You know you were born in the 50's and 60's if..............

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  • Playing hide and seek without parental guidance!
  • Going out in the morning and only coming home when we were hungry. Once fed it was back outside for our next big adventure.
  • Using our own imagination.
  • Thewatcher_66
    Thewatcher_66 Posts: 1,643 Member
    8 quarters at the video arcade could last you about 4 hours.
  • Thewatcher_66
    Thewatcher_66 Posts: 1,643 Member
    Growing up in the '80's, a fear of nuclear war.
  • 8 quarters at the video arcade could last you about 4 hours.
    You got that right!
  • People with tattoo's were real Bad *kitten*!
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Trick or Treating (without any parents) until 9 PM.

    Going to McDonald's once a month.

    Hand me down jeans were actually cool.
  • Thewatcher_66
    Thewatcher_66 Posts: 1,643 Member
    You act a fool in the store when you were a kid, brace yourself for a real good a## whipping when you got home. lol.
  • dcarr67
    dcarr67 Posts: 1,403
    The Brady Bunch
    Gilligan's Island
    Hong Kong Phuey
    MASH

    Getting paddled at school and then again when you get home
    Not being able to breath in the car bcuz both parents smoked


    Oh, I could go on forever with this one :)
  • marciebrian
    marciebrian Posts: 853 Member
    You lip synced and choreographed your own dance to These Boots Are Made For Walking in the backyard with your girlfriends in the neighborhood.

    OMG my girls and I were in a school talent contest and we were Nancy Sinatra and her girls ;-)
  • NewLIFEstyle4ME
    NewLIFEstyle4ME Posts: 4,440 Member
    Water was FREE...the thought of paying for water was as crazy and impossible...something people would joke about as an utter impossibility.

    Air was FREE...the idea of paying for air (at the gas station for tires) was equally impossible and joked about that would/could NEVER happen.

    Eating "fast foods/junk foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner was unheard of...MAYBE once every few months or so, eating junk foods were considered a special treat. Foods were cooked at home and if you didn't like what was being served, you starved or humbled yourself and ate it!

    You could count on 1 hand the number of overweight, let a lone obese children and a VERY rare number of obese or overweight adults. IF you did see an obese or really overweight child...something VERY wrong was going on in their home...just highly unusual.

    Parents did NOT allow you to stay in the house...unless you were sick and sometimes if it were raining--sometime, inclement weather was NOT an automatic to staying in the house. You HAD to go out to play and they NEVER knew where you were and you had to be in by the time the lights came on at dusk.

    You NEVER heard about children beating up/talking back/killing their parents like you do now...you DID hear about children getting spanked and/or after a certain age, you learned to snap to it if only with "The Look" , The LOOK caused the fear of God to come upon you and for you to do the right thing.

    Everyone in the neighborhood and surrounding area knew everyone, and even if they didn't, people ALWAYS spoke to one another and didn't think twice about getting on a child's case (who was NOT their own) and the said child would humble themselves with the hope they didn't ask for your parent's name and number to call and tell on you and if that happened you got a spanking from your parents for embarrassing them and acting like a jerk.

    The ONLY kids that did NOT didn't get spankings at home were the "crazy or spoiled or bad kids". Bad kids were rare, there were some of course...but like obese/overweight people--they were rare and most always from "troubled" homes.

    It was RARE that anyone did NOT have a father at home. Single mothers were RARE...and if a friend didn't have a father, it was because he died...not because of divorce or being born outta wedlock. That type of things was looked at as rare and unfortunate.


    A loaf of bread was 15-26 cents
    a carton of eggs was 30 cents
    a gallon of milk was 60 cents
    package of gum was a nickle
    bottle of pop was 15 cents

    You had certain friends...outside friends and inside friends--not everyone of your friends were allowed in your house:noway: :laugh: :noway:
  • NewLIFEstyle4ME
    NewLIFEstyle4ME Posts: 4,440 Member
    People with tattoo's were real Bad *kitten*!

    Yep, and motorcycles too. The only people with Tattoos were sailors/people in the armed forces, gang members, and people in jail or ex-cons and loose women.
  • NewLIFEstyle4ME
    NewLIFEstyle4ME Posts: 4,440 Member
    Telling everyone to be quiet while you turned on the tape recorder to tape your favourite song on the radio.

    Yep! and ONLY had AM radio (FM wasn't around) and only 3 stations on TV (not including UHF:laugh: ...2 UHF stations).

    People didn't really watch TV though (especially kids, except on Saturdays/Cartoons on Saturday). They went off the air by noon (Davey & Goliath being the last show) and OUT YOU GO (outside to play) was the rule. People and children read books, wrote stories, played board games for fun and did chores all the time--sitting around doing midless stuff was unheard of and considered strange, weird and odd.
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
    My dad adjusted the T.V. antenna on the roof while someone else looked at the picture and yelled out the front door to tell him it was better.

    I have four vintage Beatles trading cards. On one of them, I wrote "I love Paul."

    I may still have my skate key.

    I had only one Barbie and she had an awesome black and white striped one-piece bathing suit.

    Etch-a-sketch, Slinky, Lincoln Logs.

    Using clothespins to attach playing cards to the spokes of my bike to make a cool noise

    Cigarette tag

    Our three T.V. channels were off the air at night

    Big Chief tablets and Nifty binders

    No seatbelts

    Film strips at school and getting to be the kid who got to operate the projector when the accompanying record went "beep"
  • xxmarysmxx
    xxmarysmxx Posts: 199 Member
    Telling everyone to be quiet while you turned on the tape recorder to tape your favourite song on the radio.

    yup... good one
  • NewLIFEstyle4ME
    NewLIFEstyle4ME Posts: 4,440 Member
    When you were a kid playing with a neighbor's kid, you had to be home on time, if you showed up after that gas light popped on, you broke curfew. lol

    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: YEP, that what we called it...CURFEW!!!!...haven't thought about that in a million years!
  • NewLIFEstyle4ME
    NewLIFEstyle4ME Posts: 4,440 Member
    Hearing your mother call your name out the window...no matter HOW far you were. I NEVER understood that:laugh: USUALLY calling for you to go the store for her too:grumble: :laugh:
  • NewLIFEstyle4ME
    NewLIFEstyle4ME Posts: 4,440 Member
    The Brady Bunch
    Gilligan's Island
    Hong Kong Phuey
    MASH

    Getting paddled at school and then again when you get home
    Not being able to breath in the car bcuz both parents smoked


    Oh, I could go on forever with this one :)

    Yep, sent you to the store for their cigarettes...cigarettes cost 35 cents and you had to have a note from your parents to get them! Cigarette smoking was NOT the taboo it is today, everyone smoked...even on TV shows and news shows, people smoked. Smoking back then was a sign of sophistication or being cool.
  • NewLIFEstyle4ME
    NewLIFEstyle4ME Posts: 4,440 Member
    Also....NO calculators! You had to master reading, writing and arithmetic. The only calculator or machine you had to figure things out was your brain! No google--if you wanted to know something, you HAD to research with books and writing. Asking people (your parents or teachers) an answer to a question would be responded by...Look it UP or figure it out!

    The TL:DR would be considered something quite unfortunate and unusual back when, for young people and adults to think or write...using 120 characters to express yourself would be considered, ummm...foreign to say the least--something that small children who were unable to read or write might express, but not literate young people and certainly not adults.
  • knekno
    knekno Posts: 20 Member
    Saturday morning cartoons--Archie, Thor, Isis, Speed Racer. No seat belts, no car seats. Starsky and Hutch (my first crush). Riding in the bed of my dad's pick-up truck. Evil Knievel. REO Speedwagon.
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
    I've fallen. And I can't get up.
  • jonmscharff
    jonmscharff Posts: 72 Member
    No air conditioning in school or at home for that matter
    We played flash light tag outside at night
    We would try to make a "go cart" out of scraps in the garage lol
    We had metal cabinets in the kitchen
    We hated watching the Lawrence Welk show lol
    Loved the Lone Ranger show
    All the kids that had Converse sneakers were the cool kids
    You got one pair of sneakers per year
    Local phone calls cost money
    You owned a full encyclopedia Britannica set
    We played board games as a family
    We played baseball in someone's back yard
    We played basketball in someone's driveway
    You were afraid of your parents more than the school
    We worked in high school
    We respected teachers
    You waited in line for gas in the 70's
    You didn't want to get drafted
    You remember where you were when President Kennedy was shot
    You watched the moon landing in school
    you hid under your desk during nuclear drills
    You showered after gym class
    Gym class wasn't walking around the school
    You wrote in cursive
    You hand made Halloween costumes
    Halloween was usually the only time you got candy
    You had snow boots that were rubber with metal buckles on them
    Your Christmas wish list came from the Sears catalogue
    Your mom made spaghetti sauce from scratch
    You didn't have soda in the house
    Report cards were hand printed
    Your TV set had a dial on top that would rotate the antenna in the attic
    You put foil on the rabbit ears for better reception
    You wore hand me down clothes and didn't even think about it
    Only athletes got varsity letters
    You have used a mechanical typewriter
    Birthday parties didn't cost hundreds of dollars
    You came home for lunch at school
    You played with Lincoln logs
    You played with tinker toys
    You played with an erector set
    You ate the candy "dots"
    Movies had cartoons before them
    You've been to a drive in
    You snuck friends into a drive in
    You know someone killed in Vietnam
    You don't like Jane Fonda
    Your car was only good for 100K miles
    You drove a car without power steering
    You drove a car without power brakes
    You know that the original VW bug had no heat
    You didn't have a dishwasher

    I guess I really could go on and on lol
  • TheRoadDog
    TheRoadDog Posts: 11,788 Member
    My first car was a 1951 Plymouth Belvedere. Bought it in 1970 for $500. A fortune back then. At 35 cents per gallon it cost less than $5 to fill it if it was bone dry.
  • mamma_nee
    mamma_nee Posts: 809 Member
    WOW what great memories ,

    No dryers - You hung your clothes out on the line to dry


    and the making sauce from scratch - I STILL MAKE MY OWN JARRED TOMATOES EACH YEAR :) But back in the 50`s no jars,, they put it in glass bottles ( mostly recycled beer bottles ) and to get the sauce out you had to stick the back end of a wooden spoon to get it going .
  • beachlover317
    beachlover317 Posts: 2,848 Member
    Hanging out the car windows at night with the wind blowing against your face.
    2 parents, 4 children, 1 bathroom.
    Having to let your really long hair just "get dry"; rolling it on juice cans;
    Going to the library to work on term papers.
    Calling a window so you were not stuck sitting on the "hump".
    Going to my grandmother's every Sunday and playing outside all day with my cousins.
    Watching the Lil' Rascals on Sunday at lunchtime.
    Waiting for the teacher on Romper Room to see you in her magic mirror.
    Walking to school every day - even in the rain.
    45s of the Beatles, the Supremes - putting a stack on and dancing around our room.
    Having a red plaid book satchel.
    Itchy wool scarves and soggy wool gloves.
    No answering machine. If you weren't home - you just weren't home. The phone rang and rang and rang.
    One phone (located in the hall on a little table) and no extensions.
    Eating meals together every day.
    Playing cards and boardgames under a big tree in the front yard when it was too hot in the sun.
    Metal blinds and the sound they made when the attic fan was running.
    Grilling out on a charcoal tripod grill. Putting sticks in the leftover embers and then running around the yard in the dark with the sticks.

    This one is my favorite: When I was small, when it snowed, it was a HUGE surprise. It also stopped EVERYTHING. The whole world just stopped. I miss that SO much.
  • The freedom to just be a kid! We didn't need our parents to make "play dates" for us. We just knocked on the kids door next door and away we went on that days adventure.

    Evil Kenivel for sure!!! I can't count the number of times I crashed on my bike doing those awesome jumps.

    Tossing hockey cards against a wall. ( I'm Canadian eh!)
  • fannyfrost
    fannyfrost Posts: 756 Member
    I was born in 1966, so some of my stuff is a little later. But a lot applies:

    You didn't need to wear seatbelts in the car
    Black and White TV
    Only had a few channels and you watched what was on
    Watching Watergate on TV because it was the only thing on
    One channel had static
    That Pattern and sound once the channel stopped sending
    Bell bottoms
    Large taxi cabs in NY had these booster seats that we always wanted to sit on
    You could walk between subway cars and often did just cause
    Families had one car and that was a luxury
    Smoking in elevators (not sad you can't do that anymore)
    Smoking on airplanes
  • NewLIFEstyle4ME
    NewLIFEstyle4ME Posts: 4,440 Member
    you didn't have to have health insurance nor auto insurance...it was a choice

    you rarely were sick and rarely went to the doctor--and doctors actually made house calls for no additional charge

    you only used baking soda to brush your teeth when monies were really tight

    doing the laundry not only meant hanging your clothes outside, but washing them yourself in the bath-tub or lugging them to the laundry mat. Having a washer and dryer was a sheer luxury!

    Only the rich had dishwashers...the only dishwasher we had growing up was our hands. Dish washing was the ladies/girls chore--the men of the house NEVER washed dishes.

    walking to almost everywhere you went, including grocery shopping, you used a shopping cart, that looked like a boxy thing that folded up and had two wheels on it.

    The greater majority of women were stay home moms and the family lived quite nicely on one income. Dads were the bosses of their home, period.

    telephones, cars (especially a second car--second cars were almost unheard of) were a luxury, not a necessity

    No such thing as year round fruits and veggies available. You ate fruits and veggies in season

    The family ate dinner together all the time, and dinner time was a time of deep discussions and a time of learning.

    When it was mealtime, doing anything other than eating and conversation was considered strange/foreign. Eating and watching T.V. or doing anything other than eating and talking together was something "spoiled, crazy or bad" people did--not normal folks.

    No such thing as "cold cereal" for breakfast, except on Saturdays...cartoon mornings.

    microwaves didn't exists--if they did, only the uber rich had them.

    Frozen foods and packaged foods were rare and considered a luxury and we rarely had them in our home.

    Children didn't take drugs to control their behavior--the behavior was controlled by their knowledge that there would be dire consequences (The "Board of Education to the "Seat" of knowledge) if they chose to be disobedient or act "crazy".

    Parents weren't "friends" with their children( until they became a certain age, usually 18 on up)--only the "spoiled, crazy or bad" children were "friends" with their parents. Children and Adults were NOT peers at all, children had to learn their place and their place was not "being grown" while they were children.

    You never knew you were "poor" or disadvantaged...you just didn't know...only when T.V. came of age and materialism began ruling and reigning in the world did you begin to see how terrible your life was--or so you were led to believe.

    Holidays were NOT about getting stuff--buying stuff or getting into debt, it was about family time.

    Portion sizes were super tiny, way less than half of what they are today for food and drinks. 8 oz. of a drink was considered extra large. The average portion of juice, coffee, pop and things like that were 2-4 oz.

    We only drank juice when we were sick and that was rare.

    I NEVER knew grandparents that weren't at least 60 years old. There was no such thing as "teen" parents or young ( 30-40 year old) grandparents that I knew of.

    People died and suffered from strokes and other health issues that today people are cured of or rehabilitated much more than back then.

    People considered folks wearing dirty looking clothes, raggedy clothes (with holes in them), unpressed/unironed clothes as someone who was mentally ill.

    It was RARE that women and girls wore pants...jeans were something that you wore going outside to play or doing outside or cleaning chores. Most people considered wearing jeans as something people in jail wore or again, children outside playing in the dirt.

    People with "alternative lifestyles" were considered mentally ill, criminals or to be avoided like the plague.

    Segregation was the norm.
  • DaWayne360
    DaWayne360 Posts: 261 Member
    You remeber having a television that weighed as much as your car does now.
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