Kids these days will never know….

[CDGator]

There was a senior engineer on the verge of retirement at my first job. He comes up to one day and asks if I would invest in this new startup company that his kid was helping to create. Minimum purchase in was $1000 and you would get 1000 shares. He described it to me and thought it was the most insane thing I had ever heard of. Obviously it was Netflix. Nothing could overtake Blockbuster!

That will never work. Good thing you didn't fall for that scam.

 

[Detroitgator]

I have no idea what you are talking about.

Here's an example... Mr. Belvedere's "We do good work" commercials were HUGE in the 70's... his advertised phone number was "Tyler 8..." Even shows on the screen as TY8. "Tyler" is what I was thinking of when I said "Belvedere" above... it was Mr. Belvedere with a "Tyler" number. "LOgan" and CRescent" were Dearborn numbers.


UPDATE: it wasn't just a Michigan thing, but definitely a big city/metro area thing that goes back to pre-digital phone exchanges. Another example is the phone number of The Simpsons, Homer actually says in an episode "Klondike 5 -3226"

 

[CDGator]

I guess Tallahassee wasn’t big enough to have some catchy phone numbers.

 

[TLB]

What it really means to "roll down" the window in a car.
No power steering

We helped a friend move, she rented the uhaul truck, I drove, 12yo of mine took shotgun. I just waited and waited and waited to see if they could get the window down. They did. They complained it sucked. I laughed the whole way to the house.

 

[cover2]

Same exact thing here. I had some chick in Russia. She never would send a pic

Maybe you shouldn’t have sent yours first

 

[jeeping8r]

The TV having no remote. And you had that rotary UHF knob with like 3 channels

We didn't have one of those new fangled antenna rotors, I was the antenna rotor.... Well me and a pipe wrench

 

[Altitude Gator]

Everyone smoking inside. At home. In restaurants. Fuching everywhere.

Still available in Wyoming!

 

[Altitude Gator]

Did anyone else have a pen-pal in elementary school? Mine was in Africa somewhere. Our school made us do it and we wrote once or twice.

My wife still writes hers in Finland and England after 40 years.

 

[Altitude Gator]

Still remember my home phone from back then, but none since.

On the phone number front, was it just a Michigan thing, or did anyone else here have the holdover phenomena of this: for phone numbers with the prefix of "565-XXXX" or "274-XXXX", people would say "Logan 5" and Crescent 4" whereby "56" is "L" and "O" above the numbers and "C" and "R" are "2" and "7". Detroit area also had a lot of "Belvedere" for the B and E numbers. You didn't make up the Logan, Crescent, Belvedere... they were fixed conventions, but didn't match up to any phonetic/pre-phonetic alphabet letters like "Baker/Bravo" or "Love/Lima"... (Charlie was Charlie both pre and post).

Yep, my grandparents still had the Jefferson 5-xxxx number painted on the wall of my grandfather's garage. My father inherited and passed and we a got pictures of it before it sold. My nephew has the number on his cell phone now!

 

[Spurffelbow833]

Having the ability to tell a racist/sexist joke and people not getting butt hurt and acting like you’re actually racist.

Same for movies: revenge of the nerds could never get made these days.

PC culture sucks the fun out of life.

Not just racist or sexist, anything insensitive or off-color was fair game. Any time a celebrity got killed or maimed, the jokes were making the rounds the next time you went to work. If the unfortunate celebrity was a minority, that got thrown in, too.

 

[Altitude Gator]

Playing in the swamps past the edge of the subdivision.

Talking during the VM message...hey, if your there, pick up, it's me!

Baseball game of the week with Vin Scully and Joe Garagiolla. TWIB with Mel Allen. Howard Cossell doing halftime highlights on MNF. Non-political ESPN.

Must see TV! VCRs as the solution to watching later. Intellivision football and baseball tournaments with the pals.

Pausing the tape at the pool scene in Fast Times at Ridgmont High.

Playing youth sports without parents showing up to yell at you, the coach and the ref.

 

[Altitude Gator]

Not just racist or sexist, anything insensitive or off-color was fair game. Any time a celebrity got killed or maimed, the jokes were making the rounds the next time you went to work.

What kind of wood doesn't float?

 

[Spurffelbow833]

What kind of wood doesn't float?

Natalie.

 

[Spurffelbow833]

Playing youth sports without parents showing up to yell at you, the coach and the ref.

Arguing after every play for ten times longer than the play took.

 

[Spurffelbow833]

Paper football.

 

[Altitude Gator]

Jarts/lawn darts.

 

[stephenPE]

Clackers

 

[stephenPE]

Family reunions or dinner on the grounds after church. Where the older ladies (born in 19th century) bring real home made cakes that Duncan Hines could never replicate. Going to "gas stations" where the guy came out and pumped the gas and cleaned the windshield. And always had a mechanic on duty. Where the grocery store cashier had to input the price of every item. Where your teacher could spank your ass if you pissed him or her off. Just for that reason. Where you had just two channels on the TV and actually had good programming especially on Saturday morning and Sunday night. Where your dogs could just live in the yard unfenced and none of the nearby fishing ponds were off limits with fences or posted signs. When your local paper had an editorial page with 4 or 5 nationally syndicated columnists writing about Washington politics.

 

[TLB]

Talking during the VM message...hey, if your there, pick up, it's me!

There’s a memory! My dad had a parody of the willie Nelson song “on the phone again…” as his answer to callers.

 

[Detroitgator]

Playing in the swamps past the edge of the subdivision.

Talking during the VM message...hey, if your there, pick up, it's me!

Baseball game of the week with Vin Scully and Joe Garagiolla. TWIB with Mel Allen. Howard Cossell doing halftime highlights on MNF. Non-political ESPN.

Must see TV! VCRs as the solution to watching later. Intellivision football and baseball tournaments with the pals.

Pausing the tape at the pool scene in Fast Times at Ridgmont High.

Playing youth sports without parents showing up to yell at you, the coach and the ref.

@soflagator

You are on your ASS in replying with an appropriate response on this one... deeply, deeply disappointed. We expect more of you. Do better... be best!