Things that make you feel old

[Chucktshoes]

 
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.

Be careful! It almost sounds like you might almost be criticizing St. Ronnie!

[Randall53]

Looking in the MIRROR...!!!!!

[Guest nra37922]

Cincinnati Ohio to Miami Beach Fl for less than $50 in gas.  351 Cleveland Block V8's in scalded dog fast Mustangs.  LUMS beer steamed hot dogs.  Being an unwed mother was frowned upon.  Arguments being settled without the use of knifes or guns.  Being able to be out from dawn to dusk in the summer.  Bean shooters.  REAL M80's.   Do I need to go on?

[Dane]

I remember:
Cells phone were actually installed into your car. (My dad actually had a rotary mobile phone)
A few old school acronyms-
BBS (bonus points for those that can name 3 programs these ran on)
LORD
CP/M
FIDO

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX 81
My first portable computer was a Kaypro that weighed like 50lbs
I have been on a "party line"




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Erik88]

Pluto was still a planet when I was a kid. 

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Be careful! It almost sounds like you might almost be criticizing St. Ronnie!

 

Ronnie had his good and bad points. The petroleum thing was just part of the cold war against the "evil empire" but it can't be denied that the price war warped the free market. OPEC was warping the crap out of the free market as far as that goes. When Ronnie was governor of kalifornia, I got the impression that he was an authoritarian prick. Later on, Reagan TALKED nearly a perfect libertarian line, but his actions weren't quite up to the talk. There is goodness in many of his speeches and quotes, but many policies were not so libertarian. However, comparing lesser evils, I'd trade a dozen Obamas for one Reagan and add a generous handful of Clintons and Bush Jr's just to sweeten the pot. :) OTOH I'd trade several Reagans for an Eisenhower.

 

I was just "wondering out loud" about JAB's observation that gas seemed to inflate so drastically in the last two decades. In the 1970's, OPEC artificially raised gas prices in USA compared to what the market "ought to have been", but then in the 1980's the cold war petroleum price war made it artificially low. Therefore the increase starting from the 1990's to the present would appear extreme when examined in isolation, because the price began so artificially low in that period. USA petroleum companies were going bankrupt because the price was so low. Couldn't pump USA oil to compete with the Saudis at that price point, and the Texans were in debt from previous infrastructure investment. It gave everybody a bargain on cheap gas for some years, neither hurt or harmed the Saudis, put another nail in the USSR's coffin, harmed the USA balance of trade, and hurt business for the Texans. Good points and bad points.

Edited August 15, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[Jesse]

I remember when can of coke was 50 cents and gas was $2.25 a gallon.

[Guest nra37922]

I'm so old I remember when there were Democrat Senators and Congressman who actually cared about their country

[TSprint1]

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.

I used to eat at a Gino's just down the road from Ft Myer, VA....on Glebe Rd.

[Guest TankerHC]

My uncle was one of the first in our neighborhood to get one of those car phones. He wouldnt give out the number. Reason being, if someone just tried to call you, you got charged for it, even if you didnt answer the phone. And it was not cheap. We never could figure out why he wanted a car phone, considering no one in the family had the number.

[Guest TankerHC]

I used to eat at a Gino's just down the road from Ft Myer, VA....on Glebe Rd.

 

Couple of months ago, after 35 years, they opened one up again in Maryland. Brought back the Gino's Giant.

[JAB]

I remember:
Cells phone were actually installed into your car. (My dad actually had a rotary mobile phone)
A few old school acronyms-
BBS (bonus points for those that can name 3 programs these ran on)
LORD
CP/M
FIDO

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX 81
My first portable computer was a Kaypro that weighed like 50lbs
I have been on a "party line"




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Even when I was attending UTK (graduated in 1996) - at least for my first, couple of years - there really wasn't much of a 'WorldWideWeb' as we know it, now.  Instead, we did online research for projects, papers, etc. largely through 'gophers' - kind of a forerunner to current WWW and search engines.

 

It would be one thing to be in my 80s or 90s and think back about how much the world has changed over the scope of my entire lifetime but to be in my early 40s and realizing how much the world has changed since I was 20 (as in many of the things that 'run' the contemporary world didn't even exist twenty years ago) just seems kind of strange.

 

Then, again, there is a tenant in Anthropology that says the more advanced technology gets the faster it advances.

 

Oh, and my first cellphone contract was when I was working at the Knox County Public Library.  The county had contracted with U.S. Cellular to give county employees a 'deal'.  This was the mid to late 1990s when a lot of folks still carried pagers and cell phones hadn't pushed pagers out of the market, yet.  IIRC (and maybe I don't) my bill for my first cellphone contract was $10.00 per month for 30 minutes of talk time.  There was no such thing as texting on a phone (although some pagers could text) and certainly no Internet on cell phones.

 

I didn't carry that phone around, much - generally just left it in the seat of my truck.  I had it for emergencies or if I needed to let someone know I was running late, etc.  Never talked on it for more than a minute or two at a time and left it turned off unless I was making a call.  I don't think it even had voicemail.  If I knew someone was supposed to call me, they would leave a message on my home phone answering machine and I'd check messages with the cell phone.  Now I don't even have a land line/home phone and the Droid Bionic I carry in my pocket (and which is now a couple of years old, not the latest tech) is probably a more 'powerful' computer than my first PC.  At 8 gig of internal memory plus a 16 gig mini-SD card, it certainly has more storage (my first PC had only 100 meg of hard disk space after Windows 95 was installed, etc.)  Heck, my cell phone makes that old Commodore 64 that was my first 'computer' look like an abacus by comparison.

Edited August 15, 2013 by JAB

[Guest Emtdaddy1980]

The fact that I just did the math and my little redheaded partner was 15 when I started working as an EMT.

[Dolomite_supafly]

In 1991 premium hit $1 for the first time. I remember because I owned a 1969 Corvette with a big block and I told myself I would not be able to afford to drive it any more.

[DWARREN123]

Any one remember gas wars where gasoline sold for 25 to 30 cents per gallon?

Western Auto stores where you could buy guns and ammo, only requirement was money.

So many things that let me know I am not as young as I once was!    :rofl:

[Garufa]

Pulling out that old box of Winchester .30-30 with a $6.95 price tag from TARGET can make me feel a little old.

[Guest TankerHC]

I dont remember this, I was going to gun shows with my father back then (early 70's) but I was told by an authority on Antique Firearms that back in the 60's and early 70's you could buy WWII 1911's all day long for $25 at CMP. Those being the same guns that I, friends and family spent thousands on.

[Guest nra37922]

Any one remember gas wars where gasoline sold for 25 to 30 cents per gallon?

Western Auto stores where you could buy guns and ammo, only requirement was money.

So many things that let me know I am not as young as I once was!    :rofl:

Cheaper than that AND you got a case of glasses with a fill-up and they would check all for fluids, check tire pressure as well as wash the car windows..

[K191145]

I can remember seeing part of a speech on a B&W TV by Lyndon B. Johnson. My favorite toys besides army men was Rockem Sockem Robots.

Edited August 16, 2013 by K191145

[Fivestring63]

There's this guy at work that says "I've had more time in the crapper than you've been born.

[Guest TankerHC]

I can remember seeing part of a speech on a B&W TV by Lyndon B. Johnson. My favorite toys besides army men was Rockem Sockem Robots.

 

They are coming out with a Rockem Sockem Robot Movie

 

Anyone here have an SST, those were shiny cars with a large wheel in the middle of the body, took a zip tie looking thing with a handle, pulled it through the wheel. They would go about a million MPH. If your hand caught the wheel, you'd have a heck of a burn. if the car hit someone, they would be hurting, because almost all of the SST's had pointy front ends. My understanding is thats why they took them off the market, bad burns and pointy front ends.

[enfield]

I reminder gas prices at 1 dollar a gallon, sometimes in the .90 cent range.  Now I feel like my uncle telling me he used to buy gas for .30 cent a gallon.

 

I did, and you got your windshield cleaned and your oil checked too.  Never got out of the car, and you were thanked for your business.

 

Hmmm - old fart I am.

[enfield]

They are coming out with a Rockem Sockem Robot Movie

 

Anyone here have an SST, those were shiny cars with a large wheel in the middle of the body, took a zip tie looking thing with a handle, pulled it through the wheel. They would go about a million MPH. If your hand caught the wheel, you'd have a heck of a burn. if the car hit someone, they would be hurting, because almost all of the SST's had pointy front ends. My understanding is thats why they took them off the market, bad burns and pointy front ends.

 

My son had one.   I'm a REALLY OLD fart.

[enfield]

I was on Arpanet, using Delphi, before Algore invented the internet.

[TSprint1]

First time I ever saw $1 gas was on the ALCAN at Muncho Lake, BC.  The guy's pump only had two digits so he just put an "X 2" in grease pencil beside the price.