I grew up in small town U.S.A. Do you guy's remember when most towns had a bus depot? Greyhound use to service our area they moved people yes but also brought parts for the car dealers and goods for the hardware.
I grew up just outside of small town usa. 310 people. No bus depot, no car dealers, gravel streets and roads.
Living outside Houston we had a trolley that ran from Baytown to Houston, parents would let the kids ride the trolley on Sat to movies or skating rink, the rink was on 1 side of the track the theater was on the other side of the track.The trolley was neat it had a drivers area on both ends the driver would drive to the last stop go to the other end and head back.You couldn't let the kids do that now with all the weird people now.That trolley ride cost $.10 for all day he punched a little card when you got off and you showed the card to get back on,lol even when you lost the card he knew where you going and made sure you got back home. I took my daughter in my arms on the last trip Mr Jim (we called him) and trolley made before it was taken out of service, Humble Refinery before it became Exxon paid the upkeep and Mr Jims salary for years for that old trolley
The train use to bring in the big stuff lumber,coal,etc the buses hauled smaller expedited goods and people semi trucks for the inbetween the town was a buzz with activity now it's almost a ghost town of coarse the rail is gone it's a atv trail the buses run the duffers to the casino.
Quote from: Ed Hackenbruch on December 17, 2022, 07:39:50 AM
I grew up just outside of small town usa. 310 people. No bus depot, no car dealers, gravel streets and roads.
Sounds almost like my kind of place. Where was that?
Big towns too. Even my early recollection was they were meeting grounds for the down and out and the go to place where pimps got new workers?
I grew up in a small town of Keyport NJ right on the bay. You could see NY across the bay. Keyport was noted for a famous eating place called Yee Cottage Inn and where Oldtown Boats were built.
Greyhound used to be the best thing going for shipping bulky/heavy materials. I used them a few times back 'in the day' getting parts for my 1952 CJ I was rebuilding and picked them up at the Dallas bus terminal.
Do you guys remember J.C Whitney catalog back it the day? Pop use to buy model T parts out of it? and if you didn't get what you needed on Saturday you were screwed until Monday out in the boondocks anyway couldn't buy anything on Sunday.
tr206 Duvall Wa. in the Snoqualmie Valley 20 miles east of Seattle.
Ed: Duvall is far from rural these days but what a beauiful place to grow up. When I was a yound man I worked for a outfit building forestry roads on south side of Mt Hood and then Mt Adams but I,m back in Wisconsin where I was rised now. I can smell that mountain air from here.
How about the Sears and Roebuck, Montgomery Wards, and other heavy catalogs? To think they were sent to everyone. Linda remembers the Christmas wish book. She and her sisters spent hours pouring over the pages till it was all corner curled and pages coming loose. AFAIK, you can still order from JC Whitney online. Great for obscure automotive items and stuff not available elsewhere.
Yep Sear and Wards I figured was a given wasn't sure about J.C Witney. I remember spending hours as a kid going through Sears and Wards so I could show Mom and Dad what I would like from Santa Claus and when we were older when the new catalogs came out we would use the old ones for target practice see if we could shoot thru them.
I just remembered I got a chemistry set one year for Christmas thats not going to happen these days.
Growing up Texas gun racks with rifles or shotguns in the pickups back windows at school was standard equipment lol even with the windows down they would be there when you left class at 3 pm
Yeah same up here. A lot of stuff we did back then would land you in prison nowadays.
Up till the mid 80's you drive and drink a beer going down the road in Texas the Germans and Boeheim's that made up Texas never drank water.Pot was never a problem because I never tried it because you knew if you were caught it was jail time in a big way there and we all knew it back then,I did try my 1st and last gummy bear about 4 months ago :D.I was told it would help me sleep better didn't work for me,Van is still LHAO
Sidney I. Robinson (S.I.R.) They were a mail order gun seller out of Winnipeg (I think). They used to send out a yellow newsprint flyer about every month back when we could still own weapons. They must have bought up bulk lots of military surplus because they always had WWI and II firearms and usually some pretty good sales. They also sold ammunition and all sorts of firearm paraphernalia. Unfortunately at that time I had even less money than I have now so I didn't stock up as much as I should have. For long arms you just mailed in your cheque and a few weeks later the gun showed up at the post office. Handguns were slightly more complicated - you had to be on the "nice" list with the feds and the weapon came to the local cop shop but it was still no big deal.
Not like today where we're not even allowed to look at pictures of weapons. I'm afraid to Google online vendors for fear the black helicopter will start circling. Note that's helicopter singular - we've probably only got one.
Quote from: tr206 on December 17, 2022, 08:20:58 PM
Do you guys remember J.C Whitney catalog back it the day? Pop use to buy model T parts out of it? and if you didn't get what you needed on Saturday you were screwed until Monday out in the boondocks anyway couldn't buy anything on Sunday.
I remember J.C. Whitney alright, also known as J.C. Witless for their ordering performance. The actual beginning of that catalog was the one by Warshawsky & Co in Chicago. Back in the sixties both catalogs existed and they were identical with the fine print descriptions, the only difference was the headers on the pages and the front cover. A garage mechanic once told me that they changed the name because Warshawsky sounded too ethnic.
That was the era of Polish jokes, like how many Pollacks does it take to change a light bulb? Three, one to hold the bulb, and two to rotate the ladder. Of course we know that is not true anymore since they invented the light bulb holder that inserts into an electric drill while two guys hold the ladder.
I fondly remember the Wards and Sears Catalogs as well, it's a shame they did not keep up with the Kmart and Walmart competition. The Craftsman Tools and the Powercraft Tools were good. I still have a Ward's 1/2" drill that was bought in 1962. I had to replace the power cord about 20 years ago, but otherwise it is fine even though it is not double insulated.
I remember 1 time my younger brother and I decided to take our kids camping and fishing leaving the stick in mud wife's home since their idea of a fun time was at a Holiday Inn around a pool.All the camping and boats places were closed. He said I think I saw a pop out camper and boats and motors at Wards, so we go to Wards, and they did have both, he bought the pop out camper, and I bought the boat with a 35 hp Scott. Atwater engine labeled as a Ward we bought everything for our trip in Wards, we had a great 2 weeks and brought home 4 nasty kids needing a bath bad but were happy campers and ready for another trip to the lake. It was funny the wife's hugging the kids saying did you miss your Moma, his youngest son told her no I had fun and want to go back. Do any remember when Sears sold the Henry J as a AllState car I saw one not long ago at a car show
They have guns and ammo auctions several times a year about 500 feet from the house at the community hall
Quote from: tr206 on December 18, 2022, 05:43:22 AM
Yeah same up here. A lot of stuff we did back then would land you in prison nowadays.
I'm deathly afraid to even talk about some of the $#!% we did as kids. Fed pen for certain. no violence so rest easy.
Quote from: windtrader on December 18, 2022, 08:50:01 PM
I'm deathly afraid to even talk about some of the $#!% we did as kids. Fed pen for certain. no violence so rest easy.
lol. I won't ask big brother is probably monitoring but good clean fun for that era I'm sure. If it was like smoking on school grounds or something like that I think the statute of limitations might apply.
I remember the taps on your shoe fad,3 times getting my butt popped for walking across the gym floor with shoes and taps got my attention
I spent hours cross referencing parts in the Sears catalogue. That's how I learned that GM really only built Chevrolets with different names--then I found Hollander's!!
Jack
In our then new high-school, students couldn't wear those slacks with that short strap with buckle on the back or jeans with the copper rivets. They were paranoid about scratching the new furniture.
Quote from: chessie4905 on December 19, 2022, 09:23:00 AM
In our then new high-school, students couldn't wear those slacks with that short strap with buckle on the back or jeans with the copper rivets. They were paranoid about scratching the new furniture.
When I was in school everyone wore starch and iron clothes even you blue jeans, can you picture a mom now starching and ironing the kids school clothes? lol most don't even own a iron or ironing board now ,when Sonja and I got married she did my jeans 1 time and told me ok if you want starched and iron jeans from here on do it yourself or take those to laundry
Quote from: chessie4905 on December 19, 2022, 09:23:00 AM
In our then new high-school, students couldn't wear those slacks with that short strap with buckle on the back or jeans with the copper rivets. They were paranoid about scratching the new furniture.
I remember back in high school that the librarian told the girls that they couldn't comb their hair in the library because the hair would get wrapped around the brush roll of the vacuum cleaner. Now they would probably just throw the vacuum away let alone never bother to repair or replace/empty the bag.
BTW, I still remember when I was in kindergarten in the 1969-70 school year. We went to a downtown department store for a breakfast with santa program. Santa asked each of us what we wanted for Christmas. Most of the guys said a GI JOE doll. I asked for a school bus.
When I saw 69 70,, I cracked up.. My kiddy garden years was 1944 during the 2nd world war..>>>Dan ( And yes I had to disembark from the Ark )
My buddy and I went to Lesher Jr High in Ft. Collins Colorado. We couldn't walk home in time to get our shotguns and make it back the other way in time to hunt geese before it got dark. Solution? We brought our shotguns to school! We both had cheap Mossberg pumps that we could take the big nut off so the barrel would come off. That was the only way they fit in our lockers.
A few of the women teachers gave us the evil eye but said nothing. A coach asked if they were unloaded and why we brought them to school. We said "unloaded and we are going to Johnson's field after school to try to shoot some geese". He said "That is a good field. I have hunted it myself.".
Johnson' field is now townhouses and the guns to school thing has changed a bit....
Quote from: Tedsoldbus on December 19, 2022, 04:16:09 PM
My buddy and I went to Lesher Jr High in Ft. Collins Colorado. We couldn't walk home in time to get our shotguns and make it back the other way in time to hunt geese before it got dark. Solution? We brought our shotguns to school! We both had cheap Mossberg pumps that we could take the big nut off so the barrel would come off. That was the only way they fit in our lockers.
A few of the women teachers gave us the evil eye but said nothing. A coach asked if they were unloaded and why we brought them to school. We said "unloaded and we are going to Johnson's field after school to try to shoot some geese". He said "That is a good field. I have hunted it myself.".
Johnson' field is now townhouses and the guns to school thing has changed a bit....
I remember stopping out side FT Collins on 287 and jumped out and shot a pheasant nailed that sucker and starting walking in the deep snow to get the bird ,bad mistake the snow was level and I walked into a ditch covered with snow that took me 10 minutes to climb out of, so much for that bird the coyotes had bird for dinner
Speaking of schools I'll include governmental offices and buildings remember how bare bones they were just your basic needs nothing fancy boy has that changed I maybe wrong but was that a way to show respect for the tax payer's hard earned dallar or am I dreaming?
I hope the pendulum has swung enough the other way. The days of getting punished for wearing taps on the gym floor to today where kids bring guns and knives to school and shoot and stabe each other is about as far as it can go, at least to me. Let's pray those who allow that and even support "defund the police" types wake up and the politcal extremes start whithering.
Drugs, and gangs gotta make it next to impossible to go to school, at least in inner cities, to avoid having to belong to one of them, or carry a gun for protection. Just like Capone days, but worse. Where do you start to finally rein this in?
Quote from: tr206 on December 19, 2022, 07:02:13 PM
Speaking of schools I'll include governmental offices and buildings remember how bare bones they were just your basic needs nothing fancy boy has that changed I maybe wrong but was that a way to show respect for the tax payer's hard earned dallar or am I dreaming?
Schools now with 100 million dollars football stadiums, no shop classes anymore few even have a music class, and now not even teaching kids to write in cursive. When Carter created the Dept of Education I said there goes our education system, that dept ranks right there with GWB's Home Land Securtiy Act lol and that dept is working just great keeping the border in check too, We move on as the past is past and there is no going back and who knows what the furture will bring
Quote from: chessie4905 on December 20, 2022, 04:11:45 AM
Drugs, and gangs gotta make it next to impossible to go to school, at least in inner cities, to avoid having to belong to one of them, or carry a gun for protection. Just like Capone days, but worse. Where do you start to finally rein this in?
Easy start in Washinton DC,it all about money, politics and power they spend a 100 million dollars to get elected to a job that pays $175,000.00 a year
Don't need shop in schools anymore. Need trade colleges just like academic ones to learn a true revelant trade. Shop class is the last thing kids care about in school anymore. When they graduate, then they may be serious in seeking a true trade credentials. With loan programs like colleges enjoy.
Unfortunately Academia has no interest, nor politicians, just lip service.
Quote from: chessie4905 on December 20, 2022, 05:24:57 AM
Don't need shop in schools anymore. Need trade colleges just like academic ones to learn a true revelant trade. Shop class is the last thing kids care about in school anymore. When they graduate, then they may be serious in seeking a true trade credentials. With loan programs like colleges enjoy.
Unfortunately Academia has no interest, nor politicians, just lip service.
I learned a lot in my shop classes, skills I still use today ,plus they were 2 hours classes where a down to earth person was teaching you skills and shop was a good place to apply math skills before they screwed math up in a classroom.Now it would take 4 years to learn how to weld cast iron without it cracking :^ I was taught that in shop class ,we were taught how to pour babbitt bearings that were used back then like on a 216 Chevy engine
Yeah, I learned how to make a bowl, cast ashtrays, solder tin, make a bookcase. Still remember those soldering irons you heated in a furnace. We would stick a red hot iron in a piece of salamoniac and make clouds of smoke.
Learned most from starting as a laborer for a friend's dad contractor. Learned how to mix mud, lay block, finish concrete, plumbing, wiring, erect and connect steel, roofing, framing, etc. Use those skills to this day. Also gained skills in a tv store, including electronics, and TV repair, also how much voltage went into side of picture tube and what that shock felt like when your arm brushed that wire.lol
You were probably one of those guys that would charge a condenser up and tell a friend to hand it to you lol I was
Quote from: tr206 on December 19, 2022, 07:02:13 PM
Speaking of schools I'll include governmental offices and buildings remember how bare bones they were just your basic needs nothing fancy boy has that changed I maybe wrong but was that a way to show respect for the tax payer's hard earned dallar or am I dreaming?
Yes. It seems like government schools spend more money on administration than actual education.
Quote from: Tedsoldbus on December 19, 2022, 04:16:09 PM
My buddy and I went to Lesher Jr High in Ft. Collins Colorado.
I went to grade school in Ft. Collins - it must have been the winter of '67/68. We lived in Aggie Village which Google thinks is close to Lesher Middle School but they bused us somewhere to the north end of town. The baby boom was in full swing so they were using a couple of converted duplex houses in a residential area as overflow classrooms.
Quote from: CrabbyMilton on December 20, 2022, 06:42:35 AM
Yes. It seems like government schools spend more money on administration than actual education.
Yeo where I live, they pay an administer $350,000.00 a year to screw things up in this area,ist thing he did was close a local school and start busing kids 25 miles each way, now instead of the buses running a 30-mile round trip and back to the barn it is 100 miles because he left bus barn 25 miles from school now, labor cost has gone up along with the fuel and it cost more to maintain the buses now
Yes it will be interesting what condition those EV skoolies will be 5-10 years from now. Either they will be ok or perhaps a dismal failure.
Cliff, I didn't but older brother was an instructor at Keesler or Lackland AFB. He always kept a charged capacitor on his desk. Nosy cadets got it every couple of months.
I am 66 this summer. As I age I try to be calmer and just look at things a bit more as an observation than needing an opinion. I think it is helping me age... a little more mellow.
A few things still fire me up. My Nephews, all 5 of them, don't seem to care about much except their phones when they visit us at the lake. Don't want to fish for more than an hour. Could care less about the bus or any other machine. None of them want to hunt. So I started giving my hunting things including guns to friend's kids that do. They are not terribly motivated about anything. But then I tried to be an observer again.
They grew starting strapped in a car seat in diapers in a mini van. I stood on the back seat of the station wagon so I could see out when we went down the road. On a long trip, they played with the tablet built into the back of their parents seats in the mini van. We asked "Are we there yet?". When I got home from school, I might check the TV that I changed channels manually. I've seen that Gilligan's Island, seen that Andy of Mayberry, never watch Days of our Lives. Well....that was it. All three channels a no go. Jumped on my bike, found 2 buddies and we went to look for snakes and climb trees.
I got spanked and deserved it. They get time outs.
When I played sports in school we got on a bus and played the guys in the next town. Now they fly out of state and the parents say "That is how it is now".
Observation? They grew up different. None of them learned the skills mentioned above. No interest in even learning to use a screw gun when at my house.
My concern is they will hit the work force. I told them to find their giddy up button and tape it down with Duct tape. They said "What is Duct tape Uncle Ted". (why bother showing to them)
They all think they will get a tech job or maybe invent the new Facebook. Perhaps Eyebrow Encyclopedia? Two of the five are in their twenties and still live at home. My brother and Rita's sister told us that we don't understand because we never had children.
No.....I think we get it.
They are the two siblings that have 20+ year old "children" living in their basement.
But that is just and observation...
Grandpop on my mother's side owned a fruit & vegetable business in Middletown NJ on Highway 35 which would have been referred to as a "road stand" back.in the day (50s 60s 70s) occupied about several hundred feet of highway frontage. I remember being among about 18 cousins as Grandpop & Grandmom had five girls & two boys (my aunts & uncles). Some of us cousins would jump in the back of grandpops stake bed truck that was leaving the road stand for the farmers market and when returning I remember being overdosed on fresh peaches. At Christmas time Christmas trees were sold on the stand and us cousins would take turns wading in deep snow to retrieve a tree matching a customer's request while the adults at big long tables were making wreaths &/or playing poker. Wow I actually posted this on the BCM board. One last note: when it was time for the hugh Italian dinners Grandpop would sit at the head of the table and when his daughters (my mom and aunts) would request a glass of the homemade rose wine grandpop would serve it with 50/50 Coca-Cola & wine and at times one of the uncle truck drivers (& most of them were) would roll into the road stand with a full tanker of refrigerated orange juice (among other commodities) and drain off a couple of 50 gal. drums for personal use. Geeze those were the days my friends and we thought they'd never end...
Lots here describes the march of progress. We've had this discussion many times about what people need and do as time goes on. All those observations about changing interests is true, just signs of progress.
I had this chat with my daughter, late 20's finishing grad school, seems to leaning toward a doctorate - I just tell her to get a "job". well, that gets the fire going. anyway, she relays conversations she has with the teaching staff about the increasing issue with AI generated papers and such. It's funny as she sort of complains that the students don't do the research, just type in a question and the bot spits out the answer. Even if not fully baked, it certainly provides a starting point far ahead of a blank page of paper.
I ask here about using calculators in class. Sure we can. Well, what happened to doing basic math computations? It's similar with AI but this is so much scarier.
OpenAI and ChatGBThttps://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/13/chatgpt-is-a-new-ai-chatbot-that-can-answer-questions-and-write-essays.html
What's coming is not evolutionary but revolutionary. When a human can not tell if what they see with their eyes is an image of a real person or what they read was created by a bot not a human, it changes how we think and perceive about reality.
AI and robotics is scary too. It won't be long when realistic robots act like humans.
Blade Runner meets reality?
I thought this post was "back in the day! I guess I'm in the wrong place. Lol
:o
Back in the day they used to deliver milk to a box in our breezeway. Used to clean auto parts with a stiff brush and a couple of gallons of gasoline in a short 3 gallon bucket. After an hour of that, the skin on your hands would tingle.
Couldn't ride the bus to school, unless it was more than 2 miles away. Ours was 1.9. 🤬
Tv only had 2 channels. B&W, Programming didn't start till 5pm. Captain Video and Howdy Dootey. No wonder everyone thought Lucy was so great with only 2 channels.
I want know when the bus to back in the day leaves I am ready these days are not for me. Beam me back Scotty.
We have to be careful not to lump everything together. In other words the improvements in technology is separate from bad behavior. Remember, if products and technology was so much better in times gone by, then why are the a thing of the past? I for one don't mind watching a TV without a wiggly and squiggly picture and fuzzy and buzzy sound. Here let's lighten this up:
https://youtu.be/X6Ztdp70peU
Those guys were weird. I took them down the Gauley river one season on a raft. Very bizarre senses of humor, they were some of the most twisted people I ever met. Seemed to have fun, though it was kinda hard to tell. Always seemed to be some sort of hidden agenda I just couldn't figure out. It was like a surface layer of strange hilarity with an undercurrent of terror. Not long after that they started the "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer" series. I shouldn't have been surprised. At the time my guide name was Caveman and I was attending law school. My reaction to the series was that it was mostly embarrassing. But that's the way it was and we liked it.
My tag line at the time was, "Just what the Hell do you expect from a Caveman anyway?"
Jim
Quote from: Tedsoldbus on December 20, 2022, 11:17:31 AM
I am 66 this summer. As I age I try to be calmer and just look at things a bit more as an observation than needing an opinion. I think it is helping me age... a little more mellow.
When I played sports in school we got on a bus and played the guys in the next town. Now they fly out of state and the parents say "That is how it is now".
They are the two siblings that have 20+ year old "children" living in their basement.
But that is just and observation...
God I remember when you first look forward to being able to drive. I had friends a decade back with kids who were in navy and never got their drivers license.
You know how in the military you should never volunteer for anything?
I did basic training in Ft Dix NJ in January and volunteered to be a vehicle driver (dang thing had heat and I did experience a bit of cold letting others warm up a bit) while on stupid guard duty with a M16 with no ammo. Rumor was that sometimes the mafia assaulted the guards to steal M16's...
When I went to basic we never bivouacked as it was too cold for a standard sleeping bag and shelter half...