How old is Grandma?

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MrsLMB

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How old is Grandma?
(Read this to the end-- quite an eye opener.)

One evening a grandson was talking to his grandmother about current events.

The grandson asked his grandmother what she thought about the shootings at schools, the computer age, and just things in general.

The Grandmother replied, "Well, let me think a minute,

I was born before:
penicillin
polio shots
frozen foods
Xerox
contact lenses
' Frisbees and
' the pill
There were no:
credit cards
laser beams or
ball-point pens
Man had not yet invented:
pantyhose
air conditioners
dishwashers
clothes dryers
and the clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air and
man hadn't yet walked on the moon

Your Grandfather and I got married first, and then lived together.
Every family had a father and a mother.
Until I was 25, I called every man older than me, "Sir."
And after I turned 25, I still called policemen and every man
With a title, "Sir."
We were before gay-rights, computer-dating, dual careers, daycare centers, and group therapy.
Our lives were governed by the Ten Commandments, good judgment, and common sense.
We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong and to stand up and take responsibility for our actions.
Serving your country was a privilege; living in this country was a bigger privilege.
We thought fast food was what people ate during Lent.
Having a meaningful relationship meant getting along with your cousins.
Draft dodgers were those who closed front doors as the evening breeze started.
Time-sharing meant time the family spent together in the evenings and weekends — not purchasing condominiums.

We never heard of FM radios, tape decks, CD's, electric typewriters, yogurt, or guys wearing earrings. We listened to Big Bands, Jack Benny, and the President's speeches on our radios.
If you saw anything with 'Made in Japan ' on it, it was junk.
The term 'making out' referred to how you did on your school exam.
Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and instant coffee were unheard of. We had 5 &10-cent (5 and dime) stores where you could actually buy things for 5 and 10 cents.
Ice-cream cones, phone calls, rides on a streetcar, and a Pepsi were all a nickel.
And if you didn't want to splurge, you could spend your nickel on enough stamps to mail 1 letter and 2 postcards.
You could buy a new Ford Coupe for $600, but who could Afford one? Too bad, because gas was 11 cents a gallon.

In my day:
"grass" was mowed,
"coke" was a cold drink,
"pot" was something your mother cooked in and
"rock music" was your grandmother's lullaby.
"Aids" were helpers in the Principal's office,
"chip" meant a piece of wood,
"hardware" was found in a hardware store and.
"software" wasn't even a word.

We were the last generation to actually believe that a lady needed a husband to have a baby. We volunteered to protect our precious country. No wonder people call us "old and confused" and say there is a generation gap.

How old do you think I am?


Are you ready?????

This woman would be only 62 years old.
She would have been born in 1951.

GIVES YOU SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.
 
I could relate to ALL on the list and I'm even older than Grandma. I often miss the days as described in this piece.

Once, when my daughter was quite young, she asked me if I ever wore those big dresses with the hoops that made the skirts stand out. I'm old, but not THAT old.
 
Thanks that was fun and interesting!

The credit card caught my eye, do you remember the metal charge-a-plates that department stores used to issue? They looked like army dog tags and they came in a little plastic sleeve.
 
Oh, I can relate! Katie, my little boy (at the time) wanted to to know if my mother had ever seen a dinosaur in person.

Bea, I think a world without credit cards would still be a better place. If we wanted a big ticket item, we had to save money for it. Saving is a concept nobody understand anymore.
 
Geez... my own paternal grandmother was born in 1897 - 116 years ago. At that time cars were a rare novelty, the airplane hadn't yet been invented, and women were still 26 years away from being able to vote. It's amazing how much our world has changed in such a short amount of time.

Oh, and yes, she is now deceased. She died in 1966.
 
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Oh, I can relate! Katie, my little boy (at the time) wanted to to know if my mother had ever seen a dinosaur in person.

Bea, I think a world without credit cards would still be a better place. If we wanted a big ticket item, we had to save money for it. Saving is a concept nobody understand anymore.

I agree that saving is still the best way to go.

It used to take me so long to save up for things that by the time I had the money to buy them I no longer needed them or did not want them. :ermm::ohmy::LOL:
 
It's interesting, but the tone is a bit judgmental, imo, and a few items are inaccurate. Xerox was founded in 1906 and Birdseye started selling frozen goods to the public in 1929.

"Our lives were governed by the Ten Commandments, good judgment, and common sense."

Because there were no Jews, Buddhists or Muslims, I suppose. And children with mental disabilities were not consigned to neglectful facilities. I could go on.
 
tHE ONLY QUESTION i HAVE IS fm RADIO. iT WAS ALREADY INVENTED IN 40'S.

Oops, sorry about that.

But this, this is prisless: "Our lives were governed by the Ten Commandments, good judgment, and common sense.
We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong and to stand up and take responsibility for our actions.
Serving your country was a privilege; living in this country was a bigger privilege.
"
 
Well I see this ruffled a few feathers.

It was not meant to do that at all.

I did not purposely put this up here to challenge people and their personal beliefs.

It was meant simply to show how far things have come in such a short amount of time.

I did not write it, I simply ran across it in my travels and thought it was a good piece.

Perhaps there are some errors in it and apparently I should have checked the validity of the statements made in that piece before posting.

I'm sorry now that I posted it and it wasn't taken in the spirit intended.

It will be gone soon.
 
Please don't remove it. It certainly gave a lot of us something to think about. And I am one of the ones who read it in the spirit it was meant. Thank you for posting it. I found mostly good in the piece. And since I got the spirit of the intended posting, I didn't feel any need to find fault with any of the statements. Just because some of those statements happened before we were born, doesn't mean we had access to them or even heard of them. I remember my first sight of the first torbo jet to fly out of Logan Airport. It flew right over my house. It was lound!!! I heard of jets from the Korean War. But had never even seen one or expected them to become the normal way to travel. It wasn't until TV became a common appliance in most homes that we even heard of some of those items mentioned in the piece. We got our first view of them from the TV. And if you didn't have a TV, you were lucky to have a neighbor who would invite you over to watch.

I enjoyed the piece. If you come across anymore like that, please post it. Correct or not. It certainly gave a lot of us pleasure.

My youngest son was five years old. I had an out of town friend visiting from Wash. State. I was taking her on the Freedom Trail. When we got to the marker where Paul Revere started his ride, I was telling her the facts. My son with the most serious face asked me, "You remember that Mommy?" He was just nths from death at that moment, but instead I gave him a hug and told him, "Yes Poo, I packed his lunch and Auntie Rain slapped the rear of the horse to get him going." He believed that for a very long time. :angel:
 
While many of the "conveniences" were invented on X-Y-Z date before 1951, the ease of availability was not.

As an example, even though my family was considered to be upper-middle class, we didn't get a television until I was 8. Our first window air-conditioner wasn't part of our home until I was nearly 10.

I think the piece the OP posted is a nice "general" way to look back, not necessarily gospel.
 
I read the post in the spirit intended. While I can see how someone could read this as negative or judgmental, I didn't take it that way. The Ten Commandments were relevant for the writer.

As far as when things like frozen foods and clothes dryers etc. were invented, that's not necessarily relevant. It's more important when they became available for the general public. I am older than grandma and didn't know about clothes dryers or frozen foods.

The television was around in the late 1920s but you certainly didn't know about it before the early 50s. I was 6 or 7 when we got our first one.

Back in the late 80s I remember doing a similar exercise for my boss' 50th birthday. The results were similar.

The 20th century saw a magnitude of change never before experienced by mankind. I don't think it hurts to reflect on that from time to time.

So many things have changed for the better in our lives. Some of our values have changed and we may not like all those changes. I know I have a list.

Rant over.
 
Please don't remove it. It certainly gave a lot of us something to think about. And I am one of the ones who read it in the spirit it was meant. Thank you for posting it. I found mostly good in the piece. And since I got the spirit of the intended posting, I didn't feel any need to find fault with any of the statements. Just because some of those statements happened before we were born, doesn't mean we had access to them or even heard of them. I remember my first sight of the first torbo jet to fly out of Logan Airport. It flew right over my house. It was lound!!! I heard of jets from the Korean War. But had never even seen one or expected them to become the normal way to travel. It wasn't until TV became a common appliance in most homes that we even heard of some of those items mentioned in the piece. We got our first view of them from the TV. And if you didn't have a TV, you were lucky to have a neighbor who would invite you over to watch.

I enjoyed the piece. If you come across anymore like that, please post it. Correct or not. It certainly gave a lot of us pleasure.

My youngest son was five years old. I had an out of town friend visiting from Wash. State. I was taking her on the Freedom Trail. When we got to the marker where Paul Revere started his ride, I was telling her the facts. My son with the most serious face asked me, "You remember that Mommy?" He was just nths from death at that moment, but instead I gave him a hug and told him, "Yes Poo, I packed his lunch and Auntie Rain slapped the rear of the horse to get him going." He believed that for a very long time. :angel:

Thanks Addie .. your words are very much appreciated.

While many of the "conveniences" were invented on X-Y-Z date before 1951, the ease of availability was not.

As an example, even though my family was considered to be upper-middle class, we didn't get a television until I was 8. Our first window air-conditioner wasn't part of our home until I was nearly 10.

I think the piece the OP posted is a nice "general" way to look back, not necessarily gospel.

Thank you Katie - exactly how I feel.

There is no time in history when it was good for all. We are all acutely aware of this fact.

For a large group of us the good old days really were.

Not everyone can relate to that and that's ok. What's not okay is to not allow us to remember those times with fondness.

For those who choose to nitpick please put the shoe on the other foot.

If you were sharing a recipe and someone came along and said "oh that's all wrong, you are not supposed to use this item and oh that's disgusting it will only taste like crap" and this was one of your favorite recipes that were simply wanting to share .. how would you feel?

There was a thread not all that long ago about thinking before responding in a negative way.

I'm not suggesting that I was all broken hearted because of what was said, I'm just saying it kind of stinks that the challenges and degrading of the original post happened.

I actually don't agree with all of it however I thought it was kind of cool to see how much has changed in that time period .. it's pretty amazing.

Just remember .. we are all people .. we are all different .. we all have different belief systems .. we all have different memories .. don't rain on someone's parade because you don't happen to agree with them.

And in the words of the great Andy M .. rant over.
 
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Like I have stated before, during my lifetime (74 years) I have gone from the Outhouse to Outer Space. I certainly remember Alan Shepherd's sub orbital flight and watching it on a B&W TV all day. But I still hadn't flown on my first jet flight. Very expensive. It was all about availability. :angel:
 
Like I have stated before, during my lifetime (74 years) I have gone from the Outhouse to Outer Space. I certainly remember Alan Shepherd's sub orbital flight and watching it on a B&W TV all day. But I still hadn't flown on my first jet flight. Very expensive. It was all about availability. :angel:

Addie,

Your comment about the cost of air travel caused me to remember a television special I saw a few years ago. The gist of the program was that today most college age children are able to live a life of privilege that was once reserved for people like John D. Rockefeller and his peers. The availability of cheap air travel, communication with anyone on the planet, medical treatment, labor saving devices, availability of exotic food and wine etc...

I'm not sure if it is good or bad but, it sure is amazing! :ermm::ohmy::LOL:
 
...
But this, this is prisless: "Our lives were governed by the Ten Commandments, good judgment, and common sense.
We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong and to stand up and take responsibility for our actions.
Serving your country was a privilege; living in this country was a bigger privilege.
"


This is literally priceless. What do people believe nowadays? I don’t even want to go there.

Definetelly do not remove it. Love it.
 
I would have posted sooner but I was a little busy batting away all those hornets...someone must have stirred up a nest. ;)

Like some of you, I've seen this before. It's not 100% accurate in its "facts" but I'm not sure the author was all about verifying details. IMO the idea was to highlight the changes that have evolved over the decades. It was Grandma reminicing about the good ol' days with her grandson. I'm not a Grandma but I was born in 1951 and let me tell ya there's a good chance Granny's memory isn't as sharp as it used to be. :LOL: And we tend to remember the good and push aside the not-so-good. Even though we all KNOW "it" happens.

I have a foot in each side of doing things old and new way. We DO save for whatever we want...then charge the purchase to Discover. Practically every purchase, even groceries and doctors visits. When the bill comes in we pay it in full because we never charge more than we would have paid in cash. Then we rack up Discover Cashback bonus points, redeem them for gift cards, and have spending "money" that never cost us, well, money! None that wouldn't have been parted with anyway. Free dining out. Free Bed Bath and Beyond shopping trips, free lots of stuff. And as Himself says "if it's free, it's for me"! :w00t:
 
I find this thread judgmental and political. And outdated and silly.

It's full of disturbing stereotypes and outdated thinking.

What's wrong with a woman without a husband having a baby?
 
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