Why kids think you are ancient

[Amelia]

Clio got me thinking about this topic. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mittelgr124.gif" alt="" />

We are old because we didnt have cable TV.

We are old because we didnt have color TV.

We are old because we didnt have microwaves.

We are old because we didnt have videos.

We are old because we didnt have CD's.

We are old because...say, what is a 45 ?

We are old because we didnt have push button phones or cell phones.

We are old because we didnt have computers.

We are old because we didnt have Nintendo, Game Boy or X Box.

We are old because going to the moon was a far out thought.

Now you add on to this list. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mittelgr124.gif" alt="" />

[Clio]

We are old because the speed limit is 55

We are old because we remember A&W drive ins

We are old because we remember when Jimmy Carter was president... never mind Lyndon Johnson

We are old because we lived through the wars in their history books: World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Gulf war I, Grenada, and on and on.

[Michelle]

Hmmm--I'm not apparently as old as you, but . . .

we're old because our parents had a reel-to-reel tape recorder.

we're old because our vehicles had 8-track players in them.

we're old because we remember the first time polyester bell-bottoms came around.

M

[K]

Apparently we are the same age because I remember what you remember.

We're old because we bought our dads leisure suits.

We're old because we remember Carly Simon's Tapestry 8 track tape.

We're old because we remember shag haircuts.

K

[Clio]

We're old because we know that Paul McCartney was in a group before Wings... and we can name them!

We're old because we remember platform shoes from the first time around.

We're old because we remember AM radio and the Top 40 countdown.

We're old because we remember gasoline at under .50 a gallon. (for some of us it's an even lower number....)

We're old because we remember "civil disobedience" and it changed the world we live in.

Clio

[Bravus]

Heh, I'm sure I remember Ed White reminiscing about being given a dollar to put 5 gallons of gas in the car...

Mind you 'Wings' is kinda dating you as well: or even Paul dueting with Michael Jackson!

[Clio]

Oh... I don't mind... I'm 42. With 4 really, really old, older brothers... One of whom served in Korea, and another who did two tours in Vietnam...

I guess I'm old because I remember casualty lists scrolling across the TV screen on the evening news... even as we ate.

My parents anxiously looking for my brother's name as name after name after name scrolled by....

I was 7 and it made an indelible impression on me.

Clio

[K]

I am soon to be 45 Clio, and I remember being one of the few people in public school expressing my opinion in favor of Vietnam war. My father, an immigrant, believed that the if the government said to go, that you went and trusted them.

It wasn't long after that that Watergate happened and I became the first person in my family to register as an independent voter. I was so disappointed with the government at that point that I didn't want to be associated with either party. It made my father mad that I registered independent, and he said my vote would not count.

So I guess I can say

I remember Watergate. . . .

Oh and

I remember when Michael Jackson was part of the Jackson 5 and looked like Michael Jackson and not Janet.

K

[Michelle]

I was born a month before the first lunar landing--my mom tells me, don't you remember it, you watched it on TV! LOL

So I missed Vietnam, Watergate, JFK assassination (the first president I remember is Ford and that just barely--I remember Carter's election, kind of), MLK, etc. I'm one of the "young ones" I guess (I remember my Bible teacher trying to make a point involving something with Vietnam and being rather dumbfounded that we didn't know what he was talking about--in the mid 80s).

I have memories of horrible fashions and colors in the 70s, but that's about it (I have much more vivid memories of school and my horses! ).

M

[bevin]

Quote:

---

I was born a month before the first lunar landing--my mom tells me, don't you remember it, you watched it on TV! LOL

---

I listened to it at school on the radio. We also listened to comedies and soaps, sitting in front of the fire.

A watch was a significant purchase - a bike, a major expense.

I was 20 the first time I flew on a plane, 21 for my first train ride.

My children can not remember the first time they flew half way around the world to visit grandparents - and have been doing it every two years for all of their lives.

/Bevin

[Amelia]

I can remember when the TV stations actually went off the air at midnight and went on the air at 7am . They showed test patterns the rest of the time.

I remember a time when there wasnt a Disneyland.

Ladies, remember sanitary belts? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon_smile_sick.gif" alt="" />

[Stan Laurel]

This is a great thread.

The first telephone I remember had no dial. You picked it up and waited for an operator to come on the line and ask what number you wanted. Our number was 349-J.

I was eight when we got our first tv. We got one station, channel 5 from Hastings, NE. The tv had 12 channels, there was no UHF.

Remember tube radios that you had to wait while they warmed up?

Cars that didn't come with turn signals? Remember hand signals?

Remember coaster bikes with no gears and you pushed the pedals backward to apply the brakes.

Remember when tv shows had one sponser and the host of the show often did the commercials live?

[Amelia]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />

Remember coaster bikes with no gears and you pushed the pedals backward to apply the brakes.

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

Ah hah, yes this was my first bike. It also had balloon tires. Powder blue and white with streamers on the handles. It had belonged to one of the neighbor girls who went off to college. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/coolhello.gif" alt="" />

remember when soda pop only came in glass bottles in a 6 pack carton? I also remember that many of the gas stations had either a water bath pop machine or one that had a door you opened and pulled the bottle out by the neck.

[Stan Laurel]

Sounds like a really cool bike!

Yes, I remember those pop machines! Only glass bottles, no plastic, no cans.

Hey does anyone remember wire recorders? They were developed around the same time as tape recorders but they were harder to use and didn't sound as good as tape so they weren't around very long. I only saw one once.

[Bravus]

Coaster bikes (actually, fixed pedal: aren't 'coasters' by definition the ones with a ratchet mechanism so the bike can 'coast' without the pedals rotating?) are actually back: a lot of really hardcore cyclists do the 'fixed pedals and no brakes' thing.

[K]

I remember having an 8 party line. You knew it was your house by the how many rings it was.

I remember people listening in all the time to the conversations. Most of them were my relatives.

I remember when cable finally came to our small mountain town. Prior to that we got limited tv with a huge antennae.

K

[Bravus]

I think I mixed up 'fixies' with coasters that had back-pedal brakes: I certainly remember the latter.

[Clio]

soooo... from that statement we can conclude....

A: Bravus is not as old as he wants us to think he is....

or

B: He's a LOT older than he wants us to think he is.....

[Uniloc]

Because:

I can remember when you could go to the grocery store and buy 8 loaves of bread for a dollar.

I can remember when $30 for grocery budget fed a family of 8; not steaks but we had fried chicken or a roast at least once a week.

We wore oxford shoes that were only black and white for school and dress shoes were called penny loafers.

I can remember coming home from school to the neighbors all glued to the 12 inch televison in the front room and crying because the President had been assassinated.

Uniloc [:"blue"] [/]

[Ron Lambert]

I wasn't old enough to vote yet, but I liked Ike.

And I thought that Nixon blew away Kennedy in their debate on Quemoy and Matsu. If only Nixon had used proper makeup, so he did not look like a thug with five o'clock shadow under the studio lights. Then the invasion of Cuba by Cuban refugees probably would have succeeded, there would never have been a Cuban Missile Crisis inwhich the world came within a hair of being destroyed in nuclear war, the U.S. never would have gotten involved in Vietnam (or else the military would have been allowed to win the war without the insane constraints that turned it into a multi-year quagmire), the U.S. would have begun rolling back communism nearly two decades sooner, the U.S. national debt never would have gotten out of hand, and we would have continued to travel to the moon and even gone on to manned missions to Mars by now.

Hmm, there's enough there for an alternate history novel. The title could be something esoteric, like: "Nixon's Whiskers."

[Stan Laurel]

Hey Ron,

Looks like we finally agree! I liked Ike too. And I think you could be quite right about the outcome of the 1960 election.

It is interesting that the Kennedy/Nixon debate was the first nationally televised debate. The polls following the debate showed that those who watched it on TV considered Kennedy to have won by a large margin. However, those who listened on radio, felt that Nixon won hands down. Clearly, Nixon had the better answers and substance, while Kennedy looked better.

Remember Adlai Stevenson or Dag Hammarskjold?

Then I guess I should ask... Jack Paar, Steve Allen?

[Bravus]

I was in utero when Kennedy was shot (yes, you can work out my age now), so I missed Nixon and all that jazz.

Wuldn't happen today with all the minders and coaches and so on that politicians have. Surely someone whould have handed Tricky Dick an electric razor and some foundation...

[Ron Lambert]

Yeah, Stan Laurel, I remember all those guys, at least somewhat. I vaguely remember seeing Stevenson on TV (black and white) when he gave his concession speech after Eisenhower won.

Dag Hammerskjold--I had to think a minute before I remembered he was the UN Secretary General who was killed in a plane crash while on a peace mission to somewhere in Africa I think it was. (Congo?--yes, I think it was. I remember a quip on Rocky and Bulwinkle about that time, justs words on the screen that somehow stuck with me: "Bongo, bongo, bongo, I'm glad I don't live in the Congo." So there must have been some trouble in the Congo then.)

Jack Paar used to host the Tonight show, until he quit in protest over having a joke cut by censors about someone confusing a "Water Closet" with "Wayside Chapel" in response to a query from a Briton to a Realator about where the "W.C." was. It was actually quite funny, and no one would bat an eyelash at it nowadays. At least, not after hearing some of the things that Jay Leno gets away with saying. After Paar left, then Johnny Carson took over, and continued as the King of Late Night for the next few decades. Or was there someone else briefly between Paar and Carson as host of the show?

Steve Allen was an intellectual comedian. Do you remember his José Humanis skits?

Strolling down memory lane is an odd kind of pleasure, even if it does date you!

[Clio]

Remember granny dresses? ankle length coats? Chrysler Cordovas? What about the LA quake that took out all the freeways?

Where were you when Mount St. Helens erupted the first time? None of my kids were born yet.... So... I really am older than the mountain... at least the way it is today.

How about Beatle mania? Elvis and the screaming mimi's? Go-go boots?

Embroidered Jeans? I had a raggy pair that my mom salvaged from the rag bag and embroidered with flowers, rainbows, hearts, birds, slogans, trying to give me what I thought I wanted... I wound up riding my horse in them...

Remember sit-ins?

What about cars with back seats as big as playpens... back seat windows so big you could lie down in them and watch the clouds go by while driving down the road?

Remember the Thing? What a great car!

[Parade Orange]

We are old cause I Know it wasnt Carly Simon album- It was Carol King LP TAPESTRY in the early 70's {winky winky}