Say something about your childhood that seems old fashioned/ridiculous by today's standards

There was a phone number you could ring to see what time it was

When that fucking cyclist named Armstrong rode upon the moon back in 1969 I was sent home from school as one of the town boys to watch the momentous and historic event on television because the morons didn't have enough room for all the boys to watch it at the school.

The school was at one end of the town and I lived at the other end about four miles away. It was winter. It was raining. It was fucking cold. By the time I got home the telecast had already started so like the dope I was I sat in my wet clothes and watched the blobby black and white rubbish *beep* with no fire in the fireplace *beep*.

That night I was delirious with a fever and the next day or maybe a few days later I collapsed with pneumonia on the way to the doctor.

THANKS A BUNCH NASA !!!

Then my imbecilic moron of a doctor decided I needed to have my tonsils and adenoids out toot sweet! This was in the days when ether was used for a general anaesthetic. During the operation he "professionally" knocked out one of my teeth and sliced through an artery. This was the same arsehole who refused to prescribe ventolin for my severe asthma because he "...didn't want to kill a snail with a sledgehammer." So instead he prescribed a cough medicine of his own formulation that was completely useless for asthma but did manage to permanently stain my teeth. I wish I could have killed him with a sledgehammer !

The holiday season, and looking forward to all the TV specials with Charlie Brown, the Grinch, and the many Rankin-Bass productions. You had only one opportunity to watch these programs; if you missed any of these, you had to wait a whole year to see them again. The same with The Wizard of Oz.

With the advent of VHS it was now possible to view these features at any time. The yearly broadcasts, which at one time were must-see special events, lost their magic. They were part of the anticipation which led up to Christmas. Anticipation was a major contributing factor that made the holidays so much more satisfying once they arrived.

The specials that still manage to get airtime today have also been destroyed by editing. These beloved programs have been butchered just so the networks can run more commercials.

Neighborhood dogs would just roam around, randomly walk through our unfenced backyard.

Never had homework until high school

There were no red M&Ms in the package

I like to play videogames in the arcades in the 90s.

When I was a kid during summer vacation from school, I went to the movie every Saturday and my admission was six Coca Cola bottle caps that I had collected during the week. Also, that vacation began with June and school didn't resume until September.

When I was in high school (class of 87) we played the "Team Assassination Game." About 15 or so of us would each secretly be given an other in the group as our "target" to kill. One person (the "ref") would organize it and allow us to spend fake money on toy weapons or other killing methods. Things like vaseline on a car door handle as "contact poison" or paying for a pillow to be a "safe" that you drop on another's head from an above window or just yer basic dart gun. Kills had to be done without witnesses or you were "arrested" and out. You would get whatever leftover fake money your victim had and acquire his/her target until the circle shrunk to the last person, the winner. You could circumvent the witnesses rule by putting on and taking off a mask where no one could see you. This would lead to events like a masked person holding a realistic looking toy gun running into a fast food joint, pumping a diner full of plastic discs while shouting DIE, and running out. Only schools and police departments were off limits. We played for years and somehow never got in trouble nor killed by police. This has not been remotely possible for decades.

Many many great stories from that. Creative weapons. Devious double crosses. Clever set-ups.

Adults dressing up for a dinner party. I don't mean dress up like Downton Abbey. I mean the men wore jackets or sport coats and dress pants (or, at least, no jeans or sneakers), the women wore nice dresses and dolled themselves up.