(Please first read the article below "Bring Back My Memories".)

I scored  all 14 at the end. Never realised I was that ancient. Certainly not.

In my school days (1941) I was given an Anna a day. That was sort of rich for the standards then!  And I had always a Paisa (Quarter Anna) or so to return with after eating a Band Samosa and a qulfi or cup full of Jelly.  Later in 1947 I used to get Rs. 20/= per month as pocket money. Out of it paid Rs.9 Annas 12 as college fee (no riff raff college either - Edwardes College Peshawar - one of best colleges of the country), saw two movies a month (mostly English - Six Anna student concession ticket), bought a roll or two of films for my camera (11 Annas a roll), had a pastry or two daily at college (cream rolls, cream puffs, lemon tart etc. all two Anna a piece) and occasionally bought a book from London Book Depot, Saddar, Peshawar from the savings that I could manage (Chamber\'s Twentieth Century Dictionary Rs. 9/=, ROMMEL by Desmond Young Rs. 10/=,  Annual Photography Book, Rs. 7 Annas 12.  etc.) Of cou rse, had a brand new bicycle - Hercules with Dynamo light, Bell, Carrier and a Stand purchased for Rs. 90/=  (Parents didn\'t want to spoil me cycling haughtily a Humber or Rudge costing a huge sum of Rs. 115/= .  Would have been too ostentatious for a young college boy). Those were the days the memories of which I shall cherish for ever.

Then --  I joined the army at the fabulous salary of Rs. 350/= p.m. as a Commissioned Officer. Had little knowledge of what lay in store for me with the passage of time, after getting married, having few children to support and the ever increasing inflation. Ever since then the Karnail Sahib is living from hand to mouth. But, Alhamdolillah, honestly and contentedly.  Thanks Allah (swt) for all that He has bestowed upon us, we have words not enough to thank Him for all that.

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)

----- Original Message -----

From: Kaleem Saadat

To: undisclosed-recipients:

Sent: Friday, November 19, 2010 9:17 AM

Subject: Bring back any memories?

Bring back any memories? 

Someone asked the other day, "What was your favourite \'fast food\' when you were growing up?"
"We didn\'t have fast food when I was growing up," I informed him. "All the food was slow."

"C\'mon, seriously .. Where did you eat?"

"It was a place called home," I explained. Mom cooked everyday and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn\'t like what she put on my plate, I was allowed to sit there until I did like it."

By this time, the lad was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn\'t tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.
 
But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I\'d figured his system could have handled it:
 
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore jeans, set foot on a golf course, travelled out of the country or had a credit card. 
 
My parents never drove me to school. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow).
 
We didn\'t have a television in our house until I was 10. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at 10 p.m. after playing the national anthem and epilogue; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on featuring local people .... 

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn\'t know weren\'t already using the line.
  
Pizzas were not delivered to our home.
 
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers --My brother delivered a newspaper, seven days a week..  He had to get up at6AM every morning.
  
Film stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the films. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or almost anything offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren.. Just don\'t blame me if they bust a gut laughing. 

Growing up isn\'t what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend:
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother\'s house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Woodroofe’s Lemonade bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it ... I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to \'sprinkle\' clothes with because we didn\'t have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?
Headlight dip-switches on the floor of the car.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Trouser leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heated on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn indicators.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom.

1. Sweet cigarettes
2. Coffee shops with juke boxes
3. Home milk delivery in glass bottles
4. Party lines on the telephone
5. Newsreels before the movie
6. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning.(There were only 2 channels [if you were fortunate])
7. Peashooters
8. 33 rpm records
9. 45 RPM records
10. Hi-fi\'s
11. Metal ice trays with levers
12. Blue flashbulb
13. Cork popguns
14. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-3 = You’re still young
If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older
If you remembered 7-10 = Don\'t tell your age
If you remembered 11-14 = You\'re positively ancient!

I must be \'positively ancient\' but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.

Don\'t forget to pass this along!!
Especially to all your really OLD friends .... I just did !!!!!!!!!

(PS. I used a large type face so you could read it easily)