Old Enough To Remember?

Slammer said:
Oh boy.... Three channels on the black and white telly, Dad changing oil in the gutter. Lots of shortwave radio stations clustered round the 49m band. Watching a lot of WW2 vintage surplus vehicles, including a D-day DUKW. The Goon show and the Clitheroe kid on the wireless. Mick McManus in the ring. Then we moved to Germany. Playing in bombed out ruins, finding a box of potato masher grenades and having fun with them.
All good fun.
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we had 4 channels to watch being so close to Windsor we got a Canadian station too
 
Some memories this brought up...

"Im old enough to remember pumping "regular" for $0.19 / GAL during a gas war and my Austin Healey Sprite would not hold a dollars' worth!"

My Dad - as oil prices rose "If gas gets to a dollar a gallon, I'll just stop driving..."

"Having a TV repair guy come by a few times a year to change out vacuum tubes in your B & W set."

When our TV would go out, dad would pull several tubes and go to what would now be called a convenience store where they had a "tube tester" machine, and they carried spares for most of the tubes you could test....

Odie1
 
Dad had a reel to reel audio player. I remember Beta/VHS tapes and cassete tapes. We had a rotary dial phone and when we lived in Wakefield, KS we only had to dial the last 4 of a phone number. First computer was a Commador 64. Played with GI Joes. Ran around in the woods in our Dad's worn out BDUs and olive drabs with our faces painted and toy guns. WWF was the World Wrestling Foundation. Rick Rude killing Jake the Snake's python. Paying $1/gal of gas and my '78 suburban only needed $20 to fill.
 
SMSW said:
What did 767-2676 get you? I've never heard of this one.
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It would give a recording:
At the Tone the time will be 10:06 am Beep.. long pause
At the Tone the time will be 10:07 am Beep..

This was how you set your watch/Clock to the correct time.
 
I'm only 58, but I do remember going with my dad (and the rest of the familly) at his hunting camp, a very remote place in northern quebec. There was a gas station along our route. That place was so remote, they had no electricity, and I guess no telephone.
The guy asked my father how much gas he wanted. I think it was 11 gallons. The guy would then manually pump the gas that would accumulate in a transpatent glass reservoir, above the pump. So, we could see the amount of gas beeing pumped. There was marks on the glass, showing the quantity. At some point, the guy would say : "OK, so, this is 5 gallons, right ? ". Then, he grabs the hose with the handgun, and the gas would just transfer, by gravity, into our gas tank. Then, the guy would manually pump again, until we had the desired quantity.
I was amazed by that strange "out of this world" pump and my dad told me that's how gas pump used to be in the good old days. Of course, you could only pay in cash.

Another thing I remember, that is only 30 and some years ago, but seems from another age today : on every thursday I would receive my paycheck at work. Then, after the end of my workday, I would go to the bank, wait in line with lots of people, there would be about 12 cashier there.
Then, I would tell the cashier : here is my paid, I'd like to keep this amount, pay those bills (had to have the paper invoice with me, from telephone, tv cable service, electricity, etc. The cashier will stamp them "Paid".) and make a deposit with the rest.
The cash I would keep (say 130) was my money for the week (grocery, gas station, cinema, restaurant, video club, etc).
That was before debit card and internet. You would pay cash everywhere you go.
 
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my first computer was a radio shack trs80 with 64 rom and 64 ram, i still have it in the original box down in my basement along with my bag phone
 
Its funny/ironic hearing all these stories of how things were before digital. Last week, the largest ISP in Canada went down for a day and it literally shut the country down. No Interac or debit/credit purchases could be processed. Needed cash to buy gas, groceries or anything, for that matter (very few people carry cash, it turns out...lol). Many people had the day off as companies couldnt operate. Much of the phone system was out as was the internet. It was like stepping back 40 years, even worse when you consider that 40 years ago, one would be carrying cash. Last friday, very few even had that and the banks couldnt give you cash, as their networks were down.
 
Strangely enough, only a few days ago and for some unknown reason, I was thinking about the below with astonishment now that we know better.

There must be others here besides me who remember these, and know what they are and were used for.
 

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ST Steven said:
Foot x ray device
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Imagine, we used to expose ourselves to unacceptably high radiation, totally unprotected, at our local shoe store to see if our new shoes fit properly, all the while unsupervised by any radiologist, and with little restriction.
 
I remember growing up in Kelowna beside the hospital, five digit numbers, going back and seeing some of my friends [albeit thirty or forty years later,] some of my later friends going back out there, living and dying their lives around the same place where I still remember me and my nine year old buddys found old boats and stuff,
 
Andrew Shadow said:
Imagine, we used to expose ourselves to unacceptably high radiation, totally unprotected, at our local shoe store to see if our new shoes fit properly, all the while unsupervised by any radiologist, and with little restriction.
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Really??? wow, I have never seen or heard of this. o_O
 
ChriSTian_64 said:
The guy asked my father how much gas he wanted. I think it was 11 gallons. The guy would then manually pump the gas that would accumulate in a transpatent glass reservoir, above the pump. So, we could see the amount of gas beeing pumped. There was marks on the glass, showing the quantity. At some point, the guy would say : "OK, so, this is 5 gallons, right ? ". Then, he grabs the hose with the handgun, and the gas would just transfer, by gravity, into our gas tank. Then, the guy would manually pump again, until we had the desired quantity.
I was amazed by that strange "out of this world" pump and my dad told me that's how gas pump used to be in the good old days. Of course, you could only pay in cash.
Click to expand...

My Grandfather's younger brother owned the local general store. His gas pumps were like this but the filling of the glass reservoir was by electric pump. They were replaced in the early 60's with the one armed 'finger in the ear' automatic pumps.
 
@drbuzzard beat me to the Radio Shack TRS-80 tape loaded computer (only ran one program at a time)
Atari (Combat - tanks and airplanes, Missile Command, Pong, Asteroids, etc)
Tootsie Rolls bought individually for a penny apiece
The 'prize' drawer at the dentist
Learning to drive in the field on a '46 Ford coupe and a single cab pickup truck ("3 on the tree")
Ghost in the Graveyard after sunset on late summer break nights
K-12 in the same building, with several of the same teachers my parents had
Not only 33s (33 1/3 actually) and 45s, but 78s as well (corrected, thanks Larry!)
Black Snakes on 4 July
Using an atlas to drive cross country into and through unknown cities and actually arriving!
Palm Pilot
Green stamps
Candy cigarettes
Concur on the three channels (and sometimes a UHF one if the weather was right) but more importantly, being the one who had to climb the antenna tower to reorient the thing when it spun and no longer received! We didn't own a motorized version, that was too expensive (similar to color TV!)
 
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