[DZAUTO]

I remember our phone was a black rotary dial unit with the receiver laid accross the top. It sat in a little alcove in the hall almost like a shrine. There was no furniture around so you stood to talk. Perhaps that was so you woulndn't spend much time on the phone. You couldn't have a second phone in your house unless you paid for two accounts. Some people got a second phone and installed it without letting the telephone company know about it. If they were caught they faced a stiff fine because it was actually against the law and the courts got involved. Hence it was sort of a status symbol to have two telephones. Long distance calls cost $0.25 a minute. Adjusted for the cost of living that would be equivalent to at least $2.50 today. People were working for fifty cents an hour back then so you are talking about a half an hour of labor for one minute of long distance. Not everyone cried when the federal government broke up AT&T.

Like these?
We have 3 of these (1st picture), and 6 of these (2nd). And a grand total of 21 phones in our house------------ALL WORK LIKE BRAND NEW!

 

[DZAUTO]

Same here. Ours was 2406. 2 shorts and a long on the ring in, AIRC.
The fone had the mouthpiece on the box and the earpiece on a hanger.

You mean like one of these?

 

[Granpa49!!]

The one beside the phone booth in the photo above is like the one we had. This was from 1953 to 1966. When we moved away we did not take the phone with us. I believe it was hard wired. Our phone number was 22880. The dial actually read 7522880 but no one used the first two digits. The phone company put a label in the center of the dial with your phone number on it. You can barely make that out in the photo above.

 

[DZAUTO]

We also have these, and they are all connected and work.

 

[Granpa49!!]

I've got one of those wall phones. The plastic connector board in the back broke up but if I had that part it would still work. But --- I got rid of my land line ---so.

 

[sandidog]

I'm 48...so I don't have the depth of knowledge or experience many here do...

Could some of you indulge and give me life from your perspective in:

1950s:

1960s:

1970s:


IF anyone was around in the 1940s ....please also chime in...


Thanks!

TE

GOD OH MIGHTY I WROTE A BOOK TITLED SUMMER DAYS / HOT NIGHTS over 230 pages only a few pic's nothing crude but it covers both decades check it out on
www.amzn.com/B09F5VWH4L everything we teens did from the mid 50's to the late 60's , cars, hot rods, beer, drags, sex nothing crude, drivin movies, friends all the great times with the best music, cars, movies you will love it i promise because i wrote it an lived it and still have a 57 chevy

 

[57Bel-Air]

Oh my god, how young is this whipper snapper??? For families in rural areas with no electricity-----------------YES, there was a time when many people did not have electricity in the home--------------- and Maytag made washing machines with 2cycle gas engines. Some were 1 cylinder, and there was also a larger capacity Maytag washing machine that had a 2 cylinder 2cycle engine. They had a kick starter, kind of like the kick starter on a Cushman Eagle. SURELY people here are familiar with the Cushman Eagle!!! By the 50s, Maytag gasoline engines were dirt cheap or even free. Me and several of my friends made go-carts out of wood, rounded up wheels from wherever, and powered by a Maytag engine. I made my first Maytag go-cart about 1953.

Cushman's were Gutless! > My dad had a Cushman & a Doodle Bug!. The Doodle Bug could climb hills that the Cushman couldn't begin to climb! But they were still both Fun to ride!!! Richard ('57 Chevy)

 

[Budsin's mad mechanic]

Cushman's were Gutless! > My dad had a Cushman & a Doodle Bug!. The Doodle Bug could climb hills that the Cushman couldn't begin to climb! But they were still both Fun to ride!!! Richard ('57 Chevy)

I had a whizzer motor bike but the motor threw a rod so my dad and I got a Rio single cylinder 4 HP engine adapted to the frame , you wanna talk gutless BUT it was so cool to ride and not peddle

 

[highway-08]

The washing machines were gas powered ?

Oh yeah, back in the day electricity was pretty rare in a lot of the U.S. My aunt’s husband died young in the 1950’s and she lived in the same house on a creek in Central Texas, couldn’t afford to pay to extend the pole line miles from the highway so she didn’t have electricity till the mid 1970’s. She did get a gas powered washing machine in the early 1950’s to replace her cast iron pot in the front yard.

 

[Melyvl 57]

Some awesome feedback, my memories go back to the late 50's. Grew up in Indianapolis so May was the memorable times at the Indy 500. whole month consumed around the race track. We could go on weekdays for 50 cent entry fee, qualification were maybe a $1.50 for the infield infamous "Snake Pit Area" saw it all there. All of us worked starting at a young age 1st full time job was for my Uncle at his gas station, $5.00 a day for a 11hour shift, gas was $ 0.149 a gallon. Life was wonderful and easy, summers consisted of chores first and play later. We built tree houses, rode our bikes everywhere, jumped on and played on the trains and rode them from neighbor to neighbor, as they were slow moving coming out of the staging areas. Our last tree home was a 2 story with a old pot-belly stove on railroads property right above the trains, kept us dry and warm. 1st car 58 Chevy cost $10.00, motorcycles could get for around $50.00 Honda 350 Scramblers. 60's were great times James Dean look for clothing, out door movies, Satellite Hamburger was the 1st burger joint I remember, other than White Castle were the 5 cents each. Taking our dates to the sub-marine races and oh yes the Fire House & West Lake weekly dance with live bands at no fees to enter. Then came Vietnam, all the hippies free love and start of the mainstream drug culture. 70's were great still able to hitch-hike anywhere without the fear of gettting in trouble or hurt. 70 Mach-1 ordered from factory with 429 ram air $ 5.000.00( like to have that back)

 

[Granpa49!!]

I had a 1963 Cruzaire from Sears and Roebuck. It could have climbed a tree if you could get traction. I went out with guys riding Honda 350's and when they fell off trying to scale a steep hill I would go riding up "putt putt putt putt", stop, get off and help them get their bike turned around for another try, sit there and wait on them to finally make it to the top then get back on my scooter and from a stsanding start, already half way up the hill, I'd putt putt putt right up to the top and join them. Kinda ticked them off. It had a top speed of 50 mph and got about 50 mpg. Not cool but a good source of transportation during my school days.

 

[DZAUTO]

I had a whizzer motor bike but the motor threw a rod so my dad and I got a Rio single cylinder 4 HP engine adapted to the frame , you wanna talk gutless BUT it was so cool to ride and not peddle

Dang, I forgot about the Whizzers! ANYTHING, I don't care what it was, ANYTHING was better than peddling! Especially if you had to go 1-2mi to see a girl.

 

[eldoradojim]

The washing machines were gas powered ?

Early ones were gas powered

 

[highway-08]

Good stuff, the telephone conversation reminds me that my mom made us kids answer the phone “Hufstutler residence, Alan speaking” and I never could see why daddy got away with “Yallow this is Gale”.
Some pictures below so nobody feels bad about progress on their rides. Anybody from the Dallas area remember Hot Rod Exchange?

1978:

This evening:

45 year old stickers:

 

[Shadetree55]

The washing machines were gas powered ?

yes they were-----and the gas motors made some terrific go carts

 

[Shadetree55]

Ah, a little late with that last post. Didn't click on that little line that said "There have been other responses. Do you want to see them?" For the record, I never saw a washing machine with a gas motor but I vividly remember wringer washing machines and I remember my grandparents washer sat out on the back porch. I suppose they fed it water thru a hose or with buckets and drained it afterwards because it would have frozen if it had retained water.

I hated wash day----pumping water and carrying it up to the back porch to the washing machine. Pot belly stove in the middle of the living room in the winter. Oblong galvanized bathtub on back porch used on Saturdays. 5 kids and the same water just warmed back up with some water from a pan on the stove.

 

[Granpa49!!]

I guess I had it easy. We always had "indoor plumbing" and electricity. Being born in 1949 might have put me in a good decade for basic conveniences. Plus, we lived in town on a paved street. The house I grew up in had electricity and two vertical gas fired radiant heaters and a set of gas logs and mom's washing machine was hooked up to the water. Yep, I must have had it easy.

 

[Shadetree55]

I guess I had it easy. We always had "indoor plumbing" and electricity. Being born in 1949 might have put me in a good decade for basic conveniences. Plus, we lived in town on a paved street. The house I grew up in had electricity and two vertical gas fired radiant heaters and a set of gas logs and mom's washing machine was hooked up to the water. Yep, I must have had it easy.

I was 12 before we had indoor plumbing, a TV or a telephone.

 

[57Bel-Air]

I guess I had it easy. We always had "indoor plumbing" and electricity. Being born in 1949 might have put me in a good decade for basic conveniences. Plus, we lived in town on a paved street. The house I grew up in had electricity and two vertical gas fired radiant heaters and a set of gas logs and mom's washing machine was hooked up to the water. Yep, I must have had it easy.

I was born in 1939 & we always had all that too & we had a milkman deliver milk to us in Glass bottles!

 

[Granpa49!!]

I remember the milkman and the glass bottles. We, too, didn't have a TV until I was ten and we got our first window unit air conditioner when I was about 12 or 13. Until then we used a large window fan and left our windows up at night so the fan could pull air in and thru our bedrooms. We never locked our doors back then.