Post by: Desertdog on August 09, 2007, 09:23:58 AM
There were no such thing as power steering nor air conditioning in your car.
When it was 107 degrees and no such thing a A/C. Thank God for fans.
A "calculater" was normally a pencil and piece of paper. If you were really educated you might have .
The movie was $0.09, and 5 soda bottles would get you in with a penny left over for candy.
What are your memories of the "good old days."
Post by: The Rabbi on August 09, 2007, 09:27:41 AM
I remember when stock broker commissions were $100 and more.
I remember when you had to go to the travel agent or call the airline to make reservations. Those reservations were always expensive and you invariably had to go through Atlanta no matter where you were travelling to and from.
I remember when the top tax rate was 90%
I remember when Democrats had integrity.
Post by: HankB on August 09, 2007, 10:25:20 AM
I remember when you could get a burger, fries, and a soda at Mickey D's and still get change back from your dollar.
I remember when competing gas stations frequently advertised "Gas Wars" and cut the price on a gallon of gas, often to less than 30 cents.
I remember when you could buy guns via mail order . . . though my age and my allowance were both a bit too small to take advantage.
I remember when 2-way radios were advertised by the number of transistors they had.
I remember when television sets had a bunch of tubes in the back - and fixing the TV myself by pulling the tubes, riding my bicycle down to Walgreens where they had a tube tester, and using it to identify the bad tube.
I remember when you didn't have cr@p shows on EVERY channel EVERY night - I mean who watches stuff like "Dancing Idol Survivor" or whatever the shows are called?
I remember when Republicans behaved like Republicans.
Post by: Tallpine on August 09, 2007, 11:38:12 AM
Post by: Perd Hapley on August 09, 2007, 01:03:46 PM
Post by: Paddy on August 09, 2007, 01:09:10 PM
Quote
The movie was $0.09, and 5 soda bottles would get you in with a penny left over for candy.
You must be really old. Even I don't remember that far back. Seems like we got a nickel for a pop bottle.
Post by: nico on August 09, 2007, 01:44:49 PM
I think I'm a little younger than some of you guys
Post by: cosine on August 09, 2007, 01:55:35 PM
I think I'm a lot younger than most of you guys.
Post by: lee n. field on August 09, 2007, 02:00:34 PM
I remember when pop came in returnable glass bottles.
Speaking of pop, I remember Tab. <spew!>
I remember riding (standing up even) in the bed of my dad's pickup.
Quote
Thank God for fans.
Rattly oscillating fans with a protective grill open enough that the (metal) fanblades just might (in our young imagination) take off a finger.
Quote
I remember when television sets had a bunch of tubes in the back
Ditto car radios.
Quote
I remember when you didn't have cr@p shows on EVERY channel EVERY night
All three! channels - woo woo! I love Lucy reruns 3 times a day.
I remember TV test patterns, and watching the little one minute blurb that started the day.
Post by: Desertdog on August 09, 2007, 03:27:44 PM
Quote
I remember when old fogies didn't reminisce on the interwebs.
Me, too. They played checkers either on the front porch or in the park. (No A/C)Memory lapse in mid sentence; "If you were really educated you might have a slide rule."
Post by: Perd Hapley on August 09, 2007, 03:29:46 PM
Post by: Declaration Day on August 09, 2007, 04:58:45 PM
I remember being able to call ten local friends without having to dial 4 different area codes.
I remember being in Junior High, and kids who had a pager were thought to be drug dealers.
I remember when a PC was about $5, none of the models were compatible, and disk drives were separate components that weighed 15 pounds.
I remember when the SONY Walkman, which played cassettes, was a status symbol among kids, and were quite pricey.
Here's a good one: I remember when MTV played MUSIC!
Post by: Perd Hapley on August 09, 2007, 05:43:47 PM
Quote
I remember when a PC was about $5, none of the models were compatible, and disk drives were separate components that weighed 15 pounds.
Not if you used your Walkman.
Does anybody else remember cassette tapes being used like floppies?
Post by: K Frame on August 09, 2007, 05:55:50 PM
I remember when Arpanet was THE internet, and I remember conversing with my friend at Yale while I was at Dickinson.
I remember 300 baud acoustical couplers.
Everything else? I forget.
Post by: Declaration Day on August 09, 2007, 06:12:36 PM
Not if you used your Walkman. Does anybody else remember cassette tapes being used like floppies?
Does anybody else remember cassette tapes being used like floppies? We had an ADAM computer that operated on cassette tapes.
Post by: Perd Hapley on August 09, 2007, 06:14:15 PM
Post by: Sindawe on August 09, 2007, 06:18:53 PM
Quote
Here's a good one: I remember when MTV played MUSIC!
LOL!! Internet killed the video star.
I remember Fido-Net, WWIV-net and how cool Zmodem was for file transfers.
I remember developing my first spreadsheet on Lotus 123 from a ROM cartridge.
I remember 8-track tapes.
I remember watching the first run of "The Trouble with Tribbles"
I remember being able to lay in the backyard of my home in suburbia and actually still see the stars.
Post by: DJJ on August 09, 2007, 06:34:26 PM
Only one family in the neighborhood had a microwave.
Only one family in the neighborhood had cable, and it was controlled by a big brown box (hardwired) with two rows of mechanical channel buttons, like the preset buttons on old car radios.
Only one family in the neighborhood had a VCR.
Serious Sci-fi geeks would order a VHS tape out of the back of Starlog magazine that had 5 minutes of black-and-white, no-sound footage from "Star Wars", (which, incidentally, was just called "Star Wars" back then), and we were all amazed.
Walter Mondale promised to raise taxes.
Post by: wmenorr67 on August 09, 2007, 06:41:19 PM
Post by: meinbruder on August 09, 2007, 07:14:10 PM
All three networks would stop regular programming when the President had something to say. <Insert little boy voice> Oh Noooooo, Wheres Flipper?
When the President finished speaking the network would resume normal broadcasting in the middle of a Lucy re-run from the night before. Mom loved Lucy.
My loony aunt buying a cheesy rainbow cellophane sheet to cover the screen of her Magnavox console set, trying to convince us kids that it was a color set.
Gas at 29.9 cents? I remember when it hit 49.9 and people started talking about invading the Middle East to force the price back down to American levels.
I remember my folks buying a small home in a less than desirable neighborhood for 17K, 900 fabulous square feet of stick and stucco construction. That property, they still own it, is worth 3/4 Mil now, and the neighborhood is even worse.
}:)>
Post by: Monkeyleg on August 09, 2007, 07:45:26 PM
Post by: nico on August 09, 2007, 08:39:49 PM
I remember when Keith Richards looked young and healthy.
BS! He may have looked young, but he's always looked cracked out.
Post by: Len Budney on August 09, 2007, 09:42:19 PM
I remember Woolworths.
The last Woolworth's in Middletown CT closed down in the early 1980s. I remember it just well enough to think it's natural for department stores to have soda counters.
Quote
I remember when pop came in returnable glass bottles.
Speaking of pop, I remember Tab. <spew!>
I remember riding (standing up even) in the bed of my dad's pickup.
I'm getting the impression you're the same age as me. You're younger than you're trying to sound. Speaking of pop, I remember Tab. <spew!>
I remember riding (standing up even) in the bed of my dad's pickup.
Quote
I remember TV test patterns, and watching the little one minute blurb that started the day.
Fighter jets! The national anthem! Very inspiring.--Len.
Post by: HankB on August 10, 2007, 03:54:02 AM
I remember Woolworths.
I remember the local Woolworth's had a lunch counter where they served great cheeseburgers . . . and the Heinz ketchup in the bottle on the counter always tasted better than the Heinz ketchup your parents bought at the grocery store.I remember you couldn't buy meat in a grocery store in the evening on a weekday, since the union butchers were gone by then and the law required a butcher on duty for a store to sell meat. (This was Chicago.)
I remember a local dime store with a wooden floor and ceiling fans.
I remember when gas stations used to give stuff away (a drinking glass, box of kleenex, etc. ) with every 10 gallon fillup. And every stop was a full service stop, where they cleaned your windows, checked your oil, etc.
I remember my first computer, an Atari 130XE . . . with 128kb of RAM, it outperformed the Commodore 64 . . . and at 2 MHz, ran twice as fast.
I remember using keypunch machines and card readers at my first job after getting my degree, and accessing the massive IBM 370 for technical simuations.
I remember the Fizznik, Squeeter, and Bosco.
Reruns of Flash Gordon serials on Saturday morning . . . with Buster Crabbe fighting Ming, the Clay Men, various monsters . . .
TV Wrestling with Verne Gagne, Bruiser, Crusher, Mad Dog Vachon . . . most of these guys looked more like beer-swilling teamsters than the steroid giants of today . . . but it was all just as fake.
Slide rules . . . still have my old Pickett Vector Log . . . and NO recollection of how to go about using it any more.
Listening for the bells of the Good Humor ice cream truck on a hot summer day . . .
All three networks would stop regular programming when the President had something to say. . . .
I was in grad school when Jimmy Carter interrupted the premier episode of Battlestar Galactica for one of his worthless chats. Nobody heard it since they were calling the White House to complain; so many called, the phone system crashed! In the student union there was shocked silence then a lot of cussing . . . and when THAT died down, a clear voice said "Where the h*** is Lee Harvey Oswald when we really need him!?!" Cheers followed. 
Post by: RocketMan on August 10, 2007, 04:50:34 AM
Quote
I remember TV test patterns, and watching the little one minute blurb that started the day.
I remember switching from "bars and tone" and running the two inch quad tape that rolled that little one minute blurb at 0-dark-30 each morning.
I remember "Duck and Cover".
I remember playing "Combat" with my friends in all the yards in the neighborhood on Saturdays, and no one called the cops because we had realistic looking toy guns.
Post by: wmenorr67 on August 10, 2007, 05:06:05 AM
Post by: Monkeyleg on August 10, 2007, 12:52:47 PM
Post by: Paddy on August 10, 2007, 12:59:21 PM
Quote
My parents (ages 89 and 90) still have an 8 track player as well as tapes.
Up until a couple years ago, Ihad an 8 track player and tapes. Elton John tapes. I bought them in the 70's.
Post by: Monkeyleg on August 10, 2007, 01:56:56 PM
Post by: S. Williamson on August 10, 2007, 10:32:03 PM
Laserdiscs.
Cassette tapes.
Being amazed that our brand new laptop had 128MB of hard disk space.
Toy guns that weren't frowned upon, and potato guns that merely initiated a little eye-rolling from my parents.
Making my own weaponry from old farm equipment and saplings.
Legos that were actually all blocks, except for the people.
Lucky Strikes could actually be found in regular gas stations, and the mall had Beeman's Pepsin Gum if you took the time to find it.
Super Nintendo, and playing F-Zero against my brother.
TI-95 calculators being far too advanced for any one junior high student to posess.
Post by: wmenorr67 on August 11, 2007, 01:30:41 AM
when nothing could replace a cassette tape;
when the drinking age in some states for beer was 18;
bubble gum in machines at a store as just a penny;
taking a pocket knife to school and no one freaking out about it;
drinking water from a garden hose and not thinking twice about it;
when cars could be worked on at your own house with just a few tools;
when you could pour the oil from your oil change that you did yourself along the fence line to kill weeds.
Post by: Balog on August 11, 2007, 12:16:28 PM
Post by: ilbob on August 11, 2007, 12:27:29 PM
No one thought a thing of a group of 30 or 40 high school students taking M14s out to the driver ed range for drill with no adults present. The M14s did have the firing pins and select fire levers removed.
Post by: Moondoggie on August 11, 2007, 12:51:07 PM
No ZIP codes
Cops used a stopwatch to figure out if you were speeding,
Our phone number began with "Glendale" or "GL" instead of digits..don't ask my why it was "GL" instead of "GD".
No area codes. Long distance was station-to-station or person-to-person and the operator did it for you.
Telegrams were still common.
Getting a "Phosphate" in whatever flavor mixed by the soda jerk or sometimes even the druggist at the corner drug store.
Popsickles were a nickel...then 7 cents.
My first job at McDonald's in 1968 involved pouring syrup for the soda from glass jugs into the top of the machine.
You could buy used motor oil in glass quarts at the service station. My first car, a 59 Belaire got about 30 miles to a gallon.....of oil. I carried 4 gallon jugs in the trunk. When the oil light came on, I'd just dump another gallon in the top of the 230 inline 6 and fog my way on down the road.
A brand new Honda 125cc bike was about $110.
Post by: armchair warrior on August 14, 2007, 07:30:02 PM
Quote
cell phones weighed ~5lbs and came in a bag or had to be installed in the car
Aside from weighing 5 lbs., I wish that would make a comeback.
Post by: Perd Hapley on August 14, 2007, 07:32:21 PM
Post by: Monkeyleg on August 14, 2007, 08:36:38 PM
And my father was an engineer, so it wasn't as though we were poor.
Post by: lee n. field on August 15, 2007, 04:33:32 AM
Quote
"If you were really educated you might have a slide rule."
I actually have 3 here. A Pickett that I actually used in college. A Post that I picked up in the late 1970s, somewhere, and a circular slide rule that I found a couple years ago (that they still make in Japan -- I found the manufacturer's web site, how's that for anachronism?).
Post by: Manedwolf on August 15, 2007, 04:43:01 AM
Quote
TI-95 calculators being far too advanced for any one junior high student to posess.
I was spoiled. My parents got me an HP-48X dotmatrix-display graphing caculator.
I used to play Super Tetris and casino games on it in class, and also used it as a stealth remote control (it had an IR port) to mess with the classroom TVs.
And did homework on a Leading Edge 486. I think they were a subsidiary of Daewoo or something.
I remember kindergarten and first grade pounding away on Apple IIes that were already getting pretty old, along with a few TRS-80 Model IIIs...that everyone hated, boring B&W things. We wanted the color games!
Then at home, we played with a greybox NES. Ikari Warriors and Contra with two players, yelling at each other.
I also remember when every middle school birthday party had a long dotmatrix banner with clipart and text, produced by Broderbund's The Print Shop software. Everyone had it! You'd wait half an hour for the banner to finish, only to realize you'd misspelled the last word...and usually that was the name of the person that the banner was for.
A yellow cardboard box with sleeved floppies in it. Did anyone not have this?
Post by: Leatherneck on August 15, 2007, 05:22:29 AM
when the laser was invented,
when the family car first had no running boards,
when the phone was a party line, before the new-fangled dial-it-yourself,
when gas went up from 26.9 to 28.9 a gallon,
when the first commercial jet flew,
and when it was unusual to find a business open on Sunday.
Good times...
TC
Post by: Turkey Creek on August 15, 2007, 08:22:11 AM
1- gas at 19 cents a gallon and the attendent pumped it for me
2- no TV at all and being thoroughly entertained by radio
3- 5 cents bought a wad of bubble gum and 5 baseball cards
4- the coal and milk deliveries were brought by horse drawn wagons and this in Detroit
5- knowing the COP on foot patrol by name
6- being turned loose as a kid with no one looking out for me and only having to be home when the street lights came on
Post by: Desertdog on August 15, 2007, 09:38:15 AM
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3- 5 cents bought a wad of bubble gum and 5 baseball cards
Don't we wish we had kept those cards in pristine condition until the last few years, instead of using a clothes pin to attach them to our bikes where they would be hit by the spokes as a noise maker.
Post by: Perd Hapley on August 15, 2007, 12:23:38 PM
6- being turned loose as a kid with no one looking out for me and only having to be home when the street lights came on
You had street lights? And they came on by themselves? Whippersnapper.
I grew up in the boonies, and there were no street lights at all. But that was the eighties, and there are still no street lights.
Post by: Stetson on August 15, 2007, 12:57:44 PM
All TI prototype calculators, at one time or another, laid out on the dining room table. My dad doing tests and writing down the results in his green notebook.
Getting to test the Speak and Spell and play with the voice chip knobs on the layout boards
The first programmable calculator that had a magnetic strip that you ran through the calculator that would change the functions of the keys.
Commodore 64s that stored data on casette tapes
Going to work with my dad and being shown the new silica wafers that they were going to try putting IC chips on.
Going to work with my dad and getting to play with liquid nitrogen. Frozen snickers bars, tennis balls and frogs are fun ti play with, just dont break them and have the pieces go under a filing cabinet that it too heavy to move.
Post by: Manedwolf on August 15, 2007, 12:59:57 PM
Taking apart old electronic toys to use their unique sounds in new music is called "circuit bending". People take the vox chips out of thirty year old toys and rig them into new midi-controlled stations and such.
Here's one rigged for recording or live performance use in a club:
These DJ/engineers know what they're doing with electronics, too, so it's not a lost field!
http://www.casperelectronics.com/
Post by: Balog on August 15, 2007, 03:15:48 PM
Post by: Stetson on August 15, 2007, 03:33:00 PM
Benny Benassi uses a speak n spell vox in his mixes. Lots of other mix artists and DJs do, too. Neat retro sound.
Taking apart old electronic toys to use their unique sounds in new music is called "circuit bending". People take the vox chips out of thirty year old toys and rig them into new midi-controlled stations and such.
These DJ/engineers know what they're doing with electronics, too, so it's not a lost field!
http://www.casperelectronics.com/
Taking apart old electronic toys to use their unique sounds in new music is called "circuit bending". People take the vox chips out of thirty year old toys and rig them into new midi-controlled stations and such.
These DJ/engineers know what they're doing with electronics, too, so it's not a lost field!
http://www.casperelectronics.com/
He still has one of the 3'x4' test system. We still 'play' with it. He also still has all of the old 4 function calculators he helped design.
We still have 3 storage buildings full of boxes to go through though, so there is more Im sure.
Post by: grampster on August 15, 2007, 05:49:22 PM
No Mc Donalds.
Saturday morning radio; "I'm Buster Brown and I live in a shoe. My dog's name is Tighe and he lives in here too." "Plunk yer magic twanger Froggy...boooiiiing..."Hiya kids, hiya, hiya. Listening to the serials on radio at night; The Green Hornet, The Lone Ranger, The Creaking Door.
Only one TV in the neighborhood that we all gathered to watch after potluck on Saturday night.
Splits and lakers.
Standing on the corner of the main intersection on Saturday and not seeing a car for 5 minutes.
No organized sports for kids. We did all that ourselves in vacant lots, ponds and streets. Playing kick the can till 11 PM in summer.
Steam engines and knowing all the engineers, and crews.
Not keeping the baseball cards and comic books that I had that would be worth enough money to buy Kentucky.
Being limber, fast and strong.
Public dumps where one could shoot rats with pellet guns and .22's.
Taking my shotgun to school to hunt small game after school.
building rafts on the creek and river.
Dip netting for suckers and carp.
Post by: Barbara on August 15, 2007, 05:56:04 PM
Post by: MechAg94 on August 15, 2007, 06:32:05 PM
I remember when the Houston Oilers won the Super Bowl!!!.................oh wait...nevermind.
Post by: Stetson on August 15, 2007, 08:40:30 PM
I remember when Star Wars made it's TV debut and it was 3 hours long since they included all sorts of interview cuts from the stars at each commercial break. It was a real big deal.
I remember when the Houston Oilers won the Super Bowl!!!.................oh wait...nevermind.
I remember when the Houston Oilers won the Super Bowl!!!.................oh wait...nevermind.
I remember when the Oilers and the Steelers were THE rivalry. Played up byt eh Houston Chronicle every Sunday during Football season.
Post by: Perd Hapley on August 17, 2007, 12:29:51 PM
Post by: Manedwolf on August 17, 2007, 12:34:02 PM
I remember when Star Wars made it's TV debut and it was 3 hours long since they included all sorts of interview cuts from the stars at each commercial break. It was a real big deal.
I'd heard that this scarred a lot of people back then.
Post by: DJJ on August 17, 2007, 04:12:32 PM
Remember when gas pumps didn't talk to you? And there used to be this gasoline called "Unleaded." Whatever happened to that stuff?
I remember... my mom trying to put gas in the first "unleaded only" car we owned. She couldn't figure out why the (regular) nozzle wouldn't go in. The gas station guy showed her the smaller diameter unleaded nozzle. She was mad....
Post by: Tallpine on August 17, 2007, 06:27:09 PM
And oil came in round cans, and you had to have one of those spouts that punctured the top to put it in.
Air was free.
The key was on the dashboard (which was made out of steel that didn't crack in the sun). You could take the key out without turning to lock, so that you could later start it without the key. I drove one pickup for years without an ignition key - I just locked the door when in town.
The dimmer switch was on the floor. It still is, on my current pickup.
The starter switch was on the floor beside the gas pedal. I used to have one of those, a 1958 C-60.
Pickups still had split rims. You could fix them anywhere with a couple screwdrivers and an air pump.
The lines down the middle of the hiway were white, not yellow.
Airliners still had propellers.
Post by: Scout26 on August 18, 2007, 08:41:01 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5UJOvVoPcw
Post by: Bogie on August 18, 2007, 09:26:13 PM
It still works.
I built my first "real" computer (a PC clone) from mailorder parts. I upgraded, and bought a 15 megabyte drive, because I was serious.
I ran a WWIVnet bulletin board.
Post by: grislyatoms on August 19, 2007, 06:07:05 AM
My first computer - Tandy Model 1, followed not too long after by a TRaSh-80 64K Model III with dual 5 1/4 floppy drives and a 300 baud modem. The OS was TRS-DOS, a Microsoft product, I believe. Grandad bought both of them for his business but couldn't figure out how to use them, so I got them.
Anyone remember the old style vending machines? Put in a dime (might have been a quarter), grasp the neck of the bottle and then YANK it out of the metal rack?
The vegetable man - Ancient guy who used to go up and down the streets in a converted, beat up old pickup selling fresh vegetables. He would cruise slowly up and down each street ringing a cow bell to announce his presence.
When I could walk down to the beach with a chicken neck, a length of string, and a dipnet and fill a bushel basket with huge Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs in a few hours.
Post by: K Frame on August 19, 2007, 07:15:56 AM
Post by: Sergeant Bob on August 19, 2007, 09:03:00 AM
We had an old gas pump out by the garage, one of those with the hand crank and the glass globe on top, and my dad hauled it off to the dump.
Going out to the hand operated water pump outside to fetch water.
Hating to have to go out to the outhouse on cold winter nights.
Getting indoor plumbing (hallelujah!)
It seemed like just about every little town had railroad tracks running through it.
Gas and cigs were the same price, $.25 a gal, and $.25 a pack.
Our family doctor delivered babies and when you went to the office for a check up, he smoked in the office.
Construction zones had only those little oil burners instead of flashing lights and Electric Indians.
Post by: lee n. field on August 21, 2007, 04:20:05 AM
Quote
My first computer - Tandy Model 1, followed not too long after by a TRaSh-80 64K Model III with dual 5 1/4 floppy drives and a 300 baud modem. The OS was TRS-DOS, a Microsoft product, I believe. Grandad bought both of them for his business but couldn't figure out how to use them, so I got them. grin
Your memory has failed you multiple times.
The TRS-80 Model III maxxed out at 48KB RAM. I know, because I hand upgraded mine from 16K to 48 -- opening that case without breaking the CRT was a memorable experience.
TRS-DOS was a Radio Shack product. You may be thinking of ROM BASIC (speaking of "I remember when").
Post by: RocketMan on August 21, 2007, 05:05:42 AM
Quote
My first computer - Tandy Model 1...
I've still got mine in the garage. Expansion interface, two 180K floppy drives, 48k RAM. Who would ever need anything more powerful? Haven't powered it up in years. I wonder if it still works...
Post by: Len Budney on September 14, 2007, 09:32:22 AM
And there used to be this gasoline called "Unleaded." Whatever happened to that stuff?
I think you mean, "there used to be this gasoline called 'Regular'." I remember driving my 280Z in the final days of leaded gas. Literally the last gas station in Rhode Island to sell regular gas was off exit 1 from I-95N, and when it shut down I gave up and ran unleaded. Didn't seem to hurt it any. But it drove me crazy when people started calling low-octane unleaded "Regular"!
--Len.
Post by: mtnbkr on September 14, 2007, 09:45:48 AM
Chris
Post by: Tallpine on September 14, 2007, 12:21:49 PM
Quote
It seemed like just about every little town had railroad tracks running through it.
And now the railroad tracks have been torn up and the little towns are almost ghost towns
Post by: Manedwolf on September 14, 2007, 12:30:55 PM
Interesting to realize that at one time, I could have walked down the hill from my home, about a block, (these tracks are indeed abandoned) gotten on a train at a platform and gone to any major city in the US from right there, and then back again.
Slow, but...neat. Walk a block, get on, get your stuff settled, go to the dining car and have dinner. Compared to the hell of alternate rushes and delays that airports are at the moment...!
Post by: charby on September 14, 2007, 12:32:16 PM
I remember going to prom with my Dad and coming home with my Mom.
Post by: Strings on September 14, 2007, 12:46:46 PM
Heh... I've still GOT a couple bottles of mercurachrome in our medicine cabinet...
Post by: mtnbkr on September 14, 2007, 12:49:35 PM
There's still tracks here, but the old train stations are now either dentists' offices or brokers.
Interesting to realize that at one time, I could have walked down the hill from my home, about a block, (these tracks are indeed abandoned) gotten on a train at a platform and gone to any major city in the US from right there, and then back again.
Slow, but...neat. Walk a block, get on, get your stuff settled, go to the dining car and have dinner. Compared to the hell of alternate rushes and delays that airports are at the moment...!
Interesting to realize that at one time, I could have walked down the hill from my home, about a block, (these tracks are indeed abandoned) gotten on a train at a platform and gone to any major city in the US from right there, and then back again.
Slow, but...neat. Walk a block, get on, get your stuff settled, go to the dining car and have dinner. Compared to the hell of alternate rushes and delays that airports are at the moment...!
Rail is still pretty heavily used in this area for commuting and traveling. Manassas is an Amtrak stop, a freight yard, and a commuter train stop. We still have and use and old fashioned train station, which is about a mile from my house.
Chris
Post by: K Frame on September 14, 2007, 12:52:53 PM
The train station in the town where I grew up (it was on the PRR main line) is now a canoe rental and eye doctor's office.
Post by: Tallpine on September 14, 2007, 01:29:45 PM
Quote
Interesting to realize that at one time, I could have walked down the hill from my home, about a block, (these tracks are indeed abandoned) gotten on a train at a platform and gone to any major city in the US from right there, and then back again.
Our ranching neighbors (here long before the subdivision) tell us about taking their wheat down to the "Jawbone" railroad on the river in a horse drawn wagon. There was a little town where they could sell their wheat and buy supplies for the winter. Now the tracks are gone (since about 1980) and the "town" is just a ranch house (owned by another friend - I did some farming for him a couple years ago too).
Our neighbors also told us they used to drive their cattle to and from summer pasture right through our land (at least a corner of it - or maybe more depending on how the cattle strayed or scattered). No or few fences back then, and I suppose they drove them across the river too. This wasn't the 1880s either, but rather maybe 30-40 years ago.
Dang, I sure wished I had come north in 1972. I might have gotten in on the tail end of those days.
Post by: Perd Hapley on September 14, 2007, 03:43:24 PM
Post by: Tuco on September 14, 2007, 03:49:21 PM
Post by: charby on September 14, 2007, 06:50:36 PM
The last time I saw a station selling leaded was in Iowa in 1997. It was apparently exclusively for farm equipment.
The train station in the town where I grew up (it was on the PRR main line) is now a canoe rental and eye doctor's office.
The train station in the town where I grew up (it was on the PRR main line) is now a canoe rental and eye doctor's office.
yeah that is probably about the last time I saw it also and for the same reason. I got my drivers license in 1990 and we had one gas station in town that still sold it for automobiles. I remember seeing av gas with lead in after 1997 but I can't remember where that was, I think a small town Iowian airport.
Post by: Len Budney on September 15, 2007, 02:25:07 AM
The last time I saw a station selling leaded was in Iowa in 1997. It was apparently exclusively for farm equipment.
yeah that is probably about the last time I saw it also and for the same reason.
In parts of New England at least, leaded gas was completely gone by 1988.
--Len.
Post by: Hutch on September 16, 2007, 07:07:36 AM
I remember when gas stations sold and pumped gas, but didn't sell water. Actually, NOBODY sold water. It was possible that the gas station might have a Coke machine (regardless of what it dispensed, they were all Cokes, as in, "What sorta Coke do you want? 7-up?") The gas station might also have a Tom's vending machine for candy bars and/or peanuts.
I remember betting nickels on whose Coke bottle had come from the furthest bottling plant (Cast into the class bottom)
I remember when people used to cut their own grass, when vans were used by painters and tradesmen, and everyone owned a 4-door American made sedan. That was clapped out after 80kmiles.
There were no video rental stores or nail salons. I used to save change to buy a box of Federal Hi-Power .22 LR for $.57 at K-mart. Guns were sold in hardware stores, and the American Rifleman had two-page ads for mail order guns, one in the middle of the issue, and one on the inside back page. I neighborhood kid had an HTG M3 grease gun we played Army with. Nobody wanted it because it was sooooo much heavier than the Mattel Tommy-burst.
Post by: Claude Clay on September 16, 2007, 07:35:52 AM
Post by: Perd Hapley on September 16, 2007, 06:47:10 PM
Post by: jeepmor on September 17, 2007, 01:43:23 AM
Guns in truck's gunracks in highschool parking lots got no attention whatsoever.
Kids weren't smartasses because they'd get their pants dropped in public and spanked right in front of Santa Claus at the mall. And no one thought twice. Man that hurt, seriously, i got paddled good, I was about 4 y/o.
Bend, Oregon had one stoplight.
Oh yeah, and cars and trucks had bumpers made out of steel!
Post by: griz on September 17, 2007, 09:20:05 AM
Besides bumpers made of steel, they had notches in it for the bumper jack to fit in.
That's all I remeber since I got old.
Post by: K Frame on September 17, 2007, 10:35:39 AM
Bumper jacks...
Wow.
Post by: charby on September 17, 2007, 10:38:32 AM
Post by: Sergeant Bob on September 17, 2007, 11:11:48 AM
I remeber when there was no bottled water. And bottled anything meant a glass bottle.
Besides bumpers made of steel, they had notches in it for the bumper jack to fit in.
That's all I remember since I got old.
Besides bumpers made of steel, they had notches in it for the bumper jack to fit in.
That's all I remember since I got old.
I remember them well before they put the notches in them.
Bumper jacks always scared me, I was always worried that the car would roll forward off the jack.
As they often did.
Post by: Len Budney on September 18, 2007, 02:52:19 AM
Bumper jacks always scared me, I was always worried that the car would roll forward off the jack.
Yep. We had cars that used bumper jacks, but my Dad refused to use them. I remember waiting beside the road for ages with a flat tire, and when help came, they were irritated with us: we had a spare tire, a lug wrench and a bumper jack right there in the trunk.
--Len.
Post by: HankB on September 18, 2007, 03:36:39 AM
Post by: K Frame on September 18, 2007, 03:43:07 AM
Post by: Tallpine on September 18, 2007, 06:53:51 AM
Post by: charby on September 18, 2007, 06:56:10 AM
You need a real bumper jack - a "Hi-Lift"
A high lift will lift a tractor, a bumperjack would just collapse
Post by: Brad Johnson on September 18, 2007, 08:14:48 AM
You need a real bumper jack - a "Hi-Lift"
Be sure and get a can of WD-40 and a hammer to go along with it.
*spritz*
tap-tap-tap
'click'
*spritz*
tap-tap-tap
'click'
*spritz*
tap-tap-tap
'click'
Brad
Post by: Tallpine on September 18, 2007, 08:46:38 AM