feeling old

[zaph]

I had one of those moments queing to buy a hard drive in computer exchange. Some kids behind me, who looked about 12 (why weren't they at school?) were talking about the music in the shop. One claimed it was original, the other said it was a remix of a band i'd never heard of. I knew the original was take on me by ah ha, not what they claimed. I was about to say when I realised I was that old guy, telling them about music in my day. Worse I asked for the wrong bit, the guy behind the counter looked at me the way I use to look at dad when he couldn't work the video. Is this my future, befundled by new tech, and full of trivia that nobody cares about?

[Madison_Rose]

Not nescessarily, there are plenty of older people who love their tech, and plenty of young people with no clue. Oh, and I have no idea what the kids are listening to these days. Doesn't make you old.

[Hoth]

I've no idea what to look for (other than gigabytes) in buying a hard drive, even though I'm a tech geek (though not so much a hardware geek). If you're returning the hard drive because you couldn't figure out how to plug your keyboard and mouse into it and were upset that it lacked a screen... well, that's when you're old.

[Cheeky]

Some things make me feel really old...some examples:
*I didn't have internet in school until 10th grade
*I took typing class on a typewriter
*I remember when car phones were all the rage
*My first cell phone was a HUGE Motorolla flip phone...definitely didn't fit in my pocket...or purse for that matter.
*I wish the original 8 bit Nintendo was still popular - 3D video games are too confusing and the controllers have way too many buttons nowadays lol
*Oh and someone born in 1993 is old enough to drive a car. YIKES!

[shylady]

I know how you feel I wish there was a such thing as a fountain of youth.. I would love to turn back the hands of time..

[copper]

Originally Posted by Cheeky

Some things make me feel really old...some examples:
*I didn't have internet in school until 10th grade
*I took typing class on a typewriter
*I remember when car phones were all the rage
*My first cell phone was a HUGE Motorolla flip phone...definitely didn't fit in my pocket...or purse for that matter.
*I wish the original 8 bit Nintendo was still popular - 3D video games are too confusing and the controllers have way too many buttons nowadays lol
*Oh and someone born in 1993 is old enough to drive a car. YIKES!

I remember rotary dial phones. My parent's had one until I was 21.

I remember mimeograph machines in elementary school. They used it until I was in 4th grade when they bought a photo copy machine.

Our first computer had 64 KB of memory.

I use to tape music off the radio and always was mad when the Disc Jockey kept rambling on when the song started.

I remember when gasoline had lead in it. They finally phased it out when I turned 16.

I remember helping my dad tune up the car every 6 months by putting new points in, checking the timing with a timing light, adjusting the carb, and putting in new plugs.

[Hoth]

Originally Posted by Cheeky

*I didn't have internet in school until 10th grade

I didn't have it at home or school until college, and I'm younger than you. We had monochrome macs with no hard drives in high school, even though it was the late 90's.

*I took typing class on a typewriter

Alright, that does make you old. :P

*I wish the original 8 bit Nintendo was still popular - 3D video games are too confusing and the controllers have way too many buttons nowadays lol

Plenty of Nintendo emulators out there, so those games are probably pretty popular still. Classics never die.

[Cheeky]

Originally Posted by Hoth

Plenty of Nintendo emulators out there, so those games are probably pretty popular still. Classics never die.

I have the DS - that's fairly simple. I have Pacman on it. But nothing can beat the old Atari version of Pacman. Yep, I remember the Atari too. That one was even better - a joystick and ONE button LOL

[Pam]

Originally Posted by Cheeky

Some things make me feel really old...some examples:
*I didn't have internet in school until 10th grade
*I took typing class on a typewriter
*I remember when car phones were all the rage
*My first cell phone was a HUGE Motorolla flip phone...definitely didn't fit in my pocket...or purse for that matter.
*I wish the original 8 bit Nintendo was still popular - 3D video games are too confusing and the controllers have way too many buttons nowadays lol
*Oh and someone born in 1993 is old enough to drive a car. YIKES!

I didn't have home access to the internet until...after the year 2000...

I never learned to type until I was in my mid 20s--there was no reason to know how unless you were going to be a secretary...

I remember seeing carphones on TV shows like Dallas & Magnum PI...

I got my first prepaid cell phone...a couple months ago...

Nintendo? Never played it.

[Pam]

Originally Posted by copper

I remember rotary dial phones. My parent's had one until I was 21.

I remember mimeograph machines in elementary school. They used it until I was in 4th grade when they bought a photo copy machine.

Our first computer had 64 KB of memory.

I use to tape music off the radio and always was mad when the Disc Jockey kept rambling on when the song started.

I remember when gasoline had lead in it. They finally phased it out when I turned 16.

I remember helping my dad tune up the car every 6 months by putting new points in, checking the timing with a timing light, adjusting the carb, and putting in new plugs.

I love "dial" phones.

Ooooh--Mimeograph machines! When the teacher would pass out a math test just fresh off the machine and they were still kind of damp, we all used to hold the paper to our faces and sniff that purple ink!

I don't know how many hours I used to try to catch good songs on the radio with my hand waiting to press the "record" button.

My first car (1968 Cougar) took leaded gas!!!

I actually know what a carbeurator is...

[Pam]

Attention "old people" in your 20s and 30s:

When I was in school we really didn't need to know, or want to know, how to type--the only people who did were going to be secretaries!!! (Now any 5 yr old can?)

Also, when we waited at the bus-stop, there were like at least 10 kids there because one bus-stop picked up kids from 3 or 4 streets nearby. We had to walk to the bus-stop. None of this picking you up at the end of your driveway crap!

I'm pretty sure the problem of childhood obesity came historically around the same time video games were in almost every house. Sorry, I see nothing good about video games...

[Metallic]

Wow there's places where the bus picks you up at the end of your driveway? In my neighborhood you still have to walk to the closest bus stop to you, which is usually down the street or on one nearby.

Anyway, if it makes you feel any better, most kids my age probably couldn't tell you anything about a hard drive. Hell, when I lived in a suite with 4 people last year I was the ONLY one that knew how to hook up a printer. I had to help all the girls figure out how to use theirs and even how to insert the ink cartridge. It amazes me that even though they grew up with this technology they don't know how to use it.

[Hoth]

Originally Posted by Pam

I'm pretty sure the problem of childhood obesity came historically around the same time video games were in almost every house. Sorry, I see nothing good about video games...

I played lots of video games as a kid (though not much anymore), and was so skinny that some teachers worried my parents might be starving me to death. If you're right, video games must've been the only thing that kept enough weight on me to survive. Doctors should prescribe video games as life-saving medicine, and the government should fund their development and give them free to every needy child.

Incidentally, I'm pretty sure the problem of childhood obesity came historically around the time everybody got so rich that even the poor in the USA have more food than they need. The car-oriented, constant-hurry culture is a big factor though... people just don't want to take the time to walk places.

[copper]

Originally Posted by Hoth

I played lots of video games as a kid (though not much anymore), and was so skinny that some teachers worried my parents might be starving me to death. If you're right, video games must've been the only thing that kept enough weight on me to survive. Doctors should prescribe video games as life-saving medicine, and the government should fund their development and give them free to every needy child.

Incidentally, I'm pretty sure the problem of childhood obesity came historically around the time everybody got so rich that even the poor in the USA have more food than they need. The car-oriented, constant-hurry culture is a big factor though... people just don't want to take the time to walk places.

I don't think video games are the main cause. Up to the age of 10 my mother was home and my father worked at a factory. She grew a big garden every summer and cooked from scratch. She never bought processed food and fast food was a rarity. Then she entered the work force because it was getting to hard to live on one income. Well she quit growing a garden, started to buy more processed food like hamburger helper, and would bring home fast food when she didn't feel like cooking. I am not saying that women shouldn't work. I am just saying there was a major lifestyle shift.

[Alone42Long]

Originally Posted by copper

Our first computer had 64 KB of memory.

Yeah me too. & before we ever personally got a external 5 1/4" disk drive the first thing we used for several years to store programs/software/games or buy them on was cassete tapes. Either that or you typed the code in out of magazines. ha ha

I took typing 1 yr in 9th grade. But more because it was a room full of girls than to type code or anything faster.

[copper]

Originally Posted by Alone42Long

Yeah me too. & before we ever personally got a external 5 1/4" disk drive the first thing we used for several years to store programs/software/games or buy them on was cassete tapes. Either that or you typed the code in out of magazines. ha ha

I took typing 1 yr in 9th grade. But more because it was a room full of girls than to type code or anything faster.

I use to type those codes out of the magazines and none of them ever worked. They always were full of typos. I would spend half the day typing the code in and the stupid computer would spill out syntax error on line 900 and I would look at that line in the magazine to discover I keyed it in right. Dad did by a 5.25 floppy drive for the computer with the Reagan tax incentive. I think it cost around $300 for it.

[Pam]

Originally Posted by Hoth

I played lots of video games as a kid (though not much anymore), and was so skinny that some teachers worried my parents might be starving me to death. If you're right, video games must've been the only thing that kept enough weight on me to survive. Doctors should prescribe video games as life-saving medicine, and the government should fund their development and give them free to every needy child.

Incidentally, I'm pretty sure the problem of childhood obesity came historically around the time everybody got so rich that even the poor in the USA have more food than they need. The car-oriented, constant-hurry culture is a big factor though... people just don't want to take the time to walk places.

I am not stupid enough to think there is only one factor that leads to a national trend like childhood obesity. Nor that everyone who played video games was overweight, I was just giving my general opinion and trying to show my "old age" in a funny & sarcastic way--not trying to write an article for the NE Journal of Medicine.

This thread was about feeling old, so I was pointing out the fact that when I was little, there were no video games for us to sit on our butts all day long and play. Instead I'm from the generation where you had to go outside and play, and that usually meant being ACTIVE. (like actually having to use your legs to pedal a Big Wheel instead of just sitting passively in an electric Barbie jeep that doesn't even go very fast)

Also when I was younger, there were only a few fat kids in my grade and they were made fun of. Now so many kids are overweight and unhealthy, (along with their parents) that it seems like being obese is being normalized. But it shouldn't be because it's UNHEALTHY.

I'm also old enough to know that before this obesity problem, there was a time where "everybody" SMOKED! (I quit last year after 25 yrs of it myself). To oversimplify it, now "everybody" EATS! People who would have died from smoking can now die from eating too much...

[LostPancake]

Originally Posted by Pam

I'm pretty sure the problem of childhood obesity came historically around the same time video games were in almost every house.

I think that's true. My parents live in a neighborhood with lots of kids, and whenever I drive out there I'm surprised how few kids are playing outside, even when the weather is beautiful. I imagine they're inside playing video games, or watching 24hr cartoon channels on the giant TVs (another thing we didn't have back then!). And even if they do go outside, they're often on these huge battery driven cars and powered scooter things!

Nobody's outside playing 'war' with plastic guns, which was always a good workout, or playing nerf football in the street, which was always fun. But every now and then you'll see some kids riding bikes, which is kind of reassuring.

[Atticus]

I live in the house I grew up in (moved back when my parents died). It's eerie to see how empty the streets around here are, and how deserted the wooded areas and creeks seem to be. About the only kids I see are a few guys on skateboards.

[copper]

Originally Posted by LostPancake

I think that's true. My parents live in a neighborhood with lots of kids, and whenever I drive out there I'm surprised how few kids are playing outside, even when the weather is beautiful. I imagine they're inside playing video games, or watching 24hr cartoon channels on the giant TVs (another thing we didn't have back then!). And even if they do go outside, they're often on these huge battery driven cars and powered scooter things!

Nobody's outside playing 'war' with plastic guns, which was always a good workout, or playing nerf football in the street, which was always fun. But every now and then you'll see some kids riding bikes, which is kind of reassuring.

I hardly see any kids doing anything outside anymore. The only time I will see them when we get the first warm weather after our long 6 month winter, but soon that fades away. By the time school gets out for summer I won't see any kids outside.