You Know You Are Old When

[scootr]

You know you are old if you started each school day with the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

 

[ultrarunner]

I sold my II to a high school teacher and bought my //e because of the 80 column over 40 of the II.

It was a huge improvement for correspondence.

The 300 baud modem also swapped for a 1200 baud… 4x the speed… what’s not to like?

I still have my //e including the original box with the styrofoam inserts.

A few years ago a friend wanted to list it on eBay and I said no.

I got all my money back when I sold the II so my timing was spot on…

When ATT rolled out DSL I got a postcard saying it was available… the installers had a fit because it didn’t work and they had to run 12 pole length new line to get it working saying I never should have been offered DSL.

Now I’m a few blocks further remote and cable would need to be under ground at my expense so borrowed a Verizon Cube and get 9.5 out of it but it is not available for my address… go figure.

 

[MossRoad]

You know you are old if you started each school day with the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

You know you are old if the pledge didn't have "one nation under god" in it when you recited it. That wasn't added until the 50s.

Also, lawsuits about saying the pledge in school started in the 40s, well before 'under god' was added.

Also, the original pledge was a marketing gimmick. And anti-Catholic.

From here:

Why Eisenhower Added 'Under God' to the Pledge of Allegiance During the Cold War | HISTORY

The Pledge of Allegiance wasn’t standardized until World War II, and didn’t contain “under God” until 1954.

www.history.com

As a marketing gimmick, Bellamy put together a program for schools to use to mark the Columbian Exposition, and successfully lobbied Congress to support the program. Part of this program was a Pledge of Allegiance, which originally read:

“I pledge allegiance to my flag and the Republic for which it stands—one Nation indivisible—with liberty and justice for all.”

Like the magazine’s other marketing strategies, which included sending flags and pictures of George Washington to schools, the pledge was part of a push for “Americanization.” Bellamy was one of many Protestant Americans of northern European heritage who believed that new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, many of them Catholic, were harmful to the “American” way of life, and that they needed to assimilate.

 

[WinterDeere]

You know you are old if you started each school day with the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

My kids still do.

 

[WinterDeere]

I sold my II to a high school teacher and bought my //e because of the 80 column over 40 of the II.

I believe I sold the color ribbon dot matrix printer from our Apple IIgs for more than my father paid for it, 30 years earlier.

Old computer hardware is cool. I'm glad there are a few collecting and maintaining it, because I sure wouldn't want to dedicate any part of my own house to storing it.

 

[chiefcook]

You know you are old if you started each school day with the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

Still do where I live(SW AR)

 

[bigtiller]

immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, many of them Catholic, were harmful to the “American” way of life, and that they needed to assimilate.

My 5th grade Sunday school teacher warned us kids to stay away from Catholics, but she clammed up when we asked why.

 

[deserteagle71]

I believe I sold the color ribbon dot matrix printer from our Apple IIgs for more than my father paid for it, 30 years earlier.

Old computer hardware is cool. I'm glad there are a few collecting and maintaining it, because I sure wouldn't want to dedicate any part of my own house to storing it.

The Mac IIsi computer I bought from a pawn shop in 1991 is still hooked up and still works, down in my basement. It has the Apple ImageWriter dot matrix printer hooked to it and it works wonderful to make big long colorful banners.

 

[drssg]

Same here, but I had held out for it, since I was in the Army and employed at an Army research lab which had just started getting DEC Rainbows (with floppy drives) for all the secretarial staff.
And once I got it I found I could fit the C64, it's tape deck and power supply into a scavenged briefcase so I could bring it in to work to write reports.

Then after I produced several good reports, proving it wasn't just a toy my boss agreed I could get a DEC Rainbow. I managed to finagle that into a DEC Pro 380 (with the PDP-11/73 chipset) with a 10 MEGABYTE hard drive! I was the envy of the Lab.

That's interesting. I worked for DEC for a couple of years in the early 90s, and I never even heard of the DEC Rainbow. They made another attempt to enter the PC market when I was there, but it was over-priced, and it didn't sell well.

I didn't stay long at the company, because they were obviously going out of business. At our first big meeting, the Division Manager said we were in a "transition." I didn't know what he was talking about, but he made it sound kind of exciting. I eventually realized that it meant they were firing people.

 

[newbury]

That's interesting. I worked for DEC for a couple of years in the early 90s, and I never even heard of the DEC Rainbow. They made another attempt to enter the PC market when I was there, but it was over-priced, and it didn't sell well.
<snip>

Dec Rainbow - link
Overbuilt, overpriced, slow as a snail but reliable. The lab probably bought them because they were sold by DEC and we ran many PDP-(8,11) and in a few years moved to many Vax's.
A few years later I was fielding MicroVax's for Geographic Information Systems.

 

[WinterDeere]

My 5th grade Sunday school teacher warned us kids to stay away from Catholics, but she clammed up when we asked why.

"...frittering your life away, playing nursemaid to a bunch of garlic eaters". Catholics were not exactly adored, among the protestant-rich demographics of early America. Some of it was religious bias, more of it was probably economic bias, as protestants made up the earlier and wealthier settlers from Great Britain, and Catholics were the later and poorer Irish and Italians.

The Mac IIsi computer I bought from a pawn shop in 1991 is still hooked up and still works, down in my basement. It has the Apple ImageWriter dot matrix printer hooked to it and it works wonderful to make big long colorful banners.

ImageWriter! That was it! Those things were beasts, no surprise it's still running. Ours was a 1986 model, and I'd bet it's still probably printing for someone, somewhere.

I worked for DEC for a couple of years in the early 90s...

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home." -- Ken Olsen, founder of DEC, speaking to the World Future Society in 1977.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I met my favorite TV cartoon show host Whizzo The Clown (Frank Wiziarde) and got his autograph at local home show.
View attachment 1786610

Apparently got his name because of prostate problems?

 

[Runner]

Apparently got his name because of prostate problems?

Who's always smiling, never sad it's Whizzo. Who makes the boys and girls so glad it's Whizzo....

 

[WinterDeere]

It's sometimes hard to remember the absolute crap you could produce, and still earn viewers, when you had a captive audience and only 3-4 stations available.

 

[Norm W]

I bought a "Franklin" Apple clone with the 80 column card and a wide carriage dot matrix printer. I used it to print report cards for the classes I taught and the "Better Half" used it to print her reports for work. It would print on commercial "5" copy paper and one run would give me five copies so they could go to parents, principal, guidance, department head and I kept a copy. I think this was around 1978. I was the only teacher with a computer in school.

 

[Jstpssng]

It's sometimes hard to remember the absolute crap you could produce, and still earn viewers, when you had a captive audience and only 3-4 stations available.

As opposed to the absolute crap now, when they have 57 channels and nothing on...

 

[BackRoad]

Only The Weather Channel over the last ~7 years...and then only intermittently during actual hurricanes or severe winter storms.

For me, watching TV is a very quick stressor.

 

[ultrarunner]

I’ve turned the TV once this year and it was for the debate…

After being away for a time what I notice is all the advertising which is a turn off.

 

[lman]

I’ve turned the TV once this year and it was for the debate…

After being away for a time what I notice is all the advertising which is a turn off.

If I didn't have a DVR to skip the ads, I wouldn't watch TV either.

 

[WinterDeere]

I’ve turned the TV once this year and it was for the debate…

After being away for a time what I notice is all the advertising which is a turn off.

Verizon disabled our boxes back in June, and sent us new ones. I still haven't bothered hooking them up, but did finally convince my wife to cancel the service, pointing out she hasn't watched any TV since June.

Now I just need to get around to pulling out all the old hardware, and sending everything back.