The "Back in my day!" thread for us old timers...

I can't wait to start telling my kids about walking to school in the snow uphill both ways.

But, seriously, back in my day, the Internet didn't exist, Commodore 84 was the latest and greatest, and that 32 inch t.v. set grandparents had weighed more than my mom and grandma combined.

OK youngfarts ... In my day...

-Music was listened to on AM radio or vinyl records. No tapes, 8-Tracks, CDs, or MP3s
-Color TV was still relatively new. When we could afford cable, it was 12 channels. Channels were on a dial (no remote) so you had to walk over to the TV to change the channel
-Gas was .30 cents a litre (I'm Canadian, eh) compared to $1.30 / litre today.
-Pong blew our minds. LOL
-Milk was delivered to the door.
-We played hockey and baseball outside, not on the Xbox
-The first personal computer I ever saw, booted it's operating system from a 5 1/4 floppy disk, had no hard drive and had to be programmed by the user to do anything
-There was no Internet, only the library. Later on online BBS's were cool and you accessed them over a 600 baud modem.
-Elders and teachers were respected and in some cases feared.
-Conspiracy theories were unheard of.

Originally posted by occrest
Things were simple then. We worked hard, played hard, and were satisfied with the simple things.

I've been thinking for a while now that we have way to many choices these days. It can make you crazy trying to decide things all day. For example, how many different types of bottled and flavored water does one little shop really need to carry? And did you ever think that one day it would cost more for a bottle of water than it does for a bottle of beer?

Okay, when I was a kid...back in the day...

Cars that had a radio only had AM, and you could sometimes pre-set it to your favorite station with one of five MECHANICAL buttons on the front after you found it by using a knob to tune in the station. Music wasn't segregated into categories like rock and country. Just those that involved classical orchestra and those modern ones that sometimes had someone singing. Whatever was popular played over the local radio station, and you could call them to request songs to be played, if they even had it.

If you wanted to play with a car, or an airplane, or a rocket, you built it yourself out of scrap material laying around the house or yard, or went to the store to buy a model kit that was either balsa and paper, or plastic. The plastic cement had an odor and later some even advertised that it had a lemon scent. Some of the plastic kits recommended using the stiff cellophane wrapper off your dad's cigarette pack for making the windows.

Fireworks actually flew into the air and exploded, and could be purchased so that you could take them home and light them yourself.

Everyone seems to have watched the same shows among the three (maybe some extra for PBS, or the local UHF stations), and talked about it at school the day after. Television sets were originally in black and white, with some screens even being ROUND because that was the shape that the company made it. Some neighbor even got a fancy new remote once that used vibrating metal rods for each controlling feature where the television console somehow picked up on the SOUND from the control box (no batteries). It just had three buttons to change the channel forward and back or turn the TV off and on.

Electric calculators were unheard of. That was a job title for someone really good at math. We played with slide rules a little and even saw the occasional MECHANICAL calculator devices show up in the stores that were advertised mainly for helping with the checkbook or tracking the cost of what was in your shopping cart.

Comic books were of the same paper as newsprint inside the cover, and had all sorts of neat things being advertised on the back cover. Kids even cut the order forms off the back of their comics if they had the money to try to get one of those things (like the x-ray glasses).

Skateboards were made at home by taking a piece of wood and nailing one of your old strap-on roller skates under it.

Thanks OP for starting the thread.

More some other time...

Originally posted by Christarella

Originally posted by occrest
Things were simple then. We worked hard, played hard, and were satisfied with the simple things.

I've been thinking for a while now that we have way to many choices these days. It can make you crazy trying to decide things all day. For example, how many different types of bottled and flavored water does one little shop really need to carry? And did you ever think that one day it would cost more for a bottle of water than it does for a bottle of beer?

Funny you bring this up. There was a research article released a week or two ago on this very subject. There is such a thing as decision overload. We can only make so many decisions in a day, and usually by the end of the day we can no longer function. We burn out. Yeah things used to be a little less complicated :/

Most of my "Back in the day" comments have already been posted, except for 12 cent comic books, penny candy, and 15 cent hamburgers.

Sometimes I wonder what kids today will be waxing nostalgic about in the future:

"Back in my day, if you wanted to learn calculus, you actually had to go to college for a year. You couldn't just download it into your brain in 5 seconds."

"When I was your age, we had to get from place to place in our convertible Mustangs, and we were damn glad to have them. Teleporters hadn't been invented yet."

"I remember when if you were outside and it rained, you got wet. We didn't have those personal force fields back then."

"You kids got it so easy today. I remember a time when you needed two hands to hold your computer, and you kids complain that your ear stud computer is too big."

"Do you remember when you actually had to sit in front of a TV screen wide awake for hours to see a program? And you couldn't even smell anything or interact with the characters. Nowadays, you just set your DreamVision for the show you want and go to sleep. Just last night I kicked Sylvester Stallone's butt in Rocky XXXIV!"

Originally posted by occrest
Things were simple then. We worked hard, played hard, and were satisfied with the simple things.

I think its sort of relative-compared to certain hardships in adult life we look back at being a kid in a romanticized way.
"Ah the good old days"but there was still bad stuff even then.

To put it another way,I often think to myself "wouldn't it be great to only worry about having not done my homework,or if the bully from the other school would try to ram me into the mud at football.But oh no you gotta suck it up now and pay those bills,that rent,that car tax,parking ticket etc..."

Its all relative.
I really did love my "Bigtrak"back in the 80's though.


Total sci fi,when used as a taxi for the millennium falcon-loaded up with star wars figures,crossing the degobah system(lounge carpet)but oh heck,here comes Darth vader,taped onto the back of the rancour!
And Boba fett is up on the asteroid(sofa)shooting missiles(match sticks)...
Those were the days...

All relative.
When we get super old-These right now will be "the good ol days",remember that and try to make them count.

I want to thank you for the trip down memory lane. What a respite from all the bad news in the world today. I will be smiling the rest of the day remembering my youth. Great replies from all...how much I had forgotten! One thing I do remember is my 25 cent allowance buying a bag of candy or hot fudge sundae at Peoples Drug Store.
And jukeboxes that played 45 rpm vinyl records. We had one at school and listened to music on our lunch break. Great times...

Nana

lol love this im only 33 but grew up in the back hollers of wv so my back in my day is dif from my friends
Back in my day a party line wasnt something you called for phone sex it ment you and your closest neighbors all shared the same line you would pick up the phone and could hear your neighbors entire convo. which many ppl did!
The best prank was going to your neighbors at night and moving there outhouse back so they fell in the hole....disgusting i know but we had nothing better to do. We splished and splashed in metal wash tubs when it was hot out or played in the hand pump out in the front yard all though that was a lot of work!

back in the day a 65 ss chevy impala convertible cost me 300 bucks
pack of smokes 27 cents
2.00 worth of gas could cruise the strip all night and the guy at texaco pumped it while checking oil tires etc
a big meal cost a dollar and you could not finish
a pepperoni small pizza was 1.80
the am radio sounded better with the reverb unit maxed
an 8 track player was 30 dollars
an electric guitar 30 dollars
and minimum wage was 1.25
could drink creek water with your shine
and the town cop car was very sloooowwww ha ha ha

Originally posted by NANAinINDIANA
I want to thank you for the trip down memory lane. What a respite from all the bad news in the world today. I will be smiling the rest of the day remembering my youth. Great replies from all...how much I had forgotten! One thing I do remember is my 25 cent allowance buying a bag of candy or hot fudge sundae at Peoples Drug Store.
And jukeboxes that played 45 rpm vinyl records. We had one at school and listened to music on our lunch break. Great times...

Nana

You are very welcome. I appreciate all of the responses. Yes, we do need a respite and a trip down memory lane once in awhile. We are so stuck in the now it seems like we forget about the then and the there. I am happy how this thread turned out. Fun times.

To add:
Back in my day there was no green tech. We loved our boxy tanks that got 12 miles to the gallon. But gas was less than a dolar/gallon!

Back in my day getting a job was easy! And they had benefits! They even paid overtime! And an education was worthwhile!

Back in my day there were no walmarts. If you wanted something, you spent all day at local stores trying to find it. If you couldn't find it you had to order out of a catalog!

Communication was real back in the day. and i am only talking early 90s here.

If you fancied a girl and wanted to ask her out then you had to grow a set, and call her up or talk in person.


Nowadays SMS and social media has killed real communication and only people from the early 90s or beyond can understand this.

reply to post by adraves


heck 12 mpg could not be had for me 7 on a good day cruising
but the way i drove more like 5

reply to post by adraves


adraves this thread was the most fun i've had on ATS. man, i'm on another planet right now having just read so many things that take me back. i never skip down Memory Lane, so years & years of stuff just came gushing forth; i'm feeling very emotional right now.

what a great bunch of posts. and nocturnalphantom had me cracking up big time, many times. God bless you all.

Pen friends!
Anyone have one back in the day-a random person you wrote real letters to?
That was cool-I met a 2 pen friends I had-One was an utter turd,but the other one was really cool,and I still have comms with her today-but its E mail now,sigh.

I have a theory that each generation looks back on their youth as the good ol days because each gen is stepping further and further away from what our ancestors did for 10s of thousands of years.
The hunter gather tribes that we were,has now been replaced with something so alien to our finely tuned brains that sometimes we hunger for the good ol days of sitting round a fire telling stories with friends over a fresh caught meal.

I think our brains can sometimes be overwhelmed by the state of the world today,and we retreat back into that part of our minds which massages us with happy thoughts of how it used to be...

Clever things our bio electric computer brains-cleverer than we know.

Back in my day, Chuck Norris was just a terrible actor.

Originally posted by Mr Moon
www.youtube.com...

Four Yorkshire Men.

edit on 26/8/2011 by Mr Moon because: (no reason given)

This video link needs to be brought back. That is exactly how I feel right now

Anyways back in my days Mad TV and Saturday Night live WAS comedy. It was the highlight of the week.

Back in my day there was George Carlin and Bill Hicks....they are missed.

reply to post by schrodingers dog


and Arnold was a body builder ,sly was with a family stone

Originally posted by RUNSILENT
reply to post by schrodingers dog

 

and Arnold was a body builder ,sly was with a family stone

and Will Smith was only known for Prince of Bel-Aire.

And Prince was Prince. Micheal Jackson also had good Music and videos and was looked up to.

Back in my day there were also weird raisins on around Christmas every year.

And Roller Rinks kicked arse! It was the only thing to do on weekends! And we used these weird things called "skates". And there were no snowboards!

Back in the day:

There was only one type of Barbie Doll
Toys didn't "do anything"
teachers were the ultimate classroom authority; principals had a paddle and could use it
we actually got off the street when a car was coming
we knew all of our neighbors
In a class of 700 students, only one girl got preggo and she didn't keep it
Only one guy was rumored to be using drugs
We had prayer in school, and pledged allegance to the flag
We actually believed in Truth, Justice and the American Way
We wore regular clothes to school, dresses for girls jeans for guys (my niece actually wore jammies to school today)
Most of us had never heard or UFO's
We were protected by our desks from atomic blasts
Ah, the innocence of youth...lol