Man I feel old reading this

[ZAKO]

I remember before we had TV,,,, only radio... The first phone we had was a four party line,,, shared with other people.. My first car my parents gave me ..the front seats folded into a bed...(NASH),,Other parents would not let there daughters ride in my car,,I dont know why,,,,First TV we had was in black and white,,,First neat haircut in school was called a ducksbutt,,,and blue suade shoes ,,,

[dtel]

I remember before we had TV,,,, only radio

I don't quite remember before TV but I do remember listening to fights on the radio with my Dad.

I do remember when you went to the grocery store there was no chicken pre wrapped in plastic, if you wanted a chicken duck or turkey, and sometimes turtles you would pick out a live one from the cages outside and for a charge they would kill and clean it for you, or you could take it live. Beef or Pork was cut by the butcher inside the store, and if you wanted fish or seafood there was a separate store for that.

I remember sometimes we would walk with our parents about three blocks up to St Claude Ave where there was a hot tamale stand to get dinner. And along the whole way stopping to talk with people as they sat out on there porch in the evening, you knew everyone in the neighborhood.

Things were good.

[BLSamuel]

I feel really old. We had black and white TV until I was in high school. I remenber when the TV repair man would often replace vacuum tubes and there were tube testers in many drugstores. Multi party line through high school with old fashioned rotary dial.

Dad was the first where he lived to get TV ... and the last to get color TV. Go figure. I guess getting in on the bleeding edge of technology one time was enough.

And there was not rap .. but there was square dance callers. Dad did a lot of that in his younger days. Couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.

The Cartridge World stores make me think of LPs.

My children do know what LPs and 45's are though our oldest called them "Big Music" and "Little Big Music" when she was younger. Now they complain that our Creative Labs Zen xTra mp3 players are too big. About the size of the smallest Walkman type cassette players with the added advantage in that all the music is in the player.

And do you remember when AM radios actually sounded good? Good thing as that was all we had in our cars growing until well into high school. A big step up was to get AM/FM with a speaker in the back. Also our first family car with air conditioning. Can you even buy a normal car without air conditioning?

[Jay481985]

I remember growing up with color tv, a 24 inch sony when it actually meant quality

I remember dad had a buick, a oldmobile, and a chrysler, each of them always getting fixed on sunday cause they all had problems. Then he got a Honda in 1991 and had that for 15 years and 200,000+ miles

First computer was a compaq dx486 processor (my current cellphone has a better processing speed, though dx486 are still the only processor used in the space shuttles by NASA) and this thing called a pentium or was it called platinum? first came out a month after we brought the computer. It had a 15 inch monitor! and a printer that cost 500 dollars!700 meg hard drive (My current one has 8 1.5 terabyte hds) and a quadcore processor that acts like 8 cores

First cellphone I had was senior year of high school and was a clamshell from motorola. I think most kids these day's cannot even recall a clamshell or non digital/smartphone cellphone service. My mother had a analog cellphone and the signal was always pretty good, got an upgrade digital and it sucked.

My first laptop weighed 10 pounds and was 1.8 inches thick.

I never had a manual transmission car because my mother cannot drive it.

My parents did get us a ninetendo when it came out, my brother never let me play it (he was 4 years older and pulled the he will break it routine to my mother)

[Amy]

I'm going to be 40 one month from tomorrow. I just re-read that sentence and felt old. So there.

I was 5 when we got a color TV.

16 - a VCR.

18 - Cable. Only because I was at school.

23 - mom finally got rid of her rotary phone.

28 - first computer.

29 - first DVD player.

31 - first cell phone.

And I still don't have GPS.

Steven has all of those things and more at his disposal at age 5. It boggles my mind how he'll never know the difference.

[CECAA850]

When I was little, automotive ac was driving with the windows down.

The headlight dimmer was a switch on the floor you pressed with your foot.

We never wore seatbelts and I'm not even sure the rear seats had them.

Our milk was delivered in glass bottles to our house and put in an aluminum box on our front porch.

We had 3 stations of black and white TV.

Our phone number had 5 digits.

All of our wall receptacles had 2 prongs.

The fuses for the electrical system in our house were the little round glass screw in type.

When one light bulb went out in the Christmas lights, the whole string went dark.

Cars needed tune ups every 12,000 miles (sometimes sooner).

Engine oil came in a can

Bicycles had 1 speed.

Tires were not radial.

The pull cord on the lawn mower was wound by hand every pull.

Houses were not air conditioned.

Cartoons were drawn by hand a frame at a time.

Disneyworld was a concept.

No one had a credit card.

The weed eater hadn't been invented, we edged with lawn scissors.

[Amy]

Libraries (remember those?) were BIG, well-stocked, and open all day 6 days a week.

I still take Steven to ours all the time. It's still big and well-stocked! It is open on Sundays, but only for a half day. [Y]

[Jay481985]

The headlight dimmer was a switch on the floor you pressed with your foot.

Huh? can you explain this, as this is rather interesting. Is it because there is no reflector blocking the light from going into people's eyes? My car uses projector style lense that has a sharp cutoff to prevent blinding. I think there is a new system on the premier benz that turns on high beams and automatically turns them off when a car approaches using an infered camera.

Our milk was delivered in glass bottles to our house and put in an aluminum box on our front porch.

I wish that was still true.

[sunburnwilly]

You know your old, when the All in One, receiver/turntable/speaker combo- that comes in a small case- appears as an Antique Item now adays.....................

I had one of those . It was like a large briefcase and made by Admiral .

[Jay481985]

When I was a kid......

There were about 20 kids in each of my high school classes.

Mine was like that give or take and it was public

We had sports, music, wood shops, metal shops, chess clubs, drama, band, journalism, year book, government club, AV club, and probably a dozen other apres-school activities. Yes, just an ordinary public high school.

We had that too but was cut after I left school

Restaurants were nice and relaxing and quiet. There were no fools sitting around gabbing on telephones. If you wanted to talk on a telephone, you went into a wooden booth and pulled the door closed.

Eh thats were a cellphone jammer comes in handy

Speaking of restrooms, all brand name gas stations had CLEAN restrooms for the public.

Florida had the best restrooms when I did my east of the mississippi spring break

Speaking of gas stations, young men eager to have their first jobs pumped your gas, filled your tires, washed your windows and checked your oil as just normal service--with a smile.

I question this now since checking oil is pretty much obsolete. I think with better synthetics or regular and better toleranced engines, checking oil is like checking your air pressure in the tires, you should but you really never do. Washing windows, I do it myself even if a person says he would because one time a person scraped the hell out of the back part of the trunk (the curved back piece that meets the rear glass) so bad that I said never again.

Speaking of service, if you called a company you spoke to a human being who got you the answer, or person you were looking for right away.

In voice recognition I keep shouting operator or keep hitting 0

There are websites to show the fastest way to get to a real person if the company is big enough

Taking an airline flight was a luxury experience from gate to gate. Airline hostesses were actually dedicated to making your flight comfortable and enjoyable. Airplanes used to be cleaned after every use (scabbies anyone?). Although the food was like TV dinners, it was plentiful and free and served with a smile. Pilots could only fly about 12 days a month to be sure they were always fresh. A 200 pound person could sit next to you without spilling over into your space.

I think that still holds in international airplane companies, when I traveled Asian Airlines, they served too much food that I ate only half. They had lcd screens for each person with movies, music, games etc. All this in coach, I guess business/1st class gets better food and more space but I was happily content. Also free liquor and beer the whole time. When I flew lately on Continental to goto the pilgrimage, everytime they announced to us welcome Customers and thank you for traveling on Continental. I mean really you shove us in and pack us in, why not say sometime nicer like welcome travelers, its just more inviting well atleast the person sitting next to me thought so as well.

As with the pilots, I think there is a maximum flying time but I am damn sure it is less than 12 days in a month. I think the worst airline crash in history was caused due to the pilot trying not to exceed the maximum allowed flight time, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster

A college education (in California) was nearly free aside from the cost of books.

I wish that were true now I have to start paying my loans back

The maximum legal interest on a loan was 10%.

Its 20% now I think?

Doctors made house calls.

If you pay enough.......

[ZAKO]

I forgot to add....We did,nt have a refrigerater,,,It was called a ICEBOX,,,and the iceman would deliver a 50 pound block of ice,,,,Try putting that in your drink.

[WS65711]

When I was a kid.......

Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley determined what was fit to report as news.

When I was a kid.........

There was Walter Cronkite, and there was also Chet Huntley & David Brinkley.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntley-Brinkley_Report

[CECAA850]

The headlight dimmer was a switch on the floor you pressed with your foot.

Huh? can you explain this, as this is rather interesting. Is it because there is no reflector blocking the light from going into people's eyes? My car uses projector style lense that has a sharp cutoff to prevent blinding. I think there is a new system on the premier benz that turns on high beams and automatically turns them off when a car approaches using an infered camera.

The dimmer switch was on the floor, not the steering column. It has nothing to do with the type of headlights that were on the car rather how you activated the high beams.

[Mallette]

The dimmer switch was on the floor, not the steering column. It has nothing to do with the type of headlights that were on the car rather how you activated the high beams.

Starter was down there, too. Choke was on the dashboard. The clock would "whack" every couple of hours or so as the contacts "made" as the spring driven escapement wound down and was wound back by the electromagnet.

And some of the vacuum tube AM radios were WONDERFUL and would pick up Wolf Man Jack from Ciudad Acuna "250 THOUSAND WATTS, BABY CAKES!," Bleaker Street from Little Rock, CC Courtney from New Orleans, Charlie Tuna, and so many more.

And the last live big band broadcast "Live from the Blue Room of the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, the music of Les Brown and his Band of Renown" or some other marvelous outfit.

Some good times then...

Dave

[gnatnoop]

wow! some of you guys must be really old! like you were probably born before the dead sea was even sick! [H]

[Jay481985]

My car has an automatic tire guage pressure reader with specific psi (its plus minus is about 2 versus the realy psi gauge) but for all intensive purposes it works just fine. I check and and notice if there is a 10-20 degree difference it will be about 2-5 psi different. Meaning I remember that during the winter when it was below 32 and I set my pressure to 35, when it was 40-50 degrees my pressure would be around 40 psi. and vice versa, when it gets colder the psi drops. I remember I set my tire to 35psi at 50 degrees and we got an early heatwave where I lived where I was and it hit 95, the pressure was 49 psi (near burst rate)

As with the reason why the pressure is lost or gained its either water in the air, or the oxygen. If there is high humidy in the tire, if can cause spikes cause of the water turning to steam, I think that is why they recommend dry air or nitrogen. Also the oxygen from what I read is a smaller molecule than nitrogen so it tends to leak out of the tirevalve or the seal over time. It might be a gimmick or not but I heard putting pure nitrogen is the way to go since its dry and lack oxygen. That and all racecars use it, though its cause they actually do need it.

[mike stehr]

I know the maximum amount of Fix-A-Flat you can put in a tire before it comes unglued, is three cans...

[WS65711]

................ And some of the vacuum tube AM radios were WONDERFUL and would pick up Wolf Man Jack from Ciudad Acuna "250 THOUSAND WATTS, BABY CAKES!," Bleaker Street from Little Rock, CC Courtney from New Orleans, Charlie Tuna, and so many more.

And the last live big band broadcast "Live from the Blue Room of the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, the music of Les Brown and his Band of Renown" or some other marvelous outfit.

Some good times then...

I listened to CC Courtney, on WTIX "The Mighty 690" or WNOE, I can't remember which. Around 1963 through 1965 or so every weeknight there was an hour-long "Beatle-A-Rama". Seems like many of the tube AM car radios had a built-in reverb too..... sounded really good through the rear deck mounted 6x9 that used the cavernous car trunk as a baffle. My dad had a 1960 International Harvester pickup with a pull-choke on the (hard metal) dash. Even through the early 70's an EXPENSIVE rock concert was $5. I remember seeing 8 bands, including Alice Cooper, the Doobie Brothers, and six others for $2.50 at the (New Orleans) Municipal Auditorium on December 3rd, 1971. []

[space_cowboy]

The headlight dimmer was a switch on the floor you pressed with your foot.

Huh? can you explain this, as this is rather interesting. Is it because there is no reflector blocking the light from going into people's eyes? My car uses projector style lense that has a sharp cutoff to prevent blinding. I think there is a new system on the premier benz that turns on high beams and automatically turns them off when a car approaches using an infered camera.

The dimmer switch was on the floor, not the steering column. It has nothing to do with the type of headlights that were on the car rather how you activated the high beams.

My first car, a hand me down 1969 Chrysler Imperial also had the switch/dimmer button on the floor. The car also had another button switch on the floor for a radio seek/search function.

[Fjd]

We had a “progressive” high school with a student lounge that had a Pong game (Atari) and an air hockey game. Also, seniors had a smoking lounge, but needed a note from a parent. I also remember smoking on airline flights and every car had an ash tray or two.

I also had a couple of the earlier home computers - Commodore VIC-20 and a Commodore 64.