Here's a fun trivia quiz to test your memory (if you're over 40). I got 17 out of 20

Everyone over 40 should have a pretty easy time at this exam. If you are under 40 you can claim a handicap.

This is a History Exam for those who don't mind seeing how much they really remember about what went on in their life.

Get paper & pencil & number from 1 to 20.Write the letter of each answer & score at the end. Answers are at the end of the quiz.

1. In the 1940s, where were automobile headlight
dimmer switches located?
a. On the floor shift knob.
b. On the floor board, to the left of the clutch.
c. Next to the horn.

2. The bottle top of a Royal Crown Cola bottle had holes in it. For what
was it used?
a. Capture lightning bugs.
b. To sprinkle clothes before ironing.
c. Large salt shaker.

3. Why was having milk delivered a problem in northern winters?
a. Cows got cold and wouldn't produce milk.
b. Ice on highways forced delivery by dog sled.
c. Milkmen left deliveries outside of front doors and milk would freeze, expanding and pushing up the cardboard bottle top.

4. What was the popular chewing gum named for a game of chance?
a. Blackjack
b. Gin
c. Craps

5. What method did women use to look as if they were wearing stockings
when none were available due to rationing during WW II.
a. Suntan
b. Leg painting
c. Wearing slacks

6 What postwar car turned automotive design on its ear when you couldn't tell whether it was coming or going?
a. Studebaker
b. Nash Metro
c. Tucker

7. Which was a popular candy when you were a kid?
a. Strips of dried peanut butter.
b. Chocolate licorice bars.
c. Wax coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside.

8. How was Butch wax used?
a. To stiffen a flat-top haircut so it stood up.
b. To make floors shiny and prevent scuffing.
c. On the wheels of roller skates to preve nt rust.

9. Before inline skates, how did you keep your roller skates attached to your shoes?
a. With clamps, tightened by a skate key.
b. Woven straps that crossed the foot.
c. Long pieces of twine.

10. As a kid, what was considered the best way to reach a decision?
a. Consider all the facts.
b. Ask Mom.
c. Eeny-meeny-miney-mo.

11. What was the most dreaded disease in the 1940s and 1950s?
a. Smallpox
b. AIDS
c. Polio

12. "I'll be down to get you in a ________, Honey"
a. SUV
b. Taxi
c. Streetcar

13. What was the name of Caroline Kennedy's pony?
a. Old Blue
b. Paint
c. Macaroni

14. What was a Duck-and-Cover Drill?
a. Part of the game of hide and seek.
b. What you did when your Mom called you in to do chores
c. Hiding under your desk, and covering your head with your arms in an
A-bomb drill.

15. What was the name of the Indian Princess on the
Howdy Doody show?
a. Princess Summerfallwinterspring
b. Princess Sacajawea
c. Princess Moonshadow

16. What did all the really savvy students do when dittoed tests were
handed out in school?
a. Immediately sniffed the purple ink, as this was believed to get you
high.
b. Made paper airplanes to see who could sail theirs out the window.
c. Wrote another pupil's name on the top, to avoid their failure.

17. Why did your Mom shop in stores that gave Green Stamps with
purchases?
a. To keep you out of mischief by licking the backs, which tasted like
bubble gum.
b. They could be put in special books and redeemed for various household
items.
c. They were given to the kids to be used as stick-on tattoos.

18. Praise the Lord, and pass the _________?
a. Meatballs
b. Dames
c. Ammunition

19. What was the name of the singing group that made
the song "Cabdriver" a hit?
a. The Ink Spots
b. The Supremes
c. The Esquires

20. Who left his heart in San Francisco ?
a. Tony Bennett
b. Xavier Cugat
c. George Gershwin

ANSWERS
1. (b) On the floor, to the left of the clutch. Hand controls, popular
in Europe , took till the late '60's to catch on.

2. (b) To sprinkle clothes before ironing. Who had a steam iron?

3. (c) Cold weather cause d the milk to freeze and expand, popping the
bottle top.

4.(a) Blackjack Gum.
5. (b) Special makeup was applied, followed by drawing a seam down the
back of the leg with eyebrow pencil.

6. (a) 1946 Studebaker.

7. (c) Wax coke bottles containing super-sweet colored water.

8 (a) Wax for your flat top (butch) haircut.

9. (a) With clamps , tightened by a skate key,>which you wore on a shoestring around your neck.

10. (c) Een y-meeny-miney-mo.

11. (c) Polio. In beginning of August, swimming pools were closed, movies and other public gathering places were closed to try to prevent spread of the disease.

12. (b) Taxi Better be ready by half-past eight!

13. (c) Macaroni.

14. (c) Hiding under your desk, and covering your head with your arms in an A-bomb drill.

15. (a) Princess Summerfallwinterspring. She was another puppet.

16. (a) Immediately sniffed the purple ink to get a high.

17. (b) Put in a special stamp book, they could be traded for household
items at the Green Stamp store.

18. (c) Ammunition, and we'll all be free.

19. (a) The widely famous 50's group: The Inkspots.
20. (a) Tony Bennett, and he sounds just as good today.

SCORING

17- 20 correct : You are older than dirt, and obviously gifted with mental abilities Now if you could only find your glasses. Definitely someone who
should share your wisdom!

12 -16 correct : Not quite dirt yet, but you're getting there.

0 -11 correct : You are not old enough to share the wisdom of your
experiences.

But then, I knew that. The only question I couldn't answer was where the headlight dimmer switch was.

that had the starter switch on the floor like the dimmer switch, but on the right side of the accelerator pedal (so you could pump the throttle with the heel of your foot while pressing the starter with your toe.) If you pressed the switch, the starter would operate even if the key wasn't in the ignition. Who remembers cars with 6 volt systems? I'm feeling really old now, maybe I'll go take a nap.

Regards, Mugu

I remember or knew about all of those things, either by experience or my mother telling me

and I'm not even 30 until later this year.

But then I knew I was older than dirt. BTW, I saw those wax candy bottles in Walgreen's today. Now, if they'd only bring back those wax lips and mustaches...

Did anyone else try to eat that mint-flavored glue they used in elementary school art projects? I think it warped my brain.

and tasted minty. Everybody ate it.

How about that reddish sawdust stuff they'd sprinkle on the floor when some kid puked?

And the little candy dots that came on strips of paper?

They also sell Squirrel Nut Zippers and Chick-o-Sticks too!

Along with Mary Janes, and Root Beer Barrels. They cost more than a penny now - they come in cellophane bags, 2 for $1, which is probably a lot more sanitary than the penny candy racks of my childhood. Me, I miss those licorice shoelace wheels.

LOL. "Mary Jane" sure had a different meaning when I hit college, though.

but damned close

:P

Errata:

1. Hand-controlled dimmer switches didn't get popular in the U.S. until way past the late '60s. My folks had a '75 Valiant and a '76 Skylark that both had 'em on the floor.

6. Dunno what they're talkin' about with the '46 Stude. Looks normal to me. :shrug:





18. It was:

Praise the lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the lord, we ain't a-goin' fishin'
Praise the lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the lord and pass the ammunition
And we'll all stay free

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBn1R5kRq1s

He pushed me 'round
Now I'm drawin' the line
He lived his life
Now I'm gonna go live mine
I'm sick of wastin' my time
Well now I've been good for way too long
Found my red dress and I'm gonna throw it on
'Bout to get too far gone

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Need a little bit more of my twelve ounce nutrition
One more helpin' of what I've been havin'
I'm takin' my turn on the sin wagon

On a mission to make something happen
Feel like Delilah lookin' for Samson
Do a little mattress dancin'
That's right I said mattress dancin'

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Need a little bit more of what I've been missin'
I don't know where I'll be crashin'
But I'm arrivin' on a sin wagon

When it's my turn to march up to glory
I'm gonna have one hell of a story
That's if he forgives me
Oh Lord please forgive me

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Need a little bit more of that sweet salvation
They may take me with my feet draggin'
But I'll fly away on a sin wagon
I'll fly away on a sin wagon

I remember the colored dot candy! How about candy cigarettes? I loved pretending to be cool with those. Of course, *no one* knew they were candy, right?!? :smoke:

:cry:

I am so old, dirt
calls me Granny. x(

B-)

:P

But, I don't need glasses yet! ;-)

20 out of 20. I think it's past my bedtime.

Now all you kids get the hell off my lawn. :)

The Studebaker one. I can't be much older than dirt, though, because I didn't stay clean too long after I was born.

Milk bottles? A Studebaker? Duck and cover? A skate key? I'm 39 and most of this test is before my time. I got 14 right, but because I read, not from personal memory.

The first question made me realize the test was written at least decade ago and no one has updated the subject line: "In the 1940's..." Um, I'm 44 and in the 1940's my MOTHER was a child, my parents would meet and marry 15 years later and I was at least 20 years away from being born.

It is now 2008. The 1940's were almost 70 years ago. Why would people in the 40's now remember anything that happened in the 1940's? It's not like we lived through them.

But I did have roller skates with a key, those candy wax bottles, and bottles of milk delivered to the back porch. We always sniffed the mimeographed paper but I don't remember hearing anything about the possibility of getting high; we just liked the smell. :-)

Explain that.

I surely don't miss those parafin coke bottled shaped candies with flavored water in them.

I'm over 40 and I just barely remember half of this stuff!

and 2 of those 4 were guesses.

18

2 wrong.

:hi:

Born in 1959.
I missed #6 and #15.

But some was known from older family members talking about such things. Some from reading. And some from personal experience.

And I agree, this test is a bit dated (there's a pun there somewhere)

I guess that means I am an old soul.

To be fair, the answer to questions 3 and 4 seemed pretty obvious. Anyone as obsessed with the history as the Kennedys as I am would know the name of Caroline Kennedy's pony. I guessed the Studebaker one because I remembered Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" and the car being mentioned as being part of the generation which would be the target audience for this quiz. And I got 17 right largely by logical deduction

I can still smell that mimeo fluid if I think about it :-).

Princess Summerfallwinterspring was also played by a person for awhile. Her name was Judy Tyler and she was also in "Jailhouse Rock" with Elvis.

Missed the car question (#6) and the Howdy Doody question (#15) - never saw the show.

I think you need to be 60 to know some of the answers without guessing.

I was born in 1960. Most of these things occurred before I was born.

answer to #6. I think they were referring to the Studebaker with the nose cone.

This is a picture of the 1950 model, but I seem to recall my folks owning a 1949 that had a similar feature on the trunk, but I can't find a picture of one.

I watched a lot of tv and I love old movies.

I'm 27 this year...

Maybe it's the historian in me?

Mimeograph.

Number 19, however should be The Mills Brothers.