Gen X. I was born in '65, but because I hadn't yet turned two when the first Super Bowl was played in '67, I am always the same age as the Super Bowl number. Makes it easy to remember how old I am. :-)
I am old enough to remember:
Party line phones with five digit numbers if calls were local, and Macon and Kirksville having the same area code as Kansas City.
A country doctor who actually made house calls.
The only TV being black and white because color was too expensive, that got a CBS channel, an NBC channel, and if the weather was right, an ABC channel.
As a preschool-aged kid, crawling from the backseat to the frontseat of my mom's '67 Impala while she drove 80 MPH on a winding country road while chainsmoking.
My mom thinking gas was expensive when it hit 50 cents a gallon.
The mortgage on a brand new house with three bedrooms, two baths, and a two car garage being less than my current utility bills.
Riding in the backs of pickups thinking nothing of it. Also, sitting behind the driver with my ass on the trunk of a two seat convertible MG thinking nothing of it.
Handheld communication devices being either walkie-talkies or something out of Star Trek.
Manual typewriters.
I could go on, but it's too depressing. And there is also still a part of me that thinks the year 2000 should be in the future, not nearly a quarter-century in the past.
Originally Posted by Frazod:
Gen X. I was born in '65, but because I hadn't yet turned two when the first Super Bowl was played in '67, I am always the same age as the Super Bowl number. Makes it easy to remember how old I am. :-)
I am old enough to remember:
Party line phones with five digit numbers if calls were local, and Macon and Kirksville having the same area code as Kansas City.
A country doctor who actually made house calls.
The only TV being black and white because color was too expensive, that got a CBS channel, an NBC channel, and if the weather was right, an ABC channel.
As a preschool-aged kid, crawling from the backseat to the frontseat of my mom's '67 Impala while she drove 80 MPH on a winding country road while chainsmoking.
My mom thinking gas was expensive when it hit 50 cents a gallon.
The mortgage on a brand new house with three bedrooms, two baths, and a two car garage being less than my current utility bills.
Riding in the backs of pickups thinking nothing of it. Also, sitting behind the driver with my ass on the trunk of a two seat convertible MG thinking nothing of it.
Handheld communication devices being either walkie-talkies or something out of Star Trek.
Manual typewriters.
I could go on, but it's too depressing. And there is also still a part of me that thinks the year 2000 should be in the future, not nearly a quarter-century in the past.
Lol, yeah, our first TV was a 19-inch (might've be a 15-incher) black-and-white Zenith. I remember we had to move the thing from room to room until we found one where the reception was good enough to get all 4 channels.
The next TV was one of those cabinet-style ones (forgot the name of those things, someone help me out here), color, but still needed the antennas with the foil flags, lol.
Our van came with a CB radio.
And who can forget the kitchen phone with the 30-foot cord that would get hopelessly twisted up around itself until someone finally went to the trouble of unwinding it by allowing the cord to untwist with the handset spinning at 1,000 rpm for 5 minutes? [Reply]
Originally Posted by Frazod:
Gen X. I was born in '65, but because I hadn't yet turned two when the first Super Bowl was played in '67, I am always the same age as the Super Bowl number. Makes it easy to remember how old I am. :-)
I am old enough to remember:
Party line phones with five digit numbers if calls were local, and Macon and Kirksville having the same area code as Kansas City.
A country doctor who actually made house calls.
The only TV being black and white because color was too expensive, that got a CBS channel, an NBC channel, and if the weather was right, an ABC channel.
As a preschool-aged kid, crawling from the backseat to the frontseat of my mom's '67 Impala while she drove 80 MPH on a winding country road while chainsmoking.
My mom thinking gas was expensive when it hit 50 cents a gallon.
The mortgage on a brand new house with three bedrooms, two baths, and a two car garage being less than my current utility bills.
Riding in the backs of pickups thinking nothing of it. Also, sitting behind the driver with my ass on the trunk of a two seat convertible MG thinking nothing of it.
Handheld communication devices being either walkie-talkies or something out of Star Trek.
Manual typewriters.
I could go on, but it's too depressing. And there is also still a part of me that thinks the year 2000 should be in the future, not nearly a quarter-century in the past.
Originally Posted by Mosbonian:
Sorry Fraz....you sound more like a Boomer than Gen X.
Oh and I remember when my dad moaned when gas went from 25 cents to 35 cents.
My first car...which was used cost me $425. It cost me $10 to register and $50 to insure for 6 months.
My first new car cost me $3000 and I thought I would go broke paying for it.
My first apartment rented was for $125 per month and all utilities paid...except for phone.
My first house payment $200...
Like you I could go on..
Well, I only missed the cutoff by six months. I have friends from my high school class who are technically boomers because they were born in late '64. One of them takes great pride in that. :-)
I think I paid $2000 for my first used car, a '77 Monza, and rent for my first apartment was $160 a month, including utilities. My first new car, a '86 Mercury Lynx, cost $6500 - had to look that one up. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
Lol, yeah, our first TV was a 19-inch (might've be a 15-incher) black-and-white Zenith. I remember we had to move the thing from room to room until we found one where the reception was good enough to get all 4 channels.
The next TV was one of those cabinet-style ones (forgot the name of those things, someone help me out here), color, but still needed the antennas with the foil flags, lol.
Our van came with a CB radio.
And who can forget the kitchen phone with the 30-foot cord that would get hopelessly twisted up around itself until someone finally went to the trouble of unwinding it by allowing the cord to untwist with the handset spinning at 1,000 rpm for 5 minutes?
Our first color TV was a combo stereo record player/19" TV in a gigantic wood cabinet that was damn near as long as my car and nearly as heavy. By the time that came along we lived in town and had cable, so a few more channels and no more antenna madness.
And we had one of those phones with the ridiculously long twisty cord. And of course it was a rotary phone. God those sucked. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Frazod:
Our first color TV was a combo stereo record player/19" TV in a gigantic wood cabinet that was damn near as long as my car and nearly as heavy. By the time that came along we lived in town and had cable, so a few more channels and no more antenna madness.
And we had one of those phones with the ridiculously long twisty cord. And of course it was a rotary phone. God those sucked.
Your first post reminded me just now of the gigantic-ass antenna complex my dad and I had to mount on the roof of the house.
And rotary phones. Hell, just having to remember all the phone numbers of everyone you knew. Memorizing every phone number in 10 seconds or less.
Although, rotary phones were basically indestructible. I remember you could throw one across the room and it would still work. [Reply]
