Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler I'm so Old, I remember when...

I'm so old, I remember when Ray and Jack could remember each others' names.

Ray and Jack? Hmmm, you're younger than me, I must have missed a few beats, somewhere along the trail.

I was partial to Kathy Ireland. 23 cent stamps, payphones were 25. I upgraded from my C64 to a 486 (it was a long wait), and had a Sega Master System, but before that an Atari 2600 Jr. Definitely was the king of the pause button and two-deck dubbing. Akira and Bublegum Crash were the only anime to watch.

I think that makes me a year or two older than CV.

My mom almost bought a Beta deck. School buses didn't have a Stop sign, and the pre-stop, yellow lights showed up half way through elementary school.

Fraggle Rock before school, then Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Galaxy Rangers after. Lavar Burton taught me to be a butterfly in the sky before he lost his eyes, and the Bloodhound Gang was a group of adolescent detectives not a band.

Electronics: played Pong on an Atari console, and it was cool. Learned to write computer programs using punch cards. First "big" handheld electronic game was probably Coleco Head to Head Football. As teens, we rented VCRs because almost nobody owned one. My first PC was a 286 that had a whopping 40MB hard drive and it cost about $2k, with a 14" amber monitor. Sweet!

As a kid, new DC Comics - the best - were maybe $0.50. Sunday nights meant watching a Disney hour that wasn't always animation. Dad probably got change back from a $10 bill for the odd family meal at McD's.

…when a letter cost 5 cents to mail.

…watching all of the Gemini launches.

…when my favorite prime time TV shows were “Combat!” and “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”

…chasing tumbleweeds down the street during monsoon season dust storms.

…my first computer program was saved on paper tape.

You all continue to fascinate, yet my meditation training continues to beckon: forget, forget all those memories, all that is maya (illusion); at the same time I don't want to sleep, I want to remain conscious . . .

It's [been] a beautiful life, it's my life . . .

I'm so old, I remember sushi who pointed me to Axioms. :0

You are all young wipper snappers!! I remember 25 cent movies, 23 cent a gallon gas and my dad's '48 dodge.

Ah, the Captain is my new hero (I remember my Dad's 47 Chevy).

Was this thread started just to embarrass me?

I remember the coal truck delivering coal to our house and sliding it down the coal chute into the basement. I remember my dad having to stoke the coal burning furnace every day (and cursing at the damned thing just like Darren McGavin in A Christmas Story.

I remember (barely) listening to Fibber McGee and Molly, Jack Benny, Amos and Andy, and The Breakfast Club on radio.

I remember when there was no TV, and when it finally showed up it was all black and white with 3 channels. Many shows were 15 minutes long, and programming only ran from around 4PM to 11PM. The first show I watched on our own TV was Hopalong Cassidy.

I remember a gasoline war when it was 12 cents per gallon.

I remember nickel Coca Cola in small glass bottles. I remember going into my local drug store, sitting at the soda fountain and ordering a chocolate coke (Hersheys chocolate syrup in a glass of coke) which cost 5 cents (all the other kids were getting cherry cokes. I'm, still, a chocoholic)

Comic books were 10 cents.

As a teen, I remember rushing home from school to watch Bandstand with Dick Clark.

In 7th and 8th grades, I remember mandatory Saturday night dance class with Mr. Stevens and Miss Citron. The girls had to wear nice dresses and we wore coats and ties. We learned to jitterbug, waltz, fox trot, mambo, samba, etc.

I remember Friday night dances at the Bayway cabin when we put those dancing lessons to good use. A hundred+ kids squeezed into a relatively small room. In the spring and fall, when it was hot, you had to go outside every ten minutes, just so you could breathe and let the sweat dry a little.

I also remember the thrill of the feel of a lovely young girl held extra close as we danced to Johnny Mathis the last dance of the night when they would lower the lights (yes, we actually put our arms around each other so we touched from shoulder to knee). You couldn't tell which of us was trembling the most.

I remember, on those hot summer nights (before air conditioning) leaving all doors and windows open and unlocked (This was in suburbs of Detroit and Cleveland). We left the keys in the ignition in the cars, too.

It actually was a kinder, gentler time.

I remember:

- Land of the lost and other Kroft supterstars
- Space 1999 (which should have been forgettable)
- Steve Austin (Lee Majors)in the 6 million dollar man
- Starsky and Hutch, the TV show
- Emergency
- Adam 12
- SWAT
- Gun Smoke
- Little House on the... well you know
- Honey Comb cereal for breakfeast
- And a 26" B&W tv with fake wood that you had to walk up to to change the channel.

paul