Back in the good old days.

[luvmysuper]

Ok, let me start right off by eclipsing the young whipper-snappers who will think me a Luddite.
I'm not saying everything old is better. I'm not saying the old ways are the best ways.
I'm quite happy to live in the age that I do. I like computers, and cell phones, and air travel, heck - I even like them thar fancy horseless carriages.

My point here is simply to wax a bit nostalgic about a few of the more quaint and pleasant things which seem to be of an era past.
I'm not criticizing the present, and I'm not dreading the future. I'm just looking wistfully at a few things that seem to have changed. Maybe for the better in some peoples opinion.
Again, not the point.

If there's something you'd like to share here that you miss a little bit - please feel free to join in.
If what I post strikes a chord with you, and moves you to share a perspective, please do.
If what I've posted irritates you in a way that only the elderly can the young, please feel free to click on another thread. No hard feelings.

Posts not in keeping with the theme will be deleted without prejudice!

To start;




I miss Drive-In Movies. Yes, the Megaplex offers Dolby Surround sound, and all the newest hits in one location.
But I miss pulling in with a cooler full of home made snacks, and then going to the long line at the Concession Stand anyway.
I miss the playground at the front of the lot, under the screen, where kids played joyfully until the cartoon started.
I miss the tinny little speaker that hung on your window, and threatened to smash it when you forgot it was there and slammed the car door.
I miss hearing the honking horns when people believed it was indeed dark enough to start the show.
I miss the patient, and kind hearted order that people leaving the movie displayed in letting other cars in the exit lane.

There were once more than 4000 operating drive in theatres in America. Today there are less than 300.
In fact there's one not far from me. But it's not the same.
There's no playground, and what responsible parent would leave a child on a playground surrounded by a sea of potential molesters behind their evil little steering wheels.
The soundtrack is broadcast over short distance FM so you listen through your car stereo (and thus either have the dash lights blinding you, or forget that you turned them down as you are leaving)
Oh, and bringing in outside food is very much frowned upon.
One doesn't "honk" to get the show started, I'm told that doing so might offend people and thus cause a rash of fisticuffs.
People leave in one huge snarled mess, and there is less courtesy to other drivers than you find on the average LA Freeway.

The Drive-In Movie was a genuine piece of Americana that has, like the stars we watched on those big screens, faded into the past.

But I miss them.







Interested in trying to recapture that feeling?
Click here to find the Drive In nearest you;

http://www.drive-ins.com/

 

[seanusa]

I am fairly young (30) but grew up in a rural area and farmed for the first 10 years after high school before getting a factory job. I miss gravel roads. While there are still many where I live it seems more and more are getting paved and it is a testament to the number of people traveling in areas they didn't use to. I remember when we saw 4 vehicles go by the house in a day the joke was, "it must be rush hour",not a joke anymore and the amount of traffic far exceeds that number theses days.

 

[Mike H]

When I was a kid, we would ride our bikes down to the old iron bridge and shoot at logs as they floated by. All the old bridges have now been replaced with concrete spans.

 

[Captain Pre-Capsize]

Ah, for me it was climbing a tree - there I was able to spy on the unsuspecting pedestrians below. The tree was my domain! When was the last time you saw any kid climb a tree?

 

[DaveNJ74]

When I was a kid we had cartoons on tv on Saturday mornings... now they show movies and infomercials. We also used to go outside and play with GI Joe and Star Wars figures... now the kids stay in and play with an iPad. I would definitely want to be a kid again, just not today.

 

[rickboone1]

Good TV...

M.A.S.H., Cheers, Family Ties, Growing Pains, TGIF, The Wonder Years

We still have Drive Ins here.

 

[luvmysuper]

Ah, for me it was climbing a tree - there I was able to spy on the unsuspecting pedestrians below. The tree was my domain! When was the last time you saw any kid climb a tree?

Which brings me to my next point (thanks for the segue)



When I was a youngster, we'd build ramps and jump them with our Schwinn Stingrays (complete with sissy bar and bannana seat)
Short pants, T shirt, and footwear ranging from bare foot to flip flops to tennis shoes.
We rode, we fell. We skinned our knees and our elbows. I learned about road rash long before I ever got my first motorcycle.
I had lumps on my head (goose eggs) and scrapes on my chin. And we loved it.
I remember riding with stripped high rise handlebars, and the only way to keep them from flopping down was to exert a constant pull. A constant pull, which I learned to my dismay, that was impossible to maintain while jumping a ramp, or landing after having done so.
I remember cutting wings from a refrigerator box, taping them to my arms and having my friend pedal downhill as fast as he could go.
I popped the wings out, and... Success! I was airborn!
For a moment.
My loss of forward momentum also meant the loss of lift.
To complicate matters, the box wings taped to my arms prevented me from using them to shield my face from impending impact with the approaching ground.
I still laugh about it every time I think of it.

You don't see kids out now riding and enjoying like that. It's just too dangerous. Kids are packaged up in knee pads, and elbow pads, and helmets and high visibility vests.
I look at them and am amazed at how similar they look to a Flight Deck Crew on a Naval Vessel prepared for a fiery demolition at any moment.

I'm sure that kids have been injured on bicycles because they were not wearing protective gear. I know that if I looked it up, I'd be amazed at how many lives were saved since the inception.
But, I'm telling you, the entire time I was growing up, I never knew of a kid, or knew of a kid who knew of a kid who was seriosuly injured or killed in a random bike accident.

I'm not talking about interaction with cars or such. I did have some friends who were killed when their bike failed the meets a car test. They happened in broad daylight. We didn't ride the bikes around after dark. We were home then.
But, I don't think knee pads, elbow pads, a soft shell helmet and a High Vis vest would have helped those guys in that situation anyway.

Don't get me wrong. We need to look out for our kids. I'm just not sure that enclosing them in 12 layers of bubble wrap is the way to go about it.

Go to google and type in "bicycling as a kid"
Do you expect the majority of links to be about fun? Exercise?
Nope.
Nearly every single entry on the first page has a variation of the word "Safety" in it.

 

[n2hql]

I live within sight of what was hollingshead's first in the world drive in. There used to be six with ten miles, now there are none.

 

[Shave A Buck]

Perhaps this thread should be..You know you're old when.....

Given the state of affairs of public settings these days perhaps a drive in would do a booming business. No one could disturb you in your own car,..you would feel and maybe be safer,...cars are way more comfortable today then ever...so why not.

 

[luvmysuper]

I live within sight of what was hollingshead's first in the world drive in. There used to be six with ten miles, now there are none.

There's the Delsea Drive-in in Vineland New Jersey, about 35 miles from you.

http://www.delseadrive-in.com/

 

[jtb]

Ah, for me it was climbing a tree - there I was able to spy on the unsuspecting pedestrians below. The tree was my domain! When was the last time you saw any kid climb a tree?

Ha! Guess I'm old but I let my girls 11 and 9 go way up it the tree in our backyard. The go up about to stories and just hangout. I still think kids need the freedom to find out what danger is and how to know the limits of what they can do.

 

[Mick]

I miss the smell of steam, oil, and smoke from my childhood....

The rail line ran down beside my Aunt's property and we would always run to the track to watch the long line of coal cars pulled by the straining locomotive billowing black smoke and steam as it struggled with the fully loaded coal cars. There was a sweeping turn in the line right after her property so the train had to slow to 15-20 mph. If we got too close to the tracks the engineer would release steam from the piston bypass to make sure we backed up a ways before he got to where we were standing. We always got him to blow the whistle.

 

[Shave A Buck]

If you missed your favorite show, you missed it. There were no video on demand systems, or TiVo units. The country seemed to be a little more engaged with these things such as "who shot JR" or special shows when they aired.

 

[luvmysuper]

If you missed your favorite show, you missed it. There were no video on demand systems, or TiVo units. The country seemed to be a little more engaged with these things such as "who shot JR" or special shows when they aired.

Thank you for the segue into my next one!



I miss TV as a family event. As Joe said - If you missed a show - too bad, so sad - you missed it.
The family would gather around the TV set to watch the shows we loved. I remember them.
Mission Impossible, The Man from Uncle, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Kung Fu, Barney Miller, Have Gun Will travel, Hogans Heroes and too many more to list here.
No Tivo, no playing one show in the living room and another show in the bedroom. There wasn't any TV in the bedroom. The one TV in the house was a room we all shared.
And there were "seasons" for TV.
The TV Guide came out with a synopsis of all the new Fall shows. We'd read them and decide which ones looked interesting. At the end of spring, they'd go into re-runs. Who'd be inside watching TV during summer anyway, right?
There aren't any TV "seasons" anymore. It's a surprise to me when a show has a season finale in the dead of Winter. I can't figure out when a show is supposed to start its new season. I have to look it up on the internet and get the word directly from the shows producers.
Now we have streaming TV, and Netflix, and DVR's. We can replay and fast forward live TV. We watch TV on phones and on iPads, tucked away in a corner, or on the train. It's not a family event anymore. It's you and the show.
Don't bother me, I'm watching my show.
There's a lot more channels, and a lot more shows to choose from. Why then do I feel like we've lost something?
The greats like Jonathan Winters, Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Johnny Carson, Jackie Gleason, Ed Sullivan, and Andy Griffith are gone. Sadly, I feel TV is too.

 

[The Count of Merkur Cristo]

I miss Drive-In Movies.

Phil:
Once again...you have crafted a

post my friend!

What I 'don't miss' about the past drive-ins were the mosquitoes that got in the car through the little slit in your window that you hung the speaker (yeah...I hated to sit on that side...even "Off" didn't do much to repel them)

I too miss the drive-in's and;
1. The friends we snook in the trunk our cars.

2, The Concession Stands!

I remember when I was stationed at Fort Hood TX many years ago, there was (and still is), a Drive-in (open since 1950), in Gatesville, TX called "Last Drive-In Picture Show" (loved the FM radio speakers...goodbye 'skeeters' [I remembered they still had some old speakers for those nostalgic lovers]).

Read More: http://www.austinchronicle.com/columns/2011-04-15/day-trips/

"Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days”. Doug Larson

 

[Eeyore]

I miss having a good watchmaker in town. And all the other specialty shops that have disappeared from here (or at least from the place where I was born).

And I regret how much we (as a society) regulate the lifes of our children. Looking back, we had a lot more freedom when we were young.

 

[OkieStubble]

I miss,

Collecting pop bottles and turning them in for cash.
The local firestation turning on the hydrant so kids on the block can cool down.
The television advisory: "It's ten o'clock, do you know where your children are?"
Hee Haw, Laugh-In, The Grand Ole Opry, H&R Puff N Stuff, Captain Kangaroo, The Rocky & Bullwinkle Hour.
Tonka Toys, Rock em Sock em Robots.
Dirt Clod fights, Just playing in the dirt. Building tree houses, Building a fort in the woods. Popping fireworks anywhere and everywhere.
The local candy store filled with endless jars of penny candy. The Good Humor Man pushing his cart of ice cream down the block.
My first car, '65 Ford Galaxie 500. Man was she fast! My first girlfriend, Man was she ugly! (but very sweet)
Silver Dollars, Buffalo Nickels, Wheat Pennys. .35 cents a gallon gasoline, $3 regular haircut, $10 pair of blue jeans.
$1 movies at the Saturday afternoon Matinee, then Hangin out on a Saturday night at Kip's Big Boy with that sweet, ugly girl.

 

[rxonmymind]

Being born on the Island I miss running around the beaches at night or swimming alongside the old Navy beach landers that would act as our "Platforms". Ha! We were "mini seals" and were constantly told not to play around them. No life vest or supervised parneting. Look if you didn't know how to swim don't go out there! Well, I miss the smell of those old ships. It's unique. Grease sure. Salty yes. But more than that.
Then we used to have thousand sand bags at the ready in case of a typhoon and with those as kids we would make forts out of them. Just imagine a seven year old kid lifting these heavy sandbags! It was tough but serious fun!

Once all the fun ended we would have to eventually go back to school and the ride there was fun. Let me tell you why. The bus driver would let me sit on the stairs of the bus with the doors open on the way to school! Think that would happen today. Not a chance. Island life ....like no other. This weekend I went to Stinson beach with my family and it brought back a lot of memories. Now I'm the dad with the wife & daughter helping her make memories

 

[Legion]

Drive-ins. My memory of the drive in was playing a game. It was called "who could be the quietest". Basically, the premise of the game was that my brother and I had to lie in the back of the station wagon (and old 60's, left hand drive Plymouth) with a blanket over us, until we past through the ticket booth. Anyone who made a noise or moved while the tickets were being bought didn't get an ice cream.

I actually have a nice scar running through my right eyebrow to this day, which I gave myself at the drive-in. My parents were watching a film (Dirty Harry, I believe) and I was jumping around in the back of the Plymouth. Somehow I managed to gash myself open on some bolt, and when they shined the torch on me I had blood pouring down my face. Off to hospital for stitches, and my dad still gives me grief because he missed the end of the film.

Geez, I think I'll buy him the DVD for fathers day.

 

[DonN]

I remember the drive-ins of the 50's well - in New England for "comfortable" Winter viewing some drive-ins had small heaters too that were on a cord that would either hang on the window or be placed on the floor , can't remember which - and the concession stands had terrible fried food that we loved anyway - those were fond memories - we still have an old drive-in near us here in Connecticut and my wife and I went a couple years ago - not the same feeling "as we remember" and I missed the clip on speaker.

However , years ago when our kids were young we always Summer vacationed on Cape Cod - there were always three musts during our stay - go carts, trampolines ( 2 rows of ten each), and Sundae School , an ice cream place - all three are still there in the exact same spots - we took our grandchildren last year ( 8,5,2) and they had as much fun as we remember our son & daughter having 30 years ago - they've been exposed to a lot of modern technology , etc. etc. but it was refreshing to see them having fun the way we remembered it so long ago.