Post #410,671
6/4/16 3:01:06 PM
6/4/16 3:01:06 PM
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Oh, to be young again. Not.
From a recent comment thread at LGM: I’ve been waiting to post this until we had a more casual post to bullshit on, but since you teed me up for it perfectly, I had an SEK -level exchange with a student, yesterday.
There’s some prologue that leads up to it but I’ll just cut to the good part:
Me: I’m assuming you’re not a Nirvana fan?
Her: No. My brother has that one album, it’s got like a naked baby floating in the water and—
Me: Nevermind.
Her: Well, sorry I said anything.
Me: No, the album is called Nevermind.
Her: How can you know an album based just on the cover? I don’t even know what any of Justin Beiber’s album covers look like.*
Me: Well see, back in the day, if you wanted to listen to an album you had to go to the store and buy a physical copy of it.
Her: Yeah, I just get all the songs I listen to on my phone.
Me: Back in the day, phones didn’t play music.
Her: Well, they did, you just had to go on the internet.
Me. Cell phones used to not have the internet, either.
Her: I don’t believe you.
*I know that last part sounds made up, but I swear she said it.
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Post #410,672
6/4/16 3:29:33 PM
6/4/16 3:29:33 PM
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OFFS
She doesn't believe phones used to not have the internet?
Bitch, my fucking world used to not have the internet.
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Post #410,674
6/4/16 4:19:23 PM
6/4/16 4:19:23 PM
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On Ask Me Another today on NPR...
One of the questions was, how much did the first Motorola cell phone cost. $3500. "And you couldn't call anyone because nobody else was stupid enough to pay $3500 for a phone..." ;-) (Not true, of course, since it could call land lines.) When one is a youngster, one doesn't recognize how quickly things have changed. The Crichton LPRDism is worth remembering: Remember, people in 1900 didn't know what an atom was. They didn't know its structure.
They also didn't know what a radio was, or an airport, or a movie, or a television, or a computer, or a cell phone, or a jet, an antibiotic, a rocket, a satellite, an MRI, ICU, IUD, IBM, IRA, ERA, EEG, EPA, IRS, DOD, PCP, HTML, internet. interferon, instant replay, remote sensing, remote control, speed dialing, gene therapy, gene splicing, genes, spot welding, heat-seeking, bipolar, prozac, leotards, lap dancing, email, tape recorder, CDs, airbags, plastic explosive, plastic, robots, cars, liposuction, transduction, superconduction, dish antennas, step aerobics, smoothies, twelve-step, ultrasound, nylon, rayon, teflon, fiber optics, carpal tunnel, laser surgery, laparoscopy, corneal transplant, kidney transplant, AIDS... None of this would have meant anything to a person in the year 1900. They wouldn't know what you are talking about. It's a great line, but he took the wrong lesson from it, unfortunately. Cheers, Scott.
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Post #410,673
6/4/16 3:32:41 PM
6/4/16 3:32:41 PM
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Pre internet? You relic! :)
I'm pre-indoor bathrooms, even in the USA. Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #410,675
6/4/16 4:24:11 PM
6/4/16 4:24:11 PM
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I think you've got us all beat there. ;-)
I had a high school friend that owned a family restaurant in a tiny town in central Ohio. The phone company there was some tiny outfit. You could call someone in town by dialing 4 numbers. These days, it's hard to call anyone the first time without dialing 10 numbers...
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who remembers when air conditioning in a car was a luxury!)
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Post #410,676
6/4/16 5:07:06 PM
6/4/16 5:07:06 PM
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The oldest phone thing I remember is party lines and rotary dialing.
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
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Post #410,684
6/4/16 7:29:11 PM
6/4/16 7:29:11 PM
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As immigrants in 1950, first gig was sharecropping on tobacco farm in Charles County, MD.
The farmer had indoor plumbing, we had an outhouse and a well hand pump for water. That was the same as black family down the road. Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #410,711
6/5/16 6:56:31 PM
6/5/16 6:56:31 PM
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Or not. Look up why NC State was suspended under Coach Sloan. (Hint: David Thompson)
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Post #410,688
6/5/16 1:17:12 AM
6/5/16 1:18:34 AM
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indoor plumbing
Since it seems on the face of it unlikely that, however venerable you are, you predate the introduction of indoor sanitary conveniences in this great land of ours, and since these are still not universally deployed, we could all of us, in a sense, make that claim. I assume you mean that your personal history includes a period in which your family had recourse to an outdoor biffy. I spent a holiday a dozen years ago with a family in Alaska with a similar arrangement, although the outhouse was pretty fancy as these things go.
The quaintest artifact in my own personal memory is an open-tub wringer washing machine in use around 1955 or 1956. It ran CP/M, I believe.
cordially,
EDIT: #410,684 not yet processed (by me) when I posted this.
Edited by rcareaga
June 5, 2016, 01:18:34 AM EDT
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Post #410,690
6/5/16 1:39:29 AM
6/5/16 1:39:29 AM
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Yes, my childhood had that feature too.
There was a path through the gooseberry patch to a 2 holer.
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Post #410,694
6/5/16 9:41:06 AM
6/5/16 9:41:06 AM
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A 2 holer? Ooh, look who's putting on airs.
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Post #410,699
6/5/16 3:12:25 PM
6/5/16 3:12:25 PM
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I've got that beat! :)
The refuge camp in Germany had a 4-holer facing a urinal trough. And I used it for years in the late 1940's. Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #410,700
6/5/16 3:19:42 PM
6/5/16 3:19:42 PM
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the 4 holer at the baptist church didnt have a urinal trough, you win
although the indoor 2 holer (one two holer on each side of the building)in the one room school house I attended in the early 1960's was pretty nifty. They were in the east and west entry way. Wasnt bad in the winter but the smell in may and september was impressive at your desk. always look out for number one and don't step in number two
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Post #410,677
6/4/16 5:09:49 PM
6/4/16 5:09:49 PM
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The entire premise is flawed.
The goddamn phone shows you a picture of the album cover, girl. Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
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Post #410,678
6/4/16 5:23:58 PM
6/4/16 5:23:58 PM
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rofl.
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Post #410,713
6/5/16 7:15:56 PM
6/5/16 7:15:57 PM
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Very well, then
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Post #410,715
6/5/16 7:28:09 PM
6/5/16 7:28:09 PM
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The autogenerated captions almost make more sense. :-D
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