"When I Was Your Age, Whippersnapper, We Were So Poor Our Years Started With '19'"

Jan 24, 2008 17:38

My obligatory every-couple-of-years-or-so Generation Gap List entry ( Read more... )

sick, reminisces, lists, memories

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Comments 24

sartorias January 24 2008, 22:43:48 UTC
When I was a teen gas was 28 cents a gallon.

When I was a teen guys were afraid of being drafted--and in fact,t he guy I was dating the summer i was sixteen did get drafted. (he'd just turned eighteen)

When I was a teen girls had only recently given up ratting their hair, but many were ironing it. It took the ones into makeup an hour, at least, to do their eyes because of the first layer of brown, then white, then black, then the sparkly blue blusher on eyelids.

Boys still wore tight pants. jeans were forbidden at school for boys, and we girls had to wear dresses or skirts, and had spot hem checks (complete with ruler and chair.) Girls were wearing white lipstick because it made your tan look darker.

The popular bands were the Doors, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Sones, the Yard Birds, Simon & Garfunkle, and Joan Baez was doing anti-war songs.

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madwriter January 24 2008, 22:52:04 UTC
>The popular bands were the Doors, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Sones, the Yard Birds, Simon & Garfunkle, and Joan Baez was doing anti-war songs.<<

I didn't say much in regard to music because the above artists were the ones I and my group in high school primarily listened to. :)

And until I was a little kid, anyway, there was still a gas station in downtown Roanoke that sold gas for 25 cents a gallon.

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lizziebelle January 24 2008, 23:13:00 UTC
Five bucks bought a week's worth of gas.

If you missed a movie in the theatre, you had to wait a few years until it came on broadcast TV.

Drive-ins! I saw many movies at the drive-in, including Young Frankenstein, and many a Disney flick.

Movie houses had one, or maybe two screens (if it was an old theatre with a balcony). The popcorn wasn't more expensive than the ticket.

I still remember the first time I saw The Wizard of Oz in color. I was about 8.

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madwriter January 25 2008, 19:15:46 UTC
>>Five bucks bought a week's worth of gas.<<

That was true in my first car, a '70 Ford Maverick. (The one with no heater, as the heater had been optional.) When (a) I moved to the T-Bird and (2) gas prices skyrocketed to $1/gallon, I felt a little put out because my gas usage came then to $13 per week.

>>If you missed a movie in the theatre, you had to wait a few years until it came on broadcast TV.<<

Yeah! This brought back memories of when "Broadcast premiere" really was exciting news.

>>Movie houses had one, or maybe two screens (if it was an old theatre with a balcony). The popcorn wasn't more expensive than the ticket.<<

My favorite had three. It succumbed in the late 1990's to a new Barnes & Noble, and the new theater (with...erm, a lot more screens) was built behind it.

>>I still remember the first time I saw The Wizard of Oz in color. I was about 8.<<

One of our local stations showed it once a year--always a big event when I was a kid.

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Re: Whats in the past... mauzybroadway January 25 2008, 00:37:48 UTC
yeah... I miss the payphones.

I miss that the news was trustworthy because, dammit, Walter Cronkite was still delivering it.

I miss the Pizza Hut collector glass sets. Kitschy they were, but fun.

The X-files t.v. show was the novel thing, oh yes.

Soul Train still aired late Saturday night.

Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, John Belushi and Dan Akroyd held their own on Saturday Night Live.

Michael Jackson was black and alright with it.

Marvin Gaye was still alive, as well as Karen Carpenter... and Jackie Wilson.

Richard Chamberlain was a sex symbol in The Thorn Birds (and still is, now that he's outed).

What else... orange creamsicles were 15 cents. Yum!

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Re: Whats in the past... madwriter January 25 2008, 19:20:07 UTC
>>I miss that the news was trustworthy because, dammit, Walter Cronkite was still delivering it.<<

I asked my Mom why he was leaving the news, and she pointed out that he was retiring. My response was something along the lines of "But why would he do that?" To this day I haven't seen anyone on broadcast news I like(d) nearly as much as Cronkite.

>>I miss the Pizza Hut collector glass sets. Kitschy they were, but fun.<<

I still have one or two of mine...

>>Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, John Belushi and Dan Akroyd held their own on Saturday Night Live.<<

Hey, were you in Tabor Hall with us that night that Barb gathered us round the TV lounge to watch the SNL 15th Anniversary special? Great night, that.

>>Marvin Gaye was still alive, as well as Karen Carpenter... and Jackie Wilson.... )

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Re: Whats in the past... madwriter January 25 2008, 19:16:44 UTC
I never actually owned a C-128, but I have C-128 mode and games on my Commodore emulator for PC. I'm not too grown up to hide the fact that I felt like a kid on Christmas when I got this emulator, and having "my own 128" after all those years was part of the reason. :)

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justjayj January 25 2008, 00:50:07 UTC
This may be too urban/yankee a reference, but for Christmas my sister got me a fake distressed "Frankie Say RELAX" t-shirt. I have never felt so old.

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silk_noir January 25 2008, 04:10:48 UTC
*icon love*

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madwriter January 25 2008, 19:35:29 UTC
OK, I don't recognize it, but it actually sounds like something I would've said in the late '80's. :)

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merriehaskell January 25 2008, 02:28:42 UTC
Mostly, I read this and thought, "I have been fooled by the pictures all this while!" I thought you were five years younger than me, not five years older!

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*Blush* madwriter January 25 2008, 19:20:31 UTC
That's OK, I don't mind. :)

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