Worst Job

What is the worst job that you have had?

Picking tomatoes all day by hand as a kid. Working the hay and wheat fields wasn't to bad but tomatoes were the pits.

upper management for eddie bauer and wilson's leather. terrible stores to work for, at least in the management levels.

Old Timer wrote:Picking tomatoes all day by hand as a kid. Working the hay and wheat fields wasn't to bad but tomatoes were the pits.

tomatoes were not as bad as peas and butterbeans

My uncle never did plant them. But I am willing to take your word for it. I would rather toss hay anyday of the week.

Bagboy in a grocery store. When ever there was a job nobody wanted to do they got it. Cleaning bathrooms, taking out the trash, which was never just as easy as taking a couple bags to the dumpster. It was buggy after buggy from all departments, and they didn't have to take it out so they didn't care. They'd dump grease coffee and every other thing right in the bag an throw it in a buggy and leave it at the back door to drip all over the floor, pile it up to the ceiling so the bags would rip even more. Get all that over your cloths. Then have to stop between chunking every bag to go up front and bag groceries because the cashier couldn't handle bagging more than 10 items by herself.
Then there's always having to deal with the customers who have to be tailhole because you're out of paper bags. Like they'd let you (the bagger) order them and you have anything to do with it. I could go on for hours about how inconsiderate people are to the bagboys and how rude and obnoxious customers are in general.

CarolinaHound wrote:Bagboy in a grocery store. When ever there was a job nobody wanted to do they got it. Cleaning bathrooms, taking out the trash, which was never just as easy as taking a couple bags to the dumpster. It was buggy after buggy from all departments, and they didn't have to take it out so they didn't care. They'd dump grease coffee and every other thing right in the bag an throw it in a buggy and leave it at the back door to drip all over the floor, pile it up to the ceiling so the bags would rip even more. Get all that over your cloths. Then have to stop between chunking every bag to go up front and bag groceries because the cashier couldn't handle bagging more than 10 items by herself.
Then there's always having to deal with the customers who have to be tailhole because you're out of paper bags. Like they'd let you (the bagger) order them and you have anything to do with it. I could go on for hours about how inconsiderate people are to the bagboys and how rude and obnoxious customers are in general.

kind of makes you feel like a second class citizen don't it?

Delivering Pizzas. It wasn't that delivering pizzas is bad, I really enjoy driving, but you only get paid per delivery. On a quiet night, you might end up working for 5 hours and only make 5 deliveries. At $3.50 per delivery, and when you pay the cost of your own petrol, that works out to almost nothing. Only lasted a week in that job.

Just got out of the military service, had a family of four and needed to go to work right away. Had a lot of Resumes in the 'works' but too early to expect any worthwhile replies. I have an E.E.D; took a job as an equipment electrical/electronics Tech. in a plant that manufactured Gypsum Wall Board; a.k.a 'Sheet-rock. It was hot, terribly noisy, air filled with plaster dust all of the time and very dangerous. WHen I got off shift, my clothes and everything was white, like I was a hunk of fish getting ready to be battered for 'chips'. Tried not to breathe the stuff, but it wasn't very difficult to not take some in, in spite of a respirator. Much of the electrical and electronic gear was constantly dusted with plaster dust and the heat stayed at about 120 degrees. farenheit year round.
I stayed there about 4 months and got a job as a computer systems specialist with Honeywell, Inc. - More to my liking and qualifications. I stayed with them 18 years.
The guy I worked for at the Gypsum plant was really mad when I quit for a better job.
There's more - it was terrible. They had a paper making plant as well, where they made the paper for the sheetrock backing out of old newspapers. Hellish place there as well. Water standing on the floor constantly and had to wade around in it and test electrical circuits with virtuall wet shoes, all of the time.

Kazza wrote:Delivering Pizzas. It wasn't that delivering pizzas is bad, I really enjoy driving, but you only get paid per delivery. On a quiet night, you might end up working for 5 hours and only make 5 deliveries. At $3.50 per delivery, and when you pay the cost of your own petrol, that works out to almost nothing. Only lasted a week in that job.

that a dangerous job as well due to potential for robberies.

Old Timer wrote:

CarolinaHound wrote:Bagboy in a grocery store. When ever there was a job nobody wanted to do they got it. Cleaning bathrooms, taking out the trash, which was never just as easy as taking a couple bags to the dumpster. It was buggy after buggy from all departments, and they didn't have to take it out so they didn't care. They'd dump grease coffee and every other thing right in the bag an throw it in a buggy and leave it at the back door to drip all over the floor, pile it up to the ceiling so the bags would rip even more. Get all that over your cloths. Then have to stop between chunking every bag to go up front and bag groceries because the cashier couldn't handle bagging more than 10 items by herself.
Then there's always having to deal with the customers who have to be tailhole because you're out of paper bags. Like they'd let you (the bagger) order them and you have anything to do with it. I could go on for hours about how inconsiderate people are to the bagboys and how rude and obnoxious customers are in general.

kind of makes you feel like a second class citizen don't it?

More like third class. The works wasn't that bad, except for cleaning the ladies room. Nasty! But people's attitudes are ridiculas. I guarantee you they wouldn't expect their kids to get treated that way. And I mean by the customers, not managment.

Kazza wrote:Delivering Pizzas. It wasn't that delivering pizzas is bad, I really enjoy driving, but you only get paid per delivery. On a quiet night, you might end up working for 5 hours and only make 5 deliveries. At $3.50 per delivery, and when you pay the cost of your own petrol, that works out to almost nothing. Only lasted a week in that job.

I think that depends on what area you're working and the times. A buddy of mine does it on weekends here and I've seen him make 800 dollars in tips between 5pm and 1am on Friday night.

CarolinaHound wrote:

Kazza wrote:Delivering Pizzas. It wasn't that delivering pizzas is bad, I really enjoy driving, but you only get paid per delivery. On a quiet night, you might end up working for 5 hours and only make 5 deliveries. At $3.50 per delivery, and when you pay the cost of your own petrol, that works out to almost nothing. Only lasted a week in that job.

I think that depends on what area you're working and the times. A buddy of mine does it on weekends here and I've seen him make 800 dollars in tips between 5pm and 1am on Friday night.

We don't tip in Australia, although the occasional person used to give me something. It's just not part of our culture. Instead we have a higher minimum wage - it's $14 an hour here - but I guess that doesn't cover pizza delivery.

That's just wrong. Took me ten years to work up to $14 an hour cutting meat.

$14 for delivering pizza? holy crap. still. doggieboy's buddy does better on tips:100 bucks an hour! geez, my husband was crazy to get his degree in math/science. to make it even, worse at this point anyway, he's in the building industry since it paid much better than academia. it used to be great till the economy went belly up. i'm gonna suggest he puts in an app at pizza hut.

HotParadox wrote:$14 for delivering pizza? holy crap. still. doggieboy's buddy does better on tips:100 bucks an hour! geez, my husband was crazy to get his degree in math/science. to make it even, worse at this point anyway, he's in the building industry since it paid much better than academia. it used to be great till the economy went belly up. i'm gonna suggest he puts in an app at pizza hut.

Yea but kazza was saying he got paid by the pizza, not $14 an hour. And I'm in a military town, with two collages in it so pizza goes like crazy.

ah. still. if the tips are that good on a semi-regular basis-$800 for 8hrs work, that would even be better, no?

HotParadox wrote:ah. still. if the tips are that good on a semi-regular basis-$800 for 8hrs work, that would even be better, no?

Hell yea. But apearently they don't like pizza so much down in OZ. Maybe if they put a bit of crockoroni on them.

Worst job ever was working for TSA.

I got on with them as soon as they were formed. Thought it would be pretty decent getting into a new govt agency, and thought there would lots of room for advancement. I was so disappointed.

We were basically mall security guards. The equipment was shit, the training was a joke. The only thing we ever stopped from getting through checkpoints was cigarette lighters, and swiss army knives.

They would inflate their safety numbers by reporting all of the false threats that were "caught" by our trainers. Their surprise tests consisted of sending a bag through the xray machine that was basically an empty bag with a huge pipe bomb in it. It would be this huge lead pipe with an alarm clock duct taped to the side and the only other things in the bag would be like a dress shirt and a pair of socks. You's have to be a complete f-ing idiot to miss that. Truth be told, it is so easy to sneak bombs into the airport it's scary. We were there to provide the illusion of security so people would start flying again.

Then because of all the jobs that were lost around 9/11 we had people that were way overqualified for that job, but it's funny they only promoted the people who were way underqualified to supervise. I left as soon as I finished my degree. TSA is a joke.

I think the worst job I had was when I work at The Grand Canyon at one of the lodges, as a house keeper. I hated every second of it, it sucked bad, and that was'nt even the postion I applied for. They just stuck me in that postion and then told me, if I want to get tranfered to another postion elsewhere, I would have to prove myself first at "house keeping". I said screw it and quit.

Night-Reaper wrote:I think the worst job I had was when I work at The Grand Canyon at one of the lodges, as a house keeper. I hated every second of it, it sucked bad, and that was'nt even the postion I applied for. They just stuck me in that postion and then told me, if I want to get tranfered to another postion elsewhere, I would have to prove myself first at "house keeping". I said screw it and quit.

You mean to tell me that you were not a good "johnny boy"

I had so many crap jobs during the Summer as a teenager, that's it's hard to pick one. lol

One Summer, I worked for a guy out in the low desert who had these enormous avocado groves. My job was to walk around in the 110 degree plus heat and spray the trunks of the trees with some kind of pesticide. This place was in the middle of the boonies and it was roasting hot all day long. No bathroom, porta potty zip. I used to carry a roll of toilet paper in my dad's car and a cooler with sodas and a sammie. There were millions of big red ants everywhere, that constantly were crawling on me and biting me, and horse flys the size of a B-52 bomber that would dive bomb me all day long. I had to carry the tanks strapped to my back and was hunched over all day. I would get home and my mother would rub Bengay on me everynight. Then she would slather me with camphofenique for all the various insect bites and then vinegar for my constant sunburn. lol I smelled and felt like crap.

About a week into the job, the guy decides to tell me to remember to look out for rattlesnakes! I have a huge thing about snakes. Hate them. I can deal with any insect, worm, spider, lizzard, caterpillar, you name it but no snakes. There of course was a lot of low brush, boulders, weeds, tall dry grass everywhere too. One day shorty after his little advice, I was in one of the fields and heard the very loud distinctive rattle. I had no idea what direction it was comming from, but it was very close. I froze. The rattle rattle just continued. My tiny, up to then, short life flashed in front of my eyes. I dropped the tanks and sprayer off my back and ran like hell on fire back to my Dad's car, screaming all the way, got in and drove the hell home, never to return.

Put It Out There Baby wrote:I had so many crap jobs during the Summer as a teenager, that's it's hard to pick one. lol

One Summer, I worked for a guy out in the low desert who had these enormous avocado groves. My job was to walk around in the 110 degree plus heat and spray the trunks of the trees with some kind of pesticide. This place was in the middle of the boonies and it was roasting hot all day long. No bathroom, porta potty zip. I used to carry a roll of toilet paper in my dad's car and a cooler with sodas and a sammie. There were millions of big red ants everywhere, that constantly were crawling on me and biting me, and horse flys the size of a B-52 bomber that would dive bomb me all day long. I had to carry the tanks strapped to my back and was hunched over all day. I would get home and my mother would rub Bengay on me everynight. Then she would slather me with camphofenique for all the various insect bites and then vinegar for my constant sunburn. lol I smelled and felt like crap.

About a week into the job, the guy decides to tell me to remember to look out for rattlesnakes! I have a huge thing about snakes. Hate them. I can deal with any insect, worm, spider, lizzard, caterpillar, you name it but no snakes. There of course was a lot of low brush, boulders, weeds, tall dry grass everywhere too. One day shorty after his little advice, I was in one of the fields and heard the very loud distinctive rattle. I had no idea what direction it was comming from, but it was very close. I froze. The rattle rattle just continued. My tiny, up to then, short life flashed in front of my eyes. I dropped the tanks and sprayer off my back and ran like hell on fire back to my Dad's car, screaming all the way, got in and drove the hell home, never to return.

I conceed, yours is really bad.

OT, the funny part were the wages back then. When I was a teen as I remember, minimum wage was something like $1.45 an hour and at some point (a few years later) it went up to $1.65 an hour. You felt "rich". But also back then, eating out with my friends consisted of two hot dogs, fries and a coke which you get get for about $1.00. When Taco Bell first opened, (back in the stone age, lol) tacos and burritos were all 20 cents each too. Gas was 19 cents a gallon. We would collect galss pop bottles from everywhere, on Fridays, turn them in for the cash and could fill up the car for a week. Drive-in movies on Saturday night, were $1.00 a head (except for the kids hiding in the trunk). Ahhh, the good old days.

I worked in laundromats, car washes, mowed lawns and cleaned out attics and garages, worked in a small local hardware store stocking shelves and cleaning up etc., as a kid and that was not too bad and I got some tips. But my other short stint trying to sell meat door to door when I was 17, lasted about a week and a half as well.

Put It Out There Baby wrote:OT, the funny part were the wages back then. When I was a teen as I remember, minimum wage was something like $1.45 an hour and at some point (a few years later) it went up to $1.65 an hour. You felt "rich". But also back then, eating out with my friends consisted of two hot dogs, fries and a coke which you get get for about $1.00. When Taco Bell first opened, (back in the stone age, lol) tacos and burritos were all 20 cents each too. Gas was 19 cents a gallon. We would collect galss pop bottles from everywhere, on Fridays, turn them in for the cash and could fill up the car for a week. Drive-in movies on Saturday night, were $1.00 a head (except for the kids hiding in the trunk). Ahhh, the good old days.

I worked in laundromats, car washes, mowed lawns and cleaned out attics and garages, worked in a small local hardware store stocking shelves and cleaning up etc., as a kid and that was not too bad and I got some tips. But my other short stint trying to sell meat door to door when I was 17, lasted about a week and a half as well.

Oh yeah, way back then huh. Well My first job paid 1.10 an hour. and yes it sure did go a lot further back then. Do you by any chance remember the gas price war when gas was selling for about .09 gallon, you could get a quart of milk fo .20 cents a nickle candy bar was about 3 times bigger than the ones now for a dollar. And penny candy, a lot of it was like 3 or 5 for a penny. If a kid had a quarter he could feed the whole gang on candy. And you could get at least 3 or 4 kids in a 53 desoto's trunk for the drive in. Hamburgers for 20 cents and twice the size now. Fries 15 cents and a bag full. coke or root beer 10 cents. And like you I also did all of the above jobs except selling meat. paper routes, pumped gas anda whole lot more. Man I do miss those days. There were some goodtimes back then.

You know OT, they really were. Kids actually used their imaginations. They explored and built tree houses, forts and played outdoors, played a lot of rag tag baseball and rode their bikes. There was no sitting infront of a computer all day, or listening to rap music or drugs or watching tv 24/7. Watching the one black and white tv in the living room was a family event. I could buy a model airplane kit for 35 cents, including the glue and spend hours building and painting it. My little brother was into erector sets and chemistry sets and building little radios from scratch. It was all so family oriented and so American. Society and people were different. Families were different and they were very extended. Your relatives lived with you and/or were very close in proximity. Everyone in the neighborhood knew everyone and enjoyed one another's company. There were picnics and the YMCA for swimming, camping with your pals in the back yard was a big adventure, huge family Sunday dinners, and a kid could have so much fun in the Summer all day and all evening just doing the simple things. We were never bored and we never needed much. If you had your bike, your baseball glove, baseball cards, the company of your dog, bazooka bubble gum, a yo-yo, your bag of marbles, a few comic books and 25 cents in your pocket and your pals........ man, the world was your oyster.

I am glad I have someone on here to share these wonderful memories with. I guess we are officially the two old farts of this forum. lol

I remember when gas was 89 cents a gallon and my old man raising heck about that. But then I also remember a time when us kids could play and run all over the place and no one thought much about it, or worried about where we were. Now you can't let your kids play in the back yard without being afraid of someone kidnapping them or molesting them.

Old Timer wrote:

Night-Reaper wrote:I think the worst job I had was when I work at The Grand Canyon at one of the lodges, as a house keeper. I hated every second of it, it sucked bad, and that was'nt even the postion I applied for. They just stuck me in that postion and then told me, if I want to get tranfered to another postion elsewhere, I would have to prove myself first at "house keeping". I said screw it and quit.

You mean to tell me that you were not a good "johnny boy"

Nope!

Night-Reaper wrote:

Old Timer wrote:

Night-Reaper wrote:I think the worst job I had was when I work at The Grand Canyon at one of the lodges, as a house keeper. I hated every second of it, it sucked bad, and that was'nt even the postion I applied for. They just stuck me in that postion and then told me, if I want to get tranfered to another postion elsewhere, I would have to prove myself first at "house keeping". I said screw it and quit.

You mean to tell me that you were not a good "johnny boy"

Nope!

Can't say as I blame ya.

Put It Out There Baby wrote:You know OT, they really were. Kids actually used their imaginations. They explored and built tree houses, forts and played outdoors, played a lot of rag tag baseball and rode their bikes. There was no sitting infront of a computer all day, or listening to rap music or drugs or watching tv 24/7. Watching the one black and white tv in the living room was a family event. I could buy a model airplane kit for 35 cents, including the glue and spend hours building and painting it. My little brother was into erector sets and chemistry sets and building little radios from scratch. It was all so family oriented and so American. Society and people were different. Families were different and they were very extended. Your relatives lived with you and/or were very close in proximity. Everyone in the neighborhood knew everyone and enjoyed one another's company. There were picnics and the YMCA for swimming, camping with your pals in the back yard was a big adventure, huge family Sunday dinners, and a kid could have so much fun in the Summer all day and all evening just doing the simple things. We were never bored and we never needed much. If you had your bike, your baseball glove, baseball cards, the company of your dog, bazooka bubble gum, a yo-yo, your bag of marbles, a few comic books and 25 cents in your pocket and your pals........ man, the world was your oyster.

I am glad I have someone on here to share these wonderful memories with. I guess we are officially the two old farts of this forum. lol

Baseall cards******* Man o Man, if I only had the cards I had as a kid. I had the entire national league and the American league including team pictures from 52 to 59. And yes a lot of the old timers cards to. They got destroyed in a fire while I was in the service. Do you by any chance remember those indian flipper cards as well? I used to have a ton of those to. I gave my oldest son my original erector set as well as my original lional train set that blew out puffs of smoke while it ran. He donated them to a toys for tots drive not knowing the real value of them. And how about those old wooden duncan yo-yo's. Would you believe that I have even met Hopalong Cassidy at a rodeo once. Even petted his horse Topper. Man the memories this has brought up. I could go on for hours.

LOL, oh man, I got one. You know the Salvation Army Thrift Stores? I was paid to guard the drop-off box on the weekends, to make sure no one dropped off furniture and things, people used it as their dumping grounds for their crap and all the box was meant for is clothes.Well, they paid a few guys to guard it from the time they closed on Saturday until Monday when they opened back up. I sat there in my car bored as hell for 8 hours every weekend. This was like 10 years ago, one time when I worked the night shift, I fell asleep and someone left a bunch of crap, so I had to take my dad's truck and go dump the shit when I got off.

It was an extremely easy job and it paid decent for what it was, but it really sucked. I did it for like 6 months and quit.

People used to get pretty irate though when I told them they couldnt donate their stuff to them, well they could, they just had to do it a different way. Had to call the police on a couple people, they werent leaving without dumping their shit.

Old Timer wrote:

Put It Out There Baby wrote:You know OT, they really were. Kids actually used their imaginations. They explored and built tree houses, forts and played outdoors, played a lot of rag tag baseball and rode their bikes. There was no sitting infront of a computer all day, or listening to rap music or drugs or watching tv 24/7. Watching the one black and white tv in the living room was a family event. I could buy a model airplane kit for 35 cents, including the glue and spend hours building and painting it. My little brother was into erector sets and chemistry sets and building little radios from scratch. It was all so family oriented and so American. Society and people were different. Families were different and they were very extended. Your relatives lived with you and/or were very close in proximity. Everyone in the neighborhood knew everyone and enjoyed one another's company. There were picnics and the YMCA for swimming, camping with your pals in the back yard was a big adventure, huge family Sunday dinners, and a kid could have so much fun in the Summer all day and all evening just doing the simple things. We were never bored and we never needed much. If you had your bike, your baseball glove, baseball cards, the company of your dog, bazooka bubble gum, a yo-yo, your bag of marbles, a few comic books and 25 cents in your pocket and your pals........ man, the world was your oyster.

I am glad I have someone on here to share these wonderful memories with. I guess we are officially the two old farts of this forum. lol

Baseall cards******* Man o Man, if I only had the cards I had as a kid. I had the entire national league and the American league including team pictures from 52 to 59. And yes a lot of the old timers cards to. They got destroyed in a fire while I was in the service. Do you by any chance remember those indian flipper cards as well? I used to have a ton of those to. I gave my oldest son my original erector set as well as my original lional train set that blew out puffs of smoke while it ran. He donated them to a toys for tots drive not knowing the real value of them. And how about those old wooden duncan yo-yo's. Would you believe that I have even met Hopalong Cassidy at a rodeo once. Even petted his horse Topper. Man the memories this has brought up. I could go on for hours.

I use to love erector sets, they had motors with them by the time I came along. I remember, my mother use to own a fabric shop and when she did inventory she had to unroll and measure the rolls of ribbon and my job was to put it back on the roll. Miles and miles of ribbon, seemed like for every one I got rolled back up she had a hundred more unrolled, making smart comments about how slow I was. I got tired of that and had pop take me home to get my erector set, built a little gizmo that held the roll and I'd flip on the motor and the ribbon rolled back on in no time. got caught up with her and would sit back and stick my tongue out at her every time she looked at me. lol

CarolinaHound wrote:

Old Timer wrote:

Put It Out There Baby wrote:You know OT, they really were. Kids actually used their imaginations. They explored and built tree houses, forts and played outdoors, played a lot of rag tag baseball and rode their bikes. There was no sitting infront of a computer all day, or listening to rap music or drugs or watching tv 24/7. Watching the one black and white tv in the living room was a family event. I could buy a model airplane kit for 35 cents, including the glue and spend hours building and painting it. My little brother was into erector sets and chemistry sets and building little radios from scratch. It was all so family oriented and so American. Society and people were different. Families were different and they were very extended. Your relatives lived with you and/or were very close in proximity. Everyone in the neighborhood knew everyone and enjoyed one another's company. There were picnics and the YMCA for swimming, camping with your pals in the back yard was a big adventure, huge family Sunday dinners, and a kid could have so much fun in the Summer all day and all evening just doing the simple things. We were never bored and we never needed much. If you had your bike, your baseball glove, baseball cards, the company of your dog, bazooka bubble gum, a yo-yo, your bag of marbles, a few comic books and 25 cents in your pocket and your pals........ man, the world was your oyster.

I am glad I have someone on here to share these wonderful memories with. I guess we are officially the two old farts of this forum. lol

Baseall cards******* Man o Man, if I only had the cards I had as a kid. I had the entire national league and the American league including team pictures from 52 to 59. And yes a lot of the old timers cards to. They got destroyed in a fire while I was in the service. Do you by any chance remember those indian flipper cards as well? I used to have a ton of those to. I gave my oldest son my original erector set as well as my original lional train set that blew out puffs of smoke while it ran. He donated them to a toys for tots drive not knowing the real value of them. And how about those old wooden duncan yo-yo's. Would you believe that I have even met Hopalong Cassidy at a rodeo once. Even petted his horse Topper. Man the memories this has brought up. I could go on for hours.

I use to love erector sets, they had motors with them by the time I came along. I remember, my mother use to own a fabric shop and when she did inventory she had to unroll and measure the rolls of ribbon and my job was to put it back on the roll. Miles and miles of ribbon, seemed like for every one I got rolled back up she had a hundred more unrolled, making smart comments about how slow I was. I got tired of that and had pop take me home to get my erector set, built a little gizmo that held the roll and I'd flip on the motor and the ribbon rolled back on in no time. got caught up with her and would sit back and stick my tongue out at her every time she looked at me. lol

I have often wondered just how many kids went on to become engineers because of that little old erector set. I had a really neat chemistry set until I some how concocted a mess of stinking liquid that got dropped on the floor and stunk up the house for about a week. Notice I used the word had. My dad took it away that same day saying I was dangerous. Who knows I could have gone on to become thne worlds greatest chemist. Oh well. I might have blown up the place to.

Old Timer wrote:

CarolinaHound wrote:

Old Timer wrote:

Put It Out There Baby wrote:You know OT, they really were. Kids actually used their imaginations. They explored and built tree houses, forts and played outdoors, played a lot of rag tag baseball and rode their bikes. There was no sitting infront of a computer all day, or listening to rap music or drugs or watching tv 24/7. Watching the one black and white tv in the living room was a family event. I could buy a model airplane kit for 35 cents, including the glue and spend hours building and painting it. My little brother was into erector sets and chemistry sets and building little radios from scratch. It was all so family oriented and so American. Society and people were different. Families were different and they were very extended. Your relatives lived with you and/or were very close in proximity. Everyone in the neighborhood knew everyone and enjoyed one another's company. There were picnics and the YMCA for swimming, camping with your pals in the back yard was a big adventure, huge family Sunday dinners, and a kid could have so much fun in the Summer all day and all evening just doing the simple things. We were never bored and we never needed much. If you had your bike, your baseball glove, baseball cards, the company of your dog, bazooka bubble gum, a yo-yo, your bag of marbles, a few comic books and 25 cents in your pocket and your pals........ man, the world was your oyster.

I am glad I have someone on here to share these wonderful memories with. I guess we are officially the two old farts of this forum. lol

Baseall cards******* Man o Man, if I only had the cards I had as a kid. I had the entire national league and the American league including team pictures from 52 to 59. And yes a lot of the old timers cards to. They got destroyed in a fire while I was in the service. Do you by any chance remember those indian flipper cards as well? I used to have a ton of those to. I gave my oldest son my original erector set as well as my original lional train set that blew out puffs of smoke while it ran. He donated them to a toys for tots drive not knowing the real value of them. And how about those old wooden duncan yo-yo's. Would you believe that I have even met Hopalong Cassidy at a rodeo once. Even petted his horse Topper. Man the memories this has brought up. I could go on for hours.

I use to love erector sets, they had motors with them by the time I came along. I remember, my mother use to own a fabric shop and when she did inventory she had to unroll and measure the rolls of ribbon and my job was to put it back on the roll. Miles and miles of ribbon, seemed like for every one I got rolled back up she had a hundred more unrolled, making smart comments about how slow I was. I got tired of that and had pop take me home to get my erector set, built a little gizmo that held the roll and I'd flip on the motor and the ribbon rolled back on in no time. got caught up with her and would sit back and stick my tongue out at her every time she looked at me. lol

I have often wondered just how many kids went on to become engineers because of that little old erector set. I had a really neat chemistry set until I some how concocted a mess of stinking liquid that got dropped on the floor and stunk up the house for about a week. Notice I used the word had. My dad took it away that same day saying I was dangerous. Who knows I could have gone on to become thne worlds greatest chemist. Oh well. I might have blown up the place to.

My brother had a chemistry set until I got hold of it and made the neatest smell that came after the woooshhhhh. lmao

CarolinaHound wrote:

Old Timer wrote:

CarolinaHound wrote:

Old Timer wrote:

Put It Out There Baby wrote:You know OT, they really were. Kids actually used their imaginations. They explored and built tree houses, forts and played outdoors, played a lot of rag tag baseball and rode their bikes. There was no sitting infront of a computer all day, or listening to rap music or drugs or watching tv 24/7. Watching the one black and white tv in the living room was a family event. I could buy a model airplane kit for 35 cents, including the glue and spend hours building and painting it. My little brother was into erector sets and chemistry sets and building little radios from scratch. It was all so family oriented and so American. Society and people were different. Families were different and they were very extended. Your relatives lived with you and/or were very close in proximity. Everyone in the neighborhood knew everyone and enjoyed one another's company. There were picnics and the YMCA for swimming, camping with your pals in the back yard was a big adventure, huge family Sunday dinners, and a kid could have so much fun in the Summer all day and all evening just doing the simple things. We were never bored and we never needed much. If you had your bike, your baseball glove, baseball cards, the company of your dog, bazooka bubble gum, a yo-yo, your bag of marbles, a few comic books and 25 cents in your pocket and your pals........ man, the world was your oyster.

I am glad I have someone on here to share these wonderful memories with. I guess we are officially the two old farts of this forum. lol

Baseall cards******* Man o Man, if I only had the cards I had as a kid. I had the entire national league and the American league including team pictures from 52 to 59. And yes a lot of the old timers cards to. They got destroyed in a fire while I was in the service. Do you by any chance remember those indian flipper cards as well? I used to have a ton of those to. I gave my oldest son my original erector set as well as my original lional train set that blew out puffs of smoke while it ran. He donated them to a toys for tots drive not knowing the real value of them. And how about those old wooden duncan yo-yo's. Would you believe that I have even met Hopalong Cassidy at a rodeo once. Even petted his horse Topper. Man the memories this has brought up. I could go on for hours.

I use to love erector sets, they had motors with them by the time I came along. I remember, my mother use to own a fabric shop and when she did inventory she had to unroll and measure the rolls of ribbon and my job was to put it back on the roll. Miles and miles of ribbon, seemed like for every one I got rolled back up she had a hundred more unrolled, making smart comments about how slow I was. I got tired of that and had pop take me home to get my erector set, built a little gizmo that held the roll and I'd flip on the motor and the ribbon rolled back on in no time. got caught up with her and would sit back and stick my tongue out at her every time she looked at me. lol

I have often wondered just how many kids went on to become engineers because of that little old erector set. I had a really neat chemistry set until I some how concocted a mess of stinking liquid that got dropped on the floor and stunk up the house for about a week. Notice I used the word had. My dad took it away that same day saying I was dangerous. Who knows I could have gone on to become thne worlds greatest chemist. Oh well. I might have blown up the place to.

My brother had a chemistry set until I got hold of it and made the neatest smell that came after the woooshhhhh. lmao

Sounds like the one I made. hehehe

I think my generation was the last to enjoy tose simple basics of growing up. It's sad.

Lmao! My brother blew up a few small things and had one little fire with that damn chemistry set and once concocted something that ate a hole in the old one piece linoleum floor down in the basement and made many things that smelled worse than dead skunk. He once dyed his hands purple too and had to go to school like that for a week.

His favorite show was Mr. Wizard and mine was Sky King and Roy Rogers. Damn, those were the good old days. He had a whole little lab set up down there with a miscroscope, slides, a bunsen burner, you name it. He was always doing little "experiments" and I fully expected to come home at some point and see the house flattened or burned to the ground. It was a happy day when he gave all that up and went into building radio sets, believe me.

Hey Ot, I still have my Roy Rogers yo yo and my old Zorro lunch box. lol I started collecting and saving baseball cards again in my twenties (as well as programs, bats, balls, gloves, all kinds of baseball memorabilia- which is on display in my den) and have quite the assortment now. It's the only sport I still love and follow. Baseball has always been my favvie. I never cared for basketball or football; just baseball. I do remember those flip books too and there are really rare to find anymore. I do have my old Wilson Glove too from the 50's. I also have a marble collection. I used to love playing marbles. Wish I had all the stuff I had back then, especially the comics and our old train set. (sigh) If we only knew huh?

We loved our erector set. Every few months they would release some new parts for it so we kept saving our pennies and begging our parents for the new add ons. We made more contraptions out of that stuff. Man, you could spend hours doing that.

You know what I miss most from my childhood? A cork gun. I had one that really was just a air gun, it shot little cork balls. You could put a roll of caps in it and when you shot it the hammer would come down and pop the cap. One day my grandmother was in the mustard/turnip cutting greens and I got the idea that her backside would make a perfect target. I couldn't sit for a week and never saw that cork gun again.

Old Timer wrote:

Put It Out There Baby wrote:You know OT, they really were. Kids actually used their imaginations. They explored and built tree houses, forts and played outdoors, played a lot of rag tag baseball and rode their bikes. There was no sitting infront of a computer all day, or listening to rap music or drugs or watching tv 24/7. Watching the one black and white tv in the living room was a family event. I could buy a model airplane kit for 35 cents, including the glue and spend hours building and painting it. My little brother was into erector sets and chemistry sets and building little radios from scratch. It was all so family oriented and so American. Society and people were different. Families were different and they were very extended. Your relatives lived with you and/or were very close in proximity. Everyone in the neighborhood knew everyone and enjoyed one another's company. There were picnics and the YMCA for swimming, camping with your pals in the back yard was a big adventure, huge family Sunday dinners, and a kid could have so much fun in the Summer all day and all evening just doing the simple things. We were never bored and we never needed much. If you had your bike, your baseball glove, baseball cards, the company of your dog, bazooka bubble gum, a yo-yo, your bag of marbles, a few comic books and 25 cents in your pocket and your pals........ man, the world was your oyster.

I am glad I have someone on here to share these wonderful memories with. I guess we are officially the two old farts of this forum. lol

Baseall cards******* Man o Man, if I only had the cards I had as a kid. I had the entire national league and the American league including team pictures from 52 to 59. And yes a lot of the old timers cards to. They got destroyed in a fire while I was in the service. Do you by any chance remember those indian flipper cards as well? I used to have a ton of those to. I gave my oldest son my original erector set as well as my original lional train set that blew out puffs of smoke while it ran. He donated them to a toys for tots drive not knowing the real value of them. And how about those old wooden duncan yo-yo's. Would you believe that I have even met Hopalong Cassidy at a rodeo once. Even petted his horse Topper. Man the memories this has brought up. I could go on for hours.

I still have my old baseball and football cards when I was a kid, I also collected Garbage Pail Kids when I was younger and I still have those, and I still have alot of my old comics as well.

You do realize that you may be siting on a fortune there don't ya?