When I was your age...

[LurkerNan]

Ooooh, we got some old ones here! Including moi...

There was no Ticketmaster. If you wanted tickets to a concert, you had to go to the venue to get them. And, if it was a popular act, you brought your sleeping bag, your cooler and your drug of choice and camped out.

Second that for Big Budget Science Fiction Films. I used to take the day off of work to get to a movie theater at 8 AM for an 8 PM first-day viewing of some Star Trek or Star Wars. With a lawn chair and a good book. And I'd buy tickets for all my friends, who'd show up only 4 hours before the movie - the slackers.

I listened to music on albums or 8-track cassettes. And the coolest thing ever was having an 8-track player in your car.

Do you remember playing the 8 tracks so much that your memory incorporated the fade out, click and fade in between tracks as part of the song? Or knowing exactly when you needed to hit the button between songs to start your favorite on another track? ...

Geez, I'm old.

[lemons]

In computer class you learned on the Apple IIGS!

[vacationland]

"Computer class"? What is this "computer class" you speak of?

When I was a kid, computers stayed where they belonged: in rooms at MIT vast enough to contain their Buick-like bulk, in giant climate-controlled hangars at NASA, and on Star Trek...and none of that Next Generation crap, either! There was only one Star Trek, and it was in re-runs, and we liked it that way!

[Brookie]

Computers... I remember the very first "word processor" delivered to Ford, where I work. It was about the size of a pop machine and you had to insert more punctuation codes in there than you do on this board! And, it used REAL floppy disks (they were huge and, well, floppy).

We all ooh-ed and aah-ed at this marvel of the modern age and coveted one for ourselves. Of course, all it was was a word processor, NOT a computer. Having an all-in-one computer/word processor/spreadsheet etal system came MUCH later and we all thought that would be nearly impossible to package.

Now, when the company intranet goes down, you might as well call it a day and head for home.

[sexlexia]

-- little girls aspired to be nurses, ballerinas, the First lady or moms only.

-- government cheques came on stiff paper full of holes so computers could read them.

-- your neighbors were given free range to "discipline" you if you were caught doing something bad... and you usually got more "discipline" when you got home from mom & dad.

-- you had to rent the VCR machines, which came in their own carrying suitcases as well as the tapes from the video store as well as the previously mentioned insurance.

-- Disney movies came out few and far between.. and you went to see them whether they were good or not.

-- math in school was done by longhand, no calculators. Ever. Not even when graphing sin, cosin, etc

-- only college students had calculators. That free basic calculator they now give you for opening a checking account or whatever? $100+

-- if you called someone in the same town the number was 4 digits long

-- if you wrote someone a letter the address of the state was abbreviated to 3 letters

[prickle]

little girls aspired to be nurses, ballerinas, the First lady or moms only.

Aww, come on now, Sexlexia. We're not that far apart in age. Give little girls a little more credit! What about being an actress? A teacher? A whale trainer at Sea World? A writer? An artist? Wonder Woman?

[sexlexia]

Not that much though I'm thinking of when I was in like 1st grade. Recently I found some old homework where I wrote "When I grow up I want to be a mom." Me?! How frickin' funny is that?

A few years further into my schoolwork --> ballerina.

And then further yet... a veterinarian. Original, no?

[johnboysmole]

I don't know how old you guys are, but I remember being in the 2nd grade and most of the other little girls said "ballerina" "Mom" and the other typical "girly" answers and I remember raising eyebrows by saying "mechanic." It was odd, even in the late '70s and early '80s.

[lemons]

"Computer class"? What is this "computer class" you speak of?

Something we had to take, vacationland.

Which reminds me of the sex "education" in grades 9 and 11. (not counting the jr. high "primers").

In 10th grade it was combo Safety Ed/Drivers Ed.

and we didn't get to test on actual cars it was all written! But in my Dad's old yearbook (same school)
they used actual cars in drivers ed.

and back in the day, nothing was safety sealed. That didn't happen until some psycho poisoned the Tylenol.

[mrsbootsie]

This is kind of random, but

When I was your age, you'd know it was St. Patrick's day because they'd show the awesome Darby O'Gill and the Little People on network TV, during PRIMETIME...and it was awesome.