What today's younger generation will never know:

Telephones, corded to the wall, and usually just one in each household, often in a central location where parents could hear every word that you said on one. Want to talk privately to someone? Know the location of pay phones, another forgotten artifact of a bygone time… 📞
 

fuzzybuddy said:
Hollydolly, you have to translate for us, Merkins
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Oh..ok... , when we were kids in the 50's and 60's.. there was a Rag & Bone man, basically someone who collected everyone's old rags, clothing etc.. and various other things to sell on .. he'd go street to street on a horse and cart once a week , calling out ''any old rags'' or blowing a horn.... and we kids would beg our mothers for anything to give to him, so we could get a Balloon, or a free goldfish in a little bag....
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I haven't seen a rag and bone man since I was a child.. but when I googled for pics for you. I found that there's still some rag & bone.. or Totters ..or junk dealers still using Horse and cart in the North of England...to say I'm surprised is an understatement.. :D

modern version...

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The kids today in the Summer months do have the rare Good Humor Ice Truck that comes by the local neighborhood if they are lucky and if they do have that they have to pay an arm and a leg for one ice cream cone. In my day they not only had that that patrolled the neighborhood in the Summer on a regular basis, but we also had the Snow Cone Truck and the Mr. Softee Truck which sold soft serve ice cream and floats. They don't have those any longer or not at least in my area.
 
Signe The Survivor said:
The kids today in the Summer months do have the rare Good Humor Ice Truck that comes by the local neighborhood if they are lucky and if they do have that they have to pay an arm and a leg for one ice cream cone. In my day they not only had that that patrolled the neighborhood in the Summer on a regular basis, but we also had the Snow Cone Truck and the Mr. Softee Truck which sold soft serve ice cream and floats. They don't have those any longer or not at least in my area.
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We had a Dairy Dan come through the neighborhood.
 
Boiling water in a sauce pan to make instant coffee. Sucking on Saccharine(sp?) tablets like they were candy. Cars built without seatbelts. Having to eat liver and onions for dinner once a week. 😭
 
C50 said:
Boiling water in a sauce pan to make instant coffee. Sucking on Saccharine(sp?) tablets like they were candy. Cars built without seatbelts. Having to eat liver and onions for dinner once a week. 😭
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OMG, liver and onions...my mom made that once in awhile, too. My dad and I hated it. No, I mean really hated it. The smell, the taste, the texture, ugh! Being the thoughtful person she was though, she made 2 dinners. Liver for her and my sister, something (anything!) else for me and my dad.
 
Everything is getting better and better these days. I have six Amazon Echo Shows which have artificial intelligence and talk to me all day and do all kinds of amazing tasks like making telephone calls, playing music, showing the the status of my deliveries, setting alarms and, of course, even giving me CNN without a TV (old hat now).
 
I was an elementary school kid in the mid-fifties and my teachers all knew Mercury was dangerous and should never be handled by bare hands. I specifically remember an incident where a thermometer broke and the teacher was screaming not to touch it and called the janitor to clean it up.
 
Pepper said:
I was an elementary school kid in the mid-fifties and my teachers all knew Mercury was dangerous and should never be handled by bare hands. I specifically remember an incident where a thermometer broke and the teacher was screaming not to touch it and called the janitor to clean it up.
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We didn't do this at school. I don't remember where we got the mercury. Also, when I had a sore throat, our Doctor and my Mom would swab it with Mercurochrome. Nasty tasting stuff.
 
Grampa Don said:
We didn't do this at school. I don't remember where we got the mercury. Also, when I had a sore throat, our Doctor and my Mom would swab it with Mercurochrome. Nasty tasting stuff.
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"Is mercurochrome toxic?
Merbromin is a combination of mercury and bromine. It is harmful if it is swallowed."

I remember the stuff too, but not for anything internal! Was it blue?
 
Pepper said:
"Is mercurochrome toxic?
Merbromin is a combination of mercury and bromine. It is harmful if it is swallowed."

I remember the stuff too, but not for anything internal! Was it blue?
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Here's what Wikipedia says " The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1998 classified merbromin as not generally recognized as safe due to a lack of recent studies and updated supporting information." It's not sold in the US anymore. It left a red stain.

We did a lot of dumb things in the old days. I once saw one of my cousins swabbing his throat with iodine. My Mom's iron had an asbestos cord and she had an asbestos pad to sit it on. We had an unvented gas heater in our den. Both my parents smoked a lot, so I was raised breathing it.
 
hollydolly said:
The traditional Rag & Bone man with his horse and cart, and a balloon or a gold fish in exchange for your old tat is long gone..:D. but we do have an 'Any Old Iron' type of guy who comes around once a month in his truck collecting anything that might be made from metal..old washing machines , dryers, pots and pans, bikes .. anything that can be melted down..
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@hollydolly I remember the 'bottle-o' coming along prior to recycling or getting a refund on your bottles
He would take all the empty bottles for scrap
 

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