Nostalgia Lane

[Ludwick]

No picture, but when I was a kid, I had an adjustable strap to hold on my eyeglasses. Went looking for a new one, and they apparently don't make that type anymore - everything either has something that slips over the ends (won't work for me - the ends of my glasses are too thick!), or the adjustable strap leaves you with this ridiculous "tail". I want one like I used to have!!! - loops wide enough to fit over the ends, elastic, and no "tail"! 

Sorry for the rant, but they really don't make things like they used to!

[Ludwick]

11 hours ago, Steve said:

I think it was part of how my parents figured out I was near-sighted. And we had glass lenses - if I had to wear a pair with my current prescription in glass, the weight of them would give me the opposite of a facelift!

[Ludwick]

9 hours ago, smokeshadow said:

and look what you paid for your first home computer 

 

 

Heck, I remember the first computer my workplace bought that ran MS-DOS! The rest were things like an Apple II, PET, Commodore-64, TRS-80 (we had both a model III and a model IV) and a Seiko that ran CP/M. 

[rwc]

On 2/7/2024 at 6:39 AM, teddy0012 said:

@Brucex  Boy, that brings back memories.  we used to have one phone, like this but with a metal dial

During a recent 10-hour power loss, I dug this out of the basement.  Yes, we still have a land line.  It worked perfectly except when you had to choose an option on an automated system.  I didn't want to run my cell phone battery down while I was on hold for forever.  

[teddy0012]

On 2/7/2024 at 11:01 PM, David9311 said:

Thanks @David9311  The hankie protocol was one of the toughest things to try and remember back when I first started to hit the bars.  what colour, was it in the left or the right.  Man, I was so confused back then😆, wish I'd had this guide in my pocket back then, life would have been so much easier!

[teddy0012]

On 2/8/2024 at 4:17 AM, Brucex said:

Learning to drive on Dad's 1959 Conway Yellow and Black Ford Mk II Consul. Manual gearbox with column change and a wonderfully smooth hydraulic clutch but awful drum brakes all round. Bench seats and no seat belts!

 

@Brucex Ok, right hand drive - GB.  Damn, that takes me back (not as far as you though).  It's the plastic seat protectors.  I remember my best friend's mom had a 1970 Impala with bench seats in the front, seat protectors and, of course, no seat belts.  Betsy as the car was called, would only work for Mrs. E. Anyone else who tried to start her - no luck.  Mrs. E. used to pile about 8 or so kids in the car to go to the pool.  Picture a bunch of small kids in swim suits sitting on towels to avoid getting stuck on the plastic 😁.  Brings back distant, but good memories.  Thanks for posting.

[teddy0012]

On 2/8/2024 at 8:43 AM, Brucex said:

University computing 1970's style :

 

 

 

 

Spend months learning Fortran

Spend 3 days to write and check flow chart and program. Never speak of nested do-loops to me

Wait 2 days for 2hour slot on punch card machine.

Take pile of punch cards to computing centre - if you are lucky you won’t drop them and spend  a morning putting them back in order. Yes, I did have that happen!

Hand in card pile to grumpy old bat in reception and wait 3 days for program to run on mainframe.

 

 

Collect program only to find it failed few lines in because of a misplaced bracket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Start again and, if successful, collect processed data and enter into hand-written table in lab book. The results will probably only contribute a couple of sentences to your thesis and these days would be processed with a few key strokes in Excel

 

I remember as a kid feeding those damn punch cards into the "computer" only to have the fucking machine spit them back out at you😡

[teddy0012]

19 hours ago, rwc said:

During a recent 10-hour power loss, I dug this out of the basement.  Yes, we still have a land line.  It worked perfectly except when you had to choose an option on an automated system.  I didn't want to run my cell phone battery down while I was on hold for forever.  

I still have a land line to an an emergency phone that doesn't need power to work.  For those born in the 1990's onward, a land line sends power along the copper lines so that the phone works - no need for charging 🤣

[Steve]

[smokeshadow]

anyone remember the 1950 Pierce Arrow or Silver Arrow. . .gosh, what gorgeous automobiles 

 

 

[JackFTwist]

On 2/9/2024 at 1:49 AM, rwc said:

During a recent 10-hour power loss, I dug this out of the basement.  Yes, we still have a land line.  It worked perfectly except when you had to choose an option on an automated system.  I didn't want to run my cell phone battery down while I was on hold for forever.  

I still have my landline in case of power failures, too, even though it's costly.  The one phone I keep connected to the landline is a Bell Systems Princess model on the nightstand by my bed because its real ringing bell is guaranteed to wake me up!

Edited February 13 by JackFTwist

[Brucex]

Strange but true - the distinctive Tree Top orange squash bottles of the 1960's were also used in the original lava lamps.

 

[Steve]

[CalHowdy]

[TR718993]

[Brucex]

Feeling old when I realise that I can clearly remember seeing the first ever episode of Dr Who.

 

[smokeshadow]

^^BTW, that first episode was postponed from 22 November 1963 due to the JFK assassination

[Steve]

[smokeshadow]

if you remember this 1929 GE refrigerator, you are aproaching the century mark 

 

 

[CalHowdy]

Gay men of a certain age remember the images that came into their homes as kids that had a definite influence - (I absolutely remember this issue) and Ron Ely as Tarzan had a definite influence on me. Holy shit, Batman!

 

Edited February 11 by redheaguy51

[Steve]

[Ludwick]

14 minutes ago, Steve said:

I have a bunch and the viewer for them somewhere.

[teddy0012]

13 minutes ago, Steve said:

Had these as a kid - can't remember what they were called but you slotted the round things into the binocular viewer and clicked so the images would rotate.  Where do you get all this cool old stuff, @Steve?

[Steve]

56 minutes ago, teddy0012 said:

Had these as a kid - can't remember what they were called but you slotted the round things into the binocular viewer and clicked so the images would rotate.  Where do you get all this cool old stuff, @Steve?

@teddy0012 From Instagram posts

[CalHowdy]

53 minutes ago, teddy0012 said:

Had these as a kid - can't remember what they were called but you slotted the round things into the binocular viewer and clicked so the images would rotate.  Where do you get all this cool old stuff, @Steve?

These were called Viewmaster slides - the company that made the device that popularized the reel format- technically they are stereopitcons - the concept has been around since the late 19th century.  Years ago I found a box filled with reels like these that a home hobbyist had created = not long after I found a 1950s camera that was used to take the doulbe image required to achieve the 3-D look.  Most of the reels featured woods...lol. Hundreds of them. There was one box though that were pictures off Pres. Eisenhower in a parade.