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

gas was $0.35 a gallon (that's Imperial Gallons...the BIG ones) ANNND...you got free dishes or towels with your fillup.

What do you remember from years ago, that indicates how old you are?

I remember when bus fare was 10 cents.

Ummmm, I remember when the 67 Camaros rolled into the dealerships, well at least I think I saw them from my mommy's arms, when I was a newborn.

I was a wee lad visiting relatives in England in 1970 and remember there was a buzz going around the city about the Beatles breaking up.

My first computer had 3.5k of RAM.

My current one has more than 1 million times that.

I can remember quiting work and going out and buying a brand new 1969 Z28, all on the same day.

I can remember seeing Elvis for the first time on Ed Sullivan
Ditto for the Beatles

I can remember when "Deck The Halls" didn't make me smile.

I can remember TV going off the air at suppertime and re-appearing later in the evening (England in the early 50's)

I can remember when I loved GM products

I can remember when TV Guide used "(c)" to denote tv programs broadcast in colour.

Black and white TV.

The first Moonwalk.

The assassinations of JohnF. Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

Buying a mint 68 Firebird 400 for $600.00

Ah when Star Trek first came out and everything looked so futuristic

I remember Cindy Crawford being the top model. I remember 25 cent postage stamps and payphone calls. I remember the Commodore 64 and then moving to a 286. The original Nintendo Entertainment System was a godsend. I remember making mix tapes because there were no other viable options. I remember Seinfeld not being strictly reruns. I remember anime being a lot harder to get ahold of. I remember lawn darts not being banned.

I'm still trying to figure out my earliest references, which should tell you a bunch, but a few of you guys have me beat . . .

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

I remember when a "slim" calculator was almost an inch thick, could only do basic math and cost around $100 (adjusted for inflation would probably cost $4-500 now)

I remember when the Leafs were good.

I remember the first moon landing.

I remember when women used lots of blue eye shadow and they weren't hookers.

I remember when there was no such thing as "reality TV".

I remember when old cassette tapes used to blow around in the wind on the side of the highways.

I remember when most people smoked.

When the first TV remote became common.

When they helicoptered the top on the CN Tower.

When you couldn't take the schoolbus unless you lived in the next time zone.

Most of mine have been taken so I'll add:

-- Sesame Street wasn't politically correct.
-- You could see Wile Coyote actually hit the ground when he fell.
-- Mr. Dressup wasn't the scary, old, cross dressing man who actually lived down the street and sometimes forgot to dress up at all.
-- George Lucas was making the best movies ever.

>>> Press FFw. a few years. Oops, pressed it to long. Press Rwd. a bit. No, back to FFw. No, Damn missed it again.......

-- Girls bangs pointed up instead of down.
-- I had to admit I really liked Micheal Jackson's Thriller album but refused to buy it because even then he really creeped me out.
-- Levi's were the 'cool' jeans.

Black & white TV
The Beatles on Ed Sulliven
25 cent matinee movies
20 cents a gallon gas

Air raid drills, climbing under our desks and balling up in grammer school while the sirens blasted. Scary stuff now that I look back on it.

Our school bus was manual trans, noisy and clunky, the AC was that little fan in the front, shocks sucked and the big thrill was going over the train tracks, if you were sitting in the back, it would throw you upward.
I was dad's TV remote control for all 6 channels we had to choose from.
When I was bad, I got spanked.
Helmets and knee pads? Ha!
Legos! I guess they're still cool, huh?
Riding around in Dad's Pinto.
Space Invaders on Atari.
5 bucks lasted all day at the arcade.

Okay okay, Ajax, you win.

Cool thread...
I remember the acoustically coupled modems, my dad paying for internet access by the minute and BBS.

I remember when we didn't have a remote control on the TV. For 3 TVs worth of time.
I remember when people believed the Vector W2 might actually be available for sale.
I remember before the internet. Woo!

Sure, make us all cry.

Yes, Jack "wins". But he may not remember winning. That whole "short term" v. "long term" thing

I remember...

Recording 8-tracks off the AM radio on New Year's Eve, when they had the top 100 countdown.

Watergate.

The Gas Crisis.

Daily Vietnam casualty counts on the evening news with Walter Cronkite.

Newspapers being published more than once per day.

B&W TV's with three channels and no remote.

Replacing green monitors with amber ones. Visicalc.

good one.

I remember my mom waking me up to see the Viking Mars landing live on TV, I was 5 years old.

I remember people smoking on movie theaters.

I remember when Calif. had more Orange groves than houses.

Ah yes. In my era, it was known as "duck and cover." "The bomb" was a big threat back then.


This one cracked me up. Boy, do I remember that!! I also fetched his cigarettes, every night after dinner, off his dresser in the bedroom where he left them when he emptied his pockets and changed his clothes after work. In fact, I was pretty much an errand boy most of my childhood.


My worst experience in Nam was getting lost (driving) on Than Son Nhut Air Base (near Saigon), and pulling into the driveway of an huge area that was surrounded by a solid, 12 foot high fence (solid, as in "you couldn't see what was behind it") The gate happened to be open. As far as I could see, there were thousands of coffins (ready for use) stacked to the top of the fence and filling every square foot of space. Chilling.

Some things ya wish you didn't remember.

Smoking on airplanes!! , completely wooden hockey sticks, popeye cigarettes/cigarette bubblegum, Wrigley's gum had 10 sticks per pack for a dime, you could catch a buzz from regular car exhaust fumes, they let us out of several of our classes at school to watch the '72 Canada/Russia series in the hallways(sitting on the floor).

Jack, we in Canada saw alot of the Vietnam coverage from our news as well as from American news. That is indeed a chilling memory, but you're here and we're glad for it.

Thank you, sir. Me too.

Sir?....now I DO feel old!!

Go with the feeling...

I remember when everyone smoked and drank. . .when my favorite brand of cigarettes (Rothman's) cost 33 cents (southern Ontario) and gas cost about the same per gallon.

. .when I stood outside in the snow one night looking into the window of the local radio/electric store to watch TV broadcasting go on the air for the first time in southern Ontario--it was black & white, CFPL-TV, in London, Ontario, around 1953 or 54. A decade later I worked there on audio control for a time, and the video recorder was an enormous Ampex vacuum-tube unit in a dedicated room with its own Air-conditioning cooling system, black and white, of course.

I remember watching Jack Paar, the host of the Tonight Show, whom I thought was the most urbane funny guy and far better than Johnny Carson, who came later, or any of the current late-night hosts, except Bill Maher.

Jack Paar's show was only watchable a couple nights a week, if that, because it was fringe reception from a TV station in Detroit. My dad refused to put up a big tower with a yagi antenna and rotator. He felt it would demean the appearance of the house (big, old Victorian).

Great thread!

Regards,

Alan

Reel-to-reel tape decks
Using a can opener for beer and soda cans
Million Dollar Movie ('The Thing' scared me to death, but I watched it a hundred times.)
Doing the Twist to Chubby Checker on a 45 rpm.
My dad's old Harmon Kardon tube amp was the coolest thing ever!
Being able to wander around town all day until it got dark.
Penny candy for a penny.
Riding in the car up on the back shelf.
Station wagons with rear facing third row seats.
Post cards for 2 cents including the stamp.

Ah yes!, I remember when seatbelts were a nuisance and nobody wore them. Though, I can't recall cars without them (not that old :-).
Scary still, I remember babies riding in the front seat of a car on their mom's lap!

Back when I recall we had an old Chevy wagon (1964 I think) that we used to sit in the very back seat facing the the other drivers with the window down. Oh and there was no seat belts.

Do you guys remember a mid 60s wagon that had a two tiered roof with a very small windshield in the roof, maybe 2-4" high? I think it was a Chev.

Link .Not the one I was thinking of, but.

Agree. Paar WAS more urbane and sophisticated. I was also a fan of Paar's predecessor on the Tonight show, Steve Allen (Hi Ho Steverino), who did a late night show of his own after the Tonight Show. I did become a Carson fan, but haven't been able to tolerate any late night host since.

I'm (not) so old, (but old enough that) I remember...

1. having to peel my legs from the vinyl bench seat of the family station wagon in the summer.
2. Oregon Trail and Number Munchers.
3. renting a VCR with the VHS tapes from video rental stores.
4. when handheld video games had rectangular LEDs for pixels.
5. having the freedom to roam unsupervised as a kid.
6. when most families made do with one car.

I'm so old that when we were kids, parents never plastered us with some strange goop called sunblock every time we went to play outside.

Peter, your item #2 reminded me for some reason of the LOGO programming language and Turtle graphics. Hadn't even thought of that in years. Funny how some things that likely shaped you somehow get lost in your mind. Could be a thread of its own there...

I was going to mention logo. Computers definitely had a huge influence on the way my brain functions.

I used to know how to do that stuff. Now I can't seem to find the attention span...

such is life with kids.

When the Super Expander cartridge came out for the VIC-20, I wrote a version of "LOGO" that sat on top of the S.E.'s graphic abilities and let you use the familiar LOGO commands and syntax (and used degrees instead of radians!).

I also wrote a "Blazing Paddles" type bitmap editor, but since I was 9, my SAVE SCREEN routine would use an insane amount of tape space. I didn't quite grasp packing 2 colour nybbles into a byte and writing it to tape. So I wrote the ASCII numeric value linefeed delineated instead. Where you could pack, say, two decimal "5" nybbles into one character ((5*16)+5)=85 or a "U" in PetASCII, I would write it as: (space)5(lf)(space)5(lf) - taking 6-8 times more space than necessary.

Bren R.

I've been outgeeked.

OK, the rest of you can watch a movie for a few minutes... Bren and I are having a propeller-head moment discussing the PEEKing and POKEing values at 3:00am, as a young Kruncher in training, just to see what happens, and writing routines to create Vic music. This was followed some months later by learning to code sprites on a C64.

10 PRINT CHR$(147);
20 POKE 36878,15:POKE 36879,8
30 VO=INT(RND(0)*3)+1:VA=INT(RND(0)*255)+1
40 POKE 36873+VO,VA:POKE 36879,VA
50 GOTO 30

I still remember CBM BASIC V2 like it was yesterday. 6502 assembler comes a lot slower.

(for everyone else, that plays random tones with each of the 3 "voices" and flashes the screen and border colour in tandem)

Bren R.

I remember walking to kindergarten on my own and being sent home early because JFK had been assassinated.

I remember typing all my college papers on a Smith Corona typewriter because they were no computers yet, graduating from college just prior to the introduction of the PC.

I remember applying to graduate school over 10 years later and my mom (who worked at that time for a nonprofit for disabled children) stating, "What a shame, no one will take these applications seriously because they're printed on a typewriter and not a computer."

Now that`s impressive! Ah, the magic 368 series. Clearly you spent as much time as I did with all that. I remember plotting equations, likely with the Super Expander as well and trying to code a Spirograph-type app.

My 8086 assembler is, thankfully, rusty now, a blur of MOVs, DECs and INCs.

Learned much from the early magazine articles of Neil Rubenking, Alfred Poor et al.

EDIT: I remember now! COMPUTE magazine. The name escaped me earlier.

Jump into the DeLorean, and set it for 1979. Compute magazine archives.

COMPUTE! and COMPUTE!'s Gazette... all the Jim Butterfield books, and the other, lamer magazines (Family Computing - enter these 9 columns of program listing and get a program to quiz you on algebra!)... I used to get BASIC programming books from the school booksales. I remember trying to write a Scott Adams type adventure and trying to figure out how to get the items you pick up OUT of the room you're in and into your inventory. Then I read about using (0) of the room arrays as an unexploreable room that would be the player's inventory. Why didn't I think of that?

I wish I could go back to those times as an adult now, knowing more about trig, physics, art, storytelling and all that stuff.

Bren R.

The coincidences never seem to end tonight. Within the last month I downloaded and installed Zork 1... on my Vista machine.

I couldn`t believe it when I found all those Zork games available to download.

The Scott Adams ones are all available on his site, there's a little parser EXE and then a bunch of individual files for each of the adventures.

Bren R.

This has been good fun Bren. Thanks for the memories. Off to play some "Reelin in the Years" now. Sadly, on CD, not vinyl or 8 track.

...going to the movies usually meant the Drive-in. There used to be so many of them, I think we still might have a couple left in southern Ontario but there used to be loads of them.

....when this "computer" stuff stock called Microsoft was $15 a share before the first split and my buddy told me I better buy some. - I didn't. Bashes head on desk....

....I remember asking my investment broker to recommend a couple of mining/gold stocks to me about 10 yrs ago. She recommended both Lionore Mining and Kinross Gold. I picked Kinross and made perhaps $1,000 on a $5000 investment over a 10 yr period. Now, I could have bought Lionore for about $0.49 at the time...a couple of years ago Lionore sold out to a bidder for close to $30.00. Let's see, $5000 multiplied by approx 60 is...is.......

I'm so old I can remember... um...