Old enough to remember

[Kimby]

Besides, with all the kids so engrossed in electronics and spending so much time indoors, who will grow up to replace the aging baby boomers as environmental guardians? Perhaps the world will regress back into a polluted depleted state and it won't be pleasant or safe to play outdoors.

[Deleted]

I remember when you had to buy produce in amounts that did not require complicated arithmetic. Now you might buy 378 grams of something, but before they had electronic scales, you had better choose to get 250 grams or 500 grams or face the consequences.

[Deleted]

Once upon a time, computers were the wave of the future.

www.ina.fr/video/I05202805/le-nouveau-systeme-de-reservation-d-air-france.fr.html

[bixaorellana]

I remember before Mr. Coffee.

[Deleted]

I remember before Melitta filters.

[bixaorellana]

Ha ~~ I laugh at your need for effete filters!

This had to be wrested away from me in 80s,
when I married into an electric coffee maker:


^ That kind & this enameled type were the only ones used on a daily basis in my family & by me.

I did briefly have one of these, bought in a thrift shop, until I forgot it on the stove one day:
www.orphanespresso.com/Vintage-Cory-DRU-DRL-Vacuum-Coffee-Pot-with-filter-rod_p_2693.html

[komsomol]

I remember when Coffeemate first came on the market.

[foreverman]

I remember when Espresso coffee became popular in the 1950's, especially in the 2 i's coffee bar in Soho which was my favourite hang out at the time.................

[bixaorellana]

Well, you were a sophisticated lad! I think if I'd heard the term ''espresso'' in the '50s, I'd have thought it was a bus company, or maybe a constipation remedy.

[Deleted]

I suppose that Tinker Toys no longer exist, but I have a vague memory of them from early childhood. There were wooden pieces with holes drilled into them with wooden sticks that fit in the holes. The box always had a magnificent image like a wooden Ferris wheel on it, far beyond the talents of any normal child. Therefore, I have absolutely no memory of what my (older) brother and I could have possibly assembled with this stuff, but I liked it.

[bixaorellana]

Oh, I loved Tinker Toys! My brother & I used to play with them &, like you, I can´t remember anything we actually made from them. The box was cool too -- a tall cylinder. My brother was also into Lincoln Logs later.

Remember pick-up sticks? What about the game Cootie?

[Deleted]

Yes, I made a lot of cooties.

[bixaorellana]

I wonder if it´s still around. It was a wonderful game.

Remember Candyland?

[foreverman]

I remember the first Meccano set I had, I was about 8 or 9 and spent many hours doing up those tiny nuts and bolts.
We gave a set to my grandson when he was 9, I dont think its been out of the box after 5 years....

[Deleted]

The American name for Meccano is Erector Set, in case anybody wondering. My brother absolutely loved it because he adored nuts, bolts and screws. When he was six, he would take clocks apart and put them back together correctly.

As a premonition of my true nature, I only liked building materials that snapped together.

[mich64]

I also remember the Meccano/Erector sets, my brother would spend hours with them and when he got bored with them he then would take other things apart, my tape recorder, my radio, my watch... along with the belongings from my other 3 sisters!

Today in my driveway, my brother was taking apart the brake line in his truck, insisting that he could repair this. Perhaps if the tools he had were not Imperial measured versus his new truck parts being Metric measured, he might actually have been able to do it. Mean while, the truck is still in my driveway until he can come back to visit next weekend. Some things never change.
Cheers,
Mich

[bixaorellana]

;D

Did he also poke out dolls' eyes to see what made them open and close?

[mich64]

Bixa, that would be correct, perhaps you have a brother like mine?

One Christmas, Santa brought all four of us girls doll carraiges and my brother a tool set.... It probably took my dad nights to put all the carraiges together, but my brother had them taken all apart probably before the turkey was on the table for dinner!

Cheers,
Mich

[Deleted]

I had completely forgotten the term "tin foil" although that was what we called aluminum foil when I was little, but a use of tin foil was actually demonstrated to me today during a tourist visit, and I was able to see how completely different it is from the foil used in modern times. It was also very strange to see that tin foil still exists.

[bixaorellana]

Mich, didn't the four of you ever get even with your brother?

I'd forgotten that tin foil was different from aluminum foil, probably because I still sometimes say tin foil for the aluminum variety. Remember "oleo" for what we now call margarine?

Who remembers cherry phosphates?

[foreverman]

Don't we still drink phosphates without the cherry flavour.........its called Coke......??

[bixaorellana]

Acid phosphate + cherry syrup = cherry phosphate

Acid Phosphate is partially neutralized phosphoric acid. The salts of calcium, magnesium and potassium (notice no sodium) are mixed with the phosphoric acid, which reduces the acidity and buffers the pH of the liquid. The process for making it is very similar to that childhood favourite combination of baking soda and vinegar. Once the reactions have finished, the end product has a pH between 2.2 and 2.4, where fresh squeezed lime juice has a pH of 1.9. Even with the higher pH, Acid Phosphate has a more intense sour, which has to do with the chemistry of phosphoric acid and the associated phosphate salts.            Source

Cherry Syrup
2 cups pitted fresh cherries or drained canned sweet cherries
1/2 cup sugar
Puree cherries and sugar in food processor until smooth. Transfer puree to heavy small saucepan; bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes. Place fine mesh strainer over large glass measuring cup or small bowl. Strain puree, pressing on solids with back of spoon to extract 1 cup syrup. Cool.
If using canned cherries, reduce juice from can to 3 tablespoons. Add reduced juice to cherry and sugar puree, and proceed with simmering and straining.
Cherry syrup can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.            Source

[mich64]

Yes Bixa, I would say we got even with him, one time we dressed him up in a dress and named him Martha. We still call him that sometimes, no one has forgotten that!
Cheers,
Mich

[Kimby]

When I am away from the computer I keep thinking of things for the "old enough to remember" thread, but I'm old enough to forget them by the time I get back on Any Port, so nothing to post again.

[Deleted]

While not exactly the same subject, I think it would make an excellent reality show to put some modern teenagers in a 1950's house with only a rotary dial telephone, a B&W television with buttons to push and turn (contrast! brightness!), the old kitchen appliances, and of course a carpet sweeper and a tube of gritty cleanser (Comet in my youth) to scrape the bathtub and other such fixtures clean.

[joanne28]

Bixa, I not only remember the game Candyland, I still have it.

It was the last game my mother was capable of playing. We were always a family that loved board & card games. As my mother's abilities declined, I would switch the games we would play to keep her wanting to play. Rummy 500 became just isolated hands. Then I switched to Snakes & Ladders and then to Candyland.

Did anyone ever hear of the game Racko? I got it when I was around 7 (dear God, that was 50 years ago - can't be).

[Deleted]

The name rings a bell, but I don't remember what it was. But I remember putting things in slots, no?

[joanne28]

Kerouac, YES! There were numbered cards and the play involved getting them into numerical order. I used to play this endlessly with my father and beat him every time. I won a nickel each time too, which was huge money for a 7 year old back then.

I thought we were the only ones who had this game, as no one else I knew had it.

[Kimby]

Snakes and Ladders? Our game was called Chutes and Ladders. And yes we definitely played and loved Candyland.

One old game that keeps coming back for more in my family (for no good reason as it's a stupid game) is Barbie Queen of the Prom. But we (my 2 sisters, my 19-year-old niece and I) play it cutthroat-style (once you have your own boyfriend (or dress or club pin), you can steal them from other players if you land on the proper square. And we added shots of booze as a penalty. (Though my memory is fuzzy on what we were being penalized for..)

[bixaorellana]

Mich, you could have forced your brother to play "Barbie, Queen of the Prom". ;D

Joanne, that was wonderful that you thought to use board games for entertaining and stimulating your mother for as long as she was able to play them.

I am amazed at two people on this small forum, both in my age group, both remembering a game that I never heard of. Racko, huh?

What is strange about Snakes/Chutes & Ladders is that, even though I have a mental image of the game & seem to remember seeing it in other people's houses, I have no memory of ever playing it. It was a pretty popular and common game, as I recall.

Here's one that girls a little younger than I will recall. This was something my middle sister had, but I was a little too old to play with it when it came out. There was some kind of over-sized board that had a scene on it. The figures were flat and rubbery and would stick to the board when pressed down and could be moved and pressed endlessly. This wasn't a board game, but more of a role-playing thing. I think there were versions for boys, too, but to sort of place the time period, one that my sister had was based on Disney's Sleeping Beauty, which was released around that time.

Oh yeah -- re: the idea for a reality show based on a '50s environment ......... that was part of the schtick in the tv show "Life on Mars" -- the adult from 2008 is stymied by stuff from the 1970s. But yeah, modern teens might be stopped cold by a 1950s world.