What Old-Fashioned Things Do You Remember?

Remember when creamsicles? had those plastic handles that could be joined together and used to build things if you got enough of them.

Card catalogs in the library.

fwiw wrote:

Lots of great stuff on here. One thing I haven't seen mentioned is calling a phone number to get the exact time - this was back when you had to set your watch every once in a while. You could call another number (I think it was 50 cents a call which was a lot and I knew I couldn't call too much or my parents would get upset) to get sports scores. They updated it about every 5 minutes with all the games that night. This is was if you could not wait until the morning or if the game you were watching was not going to finish until too late in the evening to make the cut off for the next day's newspaper.

That sports phone service was aimed at bookies and bettors, can't go to bed without knowing if you were poor or rich.

Another weird one from before the flood of local road races: in the late 60s, to early 70s, Track and Field News compiled a National Postal Race. High schools would run a three mile at their home track supposedly on the same day and the magazine would publish the individual results and there would be a team total.

fwiw wrote:

Lots of great stuff on here. One thing I haven't seen mentioned is calling a phone number to get the exact time - this was back when you had to set your watch every once in a while. You could call another number (I think it was 50 cents a call which was a lot and I knew I couldn't call too much or my parents would get upset) to get sports scores. They updated it about every 5 minutes with all the games that night. This is was if you could not wait until the morning or if the game you were watching was not going to finish until too late in the evening to make the cut off for the next day's newspaper.

I remember calling the Correct Time phone number. Also, you could call for the weather.

By the time I cared about sports you were able to see scores on ESPN.

Earliest sports memory: October, 1986, 6 years old, seeing my New-England-raised father, the most mild-mannered man alive, going absolutely ballistic at the end of game 6 of the world series. F-bombs flying through the living room, beer spilled all over the carpet. I had never seen him mad before.

zephito wrote:

I remember calling the Correct Time phone number. Also, you could call for the weather.

MEridian 6 1212 and WEather 6 1212 in NYC

Women used to wear nylons or pantyhose everywhere, everyday and it was so proper, and alluring, and ladylike.

The Bowmar Brain, shopping for my first hand held calculator, late 1972.

more 1939 technology wrote:

zephito wrote:

I remember calling the Correct Time phone number. Also, you could call for the weather.

MEridian 6 1212 and WEather 6 1212 in NYC

We dialed P-O-P-C-O-R-N for the time. It was a Northern California thing apparently:

I remember when slide rules were our portable calculators.

The new improved PVC (sealed on three sides design) pocket protector came out about '52-'53 and protected your white work shirt from fountain pen leakage.

Teenage gringos working at fast food restaurants, rather than 40 year old immigrants from Latin America.

I keep getting older and ... wrote:

Gas station mini-thins with legit epinephrine

Weekly faxed top time sheets

Running on gravel train track beds during the decade or so between when the tracks were taken up and their later conversion to paved biking/ stroller/ hobby jogger viaducts

Majority of teenagers working

Housing prices primarily based on value

Not knowing what gluten was

Knowing more about my friends and teammates than celebrities

White/Neon pink Nike Eldoret spikes

Highschool track meets on cinders

Highly talented high school distance runners running 3 or 4 events at county, conference, and state meets to score points for their team.

Women with big juggs and hairy bushes.

GoodTimes wrote:

Women with big juggs and hairy bushes.

Care to explain this?