You are too old if you remember.......

[roadman65]

I remember when TV shows used to have closing sequences in the end either with rolling credits or name or names at a time.  What are those names that flash by at the bottom of the screen now?

I remember when you only had three major networks, and when the President of the United States came on to speak you had not too many alternatives to go through to avoid watching him!  BTW whats a remote control in a private home?  Weren't they only on TV shows with the swinging kitchen doors, which were all sitcoms?

I  remember that phone booths had doors that closed that later changed to a phone on a pedestal.  Also when rotary phones were the norm and touch tone was extra a month.   In addition you never owned your telephone, but it was provided for you as part of the service.  We can thank the judge that broke up Bell, which later reunited when the business Pac Man became a big part of America.

I  remember when you had to behave in a department store, or else the manager or sales people would tell your parents and you would get reprimanded!

I remember when Jack n the Box was not only in New Jersey, but had the only drive through pick up window around.

I remember when the Bar Association would not allow a lawyer to have ads on TV, radio, or billboards, but cigarettes were allowed instead!

I remember, when you could not have access to all NFL games on Sunday's, but only like 6 games on each of the three networks.

I remember when the news aired at 6 o clock and not 5, and the national news (Cronkite, Chancellor, or Harry Reasoner (used to be on ABC) aired at 7 PM.

I remember when Bewiched was first run with Dick Sargent (Darrin number 2) therefore making him the first Darrin for me as I was too young to remember Dick York.  In fact when I first saw Dick York on rerun, I was like "Man who is this guy?"  Plus with Dick York always crying when his mother in law cast a spell on him rather than get angry like his successor did when portraying the part being part of hocus pocus , I actually thought he was the worst of the two at the time.


I even remember when Sodium Vapor lights only existed on Staten Island in the NYC area and hated them as they made the area they lit appear dismal. 

I remember when you did not have to wear seat belts or when many states allowed either 18 or 19 to legally drink.  I missed it in NJ by a few years.  Then of course ole Ronnie changed it and threatened to have congress take away highway funding if they did not go 21 which is why it is now!

I remember when no one took sides between political arguments as politics used to be considered square for lay people talk about  before Rush Limbaugh and Bill Clinton came into culture which had  the current flames that launched from that now.  You mean people actually defend an actual President of the United States?

[thenetwork]

When I was a kid in the early/mid-70s, Interstate 280 in Wood County, OH (metro Toledo) still had some at-grade intersections.  I remember thinking "This is a freeway?"

At about the same time, the U.S. 23 freeway in Monroe County, MI had an at-grade railroad crossing.

Fortunately, they were "corrected" by the time I started driving on both of these.

Good ol' Walbridge Road -- That intersection was the first (and only place in a looong time) where I saw my first set of "PREPARE TO STOP WHEN FLASHING" assemblies.  I would always hope we'd hit the flashers just as they would go off to announce the pending signal change.

[agentsteel53]

I remember when the news aired at 6 o clock and not 5, and the national news (Cronkite, Chancellor, or Harry Reasoner (used to be on ABC) aired at 7 PM.

this change must be sufficiently late because I had no idea the news is on at 5. 

I remember the 11 o'clock news being moved forward to 10 o'clock in more and more places, starting in the late 90s or so.

[thenetwork]

• Gas stations had service bays instead of convenience stores.

[/quote]

There are stll quite a few stations in the Southwest (California & Arizona to name a couple) which are full-fledged service stations.

How about the days where in high-populated areas before the Midases, Jiffy Lubes and Pep Boys, you had neighborhoods in which there would be mom & pop gas/service stations on nearly every other block along the main routes....

...or you could get a car wash for free, or at least for under $1.00, with any fill up.

Here's a few more:

...When the red arrow on the main Sunoco signs would flash on & off...

...The blue Fotomat shacks in the middle of selected shopping center parking lots...and "Golden Goat" recycle-for-cash machines in others.

...When McDonalds not only DIDN'T have drive-thrus, they didn't even have indoor seating areas!!! (The last to-go-only McDs that I can remember was one on the west side of Asheville, NC on US-19/23 back in the Summer of 1977!!!)

[agentsteel53]

• Gas stations had service bays instead of convenience stores.

There are stll quite a few stations in the Southwest (California & Arizona to name a couple) which are full-fledged service stations.

I've always figured "service garages, place was built before 1980 or so; C-store, place was built after that".

[deathtopumpkins]

• Gas stations had service bays instead of convenience stores.

There are stll quite a few stations in the Southwest (California & Arizona to name a couple) which are full-fledged service stations.

I've always figured "service garages, place was built before 1980 or so; C-store, place was built after that".

Same here. Another way you can usually tell is the location - the older places with garages are right in town, the newer places with convenience stores are on the edge of town, or near a freeway.

There are still at least 3 actual service stations in my town, of which I know two (and possibly the third) still have full-service gas, with  gas pumps I can't believe still work.

[mgk920]

Here is my list

General

• Gas stations had dial pumps instead of electronic pumps, and you could first pump and then pay instead of the other way around

'Pump then pay' is still S.O.P. throughout most of Wisconsin, as well as many other parts of the upper midwest.

...The blue Fotomat shacks in the middle of selected shopping center parking lots...and "Golden Goat" recycle-for-cash machines in others.

There are still some active can-buying machines here in the Appleton, WI area.

Mike

[Alps]

I remember the old dials instead of the display that we all got to know!

I think you can still find them here and there in the US.  the last time I saw one in use was in western Nebraska in 2010.  a little independently-owned station.

you can definitely find them all over Argentina.

I've seen them in the west - and filled up at one this very year (NWT).

[agentsteel53]

I've seen them in the west - and filled up at one this very year (NWT).

that reminds me... there is an old wheelie pump halfway up the James Bay Road in Quebec.  and perhaps I saw some in NWT/northern Alberta as well, but can't recall offhand because these pumps strike me as unusual but not so quaint that I make explicit note of them.

the main reason I don't use them as much is because I like to pay outside with a credit card, and I am quote confident that no gas pump design combines "outside credit card reader" with "wheels for readout".  (watch someone prove me wrong with a photo of some MacGyver assembly!)

[theline]

I  remember that phone booths had doors that closed that later changed to a phone on a pedestal.

Hence the visual joke in the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie, which younger viewers probably don't understand. Clark Kent can't find his usual phone booth in which to change, at about the :04 mark of this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksevcw3dGfY

I remember when the news aired at 6 o clock and not 5, and the national news (Cronkite, Chancellor, or Harry Reasoner (used to be on ABC) aired at 7 PM.

Actually, the networks back then made the national news broadcasts available at 6, 6:30, and 7 (Eastern) for the affiliates, to fit the local schedules. I recall when I was a teen watching all 3 network newscasts back-to-back with my dad, comparing how they covered the Vietnam War, campus protests, and the like. He would have loved CNN and the WWW, had he lived.

• Gas stations had dial pumps instead of electronic pumps, and you could first pump and then pay instead of the other way around

I'm pretty sure we still have some mechanical dial pumps in Indiana. I'll try to get a picture. We definitely still have "pump, then pay" available many places. I guess we're a trusting group here. I always pay with a card, but some pumps indicate that you can pay afterward.

[vtk]

Pump-then-pay remained a common option in the Columbus area unntil the recession made people desperate and drive-offs spiked.

I used to pay after pumping before I got a credit card; since then, I find pay at the pump to be more convenient.

There's a chain of gas stations here that pumps the gas for you.  I find the rushed human interaction awkward, so I don't go to those gas stations if it's up to me.

[Takumi]

remember when AT&T and MCI used to try to win customers over tenths-of-a-cent difference in the per-minute long distance land line rates?

Also 1-800-Collect, 10-10-321, and other such collect call services.

[vtk]

remember when AT&T and MCI used to try to win customers over tenths-of-a-cent difference in the per-minute long distance land line rates?

Also 1-800-Collect, 10-10-321, and other such collect call services.

I remember when 10-10-321 was just 10-321.

[kkt]

remember when AT&T and MCI used to try to win customers over tenths-of-a-cent difference in the per-minute long distance land line rates?

Also 1-800-Collect, 10-10-321, and other such collect call services.

When there were no 800 numbers, but there were Enterprise numbers.

[WichitaRoads]

remember when AT&T and MCI used to try to win customers over tenths-of-a-cent difference in the per-minute long distance land line rates?

Yes, especially when I worked for MCI for about two months... went back to school because of it!

ICTRds

[ZLoth]

• Gas stations had service bays instead of convenience stores.

There are still quite a few stations in the Southwest (California & Arizona to name a couple) which are full-fledged service stations.

I'm sure they exist, but just a lot harder to find. I know that some of the stations which HAD service bays converted them to convenience stores.

I remember the old dials instead of the display that we all got to know!

I think you can still find them here and there in the US.  the last time I saw one in use was in western Nebraska in 2010.  a little independently-owned station.

you can definitely find them all over Argentina.

I've seen them in the west - and filled up at one this very year (NWT).

I remember reading news stories where the price of gas was so high, the gearing got really complicated for the proper price.

[roadman65]

I remember once upon a time when you ever got lost on a road, employees of any kind of business were able to give you directions and actually assist you.  Now, many people do not even know the name of the street that is in front of them and even the name of the businesses around them.  I had a guy in Miami who was the clerk of a convenience store who did not know where the Hampton Inn was that was visible from the spot he was standing (the hotel was a few doors down and his counter faced the door that looked out toward the hotel's main sign) and his gas station/ CC was near Miami Airport where many tourists stop to gas up at his place.

[PHLBOS]

General

• When Arco made a big deal about doing away with their gas card

For a brief period, I had an I *heart* Arco Prices bumper sticker that coincided w/those ads. on my first car.

• Shell stations handing out little yellow "tips" books that was also reprinted in Reader's Digest

Those were called Shell Answer Books IIRC.  Remember the TV ads. for them that shows a car going through a banner displaying the current Answer Books at the closing and the announcer would say, "Come to Shell for Answers."

I still have a couple of those old Shell Answer Book (more like leaflets) in my mother's attic.

Set the Wayback Machine to 1978 for this ad.

• Gas stations had service bays instead of convenience stores

To add, service stations were actually service stations.

[mgk920]

remember when AT&T and MCI used to try to win customers over tenths-of-a-cent difference in the per-minute long distance land line rates?

Also 1-800-Collect, 10-10-321, and other such collect call services.

When there were no 800 numbers, but there were Enterprise numbers.

When all North American ('World Zone 1') telephone area codes had only '0' or '1' as their second digit.



Mike

[roadman65]

remember when AT&T and MCI used to try to win customers over tenths-of-a-cent difference in the per-minute long distance land line rates?

Also 1-800-Collect, 10-10-321, and other such collect call services.

When there were no 800 numbers, but there were Enterprise numbers.

When all North American ('World Zone 1') telephone area codes had only '0' or '1' as their second digit.



Mike

How about when all of NYC was 212 in area code, and many states had only one or two.  Heck I remember when Orlando and Key West both were in the same area code in Florida, and Jacksonville, Pensacola, and the entire I-10 corridor was 904.

Plus, you were able to dial only 7 digits in all places for intra area code calls.  I imagine that some still let you do that, but here in Florida you must dial the area code even if you are in the same code.

[PHLBOS]

Plus, you were able to dial only 7 digits in all places for intra area code calls.  I imagine that some still let you do that, but here in Florida you must dial the area code even if you are in the same code.

That's likely because there's another area code that overlays the same area as your area code.

Similar happened in southeastern PA when 267/484 was overlayed on 215/610 circa 1999 and will happen when the new 272 code, which will overlay the current 570 code (in northeastern PA), takes effect this Sept. 21.

http://support.verizonwireless.com/support/faqs/WirelessIssues/area-code-overlay-570.html

[roadman65]

We have both 321 and 407, but still you should be able to call one 407 to another and from on 321 to another. 

[myosh_tino]

* Traveling down i-680 in Concord meant you got a view of the Navy Ghost Fleet

The Mothball fleet wasn't visible in Concord.  You had to be on or north of the Benicia bridge on I-680.  And yes, the fleet is still there.

* The Benicia-Martinez Bridge was a single narrow bridge that was next to a railroad track
* Was this also the same bridge that you saw a big C&H Sugar sign when you went Northbound?

No.  The C&H Sugar plant is located in Crockett next to the Carquinez Bridge on I-80.

[mgk920]

remember when AT&T and MCI used to try to win customers over tenths-of-a-cent difference in the per-minute long distance land line rates?

Also 1-800-Collect, 10-10-321, and other such collect call services.

When there were no 800 numbers, but there were Enterprise numbers.

When all North American ('World Zone 1') telephone area codes had only '0' or '1' as their second digit.



Mike

How about when all of NYC was 212 in area code, and many states had only one or two.  Heck I remember when Orlando and Key West both were in the same area code in Florida, and Jacksonville, Pensacola, and the entire I-10 corridor was 904.

Plus, you were able to dial only 7 digits in all places for intra area code calls.  I imagine that some still let you do that, but here in Florida you must dial the area code even if you are in the same code.

Ditto all of NE Illinois was once 312 (until 1989) and also until about then, most of the Los Angeles County part of the Los Angeles metro area was 213.

Mike

[1995hoo]

I'm pretty sure we've had the area code discussion somewhere before and that it got split off. Either way, when I was a kid, you didn't have to dial the area code for calls within the DC metro area even if you were calling across area code lines, as long as it was a local call. For example, my father's work number downtown had a 202 number, but from our house in Virginia (703) you just had to dial the seven digits, not the area code. Same was true if he wanted to call home from the office. This didn't apply if you were making a long-distance call, although I was never really clear on where the line was and so I'd just dial seven digits and see if I'd get the error message from the phone company. I recall Baltimore being long-distance; I think Leesburg was as well, but I don't really recall.

That particular calling arrangement ended well before the advent of ten-digit dialing for all local calls, but the reason was related. The reason we were able to use seven-digit dialing to other area codes was nonduplication of numbers. If your number was 703-867-5309, for example, there would be no 867-5309 in either 202 or 301 (the other two local area codes, for DC and Maryland respectively). This put an artificial cap on how many phone numbers were available in each area code, and as businesses started having more and more fax machines and additional phone lines, it meant we would have run out of numbers. So they changed it sometime in the 1980s to require you to dial the area code for such calls, although for "within same area code" local calls we still dialed seven digits.

That came to an end sometime in the 1990s or early 2000s because of overlay area codes. Previously when an area code was running out of numbers, the solution was to split it into different codes for different geographic areas. Our 703 area code was split into 703 (Northern Virginia) and 540 (much bigger area) sometime in the 1990s. But when the rise of the mobile phone meant 703 was running out of numbers, it was decided that splitting the area code again was impractical because it was way too small an area. So they created 571 for precisely the same geographic area. But that then meant that if they didn't require dialing the area code for all calls, they'd be back to where we were before when we could call DC without dialing 202 (in other words, unless you have to dial ten digits, having a 703-867-5309 prevents having a 571-867-5309). So they made us dial the area code for every call.

Side trivia: When I started college at the University of Virginia in 1991, the phone company there (Centel) required you to dial 1 plus the seven-digit number for long-distance calls within the same area code, and if you dialed the area code the call didn't go through. So to call my brother after he started school at William & Mary in Willamsburg two years later, I'd have to dial 1-867-5309 (if that had been his number), not 804-867-5309. It was odd. That dialing standard met its demise due to the new-style area codes that appeared in the mid-1990s. Prior to then, ALL area codes had a middle digit of either "0" or "1" and NO local exchanges had those as middle digits (this was also changed at the same time). Once you introduced codes such as "540," there was the potential for the system to confuse the area code with a local exchange. (867 is now an area code for the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.) This is related to the reason why, starting in the mid- to late 1980s and the early 1990s, phone companies began to require that you dial "1" for long-distance calls–imposing this requirement allowed implementation of local exchanges that were the same as area codes. (I remember in 1999—2000 when I worked in downtown DC, my phone number was on exchange 310. I got multiple calls from people who were trying to call Los Angeles but who failed to dial a "1" first.)

The reason some of the area codes are what they are dates back to rotary phones. "212" was assigned to New York (the biggest market in the country) because it's the shortest area code to dial on a rotary phone, both in terms of number of "clicks" as the thing rotates and in terms of finger motion to turn the dial. Same applies to "312" for Chicago and "213" for Los Angeles. Less-populated areas got "harder-to-dial" area codes. Originally a "0" denoted that the area code covered an entire state or territory and a "1" denoted that a state or territory had multiple area codes.