For the over "30" crowd

[dazr4]

The Spoiled Under 30 Crowd

If you are 30 or older, you will think this is hilarious!!!! If not, send it to your parents! They'll think it's funny!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning .. Uphill BOTH
ways .. Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in heck I was going to talk like that to kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that...

I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in Utopia! And I hate to say it but you kids
today you don't know how good you've got it!

1. When I was a kid, we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves...In the card catalog!! (Do you even know what a card catalog is? Didn't
think so!)

2. There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter... With a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

3. There were no MP3's or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would
usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up!

4. We didn't have Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!

5. And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

6. We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'asteroids' and the graphics were horrible! Your
guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and
harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

7. When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just out of luck!!

8. Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen menu! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! And there was no Cartoon
Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons!

9. And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove or go build a fire ... Imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that JiffyPop thing or a pan with HOT oil
and Real popcorn kernels and shake it all over the stove.

10. When we were on the phone with our friends and our parents walked-in, we were stuck to the wall with a cord, a 7 foot cord that ran to the phone - not the phone base, the actual phone. We barely had
enough length to sit on the floor and still be able to twirl the phone cord in our fingers. If you suddenly had to go to the bathroom - guess what we had to do..... Hang up and talk to them later.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled!!
You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

Regards,
The over 30 Crowd

[JackBlades]

Remember OnTV? The debut of MTV? The first cordless phones that would crap out on the far side of a wall? Yeah, my first PC and early DOS. Fuck, they have it easy now.

[dazr4]

I remember the three channel blues, and actually playing outside ALL day long! LOL

[gpd215]

How about that first cell phone? Mother Fucker with a shoulder strap!

[rio]

we had no remote control , you got up and turn the channel, when casio came out with those digital watches with a light on, it was the shit.
a yo-yo was a lot of fun and it only cost 3$.
they used to play one or two films in the theater now they play 10 movies.

[SugarSkull]

The first time seeing the Wizard of Oz on a colored tv slapped me.:ross:

[DONK]

Yeah I remember when color TV came out!! LOL! That was right on cause I said i would never say that stuff either, and it is all that come out of mouth these days!! LOL! Remember the first remotes for TVs, they came before the color TV, when you pressed the button, the channel dial would actually turn!:devilzeek

[Persev]

In my house I was the remote! "change the channel,wait,no,next one" of course there were only 4 channels and one was uhf.Then there was adjusting the rabbit ears,"left,right...a little more,perfect" take your hand off and bam, snow."Maybe if we put tin foil on it?"

Come summer there was no stay and play videos,it was go out to play at 8am and just be back in time for dinner.Playing usually involved something that these days would be considered "too dangerous" for kids,hell, a day without a bruise or scrape meant I was to sick to go out that day.

Good times.

[JackBlades]

Yeah I remember when color TV came out!! LOL! That was right on cause I said i would never say that stuff either, and it is all that come out of mouth these days!! LOL! Remember the first remotes for TVs, they came before the color TV, when you pressed the button, the channel dial would actually turn!:devilzeek

We had a TV that did that. The remote didn't have batteries - it had a little bellows and a whistle!

[SoToo]

In my house I was the remote! "change the channel,wait,no,next one" of course there were only 4 channels and one was uhf.Then there was adjusting the rabbit ears,"left,right...a little more,perfect" take your hand off and bam, snow."Maybe if we put tin foil on it?"

Come summer there was no stay and play videos,it was go out to play at 8am and just be back in time for dinner.Playing usually involved something that these days would be considered "too dangerous" for kids,hell, a day without a bruise or scrape meant I was to sick to go out that day.

Good times.

Hell yeah... me too. What sucked more... I was the baby with four older sisters and they all expected me to be their damn remote too. It was like a game or something and even my mom was in on it... "Turn the channel... no, not that one.... no, not that one.... no.... ok, turn up the volume a little... stop sitting so close to the TV, you wanna have to wear glasses! Hmmmm... turn the volume back down a little bit.... change the channel to something else.... turn the volume back up.... STOP SITTING SO CLOSE TO THE DAMN TV!!!" :decoder:

I mean....WTF? It's a damn good thing there were only a few channels right?




Oh... and I got news for you spoiled 30 somethings... Video Games? Cable TV? Huh... Atari would have sounded like some weird musical instrument the hippies were into and our Cable TV consisted of a strip of 300-ohm twinlead and a roof aerial. We actually did get Cable when I was in my early teens though.... the channel selector was a rotary dial... fuck... I was still the damn remote and there were more fucking channels now. Haha... the installation guy convinced my mom that she definitely needed a lock box to keep me away from the porn. We had a happy arrangement though.... she carried those keys on her keyring everyday... and I'd just unscrew the coax from the back and bypass the box. :grinyes:

Wow... thanks for the memories.... you heartless bastards. :eekfinger:

[Markous]

1. i remember going thru the card's organized by the dewey decimal system in the library.
2. no e-mail easy to remember, hell we had a party line phone system where i grew up had to listen for your ring then pick the phone and pull up the knob on the phone to answer
3. One word "Mixtapes"
4. Confused the hell out of me when we first got call waiting
5. Caller ID and *69 killed prank phoning for me (*67 still work?)
6. I remember saving 130 bucks to buy an NES (couldn't wait to get the laser pistol!!) when i was a wee lad.
7. Oldest movie i remember seeing is SUPERMAN (the one with the kid who falls at Niagra falls, scared the shit out of me!!)
8. Try TWO channels CTV and CBC both out of Lloydminster AB/SK
9. We had a microwave but it weighed 15-20 kg's
10. I remember the first cordless phones with the 3 foot antenna. Cool people with the "brick" cell phones as they called them

One more, the first VCR's the 5.1 reciever sized top loading one's i also remember finding a orange VHS tape in my dad's closet :ropeman: MY LIFE WAS NEVER THE SAME after that day:evilness:

[SoToo]

5. Caller ID and *69 killed prank phoning for me (*67 still work?)

Yes... even with mobiles. *67 is our friend. However, that shit will not mask you on toll free numbers... therefore, 800 anonymous tip lines and such are NOT anonymous, so don't try it. If you absolutely, positively, 100% feel the need to squeal on somebody about something... better use a payphone if you want to remain anonymous. I found that shit out calling a creditor that I did not want to have my number, as *67 was just pissing in the wind on that one. :Onthephone:

[JackBlades]

Whiners!:easydevil:

[M.Olexey]

all true except the microwave thing. I'm 40 and I remember having one by the time I was ten and being amazed that you could pop popcorn in a paper sack without fire

[Clydetz]

I can remember when TV shows were only in black & white. I can still hear the music that played during the Perry Mason show. We used to be up at 6:30am on the weekend, watch black & white cartoons 'til 9am, play outside all day and if I knew Mom was planning on having liver for dinner... I'd stay out until 9:00pm and hope she didn't save me any!

[watercrawl]

Bunch of whine bags....try living in Germany on various military bases for most of your youth and only having one single channel to watch....AFN. I still remember vividly the first family in Germany to get one of those small satellite dishes and was able to get TV channels from the States. Their apartment looked like a movie theater full of people almost nightly. That only happened within the last year of dad and I being stationed over there though. And, of course, dad wouldn't let us have one. :cry:

But, yeah, kids of today....they have no idea. :manganr:

[SoToo]

Bunch of whine bags....try living in Germany on various military bases for most of your youth and only having one single channel to watch....AFN. I still remember vividly the first family in Germany to get one of those small satellite dishes and was able to get TV channels from the States. Their apartment looked like a movie theater full of people almost nightly. That only happened within the last year of dad and I being stationed over there though. And, of course, dad wouldn't let us have one. :cry:

Well...... don't keep us in suspense......






Was "Hogan's Heroes" on that channel?

http://www.ugo.com/movies/soldiers-in-entertainment/images/hogan.jpg

[droid]

Bunch of whine bags....try living in Germany on various military bases for most of your youth and only having one single channel to watch....AFN. I still remember vividly the first family in Germany to get one of those small satellite dishes and was able to get TV channels from the States. Their apartment looked like a movie theater full of people almost nightly. That only happened within the last year of dad and I being stationed over there though. And, of course, dad wouldn't let us have one. :cry:

But, yeah, kids of today....they have no idea. :manganr:


Television in Germany was completely different. The commercials were all AFTER the show! No program interupptions like here in the US. I'm sure all that's different now. German TV didn't come on until afternoon and signed off around 10PM.

Yes, I remember those days well! Spoke fluent German, French and Spanish. Some Italian and a little Russian as well. Now I've lived in Texas so fucking long I have trouble just speaking English!!!!! YeeeHaaaw!!!!

Life is far different today than it was in the 60s and 70s, yep!

Andy

[Clydetz]

...Life is far different today than it was in the 60s and 70s, yep!

Andy

But... is it any better? :ssmile:

[watercrawl]

Well...... don't keep us in suspense......






Was "Hogan's Heroes" on that channel?

http://www.ugo.com/movies/soldiers-in-entertainment/images/hogan.jpg


I don't remember Hogan's Heroes. In fact, I don't really recall too much of any particular show from that long ago. The only one I do remember was a show about dinosaur's...for some reason I remember it being about the center of the earth...or something like that.

[SoToo]

Yes, I remember those days well! Spoke fluent German, French and Spanish. Some Italian and a little Russian as well. Now I've lived in Texas so fucking long I have trouble just speaking English!!!!! YeeeHaaaw!!!!

AMEN BROTHER ANDY!

http://www.jerzeedevil.com/gallery/files/3/6/0/3/txflagsmilieani.gif

Can I get a Whut Whut?

[SoToo]

I don't remember Hogan's Heroes. In fact, I don't really recall too much of any particular show from that long ago. The only one I do remember was a show about dinosaur's...for some reason I remember it being about the center of the earth...or something like that.

Ahhhhh.....

http://dgt1.net/manny/mblog/images/land_of_the_lost.jpg

Would you care for a little Sleestack to go with that?

http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2007/05/09/land-of-the-lost.jpg

[SoToo]

But... is it any better? :ssmile:

Nope... now I got 200+ channels.... and there's still nothing good on. :grinno:

[Poolshark]

I remember ordering shit in the mail and they would say to wait for 6 to 8 weeks. It would always be 8 weeks. Ginsu knife-----8 weeks. Bag of army men -----8weeks. x-ray specs, damn two months just to get shit.

[Raindog]

Let's cut to the meat of the matter. In the 60's and early 70's, if I wanted to stick my little pecker in a woman and move it around, the only thing that I had to fear was the clap, crabs or herpes. Nothing that was flat out going to kill me.

As a boy of 8, I owned a shotgun and .22 rifle. My grandfather, when I was 10, gave me a cheap Barlow and stated "No man should ever be without a knife." Periodically, he would find a reason to want to borrow my knife, just to make sure that I was still carrying it. My grandfather was a wise man. But no one had a problem with me handling a rifle, shotgun or carrying a knife to school back in the 60's.

At 10-12 years old, I could leave the house on my bike (usually barefoot), my dog "Hotdog" (dachshund) in tow, and stay out all day without anyone worrying. The only stipulation was "Be home by supper." After supper, me and my friend, Jeffrey Barrett, wound get out and play in the dark. No problem, as long as I was in by 9 pm. Jeffrey and I would get up to such mean mischief as to ring doorbells, then run and hide, giggling like girls every time someone would come to the door and look puzzled. Then we would go to old man Mahogany's place, with the intercom system. We would sneak up to the door and, about the time we would reach for the doorbell, we would hear "WHAT DO YOU BOYS WANT?" from the intercom. We would run like hell for 5 minutes. Back then, it was recognized as "boys being boys." Now, it would get the law involved and possibly DHR for my parents. Speaking of that, when was DHR invented? It sure as hell wasn't around when I was a kid. My father used to whup me with a belt and the only person I could run to was my grandmother, who would give my father hell for whipping such a good boy (never mind that I deserved the whipping seven ways to Sunday.)

Tune in tomorrow, boys and girls, and hear how Jeffrey and myself went bat hunting with bamboo poles and white rags. Hear how we used to cause cars to come to a stop by pantomiming throwing a rope across the road and pulling it tight. Hear how we faked a hanging, using a mannequin, and scared all the neighbors. Always fun until the local police arrive. And many other hi-jinx on "The Good Ol Days."

[watercrawl]

Ahhhhh.....

http://dgt1.net/manny/mblog/images/land_of_the_lost.jpg

Would you care for a little Sleestack to go with that?

http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2007/05/09/land-of-the-lost.jpg

OMG.....that's totally it!! :D And they have it on DVD too. I'm going to have to get some of them now. :popcorn:

[Raindog]

Ahhhhh.....
http://dgt1.net/manny/mblog/images/land_of_the_lost.jpg


And if you watched the Superbowl, you should hve seen this:

q4UMhOYIPqU

A remake but in a more comical vein.

[texastonydobbs]

Remember Lawn Darts from the 70's big ass Dart with metal tip....:sinister:

[SoToo]

Remember Lawn Darts from the 70's big ass Dart with metal tip....:sinister:

I remember Having a few wars with them... we're probably the reason the muthers aren't still around. :grinyes:

I'm pretty sure that most of the shit we did is a big reason there are so many more rules and laws these days. :idunno:

[texastonydobbs]

:wes: LOL ! Probably so,I did some dumb stuff back then !

[watercrawl]

I reckon we've all done that dumb stuff as kids. And, I've gotten into "trouble" as a parent when my kids have done "something wrong" and I told the Principal....."Yeah, and?". My gawd...the things they don't allow kids to do these days is phenomenally stupid.

[texastonydobbs]

I know back in the 70's as a kid I could piss 20ft. :wes: now lucky to get 18" :Devilroar: LOL !

Remember the Slip'n Slide ,fun times... red chest & muddy

[watercrawl]

I remember the original laser tag....my dad shanked it from me and he and his buddies would sit around drinking beer seeing how far away and how accurate it was.

[SoToo]

I remember the original laser tag....my dad shanked it from me and he and his buddies would sit around drinking beer seeing how far away and how accurate it was.

Yep... that's exactly what we did with the Lawn Darts! :bwah::ropeman::bwah:

[SoToo]

I know back in the 70's as a kid I could piss 20ft. :wes: now lucky to get 18" :Devilroar: LOL !

Remember the Slip'n Slide ,fun times... red chest & muddy

Hell yeah... we got a reasonable facsimile for our kids.... set it up in a nice area of the yard.... wet it down.... the kids had a blast and a half on it. However.... I took a dive at the sum bitch and pretty much figured I had commited suicide for approximately 15 fuckin' minutes there. :yesman:

[Clydetz]

Anyone remember seeing these steel mixing containers at the site of a new house being built? They were usually about 6' x 3' x 12" deep and they used to manually mix the cement with a special hoe with holes in it. As kids, we stole them from the building site and they became our boats for travelling down the river to the resevoir. 2 x 4's for seats and a piece of plywood for a paddle & we were off. Lots of fun. Then they went and built houses along the river and put a fence up all around the resevoir! :devilroll:

Shoot... forgot the pix!

http://www.jerzeedevil.com/gallery/files/2/5/mortarpan.jpg

[texastonydobbs]

Remember Klackers ? nothing like playing and wham,right up side tha head....either a big knot or blood but having fun:manganr:
www.timewarptoys.com/klackers.htm

[willhunt]

The first time seeing the Wizard of Oz on a colored tv slapped me.:ross:

I guess I was about 8 years old, and we still had an old B/W television.

But tonite we were going over to Grandma and Grandpas house to watch the Wizard of Oz on their new "Color" TV.

I very vividly remember thinking, 'well I wonder what color their new TV is? Our TV is a wood color. Maybe theirs is red or blue or maybe a rainbow color!:devilzide

And when Dorothy opened the door to enter Munchkin-Land...........I'll never forget it. Still one of my favorite parts of that movie.

[Katwyld]

heh Granny was the first one of the family to get a TV with a remote... one of the 'newer' remotes (that thing was so heavy and clunky!)... Sitting watching TV with her and suddenly the channel changed! I looked at her, and she looked shocked. Turned back to the TV and a minute later it happened again... she did it for about 5 minutes before I caught her with it. heh

I had to be about... oh, 10?

My friend Lisa and my excitement for the summers were catching frogs and toads (she wouldn't touch them, but would look for them and point them out and I would catch them) and making boats out of fake bamboo to send down the creek...

And betta max... heh My Mom had that thing forever... she wouldn't get rid of it.

It is sometimes startling to think of how much things have changed... as I sit here in bed on the laptop posting to people all over the world...

[RoadFish]

Remember OnTV? The debut of MTV? The first cordless phones that would crap out on the far side of a wall? Yeah, my first PC and early DOS. Fuck, they have it easy now.

ONTV! A little history of my life intertwined with that one! I graduated from SDSU in '76 and was up in L.A. looking for a job in production and took a phone sales job with ONTV as a way to get by. I was too successful and ended up Director of Sales for ONTV! When I started there, they had 4000 customers and when I left for Oregon in '82 they had over 500,000! I later was VP Sales and Marketing for the SelecTV/ONTV combination owned by Clarion and saw it sold to TelStar and milked for cash until it died.

Now BTT! Can many even imagine not having cellphones or the Internet???

[Markous]

I think it was DOS we used but i remember typing lines of code for 2 week's worth of classes in grade 4 just to spell HI on the 19" screen ah the apple2 whatever i remember hooking it up to a normal CRT television.

In grade 9 ('93) our LAN in the school with 24 computers on it had a whopping 1 gigabyte of storage more than enough HA!


Now we gots the internets

[RoadFish]

My first computer had a 10 meg hard drive and an 8086 processor! I can still struggle through DOS commands if I have to!

[SoToo]

My first computer was the Commodore 64.... I was really fixed up too, with a matching monitor, printer, floppy drive, tape drive, and even a joystick. I could print my address book, of about 50 entries, in damn near 20 minutes. It was really something...

Then I had a IBM PC jr, then an IBM clone XT with 10 meg hdd, and then I was really flying with my IBM AT286 clone and it's "HUGE" 20 meg hdd. I couldn't wait to get a CGA graphics card for that one. :yesman:

http://cmsreport.com/files/images/Commodore64_350px.jpg

[exit14a]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3207/2493956382_48cc91319e.jpg

[SoToo]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3207/2493956382_48cc91319e.jpg

I can't even remember how many different 8-Track players I had. Right in the middle of a tune... music fades out... *CLICK-CLICK*... music fades back in. Talk about pirating MP3s... nobody had a collection of 8-Track tapes without 2 or 3 pirated tapes in the bunch... and with those groovy labels too. I'm pretty sure the days of 8-Track provided us a ton of the copyright laws we have now. :grinyes:

[JMForge]

LOL......I was going to mention 8 tracks!!!!. How about this one? Does nayone remember when it was against FCC regs to put in a cable TV system in any urban area that had all three networks? You could only get cable if you lived out in the sticks. When we first got it in Manchester, CT back in like '75, you could get the networks and a couple of independent channels from New York and Boston and that was it. The first time I ever saw anything like HBO was in Georgia in 1978-79 and they actually showed nothing but MOVIES back then. Just like MTV only played MUSIC VIDEOS back in the early to mid 80's.:manganr:

[SoToo]

LOL......I was going to mention 8 tracks!!!!. How about this one? Does nayone remember when it was against FCC regs to put in a cable TV system in any urban area that had all three networks? You could only get cable if you lived out in the sticks. When we first got it in Manchester, CT back in like '75, you could get the networks and a couple of independent channels from New York and Boston and that was it. The first time I ever saw anything like HBO was in Georgia in 1978-79 and they actually showed nothing but MOVIES back then. Just like MTV only played MUSIC VIDEOS back in the early to mid 80's.:manganr:

Yeah... WTF? Sidenote to your post; MTV definitely WAS all music ALL the time. Now there's like 3 or 4 MTVs and I still don't see them playing music, just reality shows and shit. If you do find an MTV playing a vid... it's usually just HipHop. As a matter of fact, MTV will play 5 seconds of a vid between programs... like it's a damn commercial or something. Now that VH1 has got a handful of channels, they'll play music vids on some of them. However, with MTV, it was apparently just... well... a reality overflow! :declare:

[gunknifenut]

When I was a little guy..like 11 or 12, My late grandfather bought me a CALCULATOR for x-mas....I was pretty dissapointed..then I found out it cost $150 and I thought I was the coolest kid that didnt know shit about math. This was the early 80's...Thanks for the laugh..I read the whole thing to my wife and she loved it!

[El Gringo]

I remember when we all wore clothes and hats that fit:RXX:

[RoadFish]

I remember when we all wore clothes and hats that fit:RXX:

So, you gave up clothes? :wes:

[Clydetz]

I think this was my Mom's & Dad's 1st TV... an RCA Victor. Got to be from before 1950. I can't remember watching it as a kid but it looks pretty cool! 12" diagonal; about 9" x 7" screen although the actual viewing area is somewhat smaller. It's sitting up in the attic collecting dust. Came with its own set of legs!

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b114/Clydetz/DSCN8323.jpg

A little bit closer... yep that's dust on top.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b114/Clydetz/DSCN8329.jpg

The doors open up and slide back into the sides of the cabinet...

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b114/Clydetz/DSCN8325.jpg

No remote control for this TV! :ross:

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b114/Clydetz/DSCN8327.jpg

[archer-ca]

No remote control for this TV! :ross:

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b114/Clydetz/DSCN8327.jpg

Wow!! Might be a dumb idea but I'd be interested to see if it would still light up...

If not maybe you can retro fit it with a modern display screen and cable box?

Norman

[Cadi Con Carne]

Call me a bitch for saying it, but I swear I saw one of those on Antiques Roadshow a couple weeks ago. Can't for the life of me remember the value they gave it.

I'm not over 30, but I did grow up in the sticks, if that counts. Our only TV til I was in my teens was a gigantic console TV. It did have a remote, that was about the size of a VHS tape. The best thing about it was that in the top, it had an 8-track deck and a record player. The TV is long gone, but I still have, and will never part with, my old beat-ass vinyl copy of "A Night at the Opera". "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon", "The Prophet's Song", and "Bohemian Rhapsody" are almost worn smooth. Damn not given.

I had a cheap-o Wal-mart bike...I remember it said BMX on the side, but yeah, it wasn't a BMX. White with lavender trim on it and the hard plastic seat that made me glad I didn't have testicles (or I would've been glad, I didn't know they existed back then). I remember we lived in a poor neighborhood for a couple months when we were waiting to move into another house...a kid down the street always wanted to borrow my bike, well one day I didn't put it up when we went out, and we came home to see him riding it through mudholes. I got a helluva spanking for that one. I also remember a girl I used to play with that had a bike, but it didn't have a seat. Didn't know anything about who had what back then, and I wish I still didn't.

We got our first computer when I was in 5th grade, so that makes it 1990, I think. It was one that had been discarded at Dad's work. Don't remember the make, I just remember the monochrome monitor (orange and black), the "First Choice" OS that had a word processor, graph and spreadsheet, and a couple other options, and the massive dot matrix printer that'd wake the dead and that had *gasp* two font options...normal and serif. I got accused of cheating in school because I did my homework on it once.

[Clydetz]

Wow!! Might be a dumb idea but I'd be interested to see if it would still light up...

If not maybe you can retro fit it with a modern display screen and cable box?

Norman

I contacted someone in the know about the old sets and I had told him I haven't plugged it in 'cause I was afraid it might 'explode'! He told me... 'You'd be surprised how many of these old sets still work!' And added that you should use a variable transformer to gradually bring up the power or you might see some smoke but no explosion. He included a page from a catalog showing the model#, year of manufacture and approximate value to collectors although he has seen them go for quite a bit less...


http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b114/Clydetz/rcatv.jpg

[SoToo]

Call me a bitch for saying it, but I swear I saw one of those on Antiques Roadshow a couple weeks ago. Can't for the life of me remember the value they gave it.

I'm not over 30, but I did grow up in the sticks, if that counts. Our only TV til I was in my teens was a gigantic console TV. It did have a remote, that was about the size of a VHS tape. The best thing about it was that in the top, it had an 8-track deck and a record player. The TV is long gone, but I still have, and will never part with, my old beat-ass vinyl copy of "A Night at the Opera". "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon", "The Prophet's Song", and "Bohemian Rhapsody" are almost worn smooth. Damn not given.

I had a cheap-o Wal-mart bike...I remember it said BMX on the side, but yeah, it wasn't a BMX. White with lavender trim on it and the hard plastic seat that made me glad I didn't have testicles (or I would've been glad, I didn't know they existed back then). I remember we lived in a poor neighborhood for a couple months when we were waiting to move into another house...a kid down the street always wanted to borrow my bike, well one day I didn't put it up when we went out, and we came home to see him riding it through mudholes. I got a helluva spanking for that one. I also remember a girl I used to play with that had a bike, but it didn't have a seat. Didn't know anything about who had what back then, and I wish I still didn't.

We got our first computer when I was in 5th grade, so that makes it 1990, I think. It was one that had been discarded at Dad's work. Don't remember the make, I just remember the monochrome monitor (orange and black), the "First Choice" OS that had a word processor, graph and spreadsheet, and a couple other options, and the massive dot matrix printer that'd wake the dead and that had *gasp* two font options...normal and serif. I got accused of cheating in school because I did my homework on it once.

Damn... you had it easy. I would've loved having a remote, even if it was the size of a VCR. I wasn't allowed to touch mom and dad's console stereo, but I did have one of those little portable record players. My first two bikes were hand-me-downs from my older sisters. One was red and had hard rubber tires, but the rear one was missing a large chunk... the other was a yellow "girl's" bike with a banana seat and sissy bar. Computers were a fantasy word and Govt. conspiracy until I was nearly out of high school. I didn't have my first one until I was well into my 20s.

From what you're saying... that puts you somewhere close to being my daughter's age.

[archer-ca]

I contacted someone in the know about the old sets and I had told him I haven't plugged it in 'cause I was afraid it might 'explode'! He told me... 'You'd be surprised how many of these old sets still work!' And added that you should use a variable transformer to gradually bring up the power or you might see some smoke but no explosion. He included a page from a catalog showing the model#, year of manufacture and approximate value to collectors although he has seen them go for quite a bit less...


http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b114/Clydetz/rcatv.jpg

Hey Clydetz!

Be sure to let me know if you ever do turn it on. :devilroll: If I had one I'd definitley see how I would make it work again. I love old stuff.

Thanks for sharing.

Norman

[SoToo]

I contacted someone in the know about the old sets and I had told him I haven't plugged it in 'cause I was afraid it might 'explode'! He told me... 'You'd be surprised how many of these old sets still work!' And added that you should use a variable transformer to gradually bring up the power or you might see some smoke but no explosion. He included a page from a catalog showing the model#, year of manufacture and approximate value to collectors although he has seen them go for quite a bit less...


http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b114/Clydetz/rcatv.jpg

Pull off the back and blow out the dust... then it shouldn't smoke on you. I assume it has tubes.... write down the numbers while you are in there. It is usually the tubes that go bad on old TVs, Radios, Amps.... a nice assortment of tubes can be had on eBay for relatively low cost. I have even seen some of the old tube testing machines and all old stock sold in single auctions.

...and that right there is another oldie... remember the tube testing units at the grocery stores, 5 & 10s, and such?

[Clydetz]

...and that right there is another oldie... remember the tube testing units at the grocery stores, 5 & 10s, and such?

Oh yeah! Used to take a handful of tubes over to the variety store to check 'em out everytime the TV (another RCA and a Dumont we had later on) went 'kaput' before calling a TV repairman.

[SoToo]

Oh yeah! Used to take a handful of tubes over to the variety store to check 'em out everytime the TV (another RCA and a Dumont we had later on) went 'kaput' before calling a TV repairman.

When you get it working... hook it up to cable. It'll be the first time it ever got to see the History Channel. Maybe it'll find it's brother on the Antiques Roadshow like Cadi had mentioned. :cheesydevil: