"Hey Dad," one of my kids asked the other day, "What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?

kids bicycle number plates image

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"We didn't have fast food when I was growing up," I informed him. "All the food was slow."

"C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?"

"It was a place called 'at home,'" I explained. "Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it."

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears AND Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day. Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.

I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called "pizza pie." When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

We didn't have a car until I was 15. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a "machine."

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?


MEMORIES from a friend:

My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to "sprinkle" clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.
Real ice boxes.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Older Than Dirt Quiz: Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about Ratings at the bottom.

1. Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with table side juke boxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7! Party lines
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P. F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S&H Green Stamps
16 Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19 Blue flashbulb
20. Packard's
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = Y
I don't know why this wouldn't let me say this before now but I'll leave it up a little longer.
I stole this. Although like most of you I remember it all too. It could be me.
But it wasn't.

Answer
Oh, brother, what memories. I remember all of them and the party line. My number was 6399R. I loved those metal ice trays. My sister used to make this frozen lemon stuff with graham crackers in one, and that was our dessert. My brother had comic books with "pizza pie" in them, and our neighbors who owned a TV Shop had a television with the different colored plastic thing over the front. We did not get a TV until I was 14 or 15. We had an ice box and an ice man, a milk man, and a coal man. A pipe for the icebox ran to the outside and made a nice birdbath for the birds.

The Coke in bottles was much better. I remember one machine that you had to run the bottle around to the front before you could get it out. That was the oddest one I remember. I remember drive-ins (we still have one in Waynesville, NC), cork popguns and roller skate keys. I took my skate key to school and turned up the water fountain with it because the water ran so low. I just looked at the thing and knew my skate key would fit it. We also used jar rubbers to hold our skates on better if we had thin soles on our shoes (which we had a lot).

My sister-in-law got her hair caught in a wringer of one of those old washing machines and we had to cut her hair to get her out. I remember them all. Thanks for the memories

Teen party ideas??!!

Fashion `a

Okay so sorry. This question is probably asked a lot. But I need some party ideas for my 14th birthday. I want something like really unique... not like "have a sleepover." Most of my friends aren't tooo girly, so maybe something somewhat active.

P.S. I've already had a mall scavenger hunt, since that seems to be a popular idea. lol.

Thanks!!
One more thing. No "dance party" or "pool party" ideas either please. Sorry if I'm coming off rude! I just don't want those regular ideas.

Answer
Gaming. Whatâs one of the fun spots in your area? Like a game themed restaurant or entertainment center? Ideas include: laser tag, video gaming, miniature golf, paint ball. Obviously, this costs money, but it often means no prep or clean up at home, since you can have the cake and present opening there.

Hiking. Most areas have cool places to go, even if itâs just a park. Combine it with a scavenger hunt that requires each team to have a disposable camera or (if the teens have camera phones, they can use them) to âcaptureâ items on the list.

Mystery Meal. This is an at home party, and youâll need a few volunteers to help you serve. Assign ânewâ names to each food item, each piece of silverware, napkins, toothpicks, beverages and make a menu using these ânewâ terms. Names can be nonsensical or fit a theme (motorcycles, movie idols, music artists). Each teen sits at the dinner table and is provided a menu of enough items to make 3 to 4 courses. A waiter or waitress takes each personâs order for the first course. In the kitchen the serves know what the code is and load up the plates appropriately. One guyâs choices give him a glass of juice, a toothpick, and a fork. The girl beside him receives dessert, salad, and a napkin. Kids find what they get pretty hilarious. (Menu items can only be ordered once per teen.) Mystery meal invite idea.

Bike Rally. Bicycle that is. Teens have to go in pairs. Each pair is given different directions (i.e. turn right at the T in the road, or turn left after the fifth house on the left, or at the swimming pool, go west). One partner has the odd numbered directions and the other the even number, so they must stay teamed. The goal is to see which pair can get to the destination in the shortest time. Of course, you want the actual âmileageâ to be similar for each route. You may also need some adult spotters at key locations to make sure the teens are on the right route. Of course, an adult host should be at the arrival point, too.

Concert. Many areas have free concertsâtheyâre the bands who havenât made it big yet, or the concert may be a benefit for a community food bank. For afterwards find a nearby restaurant where you can bring in your own cake and just buy beverages.

Lights, Camera, Action. Have a video camera or two and have the teens make their own videos. It could be a new music video for a favorite song, a commercial for some item, a short skit. Provide them with some starter ideas, some costumes and/or props. If you want something different than what you have around your house, thrift shops are a good source (except near Halloween). You can even take the teens to a thrift store or dollar store and give them each a few bucks to buy whatever they think theyâll need. And donât forget the popcorn!

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Title Post: "Hey Dad," one of my kids asked the other day, "What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?
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