www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall FOR THOSE OF US OVER 50!

Well, even though I am only a teenager still (thanks, Charles--I really loved that one ), I remember that too.

I grew up in one of the boroughs of NYC, and even in that huge city, there were letter exchanges for different areas. I remember that ours was 'TE' for Terrace.

Thanks for the memories!
Alice

Amado,

What? No Royal Tru-Orange?

Many years,

Neil, recollecting that one of his very first exchanges on this forum was identifying "RTO" as "Royal Tru-Orange" in response to a challenge by his Filipino brother

Neil, and definitely no 4%. I still can't find anyone else who remembers it, and no responses on coalregion.

J,

I noticed, I've been checking there regularly. I think we need to ask here.

Do any of you Pennsylvanians, particularly those from the Scranton or Carbondale areas, remember a carbonated soft drink called "4%"? It came in green glass bottles and we think the labels were painted onto the glass in red and white. The drink itself was clear. It was probably bottled in Scranton by an independent local company.

If anyone is familiar with it, to what did "4%" refer?

Many years,

Neil

Was it a Squirt clone?

I can still remember my granma's phone number: LI6-6095, LI for "Lincoln". I can also remmeber making long distance calls by calling the operator, giving her (it was always a her) the info ("I'm calling from LI6-6095 in Brownsville, Texas for RI2-1234 in Dallas, Texas") and waiting for her ta call back when the the call had gone through.

Neil, Yes, Eddie Fisher had a small part in his then wife's movie, but Lawrence Harvey was the male lead. Speaking of phone number movie titles---I remember the movie, Call Northside 777 with Jimmy Stewart. It was made in the late forties or early fifties, I think. Anyway, I sent for it for my husband's birthday last summer. Not easy to find but he loved that movie and wanted us to have a copy. Then there was also Hitchcock's Dial "M" for Murder.

Many years,hopefully, yet to go...

Mary Jo

My fun was driving in Manhattan, trying to make a signal in the car with my left hand and at the same time, shift gears while stepping on the brakes and clutch...But it kept me from being bored.

And boy was I good. I could make U turns in the middle of the city, which, frankly, I think were illegal... Well, I never got caught.

I also remember Bob Hope's joke, on whether a women driver wants to make a turn with her car, or dry her nail polish

Zenovia

Well, it'll be a better part of a decade before I hit 50 (it'll pass soon enough), and I won't go gray (shaved it all off last summer and my sister in law told me I look 33!)
but I remember a lot of those things.

Some others are -
You used to be able to buy almost any car with a stick shift. Not anymore.
Pop in glass bottles. The best pop was in the junkyard pop machines. Ten or fifteen cents and out came a cold glass bottle of Coke, Pepsi or RC Cola.
Drugstores with soda fountains (West of the Alleghenies, soda is pop mixed with ice cream).
Listening to major leage baseball games from all over late at night in the summer. I used to pick up games from Chicago, Minnesota, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, from my bedroom in Ohio. They all came in better when we visited Grandma's in Pennsylvania.

Churches (Latin) before the churchwreckers took hold of them. I remember one church in particular that made me sad to see it. It was ruined.

I grew up in the NYC boroughs, and I still recall the sounds of the horse hoofs pulling the milk truck before the break of dawn. Now I'm 'dating' myself.

Zenovia

Esteemed Fr. Gregory and all of you "Youngsters" out there:

Let me attempt to interject a few things I remember from groing up in the 40 & 50's.

I was born in 1943, so I remember �Polio Sunday�, Salk vaccine later to be replaced by the Saban Oral Vaccine . I remember �Iron Lungs�, and The Crippled Children�s Hospital.

I remember closing the public swimming pools due to Polio outbreaks, I remember �German Measles�, and Three Day Measles. I remember having a neighbor who became sterile due to adult mumps. I remember a family associate who�s child was born blind due to measles.

I remember Coke costing 5 cents form a vending machine, in glass bottles. I rememberGreen Screen TV with a whopping 4 inch screen! I remember Fibber Mc Gee and Mollie and the Great Gildresleve, ans Sargent King of the Yukon on the radio.

I remember STEVE ALLEN hosting the Tonight show, (�Are you nervous? NO!�) I remember Spike Jones on TV. (Oh my - - I really is OLD!)

I remember Tuberculosis being the number one disease. I remember the Tuberculosis Sanatorium. I remember (only 33 years ago) when routine TB treatment was about 5 years of locked hospital then monthly to annual follow-ups. I remember today TB takes 6 months to 1 year to treat, with out hospitalization and Quarantining.

I remember when smoking Kools with menthol, were good for you. "Reccomended by Doctors for throat irritation" I remember when women did not smoke in public. I remember that you were OLD at 60 and expected to die by 70.

I remember all the �jokes about being Catholic, most of them not being nice. I remember the �Cardinal � Washington quarters (ok, so that was in the 60's).

I remember the deaths due to Meningitis. I remember that if you were �handicapiable�, you were expected to stay home and out of sight.

I remember kneeling when the Pries brought the true presence onto the wards for patients Communion.

I remember Quarantines for infectious diseases, like measles.

I remember the Korean War on TV and my Cousin who won 2 Silver Stars with 3 Purple Hearts, I remember going to Viet Nam an a US Marine Corps Corpsman (�But, SIR my ID card says NAVY not Marines! Shut up and keep walking.�)

I remember many things, but I remember that there is tomorrow, and the Good Lord put me here for a purpose - - - to remind any one that the past always looks better than the present.

Ivan Edmundovich
The pest, who still can not spell.

DJS, I am not sure what Squirt is, but 4% was like Seven Up - only not so sticky sweet. By 1978, when my grandpa moved down to Philadelphia with us, it was no longer being made.

Squirt is a grapefruit soda. I think that I recall 4% as a lower-end clone of Squirt. I shouldn't be posting on this thread, though, since I am UNDER 50! :p

Anybody remember one of those citrus colas called "Wink?" There was also something called "Sundrop Cola" that had enough caffeine in it to keep you awake for a week.

OK, I was born in 1960 so I've got aways to go before I hit 50, but I also remember elevator operators, alot more shoe repair and bridal shops than we have now, not that the two are some way connected. Air Raid drills at school, well actually I heard about them, along with bomb shelters. Never understood what protection their was in hiding under a school desk when a nuclear missle was supposedly on it's way. Gas station attendants who pumped gas and wiped your windows. And of course, a little before my time, I heard about parents getting upset that their kids listened to Elvis Presley, then years later along came the Beatles and alot of parents wished their kids were listening Presley again, then along came the Rolling Stones and the parents wished they'd go back to listening to the Beatles.

Mary Jo

Call Northside 777 is actually about an incident that occured on the South Side of Chicago in the Back Of The Yards area where I grew up. Hollywood switched it to the Polish Triangle on the near North Side though. The church seen in the movie is the still very impressive Holy Trinity.