Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[SoulReflection]

I had no idea people made soda pop at home. Homemade root beer sounds very cool.

Well, it was a thing in the old days. I loved to visit and have some of his root beer. I also remember the odd explosion coming from the basement. The smell was beautiful. He and my aunt inherited my grandfather's Packard. What a great machine that was.

 

[2tonic]

..... Sitting unrestrained in the door of a Huey can be fairly interesting at times.

So is rappelling out of one.

 

[Charlie Tango]

So is rappelling out of one.

Never had the, ah, pleasure. Glad of it, too.

 

[Greywoulf]

So is rappelling out of one.

So was jamming 105mm shells into the breech of a Self Propelled M52's howitzer, and then getting out of the way of those big hot shell casings ejecting into the track vehicles' small firing pit!!
But then eventually I found I could even sleep inside the track's turret right thru a live fire mission (training in Germany) when someone else was loading rounds and I got a break... I look back on my young self sometimes and am amazed at all the dangerous things I lived thru! (-Mostly unconcerned and unaware...)
I also actively rode motorcycles for about 25 years...
Greywoulf

 

[shadowtippy]

WHAT??? People steal elevators?

They go joyriding and abandon them in an alley somewhere.

 

[Deeper Texan]

I understand why they are called elevators, or even lifts, when they are going up. But what do we call them when they go down?
The same holds true for escalators.
Isn't it counter-intuitive to say "I got on the "down" elevator?" Or the "down escalator?" Maybe they should be called the lowerers, or the de-escalators. Just sayin..

 

[GwenOnBass]

Kids who use the wrong stairways at school are subject to discipline. "Up" and "Down" stairwells are marked with large red arrows. Dress codes are strictly enforced. There's this hippie thing going on in California and this is not a place our teachers want us to go

So guess who's going to see Otiel, speaking of. Dead & Company verified buyer tix on sale in 1.5 hours, my access code beamed into the smrtphn at 3:20 am

 

[notJaco]

I understand why they are called elevators, or even lifts, when they are going up. But what do we call them when they go down?
The same holds true for escalators.
Isn't it counter-intuitive to say "I got on the "down" elevator?" Or the "down escalator?" Maybe they should be called the lowerers, or the de-escalators. Just sayin..

Alright, Seinfeld.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I understand why they are called elevators, or even lifts, when they are going up. But what do we call them when they go down?
The same holds true for escalators.
Isn't it counter-intuitive to say "I got on the "down" elevator?" Or the "down escalator?" Maybe they should be called the lowerers, or the de-escalators. Just sayin..

The battle uphill is always hard fought. Gain high ground. That’s what people remember.

Going down is a pleasure.

 

[GonePlaid]

The battle uphill is always hard fought. Gain high ground. That’s what people remember.

Going down is a pleasure.

As I vaguely recall.(sigh)

 

[Deleted member 268085]

Usta hop off and on the outside rear of moving street trollies as a crazy kid. Plenty of hand holds and foot ledges, true, but if you fell off then the cars behind the trolly might eat you... A new conductor would often stop his trolly and come around back to chase you; one who'd been around for a while usually ignored kids hitching on as in the rougher neighborhoods it was quite common.
I loved growing up in NYC in the 40's and 50's. I had the whole city as my playground and could go anywhere freely by sneaking thru the back exit doors of trollies and busses and zipping under subway turnstiles. It wasn't considered the major crime back then as it seems to be today!
Greywoulf

How else ya gonna get to the Yankees game?

 

[Deleted member 268085]

So was jamming 105mm shells into the breech of a Self Propelled M52's howitzer, and then getting out of the way of those big hot shell casings ejecting into the track vehicles' small firing pit!!
But then eventually I found I could even sleep inside the track's turret right thru a live fire mission (training in Germany) when someone else was loading rounds and I got a break... I look back on my young self sometimes and am amazed at all the dangerous things I lived thru! (-Mostly unconcerned and unaware...)
I also actively rode motorcycles for about 25 years...
Greywoulf

That live fire training didn't happen to take place at Grafenwöhr, did it? I went through there during Reforager '71. My live fire training consisted of a 10,000-watt radio in a pod on the back of a 5/4-ton truck. Tactical intel. 8 guys. Bunch of different languages. We were supposed to f*** with the Americans (which we did; we had ALL of their radio freqs, both primary and secondary; we could get on the secondary before the operators), but that was too easy, so we started messing with the Ruskies on the other side of the Czech border. THAT was fun!

 

[beans-on-toast]

Kids who use the wrong stairways at school are subject to discipline. "Up" and "Down" stairwells are marked with large red arrows. Dress codes are strictly enforced. There's this hippie thing going on in California and this is not a place our teachers want us to go

So guess who's going to see Otiel, speaking of. Dead & Company verified buyer tix on sale in 1.5 hours, my access code beamed into the smrtphn at 3:20 am

In the early grades you’d assemble outside the classroom in pairs for something called bathroom parade. Order was not defined by who had to go the most, it should have been. Girls in the front, boys in the back. The class would march in military fashion along the hall, down the massive staircase to the basement. We stopped at the girls washroom and dropped them off, then marched on to the boys. You went, even if you didn’t have to. I remember the up and down staircases. Going up the down staircase was the subject of a film in 1967.

Up the Down Staircase (film) - Wikipedia


Some schools had a boys and a girls entrance to the building. No fraternization policy.

They wouldn’t allow that today. A friend’s dad was a garbageman, it was his own truck. He also had a 40’s or 50’s tow truck for large vehicles. It had a huge boom in the back that would swing a bit when he went around corners. I remember it having a huge gear shift leaver. You really had to drive that truck. Sometimes he would pick us up and gave us a ride back to her house. It was something to be up there in that cab.

 

[Greywoulf]

How else ya gonna get to the Yankees game?

Yankees? -Nah, how about the NY Giants (baseball, not football) in the Polo Grounds!
Anyway, from where I lived in da Bronx I could (and sometimes did) walk to Yankee Stadium. A kid could get into the 'bleachers' then for 25 cents...
In NYC in the 40'-50's you had the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants for baseball, and for football the Polo Grounds Giants and a somewhat scorned Yankee Stadium team called the "Golden Falcons" (later, I think(?) to become the NY Jets). The resulting abundance of trash talk in the streets among us kid fans was nasty and wonderful....
Greywoulf

 

[Greywoulf]

That live fire training didn't happen to take place at Grafenwöhr, did it? I went through there during Reforager '71. My live fire training consisted of a 10,000-watt radio in a pod on the back of a 5/4-ton truck. Tactical intel. 8 guys. Bunch of different languages. We were supposed to f*** with the Americans (which we did; we had ALL of their radio freqs, both primary and secondary; we could get on the secondary before the operators), but that was too easy, so we started messing with the Ruskies on the other side of the Czech border. THAT was fun!

Ahh yes, good old Grafenwohr! There were more live shells flying over the heads of Germans there than there are drones flying over airports today! Got to go to Graf twice (58' and 59') with the 4th Armored Div when we packed up and drove our tracks (M52's and armored personnel carriers) and trucks from our barracks in Furth. Even with the milder rubber treads on our tracks and tanks we continuously tore up the German roads and knocked over road signs during the NATO training periods. Such fun... "-Zwei biers bitter, fraulein?"
Presley was also training in Graf one of the times I was there. Wasn't in my outfit so of course I didn't meet him and never even saw him. But the word out on him back then with us GI's was that he was an okay guy, just another fellow draftee and not a stuck up PITA like some bigshots were...
Hey, musicians are good people, right?
Greywoulf

 

[Deleted member 268085]

Ahh yes, good old Grafenwohr! There were more live shells flying over the heads of Germans there than there are drones flying over airports today! Got to go to Graf twice (58' and 59') with the 4th Armored Div when we packed up and drove our tracks (M52's and armored personnel carriers) and trucks from our barracks in Furth. Even with the milder rubber treads on our tracks and tanks we continuously tore up the German roads and knocked over road signs during the NATO training periods. Such fun... "-Zwei biers bitter, fraulein?"
Presley was also training in Graf one of the times I was there. Wasn't in my outfit so of course I didn't meet him and never even saw him. But the word out on him back then with us GI's was that he was an okay guy, just another fellow draftee and not a stuck up PITA like some bigshots were...
Hey, musicians are good people, right?
Greywoulf

You were barracked in Fürth? Pretty area. I had a client with a factory in Fürth. I stayed in Frankfurt and commuted via ICE train. And the ride through that area going between Frankfurt and Berlin was a treat. The new ICE3 locomotives are the smoking cars. The engineer sits in a glass-enclosed cockpit and the train articulates in curves. I hated the smoke, but I loved to stand right behind the engineer (and the glass door) and surf the train through the hilly curves around Fürth. 300 km/h. Zippity do da!

 

[Deleted member 268085]

In the early grades you’d assemble outside the classroom in pairs for something called bathroom parade. Order was not defined by who had to go the most, it should have been. Girls in the front, boys in the back. The class would march in military fashion along the hall, down the massive staircase to the basement. We stopped at the girls washroom and dropped them off, then marched on to the boys. You went, even if you didn’t have to. I remember the up and down staircases. Going up the down staircase was the subject of a film in 1967.

Up the Down Staircase (film) - Wikipedia


Some schools had a boys and a girls entrance to the building. No fraternization policy.

They wouldn’t allow that today. A friend’s dad was a garbageman, it was his own truck. He also had a 40’s or 50’s tow truck for large vehicles. It had a huge boom in the back that would swing a bit when he went around corners. I remember it having a huge gear shift leaver. You really had to drive that truck. Sometimes he would pick us up and gave us a ride back to her house. It was something to be up there in that cab.

View attachment 4273972

My elementary school had round buildings. 1st and 2nd grade in one. 3rd and 4th in another. 5th and 6th in a third. Each classroom was a truncated pie wedge. There was an internal circular hall. Each pair of classrooms shared one boy's and one girl's WC. There was a chair just outside the door to the interior hallway with a blue block (boys) and a red block (girls) on it. When you went to the terlet, you took the correct colored block so others would know the WC was occupied. Unfortunately, a boy once took the red block and, of course, failed to return it to the chair outside the door. Poor girl sitting next to me (this was 1st grade) was unable to hold it any longer and just let it go. I felt so sorry for her. The system failed her, and she was only 6.

 

[Greywoulf]

You were barracked in Fürth? Pretty area. I had a client with a factory in Fürth. I stayed in Frankfurt and commuted via ICE train. And the ride through that area going between Frankfurt and Berlin was a treat. The new ICE3 locomotives are the smoking cars. The engineer sits in a glass-enclosed cockpit and the train articulates in curves. I hated the smoke, but I loved to stand right behind the engineer (and the glass door) and surf the train through the hilly curves around Fürth. 300 km/h. Zippity do da!

Yes Furth. In a barracks called Monteith Caserne. But we took most of our our passes (and our partying) into Nuremburg. In the 50's there were still some places in Nuremburg that were 'off-limits' to American GI's because of continued Nazi sentiments. Some of us went to these 'verboten' places anyway, but always in protective numbers. Couple'a times we got insulted, couple'a times we did some insulting things ourselves... But nothing physically violent, thanks be!
GI money went far in Germany in the 50's as we got 4 German Marks to our dollar on exchange, and one mark could be spent like a dollar in Germany then. So army duty there was much desired, especially by career military. As a draftee tho I was still very glad to return to civilian life in the good 'ol USA at the end of 59'; I was never much good at obeying marching orders or respecting hierarchies. (And to a great extent am probably still very much that way... )
Greywoulf

 

[Deleted member 268085]

Yes Furth. In a barracks called Monteith Caserne. But we took most of our our passes (and our partying) into Nuremburg. In the 50's there were still some places in Nuremburg that were 'off-limits' to American GI's because of continued Nazi sentiments. Some of us went to these 'verboten' places anyway, but always in protective numbers. Couple'a times we got insulted, couple'a times we did some insulting things ourselves... But nothing physically violent, thanks be!
GI money went far in Germany in the 50's as we got 4 German Marks to our dollar on exchange, and one mark could be spent like a dollar in Germany then. So army duty there was much desired, especially by career military. As a draftee tho I was still very glad to return to civilian life in the good 'ol USA at the end of 59'; I was never much good at obeying marching orders or respecting hierarchies. (And to a great extent am probably still very much that way... )
Greywoulf

That exchange rate lasted until '71. It was still 4 DM per 1 US$. Within a year, it had dropped to 2 DM/dollar. I went from 1000DM for my $250 pay to 500DM. That sucked. Bad.

 

[Winslow]

Maybe they should be called the lowerers, or the de-escalators. Just sayin..

Prince does refer to "de-elevator" in the lyrics to "Let's Go Crazy."