# Things You Never Thought You'd See **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 25, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032 "2012-05-25T02:10:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/21 "2012-05-25T16:22:31Z")
Never thought I would see the dy when I looked at the price of gas- $3.49.9 today- and think ‘ooh, it’s come down, I had better fill up!’ C’mon… $3.50 a gallon is considered CHEAP??? I remember gas wars in the 60’s… .25 a gallon or less! ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/22 "2012-05-25T16:34:16Z")
I have no idea who said it, but I once read something that is really appropriate to the post above: “Nostalgia is the ability to remember yesterday’s prices while forgetting yesterday’s wages.” The minimum wage in the 60’s was never above $1.60. > **[History of Federal Minimum Wage Rates Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938...](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart)** Edit: This chart may be of interest also. [http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/images/charts/Oil/Gasoline\_inflation\_chart.htm](http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/images/charts/Oil/Gasoline_inflation_chart.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/23 "2012-05-25T16:40:04Z")
I never thought I’d see televisions with big screens and only an inch thick. I know that’s a super trivial example. Vinyl records went out a (comparatively) long time ago, but I’ll bet everybody here remembers when TVs were big boxes. Now they’re bigger, and better, and probably more efficient, and cheaper; everything technology is supposed to be. And it didn’t take long before everybody had one.[sup]\*[/sup] - Except me. I don’t have a flat-screen yet. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/24 "2012-05-25T16:41:28Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > I have no idea who said it, but I once read something that is really appropriate to the post above: “Nostalgia is the ability to remember yesterday’s prices while forgetting yesterday’s wages.” > > The minimum wage in the 60’s was never above $1.60. > [History of Federal Minimum Wage Rates Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938 - 2009 | U.S. Department of Labor](http://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/chart.htm) > > Edit: This chart may be of interest also. > [Inflation adjusted Gasoline Price Chart](http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/images/charts/Oil/Gasoline_inflation_chart.htm) I remember watching _The Price is Right_ when I was a kid. If the prize was “a brand new car!”, the price would be four digits, and the first guess was usually ‘3’. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/25 "2012-05-25T16:46:55Z")
> [@PapSett](#): > > Never thought I would see the dy when I looked at the price of gas- $3.49.9 today- and think ‘ooh, it’s come down, I had better fill up!’ > > C’mon… $3.50 a gallon is considered CHEAP??? I remember gas wars in the 60’s… .25 a gallon or less! You’re overlooking inflation, of course. But in the late 1990s gasoline had reached well below $1.00 a gallon. That’s only about $1.50 (maybe less) in today’s inflation-adjusted dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/26 "2012-05-25T17:00:05Z")
Watching Star Trek as a kid, in syndication that is, I always scoffed at the computer. Kirk would ask it to search for something, and it would say “working” and then after some chattering come back with the answer. I remember thinking, “there’s no way that they could have programmed all of these infinite bits of information into the ship’s computer.” I mean, in order for the computer to find the answer, someone had to program it in in the first place, right? Well, apparently not. The vastness of the internet still blows me away. I do remember thinking that televisions would be like picture frames you hang on the wall, and I definitely thought about digital music storage devices, but not the internet. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/27 "2012-05-25T17:11:29Z")
When I was little and had to miss my favorite TV show, I remember wishing that they could be recorded and played back later, but I never actually expected to be able to do it. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/28 "2012-05-25T17:54:23Z")
When I was a kid - and this is like the 90s, so not that long - I dedicated a lot of time to making and trading bootleg tapes of music and video. Video was the hardest to collect and compile but I had quite an impressive collection, from all over the world. CDs existed and everything, but it never once occurred to me that in 15 years time everything would be digital and we could all be “trading” audio and video for free, completely lossless, in just minutes. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/29 "2012-05-25T18:06:49Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Watching Star Trek as a kid, in syndication that is, I always scoffed at the computer. Kirk would ask it to search for something, and it would say “working” and then after some chattering come back with the answer. I remember thinking, “there’s no way that they could have programmed all of these infinite bits of information into the ship’s computer.” I mean, in order for the computer to find the answer, someone had to program it in in the first place, right? I’m pretty sure that the starship Enterprise doesn’t have a Comcast account. But the supercomputer Watson can beat champions in a game of Jeopardy! with no Internet connection. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/30 "2012-05-25T18:09:41Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I’m pretty sure that the starship Enterprise doesn’t have a Comcast account. Probably UOL. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/31 "2012-05-25T18:19:35Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Probably UOL. “You’ve got subspace messages.” ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/32 "2012-05-25T19:22:41Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > The end of the Cold War. I did, just that it would be the second it turned hot. FOOM!🙂 ---
**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 25, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/33 "2012-05-25T19:37:28Z")
Underwear ads with live models on regular TV. Batman and Superman get so old they had to reimagine them. Doctor Who with decent special effects. Kirk die. A car be faster than my old Mustang, get better fuel economy than my old motorcycle, be safer than that boxy old Volvo, be more reliable than a very reliable example from the 60s/70s, all while being affordable to buy. All in one vehicle to boot! Filmless photography being the norm. And cheap. In 1975, if I wanted a camera to give me 5 fps with 250 (or more) exposures, not only would the outfit be huge, heavy, and quite noisy, but it would’ve cost more than the car I was driving. Example: Nikon F2SB with MD2, 250 ex back, ee-servo control auto exposure module, and a good lens. I can beat that now with a very light weight, high quality, mid range DSLR or ILC kit that costs less than some suits. ---
**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 25, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/34 "2012-05-25T19:46:59Z")
People stand in line to see the boy king. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/35 "2012-05-25T19:48:06Z")
The fall of the Berlin wall and collapse of the Soviet Union. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/36 "2012-05-25T20:48:17Z")
Between 1984 and 2004 I shot around 1200 rolls of film. (approximately 44,000 frames.) Those negatives, their contact sheets and prints (color and b/w) fill three bookshelves and an entire closet. Since 2005 I’ve shot at least six times as many frames in a digital format. Those files (RAW, in-camera JPEG, and print-ready TIFF), fill four hard drives that cover about a square foot of desk space. I can shoot for _hours_ without swapping out memory cards, as opposed to changing film rolls every 36 frames. And I don’t have to spend ten bucks (or more) just to see those pictures. As soon as I get home, not days later. Still it blows my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Toucanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/37 "2012-05-26T03:10:15Z")
I thought there would be a woman president before an African-American one. I wasn’t sure if I would live long enough to see a woman elected as president of the USA. I didn’t think I would live to see an African-American elected President. I hope I live long enough to see a woman, a non-Christian, or an openly gay person–or any combination of these attributes!–elected. (As long as this person will be a good and effective leader, of course.) ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/38 "2012-05-26T03:21:13Z")
Honestly, when the New Orleans Saints won Superbowl 44, I stepped outside to determine if hell was freezing over. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/39 "2012-05-26T05:10:53Z")
Toucanna-About the minorities of the POTUS, non-white generally, and openly disabled. (IOW no “code of silence”) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032/40 "2012-05-26T06:02:19Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > Between 1984 and 2004 I shot around 1200 rolls of film. (approximately 44,000 frames.) Those negatives, their contact sheets and prints (color and b/w) fill three bookshelves and an entire closet. > > Since 2005 I’ve shot at least six times as many frames in a digital format. Those files (RAW, in-camera JPEG, and print-ready TIFF), fill four hard drives that cover about a square foot of desk space. > > I can shoot for _hours_ without swapping out memory cards, as opposed to changing film rolls every 36 frames. > > And I don’t have to spend ten bucks (or more) just to see those pictures. As soon as I get home, not days later. > > Still it blows my mind. This. And when I travel, when I get back to my hotel each night I download and identify the day’s shots onto my laptop. It beats the hell out of having to schlep dozens of rolls of film with me, constantly having to worry about wasting film, having to take notes on what each shot is, keeping all the exposed rolls until I get home, take them in to have slides made, spend days going through and identifying all the slides from my notes, having forgotten most of what I didn’t write down, etc., etc., etc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-never-thought-youd-see/623032.md?page=3)