JUST FOR FUN: You know you are getting older when...

[NightHawkeye]

I've got one of those console style AM radio with a built-in turntable. It has the original tubes ... and ... it still works!!

Joe, if it's like some of the ones I remember, with electromagnet speaker, then it should have better audio quality than any of the stuff until CD's came along.

For those who may be wondering, I probably should explain that the old time rock and roll recordings done through vacuum tube amplifiers had a "sweet" bass response, due to the way the harmonics were produced, and that sound still comes through when listened to with today's electronics. In contrast, when the studios started producing albums using solid-state gear, a distinctly discordant sound, very noticeable in the bass region, was generated. There are those who attribute this as a major cause of the abrupt change in the sound of popular music which occurred in the later '60's.

Regards,
Bill

[Guest]

JUST FOR FUN: You know you are getting older when...

You say to your 11-year-old son, "I have that record!," and he says, "Mom, what's a record?"

You say to your son, "Let's start with a clean slate," and he says, "What's a slate?" So you say, "It's like a chalkboard on the wall at school," and he says, "What's a chalkboard?"

You watch the Superbowl half-time show with your son and comment, "Mick's still got it," and he says, "Got what?" So you say, "You know, energy... the moves.... stamina...," and your son says, "Do they test musicians for steroids?"

You're discussing the javelin and the golf balls we've left on the moon (hey, don't laugh, these things come up) and your son says, "Did we get fined for littering?"

You watch the Olympics on T.V. with your son and the commentator says, "The very first Olympics was held in approximately 776 BC in Olympia," and your son says, "Did you go?" So you say, jokingly, "No, I've never been to Greece," and your son says, "Did you watch it on T.V?"

I could go on, but I'm far too old and weak....

[NightHawkeye]

Back in my youth I remember a discussion with a lady, who was nearly 100 at the time, and she described to me being atop her Daddy's shoulders, watching soldiers march through town at the end of the civil war. (The town was Jackson, Mississippi, by the way.)

I'm trying to decide if this makes me old, since I knew someone who actually lived through the civil war, or if it's really an indication of how young I am now.

Regards,
Bill (still in denial, I guess)

[WAFlowers]

Audiophiles pay thousands of dollars to get that tube sound today

Yep, all this digital technology and we are trying to capture that classic analog sound. It's true, digital is flatter, less warmth.

This is so ironic; synchronicity at work! Just this weekend I was shopping on Ebay for some old NAD equipment which is what I wanted (and couldn't afford) 20+ years ago.

NAD arguably had the best non-tube sound, and still does.

BTW, although I wanted a 3020 or 3140 integrated amp I ended up with a deal on a 7240PE receiver plus cassette deck. Now I can finally get my 24-year old recording of our wedding transferred to CD, complete with pipe organ and trumpet as my bride went up the aisle to Trumpeter's Voluntary.

[WAFlowers]

You say to your 11-year-old son, "I have that record!," and he says, "Mom, what's a record?"

My kids understand "record", but say "I have that song on an LP" and they get really confused!

[Guest]

When I found a stack of old 45s and mentioned this exciting discovery to my son, he asked why I had a bunch of old guns.

[cvansant]

Okay children. Nostalga is fun. And listening to the age brackets compare, "I remember when..." is interesting But how many of you remember -

Before automatic transmissions, power steering or power brakes on automobiles?
Before radial ply tires?
Manual defrosting a refrigerator?
(In fact Ole lady Slocum across the street had a real ice box.)
Listening to the radio for evening entertainment?
The first time you saw a real television set?
LPs, 45rpm records? How about only 78s?
BTW, "high fidelity" much less "stereophonic" sound wasn't in the lexicon.
The flag with 48 stars?
CocaCola in 7oz bottles? No such thing as canned soda.
"Ready made" cigarettes for 11 cents. Roll your own tobacco for 9?
A loaf of bread for 10 cents?
WWII ration books?
Tokens as parts of a penny?
Civility, courtesy and manners as part of everyday life?

Just a young un.
Clif

[NightHawkeye]

Thanks Clif,

I feel better now, but it was 3/4 of the way through your list before I found something that didn't occur in my lifetime.

Regards,
Bill

[Guest]

Civility, courtesy and manners as part of everyday life?

So true. What happened to that?


What will our kids be reminiscing about when they're our age?

"Remember when we used to listen to music on those giant CDs?"
"Remember when you could go through airport security without taking off your shoes?"
"Remember when families could afford to send their kids to college?"
"Remember when America wasn't the most reviled country in the world?"
"Remember the food pyramid?"
"Remember when there wasn't a cure for cancer?"
"Remember when people used to sit in front of those huge computers?"
"Remember when mail used to something delivered to your house in an envelope?"
"Remember those enormous noisy CPAP machines we used to have to use?"

[SLEEPYCD]

I love this thread,
1. First show I saw on B/W TV was "The Wizard of Oz", I had nightmares about those flying monkeys for weeks!!!
2. Going to the Drug Store Soda Fountain and my brother having to order me a 5 cent orange phospate, because I was too shy.
3. A memory of by brother Daryl throwing a 78 of Elvis's "You Ain't Nothing but a Hound Dog" like a frisbee out in the yard, because my other brother played it nonstop on a phonograph!!!!
4. My favorite (pop/soda) was Nesbitt's Orange Soda in a bottle.
5. Going out to play all day with your friends and your parents not worrying about where you were or calling you on a cell phone (small town in Iowa).
6. One of my neighbors still had an outhouse, needless to say I always went home to go.
7. Listening to AM Radio stations, cause that's all there was to listen to.
Enough for now, I think I'll put an album on my turntable and listen to some Rock & Roll, while I clean the house!!! Enjoy your day!!!!!

[Aswab]

We is getting old, ain't we?!

I'm a 49'r who was raised in a small midwestern town that, in my childhood, had not left the gay 90s - 1890s that is.

Damp red saw dust on floors swept multiple times a day.

Cracker and pickle Barrels (not the chain restaurant).

Getting a radio and cigarette lighter in a car was an add-on and a bit of a luxury (at least to my Dad).

Putting plastic on everything to protect it. Plastic on car seats, plastic on furniture.

Carnegie libraries.

No Interstates and almost no 4 lane highways. I didn't know mid-North Illinois had contours and August through October we couldn't see anything but corn. The interstates raised us above all of that a little bit.

My folks drove into Chicago to see the stage versions of Oklahoma and South Pacific, kids would say - WHAT?

Radio for real, not nostalgia - The Lone Ranger, Paladin, Gunsmoke, The Shadow, Our Miss Brooks, Jack Benny, Arthur Godfrey...

Neighbors owned brand new Packards and Studebakers.

My Dad got his watch cleaned and adjusted every year at the local jewler (owned by our neighbor).

Sputnik

I was 6 and WWII had just ended 10 years earlier.

Downtown was downtown - no Wal-Mart!

Midway Airport in Chicago was the busiest airport in the country. DC-3s, DC-6bs, DC-7s, Convair's (all prop passenger planes and not Turbo Props!). None of them had luggate storage bins, carryon luggage went on a shelf behind a strap, like a xcountry bus.

There were living Civil War veterans and, as a child, I associated with WWI vets.

8 Baseball teams in each league and only one west of the Mississippi (no it was not KC but I barely recall that move).

Pro basketball had virtually no following.

Chicago had two pro football teams.

I heard steam locomotives every night before going to bed.

That's enough for now.

David

[Guest]

Would I want to be 12 again, when WW2 just ended and my country was respected around the world? Yeh, I think maybe!

[Goofproof]

Would I want to be 12 again, when WW2 just ended and my country was respected around the world? Yeh, I think maybe!

And when our returning warrors were treated as Heroes, and no one Spat and called them Baby Killers because the did their Duty.

[cvansant]

All the technological advances over the years have made life easier, no doubt. But I think we have lost something also. Life was simpler years ago. Maybe it was the need for peace and quiet after living through WWII but I am convinced people of the day lived at a higher moral/ethical level. If a 9yo (me) could be trusted to catch a streetcar, ride it to a transfer stop, transfer to another street car, ride downtown, walk to the music store for lessons and return without my parents worrying about me or the people I would meet, there had to be a level of trust that we cannot assume anymore.

A couple more:

Introduction of the wonder drug penicillin to the public.
Introduction of Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show.
Manually operated adding machines.
Mimeograph machines.
Not even banks had a computer.
The only things in space were the moon, planets and stars.
Walking 5 miles to school. Uphill both ways. In 3 feet of snow. In temperatures below zero. Yada, yada, yada. .......Ok, so I lied about the snow and freezing temps. After all I grew up in Birmingham Ala.

Clif
65 and still counting.

[NightHawkeye]

If a 9yo (me) could be trusted to catch a streetcar, ride it to a transfer stop, transfer to another street car, ride downtown, walk to the music store for lessons and return without my parents worrying about me or the people I would meet, there had to be a level of trust that we cannot assume anymore.

I was riding the city bus when I was seven years old to and from school every day. Never had a fear, never had a problem.

The trust you refer to was based on personal responsibility. Folks were much more accountable to others back then than they are now, sad to say.

Regards,
Bill