Showing my age

[Scoutfish]

This actualy has nothing to do with scouting...so I really don't know what forum to put it in. Not religious, not political.....not scouting...

 

I am a senior field supervisor/installer/trainer/quality control technition for Crawford Door Systems in Wilmington, NC

 

Yesterday, while getting my work orders for the day situated, I see a inter-company memo on my bosses desk that has a blazing orage headline: CDS NEWS FLASH!

 

So I look at my boss, pick it up and act like I am straightening out a stack of papers and start saying: "Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep..."

 

Yeah, reading is not the same as hearing, but...

 

So my boss looks at me, looks at the other installers in the room and says to me: "You and I are probably the only people who understood that!"

 

And in case the reading of the beeps didn't let you know...I was mocking the way the major network news used to come on in the late seventies and early eighties. A transparent globe logo would spin around while the "beep beep beep" sound played in the background. Soon the beepinmg would turn into those networked electric typwriters typing (nah, I do not know what they are called).

 

So the discussion turned into recounting old stuff about the news.

 

Remember when gas companies sponored the news?

Remember Gene Shallot (spelling? ) with his thick mustache and big afro?

Remember when the news anchors had black or bown hair?

Remember that new guy named Peter Jennings?

 

Somehow this turned into a gas station logo and sign conversation.

 

Used to be Mobile gas stations all over the place with the black Pegasus on the signs. BP stations just had the BP on them.

 

Shell really hasn't changed much.

 

But I do remember when my dad would pull up to a gas station and they had half the pumps were self serve, half were full service. Your options were Unleaded, Regular and Premium. Regular and premium meant "with lead".

 

Oil cans were cardboard with metal top and bottom, and you had a combo canopener funnel spout that you stuck into the can. And every gas station worth anything had a row of various size fan belts hanging on at least wall.

 

Dad used to get the free maps too. We always had a big collection of maps in the glove box.

 

Yeah, most of the guys at work have no idea about this stuff. Of course, most of them never used or seen a phone with a rotary dial either.

 

Sigh......

 

 

 

[grmaerika]

You are not alone. We had a Sinclair gas station with the big green Dino. Ahhh, the good old days when the guy pumped your gas, checked your oil and cleaned your windows....and even gave lollipops all around to the station wagon full of screaming brats. That was service! The milkman delivered to our back door and put the milk in a little metal cooler--it came in glass bottles where the cream set on top....and then they switched to cardboard....strange. The diaper service truck came around if you were a LUCKY mom...out with the smellies in with the new. Groceries were ALWAYS bagged by a store employee into big brown paper bags. The best part was us kids got to live dangerously...we even crapped in the woods.

[shortridge]

I was quite amazed while at the eye doctor's office recently that my daughter (age 7) was able to identify an image of a rotary-dial telephone on the exam sheet. Not that she'd know how to use one.

 

When I was in Cubs practicing how to call 911 in a smoky room (while blindfolded), my dad unplugged both our rotary and push-button phones and had us practice on both. Guess it's a little more complicated today.

 

Digression: While I was sitting in the waiting area at my daughter's dance studio recently, I overheard two slightly older girls (maybe about 8-10 years old) talking about an iPad one of them was using. She described it thusly: "It's a big phone that won't call." I just found that fascinating. To them, a "phone" isn't necessarily a device to call other people - it's first and foremost a portable computer.

[CalicoPenn]

Last week, one of the women at work wore a pair of boots that reached up beyond the knees - great (and fierce) looking boots - and I said "wow - those boots were made for walking" only to be met with puzzled looks from my co-workers. I said "Nancy Sinatra??" - and still more puzzled looks. So we had to find an online recording of the song so they would get it.

 

Yeah - I'm old, but really, if I can keep up with todays cultural touchstones (yeah, I know who Justin Bieber and Snooki are), is it really too much to ask that these whippersnappers understand mine?

 

PS - Those electronic typewriters were called Teletype Terminals. They were both an early fax machine (type your message on one terminal and it could be sent to print on other people's terminals) and keyboard for computer programming. You didn't have a computer on your desk - you logged into a mainframe that could be located in a different room, a different building, heck, a different town - and typed away to create a program. I learned to type on one of these back in high school and could type 70 wpm on it (but could only do 20 wpm on the IBM Selectric (yeah, I remember them too), probably because I didn't have to follow the rules of 8-finger typing on the teletype terminal - in fact, as I'm typing this, I'm realizing that I mostly use 2 fingers on my left hand and 3 fingers on my right hand to type). Tell someone you started learning computer programming in high school in the late 1970's and most don't believe it, either because their schools in the 70's didn't offer programming, or their schools in the late 80's stopped offering programming to concentrate of how to use word processing and spreadsheet programs.

[Beavah]

You didn't have a computer on your desk - you logged into a mainframe that could be located in a different room, a different building, heck, a different town - and typed away to create a program.

 

Whippersnapper.

 

Real men program usin' punch cards.

 

Beavah

 

[SeattlePioneer]

>

 

 

 

Before there were beeps there was the sound of teletypewriters printing out the news from wire services that was broadcast to herald televeision news:

 

 

 

 

[desertrat77]

In my office, I have a group photo from basic training. We were wearing the old green fatigues.

 

Folks used to stop by the office and look it at. They'd squint, look at the date the photo was taken, and say "I was three years old!"

 

That was then. Nowadays, they usually say "I wasn't even born then!"

[ScoutNut]

I remember the dino, and the Pegasus, and thought both were cool. I also remember no self-service at all, and gas being $0.50 per gallon.

 

At least I'm not old enough to remember the Cubs winning the World Series! Don't know if that is a good thing or not.

[BadenP]

Scoutfish

 

Yea I remember all that stuff too, except wasn't Pegasus on the Mobil sign red not black, at least out west it was. Remember as a kid when gas stations gave a premium with every fillup, my favorite were some great drinking glasses with antique cars etched on them. Well my wife took me to one of her favorite antique stores a couple years back, and there on a dusty shelf was a set of seven of those exact same glasses. I could not resist and bought all of them, now they sit on my wetbar shelf at home.

My first tent as a boy scout my parents got me were from green stamps, remember those?

 

Ah those were the good old days, I guess we are all getting older, lol.(This message has been edited by BadenP)

[raisinemright]

There was a Mobil gas station in Clinton Township, MI. They had not changed the sign since the 60's and it was in perfect condition. BP made them change and destroy a unique bit of history. Sad, but understandable at the same time.

[raisinemright]

BadenP,

 

My favorites were the Apollo Mission glasses. I think it was from Marathon Oil. I had a couple and bought the rest at a garage sale. Back when space travel was a really big thing. It stilll is. My son earned his Robotics Merit Badge and entered the contest to win a badge flown on the Shuttle. He won one and it just arrived this week. Really cool stuff.

[anderle]

If you are from NC, do you remember when Jesse Helms was an editorial broadcaster? I also remember getting gas at Esso not Exxon. TV only had 4 stations and the remote control was my dad telling me to get up and go change the channel.

[Scoutfish]

WOW! 4 stations? WE only had 3, and most of the time, CBS was kinda fuzzy.

 

Yeah, remember hearing about Jessie Helms broadcast, but didn't watch it much myself.

 

Our Pegasus was black, but the lettering was red or green depending on where you were and how long the station was in buisness.

 

And they were just starting to accept that newfangled ( around here) MASTERCHARGE credit card thingy.

[resqman]

The family used to load up in the station wagon, long before SUVs, and head out to buy milk at the dedicated Milk Store once a week. The milk store was a 12x20 building with drive up windows. Drive up and they handed your milk through the window. Cheaper than the grocery store. Then we would drive over to the Hess Gas station for a fill up. Full service included check your oil, wash your window and a coffee mug if you bought 8 or more gallons. 29 cents a gallon full service with coffee mug.

 

I learned to program computers on punch cards in high school. Went to work at a Digital Equipment Corporation, a hardward and software manufacturer, as a system administrator. Remember the hardward tech coming to perform an upgrade on the system. He opened the double doors on the back of the system, about the size of two refrigerators side by side. He pulled out a spool of wire, wrapped a bit around a peg, moved over and up half a dozen pegs, wrapped another peg, and continued like that for several wraps. Cut the wire off the spool and said Ok, all better now.

 

When we would visit at grandma's we had to be taught the Party Line Ediquette of not listening in on others peoples calls. If you wanted to make a phone call, you would pick up the reciever, listen for an existing conversation. If no one else on the line, then you could rotary dial. Otherwise you replaced the reciever and tried again later.

[Scoutfish]

Back when long distance was anything outside of city limits..we didn't have to dial but 5 numbers to make a local call. This was before touch tone was available in my county.

 

Matter of fact, 911 and enhanced 911 was the single biggest factor for touch tone replacing pulse dial.

 

Anyways, if your neighbors number was (910) 867-5309 , all you had to do was dial 75309 and it would call then with no problem. Anything outside of city limits, you would have to dial 1- then the area code and then the 7 digit number. If you were going to make an out of state call,..you could spend almost 3 minutes waiting for the rotoray dila to get back to start by the time you dialed the whole number. Want to call another country? Had to have operator assistance.

 

Anybody remember the old Mazda commercials?

 

"Sakes alive! Sakes alive! Mazda's got a truck for $3995.00!"