Col. Angus sent this picture-
He wrote-
Boomers are characterized at times as fossils stuck in the 50’s and 60’s, but we do have a reference on which to base our fondness of the era.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My first thought is that in 2022, that napkin dispenser would be emptied, or stolen altogether. Especially when all the toilet paper is cleared off the shelves because of the “latest thing.”
(What does this picture have to do with this article? Let’s see who gets the “very specific” right answer.)
What article?
Let me guess ~ Root Beer GLASSES for an “ice cream soda” & PLASTIC STRAWS ? Can only guess what’s in the basket and maybe a roller skating waiter/waitress to fit the tray onto the car . Old fashioned service
I liked people better back then.
Did I change, or did they?
What does the picture have to do with the post? Where to start?!
It’s like looking at 60’s ad for air travel, when people dressed up to fly, coach served real food on real china with real utensils (instead of sporks), and drinks in real glassware as part of your ticket cost.
Everything about the picture shouts good ol’ America of the boomer age: A distinctive automobile made by American hands in an American factory. In fact, everything hanging off the car’s door, on the tray (including the tray), were made in America back then. Everything in the real glass mugs and wrapped in sandwich paper (including the paper) was made in America.
What else? I give up. Is this a trick question? Boomers are fond of our past. Nothing quite like a picture of a great part of that past — in-car dining at an iconic drive-in with a car hop. We still have several BurgerMasters in the Seattle area where you drive up, turn on your headlights for service. The menu is on the post in front of your car and they’ve got excellent burgers, chicken, fish sandwiches and a dozen flavors of milkshakes (my fav is root beer or boysenberry).
Ooo! Maybe the right answer is that we didn’t expect anyone to spit in our food based on any bumper stickers we displayed, or for a brawl (or worse) to break out at any moment between a car hop and a customer. We sure as heck never would have thought a car hop would cold cock a customer and kill him.
Back when a business was more about providing the public with VALUE for their hard-earned instead of constantly and obviously grubbing for their money, to the exclusion of all else.
Could be.
No padded dash and vent windows. (probably kick vents too)
Looks like three on the tree also.
And after paying for the meal with a five spot you still had enough change for a few gallons of gas that someone else put in your tank. (and washed your windshield if you asked nice)
“What does the picture have to do with this article?”
It’s the, you know, you know the thing!
Sorry. I just did a boom boomer in my pants. C’mon, man! Jill? Anyway. Look. You boomers are just like MAGA Republicans threatening our dem ah demi era demogr demon you know the thing they’re threatening. Building back, you know, after that boomer MAGA guy Trump. Better than back… hey back off Jack! I’ll pop that corn right off yo hade. Sheeeeit.
Damn MAGA Boomers. Wait. Jill says I’m too old to be a Boomer. Damn. Jill?!!!
-Joseph Robinette
I consider my self (1960)too young to be a Boomer and to old to be a Gen X, and evidently there are a lot like me, so they created Generation Jones for us. unfortunately, Barky is in it, so that puts a damper on my Beatle-hating Boomer mockery.
I admit that I distanced myself from Boomers about the time Bill Clinton became President and continued to do so as their Millennial spawn came of age. But as I ease into retirement not far behind the youngest Boomers, I find I have more in common with them than I thought as a young man, and as My children become adults, I am more circumspect about how Millennials ate turning out. We are all products of our era, and it takes time and life to recognize our heritage.
Boomers, I get where you’re coming from. Now, more than ever. But I still don’t like the Beatles.
AA, if you search YouTube for Lockheed Constellation or Electra, DC4 or DC6, 707, DC8, etc, there are dozens of promos from 50’s and 60’s. It’s like getting to go back and take the flight you described.
Yes, I remember, not locking the doors, leaving the keys in the ignition, rifle in the back window, letting kids play alone until dark. Even in the 80’s, driving around to find the kids bike to see where they were, not worried about some LGBTQ pedophiles.
Not carrying, anytime I leave home.
I remember.
Baby boomers receive a lot of crap from the Gen Y\’s and Z\’s and most of it originates from feelings of envy and guilt.
Our wealth, our outlook on life, the simplicity at which we circumnavigate our existence, our devotion to core traditions, and our ability to value the important things and not stress over little things or little people.
They will grow up one day……………..and hopefully turn conservative.
I also remember buying my own car and finding my own job at 14. Throwing hay bales that weighed more that me. Shelling corn at probably 9-10yo, all day and I’d get a $5 bill.
We could get a school permit at 14, so I always had to know what school event was going on in case I got pulled over. I got paid $1.65 hr, even after taxes I was rich for 14.
Didn’t even thing twice about working 12, 14, maybe even 16 hours a day in the summer.
OK BOOMERS! LOL
I’m have pain somewhere everyday for one thing.
Okay, Boomers. Have you seen a box of 2022 Cracker Jack? Have you looked at what they call the “Surprise” in the box?
I rest my case.
If Boomers are thought to be so “old fashioned” and irrelevant, then why did Mantle’s card just go at auction for that ridiculous amount of money? I bet you could get a cool million for an original Cracker Jacks prize from the 1950s.
That is a boomer, they ruin everything;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv7McDePFkw
@AbigailAdams
Tell me about it. The Cracker Jack “prize” is insulting at best.
I also brought up the Mickey Mantle baseball card auction in a conversation the other day. The guy did not even know who Mantle was. I wanted to smack him, and I’m not a Boomer…..Gen-X’er here.
IMHO, Boomers in general are fine, but a certain portion of the Boomers ruined it for everyone.
Thirdtwin
Right there with ya. 👍
BOOM! I had a bad enough time dealing with Gen X slackers.
Oh yeah, the picture. People with boomerangs shouldn’t live in glass houses? I dunno :/
3 on the tree?
My dear deceased wife and I were/are “in-betweeners”, born ’41 (me) and ’42, during “The War”. Boomer memory angst has/had nothing on ours. LOVED your comments, AA!
@DaveVA
Three speed transmission, and the shifter is on the steering column. Kind of the inverse of 4 on the floor.
^^^ Down here, we always called it column shift. Wish I still had my ’64 Galaxy 500.
Dr, you may have even heard them called “3 on the tree.” Or bolt action
@Dr Hambone,
Last year I just missed an opportunity (by 1 week) to purchase a 63-1/2 Galaxie 500, 390, four speed with only 38k miles for only $14k. It was in great shape for a 100% survivor with original paint, drivetrain and interior.
Answer: the article was written by a brit and they don’t have A&W root beer over there.
Boomers are old enough to have a true frame of reference. Let’ say you just stepped off the plane and the temperature is 85 degrees. Without a frame of reference that a local has, you don’t know if 85 degrees is hot or cold for this time of year. Boomers have seen enough to know this country is not what is was.
Back in the day, instructions were in English, tattoos were in prison, and queers were in the closet.
LOLOLOL… I’m talking about the man with the boomerang.
The answer was
Boomerangus…
As in Col. Angus
That pic was taken back life was still fun.
I really feel like shit…15 years ago when I was getting my parents property ready for sale, I found an A&W tray with two mugs in the attic of their garage. I have no idea how it got there and I don’t remember shit! All I know is that it went in the estate sale!
Doc, they were pilfered. Your folks pilfered them. So ashamed was your father, that he put them in a place where even he couldn’t lay eyes on them again. They were never talked about.
How much did they fetch at the sale? 😉
I’ve been told that A & W stands for Amburgers and Woot Beer.
I can’t remember what an A&W cheeseburger cost, but an Arctic Circle cheeseburger was $0.29 in 1969. A burger was $.019. Fries were a quarter. A Taco Time crispy beef burrito was $0.99. A LARGE dip cone at Dairy Queen was $0.50.
A very small plain soft serve cone at McD’s is $1.79. A crispy beef burrito at Taco Time is about $4.something. A bag of burgers and fries for two is over $23.00 in Seattle. Chinese food (4 items) cost $61.00 last week.
We eat almost exclusively at home. I’m always shocked at how much fast food costs now and how badly prepared it always is — nothing like the pictures.
Boomers. We complain a lot about new fangled stuff that don’t come up to scratch.
We had the best of America, didn’t we? Past The War, no huge memories of “drop and cover” (under a desk) in case of nuclear attack, no bike helmets, knee & elbow pads, always a corner store nearby for penny candy or a 10 cent bottle of Orange Crush, plenty of room to roam and daylight hours to fill up playing with our friends. There were no pervert teachers grooming us or planting the idea that we weren’t who we thought we were, or confusing us math answers that don’t make sense. And our president didn’t declare war on us.
OK Boomers, a young guy I’m giving some pointers to at the gym sent me this from Reddit. They guy posting it was a young black guy. I got a good laugh out of it.
“I don’t mess around with anyone over 50, they built different, their families had them formally trained in something by the time they were 2, they had keys to the house by age 5, could cook a full meal at 7 and were pretty much self-sufficient at 9.
They left their house at dawn every summer morning and didn’t come back til nightfall and survived all day on water from a garden hose, they might get a sandwich on the off chance somebody’s parents had went grocery shopping, they spent three quarters of their lives by themselves with parents maybe checking twice a month., most have them have evaded at least one kidnapping attempt, and , they know 15 different ways to remove blood stains from clothing.
They the real fuck around and find out people.”
Most of it is just the maturation process. We have been around the block (more than once), made all the mistakes (or were smart enough to learn from the mistakes of others), and have dealt with adversity, uncertainty, fear, and the consequences of bad choices.
Very few people get their shit together early in life.
I worked at A and W first job and I used to love Beatles but have grown very tired of them. We had twinburgers, chili cheese dogs, coney dogs, black cows but plain old root beer was my favorite
Brad, that is hysterical! And TRUE! Never thought much about it, but everything the guy wrote is 100% spot on.
Most of us had some kind of real job — up at 4:30a. to deliver papers or up until midnight babysitting. It was a self-driven rite of passage to convince our parents that we were responsible enough to take on paid work. Today I wouldn’t let a lot of high-schoolers look after my kids at night. I never see a paper boy or girl on a bike anymore. I do see adults drive through the neighborhood at 4a. to deliver the papers.
@Brad
OH HELL YES!!
By the time I was 12 I could rebuild a small block Chevy and sew up a sucking chest wound with cat gut.
OK guy how about this, me and some pals were talking about this today. Back when we were 10 to 18. No cell phones. But we knew exactly when to meet everybody for the football game at the local school yard on the week end. Amazing.
Here’s something else the libs won’t admit, growing up among kids my own age, skin color was meaningless.
I grew up on the mean streets of Oakland, raised by a poor single mom. I survived off my hoops skills. Every day after school, about 15 to 20 of us, 90% black but none of that was important. You got in the games from your skills and the key was to never lose so you got to keep the court.
I’m sure racism existed but I never saw it.
Hey Rich
I came from the opposite end of that spectrum. Grew up in Monte Vista, Cupertino, Los Gatos, part of the Bay Area. Pure Gold back then. Still is. We had our share of black athletes. I’m here to tell you in the early 1970’s nobody cared. Well, at least it didn’t matter.
Race relations are much worse now the then. Why is that?
The wife and I were just talking. She brought up a good one. How many of us have heard, Have your ass home when the street lights come on.
And we did.
We didn’t always have street lights where I lived, but we damn sure knew when they would come on if they were there. And we also knew we better get our asses home. I remember during the Detroit riots in ‘68, there was a multi county curfew that we were a part of, a bunch of us kids played hide and go seek and there were police cars with their lights flashing driving past every few minutes. Memories from a boomer.
Nobody is gonna mention that the metal legs on that tray will scratch up your paint job?
I thought 1960 falls into the boomer category. I thought I was a boomer. And I NEVER liked the Beatles.
Drove a Mack truck pulling a 40 foot logging trailer with 20 feet of logs hanging off the back of the trailer. Four trips a day out of the woods into the mill at Fairbanks, Alaska. Around 1970. I was 16. Today’s kids are still babies at 16.
LOL! And I always thought it was because most families had at least 4 kids (and many six or more) back then, that a couple of us were considered expendable. When I was just about 4 or 5, I remember taking walks out into the woods by myself. It wasn’t a rare occurrence either. One time when we had extended family over for a bbq I decided I was tired and crawled up and over a pile of stuff in the garage to take a mid-day nap on an old mattress that you couldn’t see from below. It wasn’t until much later that night that my dad finally found me, scooped me up and put me in bed. No fuss, no relieved, tearful mother, or anything. It wasn’t even mentioned. I don’t know, I guess when you let kids get really dirty and aren’t chasing them around with a bottle of hand sanitizer and an armful of snacks; when you aren’t constantly taking their temperatures and telling them to use their inside voices, kids figure out what works for them and what doesn’t. Like don’t pet the cat’s fur backward, don’t stand under a lawn dart coming down, don’t stick a hot, spent sparkler on your tongue, don’t put a fork into the plugged-in toaster, don’t talk back to your dad. And if you wanted to see stars swirling around your head or risk not sitting down for a week, NEVER try out that new swear word.
Boomers turned out all right because our parents had rational priorities. If it wasn’t hanging by a thread of skin and the blood wasn’t spirting, rub some dirt on it and “Go outside!”.
I think if you called a fragile boy a sissie today, he wouldn’t have a clue what you’re talking about.
A root beer float is called a black cow, if you never had an A&W mug with a gold bottom, you aint a boomer.
Boomers protested the Vietnam war, causing our defeat and the enslavement of the entire Republic of South Vietnam. Boomers didn’t give a shit about the Vietnamese Boat People.
I hate to say it, but we boomers were handed the freest and most prosperous country the world has ever known by the Greatest Generation and we let it all go to sh!t.while I doubt most of us here on this site are personally responsible, working hard and raising decent kids, as a generation we sowed the seeds for the garbage country we are fast becoming.