I'm 34... And I'm a dinasaur

[Whoozyerdaddy]

I know there are others on here who are older than me but I was thinking tonight about all the things that the young'uns take for granted that weren't around when I was a kid...


1. Teh Intarweb... It existed, but it was the domain of the military and universities. Even into highschool the 'net was a mere shadow of what it is today. And no normal person knew it existed. No e-mail, instant messaging... No AT. :Q

2. Computers... They're everywhere now. I have a dual monitor system at home and a nice lappy. But I was in the third grade when I saw my first computer. We had an (as in ONE) Apple in our classroom. We played Oregon Trail. The teacher insisted that it wasn't a game... it was a simulation.

Home video...

1. My family got our first VCR in 1980. It was a spring-loaded top feeder. When you went into the video store, half the titles were in VHS and the other half were in Beta.

2. We had an 8mm film camera and we were hi-tech.

Detroit had a LOT more people than it does today.

We had a party line. (Not as fun as it sounds) We shared a phone line with another house. When you picked up the phone you might find that the other family was using it. You'd pick up in mid-conversation and have to hang up and wait to make your call.

Oh yeah... phones had bells and rotary dials.

Music on CD became widely available when I was in jr. high.

I remember when the first space shuttle was launched.

I was in third grade when Reagan was shot.

There was no such thing as a cell phone.

For Christmas 1980 we got an Atari 2600 for our big screen (25") TV. Funny... it was always my parents and the other neighborhood parents that bogarted the thing, playing Space Invaders and Asteroids till 1am.

My grade school didn't have a photo copier. Teachers used what they called a "ditto" machine to make multiple copies of class work. Basically it was a compact, offset printing press that made copies of a negative original in purple ink.

My first computer was a "99% compatible" IBM clone. It didn't have a hard drive. All the programs ran off the 5.25 floppy disc. My first printer was a black only, nine-pin dot matrix printer.

At my first job after high school I sold 286 computers at Fred Meyer and RAM came in one meg strips at $100/meg. Monitors came in green or amber.

I'm sure I could think of other stuff... but the dimentia is setting in.

 

[Rudy Toody]

I'm a little older.... The first phone I remember was hand-cranked. Our home phone number was 6.
I remember stereo became popular when I was in high school.

 

[AAjax]

I actually feel very lucky my childhood existed outside the tech realm, no vcr's no cable tv no video games (till jr high) no internet ect. we had a apple2+ around jr high school years but my early childhood was far more little rascal's style than high tech. Kids nowdays are tech savy but seem people stupid. A shame really, getting your ass kicked by the local bully and having to deal with it without any hope of parents or authorities intervening is actually a cherished memory. Had a problem? even a serious one? you had to work it out on your own, cause no adult would take care of it for you or "protect" you by locking you away from the world tethered to a tv/pc. Its saturday, get outside was commonly heard around my neighborhood. I like tech mind you, just not what it robs kids of, like having a real life.

Edit: God I sound old

 

[CorCentral]

Whoozyerdaddy------ I'm in the same boat. 32 here.

Trash 80 (TRS 80), Atari 2600, Coleco Vision, Commodore 64.

I remember watching the Challenger blow up! I was in 5th grade in FL and the whole school was called outside to watch the launch...... We ooooed and awwwed as we watched it go up, but it was'nt 'till we went inside that over the intercom they told us it blew up!


WOPR........... would you like to play a game?


Kids today blame computers as the reason they can't write their name or spell a simple word like "LOSE" or "THEIR"!!! All the better for me. F U kids. You're so smart and can't read or write :disgust: Text away I say! Cell phones are for the most part for kids that like to text their friends about BS and recieve BS in return. Cell Phone companies don't sell to old folk, they sell to dumb kids!

My wife and I use a crap cell phone for emergencies only and pay by the minute.

 

[Whisper]

Originally posted by: AAjax
I actually feel very lucky my childhood existed outside the tech realm, no vcr's no cable tv no video games (till jr high) no internet ect. we had a apple2+ around jr high school years but my early childhood was far more little rascal's style than high tech. Kids nowdays are tech savy but seem people stupid. A shame really, getting your ass kicked by the local bully and having to deal with it without any hope of parents or authorities intervening is actually a cherished memory. Had a problem? even a serious one? you had to work it out on your own, cause no adult would take care of it for you or "protect" you by locking you away from the world tethered to a tv/pc. Its saturday, get outside was commonly heard around my neighborhood. I like tech mind you, just not what it robs kids of, like having a real life.

Edit: God I sound old

Eh, I dunno, people always seem to look at the advantages of the current generation, and them seem to try and find ways as to how they've made people "soft" or "disadvantaged."

Besides that, part of growing up is know that no matter what happens, your parents are always there to help out. Even while I was growing up, sans computers and the internet, I always knew that no matter what happened, my mom would be there to help out. I don't think having to "work things out on your own" because your parents aren't willing to help out makes you a better or stronger person.

 

[Whisper]

Originally posted by: CorCentral
Whoozyerdaddy------ I'm in the same boat. 32 here.

Trash 80 (TRS 80), Atari 2600, Coleco Vision, Commodore 64.

I remember watching the Challenger blow up! I was in 5th grade in FL and the whole school was called outside to watch the launch...... We ooooed and awwwed as we watched it go up, but it was'nt 'till we went inside that over the intercom they told us it blew up!


WOPR........... would you like to play a game?


Kids today blame computers as the reason they can't write their name or spell a simple word like "LOSE" or "THEIR"!!! All the better for me. F U kids. You're so smart and can't read or write :disgust: Text away I say! Cell phones are for the most part for kids that like to text their friends about BS and recieve BS in return. Cell Phone companies don't sell to old folk, they sell to dumb kids!

My wife and I use a crap cell phone for emergencies only and pay by the minute.

Again I say, people find all sorts of new and creative ways to blame technology and advances for why kids are how they are today. Kids are the same now as they've always been; technology hasn't changed that.

Hell, I may not have grown up with word processors, but I text message like no one you've ever met...and I still attempt to use perfect grammar in all my communications. Cell phones aren't to blame in any way, shape, or form, and neither is technology as a whole.

 

[uberman]

Whoozyerdaddy,

I forgot if you are in Fairbanks or Anchorage. Where are you and I'll tell you what they were like in the good old days?

I remember JFK being driven around in a convertible waving at the crowds in SF Bay Area in the 1960s.

I bought a $4,000.00 stereo in the mid seventies. Awesome!

My 8mm camera was high tech in 1970, it was a Bolex, top of the line.

 

[CorCentral]

Originally posted by: Whisper

Originally posted by: AAjax
I actually feel very lucky my childhood existed outside the tech realm, no vcr's no cable tv no video games (till jr high) no internet ect. we had a apple2+ around jr high school years but my early childhood was far more little rascal's style than high tech. Kids nowdays are tech savy but seem people stupid. A shame really, getting your ass kicked by the local bully and having to deal with it without any hope of parents or authorities intervening is actually a cherished memory. Had a problem? even a serious one? you had to work it out on your own, cause no adult would take care of it for you or "protect" you by locking you away from the world tethered to a tv/pc. Its saturday, get outside was commonly heard around my neighborhood. I like tech mind you, just not what it robs kids of, like having a real life.

Edit: God I sound old

Eh, I dunno, people always seem to look at the advantages of the current generation, and them seem to try and find ways as to how they've made people "soft" or "disadvantaged."

Besides that, part of growing up is know that no matter what happens, your parents are always there to help out. Even while I was growing up, sans computers and the internet, I always knew that no matter what happened, my mom would be there to help out. I don't think having to "work things out on your own" because your parents aren't willing to help out makes you a better or stronger person.

Kids today are "SOFT" and Pu**y whipped. Blame the parents as the kids are secondary! Then again the kids know better so both are to blame!

A kid thinks he or she knows it all......... Gets in trouble......... Cries that I'm just a kid, I did'nt know about that!?!.......... Right! Most kids today are playing their parents like puppets. I love you too

 

[Whisper]

Originally posted by: CorCentral

Originally posted by: Whisper

Originally posted by: AAjax
I actually feel very lucky my childhood existed outside the tech realm, no vcr's no cable tv no video games (till jr high) no internet ect. we had a apple2+ around jr high school years but my early childhood was far more little rascal's style than high tech. Kids nowdays are tech savy but seem people stupid. A shame really, getting your ass kicked by the local bully and having to deal with it without any hope of parents or authorities intervening is actually a cherished memory. Had a problem? even a serious one? you had to work it out on your own, cause no adult would take care of it for you or "protect" you by locking you away from the world tethered to a tv/pc. Its saturday, get outside was commonly heard around my neighborhood. I like tech mind you, just not what it robs kids of, like having a real life.

Edit: God I sound old

Eh, I dunno, people always seem to look at the advantages of the current generation, and them seem to try and find ways as to how they've made people "soft" or "disadvantaged."

Besides that, part of growing up is know that no matter what happens, your parents are always there to help out. Even while I was growing up, sans computers and the internet, I always knew that no matter what happened, my mom would be there to help out. I don't think having to "work things out on your own" because your parents aren't willing to help out makes you a better or stronger person.

Kids today are "SOFT" and Pu**y whipped. Blame the parents as the kids are secondary! Then again the kids know better so both are to blame!

A kid thinks he or she knows it all......... Gets in trouble......... Cries that I'm just a kid, I did'nt know about that!?!.......... Right! Most kids today are playing their parents like puppets. I love you too

I'm pretty sure people have been saying that about kids since people have been having kids. It's just the way things are; kids are now how they've always been.

 

[Rudy Toody]

Originally posted by: uberman
Whoozyerdaddy,

I forgot if you are in Fairbanks or Anchorage. Where are you and I'll tell you what they were like in the good old days?

I remember JFK being driven around in a convertible waving at the crowds in SF Bay Area in the 1960s.

I bought a $4,000.00 stereo in the mid seventies. Awesome!

My 8mm camera was high tech in 1970, it was a Bolex, top of the line.

My prevoius post about my home phone number being 6 was a memory of Fairbanks in the 40s.

 

[HomeAppraiser]

Commodore 64 FTW! My dad saw no need to by a colour tv as long as he could sill replace vacuum tubes on the 19" black and white. I had to rewatch all of the original Star Trek shows to get the "Red shirt" joke.

 

[CorCentral]

Originally posted by: Whisper

Originally posted by: CorCentral
Whoozyerdaddy------ I'm in the same boat. 32 here.

Trash 80 (TRS 80), Atari 2600, Coleco Vision, Commodore 64.

I remember watching the Challenger blow up! I was in 5th grade in FL and the whole school was called outside to watch the launch...... We ooooed and awwwed as we watched it go up, but it was'nt 'till we went inside that over the intercom they told us it blew up!


WOPR........... would you like to play a game?


Kids today blame computers as the reason they can't write their name or spell a simple word like "LOSE" or "THEIR"!!! All the better for me. F U kids. You're so smart and can't read or write :disgust: Text away I say! Cell phones are for the most part for kids that like to text their friends about BS and recieve BS in return. Cell Phone companies don't sell to old folk, they sell to dumb kids!

My wife and I use a crap cell phone for emergencies only and pay by the minute.

Again I say, people find all sorts of new and creative ways to blame technology and advances for why kids are how they are today. Kids are the same now as they've always been; technology hasn't changed that.

Hell, I may not have grown up with word processors, but I text message like no one you've ever met...and I still attempt to use perfect grammar in all my communications. Cell phones aren't to blame in any way, shape, or form, and neither is technology as a whole.

I'm just surprised at the amount of teens/people that are on this forum that cannot even spell or word a sentence correctly, let alone talk on a cell phone and text BS back and forth.
Hell, look at my rig.... I just built it. I'm in no way dodging the tech world.

 

[judasmachine]

I'm 31 and I'm right there with you. I used to love watching the deer run across the screen...
Oh Oregan Trail I loved thee. At the time it was the only computer in the whole school.

 

[mwmorph]

Wow I'm only 17 but I still remember

The rotary phone, back in my early childhoot in china, everyone had one.

My oldest pc is a 286 with go knows how much ram. All I used to do was play blackjack on the amber screen, mainly because I didnt know how to do anything else.

Oldest consloe? The Intellivision(take tht atari 2600!). Good times with Tron.

I did get on the internet late, I was 9 ir 10 before i knew it existed. AOL discs used t ocome in packages with a indiana jones image on them touting the new benefits and ways to tame the internet Judging from the colorful case, I always though someone was just sending me a new indiana jones game...

I was 5 when I saw my first computer, 7 by the time I was addicted, but 12 before I'd ever played the oregon trail. go figure...

I still have a old 8mm film camera from sony, good times there.

I didnt know cds existed until I was 6(1995), China didnt have much use for those funny looking circular objects.

My grade school(3rd grade 1998-1999ish?) had a computer lab full of AppleIIs, and I mean the original apple 2s with 5.25" floppys not the upgraded apple IIes or whatnot. 16 color grpahics, no sound, 10" monitors, ti was the life.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: CorCentral
Whoozyerdaddy------ I'm in the same boat. 32 here.

Trash 80 (TRS 80), Atari 2600, Coleco Vision, Commodore 64.

I remember watching the Challenger blow up! I was in 5th grade in FL and the whole school was called outside to watch the launch...... We ooooed and awwwed as we watched it go up, but it was'nt 'till we went inside that over the intercom they told us it blew up!


WOPR........... would you like to play a game?


Kids today blame computers as the reason they can't write their name or spell a simple word like "DINOSAUR" or "DINOSAUR"!!! All the better for me. F U kids. You're so smart and can't read or write :disgust: Text away I say! Cell phones are for the most part for kids that like to text their friends about BS and recieve BS in return. Cell Phone companies don't sell to old folk, they sell to dumb kids!

My wife and I use a crap cell phone for emergencies only and pay by the minute.

fixed

 

[KaChow]

I'm 36 and I fondly remember my C64 and my Amiga 1000 I got in 1985. I enjoy reading about the technology (and buying it too!) but I don't embrace it so much that I just can't live without it.

The thing that really irks me nowadays is how kids need a DVD to watch on the way to the grocery store. My mother and I used to drive cross country every summer and I loved looking out the window and seeing the sites the country has to offer. Do kids really have no attention span now?

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
1. Teh Intarweb... It existed, but it was the domain of the military and universities. Even into highschool the 'net was a mere shadow of what it is today. And no normal person knew it existed. No e-mail, instant messaging... No AT. :Q

2. Computers... They're everywhere now. I have a dual monitor system at home and a nice lappy. But I was in the third grade when I saw my first computer. We had an (as in ONE) Apple in our classroom. We played Oregon Trail. The teacher insisted that it wasn't a game... it was a simulation.

I am 35, I was playing on APRA/MILNET and tymnet networks in the 80's...there was UNIX chat actually (the successor to chat rooms). Most companies had open networks to other networks.

We had a lab of Apple ]['s Oregon Trail was fun, it's still out there with graphics and stuff. We had a lot of games too like Sneakers and Space Eggs...this was around 1982/83.

I got my first //e in 1984 which was about $3000 with printer, green phosphor monitor, 80 column card, grappler + (graphics printing card), a 300baud modem and some misc. By 1986 I was up to a MIDI setup for gaming and 2400baud modem....plus 4 143K diskette drives

 

[Maiora]

You feel old in your 30's? Wow I pity you when you're my age! (I'll be 64 in Feb.)

Maiora

 

[DefDC]

Hehe. My buddies and I were quick adopters. We're 33. My 1st computer was an Atari 800. My older brother had one too. We also had a 300 baud modem, and would call the local BBSs doing email and playing online turn based multiplayer games.... Empire, anyone? Good times!

My brother was mad when I went to the dark side and bought my beloved C=64 and a BLAZING 1200 baud modem.

It was probably 1988 before any of us got our hands on an actual IBM compatible and just about all of us are in IT in some way. Nerds of a feather!

 

[fitzov]

The arcade pwned computer games then. Countless quarters wasted on pinball and Galaga, Asteroids, Joust, Defender...and that tank game.

 

[invidia]

Well, I'm only 22, but the stuff I had to use made me like I was still living in the 70s. Our TV was black and white. I got my first computer in 1997. It was a 25mhz from the 80s. We didn't have a phone. Our car was from the 60s and my dad drove us to school with it until the late 90s.

My first console game was a SNES.... 4 years after it came out. Then N64, 5 years after it came out. My first time on the super information highway was around 2000, when everyone else was using it in the 90s.

Although I lived thru the late 80s and 90s, my family was still living in the 60s-70s. We were always slow to catch up on technology and the modern world.

 

[Spydermag68]

I remember Empire!....too bad I don't have the manual to it so I could play the game again. I have the 3.5" disk for it.

My first computer was Franklin Ace 1200, an Apple ][+ clone. I also remember running David DOS since it was faster than the Apple OS.

The old arcade games rocked back then...I just wish I had the money to get the Arcade box from Costco.

At college I was one of the few people that had their own computer a 20mHz 286 AT turbo.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
I know there are others on here who are older than me but I was thinking tonight about all the things that the young'uns take for granted that weren't around when I was a kid...


1. Teh Intarweb... It existed, but it was the domain of the military and universities. Even into highschool the 'net was a mere shadow of what it is today. And no normal person knew it existed. No e-mail, instant messaging... No AT. :Q

I first encountered the internet when I worked at NRL. When that contract ended in 1990 I remember how annoyed I was that I no longer had access. About a year or 2 later I found Netcom and loved the fact that for $20.00 a month I could have a dial up Unix shell account to access the net as I pleased. The first time I tried WWW was with a text app called Lynx and it was horrid.

2. Computers... They're everywhere now. I have a dual monitor system at home and a nice lappy. But I was in the third grade when I saw my first computer. We had an (as in ONE) Apple in our classroom. We played Oregon Trail. The teacher insisted that it wasn't a game... it was a simulation.

I remember having one of those "beer discussions/arguments" with a friend of mine in 1980 and he disagreed with me that computers in the home would someday be as common as TV. His point was there was no need for them therefore it would not happen.

Home video...

1. My family got our first VCR in 1980. It was a spring-loaded top feeder. When you went into the video store, half the titles were in VHS and the other half were in Beta.

My father bought a beta. He also bought a laserdisc player when he thought that was going to be the next big thing. He would have loved HD and DVD if he was still with us.

2. We had an 8mm film camera and we were hi-tech.

Detroit had a LOT more people than it does today.

DC was not much more than a small town when I was a kid. We never thought of it as a real city because there were no tall buildings.

We had a party line. (Not as fun as it sounds) We shared a phone line with another house. When you picked up the phone you might find that the other family was using it. You'd pick up in mid-conversation and have to hang up and wait to make your call.

Oh yeah... phones had bells and rotary dials.

We had a party line in the early 1960's and I really miss the real bell ringers. Phones with that electronic chirping that passes for ringing now annoy the hell out of me.

Music on CD became widely available when I was in jr. high.

I refused to buy CD's or a CD player. I was somewhat anal with my records and had a direct drive turntable and a DiscWasher brush that had to be used each time before the record was played. My wife got me a CD player for Christmas one year and that was the end of that.

I remember when the first space shuttle was launched.

I kind of remember the first Mercury launches, I was 6 years old. The moon landing took place over the summer break between 7th and 8th grade I remember watching and recording it with a microphone in front of the TV speaker on my cassette tape recorder.

I was in third grade when Reagan was shot.

I was a junior in college when that happened

There was no such thing as a cell phone.

For Christmas 1980 we got an Atari 2600 for our big screen (25") TV. Funny... it was always my parents and the other neighborhood parents that bogarted the thing, playing Space Invaders and Asteroids till 1am.

I was in college when my parents got one of those for the family for Christmas.

My grade school didn't have a photo copier. Teachers used what they called a "ditto" machine to make multiple copies of class work. Basically it was a compact, offset printing press that made copies of a negative original in purple ink.

AKA the mimeograph machine. The best memories of that were captured in Fast Times At Ridgemont High when the teacher passed out the mimeo's and the whole class smelled them.

My first computer was a "99% compatible" IBM clone. It didn't have a hard drive. All the programs ran off the 5.25 floppy disc. My first printer was a black only, nine-pin dot matrix printer.

Atari 800 for me.

At my first job after high school I sold 286 computers at Fred Meyer and RAM came in one meg strips at $100/meg. Monitors came in green or amber.

First job out of the military was doing field changes to Sperry 7330 17 platter disk drives. Each unit was about the size of a small washer.

I'm sure I could think of other stuff... but the dimentia is setting in.

 

[erub]

my dad has always been a stock trader...pre-internet days, he used to get stock quotes on this cutting-edge thing called the "Quotrek"

it had 4" by 4" text only screen, not a real keyboard, and received the signals over the FM the antenna had to be pointed in the exact right spot or it wouldn't work and he'd get pissed. I have no idea how our family didn't go hungry relying on that thing

 

[drum]

my parents have and still use a rotary phone at home :roll:
so annoying growing up