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 18.
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 am. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local  people...

Pizza's 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 6 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.

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 recently) and he brought me an old lemonade bottle.  
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.  

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 flashbulbs
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!  




 

Our bread man had a horse and cart, I've got my dad's first rent card from 1957, rent on a 3 bed semi on Everest Road, Hag Fold was 2/6 a fortnight

6 minutes ago, fatolive said:

Lock ins on a Saturday / Sunday afternoon 

All day opening fucking ruined that ...

Pubs in Athy on Sundays were 2 o'clock last orders, we could get to the 3 Crowns in Daisy Hill as Bolton was 2.30 then to Hag Fold working men's club for the 4 o'clock bell

3 minutes ago, athywhite1958 said:

 rent on a 3 bed semi on Everest Road, Hag Fold was 2/6 a fortnight

12.5p? 

I was about 11 when decimal currency proper kicked in, i was confused as fuck!

Focus points from cig packets

3 o'clock on Sundays can fuck off but I quite like 11 or 12 finishings as I am an old twat now. 

10 off Bolty's list and 8 off Satan's. Fast food for me was chippy about once or twice a month when my dad came home from his rare visits to the conservative club (he was labour till the day he died but said the Conny club was a better place to go, the whole family were sworn never to divulge his secret). The chippy in question was Mr and Mrs Lee's opposite The Bell pub on Manchester Road East in Little Hulton and the only items they sold were fish, chips and  peas. The first prices I remember were 1p for peas, 2p for chips and 3p for fish, I think this would have been just after decimalisation.

If I was asleep he would wake me up and me and my mum and dad would share a portion of chips and fish between the three of us and watch whichever black and white film was on telly.

10 minutes ago, Aidy82 said:

Focus points from cig packets

Me and my mates all smoked embassy or regal but only one mate collected them, so we gave all ours to him

It took him a long time and all he had to show for it after what seemed like years was a pool table shaped ashtray and some clippers for shaving his head

Edited July 10, 20196 yr by ZicoKelly

7 hours ago, Good Knee said:

Cheers P I'm positively ancient remember all of em.

No worries C. Not mine BTW. That was sent to me by one of the head honcho's from BHP Iron Ore in Perth. He's from Whitehaven.

7 hours ago, Moon boy said:

Great post bolty, can I add,

Donkey stoning front steps,

Taking a pudding basin to the chippy,

Tripe,

Orange juice from the co-op milkman,

Cider lollies

On the subject of coffee shops with jukeboxes, loved them,  can remember a few of them Powell’s, Togs/Tognarellis in  Farnworth, the one on the corner at the bottom of Trinity street, near the technical college,  who’s name I can’t recall

 

 Remember all of them mate. Thanks to TMGJ who also pointed out the taking bowls to the chippy. A brilliant way of avoiding plastic waste - hadn't thought of that!

The most influential coffee shop (with a soulful Juke Box beyond compare) in my life has to be the one close to the top of Bank St. (next door to Preston's). I used to catch the bus home as a raw 11/12 year old after attending BCGS on Gt. Moor St. Had to walk to the bus stop bottom of Bank St. outside the grain place. Seeing the Lambretta's lined up outside the Espresso Bar; the hugely impressive sharply dressed Mods and their beautiful birds (totally different and massively superior to the rough slapper Rocker tarts I was used to up Tonge Moor) had a lasting influence on me which, to an extent, has shaped my life.

My interest in gears developed from my first foray into an Li 125 gearbox and led to the career which has taken me around the world and rewarded me well; my Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean musical tastes started there as did my lifetime devotion to such things as 501's, Gazelles, Fred Perrys etc. Still wearing the latter now to accusations of "dressing too young". 'Fuck off - I've been wearing these since the mid Sixties' (not the very same ones, obviously!).

Cider lollies! Reminded me of Jubblies and Mambo's!

Edited July 11, 20196 yr by bolty58

11 from Boltys list.

I also remember the pop man coming round. At first it was Corona then Alpine muscled in with their cheaper prices but with inferior quality.

Taking bottles back to the shop for the 1d deposit. A chocolate vending machine outside Billy Phythians shop on Springfield Road in Kearsley.

Half day closing on Wednesday and Bolton holidays when almost everything closed for at least a week.

Pub Sunday opening hours of 12-2 and 7-10.30.

Spud guns. 

40 minutes ago, freds dad said:

11 from Boltys list.

I also remember the pop man coming round. At first it was Corona then Alpine muscled in with their cheaper prices but with inferior quality.

Taking bottles back to the shop for the 1d deposit. A chocolate vending machine outside Billy Phythians shop on Springfield Road in Kearsley.

Half day closing on Wednesday and Bolton holidays when almost everything closed for at least a week.

Pub Sunday opening hours of 12-2 and 7-10.30.

Spud guns. 

 

Them bastards could sting if they hit you in the right place!

1 hour ago, freds dad said:

Pub Sunday opening hours of 12-2 and 7-10.30.

Only changed in 1995, dont have to be that old to remember!  

Playing stretch with knives, jacks n dobbers, ikey ikey and rolly 123 in your childhood.

38 minutes ago, leigh white said:

Playing stretch with knives, jacks n dobbers, ikey ikey and rolly 123 in your childhood.

Finger, thumb or Icky?

I wonder if anyone ever plays piggy now?

Seem to remember someone selling Bolton Evening News outside the bottom Bull from a little stand: maybe paper shops closed for local holidays or something.

48 minutes ago, bolty58 said:

Finger, thumb or Icky?

Aye, used to be brutal, landing as heavy as you could on top of some poor bastard who was hunched down!

British Bulldog - carnage for an 11 year old against the bigger lads.

38 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Seem to remember someone selling Bolton Evening News outside the bottom Bull from a little stand: maybe paper shops closed for local holidays or something.

All the newsagents closed down for Bolton holidays, which were the last week in June and the first week in July. There were sales points for the Evening News all around the town.

Bolton was like a morgue in those two weeks. Most folk scarpered off to Blackpool or Rhyl.

Edited July 11, 20196 yr by Steejay

56 minutes ago, bolty58 said:

Finger, thumb or Icky?

Was called finger, thumb or dumb in some districts, we called it ikey, ikey in a bucket. Same game different name.

What was the lad called who sold the BEN in his wheelchair on the precinct? I've got Derek in my head but not sure... 

9 minutes ago, RONNIE PHILLIPS said:

What was the lad called who sold the BEN in his wheelchair on the precinct? I've got Derek in my head but not sure... 

Bernard???

Didn't the Chelsea lot throw him down the town hall steps?

2 hours ago, Steejay said:

Bernard???

Didn't the Chelsea lot throw him down the town hall steps?

That's the man! Yeah I seem to recall something like that happening. 

I'd heard that a 'Bolton lot' put him in the fountains...

Didn't he do a bit of bird for tobacco smuggling?

And had about 12 kids (allegedly).

2 hours ago, Youri McAnespie said:

I'd heard that a 'Bolton lot' put him in the fountains...

Didn't he do a bit of bird for tobacco smuggling?

 

2 hours ago, Youri McAnespie said:

And had about 12 kids (allegedly).

Probably. I heard that he got done for fiddling with the women while they were paying for their paper!

I remember him dropping all his takings over the floor once - he jumped out of his chair & was scrambling all over the floor shouting 'Oh No, Oh No', while everybody dived in, helping themselves!

He'd get a job at B & Q these days mixing paint. Sorry...

Simpler times...

Nick his takings to lob at another unsuspecting soul at the match next day.