You Know You Are Old When

[MossRoad]

On that note, I used to collect paper matchbooks when I was a kid. I had several grocery bags full of them. Dad decided it was a fire hazard.

Not sure what we did with them. Might still be around somewhere.

 

[check]

?

LOL!

 

[check]

Yep. One in millions.

Let’s see if he is thinking the of the same great old movie.

Ingrid Bergman!

I need to watch that movie again - it was great!

 

[Alan46]

You know you are old if you bought cigarettes without the surgeon general’s warning on the pack!

 

[WinterDeere]

I wonder how people knew they were related to someone that lived 300 yrs in the past?

Most families who spent any amount of time in one place had a family historian or at least a few family bibles with births, weddings, deaths, and sometimes even a full family tree recorded in them. My own family tree has been kept nearly 100% complete back to 1600, with the oldest branches reaching back into the mid-1500's. There's also a remnant well recorded for a few generations either side of the Domesday book, 1086, but the thread was lost between that and the 1500's... the "dark ages".

The only thing the internet has changed would be my potential ability to connect the modern (post-1600) to the earlier (1086) branches, but always with some doubt, as too many seem to post wishes or suspicion as fact on most of those genealogy sites.

But since all of these older records were recorded on paper, ad-hoc in family bibles or church records, the thread would be lost due to families separating or moving, church fires, etc. Also, just one generation who either doesn't care about their family history, or wants to escape it, is all it could have taken for all subsequent generations to completely lose their history.

 

[MoKelly]

You know you are old if you bought cigarettes without the surgeon general’s warning on the pack!

Yes! That was in 1965 —- which is almost 60 years ago!!! Wow.

 

[masseyrider]

You know you are old if you bought cigarettes without the surgeon general’s warning on the pack!

I don't smoke, never have, but I remember as a little fella riding my bike into town and buying smokes for my mother.
The change was mine to get a treat.
I was about 6 or 7, no ID needed, nothing but the cold hard cash.
It hurt when they raised the prices because there was less change for my goodies.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

A quarter a pack in vending machines everywhere.

 

[FriendwithTractor]

I don't smoke, never have, but I remember as a little fella riding my bike into town and buying smokes for my mother.
The change was mine to get a treat.
I was about 6 or 7, no ID needed, nothing but the cold hard cash.
It hurt when they raised the prices because there was less change for my goodies.

"Go buy your grandpa a pack of marlboros, tell'em I says it's okay!"

Crazy thing is that worked. Of course, if I had tried that without the OK I would have gotten the literal short end of the stick! Word always would get back.

 

[masseyrider]

A quarter a pack in vending machines everywhere.

Ma said she'd quit when they hit a buck a pack. They were over $6 when she died and still smoking, lung cancer and all.
Here in Canuckistan I've seen people ahead of me in line paying over $20 a large pack. And it's usually the people who look like they can least afford it.

 

[JasperFrank]

When you know how to fold a match and light it with one hand. Remember the match companies all had to put the striker on the back side.

 

[Eagle1]

When you know how to fold a match and light it with one hand. Remember the match companies all had to put the striker on the back side.

Was there another way to light it....

 

[JasperFrank]

Was there another way to light it....

Earlier match packs had the striker on the same side as the matches. So it was a simple fold and strike. The newer ones, you had to bend the match all the way to the back, and still do it with one hand.

 

[MossRoad]

 

[MossRoad]

 

[Jstpssng]

Earlier match packs had the striker on the same side as the matches. So it was a simple fold and strike. The newer ones, you had to bend the match all the way to the back, and still do it with one hand.

Still doable, although it's been many decades since I tried.

I've also heard of the match folding back up and lighting the rest of the book on fire.

 

[WinterDeere]

I remember my grandfather explaining safety matches to me, the reason all stick matches in the 1980's had that white dot on the tip. He told me about the time he was getting a spanking, and the box or tube of old strike-anywhere matches in his pocket caught fire! I wish I could remember the whole story now, as I imagine that if the spanking was for playing with matches (or lying), having his pants on fire probably didn't help his cause.

We used to buy and carry strike anywhere matches for scouts, and I still try to buy them when I can find them, but they're not as common to find anymore. Also, not as easy to light as the old ones, when you do find them.

 

[scootr]

I remember my grandfather explaining safety matches to me, the reason all stick matches in the 1980's had that white dot on the tip. He told me about the time he was getting a spanking, and the box or tube of old strike-anywhere matches in his pocket caught fire!

We used to buy and carry strike anywhere matches for scouts, and I still try to buy them when I can find them, but they're not as common to find anymore. Also, not as easy to light as the old ones, when you do find them.

Strike anywhere and waterproof ! $1.51 box of 40

https://www.grainger.com/product/3W...oCeonnw-ktZlhGnXwRxoCeBoQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[sixdogs]

You are old if you ever wore a pocket protector.

You're double dog old if you carry a small notebook and pen in your pocket. Mentioned it for a friend.

 

[sixdogs]

100 yrs ago people could change their ancestry just by saying so .... my grandmother did that. She was born in 1896 or 99 depending upon which story you believe. We only found out the truth when my sister did the genealogy and DNA tests. She lived to 92 yrs telling the lie.

My family was never the age anyone said and we later learned all of their birthdays and dates were fudged. We figured they were afraid of being tracked down by the government for some invented reason and deported.

They also only spoke English in front of the kids for fear the government would find out and deport them for not being loyal Americans. Such was the desire to live in the land of the free and home of the brave.