during the Older Days

Phoebie SG

"Hey Dad," one of my kids asked the other day, "What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?"

"We didn't have fast food when I was growing up," I informed him. "All the food was slow."

"C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?"

"It was a place called 'at home,'" I explained. "Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it."

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day. Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.

I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called "pizza pie." When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

We didn't have a car until I was 15. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a "machine."

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

Chelzea SG

nt applicable to spore rite Laughing US>?

missqi SG

Laughing

Phoebie SG

Laughing

Ito_^ SG

dats old! Laughing

JennTS SG

Things I should tell my baby cousin.

Back in my day, buses had no air-conditioning in it. We didn't have EZ-Link cards either, but instead we used this magnetic fare card. Back then, we didn't have a system which told us the ETA of the next train, but instead, the destination of the train would show up on the board as the train pulled into the station.

Computers in my day were much different. We used a system called MS-Dos, which is somewhat similar to your Windows Explorer, but only has a few colours. We also used Windows 3.1 last time. Back then, there was no such thing as a thumbdrive. We first used the 8 inch floppy disk, then the 5 inch floppy disk, and finally we came to the 3½ inch floppy disks, which were the most common, but could only store 2MB of data. At the start of the 21st centurary, the Zip Disk was invented, which could store up to 100MB of data, but it was never really that popular as many computers could not read Zip Disks, and was only used by people who desperately needed so much space.

Also, my first harddrive could only store 25MB, and back then we didn't have online games, but instead played mainly educational games mainly by "The Learning Company". My first game had only 4 colours, but cost my father $200!

Back then, we didn't have broadband or wireless excess either, but we used dial-up connections, which will connect you to the internet via your phone line. It made this really cute noise while connecting. Also, we didn't have google, youtube or wikipedia, but instead it was altavista, hotmail & askjeeves. Bet you never heard of those sites before.

Most people didn't have handphones either, not even the adults, except for a few who needed it for work. Most of them used mainly pagers then. My uncle's first phone was as tall as a 500ml Coke bottle! And no, they weren't coloured either. Speaking of phones, did you know that our telephone numbers last time only had 7 digits to it?

Oh yea, we didn't have MP3 players either. Can you believe that we actually listened to the radio, or casette tapes back then? Yea, no DVD players either. Most TV shows back then were recorded with a tape, using a VCR player. Bet you don't know what that is either.

How much the world has changed in just 10 years... Neutral

the Bear SG

for Jen..

Back in my day, buses had no air-conditioning in it. We didn't have EZ-Link cards either, but instead we used this magnetic fare card. Back then, we didn't have a system which told us the ETA of the next train, but instead, the destination of the train would show up on the board as the train pulled into the station.

mine: back in my day, there was a conductor in the bus who punched tickets out with a hole puncher.. tickets for children were 10 cents and adults, 30, 40 and 50 cents.. they had little grids on the ticket with numbers on it and the conductor punched out the stage where you got on... he pushed the bell or buzzer for you which was this strip on the roof of the bus.. the bus had a door in the middle of the bus which was always open.. but people never fell out of the bus Laughing

Computers in my day were much different. We used a system called MS-Dos, which is somewhat similar to your Windows Explorer, but only has a few colours. We also used Windows 3.1 last time. Back then, there was no such thing as a thumbdrive. We first used the 8 inch floppy disk, then the 5 inch floppy disk, and finally we came to the 3½ inch floppy disks, which were the most common, but could only store 2MB of data. At the start of the 21st centurary, the Zip Disk was invented, which could store up to 100MB of data, but it was never really that popular as many computers could not read Zip Disks, and was only used by people who desperately needed so much space.

mine: i had a computer called the Apple II, i had the premium version with 64kB RAM and 2 floppy disk drives which took 5.25-inch discs... the screen was monochrome and everything loaded up through the floppies.. there was no such thing as a HDD then..

Also, my first harddrive could only store 25MB, and back then we didn't have online games, but instead played mainly educational games mainly by "The Learning Company". My first game had only 4 colours, but cost my father $200!

mine: as aforementioned, there were no HDDs... a box of floppies cost us $30 but in each disk, we had games like pacman, phoenix and galaxian Wink

Back then, we didn't have broadband or wireless excess either, but we used dial-up connections, which will connect you to the internet via your phone line. It made this really cute noise while connecting. Also, we didn't have google, youtube or wikipedia, but instead it was altavista, hotmail & askjeeves. Bet you never heard of those sites before.

mine: there was no such thing as computers talking to each other, and the first time i saw a modem, it was this huge thing called an Acoustic Coupler.. you dialed up and then fit the phone receiver into this 2 rubber things and it sent data with sound much like the fax..

Most people didn't have handphones either, not even the adults, except for a few who needed it for work. Most of them used mainly pagers then. My uncle's first phone was as tall as a 500ml Coke bottle! And no, they weren't coloured either. Speaking of phones, did you know that our telephone numbers last time only had 7 digits to it?

mine: the first telephone i saw when i was young was at my late granny's place... you had to dial with a turning thing where you inserted your finger into a hole which had the number and you turned it to this stop thing..

Oh yea, we didn't have MP3 players either. Can you believe that we actually listened to the radio, or casette tapes back then? Yea, no DVD players either. Most TV shows back then were recorded with a tape, using a VCR player. Bet you don't know what that is either.

mine: music was played on an 8-track cartridge which is about the size of half a VCR Laughing

Phoebie SG

Laughing

I remember mom mentioning to us that the uncle in the wet market was one of the first person to own a "water bottle" big handphone over there, and this uncle always hao lian whenever he was in the market with his big handphone, and his eyes were always on the lookup when he was talking into his big handphone to see if anyone was admiring his "asset" Laughing

last time in my home we used to have a they called it "leh di hor seng or li de fu sheng in chinese" (some sort of black radio box on the wall with broadcasting station 24 hours). We always complain that the box is so noisy Embarassed

last time when our parents were scolding us, we do not dare to talk back

nowadays I see some kids being defiant and snout back rudely or making big fuss after being chided by their parents Neutral

and I can't imagine people wearing ah gogo pants and shirts with weird hairstyles in the streets in the olden days and it's considered fashionable Laughing

JennTS SG

Remember the old times when...when..McDonalds big breakfast ACTUALLY filled up 3/4 of the plate? Shocked

Phoebie SG

yeah Very Happy

and I'll be playing with the toys from happy meals Embarassed Laughing

SingaporeMacross SG

Dialup? Dialup is young compared to Teleview!! Very Happy

mhcampboy SG

Sigh.. life was much simpler then.

When i was young, a packet of nasi lemak was only 1.50. Mr. Green

JennTS SG

And the playgrounds had sand! Cool

Chelzea SG

aiyah,u go back pri sch lah Laughing food only $1 nia

the Bear SG

my primary school days were in the 70s Shocked

*bursts into tears*

Laughing

Phoebie SG

Laughing

mhcampboy SG

Shocked Shocked

So expensive?

My primary school a plate of nasi lemak only 40cents. Fishcake 20cents. hotdogs 20cents. soyabean also 20cents.

Only vitagen expensive 50cents!! Mad

but got free toy! Mr. Green

Phoebie SG

mine too Mr. Green and 30 cents for beehoon and etc Laughing

sillyme SG

I love my Kaka at 20 cents Smile

Tan Ah Teck SG

I like to play marbles. Laughing