# 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:** 18
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/341 "2011-05-18T14:34:03Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Blue laws kept a number of businesses closed on Sundays. You say that like it’s past tense. You should come out here, go to the Wal-Mart in Lexington County at midnight on a Saturday and watch them rope off most of the store. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/342 "2011-05-18T19:42:22Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > You say that like it’s past tense. You should come out here, go to the Wal-Mart in Lexington County at midnight on a Saturday and watch them rope off most of the store. Not to hijack, but what stuff is in “The Forbidden Zone”? ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/343 "2011-05-18T19:58:03Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > Not to hijack, but what stuff is in “The Forbidden Zone”? hookers and blow? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/344 "2011-05-18T20:45:04Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > 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. Hah! My house still has an huge and ancient TV antenna in the attic. The thing’s probably 25-30 years old, but it’s out of the way, so I suspect that when they got cable, the old owners just disconnected it and left it up there. ---
**Author:** ![Kaotic\_Newtral](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@Kaotic\_Newtral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaotic_Newtral)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/345 "2011-05-18T21:20:57Z")
I was born in 1969 and this brings back a lot of memories. I don’t know that anyone has mentioned the early days of cable, being a teenager and trying to watch scrambled porn…man…you’d see one nipple and then the frame would hold still for a millisecond before your fantasies were dashed away! ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/346 "2011-05-18T22:04:46Z")
And you couldn’t tell if the throbbing video was caused by interference or pelvis. ---
**Author:** ![szabrocki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@szabrocki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/szabrocki)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/347 "2011-05-19T00:11:39Z")
I remember when TV’s were made of wood. LOL In the late 70"s the internet was kind of there. My University had a dedicated WATS phone line to another University. I would use that to connect to ARPNET at the other University. ARPNET, which was controled by the military, would eventually become the internet. Anyway, while we did not have computer monitors, we used paper teletype consoles and punch cards for storage. I was able to connect to this guy in the US Navy stationed in Antartica and played chess with him. We would do 1-2 moves a day. We could also send each other short messages. Since a chess game could go on for weeks we became friends. He had no way to contact his wife in the midwest. I lived in Maine. He asked if I could call her and relay messages. I did. It was expensive as a poor college student, but it made them both happy. BTW to do all this is now called hacking as I had no authorization to access either the other University or ARPNET. The term hacking was not coined yet. ---
**Author:** ![szabrocki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@szabrocki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/szabrocki)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/348 "2011-05-19T00:54:00Z")
Another story… My sister and I, she was born 18 months before me, had to walk a half mile to the school bus stop. The Maine winters in the 70’s were very snowy and cold. One day while waiting for the school bus she climbed up on the snobank next to a stop sign and decide that she would lick off a yummy looking snowflake. Her tongue was immideatly stuck to the sign just like in the movie “A Christmas Story.” I ran home for help and some hot water. By the time I got back with my mother the school bus was already there. The bus driver already already radioed for help. My sister was horrified as all her friends were laughing at her from the bus. I poured the now warm water on the area wher her tounge was stuck to the sign and she was now free. She did not go to school that day. It took about 10 days for her tongue to heal. I still always play the movie “A Christmas Story” every Christmas to embarase her. ---
**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 19, 2011, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/349 "2011-05-19T01:54:41Z")
To get a real latin/disco-y song going live, we ended up with about a dozen people on stage. late 70s spanish/cover band I played with Later, with sequencers, midi keyboards, and computer control, one or two people could do the same sound live. Oddly enough, I was a Kraftwerk fan from Geiger Counter. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/350 "2011-05-19T03:12:44Z")
Apologies if this has already been mentioned… When I was young our telephone was on a party line. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/351 "2011-05-19T04:44:44Z")
> [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](#): > > When I was young our telephone was on a party line. So was ours. We didn’t even have a dial phone, it was [a crank operated one](http://www.antiquephones.co.nz/20sSidecrankblankdialinfo.html), and we had to wait for our ring (D, morse code long-short-short). ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/352 "2011-05-19T05:12:40Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > So was ours. We didn’t even have a dial phone, it was [a crank operated one](http://www.antiquephones.co.nz/20sSidecrankblankdialinfo.html), and we had to wait for our ring (D, morse code long-short-short). Holy crap, you must be older than dirt. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/353 "2011-05-19T07:09:03Z")
This was 1970s rural New Zealand. By 1981 we’d caught up, and had a fancy push button phone, a proper phone number with more than three digits, and technology across the board (television, reliable electricity, etc) started to be on par with most of the western world, but until that change a lot of where I grew up was trapped in the dark ages. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/354 "2011-05-19T12:24:50Z")
I remember as a young lad building a crystal radio and being amazed with the technology. I could hear all the way to Pennsylvania! ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/355 "2011-05-19T13:24:40Z")
Our 8th grade math teacher making us spend $3 to buy a slide rule, telling us “You kids will thank me when you are in college.” Not quite, 5 years later simple but cheap electronic portable calculators were available. But in the meantime I used the slide rule to compute batting averages and era’s in out tabletop baseball game. I’ll throw this in since it was my mother’s story. When she was growing up, the dairy industry had enough clout to make margarine company sell their product white and give you food coloring to make it look yellow like butter. I wouldn’t be surprised if some states do this today. In the late 1960s companies would send you Visa and Mastercards. Not the form saying you could apply, the actual card.That’s how my father got his first visa card in 1969. I remember him saying he would only use it in emergencies. The first one turned out to be when we were on vacation and he decided we needed to buy a canoe. The guy who sold it had to call in the number and wait about 45 minutes to get confirmation. Another time down in the Florida panhandle, my father stopped in for gas. While he didn’t use the visa card much, my father would not buy gasoline without using an oil company credit card (preferable Amoco. The place we stopped in said, yup, we just got the ability to handle credit cards, let me read the directions on how to run this through the device, moving the levers for out 22 cent a gallon gasoline. ---
**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 19, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/356 "2011-05-19T14:31:04Z")
Paying for gas inside the station with CASH. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/357 "2011-05-19T14:58:49Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > Paying for gas inside the station with CASH. Well, I still do this. WTH? To make it even better - sometimes, before payday, with a handful of coins. So I can have enough gas to drive to the bank to get more money to put more gas in the car. (sounds like I’m making an endless loop between home - gas station - bank :p). ---
**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 19, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/358 "2011-05-19T20:34:03Z")
In Soviet Russia, “party line” had a very different meaning. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/359 "2011-05-19T20:46:12Z")
Heck, my first job was a pump-jockey at my best friend’s dad’s gas station. We refered to ourselves as 'petroleum transfer agents". We ran to the car, cleaned the windows, took the cash, _after_ the fill-up, checked the air-pressure of the tire, offered to check the fluid levels, all that good stuff. And do you know what we sold? Tires, oil and wiper-blades. That and super-service! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/360 "2011-05-19T21:00:28Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > We ran to the car, cleaned the windows, took the cash, _after_ the fill-up, checked the air-pressure of the tire, offered to check the fluid levels, all that good stuff. Now that’s something I miss from the pre-tech days! And soda was dispensed from a big metal cooler filled with melting ice. That stuff was **cold**! Nothing better than an ice cold Squirt from a glass bottle on a hot August day. [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=17) [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=19)