If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears
with their tedious diatribes about how hard things
were when they were growing up; what with walking
twenty-five miles to school every morning ... uphill
BOTH ways. Yadda, yadda, yadda..........

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up,
there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch
of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it
and how easy they've got it! But now that... I'm
over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but
look around and notice the youth of today. You've
got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood,
you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't
know how good you've got it! I mean, when I was a
kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to
know something, we had to go to the damn library and
look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write
somebody a letter with a pen! Then you had to
walk all the way across the street and put it in the
mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal
music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store
and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the
radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning
and @#*% it all up!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you
were on the phone and somebody else called they got
a busy signal, that's it!

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either!
When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It
could be your school, your mom, your boss, your
bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you
just didn't know!!! You had t o pick it up and take
your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video
games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the
Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and
'asteroids' and the graphics sucked ass! Your guy
was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And
there were no multiple levels or screens it was just one screen
forever!

And you could never win. The game just kept getting
harder and harder and faster and faster until you
died! Just like LIFE!

When you went to the movie theater there no such
thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the
same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a
hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you
were just screwed!

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that
was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen
menu and no remote control! You had to use a little
book called a TV Guide to find out w hat was on!

You were screwed when it came to channel surfing!
You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV
to change the channel and there was no Cartoon
Network either! You could only get cartoons on
Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We
had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled
little rat-bastards!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat
something up.We had to use the stove or go build a
frigging fire... imagine that! If we wanted
popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing
and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids
today have got it too easy. You're spoiled.

You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in
1980!

Regards,
The over 30 Crowd

its official, Im old, but I remember all of this.


F

Atari! We had BB guns and shot at anything that didn't move :duck:

Points!

woot for being the "lucky" generation

Atari and pellet guns for me. I'm with F, I'm old and remember all of this also.

Can't wait to see a 60+ chime in...

But you forgot... the story always was... uphill, both ways, in the snow, barefoot!

I must have luckier as a kid... we got our first microwave in '78... that thing was a friggin' tank. I was trying to remember... but I think we always had a remote with our big tv in the living room. I know my first personal tv didn't even have an actual tuner... all the stations were preset and they had their own respective buttons. You're lucky though... we were out in the sticks and didn't get cable until around '89/'90... but at least by that time there were around 40-50 channels!

Always had a BB-gun... and lawn-darts. We also had an actual tree house... in a tree.. that we built ourselves. We also didn't have an automatic garage door opener until around '84... until then us kids were the garage door opener. Not only do I still have my Atari 2600 with a whole box full of games.. but I also still have my Colecovision.. and I'll have to ask, but I'm pretty sure that my brother still has our Commodore.

Also... I guess this one's more about where you lived, but our house was never locked... if we got home and mom ran out the the store, the door was always open. We also didn't have an actual house/street number until the late 80's... and that's because we didn't have 911 service until then. Up until that point we were always told to dial "0" if there was an emergency.

But you forgot one biggie... most "kids" under 30 have only ever been spoiled with fuel injection... God help them if someone put a gun to their head and they had to clean a carb!

Hmmm... thanks for making me feel old... now I'm a bit depressed... maybe I'll go buy a pack of Fun-Dip and play a Pitfall marathon for the rest of the day.

Atari Rocks!

My kids don't like it, they can't twitch fast enough. They play River Raid like they are blind.

Just got my best time on Bobsled in Epyx Winter games: 43 sec.

I remember all that stuff.

Lawn darts was more exciting when you threw them overhand.

8-track tapes anyone?

Speaking of carbs, not just cleaning them, but pumping them just right so that it would start and not flood. And then you'd have to wait...

And actually having to pump the brakes on a slick road so as to not lock up the tires...

granted we do have alot more technology. i wouldnt consider that spolied, i would consider it lucky for being born during a different generation. i was never given anything when i was kid. I had to walk everwhere just like you guys did. I prob walked 3 or 4 miles a day if i wanted to go somewhere. And now im still not given anything, i work 45 hours a week and go to school 11 hours a week. Sorry for my rant, i just get a little heated up when people generalize about how teenagers are given everything, because while that may be true for some, it is not entirely true for all.

Carbs, ah yes.

Every car had it's own sweet spot with the pedal that gave the best start.

And the High beam switch was on the floor, it would get corroded with salt and you'd be stomping on it to change the lights.

No TV at all. No network radio. Everything was canned. You had to live more than 2 miles from school to ride THE bus. No dial or buttons on the phone. You picked it up and waited for the operator or turned a crank. The only game/toy I had was a sand box and I had to share it with the cat. Cars didn't run in the wintertime. The only snowmobiles were pulled by Fido. You had to build a fire in the bucket-a-day heater to take a warm bath. The electric grid worked at various times and places around town on a time share basis. Eggs were months old and you cracked them into a bowl so you could sort out the black ones. Western movies showed on Friday and Saturday nights at the showhouse. The only matinee was on Saturday for the kids. A dark day was when candy bars went from 5 cents to 2 for 15 cents. Everybody sat around the radio to hear the news on how the war was going. We sat huddled around a single light bulb with the windows blacked out by tar paper when the Japanese bombed Dutch Harbor. The town was full of Russian military working the lend-lease progaram that sent American aircraft across the Bering Straits to Siberia. Fresh fruit of any kind was a big deal and only happened around Christmas time. I was ten years old before I saw a watermelon. Whenever there was a dockworkers strike in Seattle or Valdez the grocery store shelves cleared rapidly and it was back to living on moosemeat, salmon, and what you could grow in the garden. Herds of Caribou migrated through the south end of town. There was no municipal water supply so you had your own well or had water delivered. In the summer ice was delivered to put in the icebox. There was one paved street a block long. Sidewalks were wooden and floated away in the spring floods. Everything else was gravel or mud. There were two concrete buildings in town; the federal courthouse and the school. Some of the buildings and businesses that had been requisitioned by the military were painted in camouflage paint schemes. The railroad was all steam engines and I lay awake in bed for hours listening to them switching cars in the railroad yards across the river. There was a big searchlight on top of the courthouse that rotated as a beacon for aircraft. The fire department was all volunteer and there was a steam whistle and a steam siren on the powerplant that were sounded to signal the area of town where the fire was so the volunteers knew where to report. The siren was also used to sound the air raid warnings. After WWII there were fighter plane taking off from Ladd Field and headed west low over town to intercept Russian reconnaissance aircraft at least several times everyday. It was a really big deal when Pan American started non-stop service to Seattle with DC-4s. The planes were too big for the town airstrip so you took a bus ride to Ladd Field for departure. After the international airport with a 5000 foot runway was built we had service by DC-6s and eventually Boeing Stratocruisers. My dad paid $2400 for our 1947 Buick. The dealer sold Dodges, Fords, and Buicks off the same showroom floor.

I could go on for hours.

I guess that any generation who grew up after the Depression or WWII can say that to some extent. All in all, Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y as groups have all had it pretty easy. Obviously, that depends on individual circumstances, as well.

I've heard about the high beam on the floor problem, but only had one car that had that kind of switch and it worked.

Didn't early early cars have the starter on the floor?

I've heard about the high beam on the floor problem, but only had one car that had that kind of switch and it worked.

Didn't early early cars have the starter on the floor?

Yes indeedy. My Dodge van has the dimmer on the floor. I had a pickup in high school with the starter on the floor. Only used it to take my dirtbike to the motocross track. You guys know the Doobie Bros song "China Grove"? That's where the track was.

I've heard about the high beam on the floor problem, but only had one car that had that kind of switch and it worked.

Didn't early early cars have the starter on the floor?
They had a hole through the bottom of the radiator that a crank stuck through and you turned it over by hand. To preheat the engine in subzero weather you heated a teakettle on the stove and poured the hot water on the intake maniflod. If it was seriously cold you threw a tarp over the whole car and you shoved a kerosene fired weed burner under the oil pan. If you planned on being at work by 8:00AM you were up at 4:30 or 5:00AM to begin the routine. It was a major breakthrough akin to discovering fire when the headbolt engine heater was invented. You pulled out a headbolt, ran a drill on through the hole into the water jacket and replaced the bolt with one that had an electric heating element grafted on the end.

A couple of cars in town had a monster headlight mounted on the front bumper like a cyclops and it turned into the corners with the steering wheel. A large share of the trucks hauling on road jobs were chain drive. The trucks hauling over the Alaska Highway had huge 590 cu.in. OHC Hall-Scott gas engines instead of diesels.

from Ms. Florian:

nobody made us wear seatbelts or helmets. We could sit in the front seat of the car and sometimes even on Dad’s lap. (F EDIT: OK, thats a bit creepy)

We didn’t know where the sex offenders lived in the neighborhood..

So our parents kicked us out of the house to go play... which kept us skinny..

McDonald’s was a big treat, not a nightly dinner.

We played with toys that were made of lead and survived.

Not every toy we owned required a battery.

And most importantly, when we screwed up, we got spanked, whipped or smacked by either our parents, principal or teacher and we actually learned from it... maybe cried like a little sissy bitch, but didn’t sue or “divorce” our parents.



F

from Ms. Florian:

nobody made us wear seatbelts or helmets. We could sit in the front seat of the car and sometimes even on Dad’s lap. (F EDIT: OK, thats a bit creepy)

We didn’t know where the sex offenders lived in the neighborhood..

LOL, hopefully the 2 above didn't go together...

And most importantly, when we screwed up, we got spanked, whipped or smacked by either our parents, principal or teacher and we actually learned from it... maybe cried like a little sissy bitch, but didn’t sue or “divorce” our parents.


Your wife actually "little sissy bitch"? I think I like your wife and I haven't even met her!

Roll windows up and down by hand.

Crank near top of windshield to move wipers back and forth.

Not many tire shops. If we had a flat, we removed wheel from car. Got another car and ran over first wheel, taking care to run over the tire only. Weight of second car would break seal on bead. The we pried tire off with crow bar. Slipped inner tube out between rim and tire. Patched it by sanding area of tube where nail hole was. Then coating that hole with glue, and burning glue. Then applied patch with clamp for several minutes. Then slipped tube back in tire/rim and filled with air, taking care so that tire sealed itself along rim.

Actually was kind of fun for a 10 or 15 year old.

[QUOTE=dkozloski;

I could go on for hours.[/QUOTE]

You could, but is anyone listening??

Lol

How about a 5 digit phone number, but you could really reach home by dialing 4 numbers.

Remember asking phone repairman for 3 digit code? Pick up your home phone. Dial 3 digit number; hang up. Your home phone then rings. Neatest thing going.

I used to stand next to my mom on the inside edge of the driver's seat of a 1970 Grand Prix, when I was really young (3 yrs old, etc.). She shudders when I remind her of that now :-)

The fold down center armrest of any bench seat was also very cool to sit on.

The piece de resistance, however, was the 1977 Chevy Van with DIY carpeted floor, walls and ceiling, with a vinyl love seat bolted to the floor and a wood frame bed bolted to the back. Inside was a 19" Black and White TV w/a cigarette lighter plug and rabbit ears.

Driving to Florida didn't get much better. Especially when I would sit on Dad's lap and steer the car and/or when Mom and Dad would switch drivers w/o stopping the van on the Interstate.

And you know what -- we made it just fine! Looking back, of course, was it the wisest thing to do? No -- but neither was not wearing a seat belt, which no one used to do.

Of course, now, people can't even breathe today w/o a busybody family services visit. I don't even have kids, and that aggravates me.

I've heard about the high beam on the floor problem, but only had one car that had that kind of switch and it worked.

Didn't early early cars have the starter on the floor?

And vacuum operated wipers. Step on the gas and the wipers stopped. Am radio, heater & turn signals (when they became available) where options.

And vacuum operated wipers. Step on the gas and the wipers stopped. Am radio, heater & turn signals (when they became available) where options.
On a Model T Ford the wipers were operated by hand. There was a lever above the windshield.

Here's to all us old farts:

ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!


First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they
carried us.


They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.


Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored
lead-based paints.


We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we
rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took
hitchhiking.


As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.


Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.


We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.


We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE
actually died from this.


We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but
we weren't overweight because


WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!


We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back
when the streetlights came on.


No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.


We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down
the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the
bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.


We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no
99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell
phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat
rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!


We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
lawsuits from these accidents.


We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.


We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.




Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't
had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!


The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They
actually sided with the law!


This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers
and inventors ever!


The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.


We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned


HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL!


And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!



You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as
kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.


and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.


Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it

Lefty, You are in direct opposition to the ideas and goals of Nancy, Hillary, Ted, Diane, Joe, and the rest of the Far Left who would like nothing more than to be able to tell you when to eat, sleep, and crap 24/7.

:thumbsup:

Vacuum wipers on a '53 Chevy coupe. 5 cent school tickets for the streetcar. Carrying a .22 rifle through Bethesda, MD on the way to go plinking and no one even noticing. Actually going on a date without intending to score. Beer and pizza at 18 in Maggie's. 14 people in a VW. Going to the airport to watch airplanes. Blowing the muffler off your mother's car. Real milkshakes. Real hamburgers. Ford flatheads. Edelbrock finned heads for <. No computers....

No seat belts in the car, no car seats for kids. Black and white TV no remote channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 11 and they went off the air at night after playing the National Anthem then broadcast a test pattern. Many a night I watched that. Leaded gas. A tune up meant changing points and condensor as well as plugs. No pop top cans, needed a can opener. Cigarettes were doctor recommended cast about 30 cents a pack and we smoked everywhere, even walking down store isles. Milk and bread were delivered to the house. Crap, I'm an old man.

Pabst Blue Ribbon cans had a cap. Coke bottles were green. Log Cabin pancake syrup came in a log cabin shaped can. The kitchen stove burned wood. The record player had a hand crank. You carried the seat with you to the outhouse in cold weather. You had to know how to trim the wicks on the lanterns. When it really got cold you pooped in a honey bucket. Pop Wehner came around once a week to trade buckets. Your mom washed her hair in water from the rain barrel. You didn't wait until you ran out, to chop more stove wood. The first thing you did when you got home from school was to build a fire in the water heater. A good wife knew how to bank the fire in the furnace with lump coal so it lasted all night. You shoveled snow up around the outside of the house to add insulation. Nothing in the world tasted better than ham, navy beans, and corn bread. During spring breakup the kids had three sets of clothes going; one to wear, one drying out, and one to change into. Mothers mended everything from worn socks to split scalps.

Remember when doctors came to you and made house calls?

I don't know what the hell is going on but this thread won't let me get to page four. Remember when you had to change out one of those flying saucer looking headlight.

egh ill live...
live it up i mean ahhhahahah

Remember when doctors came to you and made house calls?
I had no idea that there was anything like health insurance. Doctors worked for a front quarter of moose meat or mountain sheep backstraps. The hospital was run by the sisters of charity only that was a real oxymoron. The first words out of their mouth were, "Who's going to be paying the bill?". The dentist was a drunk and was not neccessarily a better alternative to DIY dental work.

When I was a kid we had rotary phones that were owned by the phone company.
You didn't actually own a phone unless you had big money. The phones stayed in the house, if you wanted more than one you had to call the phone company and they would put it in.
You had a few colors to choose from. White, yellow, avacado green or brown.

There were 4 channels on TV, period. ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS. PBS was always on channel 13.

We had no microwave, we popped our popcorn in a pan with some oil in the bottom.
I used to make it all the time.

My dad used to gripe when TV remotes came out "I'll never buy one of those, if the day comes when I get too darn lazy to yell at one of my kids to get up and change the channel I'll just quit watching TV!".

We had a Magnavox TV that dimmed the lights in the house when you turned it on. It was full of glowing tubes in the back and when I was a teenager it introduced me to the term "electrocution".
(don't stick your hand in the back when it is turned on!)

We didn't have helmets, knee pads or any of that safety stuff. We wore the gravel in our knees and elbows as a "red badge of courage" and I woke up the day after Mother's day 1975 in the hospital after I crashed into my sister on my bike and landed on my head right at the curb. (Happy Mother's Day Mom!)

Safety was for wusses back then, you did what you wanted and if you broke something, you broke something.
Seat belts... what were those? I used to hop over the back seats in our station wagon constantly!

Kids today do have it easy, not that we had it that hard, but harder than kids do now.
In fact all the video games and stuff make kids miss out on a lot of the fun I remember as a kid.
Of course much of that "fun" usually ended up with me in the hospital or in hypothermia.... hmmm....

I'd just say that it is "different". Not necessarily worse.
I know I enjoy some of the modern conveniences.

Funny story about rotary phones. When my mom broke up house in 99, one of my friends volunteered to help and brought his then-19 year old son along. My parents were Depression babies and...ah..."frugal", so Mom still had a rotary phone in the kitchen (harvest gold to match the appliances, bought from the phone company after that bastard judge broke it up). Anyway, my friend told his son to call home and let his mom know they'd be late. The kid picks up the rotary phone and stares at it so long it starts beeping. "What's wrong, Dan?", I ask. He says, "How does it work? There aren't any buttons." That's the day I knew I was officially old.

Another really big change from then and now is the retail experience. We didn't have shopping malls or stores like Walmart or Home Depot. The closest mall was up in Cherry Hill (which btw, was the first "modern" indoor shopping mall east of the Mississippi) which is about 40 miles away which was considered very far away. The Deptford Mall, which is about 20 miles away didn't open until the late 70's and even then it was several years before we started shopping there. The stores are even different, when it opened they had three big department stores - Sears, Bambergers, and Wannamakers... Sears is the only one still there. Speaking of department stores, remember when standalone department stores were common? Now the only ones I know of around here is a Sears down in Vineland and a Penny's over in Delaware. There were no Walmarts and we actually had to go to several stores to buy everything we needed. That wasn't so much of a hassle since we actually had stores in town... the 5 and Dime, two florists/card shops, a fabric/linen store, a comic book/trading card store, the paper store, the bakery, two hardware stores... it's not like that anymore. We were bought clothes twice a year - in the summer and at Christmas... there was no running out and buying a new pair of jeans or a new shirt just for the hell of it. If we had a rip in our clothes then Mom would actually mend them. We also never ate out... and if we did it was a rare treat, we didn't have a McDonalds, hell we didn't even have a pizza shop until the 80s. There used to be 10 different pick your own farm markets within 10 miles... we bought fresh fruits and veggies when they were in season and Mom actually canned stuff to have when they were out of season.

So it's not so much that every young person has things "easier," it's all just a hell of a lot more convenient. But then again it's all relative... it's easy to take things for granted when it's all you've ever known.

Remember phone booths? The producers of the Superman movie were able to get some laughs from the culture that knew he always changed in them

http://www.supermanhomepage.com/images/phonebooth/movie-phonebooth.jpg

AMGoff............RCA or GE had a vacuum tube plant in Deptford.......closed in the early '70's.

Used to be a big foreign car dealer down on 14th St. in DC. Jack Pry. You could walk in and actually sit in a '56 Mercedes 300SL gullwing. Take a '64 Ferrari GTO (a real GTO) for a test drive (salesman aboard...). Dad used to hook up extra phones and disable the bells. (no REN....Ringer Equivalency Number..)for Ma Bell to track down with a Wheatstone bridge. 7.75/14 Goodyear WideOvals.

Submariner - I never knew of anything in Deptford. I know that the Victor Talking Machine company was founded in Camden in 1890s, which was later taken over/merged with RCA in the 20s. The famous RCA building still stands within a stones throw of the USS New Jersey.

Deptford's biggest claim to fame was the first hot air balloon landing in the United States. In 1793 Jean-Pierre Blanchard took off from Philadelphia and landed in Deptford Township. He was also carrying a signed letter from George Washington to delivered to the owner of whichever property he landed on, which also made it the first ever air mail delivery in the country.

Hilarious, Destroyer. :lol:

On behalf of old farts everywhere, thanks for puttin' all those youngsters in their place.

Funny story about rotary phones. When my mom broke up house in 99, one of my friends volunteered to help and brought his then-19 year old son along. My parents were Depression babies and...ah..."frugal", so Mom still had a rotary phone in the kitchen (harvest gold to match the appliances, bought from the phone company after that bastard judge broke it up). Anyway, my friend told his son to call home and let his mom know they'd be late. The kid picks up the rotary phone and stares at it so long it starts beeping. "What's wrong, Dan?", I ask. He says, "How does it work? There aren't any buttons." That's the day I knew I was officially old.
It was well into the 1950's before we got dial phones of any kind. Either you picked up the receiver and waited for "central" or you turned a hand crank on the side to wake somebody up. There were no private lines. There were so many parties on some lines that there weren't enough discrete ring tones to sort them out so there were a series of long and short rings for each party. Listening in on conversations was the housewives substitute for TV soap operas. There were no pay phones. If you didn't have a phone and needed to make a long distance call, you went uptown to the central office and applied at a window like at DMV. When the call was connected you were directed to a waiting phone on the wall. After the call was completed you went back and paid. A three minute call to the lower 48 was $9-12.00. Telegrams were still an important means of communication. Eventually they were used only for money transfers and death notices. When you saw the telegram carrier come up the walk your heart dropped to your shoes. It was never good news.
After the central office burned there were no phones at all for quite a while. The cab drivers cruised the streets and if there was a porchlight on he stopped and inquired about your problem. As a temporary measure the military provided field switchboards that were jury rigged. The operators were so overwhelmed that when you picked up your receiver it took about an hour or more for the operator to come on the line. My mom used to sit me or my sister down with the phone to wait for the operator. There were no private cars operating in the winter so everything required for daily life like meat and groceries were ordered on the phone and delivered. There had to be a damn good reason for my mom to get me and my sister all bundeled up in winter gear and walk a mile or more uptown to go shopping. A stick of chewing gum was a big deal. Fresh fruit was a holiday treat and was otherwise unavailable. One Christmas a large crew of men went took D8 Caterpillar bulldozers to Thompson pass and tried to open the highway long enough to bring fresh produce to Fairbanks for Christmas dinner as a gift to the town and had to give it up. The snow was over forty feet deep. Fresh produce in the winter time was unknown until Pan American Airlines started service to Fairbanks from Seattle and it was very, very expensive. There was train service by the Alaska Railroad from Seward to Fairbanks but the trip took several days and in the winter everything shipped froze solid as hell.

im 18, was born in 1989, and know how to use a rotary phone. anyone who doesnt must have been living in a cave their whole life...its not that hard.

:eek: 1989... now that makes me feel old...

39 here and ya. A trip to K-mart was a true thrill! Oh and that's where you got your clothes too. I guess I was lucky. My dad wrangled a bad ass Coleco vision pong game! You spoiled bastards had atari? With color!?! and joysticks and different games!?! I won't bore you with the stories of standing at the bus stop for 75 minutes every morning in Montana. Covered stop with heat? Uh no. 3 feet of snow at the park. So cold you wanted to die. The bus would pick us up every morning with us in tears from how bad our feet hurt. Although the janitor would plow the parking lot into a huge pile 15 feet high. We would have the most viloent king of the hill matches three times a day. EVERY day blood was spilled on that freakin' hill. Try to do that in school now a days. I remember the movie they showed us about global "cooling" We were headed for an ice age by the time we were adults! Killer bees are gonna take us out too. Garbage was going to be in huge mountains with no where to put it...none of it mattered because the russians were gonna nuke us anyway. Gangs? pregnant school kids? calculator? digital watch? I absolutely remember a digital watch being over $100 Back then! I saw Star Wars at the theater biatch! I once saw a waitress slap a hat off a guys head in a restaurant and he apologised profusely to her! When a woman came into a room the men stood up. When a funeral drove by you pulled over and stood with your hand on your heart. If you didn't put your hand on your heart or take your hat off for the national anthem you were likely to be beaten. Stand up and trash talk America, burn a flag and proclaim Islamo fascism to be the way! Beaten. Try to snatch a kid? Beaten to death. Some things weren't so bad I guess...

:eek: 1989... now that makes me feel old...

Yeah, I just did the math and my age is 18 years old x 2. That sucks!:helpless:

20 x 2 here,

Happy Birthday Jesda!

Guess I'm not as old as some of you farts, but I sure remember all that too! We had a remote to the TV, but no cable. We got three channels. PBS, ABC and NBC I think. The remote had the cable that stretched out and plugged in to the back of the TV. I'd always get in trouble because I'd yank on the remote and trip the cat with it whenever the he walked across the living room.

I've owned two fuel injected cars in my life. Out of 26. :D

Wait until you get to 67 and realize your life is 7/8 shot.

..............chuckle.........BUT, 67.9 years of undetected crime :rolleyes:

Only "video game system" we had was the Commodore 64 - got to play maybe once a week. Fun included going and throwing rocks (1 time ended with stitches to the back of the head) or rolling down steep hills sitting on skateboards with only our feet for brakes. Not only no seat belts, but we used the back seat and the space under the back window as "bunk beds" during long drives. Playground equipment was all metal (rusty and had some sharp edges).

Thanks guys, now I'm starting to feel old.

Yeah, I just did the math and my age is 18 years old x 2. That sucks!:helpless:

I was just thinking that I was working on my first car back in '89...

LOL... I can at least take solace in the fact you were out the gate a little before me... although I will be hitting the big three - five in a couple months. I think that may be more depressing than 30... because now I'm already half-way through my thirties..

I guess I should start planning my mid-life crisis... any ideas?

Motorcycles and airplanes are popular nowdays for the graying set.

Motorcycles and airplanes are popular nowdays for the graying set.

And I have been noticing more and more grays as well... the only thing more disconcerting is that which ever ones aren't turning gray are falling out!

eh.. I've already done the Harley thing. It's funny you should mention that though... it was probably no more than a few years ago that I said to the wife I might like to take flying lessons... two days later there was a packet of information regarding extra life-insurance on the kitchen table!

And I have been noticing more and more grays as well... the only thing more disconcerting is that which ever ones aren't turning gray are falling out!

eh.. I've already done the Harley thing. It's funny you should mention that though... it was probably no more than a few years ago that I said to the wife I might like to take flying lessons... two days later there was a packet of information regarding extra life-insurance on the kitchen table!
A lot of insurance companies won't pay for loss of life while flying privately owned aircraft. Check the fine print.

1. Color TV? Stores sold a clear plastic sheet that you taped on your black & white TV. Top of sheet was red, then green, then blue (or a variation of that). Bingo, you now had color.
2. Milk man delivered milk to house several times weekly, and I played with his horse.
4. No refig. We had ice box. (Heavy wooden cabinet that was highly insulated.
5. Outhouse was at far end of back yard.
6. Sears was selling Crosby cars.
7. Henry J was a compact car, not an actor.
8. Cars ran forever without repairs; nothing on them to break.
9. Gas wars. Less than .20 cents.
10. Shoe store had x-ray machine. Let you see how well shoes fit.
11. If car battery went dead, no problem. Just turned crank on front of engine.
12. No one signed contracts. Deals were made on a hand shake.
13. People were honest.
14. No need to worry about getting shot. Knifed maybe, but not shot.
15. Every 19 year old had to make major decision: Army for 2 yrs; Navy for 3; or AF for 4.
16. GI bill paid $175 per month; covered rent, tuition, beer and pizza.
17. Panty hose did not get in the way.


6.

A lot of insurance companies won't pay for loss of life while flying privately owned aircraft. Check the fine print.

Life ins cos consider the following as high risk:

a. pilot with less than 150 hours.
b. pilot with more than 1500 hours. (Pilot complaicency??)

I have had success in having them waiver that restriction.

Life ins cos consider the following as high risk:

a. pilot with less than 150 hours.
b. pilot with more than 1500 hours. (Pilot complaicency??)

I have had success in having them waiver that restriction.
I never gave a damn. If I was killed in the crash I didn't want anybody to be happy about it.

What do you fly?

Motorcycles and airplanes are popular nowdays for the graying set.
Better gray than nay. :D I'm a Q-tip.:yup:

Wrong key...........

My first CB radio ('61) was made by Globe Electronics, weighed a ton, big as a pizza box, and was all vacuum tube. Had it in a '53 MG TD! The damn whip antenna slowed the car down........old callsign 4Q0311. (You had to have a FCC license.....) Rode a '60 BSA Super Rocket 650 and several Triumph Bonnevilles of mid-'60 vintage, among others........and on and on........