Going to school in the'50s a bookmobile would come around once a week. Two books per student allowed. At this point in time, we lived in what was countryside. Nothing but farmland between us and the city outskirts and even further to a library.

What the video didn't show was the man who would come around doing knife, scissor and other objects that needed sharpening. There was also a rag collector and the ice man with ice for the fridge which was great in the hot summers.

My neighborhood had a weekly or bi-monthly bookmobile service until the early 80's. It would park for an hour or so in a neighbor's driveway across the street. I also remember the 2 book checkout limit.

I was studying in a public library 2 to 3 times a week after dropping my mom off at the gym, until Coronavirus. I miss the environment as it felt more studious than my kitchen table.

I thought by this time my wife and I would be studying Russian together at the LSU Middleton Library, enjoying nostalgic study dates. But it's still closed (I think) while getting a name change because apparently this Middleton guy once said something racist. Besides, our favorite pizza places off campus are long gone and I'm getting too old to want to go parking afterwards.

You definitely are an anachronism in many ways Mark!

I had to look that one up.

++++++++++

I thought I was losing my mind with Windows 10...

Minimize your browser and anything else you have open, then open two File Explorer Windows. Choose "Show windows side by side" (same as Win2k/XP's "...vertical...") from the taskbar. Your screen should fill with two equal file explorer windows (except that Win10 puts an ugly gap between the windows). If they don't fill the screen, reboot. This command seems to work for about 5 min. after a reboot, then no longer functions properly.

So in the spirit of the thread, and while sitting behind Win10 (for online), I miss a professional competent current version of Windows.

I pumped gas as teenager, had too clean every windshield and ask if they wanted their oil checked.

If I recall correctly, there are a couple of States in the US which still have full-service gas stations. I think New Jersey is one of those.

It was always fun trying to find the new filler location every fall when the new cars came out.

PM, there are some States where you can't pump your own gas.

I found one on my road trip to North Carolina last month. Spruce Pine, NC I think.


Old fashioned pumps, no way to prepay. He didn't check the oil or do the windows though. Still cool.

A great source of wonder, those magnificent and stylish U.S. cars to our young English eyes of the 1950's. Most people didn't have a car, though my father was given one as a disabled War Pensioner. A Ford Anglia, using a cumbersome and often malfunctioning hand operated vacuum clutch. Automatics were unknown over here. As was radios, aircon and even heaters.
I suppose a more recent comparison of the contrast between our two nation's automobiles of that time would be an East German facing a 10 year waiting list for a Trabant, viewing the latest Mercedes model.

Yeah, they were not always easy to find. Remember the ones that were behind the rear licence plate ?

I wish we could get Mercurochrome back. We had a little brown bottle of it for a long time. It had a little dipper/application stick in the handle(not a dropper) as I recall. Instant relief and fast healing. My sister and I used to call it monkey blood.

Remember it well, with its cancer causing agents. Reason for its demise.

And the ones behind the tail light.

I really got into the Davy Crockett stuff when I was about 10 years old. That would have been in 1955. The Walt Disney show was on prime time TV back then and I could hardly wait until they would show a new Adventures of Davy Crockett episode starring Fess Parker. His sidekick was played by Buddy Epsen--an old musical comedy star from the 30's and 40's who went on to play Jed Clampett in the Beverly Hillbillies. Fess Parker also played other characters in several Disney full-length movies such as Ole Yeller and The Great Locomotive Chase.

My coonskin cap was probably made of rabbit fur and it even had a vinyl top with a picture of Davy printed on it. I had both a toy flintlock pistol and musket that shot caps.

Fortunately, I don't have any pictures of me in that stupid coonskin cap, but I do have this one with my first cap gun and holster set when I might have been 4 years old in 1949. My dad got me some little cowboy boots and a pair of denim jeans that were so long that the rolled up cuffs came up to my knees. The little leather jacket was more Fonzie than cowboy, but I didn't care.

Can you imagine parents today buying a 4 year old a toy gun that was plated metal and could probably be mistaken for real?


Cheers

Great stuff FO.

I still have my Davey Crockett Alamo set tucked away in a chest.

Great image that FO! Lil' tough guy...." I know what you're thinking: "Did he fire six caps or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself."

'Davey....Davey Crockett! King of the Wild Frontier' was very popular here, along with the little-remembered 'Cisco Kid' and the 'Lone Ranger' of course.
I too had a coonskin hat now I recall.

BD, you jogged my memory. Iirc some cap guns had bullets that you had to put caps in.

I don't recall having a cowboy outfit as such,just toy guns but I did have a Batman outfit my mum made for me. Back in those days mum made a lot of her own dresses so a Batman outfit wouldn't have been too difficult.

What year was that photo taken Chucky? I'm guessing about 1969?

I don't think you'd be far out there Panzer. The van was my dad's work transport. I think it was a Ford Thames.