Things that make you feel old

[Clod Stomper]

It hasn't been THAT long since gas was 1.00/gal. About 13-15 years ago. I was driving an 86 Honda Accord and could fill it up for 12 bucks. And I could get 40 mpg with premium fuel. Now the tiny "Smart" car gets 40 and the Prius gets 50. Wow, technology had really come a long way, hasn't it? <sarcasm>

Even better, I remember when a Norinco MAK-90 was about $250 or less. SKS was $80. 1k rounds of 7.62x39 was 80-100 bucks. You could buy a decent used S&W revolver (pre- Clinton sellout) for 300 dollars. Police trade-ins were much less, of course.

I don't feel old, but I do hate inflation.

[Guest TankerHC]

We had a Hardware Store in Baltimore that was in the corner in the city. Had two gas pumps on the curve, they were round and had the red horse (Cant remember who that was), they also sold guns. Gas for regular was 65 cents a gallon (70's), high test was 87 cents. I know the exact prices, reason being that was the price when the old man who owned the hardware store died. In 1992 when I went home on leave, the pumps were still there, with the prices still on them. But wasnt gas still only a buck or a buck and a quarter even in the early 90's?

 

But I also remember the gas shortage and lines. Reason being my father had two cars. A Cadillac Fleetwood and an Olds Delta 88 convertible. Had two bikes, his Norton Commando and and some other big bike. Being a Longshoreman he was required to work all over the state. Western Maryland, local ports/piers, Sparrows Point etc. So he took MY BIKE, little 90 Yamaha, tagged it and rode the gas shortage out on that thing.

[E4 No More]

My body is the only thing that makes me feel old. :(

[Guest 6.8 AR]

It hasn't been THAT long since gas was 1.00/gal. About 13-15 years ago. I was driving an 86 Honda Accord and could fill it up for 12 bucks. And I could get 40 mpg with premium fuel. Now the tiny "Smart" car gets 40 and the Prius gets 50. Wow, technology had really come a long way, hasn't it? <sarcasm>

Even better, I remember when a Norinco MAK-90 was about $250 or less. SKS was $80. 1k rounds of 7.62x39 was 80-100 bucks. You could buy a decent used S&W revolver (pre- Clinton sellout) for 300 dollars. Police trade-ins were much less, of course.

I don't feel old, but I do hate inflation.

Gas has gone up and down(mostly up, throughout the years), but it was as high as $1.17 in 1981. I remember that it spiked quickly

right after I got married. I wonder if the oil companies were trying to tell me something?

 

I also remember when machine guns were about a thousand bucks and I never considered buying one back then.

That was in the 60's and 70's.

Edited August 14, 2013 by 6.8 AR

[JAB]

Long-term inflation-- When folks were accustomed to 25 cent gas, and then suddenly noticed it costing 50 cents-- That was just as much inflation as when it jumps from $2.50 to $5.00, or from $10.00 to $20.00 some time in the future.

 

Nowadays both 25 cent and 50 cent gas seem "about the same" because it is so cheap compared to today's prices, but it was a big deal at the time. With minimum wage around a buck an hour, fifty cent gas would cost more than a day's work for a fillup. That's probably more expensive than the amount of hours a minimum wage guy would have to work nowadays for a fillup.

 

What you say makes sense but the big thing to remember is that it took quite some time of this country being a 'car society' for gas to reach $1.00 per gallon.  Heck, I remember when I first started driving in about 1988 I could still get gas for $0.89 per gallon from at least one station in town.  So it was probably the early 1990s before gas would exceed $1.00 per gallon as a permanent thing (in this area.)  Considering that regular unleaded is now normally in the $3.35 per gallon range (and can easily approach $4.00 per gallon when there is some kind of disaster or other 'shortage') then we can see that the price of gas has risen between 300% and 400% just in the last, two decades.  To me, that sounds like gas prices have risen a greater percentage in the last, twenty years than in all the time that there was a mass market for gas, before.

Edited August 14, 2013 by JAB

[JAB]

The one that gets me is the beer sign.  "You must be born on or before today in ... what????   1992??!! 

 

I turned 42 in June.  I realized the other day that this means there are people who are now of legal drinking age who weren't even born when I reached legal drinking age.

 

And along the lines of 'closer to', I am closer to being 50 years old than I am to when I was 30 years old - and I am closer to being 60 years old than I am to when I was 20 years old.

[NoBanStan]

Anyone remember when the first iphone came out? Man I feel old!

 

 

only kidding old timers :)

 

 

I can remember carrying my sweet little two year old niece on my hip they day I got married. Just saw her the other day at her 18th birthday party...... AND SHE HAD A TATTOO!!!!!

[Spots]

I guess I'm stuck. I was raised the old way but I'm only 25. The only things that make me feel old are when I meet someone who is in the military, and wasn't in high school when I went on my first deployment. And when I see the tobacco sign and it says 1995....

Tapatalk ate my spelling.

[JAB]

Anyone remember when the first iphone came out? Man I feel old!

 

Hell, I can remember when the Apple Macintosh was considered cutting edge (my first 'home computer' was a Commodore 64.)  I also remember when phones hung on walls or sat on tables, had to be plugged into wall jacks via cables and for the most part had rotary dials, not push buttons, for entering numbers (come to think of it, people still say 'dial this number' - even though there are no longer dials.)

 

I also remember when having only a black and white television was not that unusual.  Growing up, the cartoons I watched on Saturday morning actually showed Wile E. Coyote hitting bottom when he fell off the cliff (some of you might not even remember the big hooplah raised by some pantywaist 'concerned' parents about all the 'violence' in Bugs Bunny cartoons that got the actual 'hitting bottom' censored/cut out of many of those cartoons in the first place.)

 

I also remember (as a child of about six or seven) thinking how stupid/crappy the whole 'Disco' thing was and, at not even nine years of age, being glad when the ball dropped on New Year's Eve 1979 that the dang '70s were finally over.  Now I can only dream of this country being socially and politically the way it was in 1979 (when places like Walmart still sold handguns.)

Edited August 15, 2013 by JAB

[GlockSpock]

Remembering things that make me feel old isn't the problem. Problem is remembering at all.

 

I do remember buying premium gas for .65 a gallon when I first started driving. And that was for octane much higher than the 93 we have now. I can also remember watching the Three Stoogies every morning on one of the three channels we got. Or when we would ride our bikes to the town hall, which was left open 24 hours, to get a 12 oz bottle of Coke for .15 because it was cheaper than .25 in front of the store. I remember the first sodas with a twist off cap, before that you needed a bottle opener. Or pull tabs on cans that actually came off the can. I cut my feet on more than one occassion while at the lake on them.

 

I also remember using 5.25" floppy disks and using a hole punch to make it double sided. Or when 8 meg, not gig, of ram or a 40 meg, again not gig, hard drive was considered a lot. I remember buying a 2 meg stick of ram and it cost me $100. I also remember doubling my video memory to 1 meg. But I needed these upgrades to play Duke Nukem with friends on out 14.4 modem. I remember when connecting a 9,600 baud was considered a "high speed" connection. And that I thought we were in heaven when we first connected using our 36.6 modem. Or waiting all night for a file to download that was a single megabyte.

 

I also remember having a stereo in the house that played 8 track cassettes. It also played vinyl records. I remember watching movies at a neighbors house on the new "laser disk" system. I also remember when VCR's first came out and they were the size of a microwave of today.

 

I also remember when you could buy a box of 22's as a kid without anyone batting an eye. Or when missing the first day of deer season was considered an excused absence.

 

But the biggest thing that shows my age is this. When I was younger being on welfare or receiving any type of government benefit was considered embarrassing.

 

Ha! My wife and I shop at Goodwill a lot to see what we can find. The other day I found a whole box of LaserDisks. I almost bought them simply because most people don't even know what they are. I decided not to, but they are a neat piece of history.

[JAB]

Ha! My wife and I shop at Goodwill a lot to see what we can find. The other day I found a whole box of LaserDisks. I almost bought them simply because most people don't even know what they are. I decided not to, but they are a neat piece of history.

 

That would be almost as odd as coming across a VCR that would only play BETA.

[Guest TankerHC]

Anyone remember when the first iphone came out? Man I feel old!

 

 

only kidding old timers :)

 

 

I can remember carrying my sweet little two year old niece on my hip they day I got married. Just saw her the other day at her 18th birthday party...... AND SHE HAD A TATTOO!!!!!

 

 

I got a Coleco Arcade the day they came out. Pong before that, everyone had them.

[Guest TankerHC]

That would be almost as odd as coming across a VCR that would only play BETA.

 

At the same time Betamax came out, or around the same time, there was another standard. The video disc. I had one and had two movies for it. The Big Red One and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Watch half the movie, flip over the disc, and watch the other half.

Edited August 14, 2013 by TankerHC

[Two Dogs]

My first "real" job was at minimum wage - $1.60/hr.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

What you say makes sense but the big thing to remember is that it took quite some time of this country being a 'car society' for gas to reach $1.00 per gallon.  Heck, I remember when I first started driving in about 1988 I could still get gas for $0.89 per gallon from at least one station in town.  So it was probably the early 1990s before gas would exceed $1.00 per gallon as a permanent thing (in this area.)  Considering that regular unleaded is now normally in the $3.35 per gallon range (and can easily approach $4.00 per gallon when there is some kind of disaster or other 'shortage') then we can see that the price of gas has risen between 300% and 400% just in the last, two decades.  To me, that sounds like gas prices have risen a greater percentage in the last, twenty years than in all the time that there was a mass market for gas, before.

 

Well, a couple of factors that kept it from being a simple straight-line percentage growth over time (i.e. exponential price increase versus time)-- Surely there are zillions of factors. The OPEC shennanigans that started in the 1970's and come&go to this very day. I remember january 1977 I had just quit my job working for TN Dept of Human Services and went on the road playing music, and gas coincidentally spiked real bad about the same time. Though it had been inching up for a few years and people were already buying Japanese and German "economy cars" for better mileage starting seriously about 1974.

 

I can't recall how much gas had suddenly spiked around 1977, probably a price that would seem silly low nowadays, but I was driving a van full of music gear from TN down to south TX, 24 hours of straight driving, and the sticker shock was SERIOUS how much the fuel cost was killing me, compared to what it would have costed only a year or two earlier.

 

But later when Reagan was elected, he wanted to wreck the economy of the USSR, and managed to talk the Saudis into opening up the spigots and flooding the market with oil. That drove the price way down so that the USSR couldn't get much-needed revenue from oil sales, and put the hurt on the soviet balance of trade. Also made the price of gas "artificially low" for much of Reagan's tenure.

 

Am just "thinking out loud" that if the market hadn't been manipulated by such as OPEC and secret political manipulations, then the price probably wouldn't have jiggered up'n'down so much over that time period, and been a more gradual rise according to demand and overall inflation.

 

Another couple of things-- The USA "easy to get" oil wells were becoming depleted, and the reserves we had would be more expensive to pump, and the cheap saudi oil from Reagan's deal made it uneconomical for USA (texans) to keep heavily investing in exploration and infrastructure. They could make about the same money shutting down their rigs, than pumping them. Waiting for the price to come back up.

 

So maybe a lot of the above is wrong, but it won't be the first time I was wrong about something. :)

[Dirtshooter]

Gas was $0.32 in high school, saw my dad buy it for $0.18 when I was about 10-12. I remember when Mickey Dee's had the golden arches and it was an outside only joint with some tables outside and they hadn't sold Billions then. I gladly remember pre cell phone days, ah yes!! The cell phone will be my first deletion of my pending retirement. I will tell all if you want me call the house and leave a message as I plan on fishing, shooting, hunting, and doing sumphin else!! Where did all the years go my friends?? I definitely would have taken better care of myself if I had known I would live this long. LOL

[Guest TankerHC]

Heres one, Kentucky Fried Chicken used to be sold through other franchises and you never saw a Kentucky Fried Chicken. When I was a kid Gino Marchetti of the Baltimore Colts opened a chain called Gino's. Gino's Kentucky Fried Chicken and Hamburgers. Gino's went bankrupt, at the time my step grandfather (Mothers stepfather) ran the one on Dundalk Avenue in Baltimore, when they went bankrupt he picked up ownership. he would bring home bags of that chicken recipe in powder form (Flour). I ate so much KFC when I was a kid that today I hate it. I think I have had it once in 10 years. When we went out to eat, Gino's, when we went to our grandparents house to eat, KFC. but the Gino's Giants were good, like the Big Mac only better.

[LI0NSFAN]

What you say makes sense but the big thing to remember is that it took quite some time of this country being a 'car society' for gas to reach $1.00 per gallon.  Heck, I remember when I first started driving in about 1988 I could still get gas for $0.89 per gallon from at least one station in town.  So it was probably the early 1990s before gas would exceed $1.00 per gallon as a permanent thing (in this area.)  Considering that regular unleaded is now normally in the $3.35 per gallon range (and can easily approach $4.00 per gallon when there is some kind of disaster or other 'shortage') then we can see that the price of gas has risen between 300% and 400% just in the last, two decades.  To me, that sounds like gas prices have risen a greater percentage in the last, twenty years than in all the time that there was a mass market for gas, before.

gas was still $0.89 in 1996, I remember getting REALLY mad when it went to $0.99 in 1998. That was the price in MI, not sure what it was around the country because they did not report that kind of stuff on the news and the net was not that useful back then.

[Clod Stomper]

gas was still $0.89 in 1996, I remember getting REALLY mad when it went to $0.99 in 1998. That was the price in MI, not sure what it was around the country because they did not report that kind of stuff on the news and the net was not that useful back then.

Yep. In '98, '99 and '00, I was commuting from Knox to the Smokies. Fuel price wasn't really an issue at that time.

Remember, gas was 1.87 when BO took office in '09. Of course there have often been these mini-"shortages" or panics that sent it higher temporarily, but this $3.00+ BS is relatively recent.

[Guest sL1k]

College tuition at the Univ of Cincinnati was $12 a credit hour and White Castles were 5 cents

Friend of mine is doing their online courses for her masters there its now $2700 for out of state a credit hour.
Edited August 15, 2013 by sL1k

[superduty]

It hasn't been THAT long since gas was 1.00/gal. About 13-15 years ago.

I don't feel old, but I do hate inflation.

It has not been that long. I was buying reg. Unleaded in Nashville in 2000 for 99.9c/gal.

[Guest Wildogre]

I helped vote Jimmy Carter out of office. Saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show and remember when 9V transistor radios came out. 

[Dennis1209]

Humm... What makes me feel old? Let's see...

 

It all starts trying to get out of bed in the afternoon and heading to the kitchen to make some coffee. Getting to the kitchen and forgetting what I was in the kitchen for. Return to the bedroom to get my thought back. Get back to bedroom and  realize I must be there to take an afternoon snooze :snore: 

 

And having to take a Viagra just to take a whiz.

[vontar]

Anyone remember when the first iphone came out? Man I feel old!

 

 

only kidding old timers :)

 

 

I can remember carrying my sweet little two year old niece on my hip they day I got married. Just saw her the other day at her 18th birthday party...... AND SHE HAD A TATTOO!!!!!

 

I had a Bag Phone.  plugged into cigarette lighter and had no battery.

 

gas was still $0.89 in 1996, I remember getting REALLY mad when it went to $0.99 in 1998. That was the price in MI, not sure what it was around the country because they did not report that kind of stuff on the news and the net was not that useful back then.

That is about right.  I got my Thunderbird in 97 and I remember fill it up with 93 octane across the line in kY for like 90 some cent a gallon.  I was only making about 8-9 bucks an hour then but had no real bills and with the cheap gas I felt like I had good money.

[LI0NSFAN]

I had a Bag Phone.  plugged into cigarette lighter and had no battery.
 

That is about right.  I got my Thunderbird in 97 and I remember fill it up with 93 octane across the line in kY for like 90 some cent a gallon.  I was only making about 8-9 bucks an hour then but had no real bills and with the cheap gas I felt like I had good money.

I was driving a Mercury Montery that got about 6 miles to the gallon and loved that I could fill the tank under $20. I would kill for that right now.