How Old Are You

[waksupi]

I remember the crank telephone, getting plumbing in the house, and listening to the Grand Olde Opry on Saturday nights, direct from the old Ryman Auditorium. All the old timers were on it, and it didn't sound like what passes for country type music now.

[dk17hmr]

I remember when my dad got dial up internet on our home computer...I think I was 7 and thinkin this is lame it will never catch on.

[DLCTEX]

Oh Boy! I was 50+ when people here started getting internet.

[pmeisel]

My grandfather had the last horse-drawn milk route in Detroit. He and the horse retired together, shortly after the Korean War.....

[Rockydog]

I grew up in a big farmhouse with a crank phone on the wall in a big oak box. I remember getting an indoor toilet. We had had running water in the house for 40 years before I was born. My grandfater had hand poured a 12' X 12' cistern that rose 20 feet above ground. Our windmill pumped water in the top and we had pressurized water in all of our farm buildings with no pump other than head pressure from the cistern. We had a big wood furnace in the basement with a 4' X 4' grate in the floor directly above it. We used to set a big wash tub on it in the winter to take our bath but if you weren't careful you'd burn your feet on the grate. Later on we got a new forced air furnace from Montgomery Ward that actually blew heat to the upstairs of the house. If we had a good year on the farm we'd buy a load of coal to supplement the wood and stretch it a little so we didn't have to dig it out of the snow on the pile outside the house. RD

[starnbar]

well lead fred i allways liked doreen better on the mouseketeers she was a little bigger up front than annette but its what you fancy that counts. any way i still remember our 6 digit phone number from 1952.

[wallenba]

At 58 years of age I contemplate these things a lot. When I was a teenager I had to ask permission to use the phone. Often I was told no, as someone was waiting for an expected call or other business. If I wanted to talk to a friend I walked to their home (often over a mile) just to see if they were home. I cringe almost daily at seeing young men and women texting while driving and most times tailgating me as they do it. Just before I retired a young new hire coming into the parking lot had a serious accident with a semi. He had dropped his cell phone while driving and could not wait to park his vehicle before retrieving it. He is brain damaged to this day. I was 11 years old before I ever saw a television set or listened to a record, or had a potato chip or a candy bar. I lived in post war Europe where my father served in the USAF until 1960 when we returned stateside. Today teens feel deprived if they can't get dad to buy them a car.
Oh yeah...when we did get our first phone it was a "party line" remember those? Someone else shared the same phone number and you could hear them talk when you picked up the phone, you would have to wait til they hung up before you could use it. It had no dial on it as I recall. You told the operator the exchange and number and it was usually only 5 digits!

[Beekeeper]

I grew up during WW2 on a farm inWest Texas.
My Dad was ( by his words) a gentleman farmer (ment he couldn't make a living farming) so he worked in town as a machinest.
We spent a lot of time hunting rabbits or else went hungry.
My favorite memorys are listening to the Grand ol Opry on Sunday night,The only other time the radio was turned on was to hear the war news and morning farm reports, and waking up one morning at 4 am and going in the kitchen and seeing my mother making breakfast rolls.
She set me down on a stool by the stove where it was warm and made us both a cup of hot ovaltine (chocolate).
She put out dough to rise every night and made bread and rolls every morning.

When She passed away at age 86 there was still a big bowl of dough on the counter waiting to be made int bread and rolls.

I was in the Military before I saw my first TV and had never made a phone call as I didn't know anyone that had one.
I still do not watch much TV and altho we have a phone it is seldom used.
Was almost 70 before I got this computer and still barely know how to use it.


Jim

[zardoz]

I remember back about a quadrillionth of a second after the big bang.

You know, back when the Higgs boson condensate had not yet formed any quantum superstring loops, and a bit before the oscillation of any manifested primordial particles.

Of course, then those young whippersnapper sub-atomic particles had to come along, with their new fangled ways, and ruin everything by forming those darned
radical "communes" of elemental atoms , which really got out of hand when they got together and formed molecular structures. Blasted communists.

Things were a whole lot better, before all that.

[TDB9901]

I think we may have had one of the last crank telephone systems in the US. Got dial phones in 1974 if memory is correct. Changed things forever.

911 used to be grabbing the phone and ringing a "Line Ring" or just a bunch of "shorts".. You could have the whole county on alert instantly. Our ring was one long and one short.

There was a button on the most of phones that had to be pushed before you could talk, so you could listen with out anybody hearing you.
Seemed like we owned the lines ourselves, did most of our own repairs, remember doing some anyway....

I never did have guts enough to call a girlfriend..... One of my buddies used to do a "Line Ring" and tell everybody that he was about to call his....... didn't want them to miss it.

Now people ride over the hills horseback moving cattle while gabbing on the cell phone or texting....... Kinda takes the "romance" out of it.......

[HORNET]

Way to go, zardoz!! I figured that there were a couple of members that had been sitting on lead outcroppings waiting for somebody to invent fire.....

[wallenba]

Many thanks to Zardoz for being around to help create those heavy elements from hydrogen so we could have Pb.

[1Shirt]

Will be 72 this year, and yep, crank telephone, party line, Mom hung clothes outside on the line (had a wringer washing machine). There were only 7 enlisted ranks in the military when I enlisted, had my first 22 at 8 or 9 years old, and the first T.V. we had was about a cubic yard accross with a 5 inch screen, and a test pattern until 5:00 p.m. when Howdy Doody came on, and the test screen was back on after 10:00. Grew up poor but didn't know it until I enlisted. Feel sorry for kids today who don't know what a day's work is, because the libs have legislated out thier right to work young. Feel sorry for kids who don't grow up in the country, don't know a Deere from a Case, a holstien from an angus, or a durock from a poland china, and wish I didn't live in a city.
So much for wishing!
1Shirt!

[leftiye]

Nunya.

[Sonoma2k2]

whats with all these black n white photos???? I've never seen those before wowsa you guys are old old and older. much love to my brothers and dads out there and even grandpas!!!

[EOD3]

whats with all these black n white photos???? I've never seen those before wowsa you guys are old old and older. much love to my brothers and dads out there and even grandpas!!!

You know it's an OLD picture if it's black and white and the edges look like they were cut with pinking sheers. Even older if it has a slight reddish hue...

[EOD3]

Feel sorry for kids today who don't know what a day's work is, because the libs have legislated out thier right to work young. Feel sorry for kids who don't grow up in the country, don't know a Deere from a Case, a holstien from an angus, or a durock from a poland china, and wish I didn't live in a city.
So much for wishing!
1Shirt!

A few years of farm labor is good for a growing boy. You haven't lived until you've spent a summer or two with a pair of hay hooks...

[sundog]

Dad worked heavy construction while I was growing up. Off months he was an independent logger. I worked in the woods with him. Whatever I was capable of doing I did at whatever age, he taught me, and I did it, bucking brush, rigging chains, operating equipment, ax work, whatever. Later, I worked on the farm. There is a lot that can be said for the education a young person gets by the time the product is delivered, whether logs or produce. Sure gives a body appreciation for a dollar, too. And a work ethic.

[twotoescharlie]

73 on april the 14th

TTC

[Tom Myers]

74 today