I am SOOO old.

[Perd Hapley]

At 32, I'm way too young to do this, but I'm always shocked when I remember that I'm old enough to have used seventies and eighties technology - and not because it was retro-chic.  That stuff just seems so ancient now, I can't believe I was a part of that time period. 

I've just discovered that my college has a one-room museum of old computer stuff.  It includes a small collection of type-writers, one of which is a 40's-vintage Smith Corona.  It bears a striking resemblance to my Dad's Smith Corona, and I suddenly remembered that I actually used that type-writer for assignments back in high school (early nineties).  I also learned to type on electric typewriters in freshman year. 

Plus a few days ago my wife and I were discussing the records we had, as kids.   

[AZRedhawk44]

Plus a few days ago my wife and I were discussing the records we had, as kids.   

Just be quiet and go gum yer applesauce and watch yer Perry Mason reruns while the rest of us keep making the world go round...

[Devonai]

I'm 32, and I've been thinking on similar lines lately.  I would love to get back into LPs as a hobby, for example. 

I also just purchased a Wii and have downloaded almost entirely NES and SNES games rather than buying the latest offerings.

I'd also like to get a Mac Plus just for the heck of it. 

[Ron]

As a kid I watched b/w TV, it had its own antenna.

My first couple cars only had AM radios in them.

Our home stereo(phonic) had radio tubes that needed to be replaced occasionally. The stereo would get so warm that if you had a warped record you could lay it on top of it and it would flatten the album out.

[Monkeyleg]

My dad built the first TV in our neighborhood in Flint in the very early 1950's. I was too young to remember it, but there were only a few hours a day when television was broadcast.

Does anyone remember TV test patterns when broadcasting ended at midnight?

My father got into computer engineering in the very beginning. The huge machines he worked with would take up an entire house, and most of that was vacuum tubes. It took another area twice that size to air condition everything. And the computers had a whopping 32K of memory.

I remember as a kid having headphones made from bakelight (sp?) rather than plastic. Hand-held tape recorders were reel-to-reel. I also remember party lines (the kind where more than one family shared, not the kind where you talk dirty to strangers ).

It seems so long ago, almost as though I was someone else.

[charby]

As a kid I watched b/w TV, it had its own antenna.

My first couple cars only had AM radios in them.

Our home stereo(phonic) had radio tubes that needed to be replaced occasionally. The stereo would get so warm that if you had a warped record you could lay it on top of it and it would flatten the album out.

I didn't have cable TV until I was 21. My parents didn't think we needed it and it came free with my dorm room when I transferred from community college to a state university. I've had it ever since. We had one black and white TV in the house until my mom bought a used color one from the hospital she worked at for $20. I remember when FOX started their network, it was great to have one more choice than NBC, ABC, CBS and PBS. The closest TV station to us was 80 miles away so we always had fuzzy TV with bunny ears.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

cable? i remember my first color set

[Perd Hapley]

Does anyone remember TV test patterns when broadcasting ended at midnight?

Yup, 'cause I'm so old.

My parents actually "regressed" from a big wood-cabinet color TV(when I was four) to no TV to a 13" BW (with dials!), back to no TV again, to a 13" color w/ built-in VCR w/ remote control (when I went off to college), and finally to a medium-sized color TV w/ built-in VCR.  They've added a DVD player and HD converter-gizmo. 

[Gewehr98]

My favorite wireless computer in the house: 

[French G.]

I'm only 34, grew up with a party line phone, up until I was about 7 you only had to dial the last 4 digits of a phone number withing the same exchange. My first computer was a Kaypro my dad gave me, CPM language and Space Invaders. I never had a game system, played on others Colecovision sets. And finally, I was the remote, including going outside in the snow to turn the antenna by hand.

[gunsmith]

I remember Bod Dylan's song playing on the radio saying "everyone must get stoned" and being shocked
he could get away with it, watching Star Trek, Batman and Secret Agent Man during prime time the first time they aired...& being madly in love with an older women...Penny Robinson.

[Strings]

I remember TV and suchlike in the 70s...

Our first color set was one of the big wood grain monistrosities (and yep, I was the remote).

Remember when my brother picked up Pong, and EVERYONE was jealous. I wouldn't have another game system available until I had a job in high school, and bought myself an NES...

I remember when cable came to the Chicago suburbs: it was a box with a dial on the front, some models of which had a barrel-key (so parents could lock the thing on PBS or somesuch while leaving the kids home during the day)

I remember Tonka trucks, made out of sheet steel

Playing outside, and finding all SORTS of things to do out in the undeveloped fields near my house (this was in Lake Zurich, IL. 'Bout 20 miles outside of Chicago. Recently went back to visit, and those fields aren't even a memory)...

I remember having a rotary-dial phone, which was standard in EVERYONE'S home.

Had one of thse bakelite headset radios: big clunky thing, posered by a 9V, with tuning and volume knob on one side...

I also remember trick-or-treating on Halloween, regardless of what day of the week it was. And being out to 10 or 11 doing it...

Think I need some Geritol... :(

[Perd Hapley]

My parents still have their rotary phone on the wall.  The ringer quit working a few years ago. 

[lee n. field]

Playing outside, and finding all SORTS of things to do out in the undeveloped fields near my house (this was in Lake Zurich, IL. 'Bout 20 miles outside of Chicago. Recently went back to visit, and those fields aren't even a memory)...

We would go through Lake Zurich to get to my mother-in-law's in Barrington.  We haven't been that way since she died in '95 or so, but even then you could see the difference from one visit to the next.  Depressing.  I hate suburbia.

[280plus]

If you remember the Banana Man, THEN you are old. Whippersnappers! 

 

[280plus]

He goes way farther back than 69 but this is all I could find.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et6Jt2YX44o

[Tuco]

I remember the first time I thought about getting old.  Freshman year in college, picked up an issue of Playboy Magazine and opened to the 11x17 foldout page in the middle.  After admiring the hardware, glanced over to discern the lady's name, favorite food, turn offs, etc and noticed she was born in 1967.  

The playmate of the month was younger than me.  I was officially old.

[Jamisjockey]

I remember Tonka trucks, made out of sheet steel

I still have my big yellow sheet steel tonka dump truck.  It is beat to all hell, and my kids play with it.  It has been outside for about 5 years straight now, being snowed and rained on and being kicked and tossed and rolled down steps. 

[charby]

I remember when graphite fishing poles started coming out and how expensive they were.

[coppertales]

I remember the Korean war.  I remember when sterio made it's first appearance.  I still have and can use my slide rule.  My first scooter was a Sears Allstate.  I remember where I was when Kennedy was shot.  I watched Elvis on Ed Sullivan.  I remember all the nuke above ground testing and none of us died.....Springfield 1903 rifles were  sold at the army/navy surplus store for 15 bucks.  The National Guard out at the local air base flew P51s.....chris3

[Desertdog]

I remember the Korean war.

I remember some of WWII.  I was 9 when it ended.  Rationing was for everybody.  Pick up the phone and get the operator and tell her what number you wanted.
TV, Coputers, portable radios, not on the market.  Power steering, power breaks, air conditioning in the home, not on the market yet.

[zahc]

The playmate of the month was younger than me.  I was officially old.

For me it's been the opposite. Doing the same thing, and noticing that the woman is in her late 20s or even (!) 30s, and realizing that this is not a problem. Heck my wife is in her late 20s now. I'm so old.

[Monkeyleg]

I remember working with a model who had been the Playboy Playmate of the Year the year prior and thinking...uh, never mind.

[Strings]

Lee...

If you grew up in the Chicago area in the late 70s, one name for ya: Ray Rayner (sp?)

[Stetson]

My dad worked for Texas Instruments and helped design the "Speak And Spell" and the owl looking calculator that gave you math problems to solve.  I remember having to "play" with the toys until we broke them and then answering questions for dad until we hated the dang things.

After moving to Colorado, we had 4 TV stations and 2 were PBS.  One out of Broomfield and one from Denver.  The other 2 were ABC and NBC.  It was okay though because living out in the country, we were never in the house unless a blizzard came along.  I remember people that lived in town talking about a "Home Box Office" and I thought it was a special room they got to go in to watch movies. 

I didn't see a CD player until after I was in the USN.  Records and 8 tracks were all we had until I was a sophomore in HS (85), then we got a cassette  player.

Our TV was huge and had a record player  attached.  I think my dad still has it in his garage