Old enough to remember

[gertie]

Even among expensive shoes around here, it isn't uncommon to have sale racks where one selects for oneself. I've never bought from the cheapest places, myself, I prefer leather. Still often have had them bring the shoes out from the back and expect one to try them on by yourself. I have been known to walk out of a place if they are asking me to fit myself while they lolly gag about.

[Deleted]

I remember when photo shops first started offer to put your photos on a CD and how amazing it was to see your own pictures on a computer screen.

[gertie]

I remember when a man pumped your gas for you at the station, and it wasn't uncommon for that man to give kids like me a piece of bubble gum while we waited. The bubble gum was hard as a rock, but softened up as you chewed it.

[bixaorellana]

The moment I read your bubble gum post, Gertie, it was as though I could taste and feel the sensation of a new piece of bubble gum in my mouth, even though it's probably been eons since I had any. That powdery feel! Remember the waxy feel and smell of the little comic inside the wrapper?

[Deleted]

[bixaorellana]

Extremely cute, but also a graphic reminder of how technology for personal use has leapt forward in less than three decades.

[Kimby]

I remember when you asked someone what time it was and they looked at their wrist, instead of pulling out their cell phone.

[onlymark]

So true.
My kids are fine telling the digital time, but give them a watch or clock with hands and they have little clue.

[bixaorellana]

Ha!

The time on clocks with hands (& preferably in numbers, not Roman numerals or pictures or such) looks somehow more real to me than digital time. The only digital clock I have in my house is the one at the lower corner of the computer.

I guess young people no longer ask
"What does Mickey say?"
when they want to know the time.

[Deleted]

When my parents were buying me my first watch, my mother asked if I wanted a Mickey Mouse watch. I looked at her in stunned horror and told her that I wanted a normal watch.

[bixaorellana]

This was on the occasion of your graduation from high school?

[hwinpp]

LOL!

I got a motorbike ;D

[bixaorellana]

Vrooom, vroom!

I remember jukeboxes with real records -- 45s -- in them. Also remember mini jukeboxes on the tables and counters in diners.

[Deleted]

I remember when my parents thought that a color TV was a ridiculous expense because black & white was just fine. In fact, I don't think they bought one until 1981.

[mich64]

:DI remember getting our first color TV, 1972, I was so excited to watch Sonny and Cher. I knew those dresses would be more beautiful in color!

[Deleted]

I remember when the only escalator within 50 miles was the one at the Sears Roebuck store in downtown Gulfport, and I could probably have watched it in fascination for two hours. However, I do not remember when the Roebuck was dropped from the Sears name.

[bixaorellana]

Mich, re: the dresses being prettier in color -- every year when The Wizard of Oz was shown on tv, my mother would point out how fabulous it was to see it in the movie theater, when the film changes from black & white to color.

Oh, that's funny, Kerouac -- I don't remember, either. Also, wasn't Montgomery Ward changed to Ward's at some point?

Another department store memory, left over from before my time -- When I was in my early teens, there was still a store in Indianapolis that had those little overhead trolley baskets for sending payments and change back and forth.

[foreverman]

I remember when the halfpenny was legal currency in England, not sure about the farthing though.....lol

[Deleted]

When McDonald's first arrived in Paris, obviously the locals had heard about it and were intrigued. They knew about hamburgers already, because the British Wimpy chain had a number of locations in Paris, which were quite successful. So people (especially young people, of course) flocked to McDonald's and were prepared to love it.

But every time I went, I saw that there was something that most of them did not like at all. The moment they would buy their hamburger or Big Mac, they would disassemble it to remove the slices of pickle. Then they would eat their hamburger. This was systematic and almost universal.

But the pickles remained, and new generations were born and grew up and and eat at all of the various burger chains. No one removes the pickle anymore.

Wimpy left Paris about 30 years ago, though.

[mich64]

I special order double pickles! and my husband automatically opens his burger up for me to take his pickles.
Cheers,
Mich

[Deleted]

I'm afraid that I might want to remove the slice of beetroot in New Zealand burgers, but I will give them a chance at least the first time.

[Kimby]

I must be part French, as I hate the pickles on McDonalds burgers, too.

[Deleted]

Hmmmm... we may have to take this subject to the 'food rules' thread.

[mich64]

But Kimby, I am proudly more than part French, I was born in France. Perhaps it is the Canadian part that likes the pickles though?
Cheers!
Mich

[Deleted]

Here's an interesting piece about things from the past becoming meaningless.

[foreverman]

I remember when I was in my early teens it was cool to have a pen pal in another country............now we just chat to strangers on the internet, did something get lost along the way ?.

[Deleted]

The exotic envelopes and stamps got lost in the shuffle. That was perhaps the best part, since the letters were normally totally boring.

[foreverman]

True.........I think I still have my old stamp collection somewhere stashed away...........I would give it to one of the grandkids but so far none have shown any interest in the subject.

[rikita]

i had loads of pen pals from south africa. there was an adress of some south african kids magazine in a german kids magazine, suggesting to write there asking for pen pals. so i did, they obviously published my ad, and i ended up getting something like 30 or 40 letters, or more, not sure... i had planned to answer all, but in the end i put away all those that were written following a similar pattern (my name is... i live in... i like...) and only answered the more creative ones, because it was just too many. stayed in touch with a few of them for a year or two, but then not anymore...

[foreverman]

My OH had a pen pal in Germany when she was young, they wrote for many years, then the pen pal went into a nunnery or something and the letters stopped........