03-07-2009, 09:31 PM
Hoo Boy, younguns! Now here's some reminiscenses from a certified GEEZER.
Before I started school, we lived on my Grandpa Robison's ranch out by Baker NV & we didn't have indoor plumbing, Mom cooked on a wood stove & all we had for light were coal oil lamps. I vividly remember my brother just younger than me & myself standing on the back step peeing into the darkness just before going to bed. The first telephone I talked on was a big brown box on the wall with a black microphone sticking out of the front, a crank on one side & a heavy coke bottle shaped thing on the other that had a wire on it and you had to hold the big end to your ear to listen. You had to turn the crank like heck for three or 4 turns then pick up the listener thing and the operator would say "number please". You'd tell her & if the other line wasn't busy & somebody was home on the other end you could talk to them. Oh, I forgot. Before you did the crank thing you had to pick up the listener to be sure nobody was already on the line 'cause if you turned the crank when somebody was talking, it wouldn't be long before you got a call & had the riot act read to you.
We got dial calling when I was in the sixth grade and "BLACK & WHITE" TV when I was a junior in high school.
In the summer we could hitch hike from Ely to McGill to go swimming and were absolutely safe doing so. We could hike or ride our bikes just about anywhere that we wanted to & if we got tired & were pushing our bikes the first pickup that came by let us throw the bikes in the back & gave us a ride.
I remember my brothers, some friends & myself taking our 22's to school after lunch (we had to have the bolts out), giving them and our bullets to the principal for safekeeping then getting them when school was out & going rabbit hunting. E. Ely grade school was at the very edge of town then so we could load up as soon as we left the school ground. Every thing was OK unless some dummy decided to shoot back toward town. Can you imagine that happening today?
If we got in trouble at school, God help us when we got home. The teachers didn't get sued, fired or any of that sissy liberal crap.
We've got a lot more now than we had then but even if I had the chance, I wouldn't trade my childhood & youth for all the luxuries - anything today for that matter for what I had & experienced then.
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Before I started school, we lived on my Grandpa Robison's ranch out by Baker NV & we didn't have indoor plumbing, Mom cooked on a wood stove & all we had for light were coal oil lamps. I vividly remember my brother just younger than me & myself standing on the back step peeing into the darkness just before going to bed. The first telephone I talked on was a big brown box on the wall with a black microphone sticking out of the front, a crank on one side & a heavy coke bottle shaped thing on the other that had a wire on it and you had to hold the big end to your ear to listen. You had to turn the crank like heck for three or 4 turns then pick up the listener thing and the operator would say "number please". You'd tell her & if the other line wasn't busy & somebody was home on the other end you could talk to them. Oh, I forgot. Before you did the crank thing you had to pick up the listener to be sure nobody was already on the line 'cause if you turned the crank when somebody was talking, it wouldn't be long before you got a call & had the riot act read to you.
We got dial calling when I was in the sixth grade and "BLACK & WHITE" TV when I was a junior in high school.
In the summer we could hitch hike from Ely to McGill to go swimming and were absolutely safe doing so. We could hike or ride our bikes just about anywhere that we wanted to & if we got tired & were pushing our bikes the first pickup that came by let us throw the bikes in the back & gave us a ride.
I remember my brothers, some friends & myself taking our 22's to school after lunch (we had to have the bolts out), giving them and our bullets to the principal for safekeeping then getting them when school was out & going rabbit hunting. E. Ely grade school was at the very edge of town then so we could load up as soon as we left the school ground. Every thing was OK unless some dummy decided to shoot back toward town. Can you imagine that happening today?
If we got in trouble at school, God help us when we got home. The teachers didn't get sued, fired or any of that sissy liberal crap.
We've got a lot more now than we had then but even if I had the chance, I wouldn't trade my childhood & youth for all the luxuries - anything today for that matter for what I had & experienced then.
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