Do you remember? A generational perspective ...

[Pablo]

If I remember we took a reddish powder, heated it in a test tube over a bunsen and it turned into Mercury. Mecuric oxide perhaps?

Pretty sure we did the same thing!

 

[Opelman]

In elementary school I rode in a Crown school bus with a manual transmission,It also had a 2 stroke Detroit Diesel . I will never forget that sound.

The school district I worked for had several of those, both turbo and non. The big 90 passenger 3 axle had a 300/350 Cummins with a BIG Allison automatic. That bus would move. We ran that one well into the 2000s. Best school buses ever. We had a few in daily service at 400,000 miles.

 

[Skippy722]

My Dad mentioned washing his hands with benzine after working with modeling compounds.
Knowing him, I'd bet he could do that whilst smoking.

At the first machine shop I worked at as a teenager they were showing me the solvent tank and telling me to wear gloves while using it and don’t smoke around it… only for the other millwright to come over, cigarette lit in his mouth, dunk his hands in the tank and go “yeah listen to Bob, he knows what he’s talking about!”

Pretty sure it was naptha as it smelled kinda like gasoline… I always wore gloves while using it.

 

[Kira]

I knew a guy who worked in a marina on his back under raised pleasure craft repairing fiberglass.
He told me he did it all while smoking cigarettes.
I thought he was kinda goofy.

 

[Bailes1992]

I remember when people didn't stare at their phones and instead carried on decent conversation with one another.

This is something I call total nonsense.

I have conversations going on, with multiple people almost constantly thanks to my phone.

While I might not be talking to someone face to face, it doesn't mean I'm not being sociable. And I don't think it takes anything away from my social skills either.

If it wasn't for my phone I probably wouldn't spend as much time on here where I've had some really interesting conversations and also learned a hell of a lot about the US, let alone oil.

 

[andrewg]

This is something I call total nonsense.

I have conversations going on, with multiple people almost constantly thanks to my phone.

While I might not be talking to someone face to face, it doesn't mean I'm not being sociable. And I don't think it takes anything away from my social skills either.

If it wasn't for my phone I probably wouldn't spend as much time on here where I've had some really interesting conversations and also learned a hell of a lot about the US, let alone oil.

Total nonsense? Hardly. You are obviously oblivious to the point I was making. While you may be communicating with multiple people at once on your phone....those around you in public settings are ignored. It's annoying and rude.

 

[GW.]

I remember rabbit ears on top of the tv. All networks went off air every night. In the morning all networks came back on with the national anthem!!!

 

[lilspenny]

Ditto, my parents would occasionally break a thermometer, and would let me play with the "quicksilver" for a minute or so before one of them put it in the garbage or down the sink.

I wonder what sort of stuff we're doing now that will appall future generations.

It's hard to get good sedatives at the doc nowadays. That Mercury was fun, huh? Then I'd go find the baby aspirin and chew up a few. Leaded gas smelled pretty good. I threw out about 100 pounds of ddt powder one day with a tub and a cup. Got all over me and in my eyes, nose, and lungs. No bath because there was no running water until the next day. COMPLETELY shut down the bug traffic for most of the summer. Nose drops? Got hooked on them a few times. Swallowed castor oil because my mom made me. In 1980 all I had to do to get paregoric cough syrup was ask the pharmacist. Presto! I remember standing in the front seat of our 57 Chevy. Seat belt??? No, my mom's arm. Tons and tons of stuff that today's sissies, wimps, know it all's, and Karens would march in the streets and burn cars about.

 

[spasm3]

It's hard to get good sedatives at the doc nowadays. That Mercury was fun, huh? Then I'd go find the baby aspirin and chew up a few. Leaded gas smelled pretty good. I threw out about 100 pounds of ddt powder one day with a tub and a cup. Got all over me and in my eyes, nose, and lungs. No bath because there was no running water until the next day. COMPLETELY shut down the bug traffic for most of the summer. Nose drops? Got hooked on them a few times. Swallowed castor oil because my mom made me. In 1980 all I had to do to get paregoric cough syrup was ask the pharmacist. Presto! I remember standing in the front seat of our 57 Chevy. Seat belt??? No, my mom's arm. Tons and tons of stuff that today's sissies, wimps, know it all's, and Karens would march in the streets and burn cars about.

Don't forget lawn darts, cherry bombs, dirt clod fights, riding our bikes behind the mosquito fogger at the campground.

 

[fat biker]

Mom only had an electric hand mixer.
My late wife nearly cried when I surprised her with a Kitchenaid stand mixer.

I still have my Heathkit tune-up meter and timing light.
The timing light gets used to time the Rabbit Convertible.

 

[4wd]

I have conversations going on, with multiple people almost constantly thanks to my phone.

So you’re that guy in the British Airways lounge

 

[John Galt]

Don't forget lawn darts, cherry bombs, dirt clod fights, riding our bikes behind the mosquito fogger at the campground.

All that was part of my growing up years. We made slingshots and we would spend a whole afternoon shooting acorns from the ground below this big oak tree at the squirrels. We made homemade parachutes out of silk handkerchiefs, string and wooden thread bobbins as the weighted part and used the slingshots to launch them - whoever got the longest drift won. Then do it over again. We lived near a plum tomato farm and the farmer left the bad unsellable fruits on the vines and we kids would go there at dusk and have tomato fights then hose off at home. The 60’s was a great time to be a kid.

The DDT truck went down our street about 1x month in the 60’s and we all rode our banana seat bikes behind it in the diesel smoke. The truck was a Willie’s jeep, army surplus I think. I ever get arrested for doing something reckless stupid I’m pulling the neighborhood DDT truck card from my past and claiming brain damage.

 

[levi]

I remember BB gun fights. Field with a couple of abandoned farm buildings. You learned to wear loose fitting clothes.

Darn those things stung.

Eye protection? Don't be a wuss.

 

[rszappa1]

I remember rabbit ears on top of the tv. All networks went off air every night. In the morning all networks came back on with the national anthem!!!

and then high tech....a UHF converter box....

 

[rszappa1]

I remember going to the Lafayette or ALLIED store to use their tube tester
to see what was wrong with the console radio or electric organ or TV tubes.


View attachment 232588

I remember one at a drug store we went to. Dad would have me take the tubes from the tv and check them and if bad get a new one under the tester...

 

[Pew]

Total nonsense? Hardly. You are obviously oblivious to the point I was making. While you may be communicating with multiple people at once on your phone....those around you in public settings are ignored. It's annoying and rude.

Ah yes....much conversation

 

[JWC86]

I remember BB gun fights. Field with a couple of abandoned farm buildings. You learned to wear loose fitting clothes.

Darn those things stung.

Eye protection? Don't be a wuss.

LOL yes tne BB gun "wars" were so much fun.

I remember catching one right on my bottom eyelid, even as dumb as I was I called it off for that day and that may have even been the last time I participated lol.

 

[lilspenny]

All that was part of my growing up years. We made slingshots and we would spend a whole afternoon shooting acorns from the ground below this big oak tree at the squirrels. We made homemade parachutes out of silk handkerchiefs, string and wooden thread bobbins as the weighted part and used the slingshots to launch them - whoever got the longest drift won. Then do it over again. We lived near a plum tomato farm and the farmer left the bad unsellable fruits on the vines and we kids would go there at dusk and have tomato fights then hose off at home. The 60’s was a great time to be a kid.

The DDT truck went down our street about 1x month in the 60’s and we all rode our banana seat bikes behind it in the diesel smoke. The truck was a Willie’s jeep, army surplus I think. I ever get arrested for doing something reckless stupid I’m pulling the neighborhood DDT truck card from my past and claiming brain damage.

Lol, thanks for the idea!

 

[Cheetah-kins]

This is something I call total nonsense.

I have conversations going on, with multiple people almost constantly thanks to my phone.

While I might not be talking to someone face to face, it doesn't mean I'm not being sociable. And I don't think it takes anything away from my social skills either.

If it wasn't for my phone I probably wouldn't spend as much time on here where I've had some really interesting conversations and also learned a hell of a lot about the US, let alone oil.

I agree. I get really tired of people complaining about phones ruining society. You know what I remember about the days before cell phones? Being on the road and needing to make an important call and trying to find a working pay phone. Maybe needing to find a place to get change, too. Then pray the pay phone I found actually worked. Oh and my wife and I have lived in many cities in the US, and we worked in the legal field for different companies. which had me or her going to different offices often - places we'd never been to in cities we were unfamiliar with. You know what that's like? Try finding an office in the middle of city like downtown Seattle or Chicago in morning rush hour with no phone and no GPS. Talk about stress! But that's what we did before mobile phones.

It's imo hard to overstate the importance of phones and GPS, and everything they give you instant access to. Of course if you live in the same town you grew up in, and never really go anywhere then yeah, I guess a cell phone isn't of much use to you. But lot's of people don't live that way and appreciate how much easier modern life is with a phone/computer with you. Oh and it's nice to know my wife always has a phone with her in case something happens or there's an emergency. I rest a lot easier knowing my wife - who means everything to me - has a way to call for help or call me or whatever.

 

[Tom NJ]

I remember "Preparation A".