We girls had to make phone calls with a pencil or pen so that we didn’t screw up our fingernails. 
A curious comment Really Not All That Bright, since I explained in post #179 the Tippex (sic) to which I was referring.
So if I was American it would mean… what? That I hallucinated using a chalky white substance in the early '80’s? (Hold up, people - it was paper backed, and from the stationery supplier…)
For those unsure of what a telex machine is (still in limited use I believe) it’s a machine not unlike a large electric typewriter where the message is prepared off-line, with a 5-hole paper-tape punch and reader.
I’m 27 and have personal experience with most things listed or have heard of them. I was talking to a 19 year old girl earlier though, and she had never heard of Seinfeld or Pearl Jam.
One thing that I miss was the little corner windows that came in the door windows on trucks. I don’t know what they were called, but you could flip them around to force air into the cab on a hot day.
Quarter windows, FordTaurusSHO94. And I miss 'em too.
Movie theater edition:
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Intermissions
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Smoking areas, smoking directly in the theater, and ashtrays in the seat handles.
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When the movie you were watching was boring, walking over to the other side of the drive in, sitting on a bench, and watching the other feature.
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Those trays with the hooks that fit on your car door and waitresses on skates would bring them to you.
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Real butter.
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Drive-ins
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How the back seat of the drive-in was far more interesting than anything on the screen.
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Passing 4-10 closer theaters to get to the theater with the movie you wanted to see.
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Ticket lines that went around the block.
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Paying any amount to see a movie you don’t care about just to:
a) see frontal nudity or
b) get out of the heat. -
Theater food/drinks that cost the same as in other places.
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The only place you could buy Twizzlers was at the theater.
- “Open Hood Surgery”, i.e., working on your own car, doing most of the regular maintenance:
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changing the oil
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doing a tune up: changing and gapping the plugs, changing the points and the rotor
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adjusting the carbuerator, and sometimes even rebuilding it
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if you were real good and had the tools, changing the brake pads, etc.
- Something called “Playing Outside” where you hung out with your friends and did things you couldn’t do inside the house, such as riding your bike, playing football or soccer or road hockey, and even such games as “Cowboys and Indians” or “War”, both of which required the use of toy guns and rifles, and something called Imagination.
No, you can’t download it anywhere.
*
You damn kids, get on the lawn!
I hear this complaint often, but… I don’t know. I grew up with computers and videogames and all the rest of it, and yet I recall a lot of playing outside in my childhood. And I continue to see it in my young cousins as well; they bike and play soccer and run around. They just, you know, also play videogames and surf the Internet.
I think that Really Not All That Bright was originally trying to point out that Tipp-Ex is used in the UK as a generic term for white correction fluid – as opposed to the US, where it’s more commonly called Witeout (or Snopake, or Liquid Paper). And – being from England himself – he assumed that was what you meant by it, and indeed, that you were from the UK too.
Under that misapprehension, he then believed that you were saying that the brand-name Tipp-Ex was used in the UK as a generic term for correcting tape, rather than fluid (which it isn’t).
And then he realised that if you weren’t from the UK, that wasn’t the case, and you’d both been arguing at cross-purposes.
I just got my cat back from the vet.
His name is Keyser Soze.
The vet was saying the younger receptionists didn’t have a clue who Keyser Soze was.
I used an electric typewriter at my last job. A friend’s four year daughter saw me typing and asked in total awe “Is that a typewriter?” She had never seen one before.
A 15 year old remarked that it was really cool that you could see what you’re typing. She used to seeing a screen and a printout, not the actual process.
Your explanation is much appreciated WotNot; 'though having described in detail what I was talking about way back in post #179, I still don’t get how the confusion ensued.
And Cicero, I hope the next time you take your cat to the vet and see that young receptionist, you look her square in the eye and say, “My name is Kobayashi. I work for Keyser Soze.”
Nah. It’s just because it’s cheaper that way. Same reason you often get a one-touch control for the driver’s window but have to hold the button down for the other ones.
Most (all?) cars with electric windows allow you to lock out the controls for the other window from the driver’s seat anyway.
All future generations will watch the most important part of A Bronx Tale and look confused.
I wish I could take you everywhere I went to explain stuff like this.
Yeah Not All That Bright. Me too.
That is great- if only I had thought of it. Consider it stolen.
In the magical world of Doperland, I bet this is a valid complaint. In the real world, kids play outside all the damn time. They even use… gasp… toy guns!
It’s amusing to me how much this thread has drifted away from things “under-30s” don’t know to things people think 5 year olds don’t do. There are a lot of people under 30 who actually grew up with crank windows and antenna TV. :rolleyes:
The old Pepsi jingle: Pepsi Cola hits the spot, twelve full ounces, that’s a lot…" seems pretty dated now.
That’s my second paragraph: under the impression that you were British, he read post #179 as you disagreeing about what “Tipp-Ex” means in the UK, rather than clarifying that you were talking about a different product on a different continent.
Obviously that would be impractical.
Which is why I’ve developed the new, pocket-edition, iWot – the perfect, portable solution for anyone who’s busy, but bewildered.
Lightweight, easy-to-use and environmentally friendly, the new iWot will help you master those muddles in no time!
At home, at work, or even at the beach, it’s the ideal go-anywhere companion for the easily confused. And at the limited-time-offer bargain price of only $99.95 you can’t afford to delay in ordering.
Naturally, due to its smaller size, the iWot doesn’t have all (or possibly any) of the features of the original, but if you’re readily bamboozled, you’re sure to agree that at only £99.95, it’s an offer you don’t want to miss.
FTFY 
A fast five minutes you’d last in marketing in the US. No free gift for ordering right now?
Bah. You can flick the one-touch switches the other way to make the window stop.
I can think of several just for baseball-
When there used to be just an AL East, AL West, and an NL East and an NL West. There was no Central division or Wild Card slot.
A starting pitcher was expected to make it through a complete game, and was only replaced when badly faltering or injured. There was no 100-pitch count. There were few relievers who were “specialists”.
Pitchers would not hesitate to throw at a batter. If a batter was crowding the plate, he would get a fastball thrown under his chin to make him back off. The words “chin music” and “brush back” were used to describe this action, and it was considered a part of the game. Now umpires warn pitchers for intentionally throwing at batters, virtually eliminating this tactic.
Teams didn’t use the disabled list as often. Players would be willing to play with a strained muscle or similar minor injuries. Now, I’m not talking about guys playing with broken bones or anything like that the way some people like to talk about “the old days”, but less likely to use the disabled list to cover for upset stomachs and such.
The Milwaukee Brewers used to be in the American League, The Washington Nationals used to be the Montreal Expos, There were no Arizona Diamondbacks, Tampa Bay Rays, Colorado Rockies, or Florida Marlins. Before that, there were no San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Angels (who used to be the Anaheim Angels, and before that the California Angels), Houston Astros, or New York Mets.
The Millwaukee Brewers used to be the Seattle Pilots, the Baltimore Orioles used to be the St. Louis Browns, The Oakland A’s used to be the Kansas City A’s, and before that, the Philadelphia A’s. There used to be a team called the Washington Senators who became the Minnesota Twins. Then there was a second Senators who moved to Texas and became the Rangers. The San Francisco Giants used to play in New York, The LA Dodgers used to play in Brooklyn, The Braves used to play in Milwaukee, and before that, Boston.
There didn’t used to be any interleague play during the regular season, except for the All Star game (which is an exhibition game), and the World Series.