You know you are getting old when........

[Murph]

When a thread in a guitar forum about a solid-state amp goes for 5 pages...

[Notes_Norton]

22 hours ago, Whitefang said:

1<...snip...>

3.  Don't forget the reverb effect too.  

<...>

Thanks, I did.

We used to do a song called "Raindrops" and on the record, there were thunderclaps in the background. The guitarist used to kick his amp and let the spring reverb make that sound.

---------- back to the thread ---------

You remember:

When houses, bars, and churches were not air-conditioned.

When cars accelerated, the windshield wipers slowed down.

When all US cars had only two, round, sealed-beam headlights, that were always mis-aimed.

When you used a clothespin to put a baseball card in the spokes of your bike to make that faux-motorcycle noise.

 

Notes ♫

[Murph]

33 minutes ago, Notes_Norton said:

 

When you used a clothespin to put a baseball card in the spokes of your bike to make that faux-motorcycle noise.

 

And it was a Micky Mantle card !

[Whitefang]

In my area, Mickey Mantle wasn't as big as Al Kaline.  And foolishly, I probably tore up many an Al Kaline rookie card doing that. 

1 hour ago, Notes_Norton said:

Thanks, I did.

We used to do a song called "Raindrops" and on the record, there were thunderclaps in the background. The guitarist used to kick his amp and let the spring reverb make that sound.

---------- back to the thread ---------

You remember:

When houses, bars, and churches were not air-conditioned.

When all US cars had only two, round, sealed-beam headlights, that were always mis-aimed.

 

The band I was in(and several others) used to do that for the intro to "Wipeout".  

Yeah, the movie theater was about the only place with A/C.  And too, the hardest thing to find open on Sundays was a store.  Many restaurants were.  Or small markets.  But not any of the few supermarkets.  And big stores like Sears, Hudson's,  J. C. Penney and like that.

I remember the dual headlights weren't standard on most cars until 1958.  And still recall that many would drive with the "brights" on when the bright beam in often only ONE headlight was out.  

And how the car's radio( in the "day" probably  99% of them had only AM radios) would cut off and on when going under viaducts and other overpasses.

Whitefang

[fortyearspickn]

In grade school, in the mid-50s, up in NY -  kids would all wear 'galoshes' over our good leather shoes when it snowed.  Black rubber 15" high with clasp buckles.  Pants tucked in.   We'd take them off in the hall and line them up outside of our classroom.  Inevitably, when the bell rang at 3 pm, in the scramble to get gone - we'd all grab the wrong boots.  Have to wear them again until next time it snowed.  Don't remember if I ever got my own back after 5 years.  

[Whitefang]

Ah, those galoshes.   they were helpful in my getting good at tying my shoelaces because pulling off those galoshes also meant pulling off your shoe which would still be inside the boot. 

My Mom never went for the idea of putting our shod foot inside an empty bread bag  so you can pull the boot off without losing your shoe in the process.  

And for kids around my age, before "rubbers" meant condoms, they meant....

                                                             

Whitefang

[Notes_Norton]

Whitefang mentioned AM radios.

 

And when you went under a bridge, the radio quit working until you got to the other side.

 

And at night time, you could pick up distant stations because the AM signal would bounce off the ionosphere.

[Whitefang]

10 minutes ago, Notes_Norton said:

Whitefang mentioned AM radios.

 

And when you went under a bridge, the radio quit working until you got to the other side.

 

And at night time, you could pick up distant stations because the AM signal would bounce off the ionosphere.

1.  And I mentioned that too.  

2.  The distance thing.  Yep.  learned that early on.  My brother(older than me) had a crystal radio kit that you snapped together and by fastening an alligator clip to something metal could pick up AM signals you listened to through a headset with only one speaker for one ear.  He lorded over it and rarely granted permission for me to listen to it.  But I learned where he hid it and would stay awake until I knew he was sleeping(usually like a log) and would sit on a chair next to our upstair bedroom window and listen to stations from New York to St. Louis and beyond.  One night I hit upon a station from Chicago playing what to me sounded a lot like the rock'n'roll I'd hear on any other station 'round here.  Then one night the DJ said(something like) "This is W---"(I forget the call letters) your place for the Blues in Chi-town.!"  It was then, at the age of 5 that I became a blues freak.  And those Blues guys had such cool and funny names.  Like "Muddy", "Lightnin'",  "Howlin' " "B.B."  "T-Bone" etc.   Luckily I managed to never fall asleep while doing this and get caught by either him or Mom, which would have had dire consequences.  Then after a little more than a year he traded the radio for a bicycle light.    It wasn't until some years later when a step sister would move in and had a record collection that also had a lot of Blued in it did I get my "fix" of Blues.

Whitefang

[fortyearspickn]

40 minutes ago, Whitefang said:

Ah, those galoshes.   they were helpful in my getting good at tying my shoelaces because pulling off those galoshes also meant pulling off your shoe which would still be inside the boot. 

My Mom never went for the idea of putting our shod foot inside an empty bread bag  so you can pull the boot off without losing your shoe in the process.  

And for kids around my age, before "rubbers" meant condoms, they meant....

                                                             

Whitefang

Yeah.    we remember when rubbers, coke,  crack  all had happier, Norman Rockwell types of meanings !

[gearbasher]

3 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

Whitefang mentioned AM radios.

 

And when you went under a bridge, the radio quit working until you got to the other side.

 

And at night time, you could pick up distant stations because the AM signal would bounce off the ionosphere.

I remember as a kid in NYC, I would pick up a country music station from Wheeling WV.

[Whitefang]

19 hours ago, gearbasher said:

I remember as a kid in NYC, I would pick up a country music station from Wheeling WV.

Also WAY back in the "day"  in the very early morning hours you'd hear little but interesting news items that for some reason never got repeated hours later.  I remember driving to work one morning, at about 5:30 am or so, hearing a news report about researchers at some East coast university finding a way to teach human how to breath underwater without any special equipment assistance.  Never heard or read anything else about it after that.

Whitefang

[gearbasher]

You remember WHN and seeing their posters in the subway.

[Whitefang]

You assume we're all New Yorkers here?  

Whitefang

[gearbasher]

12 minutes ago, Whitefang said:

You assume we're all New Yorkers here?  

Whitefang

There's an old statistic (urban legend?) that says: One in seven Americans can trace their roots to Brooklyn. So, there should be a few people here who know what I'm saying.

[fortyearspickn]

Born in Brooklyn.

[Notes_Norton]

In Florida, we'd pick up WABC in New York and KDKA in Little Rock Arkansas at night when the weather was right.

I was born in New York  (Bronx) but my parents had the good sense to move to Florida when I was 10 years old.

 

Notes ♫

[jdgm]

I know I'm getting old when -

I've got used to some acid reflux after every meal, though it's comparatively mild.  And - slowly - a cataract is forming in my left eye.

My back has gone out while sitting at the PC tonight.  Vertebra, lower right shoulder blade, hereditary and I've always had it but....oww! 

Memory.  Very little short-term memory these days.  Otherwise I think my memory is functioning well but needs the occasional prompt.  

Fortunately we now have the internet to remember and document it all for us. 

 

Oh and then there's getting up out of a chair, or out of my good old car. 

My Skoda Fabia car is 22 years old and has a cassette player.  When I was driving to my sis (about 3-4 hrs)  recently, I was playing a Little Feat live 88 BBC broadcast cassette of a London concert I saw......jdgmboomer humble brag!

You know you're old if you saw not only that but the original Little Feat.  

Edited December 3, 2022 by jdgm

[Whitefang]

You know you're getting old when you remember seeing all three of THESE  live.   On the same bill.  

 

 

Whitefang

[gearbasher]

You know you're getting old when... you realize it was over 40 years ago when you liberated the playlist from Gib Guilbeau's mic stand after The Flying Burrito Bros' second set at the Lone Star Cafe.

I found it going through old paperwork. I can't believe I still have it.

Edited December 5, 2022 by gearbasher

[Murph]

On 12/3/2022 at 9:54 AM, gearbasher said:

There's an old statistic (urban legend?) that says: One in seven Americans can trace their roots to Brooklyn. So, there should be a few people here who know what I'm saying.

Seems there was another stat that one in every 6 kids born is Chinese.

That's why a lot of families quit at 5.

[Notes_Norton]

You remember when the Earth had only one satellite, The Moon.

 

When you remember the ealry rocket attempts going up and right back down again.

[Whitefang]

Or when you and your neighbors stood out on their porches one night to watch the ECHO satellite slowly float by.  Looked like a slow moving star.

Whitefang

[gearbasher]

You remember people paining bulls-eyes in the street hoping Skylab  would hit.

 

When you remember coming home from a club and even your hair smelled like cigarette smoke. And you had hair. And it was long enough to smell it.

Edited December 5, 2022 by gearbasher

[Whitefang]

23 hours ago, gearbasher said:

You remember people paining bulls-eyes in the street hoping Skylab  would hit.

 

When you remember coming home from a club and even your hair smelled like cigarette smoke. And you had hair. And it was long enough to smell it.

Speaking of which....

You remember when patients in  hospitals could smoke in their rooms.  And their visitors could smoke with them.  And on the topic....

You remember watching cigarette commercials on TV.

And one of them claimed doctors preferred and recommended Camel cigarettes.  

Ah, yes.  The GOOD old days.

 Whitefang

[gearbasher]

54 minutes ago, Whitefang said:

Speaking of which....

You remember when patients in  hospitals could smoke in their rooms.  And their visitors could smoke with them.  And on the topic....

You remember watching cigarette commercials on TV.

And one of them claimed doctors preferred and recommended Camel cigarettes.  

Ah, yes.  The GOOD old days.

 Whitefang

I still have my Govt. issued ash tray.