What do you remember?

I remember when the only way to reach someone away from home, was to use a pay phone, which are pretty much gone now.

Hi Paula. For you, it's bread... for me, it's the ice-cream man. I've been waiting for quite awhile now, and seems that there has been no more ice-cream man with his wheel of ice-creams and students and adults would flock. He would come from one neighborhood to the other and sell his stuffs. I don't know; such things seem like non-existence anymore, or perhaps can only be gotten in some rare places.

There are so many memories Paula and I tend to feel sad while recalling them.But for one small titbit, when I was a very young child[say 7 to8] I used to walk with my mother, sister on the road to some temple nearby.When we were coming back , we would buy a snack called 'Masal vadai'[it is made of ground dhal paste /onion and fried in oil.]from a vendor on the road.We would all have at max one or two vadais but you cannot even imagine the wonderful smell that would hit our nostrils right from some 100 metres away.THis was prepared by a poor vendor who used to carry a small makeshift stove , the dough and the vessels in a small open cart like structure.I have no words to describe this tasty snack.South Indians like BALA may be aware of this snack. Then there was a lovely guava tree too in my backyard-I have also written an article on 'My garden and guava trees'in AC. There are so many other things Paula that fill me with a choking sensation and pain[obviously this does not refer to some eatables]because they are bygone sweet memories never to return and diffiuclt to be shared.

Hm, the milk man, the Fuller brush man, the Helms truck (mostly bakery items)...

Great discussion ,where I am from we never had milk or bread delivered but we had men selling callaloo on sundays as well as milk.The milk man would walk around with milk in what we call a "shet pan " and stand at our gates pouring it out of the container in pints or quart amounts .The callaloo man would have them wrapped in nice bundles and you can be sure that would be sunday morning breakfast.Wow I can almost smell the cooked callaloo now.Thanks for that walk down memory lane Paula

I remember that in kindergarden someone ate sirt and said it was tasty so I tried it too. It was so disguisting but I couldnt help myself and said it was tasty just to make more kids eat ti XD

Well, I remember having milk delivered all of the time. I remember the many Ice Cream trucks and being able to get a lot of different choices from them almost every day. I also remember people who were delivery men like the Postman etc. who were often a lot friendlier and went out of their way to say Hi!! and help you if you needed it as well.

we never had milk delivery except for a brief week when my parents were out of town and had them deliver milk so the sitter didn't have to go to the store to get it (I don't think she drove.) In fact, I think the ONLY thing we ever had a service for was diaper service when I and my sister were babies - mom said she was given a month's worth of service after I was born and they decided that was MORE than worth the cost BESIDES, if you use a diaper service, you save both lots of money AND the environment! More people should go to that once again rather than the "disposable" diapers.

Rotary telephones. Kids who didn't have constant technological access to one another. When I was a kid, in order to call my friends, I had to dial a rotary phone which took time. I had to either have their phone number in an address book or know it by memory. I had to sit close to the phone because the handset was attached to the base with a spiral cord and if I walked too far away from the base with the handset to my ear, it would either yank me back or pull the phone out of the wall disconnecting the call. If we weren't anywhere where there was a phone and wanted to talk to our friends, we would just have to wait till we got home. There was no such thing as a phone that was small enough to fit in a pocket and could go anywhere with us. And what the heck was a text message? Heck, most homes didn't even have a computer either. In fact, I was in my 20's before I even knew 2 people who had a computer at home. Even then, it was dial up and slow as molasses in an ice storm. I remember when entertainment was always outside on my bike or in my roller skates. I remember having respect for all adults and so did all of my friends. There was no talking back to adults no matter which adult it was. I remember board games and puzzles. Imagination was our best friend.

I missed the icecream truck. It would cruise the neighborhood playing music and all the kids would run out and buy an icecream. It had been years since I saw one but one day here I heard the bells and thought I was going crazy..lol..There is an ice cream truck that rolls around the neighborhood here! I was amazed. It brings back lots of nice summer memories when I hear it. It is my dogs arch enemy though..lol.

I remember the milk being delivered everyday and liking that on Wednesday and Friday we would get chocolate milk from the milkman. I remember liking Saturday when the ice cream truck would come by because us kids usually had our allowance and could buy ourself ice cream from the man on the truck. I remember being able to go to the park and being able to do different craft with the help of the lady who was there from 10:00 am to 4:00pm on Friday and Saturday. She showed us how to make bead necklaces and bracelets. She also had some types of material which was in different colors and we would get about a foot and she show us how to take two of them and braid them. You could make a bracelets. It only cost a penny to buy the material from this park lady.

Hey, those are exactly the things that I miss. About 10 yrs ago my husband and I would visit his dad (my father-in-law) in the province every weekend. His dad has a bottle of cow's milk delivered at his doorstep everyday. There was also an old man who brought fresh and hot bread every morning. In the afternoon another elderly man goes around selling dirty ice cream and bread, some prefer to have ice cream sandwich. Kids looked forward to hearing his bell indicating that he has arrived. My father-in-law has already passed away and their old house has been sold, and I haven't been there for about a decade.

We use to always have a lot of guys every morning coming to our house to deliver something. One of them had milk, one delivers honey, another one delivers newspaper, etc. But since we left that old house, we don't have the same people around anymore. I really miss having fresh cow's milk everyday and putting honey onto my food or drinks instead of sugar. We had a new newspaper boy when we transferred to a new place but we had problems with him. He would say he had delivered our paper when we never really got anything. Now that we are older, my father said that we can already take care of ourselves so if we want something, we should get it for ourselves. :(

I grew up in New York City. I miss the 6 o'clock whistle - all the kids had to be home when the whistle blew. I miss handball, stickball, jumprope, skullies, and boxball. All games that I don't see kids playing anymore. I miss spalding balls, making horse reins, making gum wrapper chains, just going outside to play with whoever was out. The grinder man would come and ring his bell, anyone who needed scissors and knives sharpened would come out, the vegetable man came in his truck and the women would bargain with him, going to the butcher and asking for a certain cut of meat and nothing was wrapped in plastic and prepriced. I miss that when you needed help, the neighbors were always there - sometimes that wasn't a good thing. I don't miss the party line phones.

Wow! The ice man sounds great! I haven't heard of this ever. That must have een a wonderful experience! I am getting nostalgic. I miss so many things, Paula. I miss the paper boys who used to throw the papers rolled up with a string and throw it up our 3 storeys. I miss the milk man with their bottles with different labels, I miss the old typewriters which I can only see on the court. I miss so many things. I miss the church bell which doesn't ring anymore, I miss the washermen who used to come to our house and my grand mom used to count clothes and give them for washing after elaborate sessions of hair massage from an o0ld lady frail but with the most soft palms on earth! I miss the smell of oranges in winter, I miss the autumn sky, the spring breeze, the cuckoo whistling. I do not head them anymore! May be I have grown, the world has grown. But I miss them anyway.

Nostalgic isn't it? I miss staying up late and talking with friends while waiting for the man on the bike selling hot bread and meat buns. Sometimes me and my friends stroll around the nearby harbor and throw stones to the sea. I also miss waking up early and jog with my friends and after that we do a stop by our favorite store that sells rice cake (puto in Filipino) and hot chocolate. At times we also feel going on a light "post jogging" snack so we buy hot silken tofu with caramel sauce..hmmmmmmm

I remember when the only way I could get cheat codes for video games, is by waiting for my Nintendo Power to arrive in the mail, now I can search from the net.