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Signs of Getting Older

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  • Member since
    October 2004
  • From: Orlando, Florida
Posted by ikar01 on Thursday, August 19, 2021 12:23 PM

It's strange when you can say back in the old days or back in the last century.

You can talk in that old guy squeeky voice and laugh and have to stop because you don't want to have it become a permanent voice.

Remember when Ricardo Mantoban did the Chrysler comercials with their "fine Corinthian leather".or him doing Fantasy Island.

  • Member since
    April 2020
Posted by Eaglecash867 on Thursday, August 19, 2021 12:27 PM

Gamera
Same, though my parents did buy me the 1541 floppy disk drive with my C-64. It was slow but it got there!

I ended up getting a C64 later on with the tape drive.  Then I bought a 1541 knock-off...I think it was made by Blue Chip.  Not a bad floppy drive when it worked.  That was all when I was 15, I think, which is when I got my first job.  Oh, and I bought the Blue Chip at LaBelle's.  Remember that place?

Oh...and how about the VicModem 1600?  I was on the internet (Compuserve) before Al Gore invented it.  Propeller

"You can have my illegal fireworks when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers...which are...over there somewhere."

  • Member since
    April 2020
Posted by Eaglecash867 on Thursday, August 19, 2021 12:31 PM

ikar01

It's strange when you can say back in the old days or back in the last century.

You can talk in that old guy squeeky voice and laugh and have to stop because you don't want to have it become a permanent voice.

Remember when Ricardo Mantoban did the Chrysler comercials with their "fine Corinthian leather".or him doing Fantasy Island.

 

My favorite "Back in my day..." story to tell all the guys in my shop is that when I started working at Centennial Airport here in Colorado, Arapahoe Road, with its sprawling shopping complexes and luxury homes and apartments...was a dirt road, surrounded by nothing but empty grassland as far as the eye could see in every direction but west.

"You can have my illegal fireworks when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers...which are...over there somewhere."

  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Western North Carolina
Posted by Tojo72 on Thursday, August 19, 2021 12:49 PM
Young adults with no recollection of 9/11 to me it seems like yesterday

  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Towson MD
Posted by gregbale on Thursday, August 19, 2021 1:22 PM

Eaglecash867
I ended up getting a C64 later on with the tape drive. Then I bought a 1541 knock-off...I think it was made by Blue Chip. Not a bad floppy drive when it worked. That was all when I was 15, I think, which is when I got my first job. Oh, and I bought the Blue Chip at LaBelle's. Remember that place? Oh...and how about the VicModem 1600? I was on the internet (Compuserve) before Al Gore invented it.

I'll go y'all one better.

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX-80. The tablet-sized one that was basically just a circuit board in a vacuum-formed plastic shell, that you had to plug into your TV as a monitor...and whose cutting-edge data-storage system was your own plug-in cassette recorder.

Taught me the basics of programming...though probably in a language that was only valid for about 15 seconds.

Greg

George Lewis:

"Every time you correct me on my grammar I love you a little fewer."
 
  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Thursday, August 19, 2021 1:29 PM

ikar01
Remember when Ricardo Mantoban did the Chrysler comercials with their "fine Corinthian leather"

Yep, a native Spanish speaker who pronounced the car model cor-DOH-bah even though the city is named COR-doh-bah.

 

Bill

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    April 2020
Posted by Eaglecash867 on Thursday, August 19, 2021 1:58 PM

gregbale
My first computer was a Sinclair ZX-80. The tablet-sized one that was basically just a circuit board in a vacuum-formed plastic shell, that you had to plug into your TV as a monitor...and whose cutting-edge data-storage system was your own plug-in cassette recorder. Taught me the basics of programming...though probably in a language that was only valid for about 15 seconds.

Yup.  I remember those little RF converters that you'd attach to the back of your TV with the little fork terminals.  Those casette tape drives definitely taught you patience, with some programs taking more than 30 minutes to load.  I learned to program in BASIC, and later dabbled in machine language a little bit, and haven't used any of it since.

"You can have my illegal fireworks when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers...which are...over there somewhere."

  • Member since
    March 2015
  • From: Close to Chicago
Posted by JohnnyK on Thursday, August 19, 2021 3:24 PM

If you remember these TV shows then you are older than dirt.

Your comments and questions are always welcome.

fox
  • Member since
    January 2007
  • From: Narvon, Pa.
Posted by fox on Thursday, August 19, 2021 3:38 PM

My brother used to ask my dad "Did you see many dinosaurs when you were a kid?" One day his son asked him the same question. He didn't think it was very funny.

Jim Captain

Stay Safe.

 Main WIP: 

   On the Bench: Artesania Latina  (aka) Artists in the Latrine 1/75 Bluenose II

I keep hitting "escape", but I'm still here.

  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Towson MD
Posted by gregbale on Thursday, August 19, 2021 5:35 PM

fox

My brother used to ask my dad "Did you see many dinosaurs when you were a kid?" One day his son asked him the same question. He didn't think it was very funny.

Jim Captain

I know how it is with brothers.

Now convince me that Uncle Jim didn't secretly coach the kid to ask that question.... Whistling

Greg

George Lewis:

"Every time you correct me on my grammar I love you a little fewer."
 
  • Member since
    July 2014
  • From: Franklin Wi
Posted by Bakster on Thursday, August 19, 2021 5:46 PM

Wow! What a great thread! I have come to one inescapable conclusion. You ready for it? 

 

MAN! YOU GUYS ARE OLD!

 

LOL.. I jest. I can relate to most all of this.

 

20cents a gallon gas, 10 cent comic books, pop off soda caps, fixing a tv was a trip to the nearest drugstore with a sack full of tubes, three to 4 tv channels and mabe one came in clear, broadcast outages was the norm, parents do you knowwhere your children are, and yeah, we watched the commercials because we were too lazy to get up and change the channel.

 

Oh man, the good old days.

 

  • Member since
    April 2012
Posted by nearsightedjohn on Thursday, August 19, 2021 6:17 PM

Okay....I'm so old....I used a slide rule for the first three years of college,  a yellow Picket brand aluminum one with scales on both sides. I sold my car to my older brother in 1974 so that I could afford my first calculator, a Texas Instrument SR-50 that did logs and trig, it changed my life (such as it was). I am also very old because the car I sold my brother to buy that calculator was a 1956 Chevrolet 210 two-door column sedan with a 265 V-8 in very nice condition and for which he claimed I over charged him at $400....

You can buy one of those old calculators on eBay these days for $19. The car would go for a little more I think (+$25K ?)......if we only knew then what we know now....

  • Member since
    October 2004
  • From: Orlando, Florida
Posted by ikar01 on Thursday, August 19, 2021 6:23 PM

I remember those shws, especially the rocket man.  Leonard Nimoy even had a role in one of them.  If you watch S.T.Voyager they do a couple episodes based on that show mixed in with Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers serials and they did them in black&white.

Then the show Andy's Gang with the actor Andy Devine.

Kookla, Fran, and Ollie

Crusader Rabbit

Rocky and Bullwinkle

Rocky Jones, Space Ranger

Space AngelSuper Car, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Captain Scarlet

Dr. Who with John Pertwee

When shows would announce they were in color like 12:00 O'clock High, the Invaders and so on.

The first color TV sets.   When they were installed and running they were not to be moved because the picture could go crazy.  I don't know why, that's what they said.

  • Member since
    August 2019
  • From: Central Oregon
Posted by HooYah Deep Sea on Thursday, August 19, 2021 6:37 PM

Actually, the reason I know that I'm 'getting up there', is that I look at a lot of the kids today and think "Where did we go wrong?"

So many kids have no concept of reality, of having to work for a living, of respect for the flag and national pride. They idolize know-nothing celebrities and couldn't survive without their phones in hand.

Sure am glad my kids are all grown.

Sorry to be a bummer folks, but as they say; It is what it is.   

"Why do I do this? Because the money's good, the scenery changes and they let me use explosives, okay?"

fox
  • Member since
    January 2007
  • From: Narvon, Pa.
Posted by fox on Thursday, August 19, 2021 7:28 PM

Greg, my brother called me the day it happened and asked the same question. My answer was "Who Me?"Wink

Jim Captain

Stay Safe.

 Main WIP: 

   On the Bench: Artesania Latina  (aka) Artists in the Latrine 1/75 Bluenose II

I keep hitting "escape", but I'm still here.

  • Member since
    August 2021
Posted by goldhammer88 on Thursday, August 19, 2021 7:38 PM

Oh yeah, I not only remember those shows, I watched most of them.

Beginning to think I'm older than what's under dirt.Tongue Tied

  • Member since
    June 2018
  • From: Ohio (USA)
Posted by DRUMS01 on Thursday, August 19, 2021 7:41 PM

I'm really enjoying this message line. after reading all the messages I have a couple more:

- Remembering when the first McDonald's or A&W Rootbeer stand opened.

- Living when every car or truck sold had a large chrome front and rear bumper.

- Does anybody remember the funny shaped Pactra paint bottles?

- When your first car was manufactured prior to 1970 and it was not a classic or antique.

- When the military still used the 1911 Colt 45 as standard issue along with the Steel Pot, jeeps, M113 APC's, and so on....

- How about when we performed nuclear safety drills every day in school?

- You had to know how to use a compass because GPS, satallites, or even computers did not exist.

- The time when your hot rod was not complete without a Pioneer or Kenwood AM/FM Cassette with two Jenson tri-axle speakers behind the rear seat / in the window.... all for well under $500.00

- Or how about when your prermium home stereo had an Amp, Pre-Amp, Equalizer, tuner, and record player along with stereo speakers containing a base, mid-range, and tweeter (speakers).

- Does anyone remember when lava or oil lamps were a big thing?

- How about the original bean bag chair, did you have one?

- When they used metal cleats for baseball and football.

- Did anyone have the black light and associated posters in thier bedrooms?

- Shag carpet anyone?

- here is something not real old but old just the same; pagers, Sony Walkmans for both Cassetes or for CD's. 

- Blockbuster or other Video rental stores

- Reciting the Lord's Prayer and Pledge of Allegience every day at school.

Keep them coming everyone!

"Everyones the normal until you get to know them" (Unknown)

LAST COMPLETED:

1/35 Churchill Mk IV AVRE with bridge - DONE

NEXT PROJECT:

1/35 CH-54A Tarhe Helicopter

 

  • Member since
    July 2014
Posted by modelcrazy on Thursday, August 19, 2021 10:57 PM

Yep, reading through these made me think of a few.

My first car was a used 69 Camaro for $500.

If you wanted to have that one song you liked or to make a cool mix tape you had to call the radio station and request it,  wait for it to play then record it with your cassette tape recorder. You hoped the DJ didn't say anything before the song ended.

My first tape recorder was one of those small reel to reels you saw on Mission Impossible.

Beepers were the new thing and you didn't need to wait by the phone for a call.

My fist calculator was a TI 2500 Datamath calculator that my dad brought home. He worked for TI at the time but you could get one for just $100. Schools band them.

I loved Capain Kangaroo and thought he worked down the street at the TV station.

After getting a color TV I was disappointed that Batman's uniform was still black and gray.

Steve

Building a kit from your stash is like cutting a head off a Hydra, two more take it's place.

 

 

http://www.spamodeler.com/forum/

  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Towson MD
Posted by gregbale on Friday, August 20, 2021 1:56 AM

nearsightedjohn
Okay....I'm so old....I used a slide rule for the first three years of college, a yellow Picket brand aluminum one with scales on both sides.

My high-school math class (73-74) was literally the last one where the slide rule was taught...or probably even mentioned.

(However, since Dad was an electrical engineer...he'd taught my siblings and I how to use one back in grade school. Back then you could even use them on some tests -- which sure as sixty wasn't allowed with those new-fangled calculators -- the reasoning being, I suppose, that if you 'applied yourself' sufficiently to master the slide rule.then the educational system was presumably working up to spec, the way it was intended. [I had a circular one the old man gave me, that I used in classes for years. All the advantages of being a nerd...without that tell-tale bayonet-sized thing sticking out of a pocket to broadcast it to the world. Big Smile])

Greg

George Lewis:

"Every time you correct me on my grammar I love you a little fewer."
 
  • Member since
    October 2019
  • From: New Braunfels, Texas
Posted by Tanker-Builder on Friday, August 20, 2021 6:38 AM

Well;

    Lessee-Boats were built out of Wood and or Steel

    You Dialed the phone with the circular thing on the front with numbers in it.

    Here's one. You put your key in the ignition,Then pressed the starter button, Oh!          that's right, Chrysler brought that one back didn't they?

    Cars had Spare Tires, not donuts or inflating kits

    T.V.s had a self control thing called a Hand.

    Libraries, were Quiet!

    Post Ofices had the Stamp and Package counter in the same building, not two miles away!

    There were these Red, White and Blue-Sometimes All Blue curved top boxes on every third corner.(Postal Drop Boxes). 

     Feminine and Male products were NOT advertised on T.V. 

    Insurance (Whatever Kind) was only advertised in a short spot showing their LOGO.

    Stores had Windows toward the Sidewalks-Remember the term " Window-Shop"?

     The Lights on dashboards in cars were called " Idiot Lights"! Why? Well, if one came on the damage was done, and you were an idiot for not servicing the car when you should've!

      Maybe to check Tire Pressure,you had a little pen sized gadget you kept in your " Glove Bo". Not a little light on the dash.

      Perhaps you wanted Coffee at home .You made a "pot" NOT A pod! 

      Shipleys and Dunkin didn't have " Drive -Throughs".

      There were no Double Door Refrigeratore and none had Computers in the Door!

      Applesauce came in a Jar, Not a squeeze pouch!

      Ketchup was spelled " Catsup"

       Kellogs had a ten pack of little cereal boxes, sealed so well each one was called the Kel-Bowl Pack" Yeah, you could actually pour milk on the cereal in boxes without leaks.

      We had a Cabinet in the bathroom wall with a Mirrored door called a " Medicine Cabinet"

      Houses had "Rooms" such as Kitchens, Sitting Rooms, Living Rooms, Dining Rooms and Studies And the ONE bathroom was on the ground ( Or First) Floor. The wealthy folks had Music rooms and Parlors! 

    There was a thing called a Linen Closet! That's where household Clean Linens were stored between use! 

  • Member since
    October 2019
  • From: New Braunfels, Texas
Posted by Tanker-Builder on Friday, August 20, 2021 6:50 AM

Hi Johnny K!

 The first Photo was Clarabell the Clown, Buffalo Bob Smith and the one in the middle was the Marionette called Howdy Doody. Live from W.B.E.N. T.V-4- in Downtown Buffalo N.Y.

  The Second-?

   Third-"Our Miss Brooks"

   Fourth-?

   Duncan Reynaldo and Leo Carillo- In The " Cisco Kid"

    Lastly-The Famous " Captain Kangaroo"

 

  • Member since
    August 2015
  • From: the redlands Fl
Posted by crown r n7 on Friday, August 20, 2021 6:59 AM

Going to the library and turning pages in the Encyclopedia Britannica for book reports.

going to the dentist and their drill was powered by cables and an electric motor.

the singer sewing machine was powered by your foot.

 

 

 Nick.

  • Member since
    October 2004
  • From: Orlando, Florida
Posted by ikar01 on Friday, August 20, 2021 7:25 AM

Going to Picatinny Arsenal each Armed Forces Day for their open house.  Their border touched our town border.

I still have my steel helmet with its cammo cover and have a flack vest fro bsack then, I drovew the M-113 as well as the X706, M-715, M-151 and you had to be able to operate a stick shift for a government driver's license. 

The Thunderbirds were flying their brand new F-4E

Getting a notice from the FBI that they had just grabbed a member of the Weather Underground  in a motel outside the base  who was planning to cause trouble during the Bi-Centennal.

Having the Freedom Train which made a tour of all the sttates in 1976 acrrying objects from the country's past for everyone to see.

Playing a minor part in the test flight of the new cruise missile while at Minot.  Two of our fighters escorted a B-52 into Canada where it fired the missile to be picked up by a sub.  Green Peace got wind of it and tried to catch it with a large net stretched between two hot air balloons.

  • Member since
    June 2021
Posted by rocketman2000 on Friday, August 20, 2021 7:30 AM

nearsightedjohn

Okay....I'm so old....I used a slide rule for the first three years of college,  a yellow Picket brand aluminum one with scales on both sides. I sold my car to my older brother in 1974 so that I could afford my first calculator, a Texas Instrument SR-50 that did logs and trig, it changed my life (such as it was). I am also very old because the car I sold my brother to buy that calculator was a 1956 Chevrolet 210 two-door column sedan with a 265 V-8 in very nice condition and for which he claimed I over charged him at $400....

You can buy one of those old calculators on eBay these days for $19. The car would go for a little more I think (+$25K ?)......if we only knew then what we know now....

 

I bought my first slide rule in high school.  A friend sold it to me cheap when he upgraded to a metal one.  I used it for the first year in college.  Bought a used K&E during soph year from friend who upgraded to a circular one.

 

Don Stauffer in Minnesota

  • Member since
    April 2009
  • From: Longmont, Colorado
Posted by Cadet Chuck on Friday, August 20, 2021 7:42 AM

TB, the second photo down is "Commando Cody, Sky Marshall of the Universe."  

Also I remember "Space Patrolllllll- High Adventure in the Wild, Vast Reaches of Space! Missions of daring in the name of interplanetary justice!  Travel into the future, with Buzz Corry, commander in chief, of the Space Patrollll !"

And of course, the ever-popular "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, in the age of the Conquest of Space", 

And "Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers", (who didn't seem to do much of anything.)

Gimme a pigfoot, and a bottle of beer...

  • Member since
    August 2021
Posted by goldhammer88 on Friday, August 20, 2021 8:52 AM

Ikar, saw the Thunderbirds and the "E" at Beale in '73.

Another couple of old shows... Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Sky King. 

METV is running a morning hour of the old cartoons from the 50-60's.  That'll take you back.

 

 

 

 

  • Member since
    August 2019
  • From: Central Oregon
Posted by HooYah Deep Sea on Friday, August 20, 2021 10:52 AM

And where does this all lead; back to when we were young and innocent (well, semi-innocent for some of us). Back when there was some semblance of sanity, at least in our eyes, back when there were no hidden agendas, when life as we knew it was straight forward and could be taken at face value  .  .  .

Wow, way back then!

"Why do I do this? Because the money's good, the scenery changes and they let me use explosives, okay?"

  • Member since
    July 2014
  • From: Franklin Wi
Posted by Bakster on Friday, August 20, 2021 11:25 AM

HooYah Deep Sea

And where does this all lead; back to when we were young and innocent (well, semi-innocent for some of us). Back when there was some semblance of sanity, at least in our eyes, back when there were no hidden agendas, when life as we knew it was straight forward and could be taken at face value  .  .  .

Wow, way back then!

 

Exactly. 

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: SW Virginia
Posted by Gamera on Friday, August 20, 2021 11:40 AM

Well, I put together a bookcase for my DVD/Blu-Ray collection last night and my back is killing me today.

Guess that's:

1). Killer backache- yeah I'm old.

2). I don't trust owning a movie on streaming, if I don't own a physical copy I don't consider it owning it- makes me old.

"I dream in fire but work in clay." -Arthur Machen

 

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Fort Knox
Posted by Rob Gronovius on Friday, August 20, 2021 12:35 PM

I used to love Rat Patrol on TV, palyed with army men and jeeps being the Rat Patrol. Bought the complete series on DVD, and boy it was awful.

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