The Old Guys threak - Page 12

I threw my back out this sunday!

I remember when SNL was funny.

I remember the Dukes well; they were the Toros' main competition, though they were not as good as the team you mention.


So true....

..

I remember "curb feelers" - those springs that would be right in front of the tire to let you know when you were close to the curb so you dodn't scratch your tires.

We had them on our Impala.

Now there was a car. I remember my brother taking me for rides on the highway. He would punch it from the on-ramp and I would watch the fuel gage slowly drop! Each quarter mile would probably cost $5 these days.

I remember when I could pee over a car. Now I do good to keep my shoes dry.

Probably the best reason I've heard so far for cleaning shoes before polishing them.

Your neighborhood cat remembers it even more clearly.

Now, now ... just because it's Berkeley doesn't mean it's wierd.

Montreal Expos at Jarry Park with "Le Grande Orange"
A Lionel Scout 2-4-2 steam-locomotive train set (still got it -- waiting for my son to be old enough before I set it up again)
black and white tv with a dial
"Woody" station wagons
Lincoln Logs
Growing up playing "board games", including lots of Avalon Hill stuff
AD&DR
Watching the Habs vs. Red Army on New Year's Eve
all-cotton hockey sweaters (fock, were they heavy)
iron-on tees and iron-on knee patches for your "dungarees"
SST racers
rotary phones
Wide World of Sports
day-glo orange and/or bright blue sportcoats on CBC Sports announcers
Wagon Wheels -- two for 5 cents
"Happy Days"
"Davey and Goliath"

I used to have a large collection of Britain's Ltd. lead soldiers as a boy. Anybody remember those? Just about every Xmas I got more "leads." I sold my collection in 1981, got some decent money for it. They'd probably be worth more today, but some of the figures were starting to oxidize, so it was just as well.

I am sure the safety Nazis would be up in arms today about little boys playing with lead soldiers, but it never did me any harm that I've been able to discern.

In an earlier, more robust era, little boys were given moulds to cast their own lead soldiers from molten lead--I'm sure that practice would give the Health & Safety Nazis apoplexy today!

I wore knickers. (Plus Fours)

I remember when PCs were far in the future.

My school, Rice U., had a huge main frame and a "computer lab". It was one of 5 schools that were part of Arapanet ( a precursor to the internet ).

One of the guys in my dorm was a nerd and he always was telling me to "get into computers"!.

I thought he was nuts and he reminded me of the famous scene from Dustin Hoffman's movie "The Graduate". The scene where there's a party by the pool and a guy tells the newly graduating Dustin Hoffman, "Plastics, young man Plastics". Turns out my dorm mate was right though. Today he's a principal with Kleiner Perkins in SF. Really a brilliant guy. But I knew better back then, with my weed smoking and trips to the valley.

It's not over yet. One of my current projects is interesting. I met an amazing girl. She's too young for me since she's 28. But she's really something else. She's extraordinarily hot ( no pictures will be posted ), and when most people see her they think, "What club does she work in?". But au contraire, it's completely different. She's an international business consultant with an MBA from a very prestigious University. She's traveled all over the world doing third party consulting for major oil companies! She wants me to introduce her to some of my oil patch friends to see if she can get to the next level. I'm going to do it and I really hope it leads to something.

As Dick Cavett once famously said of Johny Carson, " I think he has an avuncular interest in me". Well, I think she has an avuncular interest in me. Sometimes it's good being old. I missed my chance 40 years ago but I really would be delighted if she makes it to the next level.

^^^ My first PC accommodated two six inch floppy disks ... and had NO hard drive. Remember MS-DOS? The program I used most often was PSF File ... and I still use it ... in an MS-DOS window.

My parents met working at IBM in the mid-60's and have always been somewhat involved with computers. I remember my dad bringing home the dumb terminals where the telephone handset went into the acoustic coupler and you could link into the mainframe that way.

Also, one of my friends in junior high had a TRS-80 computer and we used to spend hours programming in BASIC and saving the programs on the cassette tape drive.