I'm THAT old

[2sail2]

Cars...

The push buttons on the car stereo and it was AM only.  If you wanted FM. you had to pay for it.  Cassette what's that?

The fact that if you wanted a passenger side mirror, you had to pay for it.  Other features you had to pay for cruise control, automatic transmission (I think it actually showed up as a charge that was like "included").  

 

 

[2sail2]

BBSs, transfer protocols: xmodem, zmodem, bimodem.  1200/2400/9600 baud modems.

CompuServe and GEnie.

[rusty pins]

Refrigerators that closed with a latch, tire chains, phone booths, C-7 Christmas tree lights, boiling water on the stove in a teakettle, original Pampers that had to be pinned on with diaper pins, Lionel Trains and Betsy-Wetsy dolls, 78RMP records, shoe stores where they measured your feet, super-8 movie cameras, having to drop off camera film to be developed, playing board games like Clue and Monopoly just for a few more.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

They now make LED Christmas tree lights in the C-7 form factor INCLUDING YELLOW (long unavailable) that are BETTER than the current C-7 incandescent ones, both in "opaque [transluscent]" and transparent colors. I am switching. Though I do not know about any LED bubblers. The new C-7's include pink (more like magenta) and purple, the incandescents of which look brownish

[ValentinesStuff]

TV Stations playing the National Anthem when they went off the air each night.

[Little Sam]

4 minutes ago, ValentinesStuff said:

TV Stations playing the National Anthem when they went off the air each night.

Not a thing over here, we just got this

Although most TV stations were 24 hour, by the time I was old enough to really remember. I remember BBC2 would switch over to Open University lectures until like 6am, the idea was that you'd set your VCR to record whatever you were studying.

[LilRugrat]

 

I dont have much to add that has not already been said, but my favorite toy was the Gigapet. The ones that were created afterward sucked in comparison. For those that have no or little knowledge of the Gigapet, they were a tiny electronic game on a keychain. They had different animals, and sometimes creatures. You had to feed, play with, and clean up the chosen pet. If you failed at giving the pet what it needed it died and you had to stick a paperclip in the reset button. I owned both the Koala and TomCat. 

@Three Rivers @Babygeebee

I had never experienced a gas station attendant before, until we moved to a small town 3 years ago. One gas station, independently owned, is always about 9 cents more expensive than thr other two big name companies (which is totally understandable). When gas was under $3, we would use his gas station to fill up. We would rather give a hard working local man money instead of a faceless company. He does the filling, he does the windshield and every once in awhile he would check the oil. The gas pumps are the kind where they have to switch them on. Its pretty cool to live in smaller towns sometimes. 

[foreverdl]

20 hours ago, Babygeebee said:

Funny you should mention that.  On the drive home today I stopped for gas in a small town and an attendant actually asked that! I was floored. 🤯

I worked in a full service gas station way back in the 1970's, it's a good service for the customer , but it's also a sales thing if you check oil, wipers tire pressure . You may sell a qt of oil, a set of wipers, and maybe a new tire. 

[Three Rivers]

I remember taking the TV tubes down to the store with my father to test them, buy new ones if needed.

Black and White TV.

My family didn't get a Color TV until I was 8 years old.

[foreverdl]

11 hours ago, rusty pins said:

Refrigerators that closed with a latch, tire chains, phone booths, C-7 Christmas tree lights, boiling water on the stove in a teakettle, original Pampers that had to be pinned on with diaper pins, Lionel Trains and Betsy-Wetsy dolls, 78RMP records, shoe stores where they measured your feet, super-8 movie cameras, having to drop off camera film to be developed, playing board games like Clue and Monopoly just for a few more.

I have about 400 LP records , and I am not sure but maybe 🤔 50 of the 78 rpm records . Soo much changes and crazy how things come back. I still get LP's and 78's for a buck or so each, unless they are really popular artists . But I am still working on repairing my old record player, from the 50's a Stectal Carlson , I don't have it in front of me so I know I butchered th spelling. But it was one of the best companies that ever made TV's etc. And hard to find. I have only worked on 2 in my life. And I was into the Repair business for 20 yrs.

4 minutes ago, Three Rivers said:

I remember taking the TV tubes down to the store with my father to test them, buy new ones if needed.

Black and White TV.

My family didn't get a Color TV until I was 8 years old.

W had tube type TV's till I was in high school, and I started my TV Repair work in the 70's and most of the TV's and stereo etc was tube type. And the tube testers in the stores were a Rip Off, most of the tubes that it said were bad were good. I never liked to see the stickers on the tubes when I opened up a set. Because I knew they had spent a lot of money on tubes they most likely never needed, and then they didn't want to pay for the actual repair. See they put the meter reading lower than good when it was a good tube,,,,, so they could sell more tubes. I documented it, I took the tubes that people had replaced and I tested them on a good tester, and most of them were ok.  A lot of times the problems were components like a fried resister etc.. 

[tigercub59]

Turning in burnt out light bulbs to Edison Electric Co. and getting new ones back for free.

[zzyzx]

19 hours ago, 2sail2 said:

BBSs, transfer protocols: xmodem, zmodem, bimodem.  1200/2400/9600 baud modems.

CompuServe and GEnie.

Ah, Fidonet, and others.

Memory says, not 9600 *baud* for the modem.  From memory, 1200 bps modes were 300 baud.  2400 bps modems were probably 600 baud.  (300 bps modems were 300 baud....).

17 hours ago, rusty pins said:

Lionel Trains

Still have my Lionel 027 trains packed around here some place.

[froggy]

Kennedy/Nixon election, JFK being shot, first Mercury space shot

[froggy]

Kennedy/Nixon election, JFK being shot, first Mercury space shot, and seeing sputnik (soviet satellite) going overhead in night sky.  Added sputnik

[Crinklz Kat]

4 hours ago, froggy said:

Kennedy/Nixon election, JFK being shot, first Mercury space shot, and seeing sputnik (soviet satellite) going overhead in night sky.  Added sputnik

Somewhere in the pile of slides my dad took is one of me and my siblings sitting in front of the TV watching the moon landing.  We were all far too little to really know what was going on though.

[froggy]

1 hour ago, Crinklz Kat said:

Somewhere in the pile of slides my dad took is one of me and my siblings sitting in front of the TV watching the moon landing.  We were all far too little to really know what was going on though.

i think that was

1969

[ValentinesStuff]

2 hours ago, Crinklz Kat said:

Somewhere in the pile of slides my dad took is one of me and my siblings sitting in front of the TV watching the moon landing.  We were all far too little to really know what was going on though.

My earliest memory is going to the local grade school with mom to watch some important event in the classroom with my older brothers. The only event that makes sense is the Apollo 13 splashdown.  I would have been 3 years 8 months old. 

[foreverdl]

20 hours ago, zzyzx said:

Ah, Fidonet, and others.

Memory says, not 9600 *baud* for the modem.  From memory, 1200 bps modes were 300 baud.  2400 bps modems were probably 600 baud.  (300 bps modems were 300 baud....).

Still have my Lionel 027 trains packed around here some place.

I learned way tooo late, my brothers and sisters destroyed my 1965 Lionel train set. I got my son one in about 1984, and he still has it box and all. It is the rare one ToysR us sold, most we sold to kids, so very few left, and last time he said it wa worth more than $2000. I payed maybe $60 back then. I taught my son save the box for anything that you may think 🤔 is a collectible thing, in most cases the box is worth more than the thing that was in it. Just cause everyone will toss out the box.

[Firefly 35]

Vintage style audio sysyems are actually fairly popular nowadays: https://www.ebay.com/itm/355158901938?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-213727-13078-0&mkcid=2&itemid=355158901938&targetid=4580496737259427&device=m&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=418233788&mkgroupid=1230353745471221&rlsatarget=pla-4580496737259427&abcId=9300542&merchantid=51291&msclkid=a45747793876184f1a8022252131e839

On a side note, it's funny how the above item is $29.99 on ebay but $70+ on Walmart's website.  Kind of like how cable TV and streaming services are both generally delivered via a coax cable but one's more 'expensive' than the other. 

[tigercub59]

Homemade movies on 8mm film and splicing them together to fit on a larger reel. My dad still has them and just found a projector at Salvation Army to show them on a screen he has. 

[Valisia]

Floppy Disk

[DailyDi]

54 minutes ago, Valisia said:

Floppy Disk

I still have some floppys

[Little Sherri]

Adjusting the tracking on your VCR, choosing whether to get 2 hours, 4 hours or 6 hours out of a VHS cassette, those VCR+ code numbers you could use to set up a recording (and that frequently malfunctioned...). 

[willnotwill]

I remember the slightly less popular beta format. 

We didn't get Color TV until I was 9 (Motorola Quasar "Works in a drawer.").   I remember watching the moon landing on the new TV (not that that was in color).

 

[Little Sam]

40 minutes ago, Little Sherri said:

Adjusting the tracking on your VCR, choosing whether to get 2 hours, 4 hours or 6 hours out of a VHS cassette, those VCR+ code numbers you could use to set up a recording (and that frequently malfunctioned...). 

Re-record, not fade away