Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Remember When?

I was sittin' on the porch, watchin' the missus bring in the laundry. Man, the citiots that drive by in the summer must think we're yokels. Imagine hangin' your clothes out to dry? It's kind of stupid usin' the wind and the sun, so tourists put it in a dryer! You gotta do that when you're too busy savin' the world from fossil fuels and chemicals! Anyway...


1963 Chevrolet Impala 2 dr Coupe

Remember When?
Copyright 2016 – Stephen Redgwell

Do you remember when it was perfectly acceptable to poke fat people in the tummy with your finger? Or, speakin’ of fingers, a fellow could go onto school property and find a 10 year old to pull his finger, so he could fart! Remember when every nationality had a nickname, and transvestites were some kind of electronical doo-dad?

We had all kinds of fun back when no one was politically correct. That was when you were inclined to trust politicians or cops. Tang came back from space and found its way onto grocery stores shelves. And speakin’ of Tang, everybody watched the TV whenever NASA launched a rocket into space.

That was when school teachers did more, and cared more, for their students. After all, they had the same vacations as their charges. Who wouldn't like every long weekend, holiday and summer off? Everyone sang God Save the Queen and recited the Lord's Prayer in the mornin’. That was before the 'snowflake' generation somehow thought that singin’ a song and sayin’ a prayer would destroy a child's life.

There was no such thing as razor blades in apples, and everyone wished everyone else a "Merry Christmas'. Even the Jews and the Jehovah's Witnesses wished you the best of the season. Every Catholic church was rumoured to have a basement full of guns. And nobody had ever heard of Muslims.

Smokin’ was okay. Eatin’ beef or wild game meat was okay. Your television was black and white. There wasn't much on TV, but that was okay. You never expected to watch any more than a couple of shows anyhow. And the stations went off after the 11 o'clock news, not to return until 6AM. Nighttime was for sleepin’, not all night video games!

There were only three or four flavours of potato chips years ago – regular, BBQ and salt and vinegar. Although Hostess did try to market onion and garlic for a time.

Pop cost either a nickel or a dime, dependin’ on the size. And 2 cents of that was a bottle deposit. In Ontario, a case of beer was $4 for 24 bottles. Glass bottles. We was recyclin’ before it became politically correct! Glass Coke bottles and beer bottles were moved around in wooden crates. And to encourage you to bring them back, you paid a small deposit, which was either returned or put toward the next case!

Chocolate bars were 5 or 10 cents, again, dependin’ on the size. Movies were 50 cents, and most kids thought Jerry Lewis was a hoot.

You could only talk on telephones. There was no textin' or takin’ pictures! Remember phone booths? They were a great place where a person could make a call, or just get out of the rain. If you were lucky, you might even see Superman come out of one! That was before cable, when the only television you got was received using an antenna on the roof. In those days, no one paid for television. No cable bills or satellite ripoffs.

Gas was 30 cents a gallon, and a brand new North American car cost around $3000. Houses like my dad's – a four bedroom, 1.5 car garage, family room and basement, totallin’ 2200 sq. feet – cost $8400.

Winchester Model 70s were made in several grades of wood, but most sold as regular grades of walnut, and cost a little less than $200.

I was just sittin’ here thinkin’ about those carefree times. Thinkin’ about Chocolate Soldiers and watchin’ Lassie on TV. It was fun, relaxin’, and good old fashioned values were transmitted incidentally – not because some company hired several PhDs to design lessons into a television plot line.

Do you remember when?

Steve, I had a dark blue SS like that.

They were a gorgeous car then, and still are.

I had a 1962 SS, I loved that car.

Grandparents had a 63 4-door that same color. Had the 327 V-8 with the 3 speed shifter on the steering column.
Dad’s was the same but brown. I remember the back seat seemed huge when we were kids! We’d all go to the Drive-In Movies in it. Good times! .

With 10.5 to 1 compression ratio, mine took 100 octane gas for sure. I cloud get 19 mpg with my foot in the carborater.

My first car was a 1967 VW Bug. I bought it for $50 in 1972. At the time, new Bugs were selling for $2995. Morris Minis as well. I had three Bugs over the years.

It had an AM radio and a fuel gauge in it! Before 1962, there was no fuel gauge offered. The battery was under the back seat. The gas tank was under the front hood. You can see that in this video. It had a reserve tank. You drove it however many miles that you knew were safe, or waited until it began to sputter and threw the reserve switch.

I got my NY State drivers license October or November 1956 and remember all the above. My first two Volkswagen were 6 volt. Definitely remember Nickle candy bars. As a boy I hitchhiked 4 miles to the next village movie theater where I got popcorn and a movie for a quarter on Sunday afternoons. I laughed at Bob Hope "Road to ...." movies summer of '51. There were 5 of them shown each Sunday. Theater had a promotion. Keep your tickets and you could turn in all 5 to see a new movie including large popcorn and a coke! Turned in my tickets and saw a Gene Autry, Tarzan double feature. WOW! That cowboy could fight and sing! Champion sure was the fastest horse in all the West and Gene could shoot a gun right out of a bad guy's hand and not hurt him! I was impressed. The hayrope hanging in the barn became a jungle vine and I could do the Tarzan yodel. Cheeta didn't appear and alas there was no Jane. Sure do remember those days.
Jim

I got my drivers license ten years later then you did, Jim.. We were the first family on the block to get a TV. We lived in the suburbs of the third largest city in Canada.

Hold on, Partner!