# How times have changed!



## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

I bought a TV like this in the mid 1970's for $125 (plus tax). 12" black and white. This was the main and only TV in my apartment in Spencer Iowa and Marion Ohio after getting out of college. I think the biggest TV back then would be about 25". My neighbor in Marion didn't have a TY but would come over to watch mine occasionally.
I remember buy my 1st color TV in about 1982 27" wow what a monster! Yesterday, after Thanksgiving dinner, my SIL bought a 32" flatscreen for $85. Have times changed. Anyone have a story from the past?


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## Dovans (Nov 15, 2011)

My wife's work decided that the employee's needed a way to call for help in a emergency and they bought them all cell phones. My wife had to buy a bigger purse so she could carry the cell phone they gave her.


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## M R DUCKS (Feb 20, 2010)

Ha ! you fell for that, she just wanted another purse !


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## ress (Jan 1, 2008)

I was born in 1959. So growing up we had a BW tv. My uncle got a color set in 69 and all 7 of us would go over there on Sunday to watch Marlin Perkins on Mutual of Omahaul,s Wild Kingdom. Then Walt Disney. My first tv that I bought was a Zenith Space Command in 1981. That thing worked until a couple years ago.
My wife had a BW tv just like that but hers was a Mitsubishi.


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

I was born in 51 and as I grew up in tn my mom bought a 25" console black and white. and on sun nights all the neighbor kids would come over to watch bonanza and eat pop corn. I don't know how much it cost but the new TV's now probably cost less than what it cost. and I don't think they make console TV's any more. back then it took a strong man or two men to handle a 25" tv. now I can handle our 42" tv with no problem.
sherman


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## AtticaFish (Nov 23, 2008)

I'm a little younger (born in '77) and have seen a few things go by the wayside......

Can still remember listening to Spiderman and Superman comic books read on the small 45 rpm records. Think we had some Disney things too, but i can remember thinking it was crazy to have the book read to you, then hear the 'ding' to flip the page.

Our main living room TV was color and a little bigger but we always had a small black & white one that me and my brother used in our room. I was younger so always forced to be the remote control. Big time wrestling was the favorite thing to watch. But of course Heman, The A-Team, Incredible Hulk were all must see too. I do long for the days when the TV just went blank late at night. If you missed your show, you were out of luck. The non-stop TV of today is sad.

Can still remember our first computer too..... a Commodore 64! Built like a damn tank. Talk about how things have changed in such a short period of time. Now everything can be done all within the size of one of those old floppy disks. Many of the younger generations don't even know what the C Prompt in DOS is anymore and that was the ONLY way you could do things back then. My junior year in '94, my guidance counselor in high school let me be one of a very select few who got to be on the internet and talk with people on somewhat of a discussion forum..... the early predecessor of what we are doing here today. It was pretty much just having pen-pals with random people. My counselor actually let me use his login and password to do everything. I could see all the conversations he had as well.


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## bountyhunter (Apr 28, 2004)

I,m 70 and can remember when you bought a gal of gas,, it was real gas. not this mix of chemicals we get now.


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## AtticaFish (Nov 23, 2008)

Oh, and forgot to add......... We are watching all the holiday sales hoping the Lenovo Yoga Book 2-in-1 goes on sale for less the $500.

Wonder what the original Atari sold for? haha. I do remember playing all the original games at my cousins house when they came out. He had a ton of games and can only remember having a select few of our own. Pong, Breakout, Q-Bert, Pitfall, Asteroids, Missile Command...........


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

Also in 1978 my friend had an intelllevision game console. Pretty cool.. I think they ran for about $200 One of the 1st game consoles..


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## Lake Boat (Aug 21, 2013)

I was born in 58,spent a lot of years stuck on second shift.Missed a lot of the shows I wanted to see.When vcr's first came out I wanted to get one right away.I remember I went to ABC warehouse with the 8 hundred dollars to buy one,could not pull the trigger.Waited a few more years for price's to come down.Now you can buy dvd or vcr for 29 dollars.


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## waterfox (Dec 27, 2014)

I remember a lot of thins I try to forget.
My dad told me about the good old days (the great depression) when apples were only a nickle but nobody had a nickle to buy one. I have several commodore 64 and a 128 that I still fire up and some wax cylinder stuff that still works.


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## ress (Jan 1, 2008)

I paid 450 bucks for my first VCR. Beta-Max was just going out of style. Of course the 8 track moved to casset. Then I had an FM converter, that was really cool! Oh almost forgot, my first living room furniture I bought was paid for on an honor system with the local family run furniture store. Just pay some on it when you can...Wow that was a long time ago!!!


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

yeah I remember when we only got 3 channels on tv. now I have over 100 and nothing worth watching most of the time, LOL. and I remember rebuilding cards and changing points and plugs in my old cars. now no carbs to rebuild no points and condenser to worry about. and its nothing to get 100,000 miles on a set of plugs. I remember mowing the lawn with an old push mower with blades that turned when you pushed the mower to cut the grass. and I remember using wood to heat the house and to cook. sometimes we got coal when mom could afford to buy it. we used old fans to stay cool on those hot summer days. now we just set the thermostat to the temp we want and select heat or air. I remember complaining about gas prices if it got over 30 cents a gallon. but then I had bought gas as low as 19 cents. I could go on all day about the changes I've seen over the last 65 yrs.
sherman


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## ress (Jan 1, 2008)

I worked at a gas station in 76 and 77. Gas was 56.9. Wore the changer on my waste and carried a wod of money in my shirt pocket. Unleaded gas was just coming out. People had punched out the little flapper inside the neck fill tube on their new cars because they were not going to have to buy the shi##ty unleaded crap. Radial tires were also showing up too. Ah the good old days..lol


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## snag (Dec 27, 2005)

Speaking of gas prices I remember gas wars out in Colorado Springs in the 70,s, with Exxon, shell, .25-30 cents a gal, I could fill up my camaro fo$5 or less. And it wasn't self serve either.


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## Timjim (May 15, 2011)

getting back to the old days & tv, at least you didn't have to pay to watch. Just put up an antinna and your good to go.


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## EStrong (Jul 23, 2014)

As far as old video games, Nintendo brought back the classic NES. Sure that's more 80's era, but still a classic.

http://www.nintendo.com/nes-classic/

DOS and the C:\> prompt, lol. My first version was DOS 3.0. I was a master at autoexec.bat and config.sys and writing other batch files. Talking about tweaking a system, and from a command line. Guess that's why I'm good with Cisco and the IOS CLI. Wait wait.... 5 1/4 floppy disks, lol. Now you can get Terabyte Thumb Drives and External USB Drives with over 4 Terabytes for around $100. Back then the only "people" that had Terabyte drives was the Govt. and some Universities. A 500 Megabyte hard drive back in the day cost over $600, geez. And who can forget the first BBSs. And... nothing was plug and play. You needed the drivers and had to know the settings to get systems and the software to work "correctly".

On a fun note, 3.2 beer, lol.


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

Speaking of TV's...look how TV reception has changed. 
Back in the day I thought it was standard that all TV 's came with a coat hanger for better reception on the 3 channels.  
Of course people had to sit strategically in the room for best reception. And don't let a program get right at the good part and someone stand up or walk in the room in the wrong place. Everybody in the room hollered at them .


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## waterfox (Dec 27, 2014)

Must be a lot of old guys here but I may win the prize.
How about gathering tin cans and milk weeds for the war effort? The more cans you brought to school the higher the rank you would be rewarded. You could get out of school if you told teacher you knew where a lot of cans were but you better bring back some or that story wouldn't work again. I think 100 cans would make you a private and every 100 would increase your rank.


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## Ruminator (Apr 6, 2004)

Anyone else as a boy collect empty pop bottles to turn in to the grocer for 2 cents each? We had an empty lot next to us in the city and I'd scrounge what I could find out of it.


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

Ruminator said:


> Anyone else as a boy collect empty pop bottles to turn in to the grocer for 2 cents each? We had an empty lot next to us in the city and I'd scrounge what I could find out of it.


Oh yes! 
Beside raking leaves, cutting grass, shoveling snow, paper routes or any other things we could do in the neighborhood to make some spending $, collecting pop bottles was something we grew up doing. We were on the lookout daily. Believe it or not, the most $ my two older brothers and I ever made during our elementary school yrs. was from a neighborhood dog waste cleanup business we started.


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## ress (Jan 1, 2008)

They were 5 cents when I did it. Could get a 16oz pop and a cherry pie for a quarter.


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## fishforfun (Apr 9, 2005)

Well I remember when you could get a bag full of candy for a dollar. Penny candy and also two pieces for a penny. We would get a bag of it before we went to the movies as a kid. One of the stores we went to was in Ravenna (cotton corners ). And the other in Brimfield I think it was the Save 4 store. I am glad I grew up then as a kid instead of now. We were always outside and enjoyed what we had.


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## ress (Jan 1, 2008)

We went to the family owned store and got 10 cents worth of liver to take to the reservoir for bait. We threaded our rods through our stingray's and rode outside of town along a busy highway. Once the cops gave us an escort to make sure we made it ok! There was a couple girls out there sometimes swimming so that kept us busy too


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## OSUdaddy (Oct 18, 2010)

Snakecharmer said:


> I bought a TV like this in the mid 1970's for $125 (plus tax). 12" black and white. This was the main and only TV in my apartment in Spencer Iowa and Marion Ohio after getting out of college. I think the biggest TV back then would be about 25". My neighbor in Marion didn't have a TY but would come over to watch mine occasionally.
> I remember buy my 1st color TV in about 1982 27" wow what a monster! Yesterday, after Thanksgiving dinner, my SIL bought a 32" flatscreen for $85. Have times changed. Anyone have a story from the past?
> 
> View attachment 224224


My daughter and SIL purchased a 24" Samsung flatscreen this morning for $79. It is indeed amazing how fast technology has evolved for the better over the decades of our lifetime.


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## snag (Dec 27, 2005)

A buddy and I went duck hunting at a local swamp in the mid 60,s going through town on a mo ped waders on and shotguns over our shoulders with a Canada goose , try that move now a you would be pulled over.


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## OSUdaddy (Oct 18, 2010)

Back in the day when tv's had vacuum tubes and your tv stopped working you would take the questionable tubes down to the local electronics store, test them and replace the bad ones.

Nowadays if a tv fails, you toss it and buy a new one.

Yes, times have changed.


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

OSUdaddy said:


> Back in the day when tv's had vacuum tubes and your tv stopped working you would take the questionable tubes down to the local electronics store, test them and replace the bad ones.
> 
> Nowadays if a tv fails, you toss it and buy a new one.
> 
> Yes, times have changed.


Yep!

I talked to a TV repair shop owner this past summer trying to get an idea of what the best TV on the market was today. We got into a long conversation about todays TV industry. He explained that just like computers and most other electronics today, when the latest, greatest one comes out, most of the time there is already another even newer model that's almost ready to come out making the one you just bought obsolete. He stated it was not unusual to have a TV that been on the market not more than a year to already have obsolete parts.
Basically saying that they are all throw aways.
Actually kinda sad.


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## PromiseKeeper (Apr 14, 2004)

how many of you had gun racks in your pickup truck and never took the gun out of it? It was there for the world to see and no one thought anything of it, let alone think of stealing it!


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## FOSR (Apr 16, 2008)

I graduated from the OSU journalism school in 1991. We were trained to produce paper publications, though I was able to use a Mac Plus and PageMaker to create galley proofs for the printing of the graduate student newsletter.

Nobody saw the WWW coming except one professor who said that in ten years we would be reading the morning paper on a computer. At that time at home I had my father's Kaypro 10 with a green monochrome character user interface ("CHUI") which existed before the GUI graphical interfaces of today. This was not DOS but CPM.










That was hot stuff with a full 10 megabytes of storage on the hard drive, better than the Kaypro 2.










The keyboard clipped onto the front and there was a carry handle on the back.

So like everyone else in that class, I didn't believe that professor's prediction.

In the mid-90s I was working at CompuServe. That service was based on the Internet but before the WWW. In those days they were the only place to go to for any kind of graphical content - everything else was text-only. They invented the .jpeg image format and chat - at one time I was assigned to test the compatibility on the PC and Mac platforms, so I had one of each in my cube and I was chatting with myself.

But the WWW came along and they lost their monopoly position. People could make their own Web pages and such. CompuServe was losing market share in a panic and the executives were bailing out; their golden parachutes were beautiful in the evening sun as they settled into Dublin. At one point in the re-organizations I had no manager to report to - a bad sign.

When the movie 2001 came out, my father had a big laugh in the scene where a guy is at a moon base and he can go to a computer console and connect via live video link to his daughter for her birthday - fantastic technology but they had nothing to say to each other.

Now we have Skype and people can hack into your computer's camera. I keep mine covered with paper.


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## 21938 (Feb 17, 2010)

The vehicles I learned to drive on were all "3 on the tree" early '50s column shift. After that all 4 speed muscle type cars for 10 or so years. Didn't owned an automatic for quite a while. Was kinda nice!


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## snag (Dec 27, 2005)

And the prices on vehicles now and then ,bought a new 69 camaro in the $3200 range v8 auto. Wish I had it now, I financed it then for a $32 car payment. Unreal ..


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## Slatebar (Apr 9, 2011)

One of the Old School things I miss most is letters, yes a simple letter. Everybody now has a phone and can call family or friends with a push of a button. But that can never replace the person feeling of reading or writing a letter to someone you care for. I have letters that are fifty years old and still sometimes will pull one out and read them... I have a close friend my age that lives in Ky. and we still write letters a couple times a year..


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## 21938 (Feb 17, 2010)

Slatebar, you are so right. I remember my mother sending and receiving 4 pagers to/ from her sisters (my aunts) on a weekly basis. These letters were their update on the going's on in Ashtabula, Buffalo, Buycyrus and Rocky River. Those letters were keepsakes for them.


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## FOSR (Apr 16, 2008)

How about nuclear fallout shelters in public buildings?










http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/signs/

Imagine back in the day there was the immediate fear of a nuclear attack causing radioactive fallout, but you could go to the nearest shelter and wait out the radioactivity until it was safe to go home.


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## waterfox (Dec 27, 2014)

Ruminator said:


> Anyone else as a boy collect empty pop bottles to turn in to the grocer for 2 cents each? We had an empty lot next to us in the city and I'd scrounge what I could find out of it.



we also got 5 cents for a quart and 25 cents for a gallon jug then we spent it on penny candy


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

hey ruminator I gathered pop bottles for 1 cent each or a dime for a 6 pack in the carton. but pop tasted so much better out of those big glass bottles. I also gathered up pint and half pint whisky bottles to sell to the local boot legger's. they paid 10 cents for pints and 5 cents for half pints.

and I do remember using the coat hanger for our antenna to get the 3 channels. I worked in a gas station here in Muncie Indiana back in 71 and we sold gas for 30 cents a gallon most of the time but at times we would drop to 26 or 28 cents a gallon. and we had to pump the gas, clean the windshield, and check the oil. I remember one evening I took in over 600.00 for gas cigarettes and oil. and I was working by myself.
sherman


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

sherman51 said:


> hey ruminator I gathered pop bottles for 1 cent each or a dime for a 6 pack in the carton. but pop tasted so much better out of those big glass bottles. I also gathered up pint and half pint whisky bottles to sell to the local boot legger's. they paid 10 cents for pints and 5 cents for half pints.
> 
> and I do remember using the coat hanger for our antenna to get the 3 channels. I worked in a gas station here in Muncie Indiana back in 71 and we sold gas for 30 cents a gallon most of the time but at times we would drop to 26 or 28 cents a gallon. and we had to pump the gas, clean the windshield, and check the oil. I remember one evening I took in over 600.00 for gas cigarettes and oil. and I was working by myself.
> sherman


...and you put a quarter in the cigarette machine at the station and got your cigs. And there would be 2 cents in the cellophane wrapper.


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## bajuski (Apr 9, 2004)

How many guys remember the glass quart bulk engine oil bottles you could buy for 25 cents at gas stations? 
In the early sixties when I turned 16, I bought my first Harley Davidson, a 1953 panhead with a suicide shift for $200. That thing leaked oil so bad that my first stop was always to the gas station to fill the oil tank with the bulk oil. My buddy and I would always be riding, our boots and pant legs covered in oil but who cared, we were riding! Of course the siphon hose was always in the saddlebags, just in case we ran out of gas, lol. That was during the Honda craze, when the Beach Boys made motorcycling so popular again!


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## EStrong (Jul 23, 2014)

Pop bottle collecting!!! That brings back some memories. I remember we got a dime for each back in the mid 70's to early 80's. If we were out raising hell and had no pocket change, we'd scour the backs of parking lots and other areas where people pitched stuff and find about 15 to 20 bottles. We'd cash them in at King Kwik or Convenient and buy 3 or 4 candy bars (25 cents each) and a 16 or 32 ounce bottle of pop in the glass bottle with the twist cap. Then we'd feast amongst friends. Being a kid back then was fun.


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

bajuski said:


> How many guys remember the glass quart bulk engine oil bottles you could buy for 25 cents at gas stations?
> In the early sixties when I turned 16, I bought my first Harley Davidson, a 1953 panhead with a suicide shift for $200. That thing leaked oil so bad that my first stop was always to the gas station to fill the oil tank with the bulk oil. My buddy and I would always be riding, our boots and pant legs covered in oil but who cared, we were riding! Of course the siphon hose was always in the saddlebags, just in case we ran out of gas, lol. That was during the Honda craze, when the Beach Boys made motorcycling so popular again!


yeah I remember the oil in the glass jugs for 25 cents. had to use it a few times myself in my old cars. also used the hose a few times. before I was old enough to own a car living in tenn my cousins and my brother and me would park my cousins car on the side of the road and wait for passing cars to offer help. then we would bum a gallon of gas until we got about half a tank. then we would go to the river and go skinny dipping. then we would just ride around until the gas was gone.
sherman


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## E- man (Jan 25, 2014)

I'm with a lot of you seniors when I say " those WERE the good old days"!!! Nothing like growing up in the fifties .So many good memories. Thanks to all for rekindling them. Ernie


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## ress (Jan 1, 2008)

I have two boys 24 and 26 yrs old. I preached to them threw the 90's that don't try any shananigans because I've done that and if I didn't, I was with somebody that did. Boy did we do some crazy things!!


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## boatnut (Nov 22, 2006)

we had a remote control for ours even back in the 50's. It was called "boy, go change that channel!!! "


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## Saugeye Tom (Oct 6, 2010)

Does anyone remember a toy called the verti bird?


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## ress (Jan 1, 2008)

Just checked that out on e-bay. No don't remember those.


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## Reel Bad Habit (Feb 9, 2007)

I can remember coke came in 6 oz. bottles. Seems like only a week or 2 ago. If I make it to tomorrow I will be 70


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

Reel Bad Habit said:


> I can remember coke came in 6 oz. bottles. Seems like only a week or 2 ago. If I make it to tomorrow I will be 70


Happy Birthday! Mine is Saturday but you got me by a few years.


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## E- man (Jan 25, 2014)

Reel Bad Habit said:


> I can remember coke came in 6 oz. bottles. Seems like only a week or 2 ago. If I make it to tomorrow I will be 70


Happy birthday reel bad habit. Mine is tomorrow also and like you will hit 70. Interupted thanksgiving that day long ago just as everyone started to enjoy the meal.


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## bajuski (Apr 9, 2004)

Saugeye Tom said:


> Does anyone remember a toy called the verti bird?


Yeah, I bought one when my son was just a few years old. He's 45 now and he had it destroyed in no time!


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## waterfox (Dec 27, 2014)

this guy got it


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## Reel Bad Habit (Feb 9, 2007)

Thanks for the birthday wishes. E-Man you must be older than me as I was born in the evening. Happy birthday to you may you have many more. Snakecharmer you don't have to rub in a few years. Happy birthday to you.


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## Reel Bad Habit (Feb 9, 2007)

Waterfox the good tes are not over until we say they are so let's enjoy every day.


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## ErieRider (Mar 23, 2010)

Snakecharmer said:


> Also in 1978 my friend had an intelllevision game console. Pretty cool.. I think they ran for about $200 One of the 1st game consoles..


Loved Intellivision Football!! Used to get me so mad when the keypad would not enter the numbers for the plays because we played it so much! Saw one recently for sale at an old time toy shop and really wanted to pull the trigger on it but fight the urge!!!


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

ErieRider said:


> Loved Intellivision Football!! Used to get me so mad when the keypad would not enter the numbers for the plays because we played it so much! Saw one recently for sale at an old time toy shop and really wanted to pull the trigger on it but fight the urge!!!


How much did they want for it? I may have to dig it out of the attic ...


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## E- man (Jan 25, 2014)

waterfox said:


> this guy got it


One of my favorites ! Thanks !


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## bajuski (Apr 9, 2004)

sherman51 said:


> yeah I remember the oil in the glass jugs for 25 cents. had to use it a few times myself in my old cars. also used the hose a few times.


Yes, that was the original credit card. The 5/8 heater hose was perfect, the cars didn't use to have long goosenecks they have nowadays and borrowing gas was easy, ha ha.


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## waterfox (Dec 27, 2014)

You used to be able to go to a store and come home with a lot of stuff but now there are too many cameras


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## waterfox (Dec 27, 2014)

Reel Bad Habit said:


> Waterfox the good tes are not over until we say they are so let's enjoy every day.


I do enjoy every day. but now lock your doors. buy a safe
install security cameras have a gun ready all over your house and then revive the dopers so they can rob again.
have the judge tell the crooks please don't rob again.
what happened to the days when you stole a mans transportation (Horse) you were hung? I am not paranoid just listen to your local police scanner.


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## ErieRider (Mar 23, 2010)

Snakecharmer said:


> How much did they want for it? I may have to dig it out of the attic ...


100 bones supposedly all fine over and refurbished.


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## Ruminator (Apr 6, 2004)

I still have a VertiBird. It worked the last time I took it out of the box some years ago. 
I bought it to be a part of the four lane Aurora A/FX slot car car track I built and mounted to a 4X8 sheet of plywood. Its about the same scale, a little bigger.


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## AtticaFish (Nov 23, 2008)

Oh man did i ever wear out our slot car tracks! Between that and the hot wheels orange track with red connectors...... whole afternoons would go by in the blink of an eye. My Dad figured out he could fashion the hot wheels track connectors out of old floor laminate. Made me a happy little guy.


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## laynhardwood (Dec 27, 2009)

I used to play with my fathers 1954 Lionel Train set every weekend in the winter. I am 37 years old and grew up during the 80's. I remember setting up my train every Friday after school and getting all the track steel wooled. I had a giant transformer that could power duel locomotives it was awesome. I believe it was O gauge but it was so long ago I can't remember. My locomotives were designated 2-6-4 and a bigger one was 2-8-4 I think but it is hard to remember exactly. I loved that train set but then my parents got divorced and my dad kept it at his house. He got remarried and his now ex wife stole the train when she left and sold it. I don't think it would be worth a ton of money but I would love to have it today. I had all kinds of extras that hooked to the track it was so much fun. It is amazing how much things change in thirty years.


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

I remember buying gum for a penny, and peanut candy for 2 cents, and a huge babyruth bar was 5 cents. you could also get a huge apple for 5 cents. you pay an arm and leg for those things now. we usually traded our pop bottles in that we had gathered up for the last 2 or 3 weeks for candy. we lived about 10 miles from town and didn't get to go to the store very often.
sherman


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## Saugeye Tom (Oct 6, 2010)

Ruminator said:


> I still have a VertiBird. It worked the last time I took it out of the box some years ago.
> I bought it to be a part of the four lane Aurora A/FX slot car car track I built and mounted to a 4X8 sheet of plywood. Its about the same scale, a little bigger.


Wow....I loved the verti bird....


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## Slatebar (Apr 9, 2011)

laynhardwood said:


> I used to play with my fathers 1954 Lionel Train set every weekend in the winter. I am 37 years old and grew up during the 80's. I remember setting up my train every Friday after school and getting all the track steel wooled. I had a giant transformer that could power duel locomotives it was awesome. I believe it was O gauge but it was so long ago I can't remember. My locomotives were designated 2-6-4 and a bigger one was 2-8-4 I think but it is hard to remember exactly. I loved that train set but then my parents got divorced and my dad kept it at his house. He got remarried and his now ex wife stole the train when she left and sold it. I don't think it would be worth a ton of money but I would love to have it today. I had all kinds of extras that hooked to the track it was so much fun. It is amazing how much things change in thirty years.


I am 72 and still have an N&W 4-8-4 J ( HO) that I break out and set up in the garage every year or so... It is still fun even at this age.... Somewhere in the garage/barn/shed/attic I have a couple of the model airplanes that were controlled with like 50 ft. strings running to a control bar that you held in your hand/wrist.. I haven't seen one of those fly in many many years.


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## laynhardwood (Dec 27, 2009)

Slatebar said:


> I am 72 and still have an N&W 4-8-4 J ( HO) that I break out and set up in the garage every year or so... It is still fun even at this age.... Somewhere in the garage/barn/shed/attic I have a couple of the model airplanes that were controlled with like 50 ft. strings running to a control bar that you held in your hand/wrist.. I haven't seen one of those fly in many many years.


I have never seen or heard of the plane you speak of. It sounds pretty cool and it also sounds like you need a nice opening to play with that.


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

laynhardwood said:


> I have never seen or heard of the plane you speak of. It sounds pretty cool and it also sounds like you need a nice opening to play with that.


They were gas powered and before remote controls/computers, you had to keep them on a tether...


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## ress (Jan 1, 2008)

I had a drag race car that ran on a string. White mustang with a ripping gas motor. Never really got the hang of it.


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## Slatebar (Apr 9, 2011)

The ones I had ran on like a Castor Oil. You had to hand prop them to get them started and they were bad about licking back and man they would take all the meat of the back of your finger..lol . Was always fun flying them


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## laynhardwood (Dec 27, 2009)

That looks like a lot of fun


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## EStrong (Jul 23, 2014)

VertiBird, had one of those. Every time I had it out and going, the cats would find strategic positions around the room and just watch the thing go back and forth for hours. I remember this commercial.






And who didn't have a Jackie Stewart AFX Racing Set? Those commercials were the best, "This is Jackie Stewart for Aurora AFX Racing". LOL... Again, this turned into a giant playtoy for the cats. But this time they would actually jump out and "ambush" the cars as they whizzed by. It got so bad anytime I used the race set we'd have to put the cats in another room and shut the door. We had a long haired black persian, before we started locking the cats out, he pounced on the track and the wheels and axles on one of the cars wrapped around his long hair and got stuck. He ran around the house for the rest of the day with a race car stuck on him before we could catch him and cut it out. Lord.... 

View media item 79515


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

EStrong said:


> And who didn't have a Jackie Stewart AFX Racing Set? Those commercials were the best, "This is Jackie Stewart for Aurora AFX Racing". LOL... Again, this turned into a giant playtoy for the cats. But this time they would actually jump out and "ambush" the cars as they whizzed by. It got so bad anytime I used the race set we'd have to put the cats in another room and shut the door. We had a long haired black persian, before we started locking the cats out, he pounced on the track and the wheels and axles on one of the cars wrapped around his long hair and got stuck. He ran around the house for the rest of the day with a race car stuck on him before we could catch him and cut it out. Lord....
> 
> View media item 79515


Yep...I raced my AFX cars for hours and hours. Bought the hopup kits and put in the racing gears and slick tires... I have 2 new in plastic H.O. cars along with a car corral of about 8 cars. Probably my best toy ever (outside of a bike).


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## bountyhunter (Apr 28, 2004)

the baseball field off rt 62 @harrisburg rd flew meney a planes there.any body remember the old coal tipple that was on that land? [wow! I<M getting old] my finger still hurts from the prop back firing. but I wasn,t out smoking pot or tearing up other people stuff.


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