Old Fart Moment???

[Dee_Ann]

Where I live, they didn't have cable until the mid 70's and there were only 11 channels available. Dad got it for like three months and was so peeved at the poor content and poor quality that he swore he would go to the grave before he would ever have cable in his house again. So far, he's stuck to his guns on that.

It was the mid 80's before they began to offer cable boxes around here to give you more than 11 channels. I remember when I got cable in my little apartment and I was amazed that I could get 30 channels. Of cr*p..

And I remember Al Gore talking about having 500 channels and I was 100% convinced that he was smoking cow dung and was out of his mind. I couldn't imagine that it was even possible to have 100 channels, even 50 channels seemed to be a fantasy.

And now they do have 500 channels. And they are all still cr*p....

 

[w6pea]

Speaking of the price of gas, I can remember seeing gas at 13 cents a gallon during some of the "gas wars" they had back when I was very young, ie, 10/12 years old. FYI, "gas war" was when gas station operators would keep undercutting prices of other stations in town. Didn't happen often and was usually short lived.

I worked at a gas station part time when I was in high school and regular gas then was around 27 cents a gallon.

I remember when I could got to the gas station fill my car up with 20 gals of gas and buy a carton of Chesterfield Cigarettes for less than $5.00 and get 10x S&H Green Stamps or Blue Chip Stamps. And maybe have enough change left for a Coke and McDonald's Hamburger. Depending if gas was $0.10 or $0.013 a gallon , the carton of cigarettes was $1.10 at the Exchange on base. Does this make me an Old Fart? My wife calls me an Old Fart in training.

 

[RT-Cat]

When I was a kid and we went on a trip and got to the big city, I remember seeing signs that said "Cable TV".

I recall asking my big brother, "What is cable TV?"

He replied, "That is where they have color TV and they watch shows without any commercials!"

Way, way back my Dad had a very good job. Mother worked in Summer at a motel. She did not have to, not like today where mom and dad must both work just to get by. The motel had meters for the TV. Pop in some $$ and you could watch. Mother would say that would be the way TV was going to be someday. You pay for it. And sure enough, today you pay.(unless you are all FTA)

 

[Dee_Ann]

When I was little, we had a black and white TV with rabbit ears until the 70's. A color TV was an insanely expensive, extravagant luxury item back then. You had to be well off to have one.
My grandfather was the captain on a ship and made big bucks.. And he bought all the good stuff. He bought grandma a brand new car every year. And they were the only ones in the family that had a color TV.
It was a 25" HUGE console, it was super heavy and bulky. Guess where I spent most of my youth? Yep... At grandma's house! I would beg to go stay the weekend over there so I could watch cartoons on Saturday morning in color.

Ah... Those were the days!

 

[Dishman Dan]

When I was little, we had a black and white TV with rabbit ears until the 70's. A color TV was an insanely expensive, extravagant luxury item back then. You had to be well off to have one.
My grandfather was the captain on a ship and made big bucks.. And he bought all the good stuff. He bought grandma a brand new car every year. And they were the only ones in the family that had a color TV.
It was a 25" HUGE console, it was super heavy and bulky. Guess where I spent most of my youth? Yep... At grandma's house! I would beg to go stay the weekend over there so I could watch cartoons on Saturday morning in color.

Ah... Those were the days!

My Dad got his first color TV in 1968 and it was a big screen 25" set! It was not solid state (High tech term!) so it took some time before the picture was viewable after the power was turned on. Yeah cartoons used to be on only Saturday morning too but a couple did pop in on Sunday. The Sunday ones were usually missed because most of the time we were at church when they were on and there was no way to record TV shows. The holiday specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas was usually watched on a B&W set so Dad could watch what he wanted on the flagship TV. If you missed the Christmas special then you really blew it. Most specials only aired once and ya had to wait a whole year before it would be back on TV to see it again!

 

[Dishman Dan]

I remember my Mom's outrage when Charo would appear on a TV show and do her "cuchi-cuchi"!!!... Dad was all smiles!

 

[Dishman Dan]

I remember...
Blank video tapes (VHS not Beta!) would go on sale for only $20 a piece at a local electronic store! I would rush down and buy 5 and add PA sales tax of 6% for a grand total of $106 for 5 blank tapes!!! Today I catch myself hee-hawing about a $5 movie on DVD (Or Bluray) and putting it back in the bargain bin!

 

[Tron]

I remember...
Blank video tapes (VHS not Beta!) would go on sale for only $20 a piece at a local electronic store! I would rush down and buy 5 and add PA sales tax of 6% for a grand total of $106 for 5 blank tapes!!! Today I catch myself hee-hawing about a $5 movie on DVD (Or Bluray) and putting it back in the bargain bin!

I remember saving my money to buy blank VHS tapes when they were $20 each. It was so incredible to actually be able to RECORD television! At that time, commercially pre-recorded movies on VHS often sold for $100!

Then came Laserdisc. Wow! Picture quality that blew away VHS, and in an album-like format that wouldn't wear out like VHS! Movies were generally $30-$70, depending on content (bonus material).

DVD trumped Laserdisc, offering a smaller disc with a digital recording for less money. However, it was still standard definition.

Now with Blu-Ray, the same size disc can hold a pristine, high definition copy of a movie fit to play on a 50-foot digital theater screen. Blu-Ray 3D offers the same 3D you get at the cinema... And now I cringe when I have to pay $25-$30 for a 3D movie on Blu-Ray, even though a similarly priced Laserdisc would have been a bargain ...

 

[Dee_Ann]

I remember saving my money to buy blank VHS tapes when they were $20 each. It was so incredible to actually be able to RECORD television! At that time, commercially pre-recorded movies on VHS often sold for $100!


Then came Laserdisc. Wow! Picture quality that blew away VHS, and in an album-like format that wouldn't wear out like VHS! Movies were generally $30-$70, depending on content (bonus material).


DVD trumped Laserdisc, offering a smaller disc with a digital recording for less money. However, it was still standard definition.


Now with Blu-Ray, the same size disc can hold a pristine, high definition copy of a movie fit to play on a 50-foot digital theater screen. Blu-Ray 3D offers the same 3D you get at the cinema... And now I cringe when I have to pay $25-$30 for a 3D movie on Blu-Ray, even though a similarly priced Laserdisc would have been a bargain ...

Laser disks? I think these are some. We used to have this HUGE player that was like 40lbs, you push the disk into the player then pull the cover out leaving the disk in to play. I recall you had to flip them over every 30 minutes or so.
Very annoying but wicked cool back in the day..

 

[stanleyjohn]

Back in the late 70s i was a tv repairman for a few years and would collect some of those old color sets from the late 60s and early 70s being thrown out on the curb side and fix them up!At that time pic tubes were huge and round and everything was still made in the good old USA.Some of the well named brands are still around like Zenith,RCA etc but just in name only.The days of made in USA are long gone.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Back in the late 70s i was a tv repairman for a few years and would collect some of those old color sets from the late 60s and early 70s being thrown out on the curb side and fix them up!At that time pic tubes were huge and round and everything was still made in the good old USA.Some of the well named brands are still around like Zenith,RCA etc but just in name only.The days of made in USA are long gone.

Back in the 50's and early 60's my dad was an independent radio and TV repairman. He still has all his old test equipment and spare parts inventory. I ran across some of it the other day when I was poking around through their house sorting out Mom's things to bring here. He has some OLD TV picture tubes, they are round, about 6" to 8" in diameter and about 18" long. Dad said those are real, actual TV screens from way back, that the first sets were in huge cabinets with little bitty screens that pointed straight up and were reflected in a mirror that was in the lid of the cabinet. Pretty trippy..

I see on American Pickers the guys run across these old TV sets called a Predicta. I want one. I see someone is making reproductions but I want a real, original one, I can get dad to fix it because that's the stuff he used to do and get an adapter to hook it to my satellite..

I love old retro stuff. Old appliances, etc.. I wear retro clothes a lot and I have a small collection of antique cameras. Photography is one of my passions/hobbies. I'm not very good at it but I still like it a lot..

 

[AcWxRadar]

You know... One thing about those old CRT (Cathode Ray Tubes) is that we could rejuvenate them. When a newer LED or plasma TV screen fails, it's pretty much dead and disposable. We could take an old CRT and hit it with a rejuvenation current and voltage and clean off the cathode and it would work for a few years more in some cases. If that was all that was wrong. If you were lucky and had the equipment, you could extend the life of the TV. If people today watched TV in the quality that we grew up with, they would toss our brand new TVs out the window, I think. But, we would be happy with a third time "rejuvie" if it saved us a buck. It really is amazing what technology has brought us.

But, to be totally honest, I miss the days when I was a kid and our one TV family had a black and white Sylvania with a bad vertical and horizontal hold and really poor reception! I remember watching Creature Feature (a local Saturday night Sci-Fi/Monster show) and eating Mom's popcorn made in a pressure cooker pot with real butter! We'd sit on the couch with the family dog and get scared out of our wits by Vincent Price in "The Tingler" or a movie like the "Creature from the Black Lagoon". Fantastic!

RADAR

 

[stanleyjohn]

I remember watching Creature Feature (a local Saturday night Sci-Fi/Monster show) and eating Mom's popcorn made in a pressure cooker pot with real butter! We'd sit on the couch with the family dog and get scared out of our wits by Vincent Price in "The Tingler" or a movie like the "Creature from the Black Lagoon". Fantastic!

RADAR

I loved that show also!If i recall correctly it was on very late sat night and i had to sneak up late to watch it.

 

[papabruski]

Funny thing...I can remember much of what has been posted here, but unless I write it down, I can't remember what happened yesterday. haha.

 

[RT-Cat]

I remember...
Blank video tapes (VHS not Beta!) would go on sale for only $20 a piece at a local electronic store! I would rush down and buy 5 and add PA sales tax of 6% for a grand total of $106 for 5 blank tapes!!! Today I catch myself hee-hawing about a $5 movie on DVD (Or Bluray) and putting it back in the bargain bin!

That reminds me of 5-1/4 floppies that were $14.95 for a three pack. Last time I bought some they were 20 cents each. Real bad part is, I just had to go and measure one. Could not remember if they were 5-1/2 or 5-1/4. Real, real, bad thing is I still have my RS TRS-80 that will take those floppies. Yes, it still works!

 

[Dee_Ann]

That reminds me of 5-1/4 floppies that were $14.95 for a three pack. Last time I bought some they were 20 cents each. Real bad part is, I just had to go and measure one. Could not remember if they were 5-1/2 or 5-1/4. Real, real, bad thing is I still have my RS TRS-80 that will take those floppies. Yes, it still works!

Way back in the early 80's I had a real, genuine IBM AT computer. It was insanely expensive..
It used 1.2 megabyte floppies, I think they were 5 1/4" in size. They cost $107 for a box of ten with tax.. In 1984 or 85, that was a LOT of money.

Now you couldn't give away a computer like that. Or the floppies..

 

[Tron]

Laser disks? I think these are some. We used to have this HUGE player that was like 40lbs, you push the disk into the player then pull the cover out leaving the disk in to play. I recall you had to flip them over every 30 minutes or so.
Very annoying but wicked cool back in the day..

Those were RCA SelectaVision discs, the main competition for Laserdisc. They actually were played by a needle in the player, just like a record. Due to that fact, however, they were very fragile and prone to skips when the smallest particle of dust would get on the disc. The video quality was high, like Laserdisc, but Laserdisc outlived them due to the needle and wear factors. Some people still collect Laserdiscs, but even those avid collectors are switching over to Blu-Ray these days...

 

[Dishman Dan]

That reminds me of 5-1/4 floppies that were $14.95 for a three pack. Last time I bought some they were 20 cents each. Real bad part is, I just had to go and measure one. Could not remember if they were 5-1/2 or 5-1/4. Real, real, bad thing is I still have my RS TRS-80 that will take those floppies. Yes, it still works!

Speaking of floppies...
I have a stack of LP size computer "floppy" disks that came from a late 70's computer at a local tech school and I should measure the size on those! My sister took the computer course back then on that system and that is where her computer expertise is even to this day. She claims new computers are too hard to understand!!! Anyway that system cost over $80,000 back then and it is the size of a large Snap On tool box. By the time the thing was installed it was already outdated technology.

My brother had the original Radio Shack TRS-80 and moved up to the newer Model III!

 

[cyberham]

...My brother had the original Radio Shack TRS-80 and moved up to the newer Model III!

I still have a pristine 27-year old red NEC PC-8201 portable almost identical to Radio Shack Model 100. 40-character wide x 8 line LCD for a display. Paid almost $1200 which included extra solid-state RAM for a total of 96kB storage and cassette tape for archiving. Computer geeks have standing offer with me if I choose to part with it.

 

[stanleyjohn]

My first real computer was the commadore 64!I had alot of fun with that!The only downfall was that commadore add-ons not cheap!