Hell on wheels and Buster . . age 6 Over the Hill . . .Meaning that you are "
40yrs old, therefore you have reached the climax of your life time and are "over the hill."
So says the Urban Dictionary but let’s face it, it's written by 16 year old gamers who haven’t had more than a wet dream and are still learning how to shave! Over the hill! I most certainly am not!
They say you’re as young as the man you feel so I feel like a 25 year old . .right now thanks . . . bring him on, hand him over!
OK so I guess to some, I am over the hill. My benchmark? Well these are some things which I guess ‘brand’ me as a baby boomer but only the brave or the stupid would dare to tell me that I’m over the hill! I've barely gone past base camp.
Using dial telephones, the ones you stick yer finger in da hole and operator connected STD and ISD calls
Remembering driveway service in petrol stations (Otin, pay attention!)
Remembering Black and White Television
Music on vinyl and no stereo, let alone sub-woofers (I luvz my subwoofer)
Having a husband who missed out on the Vietnam Draft by one day
Twin tub washing machines
Dabbling in Eastern religions, meditation, yoga, tai chi, alternative medicine, vegetarianism, controlled substances, and/or composting. (Some of which I retain as my right, to the grave!)
Owning a copy of The Joy of Sex, Zen and Motorcycle Maintenance or the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Remembering a time where you could smoke cigarettes EVERYWHERE . . even in the movies and the Marlboro Man was a TV hero
Typing on a manual typewriter ‘ka-ching!’ Seriously, I learned to type on an old Olympic manual "Colon, A, colon, A, colon, A." Murder on the pinkies.
AM transistor radios were a miracle of technology, computers filled entire rooms, and data entry was done on key-punch machines.
Seeing the advent of the Pill and the return of the condom.
Doing my own Tie-Dying
Putting playing cards held by wooden pegs into push-bike spokes to make your bike sound like it had an engine.
Milk being delivered to the front door by the milkman
Giving your old clothes to the rag and bone man and feeding an apple to his stinky horse
A time when happy and gay meant happy and happy
Surviving the ordeal of running with sharp objects, playing on see-saws, swinging on monkey bars and whizzing around in roundabouts. And trampolines didn’t have those stupid net things around them.
And like every baby boomer, I have an old photo of myself ridiculously dressed by Marks and Spencer and with possibly the world’s worst haircut.
Taken just before we emigrated . . .age 11
You can now congratulate me, send hugs, kisses and very expensive presents or a random sexual encounter to celebrate the fact that I:a) Missed/forgot my 1000postiversaryb) Remembered 1004 posts on this banter that is Baino!
I am LEGEND (in my own lunchtime)
Find more Theme Thursday hilarity right here!
Find more Theme Thursday hilarity right here!
The picture of you on the trike is wonderful!
ReplyDeleteOh NO! Most of those apply to me too! A few months ago my daughter asked, as if it were a rhetorical question, "why do people say *dial* a phone? That doesn't make sense" and my husband and I looked at each other. When we told her about dialing (spiiin-clack-clack-clack-clack, spiiiinn-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack) she thought we were joking. Boy I felt archaic.
ReplyDeleteBut I LOVE those photos of you!!
Can you meet me half way on the sexual encounter? haha! I love and can relate to much of your list! I wonder what the future generations will consider the good old days? "Remember when you actually had to type on a keyboard?" LMAO!
ReplyDeleteWe have two contenders for the world's worst haircut there.
ReplyDeleteWonderful? Yeh left me wondering too! Very determined look I have there.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about that Suze but we still say 'dial' don't we? I dont' even have a telephone any more. We've all got mobile phones so I had it disconnected!
Great Otin . . my first proposition in a long time and you live 12,000 miles away. Brilliant! Shall we say Easter Island, 2011? That's about halfway.
What was my mother thinking! Hey, it was the 60's, I guess she thought it looked 'groovy baby'
Forgot your 1000th post! You are over the hill. Soon you'll be having hot flushes.. I mean 'power surges'.
ReplyDeleteWell done. Congratulations for all the reasons you'd like to be congratulated for.
grats, baino! lol
ReplyDeleteyou know i have all 3 of those books...
ReplyDeletegreat list and i have experienced most...
congrats on 1004. 1000 is so boring anyway, everyone would celebrate that...but 1004...that makes you special. and you are of course. smiles.
Baino, wonderful photos! And even I remeber a lot of these things, heh, heh...
ReplyDeleteAnd hey!is Buster a relation to Lily? Priceless snap, there :)
MATP - would you believe I'm actually past the hot flushes! Got desexed two years ago . . not as much as a mood swing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Wuffa, doesn't seem possible.
Oh I feel better now because you're soooo much younger than me! Haha!
Oh dear, since I can remember most of those things, it must mean that I have crested the hill of life. Oh well, let's look on the bright side, uphill is hard work, downhill is freewheeling all the way!
ReplyDeleteYou keep on being hell on wheels, woman! I'm right behind you, cards in my spokes and ribbons on my handlebars!
ReplyDeleteSmooth. Congratumalations.
ReplyDeleteI can lay claim to a good chunk of that list too. Our telly used to have sound a full minute before the black and white images used to show up. And would contract to a tiny dot after.
Well, at the age of 62, of course I remember all those and more. Do you remember the first tape recorders - massive great things with huge spools for the tapes? And how about the mangles we used to wring out wet clothes?
ReplyDeleteOne thing has survived here in NI - we can still get milk delivered to the door.
Baino, I had my hysterectomy at 37, the hot flushes....er.. power surges..didn't start until 47. Now at 57 I still get them, but these days they're brought on by "trigger" foods. Curry, chilli, too much garlic, all can leave me feeling too hot and red faced for up to 3 days.Chilli is the worst of these. Chocolate also has this effect to some extent but I've discovered that not all chocolate affects me.
ReplyDeleteI love the photo of you on the trike, my sister had a chain driven three wheeler too, got it for christmas one year, while I (the tomboy who would have LOVED one) got a doll and pram.
I remember all of the things on your list, but there's a couple of things I haven't done or owned.
Gosh, that list brought back memories! Typing and doing my own tie-dye come top of the lst.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the 1000th post too
Hey I remember most of those things too - this either means I'm over the hill, or Ireland's slow to catch on.
ReplyDeleteEXCELLENT photies!!
Tsup*!* LOL Happy 1004th
ReplyDeleteCool looking racer, love the frock.
I remember many of those things you've listed too and I'm still climbing that there hill so raspberries to the urban dictionary. ... Telex machines remember those, they used to have their own room*!*
over the hill...don't believe the hype...forever young is all the rage! Congratulations on 1004!
ReplyDeleteOhmigosh! I not only remember the things on the list,but I have a step-daughter and a son who can too. I guess that gives new meaning to 'older than dirt.'
ReplyDeleteI think your haircut it cute.
Thanks I needed that! congrats on 1004!
ReplyDeleteremember a rolling stone gathers no moss...I don't know what that means but once we are figuratively over the hill we might as well go for the gusto!
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'WOW What a Ride!'"
--Unknown
Don't joke with shaving. I cut myself very often and it is one of the few reasons which makes me curse.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! I remember most of those,although I still havnt got the hang of Motorcycle Maintenance...........
ReplyDeleteYour list sounds very familiar. Not only did we have black rotaru phones but we also had party lines where 2 or 3 people shared the same telephone line! Great post.
ReplyDeleteThat picture looks very English... surely not anywhere in Australia..??!?
ReplyDeleteYep, that whole list is in my experience, too, including the draft thing. My birthday is March 2, and my buddy Rick's was March 3. In the 1972 draft lottery, Rick's date was #1 while mine was #325. One day made all the difference. Weird, huh? Rick immediately went and joined the National Guard (which automatically let you stay in college and kept you on domestic rather than overseas duty), and wouldn't you know, a week after he did that Nixon canceled the 1972 draft.
ReplyDeleteBTW, in some places around here they still home-deliver milk.
Hey, I had the same hair do...only culry hair and my mom always cut the bangs WAY TOO short! -J
ReplyDeleteAll last night I kept thinking that I knew a song called Helen Wheels,and then I remembered today that It was a Simon and Garfunkel song, I don't know if that was the title or if it was called baby driver?
ReplyDeletelike d dog!
ReplyDeleteps you're invited to comment on my post too =)
Hey Baino
ReplyDeleteCONGRATULATIONS!!!
Oh and anything that is 40 today is X gen baby. Dont make 40 older than it has to be lol. For my sake!!!!!!!
1004 posts eh? wow you talk alot hehe I am glad ya do though matey.
Cheers!!!
DBM I wish that was true! Wouldn't mind a bit of freewheeling right now!
ReplyDeleteOoh I forgot ribbons and banana seats and baskets on the front!
I remember the dots! And test patterns and the National Anthem being played at 10.00 to mark the end of service!
Certainly to Nick, My nana had an 8 track in the pub we thought her very progressive. She also had the first colour TV I'd ever seen. Well my mum had a Twin tub with a wash tub and a spin dryer, State of the art! You still have a milkman? Cool!
Haha I love ‘power surges’, I was fortunate and had a very easy passage through the change myself. Aww, no bike?
Thanks Jenny. Well we’re the same age so resonance there I guess. My mother used to hate it when I came home with buckets of Rit dye and filled that bathtub. Always meant trouble!
Nah K8 many of those things happened over the past 20 rather than 40 years so no wonder you remember them.
Annie I loved that dress. it was one of the few ‘frilly’ things I had and I remember getting a huge smack on the back of the legs for getting creosote on it from mucking around soaked telegraph poles.
Yeh, I only feel over the hill when I’m climbing up one these days Liza. My knees remind me that they’re 52 years old!
Darlene I thought you were a woman of taste. It’s bloody awful!
Colette, I love that quote!
Haha Ropi, practice makes perfect. Get an electric shaver! Or, use a Venus Ladies Blades, they’re very ‘safe’ you’ll just have to explain to your mother why you’re shaving with a blade that ‘makes you look like a goddess’.
Tony I don’t think I even read it, just cool to own it or have it on the bookshelf!
I don’t remember having a party line Noname but I do remember others having them. I think it was a cheaper option than a dedicated line.
No Gleds. I was born in Hanforth, Cheshire so yes, that shot was taken there.
Roy I didn’t know my husband at that time, but he missed out by one day on the birthday drawer at 18 years of age. Seems so stupid now doesn’t it. And Vietnam is considered a desirable holiday destination down here. Makes you wonder what it was all for.
Yeh, Jane I have massively curly hair. It’s a little straighter now thanks to the magic that is GHD Straigheners but man, I had ugly cuts as a kid. By the time I was about 9, I grew it quite long and kept it that way until I could determine my own style.
Awww Otin . . dreaming about me again? Nup not Baby Driver, Paul McCartney:
Helen, Hell on wheels,
“Helen, hell on wheels - Aint nobody else gonna know the way she feels”, it’s a song about his bloody Landrover . . then I guess that’s me, sturdy, long-lasting, reliable and a chunky workhorse with five gears and overdrive!
Yeh old "Busty" was a good dawg SJ and if you’re a TT poster, I’ll be there if I haven’t already. Managed to catch most of them this morning before work.
Mel, yeh I do talk a lot don’t I? I don’t in real life . . well I do if well lubricated. I think I just type fast! Hey 40 was a doddle. 50 sucked!
who knew? According to that definition I have been 'oth' for quite some time...wonderful post--the bike and buster, the family photo are magnificent! great post-c
ReplyDeleteYou are so funny. Out of all the bloggers I regularly read, there are four I'd like to meet and you are one of them.
ReplyDeleteI relate to most although I don't know what twin tub washers are. What are they? Hell, I remember my grandma's wringer washer! I was dcontinually told to keep my fingers away from the rollers.
Thanks CM . . well OTH is all in the mind as far as I'm concerned!
ReplyDeleteWhy thank you Cali, I assure you I have my glum and serious side but not this week! I'm most flattered. I love meeting bloggers so here's hoping. Now a twin tub had one cylindrical tub for washing/agitating and a pump to get rid of the grey water, then you got a pair of wooden tongs and lifted soggy clothing into the adjacent spinning cylender which used to spin the clothese etc. dry. It made for very labour intensive washing but my mother was considered very modern for having such a contraption in her kitchen! (Yes in England they're allowed to do their laundry in the kitchen!) Not out here, it has to be in a separate laundry room.
See, you education continues . . .
OH, now that was just PLAIN fun...and aren't you absolutely ADORABLE!
ReplyDeleteI say NO WAY to Over the Hill at forty!!! I am just getting to the point where I can behave out in public!
Oh, and I still wish I had NOT gotten rid of my typewriter!!
Well done Baino on your thousand-th post, easier to say than type. I am a baby boomer - 1961 model. Woohoo. Only things I don't like is not looking anything like a 21 year old anymore; clothing is getting harder to buy or is it I have always hated shopping for clothes and it doesn't get any easier; I feel prehistoric when I wake up, but I attribute that to having a 2 and a half yo, and I do look stupid at the disco. Besides, my son goes there now and it would just be really awkward if any of his intoxicated mates mistook me for a 21 year old and asked me to dance. Pass.
ReplyDeletemake that easier to type than say, getting tongue typed.
ReplyDeleteHey Happy Belated Postiversary!
ReplyDeleteSome grest memories there. I can remember some of those, twin tub washers, smoking everywhere and people looking funny at you for not smoking.
I remember condoms being illegal over here, right up until the mid 80's, 1 public telephone for an entire housing estate and as kids when it rang (we played out on the streets in those days) the big scattering match to answer it.
We used lillipop sticks to create the engine sound for push bikes. As long as I've been around we alwasys had a colour TV but some of the Irish programmes were still in B/W.
Here's to another 1000 posts Baino! Sláinte!
Erm Jill, adorable isn't a word anyone who knows me uses but thanks, I'll take it on board.
ReplyDeleteOh Rowe you're a Spring Chicken. Hey a two year old will keep you young! the Terrible Twos we used to call them.
Hey Wino, man after my own heart. Lollipop sticks? Must have been some industrial grade spokes you had there sunshine.
And for those of you who don't know, the Merry Wino is in fact Jack McMad reincarnated. Check out his blog for all things home brew.
Shameless plug for an ex Wonder Waller . .
I'm 29 and at least 80% of those apply to my childhood! Of course, I was raised by my hippie dad in the middle of podunk backwoods GA... I remember sneaking peeks at The Joy of Sex when I was like 8 years old! We had a rotary phone well into the 90's. I currently dabble in Eastern-ness... We resisted tapes and CDs for the longest time. I miss my 45s...
ReplyDeleteWonderful post Baino! I love the pictures...Leaving dust in my wake is becoming a habit.
ReplyDeleteAside from the purely aussie stuff I remember it all also. and i'm still climbing the hill..
ReplyDeleteBl@@dy brilliant :)
ReplyDeleteThe good old days - when a mobile phone was only seen on Star Trek!
I miss our old rotary phone. I hated typing class. I remember wondering why my parents kept commenting on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, that they always smoked on stage. I didn't understand why that was a big deal. Satellite radio behaves the same as AM radio when you pass under a bridge. Being a Pedi ICU nurse, I'm always surprised I survived childhood, especially considering the bikes and playgrounds and parks and trampolines. And never an adult anywhere in site. I never put cards in the spokes, but I did have a banana seat 5-speed.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the 1004th post! Sending money thoughts your way, minus the exchange rate.
AAAAHHHHH! You were beautiful then, you are beautiful now. You are defintely not over the hill! What good looking siblings you have!
ReplyDelete