JessReplanted Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 During my first week away at college, I had to call my parents on a pay phone in a breezeway between dormitories, using a long-distance calling card my parents provided for me. You ended up dialing around a bajillion numbers in order to be connected. I used these too! I would call my dad from a pay phone once a week using a calling card. If you messed up one number you had to totally start over. It was awful. I probably still have a few hanging around here somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura in CA Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Re: sugarloaf - you can still get those, actually. Thank you for that link – they have some cool things! When I lived in Germany we used sugarloaves for Feuerzangenbowle (great fun) – so sugarloaves are (or were) still widely available in Germany, at least around Christmastime. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feuerzangenbowle 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 My college had a terrible phone system during my freshman year (then they upgraded, thank goodness). You could call easily from dorm room to dorm room, but to get an outside line that would connect you to a number not within the university, it was an arduous process. First you had to dial zero to get a university operator. There were only a couple of operators, so sometimes you would have to wait a long time for an operator to answer. Up to an hour (not exaggerating). The phone was connected to the wall and was not near the desks or beds, so you would have to sit on the floor or just stand around while waiting for the operator. Then after getting an outside line, you would have to make a collect call, because there was no way to bill a long distance call to the dorm room phone. I'm not sure that my parents had an answering machine at that point, so I might go through that whole process, only to have no one answer my call. The only people I could call were my parents, because I couldn't make a collect call to anyone else. I never talked to my high school friends on the phone while in college. There was no email, no texting. So the only thing we could do to communicate with friends was write letters. I'm guessing many people have never even heard of a collect call! This is when the person who answered your call would agree to pay for the long distance charges (instead of the person MAKING the call paying for the long-distance charges). So when someone answered your call, an operator would say to them, "Will you accept a collect call from Storygirl?" If they said no, the operator would disconnect the call, and you wouldn't get to talk. Also, answering machines. I'm not sure anyone has one of those any more. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinder Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Remember when you'd go to the movie and before the movie started there were no commercials? I don't mean the previews/trailers, but actual commercials advertising things like the windshield repair shop or the local private school or whatever. :glare: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 My home phone has an answering system built in to the system. If it isn't on, the cable company I have phone service with records the message. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethben Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 I remember in college some geeky guys sitting in this small little room about the size of a closet glued to their large computer screens. I asked my friend what they were doing. She said they were looking on the "World Wide Web". Yes, this was my first knowledge of the world wide web. My senior year in college. I remember having to learn a bit of code to type an email to my friend at another college who didn't even have her name as her address - just a bunch of numbers. I also remember playing ghosts in the graveyard during long summer nights. It had to be dark in order to play well. Now, as an adult, I realize how late it has to be before it gets really dark in the summertime. I was under 10 playing games with the neighborhood children well after 9 pm. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinder Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 The collection thread reminded me: Remember when restaurants had matchbooks? Dh and I used to collect them, though neither of us was/is a smoker. Remember when restaurants and airplanes had smoking sections? :ack2: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JessReplanted Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Alas, not since 1992. Oh my goodness.. that is a long time. I didn't realize this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Here's my two Not Done This Way things for today, as I am working with a ton of old family photos: 1) Hand-smocked dresses. My grandmother had this skill; my mother, though a very competant seamstress, did not learn to do it. Tons of photos with hand-smocked clothing, even special PJs for Christmas had this detail. :) 2) The way people dressed for events that are now very casual. Or, I guess, the way people dressed in general. There are photos from kid's birthdays, July 4th picnics, and baby baptisms with all my uncles in slacks, shirt and tie. All the women in dresses and proper shoes, sometimes with hats and gloves too. There is a volleyball picture and only the teenagers are wearing shorts; men in slacks, ladies in dresses. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 The collection thread reminded me: Remember when restaurants had matchbooks? Dh and I used to collect them, though neither of us was/is a smoker. Remember when restaurants and airplanes had smoking sections? :ack2: I remember how the roller skating rink had a smoking section. In retrospect, it was super-dodgy, as there were always older kids making "love nests" with coats over there by the smoking section. I remember how the high school had a smoking section, though it was outside on the patio. Funnily enough, seeing how people were so fixated on going out for a smoke, even when it was raining or freezing, went a long way as a deterant for picking up smoking myself. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 When I started high school there was a special smoking lounge reserved as a senior privilege. It was gone by the time I graduated in 1992. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Oh yeah. We had a student smoking lounge in high school. I forgot about that. We weren't allowed to smoke, but there was a loft above the stable block (the building had been converted into classrooms) that people used to pull themselves up into to smoke. That must have been quite a fire hazard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 2) The way people dressed for events that are now very casual. Or, I guess, the way people dressed in general. There are photos from kid's birthdays, July 4th picnics, and baby baptisms with all my uncles in slacks, shirt and tie. All the women in dresses and proper shoes, sometimes with hats and gloves too. There is a volleyball picture and only the teenagers are wearing shorts; men in slacks, ladies in dresses. I have a picture of my grandparents at an amusement park. This would probably have been the late 1920s or maybe 1930. They are both dressed in their best, looking like they could be at church. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 When I started high school there was a special smoking lounge reserved as a senior privilege. It was gone by the time I graduated in 1992. I graduated in 1992. The year I entered high school was the first year students were not allowed to go out and smoke. They didn't ever have a lounge, but would allow it outside on school grounds. Kinda crazy to think about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 I had a good one in mind last night, but geesh I cannot remember what in heck it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura in CA Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 (edited) When I started high school there was a special smoking lounge reserved as a senior privilege. It was gone by the time I graduated in 1992. Has someone mentioned this? -- making ceramic ashtrays (!) in elementary-school art class, every year, as a present for our parents. My parents, at least, didn't smoke, but they would put the ashtrays on end tables in the living room for smoking guests, or just for candy :) ... Edited December 28, 2015 by Laura in CA 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Has someone mentioned this? -- making ceramic ashtrays (!) in elementary-school art class, every year, as a present for our parents. My parents, at least, didn't smoke, but they would put the ashtrays on end tables in the living room for smoking guests, or just for candy :) ... Making ash trays out of various materials was a very popular thing when I was a kid. Now I think people would be pretty mad about that idea! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrixieB Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Alas, not since 1992. Bet you can guess what I haven't bought in DECADES :lol: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrixieB Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Also, answering machines. I'm not sure anyone has one of those any more. Yes... it is attached to my phone with the long curly cord that is plugged into the wall... At least it is a "modern" answering machine which does not require a cassette tape. :) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baseball mom Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Man what a walk down memory lane! My grandmother had a yellow rotary dial phone on the wall next to the kitchen bar. When we were visiting I use to want to sit closet to the phone when we ate and hope it would ring :laugh: Being about 14 or 15 and walking all over town (like miles and miles away from home) with my friend. Several times we would be on the main road and my dad would pull over and ask if we wanted a ride home. He was at the store or just got off work and saw us walking. We didn't have a cell phone and no one knew where we were. Saturday morning cartoons. My dc don't understand that cartoons or kid shows weren't on anytime of the day. Sunday night Disney movie. Mom would always fix us popcorn to go with the movie. Playing the Christmas albums on the HUGE stereo. Looked like a huge cabinet and the lid raised to reveal the turntable, radio controls and 8 track player. Going on vacation with extended family. Staying in a small motel that some rooms had kitchens. It was a no thrills place but clean. The family would get one of those rooms (more like a small house in the center of the motel) and a regular rooms. Then everyone piled into those 2 rooms. Sharing beds with cousins. All meals were fixed and eaten at the hotel except for 1 night out at a restaurant. Either that same night or maybe another night we would all go to some attraction. The rest of the week was spent hanging out at the beach, pool and just hanging out with family. Riding to and from the vacation spot we went in a caravan and all the cousins switched up cars to ride together. Spent lots of the trip making faces at the cousins in the other cars. Not locking car doors. Half the time not locking the house. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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