Getting old department

[ralpht]

Just had breakfast in my favorite Walled Lake restaurant. I've gotten to know a young cook at the place and we discuss music from time to time. Today we were discussing vinyl records. He asked me how they worked since he has never listened to one. I told him if he wanted to listen to a particular song, he would have to lift the tone arm and place it in the grooves next to the upcoming song. He had a bit of a problem grasping this concept....Now where did I leave my keys......

[marv2]

Are you serious? LOL! But I can relate. I have a nephew who is a musician/performer/singer and he has never held a vinyl album in his hands before. He is 22 years old.

[soulster]

Are you serious? LOL! But I can relate. I have a nephew who is a musician/performer/singer and he has never held a vinyl album in his hands before. He is 22 years old.

Kind of puts this so-called vinyl resurgence with the young 'uns into perspective, doesn't it?

Seriously, I cannot comprehend that there are people who have never even held, much less seen a vinyl record!

[skooldem1]

I've posted this before. But this story reminds me of this:

[ralpht]

Yeah Marv, this kid is somewhere in that age group. I couldn't believe it when he asked me how to play a vinyl record. But when I thought about it, how would the kid know?

[marv2]

Yeah Marv, this kid is somewhere in that age group. I couldn't believe it when he asked me how to play a vinyl record. But when I thought about it, how would the kid know?

That's true. It's funny because just a few days ago I was in this very small town. I went to this shop that sold old memorablia, radios, TV's etc and I asked the guy if he would be getting any old "record players" from the sixties and he said he would contact me.
What kills me most is when I see a kid wearing an afro or braids or some other look that we had back in the day and they think that it's new and they originated it!

[nabob]

What kills me most is when I see a kid wearing an afro or braids or some other look that we had back in the day and they think that it's new and they originated it!

We've become our parents. I think we're all beginning to sound like they use to sound to us. LOL

[marv2]

Show a kid something like this and he would be stumped to tell you what it is!

Attachment 8999

[marv2]

....and if you really want to mess 'em up, show them something like this! LOL!!!

Attachment 9000

[144man]

Don't kids ever get taught about the past?

[soulster]

Don't kids ever get taught about the past?

Don't old folks care about the present?

[Jerry Oz]

Don't old folks care about the present?

And "BOOM!" went the dynamite...

[144man]

Don't old folks care about the present?

I was referring to education in schools. Even though we had record players in the 60s, we were taught in school about cylinders and wind-up phonograms.

[marv2]

I was referring to education in schools. Even though we had record players in the 60s, we were taught in school about cylinders and wind-up phonograms.

That is so true! We also learned about artists from the 20s,30s and 40s!

[144man]

That is so true! We also learned about artists from the 20s,30s and 40s!

In some respects, I envy my parents' generation. In the pre-television era, because they only had access to 4 BBC radio stations, they shared a common culture. There is so much choice in broadcasting nowadays that it has resulted in society becoming more fragmented.

[soulster]

That is so true! We also learned about artists from the 20s,30s and 40s!

When I was in music, and later in band, they didn't teach us about the people who made the music, they just taught the music itself. In Jr. High and High school band, we played music that was from our own time frame of life, starting in about 1960 forward. If it wasn't classical music in marching and concert band, it was pop/rock/jazz in jazz ensemble. That meant stuff like The Beatles, Cliff Nobels, & Co., Jesus Christ Superstar, Chicago, Billy Joel, MFSB, Carpenters, Maynard Ferguson, Herbie Hancock, and the like.

[soulster]

I was referring to education in schools. Even though we had record players in the 60s, we were taught in school about cylinders and wind-up phonograms.

heh! maybe YOU were! How old are you again?

[blueskies]

I took some CD's into Half Price Books to sell and the guy said.....'this case is empty'. I said...."oh, I think I left that one in my Walkman." He said..."WALKMAN".....you still have a WALKMAN!." He said it so loud people looked. I felt like fleeing the store! I hang my geriatric head in shame.

[arr&bee]

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,this post is classic,i can remember my folks talking about the[victrola]and me looking at em real funny,i recently showed a little one how a turntable works and the kid was fascinated,we're the new museum peices.

[marv2]

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,this post is classic,i can remember my folks talking about the[victrola]and me looking at em real funny,i recently showed a little one how a turntable works and the kid was fascinated,we're the new museum peices.

Hey, I couldn't understand how my parents and grandparents could gather around the radio and listen to their regular programs, soap operas, etc.

[robb_k]

Hey, I couldn't understand how my parents and grandparents could gather around the radio and listen to their regular programs, soap operas, etc.

I must be older than you. I remember when no one had TVs in their houses. So, I remember listening to radio comedies and variety shows and mysteries. I don't have a flip phone or I-phone.I don't even know what they are. I only first got a mobile phone last year. I didn't get a computer of any kind until 1998. I never bought a car with an automatic transmission. I don't use heating in my house in The Netherlands, nor my flat in Germany, even in winter. I don't use a dishwasher.

When I tell kids we had no computers when I grew up, and no TV until I was a teenager, they asked "What did you DO all the time?" I told them we played sports, games and read books [[on paper!) I'm certain that my growing up in the '40s and early '50s was more like the youth of my parents than of my younger sisters and brother, who grew up mostly in the '60s, and my growing up was closer to that of my grandparents who grew up in the 1880s and 1890s, than it is to the kids of today, even though they had no airplanes, autos, radio, garbage disposals, refrigerators, air-conditioning [[people didn't have that in their homes when I grew up)..

[milven]

I must be older than you. I remember when no one had TVs in their houses. So, I remember listening to radio comedies and variety shows and mysteries. ..

I may be about your age, or maybe a few years younger-or older . I do remember the final years of network radio and also the beginning of TV. We were too poor for TV so I watched stuff like Howdy Doody by my friends house and Children's Hour with the family in the apartement below me. But today I am grateful that we did not switch over to TV immediately, because I have a first hand knowledge of the era before me. What nice memories I have of sitting in the "parlor" with my family listening to THE SHADOW, THE LONE RANGER, BABY SNOOKS, STOP THE MUSIC, THE FBI, FIBBER MC GEE and other shows.

But I don't live in the past and usually I was the first to get a new gadget. I remember when people were amazed when I was walking around in my yard with a cordless phone talking to someone. And had a fax machine before they became popular. Had a VCR even before there was a Betamax. And computerized my business in the early nineties with a DOS system before there was WINDOWS.

I love the line above "When I was your age, we had to walk across the living room to change the channel."

[marv2]

I took some CD's into Half Price Books to sell and the guy said.....'this case is empty'. I said...."oh, I think I left that one in my Walkman." He said..."WALKMAN".....you still have a WALKMAN!." He said it so loud people looked. I felt like fleeing the store! I hang my geriatric head in shame.

Blueskies, I have a Flip Phone [[as well as a I-Phone). I carry the Flip Phone with me everywhere and you should see the looks I get! LOL! I still have it because it is generally one that kids will not try to steal and if I leave it somewhere chances are I will get it back!

[westgrandboulevard]

Treating people who are decades younger than ourselves as our equals is a courtesy that rarely if ever works well in reverse!

It's for them just to be, and for us simply to understand them..LOL

Ever tried engaging in extended conversation with young people, without being at least tempted to say "when I was your age, I....."

[westgrandboulevard]

Then get a real good look. We're endangered.

[Jerry Oz]

If you really want to blow their mind, ask them if they can fathom what an 8-track player was. I remember riding with my folks from Ohio to Virginia with Dad popping in 8-track cassettes. There would be a case with 12 or so cassettes in them to tide us over when the radio lapsed out between cities. Songs would pause in the middle as it skipped from one track to the next. Hah!

Good times.

[Doug-Morgan]

".......when I was your age, we had to WALK across the living room to change the channel on the TV......"

[mr soul]

My great niece who six was playing some tunes for me the other day, do you know this, no how about this no, so she played MJ's "Thriller", I went straight to the vinyl 12" picture disc I have & showed it to her, she said WOW that's a big CD.

[ralpht]

That is so right, Doug. All three channels.

[blueskies]

That is so right, Doug. All three channels.

Along with the 3 channels [[I well remember that)....we had these antenna's on top of the TV that someone got the bright idea to put foil on?? Plus, there was that antenna on top of the house. None of it worked very well as I remember. We were always 'fiddling' around with those dials and it was like watching TV with cataracts....bad ones.

[soulster]

Uh, we had five TV stations. ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, ans one independent station. But, starting in 1969, we got cable. Still had a B&W TV, though.

[marv2]

Uh, we had five TV stations. ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, ans one independent station. But, starting in 1969, we got cable. Still had a B&W TV, though.

Wow, we had at first 2 TV stations, Channel 11 [[CBS) and Channell 13 that doubled as NBC and ABC until 1968 when we got Channel 24 ABC full time. We had Canadian station channel 9 out of Windsor and then Detroit network channels with Channel 50 being the main independent until the early 70's. Cable? I didn't see cable for the first time until around 1983! That was in Colorado and then everyone back home started getting it in the mid 80s.

[soulster]

Wow, we had at first 2 TV stations, Channel 11 [[CBS) and Channell 13 that doubled as NBC and ABC ...

How did that work?

[marv2]

How did that work?

It was strange because in one hour you would have NBC produced programing on a given night, on others it would be ABC. They would alternate the most popular programs for each network. Some just watched the Detroit affiliate for ABC [[channel 7 WXYZ) since it was so close to Toledo to begin with. By 1968 all was well however.....

1968 was the year we got Channel 30 / PBS

[mr soul]

Soulster...you were lucky, we only had 2 TV stations BBC & ITV & our wireless [a strange thing to call a radio that had an electrical wired plug] took 10 minutes to warm up before you heard anything.

[marv2]

Soulster...you were lucky, we only had 2 TV stations BBC & ITV & our wireless [a strange thing to call a radio that had an electrical wired plug] took 10 minutes to warm up before you heard anything.

Mr. Soul in the 60s and early 70s are television broadcast days usually ended around 12 midnight. How long was the broadcast day in the UK?

[Jerry Oz]

Mr. Soul in the 60s and early 70s are television broadcast days usually ended around 12 midnight. How long was the broadcast day in the UK?

LOL. "We have reached the end of our broadcast day..." I remember that like it was yesterday.

[marv2]

Now we don't REAALLLLY have to get old..............................LOL

[glencro]

now we don't reaalllly have to get old..............................lol

toooo funny!!!

[glencro]

Loving this post. I can remember a few years ago I was on a plane and pulled my portable cd player and cd case out of my carry on. The looks that I got. You would have thought that I pulled out a turn table. Purchased my first iPod after that trip.

[marv2]

Loving this post. I can remember a few years ago I was on a plane and pulled my portable cd player and cd case out of my carry on. The looks that I got. You would have thought that I pulled out a turn table. Purchased my first iPod after that trip.

Glen........hehehehehehehe....!

[soulster]

Could you imagine what would happen today if all channels signed off at night?

Hey, back in the day, did you ever wake up at like two in the morning with insomnia, and turn on the TV in desperate hopes that you'd find something on?

I already mentioned that in 1969, we got cable. But, in 1972, our cable company added three Los Angeles Stations in addition to the local channels. They were KHJ, KTTV, and KTLA. I guess it was because L.A. is the entertainment capital, but we were stoked that the channels stayed on all night, at least on the weekend. Some of my fondest memories were of watching 1930-type movies, and seeing endless Cal Worthington and his dog Spot TV commercials.

[Jerry Oz]

We got cable in 1972 and that changed the game for me and my friends. I remember when HBO first came on, it wouldn't even start showing movies until 4 or 5:00 PM and the last one ended around 1:00 AM. And don't get me going on when MTV debuted.

[soulster]

I remember when HBO first came on, it wouldn't even start showing movies until 4 or 5:00 PM

That's how it was when they started showing The Playboy Channel here in 1981 Well, they didn't bother to scramble it, either. How do I know this?

[Hotspurman]

Bear in mind that in the UK, we had only three channels until 1982, which isn’t really that long ago. Channel 4 launched in 1982, then Channel 5 in 1997, by which time Sky had entered the fray. And sometimes I think there was more worth watching when we had less choice than now...



I’m not really a gadget man, having resisted the lure of CD’s until a good five years after they launched, but I was one of the first in my village to have a Sony Walkman – I got some funny looks down my local when I walked in with that. Anytime I get anything new these days I have to get my son or daughter to programme it for me, including getting the time right on my phone!

[soulster]

Anytime I get anything new these days I have to get my son or daughter to programme it for me, including getting the time right on my phone!

Why not just have them teach you how to do it.

[robb_k]

Bear in mind that in the UK, we had only three channels until 1982, which isn’t really that long ago. Channel 4 launched in 1982, then Channel 5 in 1997, by which time Sky had entered the fray. And sometimes I think there was more worth watching when we had less choice than now...



I’m not really a gadget man, having resisted the lure of CD’s until a good five years after they launched, but I was one of the first in my village to have a Sony Walkman – I got some funny looks down my local when I walked in with that. Anytime I get anything new these days I have to get my son or daughter to programme it for me, including getting the time right on my phone!

In The Netherlands we had only 30 hours of programming per WEEK, as late as 1962, and only 2 channels until 1982, when Sky Channel and Superchannel came in.When TV first started, it was only on sporadically, for an hour or 2 in early evening. When cable came in, all night TV started then. It was pretty much the same in Denmark and Sweden, Germany started some commercial TV alongside the government supported channels a little earlier. But TV in Europe was very limited compared to what was on the airwaves in USA and Canada.

[marv2]

In The Netherlands we had only 30 hours of programming per WEEK, as late as 1962, and only 2 channels until 1982, when Sky Channel and Superchannel came in.When TV first started, it was only on sporadically, for an hour or 2 in early evening. When cable came in, all night TV started then. It was pretty much the same in Denmark and Sweden, Germany started some commercial TV alongside the government supported channels a little earlier. But TV in Europe was very limited compared to what was on the airwaves in USA and Canada.

That sounds a bit severe Robb. Only two channels by 1982? For the entire country? There were no pirate stations like there were in radio?

[robb_k]

The Belgian Superchannel was the "pirate TV station". The Sky Channel came in in 1983. Before then one could get Nederland1 and Nederland 2, and the Belgian public channels [[1 and 2), plus the Belgian French channels [[if you undersood French well enough). In the east and northeast one could also pick up nearby German channels[[3 or 4), if you understood German well enough.

[ralpht]

Soulster,
I had a grandson run through something on a computer for me, and by the time he finished, what I learned was to call him when I needed some tech assistance.