I Remember When . . .

[21C]

This one's for the old farts on the board. What can you remember about the old days that's different now?

I remember when :

• cell phones were the size of bricks
• I could go to the corner store with 25c and buy enough candy for me and my brother
• every young guy had long hair - at least to the collar and over the ears
• some cars had stick shifts above the steering wheel ( I don't know if that's just an Australian thing or not )
• black and white television ( color didn't start in Australia until 1975 )

[Bonegavel]

• We had to get up to change the channel and if you twisted wrong, the knob came off.
• T.V. repairman came to the house
• We ate at home every night
• You were allowed to smoke nearly anywhere (hospital, work, etc)
• We could play outside all summer long and roam the entire town without worry
• Typewriters were luxury items and you had to use white-out or those correction papers
• Saturday Morning Cartoons rawked!!

[dawgfan]

I remember when:

- Most telephones were rotary dial;
- Home taping was killing the music industry ;
- Computers were the size of file cabinets and it was extremely rare for someone to have one at home;
- Pizza delivery was a novelty;
- Most home entertainment electronics didn't have remote controls;
- 10 speeds was the standard on road bicycles;
- Basketball shorts didn't go down to your kneecaps;

[Craptacular]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

I remember when:
- Basketball shorts didn't go down to your kneecaps;

Good ol' nuthuggers.

[SoxWin]

- Doctors made housecalls
- Pong

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by Craptacular

Good ol' nuthuggers.

Call me old-fashioned, but I think there's a happy compromise between the old-style shorts that were barely lower than your crotch-level and the current kneecaps or below style "shorts".

I also think the slightly off-center baseball cap look and the persistence of the shorts hanging halfway down your ass + boxers up to your navel look unbelievably stupid, so I guess that qualifies me as an old fogey.

[Draft Dodger]

-my clothes were in style

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by 21c

I remember when :

Michael Jackson was black.

It had to be said...

[gstelmack]

- Star Wars was released to theaters
- 8-track tape decks were great
- The TRS-80 was a high end desktop
- Using an antenna to get TV (oh, wait, that's not different, I've got one for HDTV now...)
- A space shuttle had not blown up
- Michael Who?
- Madonna really WAS a virgin
- The Patriots had never been to a Super Bowl
- Pat Riley coached on the West Coast
- Somebody would have cared if the NHL went on strike
- We hadn't beat the Russians in hockey
- Terrorism wasn't a buzzword
- Nuclear War was a constant threat

That's enough for now

[JonInMiddleGA]

- when you didn't pump your own gas
- when "$3 worth" was quite a bit of gas
- when records were actually records
- when cartoons were only on TV on Saturday
- when you couldn't really curse on TV
- when "Bedlam" was the best game going

[Buccaneer]

I ain't saying much of anything, no one would believe it anyways. Like I vaguely remember JFK's funeral but do remember well when the Beatles were still together and OJ was running at USC.

[CraigSca]

- when you had to get up off your a$$ to change the TV channel
- when having a floppy drive meant you were on the cutting edge of storage
- when having CGA graphics beautiful magenta, cyan and black
- Tuesday nights meant "Happy Days"
- There were diesel cars besides the Mercedes Benz
- Interest rates were double digits
- You had to wait in line for gas
- Nissan was Datsun

[WSUCougar]

- when the milk man delivered bottles of milk and other dairy products to your house
- when you heard a cool song on the radio you'd rush out to buy the 45
- when TV baseball meant Tony Kubek and Joe Garagiola
- when TV football meant Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshire on Sunday, and Frank, Howard, and Dandy Don on Monday night
- when a Japanese car was kinda exotic
- when Notre Dame was actually good in sports (sorry Scooper)
- when the very orange Tampa Bay Bucs went 0-14
- when Eastern Airlines was a playa
- when you practiced getting under your desk in school for Cold War reasons

[lcjjdnh]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

- when you didn't pump your own gas

If you're looking for some nostaglia, just come on up to NJ, where we still don't pump our own gas.

[21C]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

I remember when:

- Most telephones were rotary dial;

I remember our old-fashioned black rotary dial phones were really heavy. It was supposed to discourage people from having long phone conversations. You couldn't hold them for long before your arm got tired.

[WSUCougar]

I remember when our phone number was listed as GL4-5467 (as opposed to 454-5467).

[MizzouRah]

my dad's remote control was me
a fast modem was 1200 baud (suckers had 300 baud)
a picture printed on a dot matrix printer was cool
color 64 was a real bbs (long live c64!)
4th and Inches and Hardball were the talk of sports gaming
cutting a piece out of a 5 1/4 floppy made it double sided
parachute pants were the shit!
MTV played videos
feathered hair was hot

[21C]

I also remember when kids used to only call an adult Mr Something or Mrs Whatever. I'm 41 and still call my parents' neighbor 'Mr Russell' even though he insists on me calling him 'Tony'.

It took me a while to get used to my kids' friends calling me 'Richard' when they were only 6.

[HomerJSimpson]

...I was young enough not to say "I remember when."

[korme]

-when i ran my comp on 128 RAM!
-when all we had was SEGA and SuperNES
-when i only had access to a desktop pc
-gas was under $100 (~.90)

those were the days.

[korme]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

Call me old-fashioned, but I think there's a happy compromise between the old-style shorts that were barely lower than your crotch-level and the current kneecaps or below style "shorts".

I also think the slightly off-center baseball cap look and the persistence of the shorts hanging halfway down your ass + boxers up to your navel look unbelievably stupid, so I guess that qualifies me as an old fogey.

i apply for the first two, but who the hell wears boxers at their bellybutton?

[cartman]

Originally Posted by 21c

[*]some cars had stick shifts above the steering wheel ( I don't know if that's just an Australian thing or not )

Nope, we had that here in the States as well. We called it "3 on the tree"

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

-when i ran my comp on 128 RAM!

Young punk. My Vic-20 had 4K of RAM base, but I was stylin' and had the 8K RAM extension cartridge. That was hardcore.

Who remembers the original console wars? Atari 2600 was by far the dominant, but there was also Odyssey 2, Intellivision, ColecoVision, and those Sinclair things.

[Desnudo]

I remember when the Cabbage Patch Kids shortage was national news.

[Blackadar]

I remember waiting in gas lines.
I remember the TV having two dials - one for the main channels (1-13) and one for the others (20-45 or something like that). In black and white.
I remember when pong was released
I remember breaking the pong paddle
I remember pinball being king
I remember Donkey Kong, PacMan and Space Invaders dethroning the king
I remember "the King" (Elvis)
I remember getting comic books AND candy for $.25
I remember Hi-Fi and Wi-Fi
I remember the Son of Sam
I remember Saturday Night Live's first season
I remember Liz Taylor actually looking good

[cartman]

I remember when Air Jordans used to be affordable (~$50) and only came in the funky white base with red and black accents.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by cartman

Who remembers the original console wars? Atari 2600 was by far the dominant, but there was also Odyssey 2, Intellivision, ColecoVision, and those Sinclair things.

For much of that time it was just an "Atari". It was the dominant system due to the huge number of game titles, but the Intellivision and ColecoVision were much better consoles - the graphics were far superior. My family had the Intellivision, and there were some great games on that thing at the time. Unfortunately, it got dropped one too many times, and some games started having some graphical errors which in some cases affected the game itself - there was some kind of naval combat game we had, and the map screen got screwed up with some pixels out of place, which affected where you could navigate your ship.

In the latter stages of that generation of consoles, Atari came out with an updated console, and that's when the 2600 designation started (the new one was the 5200). Of course, if you really wanted sweet-looking games, you bought an Atari 400 or 800 computer, or better yet an Apple 2.

Ah, the days of Zork, Crush Crumble & Chomp, Tuesday Morning Quarterback, Dr. J vs. Larry Bird, Hardball, etc...

[Crapshoot]

I remember when old farts couldnt give me this speech over the internet...

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

i apply for the first two, but who the hell wears boxers at their bellybutton?

Some punks get overzealous trying to maximize the difference in height between their boxers and their pants.

I got a great deal of satisfaction watching one such punk trying to run down a bus that he had just missed getting on and being scarecely able to run without falling due to how ridiculously low his pants were hanging. The longevity of this "fashion" astounds me...

[Desnudo]

I think it's mainly due to the fact that most people subconsciously want to walk around naked.

[Suicane75]

Watching the Canucks vs Flyers on Channel 57 at 10:30PM and being blown away by the colors.

NBC joining Seattle, Oakland or Denver games in progress at around 6:55 and actually staying with the game, even if they had to push back Punky Brewster.

Playing wiffle ball with every other kid in the neighborhood on whatever slab of grass or concrete we could find.

Saturday morning wrestling.

Praying for snow so school wouldn't open.

Samantha Fox.

[Bad-example]

I remember when you could buy candy cigarettes.
I remember when 7-11 was the only place to shop in the middle of the night.
I remember when Mikey liked it.

[21C]

Originally Posted by HomerJSimpson

...I was young enough not to say "I remember when."

I hate the moment when you make the transition from young stud to old fart - and it happens in the blink of an eye. It's when you talk about something from your childhood - like an old cartoon show or favorite song - and you get quizzical looks from the youth of today ( i.e. young whipper-snappers ).

It's exacerbated by the fact that I'm a high school teacher and you mention some kind of landmark event that you witnessed like the first moon landing and you get stunned responses like,"We've been to the moon?"

[Tekneek]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

a fast modem was 1200 baud (suckers had 300 baud)

I remember when debates would rage that 1200 baud was excessive since most people could only read at about the same speed as 300 baud...

...when I got my first 1200 baud modem and was amazed...
...when I got my first 9600 baud modem and was amazed...

...when Joe Bob Briggs was on The Movie Channel...
...when the Playboy Channel was actually quality...
...when you could go to an Atlanta Braves game and have a section to yourself...
...when the USA Cartoon Express was really cool...
...when cartoons were on all Saturday morning...
...when I could still find The Beatles cartoon on local TV...
...when I could watch the Jackson Five cartoon on local TV...
...when MTV actually was about music videos and nothing else...
...when SCTV was on the air...
...when The Disney Channel was all about Disney/family stuff, instead of about programming entirely designed for toddlers or pre-teens...
...when we had an 8-track player at home and in the car...
...when radios were not standard in new cars...
...when there only a few stations broadcasting on the FM band...
...when my Dad had an add-on to his AM radio to receive FM...
...when I ran up huge long distance bills calling to different BBS's around the country...
...when 33 channels on a cable system seemed like more than you could ever use...

[Tekneek]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

Saturday morning wrestling.

Hah. When I was a kid we had a local show that would pick up the different federations and show them one after another on Saturday nights. At its height, it went from 7 PM - 3 AM. They showed WWF on Saturday mornings. Of course, we always had WTBS showing Georgia Championship Wrestling a couple of times on Saturday and once on Sunday.

[HomerJSimpson]

....rock was young.

[Kevin]

Our telephone number was 24-7
We had a four holer out behind the one room school
We didn't need a remote because there was only one channel (TV was actually entertaining then)
When stores started to open more than one evening a week
Dad would give me a quarter for a Pepsi and a Mars bar and I would give him a dime in change.
Noone had heard of 2% or other types of watered down milk
A 289 V8 was a tiny engine
Tim Horton was a hockey player

[Tekneek]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Noone had heard of 2% or other types of watered down milk

Cows weren't pumped full of hormones then either, I bet.

[Castlerock]

I remember
... when our family TV was black and white.
... when you had to wait for the TV to warmup before you could watch it.
... making out my christmas list while looking through the sears catalog.
... parents weren't afraid to let their kids play outside.
... watching 'The Day After'.
... calling my friend by dialing 5 digits on a rotary phone.

[rkmsuf]

- Billy Squire was cool.

- Michael Jackson was a black male.

[CamEdwards]

I remember when I had hair. Damn I looked good.

[HomerJSimpson]

Originally Posted by CamEdwards

I remember when I had hair. Damn I looked good.

Liar.

[mhass]

I remember

- Eight-inch floppy drives
- "Laptop" computers the size of large suitcases
- President Carter
- When wide lapels weren't just for costumes
- Keith Smart and Lorenzo Charles had hit bigger shots than Christian Laettner
- Top 40 countdowns without 35 teenagers
- Leaded gasoline
- Money came fron banks, not machines
- The best computer software ran on cassette tapes
- Air-raid drills and fallout shelters in school

[rkmsuf]

8 Track!

[MizzouRah]

What a great thread.

Sat. morning wrestling at the Chase on Channel 11.


Todd

[A-Husker-4-Life]

I remember

- buying my first computer: 386-16mhz 2mb ram 180mb hd
- When Magic didn't have AIDS
- The A-Team
- Dukes of Hazzard
- NO CELL PHONES
- The Superbowl shuffle
- Converse Cons
- No Walmarts
- High School kids drove v8 Trans Am's not 4 banger Rice-burners..
- When there was no Front Office Football

[panerd]

- Standing around with about 10 strangers in Orlando, FLA watching someone play Defender (Also my mom not getting pissed that the arcade was the highlight of the disneyworld trip)
- Intellivoice was innovative!
- Spending 10 hours programming a game into my TIMEX computer only to have the cassette tape drive malfunction!
- Spending an entire Saturday and Sunday conducting an APBA phone draft that would take about 30 minutes on the internet

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by panerd

- Spending an entire Saturday and Sunday conducting an APBA phone draft that would take about 30 minutes on the internet

Ha! How about waiting impatiently for the new season cards to arrive in the mail? My friend and I actually hiked several miles through the snow once to get the cards at the post office.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

Ha! How about waiting impatiently for the new season cards to arrive in the mail? My friend and I actually hiked several miles through the snow once to get the cards at the post office.

Or waiting a few more weeks for the extra players to arrive. I can still remember seeing an ad in Baseball Digest and telling my friend that it looked like an interesting game. Who knew how many hours (years?) of our lives would be effected by that one decision.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

Watching the Canucks vs Flyers on Channel 57 at 10:30PM and being blown away by the colors.

Mighty Mouse on Channel 48.