You Know You're Getting Old When…

[Jim Koepke]

You remember this on your TV screen:

474336

If your father did TV sales & repairs, mine did, you might have known the meaning of everything.

You know your getting old…

When you arrive at your dental appointment
And realize you left your teeth at home.

jtk

[Ken Fitzgerald]

50 years ago, I used that pattern in the same method you father did as a part time job while serving in the USN.

When you go to bed at the time that you used to go out.

[John Ziebron]

When I was a kid I used to fix TVs in our neighborhood by removing the suspect tubes and going to the drug store 4 blocks away to test them. If I remember correctly (that's getting to be a stretch these days) that pattern came on in the morning when the TV stations started broadcasting. Don't recall how long it was on for though. At the end of broadcasting at night they would play the national anthem and show a picture of a flag flying.

[Greg Quenneville]

WXYZ in Detroit used to show USAF footage while the anthem was played. I am old enough to remember F-86 footage, but old enough too that I am probably wrong about that.

[Rick Potter]

When I was in my first house, Channel 5 in LA would sign off at midnite, and Mahalia Jackson would sing the National Anthem.

When I was a kid, we got our first TV around 1953 or so, and the test pattern like shown was on in the mornings and evenings when the TV station (3) in Cleveland was off the air. It didn't come on till around 5PM and went of after my bedtime.

Before that, I remember standing in the snow in a neighbors planter watching their TV through the window often. They were first adopters. People would stop at storefronts and watch TV in the windows back then.

We bought our first Color TV for the 1966 Rose Parade. Drove to downtown LA, at a Sears Outlet store, and bought a 'scratch and dent' 21" TV, with a dented black steel case. It cost over $400, and I was making $640 a month gross at the time. It was a big deal, as that is the year everyone started broadcasting COLOR. Today I can buy a 32" smart TV at Costco for the same amount. I guess that is one item that has not suffered from inflation (size for size).

[Jim Koepke]

50 years ago, I used that pattern in the same method you father did as a part time job while serving in the USN.

When you go to bed at the time that you used to go out.

That is interesting, my father was in the Navy on Treasure Island teaching radio operators how to maintain ship radios during WW II. He also worked in a radio shop in Oakland fixing radios.

jtk

[Ken Fitzgerald]

That is interesting, my father was in the Navy on Treasure Island teaching radio operators how to maintain ship radios during WW II. He also worked in a radio shop in Oakland fixing radios.

jtk

Jim, I was in from '68-'76. I spent 2 years in school, worked air traffic control maintenance except for the last 8 months when I ran a shop on a subtender where we repaired equipment used aboard fastattack subs. With a wife and 3 kids, I always had a part time job. I bar tended, worked on the loading dock of a Sears warehouse and tv repair.

[Bill Dufour]

My father worked at the 180" cyclotron inBerkeley. the control panel had a tv set that was always on when the machine was running.. they watched to make sure they did not interfere with the signals.
Fellow teacher was in the airforce worked radioman on B52's. He told me they would wait until A Cal Worthigton used car commercial was on tv then test the radio jammer. Worked every time.
Bill D

[Rick Potter]

I hope it didn't upset Cal's dog Spot.

[Jim Koepke]

My father worked at the 180" cyclotron inBerkeley. the control panel had a tv set that was always on when the machine was running.. they watched to make sure they did not interfere with the signals.
Fellow teacher was in the airforce worked radioman on B52's. He told me they would wait until A Cal Worthigton used car commercial was on tv then test the radio jammer. Worked every time.
Bill D

LOL!

jtk

[Roger Feeley]

You can remember the Montreal Worlds Fair (Expo 67) where Iran and Iraq shared a pavilion.

[Andrew More]

FWIW, Netflix has an updated version of this. Search for "Test Patterns", which should turn this up:474397

[Ronald Blue]

I remember the crank telephone vaguely. Then sometime between 1960 and 1963 Bell telephone plowed in all new cable and we had direct dial but still party lines. Some of you have a good number of years on me and remember much further back.

[Aaron Rosenthal]

I still remember my old telephone number from 1951. I was 6 1/2.
I remember that at Christmas time, my folks both worked in their Variety store, and I was allowed to stay home by myself (again just over the age of 6). Boy, try THAT today and have the social workers on you.
We got our first TV in 1957 - I think Dad wanted to watch Sandy Koufax pitch.
I never served since Canada never had the draft except in war time - enough problems with Anglo-Fench relations anyway AKA "The two Solitudes".
I remember being on tenterhooks whether my cousins were going to come to Canada during Vietnam from L.A., since they were born here and had citizenship. (they didn't)
I also remember the test pattern and oh, my!, when colour was introduced. Do you remember when your parents turned off the TV and told you to go outside and play - and you DID?
Times change.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

When I was six, some city relative gave us an Easter Duckling. Back in those days at Easter many stores sold chicks, ducklings and rabbits that had been dunked in dyes. This duckling was purple. Well Mr. Peepers grew into a large Pekin duck. At about 6 months of age, Mr. Peepers started laying eggs. Part of my responsibilities every morning at 6 and a half, was to dress and go out to the barn to feed Mr. Peepers, the chickens running in the barn yard and to feed the rabbits in the hutch. Also about the same time I had a baby sister who had several birth problems and my mother would be up most nights caring for my sister, who then was about a year old. So after barn chores, I came back to the house and had to make my own breakfast and run to the school bus stop a half mile away. When my grandmother came for a week to help out when my sister was especially ill, grandma taught me to make that Duck egg for breakfast, or alternatively, how to make hot water for oatmeal. (no microwaves back then. At the end of the week, she gave me my own little six inch black cast iron frying pan and showed my how to care for it and clean it. So from some time in second grade through 4th grade, I made my own breakfast and got myself off to school every morning. One of the things I do remember is turning on the old black and white TV set when I got back to the house from the barn. We got three channels out of Philadelphia. But the test patterns would be on each one until 7 am. The one I usually had on, would play the music theme from the movie "Big Country" (I didn't know it came from a movie back then) and show a farm field for a few seconds and then the morning agricultural reports would come on. That was over at 7:15, the exact time for me to leave for the bus stop. If there was a snow storm, I would tune in to Channel six where a morning announcer named Wee Willy Webber would announce the school closings. A few rare times, that announcer did not get to my school before it was time to leave for the bus. I'd walk all the way to the bus stop and stand there in the snow. The old lady across the street from the bus stop would call me into her house and call my mother to come get me because there was no school. Mrs. Gavin always had hot cocoa and cookies. My mother once accused me of knowing school was canceled and walking to through the snow to the bus stop just to get the hot cocoa and cookies. My sister needed an operation. we sold the farm and moved to town. Everything was changed then. No more duck eggs for breakfast, no barn chores before school, no farm report on TV to watch before school. I hated my new school. The neighbor boys constantly talked about baseball or football. I was used to talking about farm life with other farm kids. We moved just as a neighbor farmer was paying me to help with planting. Yeah, I was 9 yrs old and he paid me to follow the cultivator and replant any corn that was accidentally dug up. In mid summer, his wife paid me to pick berries for her. Rasberries, wine berries, blue berries, On the farm, we had an apple orchard. Anytime between late August and November, I could go out side and pick an apple to eat. I would pick and load up a basket of apples on my wagon and haul them over to the neighbor's wife and got to keep what she gave me. Out in the country, there was no place to spend any "spending money" and in town no way to work for any spending money. At least not at 9 yrs old.

[Richard Walsh]

You Know You're Getting Old When


1. You start to forget things more often.2. You can't stay up as late as you used to.
3. You don't enjoy going out as much as you used to.
4. You don't recover from illnesses as quickly as you used to.
5. You find it harder to keep up with the latest trends.

[Aiden Pettengill]

Wait are you in Stinkin' Lincoln? We still have some spots where the poles have glass insulators in the towns surrounding Camden.

[Bill Dufour]

When you see a girl in a cute outfit and you can tell her she looks cute and not worry about getting slapped.
Bill D

[Tom M King]

I refuse to participate.;)

[Chuck Saunders]

I can remember eggs, yes, I had eggs for breakfast today, I'm positive.
Chuck

[Michael Weber]

I can remember eggs, yes, I had eggs for breakfast today, I'm positive.
Chuck
That made me laugh.:p

[Kevin Jenness]

I knew I was getting old when my injuries turned into conditions.

[Kev Williams]

... It's too loud-

[Scott Clausen]

I remember when our old phone number was CR7-0108 because we were on the Crestview exchange in New Jersey. Back then people knew exactly where you lived based on your phone number.

[Jim Koepke]

I remember when our old phone number was CR7-0108 because we were on the Crestview exchange in New Jersey. Back then people knew exactly where you lived based on your phone number.

Some of my old rulers have phone numbers from way back when:

474959

The evolution of phone numbers is shown on these three advertising rulers.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Remember when you could get a malt instead of just a milk shake?

The malt syrup was a nickel extra in my town.

jtk

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I keep Malt handy. Have not progressed to Single Malt Scotch yet. It is something to aim for.
474960

[Kev Williams]

--remember postal codes, before zip codes?

[Jim Koepke]

--remember postal codes, before zip codes?

Yep, we only used them when they were going out of state.

jtk

[Dave Fritz]

You know your old when a great source of joy is finding empty pill dispensers at the end of the week.

[Bill Dufour]

You know your old when a great source of joy is finding empty pill dispensers at the end of the week.
I can read that two ways: One way is I remembered to take my pills every day or the other way is "yay" I got some empty bottles to store stuff in. My wife has. a few Succrets tins saved from childhood.
Bill D

[Alan Lightstone]

You can remember the Montreal Worlds Fair (Expo 67) where Iran and Iraq shared a pavilion.

Or you remember the 1964 World's Fair in New York that had this new invention that everyone would have next year. The Picture Phone. And you would be flying around with jet packs.

Or you were suspended from school for cheating on a test with an "illegal computing device". A large, plug in, Nixie Tube calculator.

[Jim Koepke]

My wife has. a few Succrets tins saved from childhood.

My dad used to get rectangular pipe tobacco tins from a neighbor.

There is still an old Top rolling tobacco tin in my shop with some old VW parts in it.

More modern are all the Altoid tins in my shop for screws and other small parts.

Remember when half the homeowners in the neighborhood had a bunch of baby food jars with the lids nailed to a piece of wood above a bench in their garage?

jtk

[Kev Williams]

... you know what pedal pushers are, and you remember when thongs were g-strings and flip-flops were thongs..

[Maurice Mcmurry]

When you want a Tortilla and look for the can.475121

[Rod Sheridan]

You know you’re getting old when………You’re a member of this forum……Rod

[Mike Soaper]

You remember stores being closed on Sundays

[lowell holmes]

You know your getting old when you forget SWMBO's morning instructions by 9am.

[Rick Potter]

About those tortillas in a can, I remember sending our two daughters to college in Arkadelphia Arkansas. They had never seen torts in a can before. We sent them fresh ones in the regular mail, along with seasoning packs, and the oldest daughter made real tacos for girls in her dorm many times.

When they went.. on a greyhound bus, they had only a suitcase and one bike for the two of them along for the ride. If they needed to call home, they used the phone booth in the dorm, called us and let it ring once and hung up. We called the phone booth back. 1983, no cell phones, expensive long distance calls. She is now in her late 50's.

[Rob Luter]

When I was a kid my Grandparents had a party line. Two rings was them, one ring was the other house. The prefix exchange was so small they had a 5 digit phone number when we called from our house in the same prefix. You didn't need to bother with the first two numbers.

[Bill Dufour]

They still sell tamales in. can wraped in typing paper. Made in Berkeley Ca. Not made by Alice Waters.
I used to take canned bacon for camping from kmart.
Bill D

[Jim Koepke]

If you remember these, you are getting old:

475724 475723

Yes, I remember his name.

jtk

[Andrew More]

You know you’re getting old when………You’re a member of this forum……Rod

Not an official member until you buy a slider and a 5 HP dust collector, so I think I'm safe for a while. :)

[Alan Lightstone]

If you remember these, you are getting old:

475724 475723

Yes, I remember his name.

jtk

Sigh.... Me too.

[Lawrence Duckworth]

Not an official member until you buy a slider and a 5 HP dust collector, so I think I'm safe for a while. :)

would someone please tell me what a slider is...I have done multiple searches trying to find out what a "slider" is.

A. fancy dewalt chop saw
B. draw slides
C.table saw jig
D.straight edge for circular saw cutting
E.hard to hit fast ball

thank you, Lawrence

[Mike Soaper]

"would someone please tell me what a slider is..."


F. Small Hamburger
G. Someone who plays curling
H. A bobsledder
I. Table saw with a sliding table

[Jim Koepke]

would someone please tell me what a slider is...I have done multiple searches trying to find out what a "slider" is.

thank you, Lawrence

That is what many folks called the small hamburgers from White Castle.

Ever hear of J. Walter Anderson?

He was a short order cook in Wichita, Kansas and came up with the hamburger bun. He eventually opened his own diner, made from a converted trolley car, in 1920. It was so successful he opened more under the White Castle name.

And so began the first hamburger chain in America.

jtk

[Lawrence Duckworth]

That is what many folks called the small hamburgers from White Castle.

Ever hear of J. Walter Anderson?

He was a short order cook in Wichita, Kansas and came up with the hamburger bun. He eventually opened his own diner, made from a converted trolley car, in 1920. It was so successful he opened more under the White Castle name.

And so began the first hamburger chain in America.

jtk


No, I didn't know the history of the hamburger, you'd think it had a pig in there somewhere HAM--burger???
....I googled table saw sliders.. wow, I didn't know they made table saws that big either!!....still learning :)

[Jim Koepke]

No, I didn't know the history of the hamburger, you'd think it had a pig in there somewhere HAM--burger???
....I googled table saw sliders.. wow, I didn't know they made table saws that big either!!....still learning :)

There is a lot more history to it than that. The beginnings may be in the 13th century when nomadic horesemen known as Tarters overran Asia and Eastern Europe. The would place a hunk of horse meat or beef under their saddle. They would chop it up and eat it raw at the end of the day. (think steak tartar) This custom spread with trade in to an area now known as Hamburg Germany. The Germanic folks didn't eat horse meat. They would chop beef and add spices and also cooked it. In around 1879 Americans arriving on cargo ships in the ports enjoyed eating a sandwich served with buttered bread, pickle slices and a cooked egg in one of the restaurants near the docks. Interestingly this was referred to as American Steak. When they came back Stateside the ship workers would ask for a sandwich like the ones they were served in Hamburg.

There is a bit more than that in the story and other versions of ground meats including one going back to 5th century Rome.

Probably as many stories on hamburgers as there are ways to prepare them.

One of my favorites was made by a woman who mixed onions and chopped green olives into the meat before cooking. That was at least 50 years ago but if still has a fond spot in my memories.

jtk

[Bill Dufour]

My mother was in Berkeley California during WW2. There was meat rationing but there was a horse meat butcher on the wrong side of the tracks. You could legally buy all the horse meat you wanted with no ration coupons. She was not brave enough to get any.
Bill D

[Lawrence Duckworth]

There is a lot more history to it than that. The beginnings may be in the 13th century when nomadic horesemen known as Tarters overran Asia and Eastern Europe. The would place a hunk of horse meat or beef under their saddle. They would chop it up and eat it raw at the end of the day. (think steak tartar) This custom spread with trade in to an area now known as Hamburg Germany. The Germanic folks didn't eat horse meat. They would chop beef and add spices and also cooked it. In around 1879 Americans arriving on cargo ships in the ports enjoyed eating a sandwich served with buttered bread, pickle slices and a cooked egg in one of the restaurants near the docks. Interestingly this was referred to as American Steak. When they came back Stateside the ship workers would ask for a sandwich like the ones they were served in Hamburg.

There is a bit more than that in the story and other versions of ground meats including one going back to 5th century Rome.

Probably as many stories on hamburgers as there are ways to prepare them.

One of my favorites was made by a woman who mixed onions and chopped green olives into the meat before cooking. That was at least 50 years ago but if still has a fond spot in my memories.

jtk

okay...I'm trying to digest it all. but I'm not buying the bit about eating raw horsen meat that's been riding side saddle all day. The "sandwich served with buttered bread, pickle slices and a cooked egg" sounds kinda peculiar too. :)

5 Guys Hamburger Joint serves the best burgers around here...yumyum

[Jim Koepke]

5 Guys Hamburger Joint serves the best burgers around here...yumyum

Only ate there once. We don't go out for burgers that often. Sadly before going back for another their store in town closed. They were right across from a well established burger emporium with local roots.

Burgerville is an Oregon/Washington chain that serves a pretty good burger. They will make them with raw and grilled onions which is a big plus for me.

California has In & Out Burgers. They also make a good burger my way. They also have possibly the shortest fast food menu in the industry with some off menu items for those who know.

FYI a Taco Bell employee told me they have the longest fast food menu in the industry. We no longer eat there since they went to a computer screen ordering system. It is the worst thing they could have done to the general public. One late morning I only wanted a soda and it was near impossible to get to beverages before ordering something else and giving me some grief about it. The guy at the screen next to me was having similar problems but getting through the maze. I finally asked one of the workers what had to be done to just order a medium beverage. She came to the screen and got to beverages in less than two minutes. My recollection is they couldn't take cash or it was a big deal so my debit card was used for a medium soda. After getting my drink and starting to leave the other person walked up and asked about his order. Turns out he spent a bunch of time ordering from the breakfast menu. The thing took his order but rejected his payment or something. Turns out it was after 11:00am and those items weren't available that late in the day. Some programmer saved a bunch of time by not having the system remove such items at a particular time of day. This was near the Portland International Airport. That was the last time for us at Taco Bell.

jtk

[Lawrence Duckworth]

One late morning I only wanted a soda and it was near impossible to get to beverages before ordering something else and giving me some grief about it.jtk

My wife and I tried ordering a couple chocolate dip ice cream cones at the local DQ drive through, the order taker spoke up and said they were all out of ice cream and that we could order a hamburger instead, ...my wife went nutso :) ....you're old if'n you can remember when the DQ sold ice cream.

[Derek Meyer]

Our local McDonald's has gone to the touch screen kiosks for ordering. It's hard to navigate and slow to use. The employees know it too - everytime I go it, an employee says, "Welcome. You can place your order at one of the kiosks, or I can take your order at the counter if you prefer." Needless to say, I order from the counter.

We used to stop at DQ for Blizzards after bowling on Wednesday nights, but the local store is so hit and miss on service that we now drive across town to go to the Baskin Robbins. It seems like DQ is either out of something (ice cream, toppings, flavorings (usually strawberry and raspberry)), or they close early, or the employees just ignore the drive thru entirely. I actually tried knocking on the drive-up window one night when they didn't respond at the menu board, and still couldn't get anyone to serve us. That was the last time we went there.

Last night, bowling went late, and I wasn't sure if we were going to make it by closing. My wife called ahead and they took her order and had it waiting for us when we got there. We made it at 5 minutes till close, but the girl my wife talked to on the phone said she would stay open until we got there. I thought that was really good service on their part.