Not done like this anymore - share a memory

I remember when cc switched from meaning carbon copy to courtesy copy.

 

Wait, what?  

 

When did this happen?  I still think of it as "carbon copy", even though there is no carbon involved.  Just like I still "dial" a phone number even though there is no dial involved.

 

"bcc" is still "blind carbon copy", right?

[kewb]

Wait, what?

 

When did this happen? I still think of it as "carbon copy", even though there is no carbon involved. Just like I still "dial" a phone number even though there is no dial involved.

 

"bcc" is still "blind carbon copy", right?

I was thinking the same thing. I have never heard it called a courtesy copy. I guess I worked with old people.

 

I don't think kids today know that the save icon is a floppy disk.

 

I can remember always carrying an emergency dime for the payphone.

[*lifeoftheparty*]

Walking to school without anyone batting an eye

Riding in the "way back" of the station wagon on the way to church (and many other places)

Watching black & white tv with local channels only

Staying up late to watch the 30 minutes of music videos a local station played after the news on Saturday nights

Greeting visiting friends and family at the airport gate

Calling the bank for time and temperature

Playing in kindergarten

Playing in the creek

Lemon pledge (do they still make that stuff?)

Atlanta before I-285 (yes, I am that old :lol: )

Oh yes, a friend and I walked through the underground tunnels that connect the Senate Office Building to the Capital Building. They have a tram down there and everything! Now you can't get close to something like that.

We got to ride on those trams 5 years ago :) We had an awesome tour guide (who spoke 50 languages) who took us on them so we could go get more Senate chamber tickets.

[Guest]

The 1970's era VW van was designed for 7 passengers. Every summer, my parents stuffed it with 9 people, the family dog, and enough camping gear to manage 3 weeks. No one wore seatbelts and car seats for young children were not yet a thing. We then drove almost 1,000 miles with no air conditioning and no overnight stops. We camped on wooded privately owned land, in the middle of nowhere, with no water, electricity, or outhouses. We hauled drinking water from a spring, bathed in an ice cold stream, oooked on an open fire and a campstove, hiked for miles, and fought off clouds of mosquitoes.

 

Strangely enough, these are great memories. :laugh:

 

Please share a memory of your own of something no longer done.

HA! I have a similar vacation memory! We had a VW bus, too. My dad unbolted the seats so the van was basically a cargo bed. We drove to Florida with no AC and barely such a thing as a window that opened in AUGUST, people! We "camped" at Myacka Swamp in the Everglades. We opened the door and back hatch and my dad hung mosquito netting in the openings for a breeze. Well, it fell down in the middle of the night and we were covered in mosquito bites. We went to Disney (Magic Kingdom; that's all there was back then) and when my dad bought the park passes for one day, seven people, I remember him peeling off a bunch of 50s. It was the most cash I had ever seen at once. In reality, it was probably "only" $200 or something like it, but it sure looked like a lot of money to me at the time.

[Guest]

Wait, what?

 

When did this happen? I still think of it as "carbon copy", even though there is no carbon involved. Just like I still "dial" a phone number even though there is no dial involved.

 

"bcc" is still "blind carbon copy", right?

Yeah, I still think and say carbon copy or blind carbon copy, and that was true even when I worked in law and nobody was using carbon paper anymore.

 

Sidebar confession: I loved the smell of carbon paper. I could huff those suckers all day long.

[Lakeside]

The only shoe stores around here anymore are places like Rack Room, Payless, and Famous Footwear. They leave foot measuring thingies all around the store, but you measure your own (or your child's) foot yourself.

I was at DSW yesterday and couldn't find the foot measurer. At that store you have to ask for them at the front and return them when you are finished. I'd never had that happen before.

[SKL]

So I guess kids don't understand the phrase, "she's a carbon copy of her mother."

 

I didn't know the new meaning of cc either.  :P  Though here on WTM it means all sorts of things, so that could be why.

 

I have used actual carbons in the past.  And actual white-out with a brush.  And typed a 22-page application "in triplicate" meaning 3 separate times (not including corrections and do-overs).

 

Say, does anyone else remember when there was no 1 and no ! on the typewriter?  You had to use ' backspace . and lowercase L for those.

 

I think the biggest cultural change over my lifetime has been the introduction of "undo."

[Liz CA]

We have a Clark's in town. The assistant measures your child's feet with an electronic gauge, then goes to get a selection of suitable styles in the right length and width. She will thread the laces for you, then check the fit by watching the child walk, pulling at the heel, and running her hands all over the feet.

 

This is how it was where I grew up.

[Tanaqui]

I swear I am truly living in a different universe. My daughter had her feet measured just this year.

 

Is your name Jeffty?

 

Re: sugarloaf - you can still get those, actually.

[Laura Corin]

 

 

Re: sugarloaf - you can still get those, actually.

 

I think that my memory of it comes from a time when it was the norm rather than a speciality item, but I'll have to ask my mum.  The Elizabeth David quotation on Wikipedia talks about them being common well into the 20th century, so this must have been the tail-end.

Edited December 24, 2015 by Laura Corin

[lynn]

Doing things without helmets. Sledding, ice skating, roller skating, bike riding.

 

We would cross the busiest road to play at the playground at the drivin across the street. Running around unsupervised.

 

the fire station had candy and soda machines, we would go up there to get candy or soda.

 

Best memories sledding down a hill and ice skating at the pond until we were cold or hungry.

 

Going to a friends house and calling their name to come out and play. I don't remember ringing a doorbell or knocking on the door. It's just what we did.

Edited December 24, 2015 by lynn

[Junie]

Eating penny candy at my sister's softball game.  And it truly was penny candy.

[Ottakee]

Party lines for your telephone. Neighbors could listen in, hard to get the phone in the evenings with the 2 other parties on your line had teenage girls.

[Another Lynn]

Like many others, I have a crazy travel story.  We went from KY to south Florida at Christmas time in a horse van - two people could fit up front, the other three of us in the back.  My parents had put a love seat (pulled out to a bed for sleeping) and a comfortable chair in the back.  We had a walkie-talkie of sorts to call the cab if we needed the restroom or whatever, but it was next to impossible to hear.  The horse van had window openings which they covered with thick plastic to keep out the weather and it flapped back and forth making a lot of noise.  To keep us from getting to cold, we also had a propane heater in the back.  Safe, right?  :lol:

[Another Lynn]

And, another computer story like many others.  My elementary school got its first computer when I was in the 6th grade there (btw, we had jr. high of 7th, 8th, and 9th, rather than middle school with 6th, 7th, and 8th).  They brought all 6th graders into the "audio-visual" room (a place for TVs and VCRs, right?) to show us the computer.  We all stood around while our principal read to us from the manual.  One of our classmates knew more about it than the rest of us and he had a cassette tape hooked up to it and made his name go across the screen a gazillion times.  I did not get the point of that.  :D

 

(I think I did my first paper on a computer my senior year of college?  At my college internship, I used a DOS version of Lotus to do spreadsheets.  And a year later I prepped for the CPA exam on a portable computer about the size of a microwave.)

Edited December 24, 2015 by Another Lynn

[kewb]

These computer in the elementary school stories are making me feel my age. I took typing in high school and it was a necessary skill when I started working.

[DawnM]

I remember that -- the observation deck. Also, as a kid, getting to visit the pilots in the cockpit.

 

 

I used to do this.  And we would sit in the "upstairs" of the airplane.  I loved it, the narrow winding staircase to get upstairs was awesome.  My parents weren't as thrilled, having to go up and down stairs to use the bathroom was a pain in their opinion!

[DawnM]

I am not proud of this, but.......

 

Prank phone calls.  

 

No caller ID, no call return.

[Another Lynn]

These computer in the elementary school stories are making me feel my age. I took typing in high school and it was a necessary skill when I started working.

 

I took typing in high school also.  The point of my story is that although the school obtained its first computer that year, it did not impact education in any meaningful way until the next generation, imho. 

 

[Grantmom]

Calling the "time lady" and listening for several minutes so that your boyfriend could call through on call waiting and no one would hear the phone ring.

 

Wow, I never thought of that one!!  I do remember calling the time lady though!

[MaeFlowers]

Dime stores. Green stamps.

Pepsi machines that dispensed glass bottles (I loved those.)

Water slides that had mats. If you lost your mat, oh the burn!

Cable boxes with cords. You had to flip the switch on the side up and down, then pick a channel. If you did it just right, you could channels you didn't pay for.

This is actually before my time but there were still some when I was growing up...elevators with gates and doors and attendants.

When EVERYTHING was closed on Sunday. If you needed something for school and didn't get it on Saturday, you were SOL.

[Lady Florida.]

When we moved there, Highway 41 was known as 'the four lane'.  And no I-285 yet.   

 

 

 

I'm showing my age on this show-your-age thread, because my mind immediately started singing Ramblin' Man.

 

And I was born in the backseat of a Greyhound bus

Rollin' down Highway 41

 

  Amazon does not measure our feet.

 

 

 

That gave me a chuckle.

 

Remember when you had to wait until after midnight to call home from college because that's when the rates went down to 10cents/minute? But that was ok because mom was 5 time zones away so it was still early there? No? Well, I remember. :D

 

I called on weekends. The weekend rates started on Friday night and ended around 8 on Sunday nights. If I had to call during the week (non-emergency but couldn't wait) I waited until at least the night time rates kicked in.

 

I loved to play with my dad's manual typewritter.  (and press all the keys at once so they'd get stuck together.  ;) ) â€‹

 

I learned to type on a manual typewriter. Electric typewriters were a luxury.

 

Yeah, I still think and say carbon copy or blind carbon copy, and that was true even when I worked in law and nobody was using carbon paper anymore.

 

Sidebar confession: I loved the smell of carbon paper. I could huff those suckers all day long.

 

How about the smell of mimeograph worksheets at school? I used to love that smell. Everyone did. When I became a teacher I found out what the teachers called it. Purple Poison. :(

 

So I guess kids don't understand the phrase, "she's a carbon copy of her mother."

 

 

 

Now they say mini-me. "She's her mother's mini-me." Or so my son tells me.

 

Party lines for your telephone. Neighbors could listen in, hard to get the phone in the evenings with the 2 other parties on your line had teenage girls.

 

My grandparents had a party line and my cousin and I used to listen when we were there together. Then we'd get in trouble because of course the other party thought it was my grandmother listening and being nosy.

[Pink and Green Mom]

These computer in the elementary school stories are making me feel my age. I took typing in high school and it was a necessary skill when I started working.

 

Same here.  I remember typing class as a high school sophomore and pretty much every college bound student took it (because rumor had it you had to - gasp - type your papers in college).  In 1988 as a college freshman I had to take an "Introduction to Information Processing Systems" class.  I recall a floppy disk and typing a bunch of commands and if you did it correctly you had a picture of a football made out of dashes at the end or some such nonsense. 

[Grantmom]

When the kids were younger, I inherited my grandmother's station wagon that was 20 years old but only had like 40K miles on it.  It was old and things were starting to go wrong on it, and I was lamenting to DH that I wanted a car with a third seat so we had more room for friends, etc.  On a trip to the beach, we magically discovered this compartment in the trunk, and it turned out to be one of those seats that faces the other way!!  I had been driving the car for a year and never knew it had a third row in the back!  I was too scared to let my kids ride for any distance there though, because it only had lap belts. Ha!  We did however take a few trips around the neighborhood and I let them sit back there, just so they could say they did it!  They thought it was very cool.  :)

 

[FriedClams]

In college (I went to a military academy - so we were all in the barracks) we had two or so printers per company of 60+ cadets. End of semester was a ++NIGHTMARE++. We'd all hoard paper, stand gaurd not to lose our papers, and practically kill people who cleared the print que to jump line. There was always done genius messing with the connection cables, etc. It was awful.

Edited December 24, 2015 by FriedClams

[Alessandra]

Has anyone mentioned black dial phones?

TV was free, so total bills for communication were about $7/month

 

And I also remember party lines. You picked up the phone and told the operator the number (or person) you wanted to reach. Anyone in your party line group could listen in.

 

Oh, and on regular non-party phones, you could listen in on an extension if you picked up the receiver very quietly. Not proud of this, but it happened.

 

Phone boxes on streets. They were like little houses with doors.

 

Oh, I almost forgot. I am old enough to remember cables/telegrams. Full of 'stops.' I wish I had saved some. You just never believe that something so mundane could become so obsolete.

[Cinder]

Has anyone mentioned black dial phones?

 

 

Ours was that beige-ish color. Maybe I'm not as old as I thought! :laugh:

 

Remember when you had the option of getting rotary service or push-button? Rotary was a little cheaper. When dh got his first apartment in college they had a phone where you pushed the buttons but it sent the pulses of a rotary. So they got rotary pricing and push-button convenience. Ok, maybe I *am* as old as I thought. :tongue_smilie:

[Lady Florida.]

When my family first moved to where I live now, there were only two phone exchanges. The first two numbers were the same and only the last one was different. You could make a local call by dialing the last number of the exchange, then 4 digits of the number. This was 1970.

[SKL]

I remember when push-button phones were new-fangled.  :)  All our phones were rotary.  I think my parents still have at least one rotary phone.

 

I remember when long distance cost so much that you had to write a letter instead.  What a contrast from today when people can't find the time to write out a whole word in their texts.  :P

 

I took "word processing" (typing, computer style) in high school.  But the first time I ever turned in a school assignment printed from a computer was in grad school.  It printed on feed paper where you had to rip off the sides and tear the pages apart from each other.  There were no laser printers at our private grad school yet.

 

Kinko's was new and exciting then.  We had to go there to produce resumes.  I think it was like 20c per page, not counting the fancy paper.  In those days!

[SKL]

When my family first moved to where I live now, there were only two phone exchanges. The first two numbers were the same and only the last one was different. You could make a local call by dialing the last number of the exchange, then 4 digits of the number. This was 1970.

 

Oh yeah, I remember that too!  And now you have to dial 10 digits.

[SKL]

Oh, and remember when if you didn't have enough cash in your pocket you were SOL until the bank opened next Monday?  (Assuming you didn't have to be somewhere else at 9am Monday.)

[Cinder]

I took "word processing" (typing, computer style) in high school.  But the first time I ever turned in a school assignment printed from a computer was in grad school.  It printed on feed paper where you had to rip off the sides and tear the pages apart from each other.  There were no laser printers at our private grad school yet.

 

Kinko's was new and exciting then.  We had to go there to produce resumes.  I think it was like 20c per page, not counting the fancy paper.  In those days!

 

My IL's had a word-processing business in the mid-80's; they did a lot of term papers and resumes. They were the first people I knew who had computers in their home.

[kewb]

When the kids were younger, I inherited my grandmother's station wagon that was 20 years old but only had like 40K miles on it. It was old and things were starting to go wrong on it, and I was lamenting to DH that I wanted a car with a third seat so we had more room for friends, etc. On a trip to the beach, we magically discovered this compartment in the trunk, and it turned out to be one of those seats that faces the other way!! I had been driving the car for a year and never knew it had a third row in the back! I was too scared to let my kids ride for any distance there though, because it only had lap belts. Ha! We did however take a few trips around the neighborhood and I let them sit back there, just so they could say they did it! They thought it was very cool. :)

We drove all over in that back row. My cousin and I thought it was the greatest. No where near our sisters. We would wave and make faces at the cars behind us and get the truckers to honk their horns.

[Alessandra]

I remember when push-button phones were new-fangled. :) All our phones were rotary. I think my parents still have at least one rotary phone.

 

I remember when long distance cost so much that you had to write a letter instead. What a contrast from today when people can't find the time to write out a whole word in their texts. :P

 

I took "word processing" (typing, computer style) in high school. But the first time I ever turned in a school assignment printed from a computer was in grad school. It printed on feed paper where you had to rip off the sides and tear the pages apart from each other. There were no laser printers at our private grad school yet.

 

Kinko's was new and exciting then. We had to go there to produce resumes. I think it was like 20c per page, not counting the fancy paper. In those days!

Yes, rotary dial was the only kind. No area codes. Dial 0 and you got a living operator. You could also book a wake up call. And there was a number for weather, WE 7-7777, perhaps?

 

International calls were multi-step -- dial 0, get an operator, ask for an international operator in the country you were calling. Get the international operator in England, explain where you were calling, get put on to a local operator, have the call placed. In England, there were strange numbers, a name (not abbreviation) plus a variable number of digits. Within England, the number was different depending on what exchange you were calling from.

 

No area/postal codes. Not so many street numbers either. I could get mail addressed to: my name, town, state. No other info, and it got to me. Quickly.

[Retired]

born 1970 poor family

 

so first color tv 1980,  first vhs 1984,  saw MTV for first time at friend house 1983,  riding in back of pick-up truck or sitting on top of car moonroof or t- tops, first microwave 1990,  I took a tradeschool class and learned basic computer on an old apple.  I also took typing class and stenography (got a lot of use out of that LOL) They were already using the mini recorder but I went to a rural Alabama school they were not on up and coming professions.  I ended up going to college in my early 20's, got my  first mini satellite dish 1994,  first home computer 1999

 

When I finally moved up in the world a bit I realized that there were many things that I thought were new LOL that had been around.    I didn't know dishwasher had been around for years.  I was dang excited getting one with my first home.  I also only knew one person that had a ice dispenser in the door.  We thought that was cool.

 

TV rabbit ears with 3 stations,  party line phone,  lying on top the back seat of car in window or sitting on console between 2 front bucket seats,   leaving the house after breakfast and coming home with the street lights at night,  no air-condition at home or car,  getting a coke was a very special event going for fast food was a once a year big deal.   We only used the car one day a week.  We walked everywhere.  The whole town was closed on Sunday.  When I got sick one sunday my mom called the doctor at home.  Then Mr david the pharmacist meet us at the drug store just to give me meds.  We didn't have credit cards we had accounts at the drug store and gas station.  We would just come in pull up and the clerk would ask do you want it on your account (gosh can you imagine this now).  There was one last hold out gas station that continue doing this till 2000 for long time families of the town.

 

Christmas trees were cut wild and decorated with paper ornament and popcorn. The tree lights were very large and got hot.  (big fire hazard)

 

We did get a disco light silver tree given to us after disco era LOL that was used for a few years. 

I don't miss the gold shag carpet and heavy dark green velvet curtain.  The trailer I grew up in would of been a perfect bordello :laugh:

 

 

[bettyandbob]

These computer in the elementary school stories are making me feel my age. I took typing in high school and it was a necessary skill when I started working.

My typing class had manual typewriters. The teacher let the very best students try her

IBM Selectric.

So I guess kids don't understand the phrase, "she's a carbon copy of her mother."

 

 

Huh.  Never heard that expression, but we do use the phrase "She's the spitting image of her mother", even though I have no idea what the source of that is.  

[Pink and Green Mom]

Oh, and remember when if you didn't have enough cash in your pocket you were SOL until the bank opened next Monday?  (Assuming you didn't have to be somewhere else at 9am Monday.)

 

I remember that.

 

Do you remember when it was virtually impossible to write an out of state check anywhere?  I remember being a first year law student in 1992 and living in Washington, DC.  I crossed the border into MD to go grocery shopping, had a cart full of stuff, and they wouldn't accept my check because it was a DC address (you could practically see the state line from the grocery store).  I had to leave everything there, drive to a bank, get cash from the teller, and redo my shopping.  (Being a first year law student I probably tried to argue with the poor cashier that they were directly violating the interstate commerce clause or something :lol: )

[VaKim]

I remember standing on a kitchen chair and helping Mama run the clothes through the wringer on the washing machine. We also had an outdoor toilet. 

[Lady Florida.]

I remember when push-button phones were new-fangled.  :)  All our phones were rotary.  I think my parents still have at least one rotary phone.

 

 

 

And some push button phones were just push button, while others were touch tone (faster "dialing"). You had to pay the phone company (Ma Bell) extra for touch tone.

[Faithful_Steward]

I remember calling my bank for the last 10 transactions to balance my bank account. I actually monitored my checking account more faithfully in those days!

[SKL]

Remember at the gas stations, when they first introduced "no lead" gasoline, and for a long time it was a choice?

 

Remember when you didn't have the option to pump your own gas?  And then they started allowing it, and then they started charging if you had them pump it for you.  My mom started sending her teens to go get gas around that time.  :P  Now they will pump it for you for free if you are old and frail.  Must feel like old times for some folks.  :P

[SKL]

Remember when they didn't have glass walls at the monkey house and the cat house at the zoo?

[kewb]

Remember at the gas stations, when they first introduced "no lead" gasoline, and for a long time it was a choice?

 

Remember when you didn't have the option to pump your own gas?  And then they started allowing it, and then they started charging if you had them pump it for you.  My mom started sending her teens to go get gas around that time.  :p  Now they will pump it for you for free if you are old and frail.  Must feel like old times for some folks.  :p

 

Jersey girls don't pump their own gas.  No self service allowed.

[Faithful_Steward]

Oh, and paging my boyfriend before cell phones!😋

[DawnM]

Has anyone mentioned black dial phones?

 

 

 

Oh my word, wanna hear a story?

 

Remember the phones that didn't have the easily removable jacks?  They were in the wall and hard to remove?

 

When my friend's parents died, about 17 years ago, she and her siblings were cleaning out the house.  They knew her parents had 2 of these types of phones.  Both were heavy, black, rotary, and solidly into the wall.

 

They found out after opening their mail, that they had been paying $7 per MONTH for the use of those phones (renting the phones themselves) for 50 years!

 

The phone company actually said they couldn't stop the bills until they brought them BACK and turned them in!

 

That is $4,200 for renting those phones over the course of 50 years.  I can't remember if that was per phone or for both together.

 

Crazy.

[Tsuga]

I haven't encountered a shoe store in a long time that does that.

 

Although there really aren't a ton of shoe stores around anymore except in the mall. 

 

I usually go to Famous Footwear.  They definitely charge enough to warrant service, but they don't do that.

 

We go to Famous Footwear and they totally do that!

 

Maybe you need to write a letter to corporate, LOL.

[73349]

Wow, y'all are old. :smilielol5:

 

J/k. But most of this stuff either was before my time, or I hated it and I'm glad it's gone. DH and I were just telling DS the other night about only being able to watch a TV show when it came on, as kids, and having a commercial every few minutes, except for a few tapes once we got VCRs at around his age. (We were in a restaurant and there was football on the TV, and he was horrified to see the same ads three times.)

 

Long live the internet, seat belts, and flat-rate phone service!

Edited December 24, 2015 by whitehawk

[Guest]

Jersey girls don't pump their own gas. No self service allowed.

I remember when I learned that. I was driving to Connecticut and stopped for gas in NJ. The gas attendant said, "all gas stations here are full service." And I said, "I didn't think that existed anymore."

[Guest]

Wow, y'all are old. :smilielol5:

 

J/k. But most of this stuff either was before my time, or I hated it and I'm glad it's gone. DH and I were just telling DS the other night about only being able to watch a TV show when it came on, as kids, and having a commercial every few minutes, except for a few tapes once we got VCRs at around his age. (We were in a restaurant and there was football on the TV, and he was horrified to see the same ads three times.)

 

Long live the internet, seat belts, and flat-rate phone service!

You just watch that posh mouth there, Sonny! And stay off my lawn! :D

 

I remember when ABC would have a Special on Saturday night, at 8:00pm. That was close to all the movies we saw as a kid. My parents got a VCR when I was a teenager. In the theater, we saw Star Wars (ironic, huh), E.T. and Bambi. We saw a movie called "Battlestar Gallactica" at the drive-in. I think that's the only drive-in I saw before they became defunct.