Totally OT: You have to be old

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2013: Totally OT: You have to be old
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Monday, August 26, 2013 - 12:06 am:

If you're young these books will mean nothing to you. But if, like me, you once marched around the breakfast table with Don and Sam and Aunt Fanny and the gang, you'll remember this program that was on the air for 331/2 years. I bought them at an auction today for $1 each.


I just noticed that three years after the war Don is wearing a prewar suit.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dennis Halpin on Monday, August 26, 2013 - 03:31 am:

I remember it, even though I was only 2 in 1947.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Stroud on Monday, August 26, 2013 - 04:41 am:

I never listened to him myself, but my Dad listened to him all of the time when he was delivering mail on his rural route in the early fifties into the early sixties as I recall. Dave


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Roger Karlsson, southern Sweden on Monday, August 26, 2013 - 05:30 am:

The breakfast club format was such a huge success it was imitated in Sweden too. The swedish version ran from 1946-49 and 1955-78 (though I can only remember some from its last decade)
Throughout the run they used this melody as a signature: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNqUHiv_ekg ("Good Morning" from Babes in Arms, 1939)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Ronning on Monday, August 26, 2013 - 07:36 am:

thanks sometime I feel old but I did not know of this show. born in 1952


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John Semprez-Templeton, CA on Monday, August 26, 2013 - 10:30 am:

I marched around the breakfast table every morning with my mom in the early 50's. Thank you for this memory!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jay - In Northern California on Monday, August 26, 2013 - 10:35 am:

Now this is old! :-)



Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Henry Petrino in Modesto, CA on Monday, August 26, 2013 - 10:38 am:

I was born in 1947. I can remember my mother listening to radio shows in the early '50s and thinking, "We should get a television!"


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George_Cherry Hill NJ on Monday, August 26, 2013 - 11:10 am:

Steve,

I like some of this nostalgia stuff as it is a reminder of other things.

In my case I was a post-war baby, and my parents bought one of the first TV's that came along so I was a TV guy from the beginning...

But...my grandfather lived with us, born in 1881...he didn't have time for TV and the monster of a console radio had been moved into his room with two easy chairs. So in the evening, I'd be with Grandpop sitting in near dark...the button pushed and the dial lit with its' all of maybe 3 watt lamp while it made all of the wee-woo sounds of warming up followed by a tick-click-tick as it finally settled in and while it was a 5 pushbutton model, those buttons had drift and he'd dial in to perfection and in the dark, just grandpop and me catching one another chuckle over something :-)

I don't remember him EVER sitting in front of the TV...and it was 1955 before he passed. Thanks for the reminder :-)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Monday, August 26, 2013 - 12:48 pm:

I was very lucky that my dad was such a thrifty guy. Radio was good enough. So while some of the other kids were watching Hoppy and Lash LaRue on TV, I was still listening to Tom Mix, Roy, Bobby Benson, Sergeant Preston, Sky King, the Lone Ranger, the Cisco Kid, and Smilin' Ed McConnel on the radio. Thursday nights I would walk two blocks to Jimmy Krehbiel's place to watch The Lone Ranger on TV. The rest of the time it was good old radio. It wasn't until I was in sixth grade that they finished the transcontinental coaxial cable. Then you could watch the World Series on the west coast and Dad was willing to spring for a TV set. We drove to Long Beach and brought home a new 21" Silvertone from Sears. We set up the aerial on the roof, aimed it at Mount Wilson, and turned on the set. The first show we saw was Space Patrol with Ed Kemmer and Lynn Osborn. I became a big TV watcher, but still listened to classics like Suspense and probably the greatest radio series of all, Gunsmoke.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Richard Gould on Monday, August 26, 2013 - 12:52 pm:

That's some mighty fine looking hair.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ross Benedict - Calgary, Alberta on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - 10:58 am:

If you are 36, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH... ways...yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of forty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

1) I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

2) There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

3) Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

4) There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

5) Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

6) We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

7) There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

9) We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen.. Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

10) You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

11) There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

12) And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

13) And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1970 or any time before!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Harold Schwendeman - Sumner,WA on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - 01:42 pm:

George - "......a reminder of other things." Boy! You said it! Except for reading this thread, I would have never thought of my Mother, listening to the radio while making supper, and having the radio tuned to "Suppertime Frolics, with Randy Blake."

This was in suburban Chicago in the '40's when I was a little kid. How I remembered that, or why, is a mystery to me! But the discussion in this thread somehow prompted that to sneak out of my ever-aging mind,.......weird! I sure don't remember anything about "Suppertime Frolics, with Randy Blake", but I sure remember that radio "announcement", before, during and after that broadcast! Guess it was part of my Mom's every evening routine!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mark Stewart -Calif. on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - 03:16 pm:

I remember living at my Grand Parents house and Grandma listening to the Arthur Godfrey show in the kitchen on the radio as she made biscuits from scratch. If you wanted to watch TV ( bought for them by my Dad in 1952) you watched Larence Welk, Mitch Miller, Ed Sulleven, or the treat was Car 54 Where Are You. I miss that world. My poor Grand kids.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Henry Petrino in Modesto, CA on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - 03:39 pm:

When I was a kid and my grandparents got a TV, there were only 3 shows "worth watching". My grandmother would watch Lawrence Welk and Liberace. My grandfather watched "professional" wrestling (and from the way he watched it, he believed every body slam to be real). I, of course, would try to get in Howdie Doodie when I could. Saturday was My Friend Flicka, the Lone Ranger, and Roy Rogers to name a few.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - 05:12 pm:

Harold, try tuning to WJJD at suppertime.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Harold Schwendeman - Sumner,WA on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - 07:01 pm:

Steve - I'd have absolutely no idea how to do that! But now that you mention it, I remember that as a kid, working on my Model A Ford in my folks garage, WJJD was the station I "ALWAYS" listened to. In fact, one of their sponsors was Clark gasoline and believe it or not, I can still remember every word to the Clark Gasoline song:

"Clark Super 100 Gasoline.
Thousands say it's best.
The largest selling independent gasoline...
In the Middle West.
Fill up today,
You'll know just what we mean,
Buy Clark Super, 100 gasoline."

Boy! That's scary! Ask me what I had for breakfast yesterday and I'm a complete blank! But I can remember a stupid radio commercial from Chicago, which I left 41 years ago! Weird! Yeah,...I guess like a lot of other "old f-rts", it's the "short term memory" that's my problem!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Harold Schwendeman - Sumner,WA on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - 07:08 pm:

Hey Steve,.....Thru' Google, I see where you got that picture, and after reading the very extensive article, I now know much more than I ever needed to know about "Randy Blake". Very interesting though,......gosh! Is there ANYTHING that can't be found on Google? Amazing what comes out of this forum,.....thanks Steve,.....harold


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Randy Glowacki on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - 10:27 pm:

Hey Steve.
I was born in 1953 and I can still remember driving back from the Jersey shore LBI and listening to Fibber McGee and Molly.
We would all wait til Fibber opened his closet...LOL.
Randy, Parsippany, NJ.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - 11:04 pm:

Cream of wheat is so good to eat that we have it every day,
We sing this song, it will make us strong, and it makes us shout Hooray!
It's good for growing children, and grown-ups too to eat.
For all your family's breakfast, you can't beat cream of Wheat.

Shredded Ralston for your breakfast starts the day off shinin' bright,
Filled with lots of cowboy energy, with a flavor that's just right.
It's delicious and nutritious, bite-sized and ready to eat.
Take a tip from Tom, run and tell your mom, Shredded Ralston can't be beat.

That's my dog Tyge!
He lives in a shoe.
I'm Buster Brown.
Look for me in there too!


Somehow it's the advertising that sticks.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - 11:12 pm:


"Gotta clean out that closet one of these days."

The closet gag was seldom used, but it was such a gem of sound effects artistry that everybody remembers it.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ted Dumas on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - 11:33 pm:

My mother never listened to them, but I remember taking a short cut through the Kennedy's yard and hearing Don McNeill and the Breakfast Club as I walked by.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ted Dumas on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - 11:33 pm:

My mother never listened to them, but I remember taking a short cut through the Kennedy's yard and hearing Don McNeill and the Breakfast Club as I walked by.

PS: I am still working on getting old.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Dewey, N. California on Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - 12:01 am:

When I was a kid, we had a closet in my brother's room (which was also the family room--with the 15" B&W Zenith TV in it after I was in 1st grade) which held all our toys, and anything else my folks wanted stored on the upper shelves. It was always called the "Fibber McGee Closet." And yes, sometimes when you opened the door, stuff fell out!
Before 1st grade we listened to the radio; "See the USA in your Chevrolet!" (I forget the rest!) When the TV came, we had 2 or 3 channels, depending on the weather, and they came on in the afternoon after an hour of test patterns. Except Saturdays, when there were morning CARTOONS! During the week, at about 5 pm there was "Don's Cartoon Club" where Don would make drawings out of numbers or words that folks sent in, and then he'd show a cartoon or two.
Kids today don't know how to have FUN! They have to be entertained!
David D.
Becoming Crotchety Old Man!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Garrison_Rice Minnesota on Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - 12:41 am:

I am so thankful for cell phones, flat screen color tv's with remote controls, microwave and convection ovens, micro-chips with the ability to store hundreds of thousands of bits of information on them. Clear FM radios stations and XM radio in the car. MRI and ultra-sound machines in health care organizations. Anti-lock breaking systems, backup cameras and surround sound. And I figure I could keep going but the thing is I appreciate technology until it starts to create ways for others to infringe on my personal being. There are several things I don't like. Things like the fallacy of political correctness, the need for people to know what products I buy and what I eat so they can target markets at me. People who actually believe eating a strictly vegan diet is good for anyone. The incessant need to put on some of the most ridiculous clothes a person's ever seen so they can ride a bicycle, or run down the side of the road.

I was born in 1950. I love remembering the past. There's no way I want to go back to having to bring the battery in the house so the car starts and I can get to work when it's -30 degrees. Having to heat water and pour it in the radiator in order to warm the engine block so the car will start. Then having to drain the radiator and block so it won't crack during the night. I think the greatest invention to come along is geothermal heating and cooling systems that can be put in a home. I don't want to go out and split wood and carry it in and throw it in that beast of a boiler in order to heat a poorly insulated house.

I like to read stories out of books and I see very little reason for a kindle but I can understand why others might want it. I absolutely love watching Big Bang Theory on my 55" flat screen television. I love watching tv on my flat screen television in my camper. I really like the idea that no matter where I am I can pay for a service that allows me to watch satellite tv from just about anywhere I go in the United States. I like not having "snow" on the tv screen during my favorite shows and having to adjust the vertical or horizontal screen hold was never one of my favorite things. And I really enjoy, I mean I love, I mean I don't know how I ever lived without a minimum of 100 channels to pick from on my tv.

Isn't life, technology, history, hobbies, and our own personal past the best. I really like my current and past life.

Remember, "Out of the blue of the Western sky comes Sky King". Oh and who can forget Rin Tin Tin. Oh and how about bicycles with one speed and "tanks", chain guards, bulb horns and playing cards in the spokes. I remember walking up the hill to slide back down. Snowmobiles couldn't go much over 15 mph. Wool socks, bunny boots, red plaid wool hunting jackets. The smell of Grandpa's fish-house, was a mixture of his pipe tobacco, his little wood stove, the fish that had been scrubbed across the floor before being thrown out the door, the coffee from the thermos, and his old spice still seemed to make it through. Sometimes he'd pull out his pipe tobacco and rolling papers and roll a cigarette that he could smoke and still act pretty much normal. Then walking out the door of the little shanty and having the steam roll out of the door and feeling that cold freezing air hit your face. Remember hot summer days and the sun just beating on your bare back and throwing bales up on the hayrack. The itchy hayseed, the sunburn on the back of your neck and the tip of your nose. The sweat down your back and arms and the smell of the hay from the field that had just been cut and wasn't windrowed yet. The pop of the little John Deere tractor as it pulled the side delivery rake or the baler down the field. Then the first dive into the lake and the relief of the cool water on your arms that are raw from throwing those bales and the coolness as the water hit your sunburned neck and back. I'll never forget going down to Newman's and running errands for Dad and the neighbors as they ran a threshing machine with an old 15-30 McCormick Deering tractor. The slap of the long, quickly moving, endless belt. And the old guys yelling at you if you got to close to the belt. Going over and pumping gas up into the visible glass on the gas pump and filling the empty 5 gallon can that when new had originally held 30 weight non-detergent oil. Some of the cans were Texaco, Shell or Mobiloil. Bagging the oats and seeing the pile of chaff build. The guys up on top of the racks with pitch forks throwing shocks into the thresher. And working until dark and beyond then once again going swimming. The water was warmer than the outside air and felt so good until you had to leave the lake to go home.

How lucky we are to be able to remember what was and what we've had and still appreciate what we've got now. Buffalo Bob and Howdy and Clara Bell would probably have a little bit of a problem with South Park and Bart Simpson but they'd adjust. Remember what Sonny and Cher said, "The Beat Goes On!"


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By kep on Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - 02:36 am:

Never seen nor heard anything of this and nobody seems to have recorded it to tape and posted it on youtube because cassette tapes were not invented yet. i prefer the old tv's with the small screen and manual tuning dial and the valve radios (much more real, vastly better sound too).


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ted Dumas on Thursday, August 29, 2013 - 12:27 am:

Kep, the Breakfast Club was AM radio. I am not sure it was ever on TV.

Ted


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Carl Sorenson-Lake Arrowhead,CA on Thursday, August 29, 2013 - 01:56 pm:

Fibber Sez...."Hey Bub,,have a cigar" "Why no thank you I have one....Fibber Sez "Got Two ?".....Molly Sez.."T'aint funny Macee"....That's the only thing I miss after I cancelled my Serus Radio...Old Time Radio...Carl


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By kep on Thursday, August 29, 2013 - 01:58 pm:

AM radio is sometimes put on youtube.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John B Joyce on Thursday, August 29, 2013 - 05:00 pm:

Good morning breakfast clubbers how do ya do ya etc. john


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