The Busy Signal....forgotten things from recent past...

Every saturday morning, i would have to mow the lawn with one of these.



Then would have to wash my clothes in the laundry..


At the end of the day i would listen to radio shows such as 'The great Gildersleeve" or "Mr X", "Fibber McGee and Molly" on my salvaged Philco radio.


Fun times that i would not trade for anything in the world! Life was indeed simpler back then.

originally posted by: alldaylong
a reply to: Vasa Croe


How about this.

LOL, I still have one. Two, actually. One just plays cassettes. The other is a pricier one (for the 90's) that plays cassettes, gets radio, TV band AND weatherband. Both players still work

Anyone remember having to do this with your game cartidges before they'd work?



And if you weren't blowing the dust out of them, you were banging the crap out of the coffee table with them to see if THAT worked.

a reply to: Anyafaj

We bought a used one at a garage sale one year, set it up and had no clue how to use 99% of it. There was a giant floppy disk that just said "Livingston" on it, and I managed to get it working. It was a simple game with only words (obviously, on that thing) and it would give you a scenario like "you're in a room and can see a closet, window, and door" and you would have to get Dr. Livingston through his "adventure" by typing 2-word commands "open door", "go outside", etc.

I was infatuated with that game for about a month that summer. Still think about it every now and then!

originally posted by: AutumnWitch657There are some things in the house I don't know what they were for like a thin chain that hangs from a pully system next to the stairs that go to the basement.

The original O'Bedlam home was a dogtrot house. The later house was built in the 20s, we had the original well from the dogtrot home until I was 10 or so.

At times you find things that probably made sense when they were done, but you always wonder why.

a reply to: ScientificRailgun

When I was selling flooring I took my pen and wrote a number in my hand because I had put my pad down someplace and couldn't find it. I told my customer it was my palm pilot.

originally posted by: DuckforcoveR
I certainly can't forget about the Britannica wall in one of our rooms. My dad still has them all so we can teach our grand-kids our "internet" while growing up.

Everything else I can think of has been brought up here...

except rusty metal playgrounds.

Mm-hm. i remember the joys of see-saws/teeter totters, merry-go-rounds, and monkey bars. I haven't seen those since roughly the mid-90's, now that I think about it. Right when bubble-wrap parenting started to take off.

A neighborhood where you knew everybody.
Never being at home until teatime because you were always playing with friends.
Only being able to play video games in an arcade.
When the only fast food was a fish and chip shop.
For all your IT programming.. BASIC.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

I was born in the late fifties but we never had a party line. However I lived in New York city and everybody had private lines by then in NY.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Talk about a blast from the past. I can't remember the last time I heard one.
Try telling them about 8 track stereos or vinyl records. Or rotary phones and phone booths, the kind where the door closed.

Being told to come home when the street lights come on.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

High School Textbooks from a time when the USSR was still in them.

originally posted by: AutumnWitch657
a reply to: Anyafaj

Going offline. Now that's a totally modern phrase. I remember when the thirteen channels we got (13 not even...some numbers didn't have a network at all) went off at night but not before playing the star spangled banner first. What patriots we used to be.

Were you like me? I was a military brat. It was practically ingrained in us to put your hand over your heart when you heard it play. If you were walking on base and heard taps you had to stop. And you had to wait till taps was over before you could start walking again. Yeah, seriously ingrained.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

I couldn't say. It's not connected to the fireplace or flue

a reply to: Nyiah

And I kept telling my kids they were just filling the cassette with spit when they blew into it but I was just the mother from another era what did I know.

one day we were over at my mothers house for a family get together.
my 5yr old nephew found my moms vinyl, he picked up one of the 45's and asked,
"granny what kind of cd is this?"

originally posted by: DuckforcoveR
I certainly can't forget about the Britannica wall in one of our rooms. My dad still has them all so we can teach our grand-kids our "internet" while growing up.

Everything else I can think of has been brought up here...

except rusty metal playgrounds.

My dad bought me the entire Encyclopedia Britannica when I was younger. I remember I had read that whole series 3 times PLUS the thesaurus and the dictionary 3 times out of boredom before I was 7. By then my dad got me a book call How To Speed Read. It essentially teaches to you skip 2-3 letter words that are not important, such as, a, an, the, I, me, we, things of that nature, unless it's truly important to the story. It would take me less than 2 hours to read a 300 page book and I would retain it for years. It got to the point I was saying words in first and second grade that shouldn't have been in my vocabulary, like initiative. LOL Thanks dad for teaching me how to be an outcast nerd. LOL

originally posted by: AutumnWitch657
a reply to: Vasa Croe

I couldn't say. It's not connected to the fireplace or flue

It would have been for an outdated and likely removed furnace that would have been below in the basement.....likely not there anymore.

originally posted by: Nyiah

originally posted by: alldaylong
a reply to: Vasa Croe


How about this.

LOL, I still have one. Two, actually. One just plays cassettes. The other is a pricier one (for the 90's) that plays cassettes, gets radio, TV band AND weatherband. Both players still work

Anyone remember having to do this with your game cartidges before they'd work?

And if you weren't blowing the dust out of them, you were banging the crap out of the coffee table with them to see if THAT worked.

My tape player was a weatherband, TV band, radio, cassette player. That was the $150 one. I think it was pricier because I got it through Fingerhut, if I recall correctly. But again, for something that dropped hundreds of times, to this day it works perfectly with no problems, so I have no issue with how much I spent on it. I think had I spent that much and it died almost immediately, then yes, I'd have an issue.

a reply to: Anyafaj

No military but most people I know my age do stand when they hear the national anthem although I'd laugh at them if they took it to the extreme and put their hand over their heart as well. Just too nerdy.

originally posted by: DuckforcoveR
a reply to: Anyafaj

We bought a used one at a garage sale one year, set it up and had no clue how to use 99% of it. There was a giant floppy disk that just said "Livingston" on it, and I managed to get it working. It was a simple game with only words (obviously, on that thing) and it would give you a scenario like "you're in a room and can see a closet, window, and door" and you would have to get Dr. Livingston through his "adventure" by typing 2-word commands "open door", "go outside", etc.

I was infatuated with that game for about a month that summer. Still think about it every now and then!

I remember when my dad brought it home, there was a book with it with codes for the games to input. Once the games where in there, there were a page or two on how to play the games.

originally posted by: Anyafaj

originally posted by: DuckforcoveR
I certainly can't forget about the Britannica wall in one of our rooms. My dad still has them all so we can teach our grand-kids our "internet" while growing up.

Everything else I can think of has been brought up here...

except rusty metal playgrounds.

My dad bought me the entire Encyclopedia Britannica when I was younger. I remember I had read that whole series 3 times PLUS the thesaurus and the dictionary 3 times out of boredom before I was 7. By then my dad got me a book call How To Speed Read. It essentially teaches to you skip 2-3 letter words that are not important, such as, a, an, the, I, me, we, things of that nature, unless it's truly important to the story. It would take me less than 2 hours to read a 300 page book and I would retain it for years. It got to the point I was saying words in first and second grade that shouldn't have been in my vocabulary, like initiative. LOL Thanks dad for teaching me how to be an outcast nerd. LOL

Ha! I had a similar childhood....they still have the wall of Britannica, wall of National Geographic, and a massive leather bound dictionary on a stand in his office. If we ever asked about how to spell a word or what something meant, he would always tell us to go to the office, find the word, memorize the definition and how to spell it, then come back and tell him.