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Thread: How old are you?.....a quiz for senior Optiboarders...

  1. #1
    Cape Codger OptiBoard Gold Supporter hcjilson's Avatar
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    How old are you?.....a quiz for senior Optiboarders...

    Sometime back, Jo posted a riddle in which you were to try to guess the age of the individual based on clues given, thus sparking the "great Frisbee debate". I received the following this AM and thought I would share it.


    Older Than Dirt Quiz: Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about Ratings at the bottom.

    1. Blackjack chewing gum
    2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
    3. Candy cigarettes
    4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
    5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
    6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
    7. Party lines
    8. Newsreels before the movie
    9. P.F. Flyers
    10. Butch wax
    11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
    12. Peashooters
    13. Howdy Doody
    14. 45 RPM records
    15. S&H Green Stamps
    16 Hi-fi's
    17. Metal ice trays with lever
    18. Mimeograph paper
    19 Blue flashbulb
    20. Packards
    21. Roller skate keys
    22. Cork popguns
    23. Drive-ins
    24. Studebakers
    25. Wash tub wringers




    If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
    If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
    If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
    If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!
    Last edited by hcjilson; 08-24-2004 at 09:45 AM. Reason: delete duplicate paragraph
    "Always laugh when you can. It is a cheap medicine"
    Lord Byron

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  2. #2
    Master OptiBoarder Texas Ranger's Avatar
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    Harry, well, i'm offically "older than dirt"...

  3. #3
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    I am so old that I remember all of them. I remember when telephones didn't even need dialing, you just picked up and said: Central get me so and so.
    I really would like to find a '54 regal hardtop Studebaker.
    Learned to drive on one they were indestrutable and got 35 miles to the gallon doin 85 with four people and the windows down. Didn't need power steering one finger was enough with manual, clutches slipped though.

    Chip

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    Bad address email on file Rich R's Avatar
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    Most of those sure bring alot of memories, I remember trying to fool people with the candy cigarettes, I'm definately in the older than dirt group.

    Rich R

  5. #5
    Pomposity! Spexvet's Avatar
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    I still have 45s and metal ice trays. Drive ins are making a comeback in Pennsylvania/New Jersey.:cheers:

  6. #6
    Cape Codger OptiBoard Gold Supporter hcjilson's Avatar
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    Unfortunately Chip,.....

    I got them all too! I can still remember going outside to pick up the milk on the stoop in wintertime. The cream was frozen and being pushed up by the partially frozen milk. We used to say the milk bottles had hats on them!
    "Always laugh when you can. It is a cheap medicine"
    Lord Byron

    Take a photo tour of Cape Cod and the Islands!
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  7. #7
    Master OptiBoarder chm2023's Avatar
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    I don't remember newsreels nor Butch wax--was this a car wax? I remember home milk delivery but I don't think there were glass bottles.

    Older than dirt, older than sin. I always laugh when I hear talk about how wisdom and contentment etc comes with old age. What a crock, I'd trade it all for firm thighs again!!!!!!:p

  8. #8
    Pomposity! Spexvet's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by chm2023
    I don't remember newsreels nor Butch wax--was this a car wax? I remember home milk delivery but I don't think there were glass bottles.

    Older than dirt, older than sin. I always laugh when I hear talk about how wisdom and contentment etc comes with old age. What a crock, I'd trade it all for firm thighs again!!!!!!:p
    Butch wax kept your crew cut (hair) spiked up nice and straight.

  9. #9
    Master OptiBoarder rbaker's Avatar
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    Harry,

    I got 25 out of 25. How about these:

    Can you remember the introduction of the following products:
    Tillyer Masterpiece.
    AO Stadium and Airflite.
    Safilo Monza (Wood grains) and Goldman (Remember Lee Burger?)
    First diamond wheel on the AO TriMatic.
    B&L Softlens (This turkey will never sell.)
    Fitting all those Monoplex eyes (back before OSHA.)

    Do you remember:
    Cutting and cribbing all those glass lenses.
    Edging & drilling all those 402-4's in glass.
    Calling a competitor to borrow an optician for a few hours when things got really busy.
    Meeting with all the other opticians and ophthalmologists for a few beers at 5:30 every Friday evening.
    Earning a living wage (wife could stay home and raise children.)
    No insurance, No guarantees, No discounts or twofers.
    The AO consent decree with the FTC
    Things sure have changed and not for the good of the profession. What few schools we have seem to have been dumbed down to the standards of the ABO or whatever serves as a benchmark these days. We are going backwards in our efforts to achieve true professional status and I fear that the future is bleak.

    But, that’s one of the benefits of being an old retired fart. You get to complain about the present state of affairs “going to hell in a hand basket.’ We get to sit around the home waiting for our meds and telling anyone that cares to listen how it was “back in our day.”

    Dick


  10. #10
    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Silver Supporter varmint's Avatar
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    I am familiar with all except #7 the party lines. Are those the lines up the back of girls stockings?

    Rbaker,
    we might be older than dirt if we remember those things you list, but if you remember when they were first introduced you must be even older than older than dirt.

    :drop:

  11. #11
    Master OptiBoarder Texas Ranger's Avatar
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    when you could buy Coors beer only in Colorado, and only buy Dr. Pepper in Texas? When Dick Clark hosted American Bandstand?

  12. #12
    Cape Codger OptiBoard Gold Supporter hcjilson's Avatar
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    Wow.......

    402-4......do I ever remember that! I had occasion to try to describe the Art Built Rimway about 6 monthss ago. All I could say was "you remember.....the old 402-4 shape" the person to whom I was speaking looked at me as if I were from Mars.I remember when the Executive Bifocal was released! Not yet in the business, I do recall its selling price. $25.00. If you coupled that with the SirWalter (the first spring hinge frame BTW) you had a $50.00 job!

    I became an apprentice on August 27th 1959, so friday will be a special day for me! I am celebrating by attending a family wedding in Santa Cruz CA.I have a tee time at Pasatiempo at 9:36 AM!!Yahoo! I'll be gone till next tues but the rest of you should keep this going till I get back.

    Leopold Burger was a close friend of my father's and one of the many people who gave me a hand on the way up.In June of 1979 I got a phone call from Stanley Pearle who called at Lee's suggestion. I was looking for a job in the "big time " in those days.I had to tell Stanley that I was going to work for EB Meyrowitz to manage Montgomery Frost in Boston. (I had not yet gotten the job but had just been interviewed and just KNEW I had the job. I wonnder what would have been different if I had spoken to Dr Pearle.
    Yes, Lee Burger was a friend of mine!

    I can also remember juggling 2 cases of Coors through the Denver Airport on my way back from Aspen.(no easy feat.....but I was younger then!.

    How about red dot screws??? Im talking about the original now....not the slotted but the hex nut variety! lot of pleasant memories.

    The future of this profession is as bright as we make it. Get behind mandatory education- and licensing in all states. We CAN and SHOULD do this for those who are coming along. later, hj
    "Always laugh when you can. It is a cheap medicine"
    Lord Byron

    Take a photo tour of Cape Cod and the Islands!
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  13. #13
    RETIRED JRS's Avatar
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    A 402-4 was certainly the most popular, there were others. 402-2 thru 402-8. And then 404's, 405's, all sorts of shapes. Balrim (b-31) rimless notch too.
    J. R. Smith


  14. #14
    Master OptiBoarder Texas Ranger's Avatar
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    Screwing on trim pieces onto zyl fronts, cutting glass lenses with a glass cutter before edging them on a ceramic bowl edger; forgetting to turn the pattern over and cutting a glass crux a 40mm aspheric lenticular panoptic to two right eyes...we do learn from our mistakes now don't we..? those first logo grooving machines that where you had to guide the lens by hand...switching from RIT to BPI, when you didn't have to safety treat and drop ball test glass lenses...when all of the cylinders were ground on the front surface of the lens, and the ocular surface was the "base curve". the old Tura aluminum frames with the jeweled attachments to go up into the sept hairstyles... tye dyed mens t-shirts that girls wore braless.hmmm. I was with my family in Frankfurt Germany for the Berlin Airlift in 1949...oh, and I had a lime green Pinto...

  15. #15
    Cape Codger OptiBoard Gold Supporter hcjilson's Avatar
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    JRS- it was B-31& 51 Balrim if it was a combo, Balgrip if it was notched.......don't worry, same things happening to my memory!!! :):) hj
    "Always laugh when you can. It is a cheap medicine"
    Lord Byron

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  16. #16
    Master OptiBoarder chm2023's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by varmint
    I am familiar with all except #7 the party lines. Are those the lines up the back of girls stockings?

    Rbaker,
    we might be older than dirt if we remember those things you list, but if you remember when they were first introduced you must be even older than older than dirt.

    :drop:
    Varmint, party lines refer to sharing your telephone line with another or more families. You had your own phone number but sometimes you would pick up the phone and another person would be on it talking.

    I like your definition better:bbg: :bbg: !!! My mother tells me that during the war, girls used to draw a line with eyebrow pencil up the back of their legs as they had no stockings with all the silk going for parachutes!!!

  17. #17
    Cape Codger OptiBoard Gold Supporter hcjilson's Avatar
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    Anyone out there old enough to remember Points!

    Stuff was rationed during the war and there were shortages of many things we take for granted today, sugar, butter and ordingary things like that. Thats what made margerine so popular. You used to buy it in a plastic package and it was the color of lard. In the center of the package was a dot of red food coloring.you had to squeeze the package in order to mix the dye in and after of continually squeezing for about 15 minutes(my job), it looked like butter.In order to buy something like meat etc (when they had it!) you had stamps which my mother called points. I can remember standing in line at the Kenyon Market to buy meat! You had to pay whatever the charge was and then give a certain number of stamps to the grocer. Those were the days!
    "Always laugh when you can. It is a cheap medicine"
    Lord Byron

    Take a photo tour of Cape Cod and the Islands!
    www.capecodphotoalbum.com

  18. #18
    RETIRED JRS's Avatar
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    Still have some WW2 ration stamps.


    And you are correct Balrim was the official name - same shape.

    Real gold frames then too. Loved to solder... then.
    J. R. Smith


  19. #19
    Master OptiBoarder rbaker's Avatar
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    I am still wearing a Crosley Numont with glass Panoptics. I have three brand new frames left and 15 pairs of semifinished lenses in my base curve with adds up to +4.00 so I should be all set for the rest of my time here. Glad I had the foresight (no pun intended) to set this stuff aside 25 years ago. Also glad that I hung on to my hand pans and drill and have not yet manifested any cylinder in my Rx. Just try to get someone to surface and drill a pair of glass lenses with a nice 0.8 edge.

    One summer vacation in 1952 (I was 12), I learned retinoscopy from my grandfather who still used a reflector retinoscope, that is to say, the scope had a mirror and the light source was placed behind the patients shoulder. Worked pretty slick. He also had no use for "them new fangled phoroptors" - thought it rude not to be able to see the patients face. And, he could whip those trial lenses into the trial frame in a blur. He was one of the last EENT guys in the Boston area.

  20. #20
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    I'm older than dirt too, I guess. Anyone remember Sky King on saturday morning?

    Shutterbug

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    Remember that as an optical shop dealer, you were entitled to x number of binoculars/camera's of the same brand name per year?
    Remember when all trial contact lenses were free an unlimited.
    Remember when contact lens companies had actual people calling on thier accounts and spent thier money on advertizing/promotions to the account and not the general public!
    Remember when you ordered disposable contacts without stateing the quantiy the supplier/mfg. was smart enough to know you wanted a 6 pack? If you wanted a trial or multiple quantity, you so stated but if not they knew you wanted a 6 pack.
    Remember when you could call a company and get a real live human being on the phone without jumping through 15min. of hoops with some silly automated computerized answering system?
    Remember when when you could get a specialized contact made your way without being told: "Our computerized lathes are too smart to do that anymore?"
    Remember when you could call up a local supplier, raise hell and get what you wanted out in a day, even if someone had to stay beyond regular hours? Remember when you could buy that same someone a beer the next day and he would forgive all the hell you raised?

    Ah, the good old days.

  22. #22
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    Remember when you could buy that same someone a beer the next day and he would forgive all the hell you raised?
    That explains my love for the stuff! LOL

    Shutterbug

  23. #23
    Cape Codger OptiBoard Gold Supporter hcjilson's Avatar
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    Shutterbug- I remember Sky King on radio-never mind saturday AM's on TV.Rbaker does too I'll bet- along with the Green Hornet, Jack Armstrong all american boy. the Cisco Kid, and a slew more! Saturday mornings were spent listening to Smiling Ed McConnell and the Buster Brown show, with Froggy the Gremlin..........................hi ya kids, Hi ya ,Hi ya
    "Always laugh when you can. It is a cheap medicine"
    Lord Byron

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  24. #24
    Master OptiBoarder rbaker's Avatar
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    Boy, does rbaker remember the Ski King show. I used to fantasize about Penny. And, to be perfectly honest, I still do.


  25. #25
    Master OptiBoarder JennyP's Avatar
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    For years a "Sky King" show that featured an appendicitis attack had me convinced that every tummy ache I had was a begining appendicitis nightmare!
    I know I drove my mom nuts! I was so sure that I would have to be airlifted to a hospital for surgery. :o
    "The Good Lord gave us mountains so we could learn how to climb". ~ Lonestar

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