Your showing your age when . . .

[ballaratdragons]

Cheryl (my Missus) has been sitting at her laptop most of the night and she just said her neck is hurting.

I replied "it's probably coz you've been sitting at your typewriter too long" :ashamed:

Oh dear :sadeyes:

[supernova1965]

OH that's SAD:P:rofl:

[danielsun]

Oh dear Ken. Sometimes listening to the wireless for too long can have effects on the body too!:lol:

[OneOfOne]

I find it annoying that I can't get FM radio on my crystal set, and that my 8 inch floppy doesn't fit any more!

[Jen]

:rofl::rofl::rofl:LOL Ken ;)

I felt old when my 24 year old sister seen my vinyl records the other day and asked me what they were :rolleyes:

[taxman]

Mine was when a lady told her daughter to "ask the man" when she wanted a chocolate in the shop I was working in when I was at uni. I looked around before I realised she was talking about me...

[Inmykombi]

I can remeber 6 digit landline telephone numbers :eyepop:

I also remember a family member who's phone number was only through an exchange. The number was Booligal 12 ( in NSW )

At the local paper shop, the Sun and Mirror Newspapers that cost 5 cents each.

If fizzy drink bottles were returned to the corner store, you could get 5 cents for each one. There were no empty bottles lying around anywhere.

[ballaratdragons]

Yep, I can remember lots of things like that too :lol:

But do you accidentally refer to old stuff in the present?

[ballaratdragons]

:rofl:

my boss keeps asking me to turn the wireless down at work :lol:
and he's only 2 years older than me :sadeyes:

[lacad01]

Or remember that receiving a telegram was such a big deal :)

[AstralTraveller]

My parents and I often give directions by referring to landmarks that no longer exist. Some have been gone for >30 years. Things like 'you know the corner Dr Powrie used to be on' or 'you turn down where the rescue station was'. Well, ... it makes sense to us.

[ballaratdragons]

Oops, I do that :(

[mithrandir]

I remember dialing 2 letters and 4 numbers. JJ for Pymble and YA for Castle Hill. And Sydney CBD numbers being 5 digits.

Numbers starting with Y were the first to become 7 digits, so they could adopt 0 as the first digit of STD services.

[Paddy]

This is not so much showing my age, but showing perhaps more age than I should.

A few months ago I helped my parents, in their mid eighties, move into a retirement village. I knew I was getting old when the people around the place (including tradesmen) thought that I was moving in and kept saying how much I'd like it there.

:eyepop:

[Ric]

The cheeky young girl in our office say's that the year I was born in was B.C.

B.C. = Before colour television

Cheers

[taxman]

I don't think my kids can imagine television that isn't colour...

[michaellxv]

I thought B.C. = before children.

[cybereye]

.. you can remember that there's 16 ounces in a pound and 14 pounds in a stone...:D

[Fossil]

I'm so old I can't remember any of my memories :P

[TrevorW]

You remember when you used to buy a Peters Drumstick for 10c and and a gallon of petrol was 50c and I could ride too and from school on the bus and buy lunch and have change from 20c

[AstralTraveller]

My niece when she was quite young had seen some old b&w movies and she asked her mother in all seriousness 'when did the world get colour?'.

BTW I remember the arrival of our first TV (just), phone being connected and the sewerage being put on (both clearly).

[Saturnine]

I'm loathe to join in this forum 'cause I don't want to admit that I'm aged but, remember when it cost $3:00 to fill the tank ( 10 gallons / 45 ltrs ) of the EH Holden, a meat pie was 1 shilling,the 1st TV in '57, a 15" Stromberg Carlsen that was 200 pounds,a few months wages. Listening to the Smoky Dawson radio serials ( before TV ) or being out in the streets with the rest of the population of Sydney watching the first Russian Sputnick pass overhead in Oct. 4th '57, the beginnings of my interest in astronomy.

Jeff

[RAJAH235]

Just to add my 2 pennies worth....
Remember when Paddle pops were 5 pence each & we yelled very loudly when petrol went up to 2 shillings a gallon?
A Saturday afternoon at the flicks, (4 theaters to choose from), where you got to see the latest episodes of Tom Mix, Flash Gordon etc + a trailer & the main movie & would cost no more than 3 bob & that included ice cream, chips & a box of Jaffas.

(Hi Jeff.)

[Spiritinthesky]

...you make strange noises every time to leave your chair!

[taminga16]

When the neighbours child (about 8 yrs) reprograms your television and improves the picture quality ten fold, and all of the while you thought that it was your eyesight.

Greg.

[ZeroID]

:face:
I remember when LSD stood for Pounds, shillings and pence ... !!!

[Colin_Fraser]

Times when I realize I'm old...plenty
I am often reminded I am old when I tell the young kids at work the problem with them is they stay out too late at the discotheque.

I feel old when I look at any Rolling Stones photograph in my office and Mick Jagger looks younger than me.

[Jen]

:rofl::rofl: lol Greg thats funny :lol:

[DavidU]

When your grand kids tell me to turn down the music and go to bed !!!

[AstralTraveller]

Yep. Ab Fab was a doco.:D

[ZeroID]

Be happy, noone looks as old as Keith Richards !!:D

[Jen]

THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!!!
If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning....

Uphill... Barefoot...

BOTH ways

Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.

You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen!

Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take, like, a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3' s or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished and the tape would come undone. Cause - that's how we rolled, dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waitin g! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!
And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either!
When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! Wehad the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever!
And you could never win.. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!


You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel! NO REMOTES!!!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-*******s!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980or before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

heheheh :lol::lol::lol: :rofl:
:help:

[CraigS]

Oh Jen;

You have aged way too fast and matured way too prematurely !! ...
Better get it checked out … quick !!

:):)

Cheers

[Alchemy]

The biggest sign of old age is putting on weight...... And not losing it. Never put on an ounce before 30.

[CraigS]

Ahh .. but you say this effect of 'old age' only occurs after 30.

So, go for broke before 30 !!

:):)
Cheers

[Suzy]

Jen, I couldn't have said it better myself. That was a brilliant post - funny, and so damn true! :bowdown:

You did forget one thing though...
When we ran out of money - that was it - we had to wait for the banks to open in the morning - none of this atm stuff!

This generation of kids, known as the "bubble wrap" generation is the most supported (financially), protected and cared for generation than any other generation.

[CraigS]

Metro gums, Redskins and Sherbies used to be: two for a cent !

You had to wait another day more than your friends to find out your HSC and SC results because you lived in a suburb which existed, for some unknown reason, in a time-warp.

Sunburn and blisters were commonplace in Summer. The only suncream that worked was Pink Zinc so you always ended up looking like some kind of mutant !

Car seats in Summer were always scalding hot, which doubled the pain of sunburn.

Car seats were always 'slidable' - so one could always enter from one side and conveniently slide across to get to the other - without getting impaled in the process.

Cars never started 'first pop' - children learned first hand from their parents REAL language skills !

Navigation on those school holiday trips always involved tons of paper NRMA/RACV maps … which were always out of date .. resulting in getting lost at least three times in every trip.

Motels used to be inhabited by mythical creatures possessing nothing but a hand (in body). 'The Hand' was only observable in the mornings when it appeared through a flap located near to the door of your room, when it dished up (always) cold toast for brekkie !

School children were used as lab-rats by diabolical, evil scientists wanting to gauge the effects of seriously curdled milk on the human body …

Learning to swim involved a test of pain thresholds, orchestrated by another group of evil scientists called swimming coaches, who always delighted in observing the colour of bodily parts changing from normal to indigo blue/purple.

Cheers

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol:
:thumbsup:

[OICURMT]

An old friend of mine had a saying...

"Age is that process by which everything get wider, heavier and closer to the ground"...

Highly accurate statement! :rolleyes:

[AstralTraveller]

You know what 'three on the tree' is because your first car was. Oh, and no syncro on first. The list of accessories was 'cigarette lighter' and - because it was the 'Special' model - a radio, valve of course. Speaking of valves the ones under the hood were opened via push rods and you knew how to adjust the associated tapits. One could also clean and gap plugs, set the dwell angle and adjust the timing. All lubricants and filters were changed at home. Pulling a carby apart to clean the jets and then adjusting said jets was considered routine. Then there was the hours of fun with the front suspension's set-up. And that is before anything actually went wrong! Finally, despite these rituals having become largely redundant one still has all the necessary tools, meters, timing light and torque wrench.

[BTW you also know in what way bench seats are better than buckets. ;)]

[Rick Petrie]

I can remember(doesn't seem that long ago) when my father used to give my brother and I 20c(2 shillings or 2 bob) to go to the afternoon matinee(pictures).
This was our afternoon's entertainment:-
11 pence fare into the movies(pre show cartoons and serials and 2 movies with intermission where we used to swap comics)
1 pence worth of lollies(bag)
12 pence for a hamburger for lunch.
and we used to walk to and from the theatre( Berala to Lidcombe in Sydney)
And I don't think I'm really that old. :)
(must be kidding myself):P
My first beer (later of course) 1 shilling a middy(10c) 1/6 pence (15c) a schooner.:cheers:

[ballaratdragons]

I remember lining up at school to recieve our FREE bottle of Milk.
This milk was stored in a small brick box out in the Sun, so in Sydney's stinking hot Summer the milk was already off when you got it, and often hot.
In Winter the milk slowly froze and started to rise up out of the bottle like 1 inch wide toothpaste, and perched right on top of this strange white worm was the foil lid.

Amongst these several hundred bottles of milk there was only ever about 10 bottles of chocolate flavour and about 6 Strawberry.
Lots of pushing and shoving to get to the front to get FLAVOURED hot, sour or frozen milk!

Remember packing the Grease Gun to grease the nipples on your car?

TV started at 6pm, and finished at 11pm with the National Anthem (God Save the Queen).

Chemists and Banks were only open weekdays, and banks opened at 10am and shut at 3:30pm.

Some supermarkets and shops were open Saturdays till midday.

Every shop, including supermarkets, shut at Easter from 12 midday Thursday and didn't re-open until 9am Tuesday.

Pubs shut at 6pm, and then were eventually allowed to stay open till 10pm, but remained shut on Sundays.

Going through school learning your Pounds, Shillings and Pence, then all of a sudden having to forget everything you learnt and now learn Dollars and Cents!

Being Gay meant you were carefree and happy.

Being sent home to watch the Apollo 11 moon landing because the school didn't have a TV,
and taking about 8 kids with me coz they didn't have TV's either!

Sitting in school staring at a wooden speaker box on the wall belting out another ABC Radio school documentary program.

Cars didn't have seat belts! (except the expensive imports: Mercedes, BMW etc)

There was only 3 TV stations, (ABC, 7, 9) then eventually Channel 10 came along.

Brown Corduroy trousers were cool.

Hearing "Good Morning world, this is John Laws" every morning while eating breakfast.

Having to wait until after the Dunny-Carter had been so he didn't come while you were in there.

Taxi's finally got rid of '3-on-the-tree' Holdens and went to Automatic Transmissions.

No seat belts in Taxi's either!

Double-Decker trains were introduced, making it fun to avoid the Train-conductor. When he went downstairs checking for tickets we went upstairs. When he went upstairs we went downstairs.

You were'nt cool if you didn't ride a Dragster.
Preferably in Green, and it had to have the T-bar gear changer, metal-flake vinyl seat and super high sissy-bar.

It was legal to catch Penny-Tortoises down the creek.

Looking forward to seeing Leonard Teale, Alwyn Kurts, Charles Tingwell, and John Fegan and their '65 XP Ford Falcon police car in another new episode of the Australian TV series 'Homicide'.

Seeing Abigail do Australia's 1st Nude scene (top half only) on TV in 'Number 96'.

Seeing Deborah Gray do Australia's 1st full-frontal Nude scene also in 'Number 96'.

Streetlights were just pale light bulbs hanging under a white porcelain cover that looked like a Dinner plate.

The fantastic heavy mechanical sound of the dial returning back to zero on big heavy black Bakerlite home phones.

Pushing buttons 'A' then 'B' after inserting the coin into a Public Phone.

Spunky and Tadpole was a Cartoon Show on TV (eventually banned).

the 'New' Calga Tollway (Sydney to Newcastle) cost 20 cents each way.

Pinball Machines had real Bells and rolling numbers on the mechanical scoreboard.
You were'nt cool if you played Pinball after you turned 13 y.o.

Chemist shops sold Slingshots and Spud Guns!

Fireworks were for sale almost everywhere.

Cracker Night was enourmous! People had Bonfires, large sky rockets, and the mighty explosive Twopenny Bunger (pronounce tuppny bunger) also known as a Thunder. It would blow a letterbox or toilet bowl to smithereens.

People didn't think a little kid was a complete idiot if he wore a Plastic Beatle wig. It was almost cool.

Showbags had LOTS of stuff in them.

Shutting down the whole suburbs of Paddington and Moore Park for the Royal Easter Show, making residents and shopkeepers move out for the duration of the Show.

Enjoying a day at the original Paddy's Market at Haymarket.

Enjoying a drive in a new EK Holden. The Holden with Fins.

Being excited about going shopping at night when Thursdays 'Late Night Shopping' was introduced.

Watching NRL Rugby League played in Mud!

Watching the rescue mission at the Granville Train Disaster.

Trying to work out how to play the different sides of a Cassette in the new invention, a Cassette Player. Was the tape at the start or at the end.
Then trying to find the start of a song on this Cassette Player.

That'll do for now :lol:

[CraigS]

Great one Ken !

On Firecrackers:

It was legitimate practice to assert one's dominance over the local street kids by possessing the most powerful firecrackers. Those kids possessing chemistry sets and having mysteriously been endowed by nature, with the enviable knowledge of making their own weapons of mass destruction, were revered throughout the known Universe.

The same legendary status was enjoyed by those having the most powerful magnets.

The downside was of course, that these kids were also made to wear body-shirts and platform shoes, by their mothers .. thus restoring the balance of power in the neighbourhood.

[CraigS]

Membership in a street gang was considered as a vital 'round off' to one's education. Stone-throwing practice sessions were held regularly and non-attendance was considered a crime against humanity.

Of course, such membership was not available to females, as they were in training to accept the fact that they would not be permitted to consume alcohol with males in a public bar, once they reached the appropriate age.

[ZeroID]

And Shanghai's !!! Need I say more ?

I used to be kown as 'The Prof' ( Professor ) in those days, Rockets, Bombs, all sorts of weird chemicals. Yep, fun.

[CraigS]

Women's underwear was a constant dilemma:

"To wear or not to wear ?" … now that was the true question. Regular incineration sessions were held in public places as a demonstration of how the clothes washing task could be optimised and save water in the process.

It seemed this problem was eventually solved by the introduction of enzyme action in laundry detergents.

A change welcomed by all the sexes.

[lacad01]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane Ken :lol:

[CraigS]

A woman named, "Madge" used to appear regularly on TV commercials advising women on how to keep their hands soft by soaking them in dishwashing liquid … 'y'know you're soaking in it ?'.

Alas, Madge lost her job and was made redundant by the introduction of the automatic dishwasher, which went about this arduous task more quietly and with greater efficiency.

[RAJAH235]

Just to re-count Ken's reference to the Show Bags....
They were free & called "Sample Bags."
Used to get heaps of goodies in'em too.
Not like the garbage you have to pay for now.

Remember the "wars" with "Double Happies?"
Penny bungers were a little too dangerous.

[Jen]

:lol::lol: these are too funny :rofl:

[ballaratdragons]

Yep, Jen

Some strange, horrible, happy and unusual things from back in those days, but all good memories.

Todays 20 year olds will be telling their grandkids about such strange tales as:

"yeah back then we had things called 'Desktop Computers' and you inserted a plastic disk called a CD, and you actually had to press numbers on a phone and hold it in your hand!"

:lol:

[Geoff45]

Yeah, when my kids were little they came running up the stairs yelling "Daddy, Daddy, there's something wrong with the television--it's gone all grey" when the station put on a B&W movie.

[JohnG]

Another couple I can remember....

Trucks being banned from driving on public streets on a Sunday...

Having to show your Drivers Licence to get into pubs on a Sunday to prove you were not a local, from memory, you had to be a certain distance from home.

Good old days :lol:

Cheers

[michaellxv]

I'm not as old as some here but I can remember when there was more trust in the world. You put empy milk bottles on the front porch at night with a few coins and in the morning there were full bottles of milk in its place. The same for bread.

I could take a 1L empty soft drink bottle to the deli and get a bag of lollies. If I took 6 I could get a full bottle :D

Maths text books were confusing. They still had feet/inches pounds/ounces but we were meant to be learning cm,mm,M Kg,gm etc. Furniture and the internal dimensions of house were round numbers of feet and inches. In the end I kinda learned both.

I am old enough (just) to have a bank book (remember those) with a stamp that says 'Decimal Conversion'

[CraigS]

Ahh … yes .. another species of mythical beasts called 'Milkos' .. creatures set upon us by the Dark Lord. Their true mission was to steal us children from our beds. We of course, spent time quivering under the bed-clothes in fear that they were coming to take us away. Fortunately, the 'clink' of the milk bottles gave adequate warning, thus enabling us to run for cover.

This problem was overcome with stealth and cunning … tank-traps set up across the milko's path, through to the next door neighbour's house the night before, and strict attack training for the pet dog, should he spot them during their transit.

Then there were the garbos .. demanding Christmas presents .. "don't forget the ol' garbo !" .. they'd chant from their trucks, ringing a bell to wake you up so they could solicit beers from their clients. Fortunately these types were superseded by mighty and powerful in-sinkerator garbage disposal units .. which ended up becoming somewhat intimidating also … :question:
:)

[CraigS]

The solution to the newspaper delivery menace was of the utmost importance for many years.

The delivery method appeared to employ the use of beings possessed of only one arm and a slowly moving vehicle, and were to be avoided at any cost.

"The Arm" was extraordinarily skilled in targetting and flinging rolled up newspapers, at near relativistic speeds, usually destroying the front garden and any object (or kid) standing in the trajectory path.

"The Arms" were usurped by an uprising in the neighbourhood street gangs, who demanded an income stream of their own, resulting in the exalted position of 'Neighbourhood Newspaper Delivery Boys'. Unfortunately, they were in turn, defeated by the wild and vicious street dog gangs who, themselves eventually got locked up and micro-chipped as a form of retaliation for their disgraceful coup d'état.

[Suzy]

:lol::lol:

[ballaratdragons]

Speaking of Milko's, when visiting Grandmothers house she would gracefully let us all know it was time for us to go home by getting into her Dressing Gown and walking heavily down the corridoor 'accidentally' rattling the empty's in the Milk Bottle carrier while speaking in a very clear and loud voice "never mind me, just puttin' the milk bottles out".

:rofl: Subtle!

[CraigS]

Ahh .. Grandmothers were always part of the conspiracy against children.
:)
Remember those puckered lips comin' at ya ???

:eyepop:

Cheers

PS: Actually … that's not fair. Grannies were pretty cool. All those yummies were terrific !!