When I was a lot younger

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When you cooked inside, and went upside to the dunny.

Its generally the other way round these days.

When hot chips cost 12 cents, and 20 cents worth would feed four of you.

When you got 6d to spend and it seemed like a fortune.

When a pie cost 6d.

When it was long enough, high enough and straight between the posts.

When your name got mentioned on Romper Room.

When you were watching Romper Room and the News Flash was about the assasination of JFK.

Sammy Sparrow.

When your parents let you stay up and watch the Dean Martin and Jackie Gleeson shows.
 
Kerosene fridge
Rabbit traps were legal
Ride your bike for 8 or 9 ( each way )miles to go fishing
In summer the ice man "accidentally " dropping a block on the road and us kids would swarm over it like flies over a
:poop:
Fly spray in pumps
Playing " kick the tin " untill pitch dark, and you were safe
Roast chicken on xmas day, too expensive the rest of the year
Loved it when we got a slow combustion heater in the lounge room, only had to cut and carry wood 4 days instead of 7 in winter.
Going camping in an old "Hillman" with trailer to places "you need a 4wd for that "now
Taking 2 days to get from Yallourn to Eden (500 klm's )
When there was a "copper" on point duty on Sunday afternoon at the Springvale Road/Princes Hway intersection.
Being worried about going home if you'd got into trouble down the town with the local copper, coz you was going to get it in the ear from dad as well
Concrete wash troughs with a wringer (mangle)
 
Taking a "billy" to the Chinese shop and getting it filled with Chow mien
The "finger stalls" if you were lucky :playful:
Nicking lemonade bottles from the back of the milk bar for the refund to buy a small pack of "Turf " cigarettes .
1st full time job I got 19 pounds( $38-00 ) a fortnight, 9 pounds ($18-00 ) went in board, 1 pound ($2-00 )went on train fares home for the weekend , everything else, clothes, hair cuts, lunches, medical, beer, girls, drive in theater, came out of the rest
 
Fags were 10 pence each from the ice cream van outside the school gates. He also had AIDS. Orangeade, lemonade and Lucazade.
 
One of my earliest childhood memories was sharing a daily ritual my pop had practiced since the end of the depression.

Walking down to the bakery after his 5am alarm clock chimed for a freshly baked uncut high top white loaf. Smothering the fresh and still warm crust end with real butter and a teaspoon of sugar. Being sworn to secrecy following the guilty pleasure every morning for the two weeks of my visit, just as the rising sun spilt its light across the kitchen table and the rest of the household had started to stir.
 
WOW, I think Im getting on, but not THAT old.
I lived on a farm as a kid & at first we only had a 36V kero powered genset, a B&W TV (yeah we had tv!), an electric light in each room, about 6 kero lanterns, & a kero flame powered refrigerator, backed up by a big lead lined ice box. We always had fresh meat, & I remember my old man teaching me how to slaughter an animal from about age 4 or 5. We milked our own cows & had a hand driven milk separator. How I miss that old Guernseys thick cream laden milk, & our mother baked bread in the old Metters stove. I often feel my kids have missed out on so much real life!
 
Tathradj said:
Hang on, Does any one know what an inch is without googling it. O:)

how funny to hear that Tathradj.
I was 12, in grade 7 when we switched to metric, so I grew up with both systems. (I might just add here that there are good mathematical reasons for the base 12 imperial system ..its earth based, whereas metric is base 10 for simplicity & convenience)
my younger brother also has a handle on both, & even now when we are building stuff together, he often (just to twitch my nerves) quotes measurements in a combined number. eg, verbally as this, 2meters 600 & 8 1/2 inches
 
In the early 70's the Ph3 GT Falcon came out & my father wanted one but could never afford it. It cost something like $4000
Ten years later in the early 80's I bought a standard Charger & set about building a 6-pack PLUS. It cost me a shi'p load more to build up than the $4k my ol man couldn't afford for the Falcon, but a few short years later in '86 I killed myself in it .. hence 'DED Driver' (they revived me at the scene, no heart beat, stopped breathing) & nowadays I have a '77 CL 770 V8 Charger sitting under 'protective boxes' waiting for some $$ & TLC. (I drove it for a few years but the gearbox stuffed up & it broke a ring or two ... had nuffin to do with my driving, honest :cool:
What petrol-head doesn't want more of the good ol Muscle Car era!
 
I can remember Saturday evenings. My dad worked at the race course picking up glasses and he would come home with a couple of bags of smiths chips we would sprinkle vinegar on them and then count out and share the pennies and halfpennies my dad had picked up as his tips..while we watched Homicide on the black and white TV
My older sister would do the counting ..1 for me and one each for you 2 .. that meant she would get a one penny for her self and a half penny for me and the other sister
.. divided evenly by number but not value ...I think we only woke up to what she was doing much later ...
 
I'm a bit younger than a few here but here's a couple off hand.

I remember taking the rubbish to the handy man in primary school to burn in the old incinerator, located about 30 feet from the main building to be burned.

Setting rabbit traps up behind the hospital and taking the rabbits into the old folks at the aged care (assisted living ) wing, no charge.

Swimming in the town water supply during the heat of summer, you could open the lid and swim in a big cool tank haha.

Getting taken home in the police car with my bicycle in the back a few times after a win at the local footy home game, sharing a ride with other players.

Taking the Yz80 up to the local service station riding along the footpath at a safe speed waving to the townspeople with no helmet and to fill up the old man's Jerry cans strapped to the back. The attendant let me pump and pay and rode home about 9km in 100kmh traffic zone. The only time you would be stopped is to talk to someone asking after your father or grandfather.

Sitting at the local gun club meet up for clay bird target practice, about 30 families would turn up and shoot clays day and night all weekend. The only injury I ever remember was one kid hitting another with a stick from time to time.

Duck hunting with the old man setting up hides and plucking ducks for about 3 days after then taking the Ducks to neighborhood and friends. I can remember 3 figure kills, and not one went uneaten.

Pulling out a drum net from the Edward River with a tractor, a friend of my uncles property, with the hugest cod I've ever seen. I wasnt even 10, but it was massive, I watched them release it, I have no idea if ones that size would even still exist. All the Metre plus cod I've seen since were dwarfed by this beast. I stopped swimming in that part of the river from that day, I remember thinking if it couldn't eat me it would definitely drown me.

My grandmother used to let me sort her coin collection and notes out when I went over which inspired me to start my own from my dad's wallet. I was maybe 6 or 7 and put the notes on my wardrobe which was nearly roof height. I had all denominations in multiples I'm guessing for about 2 years. He never asked if I'd taken it, anyway my mum found it eventually, and I came home from school. She asked why I had I and I told here I was collecting it. My Dad got home later and was in total disbelief. We all went on holidays for 2 weeks in the new car he brought, it was only then I realized just how much it was. I still remember being so sad my collection was gone.
 
The story about the school incinerator bought back memories, can you imagine a school allowing a 12 yr old to run a raging industrial incinerator today.
Being a school crossing monitor, still done by kids in SA
Milk delivered to the school in tetra packs for every student, if you were lucky your school had a fridge or a cool box for it to go in.
Saturday the four boys and dad we'd go of to sport, footy, cricket, basketball, mum and sis of to netball, Saturday tea in the lounge room watching the footy or sports show eating fresh soup, baked bread and pastie slice.
 

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