[Fun] I'm So Old I Remember....

In Charleston, WV? I was playing in a rock band back in the 60's, not on that level of talent by no means though.

 

No I was in Tampa Florida and it might not have been 1970 but more like 1972 or 3

 

when 'rock concert' wasn't the first thing that came to mind when someone said 'concert'.
when no one bitched about it if a member of the local wildlife adopted you as kind of a semi-pet
septic tanks and leach fields if you lived outside of town.
the power going off a couple of times every winter, which was why no one heated with electric and everyone had a kerosene lamp for when it did.

 

I'm so old I'm starting to forget loads of stuff - but I remember that I'm forgetting!

 

instamatic cameas. the 60s upgrade of the idea of the box brownie.
with the film preloaded in a kind of film cassette, with the idea you just dropped a fresh one in when you'd used up the previous and you were instantly ready to shoot again.
they had a kind of mechanical interlock to line the film up with the lens for the next shot, but you did have to advance the film with a conveniently located little lever, and the interlock wouldn't let the shutter go until you did, so you didn't have the option of deliberate multiple exposure, but of course, the idea was to prevent you from doing so unintentionally.

kodak was still trying to remain dominant, but 35mm cameras from japan and europe had already become the more professional way to go.
and of course larger formats where preferable where you needed higher resolution.

the idea of digital electronic photography wasn't even yet a dream.

electronics was still vacuum tubes and the only things digital were electromechanical releys and a very rare odd item called the magnitron beam switching tube.
yes computers existed, but memory was something that looked like a window screen with little ceramic metal doughnuts where the tiny wires crossed.
this was dynamic memory, refreshed by vacuum tubes also.

there really wasn't the technology to make a computer smaller then a refrigerator, nor costing less then your house.
this was soon to change, with the use of transistors to replace vacuum tubes.

broad application of integrated circuit technology was still a decade away. so the whole idea of using computers to generate high density images was still pretty much inconceivable.

 

I also remember when elevators had operators pushing the buttons for riders. I was leaving a grocery store one time and a little kid approached the door as it opened out towards him. The bottom of the door just clipped the nail on his big toe and stood it upright! Never forget the look on his face before he took off running.

I remember when no one locked their doors in my hometown. Even when we went to the coast for the week end.
When the interior of banks was mostly beautiful pieces of marble with brass or bronze prevalent throughout.
When people took their turns sitting in what looked like life guard towers watching the sky for airplanes in the 40s right after the BIG war.
When we still called refrigerators "ice boxes" even after we no longer had ice delivered to cool food.
When vaccinations were given free to all the kids in school every year.
When a city vehicle, usually a jeep, pulled a machine around town spraying a huge mist of DDT to kill mosquitos.
When virtually no one had AC, but used swamp coolers. They made lots of noise and didn't do much good unless you slept right in front of one..

 

....When HFs was the other color scheme.

 

ooooo--I remember when this site was GREEN! Before the 2004 changeover, it was.

 

I remember waiting on my draft notice......

 

i remember getting my welcome to the inactive reserves of the air force three days before it showed up. which was good enough for me, and why i joined.

 

i remember the oakland mole, which as the end of the line for cross country trains, where you got off the train and got on the ferry boat to cross the bay to san francisco.
i remember seeing the key system articulated interurbans, but never getting to ride on them, back when light railway was a british term for narrow gauge, and no one
would likely have ever expected it to be used to sexy up the reintroduction of urban trolley cars.
or that they would have to be reintroduced for that matter, as they were still very much a thing in any city big enough to be worth calling one.

i also remember the oakland induction center, its nick name at the moment escapes me, i remember it had one.
and the cute little hippie girl, i think her name was patty something, outside selling the berkely barb and handing out petitions to free charles manson.

and on the other side of the outside of the door, some church group handing out shaving kits and bibles.
and not being ashamed to smile and accept from both.

and over in s-f, carol dotta's shoe shine booth.
"those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end, we sing and dance, for ever and a day ..."

 

I remember going to LA with my grand parents in the 40s and seeing the big red electric cars that went all over the place. There were electric lines above the cars that were hooked to the cars transferring electricity to them. I read long ago that General Motors had something to do with the disposing of the red cars to be able to sell more autos. Probably some kind of payoff to someone in charge of the red cars. More than likely SHOULD have been a scandal--but that was the 40s------when "things" were not looked into as much as now. When I worked down in LA for a couple of years in the late 80s, I could see little stretches of the tracks they ran on, just disappearing into bushes and under buildings and such.

IR My first car, a nice little 37' Plymouth coupe that had a chrome handle on the dashboard that would crank the front window out to let air come in. Paid 25 bucks for it. (the car-not the handle!)

IR when A LL candy bars, Life Savers and others were a nickle. AS were ice cream bars.

When you bought cigs from a machine, the packs had a nickle in them between the cellophane and the paper package. I don't remember exactly , but I think it was because 3 dimes were required for the machine , but the cigs were 25 cents.

 

it was called united cities transportation, or something like that. it consisted of, i think you're right that gm was one of them, the other two were firestone tyre and one of the oil companies, possibly standard oil of new jersey. much as a.l.e.c. does with getting states to introduce and pass corporate favorable legislation today, this consortum went around to cities, offering them a deal on diesel busses, (maybe even turnkey opperation of their transit systems) if they would agree to pass a law forbidding the construction of any new trolley lines for at least 40 years. i don't recall all the details exactly but that was basically it.

 

I’m so old Scott Baio was considered cool, and Charles in Charge was my favorite TV show



Hotwater

 

the cartoons and shows for kids that were on tv when i was little, i actually prefer to forget. rockey and bullwinkle, crusader rabbit, captain kangaroo was still an institution. there was porkey pig and mickey mouse.
the sunday news papers were better. there was mut and jeff, and baby huey, dennis i didn't much care for and dagwood seemed pointless. it wasn't until i was 20 something that doonsberry came along. and hanna barbara on the tv wasn't until i was in high school. as was the origeonal series of star trek.

i remember twilight zone and outer limits though. and before 55 there was something called science fiction theatre. i remember these flat circles of light someone grew or kept in a leadnum jar, except it was a big bell jar they called that, like that lens aberation effect people sometimes call 'orbs' today.

we lived where we needed (so far from any real city and their stations) a really big antenna with a booster box (broad band amp) to get all three of the networks.

and then national educational television made four. after that there were a couple of uhf stations but they didn't come in very well and i don't thing anyone out in the country watched them.

candy bars had gone up to ten cents each and gotten a little smaller by the time i was old enough to buy them on my own. my parents who remembered them being a nickle thought that was outrageously expensive for them. hershey bars, 3 muscateers, life savers and candy cigarettes. hershey's kisses, nonparells, and 'flicks' were only at 'the flicks'. jelly beans came in boxes and so did licorish bites. there was some kind of long white taffy bar with peanut butter in the center that had a yellow logo and black letterring. i forget the name now, something like aba daba, zaba daba, something like that.

you could still get a good sized hamburger with lettice, tomato and mayo, in a sit down resteraunt for 55 cents that came with a side of macaroni salad and a whole dill pickle (i think it was all ground beef in those days, no texpro extender). a dime would buy you all the coffee you could drink, and the juke box was three plays for a quarter. (some were five plays for a quarter)

 

Yes--Abba-Dabba. And remember Look bars? Cup a' Gold?

In the movies you got a cartoon, a short subject,( remember Behind the Eight Ball with Joe Doaks) a news reel, two movies and in our little theater--no snack bar. And funky little bathrooms that were smaller than a gas station rest room. (stayed outa' there every chance I got.)

(when my late friend Richard and I loaded up on water balloons, jerked the side door open, which turned on a light and started a loud buzzer, and flung the balloons at people and then ran like hell. We were 10 years old.)