Official Old Fart Thread!

[Pallet Pete]

Man I leave for a few weeks and come back to farts ! Sheesh lol

Pete

 

[jharkin]

Kids today will never have to rewind or fast-forward any cassette of any type. Most have never actually touched a record with their own hands. Weird.

Many will never touch any type of media, even books with their hands. It will be all download.


But I'm making sure at least some do

 

[jharkin]

I probably dont qualify for this thread either, being 3 years shy of the hill yet...

But even in my generations time things have changed. I still remember using the paper card catalog at the library. Mail ordering by sending a check in an envelope. Having to turn the control for the big Yagi TV antenna on the roof before changing channels, without a remote (my dad had put stickers for each channel on the control dial). Rotary dial phones. Pay phones. Having to set the choke before starting the car. Hand crank windows in the car.

 

[jharkin]

I would have been arrested as a terrorist and tortured. I don't think making gunpowder for bombs and chlorine gas just for kicks would go over well today.

We used to make pipe bombs in the basement, and set them off on the railroad tracks as teenagers. The thought of taking one into a school never even crossed our minds.

I once took my Swiss Army knife to school to show off to a few friends. A teacher saw it, and simply told me to put it away. Point taken. No zero-tolerance suspension necessary.

Make that 3 of us. I always carried a knife to school, and we used to get fireworks (parents bought for us in NH) and I would use my dad drill press to drill the poweder out of the big ones and make one giant bomb out of it then blow things up in the back yard. Lucky I never lost an arm.

 

[BrotherBart]

Rabbit's feet. Royal blue ones. Key chain attached.

 

[lukem]

I remember when our neighbor got a satellite dish....but juuuust barely. Was probably 8.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

How many folks were on a party line? Two nostalgic losses for me were the passing of the steam engine on the Hudson line and losing our local telephone operator. I never met her in person but she was nice to us kids when we wanted to use the phone.

I remember the first time we heard about someone not being on a party line. Neat idea but it took a long time coming to us. Our first phone was the old wall hanger with the crank on the right hand side. I think our number was 1 long and 2 shorts. And yes, the earpiece hung on the left side while you talked into the "mike." Phones were usually installed for the "lady of the house" height.

Then came rotary phones and our party line dropped to only 4 of us on one line. Don't remember the year we got a private line but do remember we loved it. No more waiting for the neighbor kids to end their hours lone conversations.

I'm also wondering how many of us had cars with 6 volts rather than 12 volts? It doesn't seem that long ago when they switched. Also generators. I remember many times changing the brushes in those old generators. Seems they did not last that long.

 

[jharkin]

I remember when our neighbor got a satellite dish....but juuuust barely. Was probably 8.

Was it one of those 8 ft monsters that was ground mounted in the back yard? We had a couple of those on our street.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Does anyone here remember Champagne Velvet beer? Or Drewries?

 

[gmule]

How about those plastic window things that people used to carry pictures in their wallets?
(broken image removed)

Now everyone has pictures on their phone.

 

[fossil]

Hanging from the dash of my '55 Chevy Handyman Wagon was a chrome Automatic Radio 4-track tape player. Had a reverb box wired in too, in case I wanted to echo things up a bit.

 

[BrotherBart]

I remember when our neighbor got a satellite dish....but juuuust barely. Was probably 8.

I remember when the Russians put the first satellite in orbit. Never realized someday it would cost me $65 a month.

 

[fossil]

My mom took me outside one night to watch Sputnik pass overhead. Oct 1957. I was 8.

 

[BrotherBart]

Hanging from the dash of my '55 Chevy Handyman Wagon was a chrome Automatic Radio 4-track tape player. Had a reverb box wired in too, in case I wanted to echo things up a bit.

Want a Pioneer reverb unit or eight track recorder? Got'em in the basement. Same box as the TRS-80 Model 1 and the six pack of Billie beer.

 

[fossil]

I had an 8-track recorder. Made a lot of re-mix tapes I remember quite well...that was in the early '70's, in my early 20's...was prob'ly on ~my 3rd 8-track player by that time.

 

[lukem]

Does anyone here remember Champagne Velvet beer? Or Drewries?

Champagne velvet made right here...making a comeback from what I understand.

 

[HDRock]

Three words, Fuller Brush Man.

I remember those guys , and we had milk delivered in glass bottles, later on, U had to take your empty milk bottles back to the store.
I remember our first tv, 12" screen, in a big cabinet wow we have come a long way in that area
Ask a kid today , what is a milk man

 

[HDRock]

I carried a pen knife (and still do) since I was 6 years old.

I was 7 or 8, Saved up bazooka gum wrappers and got a 2 blade pocket knife, (imagine that today) I have been carrying a pocket knife, every day of my life since the day I got it.
Today I carry A Leatherman Wave ,nothing like that back then.

 

[Doug MacIVER]

I remember those guys , and we had milk delivered in glass bottles, later on, U had to take your empty milk bottles back to the store.
I remember our first tv, 12" screen, in a big cabinet wow we have come a long way in that area
Ask a kid today , what is a milk man

to this day a few local dairies have local delivery locally in mass and i'm, sure the rest of New England. as with fuller, lost are the bakery delivery , the rag man, and home doctor visits.

 

[Hills Hoard]

im only 35 and already turning into a salty old bastard...ive turned into that dude in traffic that tells people off for doing the wrong thing...like when i spot p platers (probationary drivers) texting away while they are driving i have to pull up next to them and give them an ear full....and chicks doing make up at the lights who dont see the light turn green...rrrrgghhhh!!....and now that im old i leave heaps of room between me and cars in front and people tailgate my ass so i have to give them an ear full too........i busted a chick driving along picking her nose in traffic the other day so i pulled up next to her and beeped my horn till i got her attention then i waved....needless to say she was quite embarrassed but we both had a laugh....

 

[blades]

Hand crank tractors, gravity feed fuel system, later on truck had electric start no key needed no locks, cistern in basement with a hand pump upstairs on side board ( that was a real up scale luxury), 1/2moon little house out back, Big life change when we got electric power about 1960. After that things started changing fast. We had a portable radio took a 67.5volt battery and a few "D" cells ( it was constructed with peanut tubes) Doctors making house calls and quarantine sign if someone had the measles / chicken pox ect.

 

[Ashful]

Ask a kid today , what is a milk man

"Dad?"

 

[PapaDave]

I'm too old to remember anything.
ETA:
Milk chutes in the outside wall and the milkman to go with it.
Got my 1st transistor radio when I was about 11.
"Portable" record player that looked like a suitcase/luggage.
3 on the tree.
Rotary phone (Dennis has us all trumped with the wall hand crank).
Stepdad was a cop, and I "found" his little leather wrapped billy club and took it to school to show off. He got a call, and I got in trouble, but was right back in school the next day instead of being labeled a terrorist. I'd venture a guess that those aren't exactly "PC" anymore.
I'm sure I can come up with some more......later. The memory banks are churning.

 

[webbie]

Remember when Japanese products were considered shoddy? That probably ended with the Honda 90.

 

[Jack Straw]

I remember taking Opie to the fishin hole while aunt Bee made a pie and let it cool in the window. Ottis would get drunk and let himself into the jail cell. Barney only had one bullet.

Oh heck, that wasn't me!

That reminds me, remember shows you could watch with your kids without having to explain what a wang is!