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Things we don’t do anymore
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CommentAs I look back to the 1940s, it occurs to me that we did a lot of things in those days that we don’t do anymore.
Take spitting, for example. Nowadays (except in the baseball dugout) spitting is considered vulgar and is universally frowned upon. But back in the ‘40s, a lot of young men spit. It was accepted — even expected.
Take spitting, for example. Nowadays (except in the baseball dugout) spitting is considered vulgar and is universally frowned upon. But back in the ‘40s, a lot of young men spit. It was accepted — even expected.
My intention is not to offend anyone by going into detail but, in those days, spitting was, to some, an art. Kids used to have contests to see who could “hock a goober the farthest.”
Some hot shots could spit through their teeth or sideways out of their lips. I could never master that. In fact, I was never much of a spitter.
Some hot shots could spit through their teeth or sideways out of their lips. I could never master that. In fact, I was never much of a spitter.
Looking back on it today, I’m glad people don’t spit anymore.
People don’t whistle anymore. Back in the ‘40s, people whistled all of the time. I don’t mean the kind of whistle used to call a dog but the whistle-a-tune kind of whistle. I think as many people whistled tunes as sang or hummed them.
People don’t whistle anymore. Back in the ‘40s, people whistled all of the time. I don’t mean the kind of whistle used to call a dog but the whistle-a-tune kind of whistle. I think as many people whistled tunes as sang or hummed them.
Bing Crosby whistled in a lot of his recordings back in those days. Ted Weems, a big band leader of the time, prominently featured Elmo Tanner, a guy who would whistle tunes accompanied by Weems’s big band. Old Elmo couldn’t sing but he could sure whistle.
As a teenager, I would whistle tunes as I walked. If I knew a tune, I could whistle it. I can’t whistle anymore. My whistler has dried up.
I even developed the skill of cupping my hands tightly so the two thumbs were together side-by-side. By blowing between the thumbs, I could actually whistle. The result was not as tuneful as the regular through-the-lips whistling but at least I could do it. I can’t do that anymore, either.
Unlike the habit of spitting, I am sorry that people don’t whistle anymore. I miss that.
Another thing that people (boys) don’t do anymore is play marbles. It was a great pastime when I was growing up.
Boys would gather in an area of dirt, draw a circle (ring) and place an agreed upon number of marbles (the pot) in the ring.
To play, a player knelt on the ground outside the ring, placed the knuckle of the shooting hand on the ground, positioned a marble (shooter) between the index and second fingers and the thumb and projected the shooter by rapidly flipping the thumb toward the marbles in the pot. The idea was to knock marbles from the pot out of the ring.
If you knocked at least one marble outside the circle, and, if your shooter “stuck” (stayed inside the circle), you got to shoot again. If your shooter stayed in the ring but you didn’t knock any marbles out, it then became part of the pot. Generally, you played for “keeps,” which meant that you got to keep all of the marbles you knocked out and you played until the pot was empty.
I miss seeing kids playing marbles.
For girls, how about hop scotch? Back in the old days, the sidewalks were covered with hop scotch courses, which were a series of chalk-drawn squares in a linear pattern.
The game involved hopping into squares through the course, turning around and hopping back. Believe me, there was a lot more involved than that but space here does not allow me to go into detail.
Another girls’ game that you don’t see anymore was jacks. The game was played with about 10 little 6-pronged objects and a small-diameter rubber ball.
To start, a player would toss all of the jacks in the air and let them land randomly. She would then toss the ball in the air, grab one jack from the ground and catch the ball after it bounced once. That was “onesey.”
Then she had to do “twoseys,” pick up two jacks and catch the ball after it bounced once. Next, was “threeseys,” etc. until she had managed to pick up all of the jacks without dropping any, missing the ball or letting it bounce more than once. If she did any of those things it was another girl’s turn.
I miss seeing girls playing hop scotch and jacks.
Do you remember darning socks? When a sock got the inevitable hole in the toe, it was not thrown away as we do now. It was repaired. Women had that chore.
They had a tool that was shaped like a small bowling pin, with a large and small end. The large end of the tool was placed in the sock and the sock was pulled tight to expose the hole. While holding the small end of the tool and the tight sock with one hand, the woman would use a needle and thread to sew the hole closed.
Women don’t darn socks anymore. More later about things we don’t do anymore...
As a teenager, I would whistle tunes as I walked. If I knew a tune, I could whistle it. I can’t whistle anymore. My whistler has dried up.
I even developed the skill of cupping my hands tightly so the two thumbs were together side-by-side. By blowing between the thumbs, I could actually whistle. The result was not as tuneful as the regular through-the-lips whistling but at least I could do it. I can’t do that anymore, either.
Unlike the habit of spitting, I am sorry that people don’t whistle anymore. I miss that.
Another thing that people (boys) don’t do anymore is play marbles. It was a great pastime when I was growing up.
Boys would gather in an area of dirt, draw a circle (ring) and place an agreed upon number of marbles (the pot) in the ring.
To play, a player knelt on the ground outside the ring, placed the knuckle of the shooting hand on the ground, positioned a marble (shooter) between the index and second fingers and the thumb and projected the shooter by rapidly flipping the thumb toward the marbles in the pot. The idea was to knock marbles from the pot out of the ring.
If you knocked at least one marble outside the circle, and, if your shooter “stuck” (stayed inside the circle), you got to shoot again. If your shooter stayed in the ring but you didn’t knock any marbles out, it then became part of the pot. Generally, you played for “keeps,” which meant that you got to keep all of the marbles you knocked out and you played until the pot was empty.
I miss seeing kids playing marbles.
For girls, how about hop scotch? Back in the old days, the sidewalks were covered with hop scotch courses, which were a series of chalk-drawn squares in a linear pattern.
The game involved hopping into squares through the course, turning around and hopping back. Believe me, there was a lot more involved than that but space here does not allow me to go into detail.
Another girls’ game that you don’t see anymore was jacks. The game was played with about 10 little 6-pronged objects and a small-diameter rubber ball.
To start, a player would toss all of the jacks in the air and let them land randomly. She would then toss the ball in the air, grab one jack from the ground and catch the ball after it bounced once. That was “onesey.”
Then she had to do “twoseys,” pick up two jacks and catch the ball after it bounced once. Next, was “threeseys,” etc. until she had managed to pick up all of the jacks without dropping any, missing the ball or letting it bounce more than once. If she did any of those things it was another girl’s turn.
I miss seeing girls playing hop scotch and jacks.
Do you remember darning socks? When a sock got the inevitable hole in the toe, it was not thrown away as we do now. It was repaired. Women had that chore.
They had a tool that was shaped like a small bowling pin, with a large and small end. The large end of the tool was placed in the sock and the sock was pulled tight to expose the hole. While holding the small end of the tool and the tight sock with one hand, the woman would use a needle and thread to sew the hole closed.
Women don’t darn socks anymore. More later about things we don’t do anymore...
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