Without saying your age, what's something from your childhood that a younger person wouldn't understand?

[carrps]

@panache45

I think those devices are primarily used for kids’ feet.

Makes sense. Kids’ shoe sizes change constantly. I think my brother changed shoe sizes three times in one year.

[Son_of_a_Rich]

Hungry hungry hippos were capable of maimage?

[Machine_Elf]

@EinsteinsHund

I remember that “SYS” called a machine routine at address 49152 in C64 Basic, but which was it at that special address?

It was whatever you loaded to that location.

LOAD “PROGRAM”,8,1

The “,8” told the command to load from the humungous 1541 external floppy disk drive (170 KB per disk!), and the “,1” told it to load to the memory address indicated by the first two bytes of the program being loaded.

https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/LOAD

By my recollection, most of the programs that I loaded with the “,1” parameter ended up getting loaded to memory address 49152.

Turns out you can actually buy a shirt with that load command written on it, and of course the shirt color is the same blue as the C64 display.

https://www.zazzle.com/load_8_1_t_shirt-235506504874391708

[EinsteinsHund]

@Machine_Elf

LOAD “PROGRAM”,8,1

The “,8” told the command to load from the humungous 1541 external floppy disk drive (170 KB per disk!), and the “,1” told it to load to the memory address indicated by the first two bytes of the program being loaded.

LOAD - C64-Wiki

By my recollection, most of the programs that I loaded with the “,1” parameter ended up getting loaded to memory address 49152.

I remember the “LOAD” command, but I always, after loading, started the program simply with “RUN”, no SYS call necessary.

[Filbert]

They used to play it with Pablo Escobar. It was a different time.

[DMC]

This.

[Tired_and_Cranky]

I think I’m a bit younger than most board members but I read and listen to my elders so I’m aware of many of these things. This is the first thing anyone posted where I can honestly say I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about so you taught me something new today.

@Tibby

I liked it. I didn’t like being singled out in elementary school every year for a chest x-ray due to tuberculosis (TB) exposure. Only 2 other kids in school had to do so. It was embarrassing.

It’s also news to me that some kids were X-rayed for TB in school. Huh.

@Thudlow_Boink

Okay, who remembers electric football? Not electronic—electricity made the game vibrate and the players move around.

Someone gave my older brother a hand-me-down one of these but it was hockey.

@DesertDog

One of my mother’s first jobs was jukebox operator. The patron would put a nickel in the slot, pick up a phone handset which would ring Mom in a central location. They would request a song, she would find the record, plug a record player into that line, and drop the needle on the record which would play through a speaker at the location.

Also a new one for me. This thread is a goldmine.

[Author_Balk]

I worked at a store and we had a manual credit card imprinter. This website has a picture of the type.

P.F. Chang’s turns to vintage 1970s tech after credit card breach

[DMC]

@DMC

This.

Except for Fallout fans.

[Railer13]

@Saint_Cad

And make sure you don’t have any IRQ or DMA conflicts.

Ah, yes. Setting the dip switches on an add-on card so one could have multiple serial and/or parallel ports.

[EinsteinsHund]

Or having to reset jumpers on hard drives to configure them as either master or slave.

[panache45]

@DesertDog

When I took a course in printing at San Jose State the lab had a Linotype in it, the only time I’ve seen one. Alas, only “seen” – there was never a reason to fire it up.

In my first job as a typesetter, I got to use a Linotype machine for about two weeks, not nearly long enough to really get proficient. But years later, when I worked for Mergenthaler, we had a gold-plated Linotype machine in the lobby. I don’t know whether it worked.

[Saint_Cad]

Gotta new one. Just heard of a guy who drank glow-stick juice. How many of you remember

Mr. Yuck stickers?

[Keeve]

Here’s something even some of the younger folks might remember: screen protectors on your PDA, to prevent scratches from the stylus.

[CalMeacham]

@Author_Balk

I worked at a store and we had a manual credit card imprinter. This website has a picture of the type.

Ah – the venerable “Kachunker”

[ratatoskK]

UHF and VHF choices on the TV dial.

[CalMeacham]

Fotomats

phone booths

Telephone books in phone booths

Summer reruns

S&H Green Stamps (and other trading stamps)

Games at Gas Stations (where you had to collect papers or coins for a chance to win money or gas)

[OttoDaFe]

@CalMeacham

Ah – the venerable “Kachunker”

This reminded me of another bit of nostalgia: lever voting machines. For me, there was something oddly satisfying about the click … click … click … click … ka-CHUNK; I thought of it as the “sound of democracy.”

(On the other hand, there were only two or three per precinct, and there was always someone who went in unprepared. Then it was click {think} click {think} click {think} click {long think} ka-{is this what I really want?}CHUNK.)

[cochrane]

@CalMeacham

Telephone books in phone booths

Usually with the page you need torn out.

[RTFirefly]

Not that there was anything there. When there was, it was only barely visible through the ‘snow.’