I'm THAT old

[Little Sam]

11 minutes ago, diaperguy85 said:

But the biggest for me is a life with no cell phones! Kids truly ran free! 

I got my first cell phone when I was 15. I know full well that I used to arrange to meet my friends in town at McDonald's, or the Library and stuff, but for the life of me I can't figure out how we ever actually made that work. We actually set a solid time, and arrived within a few minutes at a specific place??? No "I'm just arriving, where are you?"??

[tigercub59]

Coming in when the street lights came on. Using punch cards to program a computer in school. Using same cards to make Christmas wreaths. 

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Fort Superior playset

[willnotwill]

I had a Fireball XL-5 lunch box in the first grade.   That probably dates me pretty well.

 

[ValentinesStuff]

Going outside to play with friends.

[Little Sam]

21 minutes ago, ValentinesStuff said:

Going outside to play with friends.

You mean, in the before times?

[zzyzx]

7 hours ago, rusty pins said:

Typewrites, rotary dial phones, encyclopedia sets, ice cube trays you had to fill by hand, The Beatles, cars with manual roll up and down windows, road maps, black and white 13 inch TV's that got only 4 channels, counter top popcorn makers, manual crank can openers for cans before pop tops, milk that came in glass bottles delivered by a milk man, record players that had one built in speaker and played one record at a time, The SEARS and J.C. PENNY'S catalogs, adding machines that did add, subtract, multiply and divide only, schools with blackboards and actual text books with paper and pencil, many more and of course, cloth diapers, diaper pins and rubber pants.

Not just "rotary dial phones" but "party line" rotary dial phones....  4 Channels?  How about before PBS...  Ok, in my youth I'm remembering NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS and at least one independent station.... 

Add Monkey Ward (Montgomery (SP?) Ward) to the set of catalogs....

Slide projectors, film strips (with some projectors tied to record players to advance the strip), 8 (or 16?) mm film projectors

Library (physical) card catalog (is Dewy decimal system still used anywhere?  or is it all Library of Congress in the US now?)

How about AAA trip ticket packs.... 

Disney (Land) E ticket (rides) (also A, B, C and D ticket rides)....

 

2 hours ago, tigercub59 said:

Coming in when the street lights came on. Using punch cards to program a computer in school. Using same cards to make Christmas wreaths. 

@tigercub59 026 or 029 card punched 80 column Hollerith punch cards or?

[babyalan]

I used a tape recorder to tape music from my record player

[Stroller]

What an ink monitor was.  Why ballpoint pens were banned at school.  Doing IT technical support with no tools other than scissors, a pointed metal spike and some black sticky tape.  Doing remote IT technical support via an acoustic coupler.  Why electrical goods and cars were priced in guineas rather than pounds.  Why my parents dug a bucket into the ground in the garden in hot weather.

[wetbedmo]

electronic vacuum tubes, only thing is they are still made for audio output.

[AbabeBill]

A manual pencil sharpener, with like 7 different size holes.

Having to dress in nice (dress code appropriate) clothes to go to public school. 

Change counters, like on public transit. Clackity, clackity, clackity, Ching!

Having to uncurl, an extra long phone receiver cord. 

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

9 hours ago, willnotwill said:

I had a Fireball XL-5 lunch box in the first grade.   That probably dates me pretty well.

 

That is the idea. What we mention dates us. The Fort Superior Playset was from 1949-50. Fireball XL-5 was from 1963-4 around here (syndicated in the US) and the theme soung was cool

[vvp39]

I taught myself WordStar on an Osborne1.

[Little Sam]

38 minutes ago, vvp39 said:

I taught myself WordStar on an Osborne1.

Wow. We had Wordstar on our 386, I don't remember much before that.

[Alyeskabird]

Learning to type on a machanical typewriter. The vacum tube store. When car phones came out, not the later ones, the ones that had to be built into the car permanantly.

[tuffy]

6 hours ago, wetbedmo said:

electronic vacuum tubes, only thing is they are still made for audio output.

When our TV quit working, we'd open up the back, pull all the tubes out and put them in a shoe box. We'd then head to the grocery store where there was a tester in the entry way. After testing all the tubes, we'd take the bad ones up to the counter where you cashed checks for the replacements.

 

4 hours ago, Little BabyDoll Christine said:

Fireball XL-5 was from 1963-4 around here (syndicated in the US) and the theme soung was cool

I remember being heartbroken when it disappeared from the schedule. I guess I was about 6 at the time.

[foreverdl]

23 hours ago, spoonchicken said:

Explaining why 8-track tapes are called that instead of being called 4-track tapes.

Paying the newspaper delivery guy every month in person.

Explaining the V-Hold & H-Hold functions on old-school analog TVs.

Explaining the difference between trolley cars & cable cars to tourists.

 

I also had some 4 track tapes they were 2  playing sides rather than 4, and I took them apart and put the guts inside of an 8 track case so it would play on the 8 track player. See the 4 track also had no roller in it, that was in the 4 track player.

I was a newspaper delivery boy in high school and I had to collect the money each week to pay for my papers.

 

[diaperguy85]

17 hours ago, Little Sam said:

I got my first cell phone when I was 15. I know full well that I used to arrange to meet my friends in town at McDonald's, or the Library and stuff, but for the life of me I can't figure out how we ever actually made that work. We actually set a solid time, and arrived within a few minutes at a specific place??? No "I'm just arriving, where are you?"??

I got my first cell phone in high school.... maybe sophomore year? I really don't remember. But I do remember not really wanting it lol. 

I remember going to friend'shouses (before cell phones) and my mom telling me "call me when you get there/you're leaving/need pick up" and my friends doing the same! And like you said, making plans with friends to "meet here at 'X' time" and everyone would be there within about 10 minutes! Bizarre times 😋

[Sailor Snow]

Having a portable gaming device that doesnt have backlighting. At times it was hard to play games without having proper light. Thinking back on it kinda crazy that only started being a standard thing with the gba sp.

[Little Sam]

6 minutes ago, Sailor Snow said:

Having a portable gaming device that doesnt have backlighting. At times it was hard to play games without having proper light. Thinking back on it kinda crazy that only started being a standard thing with the gba sp.

Sega GameGear 😛

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

4 hours ago, tuffy said:

When our TV quit working, we'd open up the back, pull all the tubes out and put them in a shoe box. We'd then head to the grocery store where there was a tester in the entry way. After testing all the tubes, we'd take the bad ones up to the counter where you cashed checks for the replacements.

 

I remember being heartbroken when it disappeared from the schedule. I guess I was about 6 at the time.

https://www.solie.org/alibrary/FireballXL5.html

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

I remember square_duck and Repaid 1

[bottlestop]

getting a Hop Along Cassidy watch for Xmas.  Disney was the only color program on TV.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

25 minutes ago, bottlestop said:

getting a Hop Along Cassidy watch for Xmas.  Disney was the only color program on TV.

I got the Hoppy outfit, black with white piping/pinstripe trim for my 5th birthday. My uncle was a big Hoppy fan and he got it for me. It really did not mean anything to me and it made me a bid sad to disappoint him. I did not have the exposure to the character since media was not such a domonant force in our world since TV was just becoming widely available in 1950. The only exposure to characters at that time was either radio or movies/serials

But to continue on the topic, I rmember Buzz Corry

[zzyzx]

17 hours ago, wetbedmo said:

electronic vacuum tubes, only thing is they are still made for audio output.

@wetbedmo

Did you ever get the chance to visit one of the NORAD sites where 1 floor (of 4) of the concrete building / block house (located at various military bases near the edge of the country) was a 1st generation (vacuum tube) computer that was used to monitor all air traffic coming into the US (and I believe Canada)?  It was eventually replaced with a third generation computer the size of a household refrigerator / freezer.  I don't know if the systems have since been upgraded again.

13 hours ago, Little Sam said:

Wow. We had Wordstar on our 386, I don't remember much before that.

@Little Sam Then my old 8085 (?) and 8088 (?) based Heathkit H-100 you wouldn't recognize.  <smile>

12 hours ago, Alyeskabird said:

Learning to type on a machanical typewriter. The vacum tube store. When car phones came out, not the later ones, the ones that had to be built into the car permanantly.

Yes, I still learned to touch type on a mechanical typewriter in high school.  Parents gave me an electric type writer when I went off to college.  That actually became a very useful skill since I went into computer science....

When was the last time someone has played with individual transistors?  Everything is highly integrated micro-chips now.

Haven't played with vacuum tubes really.  Although I expect if I open a radio I picked up (several years ago) from a thrift store that it will have tubes inside it....  Picks up AM, FM, Shortwave (including HAM licensed space) as I recall.  (Not a transmitter, just a receiver.)

Ok, more recently, how many remember watching old Analog stations go off the air when they finally totally switched to digital TV transmissions.  My reception has never been the same....  : (

5 hours ago, bottlestop said:

Disney was the only color program on TV.

Ah, yes, the Wonderful World of Disney in Color (on ABC) watched on a black and white TV set.