We had an antenna on the roof for VHF and an indoor antenna on a tripod for UHF. Even where cable was available, there weren't that many channels to watch. Now I have about 500 channels, 99.7% of them useless. A 27" TV was a big deal back then. I now have a few 24 and 25" computer monitors and two 60" TV's.
The cell phones are leaps and bounds, even from 10 years ago. They are really computer phones unless you can't afford more then an obama-phone.
I do remember the yellow pages. All those ads and it cost big money back then to advertise those large ads. You called the escort agency and hoped for the best. There was no yelp, no reviews and of course no TER.
I have no interest in returning to the stone age either. How did we even survive?
1. You've only just begun
2. The end of the Korean War
3. Listening to Gunsmoke on the radio. William Conrad was Mat Dillon. TV and James Arness came later.
4. Growing up in Florida with no air conditioning
5. Late teens before a portable, battery operated radio was available
6. AM was rock and roll. FM was old fart music.
7. First people in the neighborhood to get a TV sort of expected their neighbors to regularly come over and watch with them.
8. Spent $2,000 on a Kaypro luggable (12-15 pounds) computer and a daisy wheel printer. Five years later spent $2,400 on the first HP LaserJet that had the amazing ability to print a full 1/16 of a page of graphics at 300dpi
9. Moore's Law does hold - tighten your chin strap!!!
-- Modified on 7/28/2014 6:18:41 AM
My father (an engineer) built the first TV in our neighborhood from parts he got from work. It was a large cabinet with a 14" screen.
Neighbors came over to watch the 2-3 hours of broadcast each night.
I can still remember even in the 1960's broadcast ending at 11 pm or midnight, with a one minute clip of fighter jets flying while the Star Spangled Banner played. Then it was a test pattern for eight hours. Three stations, too
We did not have a telephone, technically. What we had were neighbors across the hill who were on a Party Line with a few others - so we had access to a phone. That is, unless Sheila was one the phone with one of he boyfriends and they thought no one was listening. Learned more about sex that way;
Local calls cost money. Long Distance, over county lines, was more expensive than International rates are today;
911 meant knowing all 7 digits to the County Sheriff's Office - after telling Sheila that there was a real emergency and we needed to call out; (I could go on on phones alone, but will spare ya)
Theft - be it stealing from your neighbor's house or someone taking grandma's SS check out of her mailbox - could get you shot on sight. There were lots of things that could get you shot - so you just didn't do those things all together. Jails were not a priority back then.;
If you were rich, you might have a deer head stuffed, but everyone ate what they killed - including the chickens they fed that morning;
Speaking of morning chores, you often milked the cows, gathered the eggs, and your other morning chores before brushing your teeth and getting ready for school;
Riding on a "short bus" meant that you lived farthest from the school, and it did not have seat belts;
Teachers paddled you for misbehaving then Mom and/or (but usually And) Dad busted your a$$ when they found out after getting home.
I could go on, but I'm glad that some things have changed.
My 2 cents, ga_kosh
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