Things that you know that kids now will probably never understand - Page 12

putting a coke can behind your back bike tire so it could like a exhaust

Many of these have likely been covered in the 11+ pages of posts, but...

- the "WHIRRR-TIC-TIC-TIC-TIC" one hears when dialling a rotary dial phone

- the "BRRRRINNNNNGGGGG" of a ringing rotary telephone (the ring tones that imitate them just don't sound right, to me)

- the smell of mimeographed paper in school (anyone else remember the old blue and white?)

- while we're on the topic of schools, the strap. I was never on the receiving end (though I still remember the sound of a classmate getting it), but the idea of corporal punishment in school is definitely a thing of the past

- well-dressed teachers (I recall all of mine wore dresses, and the only make teacher I had always wore a tie and sport coat)

- gas pumps with the numbers on reels (i.e., not digital) - they also had those funny little balls that danced around in a little glass globe on the side of the pump, too

- leaded gas, for that matter

- cassette tapes (still have all of mine) and walkmans (ditto - still functional, too) - sad story: a young co-worker saw my walkman in my office and asked me why my MP3 player was so big!!

- a 9-world solar system, with Pluto as a planet

- going out to play for several hours, and coming home after dark

- sticking a baseball card in the back wheel of your bike to make a motor noise

- overhead projectors (I did my time as slide-turner when I started working)

- VHS vs. Beta; VCRs in general, too

- break dancing (very specific time period, I know, but I was into it in school)

Thanks for the memories, now I feel old....

Geoff

WTF?!?!?!?

A hand written love note.

great list! i'm 22 and already feel old for remembering everything here. except my teachers in taiwan used rulers or bamboo instead of the strap...

Halloween used to be a huge deal for kids and other than handing out candy adults stayed the hell out of it.

Park playgrounds used to have fun (i.e. not 100% safe, homogenized and dreadfully boring) equipment to play on before the lawyers got involved.

Going weeks as a kid without having any money and not feeling the slightest bit deprived.

SLIP and PPP Dial-up BBSes MUD/MUCK/MOO/MUSH Newsgroups (UUCP) gopher and archie

Hockey cards with the crappy stick of gum in it.

Plastic army sets that you had to use your imagination with.

A long distance phone call, after 11:00 of course to save on the rates, being a big event.

A commercial airline flight being an event you a) dressed up for and b) were on your best behavior for.

- encyclopedias

- cassette singles with awesome b-sides.

- tape players... no not the tape player built into the ghettoblaster, but that rinky-dink stand alone player with an integrated speaker/mic. Then taking that said tape player and holding it next to the radio when "Rock Me Amedeus" came on to record it onto a tape for future (static-y) listening pleasure... what drove a 5 year old to listen to Falco I'll never know.

- pre-internet era, ditching school to line up at tower records to buy concert tickets (while simultaneously dialing the ticketmaster number on the Zach Morris backpack phone you borrowed from your dad).

- actually thinking drugs were bad when mcgruff the crime dog came to your elementary school for an assembly. man those assemblies were awesome because it meant an hour out from class, sitting on the bare gym floor while feeling awkward when you happened to sit next to your 2nd grade crush.

- that lemonade stand game for the apple II

- taking a 5.25" floppy disk and looking up at the sun during a solar eclipse and ultimately thinking "that's it?!". whoop dee doo.

- the massive logistics of downloading porn on BBS's at 2400 baud: disabling call waiting so as not to screw up your porn downloading. yelling at your mom for picking up the phone to dial out while waiting to download said porn image (you said you were on the computer doing homework). ultimately let down after 2 hours of downloading a .jpg of some weird 70's porn that was too hirsute for your teenage tastes.... then upon further examination, the slow-motion startling realization that "wait, something looks off... that's not the right hole!"