Remember when...

[passedpawn]

Who remembers opening the box of cereal as soon as Mom brought it home and going elbow-deep in there to get the prize? Crackerjacks too... every prize is the same stupid tattoo now. Did people actually choke on that stuff?

Who here sent away for a real decoder ring. I did. 4-6 weeks for processing... felt like an eternity, checking the post box every day.

 

[MaxStout]

Remember advertising that wouldn't fly today?

 

[Beernik]

Who here sent away for a real decoder ring. I did. 4-6 weeks for processing... felt like an eternity, checking the post box every day.

I had a decoder ring. Captain Crunch I think.

Frankly I'm amazed my mom didn't slap me and my brother silly for fighting over cereal box surprise.

The large slurpees used to have secret surprises in the bottom of the cup too. I remember scrounging around the neighborhood for bottles to return and cans to recycle so I could scrape together enough money to buy a large slurpee and get the surprise. I think I devoted 1 day a week of every summer vacation from 2nd grade to 5th grade doing that.

 

[Melana]

Up until when...the late seventies or early eighties the gas filler was behind the rear license plate! My first car was like that. '76 Chevelle with a 305.

Gas was $.79 when I started driving.

I am pretty happy that they changed that... One of my worries any time I take my Caddy out for a run...

 

[bleme]

When you bought a car and got one key for the trunk and one for the ignition

Remember when it didn't cost $450 to get a second key because only the dealer can reprogram the built in alarm system?

 

[Jacob_Marley]

I had a decoder ring. Captain Crunch I think.

Frankly I'm amazed my mom didn't slap me and my brother silly for fighting over cereal box surprise ...

I remember waking up and, first thing, thinking about the cereal prize I'd get when I got downstairs ... great marketing. As a kid they were awesome.

Once upon a time long ago there was a whistle that came as the prize in boxes of Cap’n Crunch cereal that would allow you to make toll-free telephone calls to anywhere in the world. Absolutely free. You'd just blow the whistle into the telephone's receiver and voila ... you were clear to dial. This was the legendary Cap’n Crunch Bosun Whistle.

There was this blind guy known as "Joybubbles" who was a “phone phreaker”, a type of early hacker based on telephone technology (many Phreakers were blind) and Joybubbles had perfect pitch and so over time he had “mapped” the tones & frequencies that AT+T used in controlling their phone system ... as well Joybubbles could whistle (with his lips) at a perfect 2600 hertz and could open the AT+T long trunk lines and could then act in operator mode and dial anywhere for free.

Another phreaker, a guy named John Draper, was known as “Captain Crunch” because he was the one who discovered the Cap’n Crunch Bosun Whistle’s ability to sound at 2600 hertz, and who later went on to work on designing “blue boxes” ... devices that would generate those tones electronically to open the telephone trunk lines.
Around that time, another pair of guys, known as “Oak Toebark” and “Berkeley Blue” to make some extra money created brilliantly designed blue boxes and also black boxes (black boxes allowed you to receive calls from anywhere at no charge to the caller) ... these guys also were early members of the legendary Homebrew Computer Club and whose real names were both “Steve”.
Oak Toebark later became known as the Mozart of Digital Design. Steve & Steve who designed and sold those illegal Blue Boxes would be Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founders of Apple Computer ... and so, as Paul Harvey would say, now you know the rest of the story ...

 

[Jacob_Marley]

Remember when you could go to a payphone and dial the Operator and tell her you "lost your money in the phone" trying to dial a call and she would then put your call through at no charge?

Many many people made many many such calls.
I think this was as close to philanthropy as Ma Bell ever did ... and it went on for years and years.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Remember when Slurpees were new? And came in those "Collectable" cups? Remember Quisp & Quake cereals? Remember how kids used to coat their palms with Elmer's glue & then carefully peel it off in 1 piece? Remember those parachute toys that you'd wad up & throw up in the air, then watch the chute deploy & float back down? Remember when turtlenecks & tweed jackets were in fashion? Remember when when you called your boss "Mr."?

 

[mcbaumannerb]

...Remember those parachute toys that you'd wad up & throw up in the air, then watch the chute deploy & float back down? ...

I remember watching the wadded up chute fall back down

Remember using a clothes pin to stick a baseball card to your bike frame so the wheel spokes would flip it?

 

[Joker]

Had a set of World Books as a kid. It was my go-to for information decades before the Internet and Wikipedia.

Yep back in the day those brought the world to you.

Remember staying up all night trying to record your favorite song off the radio.:rockin:

 

[Jacob_Marley]

Remember Wacky Packs?
In the 70's I knew a girl who would put out for those things (she was fine too!).

 

[Jacob_Marley]

And for that matter ... remember sex before the fear of HIV/AIDS.
Talk about the good ol' days.

 

[beaksnbeer]

Yep back in the day those brought the world to you.

Remember staying up all night trying to record your favorite song off the radio.:rockin:

Staying with the radio low waiting for DR Demento

 

[passedpawn]

Staying with the radio low waiting for DR Demento

I waited up late for EG Marshall doing Radio Mystery Theater.

 

[MaxStout]

Staying with the radio low waiting for DR Demento

We used to have Dr. Demento parties on Sunday nights, when our local station aired the show. Any excuse for a bunch of 19-year-olds to drink and act silly.

Used to listen to a late-night show called "Beaker Street" in the early '70s on a 50,000 watt AM station from Little Rock, AR. I lived 1000 miles away and that signal boomed in at night. They would play music you didn't hear on the usual top-40 stations. I learned about Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Traffic, King Crimson, etc., from that show. Good stuff.

 

[Tinhorn]

Remember Wacky Packs?
In the 70's I knew a girl who would put out for those things (she was fine too!).

Wow forgot about those

 

[beaksnbeer]

Wow forgot about those

Wacky Packs or girls who put out?

 

[onthekeg]

I bought this in 1984 or 85 for 190 dollars that I saved from baling hay, picking rocks and mowing lawns.
I wish I still had it...

 

[onthekeg]

Who remembers chrome Memorex tapes?

 

[onthekeg]

Back when awnald was cool?

 

[Tinhorn]

Wacky Packs or girls who put out?

Both unfortunately !

 

[wooda2008]

Remember Surge?

Coke's greatest bombed opportunity.

 

[Airplanedoc]

Remember Surge?

Coke's greatest bombed opportunity.

I thought that was New Coke?????

 

[russrob81]

You could watch scrambled porn. It was a little fuzzy but got the job done for a 14 year old.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

Remember those phone numbers you could call (for free) and there would be other people, sometimes a lot of them, that you could talk to - a chat room on the phone.
I seem to recall them being local numbers too. I never figured out what those numbers were from and just assumed it was a glitch somewhere in the phone company's system.

 

[wooda2008]

I thought that was New Coke?????

New coke was their biggest bombed product. Total fail.

Surge as a product was stellar. It was the marketing side that blew it bigtime.

 

[unionrdr]

Remember those phone numbers you could call (for free) and there would be other people, sometimes a lot of them, that you could talk to - a chat room on the phone.
I seem to recall them being local numbers too. I never figured out what those numbers were from and just assumed it was a glitch somewhere in the phone company's system.

Yeah,it was just a new take in marketing for the old party line system.

 

[mjdonnelly68]

Rotary dialing for time and temp.

253-0311 - It's ingrained in my memory.

 

[MaxStout]

When I was a kid, we learned of one of the test numbers phone company techs use to test a phone. Don't recall the #, but I think it was 5 digits. You dialed the number, hung up the phone, and a few seconds later, your phone would ring. When you picked up, it would play a series of audio tones. It was fun to prank people in the house with that one.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

Remember when politicians as a whole did not constantly behave in a way which regularly sent you through the roof?

Back in the day when I watched the evening news, I did not end up re-enacting a version of Steve Martin in "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" in the airport parking lot when he realizes his car has been stolen. Now it's a near-everyday occurrence. I've run out of hats to stomp on.

... not starting a political discussion here ... just a simple statement. If you're so inclined, this is an "up or down vote" ... "yea" or "nay". The good ol days. Eh? To quote Forrest Gump: "That's all I have to say about that".

 

[Goofynewfie]

I used to watch this everyday. Still love the show and music

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I remember the Monkees, used to watch it as a kid. I also remember watching The Banana Splits, Bozo The Clown, Captain Kangaroo, etc...

Anybody remember The Wallace & Ladmo Show? It only aired in Arizona, but I used to watch it every day. They used to give away a paper bag full of tasty treats, candy & soda, they called it a Ladmo bag, I always wanted one & never got one. Regards, GF.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wallace_and_Ladmo_Show

 

[Tinhorn]

Still waiting on my bozo tickets ...., I am beginning to suspect they aren't coming

 

[unionrdr]

At Christmas time here in Cleveland,we had Mr Jingaling,televised from his "wonderland" at Halley's on the 7th floor. Got to go see him in the 50's once when mom & I took a bus up there from Lakewood.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

Remember Defender ...

and maybe the "Defender calluses" on your left hand from the joystick ... calluses which took serious arcade time to develop.


For that matter, remember Stargate? ... like Defender but later.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

or Fireball ...

 

[Beernik]

Remember the bar argument?

Got into a discussion on if the Austin Powers theme song existed before Austin Powers. After two minutes, smartphones were pulled out and the argument was settled. Soul Bossanova came out in 1962.

I'm right.

 

[passedpawn]

Remember the bar argument?

Got into a discussion on if the Austin Powers theme song existed before Austin Powers. After two minutes, smartphones were pulled out and the argument was settled. Soul Bossanova came out in 1962.

I'm right.

Blame it on the bossa nova. Don't judge me.

 

[Airplanedoc]

Remember the bar argument?

Got into a discussion on if the Austin Powers theme song existed before Austin Powers. After two minutes, smartphones were pulled out and the argument was settled. Soul Bossanova came out in 1962.

I'm right.

That is why Guinness came out with a book of world records, to settle bar arguments. Wikipedia's backstory seems kind of lame in comparison

 

[Beernik]

And now it's what Wikipedia is for.

My housemate's 18 year old daughter didn't get the reference, "Sherman, set the wayback machine for ..."