# Grandpa, what does "wind up a watch" mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 20, 2005, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080 "2005-10-20T14:42:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/221 "2005-12-23T02:44:16Z")
What annoys me the most in this thread is that few posters mentionned stuff I’m unfamiliar with… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/222 "2005-12-23T04:38:25Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > What annoys me the most in this thread is that few posters mentionned stuff I’m unfamiliar with… ☹ Welcome to the club, mate. Sign here, then pick up your hearing aid in the back 🙂 ---
**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:** [December 23, 2005, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/223 "2005-12-23T05:04:23Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Ahem…and…err…They aren’t powered that way anymore?? Nah, now they all use rechargable batteries. You _might_ go out of your way to find a rare dynamo-driven light if you’re a hippie, but in most cases even hippies will opt for a solar-powered recharger over a crappy light that makes you work harder and goes out when you stop. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/224 "2005-12-23T06:04:14Z")
“If you got the dime, I’ve got the time.” We’ve had several threads through the years asking, “What are the Beach Boys singing about in ‘Little Deuce Coupe’?” > [@](#): > > She’s ported and relieved and she’s stroked and bored. She purrs like a kitten 'til the lake pipes roar. I’d put money down that every sixteen year old guy in 1965 either knew the technical details of what they were singing about or tried to fake it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/225 "2005-12-23T07:12:48Z")
> [@bluethree](#): > > A secretary-receptionist friend of mine, early in her career, was required to take the boss’s hat out to get it blocked. And then have her pick up a stack of $100 bills at the bank so the fat cat could light his cigars, no doubt. I’m reminded of a Looney Toons cartoon in which Elmer Fudd babysits his boss’s dog. Do employers still expect their employees to run their errands for them? If my boss told me to do something like this I’d ask him if he was drunk. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/226 "2005-12-23T09:20:17Z")
> [@The Tooth](#): > > If my boss told me to do something like this I’d ask him if he was drunk. In my first job, 20 years ago, my boss used to send me out to buy his cigarettes, which he’d naturally smoke in the office. These days I could probably sue him for something. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/227 "2005-12-23T10:20:08Z")
Eh. Did we do “smoking in the office” already? A mere 25 years ago, no-one thought anything of it. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/228 "2005-12-23T16:31:28Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > I used to do this. The store I worked in still used the really old-fashioned stampers! I got pretty good with the [Monarch pricing gun](http://www.smartresolution.com/print_services/retail/pricing_detail.asp?p=45910). Funny you mention that gun. I was in a store recently, and saw a stockboy failing miserably at loading his with a new reel of price tape. I asked if I could help, and in about 5 seconds had run through a procedure that, though I’ve done 1000s of times, hadn’t done in about 10 years. If I still had on my vintage 1988 pocket pants, it would have automatically dropped into the open thigh pocket! The manager, who saw me helping, came by later in my shopping with a $10 gift card and a “thanks!”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/229 "2005-12-23T16:38:13Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Eh. Did we do “smoking in the office” already? A mere 25 years ago, no-one thought anything of it. I bought a wine making kit which came with a DVD. The DVD had both the instructions for making wine, plus a tour of the facilities in Italy. I was jolted during the intros to various staffers that they were pictured at their desk smokin’ away - yellow stains up the side of their monitor. The magnitude of the jolt emphasised how much time has passed… alas. How long before “Grandpa, what’s an ashtray?” ---
**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:** [December 23, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/230 "2005-12-23T19:41:44Z")
> [@butler1850](#): > > The manager, who saw me helping, came by later in my shopping with a $10 gift card and a “thanks!”. Oh dear. I hope he didn’t beat the stockboy _too_ badly. ---
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/231 "2005-12-23T20:29:39Z")
I’ve got one, but you’ve gotta “wait 'til I finish my Saratoga” W\*\*\* AM has now concluded its broadcast day. You may use your FM converter to tune to W\*\*\* FM. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/232 "2005-12-23T23:01:47Z")
> [@Nature's Call](#): > > - wind up a watch > - refill the inkwell, replace the blotter > - adjust the rabbit ears > - “dial” the telephone > - driving goggles > - wait for the vaccuum tubes to warm up > - insert Disk 47 into drive A: I asked The Lady Lion for a specific wind up (not self winding) watch for Christmas. I have a really nice fountain pen but I admit I use cartridge ink. I haven’t used my calligraphy pens in a while. No driving goggles and no more PCs even with a floppy drive but I am hankering for a Mesa-Boogie tube amp. My sig used to be “You know you’re old when you say E-ticket ride and people think you purchased airfare online.” And yes, I have ridden E-ticket rides. As a lark I bought one of the Atari flashback systems. I’m going to tell my stepson that it’s just like an X-box 360 but better. Curiously it has a switch for color or B&W television output. ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/233 "2005-12-24T02:42:08Z")
How about red roll caps that you hit with a hammer. If you were feeling exceptionally daring you’d hit the whole roll at once. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/234 "2005-12-24T04:20:09Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > how many techie people still talk of an overload as “pegging out the meter” > (as in audio geeks recording on reel-to-reel tapes, or car mechanics looking at the tachometer. ) How many techs tweak pots these days? A decade ago I thought that I was pretty good at tuning servos. I remember being told in 1995 that the next generation of semiconductor manufacturing equipment would be self-tuning. I thought that my career was over. ---
**Author:** ![eponymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e0b2c6/32.png) [@eponymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eponymous)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/235 "2005-12-24T06:00:51Z")
Oh, man, am I getting old… Computer punch-cards Gas station attendants (I know a couple of states still have them…) Carbon paper (went hand-in-hand with mimeograph machines - just the thought of the smell brings back memories) Daisy-wheel printers Both a morning edition and an evening edition newspaper Keds tennis shoes (do they even make Keds anymore)? Hard contact lenses ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/236 "2005-12-24T06:49:57Z")
“So let me get this straight. You actually had to _lick_ stamps before you could put them on envelopes?” Not only were there no laws requiring you to wear seat belts, but the first family car I remember (a 1959 Chevrolet station wagon) didn’t even have belts as standard equipment. **Long Time First Time** remembers her father having to take his circa 1948 auto (it was about 15 years old by then) to the dealer to get turn signals installed. And I’m sure **Dopers** of “a certain age” will nod with recognition when I mention [wing windows](http://www.postnewsads.com/budwells/viewarticles.asp?articleID=252). As for you younger folks, you can check out an example [here](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.1motormart.com/gallery/67chvy01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.1motormart.com/galleryc.htm&h=480&w=640&sz=63&tbnid=9fCSMpMeC8EJ:&tbnh=101&tbnw=135&hl=en&start=10&prev=/images%3Fq%3D1967%2BChevrolet%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26c2coff%3D1%26sa%3DG) (it’s that triangular panel ahead of the rolled-down front window). ---
**Author:** ![Whifton\_Polekitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/97f17d/32.png) [@Whifton\_Polekitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whifton_Polekitty)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/237 "2005-12-24T08:53:21Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Eh. Did we do “smoking in the office” already? A mere 25 years ago, no-one thought anything of it. I’m always vaguely disappointed by the smells of student lounges now. When I was a mere 6 or 7, my father was in graduate school at Pitt. My mother and I would go into town (we lived in Monroeville at the time) to pick him up, and I remember waiting in the student lounge of some building whose name I’ve since forgotten. Huge puffy burnt-orange vinyl chairs with burn holes in 'em… The smell of vending machine hot chocolate, coffee, and a thick layer of cigarette smoke I have rarely smelled since, and I’m sure not within the last 10 years. Speaking of which. Cigarette vending machines. Do these exist any more? Squat rectangles of spare design, twent-thirty dirty plastic buttons in a row on the top, a pull-knob and a lever at the bottom labeled “PULL FOR MATCHES”? ---
**Author:** ![MrJackboots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/238 "2005-12-25T07:34:30Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > The acoustic coupler. Acoustic couplers still exist, incidentally, though they’re finally dying off thanks to in-house ethernet at hotels and the like. Hotels tend to have their own phone systems, which can/could damage modems, so you used a coupler to pass all the signals through the provided phone. You can still buy 115 cartridge film, too, though usually you have to go to a devoted camera store for it (and not some half-assed place like Ritz’s or whatnot). ---
**Author:** ![Corrvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@Corrvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corrvin)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/239 "2005-12-25T10:46:35Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > And I’m sure **Dopers** of “a certain age” will nod with recognition when I mention [wing windows](http://www.postnewsads.com/budwells/viewarticles.asp?articleID=252). “A certain age” is 31? Also, “It’s your nickel” is a somewhat common facetious phone greeting chez Corrvin. In my previous incarnation as a tech phone monkey, I frequently had to explain what “touch-tone phone service” was. We have pictures from when my husband and I moved cross-country-- we saw a sign in a convenience store for cigarettes, “Low low price $1.29!” (generics) and nearly wet ourselves laughing over it, so we took a picture to preserve it for posterity. At the time, generic cigarettes were under a dollar a pack in Oklahoma. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080/240 "2005-12-25T11:10:45Z")
> [@Corrvin](#): > > “A certain age” is 31? I agree with this sentiment. It does appear that some Dopers in this thread are overestimating the age of certain items, or underestimating the knowledge of younger Dopers (I’m 35 for the record, which I suppose is very average for these boards). You can always find a twenty year-old who can’t dial a phone or doesn’t know how to play a record, but I’d say they’re in the minority. Take “wing windows” for example. They didn’t go out until the late 70s, and if you stand on a busy road for half an hour in 2005, you’ll see at least one car with them. I spent my childhood, not only with the cultural input of me peers, but also that of parents and older relatives (and ancient movies on TV). I know about old-timey bakelite telephones, hand-cranked cars, steal locomotives, etc, despite not having seen them in day-to-day use. All kids did, and I’m sure kids today know about lots of 70s and 80s stuff, even if it’s just what they’ve been told by others. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-what-does-wind-up-a-watch-mean/327080.md?page=13)