Posted on 12/09/2025 10:34:36 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
Age quiz time! Give yourself one point for each thing you've NEVER done. Lowest score wins.
Soupy Sales, seen here trying to invoke the honor system on "What's My Line?"
Goose egg.
A friend had that. I thought it was awesome.
Who remembers cranking the winder to ring the operator to make a call from your wall mounted phone?
Who remembers phone party lines?
Who remembers Kukla, Fran, and Olie?
Who remembers the iceman dropping off 5 lb blocks of ice for your icebox?
Who remembers the junk man coming around in his horse-drawn wagon to collect your junk?
Who remembers using a hammer to smash lumps of coal for your furnace?
Who remembers the coal man dumping coal down you home coal chute?
Who remembers the first color TV broadcast by RCA’s three color system?
Who remembers not wanting to be seen in public without a suit and tie?
watched What’s My Line - in black and white.
—
You must have missed the 15 minute commercials for Slicer Dicer. And the Buster Brown Show. And Grocho Marx and his duck.
I had to do a poem, probably in the sixth grade.
My mommy helped me
When the phone rings
When the phone rings in comes Francine
Is it for me? I run to see.
Here comes Judi who feels it’s her duty to let it be known who’s on the phone.
Mother and daddy sitting on the couch try not to be too big of a grouch
But it’s only a matter of time before they say
It’s time to get off the phone.
It was fun reading this books.
We were lucky, too, that the town Library was two doors down n from us. I practically lived there.
Sorry about the loss of your brother, Mairdie. But how wonderful you still had his letters from 50 years ago.
I’m heartbroken that, when all my grandparents passed, none of their kids saved their letters and mementos. All gone. I would have loved those as first-person memories for my genealogy research on the family.
“open reel tape recorders.”
Yep. Bought a Sony TC-640 (”Tape Corder”) reel-to-reel around 1970 with my summer earnings in college. I made party mix tapes that were a huge hit at our fraternity parties. It was tedious work making those tapes, but they were great. I put it on my car trunk about 1980 and it fell off and hit the curb! I was sick to my stomach. The beautiful wood case cracked in one corner, but it kept on ticking like nothing had happened! Sold it around 1982 or so and I think I got almost what I’d paid for it 12 years earlier. It was built like a tank.
I’ve done all of them. I still use dictionaries and paper maps. I even used a rotary phone dating from 1959 at the start of this century—I liked its ergonomics and its sound through the receiver—but it doesn’t do voicemail, so I had to get a modern phone.
Me, too. Zero. Although the “Walkman” I had didn’t have that brand name. It was an identical device but Brand X.
LOL...nice list!
My grandfather on dad’s side was an outstanding machinist. Dad used to tell me stories of him making his own replacement axles for his Model T and carrying one with him all the time. He could change them in the field when they broke! He could machine the axle, broach the splines, and heat treat the steel all in his own shop!
Me gets 3 points on 5, 10, and 17.
Reason: me never owned them items.
That was fun.
Me always called them 3.5 disks stiffy disks.
My God!
I watched What’s My Line every week.
Thanks for your kind words. 6’ 4 1/2” - a real Big Brother.
https://iment.com/maida/family/brother/photographs/images/Bob-AF-tall-Nana-700.jpg
We lived at opposite ends of the country but were on the phone together every few days.
I’ve been gathering together all the memories of our childhood and all the stories told by my mother and grandparents and sending them to his daughters. I describe the layout of the rooms and furniture, the colors of the walls and try to make them come alive in their minds. They’ve liked it enough that they’re starting to gather their own stories to send to their own kids.
I’m hoping that the net will make it more practical to save stories our families tossed away.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
