I remember when kids put baseball cards in their bicycle spokes to make it "sound cool".

I probably used a Pete Rose rookie card worth thousands of dollars today to be that kid.

I remember playing outside all day and being called home for dinner from my mom yelling out the side door.

I remember when Nerf footballs came out and we played a game called smear the queer.

I remember when the noise at a motorcycle rally was from loud pipes, not hip hop on the stereo on a custom bagger.

I remember looking forward to Friday evenings when I was young. Mom would make popcorn on the stove and Dad would hand us kids a tall glass bottle of Pepsi. It was the best.

I'll play!

I remember walking a couple miles through town to my friend's house to play, then walking home after dark most of the time for supper. I was 9.

I remember when they (finally) started to desegregate the schools, and wondering why I had to walk 4 blocks to "my" school and wait for a bus to take me across town, while my black friends were walking a few blocks to their school and being shipped across town as well.

I remember walking the alleyways looking for coke bottles to get the 10 cent deposit back on, so that we could play that new Asteroids game down at Witt's curb store.

I remember when the local convenience store would run a tab for you if you were neighborhood folks.

I remember having to eat a squirrel and a robin after my grandmother caught me with them, two days after telling me you don't kill what you don't eat. They were pretty tasty, actually, which really kinda defeated the purpose.

I remember when we would get in a fight on a weekend, then be friends again the next week; nobody got stabbified.

I remember drinking my first beer, which was a semi-cold Old Milwaukee, and thinking that I must be the coolest kid ever. We got Mark's brother to buy it for us, and we drank it behind Mason school... in 6th grade.

I remember playing bb gun wars with my friends, with the obligatory 2 pump/no head shots rule.

I remember playing sand lot football in the side yard of Mrs. Grubb's house. She was my 10th grade algebra teacher and her husband was the middle school principal, who whipped me enough to be on a first name basis. Kids walked from several miles in all directions to get in on the game.

I remember in 1978 when my dog Charlotte had puppies, then the puppies all got sick and died. Then Charlotte died, and the vet said there wasn't anything he could do, it was a new disease called parvo that very few lived through. Charlotte was my best friend and constant companion.

I remember taking some old snow chains and turning them into a ladder for my treehouse, and my mom being mad about the rust on my clothes every time I came back from it.

I remember going to Daphne public pool sometimes on hot summer days, which meant walking about 4 miles each way and paying a whopping .50 cents to get in. They had required pool breaks every hour for 10 minutes, which we used to annoy the girls. We were unsure why, but we liked the attention, lol.

I remember watching the Watergate hearings as a young child at the daycare, and how the smell of Pine Sol from the restrooms at the daycare seems to always drift back to me when I think of Watergate.

I remember my democrat grandfather railing against Reagan and his ways, and not understanding why I (as a young soldier) was pro Reagan in virtually every way.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
I remember when kids put baseball cards in their bicycle spokes to make it "sound cool".

I probably used a Pete Rose rookie card worth thousands of dollars today to be that kid.

Nah, more likely it was a couple of the 6 or 7 Marv Throneberrys of the NY Mets, in your stack of cards, that you clipped on your frame; I know that’s what I used.

Speaking of baseball. My memory is sitting out in the car at night with my dad, in Nebraska, listening to a St. Louis Cardinals ball game. At night the “skip” was in, and we could listen to a St. Louis radio station pretty clearly. Seems like when I was real young, the famous Harry Caray broadcast Cardinals’ games before he went to Chicago.

Also remember Joe Garagiola doing the Major League Game of the Week. I think of him every time I watch a game and the count goes to 2 & 2. Joe would say “This is the pitch of decision.” Meaning of course that the pitcher sure doesn’t want the count to go full. I hear his voice clearly.

Speaking of desegregation, I remember in 1974 when the Chattanooga school system did the first round of busing. I'm sure there was a lot of strife outside the schools but at school we just had new classmates. And like our original classmates some of them were nice and some were jerks.

2 things from that time:

1) My folks were divorced and my black friends all had very tight families where grandma usually ran the roost. I remember being envious that my friends had a real family.
2) This one is kind of amazing, even now... My 4th grade teacher (my first year at that school) was a really nice teacher. She did a good job of running the classroom. One day about 1/2 way through the school year she was going through her purse and the contents spilled out on her desk. The main thing I noticed was the shiny compact 38 revolver.

My mom was the home room mom and saw it. It turns out the teacher (in her mid 50's) had been told her entire life by her daddy that black men would rape her any chance they got. So, since she was going to be dealing with black 4th, 5th, and 6th graders she started carrying the pistol to protect herself. The next couple of days we had substitute teachers and then the next week we had a new teacher for the rest of the year. My mom didn't tell me the real reason until about 20 years later.

Gas prices: Gas was around .25 per gallon. The next town over, East Ridge, had dealers that would get into a price war. Anytime that happened my grandfather took his Dodge camper special truck over and filled up both gas tanks. 10 cents per gallon is the lowest I can remember.

I've not achieved old geezer status yet though I'm headed there faster than I would like to be. it is amazing the things I've seen in just my short time here on earth.

Mark

I remember Ice Wagons delivering ice.

Going to the fair on free kids day.

The Drake relays.

Riverview Amusement park.

Riding Street cars. (Trolleys).

Making Kool Aid.

Cap pistols and water pistols.

Walking the railroad tracks looking for spikes and flares.

Mixing Oleo with a colorant to make it yellow.

The jungle gym at recess. (looking up girls dresses/skirts).

Putting pennies on the train tracks.

Whittling.

I remember Pearl Harbor Day, the family listening to the big floor-standing console radio. I knew something serious was happening, but I did not understand what was going on.

I sort of remember my father. That day is the last real memory I have of him. His life on this earth was over a few months later. I was five years old. I never really got to know him.

I remember people dressing nicely every time they left the house, whether it was to go to work, to school, or to the store.

I remember taking the commuter train into Grand Central, then the subway to my grandmother's house in Brooklyn, on my own, as an eight year old.

I remember the rickety old subway, that turned into an "el," to Coney Island. Eating hot dogs at the original Nathan's, and going to SteepleChase, "the fun place."

I remember watching the tiny figures of the Dodgers in Ebbets Field, from the rooftop of the apartment building where my uncle lived.

I remember having a paper route and reading about the start of our involvement in Korea, wondering if it would last until I was draft age.

I remember flying on piston-engine airline flights, with people behaving considerately and wearing business clothes for the flight.

I remember the leap forward from asking the operator for a connection, to using rotary dial telephones.

I remember my first BMW motorcycle, a new 1960 R-50. I owned it almost a year before it was stolen.

I remember buying my very first new car in 1964, and asking the dealer to install seat belts before I drove it away.

I remember one of the best days of my life: April 13, 1974. I was flying an Aero Commander 520, an oldie but goodie, serial # 18, from Chicago Midway to Valparaiso IN. There was a really pretty young lady who had called shotgun, sitting in the co-pilot seat. It took me a while to work up the nerve to ask her to dinner that evening. Our 39th wedding anniversary will be coming up before too long.

I remember being sort of nimble, and walking briskly without a cane. Well, at least I'm still walking.

I remember a ballgame each day after school. Whatever sport was in season we would walk home, check in with mom and head back to the field at the school. Never had to talk about, it was a standing appointment. Like the sand lot now that I recall it. Also, riding our bikes behind the mosquito spray truck. Pepsi in the bottle was like heaven as a kid. Kool aid and Atari were also great memories.

I remember when coloradohunter died in a tragic plane accident.

I remember when "be home before dark" was the only instruction needed when going outside to play.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
I remember when coloradohunter died in a tragic plane accident.

I can remember when...

Pay phones were $.10 for a call.

Flying on a plane was a big deal and people dressed up for it.

You didn’t have a computer and when you did, computer games were text based.

Dungeons and Dragons game was popular.

Getting a sore thumb from playing Astroids on the Atari 2600 when it first came out.

The most you were “connected” was a pager and people had to wait until you found a pay phone to return their call.

Any ordering you did was from a catalog order sheet you mailed in.

Being able to order explosive components, making your own good sized bombs, blowing them up in the backyard, and having the neighbors tell you that was a cool Big Bang without the police and ATF responding.

The first cell phones came out and I thought I was cool at work with this giant cell phone barely anyone had.

When race did not come up at the drop of a hat with any given situation.

I married my wife 20 years ago tomorrow.

I remember riding the bus to school with my BB gun so that I could take it to a friends house after school. Caring a pocket knife all he time from the time that I was 7 years old. Buying 22 long rifle ammo for 25 cents for a box of 50, shorts were 20 cents. I remember buying m-80s and cherry bombs at the corner store when I was 8. I remember when the grass on the roadside was cut by prisoners with sling blades. Cokes were in small glass bottles for 7 cents. I was a lifeguard and got paid 75 cents a hour (a real prestige job).

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
I remember when I was a Democrat.

We grant you absolution.

I remember Wolfman Jack on the radio.

I remember the Star Spangled Banner as the sign off when the TV station went off the air.

I also remember the below poem used as a sign off as well.

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, --and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of --Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
- John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

I remember feeling bad when my family started locking the car doors and the front door because it implied that someone somewhere in our neighborhood was untrustworthy.

I remember the cornucopia of toys in the Christmas catalogs. A few years later the ads for ladies' swimwear and bras got a lot more interesting.

I remember when the 'blue laws' of the state of Texas forbade the sale of toys, and alcohol, on Sundays.

I remember cutting the neighbors grass and trimming their bushes during the week in the summer time. This gave me enough money to go town, buy a movie ticket, a coke and popcorn, and watch westerns all day long. We would cut through the back gate of the cotton mill on the way back home, sneaking a drink of water from the cone shaped paper cups at the loading dock.

I remember when Sammy Sosa was black