Weekend Open Thread > A little tech Nostalgia

A little tech Nostalgia

I'm 48 and I remember (no particular order):

- Adding machines
- black-and-white TV
- gasoline 35 cents a gallon (bummer I wasn't driving yet)
- cars without computers
- cars without catalytic converters
- cars without seat belts (everybody tucked lap belts away)
- huddling around the TV during the moon landing
- a model my dad and I created of the moon rocket. I was 3 feet tall with the Saturn booster, lunar module, entry capsule...awesome!
- AFX race cars
- HO and N gauge train sets
- the birth of boom boxes
- Nixon resigning from office
- the bi-centennial
- an LP Christmas present with a funny old man with a bunch of sticks on his back (Led Zepplin 4 - Stairway to Heaven)
- 8-Track tapes (man they sucked)
- CB radio when there were only 23 channels (there are 40 today)
- cars that only had AM radios
- cars without air conditioning
- the birth of unleaded gas
- TVs that only had 13 channels (UHF was new fangled)
- Using tinfoil to improve TV reception
- My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 2000 (it was a gift my parents received for enduring an afternoon of high pressure timeshare sales)
- My second computer was a Commodore 64
- Space Invaders
- Donkey Kong
- Heck, for that matter, arcades
- VHS players that were half the size of a foot stool
- Ultrasonic remote controls (vs. infrared)
- Illegal phone extensions with the ringer disabled
- Prank phone calls before caller ID
- Cassette tape answering machines
- Cable TV? What Cable TV. It arrived around 1980 along with MTV, CNN and the Weather Channel.
- Hotel rooms that charged extra for kids
- Cable TV tuners that had a slider for a channel selector (no remote)
- LED watches
- LCD watches
- LED calculators that plugged into the wall
- LCD calculators that were battery powered
- LCD calculators that were solar powered
- Dot Matrix printers
- Chain printers
- Daisy Wheel printers
- Manual type writers
- Electric type writers
- blue ink drum-based copy makers (school had them)
- Transparencies and overhead projectors
- Amber and green-screen terminals
- Steel soda and beer cans
- Pull tabs on soda and beer cans that separated from the can
- First microwave oven (Amana Radarange -- built like a friggin' tank!)

I'm 49, so everything in rradina's post above are things I remember too. Let's not forget....

- Before the Internet: Keeping in touch using a list of dial-up (300 baud modems) text-based BBSes ("bulletin board systems") that were many times hosted on a hobbyist's home computer, sometimes only at night when they could share the phone line.
- Pay phone calls at only 10 cents (and still building a tone generator to trick the system into giving free calls, just to see if it could be done)
- The TRS-80 - first consumer computer available, and going down to Radio Shack to play with it ('cause it was still too expensive for my me or my parents to buy).

My first computer was something I built based on the National Semiconductor SC/MP (INS8060) microprocessor (was actually a lot like a microcontroller) based on a schematic I saw in a magazine - only had a 2-digit LED display and a hex keypad built from an old calculator keyboard. It certainly wasn't a TRS-80, but I remember being fascinated with how it could be used to control things.

First official computer, like rradina, was the Timex Sinclair 1000 (still have a couple I don't have the heart to throw out). Second was the Atari 800XL (still have that too .... remember the Atari vs. Commodore wars?).

Given how many take the technology we have for granted, I'm kind of happy to have lived through that time and was able to see it all develop. I think those who actually look back at some of this nostalgia appreciate what we have now a lot more, and are more likely to create more with today's technology (rather than just use it).

Finally, I remember when there weren't all these patent wars... Argh...

reply to rradina
The baby bells got better because they did not have to wait forever on new technology to be tested for 5 years to make sure it would not fail in -50F cold or 120F heat. The other fact was the phone company was not regulated inside the home so you got cheap Kmart phones instead of the phones built like a tank that lasted for 30 years.

I think I have owned or used everything on rradina's great list. I will add it was nice if you had kids for two reasons. If the tin foil on the TV antenna was not working having a human touch it may clear up the some of the snow. The other was kids were the original remote control. Joey get up and change the channel.

IowaCowboy you are old enough to have seen changes in technology use to take years and now it may be 6 months or less to go from the greatest thing to obsolete.

reply to rradina

reply to IowaCowboy
Wow, that takes me back. In the late 1970's and early 1980's I was working as a Computer Operator in San Diego for a bank called San Diego Federal, and at the same time attending San Diego State full time.

The computer job was using a brand new IBM 370 main frame, you loaded in punch cards to run batch jobs. My current PC has more power than that machine. You had to swap disk drives to run the jobs that were upcoming. As the lead, I was responsible for a lot of items, including real estate payments, ACH, savings, you name it. It was a 24 hour shop, I mainly worked 2nd shift. FM radio was tops and health centers were just becoming mainstay. Racquet ball was very popular.

I lived 1 block from the beach, in Pacific Beach, a very cool place to be at my age. My rent was 190.00 per month, which was quite good for a 1 bdrm with a backyard. My telephone service was Pacific Telephone, with a brown Trimline, of course. My single line service cost $14.00 per month, no long distance of course. Touch-tone service was 1.25 extra per month, and not available in all areas. It was a time of beta max tapes, and 8-track tapes. Cassettes where overtaking that market. Harvest gold and avocado green were on their way out of fashion, as well as shag carpeting.

Men wore nylon shorts, above the knee, and tank tops were king. Mustaches were a must, beards, maybe. Disco ruled as did the Rolling Stones, Niel Young and many other groups. It was the best era for music. Songs were actually played on an album - a stereo. Fisher was the model I had and it produced a great sound. Still have 8 cartons of albums in my closet, haven't opened in 20 years.

Game consoles connected to your TV were all the rage, simple, but fun. No such thing as cell phones, internet or instant gratification anything like today. It was the dawn of MTV, but, you had to have cable TV. Tri-fin surf boards were just dawning, and man, they were great.

When you went grocery shopping, there was no such thing as a scanner. Each item was individually price marked and the cashier had to punch in the cost and press the add key. Cash and checks only, ATM cards were just making their debut, and credit cards were not normally accepted.

I could go on and on, but thanks. Hope you enjoyed some of these fleeting moments.

reply to gkloepfer
I actually ran a BBS in the late 80s using the Turbo-Pascal based WWIV software. However, I had a 1200baud modem. After operating it for a year or so, I "upgraded" to a 2400baud modem. I also kicked the 300baud users off as soon as they connected. I was vilified for that move but it was painful to watch someone use the system with a 300baud modem. Not only that but they stayed on-line forever because the connection was so slow.

reply to IowaCowboy
rather than trying to list, and even explain all the old shit I've seen, I'd suggest anyone who can visit museums whenever they travel and take a different view than " boring stuff people used to do", instead imagining when THAT object was the latest and greatest.

the Computer History Museum in Mt View is well worth an afternoon (or more if you can go with someone who remembers all being in use.
It's right by google and Intel (another good but small museum there, and Yahoo, and ETC. ETC. ETC.) (Mt, View itself is almost a museum with someone who remeber what company was in what building, when>>> the world changed AGAIN.

I went to the CHM with my father-in law who remember seeing early core memory being hand woven in the early 50's and using computer (well assembling a program, that you gave to the IBM techs to take into the "machine room" to run.
Ordinary human were NEVER allowed in.
while I had seen and read about some of this early in my teens, nothing brings it in focus like a visit like that.

reply to IowaCowboy
So many of the above I can remember as well, here is some that come to mind:
12 inch Vinyl
45 RPM records.
Radio stations using "Cart" machines and super duty turntables
Dial up BBS, Had to fight to get the "free line" one of three free lines to the larger city in the county where the BBS was. Had to do that with the early Dial up Internet also!.
I can remember when I upgraded to a 33.6K modem, thought it was so Fast!!
I remember also the old dial telephones that must have weighed 10 pounds! You could use them as a hammer! Worked forever.
I lived in the rural areas as a kid and we had a party line phone. Had to wait for the old lady down the road to get off to call friends. They would often listen in also.
Had a shortwave radio for late night listening... (Still do that now)
When PONG came out on the Atari we were amazed!

Well that is my $.02
--
There are 10 types of people. Those who can read Binary and those who cannot.

backfeed said "I remember also the old dial telephones that must have weighed 10 pounds! You could use them as a hammer! Worked forever."

I still have an old Western Electric touch tone wall phone and it was installed in 1979.

I remember when gas was about 25 cents a gallon, unless there was a gas war and then 15 cents or so. I bought a Camaro the first year they were sold (1967) it was an SS 350 that ran really well, did at least 135 mph before the red line.

We still have a bunch of vinyls. I came across one the inserts for a 45 rpm record to play on a regular spindle and showed it to my son, 31 years old now and he had no idea what it was.

When I went into B-52's (1969) all gauges, dials, etc., were analog and any screens were simple cathode ray tubs, such as Nav's radar and the Bomb Nav's radar and terrain following radar. No fancy color enhancements. How did we manage to keep them in the air, LOL?

reply to IowaCowboy