Head cleaner.

"Are you a head?"

Script handwriting
8mm movies (I still have a projector)
Kodachrome slides
AAA road maps
Sliderule (still have one and know how to use it)
Financial tables in the back of the textbook
Horn & Hardart Automat
Manual Elevator with an Elevator Man
Movie Theater matrons (who would kill you if you uttered a peep)
Ed Sullivan

Phone line you could afford. ATT charged $8 to install a line and $8 for each extension. All one time charges. Our basic ATT bill was $5.40 a month. Plus long distance charges if you made any.

Fixing your own TV. You opened up the back and drew a map of all tubes. Then you marked each tubes using tape. Took the tubes in a shoe box to the local drugstore and tested them on the handy machine they had. Good tubes back in the box and the one or two bad tubes off to the side for replacement. The store clerk would unlock the compartment under the tester and they ran around $4 to $5 each. All good ones and new ones into the TV using your map and you TV was back in perfect working order. Or as perfect as they get!

Having the local grocery store save cigar boxes for you to use as your pencil box in elementary school.

Chickweed rakes. (That is going to confuse older folks as well if they haven't needed one)

Nixon saying "I am not a crook!" Trump not even bothering to say it.

"And God Created A Woman"

Hardbound novels cheaper then the Sales Tax on them today.

Measles.

But thanks to the upper middle class housewife antivaxxer crowd all our favorite plague related illnesses will make a comeback.

My Mother told me that in the 50s to make a long-distance call she or my Father often had to make a reservation with the telephone operator. They then had to wait, often for quite a while, for the telephone company to call back to say that they have their party on the line. And it was very expensive.

FTMCPIUS wrote:

My Mother told me that in the 50s to make a long-distance call she or my Father often had to make a reservation with the telephone operator. They then had to wait, often for quite a while, for the telephone company to call back to say that they have their party on the line. And it was very expensive.

On that note, are calling cards still a thing for international calls?

Max Headroom

FTMCPIUS wrote:

My Mother told me that in the 50s to make a long-distance call she or my Father often had to make a reservation with the telephone operator. They then had to wait, often for quite a while, for the telephone company to call back to say that they have their party on the line. And it was very expensive.

A friend was an exchange student in Europe in the 60s and she had to go down to the main post office at the appointed time to receive an incoming long distance call from her parents.

Looking in the printed TV guide (which came with the newspaper) to see what was on TV.

TSS wrote:

T18 wrote:

From what I can find Georgia has in fact adopted the by mile system at least on the Interstates.

What a bummer. I always found Georgia's sequential system more easy to use and understand, especially since in crowded downtown areas the exits switched from sequential numbers to the names of the streets the exits connected to, e.g. the Spring Street exit let you off on Spring Street, the 10th Street exit on 10th Street, etc.

That swap happened right around the turn of the millennium. I remember because my family bought a second home on the GA/SC line at I-85, and just after I learned we exited at #73, they renumbered it to 177. Conveniently, Exit 72 just before it became 172. Funny the things you remember. I’ve driven that stretch of highway so many times I can still tell remember what most of the exits are and I haven’t lived there in almost ten years.

The beautiful soft, clicking sound of destination boards, and the anticipation of your flight being updated as all the flights moved up the board.

Braybuddy wrote:

The beautiful soft, clicking sound of destination boards, and the anticipation of your flight being updated as all the flights moved up the board.

That's the single reason to love FRA... they still keep one of those operational. I hope.

how big was the Soviet Union

Braybuddy wrote:

The beautiful soft, clicking sound of destination boards, and the anticipation of your flight being updated as all the flights moved up the board.

https://store.solarilineadesign.com/

You may like this.
SOLARI made (makes) destination boards for a lot of airports and train stations. At least here.

The American Stock Exchange.

L410Turbolet wrote:

That's the single reason to love FRA... they still keep one of those operational. I hope.

Brilliant!

FatCat wrote:

You may like this.
SOLARI made (makes) destination boards for a lot of airports and train stations. At least here.

I predict a comeback! Starbucks already use them in their Reserve Roastery

What’s something you remember that if you told a younger person they wouldn’t understand?

That a rabbit dying might have a profound impact on your life.

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_test

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet...in many large metro areas there were two newspaper deliveries, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon. My parents used to freak out if either newspaper were not delivered on time.

"Honest day's work"

dfwjim1 wrote:

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet...in many large metro areas there were two newspaper deliveries, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon. My parents used to freak out if either newspaper were not delivered on time.

I can remember two postal deliveries on weekdays, one at 8am and another around 3:30, with one on Saturday mornings.

And going back even further, and way ahead of its time: there were two bins for waste disposal, one for general rubbish and a smaller one for food waste, called slops, which were used by farmers as pig fodder.

Nomadd wrote:

"Honest day's work"

In many parts of the world, "You've been drafted".

Tugger wrote:

A portable computer....

I still have mine in the original box ! Bought in 1985 never used it after starting to read the user manual ...

Revelation wrote:

There’s a question going around on Twitter, courtesy of the writer Matt Whitlock: “Without revealing your actual age, what’s something you remember that if you told a younger person they wouldn’t understand?”

Well, there is something that always worked when I was young but nowadays people, well younger people will just look at me in disbelief. It happened to me (again) just yesterday: I entered a train with a younger colleague. We blocked several seats and I said „if someone complains we will simply say „We're on a mission from God.“ My colleague looked at me as if she tried to find out if this was meant to be funny or if I was a very religious man...

I didn’t say anything but made a promise to myself to never make that comment again...

N14AZ wrote:

We blocked several seats and I said „if someone complains we will simply say „We're on a mission from God.“ My colleague looked at me as if she tried to find out if this was meant to be funny or if I was a very religious man...

I didn’t say anything but made a promise to myself to never make that comment again...

Tonight at the Thanksgiving dinner table I made a reference to "just a single wafer-thin mint" and the only one who got it was my brother.

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Creosote

Braybuddy wrote:

dfwjim1 wrote:

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet...in many large metro areas there were two newspaper deliveries, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon. My parents used to freak out if either newspaper were not delivered on time.

I can remember two postal deliveries on weekdays, one at 8am and another around 3:30, with one on Saturday mornings.

And going back even further, and way ahead of its time: there were two bins for waste disposal, one for general rubbish and a smaller one for food waste, called slops, which were used by farmers as pig fodder.

I remember the two postal deliveries too. Now the only thing I get in once-a-day mail service is junk mail...LOL.

09 SEPT 2001

8-Track Tapes

Car Radios with an actual dial.

When at the end of a movie, after the credits, etc., you knew it was the end because the last thing you saw in large letters was "THE END" --

Clean-sheet civil aircraft designs.

Revelation wrote:

N14AZ wrote:

We blocked several seats and I said „if someone complains we will simply say „We're on a mission from God.“ My colleague looked at me as if she tried to find out if this was meant to be funny or if I was a very religious man...

I didn’t say anything but made a promise to myself to never make that comment again...

Tonight at the Thanksgiving dinner table I made a reference to "just a single wafer-thin mint" and the only one who got it was my brother.

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Creosote

But this week, the inversion of „something you remember that if you told a younger person they wouldn’t understand?” happened to me:

A younger colleague came into my office and asked for my internal approval of a document I had to review. I didn’t feel comfortable to give my okay but at the same time I had a guilty conscience because I had already exceeded the usual time for reviewing that document. Well, you all know this situation and so I started to shilly shally, palavering this and that. She listened to me but then interrupted me and said „I feel the conflict within you.“

I looked at her with open mouth as if she had made an indecent proposal and said: „so you are a Star Wars fan too?“ She started to laugh and replied „hell, not at all“. I explained her that she had just quoted a famous Jedi and she even felt proud and said she will test if she has more Jedi skills...

So that’s what I call the inversion of „something you remember that if you told a younger person they wouldn’t understand?”, i.e. a younger person saying something, not knowing what kind of memories it might bring back to a, well, not so young person.

Waiting in line to pay for online access at an Internet café.

Calling Collect and hanging up to let someone know you are ok, and to save them the charge

casinterest wrote:

Calling Collect and hanging up to let someone know you are ok, and to save them the charge

Two rings, two rings only! Because everyone picked up on the third ring (well in my house).

Tugg

Phone phreaking
Whistling into the receiver to get the long distance tone so that you could make a long distance (or international) call for free.
https://www.google.com/search?q=phone+p ... 8&oe=utf-8

salttee wrote:

Phone phreaking
Whistling into the receiver to get the long distance tone so that you could make a long distance (or international) call for free.
https://www.google.com/search?q=phone+p ... 8&oe=utf-8

Interesting, never heard about something like this (... should have known this trick when I met my wife at the end of the 80ies, spent a fortune in the phone both paying with 5-Deutsche-Mark-coins every five minutes or so ....)

aviationaware wrote:

A childhood without a broken bone can't have been a very good childhood.

I'm sorry, what?

You're trying to argue that severe injuries are an improvement on childhood?!

Using your logic, I could say that your childhood was only good if you got measles.

crazyplane1234 wrote:

aviationaware wrote:

A childhood without a broken bone can't have been a very good childhood.

I'm sorry, what?

You're trying to argue that severe injuries are an improvement on childhood?!

Using your logic, I could say that your childhood was only good if you got measles.

Can't believe people are really too thick to get what I mean by that without an explanation

*sigh*

Alright, here we go. A good childhood (by me) is one where you do a lot of fun activities and try many new things, adventures and not just sit at home and play video games. Maybe at 30 I am already too old and you people all sat on your Playstation all day. Who knows.
Anyway, when you go out and have fun as a kid there is a very good likelihood that you will break a bone somewhere along the way. If you didn't that means either you were insanely lucky or you just had a plain old boring childhood without much happening.
As an example, normal kids want to ride their bicycle free-handed somewhere along the way. Any kid that doesn't has my sympathy because it's a sign it has terrible parents that discourage trying new things. When I first tried free-handed cycling when I was little, I fell off and shattered my chin bones. When I tried to dislodge a stuck bowling ball one time I broke a finger because another ball came up and smashed into my hand. When I rode the bike to school during a blizzard I fell and broke my arm. This kind of stuff happens to any kid unless your parents are terribly overprotective.

I would venture to say that at least 99% of all people who have never had a bone fracture are ghastly boring people.

FatCat wrote:

how big was the Soviet Union

Better yet, what was the Soviet Union.

Can she type?

Checking in for a flight at the airport and receiving a paper boarding pass.

Taking someone to the airport and going with them through security right up to the departure gate.

Going to a travel agent to book flights and getting those long paper tickets with all the coupons.

Flying short-haul economy class in Europe and getting a full meal on a tray with metal cutlery and actual glassware.

All rather simple things I enjoyed as a kid in the late 80s/early 90s, really.

Booking a holiday through a travel agent, and then having to come back a couple of days later to get the physical airline tickets that had to be sent out by courier.

Being able to park at the airport & not having to take out a second mortgage to pay for it!

Shops in Melbourne closing for the weekend at 1PM on a Saturday. Massive fines if they got caught trading past that time, or on a Sunday or public holiday. Saturday afternoon trading was legalised in the late 80's, while it wasn't til the mid 90's that trading hours were finally deregulated & Sunday trading was allowed. Now the only days that shops must close are Christmas Day, Good Friday & before 1PM on Anzac Day.

Having to use a boot disc to start up a computer. My high school had a computer room full of elderly IBM PC's (this was the late 80's) that were inherited from another school. We had to pass around the boot disc to start them up. These were then replaced in around 1990 by oh-so-powerful 286 pc's with VGA screens that were networked to a 486 server!

These days it's all BYOD Ipads linked to the school network via wifi

No internet, but the were bulletin boards that you had to physically dial into. Having to wait up to an hour to download a very grainy image.....

DOS commands.

Having to find a phone box if you were out & needed to make a phone call. Knowing the reverse charge phone number off by heart..

melpax wrote:

Having to wait up to an hour to download a very grainy image.....

Then watching it render on your screen line by line....

The young'uns will never know the joys of ASCII art / line printer art either.

melpax wrote:

Shops in Melbourne closing for the weekend at 1PM on a Saturday. Massive fines if they got caught trading past that time, or on a Sunday or public holiday. Saturday afternoon trading was legalised in the late 80's, while it wasn't til the mid 90's that trading hours were finally deregulated & Sunday trading was allowed. Now the only days that shops must close are Christmas Day, Good Friday & before 1PM on Anzac Day.

Things were a bit more liberal in the US when I was growing up, but next to nothing was opened on a Sunday.

writing something with an ink pen on a nice piece of paper

aviationaware wrote:

crazyplane1234 wrote:

aviationaware wrote:

A childhood without a broken bone can't have been a very good childhood.

I'm sorry, what?

You're trying to argue that severe injuries are an improvement on childhood?!

Using your logic, I could say that your childhood was only good if you got measles.

Can't believe people are really too thick to get what I mean by that without an explanation

*sigh*

Alright, here we go. A good childhood (by me) is one where you do a lot of fun activities and try many new things, adventures and not just sit at home and play video games. Maybe at 30 I am already too old and you people all sat on your Playstation all day. Who knows.
Anyway, when you go out and have fun as a kid there is a very good likelihood that you will break a bone somewhere along the way. If you didn't that means either you were insanely lucky or you just had a plain old boring childhood without much happening.
As an example, normal kids want to ride their bicycle free-handed somewhere along the way. Any kid that doesn't has my sympathy because it's a sign it has terrible parents that discourage trying new things. When I first tried free-handed cycling when I was little, I fell off and shattered my chin bones. When I tried to dislodge a stuck bowling ball one time I broke a finger because another ball came up and smashed into my hand. When I rode the bike to school during a blizzard I fell and broke my arm. This kind of stuff happens to any kid unless your parents are terribly overprotective.

I would venture to say that at least 99% of all people who have never had a bone fracture are ghastly boring people.

Plus, as a kid, everyone thought a cast was cool.

salttee wrote:

Can she type?

Good one *)



Using a dictating machine for writing minutes of meetings or letters. I used them intensively when driving home from meetings.
However, in my first company we had huge discussions between the senior management and younger engineers about what is more economic.

Old style: dictating letters, MoMs etc., giving the cassette to the secretary, reviewing the first draft written by the secretary, correcting it, giving it back to the secretary, reviewing the second draft and finally signing it

or

(at that time) New style: simply writing it on your own personal computer.

----------------------------------------
*) or do you refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/But_Can_She_Type%3F ?

Computer time-sharing

the i or j operator in math.