# Simpler times ... perhaps not ...



## michaelmaltby (Jan 2, 2019)

... but they aint't coming back in our speeded-up, shrinking, inter-connected world
Lost in the Fifties- Another Time, Another... - SafeShare.tv

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## mikewint (Jan 2, 2019)

Thank you sir.
Brings a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye. I remember it all...and Amos and Andy were darn funny

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## ODonovan (Jan 3, 2019)

They got several of those wrong. I'm not telling which ones though. They left out a few REALLY big ones, too.  I never saw any of that stuff. I'm MUCH too young. I've never even HEARD of the 50s. What is it anyway, some kind of computer game? 



-Irish


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## parsifal (Jan 6, 2019)

Some say that western civilization has passed by its best years


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## michael rauls (Jan 6, 2019)

Things were alot simpler even just 30 years ago when I was a young man. Or 40 when I was a child. Man do I miss those times.

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## Dimlee (Jan 9, 2019)

michael rauls said:


> Things were alot simpler even just 30 years ago when I was a young man. Or 40 when I was a child. Man do I miss those times.



The grass was much greener. I swear.


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## mikewint (Jan 9, 2019)

Dimlee said:


> The grass was much greener. I swear.


I often wonder about that. My parents lived through WWII in which two uncles were killed at 18 and 19YO. Could not have been a fun time. In the 50s Dad was trying to make a living and playing in a band every weekend. Mom had an office Job and we lived with my Gparents. Gma had spinal cancer was in terrible pain living on morphine. I was 5 when she died. Not much fun yet. When I was 6 Mom and Dad finally managed to get a massive $10,500 loan to buy a house. It was out in BooFoo and the house had only electricity and water. Heat and cooking were via a cast iron fuel oil stove in the kitchen. Wonder if they were having fun? Me, I was happy a a pig in shit...woods, forest, streams, ponds, horses...which at 6YO was to young to have to do much work. Vacations were at a "resort" owned by a friend of Dads. A clap-board shack, bare single bulb lights hanging from the ceiling, no air, no heat, no toilet, and a two burner propane stand to cook on. Mom had Gma to help but Dad had to work. We took a greyhound to get to the nearest town and had to walk 10mi unless a kind soul gave us a ride (one car, Mom didn't drive). Wonder how much fun they were having...Me...I had everything, a row boat with a 2hp outboard, a fishing pole and all the worms I could dig.
I often wonder now how simple Mom and Dad thought life was...back then?

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## michael rauls (Jan 9, 2019)

mikewint said:


> I often wonder about that. My parents lived through WWII in which two uncles were killed at 18 and 19YO. Could not have been a fun time. In the 50s Dad was trying to make a living and playing in a band every weekend. Mom had an office Job and we lived with my Gparents. Gma had spinal cancer was in terrible pain living on morphine. I was 5 when she died. Not much fun yet. When I was 6 Mom and Dad finally managed to get a massive $10,500 loan to buy a house. It was out in BooFoo and the house had only electricity and water. Heat and cooking were via a cast iron fuel oil stove in the kitchen. Wonder if they were having fun? Me, I was happy a a pig in shit...woods, forest, streams, ponds, horses...which at 6YO was to young to have to do much work. Vacations were at a "resort" owned by a friend of Dads. A clap-board shack, bare single bulb lights hanging from the ceiling, no air, no heat, no toilet, and a two burner propane stand to cook on. Mom had Gma to help but Dad had to work. We took a greyhound to get to the nearest town and had to walk 10mi unless a kind soul gave us a ride (one car, Mom didn't drive). Wonder how much fun they were having...Me...I had everything, a row boat with a 2hp outboard, a fishing pole and all the worms I could dig.
> I often wonder now how simple Mom and Dad thought life was...back then?


That does sound like a tough go of it. Wish they could have had an experience more like mine. Times were pretty good in the 70s and 80s for me........except for the first wife......... but that had nothing to do with the times. Just poor first wife selection on my part.

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## at6 (Jan 9, 2019)

Lord that brings back early childhood memories! The Quarters are wrong being 1965 dates. I didn't experience indoor plumbing until I was 7 years old. In rural North Carolina we had an outhouse and if you wanted water, you had to prime a hand pump on the front and only porch. Hot watrer was a luxury since it had to be heated in a pan on the stove and a bath was in the wash tub. Kids today think they have it rough if they have to go without all of the technology. H*ll we had to go down the road just to make a phone call since we didn't have one of those. As much as I love my internet and computer, unlike these little pansies of today, I would still be able to survive without it. Bored, yes but still able to find my own entertainment.

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## mikewint (Jan 10, 2019)

michael rauls said:


> Just poor first wife selection on my part


In the words of my sainted grandmother: Wenn der Putz steht, der Geist fliegt

We suffered illnesses that children do not suffer today. The only inoculation from a doctor was for Smallpox and I still have the scar on my shoulder. As a young child I had Chicken Pox, Mumps, and Measles mostly because Mom took me to visit any child who came down with these before me. She knew that these diseases were much less severe if you had them as a child than as an adult and afterward you’d be immune.

Homes did not have air-conditioning, or even gas or electric furnaces for that matter. Grandpa’s big house had a coal furnace octopus and I can still hear the coal truck dumping tons of coal into his coal bin. We had a refrigerator but Grandpa kept his ice box until the ice company went out of business. There were no home freezers, microwaves, dishwashers, dryers (Mom had a roll-out washer that attached to the kitchen sink), televisions (I was 5YO when we got out first), CD or DVD players, touch-tone phones (no dial either just a hand set and a 10-person party-line, we were 2-shorts & a long, just tell the operator who you wanted to talk to) or cell phones, electronic games, vacuum cleaners, coffee makers, portable radios or computers.

More than one car in a family was a rarity. There were no school buses; we walked to and from school. We walked to the store and lugged grocery bags home. Movies were a real treat as was their “Refrigerated Air” in the summer. Matinees were 5 cents and they dropped me off so they could shop in peace. At around the age of ten, we stood at the edge of the road, stuck our thumb out, and hitch-hiked or, if we owned one, we rode a bike.

Most yards didn’t have fences. Most people did not lock their car doors or the doors to their homes.

At school, home, or even at a neighbor’s house, if you misbehaved you likely got spanked on the seat of your pants. If you acted up in school, you got spanked. If you continued to act up, your parents had to come to school and then you really got it, another spanking, no supper, and grounded.

Our playgrounds were vast and varied: fields, swamps, woods, backyards, parking lots and streets; all safe to play in, day or night. Our games were simple, baseball mostly in a field we made ourselves, the only equipment required was a tin can; two sticks and two rags; a flashlight; a ball, any kind of a ball; our feet; or a little snow—no money required; just imagination.

We had drive-in theaters. We didn’t have fast-food places (I was in high school before 15 cent McDonalds came to town); but we did have soda fountains, candy stores, ice cream parlors, and ice chests full of cold soda pop at every gas station. We didn’t have big-box stores, but we had five-and-dimes like Woolworths and Kresges which all had Lunch Counters where good boys who kept their hands in their pockets were treated to lunch.

When we played, we, not adults, determined the game to be played; picked the playing venue; established the rules; chose the teams; refereed the game; and kept the score. We played not to win or lose; but to have fun. And we played almost every day—snow, rain or shine; sweltering hot or freezing cold—from the time school let out until it was time for bed, breaking only when we had to do homework or eat dinner.

We had incredible freedom to choose how we would spend our days because there were two worlds: the adult one and the kid’s one which adults stayed out of and God help you if they had to intervene. We had the latitude to try new things, to take chances, to make mistakes and, sometimes, bad choices, and to learn from these experiences, good and bad.

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## michael rauls (Jan 10, 2019)

mikewint said:


> In the words of my sainted grandmother: Wenn der Putz steht, der Geist fliegt
> 
> We suffered illnesses that children do not suffer today. The only inoculation from a doctor was for Smallpox and I still have the scar on my shoulder. As a young child I had Chicken Pox, Mumps, and Measles mostly because Mom took me to visit any child who came down with these before me. She knew that these diseases were much less severe if you had them as a child than as an adult and afterward you’d be immune.
> 
> ...


My German is not that great but i think I get the gist of your grandmother's wisdom and yes I must admit that was probably to much a factor in the failed selection process. 
You are right there certainly are alot of advances that make life better in many ways these days but I do still miss the freedom and simplicity of earlier times.


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## mikewint (Jan 10, 2019)

michael rauls said:


> I must admit that was probably to much a factor in the failed selection process.

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## A4K (Jan 10, 2019)

No time has ever been (nor ever will be!) all good or all bad... always depends on personal circumstances and how you react to them IMO.

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## mikewint (Jan 10, 2019)

A4K said:


> always depends on personal circumstances


Would have to agree in principle. My Dad's father was Chief Design Engineer for Uarco and had a high paying job all through the Great Depression. Dad even had private piano lessons. Mom's father and his knowledge of horses put him in high demand and he worked for both the Chicago Fire Dept and the CTA and maintained a good paycheck through the entire Depression.
1347 through 1351 had to be a very bad time for the majority of Europeans though again certain isolated pockets were totally bypassed.


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## Gnomey (Jan 19, 2019)

Good one!


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## nuuumannn (Jan 21, 2019)

Mike, that clip was awesome! Reminds me of conversations with my kid, whose reaching that age...


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## mikewint (Jan 21, 2019)

nuuumannn said:


> Reminds me of conversations with my kid



The funniest part is when Charlie says: "Lower" and Jake replies in a baritone: "Beard"


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## Elvis (Feb 22, 2019)

michaelmaltby said:


> ... but they aint't coming back in our speeded-up, shrinking, inter-connected world
> Lost in the Fifties- Another Time, Another... - SafeShare.tv


I still have that sled and the 78's.....and 31.9 seems expensive for gas. Most people seem to remember it being closer to 25-29 cents/gallon.
Mom says she could fill up dad's jeep for 80 cents if she got gas on base. This was a couple years after the end of the war.


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## special ed (Feb 22, 2019)

The sign over my shop door says "now entering the 1950s" I build control line scale flying models, which in itself is so 1950s.

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## mikewint (Feb 22, 2019)

special ed said:


> build control line scale flying models,


Amazing, I thought that type of flying went out of favor 40 years ago. Back in the day I could not afford the VERY expensive radio control models and control line was a lot cheaper. I well remember the rice paper covering and 110 coats of Dope over the paper. At the time I had a profile stunter and a Red Baron triplane and Corsair in what was called "stand-off" scale, as the inner wing had to be a bit longer than the outer.

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## special ed (Feb 22, 2019)

I realized (apologies to the R/C people) that my friends and fellow club members who flew R/C, were flying a box that was flying the plane. When it went down, they yelled "somebodys hitting me". When I went down, I was the pilot holding the handle, I was the test pilot, I was the contractor who built it, and often the designer.  Few sports participants built every thing they use, that is until ready to fly R/C from china. They just throw everything away after a crash, buy another one, and my friends bring the wreckage to me for salvage.

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## mikewint (Feb 22, 2019)

I started out with the Cox .049 ready to fly bricks. I might have made perhaps one circle if that before I gave up and decided that a real plane with a bigger motor was needed. Once again I went fancy with a P-40 that took a lot of building, rice paper, and a few gallons of dope. It flew a LOT better but I still had a lot to learn and buried it one time to many. Next was a simple "profile" model, essentially just a wing and tail. Designed from the ground up as a control-line flyer it did, beautifully. That's when I really learned how to fly control-line doing my first up-and-over, loops, and even inverted

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## special ed (Feb 22, 2019)

That's what I'm talking about. Design your own, build it , fly it . It is a great confidence builder for a young person. Most of the aviators years past started with models. At least six of our present model club had or have a license for fullsize aircraft.


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## mikewint (Feb 23, 2019)

One of the things that I thought was really Chool were those guys who were into combat flying. Standing back to back and trying to chew up the other guys streamer with the prop of their plane though many times it was the plane and sometimes both that got chewed up. The planes were very simple, mostly motor and wing and were unbelievably fast. Really fun to watch

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## at6 (Feb 23, 2019)

Those were the days. My first control line bit the dust before one circle. The next and last survived a few flights before it too bit the dust. I still have a couple of the .049 engines here.


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## special ed (Feb 23, 2019)

If you think combat was fast then, you should see it today. the .15s (2.5cc) now fly as fast as the .36s. did in the 60s and 70s. If you want to see some fat, bald old men flying in circles, check out Ring Masters Flying Club.com You will find one of us flying his pulse jet.

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## mikewint (Feb 23, 2019)

Yea, I saw the pulse jet control-line and also a 4-engine Lancaster control line. The jet flier had a center post to hold on to he was turning so fast. One poor guy had a biplane control-line and he just went round and round mostly straight and level. Then after about 6-7 minutes he tried a wing-over. Not enough pull and the line went slack and that poor plane went nose first into the ground. I admire their skill but my control-line days are over with all the improvements in RC and price reductions

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