that's not my address

[figgyx]

This was not too sucky but mildly annoying.

I was checking in a walk in guest and she waited until I had typed in all her information to tell me that was not the correct address.

[dalesys]

Lemme guess: The corporate hind end is running Cobol-65 on an emulated IBM 1401 and any change/correction is a tee-total redo from start. You're just grateful that the backspace works on the current line.

[An Haddock]

Lemme guess: The corporate hind end is running Cobol-65 on an emulated IBM 1401 and any change/correction is a tee-total redo from start. You're just grateful that the backspace works on the current line.

Could be using punch-cards, too.





"I am now telling the computer exactly what he can do with the lifetime supply of chocolate."

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Could be using punch-cards, too.





"I am now telling the computer exactly what he can do with the lifetime supply of chocolate."

I vaguely recall using a punch card to record my time way back at my first job in the late 80's.

Of course back then, to process a credit card transaction we had those imprint machines that we used the card on and it imprinted a copy of the card onto the paper. Just place the card on the bottom, the three copy form over the card and slide the handle across. Customer got one copy and we kept the other and threw away the carbon copy that was in between.

Those were the days. And git off my lawn you dang kids.

[notalwaysright]

Arg, flashbacks! Sometimes a customer would tell me the yardage and I would hear wrong.

Them: I'll have three.
Me: Okay, three yards.
Them: *silence*
Me: *measures out three yards* Okay, three yards.
Them: Oh, I wanted three quarters of a yard.
Me: .......

They didn't bother to listen when I repeated it the first time, then waited while I measured out OBVIOUSLY WAY MORE than they wanted. Sometimes they would even confirm "yeah, three" and wait until after I cut the fabric to realize that it was wrong. Honestly people.

[Monterey Jack]

This is akin to customers who will wait until you've bagged half of their order before specifying, "Oh, I wanted those in paper!" Granted, I try to ask before I start how they'd like their order bagged with, "Is plastic okay...?" (we're encouraged to bag orders with plastic unless a customer specifies), but then you get those annoying people yakking on their phone throughout the entire process, and who only deign to acknowledge our existence to complain that the order wasn't bagged to their personal preference.

[morgana]

I vaguely recall using a punch card to record my time way back at my first job in the late 80's.

Those were the days. And git off my lawn you dang kids.

YOU git off MY lawn, ya whippersnapper! I started my office career as a *keypunch operator*, inputting data for the computer (room-sized) onto punch cards.

Jeez, I'm old . . . When did that happen?

[RealUnimportant]

I regularly get people that have no idea how to pronounce their destination for one reason or another. Worst this week was someone that appeared to be allergic to consonants; I struggled for a bit, triple-checked once I thought i'd worked it out, & sent them on their way. They came back sore 4 hours later because it was the wrong destination - it turned out one of the words in the name was superfluous which had led me to decipher the rest of their slurred mess inaccurately. Luckily my colleague was happy to back me up when I said I'd double-checked and the customer had agreed with what I'd sold him. Seriously people, it's hard enough when there's multiple stations with similar or identically sounding names, if you can't make the effort to listen when I read it back then it's not my problem!

[DGoddessChardonnay]

YOU git off MY lawn, ya whippersnapper! I started my office career as a *keypunch operator*, inputting data for the computer (room-sized) onto punch cards.

Jeez, I'm old . . . When did that happen?

I'm 2 years away from 50 now and I'm wondering the same thing.

BTW, I have an extra rocking chair on my front porch if you want to join me. We can sit and watch the young ones walk up the sidewalk talking on their phones and smoking while trying to hold their pants up.

[CyberLurch]

Of course back then, to process a credit card transaction we had those imprint machines that we used the card on and it imprinted a copy of the card onto the paper. Just place the

I remember those! I learned how to use them on my first job in 1979, working as an attendant in a real, honest-to-deity 'service station'. For those too young to remember, that's a gas station which not only had people who would pump your gas for you, clean the windows, and check the oil in your engine, but they also had real mechanics who did actual repairs to your car - brakes, exhaust, tuneups, oil changes, etc.

Our imprinter had six little levers that you used to imprint the transaction amount on the credit card slip. Yes, theoretically, we could process a transaction of up to $9,999.99!

I also remember that we had to look up the CC# in a little paper booklet every time you used that imprinter. If the number appeared in that book, you had to call a phone number on the cover of the book before you could process the transaction. Most often, we'd be told to deny the transaction and and occasionally to 'recover' the card. One time I got a $75 reward for recovering a card. The gentleman I recovered it from was very much the opposite of 'pleased'.

Even after the fully-electronic Verifone came in, the old imprinter was kept under the register as backup.

And punch cards - one place I worked back in 2005 still used them. Yes, the IBM-type with the little holes and everything - a system straight out of the 1970s. Remarkable how far technology has come in just the past few decades.

[Slave to the Phone]

All of you kids get off my sand!

It honestly is amazing to be able to remember how much technology has changed.

I remember party lines.

And how amazing it was a few years later when we could have two phones on the same line so all the grandkids could talk at once to their poor suffering relatives.

I have a phone in my pocket that has more computing power than was available during those exciting years of space exploration. That iconic moon rise picture almost didn't happen because they had to change FILM in their camera while in zero gravity and orbiting the planet faster it turned.

[CyberLurch]

All of you kids get off my sand!
It honestly is amazing to be able to remember how much technology has changed.

Sometimes it's quite amusing, even if it does make me feel antiquated. I recently discovered one of the hazards of dating outside one's traditional age group. The YL in question here is but 26 years old, just half my age. (No comments about that, please!) She was amused and somewhat fascinated by the ancient Magnavox console stereo in my living room - specifically the record changer in action (she'd seen record PLAYERS before, but never a changer) and the honest-to-deity completely functional 8-Track tape player. She was astonished that once upon a time, a 5 inch by 4 inch plastic cartridge only contained about a dozen or so songs, and there was once a time that was considered 'high tech'. And she was inexplicably impressed that I'd managed to hook a Bluetooth receiver to that console so we could easily listen to pretty much anything we want.

Incidentally, much credit to her - she was really groovin to my original-release 1960s double-LP copy of SINATRA AT THE SANDS.

Serious old-meets-new there, folks.

[Nunavut Pants]

Heh...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAHQ-9Fniac

[Pixelated]

Those were the days. And git off my lawn you dang kids.

YOU git off MY lawn, ya whippersnapper! I started my office career as a *keypunch operator*, inputting data for the computer (room-sized) onto punch cards.

Jeez, I'm old . . . When did that happen?

And stop playing that horrible stuff you call "music"! Why, in my day, music was MUSIC, not some loud screechy noise!

I remember those days as well. Once in a VERY rare while, I find one of those little slips of paper among all the crap in my filing cabinet (which, yes, desperately needs an overhaul and a major cull ...)

I remember filling out address labels with a machine that also gave you a bit of a cardio/muscle/coordination workout at the same time: you emptied a drawer of metal (!) address cards into the machine (the addresses were in raised letters/numbers on each card) and as the machine fed each one through, you stamped on a pedal that made the machine drop the card onto the envelope and voila! An addressed envelope! (At some point in the process, I'm not sure where, there was obviously an inkpad involved.)

Pretty sure the buggy whip store was two doors down ...

I remember party lines.

And how amazing it was a few years later when we could have two phones on the same line so all the grandkids could talk at once to their poor suffering relatives.

I have a phone in my pocket that has more computing power than was available during those exciting years of space exploration. That iconic moon rise picture almost didn't happen because they had to change FILM in their camera while in zero gravity and orbiting the planet faster it turned.

I remember party lines, although admittedly not too well ... I think by the time I was really aware of telephones they were largely gone. My grandmother had one, though, at least for a while.

I've heard that about today's cellphones, but never heard the store about the moon rise photo! Wow.

I do remember dealing with film, though. Layout nights at the weekly paper meant going home smelling like a mix of melted wax and photo chemicals. No wonder I never had a social life ...

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I remember party lines, although admittedly not too well ... I think by the time I was really aware of telephones they were largely gone. My grandmother had one, though, at least for a while.

I've heard that about today's cellphones, but never heard the store about the moon rise photo! Wow.

Party lines went out in my area by the late 60's (I was born in '69) but I do recall having to dial 0 for the Operator to either make a long distance call (replaced during the 80's by several long distance companies, which billed your local phone company and it showed up on the monthly bill along with your local services) or to get emergency help (we didn't get 911 until around the late 70's or early 80s.)

Also by the time I came along, not only were the party lines being phased out but also 7 digit dialing was becoming normal, replacing the two letter exchange followed by 4 or 5 digits.

And before cell phones, we had CB radio. My Mom had a base station set up on the back room of our house with at least a 40 or 50 foot antenna grounded and mounted at one corner of the house. She also had one in her 1969 Camaro coupe as well.

So if I couldnt' reach Mom at work, get on the CB and call out for Mama Sunshine. Everybody in town knew of her back then - even most of the local cops (whom she would encounter during the 3 years or so he worked as the assistant manager of a locally owned donut shop.)

Also, 25 foot extension cords on the house phones. Had one on the phone in the kitchen, even though we had 13 phones hooked up throughout every room of the house (even one in the bathroom.) We didn't see a cordless phone come into our house until we moved into our current place and that was over 25 years ago.

Yeesh, I'm getting old.