What do you remember?
By burrito88
@burrito88 (2774)
United States
July 31, 2012 9:44pm CST
I've started a job where I get off work at 6:30 and then have a drive of about an hour and fifteen minutes to get home. Because of the commute time, and getting home later I don't usually feel like cooking so I do a frozen dinner in the microwave. When I pulled the dinner out of the microwave, I suddenly thought back to years ago when they first create frozen dinners. The were called "TV Dinners". The came in an aluminum tray and you had to cook them in the oven. I remember the novelty of the first time we had those for dinner.
Then it made me think of other things, like Jiffy Pop Popcorn. It came in an aluminum pan with a handle. You heated on a stove top burner, moving the pan so the popcorn didn't burn. Both of those were of course, before the days of microwave ovens.
The I thought of TV sets, that used to only have channels 2 through 13. They had tubes that used to burn out and need to be replaced. They also had horizontal and vertical holes that always seemed to go out of whack and need to be adjusted.
Now I'm not old enough to go back to the original electric cars or steam powered cars, but I remember when cars had carburetors that you needed to adjust. You didn't have air conditioning and when you opened the hood, you could see things and fix them yourself. My first car had a small 6 cylinder engine and no power steering, power brakes, (No power anything really), and no air conditioning. You raised the and the engine compartment seemed empty. And that was with a 1969 Chevy Nova (that steered tougher than some trucks).
There used to be other car brands like DeSotos, and Nashes, and Edsels (for a little while at least), not to neglect some strange imports like Opels or Simcas or perhaps English Fords or Vauxhalls. Checker was not only the name for a cab but the name of a car specifically made for use as Taxis. (They were built like tanks.)
I could probably go on but i thought I'd ask what changes can you think of that have happened since you were young?
1 person likes this
6 responses
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
1 Aug 12
I remember we were lucky that we had a tv.
I remember mom was thrilled when she got a transistor radio! (I still remember it had a cute little leather case around it.)
In 1963 my parents had a house built - in it we had TWO telephones (one up stairs and one down) AND we got it built with CABLE installed! (Austin was one of the first cities with cable.) We got it installed in THREE rooms! We only had 1 TV then, but my parents were anticipating!
My folks had a Studebaker, green.
Now, we pretty quickly got cars with ac installed, because my mother hated the Texas summers. Tho, the first car I got to drive did have after factory installed ac.
I do remember TV dinners, but we only tried the Jiffy Pop once, it was a big disappointment as I remember.
When I was a kiddo, Austin only had ONE channel - and when the FCC forced the Johnson's (LBJ) to allow another station in, that's when they got into the cable business.
[It was that simple. Access television in Austin now required just two very obtainable things: a video playback unit and a commitment from the cable company, which locally was the Johnson family-owned Capital Cable.] (excerpted from http://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/1998-06-05/523612/ )
1 person likes this
@burrito88 (2774)
• United States
5 Aug 12
A friend of mine is building his own video game machine. He's a computer geek and is getting access to a lot of the old games. I was never good at Pong, but used to spend time and money on Space Invaders plus some on Donkey Kong. I was working and bought myself an Intellivision and used to have a lot of their games. I think I gave that away.
I do remember that I once had a chance to have my TV hooked up to a rating service which would help determine TV ratings. At the time I had the Intellivision, a VCR, cable TV and I think a TV antenna hooked up to my TV. The installer for the ratings service looked at my set up and couldn't figure out how to install what he needed to so he gave up and left.
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
1 Aug 12
I remember the time when there was only one Danish tv channel. We never argued about the tv, because there was nothing to argue about 
The no remote control and we wanted to adjust the volume we had to walk from the couch to the tv. At that time my grandmother had a black and white tv, but my parents had a colour tv.
I also remember my cassette tapes and my walkman. I loved my tapes and I had many different ones. When I was 14 I got my first record player and I listened my own records and my parents' old records. The phone we had were rotary phones, and there were no cellphones.
I remember the libraries of the past. There was no self-service at all, and the staff did everything for us. There was no internet at that time and it was impossible to make your own reservations or search materials in another library.
In the kitchen we had no electric kettle and no microwave oven. We made tea in an oldfashioned kettle and only used the other oven.
The no remote control and we wanted to adjust the volume we had to walk from the couch to the tv. At that time my grandmother had a black and white tv, but my parents had a colour tv.
I also remember my cassette tapes and my walkman. I loved my tapes and I had many different ones. When I was 14 I got my first record player and I listened my own records and my parents' old records. The phone we had were rotary phones, and there were no cellphones.
I remember the libraries of the past. There was no self-service at all, and the staff did everything for us. There was no internet at that time and it was impossible to make your own reservations or search materials in another library.
In the kitchen we had no electric kettle and no microwave oven. We made tea in an oldfashioned kettle and only used the other oven. @burrito88 (2774)
• United States
5 Aug 12
Living outside New York City, I was lucky or spoiled because we had 7 TV stations BEFORE UHF. Philadelphia had 4. After getting used to cable TV, I spent a year in central Iowa and had to live with 4 TV channels because the apartment complex wasn't wired for cable.
I forgot rotary phones. Phone numbers used to have six digits without the area code, however, the first two digits were supposed to be letters.
I still have the original speakers from my fist good stereo system and I stll have the same tuner. My amplifier was from a kt that I built because it was cheaper that way. One channel used to blow out every three years or so. Finally the frequency of the blows got shorter so I gave up on it and bought a Sony amp. I', in the process of replacing my first TV that I ever bought. I was set up for cable but only 34 channels.
@chum24 (569)
• Philippines
1 Aug 12
i remember 1.my grandmother(shes already die) who always their for me shes the only one who will be there when i really need someone to talk too. 2. my ever first cellphone before it will cost a thousand but now it only cost hundred. 3.playing on the grass with my friends. 4.i always keep my marbles inside my dress so that my sister wont get it.
@burrito88 (2774)
• United States
5 Aug 12
I remember my first calculator. It was an HP-325 that I bought used. I was the third owner. Originally it cost something like $ 425 US and I got it for $ 150. It worked for years.
@teachermay (36)
• United States
1 Aug 12
i remember having slippers to walk to school and wrapping my lunch in banana leaves.
