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

[Alps]

You Are Too Old If You Remember....


....The Cleveland Browns with a legitimate shot at the playoffs halfway into the season.  They way QB Brandon Weedon played today -- and last week -- stick a fork in them, they are done for the season!!!

They had a legitimate shot within the last 10 years, IIRC. 2007 they were 10-6.

But to most Cleveland fans, that was the anomaly in the 20+ years of subpar playing. 

Yes, but it goes against your "too old" thing. I remember them being "pretty good" quite recently, and that confirmed it.

[ZLoth]

You know you are old when:

• You remember the Buffalo Bills being in the playoffs
  
• The Detroit Lions being NFL Champions
  
• The New York Jets being in the Super Bowl
  
• The Chicago Cubs being in the world series
  
• Howard Cosell doing boxing play-by-play
  

[hbelkins]

The American Basketball Association and the red/white/blue ball.

The ACC experimenting with a three-point shot that was inside the top of the key.

The AL with no designated hitter.

Football goalposts at the goal line.

Chicago with Terry Kath, Peter Cetera and Danny Seraphine.

Kiss with Ace Frehley and Peter Criss.

Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio.

Black Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward.

[1995hoo]

[roadman65]

When Peter Gabriel was with Genesis as lead vocalist while Phil Collins was just a drummer.

When Eric Clapton came out with I Shot The Sheriff.

When tied died shirts were in style both in the 70's and then again for a brief stint in the 90's.  However in Orlando, FL it did not catch on as well especially when the Seaside Heights, NJ Boardwalk was selling the icons, people were already stating to me that " I was wearing something out of style."

When Sammy Hagar was with Van Halen and David Lee Roth was public enemy number one to Eddie Van Halen.  Now the two reconciled, and Sammy Hagar is the foe along with VH former bassist Michael Anthony.  However, I remember when Roth was with them the first time and both Diver Down and 1984 were both released as well.

[elsmere241]

When a telephone actually rang by a hammer hitting a bell.

[Brandon]

Shoot, I remember rotary dials on phones.  We had a rental phone from Illinois Bell (Ameritech) while I was growing up (1980-1990 range).  Then we got a touch-tone phone (1990-2006 range).  Then it was all cell phones, no landlines.  I still find it interesting when I get asked for a home phone number and have to answer back that I only have one phone (the cell phone).

[kkt]

Phones that had no dial or buttons... pick up the handset and tell the operator who you want to call.

[hbelkins]

And not only did I grow up with a rotary phone, but a party line. There were four homes on the party line and you couldn't make or receive a call if another party was on the line. If someone called you, they got a busy signal. If you picked up the phone to call someone, you could hear the conversation the other person on the party line was having.

[J N Winkler]

And not only did I grow up with a rotary phone, but a party line. There were four homes on the party line and you couldn't make or receive a call if another party was on the line. If someone called you, they got a busy signal. If you picked up the phone to call someone, you could hear the conversation the other person on the party line was having.

The cost of a party line increased as the number of subscribers sharing the line decreased.  My grandmother, who was born in 1919 and spent most of her working years at Southwestern Bell, used to tell stories about people being billed for four- or two-party lines when what was actually provided was an eight-party line.  At this remove it would be very hard to determine how widespread this (fraudulent) practice was, but I can see it being tempting since there is no way to determine exactly how many billed parties have access to a given telephone line just by counting the number of distinct voices that are heard.

The Lederer sisters (Dear Abby and Ann Landers), who are now both dead and whose newspaper advice columns are now fitting for a "You are too old if you remember . . ." thread, started their careers by, among other things, advising readers on what to do with sensitive, confidential, or embarrassing information unintentionally overheard on a telephone party line.

In the US party lines were the favored method for rationing access to telephonic communication at a time when that was quite expensive, but I don't think that preference held abroad.  Older people in Britain remember the days immediately after World War II when telephones were a Post Office monopoly and the waiting list to get a phone (I am pretty sure single-party lines were the only option offered) was so long that people pretended to be doctors in order to jump the queue.

[DeaconG]

First generation anime on UHF stations across the northeast during the sixties.  Gigantor, Astro Boy, Eighth Man, Prince Planet, Marine Boy, Speed Racer...oh, how you guys are missed!

[PHLBOS]

First generation anime on UHF stations across the northeast during the sixties.  Gigantor, Astro Boy, Eighth Man, Prince Planet, Marine Boy, Speed Racer...oh, how you guys are missed!

You forgot Kimba, the White Lion. 

[1995hoo]

Then in the 1970s there was Star Blazers.

[mgk920]

...the 'cool' male classmates being into modifying, showing and cruising cars.

Mike

[Takumi]

That still happens. The cars are just different now.

[DaBigE]

• when only emergency services were open on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter and you had to make sure you filled your tank the day before
• when Black Friday didn't begin until 5am FRIDAY
• when you anxiously waited the arrival of the Sears and JCPenny Christmas Catalogs

[DeaconG]

First generation anime on UHF stations across the northeast during the sixties.  Gigantor, Astro Boy, Eighth Man, Prince Planet, Marine Boy, Speed Racer...oh, how you guys are missed!

You forgot Kimba, the White Lion. 

And Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero!

[PHLBOS]

I posted this in the "Study: Teens can't afford to drive" thread and thought it would be appropriate for this thread as well:

Car phones (precursor to cellular phones):





Note: none of these would be allowed in any states that ban the use of handheld phones while driving; although the first pic. clearly shows that the driver is stopped or parked while dialing.

To be fair, the car phone in the second pic. could be a type from only 10 to 15 years ago.

[cpzilliacus]

And not only did I grow up with a rotary phone, but a party line. There were four homes on the party line and you couldn't make or receive a call if another party was on the line. If someone called you, they got a busy signal. If you picked up the phone to call someone, you could hear the conversation the other person on the party line was having.

Never experienced a party line on the old AT&T Bell operating companies, but they were somewhat common in parts of Virginia that were served by so-called "independent" companies like Continental Telephone (later merged into GT&E and now part of Verizon).  I recall that different numbers on the party line had their own ringing pattern, so the "correct" party knew to pick up the phone. 

There was also some stern text in the front of the phone books stating that it was a crime to refuse to give-up a party line for an emergeny telephone call.

[hbelkins]

We had Southern Bell, which later became South Central Bell, which later became AT&T.

[mgk920]

And not only did I grow up with a rotary phone, but a party line. There were four homes on the party line and you couldn't make or receive a call if another party was on the line. If someone called you, they got a busy signal. If you picked up the phone to call someone, you could hear the conversation the other person on the party line was having.

Never experienced a party line on the old AT&T Bell operating companies, but they were somewhat common in parts of Virginia that were served by so-called "independent" companies like Continental Telephone (later merged into GT&E and now part of Verizon).  I recall that different numbers on the party line had their own ringing pattern, so the "correct" party knew to pick up the phone. 

There was also some stern text in the front of the phone books stating that it was a crime to refuse to give-up a party line for an emergeny telephone call.

I grew up in a city neighborhood that was served by one of the local AT&T divisions (Wisconsin Telephone) and we had a two-party phone line into the mid-1970s - we got a much cheaper local service rate that way than we could have had we opted for a private line (ahhhh, the lap of LUXURY!).  How did we know when to pick up the phone?  It rang.  The phone in our house had its ringer wired with the polarity one way, the phone in the other house was wired with its ringer polarity the other way.  The local 'book' also had instructions in how to call the other party on your line ("Dial a code number that you can receive from customer service and hang up.  Your phone will then start to ring.  When it stops ringing, pick up the phone and begin your conversation.  To stop the ringing, pick up the phone.").

And until about 1969, all local calls here in the Appleton, WI area were dialed with just a five-digit number string (all in the then 414 area code):

(72)2-xxxx - Menasha-Neenah
(73)3-xxxx - Appleton
(73)4-xxxx - Appleton
(72)5-xxxx - Menasha-Neenah
(76)6-xxxx - Kaukauna
(75)7-xxxx - Greenville Township area
(78)8-xxxx - Combined Locks/Freedom/Kimberly/Little Chute
(73)9-xxxx - Appleton

That plan was exhausted in about 1969 and was expanded to the still current 7D local (from 'legacy' landlines) dialing, with the addition of 731 in Appleton and 729 in Menasha/Neenah and the local calling area was expanded to include more places - 779 in Hortonville/Dale/Medina, 984 in Black Creek, 986 in Shiocton and 989 in Sherwood.

Also, and I have not recently counted, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are now 40-50 (or more) active local number prefixes ('NXX' codes) for the Appleton rate center in the 920 area code.



Mike

[corco]

Shoot, I remember rotary dials on phones.  We had a rental phone from Illinois Bell (Ameritech) while I was growing up (1980-1990 range).  Then we got a touch-tone phone (1990-2006 range).  Then it was all cell phones, no landlines.  I still find it interesting when I get asked for a home phone number and have to answer back that I only have one phone (the cell phone).

My house in Montana has a hardwired rotary phone that still works- my landline is connected to it and it's my only non-cell phone. Definitely a throwback, since I was probably 4 or 5 when my family switched to a touch-tone phone, though I remember at least one friend having a rotary phone until I was 7 or 8. It works great for calling people, not so great for calling automated lines since none of those seem to recognize pulses anymore.

[KEVIN_224]

I lived in Old Orchard Beach, ME from Labor Day 1985 to June 20, 1987. Back then, they were part of New England Telephone. The town was entirely (207) 934-xxxx. They were just starting to get some touch tone service by then. It was possible to just dial 4-xxxx for a call within the town. Portland, about 12 miles away, was a long distance call. I think a local call was limited to O.O.B. and the two bordering municipalities of Saco and Scarborough.

Here in central CT, we obviously got touch tone service with SNET (later SBC and now AT&T) long before my town in Maine. I'm in New Britain, about 10 miles southwest of downtown Hartford. When I moved back down here in 1987, Hartford was a toll call. A huge local push was won when they finally became a local call at the end of the 1980s. For quite some time, our local area was New Britain, the five municipalities which border us (Berlin, Southington, Plainville, Farmington and Newington), West Hartford, East Hartford and Cromwell. For some reason, most of Middletown was a local call. After our area code switched from (203) to (860) in 1995, Meriden in New Haven County became the only (203) area which was a local call for New Britain (I know I used a pay phone at their mall to call my house before).

Then came the 10-digit dialing nonsense in the 2000s. Even if it's the convenience store up the street, I dial (860) xxx-xxxx (without the 1).

[mgk920]

By default, I just 'dial' (more accurately 'button-push') the full 10D number on all outgoing calls that are not in my preset list from my cell phone.  It just keeps things simple, not worrying about where the call is going.

Mike

[kkt]

By default, I just 'dial' (more accurately 'button-push') the full 10D number on all outgoing calls that are not in my preset list from my cell phone.  It just keeps things simple, not worrying about where the call is going.

Mike

You can do that?  Here it gets you a "cannot complete your call as dialed" half the time.