I'm so old I Remember when:

[DLA]

This is the most interesting thread on this forum!!

I’m only 22 so I don’t remember any of this except the etch a sketch…

even better than etch a sketch was spirograph

 

[casportpony]

even better than etch a sketch was spirograph

I loved that!

 

[JedJackson]

I'm so old that I remember when macrame was a thing-- the first time, with the owls and pot holders.

 

[LaurenRitz]

Chia pets.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Think I'll take this opportunity for some reminiscing, if you don't mind:

I grew up mostly on a farm in western Kansas in the 1960's and 70's. House was built in 1888 on the Kansas prairie. My great-grandparents arrived in a covered wagon and built an adobe hut to live in while they built the barn, and then the house. I remember those 10' tall ceilings, and drafty single-pane windows that went almost all the way up! Staircase to the 2nd floor was really just a glorified ladder, steep as hell and only about 24" wide between walls.

At some point, someone dug a hole below the house to install an oil-burning floor furnace. That 'cellar' still had dirt walls when I was a kid, and would sometimes fill up with water during rainy weather. I remember going down there to get canned jars off the shelf, and wading through the water, always watching for snakes and chasing frogs. The floor grate for heat from the cellar was in the dining room - and you had to be careful not to step on it with bare feet in the winter! HOT! There was a similar grate in the ceiling above, allowing heat to rise to the 2nd story bedrooms. I'd lay on the floor after bedtime and peer down through the grate to listen to the grownups below.

My bedroom was tucked into the eaves at one end, walls sloped on both sides so that you could stand up straight only in the center between walls. Closet was a hole in the wall with a crawlspace into the attic space, big enough to stuff boxes into but that's all. I had a twin-sized bed and a small chest of drawers, and barely room to turn around.

At least we had electricity, running water, and a party-line telephone by the time I was born. But the water was from a well pump, with wooden rods extending about 400-feet down to the water table. It was a horribly noisy contraption. Every so often, one of those rods would break and my Dad and brothers would work for days to fish out the broken end in that shaft, however far down, so they could repair it. (We lived near Greensburg KS, home of the "world's deepest hand-dug well" - fascinating story, look it up!)

They had abandoned the outhouse before I was born and added a septic tank so we had an indoor toilet and claw-foot bathtub. One end of the tub was tucked underneath the landing on the stairs, so when you sat in the tub your feet were under the stairs. Water was precious (due to that rickety well pump), and we had no water heater, so we heated water on the stove to pour into the tub. Adults would bathe first, then the kids - all in the same water, usually only 3-4" deep. By the time my turn came, the water was always a grayish-brown. We took laundry to the laundromat in town; I don't remember ever washing it at home, although there was a wringer washer on the back porch.

Air-conditioning was just opening windows and using box fans, or covering windows with dark blankets to block light. We could have added window units, but I don't remember ever having one. I think the windows might have been too narrow. Summers were sweltering, often over 100-deg-F. I spent a LOT of time playing in the horse water trough or in the barn loft (breezy up there).

One winter, the snow drift in the farmyard was so deep it nearly reached the light at the top of our light pole. My brother climbed up there and marked it on the pole. I still have that photograph. We made tunnels through the drift. Fun at the time, but looking back.... OMG how dangerous!

Prairie-dogs were rampant in the pasture, and their burrows were a danger to the horses and cattle. My dad and brothers would pour kerosene down a few holes, and light them up. Then when smoke came out other holes, they'd plug them up with oily shop towels. The animals are now an endangered and protected species.

The old farm is now gone, burned down and plowed under. In its place is a wheat field with wind turbines thrum-thrum-thrumming through what was the pasture. I can still find the spot on that lonely dirt road where the driveway started due to the slightly different gravel in the ditchline.

 

[JedJackson]

Chia pets.

They still make those! lol

 

[Sammster]

Oh! We had a silver Christmas tree with a rotating color-wheel light, shining on it. So retro! I'd love one now.

 

[DLA]

although there was a wringer washer on the back porch.

Oh wringer washers, forgot about those!! We still had one that worked up until a few years ago in the garage. It was electric from the 50's (dangerous to get a finger caught in those). The pieces from the hand crank one and the tub and washboard are still around somewhere. I still have my old little red wagon (I pulled that thing everywhere with me as a kid) and my wooden metal runner sled (remember waxing up the runners to go sledding). hanging in the garage too. Gosh, the room I'd have if I would clean all that stuff out. LOL.

 

[Sammster]

even better than etch a sketch was spirograph
View attachment 3657964

I just bought one, recently. I can see using simplified Spiro designs in my glasswork

 

[Sammster]

Mood rings