Time's Gone By

DeadSkunk wrote: I wonder what he would have done with a sun dial.

Been late?

I can honestly say, other than the stove and microwave there isn't a digital clock in the house. I don't have any sundials, but I do have a clock from the 1860s.

I can remember going to the movies with $5.00 and getting a ticket, popcorn and a drink. Gas for $.88 a gallon. The first push button phone was a wonder, but you still had to set it on pulse because tone dialing didn't work. My first electronic game was a Merlin and it was so cool at the time. I got it for Christmas one year.

My Father can remember going to town with $.50 and getting a hair cut, a movie ticket, a drink and popcorn and still having enough left over to stop by the candy shop. His first car was a 40 Ford that he and his brother bought for $75 and gas was $.19.

Times change, some of it's good. Some, not so much.

My first regular job was working concessions at the local single screen downtown theater. A fountain drink and popcorn was $.21 tax included. Admission was $.75 for adults and $.55 for high school. The prices went up alter. I don't remember what kids were, but we had people who would argue that a kid takes up the same space (one seat) as an adult so... why the discrimination.

I remember points, condensers, 20 cent gas, all kinds of stuff that my daughter rolls her eyes over. We had a Polaroid Land camera and were the envy of the neighborhood (man those pictures stunk while developing).

No copiers in school, we had 'mimeograph' machines and the teacher would usually pick one kid out of the class to turn the crank on it. The ink was purple and smelled some kind of crazy, whoever did the cranking usually wound up with a strong buzz.

We got cable TV around 1977? '78? until then we had a big ass TV antenna on the chimney. The antenna had a motor on it, there was a big dial on top of the TV so you could aim the antenna from inside the house. I remember it had the points of the compass on the dial. There were 4 TV stations (that really cracked my kid up) and we had the best reception settings for each marked on the dial.

This was a state of the art video game in 1978.

Curmudgeon wrote: No copiers in school, we had 'mimeograph' machines and the teacher would usually pick one kid out of the class to turn the crank on it. The ink was purple and smelled some kind of crazy, whoever did the cranking usually wound up with a strong buzz. We got cable TV around 1977? '78?

Remember getting the copies and immediately smelling them, because they smelled so good? Canada was on cable early. I don't ever remember not having it.

I was thinking the other day, I bet nobody buys alarm clocks anymore. Everybody uses their phone.

Remember when cars came with ashtrays, and air was an option?

Lesley wrote: Someone mentioned the other day that their kids didn't know what "clockwise" meant.

"Hot Girl at 12 O'Clock"

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

DeadSkunk wrote: I remember points and condensors, 30K mile valve jobs, cars that rusted out in 5 years. I'm with Stuart on this one. It's age dependent, like " I remember when the 8 track in my Granada ate my Meatloaf tape."

I remember when LP albums came into this world ... ( I'm talking about both sided 33 1/3 rpm albums... not the single side 78's of my parents era )

wbjones wrote: I remember when LP albums came into this world ... ( I'm talking about both sided 33 1/3 rpm albums...

And you had to check to see if the album was in stereo or mono - the stereo records wouldn't play very well on an old style record player.

Go see Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen. Not great but exactly about this subject. Ah the good ole' days.

The good ole days are RIGHT NOW! Because I'm buying the Atari for sale in the classifieds!!!!

Okay, this is for the young punks on the site so you old farts shut your traps. I bet no one under 30 can name this thing:

Zomby Woof wrote: Remember when cars came with ashtrays, and air was an option?

My shop foreman at the Ford dealership could remember when HEATERS were an option. Cars were ordered pretty well stripped, it was basically a box with a powertrain and all the other stuff was added at the dealership. Like the aforementioned heaters, AM and AM-FM radios, rear speakers and later air conditioners.

I worked for a company which added all that stuff to rental cars. Six of us would fly/drive to a National Rent a Car, there would be ~300 cars lined up. For a solid week, we would install radios, speakers, air conditioners and cruise controls. This was in the early 1980's.

The last week I worked for the company was the week before Bike Week in 1985, we were working just outside of the Daytona Speedway, I could hear the bikes howling during practice/qualifying and it damn near killed me because I couldn't get the time off to go watch. We stayed in the same hotel as Team Kawasaki.

In reply to Toyman01:

Ah yes, Merlin. That thing took like 9 AA batteries or something silly like that, but it was really cool. Imagine 9 games in one with beeping a flashing lights.

Curmudgeon wrote: Okay, this is for the young punks on the site so you old farts shut your traps. I bet no one under 30 can name this thing:

Is it an adapter to run a 45 on a record player? I seem to remember dad having one in his record cleaning kit; my record player has a completely different looking one.

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

I liked Football II so much better since you could run backwards as well as frontwards.

mtn wrote:

Curmudgeon wrote: Okay, this is for the young punks on the site so you old farts shut your traps. I bet no one under 30 can name this thing:

Is it an adapter to run a 45 on a record player? I seem to remember dad having one in his record cleaning kit; my record player has a completely different looking one.

Dang, that was too quick.

4cylndrfury wrote: what I remember from my youth

I remember when I first started driving, it was $.87 for 87 octane and $.93 for 93 octane. I seriously used to think you paid a penny for each octane in a gallon when I was 16. Man I was stupid.

But I did know how to look through the paper to find movie times.

T.J. wrote: In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker: I liked Football II so much better since you could run backwards as well as frontwards.

Now HERE is yer football game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgFZIS_a3CE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5q0fN16UOQ&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Curmudgeon wrote:

T.J. wrote: In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker: I liked Football II so much better since you could run backwards as well as frontwards.

Now HERE is yer football game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgFZIS_a3CE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5q0fN16UOQ&feature=endscreen&NR=1

I had a friend down the street with one of those. We used to play it all the time. Kept loosing the damn felt "footballs."

And if you got cable in 78, you were something special. I don't think my old man got a color TV before then. He used to buy them used when the local motels were upgrading. He didn't get cable before I moved out of the house in 85. He did go out and splurge on the newest video game when it came out.

In reply to Curmudgeon:

Lol, I never had one of those, but several of my friends did. Spent a lot of time trying to get the righ player on the right base. Seemed like there would always be a interior lineman who would make it all the way down the field, not go out of bounds and not go around in circles like a sick wildebeast infected with turning disease.

Curmudgeon wrote: Okay, this is for the young punks on the site so you old farts shut your traps. I bet no one under 30 can name this thing:

I think we got cable somewhere around 1979. Pretty snazzy. We also managed to get a microwave around that time. I grew up with dinner time retorts like, "this isn't a restaurant, you'll eat what we're having", but my brother who is 7 years younger always got to get up from the table and microwave a hot dog.

I miss this

Zomby Woof wrote: Remember when cars came with ashtrays, and air was an option?

My wife's 1970 Lincoln has three ashtrays and three cigarette lighters.

One big ashtray for the front seat passengers and one smaller ashtray with lighter in each rear armrest.

You know, so the kids can light up too.

I have a 1930's Firestone auto accessory catalog in my collection, it has childrens car seats like this one for sale:

Curmudgeon wrote: We got cable TV around 1977? '78? until then we had a big ass TV antenna on the chimney. The antenna had a motor on it, there was a big dial on top of the TV so you could aim the antenna from inside the house. I remember it had the points of the compass on the dial. There were 4 TV stations (that really cracked my kid up) and we had the best reception settings for each marked on the dial.

E36 M3 I had that till the 90s!

My first job was spotting pins for a quarter a string ! How many of you don't understand what I just wrote ?