I fear you are correct! We hunters and gatherers are most prepared.

I'm 51 (born in 64).

We used towels and wash cloths from the boxes of "washing detergent" - I don't remember ever using anything different when I was young.

I don't know if paper towels existed - you used rags.

You only shopped at stores that would give S&H Green Stamps.

My grandparents used an outhouse (till I was 10-12) and we didn't get an inside toilet till I was 3.

I don't even know if clothes dryers were invented - everyone used a clothesline.

Hunting and gardening weren't for enjoyment - it was a necessity to have food to eat.

Milk was still delivered to the front porch and there were only two types - sweet and buttermilk.

Segregation was alive and well.

A fight was ALWAYS one-on-one, you never had to worry about being shot, stabbed, or jumped on by a gang of cowards. And once the fight was over, it was over.

Our football helmets had webbing inside to protect your noggin (much like the military helmets) with only a small amount of padding. Only when I reached Jr. High and HS did we use fully padded helmets.

I was given my first pair of Nike shoes when I was 15 (basketball) - until then I wore Converse cleats and basketball shoes.

I remember having to mow our 1 1/2 acre yard once a week with a push mower.

A treat for our family was to drive into Leeds and Dad getting us a gallon of ice cream from the grocery store. Another treat was Mom taking my sister and I to McDonald's and buying one kids meal that the 3 of us shared.

I remember a Mom and Pops grocery in Leeds that had the coldest bottled Cocola machine I believe in the world. They were .10 cents a piece and chock full of ice when you pulled them out of the door.

In the early 80's maybe 80 or 81 I ran full steam with my cousins all day in the Alabama hot summer without a shirt on and wearing blue jeans and tennis shoes, catching fish in ponds with crickets we would find under pieces of tin or under logs etc.

I remember getting thirsty and drinking from the water hose that was attached to the faucet on the house. Kinda rubbery tasting but wet.

When I was your age I didn't get to join the YMCA or waste time all summer long. I had to work.

These 24 steel traps will come in handy

Times definitely changes quick! I remember being able to have a gun in the truck my younger high school years, but by 06 when I graduated, that was cut out.

I remember when dime bags cost a dime. You know how much condoms were back then? Don't know we never used them. Willie Nelson

A good ole fistfight in school didn't result in a knife or gun being pulled, or the police being called. The principal, coach, or one of the other male teachers just broke it up and told you to stop, after they watched for a minute or two. If you stopped he made you shake hands and that was the end of it. If you didn't, you got your hind in tore up for disobeying him, not for fighting.

That's our generations fault.

And speaking of a generations fault, when did conceal carry permits come into play? I wish we could ask our forefathers why they didn't stick to our 2nd amendment right. It shall not be infiringed.

I thought a "time out" was when you were balled up in the corner trying to get the tears and snot stopped after momma had whooped you with dad's big blue leather belt.
What would she say?
"you better dry up that snubbin' or I'll give you something to cry about."
Dang woman you just did!

Omg, at the times I heard that!

Hole chit! I grew up in Cahaba Heights. There used to be and Enco, Gulf and either a Standard or a Sinclair all across the street from each other. They used to have gas wars all the time. I remember gas that cheap.

My first job was pumping gas at the Citgo at the corner of Green Valley Drive and Crosshaven Drive. My grandparents lived on Autumn Lane. I lived on Valley Park Drive until I was 7 and then we moved to Dolly Ridge Drive. Acton Road was named after my Grandmother's family. My grandfather had a auto mechanic shop in his back yard.

I remember collecting coke bottles then riding our bikes down to "downtown" Cahaba Heights and cashing them at the Western Supermarket, then going over to the 5 & 10 or Rexall Drugs and buying candy cigarettes or the little wax bottles full of colored sugar water or the little pan flutes that were actually candy you could eat.

My grandfather used to pick me up on Saturdays so we could go and get parts in the junkyard. We would eat breakfast at the cafe down in the shopping center and then we would go get a haircut and a shoe shine at the Cahaba Heights barber shop. There was a shoeshine guy in there that was a little "touched in the head" and I think a shoeshine cost 25 cents. You took a little brass number off the wall to wait your turn to get a hair cut and all the men would talk. They had a chest type coke machine where all the bottle cokes were secured by a rail. You put a dime in and slide the coke around until you could pull it up and out.

An Italian guy, Carboni was his name, had a shoe shine shop across the street. My dad broke his leg as a teenager running from the cops when he ran off the Cahaba Road Bridge over Shades Creek. The leg in the cast didn't grow, so to this day he has to wear a built up shoe. Dad would always take his new shoes to Carboni and have him put the thicker sole on one of them. I went to school at Shades Valley with Carboni's son and I think he still runs the shoe repair shop.

I used to love to ride my Hodaka Wombat Combat down off of Sicard Hollow Road way back into the old Overton #4 coal mines. There was a mine shaft vent by a creek and we called it "air condition cave" Because in the winder it woudl be warm air blowing out and in the summer it would be warm. I would ride it on the street to get there and I was not old enough to get my motorcycle license and the bike wasn't street legal anyway. I can't remember how many times I was chased by the "county mounties." I always took off through somebody's back yard or into the woods and was never caught.

Down Sicard hollow road about where the new l
Liberty Park Ball parks are now there used to be an old quarry that we called "The Blue Hole" and we went swimming there during the summer. You used to could drive around the dirt road around Lake Purdy. We would hang out there and drink beer. There used to be a little concrete causeway that crossed the creek there where everyone would wash their cars.

What a great place to grow up as a kid. I miss those days...

I would talk the AG teacher (he was in our hunting club) to cut out on Friday afternoons and go hunting. I missed 23 days that semester and still made a B. LOL

Same here.

We had show horses and I had to get up before school and clean 19 horse stall feed and water. When I got home had to ride 3 to 5 horses and then feed and water again. Then eat supper around 9:30 at night, and then you could do your homework...Went to horseshoeing school when i turned 14..It took up all of my summer +2 weeks....If all the horses in the world died today it would be fine with me

My third grade teacher Ms Methuselah would get mad as all get out at us when wouldn't properly tie up our Pterodactyls to their hitch posts.

When I was your age:

There was only one girl in the whole school that was pregnant. She was married the year before.


I had already learned that; A) I didn't get to ride the tractor to gather hay. and B) If I DID get to ride the trailer, it's because there were 8 people throwing the hay and I was the one stacking it.

Dad told you something once. There was no need to say it again. Lesson learned.

My cousin and I were allowed to take our .410s an go squirrel hunting alone when we were 10. We also went down to the swimming hole alone.

After Coach Martin finally broke up the fight, he would ask both the boys if they wanted the gloves now. Only pu$$y's said no.

I worked 3 jobs from the 9th grade through the 12th and still managed to make the AB honor roll every year plus win the attendance award.

Irishguy, you ever see Jimmy Skelton bring his pet buck to the shopping center next to Western and let him run around the parking lot??? Dang deer would chase any dog he saw.....

first job I had was sacking groceries at Western, manager was Mr. Jacobs. A good tip was .10, every now and then we got a quarter....

Don't remember the deer. I remember me and my buddy Rhett were out drinking one night and realized that the next day was Sunday and we wouldn't be able to buy beer for fishing. We pulled into the Western as they were closing. I give Rhett some money becasue he was 19 and could buy beer. Well the next thing I know he's out in the parking lot with either the manager or the assistant manager and they were exchanging words. Then the next thing I know Rhett is on the ground after the manager decked him.

He gets in the car, face all read where he's been smacked pretty good.
I'm like, "What the hell happened?"
"Well," he says "He told me they were closed and he wouldn't sell me beer, and I told him what I thought about it and we went at it. Why didn't you help?"
I was like... "I thought you had it under control!"
"Well, I didn't!"

Remember Dr. Huggs the chiropractor?

I'm kin to all the Downings, Wrights, Baileys and Actons.

Our paths surely crossed back then. Cahaba Heights was a small town. You may be a bit older than me. I was born in 1961 and lived in Cahaba Heights until I graduated from high school and joined the Marines.