.


are you sure ?... ours was always a 1/3 of a pint ... ..and by the time the milk break came around, the milk was always warm and smelly ...*ugh*


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## OneEyedDiva (Nov 19, 2021)

We...my parents and I would go on the church bus rides to Rye Beach, N.Y. each year, probably up until my early teens. I didn't so much care about the beach part as the food and the rides.

And we...my friends and I (when I got older) sometimes went to Palisades Amusement Park which used to be located partly in Cliffside Park & partly in Ft. Lee, N.J. Again...the rides and food were the fun for me.


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## hollydolly (Nov 19, 2021)

Back in the day we kids could entertain ourselves all day ,  with things like this ..


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 19, 2021)

hollydolly said:


> are you sure ?... ours was always a 1/3 of a pint ... ..and by the time the milk break came around, the milk was always warm and smelly ...*ugh*


We had warm milk and graham crackers when we were in kindergarten.

We also had mats to take a nap on the floor.

I remember our teacher, an older woman, fell asleep one day during our nap time and we were all perplexed as to what we should do.


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## hollydolly (Nov 19, 2021)

Aunt Bea said:


> We had warm milk and graham crackers when we were in kindergarten.
> 
> We also had mats to take a nap on the floor.
> 
> I remember our teacher, an older woman, fell asleep one day during our nap time and we were all perplexed as to what we should do.


Oh the milk we got was in high school ( secondary school as well as primary school)... no crackers..


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## Joe Smith (Nov 19, 2021)

Found and open field or empty lot and "Rumbled".


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## palides2021 (Nov 19, 2021)

Back in my day...

In school:
In grade school, I remember standing up, placing my hand over my heart, and reciting "The Pledge of Allegiance" in class with the other students. I think there was a flag in the front of class that we would look at. Don't know if they do it nowadays or not.

We had no calculators for math. We used the "abacus" or mental calculation.

Everything we did in school was handwritten with pencil - homework papers, math formulas, essays, etc. Constantly having to sharpen our pencils in class with the pencil sharpener which was a boxlike sharpener with a handle.


Growing up:
Growing up in a large family and being poor, I remember the refrigerator often being empty. I was constantly hungry. Cleaned my plate because there were no leftovers. 

Wore hand-me-down clothes that didn't fit and were out of style, and shoes that I outgrew and were often too tight.

I remember using the typewriter, and adding carbon paper for copies. Couldn't afford to make mistakes. Also used the white-out like the others here.


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## Pappy (Nov 19, 2021)

We also had milk and a cookie in kindergarten. The milk was 3 cents a bottle and I would be very careful not to shake it so that I could drink the cream at the top of the bottle. Also had mats for naps.


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## mrstime (Nov 19, 2021)

palides2021 said:


> Back in my day...
> 
> In school:
> In grade school, I remember standing up, placing my hand over my heart, and reciting "The Pledge of Allegiance" in class with the other students. I think there was a flag in the front of class that we would look at. Don't know if they do it nowadays or not.


I remember when "Under God" was put in the pledge, ruined the flow!


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## Sassycakes (Nov 19, 2021)

Back in my day, we lived in the City. At night a lot of the moms sat on their steps watching their kids. We could stay out as late as the moms did. Of course when we played Hide and Seek if a boy liked you he would tell you where to hide. Whichever boy found the girl he would get a kiss. Of course, the moms never knew that.


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## dseag2 (Nov 19, 2021)

Back in my day, we played outside on days off.  We once went to a vacant lot in the neighborhood, dug up a ton of dirt and put a box over the hole with a "door" cut into it to make a "fort".  I grew up on a canal and we swam in it.  We also climbed trees.  

I was a heavy, clumsy kid.  When we ran I always fell and got holes in the knees of my pants, so my mother would make shorts out of them.  I was so frustrated that I couldn't wear bellbottoms because I would have to buy Huskies and the bell would need to be cut off.  Then I went through puberty and a diet and graduated high school at 135 pounds.  Wore all the bellbottoms I wanted!

My only real indoor activity was watching TV and playing 45's on my record player.  I used to buy the latest songs at the Singer store in the mall. Why a sewing store would sell records was beyond me, but they had a good selection.  I never missed an episode of Dark Shadows in the afternoon.  I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, The Beverly Hillbillies and Laugh In were also staples.

I did have some "hooligan" friends, and in Junior High we skipped school and hung out all day at a 7/11.  There was no fun in it, but kids do stupid things.


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## Bretrick (Nov 19, 2021)

dseag2 said:


> Back in my day, we played outside on days off.  We once went to a vacant lot in the neighborhood, dug up a ton of dirt and put a box over the hole with a "door" cut into it to make a "fort".  I grew up on a canal and we swam in it.  We also climbed trees.
> 
> I was a heavy, clumsy kid.  When we ran I always fell and got holes in the knees of my pants, so my mother would make shorts out of them.  I was so frustrated that I couldn't wear bellbottoms because I would have to buy Huskies and the bell would need to be cut off.  Then I went through puberty and a diet and graduated high school at 135 pounds.  Wore all the bellbottoms I wanted!
> 
> ...


We built "Cubby Houses" and we built rafts to go out on the dam high up in the hills


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## dobielvr (Nov 19, 2021)

Furryanimal said:


> ..we had half a pint of free milk at morning break in Primary School.


With graham crackers.


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## hollydolly (Nov 20, 2021)

Pappy said:


> We also had milk and a cookie in kindergarten. The milk was 3 cents a bottle and I would be very careful not to shake it so that I could drink the cream at the top of the bottle. Also had mats for naps.


you had to pay for your milk at school ?


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## jerry old (Nov 20, 2021)

Gaer says:
'Cowboys would stand outside the bars on the sidewalk in bunches.
Just stand.  They hardly ever talked.  Just stand there.

They still do, you want to hear talking cowboys go to a beer joint.


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## hollydolly (Nov 20, 2021)

jerry old said:


> Gaer says:
> 'Cowboys would stand outside the bars on the sidewalk in bunches.
> Just stand.  They hardly ever talked.  Just stand there.
> 
> They still do, you want to hear talking cowboys go to a beer joint.


see,I knew there had to be the America of my childhood ( from movies and comics).._somewhere _


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## horseless carriage (Nov 20, 2021)

Back in my day we had regular visits at school from the district nurse. She examined every child's hair, presumably for lice. What a harridan that woman was. The kids all dubbed her: "Nitty Nora, the bug explorer."


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## Pappy (Nov 20, 2021)

hollydolly said:


> you had to pay for your milk at school ?


Yes Holly. It was 15 cents a week and hot meals were, memory fades me here, something like 25 cents or we could brown bag it, which I did a lot.


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## hollydolly (Nov 20, 2021)

Back in the day we lived near a chalk hill , and we kids would dare each other to run up as far as we dare before the Giant who lived under it came out and ate us... !! We never got further than a few feet up the hill before we lost our nerve, and instead we'd sit in the next field filling our bellies with the fresh peas we'd just picked... and picking buttercups to test who loved butter by shining them under each others' chins...


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## hollydolly (Nov 20, 2021)

Pappy said:


> Yes Holly. It was 15 cents a week and hot meals were, memory fades me here, something like 25 cents or we could brown bag it, which I did a lot.


We had to pay for our lunches.. but our milk was free...which is why when Margaret Thatcher became prime Minister she was hated so much because she stopped all the free milk for children in schools .. decades after we'd all been having it. She was forever known as 'Thatcher school milk snatcher.'!!


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## Della (Nov 20, 2021)

palides2021 said:


> In grade school, I remember standing up, placing my hand over my heart, and reciting "The Pledge of Allegiance" in class with the other students. I think there was a flag in the front of class that we would look at.


We said the pledge, then we would sing songs like, "This Old Man" and "I'm a Little Teapot," always led by one of the kids chosen by the teacher.  I was never chosen to lead the songs and I'm still bitter about it.

Our story like Holly's  was that a house way back in the woods was where a witch lived.  When I got to be a teenager a friend of my parents came to pick me up to babysit -- and took me to that house!  My enterprising brother heard where I was babysitting and came late that night to scratch on the window screens and scare me to death. (Scaring me to death was his favorite hobby.)


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## OneEyedDiva (Nov 20, 2021)

When I was in grammar school, before the lessons started we had to sit with our hands folded on top of the desk.

During the warmer weather, when walking home from the first grammar school I attended, we'd pass this little shack (literally) that sold Italian ices. They were just the consistency I like. My favorites were chocolate/vanilla and cherry banana.


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## palides2021 (Nov 20, 2021)

.


hollydolly said:


> Back in the day we lived near a chalk hill , and we kids would dare each other to run up as far as we dare before the Giant who lived under it came out and ate us... !! We never got further than a few feet up the hill before we lost our nerve, and instead we'd sit in the next field filling our bellies with the fresh peas we'd just picked... and picking buttercups to test who loved butter by shining them under each others' chins...


I remember the butter test with the flowers! What a small world!


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## oldiebutgoody (Nov 20, 2021)

Back in my day you might find a beat up old baseball that somebody left on a field such as this:










One time somebody left such a ball and we took it home.  I washed it and my brother who knew how to sew used sailor's red string to patch it back up.  I told my brother to make an extra set of stiches on one corner to unbalance the weight.  Then I proceeded to add a touch of dirt and a touch of saliva so that I could throw a spitter in our pick up baseball games. We won quite a few games that summer.  It was the only ball we had because we couldn't afford to buy one on our own.  Back in my day that's the way it was.

Nowadays whenever I watch neighborhood baseball you find used balls all over the place.  Nobody bothers to pick them up anymore as new ones are readily available and affordable. It is quite a different time today.


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## Feelslikefar (Nov 20, 2021)

I'd walk to the main Swimming Pool on base every chance I could during the summer school break.
Make a P and J sandwich, grab my towel, I.D. Card and head out.  Always by myself.

When I could, I'd walk over to the outdoor theater on  base and watch a movie.
Pretty much did things by myself.

Sometimes I'd just catch one of the launches ( small boats ) over to Ford Island and just
sit and watch the Ships go in and out of the Harbor or wander around and look for the old
ships that sank on that day in 1941.


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