# 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:** 21
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/401 "2011-06-16T18:33:03Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > And to do all this, everyone had to come together in the same place and socialize. And order pizza. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 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/581026/402 "2011-06-16T19:13:24Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > And order pizza. Which you had to pay for with _cash_. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/403 "2011-06-16T19:21:18Z")
Maybe I missed it earlier in the thread, but remember camping out all night in front of the record store that would be selling concert tickets? The only way to get concert tickets back then was to line up as early as they would let you, and hope they didn’t run out before you got to the front of the line. ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/404 "2011-06-17T07:57:41Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Back when I was a kid, we didn’t have MMORGs. We had to perform our fantasy/Sci-fi adventures in an analog fashion. You had to pull out some paper and write down all the various characteristics of your profile, including base odds of successfully performing tasks and whatever mathematical modifiers might be present. You couldn’t just click on a character and use it. You had to sit down and try to think of what you wanted in a character, all before you could even begin playing. There were no visuals to help you out. One of your group had to describe it to you in words while you tried to picture it in your head. Instead of a pregenerated menu of actions to choose from you had to think of what to do on your own. I mean, you had to sit there and just IMAGINE what you were going to do. And there was no automatic way of knowing whether or not your attack hit. You had to physically generate a random number with some dice, factor in various modifiers, then compare the result to a table printed in a book or often on a cardboard screen and then write down the damage to the recipient. > > And to do all this, everyone had to come together in the same place and socialize. Yea, and as you shot an arrow you had to erase “19” and replace it with “18”, and so on. After a while that box was a smudged, shredded mess and you had to record your arrow elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Scougs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scougs/32/3158_2.png) [@Scougs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scougs)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/405 "2011-06-17T11:11:54Z")
Thirty years ago yesterday, I went to London to see Pink Floyd perform The Wall. When I got home, I got out a journal, and painstakingly wrote (yes, with a pen) a blow-by-blow account of the whole show, describing each animation, each puppet and so on. With diagrams. All because I didn’t want to forget what it looked like. Sure, I bought the next Melody Maker and other music mags for the reviews - but they would have one photo only. For all intents and purposes, the only record of the show was in my memory, and I had to transcribe it or lose it. Last month, I went to London to see Roger Waters perform The Wall. The next day, I overdosed on YouTube videos, Google image searches, Facebook updates, blog entries, online reviews… ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/406 "2011-06-17T12:42:38Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > Maybe I missed it earlier in the thread, but remember camping out all night in front of the record store that would be selling concert tickets? The only way to get concert tickets back then was to line up as early as they would let you, and hope they didn’t run out before you got to the front of the line. LOL heck yes. Last time I did this was in college. My childhood pal Mitch and I slept out for Genesis tickets. We were like 25th in line. In Philly at least, you had to wake up once an hour to go initial next to your name to prove you’d done your time and been there all night. No signing up at 10pm and sneaking back in at 7am !! Come early morning, some guy offered us $ 50 for our place in line. We took the money and bolted. The show sold out in seconds. We went to IHOP, had breakfast and went to sleep. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/407 "2011-06-17T12:45:16Z")
> [@Scougs](#): > > Last month, I went to London to see Roger Waters perform The Wall. The next day, I overdosed on YouTube videos, Google image searches, Facebook updates, blog entries, online reviews… And which was the more gratifying experience? ---
**Author:** ![Scougs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scougs/32/3158_2.png) [@Scougs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scougs)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/408 "2011-06-17T14:46:27Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > And which was the more gratifying experience? I think you know the answer to that, and I was going to mention it in my original posting. But we can’t uninvent technology. I did deliberately avoid looking up any footage, photos or reviews in the run up to the 2011 show, so everything was a surprise. But I daresay some folks don’t even do that. Everything’s just so… accessible these days. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/409 "2011-06-17T15:26:48Z")
Did anyone mention having to actually compute the bowling scores with your own brain? I’m still great at doing that, but there’s sure no call for it anymore. Hell, I’ll take it back even a bit further. I remember a few lanes that still had pinboys when I was a kid. They got tipped at the end of the game, by throwing some change down the lane to them. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/410 "2011-06-17T19:30:29Z")
Is that the origin of the word guttersnipe ? ---
**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:** [June 18, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/411 "2011-06-18T01:11:10Z")
I just had the following conversation on using iPhones to take great photos: > [@Youngun 1](#): > > …noted. Its pretty amazing when your phone can more-or-less replace a $500 camera. > > Instant-uploading is another plus of smartphone photography. > [@Youngun 2](#): > > No kidding on the instant access. It used to be a matter of taking a shot, grabbing a cable and hooking up the camera, bringing up a photo app, editing a pic and sending it off. Now it’s a few seconds away no matter where you are. > > I love me some technology. It’s an amazing time to be alive. > [@me](#): > > Pish….youngun! It used to take CHEMICALS and a PITCH BLACK ROOM! ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/412 "2011-06-18T01:21:43Z")
Ha ! Tell your kids you spent High School reeking of acetic acid and they’ll think you’re a veteran stoner. The scent of a darkroom is one of the great olfactory joys in life… ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2011, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/413 "2011-06-18T07:22:33Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I had this VHS video tape of my favorite band, playing one of their first shows ever. I don’t remember how I got it… > > Then I taped the band every time they were on TV. > > Then, I found some fans in Australia who had made tapes every time the band was on TV in Australia. > > So, I paid for the Aussies to send me their tapes, then I paid some people to transfer the tapes from PAL to NTSC. > > Then I put together my original tape, plus all the TV appearances I’d taped plus all of the Aussie TV appearances, using two VCRs. > > Then I made copies of the new tape, and put them in bubble mailers and sent it to people all over the world. Most of them sent me audio tapes of live shows in return, or a couple bucks for the video and the mailing. > > This is just, say, 15 years ago or so. Now, all of the videos would have been on YouTube in HD for anyone to see, for free. > > I still run into people who have seen my video, tho. That is weird. I should find it and try to actually get it on YouTube. Been there, done that. At one point, I was the #1 source in the US of Kate Bush videos. My wife and I were constantly dubbing tapes, compiling collections for other collectors, trying to get other rarities. There were some traders who would have something you wanted, but you wouldn’t have anything they wanted. So you’d mail them a copy of your local TV Guide. They’d look through it and see a show they wanted, and you’d record it for them. I got Kate Bush on the _Kenny Everett_ show from a guy, trading it for recording the old movie _Topper_ for him. And our first PAL to NTSC conversions were so-called “optical” conversions - literally aiming an NTSC camera at a PAL TV set. You can’t imagine how much it sucked. Combine that with the inevitable loss of multiple generations of analog VHS, and you got something just barely watchable. > [@ENugent](#): > > Credit cards didn’t just get swiped through a reader. The clerk put them in this big metal frame, with a couple of pieces of paper and carbon paper on it, and dragged a big heavy thing across it to imprint the raised letters from your card on the paper. They used to write all the numbers in by hand, but then gas stations got these newfangled big metal things where they could click little wheels to imprint the price. When you bought gas on credit, you gave a gas station attendant your card, and he would run it through this thing, then hand the whole assembly to you for you to sign. You’d hand the whole thing back so he could compare your signature with the one on the card, then he’d tear off your copy and give it back to you with your card. Known and loathed by all old credit-card hands as a “knucklebuster”. My friend who sells merchandise aboard the Blues Cruise has to use one still. In theory, she could process credit cards via the ship’s Internet connection, but they charge insanely high rates for it. > [@China\_Guy](#): > > The internets used to be the [Whole Earth Catalogue](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Catalog). Steve Jobs compared The Whole Earth Catalog to Internet search engine Google in his June 2005 Stanford University commencement speech. “When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation… It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along. It was idealistic and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.” Remember it will. I’ve been trying to get Stuart Brand to let Google Books make them fully available - they are currently only available in the [nearly useless “Snippet” view](http://books.google.com/books?id=oM4LAQAAMAAJ&q=last+whole+earth+catalog&dq=last+whole+earth+catalog&hl=en&ei=wE_8TfL9DKT20gG7seTkAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAA). It is not as if they are going to re-print them. > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > How many concerts did us old farts miss because we couldn’t get through to buy the hot tickets? I much preferred the old method. The people who were willing to wait in line for hours got the best seats, got closest to the artists, and the artists got an excited audience and delivered a better performance for it. Now, the best seats go to whoever has the most money, or random schmoe. > [@gonzomax](#): > > 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. As hard as it it to believe, there are still people who buy those things, and claim they prefer them! > [@bump](#): > > 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. Hook it up to a HD tuner, and you will get the best HD signal you’ll ever see. The damn cable companies always compress the network signals more, so they can fit more channels on their system. > [@pinkfreud](#): > > In the 1980s, I was an avid Amiga user. If I wanted to get a color digital image of something so that I could play with it in my computer or print it out, I used the NewTek Digi-View system. This involved a bulky setup with a black-and-white camera mounted on a frame, with the camera pointing downward at the image being digitized. I moved the camera up and down a vertical pole until the source image was properly centered and in focus. Then, using an R/G/B color wheel mounted under the camera’s lens, I took three shots (one with the red filter, one with the green, one with the blue). The Digi-View software then produced a color digital image (maximum resolution 640x400) which could be manipulated with other Amiga software, such as Digi-Paint or Deluxe Paint. I could also print out the image, using my $800 PaintJet tractor-feed printer (180 dpi) and special pin-feed paper that could only be obtained by mail order. Heh…I was at the Kansas City Amiga Users Group meeting where Tim Jennison showed his prototype. There were actually Macintosh users who bought Amiga 1000s as a way to get color images into their machines. > [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Back in the day, we were nearly completely engaged in the moment. Lacking highspeed electronic distractions, when sitting at a table with friends we were WITH friends. When talking to someone, we were mentally engaged so much of the time. Remember when friends would drop by to listen to a new album? It was a social thing, instead of everyone having their own headphones. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2011, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/414 "2011-06-18T08:29:45Z")
Did Anyone ever make their own 8 track tapes with your favorite songs? My local record store had this 8 track recorder. It was like a jukebox. You’d tell them which 45 rpm singles you wanted on the 8 track. They’d load them into this machine. They’d sell me a blank 8 track tape. We put quarters in the machine and selected our songs (just like a jukebox). Because of copyright, we had to punch the buttons. The employees wouldn’t do it. At one time, I had six 8 tracks filled with my favorite 1970’s songs. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2011, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/415 "2011-06-18T10:01:45Z")
Tut, tut. They’re were much more than 48 great songs that came out of the 1970’s. Sitting around listening to an album. That social activity defines my generation. LP’s were expensive.You would invite friends over to hear the latest Yes album. Or Billy Joel. Or CSN. Or Queen. Wait, did I mention Yes ? My first record player was my grammas old one. It ran at 16, 33 1/3, 45 & 78. It tuned in am, fm and worldwide shortwave. I ran huge lengths of antenna cable and listened to other languages late at night. It was magical. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/416 "2011-06-19T07:22:54Z")
I remember when we had our second TV. The first was a big 48 in set in a box, the big living room monster. Then we had a second TV, a 14 in black and white set in the kitchen. Dad would watch the news on it during dinner. So the inevitable “Two things on at once” debate would happen, and one set gets the big TV in the living room with the couches and color, and one set gets the tiny black and white kitchen set and kitchen chairs. But we were happy we could watch the show. ---
**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:** [June 19, 2011, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/417 "2011-06-19T23:58:21Z")
I remember my family getting HBO on our cable in 1976. They would not start broadcasting until around 430PM everyday and the newspapers would carry carry them on their tv listings. They would mail you a monthly guide telling you what they were broadcasting that month, ---
**Author:** ![Cheryl44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@Cheryl44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheryl44)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/418 "2011-06-20T01:23:01Z")
Paychecks. Actual, physical pieces of paper you got every other week or for some of us once a month. That you had to get from someone and then race to the bank at lunchtime because the bank closed before you got off work on Fridays and if you didn’t deposit it and get some cash, your weekend was ruined. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/419 "2011-06-20T07:39:18Z")
> [@Cheryl44](#): > > Paychecks. Actual, physical pieces of paper you got every other week or for some of us once a month. That you had to get from someone and then race to the bank at lunchtime because the bank closed before you got off work on Fridays and if you didn’t deposit it and get some cash, your weekend was ruined. My first few jobs paid in cash. Actual real money (with coins as well) in a buff envelope. Every Friday. It was great. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-people-amuse-me-with-tales-of-your-hardships-in-pre-tech-days-that-would-seem-trivial-today/581026/420 "2011-06-21T05:43:32Z")
If we wanted hot chocolate, we had to heat milk in a pan on the stove (careful not to get a “skin” on top)! When I took my first college programming classes (1976), we had to punch the programs onto cards at keypunch machines (one line per card), arrange the cards carefully in order, and submit the “deck” at the computer room window. Then, we’d go do something else for a couple of hours, and come back to get our printout, which indicated that we had a typo on the third card. Lather, rinse, repeat… Did anyone else play a computer game called “Nuclear Destruction”? It was played _by mail_. We all picked a country and signed up for the game. We’d get our starting printout and then mail in our actions for the turn. After everyone’s actions were received (or the time limit expired), they’d run the calculations and mail us each a new printout. > [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > You’d take the customer payment, lay it on the till and then count back the change. $1.86, $1.90, $2, $3, $4, $5, $10 and 10 makes 20! There was no automatic calculation of change to be returned. Kids can’t fucking count these days. Some Hispanic gal counted back the change to me the other day at Rite-Aid and I was shocked, amazed and nostalgic. Clearly she wasn’t born in America. I still count back change to customers in my bookstore, and my kids (who both work there) have been able to do that since they were 13. > [@Gyrate](#): > > I had an 8-track player. There’s nothing to compare to that moment in a particularly long song when it suddenly goes quiet and then “kaCHUNK”, followed by resumption of the song. I was one of the lucky few that had an 8-track RECORDER. When I wanted to make a tape of an album, I’d sit for ten minutes carefully planning which songs would go on which tracks so there wouldn’t be a “kaCHUNK” in the middle of any of them and the dead space at the end of the track would be minimized. It meant, of course, changing the order of the songs, which drove my friends up the wall. > [@Gyrate](#): > > My first computer was a Macintosh, Mark 1. > > No hard drive. Only floppy. > > 128K total to work with. _ **K** _, I tell you. I remember building a massive spreadsheet in VisiCalc on my Apple /// computer, which I had upgraded to 256K of RAM. I got everything debugged, went to save it, and realized the floppy diskette held only 140K. I had to rebuild the spreadsheet as two separate files and manually copy numbers from one to the other. > [@Fourtyfold](#): > > Searching through logarithm books in maths class. I still have my CRC Handbook of Mathematical Tables. I have my 12-inch magnesium Pickett sliderule in its leather belt case, too! Did anyone else learn to use one using a 6-foot or 8-foot long sliderule that hung on the front of the blackboard in class so everyone could watch the teacher? That was in high school in 1975! [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=20) [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=22)