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What are some vivid memories growing up?(both)

Part 2
I grew up in Tasmania in the 60's and 70's.
I remember we had a black Bakelite Phone and we had a 3 digit Phone Number.
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No such thing as a Pop Up Toaster. You had to stand there and remove the toast before it had a chance to burn.
The sides folded down, the toast had to be turned after one side was done.
"Speedie" Toaster.
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Living beside a Creek one of my favourite past times was Tadpole hunting.
A few of us would spend time in the creek scooping up Tadpoles and taking them home to be deposited into a fish tank.
Watching them grow into frogs then we would release them back into the creek.
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Rubiics Cube was a source of frustration for me.
Never once did I achieve completion. In fact, I gave up after no more than a minute each time. My brain seemed not to be wired that way. I am a marvel at crosswords, sudoku? Blah.
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ABBA came onto the scene in 1975, I was 13 and prime for being swept up in the mania that continues for 7 years.
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Keep fit, or more precisely, get fit promotions began to make an appearance on TV.
One of the first campaigns was "Life. Be In It" in 1975
With "Norm" taking Center Stage.
Norm's message was to "Get up, Turn off the Tellie and Go For a Walk"
Norm, was a Middle Aged Man with a "Beer Gut" and was meant to represent a "Normal" Australian.
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My Parents had a huge collection of "78" records.
These were made from a hard Shellac Resin, really solid, but brittle.
"78" meant that the record spun at 78 revolutions per minute.
Later, Vinyl Records replaced the Shellac Records. These were designated "33 1/3" and "45"
The 33 1/3 were LP's, Long Playing, a complete Album on the record.
The 45's were "Singles" a single song on each side
I ended up with about 200 LP's and 450 singles.
What happened to all those "78's"?
Being children we eventually used them as a sort of Frisbee but we never played catch with them, We had competitions to see who could throw them the farthest.
When the records hit ground, they shattered.
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Kwek00 · 41-45, M
Lol
I remember those phones too 😂
they were still a thing in the 80s

And a TV, without a zapper. So when you change the channel you could hear the electronic relays go "TACK" when you pushed a button.

Not to mention that not everyone had a phone... so when dads' pigeons were coming home and he was interested in what other people were doing in the race. Mom had to get a bike, drive to another pigeon-racer to ask what the time was that they came in.


Earlier Pigeon racing clocks


evolved into:


Evolved into a Quartz in the 90s

Gusman · 61-69, M
@Kwek00 I remember the second one. My Dad was a member of the pigeon club.
Kwek00 · 41-45, M
@Gusman Oh man, they race over there?

Because most people outside my area, have no idea what pigeon racing is about 😅

It has exploded in Korea, Japan and China lately... but it has been popular in Belgium, the Netherlands and parts of the north of France and the south of Germanny. But I guess it's dieing out... I'm not going to take over dads' coop, and neither are a lot of other young people. But Belgium is still a mekka for good pedigrees' when it comes to racing pigeons.

We even have a federal law, that protects pigeon racers and gives special priveleges... because in 1914-1918, pigeons' from the general public played a crucial role in delivering messages over front lines.
Gusman · 61-69, M
@Kwek00 I am not sure if they still race Pigeons in my home town. That was over 30 years ago and I have not been back since.
But they were racing for many decades prior.
Kwek00 · 41-45, M
@Gusman It used to be way more popular... My dad is pretty fanatical, even tough he's a small racer.

A couple of years back, after some really expensive pigeon sales... Belgian pigeons' have been sold over the place. It's one of those things that the general public doesn't know, but we had some really good breeds out here for a long time.

I think this was one of the sales that broke so much records that made brokers from around the world to become intrested:

[media=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KZhQaoYYtc]


Just look at the starting bid (3000 Euros) and at 6:15 it gets sold for 130.000 euros. That was 10 years ago. The guy that owned the pigeon was a good friend of my dad, he died back then. And the family decided to sell the coop. For quite the amount.

It's also fascinating that a chinese bidder bought an old pigeon just to mate one more year, and then put it in a little cage on his desk, so he can brag to other chinese people 😅. 130.000 euros, is quite the amount, at that time, it was mindblowing.
Gusman · 61-69, M
@Kwek00 I remember reading about the world record price for a racing pigeon almost 12 months ago.
Stupid price of 1,252,000 euros
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pigeonracing-record/million-dollar-birdie-belgian-pigeon-smashes-price-record-idUSKCN1QZ1VR
Kwek00 · 41-45, M
@Gusman Yeah, another Belgian Pigeon.

It's kinda ridiculous, and it's always a gamble. Because you can't race these pigeons. You can only breed with them and cross your fingers to get a good racer out of it.