Just how vintage are you?

[carter]

1st President was Truman. 1st I remember is Eisenhower.

I remember Howdy Doody mostly because of the theme song, "It's Howdy Doody time, it's Howdy Doody time, ...." and that scary red-headed, freckled puppet.

I remember old TV shows and personalities in no particular order.


Variety Shows and Celebrities:
The Ed Sullivan Show, Sunday evenings
The Wonderful World of Disney Sunday evenings
Jack Benny
Milton Berle

Ventriloquists:
Edgar Bergen and Charley McCarthy,
Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop,

Saturday Mornings:
Sky King,
Watch Mr. Wizard,
Heckle & Jeckle,
Mighty Mouse,

After School:
The Mickey Mouse Club when Annette was a Mouseketeer,
Spin and Marty,

Sunday Evenings in weekly rotation on ABC:
Maverick with James Garner and Jack Kelly,
Cheyenne with Clint Walker,
Sugarfoot, with Will Hutchins,
Bronco with Ty Hardin,

Westerns:
Wanted Dead or Alive with Steve McQueen,
Have Gun, Will Travel with Richard Boone
Wyatt Earp with Hugh O'Brien,
Wagon Train with Ward Bond,
Yancey Derringer with Jock Mahoney
Rawhide with Eric Fleming as Gil Favor and Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates,
Zorro with Guy Madison,
The Lone Ranger with Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels as Tonto,
Roy Rodgers with Roy, Dale, Trigger, Buttermilk, and the gang,

Superheroes:
The Adventures of Superman with George Reeves,

Mystery and Detective:
Rt 66 with George Maharis and Martin Milner,
Bourbon Street Beat with Andrew Duggan,
The Third Man with Michael Rene,
77 Sunset Strip with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Edd Byrnes as "Kookie" (lend me your comb), and Roger Smith
Hawaiian Eye with Robert Conrad,
Surfside Six with Van Williams

here's a link to some theme song lyrics:
http://users.bestweb.net/~foosie/tvthemes.htm

 

[dhermann1]

Carter: Zorro with Guy Williams, Wild Bill Hickock with Guy Madison and Andy Devine.
Lizzie: How I envy you! My late wife was in the Peanut Gallery in about 1953. I did some rough numbers, and I figure maybe at most in the 13 years Howdy was on, no more than 25,000 kids could have been in the Peanut Gallery, making the "I was in the peanut Gallery" club at least ten or twenty times more exclusive than the "I was at Woodstock" club among that generation. Bob Smith had such a wonderful voice! He could easily sell refrigerators to Eskimos!
The 70's show definitely had the same feeling as the original, which amazed me.
And speaking of ventriloquists, how can we forget the pride of Coney Island, Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney!

 

[nobodyspecial]

I was born two months before Kennedy was shot.

We had a Philco refrigerator.

Even as a kid, I never liked the wax candy with the liquid inside. That said, if it was that or nothing I'd take the candy - store bought candy was a big treat.

Then again, store bought bread was considered a treat as my mom baked nearly everything. One's tastes sure do change over time.

 

[Paisley]

According to the test, I'm getting older. But isn't everybody who isn't dead getting older?

 

[Mrs. Merl]

Well, I am "getting older", I guess. I think some of those things are still around though. People in my neck of the woods still have milk service - cute porch box and glass bottles. (Although, I don't believe they still have the old "caps" anymore.)

And my husband wears PF flyers to work out in - they are recommended for heavy weight-lifting because of the excellently flat sole!

And even as young as I am, they still had nickle-nips (and they still make them.) And the rest I know are thanks to my parents (45's) and grandparents (hi-fi's) and lastly my great grandmother who recently passed at the memory filled age of 106! Add that to an obsession with the past and well...you know some things!

 

[Miss 1929]

18 of them

Which is cool. We didn't have the delivered milk, Packards, Studebakers (not current years anyway) and I don't remember cork pop gins, but pretty much everything else...so I am indeed older than dirt; gee, thanks for the image...
My first memory is playing the piano ("My Country, Tis of Thee") with both hands, the day Kennedy was shot, I would have been about 3 and a half...
Not a lot had changed in the small town I grew up in in California, but I think some stuff (like bottled milk) changed sooner out here.

 

[Prairie Dog]

And remember, Serutan is 'natures' spelled backwards. Or at least that how I remember Lawrence Welk saying it...lol

Serutan? Wasn't it Geritol! I guess Welk advertised two bogus products!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlChObybr0s&feature=related

Some interesting bits of trivia about Geritol~
Geritol and its advertising were the inspiration for the Vitameatavegamin commercial in the classic I Love Lucy episode "Lucy Does a TV Commercial". The liquid Geritol tonic contained "alcohol" (and still does) and in the episode Lucy gets drunk after sampling the product during rehearsals.

The name is derived from the root "geri-", meaning old (as in "geriatrics") with the "i" for iron. The product has been promoted from almost the beginning of the mass media era as a cure for "iron-poor tired blood". In the early 20th century, many medical doctors and other health professionals felt that much of the tiredness often associated with old age was due to iron deficiency anemia. This theory was later discredited, but Geritol was already well known and continues to this day to be marketed, in both original liquid form and in tablets.

 

[resortes805]

I scored zero!

 

[Viola]

OK, here's another similar question that boils it down ever further: Who is your first president? Which is the first president you were aware of? For me it was Harry Truman. If there's anyone here who remembers before Franklin Roosevelt, my hat's off to you! Kids, don't be embarrassed to say Ronald Reagan! Or Bush the first! Holy cow, there may be some of you who only remember Bill! This may need to be set up as a survey as well.

Reagan here.

 

[pretty faythe]

Ok, I counted 13 of those....could be because I grew up dirt poor for a lot of years and we reused things from my moms childhood. I'm just 33. I dunno. My 9 year old says I'm old. lol

 

[Diamondback]

OK, here's another similar question that boils it down ever further: Who is your first president? Which is the first president you were aware of? For me it was Harry Truman. If there's anyone here who remembers before Franklin Roosevelt, my hat's off to you! Kids, don't be embarrassed to say Ronald Reagan! Or Bush the first! Holy cow, there may be some of you who only remember Bill! This may need to be set up as a survey as well.

Jimmah Kottah. (I know, I was only born six months before Ronaldus Maximus taking office, but I grew up fast, what can I say?)

 

[Miss Brill]

> Candy cigarettes <<< these were nasty in the 1970s, I remember when you puffed on them powder came out & it looked like smoke. Not a favorite at all.

> Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles

> Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers << my aunt had milk home delivery in the 1970s

> S&H Green Stamps

> Metal ice trays with lever <<< we used these in the 70s and 80s, and I bought some a few months ago & love how fast the water freezes

> Wash tub wringers <<< we had one in the 70s and 80s

and I now remember:
> Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water


My first president was Nixon. I was born a couple months after the Watergate break-in.

(first that I remember: Jimmy Carter. first that I voted for: Bill Clinton)

 

[Miss Crisplock]

I remember the funeral.

And that picture. I think every kid in America hated LBJ for picking up that dog by the ears.

To be fair, alot of those things I found out about the second time they were readily available - gum, etc. I don' know why but vintage gum is in fabric stores.

 

[Mark from Plano]

I scored 18 and to date myself my first president was Kennedy, the first one I remember was Johnson. My first vote was for Reagan.

Some of the things were only from my grandmother's house. In town, for example, we didn't have party lines but when we went to my grandparents' house they had one.

I have another one: Who remembers when the best candy counter in any city was in the Sears store? They used to have a huge candy counter in every Sears store. My grandmother worked at the Sears store in Tulsa, OK back in the '60's (Someone mentioned the pneumatic tubes in the department stores...they had those at Sears).

As a kid I remember that my grandfather would take us by the candy counter which was square so I would have to go around all four sides and look at everything before I decided what I wanted. I almost always picked either the cherry sours or the orange jelly slices. My grandfather always got a bag of the maple nut goodies (at least that's what he called them) for himself and he'd usually share one or two with us.

They'd scoop them out of the bins in those big metal scoops and put them onto the scales to measure out how much you got. Then they'd put it in a paper sack. Mine was always empty before we made it back home.

 

[Mark from Plano]

We had milk delivered when I was a kid. Did anyone else have potato chips delivered? There was a company called "Charles' Chips" that delivered large cans of potato chips the same way that milk was delivered. Was that just in our neck of the woods or do others remember that as well?

 

[KY Gentleman]

LBJ was my first Prez though Nixon was the first I really remember.
We had a potato chip delivery service in Northern KY also, "Husmanns" as I recall.
We had a milkman when I was younger and we had a big metal box on our porch he left the bottles in.

 

[Viola]

We had milk delivered when I was a kid. Did anyone else have potato chips delivered? There was a company called "Charles' Chips" that delivered large cans of potato chips the same way that milk was delivered. Was that just in our neck of the woods or do others remember that as well?

We had Charles' Chips up here like that in the '80s. Except I thought it was mostly pretzels, actually, but whatever.

I don't remember liking Sears as a kid. It felt boring. The Gimbels closed when I was about five. Wanamakers was my favorite.

 

[Luddite]

The wax bottles (or "Nickel Nips" as we called them) were a candy store treat -- you bit the top off the bottle, sucked out the liquid, and then chewed up the wax like it was gum. And then you went the dentist.

PF Flyers were and are sneakers -- they came in black for boys and white for girls.

Butch Wax was something boys used to make their crew cuts stand up straight.

Roller skates were the kind with metal wheels and clamped onto the soles of your street shoes. The key was used to loosen the bolt and allow them to clamp on or off, and to adjust the size to fit. It was usually worn around your neck on a greasy shoestring.

Thank you LizzieMaine!

Those wax bottles don't sound good to me!

Did you have Sherbet Fountains over the pond?

 

[Flivver]

A few other additions for the list --

School desks that were bolted to the floor. With holes for inkwells. (Bonus points if yours actually *had* an inkwell.)

Gas pumps with globes on the top.

Typing class -- with real typewriters.

Laundry bluing.

Only having to dial 4 digits for a local call.

Defrosting the refrigerator.

The noon whistle.

I remember all of these as well!

We had those school desks in my ca1926 grammar school. But, the inkwells (which were still there) were no longer in use.

Gas pump globes were common in the rural areas around here right into the 1960s. And, I have two Socony pumps with globes in my garage today!

I took a typing class in 1969 with real typewriters.

I still have a 1930 vintage GE Monitor Top refrigerator in my basement!

And I grew up near the Norton Company that blew a noon whistle every work day. Many of the small towns in our area would sound the fire horn at noon.

I was born under Truman, but don't remember him. The first president I remember was Eisenhower. We used to toast him every noontime with a glass of milk on the Big Brother Bob Emery program back in the late 1950s.

Did anyone here attend a one room schoolhouse?

I did, for kindergarten only. It was built in 1848 and was called the Burncoat Plains School. We called it "the little red schoolhouse". This school was part of the Worcester (MA) public school system until it was torn down in 1965 to build a strip mall.

 

[deadpandiva]

I only remember 3. That surprises me.