Remember when

Big cabinet TVs with “the works in a drawer”, so the inevitable repair man would not have to move your furniture from the wall and crawl behind the TV to do simple repairs.

Cabinet floor model stereos with only one woofer right in the middle. You couldn’t see the 3 speakers unless you looked in the back thru little holes.

The back up light on your car was an optional accessory that you had to have installed at the dealer.

You could turn on a CB radio and actually talk to somebody on channel 9.

 

Drug stores had radio and TV tube testers and with drawers of replacement tubes underneath.
The kid who had my mother so sorry for him after he lost his hearing until she began to understand what a transistor radio was and that he was listening to the World Series (afternoon games) through an ear piece. He kept us all informed that the Yankees were beating the Dodgers one more time.

 

I bought my first new compound bow at the local drug store in the 1980’s. They sold guns and ammo too. Stonestreet Drugs was the name of it.

 

Buying my first Cub Scout knife.

My mother canceling the Cub Scout meeting because Kennedy was shot.

Balsa wood airplanes with paper and dope on the wings.

Collecting pop bottles to buy candy.

Building forts. Table forts, tree forts, shack forts, snow forts, forts in the dirt.

Making a telegraph system out of nails, random house wire, and copper magnet wire from Radio Shack.

Building radios from a kit.

Bumper Jacks.

Pop rivets hit the hardware store.

Putting pepper in a leaky radiator.

Trying to spin the speedo up to 100 while parked on the ice.

 

Then the first remotes came out. You pushed a spring loaded button on it and it clanked and the channel changed. Never forget how we figured out the principle behind that. At my best friends house working in the garage. Walked in to see something on TV real quick and I had a 3/8" ratchet with a long socket attached, socket in my hand. I started spinning the ratchet around and I'm sure you can imagine the sound it made. Damned TV started going haywire changing channels like a banshee out of control. It took a couple start/stops with the ratchet before we figured out my fuckery was causing the issue. It wasn't long after that the world got electronic remotes....and Pong....and the ratchet method didn't work anymore.

 

The guy who made those balsa wood plane & boat kits lived in the town I grew up in, name of his company if I remember was Balsa usa.

 

Rubber band for a propeller, remember it well

 

The smell of the hardware store at the top of the street. That creeky wood floor, kegs of oil soaked nails, and fertilizer. The scale that weighed the nails, the owner would always throw in a few extra for my dad.

 

I still do but i throw them on the console.

 

I remember when the only time you had to worry about making a mistake when choosing a pronoun, was in 5th grade taking an English test.

 

Air raid drills
The whole school would go to the basement and hide against the walls

 

In the basement, facing the wall sitting down with your hands over your head, getting ready to kiss your ass goodbye. In the “Air Raid Shelter “

 

Under the desk in case of nuclear attack!

 

We were told to close our eyes, debris and dust.

 

If there's one thing to thwart a nuclear bomb, It's a wooden school desk.

 

“Civil Defense Drills “

 

Years ago my brother built a Heathkit Oscilloscope, he said it cost around $400, the old green screen tube type. Retired now, I guess out of a sense of nostalgia, he just built another o’scope out of a kit, clear case, circuit board, small color screen- about $35

 

These were made for the dual purpose of nuclear attack protection…. Everyone knows this.

It’s the small things and details that will save your life!

You get it