Shit that reminds me I'm old.

[darkroxas45]

Lets see...

Seeing things I currently own and use in the kitchen at the local antique shop.

Being old enough to be a parent to most of the people I know.

Seeing the date on a M*A*S*H re-run the other night and realising it's over 40 years old.

Going to a cruise briefing recently and seeing all these 'old farts' going on the cruise as well - then realising I'm probably up there with them in age. <sob!>

Finding out the guy I called a cranky old bastard is younger than me...

I'm that weird mix of old and young. I'm in my early 20's but like shows such as M*A*S*H*, Adam-12, Dragnet (with Jack Webb and Harry Morgan), and Emergency. But then make cracks at people older than me (in jest of course).

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I'm that weird mix of old and young. I'm in my early 20's but like shows such as M*A*S*H*, Adam-12, Dragnet (with Jack Webb and Harry Morgan), and Emergency. But then make cracks at people older than me (in jest of course).

I've always had that mix about me as well and I'm a lot older (born in '69.)

I recall all those shows you mentioned, as they were on the air back when I was a wee one. Hard to believe those shows are now 40+ years old now.

Even funnier . . . or not . . . my all time favorite show turns 50 this year. On September 22, 1964 the first episode of The Man From UNCLE premiered on NBC (The Vulcan Affair)

Now THAT is making me feel older than dirt . . .

[Chromatix]

I can recognise an Outside Stephenson Valve Gear mechanism by sight. Even though such a thing is almost unheard of in the UK. (The trick is to distinguish it from two very similar-looking types of gear - the Gooch and the Allan - not just to notice that it's not the ubiquitous Walschaerts gear.)

But that's probably just me being a railway geek, rather than getting old.

[telecom_goddess]

ON. MY. BIRTHDAY. It really put a damper on things.

I got one better. John Lennon was shot on my 15th birthday.

and btw you are all making me feel old LOL

[Jester]

John Lennon was shot on my 15th birthday.

Which means you are exactly 4.5 years older than me. Ain't math fun?

[AccountingDrone]

I can recognise an Outside Stephenson Valve Gear mechanism by sight. Even though such a thing is almost unheard of in the UK. (The trick is to distinguish it from two very similar-looking types of gear - the Gooch and the Allan - not just to notice that it's not the ubiquitous Walschaerts gear.)

But that's probably just me being a railway geek, rather than getting old.

I can use babbitt to cast bearings in place ... and use a NON-CAD CAM lathe, mill and other archaic machine equipment.

[telecom_goddess]

Which means you are exactly 4.5 years older than me. Ain't math fun?

OH yeah LOADS

[IvorTangrean]

I recently found an old watch of mine, and realized it is older than my wife's sister.

[ADeMartino]

Oh yes :-)

I didn't get to see Armstrong's 'giant leap for mankind'. But I WAS privileged to watch the launch. We were probably about a mile away, and folks, I gotta tell ya, it was absolutely the most incredible thing I've born witness to. I was only five at the time, but even today, I've yet to see anything more impressive.

You didn't just hear it, you FELT it. This incredible roar, like the thunder of a violent storm, only it was continuous, with an odd popping and crackling. The huge amounts of flame and smoke, and the sight of that big rocket lifting off and climbing into the sky... It made quite an impression on a certain five-year-old, who scarcely knew there WERE such things as rockets.

I read recently that NASA couldn't mount a moon-landing mission today without a significant lead time. The hardware used in the early Apollo missions is all hideously obsolete and many of the suppliers and manufacturers are long gone. They'd have to engineer all new systems, practically from scratch, even assuming they DID use a Saturn launch vehicle.

It's also sobering to think that there's more data-processing capability on your desk today than was used to fly that mission.

Those astronauts had balls, yes they did.

[Jester]

Speaking of launches, my niece, her boyfriend, and I are planning on attending the first Orion test launch in December. I will try to get other friends to join me on my road trip up there. And I will be driving, not flying, so if the launch is scrubbed and/or rescheduled, I won't be out a plane ticket, and can reschedule appropriately.

Anyone up for joining us? Current schedule for the first Orion test launch: December 4, just after 8 am.

It's also sobering to think that there's more data-processing capability on your desk today than was used to fly that mission.

Correction: there is actually more data-processing ability and more technology in a single smart phone than there was on any single Mercury, Gemini, or Apollo mission.

[cindybubbles]

When I was a kid, we had:

- Computers that ran on 5 1/4" floppy disks, and yes, the OS was loaded on that floppy disk!
- BASIC (remember GO TO 10?)
- Brick-like phones like Zack Morris's from Saved By The Bell.
- Recorded memories on cassette tapes and, later, VHS tapes.
- Mix tapes, anyone?
- Standard-definition TVs without remotes. Some were black-and-white and most had the dial instead of buttons on the set!
- Songs from LPs that we recorded on tape because LPs were too darn big to carry around!
- Saturday morning cartoons that almost all networks broadcast, because we didn't have specialty channels or the Internet then.

[wolfie]

When I was a kid, we had:

- Computers that ran on 5 1/4" floppy disks, and yes, the OS was loaded on that floppy disk!
- Brick-like phones like Zack Morris's from Saved By The Bell.

Didn't have those when I was a kid - the upgrade from cassette to floppy happened when I was in my teens, and I was already an adult when the first cellphones were introduced.

[Chromatix]

The computers in *my* youth had the OS in ROM - no disk needed. It also meant they booted up almost instantly.

In fact, that's still a minor selling point of computers designed specifically for RiscOS, which can be consdiered a fairly direct descendant of the old BBC Micro.

[Shannarah]

In the department store changing rooms (Whatever lighting they put in them is diabolical) and seeing all the grey hairs shine up, and realizing that I am about to turn 36..... and that number still seems to me to be too old - I dont feel 36 yet

Even better - just remembered.
Served a schoolkid that worked at our store, I hadn't seen her for a while as she has gone off to university.
In the conversation she mentioned that it was her first day of school that day....... as a newly qualified schoolteacher

[Jester]

Shannarah, hush, you. I'm 44 and still can't believe I'm 40, let alone that I've been in my 40s for 4+ years now.

That being said, I may be the only person around who's going to be looking forward to my 49th birthday. Not 50th, 49th. Why? Well, my father died at 48. I'm sure y'all can do the math.