In my 2000 minivan, they ARE labelled as power outlets. The cigarette lighter itself was optional, so I never had one in that car at all. The “ashtray” is a convenient storage area for change and my YMCA card.
When my daughter (now 14yo) was about 3, she asked me what my favorite video had been when I was her age. I explained that we didn’t have videos then. So then she asked what my favorite computer game had been instead. Again, I explained that computers hadn’t really been invented yet, either. She honestly felt SO sad for me, because she was convinced I must have been absolutely bored all the time. I explained that we did get three B/W channels on TV, and that we had lots of 45s with kids’ music to dance to, but that we mostly played with toys that didn’t beep or talk or answer your questions or…
I do, though, make popcorn on the stove. I can’t remember the last time I had microwave popcorn.
Other additions to the list…
Shake the thermometer down before you put it in your mouth.
Bookmark your place. (As in, put a marker in your book, rather than saving a website address)
fruits and vegetables “out of season”
Playing solitaire with playing cards.
Getting photos developed. (It exists, but it’s getting rarer.)
Watching a film at school and waking up only when you hear the “whip whip” sound of the film coming off the reel at the end of the film.
The reference to Clip Art made me think of “cutting and pasting.” It’s a term I use nearly every day, but who else remembers actually doing it–with scissors and a pot of thick, gluey white stuff spread with a little plastic spatula?
When I was young, one had to pay extra to have letters sent by “airmail.” One received such letters with the words “via airmail” stamped on the envelope. If one were a little snooty, one could purchase envelopes with the words “par avion” stamped on them. Letters sent by “air mail” were usually written on onion skin paper as the cost of postage was based on weight. I haven’t seen a distiction between air mail and regular mail in years; that was the basis of my post.
I graduated in '77, our HS still had just the handcranked and nothing was ever Xeroxed. Maybe they had one and used it for office stuff, but we all had the mimeographed stuff for tests and handouts.
It was a special treat to get to go “run off the tests” for the teacher. You got to hang out in the office and handcrank out those 30 or 40 tests. And some of us even got to type them up in the office classes on that special master copy paper thing.
Remember how everyone used to pick them up and smell them after they’d been freshly run off and handed out?
I have gotten to the point where I can handle the stupidity of handing me the bills and rcpt and change on top, but what drives me nuts is when they, with their other hand, hold out your sack to you.
I’m juggling a purse, the handfull of bills and change sliding around on my palm, and now they want me to hurry up and take my bag and get out of their way?
Ummm No. I sweetly take the bag, say “thank you” and then put it down, and put all of my stuff away in my purse and wallet the way it belongs, and THEN and ONLY then do I pick up my bag and leave their window.
Sorry, I’m not going to cram all my stuff into a pocket or into the mian compartment of my purse, possibly losing it just for your convenience.
Same thing at the drive through. They hand you your drink and your change, all slippery coins on top of the bills, at the same time. I smile sweetly and take the change, put it away, and THEN I turn around and take the drink.
All these years, I’ve wondered why I had so much trouble getting my mostly college aged aqua aerobics students to run clockwise and counterclockwise in a circle for their warm-ups. It’s always a trainwreck until they look up and see which direction I’m demonstrating on deck…
Most of the McClerks I run into will hand us the bag of food and two drinks – with NO DRINK CARRIER. How in THE FUCK am I supposed to keep two drinks from spilling all over the place…while I’m gathering fallen change and fumbling with a bag that is usually too small for the amount of food in it? Next time they ask me if I want fries with that, I should say, “No, but I’ll take a small customer service and a side order of common sense, please.”
Y’all need to come down here and eat at a Sonics Drive In, which are flourishing.
Pull up, park diagonally, place your order, and a waitress brings it out to your car (I’ve seen them with and without roller skates).
It is the place to go in Texas when you get a late-evening hankerin’ for some chili, ranch-dressing, and cheese covered tater tots (heart attack $0.25 extra).
ahem At least to my generation, “old-fashioned” cash registers are the 80’s-style: big beige-y boxes, big clunky buttons usually programmed for a certain item/category/etc. Modern ones are pretty much all touch-screens.
Another stupid question: I’ve heard endlessly about how kids of generations past used to put cards on the spokes of their bikes. I can’t for the life of me picture how you did this, nor imagine why - so, how and why?
I did it once. I think I jammed it between the spokes and the gears. It was supposed to make a motorcycle sound or something. Maybe I didn’t use a thick enough card (I believe it was a promo card from a pack of baseball cards) but it didn’t work worth squat.
Attach, for instance, a spring clothes pin* to the fork, and stick a playing card in the pincer end of the clothes pin, with one end of the card sticking between the spokes. (All we could afford were the two of spades and two of clubs, but we were happy to have them.) The fast thwap, thwap, thwap of the card against the spokes approximated the sound of an engine, at least in the mind of a child. (But some wiseacre “big kid” would spoil it by telling us the wheel would fall apart because the card would loosen the spokes.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen these on sale recently…and this was lying on my desk when reading this thread. I should’ve made clear I was talking about international mail, where the distinction is still there (British example). I suppose ebaying outside of the US means more familiarity with such options - when I’ve bought vinyl from America, I’ve gone for the significantly-slower surface mail which really does take many weeks. And Ebay’s UK site has a whole range of options for sellers to set these various international postage rates. So no, airmail ain’t dead - but I’m wondering, was it once an option when sending mail within the US?
Well, something like two or one-day mail will almost always have to go by air, especially if we’re talking NY to LA type distances. Frankly, though, I’ve never thought about it for a normal first-class mailing.
You got to hang out in the office and handcrank out those 30 or 40 tests. And some of us even got to type them up in the office classes on that special master copy paper thing.