I Remember.....

[Rodgera]

I remember carbon paper.
I remember the smell of the mimeograph.
I remember the fading "dot"=C2=9D when you turned off the television.
I remember illegally copying music by holding a tape recorder up to an AM radio. (and that you
used to have to push the "record" and "play" buttons at the same time to get it to record).
I remember opening a can of Spam with a key (and tuna fish too).
I remember when milk was delivered to your door in pint & quart sized glass bottles.
I remember opening a bank account with one dollar.
I remember some relatives not having an indoor toilet.
I remember leaded gasoline.
You could only get watermelon in the summer.
I remember adjusting roller skates with a skate key.
I remember phone booths.
I remember when you returned empty soda bottles,
they sent them back to the factory to be cleaned
and refilled; and you got your deposit back.

[Sturdee]

I remember opening a bank account with one dollar.


In my days it was pounds, shillings and pence and you could open a school bank account with one shilling. :U


Peter.

[Opelblues2]

I remember when it was 28 cents a litre for fuel.
I remember driving a 5.4lt v8 Torona a the age of 17
I remember buying 6 pack of underwear for less than two dollars "needed for the above"

[chrisb691]

I remember using a Mortine spray pump.

[nine fingers]

I remember as a kid collecting beer bottles and getting half a penny each from the marine merchant. Maybe. about 1945. 46 John.

[Talltree]

I remember collecting newspapers to sell to the local Butcher, Greengrocer or Fish and Chip Shop depending on who was giving the best price..

[joe greiner]

I have a pack of carbon paper on a shelf above my computer. I use it for precision fitting parts, like "blueprinting" in the mechanical arts, in which ink (not necessarily blue) is smeared on the part to be mated, then transferred (or "printed") onto the new part; scrape off the "print" for mating. Repeat as needed.

Cheers,
Joe

[_fly_]

I remember getting a clip around the ears if I spoke back.

[Allan at Wallan]

I remember:
* Ink and blotter paper at school.
* Having to add up values without the aid of a calculator.
* Spending hours hitting a tennis ball against the garage door.
* Listening to "Blue Hills" on radio before the advent of television.
* Meeting friends face to face instead of via mobile phones etc.
* Listening to music on the gramaphone before they invented CDs etc.
* Watching the Queen and Prince Phillip travel through Yarra Junction by train.
* Having candles and kerosene lamps to read by before electricity came to our area.
* My parents only being able to purchase certain goods with ration tickets after WW2.
* Vaccinations at school with needles that seemed the size of crowbars.
* Practising my billy cart with trailer skills reversing between the gum trees.
* Only getting "the strap" once at school - for laughing in class.
* Amusing myself by skimming flat stones across ponds.
* Learning at a very early age to respect others.


I could go on - the list is endless.

Allan

[chrisb691]

Hands up all who have spent a farthing. (I know Alan has :D )

[Chesand]

Hands up all who have spent a farthing. (I know Alan has :D )

Now, now, we are not quite that old. :p:p
Half-penny was the smallest coin value wise and three penny piece was smallest in size but would buy a single scoop ice cream.

[KBs PensNmore]

I remember when it was 28 cents a litre for fuel.
I can remember my first brand new bike,
I can remember petrol at 2 shillings a gallon,
I can remember going to the picture theatre with 2 shillings, for admission, getting a coke and lollies.
I can remember my first wage packet, $12.60 a week, and costing $8.00 for fuel to get to work 20 mile round trip each day,(6 day week), board $2.00, the rest for keeping the car running, a Morris Oxford series MO. A red one with lay down seats, but no girlfriend :(.
Kryn

[rwbuild]

I can remember my first brand new bike,
I can remember petrol at 2 shillings a gallon,
I can remember going to the picture theatre with 2 shillings, for admission, getting a coke and lollies.
I can remember my first wage packet, $12.60 a week, and costing $8.00 for fuel to get to work 20 mile round trip each day,(6 day week), board $2.00, the rest for keeping the car running, a Morris Oxford series MO. A red one with lay down seats, but no girlfriend :(.
Kryn

Go the big Morri

My first car was my Grandmothers old MO Oxford, black, turn indicators in the centre post between front and back doors (never worked), pull up sun shade for rear window ..........aaaahhhhh the memories, I killed that car but what fun!!!

[fenderbelly]

Now, now, we are not quite that old. :p:p
Half-penny was the smallest coin value wise and three penny piece was smallest in size but would buy a single scoop ice cream.


I still have a silver threepenny piece and can remember seeing farthings but not if I had used them

[fenderbelly]

I can remember my first brand new bike,
I can remember petrol at 2 shillings a gallon,
I can remember going to the picture theatre with 2 shillings, for admission, getting a coke and lollies.
I can remember my first wage packet, $12.60 a week, and costing $8.00 for fuel to get to work 20 mile round trip each day,(6 day week), board $2.00, the rest for keeping the car running, a Morris Oxford series MO. A red one with lay down seats, but no girlfriend :(.
Kryn

My first pay packet was one pound nineteen and eleven pence:o

[chrisb691]

Now, now, we are not quite that old. :p:p
Half-penny was the smallest coin value wise and three penny piece was smallest in size but would buy a single scoop ice cream.

We learn something every day. :) I just assumed that because we had farthings in England when I was a kid, that they were also here.

[cava]

I remember using slate pencils on slate boards at school.
I also remember petrol costing 18 cents per gallon.
I remember ice cream from the mobile vans where you bought the square of ice cream and got two wafers to sandwich it between.
I remember, in Sydney, when they used to put coal under concrete footpaths as a base.

[Lyle]

I remember working in the bank and no computers/calculators. we did the monthly interest on the paper customer account pages. That was mind numbingly boring :C

[Handyjack]

While I am just too young to remember Pounds Shillings and pence, I have a bucket that cost 10/6. How do I know? That is what is written on the side.

How many of you can remember long gone Petrol brands like Golden Fleece and Ampol. Or perhaps the BP super mix to blend standard and super petrol?

[chambezio]

As an Apprentice in 1970 the Foreman would give me a $2 bill and a 4 gallon drum (20 litres) then send me up the road to the service station to get some Standard fuel for a VW motored air compressor. The bloke who pumped the petrol (...yes HE pumped the petrol) often got a splash from the nozzle because $2 really filled the drum to running over.
On that same job site which was a multi story office block when we got over 4 floors (I think) we got Height Money. So my first year apprentice wage for 40 hours, 5 days a week was $30 and $3 a week Height Money. It was customary for the business owner to pull his cabin cruiser out of the water for the youngest apprentice in the company to scrape the hull before repainting. Bugger of a job!!! When I did the it for the first time I still received Height money because I was charged out on the multi story job. Did I mention it was a bugger of a job?

[issatree]

Hi All,
Yes, I think we had the best of it. Certainly wood not want to be a 17yr. old now.
Had great times with all the other boys, & yes we got up to a few pranks.

Mr Dice the Policeman told us to go home, we didn't, caught us again & let our bike tyres down, now go home. We did.

I must have been 19, pay packet was 9 Pounds 7 Shillings & Thrupence, he even diddled me one week, Dad made short work of him with Language.

That was my 3rd. job, & in between there was NASHO, great 3 Months, really cut the Apron Strings. My next job I spent 33yrs. with.
Unfortunately, I had to Retire at 53, but I'm still upright, wood not be dead for Quids.

[TKO]

I say thanks for all those memory's, I go back a little further, I remember
my Dad going to WWII and saying it wont last long you will never have to go but I did.
I remember the days with no Telly, no mobiles, A lot of horse drawn vehicles, plenty of now veteran and vintage cars, pen and ink ,chalk and slate, and the often wielded head master' cane, plenty of respect all round,
Hoons and trouble makers were dealt with quickly by the local bobby, who wasn't afraid to use his truncheon if need be.
Firemen wore large brass helmets, and went to fire's, on some pretty antique solid tyred engines, to me they were the good day's, not like these days, I am not really old, only in the bones, I am still restoring a1950 car and managing ok, and many thanks for your memory's'.

Tis of course was in the UK, been here longer than I was ever a pom
Eddie

[rrich]

I can remember V-J day. (August 14, 1945)

We were staying at a hotel in Mattituck, NY for a short vacation. My father was a New York City Fireman and in the US Marine Reserve. His job, as a fireman, was deemed to be vital to the war effort and was not drafted into the regular US Armed Forces.

All day long the city fire trucks were driving up and down the streets with sirens blaring and bells ringing. Anything to express joy that the war was finally over. As each fire truck drove by, I would run to the chain link fence to watch the fire truck drive by.

That evening at dinner, my mother had purchased a birthday cake in town for my father as August 14 was his birthday. It didn't matter that in the 'early' part of the world, the actual date was August 15. As my mother lit the candles on the cake, she started to sing Happy Birthday to my father, everyone in the hotel dining room joined in.

While I remember the events, it was only later that I realized the significance of the day.

And:
Petrol at 25.9 cents a GALLON during the late 1950s.
The "gas wars" as we would call them, in the 1960s when petrol prices would sometimes be as low as 21.9 a gallon.
Fountain Coke for a nickel or 5 cents a glass.
Movie matinee prices 25 cents at the second run theater or 30 cents at the first run theater.
Newspapers two cents. (New York Daily News.)
Street car, bus or subway ride for 5 cents. It was "outrageous" when the fare went to 7 cents.
The guys who delivered the milk and bread would join us for a picnic with their families on Independence Day.
I delivered the afternoon newspaper, 6 days a week, for 35 cents a week. You can't believe the outrage when the price went to 50 cents a week.

It was not a big deal for children to take public transportation, unescorted. At age 8, I had to take two buses and a ferry to get home from school during the month of June. (We had a vacation home at the shore.)

I could walk up Bedford Avenue to Ebbets field to watch a Brooklyn Dodger baseball game. If I could scrape together fifty cents for a bleacher seat. There was never a concern about my safety.

Best of all, I could take the tubes out of the TV set and have them tested. Most TV & Radio repair shops would test the tubes for free. (Or do you blokes call them valves?) Using my paper route earnings I would buy replacements and make the TV set work again.

[Bob38S]

Friday's I was allowed to buy my lunch from the little shop over the road from school.

No permission required to leave the grounds, no crossing monitors, no traffic lights - you crossed when the opportunity arose.

One shilling (10 cents for our decimal members) was all I ever had. This bought a pie with mushy peas and black sauce (Worcestershire sauce) for 8 pence and a Peters ice cream bucket with a small wooden paddle for 4 pence.

Eat the ice cream first which gave the pie time to cool to eating temperature. On the odd occasion (Winter) when the temperature was really cold the ice cream was given a miss and the 4 pence was spent on lollies. You always picked the chocolate bullets as they were 6 for a penny.

A lunch fit for a King :D

[Tonyz]

Hands up all who have spent a farthing. (I know Alan has :D )

no..........but I have spent an evening farting.....is that close?

[Bob38S]

Close but no cigar. :no:

[crowie]

Thank you one and all for the great memories.....here's some of mine.........

I remember collecting Golden Circle, Kirks & Tristrams soft drink bottles from the Athol Hedges factory on the way home from school as you'd get thripence for returning each of them.. Potato scollops were 2 for thripence, iceblocks were thripence too, so you needed 2 bottles for a good meal or a large Coke a cola bottle which was worth sixpence....
With a penny you had to work out whether to buy lollies at 4 a penny or 3 a penny...
On special occasions mum would send us to Con's corner store to buy a brick of icecream which was wrapped in newspaper with stern instructions to get straight home quickly, especially in a Brisbane summer...
The other thing was Christmas when all the grandkids got a thripence in there plum pudding with hot custard....
Under the verandah in our old Queenslander we have a very large bin supplied by the APM paper mill at Petrie for recycling all our old newspapers & cardboard; the 3 wheeled trike came every couple of months to collect the bin's paper..
We only got lunch money in high school after a long weekend and the was decimal 20cents would buy little lunch & big lunch; on all other days we'd have to bring our grease proof sandwich paper wrapping home for reuse the next day...
The baker & milko delivered daily & fruito weekly, as with weekly service from the rubbishman & captain midnight...the postie came twice a day too.....oh and the gutter sweep bloke was down our street 2-3 times a week....we had steam trains, trams and trolley buses in Brisbane into the late 1960's....
As I got older I was allowed to go with dad to the dump early on Sunday mornings; dropped one load and returned with a trailer load of good stuff....
My first job as a kitchen boy in a cake shop at 50cents an hour plus all I could eat.....after a few months you got more selective as to what you grabbed but always plenty.....

[doug3030]

On special occasions mum would send us to Con's corner store to buy a brick of icecream which was wrapped in newspaper with stern instructions to get straight home quickly, especially in a Brisbane summer...

Thanks for that post Crowie, reminds me so much of my growing up in Brisbane in the 1960's - right down to the name of the owner of the corner store. Wondering if we lived near each other?

Cheers

Doug

[crowie]

Thanks for that post Crowie, reminds me so much of my growing up in Brisbane in the 1960's - right down to the name of the owner of the corner store. Wondering if we lived near each other?

Cheers

Doug

Holland St, Northgate East......1961-1968.....

[rwbuild]

I remember...
We had a 3 digit phone number, ring anyone in the local area but to ring town or anywhere else, call the exchange to be connected
Dad was a dairy farmer, horse and plow, 44 gallon drum on the timber sled to water the melons, pumpkins, etc
Mail was addressed by property name not number
The milk was picked up in 20 gal cans and hand loaded onto the pickup truck
Cashing empty Noons soft drink bottles for 3pence
Bread was delivered by the baker in a horse drawn cart
Trams in Sydney
Lifts had a lift operator call out the various floors
Steam trains to Sydney if more than 4 carriages otherwise less than 4 diesel motor cars
Pen nibs and inkwells (great for flicking wads of paper dipped in ink at flies on the ceiling)
1 quart bottles of milk delivered to school and the lucky kids had flavored straws to drink it
Polio clinics at school (AAHHH that dreaded needle before the syrup was introduced)

[Handyjack]

Friday's I was allowed to buy my lunch from the little shop over the road from school.


Eat the ice cream first which gave the pie time to cool to eating temperature. On the odd occasion (Winter) when the temperature was really cold the ice cream was given a miss and the 4 pence was spent on lollies. You always picked the chocolate bullets as they were 6 for a penny.

:D

My first full time job was in a confectionery factory. Did jobs from washing buckets to sieving 100's & 1000's or moving buckets of chocolate bullets from the upstairs room they were made in to the downstairs packing machine. In latter years I was involved in coating the licorice with chocolate and yes I did eat more than a handfull. Worked there for over ten years ending up as a leading hand and having the key to the door.

[doug3030]

Holland St, Northgate East......1961-1968.....

Hi ex-neighbour - that would have been the same Con's corner store!

1962 - 1970 Melton Rd - Holland St was over our back fence.

Doug

[crowie]

Hi ex-neighbour - that would have been the same Con's corner store!

1962 - 1970 Melton Rd - Holland St was over our back fence.

Doug

Small world Doug.....In 1962 I was in grade 2 at Northgate State....Walked to school down past Megats Linseed factory so could have walked past your place.. I did piano lessons with Melany Macintosh's mum in the house opposite Holland St on Melton Road next to the nursery....
In with Con's corner stop was a chemist, a butcher, a fish&chip shop, a barber who gave good boys a small pack of Juicy Fruit gum, much to my mum's disgust & a haberdashery....
The family at the back of us had young adults, one of the boys had a hot FJ......

[Brosh]

[QUOTE=crowie;1867536]Thank you one and all for the great memories.....here's some of mine.........

The other thing was Christmas when all the grandkids got a thripence in there plum pudding with hot custard.

But the thrippence went back to Mum - we were given pennies in return.
and what about the carbide lights - we were never in the hunt to have electricity connected - we started off with a one jet light - then moved to a two jet - thought we were pretty flash. But the carbide lights ran out of go power (add water to calcium carbide and produce acetylene gas) after 3 hours or so - then we were back to kerosene lamps. sometimes if the water seal on the carbide lights wasn't quite up to the job then the lamp would start to flare all around the can - it was quickly carted outside I can tell you.

About the same time we moved from the icebox attached to the white elephant - no idea what their name was - saw two of them in the Winton museum - coils and tanks everywhere - you light a fire in the bottom and the tank in the ice box went cold - even saw ice on it once - (a big deal in tropical north Qld in my youth)
to the kerosene fridge - flash ah what!!!!!

More to come

Brosh

[Sawdust Maker]

Hah

a lot of this brings back memories

my first real job (and while I was at school) was as a milko
I remember catching the kid down the street pinching milk money (not connected with the job)

newspaper around the fish n chips (a real treat since we lived out of town)

and we used to by ice cream in big tubs - specially ordered in

Dad loved seafood - so oysters in glass tubes and blocks of frozen prawns

[doug3030]

Small world Doug.....In 1962 I was in grade 2 at Northgate State....Walked to school down past Megats Linseed factory so could have walked past your place.. I did piano lessons with Melany Macintosh's mum in the house opposite Holland St on Melton Road next to the nursery....

I started at Northgate SS in 1965. We lived directly across the street from the factory where the busses were made (Athol Hedges). There was a mattress factory diagonally across the road too. The nursery (Levy's) was on the corner of Allworth st, which was where the peanut/linseed factory was. If you walked around past Con's shop you would have walked past my place, but if you went the other way past the railway station you would not have.



In with Con's corner stop was a chemist, a butcher, a fish&chip shop, a barber who gave good boys a small pack of Juicy Fruit gum, much to my mum's disgust & a haberdashery....

...and a post office. Yeah, Jim Chapple, the barber and his little packets of four juicyfruit chewies - almost worth having to sit through a haircut.

My mum used to send me to Con's shop after school every day after school to get the Telegraph newspaper. Remember in Friday it had a green sheet in the middle, the racing guide. One Friday I got home with the paper and mum made me take it back and tell Con it did not have a green sheet in it. To this day I cannot work out whether it was an accident or if Con had nicked it and given that paper to me because he erroneously assumed my mum was so wholesome that she would not miss it. Either way he looked quite embarrassed.

The other side of our house from Con's was a new set of three shops, another butcher, a milk bar and a Four-Square.

It is indeed a small world

Cheers

Doug

[Handyjack]

Four-Square was a chain of independently run supermarkets. Had a couple near my home. Worked in one after school for a couple of years. The brand has long gone and in my case so has the store.

[crowie]

Four-Square was a chain of independently run supermarkets. Had a couple near my home. Worked in one after school for a couple of years. The brand has long gone and in my case so has the store.

Yes, I too worked at a Four Square grocery store too long ago; the boss used to watch how you packed the large brown paper grocery bags for the customers which we also had to take out to the cars for the ladies.....
Petrol stations were roostered on the weekends so you had to ensure the car was full before Saturday lunch time to drive around to a roostered station... Chemists too were roostered... All the shops shut at noon Saturday and Sunday only a few corner stores were open... Oh, how things have changed and I'm not always sure it's been for the better??

[crowie]

Does anyone remember the radio serial "YES WHAT" with Greenbottle, Bottomley, Stanford, and Dr Percy.....

I heard in the late mid1960's in Brisbane while at High School then again in the mid1970's in Sydney while in the Navy.... Very funny....

[Bob38S]

Yes, remember it very well and listened regularly when I was a kid.

As fate,( for want of a better term) would have it I became good mates with the son of the gent (Jack Craig-Gardiner) who played Greenbottle. We had many great laughs and good times until he passed away prematurely.

[Bob38S]

For those interested, they are on Utube, there are heaps. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf4cmpGLEuY

PS. Corporal punishment was the norm, I don't wish to get into the pros/cons, just enjoy it for what it was - a clever comedy, if you like, a boys version of St Trinians.

[Redbog]

For the 4 Square nostalgiasts, I was in a gorgeous little town in Northland in NZ call Mangonui. There is a wooden, 4 Square supermarket, built out over the water on piles, still trading hot and strong. I would recommend the town to anyone going to the shakey isles, it's a great place, fishing, history, great people, scenic. And here's a picture! The 4 Square store is on the right out over the water across from the pub ( 100+ years old).

Cheers, Redbog349097

[Chesand]

Does anyone remember the radio serial "YES WHAT" with Greenbottle, Bottomley, Stanford, and Dr Percy.....

I heard in the late mid1960's in Brisbane while at High School then again in the mid1970's in Sydney while in the Navy.... Very funny....

Yes, I remember it. On at tea-time or thereabouts.

[popawisky]

The horse powered night cart. Collecting well
Horse powered bottleo Collecting bottles
Kids putting penny bungers ( bombs ) through the back flap of the dunny.

Pete

[Bob38S]

Aaah yes, cracker night, November 5 from memory, everyone had a bonfire, lots of eats and bangs as well as skyrockets.

Once again, the nanny state stepped in and banned what was a lot of fun, due to the inappropriate actions of a few.

Was a celebration of Guy Fawkes - regarded by many as the only person to enter parliament with honourable intentions. :B

[popawisky]

Cracker night.
Lived in Brown Hill, near Kalgoorlie.
The whole community donated to the bonfire, great time for a clean up, old tyres, trees etc.
everyone turned up, great fun.
Then the slime dumps at Williamstown.
Political correctness????????????"? Bah Humbug

[doug3030]

Aaah yes, cracker night, November 5 from memory, everyone had a bonfire, lots of eats and bangs as well as skyrockets.

Once again, the nanny state stepped in and banned what was a lot of fun, due to the inappropriate actions of a few.

When I was living in Darwin 5 years ago fireworks were permitted on Territory Day, and I believe they still are.

Unfortunately it only served as a reminder as to why they were banned everywhere else. :oo:

Cheers

Doug

[Bedford]

Aaah yes, cracker night,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLavk805b74 :D

[crowie]

I loved cracker night in Brisbane...dad made it heaps of fun when we were little with skyrockets & wheels nailed to the fence plus he'd put a penny bunger under a jam tin, aim it on to the neighbours roof....

Later as I got older we'd have cracker night at the Northgate Scout Hall with a big bonfire...happy memories....

But of course we also got up to mischief with the penny bungers, double voises and the like.....

[popawisky]

Ever tried an old hollow key?????
Fill the cavity with match heads. insert one close fitting nail and belt it against a solid object.
WOW scares the hell out of the unsuspecting. Little old ladies, dogs, little old ladies, dogs, did I mention lite old ladies??

[doug3030]

Ever tried an old hollow key?????
Fill the cavity with match heads. insert one close fitting nail and belt it against a solid object.
WOW scares the hell out of the unsuspecting. Little old ladies, dogs, little old ladies, dogs, did I mention lite old ladies??

I think you might be the reason cracker night was banned....

[Tonyz]

In my home town we used to make a raft then load it with fireworks, have a long fuse then set it afloat down the river through suburbia,

also had the local police station 2 doors down and great delight in seeing what you could land on his roof.... until one night when all was quietening down in our front yard there was mr plod quietly watching us from our front door :o