You know you're getting old when...


 
Ed P said:
...when there used to be an incinerator in the backyard of tract homes in SoCal. My sister and I used to play in the ashes.

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We had a sheet metal "trash burner" in our backyard in NE Ohio. I used to get a quarter a week to take the paper trash out to it and burn it every day or so. Edit: A lot more things came packaged in paper or cardboard back then, plus my parents took a daily newspaper.
 
We always had trash burners on the farm, and separated out burnables, compostables and remaining trash. There were only the equivalent of a couple of trash bags per month in the trash stream.
 
LMichaels said:
I think back then they used to find and hire phys ed "teachers" based on their level of sadistic tendencies. Looking back at what (at least in the early to mid 60s) endured in HS would be court cases today
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I had a few teachers that whacked you across the knuckles with a ruler or across the head with a book if you were talking in class. ( CPS)
Had a wood shop teacher that had two fingers on his right hand a three on his left. I'm thinking this is the guy who is gonna show me proper shop safety? If you came in late he said roll up your sleeve so he can check for tracks..
Ah the good old days when we respected our elders, and now I'm one...
 
timothy said:
I had a few teachers that whacked you across the knuckles with a ruler or across the head with a book if you were talking in class. ( CPS)
Had a wood shop teacher that had two fingers on his right hand a three on his left. I'm thinking this is the guy who is gonna show me proper shop safety? If you came in late he said roll up your sleeve so he can check for tracks..
Ah the good old days when we respected our elders, and now I'm one...
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Between nuns and CPS teachers I got whacked more than my fair share of times :D
 
Because I was a Catholic kid going to public school, then marching the half mile every Wed afternoon at 2pm to St Gen's for CCD (well in the 50s it was called Catechism) and being made to kneel through an entire mass without getting whacked in the head by Sr Mary Vicious, then no matter the weather having to walk home from church in the dark, (plus either rain or cold and snow). Ahh, the good times. And quite honestly I'd not want to trade them for today
 
Was sentenced to Catholic school twice. One of the nuns was Sister Mary Agnes Theresa. We called her Sister Mary Agony. Coincidentally, Miriam went to Catholic School in Ireland and also had a nun teacher they called Sister Mary Agony. There were some mean old nuns back then.
 
timothy said:
was an alter boy. Got to serve the 5am mass many times. Mostly just the nuns and a few old lady's with babushkas.
It was a long walk on a cold morning and if I even closed my eyes or yawned holy heck came down after.
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No, you were an altar boy.
I also spent MANY hours as an acolyte, started serving Mass for my father (Episcopalian then later Anglican Catholic) when I was maybe ten, last time I served Mass was maybe two years ago when my parish closed here in Kalamazoo. It was a very sad day for me.
 
Ed P said:
...when you know what a mimeograph is and you remember the smell of mimeograph fluid. And your Sunday school teacher illustrated stories from the Bible on a flannel board.
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Actually everybody gets "mimeograph" wrong. Calling the wrong machine(s) "mimeograph". 2 guys invented the mimeograph. Thomas Edison and Albert Dick (AKA A.B. Dick) They coined the name for a machine using a drum filled with thick liquid ink. The drum had a screen on one half of it. You would position it, screen side up and fill the drum with ink. Then a pad would be clamped onto the drum, and a stencil on top of the pad. When the drum was rotated ink would soak the pad, and "bleed" though the stencil. Paper was picked up and pressed to the stencil by an impression roller, and then ejected to a "receiving tray". It was also called an Edison Dick machine FWIW. But name was later changed to "mimeograph"
The machine people refer to as a mimeo was not a mimeo but an Azograph (or Spirit Duplicator) Also an A.B. Dick and Edison invention. That machine used a "stencil" and a "master" sheet. The stencil was a sheet of nitrocellulose. (yes they were VERY VERY flammable) and in the lab at the factory in Chicago (where I used to work) they had extensive fire fighting equipment and even mini fire trucks in the plant.
The Azo had the benefit of being able to make a "master" sheet or stencil on a standard typewriter. The master was basically a sheet of something similar to "carbon paper". Above the drum which held the master and the stencil, was a trough filled with "spirits". And yes here too, at A.B. Dick we got 55 gal drums of grain alcohol in. Yes they even had liquor stamps on them. They were kept under guarded lock and key. In the plant the alcohol was "denatured".
That fluid was placed in a trough above the master drum. It held a wick. The wick was on a cam, and as the drum was rotated and paper picked up and fed in, the wick wetted the pad/stencil combo. Paper pressed against it, and the "carbon" (or blue stuff) would dissolve at a controlled rate and show up as "print" on the paper.
The reason they invented that machine was because it was cheaper, and did not require special equipment to cut a stencil (as a mimeograph did). A standard old typewriter struck with enough force to "cut" the stencil.
I used to work there, actually befriended AB Dick Jr. Learned a lot. Also had a REALLY good friend I made there, named "Baldy" IIRC now his real name was Leonard Cohen or something like that. (was a VERY long time ago). He was a former Chicago Outlaw. Had done a stint in prison, and actually had earned a law degree while in there. But we worked together in the "remanufacturing dept" where offset printing presses were torn down to pieces and separated into bins. (our job). That is all we did.
We got to be good friends. (much longer story here). But, he was actually a REALLY nice guy. He used to come buy wearing his old "colors", and riding his ratty old "hog". We made a pair. Me on my BMW and him on his ratty old Hog in his colors. Funny thing was my parents really ended up liking him as well. They'd invite him for dinner and all. They didn't care. Sadly he ended up being murdered by of all people his landlord.
Sorry about the "novel". I could have written a lot more. :D
 
My father used to cut stencils for drum printing for school projects when he was teaching and,again when he went back into the priesthood. He originally cut the stencils on manual typewriters (he did that when he was in the army as well) but, was very happy to use the Olivetti-Underwood electric typewriter! Dad was a 150 WPM typist with a manual! The Olivetti sounded like a maxim gun! My sister retired from being a legal secretary/office manager who said when dad would get going, he was easily a 225 typist! I was in awe! I type maybe 30?
 
Ed P said:
...when you know what a mimeograph is and you remember the smell of mimeograph fluid. And your Sunday school teacher illustrated stories from the Bible on a flannel board.
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My wife teaches children's Sunday school along with other women, and many of the teachers still use the flannel boards - sometimes simple is best.
 
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