Things from your childhood that would baffle young people of today

applecruncher said:
Wrapping sandwiches in waxed paper, carrying a metal lunchbox to school. Lunchboxes sat unrefrigerated in the coatroom until it was time to eat.
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And we had peanut butter and no one died!! :D (and for the easily offended, I know that peanut allergies are a thing. They just weren't back in the day.)
 

What a trip down memory lane. A set of encyclopedias was a treasure when I was "young" but now we have everything at our fingertips with our phones. (I still like the feel of paper in my hand!) My daughter presented me with a Nook a couple of years ago....I've used it but mostly so I could tell her that I had!
 
When I go to bed I have a spiral notebook and pen, write great literature (sure I do) poems, random thoughts, fragments of stuff...
Still love that paper and pen, makes me feel smart (Ha!)
Pumping keys is great, so is pen and paper.
Smart Phones and this infernal machines (PC) are beyond me.
There is a lot to be said for the old ways.
 
As a young man there were two things prominent in my life. Cars and women, the latter being more dreamed than actual. But I can remember cars from way back. My first car was a 1955 Hillman Husky, I was 17, passed my driving test a week after my birthday. The Husky was quite a forgettable car, but I might digress a little bit about it another time. My second car that cost me all of fifteen quid, was a Morris Oxford. What type? Black, such was knowledge of cars, models and variations. But my Morris had a front bench seat. It also had an under dash ratchet hand brake and column change gears.

One of the best things that happened in my early youth was that I learned to dance. Latin, Ballroom, Jive that sort of thing, very handy because most towns and cities back then had ballroom dance floors. When the bands of the late fifties and sixties toured, it would be at a ballroom venue. Being a dancer gave me an advantage over those lads who would hang around in groups, hands in pockets, waiting for the DJ to play a slow smoochy record so that they could ask the lady of their desire to dance.

One young lady in particular took a complimentary interest in me. She was rather an accomplished dancer, so we got on very well. After a week or so, I started to run her home, there would always be the furtive kiss and a cuddle and then she would be off into her home. The kisses and cuddles became a little more adventurous but the problem was, her Dad was a stickler for her being home on time. So we devised a plan to leave the venue early, have enough time for. ahem, nookie, and then I would run her home, following her bus. Dad thought she had caught the last bus home.

What's this got to do with the Morris? Do you remember that front bench seat, without a hand brake and gear stick in the way? It negated the need to climb in the back. Now at seventeen, going on eighteen, I knew that tab A went into slot B, but the things that lady taught me would make you blush, it nearly made the poor Morris blush.

About three months on and I thought that we were getting serious, especially when she wanted to chance me going bareback, and that was the sticking point. No risk of unplanned babies for me, not at eighteen. We went our different ways and poor old Morris who had been witness to my deflowering went too. One of the con rods parted company with it's piston, (must have been in sympathy,) and as I was offered fifteen quid for it, as it was, away it went.

There is a post script, sadly not of the Morris. That young lady disappeared from the social scene, then I heard that she had met someone, later I heard that they had married. Years later, by which time I too was married, I saw that lady, whilst sitting in my now current car. She was pushing a pram, there were two other children, one each side of the pram and she was expecting another.

Seeing her, with her family, I felt an inner sense of happiness for her. She had her children, well done her. It wasn't for me, but we are all different and I was happy that she found a man to love her and father her children. I don't have any photos of her, nor would I ever share if I did, but, seeing as you are all such a great audience, I do have one photo that you might like. Remember that Morris?
morris.jpg
 
RadishRose said:
Things at school like mimeograph machines, paper cutters and the good, steel pencil sharpeners.
Slate blackboards and clapping the erasers.
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And the whole class laughing when the teacher erased the blackboard & drew a big line because she didn't see that piece of chalk one of us stuck in the eraser.

The "one of us" t'was I.
 
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hollydolly said:
Having to send a piece of tissue like paper called an airmail letter which took anything up to 3 weeks to arrive to your auntie in the USA or Canada.. and waiting for 3 more weeks for the reply...
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Oh my gosh...I forgot about those! 😂
Sassycakes said:
My Sister my Cousin Jimmy and I had a lot of fun using one of these.
View attachment 75527
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And how many kids could you fit in there 😂. Remember checking each one to see if somebody forgot to take their change???
 
Aunt Bea said:
1952-image.png

1952- “Molly,” a ten-year-old strawberry roan, retired as the very last horse to pull a milk wagon in the city. A local tradition for years, the horses were well-loved by thousands of neighborhood children. One mother told the story of how she couldn’t put her child down for a nap each day until Molly had passed by on her route.
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My grandpa delivered milk in a horse drawn wagon ❤️
 
This never came up before i moved out of the house. My first appt. in NYC, did not have a frost free freezer. Every month you wound up with 6 inches of ice buildup. And you just couldn't let it go. The ice would grow so you couldn't shut the freezer door, then this sagging glacier would keep the fridge door open. You had to chisel the stuff away, and NOT kill the fridge.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
This never came up before i moved out of the house. My first appt. in NYC, did not have a frost free freezer. Every month you wound up with 6 inches of ice buildup. And you just couldn't let it go. The ice would grow so you couldn't shut the freezer door, then this sagging glacier would keep the fridge door open. You had to chisel the stuff away, and NOT kill the fridge.
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I remember so well!

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