The old and decrepit fart thread. Post here only if you're over 30

[glenn1]

here here... funny you should mention old B&W TV sets, think any of the young'ins here would know what the UHF dial was for? And remote controls? Hell, I was the remote control growing up... "glenn, turn on CBS, All in the Family is on!"

 

[Linflas]

<< My father had a HiFi from the late fifties that still sounded great in the 70s. It used vacuum tubes, they were separate components and my father built a tower to hold them. (He was a classical music freak) >>


My father bought one of those 60's cabinets that would hold a tuner and turntable and had the speakers built in. He then put his own Garrard turntable and tube powered main amps inside it. The amps had these 2 big tubes that actually glowed with a blueish purple glow and as a kid I used to watch as the brightness of the gas &quot;pulsed&quot; with the music. He then bought a Heathkit tuner and main amp kit and retired the home made tube amps ending my fun. I remember getting my own Heathkit for Christmas one year and how much fun do it yourself electronics was. Perhaps that is why I enjoy building PC's myself as it seems to be the nearest thing you can do like the Heathkits of old.

 

[cherrytwist]

I'm exactly 30 years old and 29 days.

/me bows to my older, wiser brethren

 

[glenn1]

<< He then put his own Garrard turntable and tube powered main amps inside it. >>



LOL, funny you should mention turntables.. my niece saw my old LP collection in my closet the other day, and commented &quot;wow, those are big CDs!&quot;

 

[Total Refected Power]

HERE HERE!!!!!!!! 33 yrs young!

And I was a master at changing the TV station knob with my foot. Yes children, no remote control in those days!!!!!!!!

 

36 years young

Does anyone remember the Freedom Train? LOL

Showed up in my town in August of ' 76

 

[Linflas]

Some of my record rituals:
Records had to be in alphabetical order by Artist.
Record was put into the paper sleeve then inserted into the album cover with the slot facing up so it could not roll out.
Before playing the record it was placed on the turntable. I would then take out the DiscWasher and apply 3 drops to the pad and rub it in with the &quot;heel&quot; of the solution bottle. Then the record was cleaned before playing it.
No wonder CD's took off the way they did.

 

[DietDrThunder]

hear hear,

I'll be 39 next month. I guess next year I'll be posting in the 40 and over thread. But you know, I don't feel that old. When my parents were my age they were really old. They were lethargic, never wanted to do anything kind of people, and were very grumpy. Maybe it was the generation. Of course there is one major difference. When they were my age I was already 20 years old and I'm at that age with a 3 year old. And WOW, it is like I've got a second childhood. I get to play with my child and her really cool toys(I say that I'm buying them for her, but they are really for me).

I remember watching &quot;War of the Worlds&quot; on a black and white T.V. when I was 6 or 7 years old. Man, that movie scared the bageebees out of me. I had nightmares for weeks.

 

[SirFshAlot]

here here

I remember doing the Linflas record ritual. lol

I remember seeing the Doobie Brothers play warm-up for Threee Dog Night before anyone had ever heard of them. And I was totally taken aback cuz someone was smoking DRUGS a few rows in front of us little 8-year-olds.

I remember riding in campers as a kid. I remember riding up in that huge space under the back window of our cars. I remember staddling over the front seat of the car, too, as mom would drive around. Seat belts????? What were they? How could you play if you were buckled in?

I remember going to the drive-in in our jammies, and sitting in the back of our Ford Falcon station wagon, and staying awake past the kiddie shows to watch the likes of The Wild Bunch, Bullit, Bonnie and Clyde.

I remember watching our little black and white TV that was on a cart with wheels, on our tile floor downstairs, and we had one of those big oval rugs that was made with a spiralled wrap of loop, so you could take marbles or hot wheels and start at the outside and wind your way to the inside in a better part of a day.

I remember dad taking tubes down to the store and checking them on one of those big console tube testers.

I remember having fields all over in the area, where we could run and play, and have BB gun fights, and no one ever heard of anyone getting locked up in detention for that kind of play.

LOL

what a thread

 

[Linflas]

<< I remember having fields all over in the area, where we could run and play, and have BB gun fights, and no one ever heard of anyone getting locked up in detention for that kind of play. >>


It is a sad thing in a way. I remember the unrestrained joy of playing as a kid between age 7-12 without being constantly observed by my parents. We were free to roam within reason to almost anyplace I could get to and get back home by lunch or supper time. Like most kids then we played hard and our parents did not sweat the little bumps and bruises. I recall once having a knock down drag out fight with my best friend while our mothers were sitiing on the front porch talking to one another. When we finally got done pounding each other our mothers just told us to hit the tub. I used to build plastic model cars, ships, planes etc. I still remember the time when I was around 11 years old and went to the drug store to get a tube of cement and they would not sell it to me without a note from my mother. I of course questioned this nonsense and this was the first time I ever heard of glue sniffing. It had never occured to me to take a tube of glue and stick it in a bag and inhale it prior to this. Kids that age today could probably give me a rundown on inhalents and their effects. Sad but it seems they are made to face adult issues much younger than we ever were.

 

[Isla]

I'm 33 (not far behind you, CGirl!), but since I'm the youngest of my siblings I was exposed to all the stuff my 43 year old brother was doing.

He used to wake my sisters and me up to watch Monty Python's Flying Circus and the original Saturday Night Live every Saturday night from the time I was about 8 years old on... man, those were the days!

I remember our first microwave oven. It was humongous. My dad won it as a door prize at the grand opening of some home supply store... I had never even heard of microwaves and then there this thing was, sitting on the kitchen counter one day. Now I can't imagine life without one!

Having kids now, I do think that even though there are some good things about now, I enjoyed simpler times. I could never let my kids ride their bikes all over the city like I did! The traffic has become deadly.

 

[Amused]

<< hear hear,

I'll be 39 next month. I guess next year I'll be posting in the 40 and over thread. But you know, I don't feel that old. When my parents were my age they were really old. They were lethargic, never wanted to do anything kind of people, and were very grumpy. Maybe it was the generation. Of course there is one major difference. When they were my age I was already 20 years old and I'm at that age with a 3 year old. And WOW, it is like I've got a second childhood. I get to play with my child and her really cool toys(I say that I'm buying them for her, but they are really for me).

I remember watching &quot;War of the Worlds&quot; on a black and white T.V. when I was 6 or 7 years old. Man, that movie scared the bageebees out of me. I had nightmares for weeks. >>



Cepak, Your parents were that way because they went through your teen years. Come back and tell us all about going through your kid's teen years. Heh, raising a teen is enough to break ANYONE'S spirit

 

[konichiwa]

<< Cepak, Your parents were that way because they went through your teen years. Come back and tell us all about going through your kid's teen years. Heh, raising a teen is enough to break ANYONE'S spirit >>

He's not supposed to know yet!

 

[HowardStern]

35

 

[ultravox]

I can remember getting this album of a group that would appear on the Jack Parr show 3 months later called The Beatles. I can remember seeing them perform at the Montreal Forum. I can remember playing with that little spinning wheel thingie on the cover of the Led Zep III album and seeing them perform live-3 times. I can also remember seeing Jethro Tull, Jonny Winters, Steppenwolf, Janis Joplin, Santana,Joe Cocker,Donavan,Pink Floyd yelling Careful with that axe euguene[/] and freaking the hell out of me.I can remember ELP and 10CC and the Dave Clark Five, Otis Redding 2 weeks before he died in a plane crash with the Bar-Kays (soulfinger).
And now I turn on the radio and quickly turn it off! much as I do the TV except for a few shows.

 

[thebestMAX]

Here. Here. Where? Where? Old joke like me.

What I think about is how if any guy ever wore short pants when I was growing up, he would be immediatly be beaten sensless as a (insert derogatory term here).

What is it with dressing like youve lost 200 lbs today?

 

[Amused]

Oh man, more Memories...

I remember my brother taking me to an ELO concert, and Journey opened for them.

I remember BB gun fights. I remember the unrestricted play we had back then.

The 118 (Simi Valley/San Fernando Valley) Freeway was being built just a block north of where I grew up, and it provided endless fun. Hell it took them 15 years to finish it. First were the abandoned houses and pools in the early 70s. Then they moved some, and tore down the rest of the houses, and we had huge open fields to play in. Then the contruction started, and the fields became a new battle ground for war games and rock fights, not to mention endless variations of BMX tracks and HUGE jumps!. When I was old enough to ride an off road motorcycle, I rebuilt an old one and had a ton of fun not only in the construction sites, but the hills above the valley suddenly seemed so close and made for a whole new world of fun.

I remember climbing the huge power line towers that the freeway paralelled, and a police helicopter coming out and busting us when we got to the top. Now THAT was just stupid, but it was fun

Edit, yeah the only shorts you could get away with were cut off jeans. Anything else was picked on. Weird, huh?

 

[Amused]

<< I could never let my kids ride their bikes all over the city like I did! The traffic has become deadly. >>



Actually, I don't think it's so much that the traffic is any more dangerous, it's more like you KNOW now how dangerous it is. It's funny how the very things WE did as kids looks so dangerous now. It's NOT more dangerous, we're just more AWARE of the danger.

I think of the way I rode my bike through the city, and I cringe at the thought of doing those things again.

 

[Locutus of Board]

Gooseman,


<< here here. Hell, I can still remember only having a black and white T.V. with a grand total of 4 channels. My parents were Gods to me when they bought me a pong game!!! >>


I'm 32, and I always had a color TV. Some friends had B&amp;W only. My dad was always an electronics freak. Our second TV was only 13&quot; with a dial of course.

Kamiam,


<< anybody remember magnovox's oddessy game??? >>



I had odyssey 2. First video game I ever had. KC munchkin ring a bell?

Muadib,


<< I know I'm getting up there when I can't stand the 90% of todays music. >>


No, you're not. The music today SUCKS!!

Burnedout,


<< Space Ghost and HotWheels was the bomb back then. Batman was on Wednsday and Thursday evenings. >>


My matchbox cars were my life in my youth. And Batman? It was on every day for a stretch. I used to laugh when they used to say &quot;next week.&quot; Didn't the villains ever learn to kill them while they could watch, since Batman would always escape, and stop with the elaborate death?

CG,


<< I remember begging my parents to get cable when I was 13-ish so I could get MTV >>


I remember seeing commercials for it, but living in Queens, NY we seemed to be the last county in the US to get cable. I remember.... I think it was WHT. Wometco home theatre? ACK!!

Amusedone,


<< EVERYBODY smoked EVERYWHERE. You didn't notice the smell like you do now. >>


I don't miss that at all.

TRP,


<< And I was a master at changing the TV station knob with my foot. >>


I LOLed at that one. The secondary B&amp;W I mentioned earlier in my bedroom.....

Isla,


<< the original Saturday Night Live >>


Ho hum. It hasn't been anything near the same since...

Fish,


<< I remember having fields all over in the area, where we could run and play, and have BB gun fights, and no one ever heard of anyone getting locked up in detention for that kind of play. >>


A mention was made more than once about kids being more free. I am believing more and more that what people see on TV (Especially influential youngsters) affects their behavior. Today, if you had a fight with a kid, and win, the little prick will bring back a weapon. Then, you took or gave your licks and it was over with until the next wresting or fistfight. If a kid playing today shot another with a BB gun, they'd be locked up, or the person shot would need to avenge it with a real gun. Sucks.

 

[dukdukgoos]

30. Cut my teeth on a TRS80 model 1 with <dramatic music> 4K!!! Ah, the 70s...

 

[Tiger]

Here, Here.

41 Here.

I remember when we got our first color TV.
It was a monstrous 25&quot; Zenith with a real wood cabinet, Pecan I think. Heavier than hell.
When I was in the 7 to 12 range we lived in Florida. Back then it was one of the best places on the planet for a young boys to &quot;entertain&quot; themselves. Woods and water within easy bike distance. Boy Scouts, Little League baseball, Pee Wee football (full contact, with pads and helmets). Soccer didn't exist.

Speaking of bikes. I remember when the first Schwinn Apple Crates showed up in the neighborhood. We all walked over to the lucky kids house and just stared at it. Kinda like our fathers did when somebody in the neighborhood got a new car. God, what a machine! Of course all the other parents in the neighborhood were cussing the lucky kids parents under their breath.

Later, we too had a Magnavox Odyssey. We played &quot;king of the machine&quot;. The winner got to pick the game played until he/she got knocked off.

My first car was a POS 72', 4 speed, Ford Pinto hatchback. I was making payments on that thing before I had my license. My second car was a 70' Chevy El Camino SS. Big bump in HP and tire smoke.

8 track tapes. Nuff said.
I've still got the last Lynard Skynard album released before the crash. It's a bit of a collectors item in that it's got flames on the album cover.

 

[Bellgoody]

Half a century, what a ride.

Dan'l Boone coonskin hats, hula hoops, Sugar Daddy's, and Saturday Matinees for a quarter.

Skateboards, surfboards, Beach Boys, Santa Monica Beach, Jim Morrison drunk at the Whiskey.

Long hair, better living through chemistry, UCLA and John Wooden.

Vietnam, massive computers and punch cards.

The commercialization of America. The deification of popular culture. The Decade of Greed. The Information Decade. The Internetwork Decade.

Y2What?

$300 AMD 750 MHz, 256 MB, 30 Gig computers.

Reality, unfortunately, is EXACTLY what it appears to be. No more, no less.
For me, it's been grand. Beat's whatever's in second place by a long shot.

 

[A5]

<< I've still got the last Lynard Skynard album released before the crash. It's a bit of a collectors item in that it's got flames on the album cover. >>


My Dad has that album (He's 50)

 

[SupaDupaCheez]

The 'about to be 31 in a few months' bump! *Sigh*

I'd have to say that I am truly envious of the kids today in one respect: The educational opportunities that are available to them. When I was in highschool, we were learning BASIC and Pascal (gasp!) on crappy computers (even for the time) and couldn't even TOUCH a college course without a Diploma. Now, you can take regular college courses and have as much as a half year of college done BEFORE you graduate HS! In the schools around me (Lorain-Cleveland, OH), you can even get A+ certified IN highschool! I would have killed to have those opportunities!

SDC

 

[meister]

the 70's ... growing up..

playing in all the new construction of suburbia as it truly grew. playing pong. atari. trs 80's.

Riding bikes everywhere. Parents just wanting you home by dinner. Summertime, staying out late if it was just sitting on the curbs talking with friends.

Watching freaks and geeks and actually understanding it.

Mark