What's the 1 or 2 things you miss from the old days?

[BonesXX]

A big bag of Mexican that you had to smoke all day to get a buzz. Throw in some Miller ponies and moonshine and it made a day of skipping school fun

 

[pc1p]

Well I've spent a while thinking about this...

For me, the only "things" I really miss from the good ol' days are the people and times we had together. I'd give just about anything up to spend a Sunday afternoon at my grandma's house chilling out, after eating a big pasta dinner, and watching old western movies...

Or be out on the Queen Mary II (a local fishing charter outside of Sheapshead Bay), casting for blues or flopping trying to catch some summer fluke...

Or maybe even going to Rockaway beach with a cooler full of Coke and Mt Dew, cut up cantaloupe, potato & egg sandwiches, and my family...

While I certainly appreciated my time and the technology in the moment - and I'm certainly a sucker for blips of nostalgia - I'm not going to pretend that I would take my old Nokia over my iPhone, my old Minolta over my current Nikons, my first 14.4k modem for my Gig broadband, or my 38.5" bias plys for a modern M/T. I know we're supposed to get salty as we get older - a lot of posts here are good evidence of that - but I feel like I'm going the other way as I age. Maybe I'm the weird but it feels like a happier mindset to be in

There are two things that did come to mind however. First - was an SNL writing team that knew when the end a skit, rather than have it drag on for 3-4 minutes while the punch line or hook left a long time ago and Second, the ability to stay up and watch the entire episode of SNL without falling asleep on the couch

Just for shiggles, a pic of my brother (who was murdered by a coworker on my birthday in 2012) and my old man (who died a week after my brother did), circa 1994, Rockaway Beach, doing their "tough guy" poses, snapped on a Kodak 110. Our house was flooded twice over the years, the first time in 1996 right after we moved to PA. The second time was ~2002 when I was in college. We lost a lot of junk but sadly, also lost a lot of a important stuff like photos. I remember my mom and I pulling pictures out of our basement that were floating on the water, taking them upstairs and drying them off with towels and laying them on the carpet with the fan on. This is one of the few that survived and was probably one of the last times we were all at the beach together (while living in NY at least). I'm currently digitizing, cleaning up, and cataloging the photos that survived - also adding names, approximate or known dates, etc. for photo books to give to my kids. My mom was awful at taking photos, only surpassed by my dad with his finger in every shot. It eventually led me to take up photography and working my ass off at the age of 12 for the entire summer to buy my first SLR from a local antique/consignment shop.

 

[mrblaine]

I miss vacuum tube equipment,

Are you sure about that?

https://www.musicdirect.com/power-a...JmgQHKA7BQq55E4rr_nPkjmfzEQ47cowaAjkTEALw_wcB

 

[mrblaine]

I miss people actually parenting their kids.

At some point there was a major shift between being the authority in your kids' life and being their or trying to be their best friend. We all have friends. By and large while we can tell them what we think they should be doing to stay out of trouble, we also know and fully accept they most likely will not listen. That usually isn't the best formula for raising kids.

 

[Zorba]

@pc1p There would be no pretending, I'd vastly prefer a Nokia over an iPhone! But I *do* like today's digital cameras, although the megapixel count has progressed way beyond what's needed by 99.9999% of their users. Even my "low" 10 MP camera is left on 5 MP 99% of the time! I love the Internet, as frustrating as it can be at times, it sure beats the 300 baud MODEM I started out with.

My Mac computer certainly is a lot faster and capable than my old IMSAI or the TRS-80 I had back in the day. But its nowhere near as fun!

 

[Zorba]

Are you sure about that?

https://www.musicdirect.com/power-a...JmgQHKA7BQq55E4rr_nPkjmfzEQ47cowaAjkTEALw_wcB

Wow, that is pricey! And very nice, I'm sure. If it doesn't burn you when you're working on it, it isn't real electronics! I've always loved vacuum tube equipment - I came into the trade at the end of that era.

 

[Zorba]

At some point there was a major shift between being the authority in your kids' life and being their or trying to be their best friend. We all have friends. By and large while we can tell them what we think they should be doing to stay out of trouble, we also know and fully accept they most likely will not listen. That usually isn't the best formula for raising kids.

Lots of truth here. I listened, and stayed out of trouble. Needless to say, I didn't have a high opinion of kids even back when I was one.

 

[pc1p]

@pc1p There would be no pretending, I'd vastly prefer a Nokia over an iPhone! But I *do* like today's digital cameras, although the megapixel count has progressed way beyond what's needed by 99.9999% of their users. Even my "low" 10 MP camera is left on 5 MP 99% of the time! I love the Internet, as frustrating as it can be at times, it sure beats the 300 baud MODEM I started out with.

My Mac computer certainly is a lot faster and capable than my old IMSAI or the TRS-80 I had back in the day. But its nowhere near as fun!

While my Nokia had great battery life (I think I charged it every 3 days????), it had awful reception, broke if you dropped it (I even had mine in a stupid nylon "case"!), and took forever to send a quick text. I also had to carry a Discman, a pocket camera, a map and printed off directions from MapQuest. F&*$ that...

Agreed on the "megapixel" wars though. 12MP is about the max that I ever really need most of the time (I still print stuff). I was looking at old photos of my Cherokee and when we moved to AZ back in 2005. They were taken on a 3.1 MP camera and are still amazingly useful and clear, even when printed to 8x10". I chuckle when I see people insisting they need a new 36MP full-frame or even a 45+ MP mirrorless option to take photos of their cats

I gotta throw props to my first computer - a Mac Performa 495C - one of the first PCs with built-in CD-ROM drive. My grandma paid a crazy amount of money for it and it's one of the best gifts I've ever received. It taught me a lot and allowed a young 10 year old to geek out and learn about computers on my own time.

 

[Plumber1]

At some point there was a major shift between being the authority in your kids' life and being their or trying to be their best friend. We all have friends. By and large while we can tell them what we think they should be doing to stay out of trouble, we also know and fully accept they most likely will not listen. That usually isn't the best formula for raising kids.

I taught my son to say please and thank you or at least thanks, and now taught my grandkids to do the same. You know if you start them off right when they are younger it becomes second nature and almost automatic. They both say please and thank you to my wife and me like it's no big deal, and they say to other adults too.

Now one time my sons tough he was being s smart ass and threatened he would call protective services and said go ahead it will take them hours to get here. You will be gone in minutes he gave me a funning look and never pulled that shit again

May be these should be books the kids should be reading

Instead of reading this Bullshit in school

 

[Plumber1]

Ok sorry for the rant, this was suppose to be about things form the good old days.

 

[Zorba]

While my Nokia had great battery life (I think I charged it every 3 days????), it had awful reception, broke if you dropped it (I even had mine in a stupid nylon "case"!), and took forever to send a quick text. I also had to carry a Discman, a pocket camera, a map and printed off directions from MapQuest. F&*$ that...

Agreed on the "megapixel" wars though. 12MP is about the max that I ever really need most of the time (I still print stuff). I was looking at old photos of my Cherokee and when we moved to AZ back in 2005. They were taken on a 3.1 MP camera and are still amazingly useful and clear, even when printed to 8x10". I chuckle when I see people insisting they need a new 36MP full-frame or even a 45+ MP mirrorless option to take photos of their cats

I gotta throw props to my first computer - a Mac Performa 495C - one of the first PCs with built-in CD-ROM drive. My grandma paid a crazy amount of money for it and it's one of the best gifts I've ever received. It taught me a lot and allowed a young 10 year old to geek out and learn about computers on my own time.

Yea - I haven't printed a photograph in years. If I remember from back in the day, film resolution was considered to be about 16 MP - although maybe that number changed subsequently. I shoot just about everything at 5.5 MP on my 10 MP cameras - and I could mostly get away with using the lowest setting which is about 2.5 MP I think - except I like to be able to "digitally zoom" (read: crop) in post production and still be able to have a decent sized image.

I never owned a Nokia - a couple of Motorolas after the Panasonic bag phone was turned off, then my Samsung Rugby 4 that I've had for several years now. Charge it about once a week whether it needs it or not. It has texting capability, but I eventually turned off texting altogether as I seldom used it and I was "suddenly" getting inundated with SPAM texts starting about 3 years ago. I told my wife "I'm not paying for this" and had the carrier turn it off. Saved $2.50/mo and a lot of aggravation.

I remember wanting to go to Macintosh around 1995 or so - Apple had so many different models back then that nobody - including the local Apple store - could tell me what the differences were or why I cared. Ended up with a Wintel until 2005 when I got an iMac G5 - literally weeks before the announcement that they were switching processors. That's the first time, but hardly the last, that I got bit by Apple's proclivity of dropping 1 or 2 year old tech like a hot potato and leaving me in the lurch. I'm still using a Mac mini from 2011 or 12 - but I'm done with Apple and Micro$oft both - going back to Linux after a 25 year hiatus.

 

[williambmac]

 

[Plumber1]

View attachment 313307

OMG

Those would be outlawed today or at least come with a liability release you had to sign

 

[gbirk]

DVD's. Your just kid

I remember be kind rewind VCR Tapes

Oh, I remember those, but the thread was about things I miss. VHS sucked.
I don't even miss the DVD, just the experience of going to the rental store and browsing them to find one to watch that night.

 

[Zorba]

Oh, I remember those, but the thread was about things I miss. VHS sucked.
I don't even miss the DVD, just the experience of going to the rental store and browsing them to find one to watch that night.

Yep, VHS sucked. It sucks now, and it sucked then. Everybody knew BetaMax was superior, yet VHS won that particular "format war". Hell, the old Analog Laserdisks were far better. Anybody remember the RCA CEDs?

 

[Irun]

Hell, the old Analog Laserdisks were far better. Anybody remember the RCA CEDs?

OMG, a buddy of mine had one of these players and a collection of discs. The player was ridiculously priced back then!

 

[Apparition]

OMG, a buddy of mine had one of these players and a collection of discs. The player was ridiculously priced back then!

An English teacher of mine liked to show off her laserdisc collection by bringing them in and playing them. Nothing like watching outdated movies. Her husband was a very well off attorney so that explains why she had it to begin with.

 

[Zorba]

OMG, a buddy of mine had one of these players and a collection of discs. The player was ridiculously priced back then!

We had one. They worked surprisingly well. Video quality beat VHS. There was a CED category on eBay, dunno if its still there...

 

[rancholago]

First off, my hair, it kind of fell to my ears.
my youth, I think I have it, until I look in the mirror in the morning and wonder who the hell that old guy is.
and probably not really being able to say what you think