# I remember when...a trip through the 20th Century **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 13, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575 "2005-01-13T17:52:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/21 "2005-01-13T21:00:54Z")
In no particular order: Commercials for the IBM PC Junior PC, which you had to plug into your TV to use. Did anyone actually ever buy and use one of those? From around 1967, individual bags of chips costing only $.08 at the corner liquor store. Same time, Revelle models cost only a dollar or two. I think a pair of Levis was only $9 or so. From the same time, actually being able to get a buck or so on a couple of cases of bottles. That was a lot of money for a kid back then (see above). Late '80s to early '90s: Videotheque video rental stores. They really had interesting stuff; modern chain stores don’t compare. Dressing up to fly, and flying seeming to be terribly exciting. When I was around 8 to go someplace on a plane was the most exciting thing ever. “Me and Mr. Jones”. For those living in my neighborhood who remember the Java Joe coffeehouse at Brockton and Santa Monica, the Counting Crows CD that contained that song was literally the soundtract of the closing party. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/22 "2005-01-13T21:02:07Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > For those living in my neighborhood who remember the Java Joe coffeehouse at Brockton and Santa Monica, the Counting Crows CD that contained that song was literally the soundtract of the closing party. Umm…that’s sound_track_ of course. ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/23 "2005-01-13T21:35:23Z")
Lyndon Johnson’s funeral. “Houston, we have a problem.” Stories on the news about the Manson Family (I initially thought they were a band.) Creature Features and Svengoolie. Equally regional, Larry Lujack and Li’l Snot-Nosed Tommy, Frasier Thomas, Ray Rayner. “Up your nose with a rubber hose.” Girls having to wear skirts to school. Not being allowed to watch Laugh-In because I was too young. Odyssey. Pong. Intellivision. Space Food Sticks. Walking to the drugstore on the corner to get my Mom a pack of cigarettes - and it was OK, because I had a note. ---
**Author:** ![Craneop2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Craneop2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Craneop2)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/24 "2005-01-13T21:39:14Z")
**Lieu** Wasn’t that big red scar on everyones arm a TB innoculation? I seem to remember we took the Polio vaccine on a sugar cube. I can remember my dad built our first TV from a kit while he was taking a correspondence course on tv and radio repair. We were the first on the block with a TV and everyone came to our house to see Uncle Miltie! I can remember getting to go to the drive-in movie because that was the only place to see the re-plays of all the important boxing matches. I remember my dads best freind coming home from Korea, on crutches. Those were the good old days? Except for technology, nothing really ever does change I reckon. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/25 "2005-01-13T21:54:56Z")
> [@LifeOnWry](#): > > Not being allowed to watch Laugh-In because I was too young. For me, it was _Dallas_. SuperFriends, with the Wonder Twins and the monkey. Getting mad after 12 noon on Saturdays because the cartoons were over. The Iran hostages. The Clarence Thomas hearings. Lt. Col Oliver North Refusing my first ATM card because it would have cost me $10 to get it and $1 every time I used it. Riding in my boyfriend’s new car…a Z28. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/26 "2005-01-13T22:22:47Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > Same time, Revelle models cost only a dollar or two. I remember those models!! In the 70’s, we’d go to Pewaukee Lake in the summers to swim, & Mom would buy me model kits to build. I built a WW2 cruiser, a WW2 Destroyer Escort, a 3 foot long copy of the battleship USS New Jersey, and models of Rodan and King Ghidera. 😃🆒 ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/27 "2005-01-13T22:37:46Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Phys Ed was a class in high school. Is this no longer true? ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/28 "2005-01-13T22:56:13Z")
When the earth’s crust cooled and solidified the continental drift learning how to make fire ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/29 "2005-01-13T23:05:59Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > Commercials for the IBM PC Junior PC, which you had to plug into your TV to use. > > Did anyone actually ever buy and use one of those? Radio Shack sold them as the Tandy 1000. I bought one, not knowing what it really was. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/30 "2005-01-13T23:33:45Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Refusing my first ATM card because it would have cost me $10 to get it and $1 every time I used it. > > . That would have been your zeroth ATM card, not your first. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/31 "2005-01-13T23:53:39Z")
Comic books for fifteen cents. Mel Brooks was funny. 😛 “The 21st century” was synonomous with a Jetsons type high-tech future. Someday people would watch flat screen TVs, there’d be a tunnel under the English Channel, and everything would be run by computers. (But where’s my moonbase??) If you had only bills and no change, you couldn’t get anything from a vending machine. Halloween was a lighthearted children’s holiday. As late as 1970 the midsized city of Savannah GA (where I lived as a child) had no ABC affiliate tv station. A “filling station” was a place where you bought gasoline for your car. Maybe cigarettes or a candy bar too, but that was it. A serviceman pumped it for you and might also check your oil, clean your windshield, or add air to your tires. Schools still had an actual piece of flat polished black slate as the chalkboard. You went downtown to go shopping. Ice cream was the generic stuff sold by the quart in supermarkets. Premium ice cream like Hagen-Daz didn’t appear until the late 1970s. The microwave oven became a big success. Garbage compacters didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Agonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@Agonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agonist)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/32 "2005-01-13T23:53:58Z")
> [@Craneop2](#): > > **Lieu** Wasn’t that big red scar on everyones arm a TB innoculation? I seem to remember we took the Polio vaccine on a sugar cube. That’s a Smallpox vaccination. And if you were born after 1970 you don’t have one. (I know because I was one of the last.) ---
**Author:** ![Agonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@Agonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agonist)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/33 "2005-01-13T23:56:26Z")
> [@Agonist](#): > > That’s a Smallpox vaccination. And if you were born after 1970 you don’t have one. (I know because I was one of the last.) :smack: I mean the scar on your \*arm \* is a smallpox vaccination. Sorry to be unclear, there. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/34 "2005-01-14T00:14:15Z")
I remember the days when household objects didn’t vibrate randomly (toothbrushes, razor blades, phones etc. ). Those were the days. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/35 "2005-01-14T00:20:33Z")
I remember when my grandfather got his first microwave and my mother told my father he was crazy. After all, everyone knew that all those things were good for was causing poodles to explode. Of course a few years later we got one. Speaking of poodles, I remember when MTV first aired and my sister fell in love with half the rock stars she saw on the channel. This caused an argument between my sister and her friend, who apparently had said that if Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran were a dog, he’d be a poodle. I remember smallpox shots and having the mumps because there was no shot for it. I remember collecting for the March of Dimes–wasn’t their campaign by the 70’s “Help stamp out birth defects!” or something of that nature? In my church youth group we also collected for UNICEF. Some people wouldn’t donate because they believed it was a communist front group. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/36 "2005-01-14T01:38:56Z")
> [@Agonist](#): > > That’s a Smallpox vaccination. And if you were born after 1970 you don’t have one. (I know because I was one of the last.) I was born in 1967 and I don’t have one. 😕 To continue… Debating in science class the metric system, and how easy it would be for everyone when the US switched over. Going over to my friend’s house to play this cool game called Pong on her Atari. Flying with my mother and sitting in the no-smoking section of the plane. **E. Thorp** , in my kids’ school, PE is not a “class.” The high school students are required to sign up for an extracurricular sport, but there is no daily dress-out for PE. It could be different in other parts of the country. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/37 "2005-01-14T01:57:16Z")
Skylab. We lived in Flint, MI at the time and my dad took us to a parking garage and we sat there in the car all day. Trucker songs being popular. Ten-four good buddy! You used to be able to smoke in your hospital bed. (That one really trips me out now.) The Miss America/Penthouse controversy. In 1993 my then-husband told my sister-in-law that some day instead of having records or CDs, music would be stored on comuter chips and we’d listen to songs via hand-held comuter. She exclaimed that she couldn’t even keep track of all her records and cassettes, how would she ever keep track of all those tiny little computer chips?? ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/38 "2005-01-14T02:09:36Z")
Stingray bikes with banana seats and hi-rise handlebars. Skateboards with skinny metal wheels. Leaving the house in the morning and be gone all day till dark and your parents didn’t care. Riding in the back of a pickup truck, leaning against the tailgate while my dad drove 75 mph down the freeway. Riding your bike with your buddy to a housing development 10 miles away on Halloween so you could get more candy. At 10 years old getting up at 5 in the morning to go catch a rickety old bus that would take you to a berry farm in the valley. Then pick strawberries or raspberries for 50 cents a flat. On a good day you could make $3. Going to a drive in theatre with your family to watch a double bill. Half way through the second movie my brother and I would go look in the windows of cars parked in the last row of the theatre. I still remember some guy chasing us while trying to pull up his pants. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/39 "2005-01-14T02:21:59Z")
Inspector Gadget at 7:00, Loony Tunes at 7:30. The Berlin wall coming down. I had relatives living in East Germany at the Time. The opening of the Toyota plant in Frankfort, Kentucky. They gave tours. Playing with Brio trains, which were made out of wood. Nike pumps. Trapper keepers. Yes, I am a true child of the 80’s. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575/40 "2005-01-14T03:07:09Z")
> [@ITR champion](#): > > … > The opening of the Toyota plant in Frankfort, Kentucky. They gave tours. … Must have been some tour. The Toyota plant is in Georgetown. 😉 I remember having a party line (telephone). When milk cost three cents a carton at school. When a 16k computer hooked up to a b&w tv and a cassette tape player was the coolest thing ever. (Oh, re the smallpox vaccination scar-I had the shot but never developed a scar. I’m guessing not everyone ended up with one.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-remember-when-a-trip-through-the-20th-century/284575.md?page=3)