Things I have done and seen, in the old days

[Ol Smoke]

Growing up in the 1950's thru 1970 I was able to see and do so many things that people of the 70's and on will never get the opportunity to take part in.

 

I remember seeing the first color movies.  It was so amazing to actually see that people in those old days didn't just wear black and grey.  Pictures of the old west and stuff lead us to believe

that they didn't have color clothes.  It is funny now, but a lot of us kids really believed that.

 

I remember playing games after school and on Saturdays.  Today, you guys never get your nose out of your phone long enough to do that.  Playing was the best.  We did all kinds of things.

We built carts out of junk wood and old wheels and then took them up to old man Johnson's hill and raced them down.  We were brave and didn't fear wrecking, until it happened.  And it happened

a lot.  We made forts out of old boxes and had make believe battles.  From  castle days to cowboys and Indians we would battle.  Our guns and spears were made from anything we could find.

But in our minds they were real.  Then we would turn the boxes another way and they became B17's and P51's and we were in the skies over Germany fighting WWII, or, we would be a

submarine or a tank.  Imagination was all it took, not money and a PC game.  This is still prevalent today.  When my grandkids were 4 or 5 years old, I got them a big cardboard box for Christmas.

To this day, 20 years later, they still remember playing, for days, in that box, until it finally folded up and died. My dad made us wooden toys that he would whittle out for us with his pocket knife.

 

We never had a TV until I was in 6th grade. We only watched it on Saturday morning for the cartoons.  When Mighty Mouse went off, it was out the door to play.  We would all play until about noon

then everyone went home and had a sandwich then back at it until 5pm for dinner.  Then we came back out and played the old games, like, Ollie Oxen Free, Tag, kick the can, etc. until dark.  Then

home and mom would wash us up and into bed we went.  Some day's we would ride our bicycles a lot or go swimming at the creek or go to school and play games there.  The main thing was that we

were outside playing most of the time.  There wasn't homework then, so once we got home it was our time to play.  I remember that my whole gang got new trucks, for no reason.  There was about

9 or ten of us and we all came out to my house and excavated this ditch.  Man we had roads going everywhere and we even built this huge bridge over it.  My brother could buy firecrackers and he

was our "powder man" and he would blow the sides of the ditch out and then we would come in a clean out the roads.  That was the greatest time.

 

I remember seeing the first jet planes come over the house.  I remember the first Harley-Davidson motorcycle stop at our house.  The guy drank from our water hose, then left.  He was so cool.

 

I remember our first private phone.  It hung on the wall in the kitchen, and we didn't have to ring in to the party line, to talk.  But we did have to dial the Operator to talk to another city.  It was only

4 or 5 digits then.  Like MO-4321 but in Bly it was just 3 numbers.  9 followed by a 2 or 1 then another number.  Like 921 was our house number.  Bly was 9, then the number of the phone you

needed to dial.

 

I remember looking up one night and seeing Sputnik cross across the darkened sky.  It looked like a tiny star.

 

I remember sitting at home one night and watching the guys walk on the moon for the first time. 1969

 

I remember driving my friend's dad's Corvette.  I remember drag racing all kinds of cars.  I was so fast at speed shifting that when the guys put money down on the race,  I did the driving.

I lost once.  I would get $5 for driving. Some nights I would do 10 or more races.  Learning how to use a line-lock was tough, but I got it quickly.  Some of the cars were just store bought muscle

cars with 400 or more HP.  Some of them were actual street rods with 800 or more HP.  It was really dangerous to drive some of them without practice.  The 34 T's with those massive blown motors

were a handful.  They were really squirrley. Most had 4 speeds and I learned to go in second and not first.  One of them, I actually took off in 3rd. Just to keep the wheels on the ground.  We would

hit speeds of 140 or more on that short 1/4 mile strip at Burlington-Northern's road outside of Klamath Falls. But it was so exciting. 

 

One summer I skied behind a drag boat at about 110 mph.  I didn't care for that.  The rooster tail would blind me and I would have to just hang on until I heard the motor shut off.  Then I would

drop the tow rope and hope I didn't run into the boat.

 

I remember the first hand held calculator.  They cost about $30 in 1980. 

 

I remember using a slide rule in college in Trigonometry class.

 

I remember dragging main street on Friday and Saturday nights.

 

I remember my very first date and kiss.  I remember going steady.  I remember getting swats from the principal in High School and grade school.

 

I remember we had to get dressed up to go to town on Saturday.  I had school clothes, play clothes, shopping clothes in town, and Sunday clothes for church. I had two pair of shoes: Keds for play,

and brown dress for everything else.  I remember having to shine my shoes all the time.  I remember my first pair of black shoes.  That was a big day.  Kids wore brown, and adults wore black.

 

I remember the first car that dad bought that had electric windows and a heater. (yep most cars didn't have a heater)

 

I remember the day that Mt. Saint Helens blew up. May 18th, 1980.  It was the most unbelievable sight I ever saw.

Edited June 16, 2017 by The Smoke

[Platonic]

I've always loved those topics, smoke. Great to see another one

[Masa_1964]

Seen those on same eyes (firurely speaking) agree! (ddr collapsed... cuban situation etc...)

[Soup]

Wow you've brought back so many memories that I'm thankful to sit here for a minute, and reflect on those same times that I had experienced in the 60'sand 70's. Thanks Smoke.