# Things today's kids missed out on



## Big_Ed

Ok, so here are a few things that I think kids today don't really know much about or have never experienced. (for the most part)

L.P. records
Rotary dial phones
Cars with carburetors
Floppy disks
TV's with rabbit ear antennas
TV's with manual tuning knobs and no remote control
Wind-up clocks and watches
A time when there was no internet
Gas for under $1 a gallon

What else can you think of?


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## The_LED_Museum

The Commodore 64 computer - when it was "the bomb" that is
Cigerettes for less than 50¢ per package
The original style LED wristwatch
Fleming valves (vacuum tubes)


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## Oddjob

Making a mixed tape for a girl you had a crush on (so much more difficult than burning a CD) or actually going to the Library to do research for a school paper.


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## gorn

Air raid drills during grade school. 

I will never forget the sound of the sirens announcing an atomic attack by the soviets. Even then I wondered what being under my desk would do to save me from an H-bomb.


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## DieselTech

The Commodore 64 Executive Laptop that was 2 feet long, a foot and a half wide, weighed 80 pounds (or so it seemed at the time), and had a screen that was about 4"x4".

Hand cranking the tractor. Not pushing the start button, but putting her in neutral, sliding the crank in through the front grill and learning to watch where you put your thumbs. You only got it wrong once. 

Oh, and reel style lawnmowers. Don't see those much anymore.


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## InTheDark

Funny because i was just thinking about this last weekend while trying to expalin Rocky and Rambo to someone who'd never heard of them. 

Mixed tape - definitely a good one. Even better if it was a metal oxide with dolby. And using those dual tape deck stereos to record them.

Using a public pay phones
dewey decimal system and card catalogs
microfiche
VHS rewinders
writing letters to pen pals
walkmans
any type of fun contact games during recess 
realistic looking toy guns
pac man
flash cubes and film cameras
carrying pocketknives to school
drive in theaters

Here's a funny e-mail that pretty much sums up my thoughts

When I was a kid adults used to bore me..........

_Link contains some language undesirable to some. -Empath_


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## NA8

Slide rules for chem & physics. 

That whole don't eat meat on fridays thing if you were catholic. 

Nuns in funny clothes. 

Reading in your history book that the second amendment was what you'd think it'd be, being in the Bill of Rights. 

Tube radios in cars.


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## shakeylegs

The whole family watching the same tv show on the one tv (remote-less) in the house
Decoder Rings
Green and Blue Chip Stamps
"Really Big Shews" with Topo Gigio
Sneaking into the Drive-In in the trunk 
Mr Peanut and the Wiener Mobile
Party Lines
The absence of fast food and drive through dining
Bench seats without seat-belts
Black & White
The Draft
Board Games
An ageless **** Clark
Life without paper towels and waxed paper wrapped sandwiches
The Space Race
GTO's, and twenty-five cents a gallon gasoline
The Communist Menace
Kookie and his comb
Doodieville
3D Movies
Duck Tails and Flat-tops
Spud Guns
Saddle Shoes and Poodle Skirts
Panty Raids
Stuffing telephone booths
Silly Putty
Record Booths
Yo-Yo's
Tiki's


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## Dances with Flashlight

Adobe walls without sheetrock.
Outhouses.
Cars with 8 tracks & reverb units.
Houses without air conditioning.
Carbon paper.
Clamp-on roller skates that sliced off ankles.
Roller skating without sidewalks.
Walking through puddles with tin cans attached to shoes.
Newsreels at theaters.
Smothers Brothers on the radio.
No FM stations.
Paperboy Special bicycles.
Roy Rogers Jeep.
The day the Lone Ranger met Tonto.
.22 rifles for 6 year old boys.
Water bags on cars.
Sergeant Preston and Yukon King.
The first fins on cars.


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## LumenHound

Lawn darts.
3 games for a quarter pinball machines.
Groovy 3 color light organs.
Plaid pants and/or leisure suits.
10 feet tall buckets of chicken slowly spinning on top of a white 30 foot pole.
Candy cigarettes and bubblegum cigars.


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## Probedude

Big_Ed said:


> Rotary dial phones



I once did a project for a kid's museum (COSI), an interface board to go from a rotary phone to an MP3 player. It was setup to allow a kid to 'call' someone from a list of phone numbers that would then playback audio through the earpiece.

I did the project many years ago and recently googled around to see whatever became of it. The only thing I could find was someone saying it was a neat exhibit but wasn't used much because kids didn't know how to use a rotary phone!

my list
- laserdiscs
- daisywheel printers
- ibm selectrics
- comptometer
- watching an astronaut walk on the moon.
- Woolworth
- $0.35 coffee / the lack of Starbucks.

- TV test patterns back when stations actually went off the air at night!


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## Manzerick

ohhh the memories!!!!


Makes me want to put on a "Slap bracelet"!!!


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## woodrow

LumenHound said:


> Lawn darts.



We used to play catch with those! I miss toys that could kill you!

My list.
Atari

Buying a Apple II+ and then spending another $100 so you could by the 16K card so it could be 64K and you could play the really cool games.

Being your Dad's remote control.

Playing outside.

Innocence


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## V8TOYTRUCK

Im 26...and wow times have changed..lets see

POGs and the look on the other persons face when you take their prized slammer 
Napster
Pager Code 
Wolfenstein 3D running superfast on your AST 66mhz PC with CD-ROM! and 4mb ram!
1st Gen KL1's  
Really bad luxeon lottery odds. 

I could go on forever.....


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## paulr

incandescent flashlights. Well, not yet, but soon.


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## 65535

I remember telling another high school student that not all cars had fuel injections, apparently he probably doesn't know what a carb is either (mind you I'm still only 17 but I know stories, and I am no slouch to old time tech.)

8 tracks and Hi8 video cassettes, computers that took 2 hours to boot, but were still the best thing ever. Actually playing outside and not online, when video games were fun, it was nice to be good at them, but just because you were the best at some video game, you weren't some video game god.

Somehow I would love to take a few slow days in another decade.


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## LightInTheWallet

Peanut butter in glass jars, Tooth powder, Leaded gasoline ... LOL just HI PO Zinc batteries.


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## jtr1962

1) manual typewriters (lots of fun when you had to retype a whole page for one mistake)

2) carbon paper

3) mimeograph machines

4) wind-up watches

5) the subway system at its worst (having lived through this, it makes you appreciate what we have now all the more)

6) phones in the days before telemarketing, when only people who knew you actually called

7) network TV with more than 6 minutes between commercial breaks

8) network TV actually worth watching (I barely remember this-network TV started going to hell by the early 1970s at the latest)

9) capitalism which actually sold people goods they needed, rather than creating needs to sell (mostly) useless or pointless consumer garbage (I think that trend may have started with the Pet Rock in the 1970s)

10) living where you could actually walk to school or the store or other places of interest (still true for some kids these days, but sadly they're a shrinking minority)

11) neighborhood mom and pop stores instead of big, faceless chains

12) saturation advertising

13) when spelling and grammar actually counted for something (nobody seems to notice or care about either these days, so long as you get your message across)

14) not having overprotective parents (kids just aren't allowed to do anything where they might get hurt nowadays)

15) cycling without a helmet (at least until they're teenagers)

I'll admit that while I miss some of the things mentioned in this thread, for the majority my thoughts are good riddance. I'll take MS Word and a decent laser printer over a manual typewriter any day of the week. I couldn't imagine living without AC even though I was 27 before my bedroom finally had it. Every time I get a tinge of nostalgia I remember long and hard how burdensome of lot of simple tasks used to be. Like my grandfather used to say, the good old days weren't.


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## tradderran

shakeylegs said:


> The whole family watching the same tv show on the one tv (remote-less) in the house
> Decoder Rings
> Green and Blue Chip Stamps
> "Really Big Shews" with Topo Gigio
> Sneaking into the Drive-In in the trunk
> Mr Peanut and the Wiener Mobile
> Party Lines
> The absence of fast food and drive through dining
> Bench seats without seat-belts
> Black & White
> The Draft
> Board Games
> An ageless **** Clark
> Life without paper towels and waxed paper wrapped sandwiches
> The Space Race
> GTO's, and twenty-five cents a gallon gasoline
> The Communist Menace
> Kookie and his comb
> Doodieville
> 3D Movies
> Duck Tails and Flat-tops
> Spud Guns
> Saddle Shoes and Poodle Skirts
> Panty Raids
> Stuffing telephone booths
> Silly Putty
> Record Booths
> Yo-Yo's
> Tiki's


Those were the day's my friend:thumbsup: Also 57 vet's


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## LumenHound

The Milk Man.
The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.
Funky black light wall posters.
Artistic wood burning sets.
Jiffy Pop popcorn.
White wall tires.
Fake Christmas trees that were all gold, silver, white, blue, or pink in color.
Newspapers with morning *and* evening editions.
Keep On Truckin' bumper stickers.
Crushed black velvet paint by number art kits.
Glass bottle soda vending machines.
Avacado green/harvest gold/burnt orange colored kitchen appliances.
Beanbag chairs.
45 RPM singles records.
Single bladed safety razors.


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## this_is_nascar

Yes, it's true. The kids of today are missing out on many things that folks from my generation had. I'll add my list, however I took a different spin with my answers. Here's what they're missing in no particular order.

-- (2) parents.
-- rules.
-- discipline.
-- respect for others and for personal property.
-- the worth of a dollar.

I'm sure I'll come up with more as this thread continues.


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## Illum

having 50 cents gets you the title of the richest kid on the block
Mercury in jugs
A river clean enough to take a bath in
toys made from plants
ferrite core radios, yeah the ones that you have to send in bubble gum wrappers or bottle caps to get
depends where you are: kerosene lanterns
pinball slot machines [the old old kinds that doesn't plug in]
wind up toys
the days where you can leave your front door wide open all day and all night without anybody looting or having your neighbors cat coming in and eating your dogs food
winchester rifles for kids
I kinds wish I had a childhood like that


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## DonShock

LumenHound said:


> Lawn darts......
> 
> 
> woodrow said:
> 
> 
> 
> We used to play catch with those! I miss toys that could kill you!......
Click to expand...

That was my first thought, all the dangerous stuff. Lawn darts like LH already mentioned, but how about Knockers. Nothing better than two large glass balls on the end of a string that you see how hard and fast you can get them hitting each other.

And there's also BB guns, pocket knives (even at school), firecrackers and real fireworks (sparklers were saved for the toddlers), hitting bike ramps with no helmet, forts in the neighborhood tree built from scavanged scrap wood and bent nails hammered straight.

Try any of this stuff today and you'll give somebody a heart attack.


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## depusm12

Grandparents that you spent time with and enjoyed it.
TV shows that had a moral lesson (The Lone Ranger, Leave it to Beaver, Little House on the Prairie ext.)
Wonderful World of Disney
Playing Cowboys and Indians with realistic toy guns.
Spending more time outside than inside.
Being able to leave doors unlocked without worrying about a burglar.
Drive-In movies
Growing up learning to shoot real guns.
Owing my first gun before I got a driver's license.


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## Arkayne




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## shakeylegs

Anyone remember this one? I grew up on this stuff. Explains everything!~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu21TiPWtDA&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcOBPtWZ7sY


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## fnmag

Kukla, Fran, and Ollie
I remember Momma
Sky King
Topper
Hopalong Cassidy
Tom Mix
Captain Midnight
The Gayle Storm Show
Dobie Gillis


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## FRANKVZ

How about how your parents would call you to come home for something in the time before cell phones by opening the front door and yelling or whistling for you. And Clackers!! http://www.bigredtoybox.com/articles/clackersindex.shtml


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## chmsam

Sort of a relate -- one of the founders of Wham-O died recently. Hula hoops, Frisbees, Slip-n-slide, Silly String, etc. Must have been pretty cool knowing you put that many smiles on that many faces and made money while doing it.

OK, back on topic...

marbles
Corgi Toy cars
Capt. Kangaroo, Mr. Greenjeans, & The Banana Man
crystal radio sets and listening to the radio under the bed covers so no one could tell
5 and then 10 cent comic books
being 11 or 12 years old and getting a warm and not-so-fuzzy feeling the first time you saw Dusty Springfield on TV
"Honey West"
a James Bond attaché case
coaster brakes and a really long and steep hill
the smell of mimeographed handouts in school
cameras that used film and flashbulbs


Dave Alvin has a song that's really not on this topic (it's a love gone wrong song) but has a few lyrics that fit --

"I used to play in the orange groves 'til they bulldozed all the trees.
I used to play in the orange groves 'til they bulldozed all the trees.
Still I'd stand amongst those dead stumps and smell the blossoms on the leaves."

You know, I think that you get to be a certain age and go through certain things in life, and find yourself wishing you could be 10 years old again.

Sorry to be a bit maudlin. Must be the Winter Blues.


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## Dances with Flashlight

Telephone party lines.
Lightning bugs in glass jars.
Dry ice from railroad cars.
Visible stars in the sky at night.
Water balloon fights.
Mail delivery twice a day.
Green Stamp Books.
Peanuts in bottles of Coke.
Flavor straws.


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## RA40

I dunno if I call some of the items listed as missing out. I'd like to forget some myself.  

My take on some:

Real sugar...not beet, corn syrup...blah substitutes.
Gas without ethanol. 
Some of the attitudes regarding personal safety and crime wayyy back. 
Three Stooges, Abbott & Costello, Addams Family, John Wayne movies...
Toys made to be durable. I remember some of my Tonka toys...real metal and strong enough that one could stand on it. 

The media over-saturation about a variety of things: weight loss, medications with cures for ?, cosmetic surgery...the simpler days without them were a joy.


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## SaVaGe

Well, lets see....

Mc Donald's fries (they use to fry them in lard ):twothumbs
Atari
PONG
alf
punky brewster
Game & Watch (by Nintendo):twothumbs
spandau ballet
AHA
duran duran
usa for africa
toto
psychedelic furs
breakfast club
spraying "ether" on the carb when your car dont start
ET
flying house cartoons
"just say no to drugs"
8 tracks
betamax
"MEMBERS ONLY" jacket
cassette tapes
walkman
"BASF" sounds so real..........
friendship bracelets
John Holmes :devil:
He-Man
She-Ra
Thundercats
Voltron
16 candles
st. elmos fire
pretty in pink
goonies :thumbsup:
remington steel
rockford files
the fall guy
dallas
A-team
bonanza


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## chmsam

The idea of this thread was for things that are gone. I'm guilty of it to some degree, too, but a lot of things posted here _are_ still around. For example, a whole bunch of movies and TV shows listed are being shown on various cable/satellite systems.

But not with the phrase...

*"Brought to you in living color..."*

Anyone remember the first time you saw the NBC peacock spread its tailfeathers with all those colors? And as tame as it seems today, remember how impressive that was?


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## kelmo

Milk that was delivered to your door in glass bottles!

Pull tabs on beer cans. 

Beer tab necklaces.

18 was the legal drinking age.

Carbon paper.

Home economics classes.

Corporal punishment in school.

"Duck and cover!" drills with that stupid cartoon turtle.

Having a worthy opponent, ie Nato vs Warsaw Pact.

Not having bottled water.

Crappy camping gear.

Not having to make National Park reservations 6 months in advance.

Real people answering your phone calls.

Party lines.

No phone answering machines.

Two cheeseburgers, small fries, and a small Coke for under a buck at McDonalds.

And I saved the best for last, zinc carbide batteries. Who remembers the "Never Ready" cat jumping through the 9?

HA!!! I'm getting old...


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## NA8

Horizontal and Vertical Hold controls.


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## kelmo

Mood rings.

Head shops.

Crappy athletic shoes (PF Flyers).

IBM punch cards.

FORTRAN compilers.

Tape drives.

Reel to reel players.

Abstinance.

Rabbit ears to get the 3 channels of TV.

UHF TV.


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## Monocrom

Big_Ed said:


> Rotary dial phones
> 
> Floppy disks


 
The phones = Thanks for making me feel old. 

The disks = I hated those ridiculously fragile things! I had to carry one to school every Friday. No matter how carefully I packed it, those damn things would get one tiny fold on the plastic, and that was it! Instant lose of data! Perfect example of useless, but better-than-nothing technology.


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## KC2IXE

jtr1962 said:


> ...snip..
> 5) the subway system at its worst (having lived through this, it makes you appreciate what we have now all the more)
> ...snip....



Yeah - remember that commute up to High School? Soph year I took one of the bus companies (Not Gagnon, the other one), and in the Mornings I mostly to the x32 express buss, but the afternoons home - the 4 or the D, with all the graffitti, and breaking down constantly - Joy, eh?

(JTR1962 when to the same High School, same graduating class)


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## KC2IXE

kelmo said:


> ...snip...IBM punch cards.
> .



Still have 2 boxes of them - use them as note paper


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## Burgess

Still have a few dozen IBM punchcards, myself !


How about --


Drinking water right outta' the garden hose


Buying Eveready D-cells *one-at-a-time*, 
from a clear-plastic S-shaped, gravity-fed dispenser.
They cost 20 cents each !


Remember when KODAK had an Instant Camera ?

(one model was "The Crank") !

Only lasted a year, until Polaroid sued them to stop.



I love this thread ! :twothumbs

_


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## PlayboyJoeShmoe

The comment that sticks in my mind is "Toys that could kill us"

I had a 410 Shotgun at around age 10. How about honest to goodness Darts? Not to mention Lawn Darts!!!


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## pathalogical

I still have my...

-Commodore 64...using the monitor as a tv hooked up to the VCR
-black & white tv...the colour tv is sitting on top of it
-vinyl records
-typewriter
-8mm silent movie camera & projector and roll up screen
-2 Kodak Brownie Fiesta R4 cameras
-rotary phone...still in use, why pay for touch tone line 
-Admiral am/fm stereo, 8 track record player
-Zenith colour tv...the "curved" one
-several board games...Bonkers, 6 Million Dollar Man, Star Wars, Trouble
-hockey cards from the '70s
-many toys that my nephews are having a blast playing with. Y'know, when toys were made out of metal and Made in USA, not some country you can't pronounce
-making plastic models with Testors cement glue (sniff !!!)
-glass pop bottles
-Encyclopaedia Britannica
-cassette walkman
-borrowing friends albums so you can tape it (don't tell Metallica)
-using two VCRs to dub "movies" (you know what kind)
-taping songs off the radio
-playing street hockey until it was so dark you couldn't see the ball
-getting yelled at because you were outside playing for so long you missed dinner
-the small grocery store -- if you spent more than what you had, you were still able to take your food home, delivery was free, just pay the rest to the delivery guy

Great thread !!!


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## binky

So many great things here, it's hard to add to, but my #1 thing that my kids are missing is... (sorta like what Woodrow says "playing outside")

- Disappearing for the day. As long as they're back by the time the streetlights came on.

I used to tell my parents that I was going out to see my friends. All I had to do is say generally whose house I was going to hit first, then hop on my bike and I'd be gone for the whole day.

Now my 3 boys, all under 10, are just too young to be "safe" in the modern world, even out with a friend. That just totally stinks for them.


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## kelmo

PlayboyJoeShmoe said:


> The comment that sticks in my mind is "Toys that could kill us"
> 
> I had a 410 Shotgun at around age 10. How about honest to goodness Darts? Not to mention Lawn Darts!!!



HA-HA!

Ten must be the magic age when us old farts got our 1st guns. I was 10 when my uncle gave me a Marlin 22.

110 film and cameras.

Buying cigerettes and beer for your parents if you had a note at the corner store.


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## yuandrew

I'm not that old but there are still things I remember that aren't common in this day and age.

Morning Disney Cartoons (Seen before I leave for school)
Afternoon Disney Cartoons (Seen at 4:00PM; an hour after I come home from school)
Telling time with Analog Clocks (and anticipating when class is dismissed)
Rabbit Ear Antennas (Still have them though; and currently watch HDTV with them)
Dad trying to adjust the antenna while watching TV
Reading actual books
"World Book" encyclopedias 
Kick Scooters with 12" wheels (Replaced by the Razor scooter with Rollerblade type wheels)
Helping my dad change sealed beam headlights on our car
Dad nearly blowing himself up lighting the pilot light in the furnace.
Buying music on cassette tapes
Recording TV shows on VHS tape (My friend once told me he can't live without his TiVo unit)
The Western Electric wall phone in our kitchen that actually rang (versus "chirping")
Having only one telephone in the house.
Sharing a bathroom
Sending postcards to my friend or Cousin by mail (Replaced by Instant Messaging)
Going to my local Library 
Dial Up internet and 28K modems 
Your friend getting a US robotics 56K modem (now it's who gets Verizon FIOS first)
Being the first in the neighborhood to have a Pentium !!! computer when they were just released (Everyone else had a P II)


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## pathalogical

Your parents leaving you in the toy department while they went to the second and third floors of the store. Nobody bothered you and your parents found you just where they left you !!!!


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## NA8

Penny candy.


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## Burgess

Penny on Sky King !


_


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## Hodsta

Chorlton and the Wheelies (One for the Brits:laughing!


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## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Stinking CPF.

I had a nice post written and of COURSE I never saved it!

High points: Tivo ROCKS! VCR still gets some use. Sealed beam headlights had their good points. I stayed gone all day!


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## DieselTech

After reading through more of this thread, it makes me think. A lot of the things listed here are still alive and well in my area. Drinking from the hose, playing outside, and disappearing all day. Heck, between your parent's and the neighbor's fields, you can go out and play somewhere new every day for a month. I knew there was a reason my wife and I moved out of Nashville to a smaller, more 'backwards' little town. :twothumbs

A few more:

Being spanked for misbehaving in public.

Budd and Dayton truck wheels. They're still around today, but nowhere nearly as common. Heck, I cant even find a tire shop willing to put tires of my '64 with Budd wheels now due to insurance regulations. 

Learning to drive the twin- stick farm truck in the field, then when you got good at it, actually driving it to town for gas by yourself. 

Loose hay. Back before balers were common, you loaded loose hay onto a wagon, then hauled it to the barn and fed it onto a scary looking conveyor that lifted it up and dumped it in the loft. 

TV repair men. 

Console TVs that were actually meant to be as much a piece of furniture as a television. 

Going outside in the rain to 'turn the antenna' so the station would come in better.


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## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Got my share of whoopins!

Remember TV repair man!

We had a NICE console job back in the seventies!

Dad had the antenna in the attic. Didn't need a lot of adjustment.

I never worked a farm. I learned a lot about driving sitting in Dads lap. I got a lot better when I had a fairly high horsepower short wheelbase car on wet road!


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## Eugene

We were talking about this the other day. Our kids won't know what a floppy disk is, or a CRT monitor, or a dot matrix printer.
Even a wired network. My wife transferred to a new college in 2003 that had the IBM laptop program, the one where you pay $600 a semester for four years then another $600 at graduation and you got to keep the IBM laptop (do the math), and when they issues them the laptops she asked what the cat5 cable was for because she had never needed one since we had wireless since the 90's when it cost $500 just for an access point then you had to buy a card and router separate.


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## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Shoot, there are some things it still takes a dot matrix printer to do! I LIKED the one I used to use!!!

As little as 3 years ago I was still on 56K dial up!


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## chmsam

Fortran WATFOR or WATFIV

Anyone else remember why you'd draw a diagonal or an "X" on your "program?"

I remember picking up the phone at my grandmother's house and clicking the receiver and then giving the operator the number. No dial on the phone.

Anyone remember what "bluing" was for and no, not gun bluing.

DeSoto's

"Faster, Pussycat, Kill, Kill" (well, maybe the kids today should miss _some_ of the things we got to see until they're a bit older)

Red Skelton

Whammy bars (well, they're still around but almost no one knows what to do with one)

"I guess we just can't have nice things..."

The way clothes smelled when they dried on the line

The color of blue your toes turned when you went for one too many sled rides before the long _walk_ home

Trombones played with mute

Old Frothingslosh

Sunday dinner of chicken, peas, and mashed potatoes... every Sunday


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## shakeylegs

I mentioned this thread to my female cousin of similar age. She sent her list so I offer it as a women's perspective:

Petticoats that made a crunchy sound when you sat down
hula hoops
Davy Crockett... king of wild frontier...
Superman... faster than a speeding bullet... able to leap tall bldgs in a single bound...
Ipana toothpaste (Bucky Beaver)
My dog Tag in the shoe
How much is that doggie in the window - ruff ruff...
The really big shew...
Smock, smock... Steve Allen
Yo yo's... I could never do them well
Oscar Meyer Weiner Whistle
soft serve ice cream with cherry hard shell coating
Vincent Price movies
Boris Karloff and Count Dracula
Howdy Doody and creepy Clarabelle
Midnight the cat and Froggy
Little Rascals
The writing pads that erased when you lifted the plastic
Tiki necklaces
milk in a bottle with the cream on top
hopscotch
making forts
old spice aftershave
pomade hair stuff for guys
peter pan haircuts... ugh
ugly saddle shoes... penny loafers
Barbie... I even had a Barbie bucket purse in pink!
Betsy Wetsy... my old doll
rubber dolls that turned black if you got them wet
tinkertoys
Candyland game... monopoly... Rich Uncle... my favorite was... Star Reporter!
Hot dogs from the butcher
Penny candy from the Old Barrel Grocery Store
mustard fields we played in
candy cigarettes ... ugh
cake walks at school
free ice cream in the little containers with the wooden spoons
dry ice
the vacuum system at JC Penny's that sent receipts and payments upstairs through the tube


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## PhotonWrangler

What a neat thread!

Phonograph needles (back before it was called a stylus, it was literally a needle).
Radios that had to warm up first.
Trolleys
Old fashioned amusement parks with real wooden roller coasters
Fireworks shows with elaborate ground displays
The smells of hair oil and leather on the first day of school


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## tvodrd

Stomping/crawling storm drains/buying very energetic chemicals when combined with a fuse and other antisocial activities that were sort of cool 40 years ago.

Larry


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## Burgess

Playing with *American Bricks* ! 


Not those new-fangled LEGOS. 



Doctors who would visit your HOUSE when you were sick !

(yep, i remember)



Playing with Mercury !

Yep, holding it in yer' hand, and watching it roll around. :sick2:

And then placing a (real silver) dime in yer' hand,
and "coating" it with Mercury. Made it *really* shiny !


Years later . . . .

When they issued warnings about the dangers of Mercury,
i just simply couldn't BELIEVE it !

"Mercury is SAFE", i responded. "We useta' PLAY with it !"

(don't know whether to Laugh out loud here, or Cry out loud) 



Of course, dimes & quarters & half-dollars made of Real Silver !

(never knew of any Silver Dollars *in circulation* until the Ikes)


How about . . . .

Buying stuff, and there was NO sales tax ! ! !

If the *price* said 98 cents, then *that's* what it cost you !


When a Credit Card was called a Charge Plate.


When a Visa Card was called a BankAmericard.


When you actually had to Turn a Crank to move yer' car windows up & down.


When cars had "vent windows" !


When cars only had ONE cigarette lighter plug !


When cars didn't have *any* cupholders !


When dashboards weren't padded !


When you might get 10,000 miles on a new set of tires.


When you'd carry a tire-pump in your car trunk,
as well as a "Monkey Grip" tire repair kit. Always prepared.


When spare tires were the same size as the OTHER four tires ! 


When cars had *vacuum-powered* windshield wipers.

During heavy acceleration, they'd STOP.
*Just* at the time when you'd need 'em the* most* !


And, on sunny days . . . .
When you'd remove the vacuum hose from the windshield wipers, and stick the hose in a quart can of 5W motor oil.

This trick was done at a stoplight, to "smoke out" all cars behind you. (heh heh) :devil:



Keep 'em coming, guys !

:wave:
_


----------



## Monocrom

I just remembered.... I still have an electric typewriter.


----------



## Burgess

Me too !


Used it extensively *just a week ago*, filling out a buncha' "end-of-the-year" forms and paperwork.


Really like it, as i have "not-so-legible" handwriting.


_


----------



## Valolammas

Snow. When I was a kid, the winters used to be snowy and cold. These days, there's just drizzle and rain. Sometimes sleet, if we get lucky. But on the bright side, it's darker outside when the ground isn't white.


----------



## jrmcferren

I guess as a kid I was lucky, even as a 21 year old I'm lucky.

I have or had:
-Records of standard speeds except 16 1/4, yep I have old 78s.
-Tube Radio worked until I started screwing around on the inside I would like to build a regenny now that I'm a ham, oh I think I still have the tubes from that old set
-Black and White TVs I have two in the room (portables though) I'm sitting in now. Had a hybrid tube/transistor set and loved waiting for the tubes to warm up and the light/heat produced by them.
-Rotary Dial telephone I have one and know how to fix it too, I also use it every day :twothumbs
-Analog cell phones too bad we don't have those anymore
-8-Track tapes, got rid of them though
-Dot matrix printers, had a few, loved them except for the speed a noise (ok, the noise didn't bother me it bothered my parents)
-CRT TVs can't get true black on LCDs
-Days without caller ID


----------



## jtr1962

jrmcferren said:


> -Days without caller ID


Telemarketers are what really made caller ID necessary. I long for the days before someone got the brainstorm to use the phone as an advertising instrument. Even though the do not call lists help, you still occasionally get so-called "courtesy calls" from banks you might have an account with.


----------



## ankhbr

MacGyver!

Suddenly, I got myself whistling the theme song...


----------



## kelmo

2 movies and a cartoon at the theater on Saturday!

Pulling vacumn tubes from your TV and testing them at the grocery store! Then buying a replacement for the burnt out tube.


----------



## AvPD

Watching the development of the computer/video game/internet age.
VCRs.
Cassette Tapes.
A slightly more enlightened era of world politics in the 90's.
Ayrton Senna.
Toys without electronics.
Driving without checking your speedo at least once a minute.
Cheap Petrol.
Cheap insurance (damn fraudulent claims!).
Not owning mobile phone not considered unusual, gatherings of people uninterrupted by polyphonic ringtones!
The Bugs Bunny Show (hasn't aired here in a long time).
Mainstream music that was original and inventive.
The Iron Curtain.


----------



## gadget_lover

There's always more.....

two longs and a short... that was our personal ring on the phone line shared with 6 other families.

Telegrams delivered to your door... Always bad news.

Person to person calls... The operator asked for the person you wanted to talk to, and you did not get charged till they actually came on the line, even if it took 10 or 15 minutes.

Car phones... Essentially two way radios that let you talk to a phone company operator who would then make a phone connection for you.

Cartoons before and between the movies at the theater.

Helping dad change the plugs and points every 7,500 miles.

Parlor organs with pipes and stops.

Self service TV / Radio tube testers at the grocery store. (alluded to earlier) 

Town/neighborhood cop who knew who you are AND knew your parents.

Daniel


----------



## raggie33

wheat germ what in the world was that stuff but i dont miss it


----------



## Uncle Bob

Big_Ed said:


> Ok, so here are a few things that I think kids today don't really know much about or have never experienced. (for the most part)
> 
> TV's with rabbit ear antennas



Still lots of these around. I don't have cable. My signals are sucked from the airwaves. My local Chinese restaurant also has one.

How about the *knife sharpener* dude who used to push his cart through the neighborhood with a bell announcing his arrival?

*Rag man* with horse cart


----------



## KC2IXE

chmsam said:


> Fortran WATFOR or WATFIV
> 
> Anyone else remember why you'd draw a diagonal or an "X" on your "program?"
> 
> ...snip...
> Anyone remember what "bluing" was for and no, not gun bluing.
> 
> ...snip...



Yeah - so if you dropped your deck, you could put it back in order

and Blueing made your clothes whiter - acutally reflect more UV, but...


----------



## PhotonWrangler

jrmcferren said:


> ...Had a hybrid tube/transistor set and loved waiting for the tubes to warm up and the light/heat produced by them.



I remember that also. They had a warm friendly glow about them. It seemed to make them come alive. 

I don't miss coming in contact with the B+ supply though!


----------



## Monocrom

Back when Barber Shops would sharpen your knives, scissors, and old-fashioned razors for a small fee.


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

It's getting near impossible to see the cartoons I love. You know... Bugs Bunny, Roadrunner, Tom and Jerry etc. Too violent some would say.

What about MANY of the video games today???


----------



## DieselTech

Monocrom said:


> Back when Barber Shops would sharpen your knives, scissors, and old-fashioned razors for a small fee.



Maybe not something today's kids miss out on as much as today's adults, but an honest to goodness full- service barbershop. 

A haircut and shave with a straight razor, for $5.00 Today, you cant even find a 'stylist' who knows how to use a straight razor, and even if you do, state law prohibits them from using it. I'm so sick of having to spend more time explaining what a basic, "make it shorter" haircut is than the guy who wants the latest fashion. Oh, and the gels, the products, the driers and shapers, the curlers and straighteners...just make my hair shorter. I don't care how you do it, I don't care what tools you use, and I don't care that my preferred hairstyle went out of fashion in 1942- I like it, and I wear a nice hat anyway. Just make it shorter, and save the Glam magazine jobs for the next guy. [/rant off]

Anyway, yeah. Straight razors. Good stuff.


----------



## Monocrom

DieselTech said:


> .... Anyway, yeah. Straight razors. Good stuff.


 
Sadly, I must admit I'd probably cut my own throat (by accident of course) if I tried to shave with one. 

Thankfully, there are still actual Barber shops left in NYC. And they do offer a traditional shave.


----------



## gadget_lover

Hmmm. 

Full service gas stations, when they would check the oil, the air in your tires and even the belts and hoses under the hood. All that for 22 cents a gallon.

Of course, KIDS would not miss this until they start to drive.

Daniel

BTW, my last three barber shops all use a straight razor for the final cleanup. They are still around.


----------



## Tempest UK

AvPD said:


> Watching the development of the computer/video
> VCRs.
> Cassette Tapes.



I can't really say it's a bad thing for today's kids to miss out on those :sick2:

Regards,
Tempest


----------



## BobVA

Staring wide-eyed at a B&W TV set as Walter Cronkite told us what life would be like in "The 21st Century".

BTW where's my freakin' jet car ?


----------



## PhotonWrangler

BobVA said:


> Staring wide-eyed at a B&W TV set as Walter Cronkite told us what life would be like in "The 21st Century".
> 
> BTW where's my freakin' jet car ?



...and those moving sidewalks?


----------



## AvPD

I have to ask, what is the appeal of paying for a shave at a barbershop considering that it only lasts 24 hours? Would you only go there for a quality shave before formal occasions? Was it a carryover from the era before good quality disposable razors and electric shavers?


----------



## PhotonWrangler

I'm guessing it's like getting a shoe shine or a manicure - it's a moment of self-pampering...?


----------



## TorchBoy

PhotonWrangler said:


> ...and those moving sidewalks?


I thought people in the States didn't use sidewalks any more. Too dangerous, or something. So that's another thing that kids growing up today miss out on - walking to the local store.


----------



## Monocrom

Nowadays, you're lucky if the gas attendant cleans your windshield and back window while pumping your gas for you.

No moving sidewalks, but we have that Segway thing. Just as lazy, but much more efficient than making the entire sidewalk move.


----------



## CM

Big_Ed said:


> ...TV's with rabbit ear antennas...



My DLP HDTV uses rabbit ears concealed behind a built-in cabinet. It was an upgrade from a paper clip antenna 

Back to the topic, I have two big boxes of LP's stowed away (don't ask me why I still have them) I showed some of the albums to my 11 year old who got a kick out of the "antiques". I tried explaining to her that the album art was as much as part of the package as the music contained within the grooves of the LP. Today many kids take their CD's and throw the package away after the convert the music to 128kb (blechhhh!) MP3's. Boy I wish I had an old McIntosh tube amplifier for show and tell...


----------



## PhotonWrangler

CM said:


> My DLP HDTV uses rabbit ears concealed behind a built-in cabinet. It was an upgrade from a paper clip antenna



What's even funnier about DLP sets is that they take technology back to the old rotating color wheel, just like the original CBS mechanical color system of the early fifties! Everything old is new again.


----------



## The_LED_Museum

Here are some more...

o Recording music from the radio by setting a "piano key"-style tape recorder near the radio's speaker.
o Eight track tapes.
o Cassette tapes.
o Stereos & TV sets that used vacuum tubes instead of transistors and ICs.
o Two feet of snow on the ground on Halloween night in Juneau AK. USA - now it simply pours rain. .
o Plastic Halloween masks that had a characteristic odour to them - presumably so children would not wear them to school the next day.
o Getting apples in your Halloween bag *AND* being allowed to eat them afterward.
o Concert tickets (festival seating - even near the front) to "big name" bands for less than $10.00.
o Desk fans with metal blades that could break pencils & chop off fingers.
o Bottle Caps® candy.

I do *NOT* however miss getting zapped on the second anode of a boob-tube TV set.  :green:


----------



## chmsam

The thing about getting a barber shop shave is that nothing comes anywhere near as close as a straight razor shave at the hands of a professional. It is a personal comfort thing to be sure but the feel is unbelievable.

KC2IXE is of course correct (and you must have dropped a deck to understand how important it was to mark one). And bluing is now mostly used as a grade school science experiment ingredient and is very hard to find but was a great "whitener and brightener."

I remember when seat belts were an optional item that had to be ordered.

I also remember when ordering options added only a week or two to the delivery date for your car. Chrysler had a unique couple of options for cars for a few years: a record player, a clear plastic steering wheel, and a push button automatic transmission on the dashboard.


----------



## fnmag

and a push button automatic transmission on the dashboard.[/quote]


Oh, yes! The push button Torque Flite transmission. That was a great transmission! 
:thumbsup:


----------



## TorchBoy

chmsam said:


> Chrysler had a unique couple of options for cars for a few years: a record player, ...


:duh2: What sort of suspension did those cars have?


----------



## jtr1962

PhotonWrangler said:


> ...and those moving sidewalks?


Last thing we need nowadays. Most people are already sedentary enough.


----------



## frisco

Riding in the back of a pick-up truck !!!!

You do that nowadays and your kids get taken by Child protective services!

Oh.... And remember the FlashCube !

frisco


----------



## Monocrom

frisco said:


> Riding in the back of a pick-up truck !!!!
> 
> You do that nowadays and your kids get taken by Child protective services!
> 
> frisco


 
There was a story not too long ago about a dad who was driving with his kid in the back of his truck. Cop pulls him over, finds a case of beer seatbelted securely in the passenger seat. 

Cop asks the obvious question.... Gets the obvious answer....

"I didn't want anything to happen to my beer on the way home, Officer." :shakehead


----------



## TorchBoy

frisco said:


> Oh.... And remember the FlashCube !


http://www.rvupgradestore.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=486 ?

j/k


----------



## TigerhawkT3

-Guns, knives, fire, etc.
-Using tools for home improvement/repair and other projects
-Soldering (with lead, too)
-Calling your mp3 player an mp3 player instead of an iPod
-A videogame industry that wasn't an industry yet
-Suspenders
-Political incorrectness
-Not worrying about getting sued/fired at the drop of a hat
-80s action movies

As for that last one, it took me many years to get around to watching classics like the "Terminator," "Rambo," and "Rocky" series, and so on. Nowadays, people get the new old version. I literally smacked my forehead in disbelief when I found out a few hours ago that Stallone is starring in a new "Rambo" movie, called, creatively enough, "Rambo." Added to "Rocky Balboa" and whatever the new "Indiana Jones" movie is called (plus Star Wars Episode I-III, now that I think of it), I can't help but cringe at what Hollywood must be thinking. "Hey, this made us a lot of money a few decades ago! Let's pick up where we left off!" I'm sorry, Mr. Balboa, but you're no longer a heavyweight boxing champion. Let it go already.


----------



## FrogmanM

frisco said:


> Riding in the back of a pick-up truck !!!!
> 
> You do that nowadays and your kids get taken by Child protective services!
> 
> frisco


 
We can still do that in Kauai  and helmets when riding a motorcycle is optional.

This is an awesome thread, keep em coming! :thumbsup:


----------



## Monocrom

TigerhawkT3 said:


> .... I'm sorry, Mr. Balboa, but you're no longer a heavyweight boxing champion. Let it go already.


 
I guess you don't want to hear that he plans on re-making "Death Wish."

With himself in the starring role.

(No I'm not kidding)!


----------



## chmsam

The record player option in the old Chryslers probably wasn't meant to be used while the car was being driven but I'm sure somebody did. Seems to me it was mounted between the front seats but I could be wrong.

As for the car suspension, those cars were pretty much land yachts. During the same era there was a Dodge station wagon and with the rear seat down you could lay a full sized 4' x 8' sheet of plywood flat on the floor in the back between the wheel wells. The old man had to add about 4' onto the back of the garage so the darned thing would fit and let you close the doors of the garage.

Ah, cars with tail fins! 

And true, no cup holders, but 3 or 4 ash trays -- one on the dash, one on each of the rear doors, and one mounted in the middle of the back of the front seats. 

These days it sometimes seems weird to notice the smell of someone smoking in another car as they are passing you on the highway. Years ago everyone smoked and doctors were used to advertise the _benefits_ of smoking.

Beer cans you had to use a can opener on -- no pop tops, no pull tabs, nothing. Bottles that require a cap lifter are still around but I remember needing to carry a *church key*.

I have a Starr bottle opener mounted in the kitchen closet. We used to have one in the *pantry* of the house where I grew up. Remember pantries?

We had a Philco console radio in there, too. We had another Philco in the living room with a separate speaker console connected by a flat ribbon cable (cloth bound) and both radios had a *tuning eye*.

I remember listening to Dragnet on those radios.

The TV had a remote that operated the tuner by activating a servo to change the channel selector (push the button and the TV set would make this loud KA-CHUNK, KA-CHUNK! as the channels changed).

Highway Patrol ("21-50 bye")

It was past my bedtime, so I'd "watch" Alfred Hitchcock or the Twilight Zone by sitting at the top of the stairs and listening to our TV set while watching the picture on the set in our neighbors' house by looking in through their living room window on the side of their house.


----------



## Monocrom

chmsam said:


> Beer cans you had to use a can opener on -- no pop tops, no pull tabs, nothing. Bottles that require a cap lifter are still around but I remember needing to carry a *church key*.


 
I just happen to know what a church key is. 

You can still get them.... Made in China, and using soft, cheap metal. Just put your thumb on the back of it when pushing down. Otherwise it'll bend upwards.


----------



## flownosaj

AvPD said:


> I have to ask, what is the appeal of paying for a shave at a barbershop considering that it only lasts 24 hours? Would you only go there for a quality shave before formal occasions? Was it a carryover from the era before good quality disposable razors and electric shavers?


A good barbershop shave is something I've only had once. Hot towels, hearing the blade stropped, warm cream, the feeling of air hitting the skin like it was the first time, real aftershave. You really don't know what you're missing till you get one.

The closest thing I've had since then has been getting the back of my neck shaved after a haircut. Close but no cigar.


TV: I know that they are on TV land, but The Munsters, Adams Family, The Brady Bunch, Smurfs and Superfreinds shaped much of my childhood. I wanted to be Ponch! The A-team fueled my need for violence as a young male--as long as nobody got hurt.

Sports: The Iron Curtian, baby! You just can't match the Steelers of the 70's.

Computers: I remember my Dad's first Commodore 64 then the Franklin IIE and playing Zork.


My first car was a manual shift, no power anything 1983 VW Rabbit. Damn, it was an entire body workout just driving that thing to the store.


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

One of my early cars was a late 60's Renault 10. It was something of a workout to drive, but at that age who noticed?

Another early vehicle was a 64 Chevy short bed step side. Three on the tree and a straight six. No power anything!

I know about church keys.

Went with my buddy's Parents several times in the back of a 70's Big Ford wagon. There was ROOM back there!


----------



## Burgess

Yes !


Playing* Zork* on the computer !


And being more interested in finding a *Spare Battery*

than finding more treasures. :devil:


That was a game for Flashaholics, eh ? :wave:

_


----------



## SilentK

tv shows like M.A.S.H., sanford and son, Beverly hillbillies , andy griffin. ect.

guns!!! order a .25 bretta semi-automatic handgun in the newspaper for $30 and having the mailman come up to you and say "here you go man, have fun with your gun." legaly being able to own class 3 weapons {full-autos, mortars, explosives, mac-10s, 1st gen glock 18s, m16 with 100 round beta c-mags, grenade launchers, .30 brownings.} being able to carry a gun without a license. not having you torn from your family and having them hate you for the rest of your life just because your wife found a box of 50 9x19 parabullum ammo in the closet and a glock 19 under the bed for the series of shootings in the neighborhood. oo: i think i got carried away there.


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Dude I don't think guns has been like that for a LONG time. Many people CAN own class three but it takes the Guvment's blessing to do it.

I can carry a pistol in my truck but it would be better if HPD never knew about it!


----------



## MarNav1

Air conditioning. Outhouses. Things made in the USA. Learning how to spell. M-80's and Cherry Bombs. Mouth washed out with soap. Marbles. Jacks. A belt across the rear end. (And no I'm not preaching corporal punishment). Daily chores. When you could buy burger,fries and drink for $1. Shoveling snow. John Wayne. Liver (yuucckk!) Clinkers. Walking to school barefoot 2 miles both ways uphill. Treehouses. Prayer in schools. Pitch pipes. Woody station wagons.
Red Ryder Air Rifle (You'll shoot your eye out kid!) GI Joes. The old style oil can spouts. Unpropelled lawn mowers (by the engine that is) Military draft. Bench seats. Rebuildable auto parts (starters, alternators, fuel pumps etc). The old style Xmas tree lights.


----------



## TJx

email I got a while back:

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 

1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !! 

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing and didn't get tested for
diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored
lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took
hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE
actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but
we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the
bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no
99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell
phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat
rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
lawsuits from these accidents.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live in us forever. 

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't
had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They
actually sided with the law!


This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers
and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS! 

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.


Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
*


----------



## Sub_Umbra

Chemistry sets.


----------



## MarNav1

TJx, Excellent post!


----------



## frisco

Sgt. Bilko show!!!!

- Sea Hunt
- Wide World of Sports
- Honeymooners
- Man from UNCLE
- Get Smart

I swear I'm not that old!!! They were old shows when I saw them..... yea right!

frisco


----------



## TorchBoy

MARNAV1 said:


> TJx, Excellent post!


-1. There's a *lot* of good points in it, but also some naivety, so I really can't call it excellent. Sorry, I guess I know too many people with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.


----------



## adamlau

I missed out on trekking five miles through two feet of snow just to get to school.


----------



## jtr1962

A time when instructions for everything weren't in 200 different languages.


----------



## focus

CB Radios instead of cell phones for mobile comm.

Or, it being socially acceptable to let your back hair grow long

Catch you on the flip side, good buddy! 10-4? :thumbsup:


----------



## KC2IXE

chmsam said:


> ...snip...
> KC2IXE is of course correct (and you must have dropped a deck to understand how important it was to mark one). And bluing is now mostly used as a grade school science experiment ingredient and is very hard to find but was a great "whitener and brightener."
> 
> ...snip....



Nope, but watched a friend drop a deck, and helped him pick them up, and then were taught "the trick" by an upper classman


----------



## PhotonWrangler

focus said:


> CB Radios instead of cell phones for mobile comm.
> 
> Or, it being socially acceptable to let your back hair grow long
> 
> Catch you on the flip side, good buddy! 10-4? :thumbsup:



I caught a clip about C.W. McCall on TV the other day. His 1975 hit song "Convoy" was singly responsible for the whole CB radio craze back then. Copy that? 10-4.


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

A lot of GREAT Actors and Actresses!

Including Ronaldous Magnus!


----------



## 0dBm

Watching Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon the very first time!


----------



## PhotonWrangler

A live performance by The Beatles.


----------



## Empath

PhotonWrangler said:


> I caught a clip about C.W. McCall on TV the other day. His 1975 hit song "Convoy" was singly responsible for the whole CB radio craze back then. Copy that? 10-4.



Someone sure got that mixed up. Convoy rode the popularity of the CB craze. It didn't cause it.

Incidentally, C.W. McCall wasn't really real. He was a fictitious truck driver taken from an ad campaign. William Fries did the singing, and the music was from Chip Davis of Mannheim Steamroller.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Thanks, Empath. Yeah, I remember that C. W. McCall was really a character created by Mr. Fries.

I _didn't_ know that Chip Davis provided the music though! How cool.


----------



## TorchBoy

KC2IXE said:


> Nope, but watched a friend drop a deck, and helped him pick them up, and then were taught "the trick" by an upper classman


Ah, _now_ I understand. I never had to do that, thankfully. But when I first registered at university someone in the Computer Science department pointed out I hadn't listed that I wanted any floppy disks. "Do I need any?" I asked. All my non-gaming computing up until then had been done on hard disk, even at work. Carrying all one's assignments around on one 360KB single sided single density floppy disk is _probably_ something modern kids will miss out on. These days a 4GB USB 2.0 drive would be more like it.


----------



## Burgess

The snowstorm of 1967.


Hit the Midwest on January 28th, and crippled *everything* !


We were off school for two solid WEEKS (10 days) ! :twothumbs


Best part is:

Back then, you didn't hafta' "make-up" snow days !


_


----------



## rodfran

A real cherry Coke at the corner drugstore made with that cherry syrup. They also would make cherry phosphates. I think the Dr. Pepper tasted better, too.
There was a baseball field behind the drugstore, and we would collect pop bottles for the deposit and then go to Winn's and get some candy(picked from behind a glass partition and sold by weight).
Also, fly our kites all afternoon without our parents worrying about us.


----------



## Matteblack

Real Music.


----------



## The_LED_Museum

I remember having a two-story treehouse in Juneau AK. back in the middle 1970s. I was seriously considering adding electric light, but could not find a long enough extension cord. :green:


----------



## shakeylegs

Yep! Tree forts. What a great memory. I live in a small rural town and I don't think there's a tree fort anywhere in town. In fact, I don't remember ever seeing even one kid climbing a tree. As kids, my friends and I were climbing every tree in sight. 
Did any of you make "crazy cars". Usually a wooden box like construction with metal roller skate wheels nailed on the bottom? Kind of a poor man's soap box derby. 
How about a day long bicycle expedition. Just disappearing for the day and touring unexplored nearby towns. One trip was unforgettable. Northern California Bay Area folks will recognize the route. My buddy and I, ten years old, took our 27" 3 speeds out Sand Hill Road, from Menlo Park to Woodside, then route 84 up the mountain to Skyline and Alice's Restaurant. We pushed our bikes up most of that twisting mountain road. Folks at the restaurant treated us like kings when they heard of our accomplishment. Returning home late that evening, we soared down hyway 84 keeping up with the cars. Despite a few glares of astonishment, most drivers put up with the two crazy punks. Got home dead tired but what a blast! My parents didn't raise and eyebrow when they heard, in fact my Dad had a twinkle of envy in his eye.
There's nothing like that kind of freedom!


----------



## fnmag

A great trek indeed! You can get anything you want, at......... :thumbsup:


----------



## Big_Ed

using a 9-volt transistor radio instead of an iPod.


----------



## Diesel_Bomber

Radio Flyer wagons! Ever sit in one and have one of your friends push you, with the handle tipped back towards you so you could steer? Don't turn too sharp!

NOT getting an allowance or being paid for doing chores. If you helped make messes, got warmed by the fire, or ate, then you helped clean, carry in firewood, and weed the garden, you didn't get paid for any of it. If you wanted spending money then you got a job. Which leads me to..........

Getting an actual job during the summer. I started picking berries at 12, was driving combine by 14........surely these days someone would scream child abuse.


:buddies:


----------



## gadget_lover

shakeylegs said:


> How about a day long bicycle expedition. Just disappearing for the day and touring unexplored nearby towns.



Must have been a bay area thing. I rode my ten speed down the El Camino Real from Redwood City to Stanford, just to see what was there. I rode back by way of Alameda de las Pulgas. My parents did not even know where I had gone, but they did not worry.

But back on topic....

Today's kids will never know the joy of having the bread truck pull up in front of the house full of fresh bread loaves and hot donuts and rolls. He usually gave some donuts to the kids as he made his deliveries. I'd save my pennies so I could afford a hot, fresh custard filled maple bar once a month.

Yes, better than Krispy Kreme.


Daniel


----------



## TorchBoy

shakeylegs said:


> Did any of you make "crazy cars". Usually a wooden box like construction with metal roller skate wheels nailed on the bottom? Kind of a poor man's soap box derby.


Yes! At about 11 or 12 years old I found some large wooden disks in the discard pile at school so decided they _had_ to be used as wheels. My brother and I made a small flat trolley we could both sit on, tied it to the back of a friend's steerable cart, and took off down the local hill (with the friend driving, of course). Half way down we were going way too fast so we yelled "Brake! Brake!" and our friend pulled his brake lever off, turned around and yelled back "You mean this thing?" Somehow he managed to get it back on and got it to work before the bottom. I haven't seen anyone doing anything like that around here for years. They don't know what they're missing.



shakeylegs said:


> How about a day long bicycle expedition. Just disappearing for the day and touring unexplored nearby towns. One trip was unforgettable.


Sort of did that too, out to some hot pools a fair distance out of town. Went with two other two guys, one of whom managed to lose us on the way home. The other decided to buy a large watermelon when we were half way home and put it in his backpack to carry. By the time we got home (110km, all up that day) it was just mush. I was wearing a singlet and got a singlet-shaped sunburn which took a looong time to fade. And we had a head-wind in both directions. No, really.


----------



## shakeylegs

gadget_lover said:


> Must have been a bay area thing. I rode my ten speed down the El Camino Real from Redwood City to Stanford, just to see what was there. I rode back by way of Alameda de las Pulgas. My parents did not even know where I had gone, but they did not worry.
> 
> But back on topic....
> 
> Today's kids will never know the joy of having the bread truck pull up in front of the house full of fresh bread loaves and hot donuts and rolls. He usually gave some donuts to the kids as he made his deliveries. I'd save my pennies so I could afford a hot, fresh custard filled maple bar once a month.
> Daniel



Daniel, I hope you stopped at the Dutch Goose for a burger on your way home:twothumbs

As for the bread truck, man o man! I'd forgotten about that. What a great memory. Thanks!


----------



## DonShock

shakeylegs said:


> .....How about a day long bicycle expedition. Just disappearing for the day and touring unexplored nearby towns. One trip was unforgettable. .......


A bunch of us did one of those and actually left the country. We lived in Niagara Falls NY at the time and rode on over to the Canadian side of the Falls for the day. No IDs, no adults, no problem. Just a bunch of innocent kids out having fun. Now you would probably trigger an alert at Homeland Security.


----------



## yaesumofo

Riding aound in the truck with grandpa with the shotgun hanging out the window ready to shoot rabbits phesant dove or just about anything that moves.
Fishin the day away. going to the lttle power station and using their hot rod to get the night crawlers to crawl up and out of thre ground so we could pick 'em up and go fishin.
having fun plinking with the .22 at the dump.
stuff like that. Days like those are gone for this generation of kids.
Yaesumofo


----------



## deathkenli

Things *tomorrow*'s kids missed out on :

- TV shows that are not "reality show".
- Illegally downloaded films/songs/games.
- Some craps called "LED flashlight".
- Stars that are not porn stars.
- That IQ 100 is not considered unbelievably high.
- "Don't bother me, I'm eating."


----------



## The_LED_Museum

I remember finding a large 6-wheeled dolly in the woods; I got a car battery and car starter, rigged the starter to one of the center wheels, and had an electric vehicle of sorts.
It had no steering, but I could make it go forward and backward rather easily.

I also remember those day-long bicycle rides. I'd ride from Sandy Beach in Douglas AK. to the Mendenhall Valley in Juneau AK. and back again.
I'd ride on the old Glacier Highway for much of the trip; this meant I would not have to illegally ride on the Egan Expressway, which paralleled it for a good part of the distance.


----------



## Big_Ed

I remember a time when most restaurants didn't offer free refills of pop. I'm sure glad most places do now.

I also remember back in high school if kids were caught with alcohol, the cops would sometimes just make them dump it out and tell them to go home. That would never happen today!


----------



## Monocrom

Big_Ed said:


> I also remember back in high school if kids were caught with alcohol, the cops would sometimes just make them dump it out and tell them to go home. That would never happen today!


 
I think it would.

How many cops really want to fill out more paperwork, just for catching kids with a 40 ounce?


----------



## chanamasala

There was a time when movies weren't readily available thus making "The Sunday Night Movie" so amazingly exciting. Although it would be a very tiring day at school Monday after a James Bond flick was on.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sunday night movie&search=Search


----------



## stonehold

Remote control TV's with a motor on the tuner.
A $300 electronic calculator so small you could carry it with you.
FM stereo HiFi radio, with dj's that would play the whole song without opening their mouths. (they took a while to show up in cars.)
Reel to reel tape decks.
Those amazing new touch tone phones from The Phone Company.
Hot air popcorn machines (the first mass market health food).
E.S.T.
Zen.
Self actualization.
Cyclamates.

The Nasa space program from Gemini to the Apollo 11 moon landing.


----------



## JetskiMark

*Things today's kids missed out on....*

When "safe sex" meant locking the car doors.

Regards,
Mark


----------



## LightInTheWallet

RATION TICKETS.


----------



## chmsam

When the "race for outer space" was on, just being connected to the program was enough to sell the product. If it was even remotely connected to NASA, it was a "must buy" item. Science was important enough to sell consumer goods! It was OK, even cool, to study math and science. We could do ANYTHING if we put our minds to it and everything stopped to let people watch a space launch.

Some other stuff:

Fanner Fifties
Decoder rings
Turkish Taffee
Johnny Yuma
Sgt. Sam Troy
Honey West
Emma Peel
Kato
Cousin Itt & Uncle Fester Frump (Who wouldn't be cool with an Uncle Fester Light Bulb!)
Broadway Joe and the fur coat
Superfly
Mr. Peabody & Sherman
Fractured Fairytales
Magilla Gorilla
Quaker Puffed Rice ("shot from cannons")
Rat Fink
Yellow Submarine
Zotz! (the movie) & Zotz! (the coin -- movie memorabilia and toy)
Zotz (the candy)
Flubber
The Smothers Brothers ("Mom liked you better... all I got was a chicken")
The Yo-Yo man (Tom Smothers)
Bill Cosby (before the Cosby Show and Jello)
Run For Your Life (Off Topic Trivia: what's the connection (of sorts) between Bill Cosby and Run For Your Life?)
Morgan automobiles
E-type Jaguars with the headlights under glass
Volvo P1800ES
Jensen Interceptor
Nash Rambler
Crosley (car)
Crosley (radio)
Zenith Royal 1000 Trans-Oceanic


----------



## DonShock

Fractured Fairy Tales were hilarious!


----------



## Burgess

Fractured Flickers !

Hosted by Hans Conried (sp)


Sure wish i could see these again, on DVD !

_


----------



## Tempest UK

Growing up with the _real_ Star Wars films.

Regards,
Tempest


----------



## PhotonWrangler

DonShock said:


> Fractured Fairy Tales were hilarious!



I still remember the theme music from that show.

Rocky and Bullwinkle were classics also. _Watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat. (fwip!) Whoops, wrong hat. _


----------



## shakeylegs

DonShock said:


> Fractured Fairy Tales were hilarious!



Don, thanks for that memory. Fractured Fairy Tales were great. I also loved the other regular Bullwinkle feature with the brilliant Mr. Peabody and his adopted son Sherman. Their visits to famous historical figures were priceless.


----------



## DonShock

shakeylegs said:


> Don, thanks for that memory. Fractured Fairy Tales were great......


Actually, thank chmsam. I was reacting to his including them in his list immediately prior to my post. As soon as I saw his post I remembered how funny they were.


----------



## jrmcferren

One last thing I'm going to add, while still around today's kids are not interested in it. Amateur radio is a hobby today's kids miss out on. I can't add too much more to this thread as I'm only 21, but have loved every blast from the past I have experienced.​


----------



## Big_Ed

Being asked, "paper or plastic?" at the grocery store. Let alone just automatically getting your groceries in paper bags. Those plastic ones multiply like rabbits! Unfortunately, most people don't recycle them, and they end up in the landfill. There's a landfill right by a tollway near where I live, and you should see how many plastic shopping bags are floating around when it gets windy out!

That's another thing today's kids missed out on. Throwing everything away and not recycling anything.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Captain Kangaroo, Mr. Greenjeans and the talking grandfather clock.


----------



## Sub_Umbra

PhotonWrangler said:


> Captain Kangaroo, Mr. Greenjeans and the talking grandfather clock.


Oh yeah!

I loved Captain Kangaroo. What a cool guy. A few years back Leno had him as a guest on his show and as the Captain walked onstage a grown man from the audience jumped up onto the stage, ran right up to him and shook his hand. Everyone was kind of stunned. That guy *just had to* shake his hand. It was really cool. I understood completely.


----------



## chmsam

The Lone Ranger didn't shoot the bad guy, he shot the gun out of his hand. He didn't hang around for all the glory, he just rode off into the sunset.

"Truth, Justice, and the American Way."

Kids were expected to "get into mischief" but to "stay out of trouble."

Not being exactly like everybody else used to be cool, even for adults, and even on TV or in the movies. We didn't care as much about what somebody wore as we did about who they were. Try being a kid today and not wearing the exact same brand of clothing as everyone else, and those clothes had darn well better have that logo plastered all over them. Can you go 5 minutes without seeing AE, A&F, Hollister, etc. in most suburbs? Or try not wearing Carhartts if you're "rural." Today they're both the "uniform" for kids.

Remember when teachers asked you for an answer to a question and that answer wasn't just yes or no? And then they asked you why that answer was right. You were taught how to think and not just what to think.

If you can get some of the Fleischer Studios' Popeye cartoons, look and listen to them closely. The artwork is almost 3D and the things the characters said under their breath wasn't always put in for the kids to hear.

Remember when cartoons were mostly fillers between the _two_ movies you got to see for the admission you bought? They were not filler between commercials. And the admission to the movies for a kid on a Saturday afternoon wasn't $6.50 at a "matinée price," it was $0.25.

Marvin the Martian.

Jujubes.

Cops were Police Officers and they walked a beat in city neighborhoods, and everyone knew their name. And they knew yours and who your parents were.

Keds. And they cost $2.99.

Levis cost $5.99. And new ones were stiffer than a 2x4 and would stain your legs if you wore them in the rain the first few times you wore them.

A 2x4 actually used to be 2" x 4".

Everyone _knew_ that if you mixed an aspirin with a Coke, you'd get high.

Hardware stores used to have people who knew what the stuff that they sold you was for, where it was in the store, how to use or install it, and how to repair it so you did not have to replace it.

Most homes had a workshop in the basement or the garage. Table saws were common. Most homeowners had at least 3 hammers and that didn't include a sledge. Most dads knew what a coping saw was.

Most dads gave you haircuts (with Wahl clippers) because the $0.75 the barber shop wanted was too much money, they knew how to do it 'cause they'd seen it done, and only ladies went to a hair salon. There were no "stylists."

Doctors made house calls and smoked cigarettes while they examined you for "the croup."

Girls could not ride a bicycle made for a boy or they would "ruin themselves."

"One of these things is not like the others..."

"Guerrilla attacks on the Plain of Jars" had nothing to do with apes and canning supplies.

The evening news had a death toll. Still does today, I guess.

Soapbox Derby.

Pinewood Derby.

Pulling the head off of your sister's Barbie (which today would have been worth several hundred dollars on EBay) after she broke your Beatles lunch box (which today would have been worth several hundred dollars on EBay).

Schwinn Stingray bikes with ape hangers and banana seats. They're back.

G.I. Joe. The big one, not the little one.

Tin solders that were hand cast.

Erector sets with electric motors that you plugged into a wall socket (straight 110 volts -- no wall wart).

Lionel trains under the Christmas tree.

Nova Bubble Lights.

Guillow Balsa wood wind up airplanes. The Strato Streak is still around.

Building a pretty complete set of the Allied and Axis air force planes. Buying them with money you made from odd jobs, mowing lawns, or the paper route. Buying the paint, glue, and Exacto knife by yourself at age 11. All without parental supervision.

NBC Saturday Night at the Movies.


----------



## KC2IXE

chmsam said:


> ...snip...
> Remember when teachers asked you for an answer to a question and that answer wasn't just yes or no? And then they asked you why that answer was right. You were taught how to think and not just what to think.
> 
> ...snip...
> Cops were Police Officers and they walked a beat in city neighborhoods, and everyone knew their name. And they knew yours and who your parents were.
> ...snip...
> 
> Hardware stores used to have people who knew what the stuff that they sold you was for, where it was in the store, how to use or install it, and how to repair it so you did not have to replace it.
> 
> Most homes had a workshop in the basement or the garage. Table saws were common. Most homeowners had at least 3 hammers and that didn't include a sledge. Most dads knew what a coping saw was.
> 
> ...snip...
> Pinewood Derby.
> 
> ...snip...
> Guillow Balsa wood wind up airplanes. The Strato Streak is still around.
> 
> Building a pretty complete set of the Allied and Axis air force planes. Buying them with money you made from odd jobs, mowing lawns, or the paper route. Buying the paint, glue, and Exacto knife by yourself at age 11. All without parental supervision.
> 
> ...snip....



Lets see - My Daughter's school still expects a why - as does my sons

Back by my old house, they still had beat cops (and somethimes they do in my neighborhood too) - I used to know some of the officers assigned to the beat by name - the rest by 'nod'

There are still a few good hardware stores around - JTR1962 can probably confirm that Beplat Hardware has a clue

Gee - both my neighbors have a shop - as do I - table saw, jointer, 12" metal Lathe, full sized mill, welding sets (arc and gas) etc

Helped my nephew build his pinewood derby car last year - he came in 2nd - lost to my best friend's nephew

The Balsa planes are still around

and as for plastic models...

http://www.thegallos.com/plastic.htm


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

I didn't build any GOOD models until in my 20's. Several planes are hanging in a friends house among dozens of others. I'll see about getting a pic...


----------



## Big_Ed

Montgomery Wards

Woolworth Woolco

Zayre

Venture (still around?)

Small Mom and Pop stores on just about every block, sadly large mega-stores have largely killed them off.

Having to set the choke on your car on a cold morning or it wouldn't start.

Having to use a pay phone when you were out and about and needed to call home or your friends.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

The old fashioned neighborhood hardware store. It had bare wooden floors that creaked when you walked on them in an oddly satisfying way, as if to announce your arrival in the store. Behind the counter was a nice, grey haired man in an apron who knew you by name, and he knew about everything in the store in great detail. He could tell you how to repair a screen door, replace a washer in a faucet or fix a worn out electrical cord on your iron.

There was a lightbulb tester in the lamp section. It was a metal bar with one of each size of socket - Edison, candelabra and others - so you could test your new lightbulb before you took it home. The sockets were special ones - they had no threads - so you could just push the bulb into the socket to test it. I thought that was the neatest thing. 

You could go into this store and actually buy ONE screw. The proprietor would walk over to a wall of dark and well worn wooden drawers, open a particular drawer and pull out the exact screw or bolt that you needed.

And some of those stores gave out S&H or Eagle green stamps to boot. I loved pasting those into the little paper books as a kid!


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Big_Ed said:


> Montgomery Wards
> 
> Woolworth Woolco
> 
> Having to set the choke on your car on a cold morning or it wouldn't start.
> 
> Having to use a pay phone when you were out and about and needed to call home or your friends.



Or when JC Penny sold stuff like stereos and fishing rods/reels

I CLEARLY remember choking certain vehicles!

And yep, I had a pager and had to find a phone somewhere when it went off.


----------



## kelmo

Buying a new pickup truck without a rear bumper!!!


----------



## Big_Ed

kelmo said:


> Buying a new pickup truck without a rear bumper!!!



My cousin bought a new pickup (a Nissan, I think) about 15 years ago. I asked him what happened to his rear bumper, because there wasn't one. He said it was something like a $300 option. That was in Arizona. He said in his state they didn't require a rear bumper. I wonder if that's still true.


----------



## Marlite

This email was sent to me by my _younger _sister after we reminisced about tasty home cooked food "in the good old days."
Great thread. Keep 'em coming.

Enjoy, marlite

LightningBugs / Older 'n Dirt!!

"Hey Dad," one of my kids asked the other day, "What was your favorite 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 'at home,'" I explained. "Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa 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 kid 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 figured his system could have handled it:
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears AND Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. 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 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day. Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.

I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called "pizza pie." When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

We didn't have a car until I was 15. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a "machine."

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it 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. But milk was.
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning.. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.
Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them.

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 Royal Crown Cola 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?
Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.Real ice boxes.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.
Older Than Dirt Quiz: Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about Ratings at the bottom.
1. Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines
8. Newsreels before ! the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
12. Peashooters 
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records15. S&H Green Stamps
16. Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19 Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24.Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers
If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!I might be older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.

Don't forget to pass this along!!
Especially to all your really OLD friends....
=====
"Senility Prayer"...God grant me...
The senility to forget the people I never liked
The good fortune to run into the ones that I do
And the eyesight to tell the difference." 
Have a great week!!!!!!


----------



## Monocrom

*To: Marlite ~*

#5 is the only one I personally experienced.


----------



## fnmag

Marlite, thanks for the great posting. 
It would seem that I'm older than dirt. 
:thumbsup:


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Marlite, I remember virtually all of them (except the Packard). Count me as another one who's older than dirt! BTW I'd forgotten all about the water bottle for ironing until you mentioned it. Thanks for a great post.


----------



## TorchBoy

Marlite said:


> 3. Candy cigarettes


Still available here. (Is that good or bad?)


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

I knew enough of them to be older than dirt. Not all from home, such as party line (up in the country where my aunt and uncle lived).

I experienced a hand crank tractor away from home too.


----------



## shakeylegs

Marlite,
Did your Sears and Roebuck smell of freshly popped popcorn?
And do you remember the smell of a freshly run stack of mimeographs?
I think our first real fast food was a Foster's Freeze. I'd empty the piggy bank, ride my bike across town, reach up to the order window on tiptoes, and consume the quart size Nehi grape and a bag of real fries.
Pea shooters and pop guns were the mainstay of of a young pirate's arsenal.
And before I bought my first LP, Surfin' Safari, I listened to it on the player at the record store.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

shakeylegs said:


> Marlite,
> Did your Sears and Roebuck smell of freshly popped popcorn?
> And do you remember the smell of a freshly run stack of mimeographs?



I used to _love_ the smell of fresh mimeographs as a kid. it was a very distinct, fruity-vinegary odor. I also liked the _color_ of mimeograph ink, a nice, friendly looking lavender-purple. It helped take the edge off of mimeographed tests.


----------



## chmsam

Yep, cork pop guns. Pop guns that fired corks that were attached to the gun by a rubber band.

Simple scientific toys like those upside down, "J" shape wire loops -- magnetic gyro wheels.

I used to love going to a diner and playing the jukebox mounted at the side of the booth. Used to be 1 song for a nickel, 3 for a dime.

Euchre on a Saturday night. Every Saturday night. My parents were demon euchre players -- I only beat them once or twice in many, many years. They had a very nice set of markers made of wood and a very cool aluminum one with a dial that my dad made in a metal shop. I haven't seen mechanical counters like those in over 40 years.

Gas stations with pumps that had a "spinning eye" near the top of the pump so you could tell it was running.

Maiden Aunts that wore ("bathed in") Jean Nate eau de toilet (properly named, too), and one friend of an aunt who wore Tabu perfume. That one definitely beat a pair.

Convertibles with fins and wheel covers, continental spare wheels, front bench seats, and fuzzy dice. And a blond with a fur pill box hat.


----------



## Marlite

[B said:


> Monocrom[/b];2340398]*To: Marlite ~*
> 
> #5 is the only one I personally experienced.



Well it's because you will write the next one in 30 years for other CPF'rs to reminisce and enjoy.

fnmag
Marlite, thanks for the great posting. 
It would seem that I'm older than dirt. 
:thumbsup:

Ha ha we share that distinction. Mom's older'n dirt, lives alone will be 98 in July 4, 2008. Her long gone best friend's grandkids visit her to learn about their grandparents. We stagger days for visiting and taking her for outings.

*PhotonWrangler *
Marlite, I remember virtually all of them (except the Packard). Count me as another one who's older than dirt! BTW I'd forgotten all about the water bottle for ironing until you mentioned it. Thanks for a great post.

My wife upgraded from her mom's sprinkler bottle to a brand new state of the art, red pistol grip multi adjustable spray bottle I scored for 50 cents at a neighbor's' yard sale. Yeah she has a steam iron. I _was_ going to use it for car windows.....

* TorchBoy* Originally Posted by Marlite 
_3. Candy cigarettes_
Still available here. (Is that good or bad?)

Bad only if you light it, but great for dentists!

*Shakeylegs*
Marlite,
Did your Sears and Roebuck smell of freshly popped popcorn?
And do you remember the smell of a freshly run stack of mimeographs?
I think our first real fast food was a Foster's Freeze. I'd empty the piggy bank, ride my bike across town, reach up to the order window on tiptoes, and consume the quart size Nehi grape and a bag of real fries.
Pea shooters and pop guns were the mainstay of of a young pirate's arsenal.
And before I bought my first LP, Surfin' Safari, I listened to it on the player at the record store.

We had a Simpsons Department Store (Canada) that merged with Sears Roebuck renamed Simpson's Sears. Kids called it Pimps and Queers. I recall the fresh smell of popcorn at the foot of the elevators in the candy counter 
at the foot of the elevator the tradition continues today. 

*PlayboyJoeShmoe*

I knew enough of them to be older than dirt. Not all from home, such as party line (up in the country where my aunt and uncle lived).
I experienced a hand crank tractor away from home too.

 You're still a pup, stay young longer. Your profession allows you to see a lot of old machinery and and antique stuff in hiding.

Wow. Thanks for your kind comments, us old coots have history beaten into us as the storm of time writes chapters on our faces. I try to maximize the best times and minimize the worst. Nobody else needs to know.

Thanks to Big Ed and you all for contributing to CPF and schooling me, I read all your posts of interest, keep it up.

Remember when. . . . . . . .
marlite


----------



## h_nu

PlayboyJoeShmoe said:


> Or when JC Penny sold stuff like stereos and fishing rods/reels
> 
> I CLEARLY remember choking certain vehicles!
> 
> And yep, I had a pager and had to find a phone somewhere when it went off.



I sold sporting goods at Penney's, then moved to the electronics department. That wasn't that long ago, mid 80's. And my car had a manual choke. It was from the 60's.

Oh oh! Marlite's post has confirmed that I am older than dirt. I remembered everything but the Packard. I do remember mom and dad talking about them though.


----------



## DieselTech

To expound on the hand cranking the tractors, for those who grew up with electric starters, or not on a farm.

When you hand cranked a tractor, you inserted a crank handle through the front grill into a notch on the crankshaft, and manually rotated the engine. The crankshaft (or pulley for the fan belt) had ridges on it that the crank handle grabbed in one direction, and theoretically allowed it to free- snip in the opposite direction, so that when the engine started the crank handle didn't become a spinning, flailing weapon of doom. 

Unfortunately, every so often, the tractor just didn't like you, or felt that whatever day it happened to be was a bad day for working. Those were the days that the engine backfired. In such a situation, the crank handle would spin opposite the direction that you were pulling it, driven by the lugs on the fan belt pulley. If you had your thumbs wrapped around the crank handle wen you pulled it and this happened, you got hurt bad. I have personal experience with people having broken/ dislocated thumbs in such a situation. If you were experienced with such a situation, you didn't wrap your thumbs around the handle. You'd lay then next to it, against your index finger. If the engine backfired in such a situation, the crank handle simply flew out of your hand...quite often coming around so quickly that it hit you in the arm or wrist as you jerked away. I've known a few people to get broken arms or wrists from hand- starting. 

In a way, it's a shame today's kids will never feel that 1949 Farmall smacking them around. On the other hand, I'm glad that I don't have to do it anymore. It's fun at a tractor show or just for nostalgia's sake, but when it's 5* outside and I have to plow the road clear, I really like that electric push button.


----------



## kelmo

Records that came on the back of cereal boxes with the Archies or Josie and the Pussycat songs.

That mirror thingy you put on the top of 45rpm record that made a psuedo movie like a train coming down a track.

The 45 rpm record adapter!

The Doctor Demento Radio Show!

Buying phonograph needles.

My local drive in theater had a benched seating area for the local kids and we watched movies for free. They locked it for R rated movies though...


----------



## PhotonWrangler

That 45rpm record changer spindle thingy that _almost_ dropped the next record onto the turntable. :duh2:


----------



## glockboy

Hitchhiking.


----------



## The_LED_Museum

Hitchhiking...I remember that...where you stand on the side of the road and put your finger out or something...
O WAIT!!! It's the thumb...you extend your arm, make a fist, and put your THUMB up. 
They didn't call it "thumbing a ride" for nothing. 

You also didn't want to disregard a "No Hitchhiking" sign, or you might have gotten in trouble with the fuzz.


----------



## dangorange

flipping through the service merchandise catalog


----------



## Black Majik

V8TOYTRUCK said:


> Im 26...and wow times have changed..lets see
> 
> POGs and the look on the other persons face when you take their prized slammer
> Napster
> Pager Code
> Wolfenstein 3D running superfast on your AST 66mhz PC with CD-ROM! and 4mb ram!
> 1st Gen KL1's
> Really bad luxeon lottery odds.
> 
> I could go on forever.....


 
1-440170312-19-926312-6003-4425-2-627190121712-741176?


----------



## jtr1962

I just remembered another-sampling alcohol at the tender age of maybe 7 or 8, perhaps even 6. It was common in our family gatherings for the adults to let kids have a taste, or even a small glass, of whatever they were drinking, except of course the hard stuff. No harm done, really. Wines, amaretto, anisette, I tasted all of them before grade school was out. In fact, I think it took the mystique out of alcohol for me because my high school and college years weren't spent on a drinking binge like many others my age. Nowadays of course, any parents caught doing that would probably be charged with child abuse. I've often thought the best thing is to expose kids to all sorts of things in a controlled environment to demystify them as much as possible. Come to think of it, I took a good puff of one of my dad's cigarettes when I was 9 or 10. Not that I ever had any urge to smoke, but I was curious what smoking was about. Well, to me it tasted as awful as the secondhand smoke smelled. That was my first, and last, puff on a cigarette.


----------



## Monocrom

glockboy said:


> Hitchhiking.


 


Thanks for reminding me.... I have to clean out the trunk of my car.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Red brick streets instead of asphalt. They were slippery as all getout when wet, but they had a character and charm that you just don't get from a slab of smelly black goo. Just thinking about how much manual labor was put into making them was amazing.


----------



## Big_Ed

PhotonWrangler said:


> Red brick streets instead of asphalt. They were slippery as all getout when wet, but they had a character and charm that you just don't get from a slab of smelly black goo. Just thinking about how much manual labor was put into making them was amazing.



I still see them, in fact there's one I travel on in my town on my way to work. They seem to last forever.


----------



## KC2IXE

JTR1962,
Yep - I'm of French background - a glass of diluted wine with dinner was NORMAL for young kids - and a suger cube dunked in Congac after dinner once in a while 

PhotonWrangler,
Red brick streets slippery? They aren't too bad - try Beligin Block streets - pretty as heck, but that granite wears smooth after a few years, and the moss grows between the blocks - get nice smooth granite with a little moss wet.... Like crossing a stream of wet rocks


----------



## Burgess

Kids'll never know . . . .


It was *Centigrade*, not Celsius !


It was *Cycles per Second*, not Hertz !


It was *Peking*, not Bejing !


Camera film was in *ASA*, not ISO !


Air & Maps at gas stations were FREE !


:wave:
_


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Burgess said:


> Kids'll never know . . . .
> 
> 
> It was *Centigrade*, not Celsius !
> 
> 
> It was *Cycles per Second*, not Hertz !
> 
> 
> It was *Peking*, not Bejing !
> 
> 
> Camera film was in *ASA*, not ISO !
> 
> 
> Air & Maps at gas stations were FREE !
> 
> 
> :wave:
> _



I specifically remember when the movement began to stop saying c.p.s, kc and mc and to use the chic european designation of hz instead.


----------



## LEDninja

Burgess said:


> It was *Peking*, not Bejing !
> :wave:


It was Ceylon not Sri Lanka,
It was Bombay not Mambai,
It was Canton not Kwauntung.


----------



## jrmcferren

Disclaimer: I'm only 21 years old.

I learned a lot about radio from an old book from the 60's so I still refer to frequency in cycles per second. :twothumbs I spent most of my time around adults when I was young. In my previous posts I have talked about how I still have and even use older technology, I love using my rotary dial telephone.


----------



## gadget_lover

The kids missed out on the wonderful radio entertainers of the 30s through the 50's and 60's. Red Skelton. Father knows best, The Shadow, Milton Berle, and the hundreds of crime shows.

Did you know that before "Candid Camera" was "Candid Microphone?" Or that "Twilight Zone" was a radio show before it became a TV show? How a bout Gunsmoke? Yep, it was on radio first.


I found that a lot of the old time radio shows are online. Search for "old time radio" and you'll find a lot of MP3 files.

There are many great entertainers from the 30s, 40s and 50s whose shows were not preserved except by amateurs with primitive recording devices. These recordings have finally passed into the public domain and a lot can be found online. The quality varies but many of the shows are pretty darn good.

Daniel


----------



## shakeylegs

Maybe I missed it but I haven't seen a reference to Wolfman Jack. In the SF bay area we used to pick him up evenings on XERB out of BAJA. That gravelly howl was unforgettable.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

jrmcferren said:


> Disclaimer: I'm only 21 years old.
> 
> I learned a lot about radio from an old book from the 60's so I still refer to frequency in cycles per second. :twothumbs I spent most of my time around adults when I was young. In my previous posts I have talked about how I still have and even use older technology, I love using my rotary dial telephone.



Whenever I see a photo of old radio equipment with "kc" or "mc" stamped on the panel, I smile. And those good old vacuum tubes.


----------



## Big_Ed

shakeylegs said:


> Maybe I missed it but I haven't seen a reference to Wolfman Jack. In the SF bay area we used to pick him up evenings on XERB out of BAJA. That gravelly howl was unforgettable.



So, was it just like in the movie American Grafitti? That's my favorite movie BTW.


----------



## h_nu

I think I'm getting older just reading this thread. So many memories!

Remember when TV would shut off for the night? Channel x thanks you for viewing. We have reached the end of another broadcast day. Then jets flying over a flag, the Star Spangled Banner, and white noise.


----------



## shakeylegs

Big_Ed said:


> So, was it just like in the movie American Grafitti? That's my favorite movie BTW.



Well, I never had to carry a tire, naked, around town at midnight. But the music was great. It felt really cool listening to a pirate radio station. That was when AM radio was all top 40 and just before FM stations like KSAN came along. 
KSAN changed everything with regard to our listening habits. We'd tune in and get 40 min of Iron Butterfly's album, or John Coltrane, even JS Bach. It was, and still is, rare to hear 40 minutes of radio broadcast without announcements and commercials.


----------



## Monocrom

h_nu said:


> Remember when TV would shut off for the night? Channel x thanks you for viewing. We have reached the end of another broadcast day. Then jets flying over a flag, the Star Spangled Banner, and white noise.


 
Part of that is still around. Not sure about other parts of America, but in NYC; we have Channel 13. Paid for completely, with viewer donated dollars. Not the most entertaining channel. But every now and then, they put on a very thought-provoking program or show. 

At about 3am or 3:30am, the channel shuts off for the night. They thank you for viewing, and announce that it's the end of their broadcast day. No jets, no flag, no banner. Just the same group of shots that end with a night scene of a Manhattan street.... followed by white noise and a rainbow test-pattern.


----------



## jrmcferren

I'm not sure if Channel 21 CBS WHP in Harrisburg still signs off or not, I know that as late as 2003 or 2004 they signed off and I know that WITF 33 PBS in Harrsiburg signed off at night in the 90's. Both of these stations went to a tone and bars test transmission. I know channel 21 did an introduction of themselves when the signed on at one or two minutes before six AM. According to the guide on the Comcast cable boxes they now operate 24/7.

One thing today's kids don't do is listen to long distance AM broadcast stations at night. I love doing that.

Disclaimer: I'm only 21 years old.


----------



## will

Here on Long Island - We had "Murray the K" broadcasting from NYC. One of his events on the radio were the submarine races... He also used to play bits from Bob Newheart's comedy albums. Bob Newheart before he had his TV shows.


----------



## chmsam

How about the Mexican AM radio stations in the 60's that had enough signal to reach coast to coast and border to border? ZZ Top (and Los Super Seven, too) did the song. "I Heard It on the X" to describe it. Rock, blues, soul, TexMex, and all sorts of music that you'd never hear on Mom & Pop radio stations especially that evil, sinful Rock 'N Roll music. That'll never happen again (and I'm sorry, but satellite doesn't count because it's really not the same).

Actually parking the car in the garage. Today we leave cars that start at $20,000, and go up fast from there, sitting in the driveway while a lot of us have tons of junk we are never going to touch again let alone use taking up space in the garage.

Anyone remember taking their Radio Flyer wagon and collecting pop bottles for the two cent deposit? They used to be all over the place because people littered and that has gotten better in a lot of the US. Kids used to be able to find enough to buy a days' worth of penny candy.

And of course all that candy meant you had to go to the dentist. A lot of dentists did not use Novocaine. "Hold up your hand if this hurts too much. YEOW!"

Gym classes were not coed. Swim classes were without bathing suits. No pads underneath the rope climb. Medicine balls. Baseball at bats without helmets. "It's only a broken leg, ya wimp. Walk it off!"

School yard fights lasted about thirty seconds, no weapons, somebody got a black eye, no police were called, and everybody was best friends again the next day.

Camping did not mean backing up the RV to the house, loading the living room into it, and setting up in a grass parking lot with hot water, a concession stand, and cable TV hookups. If that's what you are into, good for you, but a pack, tent, firewood, and maybe some marshmallows to toast are more of what I think of as camping. Food before the days of freeze drying came in cans. Dinty Moore Beef Stew actually tasted good at the end of the day. Potted ham and Spam did, too.


----------



## Big_Ed

shakeylegs said:


> Well, I never had to carry a tire, naked, around town at midnight. But the music was great.



Actually, that was the movie "Hollywood Knights", in my opinion, a cheap, second rate imitation of American Grafitti, but still fun anyway.


----------



## shakeylegs

Big_Ed, thanks for shaking my brain. I largely agree with your assessment with the exception of Robert Wuhl who puts in a very funny performance. 

AM music was kind of the background theme to everything my friends and I did. There was always a transistor radio playing somewhere. At the beach, on the road, at parties, anywhere the parents weren't. And do you remember driving into a place like Mel's with the top down, car packet with friends, and the car-hop rolling up on her skates to take your order? 

In the SF bay area at least, once LSD hit - fall of '67 in my neck of the woods - the whole atmosphere changed. FM alternative radio exploded. People would "hang" out in "black lighted" rooms, listen to long FM album sessions, say "hey man" and "far out" a lot, flash the peace sign, drive less (of necessity) though after a year or so even LSD didn't slow some people down. And of course, a lot more eating in the aisles Saturday midnight at the 5 Points grocery store in Redwood City.


----------



## greenstuffs

When gas was 25 cents a gallon :naughty:


----------



## PhotonWrangler

greenstuffs said:


> When gas was 25 cents a gallon :naughty:



and the Texaco man came out and pumped it for you while cleaning your windows.


----------



## Burgess

Today's kids will never see . . . .


A brilliant, well-projected Kodachrome 35mm color slide ! 




Nothing else quite measures up. 

:sigh:



(PS: Happy Birthday to PhotonWrangler) 
_


----------



## PhotonWrangler

_Thank you,_ Burgess! :wave:


----------



## fnmag

I can remember Wolfman Jack gettin' his start in Del Rio, Tx. He had a tiny building right on the border and ran a "wire" over the border to get some serious power.


----------



## Big_Ed

Burgess said:


> Today's kids will never see . . . .
> 
> 
> A brilliant, well-projected Kodachrome 35mm color slide !
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Nothing else quite measures up.
> 
> :sigh:
> 
> 
> 
> (PS: Happy Birthday to PhotonWrangler)
> _




Good one! Last summer my dad showed me his old Kodachome slides he took when he was in the navy back in the 50's. Lots of slides of Hawaii, Southern California, and some more taken when my older brothers were little in the 60's. Very colorful. I'd like to convert those to regular photos, and also put them on computer CDs to make them easier to share. But they definitely have a special look when they're on a screen. A look that seems to elude other media types like photographic paper and computer screens. I'm not quite sure why. Part of it might be hearing the whir of the cooling fan of the projector and the clicking sound it makes when changing slides. It always takes me back to when I first saw those slides when I was a kid.
Thanks, Burgess!

And thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread! I had no idea it would get this long! Keep those memories coming!!


----------



## TorchBoy

Ah, the sounds and the momentary darkness coupled with fleeting anticipation. Why doesn't powerpoint make that noise?


----------



## jrmcferren

TorchBoy said:


> Ah, the sounds and the momentary darkness coupled with fleeting anticipation. Why doesn't powerpoint make that noise?



I think the shutter noise will suffice if you want the noise bad enough. Another option would be to take a computer microphone and record the sound of a slide projector making the sound of the slide change. While it will not be the same, it would help with the transition to modern technology.


----------



## Big_Ed

I can't remember if these have been posted yet, but how about:

Cars with a "3 on the tree" manual shifter.

4-door cars with rear door windows that roll all the way down, not just halfway.

Station wagons with roll down windows in the tailgate. And tailgates that folded down like a pickup truck tailgate, not up like a minivan tailgate.


----------



## will

Big_Ed said:


> I can't remember if these have been posted yet, but how about:
> 
> Cars with a "3 on the tree" manual shifter.
> 
> 4-door cars with rear door windows that roll all the way down, not just halfway.
> 
> Station wagons with roll down windows in the tailgate. And tailgates that folded down like a pickup truck tailgate, not up like a minivan tailgate.




And the same body style available in a 2 or 4 door hardtop convertible and a 2 or 4 door sedan...


----------



## PhotonWrangler

'57 Chevy Impalas with the gas filler cap located _behind the left tail light_. A secret knob allowed the tail light to swing down, revealing the filler.


----------



## h_nu

Decades later I still want my high beam dimmer switch on the floor in the upper left corner. Why can't they put it back and wire it so the switch on the steering column works with it like a 3 way hallway light?

I learned to drive with a car that had 3 on the tree but I only miss the 4 on the floor.

Even the cheap cars had locking glove compartments made of metal.


----------



## Burgess

If i remember correctly,


_and i'm sure that someone here will correct me if i don't_, 


the Chevrolet *Impala* didn't come out until the *1958 *model year.


But i know* just* what yer' talking about.


The old Cadillacs *also* had that "hidden" gas filler cap.


*Really* impressed me as a young boy --

kinda' like a Secret, Hidden Compartment !


Just the sorta' thing that kids (even now-adays) would appreciate 



Or the magic of seeing *Power Windows* in a car,

for the _*Very First Time*_ ! :thumbsup:


Could you actually expect any child NOT to play with those marvels ? :devil:




As a young teen-ager, (mid 1960's) i remember a (very affluent) aquaintance 

of my father actually had (get this):


*a Mobile Telephone*


in his new car ! ! ! 



Will wonders never cease ! 


No "direct-dialing", of course . . . .

He had to call the "Mobile Telephone Operator", and tell her the number to connect.



Thought to myself:

"When i grow up, i'd sure like to have one of THOSE !"

:wave:


Ahh, youth.

_


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Burgess said:


> Or the magic of seeing *Power Windows* in a car,
> 
> for the _*Very First Time*_ ! :thumbsup:
> 
> 
> Could you actually expect any child NOT to play with those marvels ? :devil:



Guilty! Those power windows were the most AMAZING thing when I was a kid. Almost ran the battery down playing with them. :laughing:


----------



## PhotonWrangler

h_nu said:


> Decades later I still want my high beam dimmer switch on the floor in the upper left corner. Why can't they put it back and wire it so the switch on the steering column works with it like a 3 way hallway light?



Because those switches always rotted out and froze up from the salt water dripping off of shoes during the winter. Those switches NEVER worked for me when they were on the floor. :shrug:


----------



## chmsam

Full sized spare tires -- no "donuts," "silly spares," etc. Heck, "continental" spare wheels were cool, too.

Eyeglasses with lenses so heavy that they left red marks on the sides of your nose and were really painful after several hours (anyone remember the movie "12 Angry Men" and the eyeglasses relate?). Glass lenses that broke if you dropped them. 

Popcorn poppers that used oil and popped the lid off if you had too many kernels in the popper? The ones before either microwave popcorn or hot air poppers.

Has anyone mentioned Bearcat police scanners with crystals for each frequency?

How about shoe shine kits? The smell of shoe polish on a hot summer day. The smell of the dauber and the smell of the buffing cloth. I spent many a Saturday afternoon polishing shoes and then having my dad cut my hair (badly) while he was listening to the Metropolitan Opera brought to you by Texaco and announced by Milton Cross.

How about Looney Tunes character glasses given away with gas fill ups or burgers? I still have a Tweety Bird.

How about cartoon characters like Big Baby Huey?


----------



## shakeylegs

Dodge B100 van and shag carpet! 

Say no more, Say no more.


----------



## Monocrom

Back when buying a Toyota meant an insurance discount over buying a Chevy. (Backwards nowadays).


----------



## jrmcferren

Never had a Bearcat scanner, but I do have my Crystal controlled regency here.

Disclaimer: In case you didn't know already, I'm only 21 years old.


----------



## Big_Ed

A time when virtually no movies or tv programs had any sort of sexual inuendo, images of drug abuse, and such. Just entertainment, plain and simple. Same goes for music.


----------



## shakeylegs

It's interesting how sexuality - innuendo or overt - has been a part of "media" for centuries. It may have been more repressed, displayed more tastefully, and with less violence during the fifties and sixties, but it was there. 

Classical Egyptian mythology has it's moments - "How lovely your backside is. ..." (Set to Horus). The walls of Pompeii are full of overtly, often twisted, pornographic frescos if you know where to look. Take a second look at the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Remember Lilly Langtree and Lillian Gish and Rudolph Valentino, all early film stars with big time sex appeal. Watch Clark Gabel and Claudette Colbert in "It Happened One Night" 1934. . . Racy! And "Reefer Madness" . . . Ouch! The fighting men of WWII carried their pin-up's across Europe. The 50's brought a whole slew of sexual icons including Marilyn Monroe, Mamie Van Doren, Jayne Mansfield, Ricky Nelson, Elvis, Annette Funicello . . .

In my opinion, todays kids are swaddled in images of sexuality and violence while kids from the 50's - 60's were titilated sexually but spared some of the overt throat cutting violence.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

I remember that **** Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore slept in separate beds on their TV show.


----------



## Burgess

Remember when the song "Louie Louie", by The Kingsmen,

was thought to have Dirty Lyrics ! :naughty:


Heck, it was even* investigated* by the U.S. Congress !


(spoiler: no, it really doesn't !)



When the Rolling Stones appeared on Ed Sullivan,

and were forbidden to say the line:

"Let's spend the night together". :tsk:




When the Johnny Cash song, "A Boy Named Sue"

had to "bleep" the words "sonafabitch".



_But_ . . . .

By 1980, the hit Who song, "Who Are You" was routinely played

on radio stations blatently singing "whothe{bleep}RU".


How quickly things change, eh ?
_

_Edit: CPF is still restricting some of those things. I inserted the {bleep} above. - Empath_


----------



## h_nu

PhotonWrangler said:


> Because those switches always rotted out and froze up from the salt water dripping off of shoes during the winter. Those switches NEVER worked for me when they were on the floor. :shrug:



I never thought about the people who lived where it snowed. I was 15 before I saw it snow and our car didn't have appreciable rust on it when we got rid of it after 15 years. Dad was just too tired of seeing it to keep it.


----------



## ConfederateScott

Ambulances made from station wagons instead of vans.


----------



## Burgess

Yes ! Good Point ! :thumbsup:


Ambulances made not just from Station Wagons,

but often from *Cadillac* (custom-made) station wagons !

(Just as the hearses were, and still are)


Before the early 1960's, there were no Federal standards/requirements for Ambulances.

The only vehicle which could easily transport somebody

*Lying Down*

was a station wagon, or the Funeral home's Hearse.


Since many ill patients didn't really appreciate an "early" ride in a Hearse, 
the Cadillac *ambulances* were styled a bit differently.



Once Federal standards became effective about 1964,
the vehicle of choice shifted to "cut-away Vans",
which still prevail today.


BTW, our locale recently purchased a brand-new, fully-equipped Ford Econoline, diesel-powered *super-deluxe *ambulance,
at a cost of a *quarter-million dollars*. 


Turns out, my 80+ year-old Mother became its *first *"passenger". 

(she's fine now) :twothumbs


Truly a fully-functioning, *Life-Saving* vehicle,

whereas the "old" ones were merely *transports*.




(to *Empath* -- sorry about my song lyrics) 

_


----------



## gadget_lover

Has anyone mentioned the jobs that today's kids will miss out on?


I was a mobile telephone operator in the 1970s. That job no longer exists.

My dad went to a local "shade tree mechanic to get the car "tuned up" every 5,000 miles

I was a door to door Fuller Brush salesman in highschool.

Remember theaters with ushers? They would help you find a seat in a dark movie theater.

Daniel


----------



## KC2IXE

chmsam said:


> Full sized spare tires -- no "donuts," "silly spares," etc. Heck, "continental" spare wheels were cool, too.
> 
> ...snip...
> 
> How about shoe shine kits? The smell of shoe polish on a hot summer day. The smell of the dauber and the smell of the buffing cloth. I spent many a Saturday afternoon polishing shoes and then having my dad cut my hair (badly) while he was listening to the Metropolitan Opera brought to you by Texaco and announced by Milton Cross.
> 
> How about Looney Tunes character glasses given away with gas fill ups or burgers? I still have a Tweety Bird.
> 
> How about cartoon characters like Big Baby Huey?



Let's see - My first car (got it from Mom and Dad when they bought a new car) was a 1969 Catalina - I not only remember the full sized spare, but I remember as a young teen climbing INTO the trunk to get to it to fasten it down (Yes Young'ns the trunk was THAT big)

I still shine my dress shoes - It's about time to teach my sone and daughter - thanks for the reminder

The last free glasses I got was about a decade ago, from a Hess station - not cartoons - NY Jets glasses (remember, Leon Hess also owned the Jets)

And I tease my son, Hugh, with Baby Huey


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Getting harder and harder to see some of the best and funniest cartoons anymore.

Roadrunner and Coyoty. Tom and Jerry. etc.

They are too violent for modern kids (who see much more violence on any TV show than those cartoons).


----------



## shakeylegs

PlayboyJoeShmoe said:


> They are too violent for modern kids (who see much more violence on any TV show than those cartoons).



I've heard that Dexter is coming to a prime time major network. My 19 year old daughter introduced me to the show and at first I thought how low can you go. A serial killing protagonist and low budget production values! Then I watched a few episodes and I won't say I'm hooked, but I've seen every episode. And I almost feel guilty for buying into the whole premise. 

I never felt guilty when the bad guys threw their empty gun at Superman. And when Lucas McCain shot the bad guy, I knew he deserved what he got - clearly good against evil. But Dexter is a little like voting for the best of the evils. Good evil vs Bad evil.  
Today's kids have little or no pretense of innocence. I became cynical enough on my own without having it reinforced by my childhood TV watching.


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Ooh yeah! Superman and Lucas!


----------



## chmsam

As the Beach Boys (who? -- No, not the Who, the Beach Boys! Hardee har har) once said in some way, shape, or form... did you ever sneak your buddies into the drive-in (huh? wazzat?) and did you ever look stupid getting caught? By the way, there are two drive-in theaters within about 1/2 hour of here.

I want to know the concert line up so can you tell me who's on first? Yes. Yes? Yes is on last. Who? No, they're first. Who? They're on first. Who's on first? Yes. Yes? They're last. Guess who? No, they're on second. Who's on second? No, they're first. Guess who? Yes, Guess Who is on second. I can't guess who's on second. That's right. Yes? They're last. I give up.

10 cent cups of coffee and free refills. The coffee wasn't Starbucks but you could drink it and not lose all the lining from your stomach either. Just little bits.

Gil Scott Heron is popular with my best friend's son, but he's a very unusual kid. That said, anyone remember the song, and especially the ads referenced in it? --

"The revolution will not be right back after a message
about a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution _will_ put you in the driver's seat."

How about FM radio stations that were "underground" stations? They'd play whole album sides (Huh? wazzat?) without interruption and would often advertise the time that they were going to start so you could put in a cassette (huh?) and tape the whole thing (whazzat?). They'd play music that wasn't Top 40 (or Top 30 or Top 20 -- it's like deja vu all over again!). Instead of lyrics like, "Up, up, and away in my beautiful balloon..." you would hear lyrics like "And with a quick flick of the wrist the man was dead,
And his soul left his body and went down down down,
To a place we laughingly refer to as hell,
But none of us will ever go there because we're all far too groovy.." 

(OOooo, the colors, man, the colors...)

Remember Electolux vacuums shaped like a rocket?

Raymond Lowey designs -- everything from toasters to locomotives. If you don't know who this is, google his name and be prepared to be stunned. Very cool stuff even by today's standards of hip.

OK, here's an oldie my mom and dad like tell...

F U N E X?
S, E F X.
F U N E M?
S, E F M.
OK! M N X!
(Get it?)


----------



## chmsam

Ah, for the days of clean jokes, brain teasers, and really bad puns... and this one is all 3.



> F U N E X?
> S, E F X.
> F U N E M?
> S, E F M.
> OK! M N X!
> (Get it?)



Have you any eggs?
Yes, we have eggs.
Have you any ham?
Yes, we have ham.
OK, Ham and eggs!

OK, moving back toward being on topic, but slowly...

Roy Scheider died this weekend ("You're gonna need a bigger boat").

John Fogerty is still touring and wearing flannel shirts.

The 50th Daytona 500 is next weekend. Remember when the race cars actually were cars that could (well almost anyway) be driven on the street? Remember when drivers could tell what was wrong with the car without using telemetry? A good driver could tell which of the eight cylinders wasn't running.

It's cold (no, I mean it's cold!) and windy out tonight. Reminds me of when the cat used to like to sleep on top of the TV set. The tubes generated that much heat.

When it used to get this cold everyone used to wear slippers, sit on the sofa with an hand knitted afghan (or throw) on your lap, and sip hot cocoa.

You knew it was cold by the way the snow crunched under your feet and the porch creaked extra loud as you climbed the stairs.

I got a touch of frostbite tonight (OW! OW! OW!) and am OK now, but that was just from cleaning off the car and driving home as the car warmed up. I miss good mittens (screw the gloves when it gets cold -- Hey, anyone remember the mittens kids wore with the long strap that went up one sleeve and down the other under your coat and had clips that were supposed to help you keep from losing your mittens? but never really did. How many mis-matched mitten pairs did you have?) and had not grabbed a hat because the weather report said it wasn't going to get this cold until tomorrow morning. I want to see a weather reporter who has a window to look out of so I will know who to trust. My fingers got that nice almost bone white and hurt like hell, and reminded me of grade school days. I really do remember walking home from school about four miles at minus 12 degrees F ("Cross my heart and hope to die!" -- when was the last time you heard that?). Remember the smell of cold, wet, hand knitted wool garments? Ever spit on the ground just to hear it crackle as it froze?

Did you ever press a coin into the ice on the inside of a window pane and see the image of the coin? One of the first apartments I had was so poorly insulated and was in the days before thermal panes (and yes, the windows rattled in the wind), that the image lasted for several days. Three blankets and a comforter on the bed plus flannel sheets. Yes, the landlord was a cheap son of a gun.

Remember cold winter morning breakfasts of ham _and_ bacon, eggs (minimum of three), toast, oatmeal with brown sugar and fruit, coffee, milk (whole milk -- no fat free, no 1%, or 2% stuff), and juice? And that was for starters... Ever have to shake up the bottle of milk so that the cream would mix back into the milk?


----------



## jrmcferren

:bump: 

Pagers (I would love to trade in my cell phone for one, cars without A/C, When a TV in a car was a luxury and you loved being able to only make out a few pictures a minute from a broadcast . Bulletin boards without smilies  were something kids will miss.


----------



## chmsam

Toys you had to wind up.

Toys that used no batteries.

Toys that were powered by imagination.

Toys kids were happy with that consisted of (maybe) a couple of sticks and some string.

Toys made from stuff you found in the yard.

Games with no rules or so many rules they changed by the minute. Calvin & Hobbes nailed this concept!


----------



## BassClefJeff84

I'm only 23 years old, but old fashioned.

I make tops on my lathe and give them away to kids all the time. not just random kids I see around, but friends of the family and such. I keep about 5 in my car at all times. Showing kids how to spin tops is an absolute joy. It amazes them how fast they spin, and for how long they will spin. No batteries, no buttons to push, no screen to look at. 

I was born in the wrong generation.


----------



## Burgess

Ahhh, yes. . . .


Had several Duncan Tops as a child (perhaps 12 years old).


Really loved 'em ! :thumbsup:


Once you master the "throw", it's *amazing* how long they spin. 


My brothers and i would "time" each run, to see who
could stay upright the longest !


This was Great Fun ! :twothumbs



Thank you to everybody for posting to this Wonderful Thread !

:wave:
_


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Developing your own negatives, printing them and watching as the image slowly and magically appears on a blank sheet of white paper that's being swished around in a tray of developing solution.


----------



## chmsam

Most kids today will never know about having the mumps or measles which is a very good thing, but do you remember having that puffy face or scratching yourself crazy until even you agreed that an oatmeal bath was a good idea?

Anyone remember Cosby's routine about having his tonsils out?

Remember learning Latin? "Villa est villa Romana. Villa est non parva. Villa est magna."

A friend of mine had an uncle who used to tell about the other use for a Sear's catalog including the trip he made to the little house behind the little house. He was planning to look at the pictures of the female undergarments and uh, well,... "avoid the staples" after he sat and contemplated the state of the world. All was going well as he was getting ready to get comfy and then he saw the cottonmouth...

Remember the tales in Boys Life magazine about scouts saving lives?

Anyone ever get dared to grab hold of an electric fence? Anyone admit to doing it?

Ever get your pants caught on a barbed wire fence?


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Playing "Pong" on a 17" "Big Screen" TV

Finding a Pay or other phone to call in when the beeper went off (even before numeric pagers which themselves are almost ancient)

The WWII guys (who are dying off by the hundreds a day)

The National 55 mph speed limit!!!


----------



## jtr1962

PlayboyJoeShmoe said:


> The National 55 mph speed limit!!!


That's one major reason I never bothered getting a driver's license. By the time it was repealed, I had totally lost interest in driving anyway. When you could bike as fast as you could drive (downhill anyway), why bother?


----------



## gadget_lover

Sleeping on the shelf in the back window (behind the rear seats) of Dad's car on those long summer car trips. Yes, a 6 year old boy could stretch out comfortably on that ledge. The car was a 1940's vintage hudson, if memory serves.

Daniel


----------



## Burgess

Running computer programs in IBM or MS-DOS.


Had to "know" *exactly* what to "say".


Then you had to actually "type" it !


None is this "simply click on a little picture, and it starts".


Computers today are too damn easy ! 

:devil:
_


----------



## TorchBoy

PhotonWrangler said:


> Developing your own negatives, printing them and watching as the image slowly and magically appears on a blank sheet of white paper that's being swished around in a tray of developing solution.


But the smell! :green:



chmsam said:


> Most kids today will never know about having the mumps ...
> ...
> All was going well as he was getting ready to get comfy and then he saw the cottonmouth...
> ...
> Anyone ever get dared to grab hold of an electric fence? Anyone admit to doing it?


Did you know chickenpox is "only" a level one biohazard, but mumps is level three (!) along with anthrax and HIV? (Ebola is level 4.)

Had to look up what a cottonmouth is!

You mean peeing on an electric fence, right?


----------



## BassClefJeff84

chmsam said:


> Remember the tales in Boys Life magazine about scouts saving lives?
> 
> Anyone ever get dared to grab hold of an electric fence? Anyone admit to doing it?


 
The boys life stories that were always on the last page....YES! Funny how almost every story involved a pocket knife.


My old neighbor had a few horses, therfore an electric fence. One day while playing with the bb gun with my older brother, I decided to try and "shoot out" an old rotting trailer tire close to the fence. Well, my guns' valves were old and dry so the pressure was crap. I shot the tire, the bb bounced back just as fast as I shot it, hit my brother in the throat (no wound) which made him instinctivly push me into the electric fence. It was wet and rainy, so I really felt quite the jolt. 

Another thing kids miss out on. Being allowed to have a dang pocket knife. Every climbable tree round my old house had my brother and my initials somewhere on it. My dad has told me that when he was younger in the 50s-60s, HIS dad would ask random strangers..."wanna swap knives?" and without even checking eachothers blade out, they would trade knives no questions asked.


----------



## Monocrom

BassClefJeff84 said:


> .... My dad has told me that when he was younger in the 50s-60s, HIS dad would ask random strangers..."wanna swap knives?" and without even checking eachothers blade out, they would trade knives no questions asked.


 
:huh2:

Yup..... That ain't happening nowadays.


----------



## jrmcferren

:bump::bump:

Just bumping the thread.


----------



## Burgess

They'll never know the MAGIC of using *Stripe *toothpaste !


^
(notice how *white* these teeth are ?) 

_


----------



## loving light

Remember making the tennis ball canon(we used to call it something else,but it is politically incorrect to say now) out of beer can,tape,and lighter fluid.Those were Fun!Joe


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Burgess said:


> They'll never know the MAGIC of using *Stripe *toothpaste !
> 
> 
> ^
> (notice how *white* these teeth are ?)
> 
> _



I always wondered how they got the stripes in there! And only recently I saw a show on Discovery that showed how it's made. Now they've gone and ruined the whole mystique for me.


----------



## Big_Ed

How about mechanical cash registers and adding machines with the lever you pulled down?

This one might have been mentioned, but I can't remember, phone numbers that began with letters, like ZEnith6-5700 or something like that.


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Speaking of things with levers how about:

The Paymaster Check Writer? Something like these:

http://www.paymastertech.com/manu.html


----------



## e2x2e

Wow, this thread is awesome!

I'm only 16, but I do know about/remember quite a bit of things mentioned here, and although I never experienced some of them, I wish I could. To many damn laws nowadays.

I love old TV shows, my favorite of ALL TIME is Sanford and Son. Next is Get Smart, the Honeymooners, The Andy Griffith Show(I love the feeling I get from watching it), and Captain Nice(Anybody know about this one?).

Anyways I think that our whole society is going down the tubes...does anybody even know what respect means anymore?


----------



## riceboy72

I hate to resurrect an old thread, but reading this one really made me smile and remember what it was like to grow up as a kid in the 70's and 80's. It's interesting how certain answers from members really identifies when they grew up. 

I am sad that kids today will not know what a metal lunchcan is, complete with a real thermos, that will forever smell like bananas and sandwiches once it's been used for a few months.

They will never know what it was like to walk to the actual airport gate to see someone off and to meet someone once their plane arrived.

They will never know what it was like to get real food on an airplane, complete with real metal eating utensils, and not having to pay for every little thing on a flight. 

I'm sad that my girlfriend's daughter will never drink from a garden hose, know what it's like to hear the hum of the streetlights turning on and knowing it's time to head home, or what it was like to sit down at the table and have dinner - every night, not just once or twice a week (which is unheard of for some families).

She'll never know what it was like to get a ride home from a teacher because of a missed bus and not have the teacher be accused of something, and she'll not know what it was like to have the card catalog lesson in the library. She'll never know what it was like to write a paper without the internet and that panicked feeling you'd get once you realized the book you needed for your paper was checked out - and it was the only copy.

Kids today will never know what real Saturday morning cartoons were, or what real introductions for tv shows were. Today, they are about ten seconds long and don't introduce the stars. Back when I grew up, some of the introductions were nearly two minutes long. And those theme songs make for some of the most memorable songs when I hear them again.

I love this thread. Pardon me for resurrecting an old one, but I couldn't resist. I'm glad when I grew up when I did, and it really made me realize that the innocence of children is the one thing that can never be lost. Thirty six years later, I remember so much of what's been posted here like it was yesterday. Thanks for the memories.


----------



## Robocop

RockEm SockEm Robots....loved that toy
Stretch Armstrong.....loved it as well
Kung Fu Theater on Saturdays TV line up
Looney Toones
80s Music....so much better than todays I believe
The A-Team...corny but good show at times
Baa Baa Black Sheep Squadron....great old show
The original Twilight Zone
Night Stalker with Darren McGavin...my favorite
Those little square pizzas in the school lunchroom
MTV when it was really music television 

I could go on for hours on this topic and it did bring back some old memories....nice thread to read through.


----------



## The_LED_Museum

When I was ten or eleven, I "inherited" my older brother's tree fort.

It was a rather impressive two-story structure, I believe built between two evergreen trees. If I remember correctly, it even had a crude electrical system that lamps and other relatively low-power appliances could be powered from...don't ask where the electricity came from though, because I never did figure that one out. 

And Juneau AK. (where the tree fort was) is quite rainy, so it's a wonder that nobody got zapped. :sick2:


More stuff from my childhood...

o Paper route in the "bad" part of town (Cedar Park in West Juneau)
o Running away from home (in mid-winter no less!) and taking my violin with me
o School milk in those little 8oz. cartons that always smelled funny but tasted fine
o Watching the Tonight Show (from the mid-1970s) on a black & white television
o Speed Buggy (TV cartoon)
o Color cartoons in the newspaper only on Sundays
o Making "Polish cannons" out of pop cans; these were designed to fire tennis balls using Ronsonol cigerette lighter fluid as the accelerant
o Pop cans with real tabs (that were completely removed) on them
o Beer can hats
o Metal lunchpails that could be "ridden" like a sled to the bus stop (in winter, down a steep, icy street)
o Thermos in said lunchpail that always smelled like sour milk even though milk was never poured into it
o Plastic Halloween masks that always smelled funny - presumably so that you would not wear them to school the next day
o Getting apples and other fruit in your Trick-Or-Treat bag and not having to worry about syringes or razor blades


----------



## LEDMaster2003_V2

Good topic!:twothumbs

Actual print catalogs!

Internet without junk email and pop-ups, Flash, IM, eBay...

Cell phones without text messaging, cameras, mp3 players...

going to the gate at the airport to pick up your friend/family (curse you Al Queda!)

Mice without wheels or other scrolling means. 

Telephones bound with cords!

(I'm surprised Burgess didn't state this) Burgess flashlights/batteries!

(not particularly kids but adults) When there were many brands of smoke detectors to choose from: GE, Pyr-A-Larm, Kwikset, Master Lock, Norelco, Presto, Gilette (yes they made detectors!). Go to a store today and it's just First Alert and Kidde. Of course for those _not_ in the States, you still have many brands to choose from.

(getting there)Stadiums/other venues with original names, not thinks like "SureFire Field" or "Cree Arena".

Back when QVC was CVN (Cable Value Network) and didn't devote most of its airtime to jewelry and fashions.

So many others already mentioned!



chmsam said:


> 7
> The Smothers Brothers ("Mom liked you better... all I got was a chicken")


Still around, but not in mainstream media. They were the headline performers at a recent Spam Museum Jam we had here in Austin, MN



shakeylegs said:


> How about a day long bicycle expedition. Just disappearing for the day and touring unexplored nearby towns.


My sister and her BF just did that last weekend.



jrmcferren said:


> One thing today's kids don't do is listen to long distance AM broadcast stations at night. I love doing that.
> 
> Disclaimer: I'm only 21 years old.



I still do that, although it might be different than what you're referring to. What I do is scan the dial and try to hear stations from other states. From here in MN, I've been able to hear stations in FL, GA, NY, MA(Boston), NC, OH and several others.



PlayboyJoeShmoe said:


> Speaking of things with levers how about:
> 
> The Paymaster Check Writer? Something like these:
> 
> http://www.paymastertech.com/manu.html



We (my mom and dad) actually have something like that.


----------



## flashburn72

sorry double post


----------



## PhotonWrangler

When most things were made out of wood or metal.


----------



## flashburn72

Wild kingdom
romper room 
great space coaster 
h.r puff n stuff
thats incredible
Capt.Kangaroo
Not getting into trouble when u make homemade explosives
being paddled in school
rolling skating rinks, there dying fast
The quater arcade
jonny socko and his giant robot
being taught respect
cliff hangers
Cheech n chong Had to throw them in cuz I get to see them at the filmore on saturday
The live version of speed buggy
The live version of spiderman
SHAZZAM.
yes robocop the little square pizzas. with ketchup no less.
hey remember the live version of capt. America
suckerman
Evil knevial and all his wonderus toys
all the little gas powerd glow plug toys that never really ran right
witch mountain
and all the other disney movies from the day
Tron
kwupie burgers
kwupie dolls
wow I could go on all night
buying a 69 camaro with a 454 muncie rockcrusher posi and no rust for around 1500 dollars
60s 70s 80s early 90s music
john wayne
Thats all for now.


----------



## Burgess

When Visa Card was BankAmericard.



When you could purchase Eveready D-cell batteries
*one-at-a-time*, from a clear-plastic, S-shaped, dispenser.

(at the store's check-out line)



When a COLOR television would attract a crowd !

(even though its colors were quite crappy)

_


----------



## Monocrom

Here's one for after Feb. 2009 ~ Hand-held T.V.s that worked off of analog signals! 

(Mine's going to be a paperweight in about 6 months).


----------



## jtr1962

Monocrom said:


> Here's one for after Feb. 2009 ~ Hand-held T.V.s that worked off of analog signals!
> 
> (Mine's going to be a paperweight in about 6 months).


Mine pretty much hasn't been able to receive anything since 9/11. February 2009 just makes it official.


----------



## Hooked on Fenix

A lack of so many child safety laws. I remember going to parks in the summer with burning hot metal slides. They had a sort of ride in the parks, like a self propelled merry go round. It was a metal, round platform that spun from the center. It had rails placed above the platform to hang on to. How it worked was you grabbed a rail and ran around it in circles until you could barely keep up with it. Then you jumped on and hung on for dear life. It was even more fun if you had someone not riding to continue spinning it. However, there was no brake to stop it. You had to wait for it to stop (hard to do if someone who doesn't like you keeps spinning it) or jump off while it's spinning. Getting on in the first place was dangerous since if you didn't get on in time, you got dragged or hit many times by the rails. I remember when I was young, my brother and I used to put the bottom mattress on the top bunk bed like a cantelever and dive off into a pile of pillows and blankets. Of course, one of us had to sit on the other side of the bed to counterbalance the diving board. I remember getting spanked as a kid if I did something wrong. I learned to hide a thin, hardcover book in my pants so it didn't hurt (hurt my dad's hand though). Now you can't spank your kids. No, you have to give them a timeout (sometimes telling them they can't talk to their friends who got them in trouble)in their room where they have cable T.V., a computer with internet and e-mail access, a DVD player and video games on it, a game system that is also a DVD player (not to mention a regular DVD player), an Ipod with a color T.V., and a cell phone with games, internet access, and unlimited texting. Just try telling the kid they can't watch T.V., play video games, or talk to their friends. It won't work. You can have the doctor kill your kid shortly before birth (abortion), but once they are born, you can't even spank them. Kids today missed out on being able to use a fishing or hunting liscence being cheaper than buying the animal killed. Kids today missed out on being able to kill an animal to eat and not being harrased by someone who thinks killing animals is wrong while eating a McDonald's hamburger. Kids today missed out on having a government that cares more about the people than the animals and the environment. They missed out on cars that were safer because then were made of metal and not aluminum foil. New cars depend on airbags to deploy for the occupants to survive a crash. They're going to miss out on cars that run on gas when their electric car's battery goes dead every 2-3 years. I think kids today missed out on learning to earn money before they spend it. Now even illegal immigrants can get a loan or a credit card. Now most of our financial institutions as well as our government is in a financial crisis. Kids missed out on a home being able to be passed down to the next generation instead of the equity being a substitution for income for the parents. I blame that T.V. ad with the guy throwing a hissy fit yelling, "it's my money and I need it now". Kids today will miss out on Social Security and still have to pay for it most of the way up until retirement. Kids, start saving. Kids today missed out on being able to board a plane without being strip searched and having to take their shoes off. They missed being able to take many things on a plane without being asked why or having their sanity questioned. I have no problem with someone taking nail clippers, a Coleman lantern, lithium batteries, hairspray, or a leaf blower on a plane. They missed out on public transportation being safe. Despite terrorist attacks, drunk pilots, and texting train conductors, we're still being urged to use public transportation to save energy. They'll miss being able to buy a gun and bullets at Kmart. Thanks for nothing, Michael Moore. They'll miss being able to buy a gun and take it home in the same day instead of paying $15 more for a government investigation of their lives and waiting two weeks. They'll miss being able to buy a knife that isn't in clamshell packaging that you need a knife to open. They'll miss watching the news without hearing that the apocalypse is coming. They'll miss out on the days when you could actually throw out your garbage. Now you have to recycle it or go to a recycling center on a Saturday to legally dispose of batteries, light bulbs, or appliances. It's illegal to transport over 125 lbs. of "universal waste" in California without an expensive liscence. That's why no volunteer collection/recyling program has worked. How do you get rid of a non-functional heavy T.V.? Take it apart and send it out in pieces? Rediculous. Kids today will miss out on bagged groceries. Plastic bags are quickly being outlawed in California. Kids will miss out on drinking or smoking on beaches. Those are also being outlawed here. You can be fined for smoking in a car that has a minor in it. They'll miss being able to talk, text message, and check their email on a cell phone while driving. That's mostly a good thing. They'll miss muscle cars and being able to drive fast. They might miss out on air travel. Gas will eventually be gone. Maybe natural gas planes will work, but I can't really see electric, nuclear, solar, or wind power working to power planes. They'll miss out on real sugar in soda and candy. Corn surup has a nasty aftertaste. They'll miss out on hot McDonald's coffee. They'll miss out on unhealthy food that tastes good because of all the stupid people suing restaurants for making them fat. That's like blaming the gun for killing someone when you pulled the trigger. They'll miss out on prayer in schools and being able to freely say God and Jesus without using them as swear words. They'll miss out on half the rights in the Bill of Rights (free speech, freedom of religion, being innocent until proven guilty). They'll miss out on having to have a cop pull them over for running a red light (those cameras are everywhere). They'll miss out on being able to float a check until they have money in their account. They'll miss out on buying something and not having every bill checked to see if it's a counterfeit. (This happens often while my bank keeps giving me Canadian and French quarters in my quarter rolls).


----------



## Monocrom

No wall of text is a match for me. :thumbsup:

Yup, sadly the one thing kids will not miss out on are Safety-Nazis.

But some knives still do come in boxes instead of those awful blister packs. Although you have to go to places like Cabela's or Bass Pro.


----------



## Black Rose

Hooked on Fenix said:


> No, you have to give them a timeout (sometimes telling them they can't talk to their friends who got them in trouble)in their room where they have cable T.V., a computer with internet and e-mail access, a DVD player and video games on it, a game system that is also a DVD player (not to mention a regular DVD player), an Ipod with a color T.V., and a cell phone with games, internet access, and unlimited texting.


This rings a bell with me.

I was a loner growing up, still am to a certain degree. Anyway, I was really into music at the time and had a nice stereo system. I'd spend hours listening to music and just get lost in it.

When I occasionally got myself into trouble, I was always told to go outside instead of my room :devil:


----------



## KC2IXE

Monocrom said:


> No wall of text is a match for me. :thumbsup:
> 
> Yup, sadly the one thing kids will not miss out on are Safety-Nazis.
> 
> But some knives still do come in boxes instead of those awful blister packs. Although you have to go to places like Cabela's or Bass Pro.



The ones I get tend to come in a miss fitting box, with bubble wrap, or paper holding the knife in place, and a nice personalized note. The again, I'm usually ordering a custom these days


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Placing the needle on an album and feeling the anticipation build from the snap, crackle and pop that signals that the music is about to start.


----------



## Big_Ed

Instructions for products printed only in English, not six different languages!


----------



## qwertyydude

Getting lost in the mall, now even 4 year olds have cell phones and text their moms and friends where they are.


----------



## nitesky

Being alone in your own head as a matter of routine.


----------



## JWP_EE

Crystal radios - no battery needed.

EDIT: Whoops missed it listed in post # 29.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

I had a crystal radio also! Built it from a kit and I was amazed that I could listen to radio stations with no power supply. I rigged a long wire antenna that stretched across most of the back yard.


----------



## JWP_EE

My first one was in the shape of a rocket ship. It was tuned by pulling the nose cone up and down. It had a ground wire and an antenna wire. I found I could get the best reception by connecting the ground wire to the hot water radiator and the antenna wire to the little metal finger stop on the old dial phones.


----------



## Diesel_Bomber

Getting in trouble at school, and parents backing up the teachers. Suspension/detention/whatever was like being kissed by a butterfly compared to the completely apocalyptic whoopin' you were going to get from your parents when they found out. Lord help you if you did something so bad your daddy got called away from work to come get you out of school! There were less painful ways to commit suicide. :buddies:


----------



## Monocrom

Diesel_Bomber said:


> Getting in trouble at school, and parents backing up the teachers.


 
True.... But that seems like such a different time. Nowadays you have teachers who blindly enforce silly rules, instead of doing what's best for children. A bit tough to take the side of a teacher who catches a student giving an aspirin to a fellow student, and then reports that student to the Principal for expulsion for violating the school's Zero-Tolerance policy on drug use.


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Agree that very few modern kids will know what a paddle with holes feels like OR a belt from Dad!


----------



## Monocrom

PlayboyJoeShmoe said:


> Agree that very few modern kids will know what a paddle with holes feels like OR a belt from Dad!


 
Nowadays, they'll feel the paddle when they're older; once they start pledging at a college frat-house.


----------



## m16a

PlayboyJoeShmoe said:


> Agree that very few modern kids will know what a paddle with holes feels like OR a belt from Dad!



I'm part of the few I guess. Man, does that really teach you to obey out of fear


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

More SHAME than fear!


----------



## Monocrom

PlayboyJoeShmoe said:


> More SHAME than fear!


 
That depends on who's holding the paddle. :devil:


----------



## Shreknow91

m16a said:


> I'm part of the few I guess. Man, does that really teach you to obey out of fear





Yea... I think I'm the only one of my friends my age that actually got my @$$ whooped when I did something bad... my dad wore a thick belt...


----------



## broadgage

LightInTheWallet said:


> Peanut butter in glass jars, Tooth powder, Leaded gasoline ... LOL just HI PO Zinc batteries.


 
Peanut butter is still sold in glass jars here in the UK, how does it come in the USA? squeeze tubes? tins?


----------



## Monocrom

broadgage said:


> Peanut butter is still sold in glass jars here in the UK, how does it come in the USA? squeeze tubes? tins?


 
Nope. Clear plastic jars. About the same size as the glass ones.


----------



## Hooked on Fenix

Being able to think for a minute without being hassled by people trying to get your money in one of a hundred ways through advertising. Telemarketing phone calls, faxes (I think these are illegal now), T.V. and radio commercials, junk mail, billboards, email ads, Internet popups and banner ads, door to door salesmen, hundreds of credit card offers. We now live in a world with just about every possible way to communicate and many people use this tool to nag us into submission to weasel money out of us. These distractions actually prevent us from communicating normally with family and friends.


----------



## Monocrom

Hooked on Fenix said:


> Being able to think for a minute without being hassled by people trying to get your money in one of a hundred ways through advertising. Telemarketing phone calls, faxes (I think these are illegal now), T.V. and radio commercials, junk mail, billboards, email ads, Internet popups and banner ads, door to door salesmen, hundreds of credit card offers. We now live in a world with just about every possible way to communicate and many people use this tool to nag us into submission to weasel money out of us. These distractions actually prevent us from communicating normally with family and friends.


 
I never understood the logic behind telemarketing. What kind of sad, useless, joke of a business does someone run that calling tons of random strangers is a needed business tactic? I always hear how there are just enough folks interested in a product, that telemarketing is worth it. Well, maybe to the @$$holes who harass folks over and over again until finally told to put the person's number on their do not call list. 

It's literally legalized harassment. I recently told off a telemarketer. I was smart though. If you overtly threaten them _they _can call the cops on _you. _(If you threaten to sue them, that's a different story). At one point, the woman on the other line pointed out that I had no clue what her company does. I pointed out that I knew exactly what her company does.... They harass people! And it's true. 

Imagine if guys did the same thing when they wanted a date. Set up a dialer machine and just cold call every woman in town, every day, until they agreed to go out with you. Yeah, that would be considered creepy, disturbing, stalker-activity. But yet, doing it as a business is considered (at worst) annoying.

When you stop to think about it, telemarketing is a really retarded business practice. For every 1 customer stupid enough to buy the crap a company sells, hundreds just hang up. Not a very efficient way to run a business.


----------



## Alaric Darconville

Big_Ed said:


> Cars with carburetors



Don't forget filing points and using a timing light.

Someone before mentioned color TV when color TV was a novelty. I miss the tube testers they had at K-Mart for those DIYers. 
It seems like everything made today is labled "no user-serviceable parts inside."


----------



## Alaric Darconville

Monocrom said:


> Nope. Clear plastic jars. About the same size as the glass ones.




The GOOD kind (Smucker's) still comes in a glass jar.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Alaric Darconville said:


> Someone before mentioned color TV when color TV was a novelty. I miss the tube testers they had at K-Mart for those DIYers.
> It seems like everything made today is labled "no user-serviceable parts inside."



...and pilot light soldered in place. I miss those days also. It was fun to use that tube tester, watching the tubes heat up and waiting for the tester to pass judgement on the magic glass bottles. :huh:


----------



## Burgess

*using a timing light*


Yes !

I can still remember the " magic " of using a Timing Light

on an engine, for the very first time. (no pun intended)


Very Cool ! ! !





Nowadays, i can accomplish the *very same thing*

by using my Fenix L0D-CE, on medium. 




Oh, and i can remember when (as a kid),

i would buy a new Toothbrush,

and there would be a miniature tube

of Tooth Paste *included*. :wow:



I used to think that was Really Neat ! ! !

:thumbsup:



Yes, i remember using Tooth Powder, also.


It tasted *good*.

:thumbsup:
_


----------



## Alaric Darconville

Burgess said:


> Yes, i remember using Tooth Powder, also.
> 
> 
> It tasted *good*.



You can still get Colgate tooth powder at Wal-Mart... does it still taste as good or has that technology been lost to the ages?

Another thing about as rare as a telephone with a dial (and not those stupid phones with the touch-tone buttons in a dial pattern) -- razors that used the double-edged blades. (Maybe someone already mentioned those before, though....)


----------



## KD5XB

Morse code on 20 meters.


----------



## jrmcferren

KD5XB said:


> Morse code on 20 meters.


Don't forget AM on 2 Meters.


----------



## KD5XB

AM on 2 meters!!!

How about King Spark?


----------



## JohnR66

Chopper style bicycles.
Cassette tapes - Oh wait - I still have/use them.
Turntable and records - Still play them.
Music that was worth a darn.
Pong and Atari VCS
10 cent candy bars and stamps
Mr Rogers & Sesame Street (of the 70's)
Film cameras
The smell of auto exhaust before the catalytic converter was used.
The wild HP engine ratings of cars before they went to ASE net rating.

Technology has improved things markedly over the years, but one standout to the consumer is the automobile. No more tuneup every few thousand miles, much safer and they don't rust out in 4 years like they did in the 70's.


----------



## jrmcferren

> TV Stations that go off the Air at night


I FOUND ONE!!! Okay, they leave their transmitter on and transmit a Test pattern, tone, and station Identification, but practically they are still off air. The Station is WATM 23 In Johnstown, Pa.


----------



## russthetoolman

Oh come on!!!!
What about playing hide and go seek in the whole neighborhood and no one ever bitching that you are hiding in their yard, and the joy of using anyone's hose to get a drink of water was normal, OHHHH and the BB gun fights with the Red Riders and oh ya, GALVANIZED STEEL trashcan lids!!!!
When I took an inactive hand grenade to school for show and tell, cap guns at recess for cowboys and indians....Throwing knives on the playground too, I grew up in Alaska and I am thankful for that...
Oh Ya!!!


----------



## [email protected]

CM said:


> My DLP HDTV uses rabbit ears concealed behind a built-in cabinet. It was an upgrade from a paper clip antenna
> 
> Back to the topic, I have two big boxes of LP's stowed away (don't ask me why I still have them) I showed some of the albums to my 11 year old who got a kick out of the "antiques". I tried explaining to her that the album art was as much as part of the package as the music contained within the grooves of the LP. Today many kids take their CD's and throw the package away after the convert the music to 128kb (blechhhh!) MP3's. Boy I wish I had an old McIntosh tube amplifier for show and tell...



You can get a Mcintosh tube amp...

in the form of a thousand dollar ipod dock


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Speaking of cars... a high-beam switch that was mounted on the floor and operated by pressing down with your foot. That was a pretty dumb idea as that switch tended to rust out from salty water dripping from the driver's foot!


----------



## Monocrom

PhotonWrangler said:


> Speaking of cars... a high-beam switch that was mounted on the floor and operated by pressing down with your foot. That was a pretty dumb idea as that switch tended to rust out from salty water dripping from the driver's foot!


 
Yup, I was speaking of cars.... until my long, thought-out, post vanished.

Oh well, here's the short version:

*Cars that actually use a metal key to turn on the ignition.*

If this post survives, perhaps I'll edit it with the reasons why Push-button start is a retarded concept for use on cars sold to the public.


----------



## Morelite

jrmcferren said:


> I FOUND ONE!!! Okay, they leave their transmitter on and transmit a Test pattern, tone, and station Identification, but practically they are still off air. The Station is WATM 23 In Johnstown, Pa.


 It is only off-air for 1/2 a hour, wonder why they do that.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

It sounds like they use that half-hour for the engineers to run performance tests and make various adjustments. There's a lot of useful information in those test patterns that facilitates tests like frequency response, overshoot (over-peaked video amps), gamma, black level, white clip/knee level, etc...


----------



## Flying Turtle

My high school had a rifle team and a shooting range in the school's basement. No longer, of course.

Geoff


----------



## Burgess

Interesting . . . .


As a boy, i always wondered why those TV test patterns

would often feature the *portrait of an American Indian* !


Can you shed any light on this ?


----------



## Empath

Monocrom said:


> Yup, I was speaking of cars.... until my long, thought-out, post vanished.



It didn't vanish. Being a topic to itself, and limited in its relation to this thread, it was transformed into its own thread.


----------



## Big_Ed

PhotonWrangler said:


> Speaking of cars... a high-beam switch that was mounted on the floor and operated by pressing down with your foot. That was a pretty dumb idea as that switch tended to rust out from salty water dripping from the driver's foot!



Yeah, but at least a new switch could be purchased cheaply at an auto parts store, and you could install it yourself in just a few minutes. Try doing that with a switch that's part of the turn signal/windshield wiper/cruise control stick. Ridiculous!


----------



## 65535

One time I was talking to my band section leader a senior in auto class (about 4 years ago. Tuba section). We were talking about cars. I brought up that not all cars used fuel pumps. He was certain that all cars had fuel pumps and fuel injection. I made the point that not all cars need or had fuel pumps. He said to me. What is there a midget blowing fuel into the cylinders under the hood. I guess the cocky senior never heard of a gravity fed carb.


----------



## Monocrom

Empath said:


> It didn't vanish. Being a topic to itself, and limited in its relation to this thread, it was transformed into its own thread.


 
Thanks for the heads-up.


----------



## jrmcferren

Morelite said:


> It is only off-air for 1/2 a hour, wonder why they do that.


I guess lack of programming or something. Either that or they run tests on the transmitter. I'm not usually up in the morning, nor do I usually turn to that channel. I wonder if WWCP does it, just at a different time. I did watch the sign on, I liked it because I learned a lot about the station in very little time. I didn't know that it was based in Altoona, nor did I know their power output. Oh BTW, my location still says Waynesboro, because I'm only out here for four months this time. I know WITF in Harrisburg used to sign off during the 90's I don't know if they still do or not.


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

CPF before it became WHATEVER it is now!

I'm not sure what I'm seeing but it is differing for SURE!


----------



## will

65535 said:


> One time I was talking to my band section leader a senior in auto class (about 4 years ago. Tuba section). We were talking about cars. I brought up that not all cars used fuel pumps. He was certain that all cars had fuel pumps and fuel injection. I made the point that not all cars need or had fuel pumps. He said to me. What is there a midget blowing fuel into the cylinders under the hood. I guess the cocky senior never heard of a gravity fed carb.



Every CAR I have ever seen has a fuel pump, some are electric, some mechanical. All pump fuel to the carb, fuel injectors, whatever. Mechanical pumps were driven off a cam lobe in the engine. There is enough fuel in the carb bowls to get the engine started. 

Unless there is a gas tank above the carb, you have to have a pump of some sort.

( not talking about motorcycles, lawn mowers, or other devices where the tank is level or above the engine )


----------



## 65535

will said:


> Unless there is a gas tank above the carb, you have to have a pump of some sort.




Hence the gravity fed reference.


----------



## will

65535 said:


> Hence the gravity fed reference.



What kind of car?


----------



## bretti_kivi

my daughter has no idea what a fixed line telephone is - we simply don't have one. Mobiles and Internet. What do you need a phone for?

Bret


----------



## Nitroz

Climbing Trees
Wax Coke bottle candies
Mini bikes
Jumping over your friends as they lay under the bike ramp 
Hide and Go seek
flashlight tag
Staying outside for hours with friends and playing in the yard
Taking lots of straws after eating at the Varsity and then shooting spitballs at cars from the big back seat of a station wagon that had the big roll down window.
The Ice cream truck that came through the neighborhood every day
Imitating the tarzan swing from trees

And who has done this one?
Pretending to count pennies just to make the Magnavox TV change stations.:devil:


----------



## bullfrog

How about dodgeball and cap guns?

Kids these days are SOFT.


----------



## bretti_kivi

I will start teaching mine to climb trees this summer, she should be pretty good, too. The bike trail I want her to plan and help build. If there isn't a jump, I will be disappointed  She will get taught this year how to light fires, too; we started with saw handling last year and I think we might do some small axe stuff.. but we can't do that if her younger cousin is around because he wants to emulate and the age difference is 3years.

Bret


----------



## NonSenCe

plenty of things i have read here apply.. 

but i believe it was Stephen Fry (Jeeves of jeeves and wooster tv show) whom said "what i miss most of my childhood is my knees".. 

u know as a kid you are dependant of your knees, u hug them and smell them, look how funnily green grass stains them and all those little pieces of rubble you pick out of them when you have fallen, u look at scraches on them, and then pick the scabs off them, and watch how scartissue is grown on them. learn to put a bandaid on them on your own after hundred times watching your mom blowing the boo-boo away.

yes, im on a very weird and nostalgic mood. hahah

tv you need to get up and turn a channel and choose of 2 or 3 channels that stop broadcasting at 10pm. PONG- i still have it. will clean it and play it again soon! c64 games that took 15minutes to load and begin playing, computers that took the same time to start. tube-radios (my sister gave one as xmas present, oh how much i rejoiced!) glass cola bottles. cell phones that were mobile phones.. i mean too big to carry with you, only usable in mobiles! land line telephone and everything it meant if you ringed once and no one answered you were ok with it "guess he is out..i call tomorrow then" nowdays cellphone is supposed to be with you everywhere and should answer everytime it beeps or atleast call right back! no thanks. mines in silent and i screen my calls thoroughly. 

and heitz ketchup in glassjar! oh the sound of knife clinking against the glassof the jar as you tried to scoop the very last drops of the ketchup!


----------



## nitesky

These postings brought back a lot of good memories. But I cannot help thinking of what todays kid's will be thinking in 30 or 40 years when they discuss the same subject. Without going into today's troubles, today's kids missed out on polio, and other not so fun things. 

Back to the good memories. Riding in the back of a pickup truck while sharing a Coke with your family or friends. Watching a NASA launch with a sense of wonder. Jiggling the TV antenna while someone yelled out whether or not the reception improved.


----------



## Nitroz

After reading most of this thread I have to give a *"HUGE"* thanks to Big_ED for the great trip down memory lane. Ohhh, the good ole' days!


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Burgess said:


> Interesting . . . .
> 
> 
> As a boy, i always wondered why those TV test patterns
> 
> would often feature the *portrait of an American Indian* !
> 
> 
> Can you shed any light on this ?



There's a great writeup on the test pattern here, although it doesn't specifically mention why an indian head was chosen. We can draw some safe assumptions, though - all of the lines, circles and wedges on the chart are simple line art. This is perfect for performing geometric corrections of the scanning beam's deflection pattern, but no so good for rendering actual faces with any sense of realism. So a photo (well, a _drawing_) was included which featured both intricate detail as well as gray-scale gradations in the face, allowing the engineer to evaluate tonal characteristics as well as geometric distortions.

The original indian head test pattern art was produced way back in 1938 and it's original implementation was for a monoscope. After the RCA building was shut down, a construction worker found the original artwork in a dumpster and eventually sold it to Chuck Pharis, a tv historian, collector and curator of his own broadcast museum. It's an interesting story!

Nowadays most large TV stations can perform a lot of their transmitter measurements remotely via telemetry, so the need for the traditional test pattern has dimished somewhat. Test patterns are still used in tv studios though, as cameras are cranky things and need to be calibrated on a regular basis.


----------



## Big_Ed

Nitroz said:


> After reading most of this thread I have to give a *"HUGE"* thanks to Big_ED for the great trip down memory lane. Ohhh, the good ole' days!



You're welcome! I just started this thread, and everyone else is keeping it alive. I thank everyone who has added to this thread. It truly is a wonderful stroll down memory lane. I supplemented this journey by searching youtube for videos featuring retro things like old commercials and the like. (Seeing the Flintstones smoke Winstons just cracks me up!) Man what a waste of time....but a lot of fun!


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Amen on the Knees! My right one is mighty iffy these days!


----------



## Burgess

Thank you, PhotonWrangler !


:thumbsup:



Oh, by the way . . . .


I'm not sure, and i may be wrong,

but that cute Avatar of yours

always reminds me of a Ground Hog.



Therefore, enjoy yer' Special Day !





Note: 

If it is NOT a ground hog, well then . . . .


Nevermind


:nana:

_


----------



## JetskiMark

That avatar is the dramatic chipmunk.


----------



## Cydonia

bullfrog said:


> How about dodgeball and cap guns?
> 
> Kids these days are SOFT.




The coming Depression will toughen them up. In fact, it will solve most societal ills when you start to think about it. Obesity, frivolous spending, materialism, greed & avarice, sloth, laziness etc.,


----------



## Monocrom

Cydonia said:


> The coming Depression will toughen them up. In fact, it will solve most societal ills when you start to think about it. Obesity, frivolous spending, materialism, greed & avarice, sloth, laziness etc.,


 
Don't take this the wrong way, but you're an optimist.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

JetskiMark said:


> That avatar is the dramatic chipmunk.



Actually a prairie dog, but so what? They're all cute.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Burgess said:


> Oh, by the way . . . .
> 
> 
> I'm not sure, and i may be wrong,
> 
> but that cute Avatar of yours
> 
> always reminds me of a Ground Hog.
> 
> 
> 
> Therefore, enjoy yer' Special Day !



Hmm... now I've got the Pennsylvania Polka echoing in the back of my head... :laughing:


----------



## Hooked on Fenix

bullfrog said:


> How about dodgeball and cap guns?
> 
> Kids these days are SOFT.



Most kids are soft, but not the ones I know. As a karate instructor, I know some pretty tough kids. These kids do things like paintballing, hiking, and breaking bricks with their bare hands for fun, and that's just the girls. Some kids I know have dreams of being in the Olympics or of joining the military. One young girl walked the length of a Marathon at last year's Relay for Life. 

Most kids are soft today because they always get what they want and their parents get in trouble if they spank them. They get spoiled because they aren't taught well enough that there are consequences for their actions. Parents of the kids I teach usually want their kids to be disiplined if they do something wrong so that they learn about responsibility and respect. If they do wrong, they get pushups. They learn how to behave early in life and are better for it when they grow up. They are taught that if you want to acheive anything in life, it takes time and hard work. Effort is required to make it to black belt or to succeed in anything else in life.


----------



## gallagho

When Stephen Fry said "what i miss most of my childhood is my knees".. He probably meant being able to see them


----------



## KC2IXE

gallagho said:


> When Stephen Fry said "what i miss most of my childhood is my knees".. He probably meant being able to see them



Or BEND them. When you get old and stiff...


----------



## NonSenCe

heh i awaited for someone to pick up the knee-thing.. hhehe

and yes.. seeing them would be nice and ability to trust them too. that fits me well, thats why i liked the quote. it is smart with so many ways 


what todays kids missed out: a film that is cut manually by a person with scissors/cutters not by computer. and what that adds up to is a film with a bit slower pace. not like music videos and films today that seem to be just collection of a Strobe flashes of images. no time to focus and SEE whats show and process it. you just think that you saw something and fill in the blanks. 

thats why a real man made stunt is cool vs computer things. realism missing. and computer stunts are almost everytime cut so fast, so you wouldnt see the crappy quality.


----------



## Big_Ed

NonSenCe said:


> what todays kids missed out: a film that is cut manually by a person with scissors/cutters not by computer. and what that adds up to is a film with a bit slower pace. not like music videos and films today that seem to be just collection of a Strobe flashes of images. no time to focus and SEE whats show and process it. you just think that you saw something and fill in the blanks.
> 
> thats why a real man made stunt is cool vs computer things. realism missing. and computer stunts are almost everytime cut so fast, so you wouldnt see the crappy quality.



There are still tons of theaters that use film. I worked at a drive-in theater last summer and one of the things I learned was how to be a projectionist, which included how to splice film. It's crazy how much a quality splicer costs. It'll be quite a while before films are no longer produced on actual film stock. Too many people/companies are not pulling for digital, like film manufacturers, transportation companies who deliver the films each week, and not to mention the theater owners who can't afford the many tens of thousands of dollars it costs for the digital equipment. Film's not dead yet!


----------



## Eugene

NonSenCe said:


> heh i awaited for someone to pick up the knee-thing.. hhehe
> 
> and yes.. seeing them would be nice and ability to trust them too. that fits me well, thats why i liked the quote. it is smart with so many ways
> 
> 
> what todays kids missed out: a film that is cut manually by a person with scissors/cutters not by computer. and what that adds up to is a film with a bit slower pace. not like music videos and films today that seem to be just collection of a Strobe flashes of images. no time to focus and SEE whats show and process it. you just think that you saw something and fill in the blanks.
> 
> thats why a real man made stunt is cool vs computer things. realism missing. and computer stunts are almost everytime cut so fast, so you wouldnt see the crappy quality.



film vs computer is not the reason why todays movies are so fast, they have to make them fast because they try to include everything they can in the movies. For example an action movie has to have a comedy scene, look at even the star ward movies, why did the newer episodes have to have slapstick comedy scenes, one was with the droids, it added nothing to the movie but was there for all the kids whose parents grew up watching the older three movies and drug their kids to the newer three. Why does Disney slip jokes that only adults or older kids will get, ones that are over the heads of the audience the movie was designed for. Movies now are made to maximize profit which means they don't want to leave out any demographic so they will add to the scripts parts for any one group that was missed originally. So to include all these extra scenes not to mention the product placements they have to speed things up. Then of course newer generations have very little patience, if the drive though doesn't hand us our food in 25 seconds we complain, if a movie slows down for two minutes we get bored and start texting our friends. Movies have to go faster these days no matter what the medium they are on.


----------



## KC2IXE

Eugene said:


> ...snip... if the drive though doesn't hand us our food in 25 seconds we complain, ...snip....



What bugs me is when you get a SLOW fast food place. I've gone to various "fast" food places over the years that by the time you wait in line, order, get your order, get a table, and eat, it took 50 minutes. If I had gone down the block to the diner, I could have gotten real food in less time


----------



## Monocrom

KC2IXE said:


> What bugs me is when you get a SLOW fast food place. I've gone to various "fast" food places over the years that by the time you wait in line, order, get your order, get a table, and eat, it took 50 minutes. If I had gone down the block to the diner, I could have gotten real food in less time


 
Oh, I can do better than that. There's a certain fast food place, in a certain part of Long Island that not only has all of the above, but you get to deal with Stoners who come up uninvited to your table. Along with pimps and their "ladies," coming in to grab a bite to eat.... and a drunken senior citizen challenging you and your friends to a game of basketball at 3am, because he thinks all of you are "soft."

Yeah, that's one thing I hope kids miss out on.


----------



## KC2IXE

Monocrom said:


> Oh, I can do better than that. There's a certain fast food place, in a certain part of Long Island that not only has all of the above, but you get to deal with Stoners who come up uninvited to your table. Along with pimps and their "ladies," coming in to grab a bite to eat.... and a drunken senior citizen challenging you and your friends to a game of basketball at 3am, because he thinks all of you are "soft."
> 
> Yeah, that's one thing I hope kids miss out on.



White Castle, Hempstead?


----------



## Monocrom

KC2IXE said:


> White Castle, Hempstead?


 
Ha ha! Yes!! 

Harold & Kumar would have had a much more exciting adventure had they gone to *that *White Castle. :lolsign:


----------



## KC2IXE

Monocrom said:


> Ha ha! Yes!!
> 
> Harold & Kumar would have had a much more exciting adventure had they gone to *that *White Castle. :lolsign:



I went to tech school for electronics in Hempstead. Only went into the White Castle at night once - was on a trip home in Flushing from Farmingdale via local roads

Our general take was "wait till we get to the one in Bayside"


----------



## Light Sabre

Oh, I just love this thread, brought back so many memories. Here are a few that weren't mentioned:

5 digit phone numbers. Ours was 4-2033. Remember when they changed to 7. I was probably around 8 yrs old.
Using playing cards and clothes pins on your bicycles wheels so that it sounded cool and other kids would look at ya.
My mom had an old washing machine that had the rollers on top to squeeze all the excess water out. You had to do it by hand. Then hang the clothes on the clothes line to dry.
The water bottle for ironing, I still have the one from my childhood. Don't remember what bottle of soda was used, but I'm sure it's not around any more.
Remember when microwave ovens first came out. 
NIXIE readout tubes.
Remote controlled airplanes that had the 2 wires and hand controller. I wasn't very good at it. I think most landings were the crash variety.
I remember when the intersate highway system was built. Was built so that the military could use it in time of war or emergency. Wide enough to land a military jet plane.
**** Tracy comics.
When the World Book or Britanica encyclopedia salesmen would come to your door and sell you a set of encyclopedias. 
My dad put seat belts in our cars as soon as seat belts came out. I helped him install them. The company that made them was in town and we drove over there and picked them up.
The Mr. Softie ice ream man driving up or down the block. Can still hear that "ding".
Walking a few blocks to the drugstore with a note from my mom and I would bring her home some cigarettes.
Going to Radio Shack and getting my free battery every month.
Man From U.N.C.L.E tv show.
Bonanza tv show.
Green Hornet tv show with Kato (Bruce Lee).
The Avengers tv show. Loved to watch Emma Peel kick butt.
Saving software that you wrote on audio cassettes.

to: jrmcferren. Here in Boulder they have a ham radio fest for kids called Radio Active Kids. Sets up at a local church 2 or 3 times a year. They have some pretty tall temporary antennas set up. Quite a few too.


----------



## Monocrom

KC2IXE said:


> I went to tech school for electronics in Hempstead. Only went into the White Castle at night once - was on a trip home in Flushing from Farmingdale via local roads
> 
> Our general take was "wait till we get to the one in Bayside"


 
Oh I've eaten at that one several times. It was a bit crappy several years ago, but they really improved it by a whole helluva lot. It's actually a decent place to eat now. You no longer spend what feels like hours to get your food. No longer watching as people who ordered after you, get their's first. 

Crappy service is a good thing for the kiddies to miss out on. :thumbsup:


----------



## Burgess

Nice job, Light_Sabre !

:thumbsup:


I can also remember 5-digit telephone numbers.


Ours was 2-1424


When i was perhaps 8 years old,

they added a " 96 " in front of it.





Oh, and for a Long Time yet . . . .


If you wanted to call Long Distance,

you had to dial the Operator,

and *Tell Her* the number you wanted to call.


--- And ---


You *also* had to tell her YOUR NUMBER ! ! !




BTW . . .

My mother actually WON a set of World Book encyclopedias

when i was 4-and-a-half years old. ( 1957 issue )

She was VERY HAPPY, cuz' it would be an advantage for us.

(my brother was (and still is) one year older than i ) 


Certainly, we would NEVER have been able to BUY them. 


I can *still remember* when the case of 'em were delivered.

Even though, naturally, i hadn't yet learned to read.


Well, those encyclopedias were _*worth their weight in gold*_,
all through grade school, and high school.


We never had to "go to the Library" for research,
like all of the _other_ students.

We were "privileged" to have our very own set ! 


Doesn't this sound incredibly "dated" now ?




I really *LOVED* those books !

:kiss:

_


----------



## will

Monocrom said:


> Oh I've eaten at that one several times. It was a bit crappy several years ago, but they really improved it by a whole helluva lot. It's actually a decent place to eat now. You no longer spend what feels like hours to get your food. No longer watching as people who ordered after you, get their's first.
> 
> Crappy service is a good thing for the kiddies to miss out on. :thumbsup:



That White Castle has been rebuilt a few times over the years, There is now a drive through window which is nice to use late at night. It is much better than it used to be....


----------



## jrmcferren

To Light Sabre: Okay, The guy that runs that club came into our holiday meal for our radio club to talk about their children's club. I am slightly familiar with the youth amateur club in Bolder.


----------



## Hooked on Fenix

Watching the Super Bowl on the big screen in church. After that "wardrobe malfunction", churches stopped showing the game to avoid future problems.

I miss having ice cream trucks driving around. With the high cost of gas, now all we get are ice cream carts being pushed around with an annoying bell ringing. 

Kids today missed out on the days where simply locking the car door deterred thieves. Now, they hack through steering wheels to remove the Club, throw out the Low Jack, disarm the alarm, or hotwire it, and if they can't steal the car, they break the window and steal anything of value. My new car has to have a special disablizer key to start the engine so thieves can't hotwire the car.


----------



## KD5XB

Light Sabre said:


> 5 digit phone numbers. Ours was 4-2033. Remember when they changed to 7. I was probably around 8 yrs old.



Ours was 4-7040, although in reality it was EXpress4-7040. We always just said "4" because the whole town was the same exchange.



> The water bottle for ironing, I still have the one from my childhood. Don't remember what bottle of soda was used, but I'm sure it's not around any more.


I seem to recall it was a standard Coke bottle -- the stoppers were sold in grocery stores, and I think I saw one not more than 2 or 3 years ago, still for sale in the grocery store!



> NIXIE readout tubes.


Darn! I didn't think anybody but me would remember those darn things!



> My dad put seat belts in our cars as soon as seat belts came out. I helped him install them. The company that made them was in town and we drove over there and picked them up.



"Buckle up for safety
"Buckle up!
"Buckle up for safety
"Always buckle up!"



> Walking a few blocks to the drugstore with a note from my mom and I would bring her home some cigarettes.


I guess I was abused! I remember my dad's cigarettes cost 55 cents a pack, and Old Crow was about $5 a bottle -- and when I was about 6 years old, I was running inside the store to pick them up for him!



> Man From U.N.C.L.E tv show.



Open channel D please...



> Bonanza tv show.


Whadda ya talkin' about??? Isn't that one still on? 



> Green Hornet tv show with Kato (Bruce Lee).



Didja' know that the Green Hornet is the grandson of the nephew of the Lone Ranger? What IS the proper term for that -- great-nephew or something???


----------



## Monocrom

Going to the post office to buy a book of stamps, and actually getting a small book of stamps.... Instead of a bookmark covered with stickers on both sides. 

The book is far better for tossing into a pants pocket. Especially if you're headed to work right after leaving the post office. Unlike the open bookmark, the covers of the book did a good job of protecting your stamps.


----------



## Flying Turtle

Speaking of stamps, I can still remember a purple 4 cent stamp with Lincoln's face on it. Think I used it on my first letters.

Geoff


----------



## Alaric Darconville

Light Sabre said:


> 5 digit phone numbers. Ours was 4-2033. Remember when they changed to 7. I was probably around 8 yrs old.



Up until 1986 or so, we had 4-digit phone numbers in the little Oklahoma town I went to high school in. To call one of the nearby cities that was in a different exchange in the same area code, it was just the 7-digit exchange/station combination. However, some of those other towns might have been long distance-- you just had to know which ones were and weren't. Only when dialing outside the area code would we need to dial the 1 and the rest of the 10-digit area code, exchange, and station number. 

After that time, they upgraded the system to accept touch-tone dialing, and you could no longer dial someone in town by just the station number. We still had a few party lines scattered about, though...


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

As far back as I can remember we had phone numbers like PA9-xxxxx.

Than we could just dial 7 digits for a long time. Finally the 10 digit thing hit.

And try dialing up here where I live. It almost never fails "you do/don't have to dial 1 (whether I did or didn't.)

I always just use my cell unless dialing a 1-800 number.

Faintly remember party line at my Aunts place up in the sticks back then....


----------



## PhotonWrangler

I remember the way telephones used to sound before Electronic Switching Systems made their debut. Most sounds were produced mechanically using spinning discs or drums. You'd dial a number and hear a series of clicks, clunks and pops while the stepper motors moved around, closing various relay contacts to route the call.


----------



## Big_Ed

PhotonWrangler said:


> I remember the way telephones used to sound before Electronic Switching Systems made their debut. Most sounds were produced mechanically using spinning discs or drums. You'd dial a number and hear a series of clicks, clunks and pops while the stepper motors moved around, closing various relay contacts to route the call.



I was a senior in high school (1990) when the local phone company here made the changeover to todays familiar sounds. I mentioned to a couple other kids that the dial tone sounded different, and they thought it was funny that I noticed. At that time, my parents still had a rotary dial phone as the main phone in the house, and had that one for a few more years. They still don't have caller ID or call waiting though! I couldn't live without those!


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

I pretty much detest call waiting.

Caller ID and assigned ring tones are the cats meow however!


----------



## KD5XB

Anybody else remember buying one or two stamps at a time, to fill a book with them, so you could exchange the book for a $25 savings bond?


----------



## Flying Turtle

KD5XB said:


> Anybody else remember buying one or two stamps at a time, to fill a book with them, so you could exchange the book for a $25 savings bond?



I remember. Used to do this all the time in elementary school. Seems like $18.75 in 25 cent stamps would get you that $25 bond when the book was filled. Of course, the bond didn't mature for something like seven years.

Geoff


----------



## Monocrom

KD5XB said:


> Anybody else remember buying one or two stamps at a time, to fill a book with them, so you could exchange the book for a $25 savings bond?


 
I can only meet you half-way. There are still vending machines in larger post offices that dispense a variety of stamps.... including an option to buy one, single, stamp.

At the smaller post offices, you can request a business-length envelope with 1st class postage already printed on it.


----------



## KD5XB

Oh no, they weren't POSTAGE stamps, they were SAVINGS stamps. Lick & stick, just like old postage stamps, but not good for postage, only for savings bonds.


----------



## KD5XB

See http://www.investordictionary.com/definition/savings+stamps.aspx


----------



## Monocrom

Oh! Even some adults are missing out on Savings Stamps.


----------



## jusval

this_is_nascar said:


> Yes, it's true. The kids of today are missing out on many things that folks from my generation had. I'll add my list, however I took a different spin with my answers. Here's what they're missing in no particular order.
> 
> -- (2) parents.
> -- rules.
> -- discipline.
> -- respect for others and for personal property.
> -- the worth of a dollar.
> 
> I'm sure I'll come up with more as this thread continues.


 
*+1 on that!*


----------



## TigerhawkT3

My dad got a watch as a gift today. It is an ordinary analog watch... and he didn't know what to do with it. He literally didn't know how to set it. This leads me to believe that today's kids are probably missing out on analog watches, and if they're not right now, they likely will be soon.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

I heard a survey on the radio recently that said most young folks don't even use watches any more - they get the time from their cellphones. which seems ok I guess, unless you're driving.  

Which raises another point about things that have fallen by the wayside - peace and quiet, an absence of 24x7 electronic stimulus, the ability to be alone with your thoughts and enjoy the moment.


----------



## Burgess

Revolving Doors.


Are these still used anymore ?


As a child, i always thought they were pretty neat.


But, also, they could be *dangerous* !




_


----------



## Big_Ed

Burgess said:


> Revolving Doors.
> 
> 
> Are these still used anymore ?
> 
> 
> As a child, i always thought they were pretty neat.
> 
> 
> But, also, they could be *dangerous* !
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _



I see them all the time in Chicago. And while on the subject, who hasn't let a friend go through first and then suddenly stopped the door from rotating, trapping that person inside?


----------



## jtr1962

PhotonWrangler said:


> I heard a survey on the radio recently that said most young folks don't even use watches any more - they get the time from their cellphones. which seems ok I guess, unless you're driving.
> 
> Which raises another point about things that have fallen by the wayside - peace and quiet, an absence of 24x7 electronic stimulus, the ability to be alone with your thoughts and enjoy the moment.


So true. Although I don't own a cell phone so I can enjoy peace and quiet when I'm out, I've noticed that having a PC means the Internet is constantly beckoning me. Instead of maybe relaxing when I'm done doing work related stuff I'll start checking emails, PMs, posting on forums, reading up on the latest developments, etc. I kind of long for the time when we all weren't so connected. The Internet is wonderful, but it also seems incredibly addicting. Then again, I suppose before the Internet many people just rushed to their TVs instead, and their radios before that. Maybe cell phones are the modern day gadget which really separates us from those in the past. If you own one, you literally have no peace anywhere or anytime. And that's exactly the reason I'll never own one. When I'm out, I'm OUT. Anyone wanting to reach me just has to wait until I'm back. It's not like I'm a doctor or otherwise so important that I need to be available all the time. That's really what it is-too many people are making themselves far too available to friends, parents, employers, etc. with their cell phones.


----------



## LuxLuthor

Flying Turtle said:


> I remember. Used to do this all the time in elementary school. Seems like $18.75 in 25 cent stamps would get you that $25 bond when the book was filled. Of course, the bond didn't mature for something like seven years.
> 
> Geoff



I remember the loads of S&H Green Stamps my mom would get from the grocery & other stores, and having to lick and paste them into booklets. If we later got something for them, I at least felt like I worked for it.

Now the program somehow survived as this lame online greenpoints program.


----------



## Robocop

Hooked On Fenix thank you for the well thought post and while I agree with much of your thoughts the post will more likely spin this thread into an argument. I feel this thread is intended more towards light hearted experiences children missed out on rather than the often debated issues you spoke of.

Again I appreciate your thoughts and can agree with your opinions however those topics are better suited for Underground discussions as tempers usually get heated. Sorry to do it however I feel it is best to delete your last post and wanted to explain to you as to why. Thanks again and I hope you can see my point on this.


----------



## LuxLuthor

There were some pink/red tablets you had to chew in school and stained your teeth that showed something about how well you brushed your teeth. That was a most peculiar taste.

It was normal everywhere to get fireworks on the 4th of July, including cherry bombs, M-80's, bottle rockets, Black Cats...and ladyfingers by the gross. You thought it was great that everyone was shooting them off in their own yards at all hours. But they always stopped out of common consideration when everyone went to bed. I think there were a lot of common things sold by the gross (144).

When it was normal for everyone to wear "hand me down" clothes.

Zippy monkey doll in red suspenders and dark yellow shirt.

Lassie, Sky King, Rin Tin Tin, when Ron Howard was Opie on The Andy Griffith Show

Annette and a bunch of other Mousecateers

When you believed *Father Knows Best* was a reality show.

When there were only 3 stations

Metal tinsel on Christmas Trees, and that funny smelling white "snow" that you would spray on the bottom inside of windows to simulate piled up snow on the ledge...and had a helluva time getting it off later.

The process of making colored easter eggs. Occasionally a raw egg would get through the process. 

Losing your roller skate key.

Remember summer camp songs forever.

Finding actual flint Indian arrowheads.

Building tree forts. Playing cut-throat games of Risk & Monopoly...with the real wooden & metal pieces.

Collecting comics, pennies, stamps.

BB guns. .22 rifles

Sending away for things on the back of comics that were never quite what you thought it would be--especially the Sea Monkeys. The Adams magic tricks pages, and science projects on other pages. Something about bullies kicking sand in your face at the beach leading into Charles Atlas ads.

Being upset when comics went from 10 to 12 to 15 cents. Something was wrong in the world.

Actually one satisfying purchase was the Footlocker of 100 piece soldier toys. Perfect fodder for the BB Gun.

Wooden slingshots. Black, heavy Superballs that the dog would always ruin. Estes and Century rockets you built and launched with battery heated nichrome wire. Best was the clear payload which on at least one occasion contained an innocent white mouse. Poor thing.

It being normal to heat up at least 1-2 sticks of butter to drizzle over your homemade popcorn.

Popcorn balls

Howdy Doody

Waist to toes - leg pajamas with rubberized dots on the bottom feet side.

Going swimming in the lake and coming out with leeches....typically removed by someone burning it with a cigarette.

Cloth diapers, and how they were put in the hallway laundry hamper for what seemed to be a very long time.


----------



## KC2IXE

PhotonWrangler said:


> ...snip...Which raises another point about things that have fallen by the wayside - peace and quiet, an absence of 24x7 electronic stimulus, the ability to be alone with your thoughts and enjoy the moment.



I don't know - both my kids (8 and 12) enjoy turning off the electronics (the 12 more than the 8), going up to their rooms with a book, and reading/sitting quietly doodling, etc (My daughter must have inherited some of my Mom in Law's art skills - she sure as heck didn't get it from my wife or I)


----------



## KC2IXE

Burgess said:


> Revolving Doors.
> 
> 
> Are these still used anymore ?
> 
> 
> ...snip...
> _



I can tell YOU don't get to Manhattan very often...


----------



## Monocrom

KC2IXE said:


> I can tell YOU don't get to Manhattan very often...


 
Toys R' Us in the heart of Manhattan has _automatic _revolving doors.


----------



## csshih

PhotonWrangler said:


> I heard a survey on the radio recently that said most young folks don't even use watches any more - they get the time from their cellphones. which seems ok I guess, unless you're driving.



Exactly!! People often ask me why I bought a watch.. a cell phone to me is too annoying/obvious to take out of your pocket.. especially if it's filled with flashlights!


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Please don't hate me for not wearing a watch!

I don't wear ANY jewelry on my wrists or around my neck. It bugs me to pieces!

My cell is easy to get to and has the time right on the front.

I'm really sorry! (and will be 50 in 8 months)


----------



## Search

I'm only 20 but I'll take it a little farther.

I grew up watching Looney Toons. I'm not sure if they are still on but my kid (arriving in January) wont be watching the mess they have one TV today. That stuff is just weird.

This is why I'm glad I kept the tapes of a good bit of them. 


However, I am in the market for an analog watch. One with tritium hands. However, I have a need for one so I probably fall out of the category you guys are talking too.

Just saying though, the biggest problem with my generation is parents who are unable to discipline their kids. If a belt was used more often, kids would listen better :tsk:


----------



## LuxLuthor

Search said:


> I'm only 20 but I'll take it a little farther.
> 
> I grew up watching Looney Toons. I'm not sure if they are still on but my kid (arriving in January) wont be watching the mess they have one TV today. That stuff is just weird.
> 
> This is why I'm glad I kept the tapes of a good bit of them.
> 
> 
> However, I am in the market for an analog watch. One with tritium hands. However, I have a need for one so I probably fall out of the category you guys are talking too.
> 
> Just saying though, the biggest problem with my generation is parents who are unable to discipline their kids. If a belt was used more often, kids would listen better :tsk:



Most old shows are now out on DVD


----------



## Search

LuxLuthor said:


> Most old shows are now out on DVD



I've got them on VHS, I'm sure I'll always have a VCR somewhere.

What I was getting at was the shows that are played on cable are just too weird to me.

Then again, in the Looney Toons, most of them were trying to kill each other.


----------



## Monocrom

Search said:


> I've got them on VHS, I'm sure I'll always have a VCR somewhere.
> 
> What I was getting at was the shows that are played on cable are just too weird to me.
> 
> Then again, in the Looney Toons, most of them were trying to kill each other.


 
.... And it was still far better than what you see today.


----------



## KC2IXE

Monocrom said:


> Toys R' Us in the heart of Manhattan has _automatic _revolving doors.



Also fairly common on hotels and hospitals around here in the NY area. BTW Toys R Us is right across the St from one of my work locations (the one I'm only at 2-3 times/year, but - I work for a large TV Network - add 2+2 on your own)


----------



## gollum

at 42 yrs old now ... I recall childhood things like

playing with marbles and lego

climb-a-trons and rope swings were endless entertainment
and playing tag for hours (kids these days would be bored in 2 mins)

time-life books and ladybird books (UK)



some old TV shows in UK were great ... like 

the Professionals
Monty python
the two Ronnies
G-force cartoons
Tom and Jerry cartoons

the 6 million dollar man
A-team


I was allowed to use the air rifle and air pistol as soon as I was strong enough to compress the action (about 7 or 8 yrs) owning my very first swiss army knife and being allowed to take it everywhere including school


not having to queue up for long anywhere you went


getting free batteries from radio shacks battery of the month club
and getting that old massive free 5d cell grey and red flashlight

walking to school is something too dangerous for kids these days 
thats a shame


----------



## Monocrom

KC2IXE said:


> Also fairly common on hotels and hospitals around here in the NY area. BTW Toys R Us is right across the St from one of my work locations (the one I'm only at 2-3 times/year, but - I work for a large TV Network - add 2+2 on your own)


 
Can you get me tickets to the next Rolling Stones concert? Not sure when that'll be, but they'll still be touring; even after the funeral services.


----------



## Bodach

Just spent the last 2 hours reading all of these brings back some good memories here are a few I had.

bb gun fights (not so fun)

rope tree swings that you had to make sure you swung out to miss the tree and then get off of it before it smashed you into the tree

being pulled around on a old car hood behind a truck in the snow

the old wooden top my great grand father gave me that you had to wrap with string

snow forts

hooking up my dog to my peddle powered john deer tractor and getting pulled over by the town cop 

being sent out to adjust the antenna so we could watch a different channel 

thanks to all for the good memories


----------



## John_Galt

Monocrom said:


> .... And it was still far better than what you see today.



Definitely. When we moved to our new house (where we live now) there was cable. I basically stopped watching cartoons when they took Looney Tunes off the air. The new stuff is crap. 

I love my analog watch. Couldn't get along without it.

But I don't have a phone, so I have to be able to tell the time. 
I love VHS movies, though. Some of my favorite older movies (Flubber, anyone) are on VHS, and they don't take as long to load as a DVD. Plus, if you stop a VHS in the middle of the movie, and put in a differnt one, the next time you put it in, you start exactly where you left off, which is great.


----------



## LuxLuthor

John_Galt said:


> Some of my favorite older movies (Flubber, anyone) are on VHS.



ROFL! Read the first line of the Amazon review of colorized VHS "The Absent Minded Professor":



> *Even computer enhanced with unnecessary color, the original, 1961 version of this film is bound to be a hundred times funnier than the bland remake, Flubber.*



Imagination has been replaced with advanced CGI & other special effects.


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Agree 125% about Cartoons!

Even though the Coyote got the worst of it it was FUNNY stuff!

I can't EVEN figure out todays stuff!!!


----------



## Armed_Forces

WORK 

aka: "chores" 
..and I'm not talking about picking up toys and cleaning your room! 


Fence mending/building, cutting/stacking hay, clearing land, chopping firewood, tending livestock, toting friggin water, painting, roofing, carpentry, machinery repair, etc. Before and after school! "child labor laws" HA! "Soft" doesn't begin to describe the present generation.


----------



## jtr1962

Armed_Forces said:


> "Soft" doesn't begin to describe the present generation.


Yep. People actually look at me like I'm crazy if I mention that I walk to downtown Flushing (3.1 miles from my house) instead of taking the bus. And it seems nobody on our block does their own yardwork except us (both me and my 70-year old mother). Kind of funny considering most of the families here have people much younger than us, yet nobody is willing to do any kind of physical work.


----------



## Monocrom

jtr1962 said:


> Yep. People actually look at me like I'm crazy if I mention that I walk to downtown Flushing (3.1 miles from my house) instead of taking the bus.


 
Oh yeah, that reminds me; (depending on the neighborhood) some kids will miss out on store signs written in English.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

The Ed Sullivan Show. Remember the guy with the spinning plates on those long sticks? That was high drama for me back then! :laughing:


----------



## [email protected]

The #1 thing todays children wont be able to enjoy is heading off with your friends to go adventuring, exploring & generally skylarking about... an increase in child abductions/assaults has forced parents to pro-actively curb their child's scope of environment 

Chores still exist (here) & as far as I'm afraid and serve the purpose of enlightening a child as to the "value of a dollar" & no free rides! :thumbsup:


----------



## Monocrom

They'll miss out on riding in cars built like tanks.

Car radios where you press a button, and a bar goes shooting off to the other side. A speedometer that's horizontal. Rear-wheel drive with a powerful V8, and room for 6 adults. Cars with actual hood ornaments as stock, instead of the chessy, over-chromed, aftermarket ones sold through discount, big-chain, auto stores. A trunk bigger than a studio apartment in New York City.

Lack of a center console. (So you can take a turn at a faster rate of speed, and your date slides closer to you).


----------



## Norm

Not too sure if it's been mentioned "discipline" :whoopin:
Norm


----------



## [email protected]

[email protected] said:


> The #1 thing todays children wont be able to enjoy is heading off with your friends to go adventuring, exploring & generally skylarking about... an increase in child abductions/assaults has forced parents to pro-actively curb their child's scope of environment
> 
> Chores still exist (here) & as far as I'm afraid and serve the purpose of enlightening a child as to the "value of a dollar" & no free rides! :thumbsup:



Kid's these days missed out on lack of police with shotguns rushing to their school. *ahem* Scotch *ahem*


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Yeah there aren't many "Land Yachts" anymore.

Some of my favorite memories was in the back of a '74 Ford Wagon with a bunch of friends!


----------



## Monocrom

PlayboyJoeShmoe said:


> Yeah there aren't many "Land Yachts" anymore.
> 
> Some of my favorite memories was in the back of a '74 Ford Wagon with a bunch of friends!


 
Dad had an '81 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. Bought it from a business man who owned it for a year, and wanted a new ride. (Ah, the days before Leasing existed). That thing was a near-luxury car. Big, powerful, good-looking.... Brakes so strong that if you tapped your toe, the car came to an immediate stop; even if you were doing 80. 

I got the use of it while working at my first job. Ironically, it didn't float like a boat.


----------



## [email protected]

Norm said:


> Not too sure if it's been mentioned "discipline" :whoopin:




It started in schools and penetrated to the very core of our criminal justice system... the overuse of CBOs & the granting of bail for offenses committed while already on bail is simply ludicrous IMHO


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Seeing the red caboose go by at the end of the train. Modern telemetry systems have replaced the need for a caboose and it's lantern-waving attendant. There was something special about that, a humble and colorful signal that the end of the long wait has arrived, kind of like the burst of confetti at the end of an event.


----------



## Ilikeshinythings

This thread makes me feel old...and I'm 26. I guess I am old!


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Ilikeshinythings said:


> This thread makes me feel old...and I'm 26. I guess I am old!



Nah, you're still a young pup. Enjoy it while it lasts!


----------



## Monocrom

*Worst one of all!*

I think I'm about to win the thread for most significant thing that kids these days will miss out on.

But first, an example to illustrate how it used to be:

Dad worked for the MTA when we came here from the old Soviet Union. He should have retired a decade earlier, but we needed the money. Just before he retired, another employee retired. That employee came to work at the MTA when he was 16. He worked hard. Learned everything on the job. Went up in the company until he reached a comfortable-paying position. And he stayed there. 

To be clear, I mean he stayed at that position and with the MTA until he retired at 65 with a sweet pension and plenty of savings. Yup. With the exception of participating in a handful of strikes over the decades while he was there, this man worked hard at the same large place from the age of 16 until he was 65. He had no clue what it was like to be laid off. He never had to worry where his next paycheck would be coming from. He never had to return to school to study a different field that was more in demand. Nope, none of that!

At one point in time, you could go work for a large company. And if you were willing to work hard, you knew you could retire with some money to live off of. You could start at the very bottom, learn on the job, and soon have a needed skill set. Sadly, that's pretty much gone.

Hard work isn't appreciated. Loyalty isn't appreciated. And by the time kids these days are old enough to retire, the word "pension" is going to be a concept that will confuse the Hell out of their grand-children.


----------



## bedazzLED

IBM 029 card punch machines and having to 'punch' your programming code out on cards, then feeding them into a card hopper to be processed; no terminals.

Assembly programming.

And one that I definitely wish I could forget but can't, the leather strap on the back of the classroom door (and the pain it could inflict as it struck across the palm of your hand if you were 'lucky' enough to cop it!).


----------



## jtr1962

*Re: Worst one of all!*



Monocrom said:


> Hard work isn't appreciated. Loyalty isn't appreciated. And by the time kids these days are old enough to retire, the word "pension" is going to be a concept that will confuse the Hell out of their grand-children.


All those are reasons why I would never work for someone else again. Nowadays workers seem to be regarded as simply an expense to be minimized. Eventually most will be replaced by robots. And CEOs rarely think past the next quarter.

As for retirement, last I checked with my mom's friend who did some financial planning on the side, he said based on my investments and the likely rates of return, I could look forward to being able to retire when I'm 156. In other words, I'll be working in my own business until the day I die. I'm gathering it's going to be pretty much the same for most others, whether an employee or self-employed. Pensions are gone, IRAs and 401Ks will likely give lousy returns, Social Security is going broke, rising costs of the basics plus low salaries prevent saving anything meaningful. My knee jerk reaction is at first to mourn the loss of retirement. Thinking about it some more, however, it's really a return to normalcy. For most of man's existence he basically had to work in some way until he either died or became too infirm to work ( and this led to death in short order anyway ).


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## guardpost3

Camping!

I live on 135 acres and have family with land all over Maine, so I have not been to an actual "campground" in years. Well some distant relatives were in the area and invited my wife and I to join them for the weekend. 

I could not believe my eyes, mostly big campers with electricity and heat and every other thing you could want IN YOUR HOUSE. Not many campfires, if there was one, it was just to look at. The adults talked on their cell phones and worked on their laptops while the kids watched movies and played video games!

When I go camping I _like_ the outdoors, and I like not being connected to anything. I taught my kids, just like I learned from my dad, how to build a fire and how to cook with it. How to pitch a tent and so on and so on.... Is that all gone now?

Its a good thing my kids didn't see that or they would be asking to go "camping" like that.


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## TedTheLed

bedazzled; is that really true? you poor thing.

ok, just wanted to say that, but since I'm here,

toys that buiid things, I guess there are still tinker toys

but what about erector sets? and Gilberts chem lab in that red box?

or anyrhing that isn't doesn't end in 'box' or 'game' or 'deathmatch'

for that matter.

kites. has that been said?


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## Burgess

Kites, you say ? ? ?


I'm 57 years old.

I can still remember one magical day, perhaps 50 years ago . . . .

I wanted to fly a kite, but we didn't HAVE one.

My previous kite had "escaped", and traveled to far-off, distant lands.




So, my father stated he would MAKE me a kite ! ! !

What ? (said i)

You can actually MAKE a kite ? ? ?


And my father proceeded to Construct the frame from thin sticks.

And then, get this . . . .

He covered the frame with NEWSPAPER ! ! !

:wow:


Some string and Scotch Tape, and . . . .


Presto -- a real, honest-to-goodness Kite ! ! !

:goodjob:


Nope, it wasn't the Pretty Colored paper, which the store kits had.
(memo for you youngsters--this was before the days of plastic)

But it certainly FLEW just as well as its fancier cousins. :thumbsup:


And, best of All . . . .

I was REALLY proud, cuz' my Father had MADE it ! ! !


So proud that he knew how to Make a Kite ! ! !

:twothumbs

He told me (as a child) they *Never* bought a kite from a* Store* !

They'd always Build 'em.


This, i fear, is yet another thing Today's Kid's missed out on.


PS: this is a Great Thread !

lovecpf
_


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## ninemm

Burgess you're story brought a smile to my face. I hope one day when I have kids I can create a memory for them that sticks as well as the one your dad crafted for you. :thumbsup: 

Oh, and this is definitely a great thread.


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## m3flies

Dialing a phone. Tangled phone cords. When a phone rang, it was actually a small "bell" inside the phone being struck.


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## mossyoak

95 percent of these posts show just how out of touch you are with todays youth. and honestly if you think they are true then its more of a failure on the previous generations part than on the kids.


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## LuxLuthor

Making your own Go-Kart, and it not being a problem driving it around your neighborhood. 

My dad made one with us kids out of a sheet of plywood set on a rectangular angle iron frame. It had such a wide turning radius you had to get out and manually swing the end around at the end of the street. It had a wood box seat, and wood steering wheel. Simple gas engine was canibalized from a lawn mower, as were hard rubber tires.

It was awsome. Especially when we figured out how to remove the governor.


----------



## Monocrom

*Re: Worst one of all!*



jtr1962 said:


> . . . My knee jerk reaction is at first to mourn the loss of retirement. Thinking about it some more, however, it's really a return to normalcy. For most of man's existence he basically had to work in some way until he either died or became too infirm to work ( and this led to death in short order anyway).


 
In this modern age, it would be expected that progress had at least led us to the point where workers weren't regarded as serfs. Normal tends to vary as well. In other developed nations, it's normal for workers to take months off a year for vacation. 

Thankfully, some things have indeed changed. Folks are no longer stuck in one social class, forced to work the earth just to eck out a living based on surviving day-to-day.

Also, it is no longer necessary to pick one profession and hope it works out for the rest of one's life. Nowadays, going back to school is an option for many. Trade schools, and institutes offer accelerated programs. Some of which don't require college credits.

Ironically, that's one positive thing today's kids will miss out on. (Not being able to make a decent living if they initially choose the wrong profession.)


----------



## calipsoii

mossyoak said:


> 95 percent of these posts show just how out of touch you are with todays youth. and honestly if you think they are true then its more of a failure on the previous generations part than on the kids.



This seems like a really negative thing to say in a nostalgia thread, which is usually just created to slip on the rose-tinted goggles and have a bit of fun. A lot of things in here, kids WON'T remember. Take lawn darts. They were banned in 1988. Considering 18-yr olds were born in 1992, even young ADULTS these days don't remember them. So the title is true: "Things today's kids missed out on".

On the other hand, if you dislike some of the criticisms towards the lack of responsibility and courtesy in today's youth, they aren't exactly out in left field either. Pop by a college or university in your free time and peer into the classroom. You know what you'll see? Half the class with an iPod earphone jammed in one ear while the professor is trying to teach. Or next time you're in a retail store, ask the cashier about people texting while they pay for their goods. I've seen stores with signs: "No texting while paying for your debit order" because there ARE younger people who see absolutely no issue in finishing a text message before pulling out their debit card, all in front of a line-up of people waiting to be served.

The things being said in this thread aren't untrue or uncommon. There will be another of these threads in a decade and the details will change but it'll still sound the same: nostalgia was way more fun back in the day.

Back on topic:
- "structurally unsound" treehouses (not a box set from Costco)
- lawn darts (still have mine)
- getting the strap in elementary school
- fireworks sold at gas stations
- "gas wars" where people would drive 100km to save less than they spent getting there
- being able to get peanuts with your McDonalds hot fudge sundae (recent one, but a sign of the times)


----------



## ninemm

calipsoii said:


> - being able to get peanuts with your McDonalds hot fudge sundae (recent one, but a sign of the times)


 
At the McD's next to where I work I can still get peanuts with a hot fudge sundae. They don't offer them at some places anymore?


----------



## mossyoak

calipsoii said:


> This seems like a really negative thing to say in a nostalgia thread, which is usually just created to slip on the rose-tinted goggles and have a bit of fun. A lot of things in here, kids WON'T remember. Take lawn darts. They were banned in 1988. Considering 18-yr olds were born in 1992, even young ADULTS these days don't remember them. So the title is true: "Things today's kids missed out on".
> 
> On the other hand, if you dislike some of the criticisms towards the lack of responsibility and courtesy in today's youth, they aren't exactly out in left field either. Pop by a college or university in your free time and peer into the classroom. You know what you'll see? Half the class with an iPod earphone jammed in one ear while the professor is trying to teach. Or next time you're in a retail store, ask the cashier about people texting while they pay for their goods. I've seen stores with signs: "No texting while paying for your debit order" because there ARE younger people who see absolutely no issue in finishing a text message before pulling out their debit card, all in front of a line-up of people waiting to be served.
> 
> The things being said in this thread aren't untrue or uncommon. There will be another of these threads in a decade and the details will change but it'll still sound the same: nostalgia was way more fun back in the day.
> 
> Back on topic:
> - "structurally unsound" treehouses (not a box set from Costco)
> - lawn darts (still have mine)
> - getting the strap in elementary school
> - fireworks sold at gas stations
> - "gas wars" where people would drive 100km to save less than they spent getting there
> - being able to get peanuts with your McDonalds hot fudge sundae (recent one, but a sign of the times)



Considering the fact that I go to college five days a week, I can say that you are terribly off base, at least around these parts, true we might have a nasty hangover from the night before but we address our professors as sir and ma'am. and we leave the ipods in the car


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## John_Galt

Typewriters...

What a wonderful sound, the clickin, clacking symphony of one's thoughts being put on paper (and having to get it right the first time, too!)...

What an amazing thing, this tangled machine full of levers, screws, bolts, and ink tape, and its ability to teach proper typing. Such an amazing thing, that creates a uniform line of text.


I'm not even old enough to have to have to have used one, but I still like to pull ours out of the attic once in a while to just listen to.


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## PhotonWrangler

mossyoak said:


> Considering the fact that I go to college five days a week, I can say that you are terribly off base, at least around these parts, true we might have a nasty hangover from the night before but we address our professors as sir and ma'am. and we leave the ipods in the car



Mossyoak - 

As someone else said, this thread is for nostalgia's sake. As you get older you will learn that life moves in repeating patterns - the names change, the gadgets get more complicated, society's tastes and sensibilities grow and mature. This discussion is about the recognition of things that are forever changed from the 'old days' because of these forces. This is neither good or bad; society must evolve and change. We are simply paying homage to those things that we wish had stuck around a little longer.


----------



## Empath

mossyoak said:


> Considering the fact that I go to college five days a week, I can say that you are terribly off base, at least around these parts, true we might have a nasty hangover from the night before but we address our professors as sir and ma'am. and we leave the ipods in the car



You still consider yourself a kid?


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## mossyoak

Empath said:


> You still consider yourself a kid?



Ill never grow up

And i really like to hear about "how it used to be" but it really gets under my skin when people start talking about how todays youth are total slackers and have no respect for anyone, basically all the stereotypes you would think were true if you assumed that the media reports the truth without spin.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

John_Galt said:


> Typewriters...
> 
> What a wonderful sound, the clickin, clacking symphony of one's thoughts being put on paper (and having to get it right the first time, too!)...
> 
> What an amazing thing, this tangled machine full of levers, screws, bolts, and ink tape, and its ability to teach proper typing. Such an amazing thing, that creates a uniform line of text.
> 
> 
> I'm not even old enough to have to have to have used one, but I still like to pull ours out of the attic once in a while to just listen to.



I agree, there's something wonderfully tactile about using a typewriter. The sharp clackety-clack adds it's own punctuation to your words, seemingly adding to their importance as each letter is loudly stamped into the paper. The sound of a typewriter brings to mind every old movie that centered around a newspaper office, where the fedora-topped, cigarette chomping reporters slaved away to beat their deadline.


----------



## chew socks

I'm only 17 but i still have those "i remember when..." moments too :nana:.

How many of you remember back to when you had to practically wrestle the bills into a self service machine's bill slot? Im still amazed at how much of a fold over you can have the and the machine doesn't care. AND you dont have to worry about that "upside down" and "backwards" nonesense while your folding it up.

YAY for technology!!!


also, im sure almost everyone here remembers dial up internet...:hairpull:

...my poor kids will never have to wait several minutes for one picture to load


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## guardpost3

mossyoak said:


> Ill never grow up
> 
> And i really like to hear about "how it used to be" but it really gets under my skin when people start talking about how todays youth are total slackers and have no respect for anyone, basically all the stereotypes you would think were true if you assumed that the media reports the truth without spin.




I dont believe at all that todays youth are total slackers, or any less ambitious than any kids before. I do think however, that they just lack the tact of how to go about being successful. I work in a high security facility and part of my job is briefing all new hires on our security protocols. This is the first thing they do when they start here and I am the first person they see to walk them into the facility. Most kids younger than me (I just turned 26) are late, poorly dressed, and have a "slack" attitude (and this is there first day of work). Most of them wash out in a month or so. I almost think some of them think a job should not be hard. I started out at the bottom and busted my but to get where I am, being assertive with my work and looking people in the eye and giving a nice firm handshake. I see this less and less lately. I dont know what the cause of it is, todays society, maybe its their parents, or maybe our HR department just needs better recruiters.


----------



## Monocrom

guardpost3 said:


> I dont believe at all that todays youth are total slackers, or any less ambitious than any kids before. I do think however, that they just lack the tact of how to go about being successful. I work in a high security facility and part of my job is briefing all new hires on our security protocols. This is the first thing they do when they start here and I am the first person they see to walk them into the facility. Most kids younger than me (I just turned 26) are late, poorly dressed, and have a "slack" attitude (and this is there first day of work). Most of them wash out in a month or so. I almost think some of them think a job should not be hard. I started out at the bottom and busted my but to get where I am, being assertive with my work and looking people in the eye and giving a nice firm handshake. I see this less and less lately. I dont know what the cause of it is, todays society, maybe its their parents, or maybe our HR department just needs better recruiters.


 
Hate to say it, but if those new hires you're talking about are security guards; there's a good chance that some of them completely understand the nature of the job . . . and thus act accordingly. Some of them don't put in the effort, they don't care about the job, they don't care about upper management. Then you have the ones who are intelligent enough to grasp what the job is truly all about.

Thus, they don't put in the effort, they don't care about the job, they don't care about upper management. 

Still, I worked security for the past several years. The vast majority of young security guards are exactly the way you describe them. They're just in it for some extra spending money. Turn-over rate in the industry is high as Hell anyway. I hated finding out that the new guy who was my new relief was a young guy. Hated it! Young women were a different story, for the most part. They seem to care more.

It's no secret that many client's of security companies will demand older guards. They want someone who won't be gone in a few months, or even a few days. The young ones have no responsibilites. The older ones have bills. Rent, car payments, just putting food on the table. The older ones are likely to be married, with children. Those guards aren't going to screw around on the job.

But yeah, the security industry in America is complete B.S.

Some of the younger guards are intelligent enough to figure out that upper management really doesn't care about the job, or them. So why should they care?


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## jtr1962

guardpost3 said:


> I almost think some of them think a job should not be hard. I started out at the bottom and busted my but to get where I am, being assertive with my work and looking people in the eye and giving a nice firm handshake. I see this less and less lately. I dont know what the cause of it is, todays society, maybe its their parents, or maybe our HR department just needs better recruiters.


I really think it's because of today's society. Some of these kids might be smarter and more ambitious than you think. However, they see what happened to people my age ( 47 ) or older who did everything they were told, and in the end were unceremoniously outsourced by management which placed no value on education, experience, attitude, hard work, etc. They figure ( rightly so IMO ) why should they devote an ounce more effort than the minimum needed to keep the job.

And for what it's worth, I learned the same thing after working a couple of years. I started out eager to learn, improve myself, etc. with the idea the higher ups would take notice and I would go as high as my ability let me. In the end I found out nobody up there cares, so I stopped caring. I even sometimes stretched my work out a bit to get a few hours OT whenever the main office was in the mood to approve OT. When I got laid off from my last full-time job in 1990 that was it. I decided to work for myself after seeing the help wanted ads filled with jobs where it was plainly obvious advancement opportunites were limited. I'll be the first to admit I don't make much, but it's relatively steady. More importantly, per hour I make more than I ever could have dreamed of working for someone else. And my work is actually appreciated by my clients.

In the end I wouldn't be so quick to knock today's youth. To me it seems they'll gladly put in the effort should a real opportunity arise. Real opportunity isn't a $5 an hour to start service job where if you're lucky you'll be making a whopping $7 an hour after 5 years. A lot of what's out there is exactly that. Just for kicks last week I called the numbers on a few help wanted ads where starting pay wasn't mentioned. About half didn't want to tell me. As for the rest, it ranged from $2 (!) per hour up to I think $8. And they wonder why they can't get qualified people. :shakehead The problem is businesses have gotten so accustomed for so long to paying people awful wages that they don't even know how to fairly compensate people who would make great employees. The standard line I hear is most of what walks in the door isn't even worth a quarter per hour, so we pay as little as we can get away with ( including less than minimum wage ).


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## jtr1962

Monocrom said:


> In this modern age, it would be expected that progress had at least led us to the point where workers weren't regarded as serfs. Normal tends to vary as well. In other developed nations, it's normal for workers to take months off a year for vacation.


And we were making progress for a while. Until the 1970s, real wages were up, hours worked annually were steadily dropping, benefits were increasing. It's been all down hill since. Real wages have dropped, hard won benefits are continually being gutted, work hours are up, especially for salaried workers. So much for the 3 day, 20 hour work weeks envisioned when I was a kid. Now we're closer to the kinds of hours my grandfather put in ( 6 10-hour days ).



> Thankfully, some things have indeed changed. Folks are no longer stuck in one social class, forced to work the earth just to eck out a living based on surviving day-to-day.


No, we're not stuck _yet_ doing that, but from what I see, those days are coming. As it is, many people are living paycheck to paycheck because of stagnating wages and ever increasing housing/food/medical costs. They have little savings. In theory they could quit their jobs. In practice they can't. We're in essence back to indentured servitude. I'm not seeing much upward mobility, either, even by people willing to work hard. It might be relatively easy to get out of poverty now. Just having a job can do that. However, going up from lower middle class is getting to be impossible for a lot of people. I tell my mom that her generation likely had it as good as any past or future generation ever will. She sees no reason to disagree. 



> Also, it is no longer necessary to pick one profession and hope it works out for the rest of one's life. Nowadays, going back to school is an option for many. Trade schools, and institutes offer accelerated programs. Some of which don't require college credits.
> 
> Ironically, that's one positive thing today's kids will miss out on. (Not being able to make a decent living if they initially choose the wrong profession.)


That's the only positive I see. Nowadays with chronic unemployment large gaps on resumes or frequent job changes are no longer the red flags they once were.


----------



## Empath

Let's return to the topic of the thread.

Any further discussion of youth's work ethics, and the disappointment of working for the man, can be addressed in a new thread specifically for that topic. Additional posts of that off-topic nature will either be moved, or removed.


----------



## Th232

bedazzLED said:


> Assembly programming.



I remember doing that. One of our programming labs for the MC68HC11 was to write the code for an interrupt vector by specifying the hex values for each instruction at each location. Interesting way of teaching us lower level stuff at the same time.

Then reading out info from the TX and RX pins of a micro by hooking it up to a scope. That was interesting.

And I'm only 21.


----------



## ElectronGuru

John_Galt said:


> Typewriters...
> 
> What a wonderful sound, the clickin, clacking symphony of one's thoughts being put on paper (and having to get it right the first time, too!)...



I just remember starring at the blank piece of paper, knowing that 1000 characters had to be laid down, with the correct letter/number AND in the correct sequence or there was going to be penance with the white out. And if its a 5 page paper and you need to add or remove lines on page 2? You get to retype pages 2, 3, 4, and 5. 

Freedom was the Brother Word Processor. A built in 5x7 CRT you could see the words on, and a disk drive on which you could store documents. Write, edit, save, and print, all in the same box.

Nostalgia was watching the folks with the 8 digit adding machine every year at tax time. Mom reading out the the numbers, dad typing them in, and mom writing down the result. 10 pounds of mechanical (powered!) joy I had nothing to do with!


----------



## guardpost3

ElectronGuru said:


> Freedom was the Brother Word Processor. A built in 5x7 CRT you could see the words on, and a disk drive on which you could store documents. Write, edit, save, and print, all in the same box.


 
I remember my mom had one of those for work, it was not what you would call easily portable, and if i remember correctly it didn't even have a black and white screen. It was black and green!


----------



## flashfan

Posted by John Galt: "Typewriters...

What a wonderful sound, the clickin, clacking symphony of one's thoughts being put on paper (and having to get it right the first time, too!)...

What an amazing thing, this tangled machine full of levers, screws, bolts, and ink tape, and its ability to teach proper typing. Such an amazing thing, that creates a uniform line of text."

Anyone remember those old, old black manual typewriters? They must be collectors' items now. It was not only about hitting the right keys, but striking them with consistent pressure so that you ended up with nice, even lines of type.

Then came the electric typewriters and the IBM Selectric was king for a good number of years.

Personally, I find the typewriter an invaluable tool to this day...if you have a decent one. If you have a single form to fill out, or an envelope or two to address, the typewriter beats out the computer for efficiency...at least it does for me.


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## PhotonWrangler

I distinctly remember the mechanical hum of those old IBM Selectrics. Turn on the power switch and it springs to life with a ka-chink and then the sound of the motor whirring. Those were workhorses and I used one for many years.


----------



## LukeA

Let's not romanticize the things too much, my optometrist's secretary still uses one.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

LukeA said:


> Let's not romanticize the things too much, my optometrist's secretary still uses one.



Hmm... my opthamologist still has a rotary phone on his wall... :thinking:


----------



## Monocrom

I'm glad kids will miss out on using an old-fashioned typewriter. My Brother brand word processor is a pain in the neck. I can't imagine what it must have been like using a typewriter with those heavy keys and no White-Out, way back when. Found out that the first successful commercial typewriter didn't even allow the person using it to see their progress. The paper was actually underneath a cover.

Can't help but think that if proper penmanship was emphasized more, typewriters would not have been nearly as popular as they were.

When I was in high school, I could submit hand-written papers since my penmanship is excellent. Wasn't until I got to college that I HAD to use a word processor. Guess that's another thing kids will miss out on. Doubt there's a high school left in the nation where hand-written papers are even accepted nowadays. A fine example of dumbing down.


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## PhotonWrangler

Monocrom said:


> IDoubt there's a high school left in the nation where hand-written papers are even accepted nowadays. A fine example of dumbing down.



I agree, however for me that's a good thing. My handwriting looks like that of a chicken having a seizure.

Funny thing, I had to take a semester of typing class in junior high school and I did miserably in it. Not because I couldn't find the keys, but because (1) that old mechanical typewriter took way too much force for my pinkies to hit the keys, and (2) I couldn't get the timing right and I'd constantly cause keys to crash into each other, causing a clump of metal that I'd have to reach in and manually untangle. Along those lines, one thing that kids won't mind missing is the ribbon stains on your fingers!


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## Monocrom

Long before many of us were even alive, teachers used to emphasize proper penmanship. Nowadays, they just teach script; and see if the students can form the letters. But at one time, teachers used to work with students to get their hand-writing to a point where it was perfect. Hasn't been that way for a LONG time.


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## jtr1962

I'm reasonably sure hand-writing 20-page papers in high school and college helped my carpal tunnel syndrome right along. That and writing "I must not talk in class" 1000 times in grade school ( no I didn't talk much but the teachers were advocates of "group" punishment, so when one kid talked, everyone got to "practice" their penmanship ). I actually never cared for cursive writing. Printing was faster for me plus more legible, so that's what I used. And don't get me started on typewriters. Sure, a bit easier on the hands than writing, but most of my teachers wouldn't accept a paper with white-out ( you would get an automatic failure ). So make one mistake, and you have to retype the entire page. Needless to say, I typed really slooooooooow as a result.

I seriously would have killed for a computer and a decent printer in school. It's too bad the technology came along about 20 years too late for me. So yes, typing and/or hand-writing papers are one thing today's kids will thankfully miss out on. As one who lived through that era, nothing positive to romanticize about it. You can turn out perfectly legible papers in your choice of fonts, complete with illustrations if needed, in far less time than back in my day. All positives if you ask me. The writer can now focus on the content instead of the mechanics of putting the words on paper. I won't even mourn the loss of penmanship. It's sort of like those who can't do arithmitic without a calculator. It's certainly a lost skill, but with the ubiquity of calculators it's also a pointless one. Same with penmanship and the ubiquity of computers.


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## Monocrom

jtr1962 said:


> . . . Same with penmanship and the ubiquity of computers.



Not quite.

I can just imagine the looks I'd get if I went to fill out a job application, and whipped out a laptop instead of a pen. 

"Excuse me, have you got a printer I can borrow?"

Yes, some bigger companies will have their applications on computers. But many will still hand you a paper form.


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## LukeA

Monocrom said:


> Not quite.
> 
> I can just imagine the looks I'd get if I went to fill out a job application, and whipped out a laptop instead of a pen.
> 
> "Excuse me, have you got a printer I can borrow?"
> 
> Yes, some bigger companies will have their applications on computers. But many will still hand you a paper form.


 Clearly, the ubiquity jtr1962 is talking about is the nearly 100% penetration of computers, whether at home or in a computer lab, available to school students in the United States, and not the wholesale replacement of the pen and paper by the computer without the corresponding accoutrements and ideas necessary for such an endeavor.


----------



## Fulgeo

Cursive handwriting comes immediately to mind. I was appalled to discover that my 3 nephews only had a crash course in cursive and at best only learned enough to write their names. Most kids today can not read cursive mind write it. When trying to express (argue) the merits of cursive to my nephews, they asked what's the use of it in this heavy computerized, word processing and spell checking world. I said some very important works were written in cursive. They scornfully replied like what? I said the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. That sort of ended the argument.


----------



## LukeA

Fulgeo said:


> Cursive handwriting comes immediately to mind. I was appalled to discover that my 3 nephews only had a crash course in cursive and at best only learned enough to write their names. Most kids today can not read cursive mind write it. When trying to express (argue) the merits of cursive to my nephews, they asked what's the use of it in this heavy computerized, word processing and spell checking world. I said some very important works were written in cursive. They scornfully replied like what? I said the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. That sort of ended the argument.



Cursive is a vestige left over from when writing with quill pens or fountain pens was the norm. Beyond that, it's no different than printing.


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## PhotonWrangler

Here's one to be thankful for missing out on: boring filmstrip presentations in school. The teacher would load a roll of film into the projector, essentially a slide projector without the carousel, and an audiotape would be played alongside it, providing narration for the slides. There would be a BOOP sound on the recording to cue the instructor to advance the slide to the next one. It was like a Powerpoint presentation only without the excitement. :sleepy:


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## Monocrom

LukeA said:


> Cursive is a vestige left over from when writing with quill pens or fountain pens was the norm. Beyond that, it's no different than printing.


 
One major difference. Words, and ideas, flow from the mind to the hand in a much smoother manner. Cursive writing was invented to prevent the, for lack of a better term, Stop & Go style of writing that is the nature of printing. With script or cursive writing, the tip of the pen gets lifted off the paper far less. Ideas flow faster from mind to paper. Swap out the fountain pen with a nice rollerball or an exceptional ballpoint, and the difference vs. print is the difference between a drag race involving a Ford Model T and a 2010 Cobra Mustang.


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## kramer5150

fun thread!!

Keds
Toughskins
radio shack battery club
Freddy Mercury
Tron
Atari 2600
MTV
"KHAAAAAN!!! KHAAAAAAN!!! KHAAAAAAN!!"
Silver Spoons
Villa Alegre
Flash Gordon
Intellivision
The Electric Company
banana seat
01 General Lee
Twiki
Cylons
Those old reel to reel movie projectors on metal carts


----------



## lightcacher

The biggest thing that kids have missed is childhood itself. When I was growing up, if you had a bicycle with two good tires, an old car inner tube for floating down the creek and a sleeping bag for camping out, your kid entertainment requirements were pretty much covered. And man did we have fun just being kids. Life sure was sweet back then.


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## Fulgeo

Monocrom said:


> One major difference. Words, and ideas, flow from the mind to the hand in a much smoother manner. Cursive writing was invented to prevent the, for lack of a better term, Stop & Go style of writing that is the nature of printing. With script or cursive writing, the tip of the pen gets lifted off the paper far less. Ideas flow faster from mind to paper. Swap out the fountain pen with a nice rollerball or an exceptional ballpoint, and the difference vs. print is the difference between a drag race involving a Ford Model T and a 2010 Cobra Mustang.



Well put. Specifically "Ideas flow faster from mind to paper". Were the kids miss out is that they are not given the chance for its utility. One of the problems with us humans is we tend to have a prejudice towards the things we understand as apposed to the things we do not. I tend to fight this. I occasionally pick up one of those "For Dummies" books to try and learn something new. The last yellow book I picked up was "Latin for Dummies". To finish off the original story, the subject initially came up because my nephews could not decipher hand written letters from their grandparents. They had expressed that they were poorly written instead of reflecting on the fact they could not read cursive. When I decipher the letters in question they discover that they were exceedingly well written. This proceeded the discussion on the utility of cursive.


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## Fulgeo

I Just had another thought. Kids today miss out on how to write a "snail mail" letter. I know the argument can be made why would they in this world of emails, texting and instant messaging? Well I think of technology as being balanced on the head of a pin. Very fragile. Do not get me wrong I love the stuff and like immersing myself in it. I just like having a plan B. A well written letter can be like poetry. Have you ever been watching the history channel and they read a Civil War letter? Here is this farmer's son using a goose or turkey feather quill pushing around soot ink and writing a heart felt letter. Is it just me or do you get the impression that these guys were extremely intelligent? At the very least they really could express themselves with a poetic flair. I think something is being lost to mankind when I get a text usually of the form "whatz up noob" oh and my favorite "i own you dudez".


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## Arcus Diabolus

Not all of those things are true though. I'm just 17 and I am somewhat the weirdest in my class because I'm kind of old fashioned. I like the class the old times used to bring. I like to make reports in my own handwriting and not by encoding, I'm the only one who would buy a fountain pen and I am still looking for a quill. True, many of those things you mentioned the youth today never got to experience. But I'm glad I experienced some of those like playing tag and such and actually doing stuff without all these computers.
Another thing youth today are missing is real music.


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## ElectronGuru

I was scrolling through these photos today (1939-1943) and was quite taken by the lack of children's style clothes on any of the children:

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/07/26/captured-america-in-color-from-1939-1943/2363/

So I guess kids today miss out on wearing mini versions of adult outfits. 

And if you think your work environment is tough, check out photo #70.


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## Incan

drawing well water for the bath on saturday nights.
splitting fence rails with a single-bit axe
slaughtering a hog and salting the pork
corn shuck beds
whale oil lanterns. our first flashlight!
midnight trips to the outhouse
western union. for messages, not for sendin your folding money


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## Burgess

Hey, that's a good one !


I actually *Sent a Telegram*, back in March of 1972.


Friends of mine didn't have a telephone in their apartment. 


Had to get an urgent message to 'em.


Today's Kids are NEVER gonna' do THAT !

:candle:
_


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## Monocrom

ElectronGuru said:


> I was scrolling through these photos today (1939-1943) and was quite taken by the lack of children's style clothes on any of the children:
> 
> http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/07/26/captured-america-in-color-from-1939-1943/2363/


 
Wow! That link is excellent. Thanks for posting that for us all to look at.


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## kramer5150

ElectronGuru said:


> I was scrolling through these photos today (1939-1943) and was quite taken by the lack of children's style clothes on any of the children:
> 
> http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/07/26/captured-america-in-color-from-1939-1943/2363/
> 
> So I guess kids today miss out on wearing mini versions of adult outfits.
> 
> And if you think your work environment is tough, check out photo #70.



Amazing pics, thanks!!


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## Fulgeo

Times are a changing. One thing about todays kids is they are experiencing a sort of revolution in clothing style. I mean anything goes. You can show your under wear. I saw kids wearing pajamas to school and I thought to myself that I remember having nightmares as a kid about forgetting to change out of my PJ and being in class be riddled by my class mates. You used to even get teased for having a new hair cut or wearing new shoes. I know as an adult I could care less but back then it was an issue. So perhaps todays kids are not missing some of the conformance issues of yester year.


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## brighterisbetter

*Beloit College Mindset List - c/o 2014 - makes me feel old *

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100817/ap_on_re_us/us_mindset_list

An excerpt taken from that article:


> The Class of 2014 thinks of Clint Eastwood more as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry urging punks to "go ahead, make my day." Few incoming freshmen know how to write in cursive or have ever worn a wristwatch.



What are your thoughts?


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## LukeA

*Re: Beloit College Mindset List - c/o 2014 - makes me feel old *

New bad, old good! The way things used to be is the way they ought to be!


----------



## woodlandmand105

a lot of kids don't go outside and play baseball or hike. they sit at there computers all day. i'm only on it for 2 hr. at the MOST.


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## Monocrom

*Re: Beloit College Mindset List - c/o 2014 - makes me feel old *



LukeA said:


> New bad, old good! The way things used to be is the way they ought to be!


 
It's not nearly big enough to express how I feel. But it'll have to do!

*+1*


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## PhotonWrangler

*Re: Beloit College Mindset List - c/o 2014 - makes me feel old *

The simple pleasure of being unreachable when you need a quiet moment alone. No cellphones, IMs, texting or email.

Pop made with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup (although they occasionally bring back the original formulas once in awhile for novelty's sake).


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## Fulgeo

*Re: Beloit College Mindset List - c/o 2014 - makes me feel old *



PhotonWrangler said:


> The simple pleasure of being unreachable when you need a quiet moment alone. No cellphones, IMs, texting or email.


 

I would like to +1 this one. I think this is overlooked completely. I also find it a bit distressing when you do miss a call on your cell phone if you do not return the call promptly you have to answer in detail how did you miss it. When everyone had land lines it was assumed you would follow up but it might take a day.


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## daimleramg

I don't think todays kids are missing out on the things we had when we were kids. I rather be a kid today with current technology then a kid 20 years ago with nintendo or commodore 64. Todays kids are going to school with high power laptops and do not need paper and pens to write their homework. And instead of schools buying bulky text books they could order them on cd's or dvd's so kids would just have to download it into their hard drive. We are the one's that are missing out, not todays kids.


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## Monocrom

daimleramg said:


> I don't think todays kids are missing out on the things we had when we were kids. I rather be a kid today with current technology then a kid 20 years ago with nintendo or commodore 64. Todays kids are going to school with high power laptops and do not need paper and pens to write their homework. And instead of schools buying bulky text books they could order them on cd's or dvd's so kids would just have to download it into their hard drive. We are the one's that are missing out, not todays kids.


 
Due to tight budgets, many schools are still relying on paper textbooks. It's just going to be plain wasteful to toss out those books, and then replace them with laptops. Books also last longer. Imagine having to repair or replace laptops on a city-wide basis every handful of years? Ouch!

Also, every single electronic item I've ever owned has broken down at least once. Pens and paper don't act up whenever they feel like it. A nationwide Blackout 150 years ago wouldn't have meant a darn thing. Nowadays, some folks feel horribly inconvenienced or worse. Imagine life a few generations from now? Needing to communicate in written print, having to look for that one really old man in the neighborhood who actually learned to write back when he was a kid . . . 

Technology doesn't translate into a better way of life. It makes life easier. But not necessarily better.


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## daimleramg

Monocrom said:


> It's just going to be plain wasteful to toss out those books, and then replace them with laptops. Books also last longer. Imagine having to repair or replace laptops on a city-wide basis every handful of years? Ouch!


 

I wasn't implying that the schools buy every student a laptop, what I meant was for kids today to bring their own laptops and the schools buy cd versions of text books. 

Techonolgy today is much better then when I was a kid my father spent $2000.00 on an encyclopedia which today is just the internet.


----------



## Monocrom

daimleramg said:


> I wasn't implying that the schools buy every student a laptop, what I meant was for kids today to bring their own laptops and the schools buy cd versions of text books.


 
I must point out that in poorer school districts, it would be unreasonable to expect students' families to provide each of their children with laptops. 

It isn't the level of technology. It's the quality of education, the dedication of the teachers that determines whether or not children get what they need from school. Looking back, I can honestly say that every class I failed from Jr. High to College was because of a teacher who either didn't care or was incompetent. 

(One example, I learned computers back when floppy disks were standard. Teacher made us take them home and bring them back for class. No matter how careful I was, a tiny bend would always show up on the disk. And it was just enough to wipe out all the data on it. A competent teacher would have simply let us lock up that ridiculously fragile piece of technology in the cabinets, in the classroom.)


----------



## jtr1962

With the computer technology we have now, I don't even know why kids have to physically go to school. We could teach them at home, and save a bundle on school buildings and transportation. Same thing with a lot of back office jobs where the worker is on a terminal all day. We have all this great technology, and yet we're not even close to using it to its full potential. The paperless office is still something which largely doesn't exist, for example.

Regarding text books, I'm astounded they're even still in use. I would think kids nowadays would be reading .pdfs on their laptops. I used to hate it when three teachers would all have you bring your heavy texts to class on the same day. Really, buying a laptop for every kid without one would be far cheaper than buying textbooks. It would also allow more up to date texts. I still remember text books in school which were so old that WWII wasn't even in them. Sure, technology has its vulnerabilities, but even those are gradually going away. Floppies were fragile. CDs and DVDs are much better. The newest thing, solid-state storage, can be made virtually bullet-proof. My guess is within ten years computers and storage will be more robust than pen and paper.


----------



## Monocrom

jtr1962 said:


> With the computer technology we have now, I don't even know why kids have to physically go to school. We could teach them at home, and save a bundle on school buildings and transportation. Same thing with a lot of back office jobs where the worker is on a terminal all day. We have all this great technology, and yet we're not even close to using it to its full potential. The paperless office is still something which largely doesn't exist, for example.


 
CPF is acting up again, and my long, detailed, post got wiped out. So here's the short version:

1) When both parents have jobs, they rely on schools to basically baby-sit their kids during working hours. Not just educate them.

2) If both parents need to work, no one will be at home if children learn all their lessons over the computer. Result: A whole bunch of parents being charged with neglect for leaving their children home alone all the time.

3) Children need to be supervised. It's an Uber rare child who can be counted on to sit still in front of a monitor 8 hours a day, 5 days a week; and actually pay attention to the lesson plan.

4) I'd rather not see a world made up of adults who have zero social skills and likely the same number of friends because they sat alone, at home, in front of a monitor; rather than going to a physical classroom and learning at an early age how to make friends and interact with other individuals.


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## Burgess

Precisely ! ! !


Well stated, Monocrom.



_


----------



## jtr1962

Monocrom said:


> 1) When both parents have jobs, they rely on schools to basically baby-sit their kids during working hours. Not just educate them.
> 
> 2) If both parents need to work, no one will be at home if children learn all their lessons over the computer. Result: A whole bunch of parents being charged with neglect for leaving their children home alone all the time.


I'm aware of this. Maybe if employers were less paranoid about watching over their workers, we could move a lot of back office jobs to the home. Both of these problems solved if at least one parent can be home with the kids. For those kids where both parents can't work at home, you could still have either conventional schools, or have them go to the house of another parent who stays home.



> 3) Children need to be supervised. It's an Uber rare child who can be counted on to sit still in front of a monitor 8 hours a day, 5 days a week; and actually pay attention to the lesson plan.


You don't need 8 hours of schooling a day. A good part of the school day is BS because of the need to change classes, go to assembly, listen to the daily announcements, etc. I'll bet in an 8 hour school day, there is perhaps 3 hours of actual learning. I actually discovered this was I was online. I found with the resources available to me on the Internet, I could learn a subject in less than half the hours I might in a conventional educational environment. Teachers are great at creating ways to fill time which not only don't involve teaching kids much, but in many cases turn the smarter kids completely off to learning because they're bored to death. I think home learning at your own pace is just the solution here. You still would have teachers responsible for students, only the students might be in a virtual classroom, not a real one. And the teachers can concentrate more on those students needing extra help, while leaving the smart ones more or less alone to learn at their own pace.

You also overestimate the need for supervision. Provided children are engaged, they'll do just fine. I have a theory on why discipline is often needed in a school environment. First off, many kids plain don't want to be there. After all, some are exposed to bullies, or perhaps just bored by the slow pace, or maybe turned off by the regimentation ( all three in my case in grade school ). Second, they're often forced to do things they would rather not do, and which have nothing at all to do with learning. I remember I HATED being made to play ball, and wasn't overly crazy about music class or school plays, either. I wasn't going to be a musician or actor or athlete, so forcing me to do these things in the name of "rounding" was pointless. If anything, it hurt me and embarassed me because I did all of them poorly. Anyway, my point here is home-based learning would avoid all the extraneous garbage, and mainly let the school teach academic subjects. It is really the job of the parents to expose their children to outside activities. I understand why schools try to do this, but most of the things they pick to "round" students are frankly lame. Maybe if gym involved riding bicycles I might have had a lot more interest in it.



> 4) I'd rather not see a world made up of adults who have zero social skills and likely the same number of friends because they sat alone, at home, in front of a monitor; rather than going to a physical classroom and learning at an early age how to make friends and interact with other individuals.


Honestly, I'd say real development of social skills didn't start for me until high school. That's when I actually started _wanting_ to go to school. Prior to that, I would often fake illness just to stay home. IMO, high school is where the important social skills needed for life are learned, not before. High school probably wouldn't work if home-based anyway because of the need for labs and other things not available at home. So basically I say make grade school home-based via computers, and keep high school as it is. You'll save a fortune, and in my opinion have students better prepared for high school. Social skills won't suffer as much as you might think. Realistically, how much independent, worthwhile socializing did you do in grade school? I barely remember the names of some of my classmates. I sure don't remember doing much worthwhile socializing until high school. Besides, grade school kids are often cruel to anyone not fitting in. Better if nobody can be on the receiving end of this.


----------



## Monocrom

You bring up two points I hadn't touched on.

1) Some kids need and enjoy gym. I loved gym! I did well at other subjects. (Except math.) But gym gave me a chance to compete and have fun. Gym is more important than some folks realize. At a young age, it taught me about competition, sportsmanship, teamwork, and fun ways to exercise. In some ways, gym class prepared me for the real world better than some of my other classes did.

2) Sure, there are bullies in every school. I know I'm a better man for having learned how to deal with them at an early age. There are bullies in real life as well. Better that individuals learn to deal with them at a much earlier age than when they're teens or adults. Imagine someone having spent a good chunk of their early years behind a computer, then they go out into the real world and encounter their first bully? . . . No, far better that they have the skills to deal with such individuals early on in life. You can't protect kids from everything.


----------



## jtr1962

Monocrom said:


> You bring up two points I hadn't touched on.
> 
> 1) Some kids need and enjoy gym. I loved gym! I did well at other subjects. (Except math.) But gym gave me a chance to compete and have fun. Gym is more important than some folks realize. At a young age, it taught me about competition, sportsmanship, teamwork, and fun ways to exercise. In some ways, gym class prepared me for the real world better than some of my other classes did.


I certainly agree on the need for gym or some other type of physical exercise. My pet peeve was being made to play ball as that form of exercise. Not every kid has the aptitude for that. Moreover, not every kid enjoys it. At least by the time high school came I could have my choice of what to do in gym. I remember mostly lifting weights, climbing rope, and doing gymnastics. It's a pity these options weren't open to me in grade school. It wasn't just that I really didn't enjoy playing ball. It was also the constant fights the other kids had over every strike or out. The way the kids were you would think it was game 7 of the World Series. Three big problems with team sports as a form of exercise. One, you obviously need the team, which implies you need to find other people willing to play when you are. Second, competition. I've always been one who likes cooperation rather than competition. And I actually end up feeling bad for the losing side. Three, kids ( and adults ) take what is supposed to be a game way too seriously.



> 2) Sure, there are bullies in every school. I know I'm a better man for having learned how to deal with them at an early age. There are bullies in real life as well. Better that individuals learn to deal with them at a much earlier age than when they're teens or adults. Imagine someone having spent a good chunk of their early years behind a computer, then they go out into the real world and encounter their first bully? . . . No, far better that they have the skills to deal with such individuals early on in life. You can't protect kids from everything.


That's all good and well unless the bullies are bigger than you, and there's more than one. Besides, a lot of the dynamics which lead to kids bullying others develop in grade school. For that matter, so do a lot of other detrimental habits. It's similar to the dynamics which make petty criminals into felons in prisons. Kids are basically amoral. Put a bunch of them together, even with adult supervision, and you get a lot of negative interaction. Keep them separate, learning at home, until their brains develop, and the end result would be much better in my opinion. Most kids don't really develop a sense of empathy until after grade school. The problem is many develop bad habits which stay for life precisely because they were put together before they had this sense of empathy. You bully people in grade school, it often carries over to adult life. Same thing if you learn to be a doormat. I actually find home-schooled kids to be a lot better adjusted and mature than their peers who went to regular school for all these reasons. They spent the part of their lives which were best spent simply learning doing exactly that, rather than dealing with all the distractions typical in a grade school environment. When they move on and go to a regular high school, they do just fine, and learn the other stuff as they go along. Let's not forget that school isn't the only means of social interaction. I remember basically going until 9th grade having only a few friends, sometimes even no friends at times. When high school came, and I met people I actually had something in common with, I was just fine despite my relative inexperience socializing.


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## Monocrom

We're just going to have to disagree about the bullying aspect. A gang of bullies coming after one kid, that's the time to get the authorities involved. One bully? Time for a life lesson with regards to standing up for one's self.


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## jtr1962

My experience is the authorities generally never get involved until someone ends up in a hospital. Until then, they basically tell the families of the kids to settle things on their own. As for standing up for yourself if it's one-on-one, don't forget it's usually the smaller kids who get bullied. In fact, as a general rule bullies always make sure the odds are grossly one-sided. They either pick on smaller kids, or team up to pick on kids that might kick their behinds if it was one-on-one. The only "life lesson" here IMO is the bullied kid learns that might over right always prevails. There was only one time in my life where I got the best of bullies, and they weren't even bothering me. A kid took my younger brother's bike. My sister and I got it back, kicking the kid's behind in the process. Very satisfying, actually. But this wasn't even in a school environment.

I did bodily kick someone off a subway train who was annoying me once, but that was as an adult. I probably could/should have let it go, but the guy was really getting under my skin.


----------



## Monocrom

I hope one day that kids miss out on having to take subway trains to school. Dirty, crowded, pee-stained subway trains . . .

I never kicked an obnoxious dude off a subway train. But I did once intimidate a dude twice my size into behaving properly. He was singing, quite badly, at the top of his lungs; with his eyes closed and clutching an umbrella. I'm generally quite good at reading people. And I pegged him right away. You should have seen how he clutched that umbrella for dear life when I shouted at him. Called him out on his extremely inappropriate behavior. Dude twice my size all of a sudden showed some proper manners.

Since you're from the old neighborhood, here's something I hope the neighborhood kids miss out on . . . Marty.

You know, "Hi, I'm Marty. I'm homeless and I'm hungry."

Same speech. Yet Marty looks remarkably well for someone who's down & out.


----------



## jtr1962

Yeah, the subways aren't pleasant in general ( except for rail buffs like me ), although most of my socializing in high school was done by necessity on the train ride home. It was the only time of the day besides lunch where we were all together. Getting together other times was problematic given that my friends were spread all over the city. As bad as the subway might be now, it's still worlds better than in the 1970s as I'm sure you remember. Trains broke down constantly. Lights were often out ( and that made for a great environment for thieves or perverts ). Graffiti was everywhere. That's definitely one thing today's kids should be glad to have missed out on.

As for "Marty", yep, I've seen some pretty healthy panhandlers. And also some "blind" people who seem pretty adept at dodging commuters while making their pitch. My favorite was the "blind" guy who had no trouble picking out the quarters from my hand while leaving behind the smaller change, all without first feeling any of the coins.


----------



## daimleramg

Monocrom said:


> It isn't the level of technology. It's the quality of education, the dedication of the teachers that determines whether or not children get what they need from school.


 
Yet again you missed my point, it isn't about the quality of education or the dedication of teachers. It's about the "experience" because thats what the OP was saying. His experiences when he was a kid and what he had when he was a kid not his quality of education nor the dedication of his teachers.


----------



## novice

As an adolescent, I had a crush on 'Honey West', and also Diana Rigg of 'The Avengers', and Joey Heatherton of 'The Dean Martin Show'.

I miss Revell plastic models of warplanes and gas-guzzling cars, and the ability of anyone to go purchase unspeakably toxic tubes of glue to 'weld' all those plastic parts together.

I don't feel that old, but I must be, because I remember those display cases at the supermarket that held all those vacuum tubes, and the tester on the cases' console to let you go through all those tubes you pulled out of your device at home to figure out exactly what it was that wasn't working.

The grade school I attended had a small brick 'incinerator' on a small prominence just overlooking the playground, where they burned much of the trash. The only sawdust on the playground was underneath the slide, and the swings. Everything else was paved with blacktop. You could chip a tooth or get a concussion, just from losing your balance in '4-square'. Tetherball. If you were short or slow, that competitive sport was a soul-crusher.


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## PhotonWrangler

novice said:


> I miss Revell plastic models of warplanes and gas-guzzling cars, and the ability of anyone to go purchase unspeakably toxic tubes of glue to 'weld' all those plastic parts together.
> 
> I don't feel that old, but I must be, because I remember those display cases at the supermarket that held all those vacuum tubes, and the tester on the cases' console to let you go through all those tubes you pulled out of your device at home to figure out exactly what it was that wasn't working.



Gads, I remember those tubes of glue from the local hobby shop also. I remember closing the door in my room and gluing together some sort of plastic model and I ended up with a severe headache that lasted for the rest of the day. I've stayed away from those tolulene-based glues ever since.
:sick2:

And I miss those tube testers also! Watching the tube slowly start to glow and seeing the meter move from BAD to GOOD was fun and made the whole process seem more tangible.


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## leeholaaho

I drive by ball fields on nice days that are empty

Back in the day there would have been fist fights over these fields.

Sad


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## Monocrom

Being able to open a menu without seeing how many calories each tiny piece of food actually contains.

Unless they're fortunate enough to find a certain diner located in midtown NYC. Thankfully the Safety Freaks haven't gotten everything they want. Ever gone to a restaurant with a girl who was normal? You know; someone who didn't resemble a microphone stand or Kate Moss. 

As if normal, healthy, girls didn't get enough crap about not being flesh-covered skeletons. Now they get to agonize over what to get on the menu?? Let's just say it's a whole different story when you take them to a place that doesn't bend over backwards for the Safety Freaks who have nothing better to do with their sad little lives than stick their noses into everyone else's business, and lives.

I know where I'm taking my future dates.


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## Monocrom

Before my time, but apparently decades ago children could get ordinary pocket knives from gumball machines. Sometimes mini versions of such knives.


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## Tuikku

ElectronGuru said:


> I was scrolling through these photos today (1939-1943) and was quite taken by the lack of children's style clothes on any of the children:
> 
> http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/07/26/captured-america-in-color-from-1939-1943/2363/
> 
> So I guess kids today miss out on wearing mini versions of adult outfits.
> 
> And if you think your work environment is tough, check out photo #70.



Just great!
Lives of ordinary people back then, very nice:kewlpics:


----------



## Tuikku

As todays kids are doing more sitting and watching, they are missing out a lot of Going and doing


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## leeholaaho

Dances with Flashlight said:


> Adobe walls without sheetrock.
> Outhouses.
> Cars with 8 tracks & reverb units.
> Houses without air conditioning.
> Carbon paper.
> Clamp-on roller skates that sliced off ankles.
> Roller skating without sidewalks.
> Walking through puddles with tin cans attached to shoes.
> Newsreels at theaters.
> Smothers Brothers on the radio.
> No FM stations.
> Paperboy Special bicycles.
> Roy Rogers Jeep.
> The day the Lone Ranger met Tonto.
> .22 rifles for 6 year old boys.
> Water bags on cars.
> Sergeant Preston and Yukon King.
> The first fins on cars.



.22 rifles for 6 year old boys almost made me ruin a keyboard with a mouthful of hot chocolate. I don't think I got mine until I was about nine.


----------



## Imon

When I was a kid they had realistic candy cigarettes that looked very similar to the real thing and produced smoke when you blew into them.
I use to buy them from the ice cream man when he came around and whenever my parents would discover them they'd take it away from me.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

leeholaaho said:


> .22 rifles for 6 year old boys almost made me ruin a keyboard with a mouthful of hot chocolate. I don't think I got mine until I was about nine.



That took me by surprise also. You'll shoot your eye out, kid!

Another one that just popped into my head - 

Seeing those giant WWII-vintage searchlights outside of movie theaters and car dealerships. When I was a kid those seemed to be a semi regular event. One night they had one parked outside of our local movie theater and the sight of it just stopped me in my tracks. I was simply astonished by the amount of light coming out of it and that bright angry looking flame emanating from the electrodes. I remember wondering if the thing was about to explode into a giant fireball of intense blue-white light!


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## leeholaaho

I actually remember my father complaining to the gas station guy when he went to get gas and the price went to 23.9 cents. 

A baseball field was never unused and fistfights occurred over their use, now I drive by and see unused fields on beautiful days.


----------



## Flying Turtle

How about "real" chemistry sets where you might have to actually light up an alcohol burner or candle (oh, the horror of it all). I used to have a great time playing with one that belonged to my older brother, so it went back to the late '40's. And, somehow I managed to keep my eyes and fingers.

Geoff


----------



## guardpost3

leeholaaho said:


> .22 rifles for 6 year old boys almost made me ruin a keyboard with a mouthful of hot chocolate. I don't think I got mine until I was about nine.



I was eight when I got mine. I gave my daughter hers when she was seven, and that was only last year.


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## Monocrom

Getting your first car. Picking up a girl for a date. Stopping by a gas station. Attendant in a white uniform comes by, smiles, pumps your gas for you, checks under the hood, checks your fluids, washes your windows . . . Meanwhile you spend that time chatting with your date.

Nowadays you pull in. Maybe you'll get lucky and find a station that still has a Full-service aisle. What you get will be nothing close to full-service. He'll pump your gas, clean your windshield, and that's it! Hopefully he'll speak more than three words of English, and not be covered in too much grease as he leans against your car . . . And maybe, just maybe; you'll actually have enough money left over to buy your date a real meal instead of going to Burger King once you're done paying for gas.


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## PhotonWrangler

When TV stations used to sign off at night. In these days of the 24/7 onslaught of video and music from tv, radio, cellphones and the internet, there was a time not too long ago when all of the electronic cacophony would come to a stop for the night. They'd usually play a short inspirational talk or an editorial message, followed by the national anthem, and then  they were gone until the next day's dawn. It was a gentle message to us insomniac kids that the day was over and it was time to go to bed.

Even the cable networks used to sign off at night.


----------



## Burgess

That reminds me of the Very First "pay TV" service available in Chicagoland.

In the 1970's, a company called *OnTV* would sell you a "decoder box",
which you would attach to yer' Antenna connection.
I believe there was a monthly fee involved (obviously), but i don't know the details,
cuz' (of course) WE didn't have it.

They offered ONE channel, and would broadcast movies withOUT commercials !
One of the local UHF channels had been designated for this purpose.

But -- here's the BEST part . . . .

Every night, after Midnight, they would broadcast *Adult* Movies !

And, if you would adjust your TV controls "just right",
and if you were REALLY lucky . . . .

You could sometimes catch a glimpse of boob, or rear-end.
(through the scrambled static)


What a difference compared to nowadays, eh ?


----------



## RBR

.....


----------



## Echo63

Im nearly 30, and a Photographer, and i had a discussion like this with a subject (aged 11) and her mum
Kids these days miss out on

not knowing if you got a good photo or not until you finished the 24 or 36 frames in the roll, and had it processed (hours, days or even months later)
getting a good picture without photoshop
and the thrill of watching a print develop in the tray, in a real darkroom.
(of course they also miss the horror of dust, dodging and burning, the chemical smell, and working in the dark for hours to make one good print)


----------



## Monocrom

PhotonWrangler said:


> When TV stations used to sign off at night.



PBS channel (Channel 13 in NYC) still does that.

Honestly, I'm glad that's over. I've spent too many years working at night. You come home at around 1am, and there's plenty of good shows on T.V. if you have cable. As for the kiddies, they'll likely never experience not having a T.V. in their room. It used to be one T.V., and it was in the living room. Even if channels didn't sign off at night, no parent back in the day would tolerate their kid watching T.V. in the living room that late.


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## MoonlightDelivery

65535 said:


> Somehow I would love to take a few slow days in another decade.



Im 33 so i have ive lived both ends of those worlds. An after being a very into tech for 12 years i now hate the time ive wasted. My life used to be phones, gaming PC's, game/ mods. Now im getting the urge to grow food, and build things from nothing instead of plugging in and screwing together PC's.

Maybe its the knowledge that all this tech COULD go away and skills like that will be very useful.


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## beerwax

real music .... that germinated and flourished in the fertile soils of a free culture , rather than the hydroponic factory produce of today. nah its not all that bad there is some little flower buds around but they struggle to be seen . cheers


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## Chauncey Gardiner

_Riding in the back of their dad's pick-up truck on a summer night.  

~ Chance 
_


----------



## blasterman

How about actually *walking to school*?

Not sure if this has been covered previously, but I'm not that old and yet find the term 'walking to school' generates looks from teens today as if I brought up VHS or something.

What I don't get is obesity rates are up with teens, physical activity is down, gas prices are way up, and national academic averages are down compared to other industrialized countries. Yet teens today insist on having a car to drive to school so they can work a pt time burger flipping job to help pay for insurance and parents give in.

What's also 'missing' today is more of an emphasis on academics -vs- sports. Unless school is entertaining it's not succeeding according to current standards, eh, and those smart kids all take those fancy AP classes, right? I find this a bit strange because 20+ years ago it was certainly more viable to drop out or just take easy classes because non-skilled jobs were plentiful and payed a decent living, but now it seems the D+ varsity star has it made (until they graduate).

And....and...I want the B&W test pattern with the Indian head back on so I know when Saturdany morning cartoons are about to start.


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## jtr1962

I agree, blasterman. The last decade I've seen a ridiculous number of school buses compared to when I was young. The healthiest thing would be for these kids to walk to school. In the cases where the distance might be too far to walk, what's wrong with taking a bike? Teenagers don't need cars, either. In fact, it's the worst thing for them. It distracts them from school work. Having a job to pay for car expenses means less time spent studying. On top of that, you also have the obesity problem you mentioned. You're right though. Saying you walked to school does result in strange looks. My favorite line is the one I use on my niece. I tell her I used to walk over 1/2 a mile to school, four times a day (I came home for lunch), and it was uphill _both_ ways.


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## EZO

Today's kids will never know what it was like when you had to get up off the couch to change the channels on the TV. At least there were fewer channels back then.
The first remote control TV I owned was a B&W set in 1968 that had a Zenith "Space Commander" remote. It was mechanical and used ultrasound to change the channel and volume. When you pushed a button on the remote control, it clicked and struck a metal bar tuned to a frequency, hence the term "clicker". Each bar emitted a different frequency and circuits in the television detected this sound. The only problem was that my vacuum cleaner emitted a frequency that would turn on the TV and sometimes off and at one point I had a brass belt buckle that would also turn on the TV when I would put on or take off my jeans if the prong hit the buckle hard enough!

I'd like to thank blasterman for jogging this memory when he mentioned the B&W test pattern with the Indian head.....and getting up off the couch to change channels was before they invented the term couch potato, speaking of kids not getting any exercise. And it wasn't just the cartoons on Saturday. Anybody remember Zacherly? or Andy's Gang....."Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!" (Two other classics today's kids missed out on.)


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## Nyctophiliac

Echo63 said:


> Im nearly 30, and a Photographer, and i had a discussion like this with a subject (aged 11) and her mum
> Kids these days miss out on
> 
> not knowing if you got a good photo or not until you finished the 24 or 36 frames in the roll, and had it processed (hours, days or even months later)
> getting a good picture without photoshop
> and the thrill of watching a print develop in the tray, in a real darkroom.
> (of course they also miss the horror of dust, dodging and burning, the chemical smell, and working in the dark for hours to make one good print)



Ah, the Darkroom!

Many, many an hour/day/weekend was spent in mine as you say, dodging and enlarging and focusing and blurring and compositing and burning etc etc etc. With the ever present sound of the water trickling through the wash tray, or the drier hurrying my prints along. The tape after tape of music playing loudly (Pink Floyd, Kate Bush, Led Zepp, Hendrix, Clapton), .... The piling ashtrays!

I can't think of when I've been more creative or more focused on one thing for as long a time - I miss it.

I still have all the stuff, but mostly we use it for a storeroom now.

Hey ho.


Back on topic and for those people from UK in the seventies...

Spangles
Ice Breaker
Aztec
Carriba
Medolite plastic drinks tubes
Space 1999 on a Saturday Morning
Small boys, in a park, isn't it?, Jumpers for goalposts, enduring image...enduring smell!


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## Acid87

I'm only 24 but I appreciate the older more refined things of yester year. On a serious note I think everyone should experience the mechanical sound of winding on a film in a 35mm rangefinder. I got my newest 35mm Konica C35 for £2 this month and can't get enough of the sound.

Another thing kids nowadays missed out on was having to blow on a 16bit sega mega drive cartridge just to play a game. Now you could download it in a minute or two. Completely erasing the cardiovascular work out Sega games provided.


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## Monocrom

I'm only 36, but one thing I recall vividly when I was in public school is that the teacher had a wonderful system for remembering how students came to school. She had a cut-out of two buses on one small portion of a wall. The yellow and green buses that some students took. Their names were on one bus or the other. Then she had a cut-out of a shoe-print. That one contained the names of students who actually walked to school. My name was on that one. You walked. If it was bad out or might get bad out, you took an umbrella that day. That was pretty much it.


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## whiteoakjoe

In my 40's now and remember when things closed at night and on sundays.. All the shops were closed on Sundays only things open were a couple of gas stations and the hospital. After midnight there was no traffic, the TV stations signed off and everyone slept...


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## RBR

.....


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## Monocrom

Being able to get help from token booth clerks down in the subway.

I should add, "From the ones who had a working brain."

There were some decent ones. Just as there are decent folks in pretty much every profession. But from personal experience, there just weren't many decent ones out there. Now they're all gone. I guess the kids won't be missing out on much after all. Still, if there's a problem or an emergency down in the subway it's good to see a human being behind the cube who at the very least could contact the police or an ambulance to help you. Under normal circumstances though those clerks didn't do anything that a vending machine couldn't do.


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## daimleramg

Monocrom said:


> Being able to get help from token booth clerks down in the subway.


 
Not japanese kids....


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## Acid87

daimleramg said:


> Not japanese kids....
> 
> YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-fP_xJDIYg



That is amazing! Talk about customer service.


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## NonSenCe

the man comes out OF the machine.. cool. and freaky. and scary. (is there an japanese guy in every clever machine?.. need to check them all from now on. hahah)


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## Monocrom

Is that vid real?

Wouldn't work in NYC though. Getting a token booth clerk to actually come out and help you was unheard of even back when I was a toddler. 

Here's another one for the kiddies . . . Playing outside in the front yard or in front of the building without anything happening to them. Back in the day, if you so much as touched a child's hair, the men in the neighborhood took you up to the tallest building and tossed you off of it. And if you survived, you knew better than to talk to the cops. Nowadays the perverts cry a bit and get a vacation in a psychiatric ward. There's a reason why offenders didn't register back in the old days. Back then if the neighbors knew who you were, your continued health and well-being could be measured in hours, at best.


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## daimleramg

Monocrom said:


> Is that vid real?
> 
> Wouldn't work in NYC though. Getting a token booth clerk to actually come out and help you was unheard of even back when I was a toddler.


 
Yes it is real, it is a clip from a travel show called departures. They are 2 hosts and one camera man from brantford ontario, one of my favourite shows to watch. That is the only reason why I know of that clip because I watched it on tv a few years back. And the title of the thread says things kids missed out on today, not things kids from NYC missed out on, also who cares if it will work or not in NYC this thread is not about what will or not work in NYC.


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## PhotonWrangler

Monocrom said:


> Is that vid real?


 
It looks professionally produced. Lighting is good, both fellows are on-mic, and the last statement "Did he really come out of that machine? "Yeah" shows that it was either shot with two cameras or there was editing involved. This was probably a viral ad campaign.


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## Monocrom

Simply an observation of different cultures.


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## DM51

Back on topic, please... :ironic:


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## PhotonWrangler

Watching Jerry Lewis usher in the fall season with his telethon. I'm really bummed at the way he was just pushed aside this year.

To quote a local newspaper columnist, it ain't fall 'till Jerry sings.


----------



## Imon

Well, I'm only 24 but I remember a few years back I was talking to my cousin who is 9 and I mentioned to him that when I was a kid phones were plugged into the wall and we couldn't walk away from the phone like you can with modern phones and he was incredulous. :laughing:
Not many people use home phones anyways with cell phones being amazing little computers now.


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## Monocrom

PhotonWrangler said:


> Watching Jerry Lewis usher in the fall season with his telethon. I'm really bummed at the way he was just pushed aside this year.
> 
> To quote a local newspaper columnist, it ain't fall 'till Jerry sings.


 
Honestly, I found that surprising as well. Will be interesting if this year's telethon is as successful as previous ones.


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## TK35

For me it is the Drive In theater.....remember watching: "The Thing" "The Blob" "The Graduate" "Dirty Harry" "Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid" "Rosemary's baby" "Georgie Girl" etc....

Double dates in the Volkswagen Mimi-bus with a stash of hidden booze. Yea, those were the days....Sneaking in a couple under a blanket in the back seat....


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## StarHalo

Let's watch some TV..


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## ElectronGuru

StarHalo said:


> Let's watch some TV..


 
Hay, what are you doing in my childhood!


----------



## Biovent

Mr. Rogers
Big Macs that were Big
Scooters with the big rubber tires(like little bike tires)
Big wheels
Saturday cartoons(maybe they still do, but you have a whole channel)


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## EZO

TK35 said:


> For me it is the Drive In theater.....remember watching: "The Thing" "The Blob" "The Graduate" "Dirty Harry" "Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid" "Rosemary's baby" "Georgie Girl" etc....
> 
> Double dates in the Volkswagen Mimi-bus with a stash of hidden booze. Yea, those were the days....Sneaking in a couple under a blanket in the back seat....



Drive-ins still exist! Although they went through a major decline due to changes in technology, demographics and daylight savings time, they are still with us and are even experiencing a resurgence. There are at least four still active here in Vermont. According to Drive-ins.com there are at least 5000 of them.

see also: http://www.driveinmovie.com/mainmenu.htm


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## ElectronGuru

Biovent said:


> Big wheels


 
What happened? Saw a kid yesterday and found myself saying "why is he riding a little wheel? It's not like they build a ratio inside the wheel, wouldn't that then be slower?


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## PhotonWrangler

Reel to reel tape recorders. There was something very satisfying about loading up a 7" reel of tape, threading it past the head and onto the takeup reel, then playing back your favorite 'mix tape' at 3-3/4 IPS or 7-1/2 IPS. Watching the reels turning had the same hypnotic effect of watching a vinyl record going round and round.

Bonus points if you can remember what the dull, non-slip 3m "black watch" coating on the back of the tape smelled like when you opened the tape box. It was a distinctive and mildly pleasant odor that smelled like nothing else. It was such a popular coating material for magnetic media that every videotape room I've ever been in smelled like it.


----------



## Morelite

PhotonWrangler said:


> Reel to reel tape recorders. There was something very satisfying about loading up a 7" reel of tape, threading it past the head and onto the takeup reel, then playing back your favorite 'mix tape' at 3-3/4 IPS or 7-1/2 IPS. Watching the reels turning had the same hypnotic effect of watching a vinyl record going round and round.
> 
> Bonus points if you can remember what the dull, non-slip 3m "black watch" coating on the back of the tape smelled like when you opened the tape box. It was a distinctive and mildly pleasant odor that smelled like nothing else. It was such a popular coating material for magnetic media that every videotape room I've ever been in smelled like it.



Not the same smell but that reminded me of the smell from freshly made copies on a ditto machine.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Morelite said:


> Not the same smell but that reminded me of the smell from freshly made copies on a ditto machine.



Yeah! I remember that also. That was a very similar although slightly fruitier odor.


----------



## Burgess

to PhotonWrangler --

Yep ! ! !

Got my Sony TC-105 7-inch reel-to-reel Tape Recorder, in perhaps 1966.
That would be 45 years ago. 
I would be 13 years old.
And, of course, i still have it !

(don't know if it still operates, of course. Haven't used it in Decades)
(The rubber rollers are probably long-"dead")


I agree with everything you mentioned.
The distinctive and pleasant aroma of opening a brand new package of 3M magnetic tape.
:thumbsup:

Nothing was "portable" about MY tape recorder.
Weighed about 20 pounds.
Was the size of my Smith-Corona portable manual typewriter (wide-carriage model).
And, of course, it needed 120 Volts AC power.

But it performed GREAT, and gave me many years of great service !
Way to go, Sony/SuperScope !
(remember _*that*_ ?)

Ah yes -- the not-so-simple joys of my younger years.


_


----------



## Burgess

Another very distinctive aroma . . . .


Opening a fresh 100-foot roll of Eastman Kodak Plus-X Pan 35mm film.

I would "bulk-load" my black & white film, to keep costs down.

Would alternate between Plus-X Pan ( ASA 125 )
and Tri-X Pan (ASA 400 ), since both films were suited for different uses.

And, of course, i could easily tell ( IN THE DARK ), which film was which,
based strictly upon the SMELL !


Bonus -- those lovely silver round metal cans (holding the 100 foot roll)
would be So Cool and Useful, for storing all sorts of things !



Sure do miss 'em.


Nowadays, my wonderful Canon EOS 7D digital SLR
lets me shoot from ASA 100 through 3200, while yielding EXCELLENT results !
Simply by turning a selector wheel.


Think of it -- *3 stops faster* than Tri-X Pan, and it's even in _*Full Color*_ ! ! !



Kids today are never gonna' realize what a huge advancement this is.


_


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Ah yes Burgess, fond memories!

I used to work with a lot of open reel videotape also, and it was common practice to 'calendar' or 'burnish' the tape prior to it's first use. That simply meant running the tape all the way through in fast forward and then rewind to knock off any loose oxide before recording on it. I generally didn't have to do that with audiotape since it was much more forgiving.

That just reminded me of a funny/weird story. Many years ago we opened up a new reel of 1" videotape and proceeded to set up the usual burnishing procedure on the VTR. We had the audio turned up slightly as we ran the tape through in fast forward to shake off the loose oxide, and we heard a faint trace of audio. On a _brand new reel_.

So we rewound it to the spot that seemed to have something on it, pressed Play, turned the sound way up, and through the tape hiss we heard a faint voice. It was a male voice.... singing something... singing "Old Macdonald Had a Farm..."

True story! I had a witness with me in the room! Apparently they used that song at the factory to test batches of new tape, and they hadn't completely erased it before shipping it out.
:laughing:


----------



## Monocrom

Taking a date to a nice place to eat . . . without her getting horribly depressed or self-conscious when she looks at the menu.

Not too long ago, menu's contained less information. Just the name of the dish, perhaps a brief description of it, and the price. (And some of the fancy places would leave off the price.) Since a new menu contains a calorie-count, your date is no longer going to have a good time. She's going to be depressed. And when girls get depressed, they want to cry on your shoulder; instead of nibble on it. Kinda hard for a young man to get some affection when his date is practically on the verge of tears. 

I predict that the smarter young men out there will opt for an old fashioned picnic more and more.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

The awful color rendition of early fluorescent lamps. The very first ones were so highly deficient in red that people appeared slightly greenish under them and it was making some office workers ill. Then the manufacturers tried to compensate by adding a pinkish phosphor. I remember that my grade school had some of these and they had a horrible vomit-pink hue to them.

Modern tri-phosphor lamps seem to have the problem licked.


----------



## Burgess

Yes, i well remember those Yucky fluorescent tubes !

:sick2:


Even worse, when trying to take photographs (with Color film), 
we would need a Magenta filter over the camera lens, to compensate.


At least an un-filtered *Tungsten* photo would still look halfway decent. 

But i found fluorescent lighting to be a real Pain in the @$$.


Thankfully, i mostly shot in Black & White.


_


----------



## ElectronGuru

Nestle Crunch bars, wrapped in aluminum foil...


----------



## Burgess

. . . . for a NICKEL ! ! !


Yes, children -- strange, but True !


----------



## Chauncey Gardiner

ElectronGuru said:


> Nestle Crunch bars, wrapped in aluminum foil...


 


_I think I ate a lot of those when I was a child_......_.it's hard to remembe_r...... 

~ Chance


----------



## Monocrom

ElectronGuru said:


> Nestle Crunch bars, wrapped in aluminum foil...



We still have those in NYC.

Was there a recent change over at Nestle?


----------



## ElectronGuru

Been plastic for at least a few years on the west coast. Maybe it's regional?


----------



## Monocrom

That's most likely it. But I wouldn't be surprised if it spreads out to here.


----------



## LukeA

ElectronGuru said:


> Nestle Crunch bars, wrapped in aluminum foil...



Who's missing out?

The bar in a plastic wrapper:
stays fresh longer due to the better seal.
creates less waste than the old wrapper. Less mass in the waste stream is always good.
only needs one packaging supplier to be on time instead of two.
requires fewer operations on the packaging line, meaning fewer defective bars. Defects are expensive.
has less mass than the old wrapper. Less packaging mass per bar lowers the cost.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

LukeA said:


> Who's missing out?
> 
> The bar in a plastic wrapper:
> stays fresh longer due to the better seal.
> creates less waste than the old wrapper. Less mass in the waste stream is always good.
> only needs one packaging supplier to be on time instead of two.
> requires fewer operations on the packaging line, meaning fewer defective bars. Defects are expensive.
> has less mass than the old wrapper. Less packaging mass per bar lowers the cost.



Luke, I agree with all of your points, however I also see ElectronGuru's. The aluminum wrapper created a more tactile, less sterile experience when unwrapping the bar. It's not something that I can put into words - it's just something about that crinkly sound when you unwrapped it.


----------



## ElectronGuru

LukeA said:


> Who's missing out?



Well thats annoying, I must also agree with you.

The more energy/resource intensive we get, the less energy/resources there are (total and per person). So many things that were, cannot be and many things that are, will not continue. 

Today's kids mis out on what in retrospect, was the luxury of waste. Turns out most efficiency isn't very romantic.


----------



## Monocrom

If it doesn't crinkle, the kids are missing out.


----------



## Flying Turtle

Don't know if it's been mentioned already, but today's kids sadly missed the time when answering machines were pretty much unknown.

Geoff


----------



## StarHalo

I didn't know albums used to be sold on reel to reel format, turns out Columbia House sold reel to reel albums from 1960 to 1984. Guess I missed out on that..


----------



## Monocrom

Hopefully they'll miss out on the current system of so-called customer service operators.

Perhaps by the time they're old enough to pay bills, a new system will be in place. 

I spent over an hour dealing with the operators at a certain cable company. Usual procedure. They apologize profusely for the inconvenience. They maintain a very calm almost narcoleptic demeanor. While at the end doing nothing at all to actually resolve the situation. Then I wait for a supervisor who actually had the authority to fix the problem (Hey! What a concept!), and did.

I really hope future generations miss out on this ridiculous format for dealing with customer service issues.


----------



## Chauncey Gardiner

*Nestle's Crunch bars no longer being wrapped in aluminum might be due to the debate over aluminum's connection to Alzheimer's disease.*


----------



## Burgess

to StarHalo --


Perhaps those Reel-to-Reel Albums were intended for Radio Stations ? ? ?


Any markings on the package ? -- "For Professional Use Only" or "Not Intended For Re-Sale" ? ? ?


Was the "playing speed" at 7.5 or 15 inches per second ?


I have NEVER heard of such media being for-sale to the general public.


Thanks for sharing that information !

:thumbsup:
_


----------



## Empath

Reel to reel was one of the media options in the Columbia Record Club. I don't remember seeing them available any other way.


----------



## StarHalo

Burgess said:


> Perhaps those Reel-to-Reel Albums were intended for Radio Stations ? ? ?
> 
> Any markings on the package ? -- "For Professional Use Only" or "Not Intended For Re-Sale" ? ? ?



Nope, this guy has a massive collection and is writing the book on the subject; Columbia House offered every single hit/advertised album they carried on reel to reel from roughly 1965 to 1974 - you'd fill out the "TAPE PENNY HERE" magazine ad with your selections, and then you'd choose your format, LP, cassette, 8 track, or reel to reel. So there's literally hundreds of big albums from the last half of the 20th century on reels out there; a quick search on EBay confirms this (with some quadrophonic titles nudging the hundred dollar mark..)

I looked through some of the pictures on that guy's site, it looks like most of the quadrophonic titles were 7 1/2 IPS, though some of the country titles were 3 3/4, apparently there was no standard. Some of the titles sport Dolby labels, too.


----------



## Monocrom

Chauncey Gardiner said:


> *Nestle's Crunch bars no longer being wrapped in aluminum might be due to the debate over aluminum's connection to Alzheimer's disease.*



More likely, plastic wrappers are cheaper for the company to use instead of aluminum.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

I remember seeing those reel-to-reel albums in a local electronics store many years ago. While it seemed intriguing, I never warmed up to the idea of buying an album that's recorded on a medium that I perceived as somewhat fragile and easily damaged.


----------



## blackbalsam

Metal lunchbox with thermos inside.


----------



## Chauncey Gardiner

Monocrom said:


> More likely, plastic wrappers are cheaper for the company to use instead of aluminum.



_I wouldn't be surprised if cost was the reason. Although, if you Google: aluminum Alzheimer's, you will have over one and a half million results. Just saying. 

~ Chance _


----------



## Burgess

a GLASS-lined Thermos ( vacuum bottle ) !

Which would break ( SHATTER ! ) when you accidently dropped it ! ! !


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Burgess said:


> a GLASS-lined Thermos ( vacuum bottle ) !
> 
> Which would break ( SHATTER ! ) when you accidently dropped it ! ! !



But which kept drinks better than plastic EVER could!!!


----------



## Chauncey Gardiner

_.25 cent cigarette machines with the pull rods. As Martha would say: "It's a good thing....they're gone." 

~ Chance_


----------



## Monocrom

Chauncey Gardiner said:


> _I wouldn't be surprised if cost was the reason. Although, if you Google: aluminum Alzheimer's, you will have over one and a half million results. Just saying.
> 
> ~ Chance _



Looks like I'm gonna be in trouble in a couple of decades.

Meh . . . Considering the world is headed down the toilet, I'm likely going to be better off not remembering $#!%.


----------



## Monocrom

PlayboyJoeShmoe said:


> But which kept drinks better than plastic EVER could!!!



True.

But as a kid, I had at least two if not more shatter on the inside without ever dropping those things. After that, mom decided to stop throwing away the family's hard-earned money on those things.


----------



## RBR

.....


----------



## Old One

If the Moon landing hasn't been mentioned already, it should have been. (read all 557 posts? no way.) Perhaps more interesting (to me, anyway), is what kids today will say when they have this conversation.. "You young whippersnappers today are totally clueless of what it was like before all our brains were linked! Oh yeah, Grandad? Well, thanks to your blessedly dimming memories, we know exactly whaddit be like!" (grins)


----------



## Empath

A few posts dealing with the differences between older TV shows and newer have been moved to their own thread.


----------



## shao.fu.tzer

I'm guessing that payphones have already been mentioned... what about pinball machines, Icees, decent music, Street Fighter II, the ability to walk around your own neighborhood without your parents freaking out...? The Thing (the 1982 version), The Stuff, They Live, and RoboCop...

Ahhhh... kids.... They know so little of the real world... 

Shao


----------



## Monocrom

You can still find working payphones. But they are getting rare. They'll definitely miss out on the privacy of using a phone booth though.

Italian Ices are still around too.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

I've seen a few phone booths revived as cellphone booths. It works in certain venues like theaters and better restaurants.


----------



## ElectronGuru

shao.fu.tzer said:


> Icees



You can get them, but they're called Slurpees. The trick is finding a 7/11 with a Mountain Dew machine!


----------



## Monocrom

ElectronGuru said:


> You can get them, but they're called Slurpees. The trick is finding a 7/11 with a Mountain Dew machine!



No need to even go that far. Many Italian pizza places still offer the treat during the Summer months. And, there are still Latin neighborhoods with street vendors still offering the treats. Though most likely once again, it's a seasonal thing.


----------



## StarHalo

They sell Slurpees at the movie theater 

Couldn't agree more about the pinball machines, I have no idea where I'd look for one outside of the Pinball Museum in Vegas..

I would argue that the music now is better than the music from the 90's 

Detroit turned down the idea of a giant bronze statue of Robocop, guess they don't want to be famous for their past or their future..


----------



## beach honda

Redboxing coin tones into payphones to make free phonecalls. Bluboxing phone systems to gain trunk reset status. Phr3aking\Phr4cking in general. 2600 magazine. Blacklisted 411 magazine.


----------



## Monocrom

StarHalo said:


> I would argue that the music now is better than the music from the 90's



No. 



> Detroit turned down the idea of a giant bronze statue of Robocop, guess they don't want to be famous for their past or their future..



What?? They didn't want a statue of one of our coolest moderators? Well screw them!

(Might be just as well. Someone probably would have stolen it.)


----------



## shao.fu.tzer

beach honda said:


> Redboxing coin tones into payphones to make free phonecalls. Bluboxing phone systems to gain trunk reset status. Phr3aking\Phr4cking in general. 2600 magazine. Blacklisted 411 magazine.



Chris, you Phr34ker! I never knew... I used to be into all that stuff when I was a little kid.. pre-internet days where you had to download everything from the phreaker/hacker/virus boards... Nice...



ElectronGuru said:


> You can get them, but they're called Slurpees. The trick is finding a 7/11 with a Mountain Dew machine!



Dude, I haven't seen a 7/11 in these parts since maybe the early 90's... For whatever reason, they were run out of Harris County and the surrounding areas... When I travel I see them all the time... 

Here's a few more: Non-CG special effects, the ability to understand the importance of not being needlessly binned, labeled and registered with the government for everything that you do, GI Joe, Transformers, Robotech, Indiana Jones, Ronald Reagan, original Star Trek, Star Wars for that matter, depictions of multi-cultural street gangs in movies, 70's/80's shaving practices, mullets, baseball when it was a real sport... yadda.. yadda.. yadda... 

Shao


----------



## Acid87

Elvis has left the building.


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Some truckstops have Slurpee TYPE machines in them. I think Loves was the most common but Pilot maybe.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Trudging down to the Fotomat to drop off / pick up your film. I once walked about two miles in each direction during a blizzard to do this when I had a roll of film with some important stuff on it.

And the anticipation of wondering whether you got the shot. You really had no idea until your film came back.


----------



## PlayboyJoeShmoe

Was talking about that ^ very recently. I STILL want a Canon SLR body that I can use my EF old film lenses on!


----------



## Burgess

Yep !

Remember what a BIG DEAL it was,

to be able to see yer' (film) pictures *the same day* that you TOOK them ! ! !



WOW -- that is SO COOL ! ! !


I would often make the statement:

" Isn't technology *Wonderful* ! "



Nowadays, we get instant results with our Cell Phone cameras. 


Just not as exciting, however.


I well remember shooting a roll of Kodachrome film,
and sticking it into a Kodak PK36 processing mailer.

Several days later (if you were lucky), you would go to yer' Mailbox,
and there was a bright Yellow Box of Slides for you !

Oh, the feeling of anticipation and excitement !

Going through the box, one-by-one, holding each slide up to the light.

Checking to see if it "turned out" properly.

Oh, and be Very Careful to keep 'em in proper order ! 

edited to add: and keep yer' FINGERPRINTS off ! ! !


Then, you'd insert the box of 'em into a Carousel Tray (upside-down, and backwards) ,
drag out the projector and the Day-Lite screen, and close the curtains.

Always wanted to see how they looked BIG, when projected.

Always marveled at the fantastic resolution of fine-quality prime lenses.
(zooms were quite crappy back then, so i never had one)

And, of course, always marveled at the WONDERFUL performance of Kodachrome !

So incredibly fine-grained ! :thumbsup:


Even using the "faster" ASA 64 version !


----------



## Burgess

PlayboyJoeShmoe said:


> Was talking about that ^ very recently. I STILL want a Canon SLR body that I can use my EF old film lenses on!





What I *really* want, is a Canon DSLR body that can use my old FD lenses ! ! !

:sigh:


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Burgess said:


> And, of course, always marveled at the WONDERFUL performance of Kodachrome !



Yep! Somebody oughta write a song about it.

O wait...


----------



## Burgess

(modern version)


Mama, don't take . . . .

my cell-phone camera awayyyy


----------



## Monocrom

Most of those picture kiosks got turned into cab company relay booths. Need a cab? Don't have the number of a cab company. Can't look one up online. Can't ask the operator for a number of one (for some bizarre reason). Stop off at a kiosk and request a cab in person.

I know, I know. But there's literally one of those a block down and to the left from my apartment.


----------



## BillG

the old fashioned belt driven dentist drills.
filthy public bathrooms in gas stations. no other choice.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

The old shoe-fitting x-ray machine. When you went to the shoe store, you stuck your foot in this thing and it blasted you with x-rays, casting a shadow onto a fluoroscope screen to see how your bones fit into the shoe. Yikes! Thank goodness we finally came to our senses and got rid of those scary things!


----------



## Burgess

Hey !

I well remember those Adrian shoe X-ray machines ! ! !


Even though they were "outlawed" by my time, the stores would still HAVE them,
just wouldn't have 'em plugged in.

If you would ASK, they had been known to plug it in, turn it on, and give you a Look. 

Even though it was by now (back then) totally illegal to do so. (heh heh)


I was perhaps 5 years old, and WAY too short to see into the Viewfinder for my OWN feet.

But, my father held me up, so that i could see my Brother's feet, inside the machine.

I remember it was rather Fuzzy and indistinct. Not sharp and clear, as i had been expecting it to be.

(keep in mind -- i was ~5)


This was perhaps 1958.


Ah, the innocence of youth !

(and stupidity)


----------



## ElectronGuru

Reminds me of shipping film to the lab during vacation and returning home to prints made during the intervening days.



PlayboyJoeShmoe said:


> I STILL want a Canon SLR body that I can use my EF old film lenses on!



I should have my EOS 620 here somewhere..


----------



## Monocrom

BillG said:


> filthy public bathrooms in gas stations. no other choice.



In some parts of the country, the kids will get to still "enjoy" that experience.


----------



## TedTheLed

BillG said:


> the old fashioned belt driven dentist drills.
> filthy public bathrooms in gas stations. no other choice.



man, Bill, that tooth must have really HURT.

Burgess, foot x-rays? man you're old ! :>)
But I gotta agree about the projected color slide, it's a great way to view photos, or was..
I JUST got a (my very first) Nikon F 2..had it gone over and adjusted by an expert in England, who sent it back to me here in California where I loaded it up with......TRI X ! nyaah nyaah, take that, Iphoneys...


----------



## Burgess

I've shot HUNDREDS of rolls of Kodak Tri-X film !

Plus-X, also !


Processed every single one of 'em in my Basement Darkroom.

Used D-76 (1:1) or Rodinal most of the time.

Can still remember the Aroma of those deadly darkroom chemicals !




Enjoy yer' Film Camera !

:thumbsup:
_


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Another Tri-X Pan and darkroom veteran here. Oh, and in the "things I've learned the hard way" category, when working with photo processing chemicals, always wear gloves!


----------



## MattE

Anybody remember the record players in the cars

like this

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/833127/1959-ford-thunderbird#


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Whoa. That device played vinyl records? In a moving car?


----------



## MattE

PhotonWrangler said:


> Whoa. That device played vinyl records? In a moving car?



Yup, 45 rpm singles


----------



## MattE

Here is another pic.


----------



## StarHalo

PhotonWrangler said:


> Whoa. That device played vinyl records? In a moving car?



That's how Motorola got started, hence "Moto-" "-rola".


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Amazing. I'd like to see the stylus tracking / shock absorption mechanism. I sometimes experience CD skipping when I hit a large bump in the road; I can't imagine how a record player could cope with that.


----------



## MattE

PhotonWrangler said:


> Amazing. I'd like to see the stylus tracking / shock absorption mechanism. I sometimes experience CD skipping when I hit a large bump in the road; I can't imagine how a record player could cope with that.



Actually there is one on E bay item # 270883833942 which show pictures of the interior​
http://motors.shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=record+player


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Looks like future generations are going to miss out on Bazooka Joe comics.


----------



## Monocrom

A friend of mine recently had a very odd encounter with a young man who stopped by the pharmacy drive-thru to pick up some medication for a family member of his. My friend, a pharmacy technician, tried to engage him in conversation. Warm, friendly, pleasant conversation. The kid froze up and stammered his way through. Often with a blank look on his face. No, the kid wasn't mentally handicapped or anything like that. Wasn't a mute, wasn't deaf . . . Just honestly could not communicate. He was texting away like a fiend on his Smartphone though after pulling into the drive-thru.

So there you go . . . Kids today are getting to the point where they will miss out on knowing how to talk to another human-being standing directly in front of them. If some scientists are correct regarding evolution, at this rate our ability to use our mouths to generate words will become completely useless. Just as our appendix. At one point in time, an important body organ. Now evolved into something so useless that removing it is a routine surgical procedure.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

That is really sad. Of course it doesn't help that a toy manufacturer is trying to get kids indoctrinated into the idea of texting early with this dumb product. To operate it you enter your text, then fist bump your friend to send it. Yes, the kids are actually *standing next to each other* to exchange messages.


----------



## Monocrom

PhotonWrangler said:


> That is really sad. Of course it doesn't help that a toy manufacturer is trying to get kids indoctrinated into the idea of texting early with this dumb product. To operate it you enter your text, then fist bump your friend to send it. Yes, the kids are actually *standing next to each other* to exchange messages.



:wow:

(We really need an icon that conveys someone shuddering in fear and disgust.)


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Christmas cards (and greeting cards in general). More and more people are sending electronic greetings via email. It's oK and it's environmentally smart, but an e-card doesn't have the same feeling as a physical, tangible piece of paper with a handwritten note in it. A physical card can be taped to a mantle and it reminds you of your friend every time you walk into the room. You can't do that with an e-card.


----------



## Monocrom

PhotonWrangler said:


> Christmas cards (and greeting cards in general). More and more people are sending electronic greetings via email. It's oK and it's environmentally smart, but an e-card doesn't have the same feeling as a physical, tangible piece of paper with a handwritten note in it. A physical card can be taped to a mantle and it reminds you of your friend every time you walk into the room. You can't do that with an e-card.



Indeed. I put Christmas cards at the end of the living room table so that the family can enjoy them while dining on Christmas dinner. Definitely can't do that with an e-card. 

_"Hey everyone, before we eat, gather round my PC and check out the pics my friends sent me for Christmas."_


----------



## gadget_lover

They will miss out on "Well written text".

It occurred to me this evening that we are more literate than ever, thanks to computers and social networks. Instead of books and newspapers and magazines we read dozens of posts and articles and blogs every evening. 

The difference is that the papers and books were edited and proofread. You seldom saw "your" where "you're" belonged. You had constant reinforcement of proper spelling and grammar. I once had a sizable vocabulary, and most of that came from a voracious appetite for reading novels. Of course, I've forgotten most of it. Too many people look at you funny when you use words like voracious, so they are used less and less.

I predict that the language with mutate much faster in the coming years than it ever has in the past. There is no proofreading of the blogs and posts. There is constant feedback that "your" means you are and "you're" means it belongs to you. We are starting to see it in the newspapers and TV banners too.

Dan


----------



## jtr1962

gadget_lover said:


> I predict that the language with mutate much faster in the coming years than it ever has in the past. There is no proofreading of the blogs and posts. There is constant feedback that "your" means you are and "you're" means it belongs to you. We are starting to see it in the newspapers and TV banners too.


Just off the top of my head I constantly see "breaks" instead of "brakes", "petals" instead of "pedals", "bare" instead of "bear", "their" instead of "they're", and "sight" instead of "site". Now add in the usual horrid sentence structure plus texting shortcuts of many Internet "writers". In some cases they might as well be talking a foreign language.

Granted, it's sometimes considered poor online etiquette to nitpick at someone's grammer or spelling if their meaning is otherwise clear but that's not the point. Rather, it's the sheer number of posts I read a few times, yet still can't figure out what they mean.

I'm hopeful things will get better once the newness of being able to comment on every topic and article dies down. That's really the problem-the sheer volume of mostly nonsensical comments following just about every online article. Most of these people aren't adding anything worthwhile or intelligent to the discourse (just read the comments following Yahoo news articles to see what I mean). Rather, they're merely posting stuff, probably just because they can.

_"Give one million monkeys one million typewriters and they'll eventually type the entire works of William Shakespeare."_ - not if they're typing on the Internet


----------



## Burgess

^ ^ ^ x 1000 !

" I'm not ALOUD to stay up past Midnight "

ad infinitum


Good Grief --

We learned about Homonyms in the SECOND GRADE ! ! !


Don't they TEACH that in schools anymore ? ? ?

:shakehead

:hairpull:
_


----------



## Chauncey Gardiner

_"Give one million monkeys one million typewriters and they'll eventually type the entire works of William Shakespeare." 

That theory was disproved shortly after Al Gore invented the internet. 

~ Chance
_


----------



## Monocrom

Burgess said:


> ^ ^ ^ x 1000 !
> 
> " I'm not ALOUD to stay up past Midnight "
> 
> ad infinitum
> 
> 
> Good Grief --
> 
> We learned about Homonyms in the SECOND GRADE ! ! !
> 
> 
> Don't they TEACH that in schools anymore ? ? ?
> 
> :shakehead
> 
> :hairpull:
> _



Actually, there are some "progressive" schools that no longer teach even penmanship because the students all do their work on old PCs. Meaning they'll be able to do complex equations. But won't be able to write out a simple shopping list.


----------



## Empath

Some posts removed, after it ventured into a form of non-family-friendliness and illegalities.


----------



## h_nu

Burgess said:


> a GLASS-lined Thermos ( vacuum bottle ) !
> 
> Which would break ( SHATTER ! ) when you accidently dropped it ! ! !



Not to mention the trips to the drug store to buy replacement fillers. Where are the 032Fs when you need them?


----------



## h_nu

Red Ball Jets for those of us who couldn't get our parents to spring for Converse or Keds shoes.
Erasers for ballpoint ink.
Songs with clear lyrics and radio stations that announced the song title/album titles every third or fourth song.
Listening to my parents and grandparents having nostalgic talks about what I was missing out on.

In an homage to my grandparents, the carbon filament bulbs they had and the business calendars with an alcohol thermometer and three digit phone numbers. I saw these at grandma's house.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

h_nu said:


> ...and the business calendars with an alcohol thermometer and three digit phone numbers. I saw these at grandma's house.



Wow, I vaguely remember seeing one of those a long time ago. And yes, I had a pair of Red Ball sneakers. And when I was a kid, our clothes dryer was a wringer attachment that hung on the edge of the washing machine. We would wring out the clothes then hang them up in the basement or outside to dry.

**Edit**

Another one - 

Watching Guy Lombardo's band playing on New Year's Eve. Yeah I know it's a little corny but those classy guys owned New Year's Eve when I was little.


----------



## StarHalo




----------



## Monocrom

Here's another one I just thought up . . . pushing actual buttons on their cellphones.


----------



## mvyrmnd

Monocrom said:


> Here's another one I just thought up . . . pushing actual buttons on their cellphones.



Hey! There's 4 buttons and a switch on my iPhone!


----------



## Monocrom

mvyrmnd said:


> Hey! There's 4 buttons and a switch on my iPhone!



Doesn't count if it's got a touch-screen.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Should we mention landlines?


----------



## Monocrom

PhotonWrangler said:


> Should we mention landlines?



Ha! plenty of employers won't hire a person if they don't have a landline. 

For that reason alone, landlines will live on. 

(A much more blatant reason is all those damn telemarketers who call and harass folks every day. Instead of getting a real job.)


----------



## PhotonWrangler

As long as we're on the topic of phones, two more things - 

The voice of Jane Barbe "The number you have dialed..."

Rotary phones. Here's a neat video on how the old mechanical switching system sensed a call being dialed and set up the connection.


----------



## gadget_lover

PhotonWrangler said:


> The voice of Jane Barbe "The number you have dialed..."




Sad fact.... For several years ( 1980's) you heard my voice saying "All circuits are busy now" if you were making a long distance call in Monterey county. The proper tape was garbled so I had to record a "temporary" replacement. My voice is no where near as sweet as Jane's. The proper recording was reinstated when we upgraded the announcement equipment to digital.

Daniel


----------



## PhotonWrangler

gadget_lover said:


> Sad fact.... For several years ( 1980's) you heard my voice saying "All circuits are busy now" if you were making a long distance call in Monterey county. The proper tape was garbled so I had to record a "temporary" replacement. My voice is no where near as sweet as Jane's. The proper recording was reinstated when we upgraded the announcement equipment to digital.
> 
> Daniel



Well how about that! Were they using the old drum recorders or actual tapes? For those who aren't familiar, the drums were like a magnetic version of Edison's wax cylinder.


----------



## nbp

Explaining old stuff by comparing it to even older stuff doesn't really help us youngsters. :nana:


----------



## PhotonWrangler

nbp said:


> Explaining old stuff by comparing it to even older stuff doesn't really help us youngsters. :nana:



And that's the whole point of the thread - you youngsters have missed out on a lot of pretty cool older stuff! :huh:


----------



## mvyrmnd

PhotonWrangler said:


> And that's the whole point of the thread - you youngsters have missed out on a lot of pretty cool older stuff! :huh:






I'm not sure wax cylinders were ever "cool"...  (i'm sure they were extremely popular and amazing at the time, but I'm playing semantics)


----------



## Norm

Polio
Smallpox
Diphtheria
Whooping cough
Pneumococcal Disease
Tetanus
Typhoid Fever

Norm


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Amen to that, Norm!


----------



## Monocrom

Norm said:


> Polio
> Smallpox
> Diphtheria
> Whooping cough
> Pneumococcal Disease
> Tetanus
> Typhoid Fever
> 
> Norm



Unfortunately, in some countries, they're not going to miss out on any of those. (Assuming they don't die of malnutrition first.) It is rather disturbing that there are still some places in the world that young doctors can go to, in order to see how these diseases effect young human subjects.


----------



## TedTheLed

Kids today vs. Kids how far back? If we're going pre-industrial revolution , then; wholesome unrefined foods, clean air, clean water, peace, a world in harmony with nature, passenger pigeons, a sense of well being... Ok I'm depressed now.


----------



## mvyrmnd

Norm said:


> Polio
> Smallpox
> Diphtheria
> Whooping cough
> Pneumococcal Disease
> Tetanus
> Typhoid Fever
> 
> Norm



You forgot The Black Death.


----------



## Monocrom

TedTheLed said:


> Kids today vs. Kids how far back? If we're going pre-industrial revolution , then; wholesome unrefined foods, clean air, clean water, peace, a world in harmony with nature, passenger pigeons, a sense of well being... Ok I'm depressed now.



Peace?? Maybe a piece of pie. No peace on this plain of existence.


----------



## TedTheLed

Relative peace?

Maybe the past seems more peaceful because of blissful ignorance.
The modern digital world is so much more with us.

How does the phrase go? ' what we reject..admit..so we fill our world and people it..' ?


----------



## Darvis

For any old-timer refrigeration mechanics out there (and new ones coming up through the ranks for that matter):

Sulfer gas and mono, tri, and flourodichlromethane (R12, 22 and 502 freon) systems
Belt driven compressors
All wood walk-in boxes


----------



## gadget_lover

PhotonWrangler said:


> Well how about that! Were they using the old drum recorders or actual tapes? For those who aren't familiar, the drums were like a magnetic version of Edison's wax cylinder.



These were the drum recorders that were originally installed to service a #5crossbar switch. Think of it as a drum that is coated with iron oxide (like a recording tape) and has multiple heads for playing back the recording as the drum spun. It was pretty cool to watch. If I recall correctly each read head was about a second apart so that one recording copy could be used no matter when you hit the recording.

Ironically the switch was a computer controlled model known as the 1A ESS HI/LO system. It used 4 26 inch hard drives that provided 64 mb of storage and were belt driven by an external motor. That was high tech. It did not have enough solid state memory to store the announcements. One uncompressed "I'm sorry" recording would have used the whole system's memory.

I guess kids also missed the "hit the phone switchhook 10 times to get the operator" trick. A rotary phone worked because the switches counted the number of times the phone was connected and disconnected in rapid succession. Phones were sometimes disabled by putting a physical lock on the dial. Secure phones in theaters, airports and hotels did not even have dials. The switchhook was the cradle that you placed the phone handset in to automatically hang up. If you rapidly hit the switch hook it would look like you were dialing. 

Hmmm. I guess I'm an old fart. 

Daniel


----------



## PhotonWrangler

gadget_lover said:


> I guess kids also missed the "hit the phone switchhook 10 times to get the operator" trick. A rotary phone worked because the switches counted the number of times the phone was connected and disconnected in rapid succession. Phones were sometimes disabled by putting a physical lock on the dial. Secure phones in theaters, airports and hotels did not even have dials. The switchhook was the cradle that you placed the phone handset in to automatically hang up. If you rapidly hit the switch hook it would look like you were dialing.
> Daniel



I once used this trick to dial the operator from a pay phone with a broken dial. I called to report the broken phone and she didn't believe that it was broken because I was able to call her! I tried to explain the switch hook trick to her but she was having none of that. She probably wrote it up as a prank call.


----------



## StarHalo

I used to do that trick all the time where, from a pay phone, you dialed a certain prefix and then the number on the phone, then hung up, and it would ring itself. Don't remember how it was done now..


----------



## Norm

StarHalo said:


> I used to do that trick all the time where, from a pay phone, you dialed a certain prefix and then the number on the phone, then hung up, and it would ring itself. Don't remember how it was done now..


I know here all our exchanges have an automatic test desk with various numbers for tests, one of them be ring back as you describe. Google and you should find codes for your area.

I remember once reporting a faulty PT (techo talk for Public telephone, I once work of the Post Master Generals Department - PMG Australia's original Government phone co.) and received six pence in the post to compensate me for the six pence (5c) lost, still have it somewhere in the envelop and card it arrived in.

Norm


----------



## TedTheLed

...blueboxes, call an 800 number, push the sieze button, then dial anywhere in the world for free..

Remember those??! 



No? ....Anyone...? Mmmmm.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

I remember them, Ted. Paging Captain Crunch... 

BTW Steve Wozniak was into that stuff.


----------



## StarHalo

TedTheLed said:


> ...blueboxes, call an 800 number, push the sieze button, then dial anywhere in the world for free..
> 
> Remember those??!



Just slightly before my time; I remember reading about them on the BBS, downloading texts about it at 2400 baud..


----------



## PhotonWrangler

StarHalo said:


> Just slightly before my time; I remember reading about them on the BBS, downloading texts about it at 2400 baud..



I remember when 2400 baud was considered to be _screaming! _


----------



## gadget_lover

TedTheLed said:


> ...blueboxes, call an 800 number, push the sieze button, then dial anywhere in the world for free..
> 
> Remember those??!
> 
> 
> 
> No? ....Anyone...? Mmmmm.



As a switching technician, one of our test sets was used to dial calls directly from the long distance trunks. You could test all sorts of phone related things, including echo, gain and frequency response. A very handy diagnostic tool. It is what the "blue boxes" were modeled after. 

Ironically, it was a pretty blue.

Dan


----------



## Burgess

PhotonWrangler;4111530
said:


> I remember when 2400 baud was considered to be _screaming!
> _




When I bought my very first computer (IBM PC)
way back in 1983, i paid a bunch extra to get the 
Hayes "HIGH-SPEED" modem !

No measely 300 Baud for ME . . . .

I'm paying the extra money for their *1200 Baud* Smart-Modem !




Good Lord -- this was 30 Years Ago ! ! !


Many of you "youngsters" weren't even BORN yet !



_


----------



## gadget_lover

I won't mention my 110 baud modem with the rubber cups that the phone handset fit into AFTER you dialed the call. 1979? Sounds about right.

Kids will miss out on the whole concept of serving an apprenticeship. Imagine starting a new career by finding a job you found interesting and asking the business owner to teach you in exchange for cheap labor? The idea was to work your way up from sweeping floors to become a master craftsman (if you had talent). 


Daniel


----------



## Rono8582

Hi guys, I'm new here but I've been reading as many threads as I can. I think kids today are missing out on thinking for themselves, and binding with family members. Today anybody can google anything from their pockets. They no longer have to think for themselves. When I was young and had a question, I asked my dad. If he didn't know he asked his dad. Today kids avoid contact with parents and just go unguided through life.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Accoustically coupled modems! I used to use a Ti "Silent 700" terminal with built-in thermal printer and accoustic modem.

I also used to maintain a system that displayed stock ticker information. It was connected to the NYSE through a 20mA "current loop" circuit that ran at some oddball speed like 42 baud. No, that's not a typo.


----------



## Nicolas

Arthur Godfrey's Breakfast Club on the school bus radio on the way to school every morning.

Your feet don't reach all the way to the floor in the school bus.

Big kids hitting you / making fun of you, in the school bus.

Hitchhiking!


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Coal fired furnaces. I grew up in a house that originally had a coal loading chute into the basement that had since been bricked over. We had a gas furnace when I lived there but I was amazed when I learned what that chute was for.


----------



## Norm

I remember our hot water and heating was run on briquettes (compressed brown coal about three quarters the size of a brick)


----------



## Monocrom

gadget_lover said:


> I won't mention my 110 baud modem with the rubber cups that the phone handset fit into AFTER you dialed the call. 1979? Sounds about right.
> 
> Kids will miss out on the whole concept of serving an apprenticeship. Imagine starting a new career by finding a job you found interesting and asking the business owner to teach you in exchange for cheap labor? The idea was to work your way up from sweeping floors to become a master craftsman (if you had talent).
> 
> 
> Daniel



If it's any consolation, tattoo shops still have apprenticeships. But there's usually a flat fee attached as well as the Uber cheap labor.


----------



## Monocrom

Nicolas said:


> . . . Big kids hitting you / making fun of you, in the school bus . . .



Some things never change.


----------



## Norm

Corporal punishment at school.






Norm


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Yikes Norm.

We had the paddle, sometimes with holes drilled it it for reduced air resistance. :whoopin:


----------



## Burgess

So did we !


It was "decorated" with the slogan:

The Board of Education !

Never got to meet it "personally".

( wink )


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Me either. 

Funny story about paddling - 

Way back in about 7th grade, I was sitting in my classroom, getting ready to turn in my homework assignment. A kid sitting next to me saw it sitting on my desk, snatched it and tore it up. Apparently he thought this was funny.

I raised my hand and pointed out what had just happened, which apparently the teacher had noticed also. So she brought both of us up to the front of the class, told the other kid to turn around, handed the paddle to me and told me to hit him!

So I mustered up all the strength that a 7th grader could muster and hesitatingly took a swing.

Me: Thwack.

Teacher: "That wasn't hard enough. Try it again."

Me: Thwack.

Teacher: "That's still not hard enough. Here, give me the paddle."

WHAM!!!

That kid never messed with me again. Neither did anyone else in that class.


----------



## Nicolas

PhotonWrangler said:


> Me either.
> 
> Funny story about paddling -
> 
> Way back in about 7th grade, I was sitting in my classroom, getting ready to turn in my homework assignment. A kid sitting next to me saw it sitting on my desk, snatched it and tore it up. Apparently he thought this was funny.
> 
> I raised my hand and pointed out what had just happened, which apparently the teacher had noticed also. So she brought both of us up to the front of the class, told the other kid to turn around, handed the paddle to me and told me to hit him!
> 
> So I mustered up all the strength that a 7th grader could muster and hesitatingly took a swing.
> 
> Me: Thwack.
> 
> Teacher: "That wasn't hard enough. Try it again."
> 
> Me: Thwack.
> 
> Teacher: "That's still not hard enough. Here, give me the paddle."
> 
> WHAM!!!
> 
> That kid never messed with me again. Neither did anyone else in that class.



A judgment befitting of Solomon, methinks.


----------



## Monocrom

Unfortunately, teachers nowadays aren't remotely made from the same stock.


----------



## Nicolas

Monocrom said:


> Unfortunately, teachers nowadays aren't remotely made from the same stock.



Were a teacher to do this today, he would be fired, his teaching license revoked, and you would see a front page story in your local newspaper.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Nicolas said:


> Were a teacher to do this today, he would be fired, his teaching license revoked, and you would see a front page story in your local newspaper.



It's unfortunate but true.


----------



## Monocrom

Nicolas said:


> Were a teacher to do this today, he would be fired, his teaching license revoked, and you would see a front page story in your local newspaper.



So true. I used to be disgusted by those who would privately admit to getting into teaching just for the job security and seniority perks. But now, not so much. Teach a bunch of undisciplined kids. BTW, you're not allowed to discipline them. Okay . . . For my next trick, I'm going to drive 90mph on a twisting back-country road with a car that has no steering wheel. Yeah, when teaching in the public sector has become a joke, it's silly to expect teachers to still take the job seriously. Even the good ones will realize soon enough that their efforts and hard work mean nothing compared to just coasting through.

Yeah, that's another thing kids will miss out on (at least in the public sector) . . . Teachers who actually give a damn about properly educating them.


----------



## Cyclops942

Monocrom said:


> Yeah, that's another thing kids will miss out on (at least in the public sector) . . . Teachers who actually give a damn about properly educating them.


Although there are bad days, this is not true for the teachers I know and love. (Note: there are also teachers I know for whom this IS true...)


----------



## PANGES

PhotonWrangler said:


> Me either.
> 
> Funny story about paddling -
> 
> Way back in about 7th grade, I was sitting in my classroom, getting ready to turn in my homework assignment. A kid sitting next to me saw it sitting on my desk, snatched it and tore it up. Apparently he thought this was funny.
> 
> I raised my hand and pointed out what had just happened, which apparently the teacher had noticed also. So she brought both of us up to the front of the class, told the other kid to turn around, handed the paddle to me and told me to hit him!
> 
> So I mustered up all the strength that a 7th grader could muster and hesitatingly took a swing.
> 
> Me: Thwack.
> 
> Teacher: "That wasn't hard enough. Try it again."
> 
> Me: Thwack.
> 
> Teacher: "That's still not hard enough. Here, give me the paddle."
> 
> WHAM!!!
> 
> That kid never messed with me again. Neither did anyone else in that class.



haha. Must've been awesome.


----------



## davidwestonh

You guys remind me of my grandmother she would talk about horsedrawn streetcars.
boys that liked you putting her pigtails into the inkwell. All her friends quitting school after sixth grade to help their parents support their younger siblings.
my mother was still sewing her own clothes from patterns when I was about ten. So in the mid. Sixties.
my grandmother was still using a washing machine that rolled to the sink and had a hand wringer.
i would take the garbage out to a foot opened container that was picked up weekly.
hanging clothes on the clothesline.
rollin cigarettes with a hand machine.
outhouses!!!
chores.
ramblers
hitchhiking at 12 years old.
gillette razors
mothballs in drawers.
twin lense reflex cameras.
playing in secret passages.
plotting to get a playboy mag.


----------



## davidwestonh

Dances with Flashlight said:


> Adobe walls without sheetrock.
> Outhouses.
> Cars with 8 tracks & reverb units.
> Houses without air conditioning.
> Carbon paper.
> Clamp-on roller skates that sliced off ankles.
> Roller skating without sidewalks.
> Walking through puddles with tin cans attached to shoes.
> Newsreels at theaters.
> Smothers Brothers on the radio.
> No FM stations.
> Paperboy Special bicycles.
> Roy Rogers Jeep.
> The day the Lone Ranger met Tonto.
> .22 rifles for 6 year old boys.
> Water bags on cars.
> Sergeant Preston and Yukon King.
> The first fins on cars.



When did you have water bags on cars? What models were they?
outhouses. Now they are called porter potties . I remember sleeping in them with a gas mask on no one bothered you.
actually every time I put a gas mask on I had the urge to fall asleep. Not good when driving a gama goat.


----------



## gadget_lover

Water bags for over heated radiators are still available. I've seen them in off road magazines.

Kids will soon miss the joy of watching the theater's film come to a sudden stop and burn in half. How many of today's kids have never been to a movie theater? Everything eventually makes it to DVD or online play.

When I was a kid we really looked forward to the daily kid's shows on TV. There were so few that ALL kids saw the same ones. Everyone knew Captain Kangaroo, Miss Nancy and Bozo the Clown. It created a shared world beyond the neighborhood. 

Dan


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Captain Kangaroo and Mister Green Jeans! Good stuff.


----------



## BVH

Musical tone.

The Pancake Man, The Pancake Man
No more time for the Pancake Man,
Got to hurry, Got to go,
See you on tomorrow's show,
At the Int-Ter-National-House, of Pancakes!


----------



## Monocrom

BVH said:


> Musical tone.
> 
> The Pancake Man, The Pancake Man
> No more time for the Pancake Man,
> Got to hurry, Got to go,
> See you on tomorrow's show,
> At the Int-Ter-National-House, of Pancakes!



Now it's just IHOP. Sounds lazier.


----------



## TedTheLed

Gadget, I have never seen anything quite as spectacular as "Barbarella" bubbling away on the big screen! Even later, the Fillmore East Joshua light shows couldn't compare  ..oh yeah,

The Fillmore East.







*See Rule #3 Do not Hot Link images. Please host on an image site, Imageshack or similar and repost – Thanks Norm* did it, thanks. 
...now a bank...that figures...


----------



## gadget_lover

Theme parks... Do we seem to have fewer theme parks than we used to?

I grew up behind the  Santa's Village in central California. It was a delightful Christmas themed fantasy land. We'd spend all day there, riding the rides, petting the animals and just having fun. Down the road was the  Lost World which included a topiary of dinosaurs and ogres and giants. A few dozen miles away was the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. 30 miles the other direction was  Frontier Village in San Jose. 

Some of these were huge. Frontier Village was 35+ acres, Santa's Village was 25. They were a destination and a full day's adventure. 

Some, like Lost world, were only a few acres. Driving cross country on Route 66 brought us across a wondrous array of snake pits, petrified dinosaurs, plaster Paul Bunyan's and space ships. 

Now I see huge theme parks like Six Flags with no personality, just tons of roller coaster style rides and expensive junk food. Will today's kids be able to enjoy a walk through the enchanted forests? I hope so.

Daniel


----------



## PhotonWrangler

+1 on smaller family operated amusement parks. We used to have one not too far from here and I spent many hours there as a child. They only had a few roller coasters (one of them kid-sized), maybe 10-15 other rides, a couple of arcades and a few snack shops scattered around. It had loads of personality and it was just the right size for a day of fun. Company picnics were a staple there, and the park was small enough that the grownups attending on the company picnic could easily find each other and chat under a shade tree while the kids played nearby.

These days we have a huge, sprawling mega-park about an hour from here but it's not the same. It feels cold and sterile compared to the old family park.


----------



## Monocrom

PhotonWrangler said:


> These days we have a huge, sprawling mega-park about an hour from here but it's not the same. It feels cold and sterile compared to the old family park.



A sadly accurate description of what modern theme parks are today.


----------



## jtr1962

gadget_lover said:


> Now I see huge theme parks like Six Flags with no personality, just tons of roller coaster style rides and expensive junk food. Will today's kids be able to enjoy a walk through the enchanted forests? I hope so.


Modern theme parks are merely businesses designed to extract as much money as possible from those who visit them, and have just about as much personality as an office building.


----------



## Gregozedobe

Norm said:


> I remember our hot water and heating was run on briquettes (compressed brown coal about three quarters the size of a brick)



Your family must have had more money than mine. We had a hot water system that was designed to run on briquettes all right, but we ran it on chunks of mallee stumps. And when I got old (read strong) enough it was my job to split up those dammed mallee stumps into small enough pieces to go down the chute designed for briquettes. 

For those that don't know them, mallee stumps are ligno tubers of a particularly hard eucalypt tree. They have a very wavy grain that goes all over the place and are very difficult to split - you have to hit hard and accurately to get anywhere at all. 

As a side benefit I got quite strong - no need for a gym  Even today (45 years later) I'm still pretty handy with an axe, wood splitter and sledge hammer (although my accuracy isn't as good as it used to be, not enough practice I guess).


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Ligno tubers - a great name for a punk band!


----------



## gadget_lover

Is the age of knowledge slowly passing?

Here's what I mean. The wife and I were eating dinner when a movie was mentioned in casual conversation. The star was Tony Curtis. Next thing you know we are asking that ever popular question... "Is he dead?"

10 years ago that query would have fueled a discussion that would last 10, 15 minute, maybe even longer. We would review every piece of work he'd done, and when he'd done it. We'd discuss the rumors and headlines. Instead, we googled him on a smart phone and that was it. He's alive.

Similar occurrences have involved "how many CCs in a teaspoon" and "How far is it from San Francisco to LA?" I remember that as a kid we were forced to learn tons of facts so that we had those facts at out fingertips when we needed them.

Is a database as good as the knowledge? I don't know.


Dan


----------



## jtr1962

There's two sides to that coin. If you have tons of information literally at your fingertips, then of course you're less likely to try to learn things well enough so you don't have to look them up. The flip side of that is by looking up info, even on obscure subjects, you may well develop a much larger _general_ knowledge than you otherwise would have. People will often retain many facts only for subjects which strongly interest them. They may never even read about anything else. The Internet literally forces you to have a wider knowledge base. Many times I went to look up a fact, found some links, delved in more deeply, and ended up learning about subjects totally unconnected to the subject I had originally went online to research. I can't think of any other medium which would allow this. I think having a strong general knowledge in many areas is much better than knowing lots of trivia in one or two areas. In the end it might not matter if you know every movie Tony Curtis was in, but that you know he was an actor, and you can go to imdb to look up anything specific.

Incidentally, I often ask the is so-and-so dead question, then go to imdb to find out. Many times I come away surprised. For example, I had thought Ernest Borgnine was long dead until on a whim a few years back I checked. He did pass away this year (at age 95), but it's always a nice surprise when I find out stars I remember from my childhood (and whom were often on the other side of middle age then) are still around.


----------



## Monocrom

gadget_lover said:


> Is the age of knowledge slowly passing?
> 
> Here's what I mean. The wife and I were eating dinner when a movie was mentioned in casual conversation. The star was Tony Curtis. Next thing you know we are asking that ever popular question... "Is he dead?"
> 
> 10 years ago that query would have fueled a discussion that would last 10, 15 minute, maybe even longer. We would review every piece of work he'd done, and when he'd done it. We'd discuss the rumors and headlines. Instead, we googled him on a smart phone and that was it. He's alive.
> 
> Similar occurrences have involved "how many CCs in a teaspoon" and "How far is it from San Francisco to LA?" I remember that as a kid we were forced to learn tons of facts so that we had those facts at out fingertips when we needed them.
> 
> Is a database as good as the knowledge? I don't know.
> 
> 
> Dan



Another aspect is that the youngins' also blindly accept the so-called facts that they look up, online. There's a reason why no college professor will accept good old Wikipedia as a credible reference source. Yet, if I had to pick the single site that folks constantly link to to "prove" the points that they bring up in online discussions, well; there you go . . .


----------



## ElectronGuru

gadget_lover said:


> Is a database as good as the knowledge?



Want you're describing is the shift, from the power of answers (everyone knows the question) to the power of questions (every web site has the answer).

In a connected world, the trick now is knowing what to look up.


----------



## Empath

gadget_lover said:


> He's alive.



Tony Curtis died in 2010.


----------



## TedTheLed

Ha ha. I mean haha the google was wrong , not that he died..

Eh, I find people today, they don't even bother, they don't have the curiosity, to look things up, google, book, or otherwise..

..and even often when they do, they don't have the discernment to filter fact from fiction, so they are back where they started..you still need to have the ability to discern fact from illusion.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

You mean there are things on the internet that *aren't true?* I'm shocked, I tell you... shocked.


----------



## jtr1962

PhotonWrangler said:


> You mean there are things on the internet that *aren't true?* I'm shocked, I tell you... shocked.


Don't you know-if you read it on the Internet then it has to be true? :laughing:


----------



## Burgess

They couldn't SAY it, if it wasn't TRUE ! ! !

( me puzzled )


----------



## Monocrom

Burgess said:


> They couldn't SAY it, if it wasn't TRUE ! ! !
> 
> ( me puzzled )



I am the Lizard King. Morrison was drunk when he claimed to have my title. No need to bow down. I already know all of you are loyal.


----------



## gadget_lover

Empath said:


> Tony Curtis died in 2010.



I guess I should have said "He WAS alive." This was a few years back. 

Daniel


----------



## SeamusORiley

Big_Ed said:


> Ok, so here are a few things that I think kids today don't really know much about or have never experienced. (for the most part)
> 
> L.P. records
> Rotary dial phones
> Cars with carburetors
> Floppy disks
> TV's with rabbit ear antennas
> TV's with manual tuning knobs and no remote control
> Wind-up clocks and watches
> A time when there was no internet
> Gas for under $1 a gallon
> 
> What else can you think of?



What a fun thread!

I wonder how many are missing out on penmanship? Long distance love letters that took time and care to write. 
The feel of a good book, with leather binding, in one's hands, while quietly reading at night. 
Walkie Talkies. Ham radio.
Radio shows where story telling was the theme. I used to listen to WOR radio in New York, where scary stories were told. They were thrilling. 

Here is another: small transistor radio. I used to listen to baseball games, as a little boy, laying on a towel at our community pool. 

I snuck one into school in 1969, to try to hear the NY Mets World Series. I got caught and it was confiscated with a smile and given back to me. I got it home before my older brother knew it was missing. 

Flipping baseball cards on the bus. 

Quality...I have an electric snow shovel that is 30 years old and still works...made in the USA a long time ago. 

Alphabets cereal. 

McDonald's French Fries cooked in real oil were fantastic. 

Movies that relied solely upon talent to communicate dialog. 

Civility. I remember people NOT parking in front of the town's pharmacy so that the elderly could park there, or the person in a wheelchair could be given preference without having it to be a law. 

Holding doors for ladies and watching language in front of them. 

Moms cheering for little leaguers, but only from the side lines. 

Personal responsibility. 

Christmas caroling in the neighborhood. 

Sandlot baseball. 

I've well dated myself.


----------



## Monocrom

SeamusORiley said:


> Holding doors for ladies and watching language in front of them.



The former still goes on. (At least in my neck of the woods.)

As for the latter, yeah; that's dead. Part of the problem is that someone told the ladies that in order to be seen as equals by men, they have to act like men. Including crass behavior and constant use of vulgar language. When guys hear women and even girls cursing up a storm worse than the guys typically do, of course they're not going to watch their language in front of them. 

Walking out of the mall one time, I stopped to look down at my watch. All of a sudden, I hear an angry voice spewing out four-letter words at me. I look up, and it's some woman in her 30s off in the distance, cursing me out because I walked out the door, and didn't hold it open for her. Cursing up a storm, worse than a sailor. Once again, off in the distance. Cursing me out for being rude and not holding the door open for a lady. I waited until she got right up to me before basically telling her . . . 

"Hey! Show me a lady, and I'll hold the door open for *her.*"

(Yeah, she understood exactly what I meant.)


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Monocrom said:


> "Hey! Show me a lady, and I'll hold the door open for *her.*"
> 
> (Yeah, she understood exactly what I meant.)



Good answer, Monocrom. You taught that woman something about respect, humility and gratitude.


----------



## Burgess

Indeed -- that was a PERFECT retort ! 


I myself wouldn't have thought of it until HOURS LATER.


----------



## jtr1962

I hate to say this but I rarely hold doors any more, except maybe if the person is carrying a lot. Why? I've been cursed at more than a few times by females (and some males as well) who were actually insulted, often with comments like "Do I look like I'm too weak to open the door myself?", or "WTF is wrong with you, this is 2013, not 1913, we don't need you guys for anything anymore". Or sometimes I'm even accused of trying to hit on them (and I have great comeback lines for that). Now I'm happy to let a door slam in someone's face rather than be demeaned for trying to be courteous. I was taught that it's common courtesy to hold the door for the person behind you, _regardless of their sex_, and _regardless of your sex_. Unfortunately that lesson was never taught to most of the under 40 crowd.

About the only time I can hold a door open without risking an insult is when the person is running to catch the subway. Surprisingly, the majority of people even thank me for it.

And good come back line, Monocrom! :devil: She certainly had it coming.

Don't get me started on all the foul language. By both sexes. The thing is foul language loses its shock value when you overuse it. People who know me well know I'm really pissed when the curse words start flying out. I very rarely use expletives in "normal" talk. To me their overuse indicates a severe deficiency in vocabulary.


----------



## Norm

jtr1962 said:


> I hate to say this but I rarely hold doors any more, except maybe if the person is carrying a lot.



Hope I don't get into too much hot water here. Its been my observation over at least thirty years that if you follow a man through a door way they generally look to see who is behind them, follow a woman through a doorway and they'll let it slam in your face without a backwards glance. I've never been abused for holding a door in Australia although many people (not specifying sex here, I'm in deep already) walk through without out a backward glance or a thank you.

Norm


----------



## gadget_lover

There have been so many changes just since I was a kid, that I know there has to be more that kids will miss out on.

As recently as the great depression, it was not uncommon for children to work in factories. Small, nimble hands were able to do some work better than adults. A 12 year old working long hours was expected. Many families depended on the wages of the children to supplement the family income. It was not until 1938 that child labor was finally restricted. My mom tels me of working the fields when she was young. She dropped out of school at 13 to work.

There are great pictures from the turn of the century on Shorpy. They have gorgeous pictures of just about everything. 

On a slightly related subject, This  link on Shorpy tells of an early audio book, circa 1909. This predated widespread broadcast radio .

Daniel


----------



## StarHalo

gadget_lover said:


> There are great pictures from the turn of the century on Shorpy. They have gorgeous pictures of just about everything.



Fair warning: Hardcore time loss site, don't stop by unless you have at least an hour.


----------



## Norm

StarHalo said:


> Fair warning: Hardcore time loss site, don't stop by unless you have at least an hour.



You are soo right, just lost at least an hour an I know I'll go back for more.

Norm


----------



## Monocrom

Thanks guys. Truth is, I've had a few moments (just as Burgess mentioned) when the right retort to rude behavior didn't come to me until hours later.

It's unfortunate what took place. A decade ago, I lived in the same place jtr1962 lives at now. Never a rude comment by any lady or guy when I held the door open for them. Unfortunately, by the time I moved out, the old neighborhood definitely wasn't remotely the same. 

I recall a certain radio talk-show host recounting his dating nightmares back when he was a teen. The Feminist movement was at its absolute strongest. He'd pick up a date, and compliment her on her lovely dress or her looks. Only to be met with the following reply . . ._ "What about my brain, you pig__!"_

Two decades later, whenever he'd pick up a woman to date, he'd sometimes catch himself complimenting his date on her pretty looks; then immediately apologizing to her for having done so. The date would look at him, and wonder why he was apologizing for having given her a compliment. Took awhile, but he eventually realized that (thankfully) times had changed. It was safe again to offer a compliment without having it be horribly misinterpreted. 

I guess that's one thing that future generations of young men will miss out on . . . Call a girl pretty and she'll angerly mace you in the face or stab you in the gut.


----------



## gadget_lover

StarHalo said:


> Fair warning: Hardcore time loss site, don't stop by unless you have at least an hour.




Sorry, I should have warned you. 

The best way to enjoy it is to click on the interesting pictures to see it in full screen (or bigger) and then click on that to see the comments on the photograph, historical notes, and observations of the times. That is guaranteed to suck up an evening at a time if you let it. 

Let me get you started... somewhere in this picture are flashlight parts.  http://www.shorpy.com/node/5708?size=_original#caption


Daniel


----------



## Norm

gadget_lover said:


> Let me get you started... somewhere in this picture are flashlight parts.  http://www.shorpy.com/node/5708?size=_original#caption
> 
> 
> Daniel


The customer has nice shiny shoes, something most kids wouldn't know about today.

Norm


----------



## StarHalo

gadget_lover said:


> Sorry, I should have warned you.



Oh I got into Shorpy shortly after they went online, kind of a must for someone who browses internet images 

My grandfather was a streetcar operator in Kansas City, so it's a hoot to see pictures of downtown KC from that era. One of my favorite pics on the entire site: an appliance store! This is where we'd have to stop first after using the time machine to browse flashlights.. If you look closely at the full-res image, the toaster in the front of the row is an all new model - the bread actually pops up out of it! What will they think of next?!


----------



## TedTheLed

that looks like an early Alladin kerosene heater in the foreground..

I found a picture of my exact neighborhood of Chelsea Clinton, 26th street and 11th avenue, Manhattan, horse drawn carts in 1913 through the snow..


----------



## will

Got to love the tin ceilings....


----------



## nbp

...When Greta went by Sasha. Lot of people don't remember that.


----------



## Monocrom

How about using an encyclopedia set?

If your folks had money, you had one at home instead of heading to the library.

Nowadays kids just browse Wikipedia. Problem is, for school reports, teachers don't recognize Wiki as a credible reference source.


----------



## Nicolas

Monocrom said:


> How about using an encyclopedia set?
> 
> If your folks had money, you had one at home instead of heading to the library.
> 
> Nowadays kids just browse Wikipedia. Problem is, for school reports, teachers don't recognize Wiki as a credible reference source.



So if Wiki is not credible, then it is incredible, does that follow?


----------



## Burgess

Yes -- Encyclopedias !

When i was 4-and-a-half years old, my mother Won a Contest.
Her prize was a set of World Book Encyclopedias.

As i began school, and throughout High School,
these books were *Such an Enormous Advantage* for me !

All of the OTHER students only had access during School.
Or, of course, by making a trip to the City Library.

But i had 24/7 access to Mine !
And i *cannot overstate how precious and valuable* they were to my Education.

Even now, I still have 'em. Boxed Up since our move (4 years ago).
With their Copyright of 1958, they are woefully outta' date !


But I will NEVER part with them. They have indeed earned a place in my heart !


----------



## PhotonWrangler

I've found Wikipedia to be credible on a number of technological topics. However for any topic that is potentially politically charged, one must proceed cautiously.

Point taken on the paper encyclopedias. We signed up for the Brittanica years ago, and it was always a big event when the next volume would arrive at our home. And it was neat to watch our library gradually grow from A to Z. Back then knowledge was something that you had to pursue with a lot more energy.


----------



## jtr1962

Wikipedia is generally fine when it comes to topics which are black and white. I would probably choose other sources however if the subject was politics, or even history. The fact that anyone can edit articles is both a strength and a weakness. On the plus side, any gross factual errors are usually quickly corrected. On the minus side, anything not cut and dried might be distorted to reflect the prevailing popular view.

I still have an old Funk & Wagnell's encyclopedia. Of course, the information on many topics is so out of date as to be worthless. Nevertheless, it still makes good reading to see what people thought on a particular subject 20 or 40 or 75 years ago.


----------



## Nicolas

Burgess said:


> Yes -- Encyclopedias !
> 
> When i was 4-and-a-half years old, my mother Won a Contest.
> Her prize was a set of World Book Encyclopedias.
> 
> As i began school, and throughout High School,
> these books were *Such an Enormous Advantage* for me !
> 
> All of the OTHER students only had access during School.
> Or, of course, by making a trip to the City Library.
> 
> But i had 24/7 access to Mine !
> And i *cannot overstate how precious and valuable* they were to my Education.
> 
> Even now, I still have 'em. Boxed Up since our move (4 years ago).
> With their Copyright of 1958, they are woefully outta' date !
> 
> 
> But I will NEVER part with them. They have indeed earned a place in my heart !



I still have the set my dad bought our family, I think it's the 1961 edition. It was next to the tree on Christmas morning. We always bought the annual updates to them, too. Then when I grew up, my wife and I bought the 1991 edition. We had no idea that in a few years they would be obsolete. The internet didn't exist yet, at least not for us. I spent many happy hours reading them; the first set that is, not so much the second, my kids got more out of them. They did get some amusement, of course, paging through the 1961 set.


----------



## StarHalo

Catch the Wave


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Max Headroom was ahead of it's time in many respects. Remember "blipverts?" A couple of years ago there was a one-second-long Superbowl ad.


----------



## Monocrom

Sadly, I think we all knew that Max wouldn't last long. Too annoying.


----------



## ElectronGuru

Burgess said:


> Even now, I still have 'em. Boxed Up since our move (4 years ago).
> With their Copyright of 1958, they are woefully outta' date !



When new, they were a reference on the present. At some point, they will become a reference on the past, a window into what people were like at a key moment of the 20th century.


----------



## Burgess

Exactly !

Even in my youth, i could see the "changes" in our World,
which were no longer covered in my 1958 version of World Book Encyclopedia.

I always enjoyed reading about Airplanes . . . .

They spent a LOT of space showing "Aircraft of World War II".

Even discussed the new Jet Airplanes, and how they operate !

And a fascinating look at Navigation and RADAR.


Yep -- truly a unique " Time Capsule " of what *1958 World* was like !


----------



## gadget_lover

PhotonWrangler said:


> Remember "blipverts?" A couple of years ago there was a one-second-long Superbowl ad.



Yeah, we enjoyed the entertaining 1 second commercials. They were only visible to people with a DVR, or maybe a high end VCR. Because they were played one frame at a time they did them without music... We haven't seen one in years, although the vanity cards after Big Bang Series ( by Chuck Lorre ) may fall into the same category. 

Daniel


----------



## AMD64Blondie

Actual high-quality computer parts.

(Yes,I'm typing this on a classic 1991 PS/2 IBM Model M.)


----------



## pathalogical

Monocrom said:


> How about using an encyclopedia set?
> 
> If your folks had money, you had one at home instead of heading to the library.
> 
> Nowadays kids just browse Wikipedia. Problem is, for school reports, teachers don't recognize Wiki as a credible reference source.


Still have my Encyclopaedia Britannica on the shelf, circa mid '70s ! Tried to find the word 'internet'...no such luck ! lol


----------



## ElectronGuru

Even in the 90s, there wasn't complete consensus on what to call it. Even it's branding was decentralized


----------



## gadget_lover

I was watching a movie recently, and one scene was supposed to be about viewing an ancient film that was just found. They located an old movie projector and managed to set up a makeshift screen. Then they all say back to watch... A picture with "snow" and horizontal bars.

Even those in the movie business are starting to forget that projection film was damaged a little each time it was shown. Even in storage the dyes faded and the base plastic breaks down. The film was often scratched as it flew through the projector at 24 frames per second. Modern restoration removes virtually all of the scratches and even most of the spots where the emulsion came off the cellulose. 

As I type this we are watching a 50 year old Perry Mason episode. The digital restoration is so good that it's 10 times clearer than when I first watched it over the air in 1963. There is not a single flaw showing in the first 10 minutes. Absolutely amazing.

Dan


----------



## StarHalo

AMD64Blondie said:


> Actual high-quality computer parts.



Got my first dial-up modem in 1993; an actual IBM brand 2400 baud half-card, that survived untold numbers of midwest End Of Days-sized storms, whereas every other modem I bought after that was eventually killed by lightning. I have a stack of dead dial-up modems that all succumbed to being connected to a phone line at the wrong time, and that little IBM became the "backup" that continued working faithfully as the others failed.

Related: Actual high-quality electronic anything; my parents bought a 70's era Zenith TV back when it was practically new, and despite many years of use and non-use, it always worked as advertised. Though no one will ever regard the 19" screen or faux wood grain as luxurious, you knew when you pulled the power switch and it made a resounding KLANK that reverberated throughout the giant case that this thing was built to last..



gadget_lover said:


> As I type this we are watching a 50 year old Perry Mason episode. The digital restoration is so good that it's 10 times clearer than when I first watched it over the air in 1963. There is not a single flaw showing in the first 10 minutes. Absolutely amazing.



Check out the Blu-Rays of the original Star Trek series if you want to see some restoration; that series was originally filmed on a movie set, so they just used the movie cameras that were already there to film - therefore the master is absolutely on par with the color and clarity of the height of 60's cinema technology, it's a trip to see after seeing the lousy network TV copy-of-a-copy leftovers that everyone's been watching for decades. 

Or if you just like film grain, check out Quentin Tarantino's _Grindhouse_; the double-feature is extensively effects-altered for the authentic dollar-theater worn-reel experience, lots of crackly audio, skips, poor splices, etc. Fun stuff!


----------



## jtr1962

gadget_lover said:


> As I type this we are watching a 50 year old Perry Mason episode. The digital restoration is so good that it's 10 times clearer than when I first watched it over the air in 1963. There is not a single flaw showing in the first 10 minutes. Absolutely amazing.


Even if the original showing in 1963 had used a pristine copy, it wouldn't have mattered with the TVs of the time. I remember well the days of trying to get something resembling a picture with those old B&W TVs. Even at their best, the quality was so horrible it amazes me anybody bothered to watch TV back then. Of course, there was no common frame of reference for decent video back then. Nowadays, I can't stand to even watch SD TV after seeing HD.


----------



## jtr1962

StarHalo said:


> Check out the Blu-Rays of the original Star Trek series if you want to see some restoration; that series was originally filmed on a movie set, so they just used the movie cameras that were already there to film - therefore the master is absolutely on par with the color and clarity of the height of 60's cinema technology, it's a trip to see after seeing the lousy network TV copy-of-a-copy leftovers that everyone's been watching for decades.


I probably had an equivalent experience when we got our first color TV in either 1968 or 1969. I do know Star Trek wasn't yet in reruns at the time. Anyway, after seeing many episodes in B&W, the difference in color was like night and day. Not just the fact that it was color, but gone were the scan lines and blurry images where you could barely make out the faces. I guess seeing it in Blu-Ray would be a jump equivalent to that.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Back in the days when tv sets came with a vertical and horizontal hold control, it was a feat just to get a picture that sat still. Picture quality was secondary. Most of the B&W (and some of the color) TV sets didn't use video clamping so a fade-to-black was actually a fade-to-grey, and a starfield that should have been surrounded by black was surrounded by a milky grey. It ruined a lot of otherwise dramatic shots. The clamping issue has long since been resolved, preserving the dc reference point for black level.


----------



## EZO

PhotonWrangler said:


> Back in the days when tv sets came with a vertical and horizontal hold control, it was a feat just to get a picture that sat still. Picture quality was secondary. Most of the B&W (and some of the color) TV sets didn't use video clamping so a fade-to-black was actually a fade-to-grey, and a starfield that should have been surrounded by black was surrounded by a milky grey. It ruined a lot of otherwise dramatic shots. The clamping issue has long since been resolved, preserving the dc reference point for black level.



I remember banging on the top or side of the TV set was sometimes the only thing that would get the picture to stop rolling after hopelessly fiddling with the dials for lengthy periods of time. As a kid I thought that was just at our house until I learned that lots of people did that, especially a lot of my friend's dads. And everybody would bang on coke machines all the time and that worked too! Nowadays, I wish my computer would work like that. I sure feel like giving the box a whack sometimes, especially when I am trying to get CPF to load on a busy night. :ironic: I'll have to try it ....

Of course, there was always the endless fiddling with the rabbit ears trying to get a better signal.

And speaking of analogue TVs and things today's kids missed out on, remember having to get up off the couch to change channels?


----------



## H-Man

I had a Pentium III box with a dieing HDD, I had to give it a good hard whack to get the bearings to unbind.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

EZO said:


> I remember banging on the top or side of the TV set was sometimes the only thing that would get the picture to stop rolling after hopelessly fiddling with the dials for lengthy periods of time. As a kid I thought that was just at our house until I learned that lots of people did that, especially a lot of my friend's dads. And everybody would bang on coke machines all the time and that worked too! Nowadays, I wish my computer would work like that. I sure feel like giving the box a whack sometimes, especially when I am trying to get CPF to load on a busy night. :ironic: I'll have to try it ....



Ahh, good old percussive maintenance. I've used it many times, usually with some degree of success. 

A long time ago in high school, I was one of the students in charge of the school's video equipment. We had an old B&W video camera that used a bunch of 2N706A transistors in the video amp stages. These transistors were in sockets and as a result the camera had the occasional intermittent.

One day I was called out of english class to fix the camera. I walked into the drama classroom where they were trying to shoot a skit and they were stopped cold by the dead camera. Everyone was watching me as I walked up to the camera, probably expecting me to pull out a VOM or a screwdriver. But I knew about that intermittent video amp so I gave the camera a good smack on its side and it came back to life. Several of the students blinked in surprise when I smacked it, and when the picture came back, after a brief moment of stunned silence I got a loud round of applause.

I bowed and went back to my english class.


----------



## EZO

Great story PW!

P.S. I see you just cracked 10 grand in postings. Congratulations!


----------



## jtr1962

EZO said:


> I remember banging on the top or side of the TV set was sometimes the only thing that would get the picture to stop rolling after hopelessly fiddling with the dials for lengthy periods of time. As a kid I thought that was just at our house until I learned that lots of people did that, especially a lot of my friend's dads. And everybody would bang on coke machines all the time and that worked too! Nowadays, I wish my computer would work like that. I sure feel like giving the box a whack sometimes, especially when I am trying to get CPF to load on a busy night. :ironic: I'll have to try it ....
> 
> Of course, there was always the endless fiddling with the rabbit ears trying to get a better signal.
> 
> And speaking of analogue TVs and things today's kids missed out on, remember having to get up off the couch to change channels?


Ah yes-the so-called good old days. Computers nowadays may sometimes seemingly have minds of their own, but most of the time they just work. Same thing for TVs. Whenever I might get a tinge of nostalgia for how things were, I remember how difficult it was just to get something resembling a picture on a TV set. Although I never did it personally, when we lived in a housing project I knew some neighbors who got so frustrated that their TVs took the short way down. A TV hitting the ground from the 6th floor makes for a pretty loud noise.  And yes, banging did work well quite often. I think it may have helped push out dust or debris on circuit boards which slightly altered component values. With TV signals, it doesn't take much component drift to go from a perfect picture to a rolling mess. Anything socketed was sometimes helped by banging as well.

As for computers, I tend to take my frustrations out by slamming the mouse down. I got a few mice to smash into nice little pieces. I've been tempted to put my foot through the monitor at times, but then I stop and think that I don't have the money to replace it. Mice are cheap at least, plus prior to laser mice you got a nice little trackball for the cats to play with after you smashed one.

BTW, "percussive maintenance" still sometimes works. I have an electric heater where the fan sometimes won't start. A few hard bangs and it springs to life. It stays working, at least until the next time I try to start it. I finally did fix the problem the right way by lubricating the bearings, but hitting it did the trick for a good year.


----------



## EZO

I've heard of a few computers going out the window too!

I too have slammed mice down in frustration.


----------



## Burgess

this made me think . . . .


It's been YEARS since I've had to "smack" a Flashlight,

in order to get it to work !


Mag-Lites (for me, anyway), always had a* superbly-reliable* Switch mechanism !

:thumbsup:


BTW -- congrats to PhotonWrangler for hitting 10,000 posts !

_


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Burgess said:


> BTW -- congrats to PhotonWrangler for hitting 10,000 posts !



Wow, I didn't even catch that. Thanks Burgess! Time for a new keyboard already


----------



## nbp

You old fellers are great. :grouphug: lovecpf


----------



## mvyrmnd

jtr1962 said:


> As for computers, I tend to take my frustrations out by slamming the mouse down. I got a few mice to smash into nice little pieces. I've been tempted to put my foot through the monitor at times, but then I stop and think that I don't have the money to replace it. Mice are cheap at least, plus prior to laser mice you got a nice little trackball for the cats to play with after you smashed one.



That was a perfectly valid method to free up a roller-ball mouse. It's a habit my wife hasn't broken with my $100 dark-laser mouse (that will track on 2mm thick clear glass) and I cringe every time she does it.


----------



## StarHalo

That's easy, get a trackball. Nothing to pick up to slam around.

The good news is that this resolves the problem entirely, the thread-relevant bad news is that I was an early adopter for the original optical trackball, the Logitech FX; it turns out that if you drop this model on the floor even once, the little infra-red assembly on the inside comes apart and no longer works. I have a small stack of defunct Logitech FXs right next to the stack of fried dial-up modems..


----------



## will

Here is a site that outlines the repair method for the older style mouses. This actually was put out there by IBM

http://www.snopes.com/humor/business/mouse.asp


----------



## Burgess

to StarHalo --

So, what is you Favorite (currently available) Trackball ? ? ?


----------



## HighlanderNorth

Having grown up in the 80's, I can think of MANY things today's kids missed out on. But you could also look at it another way......There are things around today that we missed out on as kids.....Like modern computers.


But still even though technology has increased drastically since the 80's, I still think we may have benefited from that lack of technology because it forced us to find more personally creative things to do, and forced us to spend much more time outside involved in more physical pursuits that left us in better physical shape. I grew up in suburbs and rural areas, because although my Dad worked in the office of a larger business, he hated the idea of living in the city. So we didnt have a mall nearby. 

That meant we did lots of fishing in streams and ponds, riding higher end BMX bikes that some us us(like me) bought with funds from allowances and paper routes, shooting bow and arrow. We also did a fair amount of shooting .22's and shotguns in the fields and forests from age 13-. That may sound unsafe and scary for today's parents, but we were in Scouts from Cubs Scouts, through Webelos through Boy Scouts, and my scoutmaster was a retired police chief, which meant we went through many, many firearms safety courses, plus we were in rifle and shotgun club in middle school, which resulted in another intensive firearms safety course, so we had the safety aspects drilled into us from a very young age! Result----Zero accidents.

But some of the other things today's kids missed out on are:

1. Stretch Armstrong
2. Big Wheels
3. Green Machine
4. Rock em Sock em Robots
5. Those little Star Trek pistols that fired the little plastic discs
6. Cap guns(both paper and plastic caps)
7. Those pump up water powered rockets
8. The disco roller skating in the late 70's
9. Probably BB guns
10. Watching live TV coverage of Evel Knievel jumping stuff
11. Video arcades at every mall
12. MUCH better quality music!
13. NO reality TV!
14. MUCH better messages and positive moral stories in most TV shows
15. Not playing video games in front of a tv or computer all day long!
16. No new episodes of The 6 Million Dollar Man, The A-Team, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Dukes of Hazard


----------



## HighlanderNorth

jtr1962 said:


> Ah yes-the so-called good old days. Computers nowadays may sometimes seemingly have minds of their own, but most of the time they just work. Same thing for TVs. Whenever I might get a tinge of nostalgia for how things were, I remember how difficult it was just to get something resembling a picture on a TV set. Although I never did it personally, when we lived in a housing project I knew some neighbors who got so frustrated that their TVs took the short way down. A TV hitting the ground from the 6th floor makes for a pretty loud noise.  And yes, banging did work well quite often. I think it may have helped push out dust or debris on circuit boards which slightly altered component values. With TV signals, it doesn't take much component drift to go from a perfect picture to a rolling mess. Anything socketed was sometimes helped by banging as well.
> 
> As for computers, I tend to take my frustrations out by slamming the mouse down. I got a few mice to smash into nice little pieces. I've been tempted to put my foot through the monitor at times, but then I stop and think that I don't have the money to replace it. Mice are cheap at least, plus prior to laser mice you got a nice little trackball for the cats to play with after you smashed one.
> 
> BTW, "percussive maintenance" still sometimes works. I have an electric heater where the fan sometimes won't start. A few hard bangs and it springs to life. It stays working, at least until the next time I try to start it. I finally did fix the problem the right way by lubricating the bearings, but hitting it did the trick for a good year.




There has long been a proper technical term for percussive maintenance(when you smack something to get it to work). Its called "Fonzing" or "Fonz Rigging". 

BTW: Thats^ another inside joke you might not get unless you grew up in the late 70's or 80's!


----------



## andrewmac

Having to type in hundreds of lines of code on my Texas Instruments ti99 just to play the simplest of video games. Then having to save the game on cassette tape. Floppy disks were for the rich kids then.....


----------



## Norm

HighlanderNorth said:


> But some of the other things today's kids missed out on are:
> 
> 1. Stretch Armstrong
> 2. Big Wheels
> 3. Green Machine
> 4. Rock em Sock em Robots
> 5. Those little Star Trek pistols that fired the little plastic discs
> 6. Cap guns(both paper and plastic caps)
> 7. Those pump up water powered rockets
> 8. The disco roller skating in the late 70's
> 9. Probably BB guns
> 10. Watching live TV coverage of Evel Knievel jumping stuff
> 11. Video arcades at every mall
> 12. MUCH better quality music!
> 13. NO reality TV
> 14. MUCH better messages and positive moral stories in most TV shows
> 15. Not playing video games in front of a tv or computer all day long!
> 16. No new episodes of The 6 Million Dollar Man, The A-Team, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Dukes of Hazard



I grew up in the 50's and 60's and missed out on all of the above 

Norm


----------



## StarHalo

Burgess said:


> to StarHalo --
> 
> So, what is you Favorite (currently available) Trackball ? ? ?



Beats me, I haven't used a box-n'-wires non-laptop computer in years. I'm assuming Logitech is still pretty good at it..


----------



## PhotonWrangler

HighlanderNorth said:


> There has long been a proper technical term for percussive maintenance(when you smack something to get it to work). Its called "Fonzing" or "Fonz Rigging".
> 
> BTW: Thats^ another inside joke you might not get unless you grew up in the late 70's or 80's!



Let me guess... does it involve a jukebox? :laughing:


----------



## Burgess

*7. Those pump up water powered rockets*


Hey -- those were GREAT FUN ! ! ! :twothumbs



I was born in 1953, and had several of those, through the years !


Even now -- i wish they would make a *Heavy-Duty INDUSTRIAL version* ! ! !





Perhaps i will send a suggestion to Adam & Jamie on MythBusters ! 

_


----------



## EZO

I remember those! We had a blast with them when I was a kid. If you do a little searching around there are plans all over the internet for making your own pretty heavy duty water rockets out of things like liter sized soda bottles and other plastic containers...even good sized plastic barrels. All you really need to add are fins, water and a compressor (or just a pump) if you want to keep it simple. You don't even really need the fins but if it were me I'd probably go for the whole enchilada and even do a nose cone........I think you can still buy water rocket toys too.

Here's the wikipedia page on water rockets. It says the current record for greatest altitude achieved by a water and air propelled rocket is 2044 feet!




Burgess said:


> *7. Those pump up water powered rockets*
> 
> 
> Hey -- those were GREAT FUN ! ! ! :twothumbs
> 
> 
> 
> I was born in 1953, and had several of those, through the years !
> 
> 
> Even now -- i wish they would make a *Heavy-Duty INDUSTRIAL version* ! ! !
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Perhaps i will send a suggestion to Adam & Jamie on MythBusters !
> 
> _


----------



## Norm

Burgess said:


> *7. Those pump up water powered rockets*
> 
> 
> Hey -- those were GREAT FUN ! ! ! :twothumbs
> 
> 
> 
> I was born in 1953, and had several of those, through the years !




So was I, just don't think we had them in Australia.

Norm


----------



## StarHalo

Edmunds Scientific's Aquapod Bottle Launcher, $30..


----------



## HighlanderNorth

Norm said:


> I grew up in the 50's and 60's and missed out on all of the above
> 
> Norm



I used to always say I would have liked to grow up in the 60's. Mainly for the cars, but definitely not for the Vietnam war... But if we asked someone who grew up in the 20's, I'm sure they'd say they were involved in different activities than you or I for the most part. Rolling a hoop down a dirt road with a stick might have been popular, who knows... Or throwing dice in an on a street corner or in an alley in the city.....


----------



## chief1

WOrking for .50cents an hour and thinking that was a great deal. Buying gas for .39cents and having it pumped for you.


----------



## Norm

chief1 said:


> WOrking for .50cents an hour and thinking that was a great deal. Buying gas for .39cents and having it pumped for you.



I started my apprenticeship in 1969 for $5 a week which was raised to $7 because I had done an extra year at school than was required for the trade (letter press printing, I finished my apprenticeship and never went back to it).

Petrol here was around 23c an imperial gallon / 4.5 litres.

Norm


----------



## ElectronGuru

chief1 said:


> Buying gas for .39cents and having it pumped for you.



All pumps in Oregon are full service.


----------



## Burgess

ElectronGuru said:


> All pumps in Oregon are full service.





This is *without a doubt*, the most *Interesting* thing I've learned today ! ! !



:thumbsup:
_


----------



## Norm

EZO said:


> I remember those! We had a blast with them when I was a kid. If you do a little searching around there are plans all over the internet for making your own pretty heavy duty water rockets out of things like liter sized soda bottles and other plastic containers...even good sized plastic barrels. All you really need to add are fins, water and a compressor (or just a pump) if you want to keep it simple. You don't even really need the fins but if it were me I'd probably go for the whole enchilada and even do a nose cone........I think you can still buy water rocket toys too.
> 
> Here's the wikipedia page on water rockets. It says the current record for greatest altitude achieved by a water and air propelled rocket is 2044 feet!


----------



## EZO

That looks like great fun Norm! I remember getting into all kinds of trouble as a teenager using hairspray or clear coat spray paint (Krylon) as a flame thrower by holding a Zippo lighter in front of the nozzle. The most dramatic exploit was in high school shop class when I shot a burst at a friend of mine and a huge flame got sucked about twenty feet across the room and right over my buddy's shoulder out through a large exhaust fan. It freaked everybody out including me! Luckily, the instructor was looking the other way and by the time he turned around all he saw was the sheepish expression on my face and a bunch of giggling, wide eyed kids.

As far as traditional water rockets are concerned NASA has it's very own water rocket page. And it turns out there is even a Water Rocket Achievement World Record Association. 
I propose we put together a CPF water rocket team and enter the competition!

Of course, one of us would need to pressurize the rocket, like in this video.


----------



## jtr1962

Has anyone ever tried dry ice to pressurize a water rocket? You can combine dry ice with some kind of pressure valve which opens and launches the rocket at some predetermined pressure less than the burst pressure to avoid the scenario depicted above.


----------



## EZO

jtr1962 said:


> Has anyone ever tried dry ice to pressurize a water rocket? You can combine dry ice with some kind of pressure valve which opens and launches the rocket at some predetermined pressure less than the burst pressure to avoid the scenario depicted above.



Yes!

also


----------



## HighlanderNorth

andrewmac said:


> Having to type in hundreds of lines of code on my Texas Instruments ti99 just to play the simplest of video games. Then having to save the game on cassette tape. Floppy disks were for the rich kids then.....




In about 1985, my Dad bought my brother and I one of those early Atari computers for Christmas. At that time, the available computers included the Commodore Vic-20(?), the early Apple computer(McIntosh??), and 2 Atari computers, of which we had the cheaper one. In fact, of all the above computers, the Atari's were by far the least expensive.

But it came with this video game programming book, that included around 50 or so games, all of which had to be manually programmed into the Atari computer. So you had to type all these individual lines of what looked like gibberish to someone in the 80's, but obviously the computer understood it. There were options for simpler games that were faster to program or more complex games. But compared to any of todays games, they were ALL very rudimentary. 

However, they were much more complex than the basic "pong" tennis games of the early 80's, and a few of these games were pretty cool, and even though it was a fairly long and monotonous task to program these games into the computer, it was somewhat rewarding to see what you had created simply by typing a bunch of 'gibberish' into that computer....


----------



## HighlanderNorth

EZO said:


> I remember those! We had a blast with them when I was a kid. If you do a little searching around there are plans all over the internet for making your own pretty heavy duty water rockets out of things like liter sized soda bottles and other plastic containers...even good sized plastic barrels. All you really need to add are fins, water and a compressor (or just a pump) if you want to keep it simple. You don't even really need the fins but if it were me I'd probably go for the whole enchilada and even do a nose cone........I think you can still buy water rocket toys too.
> 
> Here's the wikipedia page on water rockets. It says the current record for greatest altitude achieved by a water and air propelled rocket is 2044 feet!





I was really young when my parents bought me a water rocket set. It was in 1974, and I was 6 years old. It was at the tail end of the Saturn V moon trips, and rockets and space were VERY big and in style at that time. So the set I had included 2 rockets. The larger one was a fully transparent red rocket in the shape of a NASA rocket, and the other was a smaller solid, non transparent rocket that was colored white, with black and some red stripes like a smaller scale Nasa rocket. The large red one was probably 2" in diameter and 18-20" tall, and the smaller one was around 14" tall and 1 1/4" diameter. I did a Google search but I didnt see them on page 1 there. There are these other, non-NASA looking water rockets there, but I dont remember them at all. 

Aside from the 2 rockets, it came with a hand pump that had a sliding collar that connected to the nozzle at the bottom end of the rockets to hold them in place, air and water tight while they were being pumped up using the pumping handle. Then when you finished pumping, you simply slid the collar back which released the rocket. However, the more you pumped it, the harder it was to slide the collar back because of the additional pressure holding it in place. 

Also unlike the water rockets shown around the internet, these were launched right from your hand instead of remotely, so that you were sprayed with water as it accelerated upward! In other words, it wasnt a toy you played with in the middle of winter, because you got wet every time you launched it, which I assume was supposed to be part of the fun of it, especially on a hot summer day!

Even at 6 years old, I experimented with the 2 rockets by adding different amounts of water to see what the results would be. I even tried it with no water added, and I tried it with the rockets completely full of water. Needless to say, water doesnt compress, so a rocket filled with nothing but water simply falls off the launcher when you release it after being pumped up. Air is compressible, but even so an air filled rocket with no water would only pop up less that a foot after being released, and fall to the ground.

So although it might seem like water is redundant there due to its lack of compressibility, the fact is that since gravity pulls the water to the bottom of the rocket before launch, the compressed air at the top end of the rocket then pushes the water out of the small diameter rocket nozzle at high speed, thereby converting the water into a much denser propellant(propellant mass) than the air itself. 

Ironically, in my original post the other day, I listed both water rockets and live coverage of Evel Knievel jumping stuff. Well, the live Evel Knievel stunt that I was most referring to also happened in around 1974, the same time as I got my 1st water rocket. That was when he attempted to jump the Snake River canyon in that rocket/bike contraption. Well, it turns out, that rocket bike was basically a large water rocket! It worked by being filled with really hot water, which would flash steam when released through the nozzle, propelling it...


----------



## HighlanderNorth

ElectronGuru said:


> All pumps in Oregon are full service.




I lived in NJ at the beach in the 80's for a summer, and I was surprised to see that it was full service ONLY in NJ as well! By law you could not pump your own gas, but I dont know if thats still the case or not.


----------



## jtr1962

HighlanderNorth said:


> I was really young when my parents bought me a water rocket set. It was in 1974, and I was 6 years old. It was at the tail end of the Saturn V moon trips, and rockets and space were VERY big and in style at that time. So the set I had included 2 rockets. The larger one was a fully transparent red rocket in the shape of a NASA rocket, and the other was a smaller solid, non transparent rocket that was colored white, with black and some red stripes like a smaller scale Nasa rocket. The large red one was probably 2" in diameter and 18-20" tall, and the smaller one was around 14" tall and 1 1/4" diameter. I did a Google search but I didnt see them on page 1 there. There are these other, non-NASA looking water rockets there, but I dont remember them at all.
> 
> Aside from the 2 rockets, it came with a hand pump that had a sliding collar that connected to the nozzle at the bottom end of the rockets to hold them in place, air and water tight while they were being pumped up using the pumping handle. Then when you finished pumping, you simply slid the collar back which released the rocket. However, the more you pumped it, the harder it was to slide the collar back because of the additional pressure holding it in place.
> 
> Also unlike the water rockets shown around the internet, these were launched right from your hand instead of remotely, so that you were sprayed with water as it accelerated upward! In other words, it wasnt a toy you played with in the middle of winter, because you got wet every time you launched it, which I assume was supposed to be part of the fun of it, especially on a hot summer day!


I know exactly what you're talking about. I had two water rocket sets as a kid (early 1970s). One of them looked exactly like the one on the far left in this picture. The other one was longer (can't find a pic), and I think it was two-stage. I don't recall if that worked all that well in practice. I do vividly remember that I could regularly get the rockets to go higher than the 6-story apartment building we lived in. It may not sound like much, but for a kid in the 1970s it was a pretty cool toy.


----------



## mcnair55

Real good old fashioned money,no plastic cards to get more from a hole in the wall.


----------



## Monocrom

ElectronGuru said:


> All pumps in Oregon are full service.



So are all the pumps in New Jersey. But that's only because a bunch of safety Nazis in the state capitol decided that NJ residents are too stupid to pump their own gas.


----------



## ElectronGuru

HighlanderNorth said:


> In about 1985, my Dad bought my brother and I one of those early Atari computers for Christmas. At that time, the available computers included the Commodore Vic-20(?), the early Apple computer(McIntosh??), and 2 Atari computers, of which we had the cheaper one.



The white case vic 20 was first, followed by the dark gray cased 64, in the same form factor. 




Monocrom said:


> So are all the pumps in New Jersey. But that's only because a bunch of safety Nazis in the state capitol decided that NJ residents are too stupid to pump their own gas.



It was weird for me at first, but now prefer it. I believe here its a kind of jobs program, to help with chronic unemployment.

Something else weird, that I've also grown to prefer is 100%/automatic absentee voting. It comes without asking, you fill it out whenever you want (within a window of time), and drop it off or in the mail.


----------



## Monocrom

The job program is just a B.S. political excuse. The state politicians want to show they've done something to ease unemployment. But honestly, how much does a gas station attendant make?


----------



## HighlanderNorth

ElectronGuru said:


> The white case vic 20 was first, followed by the dark gray cased 64, in the same form factor.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It was weird for me at first, but now prefer it. I believe here its a kind of jobs program, to help with chronic unemployment.
> 
> Something else weird, that I've also grown to prefer is 100%/automatic absentee voting. It comes without asking, you fill it out whenever you want (within a window of time), and drop it off or in the mail.





Without getting into a political discussion, I have heard(and seen) how the absentee ballot system can be manipulated. I think it should only be for people who are overseas in the military, or similar. Otherwise people should go to the polling place, show a legitimate ID, and vote. I was watching a special where this one lady was sending in absentee ballots for people who simply werent going to vote, so she just sent them all in, voting for the politicians that _SHE_ wanted to be elected. It needs to always be one person, one vote(and provably so). It would be interesting to see how many absentee ballots were filled out by the same person, covertly hired by a particular politician or party. Remember Acorn in Ohio, who would also register a single person to vote repeatedly under different names, and one guy testified he was registered by them 86 times in the same place in Ohio!(Not to mention the 400,000 or so fraudulent voter registrations).


Those top tier 80's computers were pretty expensive as I recall. Like the Apple and the Commodore, etc. The Atari wasnt nearly that much because it didnt come with its own monitor as I recall.


----------



## Empath

HighlanderNorth said:


> Without getting into a political discussion, ...



You didn't succeed. Please take your political opinions to the Underground.


----------



## nbp

Monocrom said:


> The job program is just a B.S. political excuse. The state politicians want to show they've done something to ease unemployment. But honestly, how much does a gas station attendant make?



Or, more importantly: how much will the cost of my gasoline go up on account of having to pay some guy to push the buttons for me. :ironic:


----------



## StarHalo

nbp said:


> Or, more importantly: how much will the cost of my gasoline go up on account of having to pay some guy to push the buttons for me. :ironic:



An extra dollar a gallon at the Beverly Hills stations.


----------



## ElectronGuru

Monocrom said:


> The job program is just a B.S. political excuse. The state politicians want to show they've done something to ease unemployment. But honestly, how much does a gas station attendant make?



Sorry, didn't mean to spark a political discussion. Everything I wrote is my own opinion. I have not read or heard anyone from any organization (public or private) with any information pertaining to my above examples.


_Back on topic..._

Paper based information storage. Black books, Rolodexes, card catalogs (made of actual cards).


----------



## gadget_lover

Burgess said:


> ElectronGuru said:
> 
> 
> 
> All pumps in Oregon are full service.
> 
> 
> 
> This is *without a doubt*, the most *Interesting* thing I've learned today ! ! !
> :thumbsup:
> _
Click to expand...


Don't get too excited. It's not REAL full service. They will pump the gas, and take your money. They will sometimes clean the windows. 

They have NEVER offered to check the water, the oil nor tire pressure in the 30 or 40 times I've driven through Oregon. The wipers are sometimes looked at but seldom mentioned. The muffler is never checked, and neither is the tread measured.

When I was a kid the local station did all of the above, and cleaned the headlights, tail-light and mirrors too. All for under 25 cents a gallon.

Dan


----------



## gadget_lover

Do kids still run to the new Telephone Directory to check out their listing? We used to do that. There would be choruses of "Found it!" and careful checking to see if it was spelled correctly and checking each digit to make sure it was correct.


In recent years I don't think we have even checked to see if we were listed. The book goes on the shelf and we toss the old one (un used) in the recycle bin.

Daniel


----------



## EZO

gadget_lover said:


> Do kids still run to the new Telephone Directory to check out their listing? We used to do that. There would be choruses of "Found it!" and careful checking to see if it was spelled correctly and checking each digit to make sure it was correct.
> 
> 
> In recent years I don't think we have even checked to see if we were listed. The book goes on the shelf and we toss the old one (un used) in the recycle bin.
> 
> Daniel



The term "Let your fingers do the walking" seems to have a whole different meaning now. And even the fingers are different. It's thumbs now.


----------



## StarHalo

gadget_lover said:


> Do kids still run to the new Telephone Directory to check out their listing?



Kids don't see the point of phone books. And they wouldn't look up that tiny bit of data about themselves when they can look at their house on Google Earth, publish their thoughts and videos on Facebook and YouTube, etc.


----------



## will

gadget_lover said:


> In recent years I don't think we have even checked to see if we were listed. The book goes on the shelf and we toss the old one (un used) in the recycle bin.
> 
> Daniel



Phone books have become useless due to the number of people who only have cell phones. There are still folks out there that still have land lines, but that number decreases every year. Way back when, there was only one phone company in the area. They could provide a complete listing of everyone. Now - Verizon , ATT, Sprint and the list goes on. Yellow pages still exist, but they have an online version as well...


----------



## Norm

Public phone booths on street corners.







Norm


----------



## Monocrom

No phone booths, but there is a working payphone stand two miles from where I live. 

I'm honestly amazed it's working.


----------



## StarHalo

StarHalo said:


> If you look closely at the full-res image, the toaster in the front of the row is an all new model - the bread actually pops up out of it! What will they think of next?!



More info: The photo is of C. Schneider's Sons Electric Store in Washington, D.C., taken May 2nd, 1929.

About that new toaster; a crop from the full-res image:






It's a Toastmaster Model 1-A-1, new as of 1926, and here is the instruction card that came with it:
















And this explains why, when watching TV shows from the 50's, the person making toast would use both hands to push down the lever for the toast - it's two levers and you have to press them both down to get the toaster to work.


----------



## HighlanderNorth

gadget_lover said:


> Don't get too excited. It's not REAL full service. They will pump the gas, and take your money. They will sometimes clean the windows.
> 
> They have NEVER offered to check the water, the oil nor tire pressure in the 30 or 40 times I've driven through Oregon. The wipers are sometimes looked at but seldom mentioned. The muffler is never checked, and neither is the tread measured.
> 
> When I was a kid the local station did all of the above, and cleaned the headlights, tail-light and mirrors too. All for under 25 cents a gallon.
> 
> Dan




I had forgotten all about the true "full service" phenomenon, but I do remember as a kid in the back seat of our '70 Olds Cutlass(with the Olds Rocket 350) or our slightly used '74 Lincoln Mark IV(with 460), and we'd stop by service stations and they'd offer to check your oil pretty much without fail as I recall, and they'd clean your windshield. 

I dont think about it much anymore, but I dont recall seeing many pay phones these days, so thats something that the next generation are going to miss out on(poor them! LOL)

Dirt roads maybe? There were sill a few fully dirt roads here and there in the 70's and 80's, but they've all been paved years ago. 

Building your own forts! We built several forts from ages 11-15 in different places. We also bought 2 forts from some older kids who were more knowledgeable about carpentry, and had more parent loaned money for lumber, so they got tired of 2 of them, moved on, and sold them to us for like $5 each.

Three wheelers. They were really fun, but were banned about 23 years ago due to a tendency to roll over diagonally forward, causing injury.


----------



## jtr1962

HighlanderNorth said:


> Dirt roads maybe? There were sill a few fully dirt roads here and there in the 70's and 80's, but they've all been paved years ago.


Actually, the way things are going as far as US infrastructure goes, I think dirt roads will become much more familiar to today's youth than they might have been even to people who are now senior citizens.


----------



## EZO

HighlanderNorth said:


> Dirt roads maybe? There were sill a few fully dirt roads here and there in the 70's and 80's, but they've all been paved years ago.



I live on a dirt road, a highly traveled and very well maintained one I might add. Many of us around here have made it a point through community wide balloting over decades now to avoid the unnecessary paving of roads for a number of good reasons. Millions and millions of people around the country also live quite happily out beyond where the pavement ends and for urbanites and suburbanites to assume that dirt roads are a relic of the past is an indication that they should get out and see more of the country. Glad your statement had a question mark at the end.


----------



## StarHalo

Johnny Carson.

(Did you hear the intro music when you read that?)

Word has it Jay Leno will be replaced by Jimmy Fallon next year.


----------



## Cyclops942

StarHalo said:


> Johnny Carson.
> 
> (Did you hear the intro music when you read that?)
> 
> Word has it Jay Leno will be replaced by Jimmy Fallon next year.


I've never watched Jimmy Fallon, and I saw far more episodes of Johnny Carson than I ever have (or probably will) of Jay Leno. Jay's a nice enough fellow, but he's not Johnny Carson-- and nobody else could be.


----------



## HighlanderNorth

EZO said:


> I live on a dirt road, a highly traveled and very well maintained one I might add. Many of us around here have made it a point through community wide balloting over decades now to avoid the unnecessary paving of roads for a number of good reasons. Millions and millions of people around the country also live quite happily out beyond where the pavement ends and for urbanites and suburbanites to assume that dirt roads are a relic of the past is an indication that they should get out and see more of the country. Glad your statement had a question mark at the end.



I wasnt saying that all dirt roads are now paved, only that the ones in the rural to semi rural areas that I have lived are now paved, so kids in this area and in many other areas wont see them like they would have back in the 50's-70's. The topic was about things that kids today may miss, and most kids dont yet drive, so if they are raised in an area like mine, or in the city or suburbs, and their parents dont drive out into the country very often, then they, as kids, will miss out on that. I personally know places out in rural-most Lancaster county Pa, Sussex county De, or Cecil county Md where there are still a few dirt roads, but I'm not a kid anymore, so it doesnt count in the context of this thread. But the fact remains that far less kids today will live on dirt roads than they did 30-60 years ago, which cant be denied, I dont think...


----------



## EZO

HighlanderNorth said:


> I wasnt saying that all dirt roads are now paved, only that the ones in the rural to semi rural areas that I have lived are now paved, so kids in this area and in many other areas wont see them like they would have back in the 50's-70's. The topic was about things that kids today may miss, and most kids dont yet drive, so if they are raised in an area like mine, or in the city or suburbs, and their parents dont drive out into the country very often, then they, as kids, will miss out on that. I personally know places out in rural-most Lancaster county Pa, Sussex county De, or Cecil county Md where there are still a few dirt roads, but I'm not a kid anymore, so it doesnt count in the context of this thread. But the fact remains that far less kids today will live on dirt roads than they did 30-60 years ago, which cant be denied, I dont think...



HN - I get what you are saying. Here in Vermont people take their dirt roads pretty seriously and drive them proudly. That is to say, "most" of us. Some start to waver during the upcoming "mud season" that ironically we've had our first taste of just today, the first warm sunny day we've had in quite awhile where the snow is beginning to melt and the frost is coming out of the ground. Thirty years ago there was a burst of road paving going on around here but then the townsfolk decided that the rural character was being lost so everyone voted to stop paving any more roads so that their kids, grand kids and hopefully great grand kids too wouldn't lose the lifestyle that is the reason many of us live here. It turned out that our town of 2000 was among many within the state that felt the same way. Not long before, in the nearby "metropolis" (35,000) we all watched a magnificent stretch of picturesque rich farmland and meadows turn into what is now strip development with all the usual fast food chains and a Home Depot, so what was once there is something "today's kids missed out on".


----------



## EZO

I may be a bit premature and ahead of the curve with this one but probably not by much; 35mm film canisters. Yesterday, as I was feeding a parking meter with quarters I keep in one of those black Kodak film cans with a grey plastic top I started thinking about all the stuff I've kept stored in those film cans over the years and still do. I thought, "What am I gonna do when you can't get these things anymore?!!? I even still have a prized collection of the old screw cap metal ones that are no longer made that are great because they are completely waterproof and airtight. 

Things could get worse, I 'spose. I was making a fire in my wood stove yesterday, crumpling up an old newspaper when I suddenly thought, "What happens with all the stuff we use old newspapers for when the news is delivered only electronically? How will we "paper train" our puppies and what do we put in the bottom of the hamster cage?"

Some comments to this thread speak about us "old guys" but you know, when it comes to things "today's kids missed out on" we all seem to be getting old faster and faster.


----------



## ElectronGuru

The last 20 years has seen a wholesale conversion of key technologies from analog to digital. The pool of things yet to convert to digital is quickly drying up. When it does, digital -> digital improvements will not feel as dramatic (aka, incremental).


----------



## EZO

ElectronGuru said:


> The last 20 years has seen a wholesale conversion of key technologies from analog to digital. The pool of things yet to convert to digital is quickly drying up. When it does, digital -> digital improvements will not feel as dramatic (aka, incremental).



Obviously, that was in part what my post was about, but not entirely. I think it is the realization that the transformation and conversion to digital is not just about the information itself, i.e, film based photography to digital or newspapers to electronic news delivery. It is also about the loss of the real world material objects that have been key to that information being conveyed or stored. It is about what media the information is contained in or on, such as paper and plastic, and the ancillary but vital uses we have found for them that have become such an integral part of the fabric of our lives for generations. I am sure that people will find little containers to keep their parking meter change in (for as long as they use actual coins) or come up with things to use to start fires or line the birdcage with but these will still be necessary regardless of digital technology and the loss of these things are the kind of things that Alvin Toffler was alluding to in his "Future Shock" books.


----------



## nbp

Sometimes I could really use some film canisters and a newspaper. :sigh:


----------



## ElectronGuru

EZO said:


> It is also about the loss of the real world material objects that have been key to that information being conveyed or stored. It is about what media the information is contained in or on, such as paper and plastic, and the ancillary but vital uses we have found for them that have become such an integral part of the fabric of our lives for generations.



Im reminded of the plastics industry. In my office are plastic tables. Superior in many ways to wood tables, I beat on them with knives and hammers, subject them to bottles and glasses with cold drinks, and cover them with heavy and hard use equipment. But I would never put one in a living or bed room. despite many advantages, plastics are seen as to 'cheap' to be used in personal spaces, as any expression to be included in 'furniture'. Had we to harvest oil for the purpose of making plastic, however, plastic would be much more expensive. 

Only as a byproduct of transportation fuel, are the ingredients of plastic so cheap and plentiful. And for as long as oil remains (available) for these uses, plastic will remain as it has always been. Should fuel uses subside (whatever the reason), plastic production will stand on its own, costs will rises, and uses will change. Our experience would change, just as the experience does now with paper, no longer the ancillary material to a use more valuable; paper for news or capsules for film (images). Their importance in our lives now singular in purpose (and cost). 

After all, we paid for the paper that was news printed, as we can pay for it now, it's just not worth buying a $200/yr subscription for birdcage liners. So it's not that we morn the loss of being able to buy or have these things, just being able to justify doing so.


----------



## jtr1962

ElectronGuru said:


> Im reminded of the plastics industry. In my office are plastic tables. Superior in many ways to wood tables, I beat on them with knives and hammers, subject them to bottles and glasses with cold drinks, and cover them with heavy and hard use equipment. But I would never put one in a living or bed room. despite many advantages, plastics are seen as to 'cheap' to be used in personal spaces, as any expression to be included in 'furniture'. Had we to harvest oil for the purpose of making plastic, however, plastic would be much more expensive.


I think the reason plastics are seen as "cheap" is because plastic doesn't easily lend itself to being formed into some of the complex, interesting shapes we associate with fine furniture. Wood may have intricate carvings. And metal "designer" furnishings are actually pretty intricate as well. Most of the time a plastic table or chair looks like something you might see in a kindergarten, with fat legs and not much detail. When you do try to mold in detail in plastic, it often ends up looking fake and chintzy. What I think will get plastics more accepted as regular furniture will be 3D printing. You can print all sorts of unique shapes which can't be done with any other material. That and the eventual higher price of plastics will put them on the radar as "higher end" furniture. In all honestly, plastic is great stuff. It's almost criminal how many things like laundry detergent come in wonderful plastic containers which are typically discarded. In ten years time people may well be scouring landfills for the discarded plastic detritus of our times, perhaps to use a feedstock for their 3D printers.


----------



## EZO

Thanks for your interesting reply ElectronGuru. I hope to offer a comment in reply when I have some time.

In the meantime:

Eighty uses for Old Newspaper :ironic:


----------



## EZO

I agree about 3D printing jtr. It is such a vast and interesting topic we really should have a dedicated thread about it.


----------



## StarHalo

EZO said:


> I agree about 3D printing jtr. It is such a vast and interesting topic we really should have a dedicated thread about it.



We do; it's over here.


----------



## EZO

StarHalo said:


> We do; it's over here.
> 
> 
> EZO said:
> 
> 
> 
> I agree about 3D printing jtr. It is such a vast and interesting topic we really should have a dedicated thread about it.
Click to expand...



Cool! Thanks StarHalo. I shouldn't be surprised there was already a thread. I haven't check in on that forum recently.

Edit: Duh....now that I've reviewed that thread I see that I must have known about it already as I see that I actually posted to it a year and a half ago. Uh.....I guess I forgot....Musta' been causa' something I stored in one of those film canisters a long time ago.


----------



## HighlanderNorth

EZO said:


> HN - I get what you are saying. Here in Vermont people take their dirt roads pretty seriously and drive them proudly. That is to say, "most" of us. Some start to waver during the upcoming "mud season" that ironically we've had our first taste of just today, the first warm sunny day we've had in quite awhile where the snow is beginning to melt and the frost is coming out of the ground. Thirty years ago there was a burst of road paving going on around here but then the townsfolk decided that the rural character was being lost so everyone voted to stop paving any more roads so that their kids, grand kids and hopefully great grand kids too wouldn't lose the lifestyle that is the reason many of us live here. It turned out that our town of 2000 was among many within the state that felt the same way. Not long before, in the nearby "metropolis" (35,000) we all watched a magnificent stretch of picturesque rich farmland and meadows turn into what is now strip development with all the usual fast food chains and a Home Depot, so what was once there is something "today's kids missed out on".




The problem in this area was the the rural southeastern PA farmland suddenly became very hot real estate, and starting in the very late 70's(but mostly 80's and 90's), there was a big real estate/construction boom, with lots of upper middle class and wealthy people moving here from Philly, Wilmington, and Baltimore suburbs or cities, so there were new homes being built in many local townships, then property taxes skyrocketed to be among the most expensive in the state, and supposedly in the country. So, as you can imagine, the city folk who moved out in this area werent too big on driving the Beamer on dirt roads. But even the paved roads could be in bad shape back then. The only good thing about the real estate bust, is that most of that continuing sprawl has come to a temporary stop with few exceptions. I dont even call it rural any more, I call it suburban-rural these days. 

Fortunately Lancaster county is still considered to be just too far for the daily work commute to these cities, so it hasnt grown much as far as developments are concerned, except maybe for the immediate Lancaster town area and burbs, which caters to the market surrounding Amish country crafts, and more recently clothing outlets. BTW: I'm sure the Amish are tickled pink by all the "English" development, and I'd bet they prefer dirt roads. 

But we've also seen big development and property price rises in lower New Castle county and upper Kent county Delaware, as well as in Cecil county Md in some areas. But the big real estate boom in Cecil county was due to the skyrocketing prices of river front property around the many upper Chesapeake bay rivers starting in the early 80's. 

So not too many dirt roads left here.


----------



## StarHalo

When Hunter S Thompson ran for mayor of Aspen, Colorado in 1969, one of his campaign promises was to un-pave the roads and replace them with hay-covered wagon trails; this would cause the tourists and Hollywood stars to look for somewhere else to vacation.


----------



## HighlanderNorth

StarHalo said:


> When Hunter S Thompson ran for mayor of Aspen, Colorado in 1969, one of his campaign promises was to un-pave the roads and replace them with hay-covered wagon trails; this would cause the tourists and Hollywood stars to look for somewhere else to vacation.




Obviously that never happened, cause the Hollywood elite types are all over Aspen! Better there than here I guess... We did have Randy White living about 3/4 mile from our home in L-berg Pa, he was an NFL Hall of fame defensive lineman for the Dallas Cowboys. We also had Dallas Green, the former Philadelphia Phillies player and manager of their 1980 World series winning team. Ironically, his 9 year old granddaughter was killed during the Gabby Gifford shooting in AZ. She was only there because she had told her parents she has an interest in politics, so they took her to meet Gabby Gifford that day. He lived about 1 mile from us in the 1980's. 

Today's kids will also miss out on space shuttle launches unfortunately, and it will probably be a long time til any kids will see the US launching its own space vehicles into space. 

They wont miss out on paying our debts though!


----------



## StarHalo

HighlanderNorth said:


> Obviously that never happened, cause the Hollywood elite types are all over Aspen!



He lost by a few votes; running on the "Freak Power" ticket probably didn't help.

And this coming generation will be the first to venture into space tourism, which has the potential to be a lot more personally exciting than shuttle launches..


----------



## EZO

Unfortunately, space tourism won't likely be for us 99 percenters any time soon. Maybe at some point we'll be able to fly "coach".


----------



## jtr1962

EZO said:


> Unfortunately, space tourism won't likely be for us 99 percenters any time soon. Maybe at some point we'll be able to fly "coach".


Correct. In fact, the way things are headed, in a decade flying will probably be a province of the upper classes, much like it used to be before the jet age. And space tourism? That's for the 0.001 percenters.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

When I was a kid we used to have a neighborhood general store that had a little bit of everything. One of the simple pleasures of shopping there was getting my stuff in a small paper bag, which I could later empty out, blow it up with air and then smash my palm into it, making a loud, satisfying POP!


----------



## Burgess

Yep !


And, if you were Really Skilled, you could POP a* Paper Cup* ! ! !

( with your foot)


VERY difficult to perfect.



_


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Wow, I didn't know that. Hmm... :huh:


----------



## Burgess

Kids today miss out on . . . .


Trying to connect things to their PC,

by using the *Serial Port* !

:shakehead


Nothing but endless frustration, aggrevation, blood, sweat, tears,
and a phone call (or two) to Technical Support. 


ah yes -- the good ol' RS-232 "standard" !





Today we have it easy-peasy, with ubiquitous USB connections everywhere !

:thumbsup:
_


----------



## StarHalo

Burgess said:


> Trying to connect things to their PC,
> 
> by using the *Serial Port* !



Somewhere in Kansas I still have a Hewlett-Packard external 2x CD-ROM burner that connects by serial port. It's about the size of a child's shoebox..


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Burgess said:


> Kids today miss out on . . . .
> 
> 
> Trying to connect things to their PC,
> 
> by using the *Serial Port* !
> 
> :shakehead
> 
> 
> Nothing but endless frustration, aggrevation, blood, sweat, tears,
> and a phone call (or two) to Technical Support.
> 
> 
> ah yes -- the good ol' RS-232 "standard" !
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Today we have it easy-peasy, with ubiquitous USB connections everywhere !
> 
> :thumbsup:
> _



Oh yeah, I've spend many hours wrestling with baud/parity/flow-control settings, making up custom cables with RTS/CTS jumpered, making null modem cables, working with RS232 patchboxes, etc. It's a simple protocol but a real pain to work with at times!


----------



## Chauncey Gardiner

Pop machines filled with ice and water that you had to move the glass bottle back, forth, and around, through a channel to be able to pull It out. An ice-cold Coke on a hot summers day, man, it just didn't get any better. The one we went to was at the local Piggley Wiggly. After we made our purchase, we would turn off the power to the automatic doors (they were wired to a regular light switch) and watch people wrestling with them. It wasnt long before the Bag-boy would run us off.

~ Chance :devil:


----------



## EZO

Burgess said:


> Kids today miss out on . . . .
> 
> 
> Trying to connect things to their PC,
> 
> by using the *Serial Port* !
> 
> :shakehead
> 
> 
> Nothing but endless frustration, aggrevation, blood, sweat, tears,
> and a phone call (or two) to Technical Support.
> 
> 
> ah yes -- the good ol' RS-232 "standard" !
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Today we have it easy-peasy, with ubiquitous USB connections everywhere !
> 
> :thumbsup:
> _



And SCSI connectors too!


----------



## PhotonWrangler

EZO said:


> And SCSI connectors too!



Terminated or unterminated? SCSI I, II or III? 

Chauncey, that neighborhood store I mentioned had one of those pop machines, the large tub filled with chilled water and the pop bottles hanging in those channels. Getting the bottle out through that wet maze was half of the fun!


----------



## Burgess

Chauncey Gardiner said:


> Pop machines filled with ice and water that you had to move the
> glass bottle back, forth, and around, through a channel to be able to pull It out.




Ah yes . . . .

I remember those VERY well !

Horizontal (chest) style pop machines. Bottles were in the UPRIGHT position.

You could actually HOLD the bottle in your hand, and slide it around the racks.

But you couldn't REMOVE it, unless you slide it through the Exit Gate.

And, of course, THAT required ten cents !




I was perhaps 8 or 10 years old when i last saw one.


Heard someone had discovered a SECRET ! ! ! 


I'm gonna' Share it with you now -- if you promise not to TELL !

Okay ? Promise ? ? ? 




-- If a person _*just happened*_ to have a Bottle Cap Opener


- and -


-- If a person _*just happened*_ to have a Drinking Straw



Then they could (_* in theory*_ ) . . . .


Drink ALL the soda pop they could possibly want -- for FREE !

:devil:



When I heard about this, half-a-Century ago,
my first reaction was: " Who in the WORLD would carry around a Bottle Opener ? ? ? ". 


But nowadays, my EDC includes a Victorinox Tinker model Swiss Army Knife. :thumbsup:

One of its many useful tools includes just such a device.
So i guess it wasn't quite as far-fetched as i originally thought.



No -- i still don't carry around a Drinking Straw. 


BTW - a section of rubber tubing would probably work better than a Straw.



I've tried to locate a Photo of these vending machines,
in hopes of illustrating my descriptions.

No Luck Yet.

lovecpf
_


----------



## PhotonWrangler

I've found a fuzzy closeup of the machine's channels here...


----------



## BVH

I drank many a soda dispensed from this type of machine. I always paid for them!

Coming from a family of 4 siblings, whenever the family would go anywhere in the old brown station wagon, when we arrived, all us kids would have to get out of our respective doors, take a few steps rearward and put our hands on the car body until mom and dad had gathered us all together to walk to our ultimate destination. I've not seen anything like that in decades.


----------



## EZO

I remember those too.

I found these photos on eBay and you can own one of these in good working order for $1695 bucks!


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Yep, that's the one! Thanks Ezo! I can still hear the clanking bottles.


----------



## Burgess

Thank you BOTH for the photographs !


Brings back lots of memories !


Back then, a Dime was a serious investment for me.

I would devote considerable brain power, selecting my Flavor.


_


----------



## EZO

You're welcome! The trick to finding photos of one of these vending machines was using the word "slider" in the search query.


----------



## EZO

Burgess said:


> Thank you BOTH for the photographs !
> 
> 
> Brings back lots of memories !
> 
> 
> Back then, a Dime was a serious investment for me.
> 
> I would devote considerable brain power, selecting my Flavor.
> 
> 
> _



It makes me feel old but I can remember when I was a kid in the late fifties when I would go down to the local pizza place and get a slice and a soda for a quarter.......15 cents for the slice and a dime for the coke. Yeah, that was a lot of money in those days, especially for a little kid.


----------



## Chauncey Gardiner

-- If a person _*just happened*_ to have a Bottle Cap Opener


- and -


-- If a person _*just happened*_ to have a Drinking Straw



Then they could (_* in theory*_ ) . . . .


Drink ALL the soda pop they could possibly want -- for FREE !

:devil: 

Burgess, 

Thanks for the laugh. Too funny. 

EZO, 

Many thanks for the pictures. 

.25 cents a pack cigarette machines at the local gas station. How much are they now, $6? 

~ Chance


----------



## PhotonWrangler

...and the gas stations had the little rubber hoses stretched across the driveway that went 'ding-ding' when you drove across them. I always got a kick out of setting them off with my bike.


----------



## Burgess

Yep ! ! !


Or, if you STOMPED REALLY HARD, you could activate it with your Foot !


:wave:



I was an easily-amused child !

:tinfoil:


----------



## EZO

I remember those gas station hoses too, especially the part about driving over them with your bike. If we did it enough the gas station attendant (remember them?) would come out and chase us away. Where I live I still see them used pretty often but for a different purpose. The state agency of transportation sets up pneumatic hoses temporarily across certain roads now and then, connected to a special box. They use them to monitor the number of cars that drive on the road and probably measure the traffic flow for different times of day.


----------



## BVH

EZO said:


> They use them to monitor the number of cars that drive on the road and probably measure the traffic flow for different times of day.



The technical name for that is a traffic survey. Data of which is often used to justify changes or no changes to pavement markings, signeage, signals ect.


----------



## EZO

BVH said:


> The technical name for that is a traffic survey. Data of which is often used to justify changes or no changes to pavement markings, signeage, signals ect.



Yes, of course. Why else would they do that?


----------



## jtr1962

Chauncey Gardiner said:


> .25 cents a pack cigarette machines at the local gas station. How much are they now, $6?


Try about twice that in NYC. Every time my mother sees the price of cigarettes, she's glad to have kicked the habit back in 1993 (you could get a carton for under $20 back then).


----------



## Chauncey Gardiner

jtr1962 said:


> Try about twice that in NYC. Every time my mother sees the price of cigarettes, she's glad to have kicked the habit back in 1993 (you could get a carton for under $20 back then).


 

About twice that!? $11 dollars!! Next time a bum who's smoking asks me for money, I'm going to say: "No way, you give me some." 

~ Chance


----------



## Imon

By the way, as a relatively young man myself (mid-20s), I found myself wondering why there is a thread like this in the first place.

I know I don't have the wealth of experiences that some of the older members in this forum have but I still find myself being unable to relate with my high school aged cousins. Doesn't mean I think they missed out on anything particularly cool. For example, I got my first cell phone when I was 15 - totally forgettable. It was black and white, huge clamshell design, roaming half the time, and no internet. My current smartphone blows it out of the water.

So ... maybe someone should make a thread call "Things today's adults would have loved when they were kids"


----------



## EZO

Imon said:


> So ... maybe someone should make a thread call "Things today's adults would have loved when they were kids"



Hey man, don't get us started! :devil:


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Speaking of old cell phones, I had a bag phone once. It was like a purse with an antenna on it.


----------



## jtr1962

Imon said:


> By the way, as a relatively young man myself (mid-20s), I found myself wondering why there is a thread like this in the first place.
> 
> I know I don't have the wealth of experiences that some of the older members in this forum have but I still find myself being unable to relate with my high school aged cousins. Doesn't mean I think they missed out on anything particularly cool. For example, I got my first cell phone when I was 15 - totally forgettable. It was black and white, huge clamshell design, roaming half the time, and no internet. My current smartphone blows it out of the water.
> 
> So ... maybe someone should make a thread call "Things today's adults would have loved when they were kids"


In all honestly, a lot of people look at the past through rose-colored glasses. Having lived through most of the 60s, and then the 70s, 80s, and so forth, I don't miss all that much from those times. No PCs, TVs had a lousy picture, researching even simple subjects meant trips to the library and often still not finding what you were looking for, there was the Cold War, mass transit was on the decline, etc. The list goes on and on. For every one thing I remember fondly, there are probably about ten I gladly say good riddance to. I would have loved to have had the technology we have now back when I was a kid. For one thing maybe if I didn't have to pound on a typewriter for my lengthy term papers, I may not have developed CTS. Yes, those were the days. Make a mistake typing and then you had to start all over again if your teacher didn't allow white out (and quite a few of them took off points if you used it).


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Ahh, white-out! That's another little quirk from the past. I used to work in an office where we used a lot of multi-copy forms (I think it was called NCR paper). Top copy was white, other layers were pink, green, yellow and blue. We had to keep multiple colors of white-out on hand (pink-out?) to correct the individual copies when a typing error was made. What a pain! I was so thankful when we got into the era of word processors.


----------



## weekend warrior

Biking to the corner store and buying a whole bag of candy for 75 cents.


----------



## Monocrom

Bear with my guys. I suck at multi-quoting. So . . . 

*Imon ~*

I honestly can't think of anything available today that I would have loved to own as a kid growing up in the 1980s. Must admit that as an adult, I'm glad someone invented ATM machines. Yes, there was a time that if you did not have cash on hand when Friday rolled around, you simply did not go out. 

For those who have seen the Travolta movie back when he was a much younger man, "Saturday Night Fever," it puts the whole scene early on into perspective. Travolta's character is asking his boss why the guy insists on paying him every Monday instead of Friday the way many businesses do. His boss then tells him why. Not as though Travolta's character could go to the nearest bank and use their ATM machine. Still, as a kid, I got an allowance. No need for an ATM machine. 

As for so-called Smartphones, if I was the inventor of the cellphone I would be disgusted at the absolute idiotic manner in which so many folks use their phones. Texting while driving . . . If someone is that stupid and they crash into a tree, well; brought it on themselves. But when they jump the curb while doing something so idiotic and mow down a pedestrian, or crash into a mini-van full of kids; totally different story. Law needs to be changed to hold those types of smartphone users far more accountable. Doesn't matter if you plowed down that pedestrian because you were drunk or texting. Same result. As a matter of fact, you should be held even more responsible. The drunk at least thought he was good to drive. What's the excuse for the guy who was sober but chose to behave like an idiot while playing with his phone behind the wheel of a moving vehicle? 

*PhotonWrangler ~*

That beats me. My first phone was a half brick with the Bell Atlantic logo on it. Started wearing a heavy-duty jacket just so I could carry the phone (uncomfortably) in a pocket.

They still make White-Out. They also make skin-pealing Lava Soap for those who get _really_ dirty. They just no longer advertise those products anymore.

*jtr1962 ~*

True. Many do look on past decades with a smile and a twinkle in their eye. But let's take a realistic look at the advances you've mentioned. As a kid growing up, our family TV gave a great picture. Barely had to adjust the antenna to get a consistently great picture on all the channels. (Obviously this was before Cable.) PCs? Well, if it wasn't for them none of us would be communicating with each other. PCs and internet forums are also the reason why I've been able to access such a wealth of information, after shoveling through the giant mountain of B.S.

Still, other than one's favorite internet forums, many folks use their PCs to access adult entertainment. That's their main focus. So, it's not as though modern PCs are a perfect improvement in our daily lives. Also agree with you that if you needed to research something, it meant a trip to the local library. And sometimes what you found was indeed less than ideal. However, my local library was within walking distance and much of the time I did find what I needed. Yes, not nearly as convenient as sitting down in front of a PC and surfing the net. But hardly a Herculian effort back in the good old days. 

Yeah, the Cold War was raging on. But honestly, I'd rather have the Cold War than what we have now. Back then, there were rules. There was an understanding. You watched them, they watched you. You knew they were watching you, they knew you knew they were watching you. And that was fine. When the players are the two biggest kids on the sandlot who could pound each other into oblivion, nothing horrific took place. Not like now . . . The towers didn't fall during the Cold War. Can't blame the Soviets for that. 

Mass transit is still pretty crappy. Let's face it, we've both ridden the same trains and buses. The buses aren't too bad. The trains barely feel as though they've gotten better. And the sculpted seats on the new subway trains are 1000% worse than the ones on the older ones. At least back in the old days if you did find a seat on the train in which the cushion wasn't ripped apart with a cheap switchblade, you got yourself a comfortable ride to your destination. (Many of the young punks back then are now middle-aged. I bet they're regretting cutting apart those cushioned subway seats now.) 

Honestly, very few things I can think of from back in the day that I'm glad no longer exist. I agree with you about typewriters. But isn't it ironic that kids today use their so-called smartphones as basically typewriters to text all their friends about meaningless $#!%. As for me, I have excellent hand-writing and teachers were fine with my hand-written reports. Yeah, penmanship doesn't even get lip-service in this modern age of computers.


----------



## StarHalo

Monocrom said:


> Must admit that as an adult, I'm glad someone invented ATM machines.



Debit cards are bitchin'.



Monocrom said:


> They also make skin-pealing Lava Soap for those who get _really_ dirty. They just no longer advertise those products anymore.



Everybody uses Gojo now, it's even more coarse and caustic than Lava..



Monocrom said:


> I'd rather have the Cold War than what we have now.



The noble opponent versus the cowardly attacker; the Space Race, yeah..



Monocrom said:


> As a kid growing up, our family TV gave a great picture. Barely had to adjust the antenna to get a consistently great picture on all the channels.



I miss analog TV of any kind, I think the whole digital movement was a bad idea; you can't get TV audio through a common radio anymore - I remember back in the 90's during a prolonged outage tuning in to one of the local network stations using a radio, we had nonstop news and updates just as it was broadcast on TV, and even when that wasn't on, M*A*S*H reruns are still pretty entertaining in audio-only format..

And analog cable meant that when you changed channels, each channel appeared instantaneously; there was no lengthy pause while the proper format and program data loaded. If you wanted to see what else was on, you could just flip through and see a bunch of channels in a few seconds, don't try that with a digital connection..


----------



## JetskiMark

StarHalo said:


> And analog cable meant that when you changed channels, each channel appeared instantaneously; there was no lengthy pause while the proper format and program data loaded. If you wanted to see what else was on, you could just flip through and see a bunch of channels in a few seconds, don't try that with a digital connection..<snip>



I know what you mean. When I go to a friend's house that has satellite or digital cable, the lag while changing channels can be frustrating. However, since the digital television transition, I have had AT&T U-Verse which is IPTV. There is virtually no lag when changing channels. Plus you get a live picture in picture when you scroll through the guide or press the up or down arrows while watching a channel. I take these features for granted until I try channel surfing at a friend's house. The delay and lack of PIP is really annoying. I'm not affiliated with AT&T, just a long time customer.

This is a great thread that I have been following since the beginning. I just checked and I have not posted in this thread for over four years. Wow, how time flies.


----------



## jtr1962

Monocrom said:


> As for so-called Smartphones, if I was the inventor of the cellphone I would be disgusted at the absolute idiotic manner in which so many folks use their phones. Texting while driving . . . If someone is that stupid and they crash into a tree, well; brought it on themselves. But when they jump the curb while doing something so idiotic and mow down a pedestrian, or crash into a mini-van full of kids; totally different story. Law needs to be changed to hold those types of smartphone users far more accountable. Doesn't matter if you plowed down that pedestrian because you were drunk or texting. Same result. As a matter of fact, you should be held even more responsible. The drunk at least thought he was good to drive. What's the excuse for the guy who was sober but chose to behave like an idiot while playing with his phone behind the wheel of a moving vehicle?


Yep, totally agree. Texting while driving (or while biking) is totally retarded, irresponsible behavior. Texting isn't the only idiotic thing I've seen people do. What about the idiot who tried to pick up a milk container while driving two weeks ago, then ended up on the sidewalk, killing one teenager and injuring several more? In fact, just in March four people have been killed by cars on NYC sidewalks.



> As a kid growing up, our family TV gave a great picture. Barely had to adjust the antenna to get a consistently great picture on all the channels. (Obviously this was before Cable.)


TV reception back then was entirely dependent upon where you were. If you had a house with a roof antenna, you probably got a good picture. If you were in an apartment building, often you didn't. The color TVs were considerably better than the black and whites as far as reception and picture quality goes. All that said, even with perfect reception the picture couldn't compare to today's 1080p. I'm so used to HDTV now that I can't even stand to watch anything in SDTV.



> PCs? Well, if it wasn't for them none of us would be communicating with each other. PCs and internet forums are also the reason why I've been able to access such a wealth of information, after shoveling through the giant mountain of B.S.
> 
> Still, other than one's favorite internet forums, many folks use their PCs to access adult entertainment. That's their main focus. So, it's not as though modern PCs are a perfect improvement in our daily lives. Also agree with you that if you needed to research something, it meant a trip to the local library. And sometimes what you found was indeed less than ideal. However, my local library was within walking distance and much of the time I did find what I needed. Yes, not nearly as convenient as sitting down in front of a PC and surfing the net. But hardly a Herculian effort back in the good old days.


I recall that my local neighborhood library (in Astoria) often didn't have what I wanted, so I would hop the train to some of the Manhattan libraries. Not a Herculian effort, but it's still easier to just do a Google search now and usually find something close to what you wanted. One critical skill the Internet develops is that ability to separate the wheat from the chaff. There's a lot of incomplete or just plain incorrect information on the Internet. Too many in the younger generation believe everything they read. That probably made more sense back when we were young because most of the sources we found at a library were written by experts on a subject, not bloggers. Nowadays I take everything I read with a huge grain of salt.

Yeah, a lot of technology nowadays is either wasted or not used to its full potential. IMO, texting about nonsense and the sheer amount of adult material online are massive wastes of bandwidth. On the flip side, the Internet could be a valuable tool which would let a lot more people work from home and also avoid lengthy, expensive business trips. Business culture needs to change radically for this potential to be realized but this could be one of the best uses of the Internet.



> Yeah, the Cold War was raging on. But honestly, I'd rather have the Cold War than what we have now. Back then, there were rules. There was an understanding. You watched them, they watched you. You knew they were watching you, they knew you knew they were watching you. And that was fine. When the players are the two biggest kids on the sandlot who could pound each other into oblivion, nothing horrific took place. Not like now . . . The towers didn't fall during the Cold War. Can't blame the Soviets for that.


Well, we came pretty close to oblivion during the Cuban missile crisis. I think we were lucky the Cold War didn't end in mutual annihilation. Just having that threat hanging over you often made it seem pointless planning for the future.



> Mass transit is still pretty crappy. Let's face it, we've both ridden the same trains and buses. The buses aren't too bad. The trains barely feel as though they've gotten better. And the sculpted seats on the new subway trains are 1000% worse than the ones on the older ones. At least back in the old days if you did find a seat on the train in which the cushion wasn't ripped apart with a cheap switchblade, you got yourself a comfortable ride to your destination. (Many of the young punks back then are now middle-aged. I bet they're regretting cutting apart those cushioned subway seats now.)


I agree about the seats but I still think the trains are much better. I'm sure you remember the times when the trains were covered in graffiti, half the doors and lights didn't work, trains were often pulled out of service for mechanical failures, and the system had slow orders on most lines. Now even though the seats may be hard, at least the trains reliably get you where you need to go. I do hate the sideways seats on the newer trains where you're staring at your fellow passengers. The forward/rear facing seats in the really old subway cars (and also in the R46/R68) are much nicer.



> Honestly, very few things I can think of from back in the day that I'm glad no longer exist. I agree with you about typewriters. But isn't it ironic that kids today use their so-called smartphones as basically typewriters to text all their friends about meaningless $#!%. As for me, I have excellent hand-writing and teachers were fine with my hand-written reports. Yeah, penmanship doesn't even get lip-service in this modern age of computers.


I print nicely (most engineers do). Even that's a lost art nowadays.


----------



## Burgess

re: Portable Telephones . . . .


When I was a boy, half-a-century ago,
my father knew a man who actually *had a Telephone installed in his Car* ! ! ! :wow:


I thought that was the most Amazing Thing in the World ! 

" When I grow up, I'm gonna' have a telephone in MY car ! " i proudly proclaimed !


A year later, Popular Science magazine (to which I subscribed, and kept all the old issues)
had a photo of a Portable Telephone, which was built-into a dedicated Brief Case.

Battery-powered, you could actually take THIS portable telephone ANYWHERE !

No longer would I need to be tied to my Automobile !

:twothumbs Isn't Technology WONDERFUL ! ( i told myself )


Oh, there were a few complications with that telephone-in-a-briefcase . . . .

First of all, it cost about TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS !

Which, i was told, was a *GREAT DEAL of MONEY* ! ! ! 

Additionally, there was a Monthly Phone Bill (it was stated) of several hundred dollars !


" No Problem " I said to myself. When I grow up, i'm gonna' be RICH !

:tinfoil:



Funny how things have changed, eh ?


----------



## gadget_lover

Burgess said:


> re: Portable Telephones . . . .
> 
> 
> When I was a boy, half-a-century ago,
> my father knew a man who actually *had a Telephone installed in his Car* ! ! ! :wow:
> 
> 
> I thought that was the most Amazing Thing in the World !
> 
> " When I grow up, I'm gonna' have a telephone in MY car ! " i proudly proclaimed !



Forty years ago, when I was a young man, I was a telephone operator. When that man with a telephone in his car wanted to make a call, he'd call the operator and we'd do the dialing for him. The man had to recite his mobile identifier to us, and it was on the honor system. 

There were 5 channels in the 3,000 square mile Salinas Valley. That meant 5 people could call at the same time. 

To call a person who had a mobile telephone, you had to have his number and you had to know where he was. I faintly recall that you had to know which of the 5 channels he normally tuned to.

Daniel


----------



## will

Burgess said:


> re: Portable Telephones . . . .



Remember the early Star Trek shows? Captain Kirk would flip open his portable communication device to call the ship. How many years later did we actually have cell phones that 'flipped' open to make calls ?



gadget_lover said:


> To call a person who had a mobile telephone, you had to have his number and you had to know where he was. I faintly recall that you had to know which of the 5 channels he normally tuned to.



Not that many years ago - Roaming charges on your cell phone. To make a call, you called the roaming number, then the actual number. To get a call, the caller would have to know what roaming area you were in...


----------



## StarHalo

Speaking of using smart devices - Do those of you older folks here for whom computers/the internet are relatively new often not think to look something up on the internet? Like when an esoteric or complex question comes to mind, do you just instinctively assume it'd be too difficult to find out at a library and then forget about it, or continue pondering it?



JetskiMark said:


> I have had AT&T U-Verse which is IPTV.



This sounds promising; I had Verizon FiOS for a long time, but it was just too expensive. This doesn't look much cheaper, but I do dig the feature set..


----------



## Monocrom

*StarHalo ~*

I hate anything that marches us closer towards a totally cash-less society. A recent bank commercial showed a hipster going to a cold-hearted bank to get a new debit card. He was told he'd have to wait 10 - 12 business days before he'd receive a new one. The look on his face and the tone of the commercial made it seem absolutely ridiculous to wait that long. Here's what I'd do . . . One, get a temporary ATM-only card from the cold-hearted bank that day. Two, go to the ATM machine. Three, take several days worth of cash out of the ATM machine. Four, use cash for the next 10 - 12 business days. I hope kids never miss out on the option of using cash. In NYC they already will miss out on using tokens to pay for subway and bus rides. Some have likely already forgotten, but the MTA's MetroCard program was an actual failure. New Yorkers prefer the good old tokens. Only reason why MetroCards are used today is because the MTA and our local politicians decided that all New Yorkers would be forced to use the cards. No more token slots in the new turn-styles. Tokens phased out very quickly. Can't really call a new program a success when you force everyone to use it as the only option.

I'll stick with Lava soap. I want to have some skin left when I'm done. Ouch!

Some jerks made a backroom deal and now everything is digital. It's not better. I've had far more issues with digital than I ever did with analog. 

*jtr1962 ~*

Just seems that sometimes HDTV just stretches an image to fit the flat-screen. Sometimes, it looks really bad. 

With bloggers and everything on the internet, a grain just isn't enough. Get yourself a good snow-shovel to get through the mountain of salt that's out there now. 

To be honest, I just don't see the whole Work-At-Home idea taking over the business world in anything remotely approaching a wide scale. There's a very human need to see the person one is dealing with. To speak to them face-to-face. To "know" whom you're doing business with. That very human need isn't going to go away. I admit, I would never do business with someone who worked exclusively from home. If my money is worth investing with someone, than that someone better be willing to meet me face-to-face. 

For most of the Cold War, the worst that existed between the two nations was a begrudging respect. Neither side really wanted to escalate things to a full-blown nuclear war. Yeah, there was plenty of saber-rattling on both sides. But ultimately each side knew that the other one wasn't crazy enough to start turning those keys and pushing those buttons just for the Hell of it. Neither side looked at the other with absolute hatred that went beyond insane fanaticism. Yeah! All that changed! In a BIG way! Once again, I'd rather go back to the days of the Cold War. The days of mutual, begrudging respect. The days of rules, and a certain level of understanding. None of which exist today. 

As New Yorkers, all we ever wanted was cheap and reliable transportation. It is rather sad that only recently the MTA has managed to pull off reliable. However, now they're screwing up on the other end. Cheap public transportation . . . Looks like the kids will be missing out on that one. And far sooner than in the distant future.


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## Chauncey Gardiner

Having a friend help you pull the motor out of your VW Bug. Randy and I got the job down to about ten minutes. We didn't even use the floor-jack, just kind of bench-pressed lowered the motor to the ground. Of course, we were 18 years old then. 

~ Chance


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## ElectronGuru

Monocrom said:


> In NYC they already will miss out on using tokens to pay for subway and bus rides.



Since this post, I've been working on an idea I'm calling the Cost of Efficiency. Its counterintuitive to even suggest that efficiency has costs, as the goal of efficiency is the reduction of costs, but I would argue that much of this thread says otherwise. In practice, efficiency is the elimination of things that are or become optional. A person at the grocer to ring up your purchases, a person who collects tokens from a change box for loading into the sales channel, a person to fill the gasoline in your car. So to the rumble of a V8, packaging made of thick cardboard (or wood!), toys made of metal, and flights that go coast to coast without stopping at a [high efficiency] hub airport. There's a part left out, the experience of a thing that no longer is, a way of doing things which becomes somehow more sterile. 

A notable exception is beverage containers. Years ago, all beer and soda came in bottles. Then came cans. Cheaper to make, cheaper to store, cheaper to ship, cheaper to vend, cheaper to use and discard. And cans are everywhere. But you can seldom buy a premium beer or premium soda in a can. Anyone paying extra for the fizzy contents demands the experience of the glass bottle and gets the glass bottle. Transportation (and most things public) are trickier. To shave the operating cost of token collection means investment in machines. Machines to dispense the cards, read the cards, track the accounts, and (probably) track the riders. To continue tokens would be to add all that cost and have little to no way to show a payoff (savings) over time. And had the price of a ride fallen in half, riders would likely embrace it. But thats not what usually happens. Tokens were likely a small % of total operations and the total savings (even once enough time to pay for the machines has paced) is usually more than wiped out by rising costs for the people who remain - say the person you call when your card stops working.


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## orbital

^

Not unlike the Cost of Outsourcing...
The demand for inexpensive _everything _will bite us in the end.




_____________________________________________________
I'v always defined efficiency in more of a mechanical thinking:
*Doing the same using less energy*
or
*Doing more using the same energy*


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## Monocrom

ElectronGuru said:


> Since this post, I've been working on an idea I'm calling the Cost of Efficiency. Its counterintuitive to even suggest that efficiency has costs, as the goal of efficiency is the reduction of costs, but I would argue that much of this thread says otherwise. In practice, efficiency is the elimination of things that are or become optional. A person at the grocer to ring up your purchases, a person who collects tokens from a change box for loading into the sales channel, a person to fill the gasoline in your car. So to the rumble of a V8, packaging made of thick cardboard (or wood!), toys made of metal, and flights that go coast to coast without stopping at a [high efficiency] hub airport. There's a part left out, the experience of a thing that no longer is, a way of doing things which becomes somehow more sterile.



Where to begin . . . 

Well, as a New Yorker going on 4 decades now, I have to say that I don't miss those not just ineffective token booth clerks but arrogant, insulting, and often stupid individuals in their tiny enclosed kingdoms. (I once asked a clerk for a dozen tokens. She looked at me with the blankest stare I've ever seen in my Life. When I finally told her "12," she laughed out loud at her own stupidity and seemed amused that I said a dozen.) Obviously not all of them. But my extensive experience of using NYC public transportation bears out my educated opinion of the type of individual working in those booths. 

When it was originally proposed that token booth clerks would be eliminated entirely, some were upset. Claiming that such clerks were needed in case someone had a medical emergency on the platforms. Sorry, the reality was far different. I recall stories of folks dying of heart-attacks on the platforms. Token booth clerks often giving bad info., after phoning for help. And only after other commuters ran upstairs to tell the clerks. In some cases, yes; the clerks not even bothering to call in such medical emergencies. Cellphones were around when the clerks all lost their jobs. Though you couldn't get a signal in the tunnels, you often could on the platforms. I'd much rather rely on a fellow commuter than an individual whose decisions in Life lead him to settle for being a token booth clerk. Honestly, I've never heard another New Yorker complain all these years later that there aren't any token booth clerks to turn to for help. Hell, they could have been replaced with token vending machines years before the city decided to replace them with MetroCard vending machines. Dealing with token booth clerks . . . One thing that the current generation and future generations of kids are fortunate to miss out on.

I would never frequent a grocery store that was manned by no one. It's the main reason I refuse to buy anything from Home Depot. Can't stand their automated checkout. Ironically, can't stand their human checkers who encourage everyone to use the automated system. (Gee, I guess someone WANTS to be out of a job.) How efficient is it if you turn off enough customers that they go to the competition? Or, if you get that one elderly customer who is confused, needs help, but no one is around to help him. All of a sudden, those checkout lines get longer and longer. Maybe a kind-hearted fellow customer will help grand-ma with her purchase. But once again, how effective or efficient is it to have a system that requires your customers to jump in and do work?

One self-serve account I'll never forget . . . Woman pulls in, older car, she can't find the gas-cap. Finally figures it out. It's hidden behind the license plate. (Took her a few minutes though. Clearly a borrowed car.) She starts filling it up. Or, at least thinks she is. All the gasoline starts pouring out the back! Yup, she put the nozzle into the gap between the plate and the hole. Instead of in it. She switches it off. Then drives off in embarrassment. Comes back a minute later to demand the balance of her money back from the guy manning the booth at the station. 

All could have been avoided if there was a gas station attendant. Besides being a funny story, it's also a safety hazard. There was at least a couple of gallons on gasoline on the ground, if not more. Self-serve might be more efficient. But there's more to such things than just efficiency. Cutting out an attendant can lead to safety issues. Also, I don't see it as efficiency more than I see it as ripping off customers. In grand-pa's time, full-service meant just that. Gas, check the oil, check other fluids, check the tires, put air in them if needed, clean the windshield . . . Now it ONLY means pumping gas for the customer. That's not efficiency. That's a reduction of service, and a lowering of standards. Customers not nearly getting as much for their hard-earned money as they did a generation or two ago. (And if your tires DO need air, it's not free anymore! And hopefully the driver isn't elderly so that he can actually go down on one knee to put the air into his tires.) 

Efficiency in car engines deserves its own topic. Suffice it to say, a gas-sipping engine isn't ideal for everyone. Police officers need powerful V8 engines in their patrol vehicles to chase down dangerous suspects. If I'm having a medical emergency, I don't want the ambulance coming for me to have an enviornmentally-friendly little four-banger in it. And as anyone who has owned a car with such an engine in it, I'm happy I no longer do. The V6 in my Sports sedan has numbers normally associated with a V8. I'm very happy I no longer have to white-knuckle it down the entrance to a busy express-way. More than happy to pay the extra dollars at the pump. 

Depending on what's inside, sometimes you need thick cardboard or even wood. I've seen heavy items shipped in ridiculously thin packaging. In my case, a postal thief was able to feel the item inside the mailer that the seller sent me. Lost out on a rare pocket-knife because the seller used a thin mailer often used for shipping thin documents. I wasn't happy. To his credit, the seller made it up to me with a not-quite-as-rare replacement. Still, I'd rather have what I originally ordered. 

Metal toys last. Something that lasts for years is (to me) made far more efficiently than something that falls apart in a few weeks or even a few days. Kids today definitely miss out on quality metal toys. The cheap junk they get today can't even compare.

If we're talking Cost of Efficiency, I agree that it's too high.


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## jtr1962

Actually, MetroCards had several advantages over tokens (once the kinks were finally worked out). One, they allow free transfers between buses and subways. Prior to that you had to pay two fares. This put people who didn't live near subway stations at a disadvantage. Two, although not yet implemented, they could in theory allow lower off-peak fares. This would benefit the system by encouraging people to make trips at a time when the marginal cost of an additional passenger is close to zero.

Monocrom:

When I was referring to telecommuting, I wasn't talking about face-to-face interaction between businesses and potential customers. I was referring to doing the many back-office jobs where a person sits in front of a computer screen all day from home. Besides being better for the workers, businesses would save on office space. The surplus office space could be reconfigured as affordable housing, something which is sorely needed in NYC. It's a win-win situation for just about everyone. I would say at least 75% of jobs are amenable to telecommuting at least part-time. Probably over half can be done completely from home. I do complex electronics projects from home, often interacting with my customers solely by email. If I can do a job like this from home, certainly someone can do data entry or billing from home. You just need a change in mindset where employers insist on watching over their charges like hawks. If the employee isn't doing the job they're being paid to do at home, it'll be obvious pretty quickly. The hard truth is most jobs aren't creative and really don't require any face-to-face interaction with fellow employees.

I fully agree about the token clerks. The oft-used excuse for keeping them is that they could call police in case of an emergency. I say if you're going to be paying a person's salary, then why not just station a police officer there who _can_ help instead of a token clerk who (maybe) will call for help if they have nothing better to do.

I fully agree about metal toys and really metal anything. I all too often see plastic parts substituted for metal even for parts that get high stress. You just _know_ these parts will break prematurely, and then you'll need to replace the entire item. Where's the efficiency in that?

Automated checkout? I'll be happy once we have that perfected in that you can push a shopping cart of items past a scanner and they all get checked out instantly, without needing to put them on a conveyor and scan them one at a time. To me it's adding insult to injury to make me wait on a line to give a store my money. It's even worse now that many stores are cutting their cashier staff to the bone so that you'll even have long lines during off-peak hours. So bring on the automated scanning if you can do an entire cart at once, and also let me pay in cash if I want to . That shouldn't be all that hard. Automated checkout where you need to pay be debit card are just stupid. I _never_ use debit cards. It's all too easy to lose track of how much is in your account if you make many small purchases each day.

As for car engines, once we move to electric drive you can have your cake and eat it too. Efficiency most of the time, raw power when you need it. That said, you do know acceleration rates rarely make much of a difference in trip times, don't you? Accelerating to highway speed in 8 seconds instead of 30 seconds might mean an average speed for the trip of 64.9 mph instead of 65 mph. And quickly accelerating away from a green light only to stop 2 blocks later at another red, as many idiot drivers in this city do, makes NO difference at all in travel times. Acceleration is highly overrated. IMO vehicles should accelerate a lot less rapidly so they can't achieve dangerous speeds on urban roads. If you need longer highway entrances for safe merging so be it. That's a small price to pay for greater safety. Now you'll have idiots who accelerate up to 60 mph in one city block just because they can. Maybe the best of both worlds would be an acceleration lockout which limits acceleration rates to something like 1 mph/sec on local streets, but allows full bore acceleration on highways. With GPS, that shouldn't be hard to do. We could even cap speeds at the speed limit on local roads with such a system.


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## StarHalo

jtr1962 said:


> Maybe the best of both worlds would be an acceleration lockout which limits acceleration rates



Autonomous cars are inevitable, and I will embrace them with open arms; the day is not far when in a thread like this everyone will post about how stressful driving used to be, all the car accidents they were in, the ridiculous insurance rates, etc..


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## jtr1962

StarHalo said:


> Autonomous cars are inevitable, and I will embrace them with open arms; the day is not far when in a thread like this everyone will post about how stressful driving used to be, all the car accidents they were in, the ridiculous insurance rates, etc..


Yep, I totally agree, and I'll also embrace them with open arms. You'll probably still get people reminiscing about the good old days when you could actually drive a car, but those will be a minority. It's pretty obvious by the recent epidemic of people texting while driving that they would rather be doing something else. That being the case, it's safer for everyone to just make cars autonomous. Urban areas will be far safer with autonomous cars which never speed, always yield to pedestrians/cyclists, and never run red lights or stop signs. You'll also be able to run cars on highways practically bumper-to-bumper (saving enormous amounts of energy), and at much higher speeds than now. People who currently can't physically drive will be able to get around by car. Most people won't miss driving, not when they can just punch in their destination, then proceed there at speeds up to perhaps 125 mph, and with far less probability of getting killed along the way. You also won't need driver's licenses. Parents will no longer need to chauffeur their kids. The car would just drive them there, and pick them up at whatever time they'll be going home.

My guess is autonomous cars will change the paradigm of vehicle ownership. Most people won't own cars, but will rather just call for one when they need it. That in turn will mean more efficient utilization. Instead of being parked 23 out of 24 hours, most cars will be in use 12 to 24 hours a day. That means fewer cars to serve the same number of people, last wasted street space to park the cars, etc. This is one case where technology will really increase efficiency on multiple levels.


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## jtr1962

StarHalo said:


> Speaking of using smart devices - Do those of you older folks here for whom computers/the internet are relatively new often not think to look something up on the internet? Like when an esoteric or complex question comes to mind, do you just instinctively assume it'd be too difficult to find out at a library and then forget about it, or continue pondering it?


The only time I might even consider using a library at this point is if I really needed info on a subject, and couldn't find it after a few hours of searching online. So far in nearly 14 years of being online that hasn't happened. Even before, I rarely needed info enough to go to the library once I was no longer in school. One area the libraries trump the Internet is the availability of periodicals like magazines and newspapers. Hopefully in time all of that content will be digitized and readily available online also. That's actually one of my big disappointments about the Internet. I had expected that the decades of newspapers available on microfilm in libraries had already been digitized and accessible. I was disappointed to find that wasn't the case.


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## jtr1962

ElectronGuru said:


> Since this post, I've been working on an idea I'm calling the Cost of Efficiency. Its counterintuitive to even suggest that efficiency has costs, as the goal of efficiency is the reduction of costs, but I would argue that much of this thread says otherwise. In practice, efficiency is the elimination of things that are or become optional. A person at the grocer to ring up your purchases, a person who collects tokens from a change box for loading into the sales channel, a person to fill the gasoline in your car. So to the rumble of a V8, packaging made of thick cardboard (or wood!), toys made of metal, and flights that go coast to coast without stopping at a [high efficiency] hub airport. There's a part left out, the experience of a thing that no longer is, a way of doing things which becomes somehow more sterile.


Along a similar vein, I've been thinking recently about the cost of ubiquity. When something isn't common, it generally has more value, and people take more pride in it. I'm not referring here to material objects, but to skill sets. For example, before cars became common, few people drove, but generally those who did choose to drive took a lot of pride in being able to do it well. They thought of driving as a continual learning experience. Somewhere down the line we as a society decided that automobile ownership should be ubiquitous. This was a direct result of neglecting mass transit and building sprawl in which mass transit could never be viable. In any case, in order for the masses to be able to drive, driving had to be dumbed down. We got used to using traffic control devices instead of driver judgement, building wider, straighter roads which required no skill to drive on, and making the licensing process so easy a dog could pass it. In the end people started seeing driving as just a task to get from point A to point B, and gave it no more thought than a task like sweeping the floor to get the dust off. As a result, people never developed the judgement and car handling skills which are still needed to cope with the inevitable situation where the rules and traffic controls don't tell you what to do (or even worse, when what they tell you to do is wrong for the situation). Despite making the driving process much easier, annual deaths on the road have hovered between 35,000 an 50,000, along with millions of injuries. Even worse, we've just accepted this carnage as the normal price of getting from point A to point B. In a task where lives are at stake, it's never a good idea to take skill and brains out of the loop (unless you can _completely_ automate the task), even if it means you restrict that task to the small subset of the population who can master it.

There's nothing wrong with making something ubiquitous if the downsides generally are outweighed by the upsides. Case in point-the Internet we're all using. Yes, people often moaned that AOL dumbed down the Internet by making it easily accessible even for the computer illiterate. The end result of that today is the heavy advertising aimed at this segment, and also the endless idiotic comments to news articles and blogs. The good part is ubiquity made Internet access faster and cheaper for everyone, and if you know where to go, you can pretty much avoid the mountain of stupidity which plagues cyberspace. This is quite unlike making driving ubiquitous. In the case of driving, stupid people can kill themselves or others. And it's only because of the heavy carnage on our roads that autonomous cars will eventually mean even those who take pride in their driving skills will no longer be able to drive on public roads. Bottom line-if the downsides of making something ubiquitous will harm large numbers of people, then perhaps it's better if we don't until we have the technology to mitigate that harm.


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## Samy

I was talking to my granddad a few weeks back. He was born in the early 20's and was a kid during the depression and he said life was hard. They had a dirt floor in the house, had to grow and slaughter their own food. No shoes, limited clothing etc. He remembers not being able to be a kid and play because he had to find an income or a way to put food on the table before and after school. He said they were terrible times and no one should have had to go through that. He just about had tears in his eyes. He's seen some things in his days, including being on a battleship during the battle of the coral sea during 1942.

He then said that the era of the baby boomers certainly changed all that, there was work everywhere and incomes grew substantially. 

cheers


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## Chauncey Gardiner

I heard my two sons (16 & 13) laughing so hard I had to investigate. Found them watching Abbott and Costello on the iPad. 

~ Chance


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## PhotonWrangler

Chauncey Gardiner said:


> I heard my two sons (16 & 13) laughing so hard I had to investigate. Found them watching Abbott and Costello on the iPad.
> 
> ~ Chance



What's old is new again. Good comedy is simply timeless!


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## nbp

Indeed! A & C Meet Frankenstein is a family favorite. I've been watching that since I was a kid. It still holds up.


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## Frijid

corded phones. when you got made at someone when you talked to someone you could slam the phone back on the reciever. now what you do when mad on a cell phone? push the off button hard? lol


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## EZO

Black Jack chewing gum
Clove Gum
Chocolate Cigarettes
Chocolate Babies
Hippy Sippys


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## PhotonWrangler

I saw some Clove gum in a nostalgia store just the other week. I bought a couple packages of Fizzies there.


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## EZO

Yeah, I guess the phrase "nostalgia store" says it all. Many of these items are still made as novelty items. In fact, I bought some Black Jack gum awhile back but there's no more going down to the corner store with a quarter or two to buy these candies. I see you can still get Atomic Fireballs! Remember those weird wax lip candies?


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## Chauncey Gardiner

^ Reminded me of those candy cigarettes. Gateway drug? How about a gateway candy. I'm betting there's a special place for the three-pice suit who invented those. :devil: Hi, welcome to hell. Would you like smoking or non-smoking? I kid, there is no non-smoking.

~ Chance


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## PhotonWrangler

Lol, yeah. Speaking of weird wax candies, remember Nick-L-Nips? Little wax bottle shapes with sweet colored liquid inside. I saw those at the same store where I found the Fizzies. They used to sell them at the corner store in my neighborhood also.


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## EZO

Oh wow, Fizzies.....and Nik-L-Nips! I forgot all about those. Can't believe how much of this stuff we consumed as kids but we loved 'em! And there were whole little armies of kids running around the neighborhood with those lips on their mouths and sucking down the fruit flavored liquid in those bottles. Then you'd spend the rest of the day chewing on the sugared wax. Real American health food for children!


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## PhotonWrangler

Speaking of Abbott and Costello, here is the sequel to _Who's on First_, where the audience gets to meet the players.


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## Monocrom

jtr1962 said:


> Actually, MetroCards had several advantages over tokens (once the kinks were finally worked out). One, they allow free transfers between buses and subways. Prior to that you had to pay two fares. This put people who didn't live near subway stations at a disadvantage. Two, although not yet implemented, they could in theory allow lower off-peak fares. This would benefit the system by encouraging people to make trips at a time when the marginal cost of an additional passenger is close to zero.



No doubt, there are advantages. Still, doesn't change the fact that the initial MetroCard trial run was a miserable failure. Ben Franklin once came up with a more streamlined and efficient version of the English language. Significantly better in fact. It too was a miserable failure. (Though in that case it was due to adults not wanting to re-learn a language they already knew and had been speaking all their lives.) Someone also came up with a more efficient keyboard set-up than the old QWERTY layout that we're all familiar with. Also, not a huge success at all. Sometimes folks just prefer the old system.

As far as transfers go, I did what many others did when they could. Travel either exclusively by subway or plan the route by using buses so you could transfer from one to the other. Not always ideal. But just the way it was. 

I'm sorry, but the City is just too damn greedy to offer off-peak fares. The system is so ridiculously mis-managed. Just today I waited nearly half an hour for an off-peak Q43 bus. When it arrived, guess what? . . . Yup, another Q43 directly behind it! It's not just the Q43. We both know what a sad and pathetic joke it has become with the above scenario played out countless times a day. 





> When I was referring to telecommuting, I wasn't talking about face-to-face interaction between businesses and potential customers. I was referring to doing the many back-office jobs where a person sits in front of a computer screen all day from home. Besides being better for the workers, businesses would save on office space. The surplus office space could be reconfigured as affordable housing, something which is sorely needed in NYC. It's a win-win situation for just about everyone. I would say at least 75% of jobs are amenable to telecommuting at least part-time. Probably over half can be done completely from home. I do complex electronics projects from home, often interacting with my customers solely by email. If I can do a job like this from home, certainly someone can do data entry or billing from home. You just need a change in mindset where employers insist on watching over their charges like hawks. If the employee isn't doing the job they're being paid to do at home, it'll be obvious pretty quickly. The hard truth is most jobs aren't creative and really don't require any face-to-face interaction with fellow employees.



You raise an excellent point that I failed to mention. I'm sorry, but there are way too many folks out there who would screw around if they worked from home. Yes, sadly, there are folks out there who need to be watched in order to make sure they do their jobs properly. Obviously, there are those who are professional in what they do. But imagine how very inefficient it would be if there was a major screw up? In an enclosed work setting, a supervisor can deal with the matter right away. But if that doesn't exist then what is he to do? Get in his car and drive to the employees house who screwed up? Or, even worse, hop on a plane? With a centralized location where everyone has to report to from 9-5, that type of issue doesn't come up. No need to hunt for the guy who messed up. Also, in bigger companies, if you need to coordinate efforts with other departments, it's much easier from a centralized location. But the biggest issue once again . . . I just don't see folks changing their mentality (collectively speaking) and turning away from the time honored notion of dealing with others face-to-face.



> I fully agree about the token clerks. The oft-used excuse for keeping them is that they could call police in case of an emergency. I say if you're going to be paying a person's salary, then why not just station a police officer there who _can_ help instead of a token clerk who (maybe) will call for help if they have nothing better to do.



A couple of days ago, the vending machines inside a popular station were out of order. They put someone into the old token booth to service customers. OH! She was not happy. She refused to say a word. Refused to even give a fake smile. Reminded me of the old days. But definitely not in a nostalgic manner. Yeah, I prefer dealing with the vending machines. They have far more personality and are a lot less rude. 



> I fully agree about metal toys and really metal anything. I all too often see plastic parts substituted for metal even for parts that get high stress. You just _know_ these parts will break prematurely, and then you'll need to replace the entire item. Where's the efficiency in that?



I buy my niece and nephew stuffed animals. No plastic junk from Uncle Mono! When they get older, I'll buy them books, lights, watches, etc. The only thing made from plastic I'll hand them are their own library cards.



> Automated checkout? I'll be happy once we have that perfected in that you can push a shopping cart of items past a scanner and they all get checked out instantly, without needing to put them on a conveyor and scan them one at a time. To me it's adding insult to injury to make me wait on a line to give a store my money. It's even worse now that many stores are cutting their cashier staff to the bone so that you'll even have long lines during off-peak hours. So bring on the automated scanning if you can do an entire cart at once, and also let me pay in cash if I want to . That shouldn't be all that hard. Automated checkout where you need to pay be debit card are just stupid. I _never_ use debit cards. It's all too easy to lose track of how much is in your account if you make many small purchases each day.



Call me crazy, but I prefer to deal with real human-beings. 

Automated checkout . . . Okay, why bother even combing my hair, taking a shower, putting on underwear and other clothes, heading outside . . . When I can just buy stuff online with a few keystrokes. Oops! Home Depot and those other places jumping on the automated bandwagon better hope and pray that other consumers don't discover what I just did. 

And when I'm done shopping on my computer, I can do all the stuff above, head out the door, and grab some lunch from the little cafe just down the block from my home. The one that definitely isn't automated. The one where they know how I like my coffee, I get greeted with a smile, Lily serves me and she's very nice. And when I'm done, I hand her my money. And Lily's soft feminine hands carefully place my change in my hand. Yeah, the most basic of human contact. But she's a sweet woman, and spending just a bit of time chatting with her while I enjoy my lunch . . . That's worth stepping out the door for. An automated experience?? Bah! Why half-*** it? Log on, buy what you want off the internet.

That's something I hope kids tomorrow never get to miss out on. Basic human contact with someone worth getting to know a bit. 



> . . . you do know acceleration rates rarely make much of a difference in trip times, don't you? Accelerating to highway speed in 8 seconds instead of 30 seconds might mean an average speed for the trip of 64.9 mph instead of 65 mph. And quickly accelerating away from a green light only to stop 2 blocks later at another red, as many idiot drivers in this city do, makes NO difference at all in travel times. Acceleration is highly overrated. IMO vehicles should accelerate a lot less rapidly so they can't achieve dangerous speeds on urban roads. If you need longer highway entrances for safe merging so be it. That's a small price to pay for greater safety. Now you'll have idiots who accelerate up to 60 mph in one city block just because they can. Maybe the best of both worlds would be an acceleration lockout which limits acceleration rates to something like 1 mph/sec on local streets, but allows full bore acceleration on highways. With GPS, that shouldn't be hard to do. We could even cap speeds at the speed limit on local roads with such a system.



Yup, fully aware of what you mentioned above. Thing is, raw power isn't about sustained speed for the duration of the trip. Raw power is about being able to get your car either out of the way or where it needs to be much faster than normal. You encounter a busy expressway, your car does 0-60 in 14.5 seconds . . . Oh yes, you ARE going to be white-knuckling it down that entrance ramp! I know! My old Ford Escort was that slow. My current ride does 0-60 in 6.5 seconds. Oh yes! HUGE difference. I no longer have to worry about building up enough speed to enter that expressway without possibly being mowed down by a faster driver as I try to merge. My 2nd day of owning my sports sedan, the manual mode slipped out of my hand. By the time I got it pushed back properly, a truck was bearing down on me. I hit the gas and got the Hell out of the way. There are times when you need that raw power. I loved my little Escort. But she had no power. It was one thing, but it was a major thing. One thing for sure, if I ever get rid of my sports sedan (no chance in Hell) I'll definitely replace it with something at least as powerful.


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## PhotonWrangler

When a telephone call used to sound clear. In the past 15 years we've been sliding down a slippery slope from good quality audio to barely good enough quality to maintain a conversation. This is a confluence of bad handset/headset design, compression and distant call centers using IP connections with more compression on their end.


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## will

PhotonWrangler said:


> When a telephone call used to sound clear. In the past 15 years we've been sliding down a slippery slope from good quality audio to barely good enough quality to maintain a conversation. This is a confluence of bad handset/headset design, compression and distant call centers using IP connections with more compression on their end.



But - don't forget about those Long Distance telephone bills


----------



## Tana

Back in the days, our parents would buy some fruits for home, be it apples or plums or peers... but we hardly ever touched it... not enough craving...

But as soon as we were out (and we spent a LOT of time outside along with other kids, when we were not in school) we would find some poor man's tree and get our t-shirts filled up with "stolen" apples, peers, plums... those fruits were sweet as they can be...

The bought ones that our parents bought for us were never even CLOSE to "sweetness" when eating them...

But those were different times... even if they pretended to be angry, all those neighbors that we were "stealing" fruits from were happy that kids are eating his/her fruits... I mean, they knew all our parents, they know exactly who is who's kid...  As long as we don't crack branches and damage trees...

Those were the days...

I believe today's kids would be chased with a brick if they would even remotely tried something like that... if they could ever find time for it between stages on game consoles...


----------



## ledmitter_nli

Thin women.


----------



## Norm

ledmitter_nli said:


> Thin women.



This post was deleted, the OP contacted me to say it was meant to be humorous.

Is it?

Norm


----------



## ledmitter_nli

I seriously am only kidding!  :sweat:


----------



## Monocrom

Norm said:


> This post was deleted, the OP contacted me to say it was meant to be humorous.
> 
> Is it?
> 
> Norm



In an odd way. 

Personally, I hope kids of future generations (especially young and impressionable girls) will indeed miss out on fashion magazines holding up rail thin and anorexic models as the ideal of beauty. I don't want my little niece growing up and thinking that guys are attracted to skeletons covered in a thin layer of flesh.


----------



## Norm

Fags Lolly (candy) Cigarettes, Dad would often buy me a pack when he bought his own smokes. Talk about teaching them early . Fortunately I was never a serious smoker, just an occasional social ciggy.


----------



## Monocrom

Norm said:


> Fags Lolly (candy) Cigarettes, Dad would often buy me a pack when he bought his own smokes. Talk about teaching them early . Fortunately I was never a serious smoker, just an occasional social ciggy.



My uncle smoked all the time. As a very young kid, I used to beg him to let me have one. He did, but of course never let me light up.

I used to buy bubble gum cigarettes all the time as a kid. Each cig was good for a couple of "puffs" of powdered sugar "smoke." I was the coolest kid on the block. I think I smoked two real cigarettes in my Life. The taste was so disgusting and a pack so expensive that I never got into it. They still make bubble gum cigarettes.


----------



## gadget_lover

We have a kitchen drawer full of plastic bags. Zip lock, Glad and others. We have half a dozen different sizes and shapes. Freezer bags sit side by side with oven and microwaveable bags.

When I was a kid our school lunch included sandwiches that were wrapped in simple waxed paper. The bread was usually fresh because the bread man dropped it off at our door more than once a week. No matter how fresh it was, the sandwich was likely to be pretty dried out by the time we ate them. Everyone knew how to fold the wax paper to get the tightest possible seal.

Daniel


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Yeah, wax paper was a staple of school lunchboxes back then. It never worked as well as ziplock bags but it was way better than nothing, and it kept the schmutz off your food.

For some reason wax paper reminded me of carbon paper, another throwback. Wasn't carbon paper essentially wax paper with ink?


----------



## PhotonWrangler

gadget_lover said:


> I don't think that I can quote a line from Robert Frost and expect a recent high school graduate to recognize it.
> Daniel



Not unless he had a band and was available on itunes. :ironic:


----------



## Monocrom

PhotonWrangler said:


> For some reason wax paper reminded me of carbon paper, another throwback. Wasn't carbon paper essentially wax paper with ink?



I remember when I used to pay for a ton of purchases with postal money orders. (From catalogs. Not from online shops.) 

The money orders came with a sheet of carbon paper in the middle and your copy on the bottom. I saved a ton of those carbon paper sheets from the money orders. Got them around here, somewhere. Nowadays you have to fill out a M.O. twice. The actual money order and the top portion too. Scumbags could choose to put a different name and address on the top portion than the actual M.O., then claim they paid for something when in reality they made out the important portion to a girlfriend and just pocketed the item someone sent them. 

Another example of an old system being better than what replaced it.


----------



## Empath

Politics removed. Several posts deleted


----------



## gadget_lover

Empath said:


> Politics removed. Several posts deleted



Sorry about that. I thought we were discussing human nature there. Won't happen again. 

So back on track....

Mi wife is 7 years older than I. My mother is 30 years holder than her. When we talk about things, we find that we have many points of reference in common. We all learned of politics, war, art and literature. When Mom quotes Robert Frost my wife and I recognize the reference and therefor the implications of that quote in context. This is surprising since we were raised in different parts of the country at different times.

It seems that kids now are not being given a standard education anymore. They may recognize Lady Gaga despite the outrageous outfits that disguise her and yet fail to understand the significance of why the pilgrims came to America, or the impact of the Great Potato Famine. 

Yeah, that's not too light hearted, but it is something that they are missing.

Daniel


----------



## will

I use wax paper all the time, just for my woodworking hobby. The wax paper is great where you may have glue dripping out.


----------



## degarb

That's easy! Spankings!


----------



## degarb

I will also add, today's kids are house prisoners. Because the parent's who cannot parent properly for fear of loosing the kid at the slightest injury, would be insane to let them out of their sight for over 18.5 seconds (which is really too long). 

Now, I don't think the goal of child services is to reunite kids with the parents, after even minor incidents. Legalized kid napping.


----------



## jtr1962

One thing today's kids most definitely missed out on-greater mobility.


----------



## Monocrom

degarb said:


> That's easy! Spankings!



Some parents still believe in discipline.

One thing they definitely miss out on . . . Being told to leave if caught reading in a bookstore.

Along with that would be, having anyplace at all to sit in a bookstore (and plopping down on those black footstools doesn't count). And you can forget about eating or drinking inside of one either. I recall hiding in some out-of-the-way aisle at the old Barnes & Noble's that was on main street.

I remember when they started transitioning over to letting customers read, and putting in a couple of chairs. Nowadays, there's an entire cafe inside, along with rows of chairs for reading. Best part is, you can spend hours in there just reading; without buying anything. Though you do occasionally have to deal with a punk teenager who wasn't around during the transition and knows nothing about bookstore chair etiquette. 

Hey, if you get up and are gone for longer than a minute, off at the other end of the bookstore; I don't care if you placed a small stack of books on the chair you were sitting in. Not your chair, and you don't get to reserve it with a stack of books that (ironically) also aren't your's.


----------



## pathalogical

I still use wax paper for my sandwiches because I have yet to see long, thin plastic 'sangweech' bags that will fit an Italian style bun.


----------



## Norm

pathalogical said:


> I still use wax paper for my sandwiches because I have yet to see long, thin plastic 'sangweech' bags that will fit an Italian style bun.



There are lots of odd sized zipper bags on ebay. EG: 4"x10" small reclosable ziplock bags 4mil HEAVYDUTY, not too sure of your size requirement.

Norm


----------



## Burgess

Here's one ( for USA folks, anyway ) --

Every year, the DAV ( Disabled American Veterans ) organization
would mail us (and i presume everyone ELSE, too)

a couple of Tiny miniature Replicas of our car's Actual State License Plate !

You would attach one to yer' Keyring. This would help if they were lost.

On the back of the tiny replica plate, it said:
Finder deposit in any mailbox
Postage Guaranteed.
(DAV address listed next. I believe it was Cincinnati Ohio)

Then the DAV would Mail your Lost Keys back to you !

These were called " IdentoTags ".
Sadly, they were discontinued perhaps 40 years ago.

As a little boy, I always thought they were _*SO NEAT *_! ! !


_


----------



## bshanahan14rulz

I think they were just replaced with more corporate things. Like k-roger cards ;-)


----------



## pathalogical

Burgess said:


> Here's one ( for USA folks, anyway ) --
> 
> Every year, the DAV ( Disabled American Veterans ) organization
> would mail us (and i presume everyone ELSE, too)
> 
> a couple of Tiny miniature Replicas of our car's Actual State License Plate !
> 
> You would attach one to yer' Keyring. This would help if they were lost.
> 
> On the back of the tiny replica plate, it said:
> Finder deposit in any mailbox
> Postage Guaranteed.
> (DAV address listed next. I believe it was Cincinnati Ohio)
> 
> Then the DAV would Mail your Lost Keys back to you !
> 
> These were called " IdentoTags ".
> Sadly, they were discontinued perhaps 40 years ago.
> 
> As you little boy, I always thought they were _*SO NEAT *_! ! !
> 
> 
> _



Here in Canada we get those tags from The War Amps. It very much in use here. Works exactly as you said if you lose your keys. http://www.waramps.ca/keytags.html I think they get your name info from the drivers licence office as not all family members get a mailing.


----------



## Norm

Burgess said:


> a couple of Tiny miniature Replicas of our car's Actual State License Plate !
> 
> You would attach one to yer' Keyring. This would help if they were lost.



It also helps the finder match the found keys to the correct car :shakehead

All the similar tags I've seen here in Australia have an unrelated code to the vehicle registration, the keys go back to the organisation, they check the code on their data base and return the keys 

Norm


----------



## Chauncey Gardiner

Playing Cowboys & Indians ~ Cops & Robbers. We'd spend hours shooting each other, and if your friend didn't die like he should, he got tied to a tree till Mom called us in for lunch. Good times..... Bring a cap gun to school today and you'll spend the next three hours in the Principals office. :shakehead

~ Chance


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Chauncey Gardiner said:


> Bring a cap gun to school today and you'll spend the next three hours in the Principals office. :shakehead
> ~ Chance



Not to mention winding up on the evening news. :shakehead


----------



## EZO

There was a story in the news not long ago about a young schoolgirl, an award winning "A" student who is always at the head of her class who got suspended for having a small Swiss Army knife. She got "caught" with it when she was using it to prepare her lunch. It was a birthday gift from her father who was livid when he found out what happened. (I think he hired an attorney.) Geez, the things I brought to school when I was a kid would get me sent to prison today, like the Nazi dress dagger one of my uncles brought home from the Battle of the Bulge that I took to class for "show and tell" onetime back in the 1950s.


----------



## Burgess

Very, very true ! ! !


On the other hand . . . .

In the early 1960's, i brought a small transistor radio to school.
Wanted to listen to it (during lunch hour) to hear the Mercury spacecraft landing.

(why did the Really Cool Stuff have to happen during School hours ? ? ?) 

Crabby Old Principal (a catholic Nun) spotted me,
and told me in no uncertain terms NEVER to bring it here AGAIN ! ! !

What a difference, eh ? ? ?

:shakehead
_


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Well, at least she didn't' confiscate the radio!

When I was in school I dreamed of having a tiny radio that could fit insider a fountain pen case for situations like that. It wasn't quite possible at the time but they're readily available now.


----------



## EZO

PhotonWrangler said:


> Well, at least she didn't' confiscate the radio!
> 
> When I was in school I dreamed of having a tiny radio that could fit insider a fountain pen case for situations like that. It wasn't quite possible at the time but they're readily available now.



But they did have stuff like that back then....sort of. As a kid I had a crystal radio that looked like a fat pen and had an ear bud speaker. It was yellow as I recall and I used to stay up late at night listening to it under the covers and had the alligator clipped wire attached to the radiator near my bed where I had scratched off some paint to get a ground.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

EZO said:


> But they did have stuff like that back then....sort of. As a kid I had a crystal radio that looked like a fat pen and had an ear bud speaker. It was yellow as I recall and I used to stay up late at night listening to it under the covers and had the alligator clipped wire attached to the radiator near my bed where I had scratched off some paint to get a ground.



Yeah, I thought about a crystal radio. However it would be hard to run a ground wire inconspicuously in the school lunchroom.


----------



## EZO

PhotonWrangler said:


> Yeah, I thought about a crystal radio. However it would be hard to run a ground wire inconspicuously in the school lunchroom.



Yeah, you'd at least need to sit somewhere near a radiator or pipe.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Along the same lines, there is a certain amount of satisfaction from building your own working crystal radio from scratch, a radio that needs absolutely no power source. They still have crystal radio kits available but I doubt that most of today's mp3 generation would be interested in them. Hopefully somebody out there will prove me wrong.

Any takers?


----------



## EZO

I gave this exact kit to a friend of mine for a fun Christmas gift. He's a licensed ham operator, a lifelong SW radio guy and skilled electronics technician. When I saw him a few weeks later I asked if he had built the thing yet and he sheepishly said it wasn't "finished" yet. So I said, "Hey man, the box says an 8 year old can build one of these." We had a good laugh and he explained that the kit came with a huge spool of very thin copper wire and if you didn't do the winding just right the thing wouldn't work the way it was supposed to. I kept giving him sh*t about it and then he finally got the thing put together just to shut me up.:laughing: He ended up giving it away as a prize for a little contest he did in a radio magazine he wrote for.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Thanks, that's what I was thinking of EZO. I remember that it's tricky to wind the coil. If I recall correctly my kit came with a pre-wound coil, a 365pf tunable capacitor, the diode of course, an RF filter cap (goes downstream of the diode) and the earpiece. That's all it takes to make a working radio.


----------



## StarHalo

EZO said:


> the kit came with a huge spool of very thin copper wire and if you didn't do the winding just right the thing wouldn't work the way it was supposed to.



That's the first catch, the second is that it's now more expensive than just buying an actual radio (one of the highest-recommended models currently in the radio thread is a whopping twelve bucks.) Skipping over the fact that your local Radio Shack knows nothing about assembling radios, one thing they do assemble now are Arduinos - it's only a matter of time before kids are building their own MP3 players..


----------



## Monocrom

PhotonWrangler said:


> Not to mention winding up on the evening news. :shakehead



And in jail, after the principal calls the police because he's weak-willed and decides he absolutely must enforce the school's zero-tolerance policy on "weapons." 

Yeah, that's another thing kids miss out on; adults displaying common sense.


----------



## will

Chauncey Gardiner said:


> Playing Cowboys & Indians ~ Cops & Robbers. We'd spend hours shooting each other, and if your friend didn't die like he should, he got tied to a tree till Mom called us in for lunch. Good times..... Bring a cap gun to school today and you'll spend the next three hours in the Principals office. :shakehead
> 
> ~ Chance



We played an early version of laser tag. There was a store that sold mirrors, in the back was all the broken pieces of mirrors and glass. ( outside ) We would make a 'gun' out of a few pieces of wood. The broken mirror glass would be the 'Ray Gun' Use the sun to reflect off the broken mirror on your enemy and he was killed. Imagine giving a kid a piece of broken mirror to play with??


----------



## PhotonWrangler

StarHalo said:


> ...one thing they do assemble now are Arduinos - it's only a matter of time before kids are building their own MP3 players..



There's an mp3 player shield for the Arduino of course. For that matter, kids can now play around with Software Defined Radios, something that simply didn't exist back then. 

**Edit**

Not to drift too far off topic, but since we're talking about crystal radios, I've just run across an article on the foxhole radio. It works on the same principle, only the "diode" is a rusty razor blade!


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Incandescent streetlamps. When they first converted the lights on my street from incandescent to mercury vapor, they were brighter but they cast an eerie bluish glow. I missed the warm inviting glow of the old tungsten lamps.


----------



## Chauncey Gardiner

Perhaps the municipality's will soon start switching over to the new warmer LED's. Win-win. 

~ Chance


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Chauncey Gardiner said:


> Perhaps the municipality's will soon start switching over to the new warmer LED's. Win-win.
> 
> ~ Chance



Now THERE'S an idea!


----------



## Burgess

Incandescent streetlamps . . . .

Had to *REALLY* search my "memory banks" for this one !

Only saw 'em a few times (that i noticed).

And, of course, this was a Long, Long Time Ago !


----------



## Monocrom

Catching fireflies.

Saw a couple tonight when I was out & about in my neighborhood, exercising.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Fireflies! I used to catch them also. I thought it was the coolest thing that an insect could actually light up. Thankfully they're still around for future generations to appreciate. 

An insect with it's own built-in EDC.


----------



## EZO

Where I live in rural Vermont, every season starting about now, the fireflies come out. Of course, there are no street lights out here. I look out off my deck onto acres of fields and forest and when the conditions are right there are hundreds and hundreds, maybe even thousands flashing simultaneously all around. It is truly magical. If I were a kid I'd be out there with a jar for sure.


----------



## smarkum

Hey EZO... How about getting out there with a long lens camera? 
I know three little girls who would love to see....


----------



## PhotonWrangler

Yes, we need beamshots!


----------



## Chauncey Gardiner

Actually PhotonWrangler, There's not much beam. More like a mule,, all flood. 

+1 On pictures from EZO. 

~ Chance


----------



## EZO

I have tried for years to capture the magic of the fireflies on my property but it seems impossible. While you can capture some streaks and flashes, I've never found a way to capture the grandeur and magnitude of what it's like to witness this in person. What you see looking down the hill off my deck is acres of fields and woods perhaps up to 1500 or more feet away just teeming with the flashes of hundreds or thousands of fireflies EVERYWHERE! For the most part, the ones off in the distance out in the field and up in those trees in the woods surrounding the fields don't really register on film at all so the results have always been disappointing. Come to think of it though, the last time I tried this was with a Mamiya RZ-67 medium format camera on film after trying many times with 35mm. I don't believe I've ever tried this with my digital Nikons and that could open up some new imaging and post processing opportunities. Interestingly, here in Vermont we've had an unusually cold, rainy and breezy month of June so far. There have been some lightning bugs out every night but not many. To experience the sort of spectacular display of fireflies I've described you need a warm humid night when the air is perfectly still. I'm sure that kind of weather is coming so I'll give it a try and report back if I get some results worth showing.


----------



## StarHalo

You'd have to shoot at some astronomically high ISO (20,000+) with the shutter speed no slower than ~40th/sec. The good news is that the quick shutter means you won't need a tripod, the bad news is the high ISO will give you a picture so grainy it'll look like 110 film.

And that's another thing today's kids missed out on; goofy little 110 cameras. Even cell phones have better image quality now..


----------



## jtr1962

Being a city kid, one of the magical things about visiting relatives in the suburbs was when the fireflies came out. Instantly their yards were transformed into something wondrous. And when we moved to a home in Queens I got to experience this firsthand all summer long. It actually never gets old. I just wish there was less ambient light here. If I'm in the back yard the fireflies really pop out. The front yard under the streetlight not so much.


----------



## Starik1

Horses and buggies.
Segregation.
Polio.


----------



## EZO

jtr1962 said:


> I just wish there was less ambient light here. If I'm in the back yard the fireflies really pop out. The front yard under the streetlight not so much.



Yes, that's one of the things about the fireflies in the setting I've described that makes it so spectacular; no street lights out here in the middle of nowhere. Looking out over many acres seeing fireflies off into the vast darkness hovering above the fields and covering all the trees like blinking Christmas lights makes one feels like you've entered into another world, especially when the air is dense, a little foggy, quiet and still.


----------



## Monocrom

Starik1 said:


> Horses and buggies.
> Segregation.
> Polio.



The last was thankfully stopped because of a mistake that took place in a lab.

Other than the smell, a horse & buggy ride can be quite relaxing and enjoyable.

Segregation still takes place. Difference is that folks now do it voluntarily. For example, there's a certain school in NYC where there's a wall, a literal wall, that divides the lunchroom in half. Black students on one side, White on the other. And no one raises a stink over it because the students on both sides of that wall prefer it the way it is.

But not really a family-friendly appropriate subject to discuss. So that's all I'll say about it.


----------



## gadget_lover

We played in the creek when I was young. It seemed that no matter where we lived there was a stream somewhere nearby. Even silicon valley had streams 50 years ago. We'd swim or wade. We'd "go fishing" with a branch, piece of string and a safety pin. We'd skip stones. All without an ounce of supervision. 

Do kids still do that?


Daniel


----------



## Monocrom

gadget_lover said:


> We played in the creek when I was young. It seemed that no matter where we lived there was a stream somewhere nearby. Even silicon valley had streams 50 years ago. We'd swim or wade. We'd "go fishing" with a branch, piece of string and a safety pin. We'd skip stones. All without an ounce of supervision.
> 
> Do kids still do that?
> 
> 
> Daniel



No.

They get snatched up and kidnapped nowadays.


----------



## degarb

Monocrom said:


> No.
> 
> They get snatched up and kidnapped nowadays.



Actually, there are just as many serial killers per 100k as there were in 1950. But as population increases, so would proximity of one to you become more likely. 

Actually, most serial killers would also be flashaholics, and likely active with online flashlight communities. They would likely drink lots of coffee, frequent coffee shops, own guns, and be a big incandescent advocate. They would be eventually swayed to try leds, but would go for the big 100 watt led worklight trophy. Eventually, I think, after buying the Tk75, they would find the usefulness of the HP25 quite handy for their task--flood for finding things & cleaning up blood, a touch of throw to find new potential grave sites. On the whole, they would eventually become largely a flood fan (with blood tracking green), as age will make finding the saws more of a problem. 

...I think I watched one too many episodes of "Criminal Minds". Sorry.


----------



## Monocrom

The only big creature I ever killed was a goose. Speaking of which, kids miss out on sitting down to Sunday dinner with the entire family to enjoy some fowl and each others' company. Now the foul thing you sometimes get to "enjoy" at dinner is the language used by kids. :shakehead


----------



## StarHalo

I enjoyed a foul baseball game on the radio with my dinner this evening; thankfully the Dodgers aren't my team, but they lost 1 to 16, five hits to the Phillies' 21. And that's something a lot of kids are missing, a baseball game on a hot summer evening..


----------



## Monocrom

StarHalo said:


> I enjoyed a foul baseball game on the radio with my dinner this evening; thankfully the Dodgers aren't my team, but they lost 1 to 16, five hits to the Phillies' 21. And that's something a lot of kids are missing, a baseball game on a hot summer evening..



Watching or playing, or both?


----------



## StarHalo

Monocrom said:


> Watching or playing, or both?



Playing is even better; watching the younger Little Leaguers play is at least as entertaining as an MLB game because you never know what will happen. You don't get infield grand slams in pro baseball..


----------



## Monocrom

Very true.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

The 4th of July always reminds me that today's kids miss out on fireworks ground displays. They used to make all sorts of neat things out of colored "lances" - huge pinwheels, trains with moving wheels, flags and other stuff. One of my favorites was "Niagra Falls," pictured in the linked images. 

It's a lost art. I think they've shifted to aerial displays primarily because you can see them from farther away. You had to be fairly close to the ground displays and have an unobstructed view to see them.


----------



## smokinbasser

I didn't go all the way to the beginning of this thread but in the Smokey mountains near Gatlinburg Tn. there is a huge "brood" of fireflies that blink in syncroniziation. I'm not sure how they do it but its a neat display to watch.


----------



## Illum

^^This


----------



## Monocrom

I think they've missed out on that for nearly 3/4 of a century now.


----------



## EZO

No doubt, someone must have mentioned this previously somewhere in this lengthy thread but the other day I was surprised to see a phone booth while doing some business in a small town in NH. It turned out it was just the booth.....the phone had been removed. I'm sure the booth's days are numbered too. So, today's kids will not only miss out on public payphones but also the whole concept of phone booths. Poor Superman, what will he do now? And there will be no place to run and find refuge when the BIRDS attack!


----------



## Monocrom

Plenty of public phones still left on Manhattan island. But no booths. It's interesting to see that at one time, it was just accepted that folks talking on a public telephone wanted and expected some privacy. Nowadays, you get that guy or gal who blabs out loud while practically screaming into her cellphone for everyone to hear. Public payphones are now clustered in small groups or a bank of phones. Talk, and hope that everyone around you or even next to you won't care about what's going on.


----------



## EZO

I'm not surprised that Manhattan still has pay phones. It makes sense. Here in New England you'll see one occasionally but the few left are fast disappearing. Our phone company, Fairpoint (formerly Verizon) has been phasing them out as they see them as not worth the manpower and expense to maintain anymore. We have a beautiful art deco hotel and movie theater that used to have an absolutely gorgeous old fashioned wooden phone booth with an enameled steel telephone sign and "Ma Bell" symbol on it. It's gone now. 

So, pay phones but no phone booths in NYC, huh? Clark Kent sure has a problem. :laughing:


----------



## Monocrom

Indeed!

Also, apparently kids (as well as the rest of us) will miss out on Starhalo's old Sig pic.


----------



## StarHalo

Monocrom said:


> Also, apparently kids (as well as the rest of us) will miss out on Starhalo's old Sig pic.



The new sig is a work in progress, but it's evolving nicely. And the thread the previous sig appeared in is locked, so the kids can make do with this copy:






And speaking of pay phones, I always thought the polished stainless steel finish on them would be perfect on a flashlight. I would totally pay extra for the Pay Phone Finish..


----------



## EZO

Never mind.


----------



## Laser2012

Iron pencil box.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

EZO said:


> Where I live in rural Vermont, every season starting about now, the fireflies come out. Of course, there are no street lights out here. I look out off my deck onto acres of fields and forest and when the conditions are right there are hundreds and hundreds, maybe even thousands flashing simultaneously all around. It is truly magical. If I were a kid I'd be out there with a jar for sure.



Tonight I ran across some mesmerizing photos of fireflies here and it reminded me of this discussion.


----------



## Chauncey Gardiner

While driving to the auto parts store this morning I saw five children jumping up and down in a puddle of water,, thought of this thread and smiled.

~ Chance


----------



## EZO

EZO said:


> Where I live in rural Vermont, every season starting about now, the fireflies come out. Of course, there are no street lights out here. I look out off my deck onto acres of fields and forest and when the conditions are right there are hundreds and hundreds, maybe even thousands flashing simultaneously all around. It is truly magical. If I were a kid I'd be out there with a jar for sure.
> 
> 
> 
> PhotonWrangler said:
> 
> 
> 
> Tonight I ran across some mesmerizing photos of fireflies here and it reminded me of this discussion.
Click to expand...


Those are wonderful images on the link PhotonWrangler. Thanks! 

I was looking forward to trying some digital photography of the fireflies on my property this year as it would allow for images like those in the link to be made that simply couldn't be done on film. Unfortunately, we had such a cold early summer that there were hardly an fireflies compared to most years so it wasn't worth the effort. There's always next year.


----------



## PhotonWrangler

The _smell_ of a fresh roll of film as you removed it from it's foil packaging and threaded it into your camera. It was a pretty unique aroma in a sort of chemical-fruity way, and it was the smell of anticipation as you thought about what great moments you might capture with it.


----------



## Monocrom

PhotonWrangler said:


> The _smell_ of a fresh roll of film as you removed it from it's foil packaging and threaded it into your camera. It was a pretty unique aroma in a sort of chemical-fruity way, and it was the smell of anticipation as you thought about what great moments you might capture with it.



I remember that smell. Yeah, that was a nice one ...


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## PhotonWrangler

Electric buses. I'm not talking about the current crop of battery powered vehicles but buses that ran on a pair of overhead electrical wires. Riding one was an adventure. At the main intersections, there were junctions and insulators in the overhead wires to allow cross-traffic electric buses to pass through the intersection and maintain power, and the conductor rods on the busses would spark like crazy and the interior lights would flicker as it hit those junctions. And every now and then one of the metal conductor rods on the roof would jump off the wire, bringing the bus to a complete stop. The driver would have to get out and use a long stick to gingerly maneuver the rod back onto the overhead wire, usually with lots of sparks, and then the lights would come back on and the journey would resume. Those conductor rods mounted on the roof had a pivoting mount which allowed the rods to follow the overhead wires (usually) even when the bus was turning into and out of the curb lane. It was interesting to see those things in action.

As a little tyke standing on the sidewalk watching these buses with all of the angry sparks flying, it looked fascinating and almost cataclysmic at times. I was in awe of the bravery of those drivers when they had to fix the overhead conductors! And I always wondered what voltage they operated on.

Edit: Apparently Seattle still uses some electric buses. The ones in my old neighborhood looked like this.


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## will

PhotonWrangler said:


> Electric buses. I'm not talking about the current crop of battery powered vehicles but buses that ran on a pair of overhead electrical wires. Riding one was an adventure.





Trollies ... ...


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## Chauncey Gardiner

Being raised by two parents.

~ C.G.


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## degarb

PhotonWrangler said:


> Electric buses. I'm not talking about the current crop of battery powered vehicles but buses that ran on a pair of overhead electrical wires. Riding one was an adventure. At the main intersections, there were junctions and insulators in the overhead wires to allow cross-traffic electric buses to pass through the intersection and maintain power, and the conductor rods on the busses would spark like crazy and the interior lights would flicker as it hit those junctions. And every now and then one of the metal conductor rods on the roof would jump off the wire, bringing the bus to a complete stop. The driver would have to get out and use a long stick to gingerly maneuver the rod back onto the overhead wire, usually with lots of sparks, and then the lights would come back on and the journey would resume. Those conductor rods mounted on the roof had a pivoting mount which allowed the rods to follow the overhead wires (usually) even when the bus was turning into and out of the curb lane. It was interesting to see those things in action.
> 
> As a little tyke standing on the sidewalk watching these buses with all of the angry sparks flying, it looked fascinating and almost cataclysmic at times. I was in awe of the bravery of those drivers when they had to fix the overhead conductors! And I always wondered what voltage they operated on.
> 
> Edit: Apparently Seattle still uses some electric buses. The ones in my old neighborhood looked like this.



What year was this? The electric motor delivers full torque at 1 mph, great for hilly areas.

People complained at the unsightly tangle of wires-a real plus for your squirrel avatar. I often have pondered the possibilities of using such a wire system to power my headlamps at work, ditching the battery pack in favor of an antenna.

"Moreover, some cities, like Calgary, Alberta, run their light rail networks using wind energy,[10] which is effectively emission-free once the turbines are built and installed. Other cities, Vancouver, B.C., for instance, use hydroelectricity. A further advantage of trolleybuses is that they can generate electricity from kinetic energy while braking, a process known as regenerative braking. However, for regenerative braking to work as such, there must be another bus on the same circuit that needs power, or a way to send the excess power back to the commercial electric power system"


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## Lampbeam

fountain pens
bottled ink
hand writing letters
penmanship
sealing wax
snail mail


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## PhotonWrangler

Lampbeam said:


> fountain pens
> bottled ink
> hand writing letters
> penmanship
> sealing wax
> snail mail



Yes, penmanship. Some schools are actually giving up on teaching cursive handwriting, which is sad. And fountain pens - I remember being introduced to them when one of my teachers was using one and I really liked the way the ink flowed onto the paper. I had a Sheaffer pen for a few years because of that. I finally gave up on it though because it was so easy to smear the ink. if they could invent an ink that would dry quickly and be water resistant, I might try one again.


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## degarb

My kids do not get taught cursive. I think they gave it up only a few years ago. How are they to read letters of their ancestors? How to take quick notes in class, without knowing Gregg or having a notebook computer?

I can see prohibiting it on tests, when adding a few minutes to clock. 

Yet, they don't replace it with good typing classes, starting at an early age. So, the 7th grader can neither type well, or write in cursive.


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## Monocrom

Lampbeam said:


> fountain pens
> bottled ink
> hand writing letters
> penmanship
> sealing wax
> snail mail



I love all of that. It's just sad handing a young person a fountain pen and watching them try to write with it by turning the nib sideways. :shakehead


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## Monocrom

Several businesses that were New York institutions have closed shop. Gray's Papaya, Loehmann's, etc.

Due to two reasons: 

1 - Beyond ridiculous rent rates that only major corporations can afford.

2 - Everyone shopping more and more online. Not just clothes and other material goods but food as well. 

In 20 years, there won't be a single independent business left in NYC. Every place you could shop in NYC will be nothing more than another chain store that you can find in any major city.


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## smarkum

PhotonWrangler said:


> Yes, penmanship. Some schools are actually giving up on teaching cursive handwriting, which is sad. And fountain pens - I remember being introduced to them when one of my teachers was using one and I really liked the way the ink flowed onto the paper. I had a Sheaffer pen for a few years because of that. I finally gave up on it though because it was so easy to smear the ink. if they could invent an ink that would dry quickly and be water resistant, I might try one again.



Well, I can top that. The school my children (primary) attend does not teach penmanship of any kind. They don't teach printing nor do they teach cursive. They ENCOURAGE cursive, but I think that is because their printing is so terrible. I was horrified at a recent open house. We were all admiring  the students essay letters which were hanging in the hall, when I said, in my INSIDE my head voice, . . . "oh man, I feel SORRY for that kids parents!" . . .. only to find out it was my middle child!!!!!!! Oh my, it was funny and sad all at the same time. 
Shortly after the open house they gave her a word processor and asked her to type her responses on the processor! She didn't mind. She knew her printing was terrible. 
Thank goodness they do teach typing (although I'm sure it is called something else now :ironic: ) in middle school. My soon to be middle schooler is MAD at me for MAKING her take "stupid typing" as an elective. . . she could be taking woodworking, or cooking, or Spanish! I told her she has NO business learning a second language until she can print, type or in cursive, write her family a letter. . . 
I'm such a "mean mommy".


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## Chauncey Gardiner

I believe it's referred to as keyboarding. 

Another thing today's kids miss out on: Writing (hand-written) thank you notes.

~ Chance


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## StarHalo

Playing this week at your local movie theater, in 1984:

Ghostbusters
Gremlins
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
The Karate Kid
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
The Natural
Police Academy


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## Monocrom

Monocrom said:


> In 20 years, there won't be a single independent business left in NYC. Every place you could shop in NYC will be nothing more than another chain store that you can find in any major city.



Apparently my prediction is coming true on the Upper East side of Manhattan. Do you love Chase bank as well as Duane Reade pharmacies? Well, you'll love it there. Heaven for you because there's one of both practically on every single block there. And I'm not fricking exaggerating either. (Really wish I was.)


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## whiteoakjoe

Monocrom said:


> In 20 years, there won't be a single independent business left in NYC. Every place you could shop in NYC will be nothing more than another chain store that you can find in any major city.



I live in a small town and that happened here also, we are to small for Walmart, but Kroger, Dollar General, CVS pharmacy, Rural King, ect. and of course Fast Food restaurants have replaced all the one owner shops on main street. In the larger towns Walmart came in and drove most of the small shops out of business also. 
It's a shame I really miss the little shops with out much inventory, but the guy behind the counter could get you anything you wanted in a week. They each had distributers who could get anything under the sun, and no matter what you needed or wanted you could order in those little shops. 
I wear a 4E shoe and in the 70's and 80's it was easy to get me in a new pair of shoes, not now in 2014. 
I also remember when the people who worked at shoe stores knew shoes. The people at Hardware Stores knew hardware, and home repair and could walk you through anything. Every shop had someone there who knew his job and did it well for his customers. 
If you went in to a grocery store there was a meat cutter in the back who would take orders for what ever kind of cut of meat you wanted, and when you had your cart full from the rest of the shopping there was a wrapped package in the cooler with your name on it. (few places do that anymore) 
I can also remember when the short order cook at the grill made your food right in front of the counter, and it was clean. The staff took pride in the little diner and you could tell. Now the kitchen is just a place were they warm up food in a microwave. (at least in my area) 
I am just in my 40's and already sick of the era I live in. By the time I'm in my 80's I will be positively disgusted with the world. I think we peaked as a civilization before I was born!


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## PhotonWrangler

whiteoakjoe said:


> ...The people at Hardware Stores knew hardware, and home repair and could walk you through anything. Every shop had someone there who knew his job and did it well for his customers.



I miss the old neighborhood hardware stores with the creaky wooden floors. The guy in the apron knew about everything in the store and how to use it, and you could walk in there and buy one screw if that's all you needed.


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## Monocrom

whiteoakjoe said:


> I live in a small town and that happened here also, we are to small for Walmart, but Kroger, Dollar General, CVS pharmacy, Rural King, ect. and of course Fast Food restaurants have replaced all the one owner shops on main street. In the larger towns Walmart came in and drove most of the small shops out of business also.
> It's a shame I really miss the little shops with out much inventory, but the guy behind the counter could get you anything you wanted in a week. They each had distributers who could get anything under the sun, and no matter what you needed or wanted you could order in those little shops.
> I wear a 4E shoe and in the 70's and 80's it was easy to get me in a new pair of shoes, not now in 2014.
> I also remember when the people who worked at shoe stores knew shoes. The people at Hardware Stores knew hardware, and home repair and could walk you through anything. Every shop had someone there who knew his job and did it well for his customers.
> If you went in to a grocery store there was a meat cutter in the back who would take orders for what ever kind of cut of meat you wanted, and when you had your cart full from the rest of the shopping there was a wrapped package in the cooler with your name on it. (few places do that anymore)
> I can also remember when the short order cook at the grill made your food right in front of the counter, and it was clean. The staff took pride in the little diner and you could tell. Now the kitchen is just a place were they warm up food in a microwave. (at least in my area)
> I am just in my 40's and already sick of the era I live in. By the time I'm in my 80's I will be positively disgusted with the world. I think we peaked as a civilization before I was born!



Sadly, I am forced to agree with you there.


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## Tmack

PhotonWrangler said:


> I miss the old neighborhood hardware stores with the creaky wooden floors. The guy in the apron knew about everything in the store and how to use it, and you could walk in there and buy one screw if that's all you needed.



We still have one. 
In the middle of the ghetto too. They just refuse to leave. Lol 
And I'm grateful.


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## Monocrom

Kids nowadays miss out on quality products.... without having to pay obscene premiums to get them.


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## idleprocess

PhotonWrangler said:


> Yes, penmanship. Some schools are actually giving up on teaching cursive handwriting, which is sad.



I think it's an acknowledgement of the directions the economy is moving - the overwhelming majority of text output nowadays is via keyboard, not handwriting. Growing up in the 1980s, the schools I attended were still teaching cursive, but it seemed to a matter of going through the motions rather than a core part of the core curriculum that it was in decades past. While we may miss neatly-penned letters, the reality is that most letters are printed and e-mail has largely supplanted physical correspondence.

I was never any good at cursive and by middle school simply stopped trying. Whenever I have to write something by hand, I use draftsman-like block letters; it is slow, but produces legible results and is great for the few types of writing I find myself doing with any regularity anymore - filling out paper forms and taking notes. It's extremely legible for forms since all-caps removes ambiguity. Works surprisingly well for notes since the slower pace forces me to paraphrase as I write... and is again more legible whenever I have to re-read said notes.


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## idleprocess

Monocrom said:


> Several businesses that were New York institutions have closed shop. Gray's Papaya, Loehmann's, etc.
> 
> Due to two reasons:
> 
> 1 - Beyond ridiculous rent rates that only major corporations can afford.
> 
> 2 - Everyone shopping more and more online. Not just clothes and other material goods but food as well.


It's happened everywhere, but for varying reasons.

In the mid-90s I remember a story about the last downtown Dallas grocery closing up shop - right at the low point of people living in or immediately near downtown. If they'd managed to hang on another 5 years or so they would have been in prime position for the urban revitalization movement in Dallas and likely done supremely well with the initial set of new residents pining for that sort of _local authenticity_.

I do try to experience local flavor whenever possible. In Dallas there is ample opportunity to do this in the form of the booming restaurant business - I oftentimes read that we now have more restaurants per capita than any other city in the US. At least once a week - and oftentimes more - I'll hit up a truly local place. The service tends to be excellent and the overall experience feels far more natural than a chain where you can feel the hand of some high-flying marketing/_customer-experience_ specialist guiding everything from afar. Not only do the people care (although you can find those folks in chain establishments too), but they seem to feel some sense of ownership and pride in what they do.

Retailers ... not so much so other than some truly niche items such as electronic components and occasional _second amendment_ purchases.



Monocrom said:


> In 20 years, there won't be a single independent business left in NYC. Every place you could shop in NYC will be nothing more than another chain store that you can find in any major city.


I don't care what some people say - *price is king* to enough of the market that it's a big deciding factor in sorting out winners and losers. Oftentimes with size comes the resources to wring more efficiency out of your operation - further enhancing your ability to cut prices - or enjoy greater margins. Some people will pay more for a better experience, but they're generally only a niche within the larger market, thus the Wal-Marts and Whole Foods thrive while the firms between those two suffer.


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## Monocrom

Another thing is how a company chooses to do business. I'm the type who simply won't buy from certain brands based on how they do business. Not going to get into specifics, but certain brands and companies resort to absolutely obscene tactics to maximize profits over anything else. And that includes the well-being, dignity, and safety of its employees.


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## whiteoakjoe

Monocrom said:


> Another thing is how a company chooses to do business. I'm the type who simply won't buy from certain brands based on how they do business. Not going to get into specifics, but certain brands and companies resort to absolutely obscene tactics to maximize profits over anything else. And that includes the well-being, dignity, and safety of its employees.



I totally agree, but in some cases you have no choice. When a big chain store comes into a small town everything else dies off, and the next town may be 30 miles away so you are in fact stuck with that one option. And I hate that. 
On another note I have spent an hour looking at this post (at work) and one other thing I find interesting is that in the earlier generations things in Rural America and NYC were so much different. But now with Chain Stores, Internet, Big Network cable and satellite TV a lot of the life experiences are similar. We are sort of loosing the local flavor of each area and becoming a one nation in many ways. Not so much in the lifestyle but in the consumer options. Wearing the same thing, watching the same shows, eating the same food. Sort of sad, traveling for my kids will not hold the same excitement it did for me.


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## Monocrom

whiteoakjoe said:


> I totally agree, but in some cases you have no choice. When a big chain store comes into a small town everything else dies off, and the next town may be 30 miles away so you are in fact stuck with that one option. And I hate that.
> On another note I have spent an hour looking at this post (at work) and one other thing I find interesting is that in the earlier generations things in Rural America and NYC were so much different. But now with Chain Stores, Internet, Big Network cable and satellite TV a lot of the life experiences are similar. We are sort of loosing the local flavor of each area and becoming a one nation in many ways. Not so much in the lifestyle but in the consumer options. Wearing the same thing, watching the same shows, eating the same food. Sort of sad, traveling for my kids will not hold the same excitement it did for me.



Yes, very sad....

Also, in some places where physical choices are gone; that's where internet shopping actually comes to the rescue. Opens up more options. I realize I'm in the minority on this, but I'll drive 30 miles out of my way just to not shop at a company that I feel truly deserves to go out of business.


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## StarHalo

This is the first Saturday morning in 50+ years that there is no block of children's animated programming being broadcast on network television. The big three stopped the practice years ago; _The CW_ was the holdout, but tech-savvy kids prefer the world of on-demand options which are now ubiquitous. So we're actually at the point where you can use the phrase "Saturday morning cartoons" with a kid, and they won't know what you're talking about..


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## PhotonWrangler

It is a seachange, although the term _Saturday Morning Cartoons_ has become diluted by the 24x7 availability of cartoons on cable networks. I just hope that the same fate doesn't happen to the evening news. There's still something inherently classier about the big three networks and their evening newscasts that seems more journalistically solid than the 24x7 news channels. I need my evening dose of Bri-Wi.


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