I’ve recently noticed that people have changed to ’thrifting’ instead of going ’garage saleing’.

@arcy Kids are out playing in my neighborhood most days. Universities and colleges still have an abundance of qualified applicants for Science and Engineering programs so someone is learning math.

Is your area so backward that change is not accepted? Just because you didn’t grow up with computers does not make the use of them by young people a bad thing. Don't worry about how people tell time, I haven’t used a sundial in a very long time.

I remember as a Girl Scout, during cookie sale season, taking orders on a big card and then delivering and collecting the money a few weeks later. Like the other girls in my troop, I would go door to door, often to strangers' houses. If it was cold when I made my deliveries, some would even invite me inside while they got their money. Can you imagine that today, parents letting their little girl out to knock on doors and enter strangers' homes? Also, they cost 50 cents a box. Yesterday I bought cookies from a Girl Scout who had a little stand on the street, supervised by her mom -- $7 !!!

We had a local ice-cream store called "High's" and I remember saving up a Liberty Dime & Nickle to buy a 0.15 cent pint of orange Sherbet.

Vgkg, we have a store called High5 and they sell cannabis products. 🙂 How times change.

Driving around our old neighborhood yesterday, I was recollecting the houses under construction and empty lots we would play in as kids, and how I got a nail in my foot running through one of those unfinished houses - went right through my sneaker 😖

No empty lots there now.

I remember when pizza came in a box too - and how terrible it was 😄

I grew up in a time where there were no computers, too, and I worry about what what kids today aren't learning and experiencing. I love computers, but I feel like I've had the best of both worlds: spending hours a day outdoors exploring and learning as a child and an adult, along with gardening, and exploring the internet when I got older. I don't see children playing outdoors like we used to, either and that's just sad. Of course, it isn't safe for children to play outdoors unsupervised by an adult anymore, and that's really sad.

I remember ice cream in cartons, too, and my mother slicing it into portions. I remember a lot of things that don't exist anymore, but that's just part of getting older, I guess.

My parents taught me to treat people like I would want to be treated, and not be rude or condescending. I guess some people weren't as fortunate as I was.

I just think some people are supremely un-self aware...

I remember milk coming in glass bottles, with paper lids; and the metal cooler boxes sitting outside of the kitchen door for the milk/eggs/cheese deliveries.

I remember when soft drinks only came in 6 ounces bottles - and when one company (maybe Pepsi?) introduced the 12 ounce bottles). I remember my older brothers going around on their bikes to collect discarded bottles to turn in to the "pony keg" (aka convenience store) for change to buy treats.

I remember that those pony kegs would always have kites and wind spinners in stock in the spring- and my dad stopping on the way home from work to get us some.

I remember soda fountains in the local drugstores, and getting lemon cokes, vanilla cokes, cherry cokes, as well as floats and chocolate ice cream sodas. The last time that I was in my hometown, over 10 years ago, there was still one in existence. Oh, and my dad would run down to get a little bottle of coke syrup to give us when we had upset stomachs.

Carol, pizza still comes in a box.

This one is our favorite. I just bought it today!

Ded, I was saving this one for Smile Today.

Ha, eld - not the same thing at all!

LOL, Carol, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee pizza does sound bad!😖

We went far from home on our bikes free of any concerns.

I once saved up to buy a 50 cent banana split from a local ice cream place. I’d never had one before and was so excited. I didn’t even like it.☹️

We still have ice cream trucks in our neighborhood.😃

I remember TV transmission turning off at night. Back when all TV was black and white.

While some of us played outside as long as possible the older kids were already indoors so that isnt new. I remember when transistor radios started being affordable for normal mortals. The reception was awful though. We moved a lot so what was normal changed. We had old guys with horses and wagons selling vegetables and tamale guys who rode bicycle carts in Montgomery. I never saw that elsewhere. Ice cream was a bike cart there as well. In England there was the rag and bone man. He had a horse and cart. He disappeared while I lived there. Times change.

Here is another one - these are the actual milk bottles that we drank from in elementary school in the 60s. As kids we would slide the bottles to the end of the lunch table when they were empty and some would break smashing into each other or when they were slid too far and hit the floor. The caps on the tops of the bottles were made out of waxed paper and foil. I worked in the building that was originally the dairy in the town I grew up in after it had been converted to office space - I found stacks of these in an old shed behind the main building and asked the owner if I could have some and he said sure, take all you want! I am glad I did, a couple of months later the shed was taken down and all of its contents were thrown into a dumpster. Can you imagine giving these glass bottles to school kids today? I use them at the farmer's market to sell my small bunches of cut flowers - one woman was so taken by my display that she bought all of the flowers in the crate and pleaded with me to borrow the bottles to be part of her table centerpieces for a party she was having - I let her use the bottles and she returned them to me the following week!

All of your stories are making me nostalgic!

I don’t miss ice cream in a box, specically how the ice cream started to taste like the box near the end.

A few years ago my BIL and family were visiting, from a Pittsburgh suburb. The kids were blown away when the ice cream truck came down the street. They thought that was just on TV. We, in turn, were blown away that they don't exist everywhere.

Re reading a clock:

My ”back in the day” story doesn’t quite fit the thread but I thought it was funny. I put on khakis and a sweater this morning and headed to church. It immediately stood out that one of the ushers was wearing jeans. An usher who, years ago, made a joking-but-probably-not comment about me wearing jeans. After the service I commented to him, ”Boy, times have changed.”

I remember "aqua"! My mom drove an aqua Chevy car with fins, purchased used. My dad made a dog house and let me pick the color to paint it. I picked.....drum roll please... Aqua sides with a fire engine red roof. We had a huge chunk of rock in front of our house...aqua colored. I was told it was unmined copper ore.

I took baton twirling lessons, in the Summer. My mother made Barbie an outfit every time she made me an outfit...with the left over material. My friends, the twins, Judie & Janie, gave me shoes & Go Go boots for Barbie....since mom didn't make those.

Oh here’s another one I was thinking about recently: How regularly stepping in dog poop used to be just an unfortunate part of life. Whether being walked or just wandering the neighborhood, dogs just did what they did and it was left to rot. I remember when it started to be enouraged to pick up after your dog, how gross I found that. Now, of course, I'm digusted by those who don't. I do miss the neighborhood dogs wandering about, though.

Didn't George Carlin do a bit about that?

I was reminded recently that stray dogs used to be everywhere, which is no longer the case because of public initiatives and laws. There are little signs now in neighborhoods here warning people to leash dogs and pick up their poop or face a fine.

It was a discussion about the problem of free-roaming cats and was used as an example that it is possible to change public attitudes about things like that.

I work at a city park, and we still get the occasional kid with a poopy shoe, since some people resist following the ordinance.

Could very well be, surely I’m not the only one to have noticed!

It came to mind yesterday as I picked up an unusual amount of other dogs’ messes at the dog park. At least 90% of us break the law by letting our dogs off leash. At $400, fines are steep but enforcement is only occasional. Seems to me the least people could do is not call attention by leaving a mess behind.

I remember playing hide and seek nearly every night of the week with the neighbor kids, way past dark, until Mom came out and called, "Olly Olly Oxen Free".

We had supermarket ice cream in boxes, but the local candy store did "hand-packed" from the counter. They would really pile on the ice cream, well above the top of the carton, which looked like a Chinese takeout container. I was excited to go to the Franklin Fountain on Market Street in Philadelphia, where they serve you your ice cream in the same kind of carton. That place is a "don't miss" if you are in the city. It's right by the Liberty Bell. You will wait a long time, but it is totally worth it.

I remember the ice cream in a box that opened on the ends. And how excited we were when they improved it to opening on the long side. Then you could scoop out the ice cream without getting it all over your hand.

I wish we could still buy popsicles that tasted like the ones I remember from my childhood - blueberry, chocolate, cherry, orange and lime.

Remember fountain pens that had to be filled from an inkwell and the big improvement when ink filled cartridges came out?

As a kid growing up in a suburb of Pittsburgh we had ice cream trucks, the Fuller brush man, and a junk man who drove through the neighborhood with a horse drawn wagon collecting odd metal pieces and sharpening knives and scissors.

I'm a pre-WWII model. I remember taking saved grease to the IGA for the war effort and having to wait to accumulate enough coupons to buy new shoes. Do you remember the Independent Grocers Assoc.? They were the last gasp before chains took over that business.) Our local pharmacist -- who opened for emergencies -- eventually had to become a Rexall pharmacy...then Rexall was done. Now even chains like Walgreens are being pressured by big mail order companies. (Who will fill your emergency prescription when the local store is gone?)

In my suburb few mothers worked. Houses only needed one-car garages. Teachers -- and kids -- got some relief when kids walked home and back for lunch, and we had recess mornings and afternoons. (Do you think there were actually fewer kids with ADD-H back then or did we just not have to *sit still* for long hours?)

Lots of things are *better* today, including gourmet ice cream that doesn't taste like cardboard. We have more 'choices', but some joys are lost.

I'm feeling nostolgic for a real malted. Is there still a place that has them?

I'm this close to buying all the paraphernalia to make one!

I am old enough to remember going up to the corner drugstore at the age of 4 or so to buy cigarettes for mommy. During the summers we would go up to the river and would live the country life. I remember my older brother and I chases each other around with raw chicken legs the butcher would give us. Tubing down the river, feeding the feral kitties under the bridge, burying bottles of coke in the wet sand at the shoreline to keep them chilled, the triangle bell that one of the home would ring at lunchtime, toddling about catching crawdads and putting them in an empty coffee can.

I remember metal skates with a key that attached to your shoes. Later I got some of those nice, white boot looking ones that laced up. I attempted to skate many years later when my kids were younger and nearly killed myself. lol. I only ever watched them skate after that. Couldn't afford to break an arm or leg.

We had those adjustable metal skates too in the 60s/70s - for skating in the driveway and around the neighborhood - there were no sidewalks - still aren't.

And we'd be dropped off by our parents at the roller skating rink, unsupervised, then later it was ice skating too at a local arena. Both places were torn down decades ago. Now there's ice skating at a local mall, and I can think of only one roller skating rink in the county where everybody goes.

Only the expert, competitive skaters had those fancy white skates. The rest of us rabble rented them at the rinks.

Just remembered getting dropped off at the bowling alley too.

Small milk cartons in Grammar School

Alphabet above blackboard

Learning to write cursive

The Good Humor man

Mr Softy & Mr Frosty ice cream trucks

Trick or treating until dark

My parents taking us to a place in NYC that made home made ice cream, and they would order the 'Kitchen Sink' a huge and varied concoction with different flavors and toppings served on a tray set in the center of the table and everyone would help themselves.

Lucillie, that ice cream parlor was Jahns.

Jahn’a was a go-to when I was in college! For a group or date night.

Yes Jahn's! The Kitchen Sink. And I think if you showed them proof of your birthday you got a free sundae. In high school and college we would all meet at Jahn's on Saturday nights at 11:35.....checking in either with a date or with friends. And there woudl be a line.

One more--- I recall when I was in 5th or 6th grade, we mostly went home for lunch. Once a week though, our moms would give us a quarter and we would go to the pizza place and get " a slice and a coke". 15 cents for the pizza and 10 cents for the coke.

No car seat belts, helmets for bike riding…or air conditioning (car or house).

High school lunch…hamburger 20 cents, milk 5 cents.

Had good parents, a good childhood.

One day my Dad came home with some new toy that was becoming popular--the original Barbie doll in her black and white striped bathing suit.

In 6th grade a new school was built so close I could walk home and then back alone to eat lunch.

Mom kept dimes in a box in the kitchen for us to help ourselves to and bike ride to Drug Store and buy ice cream bars.

The first time I bought a T-Shirt and it was put in something Very new and different--a plastic bag instead of paper.

The novelty of Mr Sketch felt tip markers.

I’m old enough to remember missing a week or more of school because I or one of my siblings had measles, chicken pox, mumps, or school closed for a couple of days because so many kids were out sick, or going to school but the classroom was only 2/3 full, so we just did review, reading, storytime, art, etc, and siblings bringing homework home for their sick sister.

I remember Dr Lyons Tooth Powder--a very early memory. Later memories include taking your picture for a quarter in a little booth with a curtain in the Five and Dime. You got 4 small pictures. Later it went up to a dollar. Still later, in high school, I remember it was safe to walk with your friend the streets of Jersey City at 3 in the morning from a friend's house to home. My always concernedl parents never worried about it.

Carol, those pizza box mixes were probably a part of my ’learning to cook’ early teen years. My mother was a great cook but she would occasionally buy one of those for my friend and I to make as a snack. I guess we thought they were pretty good since we made it.

Like many of you, we spent most of our time outdoors as much as possible. I spent hours in the woods behind our house, except wasn’t allowed to in the summer because of snakes. We kids roamed the woods any other time as much as possible, and the woods are still there, although I’ve heard the small cave many ’explored’ has been boarded or covered. Too bad, as many went part way in for years with no incident. Although it was a small town, we had plenty to do with it being on a river and lake. Summers were wonderful and still are. As a brownie and then a Girl Scout, we had day camp on the river in summer and later weekend overnight camps. Fun times and great memories with friends.

I can remember saving for my first transistor radio. My first ’grownup doll’ was not a Barbie. Barbie was not out yet when I was still into dolls. Besides, I’d rather be playing badminton or kickball.

While i do remember ice cream in cardboard containers, I never really liked it. I guess because someone usually bought neopolitan and I didn’t care for it. I also don’t like chocolate-based ice cream (yeah, I know that is weird to many). Also because we usually had homemade.

I remember when you didn't need reservations for everything. Spontaneous road trips were so easy. Strap on a sleeping bag and go on motorcycle run stopping wherever the wind took us. Same with car trips. No reservations needed at national parks either. Plus you could sleep on the beach or the shore of a lake. More public access and fewer rules. But we took care of the environment without needing preaching. Packed out whatever we packed in. Now days people don't pick up after themselves. They leave their messes at trails, campsites and steal anything that's not locked down. Shameful. No respect.

Looking back I was a wild child running outdoors with my best friend from morning till dark in the summer months. We lived in a small town and literally rode our bikes from corner to corner and then out to the country to play in the creek usually taking a paper bag lunch. I remember those little glass milk bottles. My mother would send me to the dairy a block from our house with an ice cube metal tray and they would pack the icecream in the tray. We had a refrigerator with just a small frozen food unit. Cherry cokes, and vanilla cokes at the local drugstore. Ice cream cones were a nickel a scoop and they had cones built to hold four scoops so for 20 cents we had a four scooper of different flavors. I remember my father's yellow and white Bel Air Chevrolet. I never played with dolls but roller-skated all over town with the key around my neck. My town had brick sidewalks so I had perpetually skinned knees. I loved going to the newsstand to read all the movie star magazines without buying. Movies were every week and 21 cents under 12. I was tall and they kept trying to charge me as an adult. And in the school year starting at first grade, I walked almost a mile to school alone, back for a noon meal back to school, and then home totaling almost four miles starting at age 6. Perfect childhood.

Skinned knees - and yelling when Mom put mercurochrome on them! I sure remember that - especially since little girls wore skirts/dresses to school and our playground was made up of broken shell. I still have a scar on my knee from falling on a broken clamshell.

Speaking of dog poop, another memory. When I was a little first grader arriving at school by myself a 5th grader on his bike ran into me knocking me to the ground and onto a pile of dog poop. But I went right into school and the kids were all holding their noses. The teacher wanted me to go home and get cleaned up and I wouldn't go so the principal took me to the restroom and tried to clean me up . Then at noon, she walked me home. Many years later I was eating dinner at a town restaurant with my mother and I saw her and told her the story but she didn't remember it.

I remember Coke coming in 6-1/2 ounce bottles and then 10 ounce bottles were introduced, and they cost the same price, but they did not taste the same. I never drank Pepsi, and so I'm not familiar with its bottle sizes, but for Coke, it was 6-1/2 and 10 ounce.

I also remember when skateboards were invented, and they had metal wheels like the roller skates I had that fit onto my shoes.

And these!

The puffed wheat was always the last one left 😄

Just the other day, our 10 year old granddaughter asked my husband ” what’s an ashtray?”.

Carol, haha yes.

Lulu, that's a good thing.

I remember making clay ashtrays for gifts!

Progress on the ashtray becoming ! No wonder I had respiratory problems throughout my childhood, when every adult smoked. What took so long to rid us of that plague?

I remember when:

we came in from playing when the street lights came on

we did not have a car and bussed everywhere

nana “out in the country” was a 20 minute drive and there was no bus route so grandpa had to pick us up

we put on our bathing suits to run around in the pouring rain

debra

But I still buy ice cream in a box Chaoman’s.