I remember when.....

[Stanley Doble]

Did it use a punch card?
Those were gone when I got into school, in fact our first computer was an Apple II.
At home I had a Commodore 64...WITH THE FLOPPY DRIVE.
I had a buddy with the Tandy and a cassette drive. Took FOREVER to load anything.
Also, back in the day some friends of mine had their own bulletin board.
When I asked what that was for, they said "so you can leave a message with us."
Uh, I see you everyday, why would I need to do that?

No punch card, 5 1/4" floppy disc. Each student was issued one floppy disc to store their work.

 

[jamespowers]

Me, too. Gotta do it today

Yeah they didn't stop doing that until about 1996

 

[Nobert]

Being only 41, not too many things I remember that are that far off, though it sometimes feels that way. I remember when if you called someone you had to either have the phone number written down somewhere or committed to memory. I can still remember the number of my childhood best friend, and of my first girlfriend in high school.

 

[3fingers]

I remember when ....

.... the UK had heavy industry and people thought the country needed to have industry to create wealth.

I believe that there will come a time when it can no longer be concealed that that thought was correct.

 

[DNO]

This thread is starting to sound like the Monty Python skit featuring all the old fellows sitting around trying to out do each other with tales of their hard childhood experiences…’luxury’!

So...I recall:

--using the first computer at my school, a Commodore PET, in 1977/78. Little RAM, no hard drive, no mouse, memory provided by a cassette player and if you wanted to do anything other that play Space Invaders, you had to write your own code.

--when newspapers still used ‘hot type’ produced by linotype machines, and the composing room was full of trays of type on long steel tables. Walking through the press room deafened you…and no-one wore ear protection. Pressmen still wore paper hats that they’d make at the start of their shift. That was from a summer job as a proofreader for a large daily. I still value this experience. I'm delighted I saw those things before they disappeared.

--that all phones used rotary dials though some, in the country, had no dials at all.

--when cars had no-draft windows. My sister referred to them as ‘nose-drafts’, being quite oblivious to the proper name.

--when the gas filler cap was underneath the left brake light of my father’s old caddy. It confused many a gas station attendant.

--when pop (soda for you folks south of the 49th) didn’t come in cans at all…only bottles. Like Lizzie I recall those great old pop coolers filled with cold water.

--standing on the front lawn watching the tiny little star-like light that was Sputnik fly overhead. I was pretty young, but the memory has stayed with me.

--buying my first calculator in the early ‘70’s. It was by Texas Instruments and cost me $70. It could only do the 4 basic functions and had no memory. What was I thinking.

--when everyone had gravel driveways, at least in my neighbourhood.

--when everyone had black and white televisions. Colour was just a theory and remote controls were just fantasy.

--when all kids played ball hockey in the streets and there were no road signs saying “Ball playing prohited”. When did we all get so uptight?

--I think this list could be endless! Change is inevitable. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s not. I still like rotary phones but I do much prefer a paved driveway…shoveling snow from a gravel driveway is miserable.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Yup, and I've got a '96 lol

Yeah they didn't stop doing that until about 1996

 

[LizzieMaine]

--when newspapers still used ‘hot type’ produced by linotype machines, and the composing room was full of trays of type on long steel tables. Walking through the press room deafened you…and no-one wore ear protection. Pressmen still wore paper hats that they’d make at the start of their shift. That was from a summer job as a proofreader for a large daily. I still value this experience. I'm delighted I saw those things before they disappeared.

I actually learned to operate a linotype machine in high school -- I was editor of the school paper, which we actually printed on a hand-fed press someone had donated. Usually we set the type by hand in composing sticks, but somebody knew somebody at the local weekly, and we finally got to go in when they weren't using the linotype and set up our paper with it.

--that all phones used rotary dials though some, in the country, had no dials at all.

The last town in our area to go dial did so in 1970, and the last in Maine didn't do so until 1982. The past isn't as past as a lot of people think it is.

--when everyone had gravel driveways, at least in my neighbourhood.

Driveways were the first social class marker I ever noticed. In my town, working-class people had gravel driveways, middle-class people had "tar" driveways, and very poor people and very rich people both had only two dirt ruts wending thru the grass.

--when all kids played ball hockey in the streets and there were no road signs saying “Ball playing prohited”. When did we all get so uptight?

We played one-handed jump rope -- we tied one end of a long rope to a telephone pole and stretched it across the street. One person turned the rope and the other one jumped, and we tried to see how many jumps we could do before a car came.

--I think this list could be endless! Change is inevitable. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s not. I still like rotary phones but I do much prefer a paved driveway…shoveling snow from a gravel driveway is miserable.

The people I knew who had paved driveways hired kids to shovel their snow. Those of us with gravel had to shovel our own.

 

[gear-guy]

Did anyone have a Jimmy Jet? I had one and I am on the look out for another.

 

[jamespowers]

Yup, and I've got a '96 lol

The last of the breed.

 

[Gregg Axley]

The last of the breed.

On that note, I remember when a model of car meant something, because it had a good reputation.
Now? It's just a name.
I know we've had our discussions about the Dart, but a friend of mine's 68GT has been in the family since new and has never had any major problems. It was his dad's originally, then he got it in Highschool. I can't tell you how many times that car pegged out the speedometer (120mph) on the weekends, and how much money that car made off Mustang GT and Camaro Iroc owners (it was the 80's).
But now, Chrysler has a new Dart, which is the size of my Neon. I bet my Neon is more reliable with a better build quality!
Then you have the Jeep Cherokee. I have one, a 2000 and it's trouble free. As a 4wd I haven't taken it anywhere that the vehicle can't handle.
But now, Chrysler has released a new one, oddly enough they stole the design (IMHO) from the Ford Escape. Rugged and off road aren't terms I'd use for this new one. Plastic and unsure might work though.
As a car guy, it kind of pains me to see manufacturers dig up a name, only to ruin it's reputation with a crappy car.
Okay the 70's Dart was a crappy car, but not the 68.

 

[jamespowers]

On that note, I remember when a model of car meant something, because it had a good reputation.
Now? It's just a name.
I know we've had our discussions about the Dart, but a friend of mine's 68GT has been in the family since new and has never had any major problems. It was his dad's originally, then he got it in Highschool. I can't tell you how many times that car pegged out the speedometer (120mph) on the weekends, and how much money that car made off Mustang GT and Camaro Iroc owners (it was the 80's).
But now, Chrysler has a new Dart, which is the size of my Neon. I bet my Neon is more reliable with a better build quality!
Then you have the Jeep Cherokee. I have one, a 2000 and it's trouble free. As a 4wd I haven't taken it anywhere that the vehicle can't handle.
But now, Chrysler has released a new one, oddly enough they stole the design (IMHO) from the Ford Escape. Rugged and off road aren't terms I'd use for this new one. Plastic and unsure might work though.
As a car guy, it kind of pains me to see manufacturers dig up a name, only to ruin it's reputation with a crappy car.
Okay the 70's Dart was a crappy car, but not the 68.

You have to remember that the Dart wasn't even 20 years old in the 80s.

When my 57 Chevy had the 327 Vette engine in it, it pegged the needle many a time. It still does with the original engine in it.

Cars nowadays just don't evoke excitement like cars used to 50 years ago. You get a boring monotone econobox and if you pay a tone more you get a semi monotone with a bigger engine and a little more room. Wheeee...... No flash, no I have arrived sentiment anymore---I guess you would have that if you bought a hugely expensive car today but you could have gotten that same feeling with a Chevy back in the day. :doh:

 

[Nobert]

I actually learned to operate a linotype machine in high school -- I was editor of the school paper, which we actually printed on a hand-fed press someone had donated. Usually we set the type by hand in composing sticks, but somebody knew somebody at the local weekly, and we finally got to go in when they weren't using the linotype and set up our paper with it.

Those linotypists were real pros, too. This isn't an "I remember" thing, but from what my dad has told me about. At one of the papers he worked at, the editor's office was a short flight of stairs down from the composing room. He could send up five paragraphs of copy, and by the time he climbed the stairs, said copy would be cast in lead. When he was at the Montreal Gazette, their fastest linotypist was an African immigrant who spoke neither English nor French. He didn't get slowed down by knowing what the words meant.

 

[skydog757]

When street lights were bare bulbs with a white reflector plate hung on wires over street corners and swung crazily whenever there was a strong wind.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reigndeer came on once a year, and if you missed it - too bad.

The only thing on television in the afternoon were soap operas (of course, we only had two channels).

If you wanted something to do other than read comic books, you had to gather up all of the kids in the neighborhood to play baseball in the neighbor's yard.

 

[Gregg Axley]

When street lights were bare bulbs with a white reflector plate hung on wires over street corners and swung crazily whenever there was a strong wind.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reigndeer came on once a year, and if you missed it - too bad.

The only thing on television in the afternoon were soap operas (of course, we only had two channels).

If you wanted something to do other than read comic books, you had to gather up all of the kids in the neighborhood to play baseball in the neighbor's yard.

:eusa_clap
When I was a kid, game shows were on in the afternoon.

 

[jamespowers]

:eusa_clap
When I was a kid, game shows were on in the afternoon.

Card Sharks eh?

 

[Gregg Axley]

Card Sharks eh?

I'm older than that, slightly.
The first shows I remember are The Price Is Right, and Family Feud.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

"Goodnight, David."

"Goodnight, Chet."

 

[Stearmen]

I wasn't sure where to post this, so I will post it here. This photo, is from a book called, The Harley-Davidson and Indian Wars, by Allan Girdler. What makes it so great is the caption, he states, "Best of all, these are the only guys you'll ever see with a good reason for wearing their caps back to front!"

 

[Tomasso]

"Best of all, these are the only guys you'll ever see with a good reason for wearing their caps back to front!"

That fella must have never seen a baseball game.



Sorry Lizzie.

 

[LizzieMaine]

He was safe!