I still can't get my head around the introduction (or not) of TV in SA. Of course I wasn't here but Jackie was.
Yes ... there was a time before google ... I remember thinking who is this upstart with a stupid name? No one needs a better search engine than yahoo. And google used not to be able to do "quoted string" searches - you only got what they'd indexed.
South Africa doesn't count. You guys just got phones last week.
I understand quaternions and you don't bitch
Even in a cultural backwater its possible to be superior to the citizens of a complacent nation that's resting on the laurels of the previous generation. You guys buy everything from the east because they DO ALL YOUR SHIT BETTER. How does that feel?
WHEREAS, those of us who've had to scrabble for every morsel of intellectual stimulation and up to date technology appreciate it so much more*. That's why us third-world whizzkids will always pwn your asses. I'm reminded of an album name: "Stay hungry". That's what keeps you the sharpest blade in the toolshed
lol. The Third World is gonna own your ass shortly. Be prepared.
*Hell I've een the other side of that. I worked with a bunch of Indian programmers taking home what was considered menial labour wages in SA and doing a decent job. For them, it was wealth beyond measure.
Oh if we're going to talk phone stores I've got all you old bitches beat despite my preternatural youth. The first phone number I remember having was 5 digits long. When Italy added a 6th number it was this huge thing, like the digital teevee ads now only with more riots.
I remember having 'extensions' like 'Belmont' and 'Atlantic' and then four numbers....but that worked out to be six numbers. So, yeah, you win with your alien entry. I wonder if Stormy can beat us all...he probably as a two-digit phone number....three, maybe?
I also remember when pinball games had NO electrical aspect to them whatsoever.
That was when the revolutionary form of communications, worldwide, was the transistor radio. And, yeah, Ding...I remember the tube testers at the store.
In my industry...does everybody remember the card catalog at the library? I used to insert and remove the catalog cards in them.
I was the total card catalog queen. At the time I had to do everyone's card catalog searches LOL*. I loved to research shit, even back then...the Internet has made it hella easier though.
*I don't remember a single thing about it though...like if you stuck a card catalog in front of me now I'd be lost.
South Africa doesn't count. You guys just got phones last week.
I understand quaternions and you don't bitch
...
Even in a cultural backwater its possible to be superior to the citizens of a complacent nation that's resting on the laurels of the previous generation. You guys buy everything from the east because they DO ALL YOUR SHIT BETTER. How does that feel?
WHEREAS, those of us who've had to scrabble for every morsel of intellectual stimulation and up to date technology appreciate it so much more*. That's why us third-world whizzkids will always pwn your asses. I'm reminded of an album name: "Stay hungry". That's what keeps you the sharpest blade in the toolshed
lol. The Third World is gonna own your ass shortly. Be prepared.
You nailed it.
Then I wonder what are you gonna do with our bunch of arrogant squatter asses halfway around the world?
When I was a kid in the 60s, most ordinary working people here didn't have cars or phones.
TV was black and white. In the UK, we had only two channels and they only broadcast in the evenings. You didn't just have a television then, it was always a 'television set'. They took around a minute to warm up when you turned them on - the sound would come on after maybe 20 seconds with the picture gradually appearing later. When you turned them off, the picture would shrink down and disappear after a second or so, but there was a gradually disappearing white dot in the centre of the screen that you could watch for an extra minute or two (we were starved for entertainment back then).
We got our first colour TV when I was about 12 and it was rare enough that all our neighbours and relatives came specially to see it. By then we had gained a third channel and there were occasional broadcasts in the afternoons. Breakfast TV came later.
I remember the first computer I worked on (an IBM) that was the size of a large desk that you sat at and fed it punch cards and it spit out pricing labels. It was a clunky machine but I was proud to work at it.
Later I worked at a place that had a room with a computer that spanned two walls. I had no idea how it worked I just was the person that photographed documents and punch in their numbers then developed and filed in big cabinets, where they could later be taken down and viewed by a machine. Sheesh I can't even remember the name of it, but we used them in libraries to find archived information. Sorry brain is not remembering, micro something or other. OH! microfilm! Dang that hurt! It was a great job when I was going to school.
I remember when dad went and bought our first VCR. (glad he didn't go with Betamax) It was a large top loader and he paid $700 for it at Tom Peterson's. he didn't spring for the cordless remote (an additional $100) so we had to string a wire from the VCR to the coffee table (it was too short to reach the couch) so that dad could hit the pause button.
We didn't go the Betamax route either, VHS all the way. Our first VCR was the very first front-loading VCR on the mass market, from Sharp. We ordered it from Spiegel catalog in 1982. Is Spiegel still in business? It too had a wired remote with about 12 feet of cord. Before we got that I was admiring a JVC Laserdisk player at a store in Rocket City. I'm kind of glad I didn't go for that format either.
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
I remember the first computer I worked on (an IBM) that was the size of a large desk that you sat at and fed it punch cards and it spit out pricing labels. It was a clunky machine but I was proud to work at it.
Later I worked at a place that had a room with a computer that spanned two walls. I had no idea how it worked I just was the person that photographed documents and punch in their numbers then developed and filed in big cabinets, where they could later be taken down and viewed by a machine. Sheesh I can't even remember the name of it, but we used them in libraries to find archived information. Sorry brain is not remembering, micro something or other. OH! microfilm! Dang that hurt! It was a great job when I was going to school.
I still have a microfiche for Honda Pacific Coast motorcycle parts. No microfiche reader, but I bet one of those could be had for only a few dollars now, maybe next to none if I had a good junkyard like those ones on Junkyard Wars.
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
Joe, how long did it take for you to get "robots?"
Too late, they got me first.
When in London, someone asked my wife for directions somewhere (somewhere she knew). Her directions included something like "go this way until you see the big robots, then turn right". She realised afterwards that they had probably not understood at all.
1) We drank water out of the tap – bottled water was virtually unknown!!!!
2) Baseball bats were made of wood. (So were hockey and lacrosse sticks, believe it or not.)
3) In basketball, you were not allowed to “palm” the ball or take steps without dribbling.
4) “Star Wars” had the best special effects ever.
5) When we invaded other countries, we “drafted” normal citizens to serve in the army (fortunately, we discontinued this practice before I was drafted).
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"It's lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened."
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
In my day, if you bought a soda from a machine, it was Coke, 7-Up, or Nehi and it came in a glass bottle that you had to open using the machine's bottle opener (or your own church key).
When I was a kid in the 60s, most ordinary working people here didn't have cars or phones.
TV was black and white. In the UK, we had only two channels and they only broadcast in the evenings.
We only had 2 Dutch channels until way into the 70s. But we did get 3 German channels and they broadcast more as well. So we were FORCED to watch German tv
It's how I learned German actually, I understood German pretty much perfectly before I learned it in high school.
I remember renting a VCR for my 14th birthday, and watching Eraserhead.
I also remember party lines and the FBI tapping my parent's phone. It was pretty obvious back then, it made a noise.
I remember tube testers too. Microfiche, microfilm, card catalogs (and the smell, the fun of occasional snarky comments made on the cards).
I also remember staying up late enough to watch the TV turn off. 8 track tapes (some songs, ZZ Top for example, I always think should have a ka-chunk noise somewhere in the middle). I also taped stuff of the radio and made hella-cool mixed tapes.
The first microwave I saw had a radiation meter of some kind in front of it.
I also remember the KGON dj's taking bong hits on the air at night.
I also remember the KGON dj's taking bong hits on the air at night.
KGON!?
I thought that only happened on KBOO.
KBOO is our 'community supported radio station' and staffed by the most dissolute collection of cultural and political reprobates, radicals and flashback victims in the Puddle City region. There were often long periods of blank air...as the DJ tried to remember the title on the platter he'd just put on the turntable.
The phrase, "Uh...uh...um...wow...far out" was quite common from the DJs, too.
Damn, the FBI tapped your parents' phone? Was that some COINTELPRO shit or what?
In my day, that was not surprising at all. I was tapped, I'm pretty sure, at a couple of points. My college girlfriend/roommate was the treasurer/officer for the defense committee raising funds for a group of radicals who were arrested, tried and subsequently convicted of conspiracy to bomb a military recruiting center in Portland during the Vietnam 'unpleasantness'. I'm quite sure we were tapped...as Qingdai noted, it was not difficult to distinguish (and, around here, party lines were a thing of the past by 1973).
Re: In My Day...
The joke's on you, by the time the third world gets it act together the oil will all be gone!
Linear Mode
