Exploring Old & New Technology: One Item at a Time

[lisab]

...the only show broadcast locally in color at the time was Flipper.

Hahaha...the first show in color featured a large GREY animal...

 

[Evo]

I remember reading the pamphlets to have a fallout shelter installed in our backyard. My parents decided against it.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I remember ducking under my flimsy little desk at school in response to air-raid sirens. This despite the fact that our elementary school was less that 1/10th mile downstream from a huge hydro impoundment that would have swept away the whole town (and lots of others) if the dam had been breached.

What a memory this evokes. I was in kindergarten and we were marched to the basement of the school where we stood with our faces to the wall and our arms wrapped around our heads. We were told that this would protect us from bombs. The image that formed in my mind was that of cannon balls coming though the walls at all angles and leaving holes in the exact shape of the ball like in a Saturday morning cartoon.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I remember my wife and I lying on the floor while the SWAT teams shot it out with gangs who were returning fire with machine guns.

Oh yes, that was just LA.

 

[Astronuc]

I remember when we had rotary dial telephones, and we had to call the operator, who had to call an operator, who had to call an operator, who had to call our relatives to make an international call. It took about an hour to set up an international call.

I remember coke in bottles for a nickel.

Certainly vacuum tube HiFi amplifier.

Steam engines in revenue service.

Cooking on a wood stove.

Setting the choke on the car, to start it.

 

[chemisttree]

I remember reading the pamphlets to have a fallout shelter installed in our backyard. My parents decided against it.

Our landlord filled in the fallout shelter with sand. I had the best, deepest sandbox, er... litterbox in the neighborhood. I tried to dig to China once.

 

[_Mayday_]

I remember when we only had playstation 2's life was hard looking back.

 

[lisab]

Vacuum tube test machines at grocery stores.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Hand crank coffee grinders.

 

[_Mayday_]

non-HD tv's

 

[Evo]

I remember when we only had playstation 2's life was hard looking back.

non-HD tv's

 

[Evo]

Our landlord filled in the fallout shelter with sand. I had the best, deepest sandbox, er... litterbox in the neighborhood. I tried to dig to China once.

At least it was useful.

 

[turbo]

I remember having a telephone with a hand-crank (for years). You would lift the handset, crank the magneto to send a signal to the operator, tell her the number you wanted, and listen carefully to the clicks after you were connected. One click meant the operator jacked out. Two clicks meant that she jacked out and back in so she could monitor everything in your conversation. When I came back on my first freshman break, my parents had a dial phone. Woot!

 

[Evo]

I remember the only portable hair dryer was a large round plastic box that you could sling over your shoulder and it had a hose that went to a plastic bonnet that inflated on your head.

 

[turbo]

I remember the only portable hair dryer was a large round plastic box that you could sling over your shoulder and it had a hose that went to a plastic bonnet that inflated on your head.

Ooh! My mother and sisters had one of those.

 

[Evo]

I had a slip that had an inflatable tube around the bottom. You would inflate it to keep the bottom of your dress poofed out in a circle.

 

[lisab]

Tuning the TV using the UHF dial. You'd get it perfect, and as soon as you let go of the dial (or the rabbit ears) it would go snowy.

 

[quantumdude]

I remember when juke boxes had 45's in them. Now it's all CD's.

(What's that you say? There are no more CD's in juke boxes? It's all touch screen now?)

OK, I remember when jukes boxes had CD's in them.

 

[chemisttree]

I remember when they used to drive through the neighborhoods fogging for mosquitos with DDT. It was so fun chasing that truck...

 

[Evo]

Tuning the TV using the UHF dial. You'd get it perfect, and as soon as you let go of the dial (or the rabbit ears) it would go snowy.

Oh, that's a good one!

 

[Evo]

I remember when they used to drive through the neighborhoods fogging for mosquitos with DDT. It was so fun chasing that truck...

We would all chase the trucks! We'd tie a handkerchief over our nose and mouth so we could breath better.

 

[quantumdude]

I remember when MTV played music videos.

 

[lisab]

I remember when MTV played music videos.

Whoa, you're really showing your age!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I remember R12. It is ironic that as a devout environmentalist, I have dumped hundreds of pounds of freon into the atmosphere. Of course we all thought it was safe back then.

 

[turbo]

I remember when the only snowmobiles around had engines in the back, and a simple metal shield in the front to protect the driver. Everybody else had to snowshoe out onto the lake, and drill an ice-fishing hole with a hand-auger or a chisel.

 

[Evo]

I watched the moon landing on tv.

 

[turbo]

I watched the first sub-orbital US launch and the first orbital launch on TV. The school had a TV when many homes in our town did not, so sitting on metal chairs in the gym was a good option.

 

[lisab]

Lots of toys were pretty dangerous. I had a cotton candy machine that would heat sugar until it melted, then if you didn't turn it off the sugar would ignite. The thing never made cotton candy but I can tell you, burned sugar tastes really bitter!

 

[quantumdude]

I remember when PF had the "Side Menu", which I thought was really cool.

Go to the Internet Archive and set the Wayback Machine for 2001-early 2003.

http://www.archive.org/index.php

 

[lisab]

"Made in Japan" used to be synonymous "poorly made."

 

[Math Is Hard]

I watched the moon landing on tv.

I met Miss Baker.
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/sights/sightstory.php?tip_AttrId==14867

 

[turbo]

I remember when a hamburger, fries, and a coke finally busted 50 cents.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I remember when McDonalds was just a local hamburger stand - just one.

 

[RonL]

I used to listen to the radio, (the inner sanctum, the shadow, fibber McGee& Molly, Flash Gordon, and yes "The Grand Ole Oprah").
How many have seen a Randolph Scott, or Gene Autry, cowboy movie ?
I think my first color movie was "The Yellow Tomahawk".

 

[RonL]

Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts, played Green Bay, in the playoffs before the first Superbowl (i think 1958) don't remember missing a single Superbowl.(on TV)