Play "Twenty Questions!" - How much do you remember from your school days?

A Friend | JANUARY 14, 2005 | Examiner

[CHARLITE]

I missed 5 out of 20........!! not such a hot score! .....but it's a fun test to take......."back down Memory Lane!"

History Exam...

Everyone over 50 should have a pretty easy time at this exam.
If you are under 50 you can claim a handicap.

This is a History Exam for those who don't mind seeing how much they really remember about what went on in their life.
Get paper and pencil and number from 1 to 20.
Write the letter of each answer and score at the end.
Then, best of all, before you pass this test on, put your score in the subject line!

1. In the 1940s, where were automobile headlight dimmer switches located?
a. On the floor shift knob
b. On the floor board, to the left of the clutch
c. Next to the horn

2. The bottle top of a Royal Crown Cola bottle had holes in it. For what was it used?
a. Capture lightning bugs
b. To sprinkle clothes before ironing
c. Large salt shaker

3. Why was having milk delivered a problem in northern winters?
a. Cows got cold and wouldn't produce milk
b. Ice on highways forced delivery by dog sled
c. Milkmen left deliveries outside of front doors and milk would freeze, expanding and pushing up the cardboard bottle top.

4. What was the popular chewing gum named for a game of chance?
a. Blackjack
b. Gin
c. Craps!

5. What method did women use to look as if they were wearing stockings when none were available due to rationing during W.W.II?
a. Suntan
b. Leg painting
c. Wearing slacks

6. What postwar car turned automotive design on its ear when you couldn't tell whether it was coming or going?
a. Studebaker
b. Nash Metro
c. Tucker

7. Which was a popular candy when you were a kid?
a. Strips of dried peanut butter
b. Chocolate licorice bars
c. Wax coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside

8. How was Butch wax used?
a. To stiffen a flat-top haircut so it stood up
b. To make floors shiny and prevent scuffing
c. On the wheels of roller skates to prevent rust

9. Before inline skates, how did you keep your roller skates attached to your shoes?
a. With clamps, tightened by a skate key
b. Woven straps that crossed the foot
c. Long pieces of twine

10. As a kid, what was considered the best way to reach a decision?
a. Consider all the facts
b. Ask Mom
c. Eeny-meeny-miney-mo

11. What was the most dreaded disease in the 1940's?
a. Smallpox
b. AIDS
c. Polio

12. "I'll be down to get you in a ________, Honey"
a. SUV
b. Taxi
c. Streetcar

13. What was the name of Caroline Kennedy's pet pony?
a. Old Blue
b. Paint
c. Macaroni

14. What was a Duck-and-Cover Drill?
a. Part of the game of hide and seek
b. What you did when your Mom called you in to do chores
c. Hiding under your desk, and covering your head with your arms in an A-bomb drill.

15. What was the name of the Indian Princess on the Howdy Doody show?
a. Princess Summerfallwinterspring
b. Princess Sacajewea
c. Princess Moonshadow

16. What did all the really savvy students do when mimeographed tests were handed out in school?
a. Immediately sniffed the purple ink, as this was believed to get you high
b. Made paper airplanes to see who could sail theirs out the window
c. Wrote another pupil's name on the top, to avoid their failure

17. Why did your Mom shop in stores that gave Green Stamps with purchases?
a. To keep you out of mischief by licking the backs, which tasted like bubble gum
b. They could be put in special books and redeemed for various household items
c. They were given to the kids to be used as stick-on tattoos

18. Praise the Lord, and pass the _________?
a. Meatballs
b. Dames
c. Ammunition

19. What was the name of the singing group that made the song "Cabdriver" a hit?
a. The Ink Spots
b. The Supremes
c. The Esquires

20. Who left his heart in San Francisco?
a. Tony Bennett
b. Xavier Cugat
c. George Gershwin

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers below, in first comment! :)

[willyboyishere]

I got 19 out of 20====only one I missed was the first one about where the light dimmers were on 1940s cars, and I'm too young to remember that!

[Richard Kimball]

I FEEL 32! HAHAHA

Well, I got a physical last year, and the nurse told me I had the body of a 28 year old. Then she said, "If you'll let go of me sir, I'll complete the examination." (sorry, Groucho Marx joke. If you'd been on "You Bet Your Life", he would have said, "You'll pardon me sir, If I don't feel you.")

[Richard Kimball]

I had a '63 Chevy pickup that had that kind of dimmer. My brother had a fortysomething Dodge pickup that you turned the key in the ignition, and then stepped on a starter on the floor. My '65 Corvair had a push button transmission on the dash.

[Jack Deth]

I missed three questions, CHARLITE.
#2
#5
#6

Not bad for someone born in 1954.

I remember the old Royal Crown Colas with the camel and Pyramid on the label. Though I don't remember the bottle cap having holes.
I definitely remember Butch Wax. Sticky and pink. Just right for "Flat-tops".

Good quiz.

Jack.

[CAluvdubya]

I used the bottle with the holes to sprinkle my clothes with before ironing. Now I use a water mister. Old habits die hard.

off topic...just watched 20/20 interview with W and Laura. I smiled the whole time! Nice way to end the night!

[A_perfect_lady]

and did that life kill any of us? Heck no. My 18 year old daughter has never had the adventure of walking to school. Sad.

Heck, I remember one winter the school bus couldn't get down our rutted dirt road for a week, and we had to walk two miles up to the main intersection to catch the bus. When you're 8, that's high adventure! (Of course, when you're 39, having to park a block away from your destination is a grievance to sour your mood for an hour.)

[A_perfect_lady]

WOW, You just brought back some many fond memories for me growing up, visiting my Grandparents, and Aunt and Uncle. They all worked together on the family farm. I used to love going there as a child. So much mischief to get into... LOL

OH yes! You can build a fine fort with bales of hay. And rotten eggs propped up on a fence post make a perfect target for a kid with a BB gun. But most magical of all are the occasional ears of ruby red Indian corn found in the corn crib, buried in three feet of regular yellow corn.

Farm folk are creative. With toothpicks, you can turn hollyhock blossoms into little dolls with hoop skirts and bonnets. And who needs paper dolls when you have the Sears catalogue? And who needs a booster seat when you have a Sears catalogue? Heck, who needs a door stop when you have a Sears catalogue? Amazing the things those catalogues can be used for. They're like old tires! Old tires can be a number of things. They're flower boxes, they're sandboxes... Tie them to a rope and throw it over a tree limb and you have a swing!

I remember a lot when I think about it. We had these two mean roosters we named Shake and Bake (oh yes) and I'd go down the hill toward the chicken coop by the barn, looking for eggs, and they'd come chasing me back up the hill again. But they'd only chase till the fence by the willow tree, then they'd stop. That was the edge of their turf, there by where Grandma threw kitchen scraps into a heap that turned into garden mulch. My goodness, I am getting very nostalgic all of a sudden... I think I may have been quite lucky to have experienced such an encapsulated version of the entire 20th century. Most kids won't. Ever.

[A_perfect_lady]

Say, here's the feminine equivalent of Butch Wax (I think.) When I was little, my mom used to fight my (as yet unconquered) cowlick with some nasty goo called Dippety-doo. Sound familiar?

[Larry Lucido]

Yep, see my post #30! LOL!

What city were you near? We lived in Lansing from 1961 - 1966.

[Jack Deth]

I remember "Dippety-Doo", A_perfect_lady.

It was pink. Came in a jar or bottle. Thinner than Butch Wax. Had the same sweet smell too. Very popular with girls in the "Mod" 1960s. My sister used it on big pink curlers to make her short straight hair curly.

Didn't work too well.

Jack.

[Jack Deth]

My mom had a sprinkler bottle for her ironing board. It was a clear glass bottle with a mushroom head.

Nice Ode to the Crazies and Rebels on your profile, BTW.

Jack.

[A_perfect_lady]

Wow, Lansing?? I was born and raised in Charlotte, 25 miles south! 1965 till I joined the Navy in 1985.

[A_perfect_lady]

Yep. Dippety-Doo. I remember my mom plastering it on my head, and it was cold. I hated it.

[CAluvdubya]

Thanks. It's supposed to have a picture of Bush getting ready for a bike ride. Being computer challenged, I'm still working on that little bit.

[Larry Lucido]

Yep, we moved to Detroit later on, but my folks and younger siblings moved back to Williamston in 1977. My brother joined the Navy the same year you did, and retired last year, now living in Hawaii with his wife from Okinawa and their two kids.

[willyboyishere]

I can remember being at the grandparent's farm outside Des Moines,Iowa, as a very small boy in the 50s, sneaking into the front seat of an old Nash Rambler, and pushing in a red button on the dashboard, and my heart popping into my mouth as the engine turned over.

[A knight without armor]

I missed 5 and 19.
I remember milk bottles with thick foil caps but there might have been some cardboard in there.
Thanks for the brain tickler.

[pharmamom]

I'm only 43, but I missed only one. Can't say eeny-meeny-miny-mo anymore, it's "racist." </sarcasm>

[pharmamom]

Heck, our family station wagon, affectionately named "Joey," had the dimmer switch on the floor! Sometimes, I still want to reach over there with my foot...

[A_perfect_lady]

My brother joined the Navy the same year you did, and retired last year, now living in Hawaii with his wife from Okinawa and their two kids.

Argh! Don't remind me that I could have retired this year if I'd just stuck with it. Congrats to your brother, though! Was he ever stationed in Norfolk, Virginia?