# When I'm 64, and other reminders that you are old **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 27, 2018, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788 "2018-12-27T15:08:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/302 "2020-02-26T03:10:07Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > They used to have vending machines for cigarettes too when I was younger. . . . with two pennies change inside the cellophane, because a pack was 23c in shops. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/303 "2020-02-26T04:36:43Z")
> [@DrForrester](#): > > My coworkers don’t believe me when I tell them that when I grew up, WHITE people bombed the PENTAGON. They survived for nearly a DECADE and most of them were either never caught or were charged with far, far less than they actually did. > > [The Weathermen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Weatherman_actions) > > Can you imagine what the political climate would be if there were such a group of people today? I mean, goodness, these people got all worked up about the freaking Unabomber & he was nothing compared to the Weathermen. IIRC, at one point all or almost all of the FBI’s Most Wanted List were left-wing terrorists. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/304 "2020-02-26T05:12:07Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > $24 sounds cheap but the [Inflation Calculator](https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/) says it’s the equivalent to $169.70 today. IIRC the minimum wage was about $1.35/hr. I had a well-paid job as a doorman on Park Avenue and was making $100 a week, so that was a bit more than a day’s pay. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2020, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/305 "2020-02-26T06:11:14Z")
My first job, in 1964, paid $60 a week. And that was enough to live in Midtown Manhattan. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/306 "2020-02-26T20:47:16Z")
Whoa, wrong thread. Back later with something suitable. Ta. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/307 "2020-02-26T20:56:25Z")
My son watches “The 70’s Show” and asks if things were really like that? (ex. avacado refrigerators and shag carpet) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/308 "2020-02-26T21:34:30Z")
(Got tripped up by a bunch of 50x errors.) Anyway … Here and there I watch an old TV show recorded off one of the retro channels for the fun of it. Last night we watched an episode of _The Patty Duke Show_ from Feb., 1965. The good part: It had Chad and Jeremy as guest stars. The bad part: everything else. Egad, what a load of nothing. Anyway, I was discussing Chad and Jeremy with **Mrs. FtG** who was surprised that I was old enough at the time to remember them. So, she doesn’t think of me as that old. That’s good. But I had to remind her that this was a year after The Beatles first appeared on _Ed Sullivan_, which I remember quite well. And going back even further I remember seeing Elvis do _Hound Dog_ on TV. So not as young as she imagines. Chad and Jeremy? Total n00bs. (The episode brought up a perhaps unanswerable question: How come this episode wasn’t “_WKRP_ed”? They notably play two of their hits and some other stuff. The cost for the rights have to be well outside the budget of these retro stations.) ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/309 "2020-02-26T21:44:48Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > (The episode brought up a perhaps unanswerable question: How come this episode wasn’t “_WKRP_ed”? They notably play two of their hits and some other stuff. The cost for the rights have to be well outside the budget of these retro stations.) If you can find a station airing it\*, _WKRP_ still has the original music, AFAIK. It’s the home video versions that mostly can’t afford to re-license the music, because it was never licensed for home video. - Last I knew, WGN was, but I think that’s very outdated info. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/310 "2020-02-26T21:59:06Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > They used to have vending machines for cigarettes too when I was younger. Can you still find them in no-minors venues like bars and strip clubs? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/311 "2020-02-27T00:28:17Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Can you still find them in no-minors venues like bars and strip clubs? [Apparently there’s a few.](https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/whatever-happened-to-my-bars-cigarette-machine) That reminded me of another long-gone amenity: the [Horn and Hardart Automat.](http://exhibitions.nypl.org/lunchhour/exhibits/show/lunchhour/automat) I went to the one in Times Square several times when I was a kid. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/312 "2020-02-27T01:53:53Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > That reminded me of another long-gone amenity: the [Horn and Hardart Automat.](http://exhibitions.nypl.org/lunchhour/exhibits/show/lunchhour/automat) I went to the one in Times Square several times when I was a kid. I used to have lunch at the Automat every weekday for my first year in NYC. In addition to the great food, they had the best coffee anywhere. My favorite was the one on Fifth Ave. that was a flight downstairs and totally art deco. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/313 "2020-02-27T03:02:40Z")
> [@Polyester](#): > > Remember segregated school grounds in elementary school, boys on one-side, girls on the other. > > Riding in the backs of pickup trucks, and it was legal! I remember my friend and I riding in the back of a pickup going to the drive-in in 1997; our wives were in the cab. It may have been the night son #1 was conceived (not at the drive-in, alas). ---
**Author:** ![Polyester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b2d939/32.png) [@Polyester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polyester)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/314 "2020-02-27T03:07:55Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > I remember my friend and I riding in the back of a pickup going to the drive-in in 1997; our wives were in the cab. It may have been the night son #1 was conceived (not at the drive-in, alas). 🙂 Went to high-school with a student that left for lunch in the back of a pickup truck and never returned. Driver rolled the truck. Makes my cringe now to think of all the times us kids rode that way. It was the way, back in the day. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/315 "2020-02-27T03:08:28Z")
I get a lot of mileage out of telling teenagers that we had a dedicated smoking area when I was in high school. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/316 "2020-02-29T19:52:57Z")
In my high school, students could only smoke in the senior patio. ---
**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:** [February 29, 2020, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/317 "2020-02-29T20:18:59Z")
In my high school smoking was not allowed, not only on the school grounds themselves but even across the street on all four sides of the block. I have no idea how they enforced that. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/318 "2020-03-01T20:57:45Z")
I remember feeling old when I saw the latest American Girl historical fiction series was set in 1974, the year I graduated from high school. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/319 "2020-03-04T23:38:25Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > In my high school smoking was not allowed, not only on the school grounds themselves but even across the street on all four sides of the block. I have no idea how they enforced that. I’m considerably younger than you but even my school had a senior smoking zone, though you still had to be of legal smoking age (eighteen) in order to use it. It didn’t apply to me since I turned seventeen only a few months before graduating. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/320 "2020-03-05T00:49:45Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > [Apparently there’s a few.](https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/whatever-happened-to-my-bars-cigarette-machine) > > That reminded me of another long-gone amenity: the [Horn and Hardart Automat.](http://exhibitions.nypl.org/lunchhour/exhibits/show/lunchhour/automat) I went to the one in Times Square several times when I was a kid. The Automat on 42nd Street was the first place I ever ate in a restaurant by myself. I think I was in 7th grade. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788/321 "2020-03-05T02:10:07Z")
Here in the Philippines, I hear the voices of young neighborhood children out playing in the streets well after dark. That brings back wonderful memories of days I am old enough to remember. (It gets dark here at 6 oclock all year.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-im-64-and-other-reminders-that-you-are-old/826788.md?page=17)