I'm so old I Remember when:

[sdm111]

View attachment 3739956

 

[sdm111]

I didn't mind using them at all. When you grow up poor you're more concerned about not ruining the clothes your parents worked so hard to buy than looking "cool".
Also, getting my pantleg caught in the gears usually meant a lot of time lost getting unstuck while under the bicycle that'd inevitably fallen on top of me followed by remounting the chain.
Yep. Didn't mind using those springs at all. They were a blessing.

I know, why couldn't the bike ever fall to the left
All bikes were required to have the chain guard removed first and foremost. Just like the guard on the weekenders, how can one get all the way around a tree without moving

 

[jxp]

View attachment 3739515

Socks and sandals - when you have neuropathy, it's still a thing.
On another note, I miss some of those products. Even the ones that are still around don't always follow the original recipe. I'd like to also point out there's not a UPC in sight.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I know, why couldn't the bike ever fall to the left
All bikes were required to have the chain guard removed first and foremost. Just like the guard on the weekenders, how can one get all the way around a tree without moving

Did you ever cut the forks off an old bike and hammer them onto the ends of the forks of another bike to make a chopper?

 

[The Moonshiner]

 

[jxp]

In all of those Girbaud jeans days my cousin worked for them in the design end out in California. I could get jeans for $20 a pair. DH, DS and I had closets full of the latest designs. Sometimes it's good to have cousins in high places.

I have a cousin, Wanda, who used to sew camping tents for Eureka Tent and Awning back when they were still made of canvas and/or cotton duck through their Timberline nylon tent days. I've another cousin, Sherry, who worked at the original Dick's Bait and Tackle in Binghamton. We had tents and all kinds of fishing and hunting gear in our garage, but just enough jeans and other clothing to get us by.

 

[jxp]

We had huge mounds of thatch ants. Creepy/scary seeing the zillions of them seething all over the ever-growing mounds, and their bites really hurt! Their colonies were marching along the sunny side of the road like living mountains of conifer duff, overtook the area where we have our flagpole and holiday roadside displays, then new colonies stated popping up along our long gravel drive and on the edge of the woods near the house. OH NO you don't!

Nothing seemed to deter them; even the local bear tearing into the biggest mound and eating a huge amount of them & their eggs/larvae didn't slow them down much. I worried they might be some nasty invasive species, but online research then a consult with our local pest control folks confirmed they're native...but NOT good neighbors. We had them exterminated; did NOT want those getting in the house or taking over the gardens! Two years now, no sign of them returning...the native plants and other critters are reclaiming their vacant mounds.

But they are not nearly as awful as fire ants...yikes!

 

[sdm111]

Did you ever cut the forks off an old bike and hammer them onto the ends of the forks of another bike to make a chopper?

No but the days still young

 

[jxp]

A couple pages back (I think), someone mentioned ice cream trucks. I hope that's still a thing in some places? They seem to have faded away in the suburban neighborhoods where we and my MIL lived in areas around LA; my guess is, kids aren't running around free outside like they used to so business dried up? One used to go through our hilly La Crescenta neighborhood when our girls were school-age; we'd hear the recorded chimes and they'd go running with their ice cream money to catch it before it left the area.

At my elementary school (50's/60s), the ice cream truck parked on a side street next to the playground and we'd swarm it on hot days after school. Loved the Drumsticks and those orange sherbet push-ups that melted all over our hands as we walked home from school.

I heard or read once of a study that showed more ice cream is sold in northern than in southern states. Makes sense when you think about it.

 

[jxp]

Two species of fire ants are found in Florida. Most notorious is Solenopsis invicta Buren, the red imported fire ant (RIFA), followed by the much less common Solenopsis geminata (Fabricius), the tropical or native fire ant.
View attachment 3739880

Credit to UF/IFAS

Looks like chigger bites.