I remember way back when... (not RR, but could be)
waxjunky
1,850 Posts
There were no ATM machines. People went into the banks and had a little book stamped with deposits and withdrawls. Analogue banking. Crazy.Froot Loops had just three colors: orange, red and purple. That's it. No greens and blues in the mix, like you see now. I'm still eating them though. And remember when Gatorade was either green or orange? No frost, or ice, or wacked out flavors.There were no remote controls. My grandfather would make me change the TV channel because we didn't have remote control at our house. Luckily (?), we only had like 12 channels. More choices now, but still seems like there's not too much to watch. My uncle had a top-loading VCR with a control that was on a long wire. Remote, by definition I suppose, but not really cutting it.Taco Bell hot sauce came in little peel-back containers. Just like McNuggets sauces still do (I think). And there was no "Fire" sauce to complete the trio. We choose between hot or mild. But when we got superhero collectors glasses, they were actual glasses. Still got a set. Got all 12 Star Wars BK glasses as well.Restaurants used to offer smoking and non-smoking sections. I even remember people smoking cigs in line at McDonald's when I was a kid. No repurcussions or sideways looks. Mind blowing.Okay old heads (especially my over-30 brothers and sisters), what do you remember?
Comments
PRE-MTV
BetaMax
Climbing trees instead of doing it in a video game
records/8-tracks/cassettes
Smoking Section on airplanes (?!)
Pliers to change the channel on the TV once the knob broke
scrambled porn
"hi-tech" was looking through the head of the Six Million Dollar Man
Also, see my flowbee post...they still sell that!
Hehhe, yeah even the cable boxes had a rotary dials. We used to rent a VCR beta to watch conan, logan's run etc., that was on some special movie party schitt. The suitcase it came in probably weighed 50 pounds when packed. Commodore 64 was the newest pc. We rocked a heavy black rotary phone pre call-waiting.
Record players with the metal arm-guard and stacking mechanism, in a long all-in-one cabinet (what else?)
Pouring gas then paying.
Recordable cassettes, using the pause button.
No "squeezable" grocery condiments outside of lemon juice, syrup, and the honey bear.
Hot wheel tracks and that little shack that spit the cars through. Micronauts. Stretch Hulk. Pitfall, Donkey Kong. Yea're (sp?) Kung Fu.
KTEL. Am radio. Huffy bikes. Making ramps out of plywood.
Girls wearing satin embroidered "Sean Cassidy" jackets. Roller skating to "Angel In a Centerfold".
This is a big one for me - I don't smoke anymore, so I am actually
glad people can't smoke anywhere now, for selfish reasons, but it
blows my mind to think of how accepted smoking was in society less than
20 years ago, and all the places one could smoke, where now it would just
be so shocking ... and I wonder if in other parts of the country it still
is that way. People used to smoke in offices, shopping malls, sports
arenas, airports, hotel & movie theater lobbies...and even in places
it was banned, like subway stations, people did it all the time anyway,
whereas nowadays it would be a huge deal.
I remember smoking fairly often on the back of buses, out the window!
I mean, it was obnoxious even then, but it wasn't like it was my idea,
you saw it happen every day - now it just does NOT go on.
Also, and this may be a regional thing, but I remember there
being lots of businesses that had been around since the 60's
or 50's or even 40's...restaraunts, corner stores, record
stores...AKA what is now my local Starbucks, Buritto Max and
urban mini-mall...
That's my shit!!!! peaceful, you're the man for pulling that one out.
Rented VCRS!
god damn...I also kind of remember my parents renting a film-strip from the local library for my 4th or 5th birthday. A film strip kidz. No fuckin lie. And even better than that was "Turn the page when you hear this sound....BONG"
cold lampin with booberry
MY UZI WEIGHS A TON
Don't even get close to me here. I will end you with my laser-tag game.
SERIOUSLY.
it cost NZ$20 and you had to leave a $100 deposit, we rented Porkys.
"Tap the plate on my laser tag vest, YES!I'm strapped in tight,Cos I feel like some shit gonna happen tonight "
Totally forgot about those. But I do remember some computer system using cassettes as a means of data storage.
On the computer topic, you don't even have to go that far back (well, I guess it has been 10-15 years) to remember dot-matrix printers. Super loud and of very questionable quality. Paper jams were a nightmare, and sometimes if it wasn't set up correctly, the perforations would be in the middle of the text. Still, it was satifying to complete an essay and tear the little guide strips of the sides of the paper.
what was that ridee where the nerd got laid as darth vader?
b/w
MONTGOMERY WARDS
Oh, hell yes. And don't get caught slipping on the film strips, or the whole class will yell at you to turn to the next pic.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wishbook/sets/1360453/
oh wow, these old tandy
Hairy Bellafonte is still waiting
when this shit dropped i thought it was on some
reminds me of this thing
This is cool. I'm almost positive I had a set of those Star Wars PJs. I would like to find some of those NFL shirts and jerseys in an adult XL today. Those sing-along Bee Gees record players are nuts! I'm surprised they didn't offer a KISS model.
yeah, betamax was what my parents got, and we had
the apple IIe in the computer room but rocked the colecovison
for the games
we also had the thingamajig that you plugged in the front that let you play atari
games too. ken uston's blackjack taught me all i needed to know in vegas.
i'm thirty, almost thirty one, and i smoked on an airline flight, united from SFO to Narita
the last fifteen rows were smoking, it was about this time of year, 15 years ago and i remember
it being that they only had smoking sections on international flights at that time.
my lasertag game was there as well, but i never rocked those harnesses
i was all about the vest that i cant seem to find a good photo of.
do you remember those remote controls that weren't infared but made a little clicking noise? shit was crazy.
thinking a big mac was big
being afraid to talk to girls
thinking beer tasted nasty
watching ninja movies, and seeing the bigboss talking on his mobile phone... the henchman had to carry the shoulder pack
making throwing stars and throwing them at each other
making nunchukas and beating my kid brother with them
condoms were waterbombs
getting some under the shirt, over the bra action and thinking i was the man
firecrackers in letterboxes/dogshit/creeks
falling off my skateboard and breaking both my arms at the same time
turning on the B&W tv and having to wait for it to warm up
milk in bottles
porn in magazines
the feeling of a bloodnose
playing taito space invaders and somehow knowing that life would never be the same
tape drives before floppys
fax machines were the future
sea monkeys
.....
1. When you misbehaved on the school bus the driver would stop and kick your ass off.. "Sorry son, you get to walk home/to school from here."*
Can you imagine if someone tried to pull that shit off today? For reals.
2. Watching "Friday After Dark" on Cinemax (Skinemax), maybe catch a little "Young Lady Chatterly" or "Bolero" starring Bo Derek.
3. Drinking water out of any old yard hose when thirsty.*
4. Yard darts. Remember these things? Huge ass darts you'd throw up in the air and try to get em to stick within a certain area on the grass in your yard... huge sharp ass darts thrown up high in the air with kids around... you get the picture.*
5. Toys in cereal. Remember you'd always get some toys at the bottom of your Cap'n Crunch?
edit: *for midwest suburb dudes, most likely.
But waiting for the sun-warmed water to run all the way out first. That was summertime, right there.