10 Things I'm Old Enough to Remember

by Ethan Johnson
April 7, 2007

Too bad this isn't a blog, because I could start a fun meme for you nostalgia buffs out there:

  1. Black-and-white television sets, with channel knobs and no remote control.
  2. Vinyl records, and by extension, record stores that actually sold records.
  3. Dynamite magazine.
  4. Metal-wheeled roller skates.
  5. Coca-cola™ in glass bottles, without the word "classic" after the brand name.
  6. Electronic pong.
  7. Actually listening to America's Top 40 hoping to hear favorite songs of the time.
  8. Libraries as primary reference points. (Includes using a card catalog to find books.)
  9. Pizza Hut as a stand-alone restaurant, without being "mashed up" with other fast food places, no drive-thru window, and a wait staff.
  10. Bonjour jeans. (And lots of other items on the linked list - how embarrassing.)

Feel free to add your memories in the comments, or take this over to your own site. Enjoy! <EM>

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Ah, the good old days.
Submitted by dennis (not verified) on Sat, 2007-04-21 20:45.

Ah, the good old days. North Star and Kangaroo shoes. Rabbit ears for the TV. A cassette reader for a VIC-20. The "big wheel" plastic tricycle. Laser disc players and top-loading VCRs. Hulahoops!

Hulahoops
Submitted by ethan on Sat, 2007-04-21 23:47.

They're still around, I believe. Shaking one's hips with a piece of round plastic tubing around them never gets old.

Unlike say, top-loading VCRs. ;-)

Only 4 TV stations
Submitted by chaz (not verified) on Mon, 2007-04-23 23:02.

Not only were TV's B&W, but there were only 4 (that's right four) TV stations to chose from: ABC, CBS, and NBC - if you were lucky you could access PBS as a 4th station.

What's more? They all shut down sometime between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m - remember the "Test Pattern"?

UHF
Submitted by ethan on Tue, 2007-04-24 07:42.

I was apparently always "blessed" with UHF. But still, way fewer channels than today. I remember when pay-cable came out in Chicago: One channel stations, either OnTV or Spectrum. And it was actually piped through UHF (such as channel 44) and you needed a descrambler to see the picture. But the sound came through clearly.