OT: 55 Years Ago

[WestCoastCdnGrl]

What's an electric typewriter?





*ducks and runs after typing out a letter to her brother in Toronto on their Dad's old school Smith Corona electric typewriter, stuffing it into an addressed envelope and affixing a CAD 0.59$ + tax domestic postage stamp and throwing it into a mail box*

[Patrick A]

What's an electric typewriter?





*ducks and runs after typing out a letter to her brother in Toronto on their Dad's old school Smith Corona electric typewriter, stuffing it into an addressed envelope and affixing a CAD 0.59$ + tax domestic postage stamp and throwing it into a mail box*

Better yet what is an Underwood Typewriter?

[Slinky]

Underwood was a brand name typewriter. I always had Royals myself.

[BlackSpinner]

I learned to type on a manual Underwood! What a work out that was for the fingers!

[OutaSync]

Wow! You guys are really OLD!

[Slinky]

How'd you like a kick in the shins, OuttaSync? Din't your momma tell you if you can't say somethin' nice, don't say nuttin' at all?

[OutaSync]

Where I grew up old age was a thing of respect. The whiter your hair, the better. My mom started turning white when she was in her 30's. She got the deepest respect from the locals who thought she was ancient.

I remember when we had outhouses. We had the first indoor toilet in the village. Also the first indoor running water, although it wasn't hot. We had to heat it on the stove and carry it to the stone bathtub. We had no phone or TV until I was 15. When Kennedy died we heard the news via a bicylist who came by our house.

I was born 55 years ago.

[Muse-Inc]

...who remembers the Studebaker?? Our neighbor had one. A convertible. Pea green w/a black rag top.

Me, me...was my mom's pride and joy! And that really was green pea soup green, in So Fl sun it faded to a really ugly icky limey yellow in no time

My first car was my grandmother's hand me down Rambler with the push button gear shift, the durned buttons got stuck all the time, hadda carry a screwdriver to squeeze between the button and the metal dash so the gear would pop out again. Gas wars...yes!!!

[idamtnboy]

During the summer of 69, the year I graduated from high school, there was a gas war going on and gas was selling for 19 cents a gallon. I drove a 1966 VW Beetle that had a 10 gallon gas tank. If it was bone dry it would cost $1.90 to fill it up.

Yesterday I filled up my Chevy Z71 four wheel drive pick-up and it cost $75.

Interestingly, when inflation is factored in, the price of gasoline today is about the same as in the 1960s. Then when you account for improved mileage in today's cars compared to the 50s and 60s cars, we spend less today for gasoline for each mile we drive than back then.

[Bert_Mathews]

Wanna talk about ugly?? Who remembers the Edsel???

Goshes, who remembers the Studebaker?? Our neighbor had one. A convertible. Pea green w/a black rag top.

OMG - - - The Studebaker had its proving grounds / test track just down the road in Utica, MI and as Kids we would SNEAK in to see what the new models would look like..... Sure sign I need to get more of my "Bucket list" Done.
BERT

[roster]

Just on the heels of the anniversary of the birthdate of Martin Luther King, Jr., let us not also forget what it was like for our black brothers in those days. Our little black and white TV picked up three stations with its rabbit ears. During the season there was one NBA game available each week for us to view. CBS showed a Sunday afternoon game. Quite often, especially during the playoffs, the game was the Celtics and the Knicks. Bill Russell versus Wilt Chamberlain.

My brother and I were huge fans of Bill Russell. We were both outdoors types and did not like to stay inside on Sunday afternoons. But when Bill Russell was on TV we did watch him eagerly.

We never heard of the discrimination against Russell during our youth - the media did not report it. As a young adult I learned some of this and was appalled. I don't know what I would have thought had I known about it as a youth. One incident involved the Celtics playing a road game in a nearby town. Russell and Sam Jones could not stay in the hotel with Red Auerbach and the rest of the team. They spent the night in a rundown "Negro hotel". Had I know that as a child I would have been very disappointed.

Here is another incident as reported in Don't You Ever Smile by Tommy Heinsohn:

A couple of years later, in the 1961-62 season, we went to Marion, Indiana, for an exhibition game. Marion was about 100 to 150 miles from Chicago and considered a northern city. At least, I would consider it northern coming from New Jersey.
We got to town and they give us a fabulous reception with banquet attached. The mayer was there to greet us, and many of the fifty thousand residents had taken time to cheer the champions of the NBA. We were all pleased by the warm, sincere display of hospitality. Everyone was given a key to the city - a wooden one, painted gold with "welcome" inscribed on it.
Under those circumstances, we assumed we were welcome. I have since learned what many have tried to teach me in many ways: Do not assume anything. "Oh gee, my first key to the city," said some of the guys. Some were kidding, some were serious.
We played the game at a high school and then went to the hotel, dropped off our bags, and headed for the only eating place open. It was sort of a club or cafe. Not the most elegant place. Frankly, it was a one armed joint with a juke box.
I think I was with Cousy, Sharman, and Ramsey. We got there first and the others wandered over in groups. We were just finishing our food when Russell walked in with Carl Braun and KC Jones. The guy at the bar wouldn't let them eat. Right place, wrong color for Russ and KC.
We noticed the conversation but didn't know what it was about. Russell and KC left and Braun came to our table ripping mad. "Some damn place this is," he shouted. "Marion, Indiana. They gave us a banquet, the keys to the city. Everything's beautiful but they won't let Russ and KC eat here because they're black."
Carl began looking around as though he were going to remodel the place. "Let's find out where the Mayor lives," he suggested, "and give him back his goddamn keys. I'm going to tell him to shove it." It was around 12:30 AM and our only regret was that it wasn't three or four in the morning once we agreed with Carl.
We filled two cabs with black and white players. Braun was the leader because it was his idea, so he knocked on the door. The mayor opened it and we obviously had awakened him. That was good.
"Mayor, I'm Carl Braun from the Boston Celtics," said Carl. "I am here with some of my teammates, and we would like you to take the keys you gave us today and shove them..." Unfortunately the mayor was not about to be that accomodating. He did express his regret, which meant nothing to Russell, who already led the league in regrets.

[Slinky]

Thank you for that reminder, Roster Rooster. I guess we tend to forget there was also a lot of not at all good in the "good ole days".

[BlackSpinner]

Yes. Not all good old days. I had to fight in '64 to get into the math and physics classes in highschool because girls didn't study that. We were not allowed to take technical drawing that first because the teacher refused to have girls in his class. The second year the schedule just wouldn't allow us to not take it and us 5 girls aced the 2 years in one, while the teachers just stood there and wrung his tie and didn't look at us.

[imsleepynomore]

Average USA price one carton cigarettes, name brand: $41.

Sooooooo glad I quit!

My daughter tells me she pays $80 dollars a carton in Washington they cost $55 here in Oregon so glad I quit many years ago