This wonderful quiz found me in the waiting room Thursday as I was at the doctor’s for my annual physical. It was on Page 5 of the August 2016 edition of a jazzy little rag called the “Seniorific News” and it was attributed to an anonymous “reader”. Otherwise, we would love giving them specific credit for a job well done, even if we did make a few changes in this Pecan Park Eagle version of the same course.
It’s 20 multiple choice questions. If you avoid checking the first entry in the column comment section, where we have placed all the correct answers, by question number and correct answer by letter of choice, you will be able to take the quiz honestly – and then, hopefully, report your score below by individual comment in that same section.
Here it is – what we choose to call the Post World War II American Culture Quiz:
(1) In the 1940s, what was the location of the automobile headlight dimmer switch?
(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 purpose was it used?
(a) to capture lightning bugs.
(b) to sprinkle clothes before ironing.
(c) as large salt shaker.
(3) Why was having milk delivered a problem in northern areas?
(a) the cows were too cold to produce milk.
(b) ice on the highways forced milk delivery by dog sled.
(c) milk deliveries left on outside porches froze, forcing the frozen milk to push open their cardboard bottle tops.
(4) What was the popular chewing named for a game of chance?
(a) Blackjack.
(b) Gin.
(c) Craps.
(5) What method did women use to make it look as though they were wearing stockings when none were available during WW II?
(a) Sun tans did the trick.
(b) Leg painting worked in all climates.
(c) Women started wearing slacks in greater numbers.
(6) What post-war car turned automotive design on its ear because people couldn’t tell from this auto’s appearance whether it was coming or going?
(a) Studebaker.
(b) Nash Metro.
(c) Tucker
(7) Which was a popular candy after WW II?
(a) Strips off dried peanut butter.
(b) Chocolate licorice bars.
(c) Wax coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar-water inside.
(8) What was the purpose of Butch Wax?
(a) To stiffen a flat-top haircut so it stood up on top of the head.
(b) To make floors shiny and to prevent scuffing.
(c) To prevent rust on the wheels of roller skates.
(9) Before inline skates, how did you keep your skates attached to your shoes?
(a) You used the skate’s clamps by tightening each skate to your shoes with a skate key.
(b) You used woven straps that tied the skates to your shoes.
(c) Long pieces of twine did the attachment trick.
(10) In sand-lot baseball, how did you decide which club got to be the home team?
(a) You checked your team batting averages and gave the choice to the best hitting club.
(b) You flipped a glove – calling “pocket up” or “pocket down” for the right to pick.
(c) You did the old hands-up-the-bat “dibs” routine until the last player to hold the knob up top won the right to choose.
(11) What was the most dreaded epidemic disease in the 1940s and 1950s?
(a) Smallpox.
(b) AIDS.
(c) Polio.
(12) Song Lyric: “I’ll Be Down To Get You In a ______ , Honey!”
(a) manic mood.
(b) taxi.
(c) Uber.
(13) What was the name of Caroline Kennedy’s pony?
(a) Meatballs.
(b) Spaghetti.
(c) Macaroni.
(14) What was the “Duck and Cover” drill all about?
(a) It was a variation of “Hide and Seek”.
(b) It was what you did when your mom called you to do your chores.
(c) It was a school drill in which students got under their desks and covered their heads to practice protecting themselves from the potential threat of an atomic bomb attack.
(15) What was the name of the Indian Princess on the Howdy Doody TV Show?
(a) Princess Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring.
(b) Princess Sacajawea.
(c) Princess Moon Shadow.
(16) What did all the savvy students do when mimeographed tests were passed out in junior high school?
(a) They immediately smelled the purple ink to see if it would make them feel “drunk”.
(b) They made paper airplanes out of the test sheet and sailed them out the open windows.
(c) If they didn’t know the answers, they wrote another student’s name on the paper as a first step in their flawed plan for escaping failure.
(17) Why did your Mom shop at stores that gave out Green Stamps with her purchases?
(a) Green Stamps contained stick-on tattoos that helped keep the kids entertained.
(b) Green Stamps could be placed in special books that were redeemable for various household items that helped Mom feel she was stretching her money by collecting them.
(c) Green Stamps were good for posting air mail letters.
(18) Song Lyric: “Praise the Lord, and Pass the ____________ ?”
(a) Salt.
(b) Gas.
(c) Ammunition.
(19) What iconic singing group made the song “If I Didn’t Care” into an evergreen pop song hit?
(a) The Ink Spots.
(b) The Mills Brothers.
(c) The Andrews Sisters.
(20) Song Lyric: “Because of ___ , There’s a ____ in My _____ .
(a) “Because of You, There’s a Song in my heart.
(b) “Because of Lunch, There’s a Roar in My Gut.
(c) “Because of Fundamentals, There’s a Hole in My Team.
______________________________
Hope you have enjoyed the quiz. I changed a few things from the original, but the answers in the comment section are all correct for the questions asked here. Posting the thing also helped me come up with option (c) for Question 20 – and, temporarily, at least – it got my mind off what happened after two were out in the bottom of the 9th at Detroit tonight with Harris pitching for the Astros and the club fresh from that 2-run rally in the top of the same 9th inning for a brief 2-1 lead. Nothing in sports – nothing – can surpass the slow, but sudden way that baseball raises and then cruelly dashes hope in the blinking of an eye.
____________________
Bill McCurdy
Publisher, Editor, Writer
The Pecan Park Eagle
Houston, Texas
Houston, Baseball, & Other Musings.
The Pecan Park Eagle 