DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... The "Remember When"? thread.....

My grandmother had one of those old push mowers, I used to have to mow her yard with it when i was about 9 or 10 and that was a task as she didn't have a small yard. I remember vending machines where you could get a coke in a small bottle for 5 cents. Going to our local small town grocery store and getting 4 regular size candy bars for a dollar. Driving to the gas station with my dad and getting gas for 35 cents a gallon while the attendant filled up the tank, washed the windows, and checked the oil. Aaahhh the good old days.

I had forgotten he had made a jump at Kings Island.

I remember going to actual "5 & Dime" stores, my favorite being down in Sugarcreek

Oh my gosh, I had forgotten all about that!
That was always somehow just a sign that you were getting a treat, lol

And it seemed to taste better out of a can than the plastic bottles today. Couldn't be because I was a kid??

For us it was Hawaiian Punch. Rare treat. Usually the Kool-Aid packets; they were cheap. Like 20 for a buck, some ridiculous number. Mom made frozen popsicles for us out of them using molds and many flavors.

We had a special contraption for us as kids. It was a round gadget, split in two at its equator; it was hollow, had a mouthpiece top and bottom at its "poles." Put ice cream in the middle, closed it, and put it into the top of a bottle of pop.VoilaQ Instant float! I think it was put out by 7-Up, which we drank, but preferred to use it with Hires root beer. That was summer!

Hawaiian Punch was my thing too. And Country Time lemonade

Carnation Breakfast Squares in the early 70s. Had one every morning before school.

Hubba Bubba made a chocolate flavored gum for awhile around the same time - it tasted good for about ten minutes.

The old K-Tel "hits" records.

j/c


Pop Tarts.
I won't come within a country mile of one of those things today, but they were the best during my "wonder years."
Fruit flavors > savory, syrupy.

Commercial jingles of any sort.

Writing jingles that actually work is a real craft. In 5-7 seconds, you must put your stamp on millions of brains.

"You'll wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent"
"So come to the golden arches- McDonald's makes it so good"
"You've got a lot to like with a- Marlboro"
""Oh I wish I were an Oscar Meyer wiener- that is what I'd truly like to be..."
"When you say Bud-"


On a roll now. Comedy show themes. They don't write'em like they used to.

Addams Family
F-Troop
Gilligan's Island
Mr. Ed


Lost arts?
Or, just more victims of evolution?

It's not up to me to determine.
I just remember these things foldly.

Jingles...Barry Manilow might have been the king of jingles. He did pretty good with catchy songs over maybe a 15 year period.

I played a gig with him many, many years ago.

He did this 4-7 minute solo bit, where he'd talk biographic storytelling patter on the mic, while transitioning from one jingle to the next. The audience (and even we pros) were astounded at how many instantly-recognizable jingles were his. Every time he'd start playing another jingle, the house would erupt into spontaneous applause. By the end, he'd play 2-3 introductory chords, start singing the first line... and the entire audience was singing with him. It was very cool to witness.

It was a regular feature of his road shows, because it hit everywhere. NYC, Peoria IL, Galveston, TX.

I developed mad respect for his writing skills... and finally understood why he put together such a long string of Pop hits. Dude just knew what worked on people.

It wasn't a gift.
It was craft.

As a player, I respect skill above all else.


Good call, 'Peen. Barry was the s#.

So for a couple of years I worked for web.com, and people would pay to have web.com build or update their sites.

My job was to interview them over the phone, gather their info and write copy, collect their photos or stock images for the business owners. Mostly small or medium sized businesses in the U.S.

So one day, I’m interviewing a woman who had studied classical music composition and wanted a site to sell her music. It was good music but the coolest part?

In the 1970s, she was a studio session vocalist and probably her most famous session was to sing the jingle for Folger’s coffee.m, which is still used today, so she told me.

“The best part of waking up is Folger’s in your cup.”

I wish I could remember her name but she told me she once sang backup for Tony Bennett at a gig in NYC, and once did a session for Sinatra. I have no reason to think she was BSing me.

Oh and another fun interview: a woman in her 80s wanted a website to “sell” vocal lessons on-line. She was from Columbus, Ohio, and in the late 50s, she was part of her high school marching band that played a half-time show at a Browns home game.

Too cool, Dawg.

This is more the recent past but shows how quickly things can change.

Every year you would get a new white pages and yellow pages phone book.

Every Sunday you would get a local TV Guide stuffed in the middle of the paper.

I can't say I was ever the biggest fan, but some 20 years ago a friend had tickets to see him here in town and couldn't use them so he gave them to me. Barry did the same thing at that show, started playing the jingles. It got the same reaction here.

Barry was one of those writers who wrote songs you might not admit liking, but you always found yourself singing along at some point. He knew how to write that "hook".

Did you know Barry didnt write his hit "I write the songs" ?

"I Write the Songs" is a popular song written by Bruce Johnston.

That's pretty funny!

Remember when you had to dodge mufflers, and in some cases entire exhaust systems that rusted off the car?

Yep. Never uncommon to hear a muffler dragging and see some sparks flying.

Luckily, there was an easy solution. A solution so popular that people would just yell at those cars as they scraped their way down the street: "Better Midasize!!"

Lol, i remember stopping in the street and running back to pick up the exhaust pipe that was no longer attached to the car. And my buddy using a beer can to lessen the sound after using some rope or something else - I can’t remember lol - to get us moving again without being loud.
Happened more than once.

That's funny! Everybody patched holes in their pipes with those old-school steel beer cans. One beer can, two clamps, good-to-go.

I dropped my muffler while driving home from Filthy McNasty's in Kent. It may have been Metal Night, it may have been 25¢ draft night, my buddy and I may have been buying 4 at a time. Luckily I had a coat hanger in the trunk and wired that baby back up... after shimmying under my El Camino without a jack. Then I crept away from every stop very slowly so the sound wouldn't alert the local 5-0. 😇

Ah yeah, Sunday Heavy Metal Night at McNasty's. I remember it well. I saw a band called Zebra there one Sunday. They were a Rush tribute band, and were pretty good. I was on my way home, and this girl pulls up next to me at the light and yells out, "I hate your car, but you're pretty cute". lol She wanted to race, and at the last second before the light changed, I looked in the rear view mirror, and saw a cop behind her. I yelled for her to stop ... but she was either too far away, or too drunk to hear me. She floored it, the wheels spun, and the cop's lights went on. I felt bad for her, but I wasn't going to stick around.

I always liked the El Camino and the Ranchero, and felt that they were really ahead of their time. Now people are looking for those smaller vehicles that combine some truck capability with car comfort.

That is a great story! Great time, eh?

I remember that from HS. He wrote all those sings and commercial jungles, but not that one.

After reading some of the old drinks, does anyone remember Funny Face drink mix? It was like Kool Aid made by Pillsbury. THey had all teh normal flavor, Jolly Ollie orange, Choo Choo CHerry, Goofy Grape, etc but I loved one called With-It watermelon. I loved that and drank it by the half gallon.

I learned to cut grass with one of those old ones. I was so little I hold to hold my arms above my head just to reach the handles.

Great time... great times. Those stories always bring a smile, and a cringe, gotta count my blessings that I'm still here in one piece. Us 'kids of the eighties' did some crazy stuff and somehow always came out smellin' like roses. 🤣

This may not qualify as a "Remember when" moment but something that certainly makes me reflect on my age. While I was far too young to remember this, it seems strange realizing that when I was born there were only 48 states.

Remember when sardine cans and spam had a little key attached to the lid that you pulled off, inserted in to a slot and rolled the lids back?

I put that with getting hit by the realization that the actor I'm enjoying watching in one of my favorite shows (Green Acres) was born in 1888 (Hank Patterson/ Fred Ziffel).

Or that we're closer to the year 2100 than 1945.

I remember going to drive in theater in mid 50s- nine of us in 55 Chevy- at intermission all of us ran to the playground and had a ball---no thought of kidnapped kid/s or some other crap. Huge bag of popcorn popped at home with lots of butter---lots of hands when in and got your share......great, fun, free times.

Remember when there was live championship boxing on TV. I haven't seen that in yeeeeeears.

Muhammad Ali/Casius Clay, George Foreman, Mike Tyson, Jerry Quarry, etc, etc, etc

Haven't the slightest idea if champion boxing even exists anymore.

every once in a blue moon boxing will be on ESPN2 on a random Saturday night. No idea outside of that

Most all of it moved to Pay-Per-View during the Tyson years, I think.

Heck, even all of those fights were on HBO. The last major fight I recall seeing on broadcast TV was Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini vs Duk Koo Kim.

I was writing a post in the Ali/Frazier fights thread which made me think of this, so here is the rebirth of this thread.

Remember when nearly all drug stores had a vacuum tube tester? They were these massive things over in a corner with multiple ports where you could take the suspected bad tube, plug it in to see if it was bad or not.

Below was a storage area that held replacement tubes. Naturally the one you needed was never in stock. Then you had to drive around from drug store to drug store with your dad for an hour and a half in search of the tube he needed.

At the time it seemed like some sort of punishment, listening to dad cussing as we walked out of the store empty handed, then cussing again as we walked in to the next store which was surely going to end up a futile attempt.

But right now, I have a big smile on my face. Funny how what seemed like punishment at the time is now a cherished memory, all brought forward by a thread on dawgtalkers.