Remember when...

[ancientmariner52]

Prarie Grove Telephone Company maintains an actual glass phone booth on US 62B in Prairie Grove, AR. It's the only one I've seen in years. They even rebuilt it recently after a car hit it. Costs a quarter though. My 8 year old granddaughter was fascinated by the idea, thought it was something brand new.

 

[JonM]

I can’t remember the last time I saw a metal and glass phone booth but there is a fancy and very old hotel downtown where they have these beautiful pay phone enclosures with wood paneling and an upholstered seat. I imagine people use them to make a private cell phone call these days.

 

[GrogNerd]

When my kids were little, they'd fight over the TV remote control.
When we were little, my brother would pull the knob off the TV so I couldn't change the channel....

When we were little, my little brother was the remote control

 

[arturo7]

Jarts

 

[passedpawn]

I'm waiting for a needle to show up for my turntable. Friend gave me a Marantz with a bad cartridge. Good times.

 

[arturo7]

... calling them needles instead of cartridges...

 

[passedpawn]

... calling them needles instead of cartridges...

Well ffs when did they start calling them cartridges.

 

[triethylborane]

Remember when you COULD have studded snow tires ...

Have them here in CO

 

[ancientmariner52]

They became cartridges when they became piezoelectric devices. Before that needles mounted with a set screw and made a mechanical diaphragm vibrate. But I still call them needles.

 

[triethylborane]

huh...those bag ties are still here with all big trashbags or small bread bags....as for winter tyres, I hate driving on non-studded tyres, and every test i've seen shows they are inferior in actual winter weather compared to studded, since we have 5 months of winter......

pretty happy with my non studded nokians, best snow tire ive ever used

 

[rlmiller10]

I wanna be a "well-know member" too.

I remember buying cig's for my mom at 12 years old. Nobody questioned anything. Mom's in the car. And they were only $1.25 at the time.

I used to ride my bike about a half mile to the store to pick up cigs for my mom. I was 8 when we moved so I had to be only 6 or 7 when I started doing it. No questions ever asked.

 

[triethylborane]

Not sure about the physical phone itself, but our company had to shut down our toll-free 1-800 number because of a robo-dialing payphone

You see, the government says you don't need to put any money into a payphone to call 911 or a toll-free number, so the owner of the payphone gets reimbursed for the call. And the owner of the toll-free number pays for each call, part of which goes to the payphone owner for that reimbursement

So, there was a "payphone" in NYC making robocalls to our number 24/7, racking up some serious $. All legit & government sanctioned.

Our phone company doesn't let us block calls from payphones, so instead of finding one that would, we got rid of our 1-800 number

A few friends and I built blue boxes in middle school with most electronic components bought from radio shack. Needed a payphone to get the ball rolling with it, actually the only time I used a payphone (parents gave me a MCI card, never used it). It provided fun for a few years then US West started installing digital switches on both local and trunks . . . then poof, that was gone. Probably a good thing. There was the internet anyway.

 

[day_trippr]

pretty happy with my non studded nokians, best snow tire ive ever used

Hakkapeliittas are awesome tires, perhaps the best available to consumers.
I race my S4 on the ice with the Boston BMW club (nbd - they let Subies in, too ) and everyone with the $$ is running 'em...

Cheers!

 

[Kharnynb]

hakapeliittas are decent, especially their non-studded version compared to other non-studded.

But hankook i*pike studded is rated better than nokian hakapeliitta 9's and half the price.

Finnish technical review test:
Spiked
1. Continental IceContact 2 (8,8)
2. Hankook Winter l*Pike RS+ (8,7)
3. Nokian Hakkapeliitta 9 (8,4)
4. Goodyear Ultragrip Ice Arctic (8,3) ja Pirelli Ice Zero (8,3)
6. Vredestein Wintrac Ice (8,2) ja Yokohama Ice Guard iG65 (8,2)

non-spike.
Continental ContiVikingContact 6 (8,1)
2. Sava Eskimo Ice (7,6)
3. Good Year Ultra Grip Ice 2 (7,5) ja Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2 (7,5)
5. Hankook Winter l*Cept IZ2 (7,4) ja Michelin X-Ice X3 (7,4)

 

[corkybstewart]

Who remembers these? We had a kitchen drawer dedicated to S & H books.

 

[passedpawn]

green stamps. Oh yeah.

 

[MaxStout]

They became cartridges when they became piezoelectric devices. Before that needles mounted with a set screw and made a mechanical diaphragm vibrate. But I still call them needles.

Most of the better cartridges allowed the needle to be removed and replaced, as that was much cheaper than replacing the whole cartridge. Not sure if that's still true with the recent generation of turntables. I still have my Technics direct drive TT from the late-70s, with the original Stanton cartridge. I actually use it once in a while.

I still have one of these, too.

 

[passedpawn]

I also remember food stamps. I saved one from my childhood actually, as a memento to never ever let that happen again. Nothing like heading to the local store with a pocket of them for mom. Free lunches at school were also a joy (the catholic school gave us vouchers we would use, pretty much marked you for abuse by your classmates).

 

[passedpawn]

Most of the better cartridges allowed the needle to be removed and replaced, as that was much cheaper than replacing the whole cartridge. Not sure if that's still true with the recent generation of turntables. I still have my Technics direct drive TT from the late-70s, with the original Stanton cartridge. I actually use it once in a while.

I still have one of these, too.

Discwasher. I had one of those too.

Oddly enough, just this last week I replaced the needle on a Marantz. It's an oldy. The cartridge is a Denon.

 

[MaxStout]

Discwasher. I had one of those too.

Oddly enough, just this last week I replaced the needle on a Marantz. It's an oldy. The cartridge is a Denon.

This is the one I have. Original cartridge, but it's the second stylus (the whole black part w/brush slides right off). BTW, there's a decent shop here in Minneapolis, called Needle Doctor, if you ever need replacement parts, phono preamps, etc.

 

[timman01]

I also remember food stamps. I saved one from my childhood actually, as a memento to never ever let that happen again. Nothing like heading to the local store with a pocket of them for mom. Free lunches at school were also a joy (the catholic school gave us vouchers we would use, pretty much marked you for abuse by your classmates).

We would sell our lunch tickets to the other kids for 75 cents. Lunch was a dollar. The other kids pocketed a quarter and we bought junk food after school. A win for everyone

 

[bleme]

I also remember food stamps. I saved one from my childhood actually, as a memento to never ever let that happen again. Nothing like heading to the local store with a pocket of them for mom. Free lunches at school were also a joy (the catholic school gave us vouchers we would use, pretty much marked you for abuse by your classmates).

One of the elementary schools I attended required the free lunch kids to work in the cafeteria one day a week. I can just imagine how that would go over today...

 

[flars]

I was in the 5th grade when the move was made from the one room schools in the district to a new multi-room school. A class room for each of eight grades. Seventh and eighth grade students would take turns helping in the kitchen. A school with a kitchen. Wow.

 

[corkybstewart]

Discwasher. I had one of those too.

Oddly enough, just this last week I replaced the needle on a Marantz. It's an oldy. The cartridge is a Denon.

I still use my Thorens belt drive turntable-I paid $160 for it in 1972 and 20 years ago a stereo store owner offered me $500 for it. I used Shure V15 Type 3 cartridges. Right now it has a Grado but I recently saw the Shure for sale somewhere.

 

[DoctorMemory]

Still rocking my B&O Beogram 2000. My daughter is fascinated by the "ritual" of playing vinyl:
1) Press the "cue" button. The tone arm lifts and the platter starts to rotate.
2) Three drops of cleaning fluid on the Discwasher pad. Slide the bottom of the fluid bottle across the pad to distribute the fluid.
3) Gently apply the Discwasher to the album, moving it slowly from the center to the edge as it rotates.
4) Move the tone arm to the edge of the album, then press "cue" again to lower it. Close the dust cover.

 

[SEndorf]

Remember those drills in grade school where we were instructed to crawl under our desks?
Did they really think this offered protection from the looming cold war soviet nuclear attack? There was one
advantage in the 5th grade . I got to see Mary Ellen Burkowski's underpants.......

 

[shetc]

Taking 7th ave to the Miami Airport before I-95 was built

 

[CGVT]

I remember when you didn't have to have a degree in electrical engineering to work on your car.

 

[MaxStout]

I remember my dad yanking all the vacuum tubes from the TV and taking them to the drugstore to be tested. Plug the tube in the correct socket, hit the "test" button and wait to see if it needed replacing. A simple go/no-go tester

 

[jrgtr42]

I remember my dad yanking all the vacuum tubes from the TV and taking them to the drugstore to be tested. Plug the tube in the correct socket, hit the "test" button and wait to see if it needed replacing. A simple go/no-go tester

I could use one of these for my (tube) guitar amps...

 

[bleme]

I remember when you didn't have to have a degree in electrical engineering to work on your car.

I had a 1991 Toyota Corolla that I intended to keep forever. The engine was simple and I could put my whole arm down all the way around it. I figured there wasn't anything in the whole car that I couldn't fix myself and there were so many of them that parts were cheap and plentiful. Then I got t-boned....

 

[arturo7]

I remember when 1991 cars were considered complicated, cramped and unworkable.

 

[Sailingeric]

Back in my day we had 9 planets

 

[GrogNerd]

I could use one of these for my (tube) guitar amps...

My JCM900 is easy : 12ax7s & 6L6s & can tell right away when one side or the other goes bad

Pre tubes aren't bad, but a matched quartet of those power tubes is $85

Had a friend whose dad forgot to use the numbered decals on the tubes & their corresponding sockets

 

[day_trippr]

I remember when you didn't have to have a degree in electrical engineering to work on your car.

I've owned a '56 F100 Panel Truck, a '60 T-Bird, and a '67 Goat. A high school drop-out with basic manual skills could keep any of them running.

I'm an EE with 45 years of practice. After tiring of laying under all the above Detroit Iron, the series of Z-cars, Supras, and Audis I've owned since '75 required someone with experience working on miniature nuclear reactors. With tiny hands.

The 2017 Durango R/T and the Spousal Unit's 2017 Impressa hatch? Fahgetaboutit.
They have more controllers, sensors and servos that can be counted. Or debugged

Cheers!

 

[jleiii]

Keeping with the car theme.....

Back (way back) in the day, windshield wipers were powered by engine vacuum. Going downhill, they'd be screaming like banshees. Uphill, a maddening crawl. I recall a trip to Lake Tahoe in the family station wagon in blizzard conditions. On the pull up to the summit, suckers had inch of snow piled up before wipers started the return cycle. Dad drove with head stuck out the (roll down) window until we began the descent. Pre-SUV so everyone was running chains doing 3 MPH and it took forever - and all us kids had to pee the last hour....

Ahh, you were lucky! (that's one too) I had a 144 cuin Falcon wagon with a 2 speed fordomatic (??) trans, vacuum wipers and a tube AM radio. The wipers would stop dead until you were at a constant speed, or going down hill. I had to let off on the gas every so often to clear the window. Drove that 100k miles before I put it down (already had almost that on it when I got it), and halfway through put a 3 speed automatic in it. The wipers still sucked.

 

[passedpawn]

Frigging Ford Granada I had that loved to die when turning. I'd have to put the transmission in N and restart while driving. I got really good at it, like a BOSS. If you were behind me, you'd never notice.

Which makes me remember how well people used to accommodate bad cars. Lots of friends with similar turds, but we kept them going.

 

[jleiii]

I could use one of these for my (tube) guitar amps...

I built my own from a kit, and still have it. It came from Lafayette Electronics, and the only kit I built that was not from Heathkit. They are all obsolete now, except the VTVM.

 

[SEndorf]

I had a 1971 Toyota Corolla.
0 - 60 in about 15 minutes.
4 cylinders have sure come a long way since then....

 

[jleiii]

I could go on and on with the car theme.....too many 60's cars in my past. When I met my wife she was driving her grandfathers '66 Impala. What a beautiful car. You could almost stand on the ground straddling the engine, and nothing was hard to find or get to. You'd be lucky to see the ground under the hood now.

El Caminos anyone? We had a '70 with a 4 speed and a 402 bigblock. I so loved that car... Got stopped by the police twice in my recently mentioned Falcon, but never in the El Camino! Go figure.