# Am I that old? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 10, 2001, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705 "2001-09-10T16:52:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/21 "2001-09-11T01:23:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Reeder \* > **Professional sports was played mainly for the love of the game.** [crotchety old man] Do I need to remind you whippersnappers of the Black Sox? Do I? Joe was guilty as sin! GUILTY! ::koff koff:: Where am I? What day is it? WHERE’S MY MATLOCK! [/crotchety old man] 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/22 "2001-09-11T01:32:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Reeder \* > \*\*When I was born… > > **If you wanted to watch a tv show again… > you were s**\* out of luck\*\* \*\* We were talking about this very thing over the weekend, and got on the subject of how we ever got along without the new technology. (VCRs, microwaves, answering machines, cell phones, etc.) Ever make fun of someone for having one of those “new-fangled” answering machines? Is so, you’re **old**. Just who the hell did they think were? Do they think they are that important? He’s not a doctor; why on earth would he need one of those things? Having a **machine** answer the phone…well, I never… ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/23 "2001-09-11T01:39:04Z")
Kinsey… When I was born…they didn’t even have **repeats**. ---
**Author:** ![Medea\_s\_Child](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Medea\_s\_Child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Medea_s_Child)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/24 "2001-09-11T02:02:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Swede Hollow \* > \*\*Another thing to add to the list. These people have probably never actually heard a phone RING. Beep, yes. Chirp, sure. But ring? \*\* Daily, the guys upstairs have a ringing phone. An actual mechanical ringing phone. And the phone that i dismantled, put together without any of the screws, and used in my room until I was 12 was a ringer as well. (The movers picked it up and it fell apart, being simply a grouping of parts that looked and worked like a phone, but were not actually attatched to each other.) I don’t know about it helping to encourage profs to think of their students as _that_ ignorant. I know the one prof that gets under my skin this term is one who _knows_ that children have no appreciation for art and literature and constantly reminds us of this loss in our lives. Its condescending and rude. I’d rather be held to a higher standard than forced to a lower. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/25 "2001-09-11T03:18:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Medea’s Child \* > \*\*I’d rather be held to a higher standard than forced to a lower. \*\* There’s hope for us, after all. [Wipes tear from eye.] ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/26 "2001-09-11T03:41:39Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Zenster \* \*\* [QUOTE] …I feel quite fortunate to have lived in a time when: [li] Cars could be started without a key.\*\*[/li][/QUOTE] You mean your family had a car with a _crank_? Good heavens, man, how old _are_ you? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![sdimbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdimbert/32/20204_2.png) [@sdimbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdimbert)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/27 "2001-09-11T05:00:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Medea’s Child \* > \*\*Daily, the guys upstairs have a ringing phone. An actual mechanical ringing phone. And the phone that i dismantled, put together without any of the screws, and used in my room until I was 12 was a ringer as well. (The movers picked it up and it fell apart, being simply a grouping of parts that looked and worked like a phone, but were not actually attatched to each other.) > \*\* **MC** , First of all, I want to tell you that that is funny as hell! Second of all, the English Teacher in me wants to ask how you managed to describe a group of movers so well: “…simply a grouping of parts that looked and worked like a phone, but were not actually attatched to each other.” (watch your misplaced modifiers!) You know, on reconsideration, we red-penners _are_ an annoying bunch, aren’t we? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/28 "2001-09-11T05:13:24Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by sdimbert \* \*\* > [@](#): > > You know, on reconsideration, we red-penners _are_ an annoying bunch, aren’t we? 😃 \*\* What’s a pen? ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/29 "2001-09-11T05:19:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zenster \* > **Quite obviously, you never had to fill out flow charts and bootstrap the whopping 16 Kilobit ferrite core memory of your Wang minicomputer from punched paper tape through a TTY teletype.** You have no idea how _ **cool** _ that is! You are now my idol, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Oh, I was born in 1981. (Early '81! Jan. 3rd to be exact.) Most of the OP’s list doesn’t apply to me, a few of them do. I still have a record-player/8-track player somewhere. And I’ve never watched MTV on purpose. I never had cable until this year at college (it comes with the rent to the apartment I’m staying at). And I know about the styrofoam BigMac containers because somewhere in the State Park where I used to live is buried a special little salamander, whose styrofoam casket shall preserve her forever. ---
**Author:** ![Hazel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Hazel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazel)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/30 "2001-09-11T05:19:47Z")
First, what is or was “tanbark”? (Referred to as a playground item.) Second, re the list in the OP – since Hiroshima, has _any_ generation not been afraid of nuclear war? ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/31 "2001-09-11T05:26:03Z")
**Medea’s Child** , that was a complete scream. What a hoot, the operable telephone as aggregate sculpture! Now I can see why you enjoyed the smiley art thread so much. As with myself, you too have this rather eccentric urge to propel the mundane into the realm of art in a somehow tasteful fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_The\_Younger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d9b06d/32.png) [@Paul\_The\_Younger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_The_Younger)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/32 "2001-09-11T05:29:31Z")
Unfortunately, the list promotes the idea that because you haven’t known through personal experience the items on the list, that you somehow haven’t lived, haven’t learned, haven’t suffered, haven’t really experienced life to its fullest. Kind of narrow-minded, but then again it’s a good chuckle for us old fogies (Paul The Fogie - b. 1968). The phone thing reminded me of something else…and I’ll ask the question here, not make an assumption… How many of you born in the eighties have ever used a rotary dial phone? ( **MC** , I’m betting the one you dismantled was one of those heavy black rotary dial ones from Bell Labs.) You have heard of Bell Labs, right? also… Have you ever used a _manual_ typewriter? Do you remember what you were doing when you heard the shuttle Challenger had exploded? Just curious… ---
**Author:** ![Lux\_Fiat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Lux\_Fiat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lux_Fiat)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/33 "2001-09-11T05:32:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zenster \* > Quite obviously, you never had to fill out flow charts and bootstrap the whopping **16 Kilobit** ferrite **core** memory of your **Wang** minicomputer from **punched paper tape** through a TTY **teletype**. There wasn’t even a monitor to have more snow on than my grandfather had to walk to school through yet. We used an ABACUS! With FIVE BEADS! And they were all RAZOR SHARP! [SUB]Damn kids.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Nefarious\_Chipmunk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nefarious_chipmunk/32/1045_2.png) [@Nefarious\_Chipmunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nefarious_Chipmunk)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/34 "2001-09-11T05:40:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Paul The Younger \* > \*\* > > The phone thing reminded me of something else…and I’ll ask the question here, not make an assumption… > > How many of you born in the eighties have ever used a rotary dial phone? > also… > > Have you ever used a _manual_ typewriter? > > Do you remember what you were doing when you heard the shuttle Challenger had exploded? > > Just curious… \*\* Our neighbor had a rotary phone that I used on occasion. I have a couple of other occasions to use them as well, some of those not too long ago. They used to have manual typewriters at the doctors office that I went to. They were set up along the back wall and meant to be toys for the kids waiting to see the doctor. HOwever, I don’t believe that I have ever actually used one to write on. I don’t remember where I was when I heard about Challenger, but I think that I heard about it from an episode of Punky Brewster, which used to be my favorite TV show. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/35 "2001-09-11T06:08:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hazel \* > **First, what is or was “tanbark”? (Referred to as a playground item.)** Tanbark = Large coarse chunks of redwood bark employed as a ground covering. A source of tannins and tannic acid used in leather tanning, the name transfered into common use in the recreational industry. The bark is semi-soft (between balsa wood and cork), inexpensive, and by its acidity discourages weed growth while giving amazingly painful splinters for the same reason. > [@](#): > > \*\*Second, re the list in the OP – since Hiroshima, has _any_ generation not been afraid of nuclear war? \*\* If it weren’t for the difficulty involved with disposing of the bombs I would almost be willing to argue that our credible nuclear deterrent did its job like nothing else could of. The kleptocracy of the Soviet Communist regime respected one thing only, overwhelming force. Anything less than Mutual Assured Destruction may not have worked against them. Since the 1980’s, those with access to critical information and knowledge of strategy pretty well knew that nuclear war was not going to happen. All that remained was for the Soviet war machine to gut itself trying to copy a technology well beyond its means to reproduce. The American public was led to believe otherwise probably just to whip up domestic military spending. Sadly, we are faced with enormous complications in the disposal and disposition of these surplus weapons. The security of those remaining in less politically stable areas poses a significant risk to the United States. Happily, the threat of anything approaching worldwide nuclear war is rapidly approaching zero, as it should be. Current generations should never have to know the fear of nuclear holocaust. It remains to be seen if nuclear terrorism can be averted as well. ---
**Author:** ![Nefarious\_Chipmunk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nefarious_chipmunk/32/1045_2.png) [@Nefarious\_Chipmunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nefarious_Chipmunk)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/36 "2001-09-11T06:15:56Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Zenster \* \*\* > [@](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > \*\*Second, re the list in the OP – since Hiroshima, has _any_ generation not been afraid of nuclear war? \*\* > > Happily, the threat of anything approaching worldwide nuclear war is rapidly approaching zero, as it should be. Current generations should never have to know the fear of nuclear holocaust. It remains to be seen if nuclear terrorism can be averted as well. \*\* I had an English teacher who told our class that nuclear war WAS going to happen, and that basicaly we were all going to die. Keep in mind that this was in 1994. I don’t know what was wrong with that guy, but he scared the shit out of me. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/37 "2001-09-11T06:16:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Creaky \* > \*\*…You mean your family had a car with a _crank_?..😃 \*\* Many a family’s progress has depended on a crank being handled. However, this has nothing to with cars, merely something else just as transporting. In reality, I was refering to my family’s 1957 Cheverolet station wagon that could be left with the ignition switch unlocked and useable for starting the engine without a key. ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/38 "2001-09-11T06:32:56Z")
[QUOTE] _Originally posted by Zenster_ \*\* > [@](#): > > Many a family’s progress has depended on a crank being handled. However, this has nothing to with cars, merely something else just as transporting.\*\* Hee! Sounded like you were referring to crazy (yet entertaining) uncles and similar Embarrassing Relatives who needed to be kept under wraps… but on second thought, I’m guessing procreation… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Gazoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Gazoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Gazoo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/39 "2001-09-11T14:19:33Z")
\*\* > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zenster \* > Quite obviously, you never had to fill out flow charts and bootstrap the whopping **16 Kilobit** ferrite **core** memory of your **Wang** minicomputer from **punched paper tape** through a TTY **teletype**. Hah! How about having to program DEC PDP-10 by flipping toggle switches to enter an 8 bit character, then starting all over for the next character, etc etc, until you have one simple command entered in - then finding out you made one stupid mistake and starting over again. Then figuring it out by reading the display and deciphering the blinking red lights. When we got a teletype machine, it was considered the greatest thing in the history of the world!!! Next, someone will tell about having to change the tubes manually on their ENIAC!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Gazoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Gazoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Gazoo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2001, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705/40 "2001-09-11T14:37:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lux Fiat \* > [BQUOTE]We used an ABACUS! With FIVE BEADS! And they were all RAZOR SHARP! > > [SUB]Damn kids.[/sub] \*\* Whoa! I knew it was going to get to this level sooner or later. 😃 I used a slide rule in high school - does that count??? I walked backward 3 miles to school in a driving snowstorm with temperatures in the -20 degree area. (Before windchill) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-that-old/80705.md?page=3)