Things you forgot about

Stiff and frozen laundry on the clothes line in winter.
Coffee made in a percolator.
Chocolate bars that tasted much better than they do today.
 

Great sounds and whistles...ya think Jim?
Cookie, just the other day I was thinking of the frozen bed linens. How did they ever dry? Brought them in the house as stiff sheets of ice. How did they remain starched? Remember the starched and ironed sheets and pillow cases?
 
Yes, Nona, I do remember those starched sheets, my mother used blue stuff and starch on almost everything, ironed it all too on a big table, even my father's boxers. I liked to crawl into my nice crisp clean bed with cold sheets and hunkering down under a big feather duvet.
 
IRONING??!! Eeeeewww!!

When I was a kid, Monday was washday, and Tuesday was ironing day. As soon as we were old enough we had to iron our own stuff. When my husband was in the Army, I starched and ironed about a million fatigues and khakis. I long ago vowed never to iron again -- if it needs ironing, I don't need it.
 
When I was little, we lived in California and drove to visit relatives in Oklahoma and Arkansas every once in a while, crossing the desert to do so. Does anybody remember a sort of burlap water bag thing that fit around the bumper in front of the car, and you put water in it and used it when crossing the desert in case of vaporlock or a leaky radiator? My dad was very religious about being sure the bags were filled. This would have been around 1950.
 
Butterfly said:
When I was little, we lived in California and drove to visit relatives in Oklahoma and Arkansas every once in a while, crossing the desert to do so. Does anybody remember a sort of burlap water bag thing that fit around the bumper in front of the car, and you put water in it and used it when crossing the desert in case of vaporlock or a leaky radiator? My dad was very religious about being sure the bags were filled. This would have been around 1950.
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Yep! Also that was before Air conditioning so we had those things that hooked to the window and were filled with water so as you drove the water was cooled and the fan blew in cool air.
 
AZ Jim -- I hadn't even thought the word "vaporlock" in years and years until I wrote the above post. When I was a teenager vaporlock was a problem with the cars we (or our boyfriends) had then -- usually the cars were years and years old. Just out of curiousity, why don't cars vaporlock any more?
 
Butterfly said:
AZ Jim -- I hadn't even thought the word "vaporlock" in years and years until I wrote the above post. When I was a teenager vaporlock was a problem with the cars we (or our boyfriends) had then -- usually the cars were years and years old. Just out of curiousity, why don't cars vaporlock any more?
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May I answer, (butting in!): Vapor lock happens when the fuel in piping which brings it to the carburetor, gets hot enough to boil, then the fuel turns to gas (as in air, not "gas" gasoline), like steam from boiling water, and there is nowhere near enough vaporous fuel available to keep the engine running. Carburetors operated at a very low fuel pressure fed to them, about 4 or 5 pounds per square inch. For a "feel" of what that means, your tires have a pressure in them of 6 or 7 times that, say, 35 pounds (psi). Almost everyone has heard the huge hiss when a tire is allowed to deflate, lots of pressure there.

Today's engines use fuel injection, which operates at pressures even higher than tire pressure, as high as 60 psi. This required Engineers to become cautious about cutting corners design-wise, as a gasoline leak occurring at 60 psi flows faster than your kitchen sink does water! To finally answer the original question: Gasoline contained within the engine's operating system cannot get hot enough to boil within it, thus, no vapor lock! imp
 
Pappy said:
Coal delivery, using the coal ashes in the snowy driveway, school,desks with a place for the inkwell, flashlight batteries that lasted maybe three days, steering wheel suicide spinners.
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I remember my grandpa setting a steel bucket full of course sand on top of the wood stove. Once the sand was hot, he'd sift the bucket over the stairs and driveway.

The hot sand would melt it's way slightly into the ice and remain in place providing traction and a safe footing.
 
Games such as "Hands Down - the slap happiest game ever!" or Mousetrap or Video Village. All those cool games probably were replaced by computer games after video games. With these old games, everybody had to be there at the table in order to play. I suppose that kind of interaction sounds weird today, especially now with COVID-19. :)

Bop-a-loop:


Phone booths - no wonder we don't hear of Elvis sightings anymore. :)

Tony
 
Butterfly said:
When I was little, we lived in California and drove to visit relatives in Oklahoma and Arkansas every once in a while, crossing the desert to do so. Does anybody remember a sort of burlap water bag thing that fit around the bumper in front of the car, and you put water in it and used it when crossing the desert in case of vaporlock or a leaky radiator? My dad was very religious about being sure the bags were filled. This would have been around 1950.
Click to expand...
I had one of those when I got out of the Navy in San Diego and drove home to the east coast. No interstates in 1959.
 
"Playboy" magazine, which everybody read just for the articles. Along with "Life" , and "Look" mags.
Quadraphonic "sound".
"The Tonight Show" with Steve Allen.
18 cent hamburgers, 15 cent fries, 15 cent cokes.
 

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