You know you're getting old when...

[LadyAndreca]

Here I was thinking it was scary that my youngest brother didn't know you used to have to lick stamps...he turns 20 this year, too!

[Becks]

Small Wonder

I remember that show!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Small Wonder (anyone remember how bad that one was?)

I used to watch that show on Saturday mornings.

Guess I was too young then to see how much of a pile of sitcom fail it was.

[AccountingDrone]

Parking a drive...Yes, that too. I once had a real....ACTUAL...8-inch floppy disk in my room that I absconded with from the "storage lockerre of really olde shitte" at a former place of employment.

if you really want ancient, I have a Wang Archiver you can have ... I think it is still in the barn =)

[jiarby]

I guess I'm old....

My first console video game was PONG. It was a console that just played PONG. (1977 or so).

My 1st handheld game was Mattel's "Electronic Football". The white one, no passing... that was v2, the green one. I still have it buried in the closet somewhere. Bleep Bleep...My Turn!!

My 1st cell phone came in a shoulder bag with a coiled cord that connected the handset to the battery pack. 3 watts of power baby. I'll probably get hip cancer. $.50/minute. This was 1993 or so.

In addition to the cell phone I had a pager. No one had cell phone #'s. Everyone had pager numbers.

I liked Battlestar Galactica.... when Starbuck was a dude.

Super Golden Crisps Cereal was known as SUGAR Crisps. Corn Pops Cereal was called SUGAR Pops. There was only ONE kind of Cheerios.

Our TV was made of wood... REAL wood. It was a piece of furniture with upholstered speakers and feet that were turned on a lathe. It was made in the USA by Curtis Mathes.

We were the first folks I knew that had a microwave oven. It was BIG, stainless steel, and glass. The control was a dial knob. (no digital display at all) This was in 1976. We still have this microwave, well, technically a "Radar Range" by Amana. We used it to reheat coffee and nuke baked potatoes for dinner.

I watched the first moon landing on TV.... LIVE.

The first digital camera we used was made by Apple Computer. It only took black & white pictures. It saved them on a 3.5" floppy disk. You remember those, right... 1.44mb. It cost about $1000

I remember how disappointed I was when I first saw a Pentium computer running Windows 3.11. It still had an hour glass icon. I thought it would be SO fast that you would never wait for anything.

I know the difference between an SX, DX, and <gasp> MMX branded computer processor. (Intel)

My first computer had no internal storage. You could save data on a cassette tape. (Commodore 64). I used it to connect to Compuserve, which charged by the minute of connection time.

I later upgraded to a 386sx16 w/ 1mb Ram & a 40mb HDD. I later bought an extra mb of RAM (cost $114) to get to 2mb so I could install Windows.

My 1st version of MS Office came on 25 floppy disks.

I have used a NeXT PC built by Steve Jobs when he GOT FIRED by Apple Computer.

I saw Jesus Christ Superstar at the Movie Theater when it opened.

I remember listening to Nixon resign on the radio.

I have a Reagan/Bush bumper sticker. (the FATHER Bush, of course)

Animaniacs?! Pahleez! The best cartoons by a mile are Foghorn Leghorn, Bugs Bunny, Roadrunner & Coyote.

When I was a kid my first lunch box was Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp. It was one of those metal square ones with the GLASS thermos that broke the 1st day.

When I was a kid it was shocking for a black man to be sheriff. (Cleavon Little) Now the President of the United States is a black man.

[The Last to Know]

We were the first folks I knew that had a microwave oven. It was BIG, stainless steel, and glass. The control was a dial knob. (no digital display at all) This was in 1976. We still have this microwave, well, technically a "Radar Range" by Amana. We used it to reheat coffee and nuke baked potatoes for dinner.

I think I still have & use on a daily basis the same exact microwave. My oldest child will be 19 in four days & a lady who I used to work with gave it to me when I moved into my first townhouse while I was pregnant with him - she had it for about 6 years before she gave it to me in a beach house she used to own. It has no digital anything & I have to use my finger to turn the dial because the piece that used to turn the dial got lost 15 or some years ago, but it still works like a charm & until it fails - I won't get rid of it.

I watched the first moon landing on TV.... LIVE.

I was born in August of 1969 - so I think I was here, but doubt I watched it.

(my attempt at quoting didn't work - oh well)

[EricKei]

My first console video game was PONG. It was a console that just played PONG. (1977 or so).

Super Golden Crisps Cereal was known as SUGAR Crisps. Corn Pops Cereal was called SUGAR Pops. There was only ONE kind of Cheerios.

Our TV was made of wood... REAL wood. It was a piece of furniture with upholstered speakers and feet that were turned on a lathe. It was made in the USA by Curtis Mathes.

I know the difference between an SX, DX, and <gasp> MMX branded computer processor. (Intel)

My first computer had no internal storage. You could save data on a cassette tape. (Commodore 64). I used it to connect to Compuserve, which charged by the minute of connection time.

My 1st version of MS Office came on 25 floppy disks.

Animaniacs?! Pahleez! The best cartoons by a mile are Foghorn Leghorn, Bugs Bunny, Roadrunner & Coyote.

Dammit, you're winning so far ^_^

Never had the priveledge of playing the PONG unit. I did, however, convince a teacher to let me do a report in 6th grade on Nolan Bushnell.

Sugar xxxx -- I wonder if they're in denial, or if they think we're just THAT stup-....Silly me. Forget I asked.


We had a "wooden cabinet: TV when I was younger as well. I always loved those blasted things.

My first comps were a C64 (with the Fast Load cartridge ([C=] + [RunStop], Pitfall! 2, M.U.L.E., and Raid Over Moscow (which didn't work with FastLoad)) and a TI-99 4/a. Taught myself BASIC on those. Ugh. But fun! I was so stoked when I got the blazing fast DX4-99mhz computer and WIn3.11. I still have the floppies for windows, word, ami pro....

And I agree wholeheartedly on Bugs and the boys. Good luck finding them uncensored nowadays. I remember one of the more absurd edits -- a scene in which Elmer was "chasing" a baseball around by shooting it. They edited out the shots, so it would just appear to pop up for no apparent reason as a GUY WITH A SHOTGUN CHASED AFTER IT!

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Damn, I remember those C64's, too. Was visiting relatives who showed me how to load a program, with the old AUDIO tape drives.

Used to love the old "Battlestar Galactica", even got to see the movie in the theatre. I was also a big fan of the "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" series (heck, I picked up the complete series on DVD last year! ).

I saw "Star Wars" when it came out. I walked to the theatre with my brother and his friends... jeez, that old theatre had coin-operated drink dispensers in the lobby!

We had one of those cabinet-style audio systems, wooden with the flip top that hid the record turntable and 8-track player, along with the radio controls.

Oh, and I remember one more thing from my childhood... LAWN DARTS!

[Geek King]

ISuper Golden Crisps Cereal was known as SUGAR Crisps. Corn Pops Cereal was called SUGAR Pops. There was only ONE kind of Cheerios.

Not as old, but:

I remember when it was Super Sugar Crisp, which was better.

Because, you know, it was super.

We also had a huge wooden stereo that was bigger than the TV, and needed the big quartz marble that you could replace. Tubes man, f***in' tuuubes!

[Pagan]

My 1st handheld game was Mattel's "Electronic Football".

How 'bout Merlin?

I liked Battlestar Galactica.... when Starbuck was a dude.

When he was a dude! I'm still mad that they left him stranded on the planet with only a Cylon for company....and I'm not counting what they did in that travesty known as "Galactica 1980"!

I was born in August of 1969 - so I think I was here, but doubt I watched it.

You probably "saw" it like I did....by osmosis. I was tap dancing on my mom's bladder and elbowing her at the time.

[protege]

My first comps were a C64 (with the Fast Load cartridge ([C=] + [RunStop], Pitfall! 2, M.U.L.E., and Raid Over Moscow (which didn't work with FastLoad)) and a TI-99 4/a. Taught myself BASIC on those. Ugh. But fun! I was so stoked when I got the blazing fast DX4-99mhz computer and WIn3.11. I still have the floppies for windows, word, ami pro....

My first was a TI 99-4/A. It's still around, but not used much. It, along with its buddies, games, and tape recorder...are hanging out in my basement. After that, we had an Apple III to play with. That thing would run not only the Apple II software, but DOS as well. We also had some Xerox floppy-based terminals. Those were actually at my father's office when he had his ad agency. 8" floppies, no hard drive, monochrome monitor, daisy-wheel printer, and a cost of a new car today. Hard to believe that the first PC (a 286 clone of some sort) we had seemed like a revelation. Of course the 486SX/33 I got in 1993 blew it away

BTW, does anyone remember the various versions of "Adventure?"

And I agree wholeheartedly on Bugs and the boys. Good luck finding them uncensored nowadays.

There are many, many Bugs shows that can't be shown now. Considering when they were made it's not surprising. Several made fun of Hitler, black people, the Japanese, etc. all of which is considered taboo now. Still, I'd rather see them, than have them "disappear," because of content.

[jiarby]

How 'bout Merlin?

Was that the round thing with 4 colored buttons that you had to hit in order?? If so, we had that one too... I think they still sell them too. My brother had some kind of whiz quiz hand held game that he liked.

You probably "saw" it like I did....by osmosis. I was tap dancing on my mom's bladder and elbowing her at the time.

No, I was a real flesh in the blood human being.... almost 44yo now. My bday is also in August like the other poster.

[EricKei]

jiarby - that would be Simon.

protege - I am aware of the "Censored Eleven" (look up the term on wikipedia if you're interested); I was referring more to things like my example above, where some episodes were edited down for inexplicable reasons like the one above. In elmer's case, in particular, they edited out his shooting of a baseballl, but not his shooting of a fellow "living" toon (Daffy)...

[jiarby]

Yep... Simon was it!

After Googling "Merlin Game" I think my brother had it. He's 18mos younger than me.

[Andara Bledin]

I was referring more to things like my example above, where some episodes were edited down for inexplicable reasons like the one above. In elmer's case, in particular, they edited out his shooting of a baseballl, but not his shooting of a fellow "living" toon (Daffy)...

They cut the most bizarre things, sometimes.

Back to reminiscing:

I remember getting up early on Saturday mornings to catch the reruns of Speed Racer on PBS, followed by my brother and me sharing our single copy of Picture Pages while watching Captain Kangaroo.

You know Picture Pages rocked, if my brother and I were willing to share a single copy of the book without trying to kill each other.

^-.-^