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Sunday, January 5, 2020

I Remember

I Remember

I remember stupid stuff from my youth; stuff that my kids would not remember.  Why am I posting this stupid stuff?  Why not, it is fun to remember.  Oh and thanks to blog buddy “fishducky” http://fishducky.blogspot.com/ for an email which stirred some of these stupid memories.

I remember:

Lucky Strikes were the cigarette of choice.  Their slogan was L S M F T which stood for “Lucky Strikes mean fine tobacco.”  To adolescent boys, it stood for “Loose straps mean floppy tits.” This was always followed by giggles.

If you saw an empty Lucky’s pack on the street you could step on the big red spot, yell “Lucky Strike” and belt your friend on the arm as hard as you could…hey, it was a rule.

If you saw a car with one headlight out you yelled “Pididdle” and you kissed your girl friend.  If you were driving with a dude, you belted him on the arm as hard as you could.

If you could fake hit a friend and he flinched, you yelled, “Made you flinch” and you hit him on the arm as hard as you could.  An alternate rule had you yell “Two for flinching” and you could hit him twice, but not hard, then you slapped him and hollered "have to wipe it off"…rules were rules, it was all very clear.

I remember we hit our friends on the arm a lot.

On a close play in baseball, “Tie goes to the runner.”

Fourth down in touch-football you had to declare if you were going to punt or go for a touchdown.  The team on defense always yelled, “Kick or stick?”

I remember singing stupid jingles:

“Pepsi Cola hits the spot, makes you vomit on a dot, looks like water, tastes like wine, Oh my gosh it’s turpentine.”

Whistle while you work, Hitler is a jerk, Mussolini bit his peenie, now it doesn’t work.”  The war was over before we were born and we still sang this…go figure.

“No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers dirty looks” after the last day of school.”

We had a refrigerator in our kitchen, but mom and dad always called it the “Ice Box.”

Our 1955 VW Bug had a 32 HP engine.  It did not have a gas gage; it did have a yard stick in the trunk which you stuck in the tank to see how much gas was left.  If you ran out of gas, you flipped a lever allowing you to use 1 ½ gallons in a reserve tank.  That was good for about 50 miles.

I remember Birthday parties without goody bags.

I remember holding on to the TV “Rabbit Ears antennae” during a crucial game because if you let go the reception sucked.

We stuck baseball cards in our bicycle spokes with a clothes pin to make your bike sound like a motorcycle.

I remember picking deposit bottles from a construction site to turn in at the grocery store to buy candy with the profit…2 cents an empty.

I remember listening to the radio the morning of a snow storm to find out if you had school or not.

I remember my Dad coming home from the hospital after almost dying from a heart issue.  He brought home a pack of Kent cigarettes.  They were safe because they had this funny thing on the end called a filter.

I remember following the DDT truck around the neighborhood as it sprayed all the trees…sure smelled good.

I remember lots more stuff, but this post is getting too long. 
What stupid stuff do you remember?

17 comments:

  1. If you saw a VW Bug while riding in the car, you yelled, "SLUG BUG!" and punched the arm of the person sitting next to you.

    Also, you didn't wear pink and green on a Thursday. For a reason that is too politically incorrect to mention now.

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    1. I had to Google that...pretty sure I never wore green on Thursday, but then when I was in high school there were no gay people.

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  2. I remember our first fridge which actually was an icebox, it had two compartments, the top with a lid that opened up for a giant block of ice to be put in there, then the bottom section had a regular door which we weren't allowed to open in case the cold got out. The ice would melt and ice water would slowly drip down the inside walls of the "fridge" below, keeping our butter and milk cool. imagine the excitement when mum had a real fridge delivered and we could keep ice-cream in the freezer part!
    I remember birthday parties without goody bags too, the cutting of the cake signalled the end of the party and we all went home with a slice of cake in a paper napkin and maybe some of us had two slices if there was a younger child at home.

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  3. Oh the memories come flooding back. I remember life back then was so full of ups and downs. I worked as an elevator attendant in a department store. I lived in a very poor district of London. The kids there did not have parental love. They did not know what it's like to be wanted until they saw their photo on a police Notice Board.

    God bless.

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    1. Another memory, JoeH. Back then a lot of kids were named by their parents after the place they were conceived. Some were called Bolton, Essex, Hull, and so on. I remember a girl called, "Behind the trash bins at McDonald."

      God bless.

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  4. I remember playing with the plastic greenery that separated meat at the store and scraping off the white film of frost on the meat. And I vaguely remember the Comet jingle about vomit.

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  5. A bunch of those were in my youth also though the hitting ones were reserved for my brothers or guy friends. We lived in a rural area so snow days weren't announced. We waited in the cold and just when we would give him 5 more minutes, the yellow monster would appear at the top of the hill. Rats.

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  6. A lot of punching going on, there. Boys will be boys! I always wondered what the card in the bicycle wheel was for. Thanks for clearing that up. Ironic about your Dad and the cigarettes. If only we knew then what we know now! Pepsi tastes like soap to me; not quite as bad as turpentine. ☺ I remember waiting to hear those snow day announcements. Also, home delivery for dairy products and bread. We don't even get our mail delivered anymore, but have to pick it up at a communal box. Progress; humbug!

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  7. I remember most of this stuff, but never heard the war ditties.
    A STOP sign stood for State Tax on Pu...
    I probably shouldn’t finish that. It’s really crude :)

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  8. All great memories you remember. I remember cigarette commercials on TV and learning the jingles to them.

    betty

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  9. Not so much punching among the girls, but i do remember some of the awful songs we sang about how we were going to burn the school and such. We used to hope for late season hurricanes to shut down school instead of snow storms. Not that we wanted the hurricanes to hit our area, but since no one knew where they would go, everything on the coast would shut down until it made landfall. That could buy us a couple of days.

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  10. Oh my gosh, love this post!
    I remember the "two for flinching" thing only from watching the movie Stand By Me, and DDT luckily was banned before my time. I started out skating with metal wheels on my roller skates, and by the time I was 8 or 9 the "fire ball" wheels were popular and when you rolled through water the wheels would get extra shiny. Girls used to wear "Ditto" brand jeans, and we would say "I'm wearing my Dittos tomorrow" and then your friend would say, "Ditto" if she was wearing hers, too-- I remember my favorite TV shows: The Brady Bunch, Donnie & Marie, The 6 Million Dollar Man

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  11. We had some games that we played that had names I can't use anymore because I would be arrested and considered not PC at all. I remember getting chunks of ice from the milk man's truck. I remember glass milk bottles on the front porch that I broke in the Winter a few times. How about "Jingle Bells, Batman smells, etc, etc, etc.." If you saw a VW bug you hit the roof of the car and yelled Bug! Dad drove one and I wonder how many punches were given when we drove by! Step on a crack, break your Mother's back. I just remembered one game we played that I can mention..statue maker! That's it for now!

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  12. In upstate New York, we had a game we called " kill the man with the football ". However, we didn't let the girls play because they were too vicious.

    Thanks for the post.
    Paul L. Quandt

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  13. I love reading your blog posts as they are very creative and informative. Can i get something on best schools in dubai as well ?.Thanks !!


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  14. what a treasure to share dear Joe :)))

    only reading about your dad made me bit sad ,i did not know the engine story

    my memories are so so many and keep springing within my soul time to time :)
    singing silly short poems is one of them ,there were tons of little verses almost about everything and chore we do in the village when i got in village ,we children would sing it aloud and run in the streets placing hands on each other's back
    i don't know why i am being unable to click on expressions below i really find your each post COOL ! INTERESTING! AND FUNNY (WHEN IT IS ) :)

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