I'm so old I remember when...

[gyre]

So cool.
Only got to see them once unfortunately.

[media]

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[Aurelia]

German ?
hmm

[Aurelia]

I can remember when I was the only one who urged people to go to BRC
now I cannot even get a tx
Yes, I am whining
xoA.

[DoctorIknow]

I never had one as big as the one in the picture, but these things had chemicals that as a civilian, you can't, and shouldn't be able to buy.
As an above post says, it's amazing some of us didn't die or get handicapped by what we had as "toys" back then. (However, to all the burners who love hula-hoops, you owe cred to us old farts!)

Here are some of the chemicals and bad stuff in those chemistry sets:
Potassium permanganate, ammonium nitrate, uranium,radium (high radioactivity), Potassium nitrate, nitric acid, sulfuric acid Sodium ferrocyanide (note the "cyanide" word), Calcium hypochlorite (which can make chlorine gas, which wreaks havoc on the human respiratory system

[gyre]

German ?
hmm

How are the inflections?

Much stranger to see the Beatles interviewed in german.

[^Rhino!]

It's fun to find and/or make your own, too. I got one of those 'Geology' box sets for Christmas when I was 7. I started collecting in earnest and before I was 10 I had orpiment (Arsenic sulfide) and carnotite (Uranium mineral) sandstone in the collection. Today, I won't even bring my collection into the building when they're calibrating the pavement density instruments, because it raises all hell with the calibration when you have pitchblende too close.

[theCryptofishist]

Remember GI Joe 'with kung fu grip''?

I laugh at it now, but Hasbro cleaned up with it.

Do you remember when the Barbie Liveration Liberation Front switched the voice chips in G.I. Joe and Barbie and then put them on the toyshelves?
Now that was cacophony.

[DoctorIknow]

I'm so old I remember games that had vibrating "play surfaces" (hockey, baseball,,,can't remember) and the players were rubber lots of toothpic diameter "feet."
The vibrations made the pieces move, in all directions. Very stupid game, but friends had these.
Lionel used the same principle in their "cattle car" which moved cows from a loading pen to a freight car.

Now, Harvard made robots with 3 vibrating legs that can be programmed.
Lot's of them swarming.

The Lionel Cattle Car:

[media]

Go to minute 1:07 to see the little Harvard robots:

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[DoctorIknow]

I'm so old I remember games that had vibrating "play surfaces" (hockey, baseball,,,can't remember) and the players were rubber lots of toothpic diameter "feet."
The vibrations made the pieces move, in all directions. Very stupid game, but friends had these.
Lionel used the same principle in their "cattle car" which moved cows from a loading pen to a freight car.

Now, Harvard made robots with 3 vibrating legs that can be programmed.
Lot's of them swarming.

The Lionel Cattle Car:

[media]

Go to minute 1:07 to see the little Harvard robots:

[media]

[FIGJAM]

[media]

[Thecatman]

BUMP!


I remember wig-wag railroad crossings.

[media]

Apparently there are still some in use. This was taken near San Bernardino, CA and posted in 2011. Looking at the railcars with the graffiti says it's fairly recent.
I remember the Santa Fe (AT&SF) main line crossing Passons Blvd had these until the late 60s. Oh well! I haven't seen one in use for years.

[unjonharley]

so old I remember a wig wag system to signal lane change. Then the arm signal took over before turn signals.. Now if one of your tail lights are out.. You get 8 slugs in the back..

Before the center lane was a turn lane only.. It was a passing lane for both ways traffic.. It was called the "suicide lane".. Designed to cull the flock.. Got a bunch of them on old Hwy 12 Chicago to Minneapolis..

[Thecatman]

I could be wrong but I bellive US 101 through California had suicide lanes, again, until the 60s

[Simon of the Playa]

i remember when it REALLY sucked.

[Aurelia]

Oh Yes !

xoA.

[theCryptofishist]

Remember maps?

[Aurelia]

Funny , I just unloaded my maps !
and now I miss them
and my Mother's original thick vinyl records
and my brc costumes

xoA.

[DoctorIknow]

Remember maps?

We don't need no stinkin' sense of place!

All we need is left, right, straight, next turn.
(who is the robot in this case?)

I have no doubt that when "our" slice of the playa is 100% 'net connected, you'll see some Burners dependent on their smartphones to find Center Camp.

Now, you kids get off my lawn.

[Thecatman]

Remember maps?

I still use folding paper maps. I just one of Fresno from the Autoclub....and google maps

[Meat Hunter]

I am so old that I can't remember when.

[southern crone]

I'm so old I remember my dad coming home from a trip and bringing me a little red and white, " Peppermint Twist", dress.

[Oldguy]

I remember when Chubby Checker was skinny! You went to dances to hold a girl. Milk came in bottles on your doorstep. Cokes were 5 cents. Bowties were popular, plaid ones. Tough guys rolled their Lucky Strike packs in their t-shirt sleeves, at the bowling alley.

[mooserider]

I remember when Chubby Checker was skinny! You went to dances to hold a girl. Milk came in bottles on your doorstep. Cokes were 5 cents. Bowties were popular, plaid ones. Tough guys rolled their Lucky Strike packs in their t-shirt sleeves, at the bowling alley.

I remember working at my Dad's bowling alley, loading packs of cigarettes into coin-op vending machines.

[^Rhino!]

Remember maps?

I still use folding paper maps. I just one of Fresno from the Autoclub....and google maps

Now there's an Android app for geologic mapping, and an Android app for using your phone as a Brunton compass. Sorry, I can get better quality on paper at the proper scale, and more accurate measurements. 1 degree off at a hundred feet still translates to losing the vein before you even hit the pay zone underground.


Now, I have sub-cm accuracy on my GPS. Along with Microsoft Word. and Excel. Now THERE's a tool.

[Aurelia]

and I just adjusted the voice of "siri" to a melodic male

xoA.

[Patsh]

and I just adjusted the voice of "siri" to a melodic male

xoA.

So now, do you call it 'Sir I' ?

[Elderberry]

Anybody remember push-button transmissions?

[Ratty]

Yes! On a Rambler I drove exactly once.

[^Rhino!]

I got a reality check slap in the face yesterday from a fellow employee who didn't intend it.

About twenty years ago, I helped a visiting highway designer get access to tough areas of a jobsite. She was pregnant at the time with her first child. Nice lady. In any case, I found out yesterday that her first child (a daughter) is attending Missouri School of Mines for a degree in Civil Engineering (just like her mother). Her mom is still a friend, and she's offered me a post retirement position teaching over at the state technical college after I finally DO retire.

And her daughter is fully grown and successful now. Great. Now where's the line to start to feel OLD?

[Doctor VonBacon]

The summer intern in my office was born in 1996.

I have shoes older than him. I might be wearing them right now.