Oh Come On, Grandpa, You Are Making That Up! | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Young people are not old people. If we tell them about long ago, we bore them. If we tell them about a short time ago we not only bore them but we shock ourselves that they are completely unknowing about what we consider recent history.

    I am going to list some of these, Oh Come On, Grandpa, You Are Making That Ups for you to ponder. I am willing to bet that any "old" person reading this Foolishness...Or Is It? (if there is anyone reading this Foolishness...Or Is It?) will be able to expand this list quite easily...

    • Telephones handsets used to have cords on them that prevented a talker from straying too far away from the telephone box.
    • When a long distance call was received absolute panic set it. The phone company had a set price for the first three minutes. There was a charge for going over three minutes and what that charge actually was was one of the great unknowns because no one ever went over three minutes. The person who answered the phone would shout, "Long Distance!" and also shout out the name of whomever the call was for. The family member whose name had been shouted out would come running, grabbed the phone and talked very fast while keeping an eye on the clock. Keeping an eye on the clock was not necessary because the caller (the person paying for the three minutes) was certainly keeping an eye on the clock on his end. The caller also had his finger on the hang-up button and there was no way that call was going to go one second over the "free" three minutes.
    • There used to be telephone booths everywhere where phone calls could be made from a pay phone (what's a pay phone?), homeless people used the phone booths as rest rooms and Superman changed into his flying costume in these handy changing rooms.
    • Cell phones did not exist.
    • Before cell phones, people used to drive with both hands on the steering wheel.
    • Postage stamps had glue on the back and we used to lick the back with our wet tongues.
    • Before GPS, we got cross country using paper road maps that we got from gas stations for free.
    • When we bought gas we were given gifts for buying the gas which was 17 cents a gallon.
    • Every time we wanted to change a TV channel we had to get up out of our chair and twist the knob by hand.
    • If a knee, heart, hip, eye, rotator cuff, kidney or any such thing went bad we did not get another one. We just had to bear (suffer and/or die) with the old non-functioning part in place.
    • Dogs and cats were free and we got them from our neighbors.
    • We had to open the garage door by hand (if we had a garage). This included when we returned home. This included when we returned home in the rain.
    • Each family had one and only one car.
    • Car side windows, sliding side doors and tailgates had to be opened by hand.
    • Post Office clerks smiled at us.
    • Birthdays meant ice cream, cake, a single present and your aunts, uncles and cousins came over to celebrate. They did not walk in asking, "How come we did not go to Chuck E. Cheese this year?"
    • In church on Sunday, when it came time for the collection, the sound of jingling coins filled the church. Everyone was getting prepared to drop in their nickels and dimes. Today we drop in paper bills and paper checks. They do not jingle. I miss that sound.

    Would I kid u?
    Smartfella
Go Back


Leave a Guest Comment

Your Name or Alias
Your Email Address ( your email address will not be published)
Enter Your Comment ( no code or urls allowed, text only please )



Comment

( December 2nd, 2017 @ 9:59 am )
 
There was no Wifi. No flat screen TVs. No Sunday sports.



Governor Cooper Proclaims Dec. 1 World AIDS Day in North Carolina Foolishness...Or Is It?, Public Perspective, Body & Soul Suddenly, It 's December


HbAD0

Latest Body & Soul

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is launching a Community Partner Engagement Plan to ensure the voices of North Carolina communities and families continue to be at the center of the department’s work.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will host a live Spanish-language Cafecito and tele-town hall on Tuesday, Feb. 27, from 6 to 7 p.m., to discuss how to support and improve heart health as well as prevent and manage heart disease.
Part of ongoing effort to raise awareness and combat rising congenital syphilis cases
Recognition affirms ECU Health’s commitment to providing highly-reliable, human-centered care
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is launching a new Statewide Peer Warmline on Feb. 20, 2024. The new Peer Warmline will work in tandem with the North Carolina 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by giving callers the option to speak with a Peer Support Specialist.
A subsidiary of one of the largest health insurance agencies in the U.S. was hit by a cyberattack earlier this week from what it believes is a foreign “nation-state” actor, crippling many pharmacies’ ability to process prescriptions across the country.
The John Locke Foundation is supporting a New Bern eye surgeon's legal fight against North Carolina's certificate-of-need restrictions on healthcare providers.
Shia LaBeouf received the Sacrament of Confirmation, completing his conversion to Catholicism, on Sunday, and the actor’s confirmation sponsor suggested LaBeouf may become a deacon “in the future.”
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today released the following statement on the Trails Carolina investigation:

HbAD1

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today released a draft of its 2024-25 Olmstead Plan designed to assist people with disabilities to reside in and experience the full benefit of inclusive communities.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will host a live fireside chat and tele-town hall on Tues., Feb. 20, from 6 to 7 p.m., to discuss how to support and improve heart health as well as prevent and manage heart disease.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is investing $5.5 million into the FIT Wellness program, part of the North Carolina Formerly Incarcerated Transition Program in the UNC School of Medicine, to improve reentry services for the justice-involved population.
As of Feb. 1, 2024, 346,408 newly eligible North Carolinians are enrolled in Medicaid and now have access to comprehensive health care, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Medicaid Expansion Enrollment Dashboard.
Controversy surrounds a healthcare provider’s decision to block parents from having access to their children’s prescription records.
Members of the North Carolina Rural Health Association (NCRHA) visited Washington, D.C., on Feb. 14, 2024, to meet with elected officials and advocate for policies to improve access to care in rural areas.
Mark Wahlberg said that COVID caused a “disconnect” between Americans and called for people to come back together through the “power of prayer.”
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today released the request for proposal to hire the organization that will help manage the Children and Families Specialty Plan.
As part of its commitment to improve the health and well-being of North Carolina children and families, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today announced the launch of its Child Behavioral Health dashboard.

HbAD2

 
Back to Top