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I am definitely positively ancient, remember all those things! But isnt it nice to feel comfortable with all those young men that you would once have been afraid would have firted with you and you didnt know how to respond! I dont like being called Madam in the shops, I would rather be called nothing than that. A polite, 'how can I help' is better.
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GRANDPARENT’S ANSWERING MACHINE
Good morning. . . . At present we are not at home but, please leave your message after you hear the beep. beeeeeppp ...
If you are one of our children, dial 1 and then select the option from 1 to 5 in order of "arrival" so we know who it is.
If you need us to stay with the children, press 2
If you want to borrow the car, press 3
If you want us to wash your clothes and do the ironing, press 4
If you want the grandchildren to sleep here tonight, press 5
If you want us to pick up the kids from school, press 6
If you want us to prepare a meal for Sunday and have it delivered to your home, press 7
If you want to come to eat here, press 8
If you need money, dial 9
If you are going to invite us to dinner, or, taking us to the theatre start talking we are listening !!!!!!!!!!!"
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Old Age, I decided, is a gift.
I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have
always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my
body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt. And often I
am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror (who looks
like my mother!), but I don't agonize over those things for long.
I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving
family for less grey hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become
kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own
friend.
I don't chide myself for eating that extra biscuit, or for not making my
bed, or for buying that silly garden ornament that I didn't need, but looks so
avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be
extravagant.
I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they
understood the great freedom that comes with aging. Whose business is it
if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM?
I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60&70's, and if
I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.
I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging
body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to,
despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will get old.
I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just
as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.
Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not
break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when
somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what
give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken
is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being
imperfect.
I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning grey
even though I dye it, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched
into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many
have died before their hair could turn silver.
As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what
other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned
the right to be wrong.
So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I
like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but
while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have
been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every
single day. (If I feel like it)
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My daughter did! Never passed a phone box from she was about 7!
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Who remembers nipping into a phone box to press button B to see if any money came out from the last person to use it?
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I remember them all as well and 78 records, cars with running boards, having to walk to the telephone box with a penny to ring up. Only rang a doctor on rare occasions or a taxi to the railway station when we went on holiday once a year. No one else had a phone either so no use ringing friends.
Photographers took your photo on the street and gave you a ticket so you could go and view and buy the photos when the proof sheet was developed. Otherwise you would never have any photos taken. There was no film for the public during wartime.
People threw confetti at weddings and it made a lot of mess . Babies always wore white clothes. Nurses had big triangular head dresses and wore red capes over their white uniforms. The national anthem was always played at the pictures (not movies then) before the film started. Everybody stood up. Bathing suits were made of wool. All men wore hats and ladies wore hats, gloves and stockings when out shopping. Men would raise their hats when meeting ladies.
I think I came from another planet.
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Yes Ann , remember them all..... my grandaughter thinks I'm having a laugh........ Definitely "positively ancient",...... Don't feel a day over sweet 16 though.... and yes, kissed cuddled but not manhandled at 16.... too scared of the conseqences.....
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Taken from an e mail circulated by my sister
Bring back any memories?
Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favourite 'fast food' when you were growing up?'
'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 'home,'' I explained. !
'Mum cooked every day and when Dad 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 lad 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'd figured his system could have handled it:
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore jeans, set foot on a golf course, travelled out of the country or had a credit card.
My parents never drove me to school. 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 10.
It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at 10 pm, after playing the national anthem and epilogue; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people...
I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone 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 --My brother delivered a newspaper, seven days a week. He had to get up at 6AM every morning.
Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the films. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or almost anything offensive.
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 Woodroofe’s Lemonadebottle. 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. I am old.
How many do you remember?
Headlight dip-switches on the floor of the car.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Trouser leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn indicators.
>
Older Than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about.
Ratings at the bottom.
1. Sweet cigarettes
2. Coffee shops with juke boxes
3. Home milk delivery in glass bottles
4. Party lines on the telephone
5. Newsreels before the movie
6. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning.. (There were only 2 channels [if you were fortunate])
7. Peashooters
8. 33 rpm records
9. 45 RPM records
10. Hi-fi's
11. Metal ice trays with levers
12. Blue flashbulb
13. Cork popguns
14. Wash tub wringers
If you remembered 0-3 = You’re still young
If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older
If you remembered 7-10 = Don't tell your age
If you remembered 11-14 = You're positively ancient!
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