Old enough to remember

[Deleted]

No, it's made out of that primitive plastic. What is it called? Bakelite? Actually it is not one of the oldest models because one of the exotic radio stations is called "United Nations".

[mickthecactus]

Bakelite was 1930's.

[foreverman]

I can remember my folks had a bakelite radio, this was in the 40's/50's..............

[bixaorellana]

The real name of Bakelite is polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride. Doesn't that just roll off the tongue?

I looked up Bakelite -- it's from the early 1900s! Pretty interesting:
inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blbakerlite.htm

Much, much more here.

[Deleted]

I remember when cinemas displayed lobby cards to trick people into thinking that the one and only movie playing this week is exciting and romantic.

[foreverman]

I remember whe cigarette packets had picture cards in them and getting so excited as a young lad to find a discarded packet still had the card in it...............

[bixaorellana]

Did cigarette packs in the US have cards also?

I just thought of one as I was digging in my spice cabinet. An elderly bottle of 5-spice powder has an address on the back where one can write for recipes. Probably products still offer that, but who all remembers those offers in newspapers or magazines for recipes. They almost always charged a dollar, sometimes for just one recipe, sometimes you got more.

[bixaorellana]

I'm old enough to remember when "straight man" meant one half of a comedy team.

[Deleted]

Now you just made me try to find an example of a comedy team with two people of different (admitted) sexual orientations. Can't think of one.

[mich64]

Kerouac, how about George Burns and Gracie Allen.
Cheers,
Mich

[bixaorellana]

Mich! Mich, Mich, Mich, Mich, Mich. Read what he said again. ;D

[Deleted]

Well, she got me wondering about their sexual orientations. Never having read about them, I think there might be some details of their private lives that I do not know!

[bixaorellana]

hee hee

Well, I looked up the Smothers Brothers and according to the all-knowing internet, they're both straight. This is a shame, as for our purposes in this discussion, it would have been perfect if Tommy were gay.

Anyway, I'm posting this because it came up while I was googling. Not only am I old enough to remember it, I actually DO remember this from when it first aired.

[Kimby]

That's one I haven't seen before. 5 minutes plus, and Tommy didn't say "Mom liked you best!"

Dickie is wrong, though - we DO have pumas in America, variously known as cougar, mountain lion, panther, painter, and catamount, but pumas nonetheless.

[bixaorellana]

Actually, pumas are only in America, right? And I think only in N. America, although I'm not sure.

[Kimby]

I think you're right, bixa, and I'm ashamed I didn't think of that myself!

However, it's not only North but also South America.
www.ofcats.com/2007/05/cougar-distribution.html

[foreverman]

I was always under the immpression they were called the Cougar in North america and Puma in South America

[Deleted]

I remember before the aerosol cans of Raid, there were those piston pump bug spray cans.

(Of course when I took my parents to Phuket, our bungalow on the beach was equipped with a piston pump can, and we used it more than once.)

[bixaorellana]

Was that the kind that Marlon Brando & the grandson play with in The Godfather? I remember my first trip to Mexico, drinking warm sticky orange pop in a tiny eatery. The friendly sub-teen manning the place noticed us fanning away flies, so ran for the Flit and proceeded to pump it furiously around the place.

[Deleted]

I think gardeners still use those piston pump cans quite a bit, because they are supposed to mix variable amounts of death potions for the plants, depending on the affliction, watering the stuff down more or less.

[Deleted]

I remember when 1984 (Orwell) was a date in the far away future. Ditto for 2001 (Kubrick).

[Deleted]

I just read back through about the first four pages of this thread since I had forgotten most of it, and it is really amazing!

[Kimby]

And K2's comment made me go back and re-read the whole thread.
Now I'm nostalgic. And depressed. But I'll get over it.

[foreverman]

I remember when you could by a 'block' of icecream from the van that came around, most probably still playing 'greensleeves' even back then. Mum then used to cut it into pieces to have in wafers.......
Now all they can do is serve it in a cone with a choc bar stuck into it that melts as soon as you start to eat it....

[bixaorellana]

I don't have any definite memory an ice cream man from when I was a child. I do remember that the whole three years we were overseas, I never got over my disappointment that they didn't sell the kind of ice cream sandwich I knew & loved.
correct:     incorrect:

I guess some of you would reverse the correct/incorrect images.

[Kimby]

I remember when telephones were used only rarely, at least in my family, especially long-distance. If I ever got a call from my parents, my heart would stop and I would wait breathlessly to find out who had died.

This trepidation about long-distance calls continued until recently when my parents have stopped calling at all (I'm not sure they would even know how to call us, even though we are on their auto-dial, and all our numbers are posted on the wall next to the phone).

And now I call them - long-distance - twice a week. Even though we usually have no news since the last call. Just a safety check.

[bixaorellana]

Yes. It took us (my mother's kids) ages to train her not to automatically say "What's wrong" when we called.

[Deleted]

I am well versed on that subject.

Just be thankful that the telephone is still used at all. I removed my mother's telephone about a year ago, because she completely lost interest in it, no matter how much it rang.

[rikita]

when i was 13 or 14 i kept saying that these contests on the radio, where you can call in and answer a question to win something, are so unfair, because if you don#t have a phone you have no way to participate... (sorry if i said this before)

[Deleted]

I remember when there used to be (almost) enough electrical sockets in a house.