Sawdust on the Floor and Penny Candy

This past week, my wife and I were discussing the days when we were in high school, then went even farther back and recalled a lot of things that have either changed or disappeared since our youth. Surely we aren't the only ones who miss those good old days, so I decided to jog a few memories out there by sharing our thoughts with you.

Remember the real gas stations we had in our younger days? I'm talking about the ones where an attendant came out and pumped your gas, checked your oil and tire pressure, cleaned your windshield, then gave you a gift, often a glass or piece of dinnerware. If you were lost, they would give you a map instead of selling it for four dollars. Today, only New Jersey and Oregon still prohibit self-serve gas. Interestingly, gas prices there are cheaper than in such self-serve states as Illinois and California. Most gas stations have turned into miniature supermarkets so the greedy oil companies can squeeze every last dime out of you, and your odds of finding a friendly face on the other side of the counter are about the same as getting a royal flush in Las Vegas.

Something else that many gas companies gave you, as a number of grocery stores also did, was "S & H Green Stamps". You would glue these stamps in little booklets, and when the books were full, you could trade them in for merchandise. The stamps were another victim of corporate greed because the people in charge failed to understand this was an excellent customer loyalty tool. All they thought about was that giving this merchandise away ate up their bonus.

Let's go back and look at the old fashioned grocery stores. When we were young, our families were much more likely to go to the little corner store than a large mega-market. Those neighborhood stores were all family owned. A lot of times, mom ran the register as pop restocked the shelves with the help of a local boy. There would often be another local in the back who would run the meat counter, cutting off just the size piece of meat you wanted. Sawdust was all over the floor, and your favorite soda was kept in low-slung coolers that were filled with cold water. You pulled your bottle out, wiped the water off with a towel hanging on the cooler, and inserted the bottle neck into a built-in opener on the side to pop off the cap. Such items as pickles and sugar were kept in large barrels from which the customer helped himself. In many of these stores, you didn't even go in with money. You picked your stuff, and the store owner would keep a tab for you because he knew you'd pay at the end of the week. If you were too busy to go, you called in your order, and a school kid who worked for the store would put your groceries in a basket on his bicycle and bring them to you. Your milk, cheese, and bread were delivered fresh daily by a man in a truck who left these items on your porch or step by the door. In the winter, the cream would rise to the top of the milk bottle and push the top off.

Remember the neighborhood candy store? No $15 per pound chocolates graced with names you can't pronounce without a translator in those days. That was the era of penny candy, when you would go in with a quarter and come out with enough goodies to last the week, buying such things as little chocolates shaped like tools at ten for a penny. Those quaint stores often sold your favorite comic books too, which back then cost 12 cents, not $3 each.

For a real treat, mom used to take us to the local "five and dime", the prehistoric predecessor of today's K-mart and Target. The five and dime, usually graced with such names as Woolworth and S.S. Kresge, as did many drug stores back then, had counters with stools where you could sit down and order a fountain Coke, an ice cream float, a sundae, or even a cheeseburger and fries. A really good meal could be had, including dessert, for 95 cents.

If the whole family went out at night, the destination would always be fun. It was either a trip to the drive-in movie or the drive-in restaurant. I have an article about drive-in movie theaters in the works, so I'll skip the movies and refresh your memories about the restaurants. Depending on where you lived, it might have been A&W, Stewart's Root Beer, White Castle, Sonic, Central Park, or Krystal, but wherever it was, you would park your car at the curb and turn on your headlights to show you had just come in. Soon a young man or woman, often on roller skates, would come and take your order, at which point you would turn your lights off. They would come back a bit later with your order on a tray that hooked to your window. When you were done, you would flash your lights and they came and took your tray away. Many of these locations had an outdoor speaker system would play the latest music while you ate.

Entertainment was different then too. There was a time when there was no TV, and everyone listened to the radio. Early TV's were black and white and had a small screen tucked in a huge piece of furniture. The first color TV set was the RCA CT-100, which came out in March of 1954 and sold for one thousand dollars, more than the price of most cars back then . If we wanted the latest music, we would go to the record store and buy our songs on vinyl discs and played them back through a turntable that used a diamond to read the grooves on them. You couldn't take a record player to school, so many teenagers carried small transistor radios that made dull classes easier by listening to music with an earphone.

Some of the comforts we enjoy today weren't always there. Both my wife and I lived in places without indoor plumbing when we were growing up. If nature called, you had to walk out back to the outhouse, taking an oil lamp with you at night so you could see where you were going and make sure no uninvited guests such as skunks or bears beat you to the seat. If you wanted water you either got it from a well or you would go outside to a huge hand operated pump that had to be primed before water would come out. If you saw the movie "The Miracle Worker", you'll know what that was like. Telephones were often on so-called "party lines", and all someone had to do to hear what you were talking about was pick up their receiver and listen in. If you wanted to make a call, you would either click the receiver cradle a few times or turn a crank. The operator would then make your connection for you by dialing the number you wanted to reach. The next step was the private line phone with a rotary dial, which was available in black, unless you were willing to pay extra for a phone of a different color. The push button phone was first designed in 1948, but was not available to household customers until after its official introduction at the Seattle World's Fair in 1963.

Finally, we come to that American icon, the automobile. Yes, there really were cars a long time ago that you had to hand crank to start. This process actually killed some people when the crank was flung back at its operator. This led the Delco Corporation to develop an electric starter button, located on the floor, which was first used in Cadillac cars in 1912. You stepped on this button to start the car. Key operated starters were still some years away.

Cars had no air conditioning, power windows, or electric door locks until the 1950s, and it was nearly 30 years later that they became standard equipment. Cruise control was when you were driving and let your girl hold on to the steering wheel while you lit a cigarette. If you wanted a radio, power brakes, or an outside mirror on the passenger door you had to pay extra. Some American cars came with no radio unless you ordered one from the factory up till the mid 1970s.

Were those times tough? Of course they were, but by being tougher they better prepared us for life. I don't want to have to go back to an outhouse and pumping my own water, but in many ways I'm glad I was able to experience those times. The old days were better than what we have now. At least then we had values, and growing up was fun.