New Scaratings

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Domestic air mail stamps...



........................... (50 cents was big money back then.)

Yep, we used to have them, but they are now gone. I don't recall, when the Post Office stopped issuing them. (I don't think the Postal Service even still issues them for international mail either, but it might.)

p.s. Does anybody know, if the U.S. airmail stamp is now completely gone?

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"The game is afoot."

Does anyone remember the "Fuller Brush" man? Back in the 1950's this guy would drive up to your house, perhaps once every two months or so, ring your doorbell, and present all sorts of wonderful things that your parents could buy. Back in those days, some of my best Christmas presents came from the Fuller Brush man. As I remember, the best present that came from his catalog, was the Fort Apache set. Hell, where is it now? I wish I still had it.

I believe this was it, and today it goes for $155.00.



Here's a shot of the stereotypical Fuller Brush man:



(Our guy didn't dress quite that well, but he sure had his valice, with the catalog inside, every time he rang our doorbell.)

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"The game is afoot."

Those were Red Ball Jets. The other shoes were PF Flyers. I owned both but the best which my mother would not spend her hard earned money on were US Keds, "get Keds, kids, Keds".

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"Truth Like Football. Gets kicked around much, before reaching goal." - Charlie Chan

" Don't look back, The bastards might be gaining on you." - Satchel Paige

Frank

Does anybody remember buying Savings Bond Stamps in grade school...?



I was going to Cortland Street elementary school in Geneva, NY, in the early 1950's, when I bought them. I vaguely remember pasting them into some kind of booklet, but I have no memory as to what became of them.

p.s. Maybe the government should get this program started in the school system again to help wipe out our national debt...?

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"The game is afoot."

I learned my numbers with the TV dial. I was my parent's remote control...

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Tiffany

Occassional Haunt - Jax Tavern, Forest Park, OH

And the answer is......4?? 42....the answer to life, the universe and everything

Soda fountains in drugstores and large dime stores (WT Grants, Woolworths and S.S. Kresge)

Vacuum tube testers in groceries, drugstores and hardware stores.

TV repairman

Shoe shine men in real barber shops.

Stores closed early at 6PM Monday through Saturday and be closed Sunday.

Funny, my mother always bought me Keds, but wouldn't buy the black Red Ball Jets high tops I wanted.

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Here's one.....soda vending machines.

My original memory was the kind that was waste-high to an adult (higher for us kids). You put the coin (nickle? dime?) in the coin slot, then carried the bottle around the track until you got to the point where you could pull the bottle out. The bottle opener was on the outside.

While searching for a picture, I found another one I almost forgot. You pulled the bottle from slots stacked top-to-bottom. You could still see the bottle before you bought it, but only one per flavor, not all the bottles like the machine above.

I can still remember the sounds the machine made while pulling the bottle out. Today, it's cans not bottles, corn syrup not pure cane sugar, and you take a chance that the person loading the machine put the wrong can in the wrong bin, and wind up with the wrong soda.


Yoda

Okay, I'm not *THAT* old. Well, my alter-ego was 900+ when he died, but that was a long time ago.

For the record, I'm 47. Not only do I remember things from yester-year, I love learning about things of days gone by.

Now, could you gents who are older than I am, please discuss things that you could obatin from your local gasoline station? Please don't post pictures of signs saying gasoline was under a dollar a gallon. What I mean was, do you remember getting a fill-up, and the attendent (for you young furts, that's an employee who pumped the gasoline in the car for you, so that you didn't have to get out of the car), gave you something as a thank you for your visit. A collectable.

My parents collected brass state coins. Not sure what station, or what year (probably pre 1971), but we had the whole set. Had it for a long time until my ex-sister stole them. Can't find them on the internet, but I think the set could go for a few hundred bucks.

Anyone else remember getting a fillup at the local 76 or Shell, and getting something back as a thank you for your visit?

Well junior, first of all gas was under 30 cents a a gallon. ( it really spites me these computers don't have the "cents " symbol on the keyboard)
Pulling up to the pumps you drove over a pneumatic hose that sounded a bell and the attendant came out to your car. He asked which grade of gas you wanted and how much. After starting to pump gas into the car the attendant checked your tire pressures and fluid levels in addition to cleaning all of the windows and outside mirrors. Air and wiper fluid were free, but you paid for oil. A lot of stations gave out trading stamps and double stamps on certain days. A number of stations gave out premiums with a fill-up. Common premiums were glassware, collectable tokens and toys. Texaco was big on selling toy firetrucks. The station probably had a soda and candy vending machine and had a mechanic who changed/fixed tires, did oil changes, tune-ups and engine repairs. They weren't the "mini-marts" they are now.

Jim, I remember all that. The first time I bought gasoline when I was 17 it was 25¢ a gallon and there was an attendent who checked the oil and tires and wipe the windshield. S&H Greenstamps at Standard Oil.

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"Truth Like Football. Gets kicked around much, before reaching goal." - Charlie Chan

" Don't look back, The bastards might be gaining on you." - Satchel Paige

Frank

Keds were the better shoe. Your mother worried about you having fallen arches. Keds had arch supports.
Fallen arches were a big worry in the 50's after polio.

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"Truth Like Football. Gets kicked around much, before reaching goal." - Charlie Chan

" Don't look back, The bastards might be gaining on you." - Satchel Paige

Frank

Speaking of disease, the whole class use to be lined up and brought down to the nurse's office every year for a tuberculosis test. Lawsuits would be flying if they tried that today. With our President's interest in health care maybe mandatory testing for select diseases should be required.

Shell Canada did cheap zinc-coated brass-like medals sometime around 1971, for all of our Prime Ministers at the time (15, up to Trudeau)


Here's a couple of things that I will miss once they're gone:

• "Paper" money. The Bank of Canada began the transition to polymer notes last week with the new $100 bill. Within two years, all the denominations will be issued in polymer, and I'm sure they'll be actively withdrawing all old notes as soon as the new issues are made available

• Old coins in circulation. Just like how the spike in silver prices in the early 80's led to silver coins being taken out of circulation, the high price of copper and nickel has prompted to Royal Canadian Mint to steadily withdraw most coins minted before 2001. Our cents up to 1996 are bronze, nickels from 1982-mid 2001 are 75% Cu & 25% Ni, and older nickels, as well as all dimes and quarters through 2000, are pure nickel

One of the things that got me hooked as a coin collector was going through change, looking for old dates and scarce varieties. How's a new collector supposed to share that, when the bulk of the coinage is less than 10 years old? You Americans are lucky, because not only are there still a wealth of dates in circulation, there's also the mint marks

• The iconic GMC "Jimmy" transit buses of the 60's-80's. 20 years ago, Calgary Transit's big bus fleet was over 90% of these, but after production ceased in (I believe) 1986, they steadily get consigned to the scrapyard. There's less than 100 remaining here, and they're all 29½ years or older, so their hourglass is almost empty



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/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

Jim, great memories of the past. I think a lot of us can remember those too...

I can remember my dad going down to Carl's Drug store, with a pocketful of test tubes to try to find out which one he had to replace to get our TV working again.



The soda fountain is a place we all will miss. Sadly, it looks like our kids and grandkids will only get to visit a soda fountain in old movies.

\

p.s. Did anyone besides me ever order a cherry coke at the soda fountain?

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"The game is afoot."

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Nice nostalgia, YODA, and great pictures that take us back in time.

Yep, and they only cost 10 cents, plus you walked off with a bottle that you could turn in at the grocery store for a 2 cent bottle deposit return.

....................

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"The game is afoot."

FrankC, you stole my thunder on Green Stamps... When I was a kid, my parents bought a car once, that came with S & H Green Stamps. WOW, I helped my mom stick all of those stamps into God knows how many books. (This is NOT another CLOUDY joke.)

.......

p.s. When we were done, we could have probably cashed all the books in and gotten another car for free.

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"The game is afoot."

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a

ICEMAN, maybe there is a possible lawsuit here...? You were obviously defrauded, and robbed of your ten pennies. I would say that you have damages that you should take them to court for. I'm sure that you are thinking, "Ten pennies, big deal." However, wait a second, there are many years on your side, and so many lost opportunites that those ten pennies could have meant to you. You could have purchased two packs of Tops baseball cards back in the mid 1950's, with that ten cents, and walked off with a Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, or who knows whatever other eventual Hall of Fame baseball player's cards. They would be worth a pretty penny these days.



These are only baseball cards from 1956. If you could have picked this Honus Wagner tobacco card up from a kid on the block for ten pennies or a trade, you would never have to work a day again in your life.

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"The game is afoot."

Who remembers the elevator man, who operated the department store elevator. He sat there on his stool in the corner with the controls, hit the buttons that took us up and down, and opened and shut the sliding safety gate that kept his passengers from falling to their deaths. He would also announce the floors, where the elevator stopped. I can still hear him saying, "Floor seven, men's clothing."



When I was a little kid, I thought this might be a good job to get, when I grew up.

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"The game is afoot."

It was a good job in Chicago. Most Elevator men in downtown office buildings (not Department Stores) were also bookies. An uncle of mine made a great living as an Elevator Starter and a suspected bookie. Nobody in the family would admit he was a bookie, but he was always willing to to take a bet even from a 10 year old nephew. My bet would be 10¢ and I would always win a dollar. He was a gret bookie.

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"Truth Like Football. Gets kicked around much, before reaching goal." - Charlie Chan

" Don't look back, The bastards might be gaining on you." - Satchel Paige

Frank

From your perspective, absolutely.

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I don't think they make 45 rpm records anymore. (Though I have heard the 33 1/3 vinal LP's might have a new life.) The 45 rpm records were great. You could go to parties, and just play the songs that people wanted to hear and dance to. You could stack them up on the hi-fi spindle adapter, and let them automatically drop down to the next one as the last one ended. While you were riding your bike over to your buddy's house, they would convienently slip over the handle bars, so you could carry a bunch of them, while you peddled your way through the neighborhood.

p.s. Does anyone remember the cheap plastic inserts that you needed to stack them on a hi-fi, if you didn't have the spindle adapter?


............... (What an invention, and NO moving parts...!)

p.p.s There were also solid metal 45 rpm adapters, that were a little trickier to insert, but never slipped out.



p.p.p.s. For you real youngsters, the 45 rpm records only had two songs on them. (One on each side.) There was an exception to this, called the EP (Extended Play) that had two songs on each side.

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"The game is afoot."