In 1955.....

[crashdive123]

Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging 7 cents just to mail a letter?

If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.

When I first started driving, who Would have thought gas would someday cost 25 cents a gallon? Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage.

I'm afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying DAMN in GONE WITH THE WIND, it seems every new movie has either HELL or DAMN in it.

I read the other day where some scientist thinks it's possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas .

Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $50,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn't surprise me if someday they'll be making more than the President.

I never thought I'd see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They're even making electric typewriters now.

It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet.

It won't be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work.

I'm afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business.

Thank goodness I won't live to See the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to government.

The fast food restaurant is convenient for a quick meal, but I seriously doubt they will ever catchon.

There is no sense going on short trips anymore for a weekend. It costs nearly $2.00 a night to stay in a hotel.

No one can afford to be sick anymore. At $15.00 a day in the hospital, it's too rich for my blood.

If they think I'll pay 30 cents for a haircut, forget it.

================================================== ==============
I'm sure someone will be quick to point out how much "better" we have it now. I'd be interested to hear that rationale.

[Ken]

I'm sure someone will be quick to point out how much "better" we have it now. I'd be interested to hear that rationale.

Things are better, and since you asked, here's my rationale: I wasn't here in 1955. I was born in 1956.

[crashdive123]

So that's where the term "there goes the neighborhood" came from.

[Rick]

Dang. I remember some of those prices. 5 cent gum and 10 ice cream. We had neighborhood family grocery stores about every six or eight blocks all over town. The only "big chain" was A&P and going in there was like going on holiday. You rarely did because those neighborhood groceries were run by neighbors so you pretty much stuck to your turf.

Let's see how many remember:

Whitewashing trees.
Volamilks
Home delivered milk
Ringer washers
Ventiports
Fender Skirts
Brylcreem (A Little Dab Al Do Ya)
Old Spice
Print Type
Banana Seats
Baseball Cards
Carl Yastrzemski's rookie card
World Series Yankees vs Cardinals (1964)
Made In Japan
TV Dinners
Beer Can Openers
Reel to Reel Tape Recorders
Tube-Testing Machine
Arpanet
British Invasion
Batman
Carhops
Drive In Theaters (Don't Get Caught In the Trunk!)
Tikis
Things that were Mod, Kicky or Groovy
Transistor Radios
Party Lines
Number Please

That should be enough to give you some nostalgia.

Being better is relative I guess. I think I have a higher standard of living than my parents did and certainly far better medical care. All the electronic stuff just makes you more accessible. Back then you could really get away for a week-end and no one could find you.

[Ken]

I remember when postage was 4 cents and we got 2 mail deliveries on weekdays.

HOWEVER, we didn't have awesome commercials like this one!

[Ken]

Rick, how 'bout....

Beatnicks
Rat Finks
Sting Ray bikes
Hoola Hoops
White Wall Tires
REAL prizes in Cracker Jacks
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Rat Patrol
Car 54
....the list goes on.

[Rick]

I remember an early Buick commercial in which the announcer pointed to the Ventiports and proudly announced, "Next year all cars will have holes in their sides." Too funny....now.

[Ken]

So that's where the term "there goes the neighborhood" came from.

[Ken]

The New York World's Fair, 1965. The General Electric Exhibit: "Every household will have a computer."

[Rick]

I remember the IBM/360. My brother is quite a bit older than me and he was in computer programming at the time. The printer was about 12 feet long, chain driven and could play music by varying the rotation speed of the chain. Pretty heady stuff back in the day. If I had just invested in punch card stocks.......

[Ken]

The first program I ever wrote was in FASTFORT/FORTRAN for the 360.

[Ken]

.....on punched cards.

[Ken]

The two most dreaded words in the English Language: "Syntax Error."

[crashdive123]

Matchbox cars
Dodgers won the World Series. Brooklyn Dodgers
Micky Mouse Club
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on bus
James Dean killed in car crash
1st microwave oven introduced.....$1300
Jack Benny Show
Dragnet
I've Got A Secret

[Solar Geek]

Dobie Gillis,
dreamsicles,
pot roast on Sunday
Sitting on the car hood at the airport watching a plane land. ... every 15-20 minutes (not seconds)
"Sunday best"
Ozzie and Harriet

[crashdive123]

Watching Million Dollar Movie on Sunday afternoons with Dad.

[Ken]

3 cent slices of tray pizza from Marcucci's Bakery
with 5 cent grape sodas (2 cent bottle deposit)
and gas selling for 9.9 cents a gallon at Theo's around the block during the price wars
across from the little shop where the little old couple baked fresh ice cream cones - the sugar cone variety - and sold them for 2 cents each
and then a short walk to Eddie's Variety where fudgesicles were 3 cents each and penny candy really cost a penny.....

[Rick]

School air conditioning (called windows)
Crawling inside the engine compartment to work on a car
Baseball cards clipped to bicycle spokes
High Tops
LPs (33 1/3, 45s, 78s)
AM radio
Black and white TV (Our first remote control had an 8 foot cord!)
John Kennedy
Cuban Missile Crisis
Duck and Cover!
CD (Civil Defense sort of like HSA)
McCarthy

[Ken]

How many of these do you remember?

[Rick]

Remember them? I'm still listening to the 60s!