# Older people: amuse me with tales of your hardships in pre-tech days that would seem trivial today **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 6, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026 "2011-05-06T23:40:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/301 "2011-05-14T11:34:34Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > I’m giggling at everyone talking about how you had to call a number and listen forever to get movie listing info. I remember doing that, but that started when I was in high school. > > Pre-high-school, we only had 2 or 3 theaters in town, each with one screen. There was a 7pm and 9pm show. Very occasionally a movie would be longer than 2 hours, so it was a 7 pm or a 9:30 (or whenever) show, and that was a hassle, because you just automatically showed up at 9 assuming that’s when the movie started. > . Most people to this day cannot parse out that evening shows start at about 650p and 9pm. ( Give 15 minutes for trailers.) If I know the show is at such and such theater, I just go there now and AMAZING, there is a 650p show. WHO FARKING KNEW? ( I hate 9p or later shows. I can’t fall asleep afterwards easily.) ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/302 "2011-05-14T18:48:52Z")
I’m not old (34) but I remember the long laborious process my mum went through to book family holidays. Usually we’d stay at a self-catering cottage or static caravan on a farm somewhere. She’d write off to a company to get a brochure that listed loads of these cottages, and look through to make a shortlist. Then she’d come up with a shortlist and send off letters to enquire about availability (a lot of these places had no phone number listed!). Then once she’d found somewhere available she’d send off a cheque as payment and wait to get a booking confirmation back by post. The whole process could take about six weeks… ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/303 "2011-05-14T19:13:26Z")
Back in olden days, if you wanted to see a ‘classic’ movie, you would have to take two buses up to the university to see a special screening on campus. (This is how W.C. Fields came to be popularized, followed by the Marx Brothers.) Reading about film, you would be told what great films Bette Davis and Joan Crawford made, but they were never shown on TV! And finally, cable TV came along (I remember watching the 1965 Russian version of War and Peace, just breathtaking!) and all those classics were unearthed … ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/304 "2011-05-14T22:38:20Z")
> [@TheseGoToEleven](#): > > Growing up in the 60’s & 70’s… > Entertainment… > > - If you lived in a large metropolitan area like NYC, you had 7 channels (including PBS) > - Even those few TV stations would _go off the air_ late at night, and show a “test pattern” for the next few hours > > . In Houston of the early 70s, we had the three bigs ABC CBS NBC, + PBS on VHF, and had two, sometimes 3 channels on UHF. One of the bigs would program for up to about 4am on weekends, and ch 39 would go all night on Fri with horror movies/shows. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/305 "2011-05-14T23:01:35Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > We used to have to stand up, walk across the room, and turn a dial to change the channel on the television set. Actually your father or mother would tell you to do it for them. They always had a remote channel changer. When you played records, it was on a photograph with a needle. You had to select the proper speed, 78, 45 or 33 1/3rd. You had to put a plastic insert into the center of the small ones. There was one song on each side. The needles got dirty and you had to clean them off when it sounded fuzzy. But be careful you could break the needle. If they skipped they could scratch the record and ruin it. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/306 "2011-05-15T01:37:56Z")
Our phonograph also had that slow dictation speed, marked as 16 on the turntable control. So, as a kid, I had 4 speeds to choose from. 16, 33 1/3, 45, 78. Much fun came from playing records at faster or slower speeds. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/307 "2011-05-15T03:19:01Z")
I remember in the pre-internet/GPS early 90s having to call AAA to have them send maps with driving directions for long vacations. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/308 "2011-05-15T13:49:09Z")
Some excellent technology has been lost to the ages. I still have and use a 1950s Sunbeam toaster that is self-lowering- no need to push down the lever thingy! It’s automatic and it still works great, with its real chrome (a metal that they used to make things shiny back then) exterior gleaming! ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/309 "2011-05-15T15:44:35Z")
Way back when, MPSIMS was a _single thread_! ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/310 "2011-05-15T16:08:17Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > Most people to this day cannot parse out that evening shows start at about 650p and 9pm. ( Give 15 minutes for trailers.) If I know the show is at such and such theater, I just go there now and AMAZING, there is a 650p show. WHO FARKING KNEW? 😕 That’s certainly not the case around here. The only constant that I see at my local megaplex 17-screen+IMAX theater is that showings begin ~ 10:30 to 11 am daily, and starting times thereafter are staggered due to running times. I’d miss about 1/3 of the films there if I tried showing up at 6:50 and 9 pm (several are 5 and 8 pm, or 7:30 and 10 pm, then there are the movies getting ready to leave first run that are only shown once or twice a day, usually 8 pm). The only films that do hit near both 6:50/9 are those showing on multiple screens, and wanting to see only 2D or 3D limits those as well. So if I want to see a big release on opening weekend and don’t care about 2D/3D/IMAX, then your plan would work. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/311 "2011-05-15T16:26:57Z")
> [@](#): > > I remember in the pre-internet/GPS early 90s having to call AAA to have them send maps with driving directions for long vacations. TripTiks! They were really good, actually - when I was in college, even, we took a trip where we flew into San Francisco and out of Seattle and we got the AAA TripTik. We stopped at some national park nobody has ever heard of because it got a red star on the map, and it was fantastic. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/312 "2011-05-15T16:46:46Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > We still get a large selection of phone books from across the country here at the library. They do see a lot of use. I don’t understand it myself. Looking at Páginas Amarillas on paper, the listings I get for a location are for businesses actually in that location. Looking at their web version, I get shit like businesses from Cádiz saying they service washing machines in Navarra. Yeah rite, and I have a helicopter in my bathtub. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/313 "2011-05-15T18:22:20Z")
Gonzomax- playing records on a photograph is a trick I’ve never seen- ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/314 "2011-05-15T20:39:08Z")
> [@Unintentionally\_Blank](#): > > So the remote control is why we’re (as a society) fat? Pretty much > [@Zsofia](#): > > TripTiks! They were really good, actually - when I was in college, even, we took a trip where we flew into San Francisco and out of Seattle and we got the AAA TripTik. We stopped at some national park nobody has ever heard of because it got a red star on the map, and it was fantastic. I got my last TripTik in 2003. They still make them, but nowadays I just get it off the Web. > [@california jobcase](#): > > Gonzomax- playing records on a photograph is a trick I’ve never seen- Check this out: [http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/paper-record-player-hides-in-wedding-invitation/](http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/paper-record-player-hides-in-wedding-invitation/) Now, does anyone remember when TV channels were divided into VHF (very high frequency) and UHF (ultra high frequency)? TV sets had two dials, one for VHF (channels 2-13) and one for UHF (14 to - what was it, 87?). The VHF dial snapped directly from one channel to the other, but the UHF dial was a continuous scan over the entire range. When you reached the desired channel, you had to manually fine-tune (adjust) the dial to get it jusssst right. (For some UHF channels, there was no just right.) Forget about watching two channels at once, it just couldn’t be done! ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/315 "2011-05-15T22:25:19Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Now, does anyone remember when TV channels were divided into VHF (very high frequency) and UHF (ultra high frequency)? > ! See post # 304 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/316 "2011-05-15T22:32:32Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Now, does anyone remember when TV channels were divided into VHF (very high frequency) and UHF (ultra high frequency)? TV sets had two dials, one for VHF (channels 2-13) and one for UHF (14 to - what was it, 87?). The VHF dial snapped directly from one channel to the other, but the UHF dial was a continuous scan over the entire range. When you reached the desired channel, you had to manually fine-tune (adjust) the dial to get it jusssst right. (For some UHF channels, there was no just right.) Forget about watching two channels at once, it just couldn’t be done! Eventually, back before all TVs had electronic tuning, set manufacturers did make VHF-UHF sets where all the UHF channels clicked into position, too. No more tuning channels like frequencies on the radio. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/317 "2011-05-15T22:40:10Z")
Our UHF dial had click stops all the way up to 88, but you often had to fine tune, sometimes WHILE adjusting the aerial. The fams with crafty or gadgety dads had a motorized outside antenna that you could adjust from a control kept near your TV. While it was moving, ours had so much interference that you could hardly tell if you were on station. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/318 "2011-05-15T22:43:35Z")
I remember using microfiche and microfilm to look old periodicals or newspapers I needed to have as refs for our reports. Then you had to request a paper copy be made from the film. (Probably already mentioned in this thread and I just overlooked the post. Feel free to reference your earlier post about microfilm/fiche) ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/319 "2011-05-16T00:53:50Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > (Probably already mentioned in this thread and I just overlooked the post. Feel free to reference your earlier post about microfilm/fiche) My wall of text post included a link to a picture of a microfiche reader almost identical to the one I used to search the bookstore’s records. We also had readers in my family’s TV repair shop for schematics. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/320 "2011-05-16T01:10:54Z")
Jeebus yes, vacations by car were a bitch. We went to the World’s Fair in Seattle in '62, from Iowa, in my stepdad’s '54 Buick. He liked to get off the beaten track and he didn’t want to plan ahead. Not a problem (actually kinda fun), unless you were in the middle of nowhere when the sun went down. You’d look for a motel. If it was full, they’d call the next town to check for a vacancy. No credit card needed to reserve a room – they just took your name and waited for you. You didn’t know about construction until you saw the signs. You didn’t know the weather until you were in the middle of it. You looked for truck stops for the best and cheapest food – not nearly as many chains as there are now. Driving cross country was an adventure. It still is, but it’s lots safer and easier now, with GPS and cell phones. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026.md?page=17)