How to tell if you're old...

Saw that buzzfeed list, passed it on to buddies. I named every single one; now I know I’m really, really old (even tho I don’t feel like it).

I even thought the nutcracker set a manicure set, though a torturous looking one, at first. 😂

The only time I ever saw a nutcracker set like that was at MIL/FIL's house. They had an ancient one - I wonder whatever happened to it. I remember the lighter vividly from a burn I got from it & then having to conceal the burn from my parents so I wouldn't hear about "that's why we don't play with that." I'd already learned my lesson.

I had a hard time with the lighter and nutcracker set.

Silly putty was fun! Then our kids had Gak! LOL

Water balloon fights were a big thing for kids too.

Slip and slide! Or just playing in the sprinkler!

Disappearing ink! We thought that was so cool!

Penny candies too!

Wax lips

Those little bottles filled with sweet liquid

Pixie straws

Jaw Breakers

Bazooka bubble gum

Okay, who remembers green stamps or the yellow top value stamps?

My job was to place them in the books for my mom, my aunt and grandmother. They gave me a bowl of water and a sponge to place them in the book.

What about Sears catalog? That was big when we were kids too?

Smoking was big! People smoked everywhere, in banks, grocery stores, doctor’s office and hospitals!

#29 is a light up makeup mirror.

#32 is Silly Putty.

I remember the small grocery store near my house had a bin of individually-wrapped pieces of gum for sale at 2 cents each. I would literally walk in with my two pennies for a piece of gum (a somewhat rare treat to begin with). I think the clerk would even ring up the 2 cents separate from whatever my mom was buying to make it more legit - haha! I was just telling my daughter about that. The place is a car dealership now, but I can still picture the layout of the store.

Golden, #14 is a tab from a can, usually of pop, that can be pulled off and someone can drink directly from the can (yuck).   #16 is from a store that had "blue light specials"; I think it was K-Mart. 

FreqFlyer, there is a cigarette lighter, no. 10.

The ones I just couldn't place are nos. 29 and 32.

I remember that popsicles from the ice cream truck were 7 cents!

Yes - on second glance, I think the boxes are from an old row of pay phones.

We had a party line when I was a kid. I asked my very logical father if we "could" listen to the other people and he said "yes." He was not known for long and involved answers to things like that. Can we? Yes, was the answer. However, I think he meant that we technically could, but really should opt not to. My mother was livid at his lack of clarity!! I remember only wealthier people had a "private line." The rest of us had party lines.

I assumed the store from #16 was Kmart.

cwille,

I have my husband’s grandmother’s washboard. I have my great aunt’s white enameled coffee percolator.

I wish that I had my grandmother’s ice cream machine. She made incredible ice cream. Mom must have given it away. I do have grandma’s sewing machine. She gave me that before she died.

My grandmother wasn’t a pack rat. She didn’t like clutter. She kept a very tidy home.

We had a Formica table in our kitchen.

#4 is payphone boxes, I believe, and #19 velveeta cheese. What's the tab #14 from? and I don't know the store for #16.

We had a washboard and a large tub and a wringer washer hand operated in the basement. The laundry got hung with wooden clothes pegs on a line, from the back porch to a pole at the bottom of the garden . In the winter the sheets came ih stiff as a board and could be stood up on their own in the kitchen. But they smelled wonderful.

Oh I'm old. I don't need a quiz to tell me that. 😊

We had a party line right into the 70's, my mom used to get all her news listening in to the neighbours!
I still use a potato masher like that (5) and every good shoe store has that device to measure your feet (9). I own 3 washboards and I have frequently used one of them (15). Meat mallets (21) are still used by many cooks. But I don't know what #4 or #19 are, anyone want to enlighten me?

I got most of them. Didn't get the one with the little wooden boxes/shelves. I laughed when I saw the little button that you hit with your foot to turn on/off the brights in the car. When I was dating, both me and my now DH were young and somewhat new drivers. DH had just met me at his parents' house after a horribly embarrassing time driving. He was highly exasperated that he could not turn the brights off and other cars coming the other way were frantically signaling him to do so. Somehow, some way, he didn't know about that little button in the floor of the car. My soon to be FIL grinned and said "I bet your girlfriend knows THAT!!!" (For the record, I did know!!)

FF,

What about the car ashtrays?

They were disgusting!

I would cringe when people would dump them out anywhere! So gross! 🤮

Speaking of cars. Did you have an 8 track? LOL

Did you have a horn for your bicycle? A banana seat?

Remember how many reels were available for our view-master? I had tons! My favorites were the wildlife animals and sea life, especially the variety of sharks! I still remember so many details about sharks! LOL

My grandmother had a view-master and an entire shoebox of reels for it. I loved them.

Grandma had different things for us to play with, toy telephone, (probably so I wouldn’t play on her party line with my cousin), pick up sticks, tiddlywinks, jacks, wooden wind up spinning top, yo-yo, cards and a jump rope.

I had fantastic grandparents. Grandpa built us things. He made us stilts.

I became so good at walking on stilts that I could walk all the way around the block! So much fun!

You know Ding Dings were wrapped in foil until the bankruptcy in the eary 2010's and you can still buy Jiffy Pop so I guess that would make me about 10. I love Ding Dongs, eat them all the time. Do you know they took out alot of the filling during the bankruptcy also? Cupcakes, too. Twinkies suck.

Ok, who was at my house to get those items?

Great list, I only missed one but it dawned on me as I was reading the other posts... on the list is a car cigarette lighter, right?

Alva,

My grandmother had a party line. My cousin and I would get into trouble for listening in on the line.

All but 2 here! I still have the Afghan! My grandma made it for me, while I was in college! That was in 1993. :-)
Colleen

We had a crank up phone on our wall when I was a kid in Missouri, speaking of cranks. Undoubtedly worth a fortune now. A party line. So I know I am old.
Of course, if I am in any doubt, there is always looking in the mirror!

The car window crank hasn't gone away, my car has them. I do miss the fresh air vents, a lot of time when it's sunny the car is 10X hotter than the air outside.

GA - I was never allowed to use the wringer washer, there were enough accidents involving these that our medical book had an entry on wringer injuries.

And of course I hang out my laundry, that's why I had to iron my cotton sheets before I put them away for the winter 🤣

Barb, that took me a while as well.    Windows that can be opened and closed manually, w/o having to turn on the car, those little vent windows to let in just enough air to refresh...and most of all, cars that didn't have rear ends stuck up in the air..   oh, and space for a spare tire. - I miss them all.

We're really lost so much in practicality of automobile design over the years.    If only cars were designed by and for the people who use them, not for what designers want...or what will increase the base cost of a car.  

CWillie, it does take you back in years, doesn't it?   I could remember so much that's gone.   I felt as if I was mentally thinking like a child again...or may that's just normal for me????

Glad, welcome to the club!    Which ones stumped you?   I had to go through the list about 3 times but there was one that I just couldn't remember.

I do remember the washers with hand wringers, and I remember the mangles we used to iron sheets.   Iron sheets?  Does anyone today iron sheets?   Or does anyone still hang clothes outside to dry?  

Riverdale, a very insightful response!

NHWM, I thought so too.    Went a bit farther on the website and found another list.    Now I'm remembering that I still have the dolls we played with; there are so many memories I couldn't let the dolls go.  

My sister and I had those little bendable dolls, made of rubber or something.  They were ballerinas, so we made up dances and had our own vision of sugar plums as we engaged in fantasy dreams.

MJ1929, I wasn't aware what the foot measuring device was called; thanks for that info.    

I'm wondering if decades from now people will look back and wonder what all the techno gear is.    And I agree about 20 year olds; they face such a different current and future lifestyle that the changes are I think really drastic.  I'm glad I grew up when leisure time meant swimming, biking, playing "kick the can", roller skating, jumping rope (how I enjoyed that), shooting marbles, and just having fun, not being inside staring at a screen.

I had forgotten that you used to have to tap a button on the floor of the car for the brights! Fun quiz.

I didn't know all of them but I think they went back in time to my parent's house - that's our cap gun, my mom had that address device and I still own the afghan!

Only two of them had me wrinkling my forehead. Going back from the bottom of the list up, took care of that problem. 😄 I guess I am officially old.

I would offer that when the number of medical surgical procedures you need start to be counted on your second hand.

Cute list!

I always laugh at stuff on Buzzfeed. It's clearly written by 20-somethings who have no idea what they're talking about.

They think you're old if you've ever used a Brannock device to measure your foot -- a device that's still used everywhere today?

OK, maybe I'm old because I know it's called a Brannock device. ;-)