How Far Have You Come?

[Nick]

If I live I will get one, Nick, and also you can find some real good deals for Mac's on ebay, and I mean real good deals man.

Hmm....I'm always wary of buying computers from ebay. First off I want a new one that's guaranteed. The Mac store in Sydney are doing 3 year warranties apparantly.

 

[WIP]

I remember

• dial telephones,
• party lines
• leaded gasoline
• no snow days off from school. The bus routes were the first plowed roads and I can remember the day after a storm in 1975 walking through thigh high snow on the streets with -60 degree F. wind chill to get to the bus stop.
• my mother telling me about getting their first car when she was 14 (1952), getting electricity when she was a senior in high school (1957), and finally getting indoor plumbing.

 

[handy]

Since I've always seemed to be stuck with...I mean..uh...to...happily live with men (first daddy then hubby) who have that pioneer-let's-head-to-the-backwoods spirit, I've always felt very technologically behind the times.

Example, the first telephone that I ever used was a wooden box on the wall with a crank, two round bells with a clapper between them, a tube to talk into and a tube on a cord that one held to one's ear. Our phone "number" was 3 long cranks and two short cranks. That, and the combination gas/wood burning kitchen stove (circa 1930's) were the only mod/con's in the house. (Well, we did have an indoor toilet.)

If one wanted to have adventure, excitement and stories one read a book, rather than watch a TV. I do remember my dad dragging home a tv antenna (no such thing as cable or satellite TV back then) so that I could watch "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" one Christmas.

If one wanted to watch true life "documentaries" one went outside. As far as all these shows on TLC about people with messy houses, or addictions, or having lots of babies...one visited the neighbors!

I remember when we got our first "radar range", our first color TV, our first automatic coffee maker, cable TV, and our first VCR (it was HUGE) and our first "word processor".

That was with my folks.

Now I have my hubby, whom I'm trying to drag, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century, with a modicum of success. We got our first computer in 2001 and just got our second for Christmas this year. Around 2004, Steve got his first cell phone, I have one now too. This year was quite the "techno" Christmas...my daughter got an MP3 player (her second), I got my first digital camera and Thomas got a video camera. All pretty cool, I must say. Once I learn how to download the pics I've been taking, I'll share with y'all. I feel so thoroughly modern (or is it post-modern).

I even have Netflicks now.

 

[Mike]

Example, the first telephone that I ever used was a wooden box on the wall with a crank, two round bells with a clapper between them, a tube to talk into and a tube on a cord that one held to one's ear. Our phone "number" was 3 long cranks and two short cranks.

:toofunny
The rest was great too, but this was all I needed to read to know we have our winner! Anything anyone else posts is going to pale in comparison. Dora, when you made a call, did you just exchange the typical pleasantries with the operator and tell her you needed to talk to Bobby Sue? :rolling

 

[Theofilus]

Example, the first telephone that I ever used was a wooden box on the wall with a crank, two round bells with a clapper between them, a tube to talk into and a tube on a cord that one held to one's ear. Our phone "number" was 3 long cranks and two short cranks.

I remember those phones. They were still in use in some places in Iceland in the early 80's. I never used one (so I won't challenge Handy's position as winner), but I know people who did. There was one thing I especially remember about them. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it was the lack of one particular thing - privacy. Whenever you cranked a "number", every phone connected to the same system rang, and everyone who wanted to could listen to your conversation. This could lead to some interesting situations. For example, a friend of mine, who was a farmer and had such a phone, once met another farmer as he was walking home from working in the field. The other farmer congratulated him. When my friend got home, his wife told him she was pregnant. She had called the doctor to get the results of some tests earlier that day while her husband was out working, and everybody else knew about it before he did.

 

[jasoncran]

my mom was a telephone operator and can recall those days and she is only 61.

she was an operator for bell south for 38 yrs.

she remembers the old switch boards and pre-911 days.

 

[Mike]

I remember those phones. They were still in use in some places in Iceland in the early 80's. I never used one (so I won't challenge Handy's position as winner), but I know people who did. There was one thing I especially remember about them. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it was the lack of one particular thing - privacy. Whenever you cranked a "number", every phone connected to the same system rang, and everyone who wanted to could listen to your conversation. This could lead to some interesting situations. For example, a friend of mine, who was a farmer and had such a phone, once met another farmer as he was walking home from working in the field. The other farmer congratulated him. When my friend got home, his wife told him she was pregnant. She had called the doctor to get the results of some tests earlier that day while her husband was out working, and everybody else knew about it before he did.

Oh my gosh!! I can't believe that. I could see this in a third-world nation, but in Iceland or America in the '80's?? The earliest I can remember was in the early 70's when we had a corded rotary phone. I can't believe industrial nations used that box on the wall so recently!

 

[Theofilus]

Oh my gosh!! I can't believe that. I could see this in a third-world nation, but in Iceland or America in the '80's?? The earliest I can remember was in the early 70's when we had a corded rotary phone. I can't believe industrial nations used that box on the wall so recently!

You think that's coming far? Then what about my dad? He turned 86 last summer, and not only did he grow up with a phone like that, he can remember when telephones first arrived in his area. He also remembers living without electricity. He was born and can remember living in a house made from sod.

 

[farouk]

my mom was a telephone operator and can recall those days and she is only 61.

she was an operator for bell south for 38 yrs.

she remembers the old switch boards and pre-911 days.

I bet your lovely mom also remembers when in the South it was more unusual for ladies to get tattoos...

...and when it was more usual for ladies to get only one earring in each ear.

...and when the piercing gun consisted of a needle and a potato.

 

[jasoncran]

I bet your lovely mom also remembers when in the South it was more unusual for ladies to get tattoos...

...and when it was more usual for ladies to get only one earring in each ear.

lol. my mom is actually from connecticut not far from hartford and that was when the north was still consertive. as she is.

my dad is a floridian born and raised as i am. my mom isnt. she came here in 1967 and started working for ma bell in 1968 in a town south of me.

she met my dad here in 1971 and they married in that year and two yrs later i was born.(first of four)

 

[handy]

YAY!!!! I WON! I'M THE CHAMPION! I WON, I WON, I WON!!!!



Ummm....what did I win exactly? (A leg lamp would be awesome! ;) )


And you are absolutely right, Theo, there was no privacy on those phones whatsoever. But, we were taught right from the get go that if anyone was caught listening in on the phone when the call wasn't for us, we'd get into big trouble.

Mike, someday I'll have to tell you about when we moved to the backwoods from the LA area riding in a 1956 purple Jeep Willys with bucket seats. Real bucket seats. Like milk buckets, turned upside down. 2 Adults, 4 kids, a dog, a cat and all our clothes for 400 miles. That Jeep was awesome!

 

[farouk]

YAY!!!! I WON! I'M THE CHAMPION! I WON, I WON, I WON!!!!



Ummm....what did I win exactly? (A leg lamp would be awesome! ;) )


And you are absolutely right, Theo, there was no privacy on those phones whatsoever. But, we were taught right from the get go that if anyone was caught listening in on the phone when the call wasn't for us, we'd get into big trouble.

Mike, someday I'll have to tell you about when we moved to the backwoods from the LA area riding in a 1956 purple Jeep Willys with bucket seats. Real bucket seats. Like milk buckets, turned upside down. 2 Adults, 4 kids, a dog, a cat and all our clothes for 400 miles. That Jeep was awesome!

handy:

Yes, I saw one of those 'phones in a museum recently.

And the remark was made then, too: there was little privacy when using them!

 

[jasoncran]

handy:

Yes, I saw one of those 'phones in a museum recently.

And the remark was made then, too: there was little privacy when using them!

my wife has one as antigue and it did work. till a few yrs ago.

 

[WIP]

Hey! Is it fair to refer to things of Handy's childhood as "antiques?" ;)

 

[Chris]

I can remember "pong" as the revolutionary and ultimate video game experience at the local squash courts. it cost 20 cents.